Here is a list of all the games and whether you can buy them internationally or need to use a JP Account, as well as even guides for how to find them! List created by A Blob from the Game Gengo Discord community ❤ docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VLPVWVhJy6QmjYAfSsLURGiqmLQ7bvR6Hux7OURv2pg/edit?usp=sharing
@@ABlob there’s a JP Dragon Quest XI switch demo, but it’s only on the JP Nintendo page on a browser. Sorry I can’t explain more, there’s a filter in the comments that keeps deleting what I wrote.
@@TheBlueGoldenHawk xD thanks for pointing that out too lmao I made that mistake because I was very tired/sleepy in that moment, but thanks! I've fixed that now too.
CORRECTION: Famicom Detective has a log with replayable audio! Therefor making it a S rank must buy game!! Woooo!! And actually, since it has furigana/voice acting/log/replayable audio, then I think it may even have to take the Number 1 spot on S tier!! 😍
@@jgnhockey26 Press the 'x' button from the main game screen where you can choose what action to do. Make sure you've talked to someone a bit first to populate the log.
I live in the US and I found that for some of the games if you simply change the language on the switch settings it will automatically change the game to Japanese. This worked for Animal Crossing and Breath of the Wild for me. So if you have any of these games already in English try that before buying a Japanese copy!
Pokemon S. S. does the same. I think it's since that generation as I don't remember pokemon S. M. asking for the language setting? I don't have my 3ds to check it out anymore, though (I guess pokemon DP on switch would work too?)
@@NosAltarion Pokémon on the Switch is different. Once you're save file is set to a specific language, that's it. You can always create a new account for Japanese, though.
Proud Patreon member and recently bought a Switch with the main purpose being learning Japanese! Thank you for providing this tier list; it will help me narrow down to some great games to start with. Keep up the amazing work, Matt!
Yokai Watch Gakuen Y is definitely a must buy for me. After finishing famicom detective, Pokémon scarlet, animal crossing, a little bit of persona 3, and gakuen y, I say confidently it is the best game I’ve had for learning Japanese. This is because it is just so content rich, the characters all have voice acting with the words and furigana, and the world is full of Japanese references. There are 400 clubs you can join that have funny names, like “put your hand on your waist and drink milk in one gulp” club. All the yokai, quests, and characters have paragraph length descriptions. There are over 300 audio recordings you can play whenever you want that come with the script and furigana. Plus the game is so much fun, I love the battle system. The dialogue is hilarious and at times emotional and tear jerking. It took me 100 hours to beat the game. I could easily play the game over and over again for years.
@@Ninth-Star Yes. Gaukuen Y is very much a standalone game, both in terms of plot and in terms of mechanics. It has very little connection to the rest of Youkai Watch
Yeah yo kai watch Gakuen is the best to learn japanese,but all yo kai watch games are just the best for Nintendo Switch and 3ds, the plot,side/main quest,yo kai(and onryo for jam) , THE DESIGN, i bought a japanese 2ds only to play busters 2(considered the worst game of yo kai watch) .
For everyone who is able to appreciate visual novel-ish games, I HIGHLY recommend Jack Jeanne! It has a log, big variety of interesting words, and most importantly FULLY VOICED. It's written by the author of Tokyo Ghoul who seemingly got tired of horrors (lol) and created a wholesome and beautiful friendship/love story about a theatre academia. The characters play a few theatrical plays throughout the game, so there are words from different spheres. There's also a free trial.
I guess this list is based on which games are the best to learn from, but could you also make a list showing which games are the easiest to play so that rookie japanese learners known which games to start with?
For me personally and based on a different channel I'm learning Japanese from, we ought to start using "kids stuff", kids material and i don't necessarily mean stupid games like "Crayola splat" but more like the paper Mario origami king, it has furigana and is "easier" to understand and you can go on your own pace. I've got the expansion pack, I've been replying some games i grew up with too
FamiTan is crazy for keigo, the first game specifically. I'm in the middle of playing it and needed to write an email in JP, and just thanks to the sheer variety of polite speech in it all the options were just floating right there in my head. Definitely one of the most favorable experiences of games as didactic materials I've had.
I’ve been studying Japanese primarily through video games for over 2 years now, and most Japanese people rate me at around a N2/C1 level. It’s interesting to hear your perspective when it comes to some of these games. I personally thought that a game like Bravely Default II was a lot easier to understand than Fire Emblem 3H, and yet BF2 was put in the Great tier for being “too difficult.” I also have very mixed feelings about the Persona series being at the top, since those games use A LOT of slang, (e.g. てかinstead of っていうか) and also that the majority of names written with Kanji, and there’s no good way of knowing how they’re pronounced, unless your ear is good enough to pick up the pronunciation. But I would agree with you on basically everything other than that. I think it would have been better to divide this tier list into a beginner and advanced category, since beginners require more repetition of vocabulary and shorter sentences, whereas advanced speakers require more novelty and less “Training Wheels” (i.e. Furigana) Overall good video though. Keep up the good work!
Curious, do you just play the games and look up stuff you don't know? Or do you do more active studying, eg making anki flashcards as you come across new words? I have played through a few games in Japanese (Gyakuten Saiban on Switch and the first three Dragon Quest games on Super Famicom) and have sentence mined them, but I wonder if I'm better off just playing the games without the mining and just look stuff up instead just so I can play more, and get more input. I have probably 7000 words in my anki decks and am getting a little tired of anki. But at the same time, I'm nowhere near the JLPT N2 level that number would hint towards. Maybe, maybe not on passing the N3 (but mostly because my listening is kind of weak).
@@homerthompson416 Honestly, my method has changed quite a bit over the amount of time that I’ve been studying. I used flash cards in the past, but don’t use them anymore. Words actually become a lot easier to memorize over time compared to the beginning, since your brain has gotten more used to the language. If you don’t believe me, think of the last time you’ve used the word “Jacuzzi.” You probably heard that word a handful of times one summer, and then never forgot it again. I never really liked Anki (a bit too complicated for me) but I really liked Quizlet. I would typically make about 50 flash cards a day from sentence mining, and then review them once at night and once in the morning. I would almost never review them after that, and would still remember about 20-25 new words overall. (which if you do the math, is about 600-750 new words every month) Research has shown that the average 20 year old Japanese person knows about 50,000 words in Japanese. If you continue at the pace of 600-750 words each month, it should only take about 5-6 years to match that. I think the JLPT only tests for about 10,000-15,000 of a selected set of those words though, many of which are not commonly used in video games. Let me know if you have any further questions. ;)
@@redredc2 Wow, seems like a lot of work to copy 50 sentences a day only to review them exactly twice. Around how big of a passive vocab do you think you had once you decided to stop mining? Always wonder if I'm better off mining and going through a game really slowly or just looking stuff up only so I can keep playing and reading more and just hope the more important new words stick since I'll keep seeing them.
