So I wanted to get more immersed into the language and also practice my reading so I changed my language settings into Japanese for the video games I played the most which are Monster Hunter Iceborne and Destiny 2. However, I quickly realized that it was really difficult to understand anything at all because there was too many kanjis/vocabulary I haven’t learned yet. So my question is at what level of WaniKani do you think I’d need to get to have a solid foundation in kanji/vocabulary to being to play and understand the text in certain games like the ones I mentioned?
Also, what video games would you recommend to be able practicing for reading/listening?
Depends on what you consider understanding. Understanding nuances in the choice of words for example is quite a different task than just understanding the directions (“go there” or “talk to this person”) and basic grasp of the story
There won’t be an easy answer to this question, just keep trying and pushing forward! Btw I think I’ve heard that Monster Hunter has a lot of uncommon kanji, so that’s probably not the first game you’d want to play in Japanese
Really depends on the game. If you go the visual noval route or some rpgs you often have all the time in the world to try to understand the sentences and look stuff up.
So depending on your tenacity you can start right away. If you go to action titles or games with cutscenes which you can’t pause but contain information that is necessary to play them, you will have a much harder time.
Not to discourage you but even level 60 wanikani will not prepare you for all the stuff you encounter in games and for the speed at which some of the information needs to be absorbed.
So learning to play games in Japanese requires you to actually do it
Be okay with not understanding 100% as long as you make progress in the game and get the gist of the story/can enjoy your time with the game you will passively get better at it over time.
Some start with pokemon games since they have a “only kana” option which doesn’t require you to know Kanji (probably also because they are familiar with the games). Others like I said enjoy visual novels. Since you have voice acting and LOTS of text that you can analyze. Most importantly though you need to enjoy the game, otherwise you won’t stick with it. And consistency is the way to victory in language learning.
There’s no right level to start playing games or just consuming Japanese media in general. I personally started just recently (around 22/23) with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I don’t understand everything, but I can get the gist of what’s being said the majority of the time. I’d also recommend trying games with game scripts, which will allow you to use something like Yomichan to quickly give you a translation of the words you don’t know. Make sure to not rely on it though. Try to do your best to understand of what’s being said first.
As others have said already, even level 60 will not prepare you fully for video games. I’m sometimes looking up words ahead of time (to save time later), and there’s a considerable amount of vocab, and even kanji, that you’re not going to learn by just doing WaniKani. Consider it one possible, and certainly helpful, resource, but be sure to get some more practice in through other means (e. g. Anki vocab decks).
I think above lv 35 should be good enough. Before reset, I had started reading light novels around lv 27-28. I saw an unknown word every 5 sentences or so but I could read it albeit slowly
At lvl 60 WaniKani I still struggle to play video games in Japanese. So level is not important, but how much grammar and other knowledge you have
I have neglected mine, focusing on one thing at the time (both at once was too much for me)
Personally, I think this is much more about how much you’ve been keeping up with grammar study than it is about pinning down a specific level of kanji learning at which it becomes possible. If you have a strong grammar foundation, you can probably start a lot earlier because you’ll be able to more easily identify which parts of speech you’re “stuck on” and have an easier time looking up new words.
I tried playing old RPGs at around level 20 and found it completely inscrutable. I shelved that for a bit while I continued taking classes and doing my daily kanji lessons. After about 18 months of study, probably around level 25-26, I started again with games I knew had simple, everyday language (Pokemon X and Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town) and found it substantially more accessible. So I’d guess, somewhere in your mid-to-late 20s is probably a good level to start with beginner-friendly games.
I don’t personally recommend playing your “favorites” in Japanese, because you’re essentially turning your primary leisure activity into homework. I tried turning FFXIV Japanese on, and I found I enjoyed it substantially less because it not only broke the immersion of the storytelling, but it turned reading tooltips/menu text into a massive chore. I’d recommend finding instead games that:
Are enjoyable enough that you want to keep playing
Have played before or kind of know the story so you aren’t completely in the dark
Are probably written with kids in mind, or at least don’t delve too deep into hyper-specialized language.
gaming in japanese is hard. But it also feels rewarding to come back to previous games and understand way more everytime you go back to them.
at around level 30 in wanikani kanji became easier for me in video game.
I recommend finishing bunpro n5 and n4 as soon as possible if you hate textbooks. It was a game changer for me, I wish I would have done sooner.
Here are the games I feel you you don’t need to understand everything(maybe 30% comprehension) and still enjoy the games
FF15,FFX
ghost of tsushima
Fifa
K-1
Yakuza
gardians of the galaxy
fighterz(add commentator voice pack)
eyeshield 21
bloodstained ritual of the night
star wars fallen order
pro yakyuu
hajime no ippo ps3
prince of tennis
captain tsubasa,ps2 version is the best
naruto ninja storm
iron man vr ps4
It is likely going to be difficult no matter your WK level, so why not start dipping your toes in now.
I don’t think your WK level will have a huge bearing on this, as grammar will likely play a huge role, and I expect most games to contain rare and unique vocabulary.
As others have mentioned, it depends on what kind of games you want to play.
I’d +1 the recommendation to play a game with a game script (more on this below) which you can have open on your computer while you play, so you can lookup words in yomichan as you go, and ideally a turn-based game or a game you can easily pause, maybe with furigana.
