I couldn’t find that many similar topics after a quick look, so I hope this is okay! Do community members ever do book clubs on video games or visual novels, etc.? I’ve been starting to do some reading/translation practice and translating text from a Japanese game I’ve always wanted to play has been extremely motivating for me! Also, fun! And I’m learning a lot of new vocabulary and how to apply grammar points, as well.
An idea I had was possibly to just have a general thread where people playing games in Japanese could chat about what they’re learning or interesting things they’ve discovered. Maybe a jrpg-specific thread or “playing my first game in Japanese”-type thread? My thinking behind that is there’s probably a range of different game titles and stuff that people are individually interested in checking out. I’ve been working on an infamously untranslated Fate/ game at the rate of reading at least 2 screens a day, and I have a Japanese copy of Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (aka, “Batsu”, ty Wanikani vocabulary) I can’t wait to tackle at some point.
I just bought Yokai Watch 4 ++ on the PS4 because it’s a Level-5 game and I love them AND because it has furigana on top of the Kanjis so that makes it easier for me to read after my “Persona 5” fiasco where I had to find the kanjis by… literally drawing them on my phone.
I’m too low level to enjoy these games for the moment but maybe in the future at around lvl 20. So consider this a placeholder if ever a time comes when you or someone makes a thread like what you suggested, I’m in!
That’s awesome!! Yokai Watch kept me sane during a low point, so I can totally understand the interest. Level-5 makes Layton games too, which is another great series that often has a long wait time for localization (if it happens at all).
I think I started working on Fate/Extra CCC at around level 20 or so. I’m encountering kanji and vocabulary I don’t understand, but Google Translate, Jisho, and my Japanese grammar dictionaries have helped me out a ton. So I’m going pretty slow/probably working slightly above my level, but it’s been really fun because I’m applying my Japanese skills to something really motivating, so I don’t mind the challenge.
Also, you can use google translate in the camera mode → scan to look up the kanji you see,
though it can be cumbersome to look them up from your phone or get that text to your PC.
Yokai Watch Wibble Wobble kept me sane during a particularly bad period and I was very sad when it shut down - just looked up the Yokai Watch 4 game for Switch and, from the trailer, it looks like it might be manageable for me so I’m going to buy it as a present for myself if my N5 results are good!
Yeah, I saw that, which got me thinking! I hope that group gets off the ground, it looks pretty cool.
If there are Let’s Plays of it on Youtube, that could be an option? I’m using Youtube videos at the moment for the game I’m playing right now, though I do have a hard copy coming in the mail that I can play on my PSP.
Re: Google Translate, yeah, the translation is definitely not always the best or the most accurate! I think understanding the grammar has been the most useful in helping me figure out what sentences in the game are saying. So knowing particles and basic grammar constructions (that WK doesn’t necessarily teach) can help you out a ton with getting started, even if you’re still learning kanji- most of the time, for kanji I don’t know, I look up by radical on Jisho or draw into Google Translate.
I’ve been watching this play of Amagami by ukyochi which i really like. She reads the voice of the main character that doesn’t have voice acting in the game. it was livestreamed though, so she does respond to stream comments a lot as well.
I’d watch it again for a discussion club.
About google translate, yeah, i’d mainly use it to look up kanji with the scan option, unless the other tools are faster.
I got into Visual Novels some time ago and in fact that was the main reason of my decision to start learning japanese. Hearing all these dialogues and not understanding anything I hear, you know Just relying on the english translation is not what I wanted to be stuck with. So my goal is to learn enough to be able to read some novels in japanese one day, hopefully.
So far I have read:
Clannad + Clannad: After Story and Tomoyo After DLCs: I think this requires no further introduction, took me a loooong time to finish all the routes but absolutely loved it.
Doki Doki Literature Club: Was hyped when I heard about it and finished it in one day. Specific experience that gave me chills, but not much of a story besides that.
G-Senjou no Maou: If you liked the cat-and-mouse/mystery/crime action in Death Note, you would love this too, it`s soooo much better. Absolutely fantastic, the first VN I would recommend to anyone.
Currently reading Saya no Uta and it`s … well … yikes.
i think the writing and characters in DDLC are fantastic. That game is very special to me. It’s just not very long, and may be disturbing to some people.
Btw Clannad and G-Senjou don’t seem to have japanese subtitles according to Steam.
Maybe there’s a japanese patch, like for DDLC.
Yeah, DDLC had a nice story, don`t get me wrong. It was just too short to be engaging enough for me.
Btw. Did you know that there has been an additional content for DDLC announced few days ago? (link)
Just relying on the english translation is not what I wanted to be stuck with. So my goal is to learn enough to be able to read some novels in japanese one day, hopefully.