@@homerthompson416 Sorry, I guess your definition of sentence mining is different from mine. Perhaps I should clarify: I didn’t copy down a complete sentence, but rather looked for the recurring words or phrases within the sentences that I was reading / listening to, and then turned those into flash cards. If I ever needed to look up how to use one of those words in a sentence, then apps like Jisho or Reverso Context have plenty of examples to choose from. In terms of passive vocabulary, I probably had around 10,000-15,000 by the time I stopped. But 7,000 is honestly a respectable number, if you think you don’t need Anki anymore. Steve Kauffman is a man who speaks 20+ languages, and even he says that he almost never used flash cards at all to learn. Language learning is meant to be enjoyed. Otherwise you’ll lose the motivation needed to continue. In terms of whether or not you should progress through a game slowly or quickly: That’s ultimately your choice, but my recommendation is that you only look up words in proportion to what you can already understand. For example: If you can understand 90% of what’s being said, then you probably won’t lose too much time looking up every word. But if you can only understand 70%, then you’re probably better off looking up only 1 out of 3-5 words. These numbers will vary from game to game, since every game has a unique set of vocabulary. For example, if you like to watch basketball, then you’ll be likely to hear words like Ball, Score, Throw, Pass, Run, Jump, Player, Athlete, Team, Coach, Buzzer, Slam Dunk, etc. But you probably won’t ever hear these words when you watch a video about cooking. I think that learning a language is all about exposing yourself to as much of these contexts as you can, until you get a feel for how these words flow together. Eventually, these unique sets of vocabulary will slowly start to blend together into other games. Hope this helps!
@@redredc2 Thanks. I was using the MIA notion of sentence mining, where when you don't know a word just copy the entire sentence to an anki card. I know what you mean about skipping a lot of words when your understanding isn't that high. Currently playing Persona 4 Golden and when Igor talks I just mostly don't even bother looking up what I don't know since he speaks at so much higher a level than anyone else. If it's Chie, Yosuke, Kuma, Doujima, Nanako, etc speaking I usually understand everything well enough that it's no big deal looking up a word I don't know, especially with Game2Text + Yomichan together. Even Margaret's not too bad but JFC Igor is a pain to talk to haha. Kauffman had one huge advantage, he was living in Japan and speaking the language constantly. Wish I had that kind of environment but nobody speaks Japanese in my part of Texas. Ugh wish my grandmother was still alive since she was Japanese.
I'm so glad you put Fuuraiki 4 (風雨来記) into the list. It's such a unique game, traveling through real life Japan on a motorbike, with 360 degree real life video (!) and photos, and visual novel style story and text. I'm looking forward to get into it, seems fantastic for learning and immersion. Overview of the Fuuraiki series and regions explored: Fuuraiki 1 (PS1/PS2) - Hokkaido Fuuraiki 2 (PS2) - Okinawa Fuuraiki 3 (PS Vita/Windows 7 (unavailable)) - Hokkaido Fuuraiki 4 (PS4/Switch) - Gifu (prefecture) This is a great list in general. Things I'm considering playing (* = didn't consider it before this video): Fuuraiki 4 13 Sentinels Persona 4 (already playing it on Steam) Famicom Detective Club* (good to know it does have a replayable log!) Buddy Mission: Bond* Triangle Strategy* (actually from your excellent video on it) Catherine Full Body* (played Classic on Steam, but hated the time limit in puzzles. Great to know you can skip them with R1 now!) Crayon Shin-Chan Grim Grimoire* (didn't know it was on Switch and good for learning) Dragon Quest 11 ... and too many others :D Final Fantasy 7 was the second game I finished in Japanese (first was Grandia 2, my childhood RPG, just the right amount of difficulty), and I can confirm the Japanese was very difficult, but the script with Japanese and English text side by side in a spreadsheet was a fantastic resource to help learning, and it was a great experience overall, especially the language. I just gave up on understanding most of Barret was saying, because he uses such extreme gangster colloquialisms ;)
so i just recently apassed my A1 in Japanese and decided to give Super Mario Odessey a try.... I didn't understand 90% of the text but I at least relearned 国 as a "new" vocabulary and I really got to practice reading Hiragana and Katakana.... especially Katakana. So I think it was worth it and towards the end my reading was a bit more fluent so I'll definitely give it another try
Many of these games also are available on Xbox game pass 😁 thank you so much for the list! As someone living in Japan and trying to learn the language your videos have been a massive help 🙏
Disco Elysium just got it's Japanese translation with dual language, which allows you to switch back and forth on the fly between whichever languages you so choose.
@@GameGengo doesn’t matter, it’s the most beautifully depressing game I’ve ever experienced, I’ll read it in Japanese without voice acting. It’s basically a book
I absolutely admire you for actually playing the yo-kai watch games and having a solid opinion on them instead of just comparing them to pokemon and say they're not worth it. I also love that you've been giving level 5 games the justice they need as well as all the other games. I also think I agree with the most of your rankings especially for the S and A tier (you should've put Cathrine on A tho 🥺)
Great content, as always! I definitely would've never heard of the Butt Detective game if not for this LOL I just wanna say that I really appreciate that you try to include visual novels in your videos despite not being a huge fan of them yourself. I think they really are the most effective type of game if you want to become stronger at Japanese fast just because of the volume of text and quality of life features they tend to have. I appreciate that your videos aren't just a reflection of your own preferences and you try to make them as complete and informative as possible!
This is honestly pretty exciting! I love the Steam video and frequently go back to it just to see which games were recommended. Hopefully this one is just as good! Also, I'd love to see a general tier list at some point, where it's not limited to a certain console and anything from NES games to PS5 games could be included. You've used games from a lot of different consoles and times in your videos so it would be interesting to see your all time recommendations for learning Japanese!
I’m surprised you didn’t include Marco and the Galaxy Dragon. I have played that game thanks to your steam tier list and loved it. 皆さんおすすめ！ I would also add that Marco, Tokyo School Life (which has surprisingly fantastic language content for intermediate learners) and Grisaia Phantom Trigger can all display both English and Japanese at the same time. And TSL has furigana. Fantastic video again btw 😊
@@TyroneCLove Many games? There are about 5 games on the other list that are also on this one. He probably didnt want to be too redundant in his picks :P
@@sierra2192 There are at least 12 common games between both lists (I’ve referred to the Steam list many times so I know it well). It’s not a matter of redundancy, not everyone plays on both Steam and Switch so some overlap is perfectly fine. I’m just surprised he didn’t include Marco which is an excellent VN for Japanese learners but decided to include like, Tetjis instead… 😅
@@sierra2192 P4/5, P5S, AI, DQXI, Danganronpa, Nekopara (seriously btw, this over marco, my heart…), Ni No Kuni, FF7/8/9/10/10-2, Skyrim, Monster Hunter Stories 2, Valkyria Chronicles 1/4, Voice of Cards, Bravely Default 2, Sumire, P4U, The great Ace Attorney. That’s a bit more than 5 games 😄
This is an absolute unit of a resource! I'm always struggling to find games to help my immersion. Thankyou so much!! Your effort in this channel and in this video is super appreciated!!
Persona 4 is also one of my favorite games of all time! I've played through it so many times already, so I'm sure to play through it again. Now, my goal is to buff up my knowledge enough to be able to play through it in Japanese! This was a really fun video, thanks for making it!
Game2Text works pretty well on the Steam version of Persona 4 Golden. Though strangely a few kanji, even some simple ones like 手, don't get picked up properly, I guess because the font is a little strange.
