My plan is to play in English first and then go back and play with Kanji. I’m hoping I’ll remember enough of the story beats to muddle through parts where my Japanese isn’t up to snuff 
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Woo, shiny galarian zigzagoon get. Really love the colors.
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Is this one of the Switch games you can select japanese from the menus?
Or can you play in Japanese if you change the switch region to japan, even if the copy is from the UK?
When you start a new game, you’re prompted to select a language. You cannot change the language mid-game, however. It does not use the system’s set language.
I hadn’t really considered playing in Japanese because I’m at such a beginner level, but seeing that one of the options is Japanese For Babies, I’ll probably create a new profile to give it a go.
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Damn, this thread makes me want to start another Pokemon Translation thread haha.
If you are around level 30 you will probably be able to read most of the Kanji. I finished the game in a couple of days and it was first I was able to understand most of what they were saying(besides at the end it was a bit more difficult in my opinion).
I also played many Pokemon games in Japanese so that might have helped me a bit even if my grammar is bad lol.
That’s not an issue anymore. You can literally pick any language and be fine with the moves. The games are getting easier and easier. You have colors for the different types and they even tell you if the move is super effective or not before you choose it. You can also check the power of the move when you learn it and remember that it’s a strong or a weak one.
If you had to play like the first generations then yeah it might be a bit difficult at that point.
While I see where you’re coming from in regards to the main story, I play competitively where these things definitely matter which is where I was speaking from (though I didn’t make that clear).
Additionally, it makes talking with English speaking friends about the game fairly burdensome since many of the Gym Leader and location names are also not directly translated/related. Let alone the Pokemon, abilities, and moves.
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I have basically stopped reading any of the cutscene dialogue. I just don’t really care what’s happening anymore, I guess. I do read the occasional PokeDex entry, since those seem more likely than the story text to contain kanji I haven’t seen before.
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Ah ok it makes sense, I only care about the main story haha.
I agree with the rest as well, if someone says “Leon” I will be like “who the f*** is Leon? Ah, You mean Dande!”.
I’m curious, does Dande have similar connotations as Leon? I always wonder about that when names get changed in translation (like how Ace Attorney characters all have pun names, but the puns are different).
I honestly have no idea, the first thing I thought when I saw him was "Oh it’s almost Dante(a character in Devil May Cry).
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You can literally pick any language and be fine with the moves.
I tried a few years back when my Japanese was terrible, and my experience was like “Ratticate, use Hyper Fang!” No! Not Tail Whip! Okay, use Bite. No! Not Focus Energy!" Haha. I felt like a terrible player.
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That’s if you played the old games, the last ones you can finish them even without knowing how to read a word…almost xD
With Sword/Shield, when you select たたかう (attack) in battle, you can press Y for わざせつめい (technique explanation). This lets you see the affinity type (with color and icon), the hit type (physical or special), and the attack power and accuracy. This makes it easy to see if a move is non-damaging, and lets you easily compare two same-type attacks for difference in power and accuracy.
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You guys are making me want to play! I’m trying NOT to buy a Switch right now, haha. Got to up my grammar before I make that investment!
Hmm. Okay, set goal: How about when I am about N3 level, I can buy a Switch? Do you think that would be an appropriate time to start gaming? (I’m hoping to be there in about six months, although after yesterday’s JLPT, I think it might be a little tight).
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I started playing full-fledged JRPG at the N3 level. Not going to lie, it was rough. But since this one seems so easy to follow along, that might be fine.
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Yeah definitely! That’s when I started feeling more comfortable with Pokemon and Harvest Moon type games. 
They’re playable at N4 level since you don’t need to follow along that much, but that was too frustrating for me… So I guess it also depends on what kind of gamer you are.
The main point for this is to just have some fun while learning. As long as I’m enjoying the game and getting the gist of it, I’ve good. I just don’t want to be spending two hours looking up vocab, reading, or grammar points about it.
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You can probably find plenty of Japanese “Let’s Play” videos for Sword/Shield. Even in they go through dialogue a bit fast, you can pause on each screen of text to see how understandable it is.
The only drawback is likely everyone doing this will be playing in kanji mode rather than kana mode. But maybe there’s someone reading out all the dialogue as they go?
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