It also helps if you can find a game that you are interested enough in to warrant the effort it will take to play it, this is the same for other native material.
Have you tried immersing in any other native material?
if not, consider joining the Absolute Beginner Book Club to work on your general reading skills with a group which will help build skills that translate over to reading in Video Games.
Game Grammar which walks through some games in Japanese (Pokemon, and Ni No Kuni IIRC) as well as having some Japanese learning videos.
I’d highly recommend watching some videos of these channels playing various games to get an idea of what is out there.
Games I’ve tried
Super Mario odyssey is a great first game
furigana.
most text is pausable or progresses only when you want.
instructions are (generally) repeatable, many include animations to illustrate moves.
good use of colours and emoji to add context to the text.
Japanese quest videos means you can get help.
Other games:
I’m (slowly) playing Demon Slayer - has Furigana + I’m reading the Demon Slayer manga in Japanese, so lots of cross-exposure.
I’ve started Final Fantasy IX, which is slow as there is no Furigana but it is a game close to my heart and there are game scripts online when I need them.
I’ve Done some Vocab mining from other game scripts including Ace Attorney and Professor Layton, and I’m planning on playing Dragon Quest XI later so I’ve starting dabbling in mining key vocab from that game (by watching Japanese Quest play through).
I’ve heard great things about Yokai Watch 4 and Ni No Kuni but I haven’t tried either myself yet (both are waiting on my Switch).
If you have a Nintendo Switch then setting up a Japanese account is pretty easy, and then you can download Japanese game demos from the Switch store - many of them are very generous, for example Dragon Quest XI’s demo is something like 10 hours long IIRC.
Game scripts
Here are some links to lists of Japanese game scripts and a discussion on how to find more:
Finding a game’s difficulty
Jo Mako’s list linked above ranks games by their Japanese difficulty, there’s also this WK thread roughly ranking games by their Japanese difficulty
Yomichan?
If you didn’t know, Yomichan (setup instructions) is a browser plugin that can do dictionary lookups for words you hover over, so it is amazing for going over Game Scripts while you are playing a game - rather than typing the word out.
You’ve got a lot of great advice already in this post, but I figured I’d add my two cents! I’m literally just going to talk about Paper Mario, so skip all of this if that isn’t the kind of game you’re into.
For reference, I passed the JLPT N4 pretty easily in December, and my spoken Japanese is at a level where I can hold a conversation about day-to-day topics smoothly. However, my reading is by FAR my weakest skill, and I almost never practice. I just reached level 18 here on WK.
I recently started playing Paper Mario: Origami King in Japanese, and I’m really enjoying it. It uses a mixture of kana and kanji+furigana. It also has nice spacing so that it’s easy to read. The negative is that you will get ZERO listening practice.
It often opts for hiragana instead of kanji, so you might feel like you’re not getting as much practice as you’re looking for. BUT on the other side of that coin, I feel like it’s a good place to start if you’re not used to reading. i + 1 and all that. I know myself, and if I had to strain to read every speech bubble, I would simply give up. Plus, you can always throw the hiragana into Google translate or Jisho to find the Kanji, and it becomes KaniWani style practice. Kind of.
Dialogue progresses when you press A, so you can take it 100% at your own pace, the game mechanics are super easy, and the dialogue is cute/funny!
study grammar before reading/playing, it really helps to get at least the intentions behind the sentences (if it’s an order, hesitation, advice, questionning, and so on…)
I personally like having some kanji vs all kana because it really helps to know where a word starts/ends. And sometimes you can get the meaning of a word even if you don’t know it, which is impossible in full kana version.
Sometimes you have to keep playing even if you don’t get everything that’s going on.
A script really helps to endure these times
As for a recommanded game, if you have a Switch you can basically access any game in japanese on the japanese eshop, some of them never translated… That’s a tough call
I spent a few enjoyable hours on the first Yokai Watch (that i got for something like 1500円, so around 12 €/$). Lots of small dialogs, with basic everyday vocab since you’re playing a child. The yokai are… okay i guess, nothing like pokemon, but with funny names and the atmosphere of the game itself is pleasant.
I hope you’ll find the right game for you to start this demanding (but fun) japanese path
I’m at Level 27, and 4/5 done with DuoLingo; and I still his look up everything LOL…
Do in the fabled words of Yoda, “There is no try, only do.”
So I am choosing a game you love, translating and learning. Check the boards… When I actually start doing this, I will put a Vocabulary table and/or Anki deck for the games I do…
The Wiki for Breath of the Wild was wonderfully extensive…Couldn’t find them link just now
BUT FOUND a nice translation link FOR OCARINA OF TIME (YAY!!)
The nice thing about grammar is that a little goes a long way.
Learning the most common grammar covers a lot of text. As you get into reading (or another way of enjoying native material), you’ll find that after the initial difficulty of learning a lot of grammar, you reach a point where you’re hardly ever looking up grammar.
You’ll probably still be looking up kanji, and undoubtedly will still be looking up vocabulary words, long after you reach the point where you’re not looking up grammar.
Thanks for the recommendations of games. To me, the textbooks aren’t that much of an issue more than to what to learn and how I can improve more quickly, although having everything on my computer is very convenient