I absolutely love Danganronpa and have beaten all the games in the series, but I don't think I can agree that it's excellent tier. I think it's decent tier at best lol The problem with it as a Japanese learning game IMO is the courtroom sections. It's very explicitly not push-to-continue because the gameplay challenge is meant to come from understanding the claims the characters are making and targeting the ones that are faulty with your evidence bullets in real time. Worse yet, the game puts a timer over all this that ticks down, and you get a game over if you run out of time. And the timer is for the WHOLE COURTROOM SECTION (it carries over between arguments) so if you use too much time looking up words and run out of time, it's not like you only have to repeat 5 minutes of stuff but more like an hour of stuff. It's good in the same way Ace Attorney is good, in that it requires you understand what's being said to advance the story, but making you fail the game and repeat stuff because you spent too long looking up words is just too much pressure for me lol
I'm looking for a Quiz Game on Switch with Japanese support, unfortunately these don't seem to be famous. Would you happen to know a good one? I used to play Quiz$Millionaire on Playstation and I've learn many things about Japanese culture and language. It's great for learning because we can take our time translating each question and it has this formal format which help understanding correctly, also it keeps us invested with 4 answers which can also help nurturing decision making in Japanese. Really hope to find one on Switch (ideally with voice over but that would be a heaven to exist 😆)
I LOVE THIS! Man your channel is a gold mine, more people need to watch your content because you're doing an amazing work. Can't wait to start playing some games now hehe
Thanks for sharing this video. This is super helpful as I am looking for all practical means (besides living in Japan) to further improve my Japanese skills in overseas.
Hey Matt, love the videos. Are you also planning to released something like this for PS4/5 games? I realise there's a lot of overlap, but I own a lot of games on that platform too and I'd be curious to know
So excited for this! I’m expecting 13 Sentinels to be near the top given you can basically replay any line of text from any time in the game from its log. Great language learning tool!
hearing that nekopara is voice acted and has both japanese and english at the same time is incredible ! I have volume 0 and 1 and 2 on steam and I always held myself from playing because I hate reading and its a text game, but hearing that its voice acted, now am highly intrested ! and knowing that the steam verssion is uncensored and that I already love nekopara fanart, I will definitively have a great time :3
Thank you so much for this tier list! I'm learning Chinese through video games, so it takes a bit more research to check which games and which versions support it, but I finally decided to order the HK versions of Digimon Survive and 13 Sentinels. I'm currently playing through Cyber Sleuth and really loving the gameplay, but the plot is kind of all over the place, so I'm really looking forward to immersing myself into the story of Survive before I spoil the entire plot for myself lmao. I've watched anime since I was a child, so between the Japanese voiceover and the Chinese subs, I've been able to piece together what's happening, but I'm excited to finally try my hand at playing something more text-heavy than Pokemon!
I'm learning Korean and a massive Fire Emblem fan. Seeing them as top tier made me so fricking happy as I'll be using them to immerse when I'm a bit of a higher level!
I’ve been studying Japanese on and off for years and am at a rising N3 level. I’ve been playing Pokémon Violet, it’s awesome but I find the vocabulary to be varied in terms of difficulty. The dialogue at the introduction is pretty easy - words like school, admission, fun, grass, adventure - these words tend to be easier and familiar. However as the story evolves I get a bit lost without a dictionary. For example I did not understand any of the Team Star dialogue, I had to look up the word for bully. I am seeing the same words over and over again though. The furigana helps so much, I would not play it if it didn’t have it. Pokémon is also a fantastic way to practice Katakana. This is a skill I think a lot of language learners omit since it feels like practicing English, but it’s important for digesting modern Japanese in the time of the internet.
Kind of surprised Tales of Vesperia isn’t on here. That game has push to continue, and the best thing: a game script online for easy reading assistance
I was surprised to hear you say that BotW didn't have as much language. Personally I just started with a Pokémon approach and focussed on the descriptions of the items you find and the dishes you can cook.
A few days ago I finally took the plunge of trying out a game entirely in Japanese and ironically it's not even on this list! 太鼓の達人「どんとかつの時空大冒険」and the second game were on sale on the switch, and as someone who loves taiko I had to get them, so I started playing in Japanese and it's going really well since it's actually a kids game lol. I still have to look up a lot in the dictionary but this game is awesome as it has language from multiple kinds of characters from multiple eras in time and it doesn't have too much unfamiliar language since it's meant for kids. This game does not have furigana but it has a lot of kana and the kanji that's used that might not be familiar gets introduced with hiragana in parentheses, so imo this is really good for beginners!
For someone with basically N5 level of Japanese, should I start with a game like Pokémon Violet or a visual novel type game like the Detective Club? I tried Pokémon thinking that the plot and dialogue would be simple. But Im having difficulty understanding the game mechanics, moves, evolution, etc in Japanese. Would a visual novel game be better since there are fewer rpg game mechanics to learn?
will u do a tier list for 3ds games tho ? it would actually be way more intresting as I play on my 3ds daily and dont care much about the switch when am not home (it cant fit in my handbag while my 3ds can)
Shoutout to FFX the first game I played in Japanese. It’s true it’s not got a lot of helpful features but the dub is so much better it motivated me to play it to the end. You can really see why Japan votes Yuna as such a popular character in polls in the Japanese dub!
If you enjoy gaming in general then yes it is. The switch is the most user friendly to getting and playing Japanese games. Big title games that release globally will usually have english and Japanese language already. Simply putting your switch language into Japanese will switch that games language. You can also check in the eshop for available languages for that game. Play asia has digital cards you can buy to put yen onto your Japanese user account to purchase from the eshop. Or buying physical copies from amazon japan is very simple.
I think this is a great list but I would also include Clannad! It is very accessible for the switch. You only have to push the + button to change the text to english/japanese so one doesn't even have to go to the menu of the game or to turn their switch to japanese. It's been what I've been using right now. However, it's a Visual Novel so idk if that's counted as a game game.
Hello! This video was suuuper helpful and it makes me feel extra glad I received a Switch, Pokémon Scarlet, and Animal Crossing for Christmas. I was wondering though if you've seen or heard of Kanken: Smart Taisaku? It's a kanji learning game and I was wondering if you thought it would be a good game for learning kanji? Thank you :)
This was mega helpful! Thank you! Would you happen to have a recommendation for top 5 (or just the first few that come to mind) 3ds games? Since the eShop closes, I have tried to apply the principals you laid out for ranking games in this video but it's a bit tricky on the 3ds eShop. Thanks again!
Might be worth mentioning that duo text is ONLY available with Grisaia Phantom Trigger and NOT fruit of grisaia trilogy. And would really like to see a list for beginners/starters. Thanks!
I recently started playing yokai watch 4 in japanese since it isn't released in englisch yet. It worked but was really tough for me, I think I am gonna play yokai watch 1 in japanese first since I already now the Story and know that it had no time travelling gimmick and thus lese complicated vocabulary. Thank you for your nice recommendations!
Have you ever tried hooking your Switch up to your PC via a capture card and then using Game2Text so could use Yomichan like when playing PC games? Wondering how well that would work since Switch has so many awesome Japanese games.
Thank you that wonderful list! Got many ideas for games to buy. I'm currently using "loopers" a vn with dual language and fully voiced. Some other titles made available for switch by "prototype" have dual language and full voice. Sadly there is no furigana but full log! But now I have more games to play (not just vns) thanks again. Was so surprised to see Fuuraiki on this list! Made me want to get a motorcycle and go around!
Just worth noting- even if you don't buy a japanese copy, most games nowdays let you change the entire game to Japanese, both audio and subtitles. Yes, even some western games do it, such as Assassin Creed 4.
Any chance you might do a list like this but for Japanese eShop exclusives on the Wii U or 3DS eShop given they're closing soon. I've looked for anyone doing this for UA-cam, at least in English...to no avail.
Love this video! Unfortunately some games if you buy them in the west don't allow switching to Japanese language. For example, I own the Famicom Detective Club games and even though they include full Japanese voice acting you can't switch to Japanese text. Some games allow playing in Japanese just by switching the system language.
Yeah, it's why I made a list in the comment section that goes over what games support Japanese internationally and what games don't (as well as what games have Japanese demos for you to play for free) :) I kind of hope that might get checked in future tier list videos but I think that'll be fine for now.
To find out if a game includes a given language for a given region, just visit the eShop for that region. For example, the games that include Japanese on the US distribution will list Japanese as an included language in the US eShop. Conversely, the Japanese eShop will list 英語 if English is included. This applies to both digital and physical forms of a game. The only exception I’ve found to this was Valkyria Chronicles, which lists Japanese as being included, but does not actually include Japanese (First game I’ve encountered like this in over 40 purchased).
Hi! Thank you for that video. It's exactly what i've been looking for and I'm going back to Europe soon so playing and keeping on learning Japanese would be really fun. I would just want to ask a question. I've already tried to do that in the past, with pokemon (and yeah the lack of furigana was really annoying at time), but after 15h I stopped because I was too bored. I wrote every word I didn't know in a Anki deck. And after 10h I barely got out of the tutorial. Should I not take note of those new words and just keep on playing? Or should I and just push through? Thank you for reading!
Superb list, I also played triangle strategy and the fire emblem games in japanese and it's really great for learning. I highly recommend checking out tales of vesperia too, the voice acting is great, the characters and story is interesting, and to me at least it never felt overwhelming it was a great game to learn japanese with
Super thanks for the comprehensive guide. It is super cool. I am newbie and just start to self learn Japanese. I play a lot of game and was thinking which game is the best for learning Japanese. Nintendo switch is portable and make it the best device to learn Japanese on the way to office. I got P5R and P5S but both of them are in Traditional Chinese. I might buy the Japanese version when I am in Japanese next time.
Can I ask if how most of you use Switch for learning Japanese? Do you take screenshots of the conversation of the Kanji/Grammar/Vocab that you”re not familiar with and will review it later on? Do you have any other means to learning Japanese using games (esp Switch games)?
The thing that got me with Breath of the Wild is that it has furigana for everything except the stuff you actually need furigana for. Not sure what they were thinking.
I disagree about Ace Attorney in C tier, especially considering you put Danganronpa in A tier. They're very similar, both gameplay wise, and language learning wise, even sharing a large percentage of the same vocabulary. They both are full with slightly rare words like court terms, weapons, etc. They also both don't use furigana. I played both games in Japanese, AA is actually slightly easier in my opinion because in Danganronpa the trials are timed whereas in AA you aren't timed. Also the words are moving on the screen, and often upside down, sideways, or in a weird font. They also only give you a couple seconds to read the sentence before it flies off the screen. Whereas AA everything is standard font and you can read and re-read as much as you want. You knocked a few points off Ace Attorney because you said "it requires you to know Japanese already to advance the story", which is fair, but Danganronpa does the same thing with the trials, but now you have a time limit! The only difference is voice acting during the trials, which to be fair AA doesn't have. But is that enough to justify one being in A and one being in C?
Very good points! I think perhaps ace attorney is ranked a bit too low and danganronpa is ranked a bit too high. After some further thought I would probably put them both in B tier. But definitely both could be fun times for anyone learning Japanese! What did you think of them? Did you enjoy playing them in Japanese? :)
I've started playing through Buddy Mission Bond recently and it's great but still a little hard. Does anyone know if there's a game script floating around somewhere?
Having an opportunity to replay some of my favourite games ever(13 sentinels, DQ11, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Persona) is a great motivator for pushing through the roadblocks ahead. I can't wait!
Just dawned on me. You can get around the lack of replayable cutscenes. It is extraneous and an expenditure, but with a capture card and PC, you can record your gameplay. Use a mic to record your speech and compare it to the content.
What do you mean by archaic with Breath of the Wild. Playing it is one of my language goals. Is it archaic like Arceus or worse? The logs/quest summaries are different in Japanese, they give link more personality. So I really want to experience them
Enjoyed the video and found out about some interesting new games. But shouldn't Final Fantasy 7/8/9 be even lower than Final Fantasy X? At least X has voice acting. They all require a script like Xenoblade or X. X has pausable cutscenes. I think the accessibility is the same for 7-10 pretty much. FF12 can be lumped together with FFX I feel as well.
Thats a great point! I feel personally that because FF7/8/9s dialogue is push to continue allows you to look things up much less stressfully, whereas FFX is more movie-like. So for a learner being able to take the game at your own pace is really important. i didnt include ff12 because its a bit more difficult due to politics/fantasy. However I agree it could totally be in a similar place ish to FFX! :)
@@GameGengo Oh okay, from the push to continue point of view i see. And i think you mentioned that in the video. I kinda agree with you now. Thanks for the reply!
Something I have to say about Xenoblade! It is actually one of the games that taught me THE MOST Japanese. For me, it’s almost the same as Persona in matters of learning, especially Xenoblade 2. Played it with Japanese audio and English subtitles. It’s an awsome source of new words, variety of dialects or colloquial speech and listening practice. Also, all of the skills are being said in katakana-English words, hence it also does wonders to your katakana comprehension skills! That is, indeed, if you are already somewhat familliar with the language and can grasp the words and sentences they are saying. The reason is that they repeat so many phrases thousands of times.
Xenoblade 2 English translation is a disaster. The most butchered game by western Nintendo all time. Even fire emblem fates isn't close to this abomination. Basically a full rewrite.
Are you getting Neo:TWEWY mixed up with the original The World Ends With You? I'm fairly certain Neo is a relatively new game released on Switch at the same time as other platforms, and it's definitely a sequel to the original on the DS (which also got a re-release, the World Ends With You: Final Remix). A largely standalone sequel, but the events of the original TWEWY are heavily referenced, with many recurring characters. Heck, there's a bit where the characters hear a rumour about the original game's protagonist and try to track him down. I think even the creators recommend at least watching TWEWY The Animation (which is a passable adaptation, though I was a little annoyed at how much more hand-holdy the plot was) before diving into Neo. The World Ends With You is a masterpiece, distinctly less... _anime?_ than Neo is early on (Some side characters, like Minamimoto who you've met in Neo, are still very OTT, but Neku and his partners are a bit less so than Fret, Nagi, etc), with more focus on developing its own characters (b/c obviously it doesn't have another set of characters it needs to give closure to). In terms of learning Japanese, though... I can't imagine it being particularly great. The game isn't accessible in Japanese worldwide, doesn't have voice acting for the most part, and I don't think it has furigana either. Also, a lot of people complain about the controls - I find it easy enough (though having controllers you straight-up can't use takes a bit of getting used to) but I grew up with Solo Remix on mobile, and the control scheme for Final Remix in handheld mode is lifted directly from there.
Here is a list of all the games and whether you can buy them internationally or need to use a JP Account, as well as even guides for how to find them!
List created by A Blob from the Game Gengo Discord community ❤
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VLPVWVhJy6QmjYAfSsLURGiqmLQ7bvR6Hux7OURv2pg/edit?usp=sharing
@@ABlob there’s a JP Dragon Quest XI switch demo, but it’s only on the JP Nintendo page on a browser. Sorry I can’t explain more, there’s a filter in the comments that keeps deleting what I wrote.
@@TheBlueGoldenHawk Ah, I see what you meant, thank you, I'll add that to the spreadsheet!
@@ABlob thank you! I think you put the Yes in the wrong column for DQXI, though haha. I appreciate you making the spreadsheet btw!
@@TheBlueGoldenHawk xD thanks for pointing that out too lmao
I made that mistake because I was very tired/sleepy in that moment, but thanks! I've fixed that now too.
CORRECTION: Famicom Detective has a log with replayable audio! Therefor making it a S rank must buy game!! Woooo!!
And actually, since it has furigana/voice acting/log/replayable audio, then I think it may even have to take the Number 1 spot on S tier!! 😍
It is so darn good!
It also has a voice acted/furigana summary of the story so far when you resume your save like dq11
Where is the log to Famicom Detective? I've searched everywhere and cannot find it. @gamegengo
@@jgnhockey26 Press the 'x' button from the main game screen where you can choose what action to do. Make sure you've talked to someone a bit first to populate the log.
I live in the US and I found that for some of the games if you simply change the language on the switch settings it will automatically change the game to Japanese. This worked for Animal Crossing and Breath of the Wild for me. So if you have any of these games already in English try that before buying a Japanese copy!
It would be awesome if there was a list with such games!
Pokemon S. S. does the same.
I think it's since that generation as I don't remember pokemon S. M. asking for the language setting?
I don't have my 3ds to check it out anymore, though (I guess pokemon DP on switch would work too?)
@@NosAltarion Pokémon on the Switch is different. Once you're save file is set to a specific language, that's it. You can always create a new account for Japanese, though.
@@m.m.2341 Ah, I missed the mark. It was 'games that you can switch back and forth'
Mea culpa
@@NosAltarion Sun and Moon does ask for the language setting, but it cannot be changed later.
Proud Patreon member and recently bought a Switch with the main purpose being learning Japanese! Thank you for providing this tier list; it will help me narrow down to some great games to start with. Keep up the amazing work, Matt!
Thinking about doing this. Did you find it beneficial?
Yokai Watch Gakuen Y is definitely a must buy for me. After finishing famicom detective, Pokémon scarlet, animal crossing, a little bit of persona 3, and gakuen y, I say confidently it is the best game I’ve had for learning Japanese. This is because it is just so content rich, the characters all have voice acting with the words and furigana, and the world is full of Japanese references. There are 400 clubs you can join that have funny names, like “put your hand on your waist and drink milk in one gulp” club. All the yokai, quests, and characters have paragraph length descriptions. There are over 300 audio recordings you can play whenever you want that come with the script and furigana. Plus the game is so much fun, I love the battle system. The dialogue is hilarious and at times emotional and tear jerking. It took me 100 hours to beat the game. I could easily play the game over and over again for years.
maybe a bit late to ask😅 I want to try but I've never play any Yokai watch previous title can you jump into the series with Gakuen Y?
@@Ninth-Star Yes. Gaukuen Y is very much a standalone game, both in terms of plot and in terms of mechanics. It has very little connection to the rest of Youkai Watch
Yeah yo kai watch Gakuen is the best to learn japanese,but all yo kai watch games are just the best for Nintendo Switch and 3ds, the plot,side/main quest,yo kai(and onryo for jam) , THE DESIGN, i bought a japanese 2ds only to play busters 2(considered the worst game of yo kai watch) .
Hey Matt. If you enjoy making these kinds of videos I think making another with the same games, but ranking by difficulty, would be super beneficial
For everyone who is able to appreciate visual novel-ish games, I HIGHLY recommend Jack Jeanne! It has a log, big variety of interesting words, and most importantly FULLY VOICED. It's written by the author of Tokyo Ghoul who seemingly got tired of horrors (lol) and created a wholesome and beautiful friendship/love story about a theatre academia. The characters play a few theatrical plays throughout the game, so there are words from different spheres. There's also a free trial.
I think it's just illustrated by the Tokyo Ghoul author.
@@corasundae Nope. Isayama also wrote the story, wrote some of the songs AND illustrated the whole thing.
I guess this list is based on which games are the best to learn from, but could you also make a list showing which games are the easiest to play so that rookie japanese learners known which games to start with?
For me personally and based on a different channel I'm learning Japanese from, we ought to start using "kids stuff", kids material and i don't necessarily mean stupid games like "Crayola splat" but more like the paper Mario origami king, it has furigana and is "easier" to understand and you can go on your own pace. I've got the expansion pack, I've been replying some games i grew up with too
@@imeralvarez5
I am about to finish N5 level vocab now following a anki deck. Could you recommend me 2/3 games to start with?
Natsu no yasumi
FamiTan is crazy for keigo, the first game specifically. I'm in the middle of playing it and needed to write an email in JP, and just thanks to the sheer variety of polite speech in it all the options were just floating right there in my head. Definitely one of the most favorable experiences of games as didactic materials I've had.
if you’re taking about the missing heir, it’s so worthwhile! did you end up writing notes of the keigo used or was it easy to remember?
This video is awesome, thank you so much, Matt! You're really making the difference in the lives of those studying Japanese! いろいろありがとうございました!
I’ve been studying Japanese primarily through video games for over 2 years now, and most Japanese people rate me at around a N2/C1 level. It’s interesting to hear your perspective when it comes to some of these games.
I personally thought that a game like Bravely Default II was a lot easier to understand than Fire Emblem 3H, and yet BF2 was put in the Great tier for being “too difficult.” I also have very mixed feelings about the Persona series being at the top, since those games use A LOT of slang, (e.g. てかinstead of っていうか) and also that the majority of names written with Kanji, and there’s no good way of knowing how they’re pronounced, unless your ear is good enough to pick up the pronunciation. But I would agree with you on basically everything other than that.
I think it would have been better to divide this tier list into a beginner and advanced category, since beginners require more repetition of vocabulary and shorter sentences, whereas advanced speakers require more novelty and less “Training Wheels” (i.e. Furigana)
Overall good video though. Keep up the good work!
Curious, do you just play the games and look up stuff you don't know? Or do you do more active studying, eg making anki flashcards as you come across new words? I have played through a few games in Japanese (Gyakuten Saiban on Switch and the first three Dragon Quest games on Super Famicom) and have sentence mined them, but I wonder if I'm better off just playing the games without the mining and just look stuff up instead just so I can play more, and get more input. I have probably 7000 words in my anki decks and am getting a little tired of anki. But at the same time, I'm nowhere near the JLPT N2 level that number would hint towards. Maybe, maybe not on passing the N3 (but mostly because my listening is kind of weak).
@@homerthompson416 Honestly, my method has changed quite a bit over the amount of time that I’ve been studying. I used flash cards in the past, but don’t use them anymore. Words actually become a lot easier to memorize over time compared to the beginning, since your brain has gotten more used to the language. If you don’t believe me, think of the last time you’ve used the word “Jacuzzi.” You probably heard that word a handful of times one summer, and then never forgot it again.
I never really liked Anki (a bit too complicated for me) but I really liked Quizlet. I would typically make about 50 flash cards a day from sentence mining, and then review them once at night and once in the morning. I would almost never review them after that, and would still remember about 20-25 new words overall. (which if you do the math, is about 600-750 new words every month) Research has shown that the average 20 year old Japanese person knows about 50,000 words in Japanese. If you continue at the pace of 600-750 words each month, it should only take about 5-6 years to match that. I think the JLPT only tests for about 10,000-15,000 of a selected set of those words though, many of which are not commonly used in video games. Let me know if you have any further questions. ;)
@@redredc2 Wow, seems like a lot of work to copy 50 sentences a day only to review them exactly twice. Around how big of a passive vocab do you think you had once you decided to stop mining? Always wonder if I'm better off mining and going through a game really slowly or just looking stuff up only so I can keep playing and reading more and just hope the more important new words stick since I'll keep seeing them.
@@homerthompson416 Sorry, I guess your definition of sentence mining is different from mine. Perhaps I should clarify: I didn’t copy down a complete sentence, but rather looked for the recurring words or phrases within the sentences that I was reading / listening to, and then turned those into flash cards. If I ever needed to look up how to use one of those words in a sentence, then apps like Jisho or Reverso Context have plenty of examples to choose from.
In terms of passive vocabulary, I probably had around 10,000-15,000 by the time I stopped. But 7,000 is honestly a respectable number, if you think you don’t need Anki anymore. Steve Kauffman is a man who speaks 20+ languages, and even he says that he almost never used flash cards at all to learn. Language learning is meant to be enjoyed. Otherwise you’ll lose the motivation needed to continue.
In terms of whether or not you should progress through a game slowly or quickly: That’s ultimately your choice, but my recommendation is that you only look up words in proportion to what you can already understand. For example: If you can understand 90% of what’s being said, then you probably won’t lose too much time looking up every word. But if you can only understand 70%, then you’re probably better off looking up only 1 out of 3-5 words.
These numbers will vary from game to game, since every game has a unique set of vocabulary. For example, if you like to watch basketball, then you’ll be likely to hear words like Ball, Score, Throw, Pass, Run, Jump, Player, Athlete, Team, Coach, Buzzer, Slam Dunk, etc. But you probably won’t ever hear these words when you watch a video about cooking. I think that learning a language is all about exposing yourself to as much of these contexts as you can, until you get a feel for how these words flow together. Eventually, these unique sets of vocabulary will slowly start to blend together into other games. Hope this helps!
@@redredc2 Thanks. I was using the MIA notion of sentence mining, where when you don't know a word just copy the entire sentence to an anki card.
I know what you mean about skipping a lot of words when your understanding isn't that high. Currently playing Persona 4 Golden and when Igor talks I just mostly don't even bother looking up what I don't know since he speaks at so much higher a level than anyone else. If it's Chie, Yosuke, Kuma, Doujima, Nanako, etc speaking I usually understand everything well enough that it's no big deal looking up a word I don't know, especially with Game2Text + Yomichan together. Even Margaret's not too bad but JFC Igor is a pain to talk to haha.
Kauffman had one huge advantage, he was living in Japan and speaking the language constantly. Wish I had that kind of environment but nobody speaks Japanese in my part of Texas. Ugh wish my grandmother was still alive since she was Japanese.
I'm so glad you put Fuuraiki 4 (風雨来記) into the list. It's such a unique game, traveling through real life Japan on a motorbike, with 360 degree real life video (!) and photos, and visual novel style story and text. I'm looking forward to get into it, seems fantastic for learning and immersion.
Overview of the Fuuraiki series and regions explored:
Fuuraiki 1 (PS1/PS2) - Hokkaido
Fuuraiki 2 (PS2) - Okinawa
Fuuraiki 3 (PS Vita/Windows 7 (unavailable)) - Hokkaido
Fuuraiki 4 (PS4/Switch) - Gifu (prefecture)
This is a great list in general. Things I'm considering playing (* = didn't consider it before this video):
Fuuraiki 4
13 Sentinels
Persona 4 (already playing it on Steam)
Famicom Detective Club* (good to know it does have a replayable log!)
Buddy Mission: Bond*
Triangle Strategy* (actually from your excellent video on it)
Catherine Full Body* (played Classic on Steam, but hated the time limit in puzzles. Great to know you can skip them with R1 now!)
Crayon Shin-Chan
Grim Grimoire* (didn't know it was on Switch and good for learning)
Dragon Quest 11
... and too many others :D
Final Fantasy 7 was the second game I finished in Japanese (first was Grandia 2, my childhood RPG, just the right amount of difficulty), and I can confirm the Japanese was very difficult, but the script with Japanese and English text side by side in a spreadsheet was a fantastic resource to help learning, and it was a great experience overall, especially the language. I just gave up on understanding most of Barret was saying, because he uses such extreme gangster colloquialisms ;)
so i just recently apassed my A1 in Japanese and decided to give Super Mario Odessey a try.... I didn't understand 90% of the text but I at least relearned 国 as a "new" vocabulary and I really got to practice reading Hiragana and Katakana.... especially Katakana. So I think it was worth it and towards the end my reading was a bit more fluent so I'll definitely give it another try
Many of these games also are available on Xbox game pass 😁 thank you so much for the list!
As someone living in Japan and trying to learn the language your videos have been a massive help 🙏
This is an incredible list. Thank you for it!
This is an amazing resource! I actually never tried a visual novel and so I have decided to buy Famicom Detective Club one! Looking forward to it!
Disco Elysium just got it's Japanese translation with dual language, which allows you to switch back and forth on the fly between whichever languages you so choose.
Oh wow that's awesome! Does Disco Elysium have japanese voice acting? :O
@@GameGengo Only text!
@@GameGengo doesn’t matter, it’s the most beautifully depressing game I’ve ever experienced, I’ll read it in Japanese without voice acting. It’s basically a book
@@Retog OH wow! That good? I'll definitely need to check it out!
@@GameGengo I agree. Played that game on pc and can tell you it’s a superbly written uniquely weird instant-classic rpg.
I absolutely admire you for actually playing the yo-kai watch games and having a solid opinion on them instead of just comparing them to pokemon and say they're not worth it. I also love that you've been giving level 5 games the justice they need as well as all the other games. I also think I agree with the most of your rankings especially for the S and A tier (you should've put Cathrine on A tho 🥺)
Great content, as always! I definitely would've never heard of the Butt Detective game if not for this LOL
I just wanna say that I really appreciate that you try to include visual novels in your videos despite not being a huge fan of them yourself. I think they really are the most effective type of game if you want to become stronger at Japanese fast just because of the volume of text and quality of life features they tend to have. I appreciate that your videos aren't just a reflection of your own preferences and you try to make them as complete and informative as possible!
I recently bought Switch with learning Japanese in mind. 😀
You chose very well! It's the best console for learning Japanese imo!
Thank you, that's a really comprehensive and helpful analysis.
This is honestly pretty exciting! I love the Steam video and frequently go back to it just to see which games were recommended. Hopefully this one is just as good!
Also, I'd love to see a general tier list at some point, where it's not limited to a certain console and anything from NES games to PS5 games could be included. You've used games from a lot of different consoles and times in your videos so it would be interesting to see your all time recommendations for learning Japanese!
It's even better!! I hope you enjoy the video! The Nintendo Switch is probably the best console ever made to learn Japanese with. So awesome!!
So excited, I’m always looking for japanese games on switch to practice!
I’m surprised you didn’t include Marco and the Galaxy Dragon. I have played that game thanks to your steam tier list and loved it. 皆さんおすすめ！
I would also add that Marco, Tokyo School Life (which has surprisingly fantastic language content for intermediate learners) and Grisaia Phantom Trigger can all display both English and Japanese at the same time. And TSL has furigana.
Fantastic video again btw 😊
It's because its on his other tier list for top steam games in Japanese :)
@@sierra2192 like many games that are also on this list.
@@TyroneCLove Many games? There are about 5 games on the other list that are also on this one. He probably didnt want to be too redundant in his picks :P
@@sierra2192 There are at least 12 common games between both lists (I’ve referred to the Steam list many times so I know it well). It’s not a matter of redundancy, not everyone plays on both Steam and Switch so some overlap is perfectly fine. I’m just surprised he didn’t include Marco which is an excellent VN for Japanese learners but decided to include like, Tetjis instead… 😅
@@sierra2192 P4/5, P5S, AI, DQXI, Danganronpa, Nekopara (seriously btw, this over marco, my heart…), Ni No Kuni, FF7/8/9/10/10-2, Skyrim, Monster Hunter Stories 2, Valkyria Chronicles 1/4, Voice of Cards, Bravely Default 2, Sumire, P4U, The great Ace Attorney. That’s a bit more than 5 games 😄
Been waiting for this for a while, thanks!
thank you so much for this! Especially for finding games with logs for me. This will help me variate the medias I use for vocab/listening!!
awesome work! thank yu very much!
your channel is so underrated! amazing video as always, you motivate me to keep studying^^
So detailed and thoughtful, this awesome thank you. Time to make a wish list (:
This is an absolute unit of a resource! I'm always struggling to find games to help my immersion. Thankyou so much!! Your effort in this channel and in this video is super appreciated!!
Thank you for 風雨来記！I didn’t know I needed this game in my life.
Persona 4 is also one of my favorite games of all time! I've played through it so many times already, so I'm sure to play through it again. Now, my goal is to buff up my knowledge enough to be able to play through it in Japanese! This was a really fun video, thanks for making it!
Game2Text works pretty well on the Steam version of Persona 4 Golden. Though strangely a few kanji, even some simple ones like 手, don't get picked up properly, I guess because the font is a little strange.
Great video! Could you please do a similar video tailored towards beginners just getting into the language?
Good news! That's actually exactly the next video I'm working on!
I absolutely love Danganronpa and have beaten all the games in the series, but I don't think I can agree that it's excellent tier. I think it's decent tier at best lol
The problem with it as a Japanese learning game IMO is the courtroom sections. It's very explicitly not push-to-continue because the gameplay challenge is meant to come from understanding the claims the characters are making and targeting the ones that are faulty with your evidence bullets in real time. Worse yet, the game puts a timer over all this that ticks down, and you get a game over if you run out of time. And the timer is for the WHOLE COURTROOM SECTION (it carries over between arguments) so if you use too much time looking up words and run out of time, it's not like you only have to repeat 5 minutes of stuff but more like an hour of stuff.
It's good in the same way Ace Attorney is good, in that it requires you understand what's being said to advance the story, but making you fail the game and repeat stuff because you spent too long looking up words is just too much pressure for me lol
I'm looking for a Quiz Game on Switch with Japanese support, unfortunately these don't seem to be famous. Would you happen to know a good one?
I used to play Quiz$Millionaire on Playstation and I've learn many things about Japanese culture and language. It's great for learning because we can take our time translating each question and it has this formal format which help understanding correctly, also it keeps us invested with 4 answers which can also help nurturing decision making in Japanese.
Really hope to find one on Switch (ideally with voice over but that would be a heaven to exist 😆)
The Switch's recording option has been a godsend for getting through the early stages of JP, like with Tales Vesperia for example.
THANK YOU !!! This list was perfect for my goals
ok not super related to the topic but hearing Arslan Senki mentioned at 5:19 made me so happy cuz nobody knows what it is but I love the anime!!
LET'S GOOOOOOO i was just thinking about games for my switch the other day. god tier videos Matt, thank you for all that you do
I LOVE THIS! Man your channel is a gold mine, more people need to watch your content because you're doing an amazing work. Can't wait to start playing some games now hehe
Thanks for sharing this video. This is super helpful as I am looking for all practical means (besides living in Japan) to further improve my Japanese skills in overseas.
Man, did you just drop 60 games for learning 日本語? What a beast
Hey Matt, love the videos. Are you also planning to released something like this for PS4/5 games? I realise there's a lot of overlap, but I own a lot of games on that platform too and I'd be curious to know
So excited for this! I’m expecting 13 Sentinels to be near the top given you can basically replay any line of text from any time in the game from its log.
Great language learning tool!
13 Sentinels was a great game for the language learning part! Minus the fights (I wasn't a fan of it)
I love the video! I have come back to it a million times :)
Thank you for all of your hard work!
hearing that nekopara is voice acted and has both japanese and english at the same time is incredible ! I have volume 0 and 1 and 2 on steam and I always held myself from playing because I hate reading and its a text game, but hearing that its voice acted, now am highly intrested !
and knowing that the steam verssion is uncensored and that I already love nekopara fanart, I will definitively have a great time :3
謝謝！
Thank you so much for this tier list! I'm learning Chinese through video games, so it takes a bit more research to check which games and which versions support it, but I finally decided to order the HK versions of Digimon Survive and 13 Sentinels. I'm currently playing through Cyber Sleuth and really loving the gameplay, but the plot is kind of all over the place, so I'm really looking forward to immersing myself into the story of Survive before I spoil the entire plot for myself lmao. I've watched anime since I was a child, so between the Japanese voiceover and the Chinese subs, I've been able to piece together what's happening, but I'm excited to finally try my hand at playing something more text-heavy than Pokemon!
I'm learning Korean and a massive Fire Emblem fan. Seeing them as top tier made me so fricking happy as I'll be using them to immerse when I'm a bit of a higher level!
matt i really love your friendly smile and i love how you teach us your a great teacher
Can you make a tier list to 3DS?
This was great! So many new games added to my switch
Hi, are there any similar list but for a 3DS? Thank you
I’ve been studying Japanese on and off for years and am at a rising N3 level. I’ve been playing Pokémon Violet, it’s awesome but I find the vocabulary to be varied in terms of difficulty. The dialogue at the introduction is pretty easy - words like school, admission, fun, grass, adventure - these words tend to be easier and familiar. However as the story evolves I get a bit lost without a dictionary. For example I did not understand any of the Team Star dialogue, I had to look up the word for bully. I am seeing the same words over and over again though. The furigana helps so much, I would not play it if it didn’t have it.
Pokémon is also a fantastic way to practice Katakana. This is a skill I think a lot of language learners omit since it feels like practicing English, but it’s important for digesting modern Japanese in the time of the internet.
Kind of surprised Tales of Vesperia isn’t on here. That game has push to continue, and the best thing: a game script online for easy reading assistance
I was surprised to hear you say that BotW didn't have as much language. Personally I just started with a Pokémon approach and focussed on the descriptions of the items you find and the dishes you can cook.
A few days ago I finally took the plunge of trying out a game entirely in Japanese and ironically it's not even on this list! 太鼓の達人「どんとかつの時空大冒険」and the second game were on sale on the switch, and as someone who loves taiko I had to get them, so I started playing in Japanese and it's going really well since it's actually a kids game lol.
I still have to look up a lot in the dictionary but this game is awesome as it has language from multiple kinds of characters from multiple eras in time and it doesn't have too much unfamiliar language since it's meant for kids.
This game does not have furigana but it has a lot of kana and the kanji that's used that might not be familiar gets introduced with hiragana in parentheses, so imo this is really good for beginners!
For someone with basically N5 level of Japanese, should I start with a game like Pokémon Violet or a visual novel type game like the Detective Club? I tried Pokémon thinking that the plot and dialogue would be simple. But Im having difficulty understanding the game mechanics, moves, evolution, etc in Japanese. Would a visual novel game be better since there are fewer rpg game mechanics to learn?
Thanks for this list. I will keep this list in mind if I am looking for a japanese leaning session while gaming in future
great video! thank you :))
will u do a tier list for 3ds games tho ? it would actually be way more intresting as I play on my 3ds daily and dont care much about the switch when am not home (it cant fit in my handbag while my 3ds can)
Shoutout to FFX the first game I played in Japanese. It’s true it’s not got a lot of helpful features but the dub is so much better it motivated me to play it to the end. You can really see why Japan votes Yuna as such a popular character in polls in the Japanese dub!
i was thinking of buying a switch for learning japanese, is it worth it?
If you enjoy gaming in general then yes it is. The switch is the most user friendly to getting and playing Japanese games. Big title games that release globally will usually have english and Japanese language already. Simply putting your switch language into Japanese will switch that games language. You can also check in the eshop for available languages for that game. Play asia has digital cards you can buy to put yen onto your Japanese user account to purchase from the eshop. Or buying physical copies from amazon japan is very simple.
I think this is a great list but I would also include Clannad! It is very accessible for the switch. You only have to push the + button to change the text to english/japanese so one doesn't even have to go to the menu of the game or to turn their switch to japanese. It's been what I've been using right now. However, it's a Visual Novel so idk if that's counted as a game game.
Hello! This video was suuuper helpful and it makes me feel extra glad I received a Switch, Pokémon Scarlet, and Animal Crossing for Christmas. I was wondering though if you've seen or heard of Kanken: Smart Taisaku? It's a kanji learning game and I was wondering if you thought it would be a good game for learning kanji? Thank you :)
This was mega helpful! Thank you! Would you happen to have a recommendation for top 5 (or just the first few that come to mind) 3ds games? Since the eShop closes, I have tried to apply the principals you laid out for ranking games in this video but it's a bit tricky on the 3ds eShop.
Thanks again!
Might be worth mentioning that duo text is ONLY available with Grisaia Phantom Trigger and NOT fruit of grisaia trilogy. And would really like to see a list for beginners/starters. Thanks!
I recently started playing yokai watch 4 in japanese since it isn't released in englisch yet. It worked but was really tough for me, I think I am gonna play yokai watch 1 in japanese first since I already now the Story and know that it had no time travelling gimmick and thus lese complicated vocabulary. Thank you for your nice recommendations!
Does anyone know if Grisaria has dual language options on both the English and Japanese e shop or is it only a specific one?
Have you ever tried hooking your Switch up to your PC via a capture card and then using Game2Text so could use Yomichan like when playing PC games? Wondering how well that would work since Switch has so many awesome Japanese games.
Thank you that wonderful list! Got many ideas for games to buy.
I'm currently using "loopers" a vn with dual language and fully voiced.
Some other titles made available for switch by "prototype" have dual language and full voice. Sadly there is no furigana but full log!
But now I have more games to play (not just vns) thanks again.
Was so surprised to see Fuuraiki on this list!
Made me want to get a motorcycle and go around!
Just worth noting- even if you don't buy a japanese copy, most games nowdays let you change the entire game to Japanese, both audio and subtitles. Yes, even some western games do it, such as Assassin Creed 4.
alright I'm sold on Triangle Strategy!
Any chance you might do a list like this but for Japanese eShop exclusives on the Wii U or 3DS eShop given they're closing soon. I've looked for anyone doing this for UA-cam, at least in English...to no avail.
Love this video! Unfortunately some games if you buy them in the west don't allow switching to Japanese language. For example, I own the Famicom Detective Club games and even though they include full Japanese voice acting you can't switch to Japanese text. Some games allow playing in Japanese just by switching the system language.
Yeah, it's why I made a list in the comment section that goes over what games support Japanese internationally and what games don't (as well as what games have Japanese demos for you to play for free) :)
I kind of hope that might get checked in future tier list videos but I think that'll be fine for now.
@@ABlob link?
@@arcticafox287 It's in the comment section of this video, 9th place currently on the "Sort by: Newest first" layout ^^'
@@ABlob I can't find your comment :(
To find out if a game includes a given language for a given region, just visit the eShop for that region. For example, the games that include Japanese on the US distribution will list Japanese as an included language in the US eShop. Conversely, the Japanese eShop will list 英語 if English is included. This applies to both digital and physical forms of a game. The only exception I’ve found to this was Valkyria Chronicles, which lists Japanese as being included, but does not actually include Japanese (First game I’ve encountered like this in over 40 purchased).
Hi! Thank you for that video. It's exactly what i've been looking for and I'm going back to Europe soon so playing and keeping on learning Japanese would be really fun.
I would just want to ask a question. I've already tried to do that in the past, with pokemon (and yeah the lack of furigana was really annoying at time), but after 15h I stopped because I was too bored. I wrote every word I didn't know in a Anki deck. And after 10h I barely got out of the tutorial. Should I not take note of those new words and just keep on playing? Or should I and just push through?
Thank you for reading!
Superb list, I also played triangle strategy and the fire emblem games in japanese and it's really great for learning.
I highly recommend checking out tales of vesperia too, the voice acting is great, the characters and story is interesting, and to me at least it never felt overwhelming it was a great game to learn japanese with
would u do a tier list for android games ? games like genshin has replayable story quest text and all and is quite nice as it runs on everything
Super thanks for the comprehensive guide. It is super cool. I am newbie and just start to self learn Japanese. I play a lot of game and was thinking which game is the best for learning Japanese. Nintendo switch is portable and make it the best device to learn Japanese on the way to office. I got P5R and P5S but both of them are in Traditional Chinese. I might buy the Japanese version when I am in Japanese next time.
Can I ask if how most of you use Switch for learning Japanese? Do you take screenshots of the conversation of the Kanji/Grammar/Vocab that you”re not familiar with and will review it later on? Do you have any other means to learning Japanese using games (esp Switch games)?
The thing that got me with Breath of the Wild is that it has furigana for everything except the stuff you actually need furigana for. Not sure what they were thinking.
I disagree about Ace Attorney in C tier, especially considering you put Danganronpa in A tier. They're very similar, both gameplay wise, and language learning wise, even sharing a large percentage of the same vocabulary. They both are full with slightly rare words like court terms, weapons, etc. They also both don't use furigana.
I played both games in Japanese, AA is actually slightly easier in my opinion because in Danganronpa the trials are timed whereas in AA you aren't timed. Also the words are moving on the screen, and often upside down, sideways, or in a weird font. They also only give you a couple seconds to read the sentence before it flies off the screen. Whereas AA everything is standard font and you can read and re-read as much as you want. You knocked a few points off Ace Attorney because you said "it requires you to know Japanese already to advance the story", which is fair, but Danganronpa does the same thing with the trials, but now you have a time limit!
The only difference is voice acting during the trials, which to be fair AA doesn't have. But is that enough to justify one being in A and one being in C?
Very good points! I think perhaps ace attorney is ranked a bit too low and danganronpa is ranked a bit too high. After some further thought I would probably put them both in B tier. But definitely both could be fun times for anyone learning Japanese! What did you think of them? Did you enjoy playing them in Japanese? :)
@@GameGengo Thanks for the reply, yea both were really fun. Admittedly I enjoyed Danganronpa a bit more though haha
Can you do one for n3ds
I've started playing through Buddy Mission Bond recently and it's great but still a little hard.
Does anyone know if there's a game script floating around somewhere?
Second this if you find anything!
How do I get skyrim on switch to run in japanese. Setting the switch to japanese dosnt work and there's no language option in skyrim itself ... ?,
Thanks for this video :)
Having an opportunity to replay some of my favourite games ever(13 sentinels, DQ11, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Persona) is a great motivator for pushing through the roadblocks ahead. I can't wait!
Just dawned on me. You can get around the lack of replayable cutscenes. It is extraneous and an expenditure, but with a capture card and PC, you can record your gameplay. Use a mic to record your speech and compare it to the content.
You can even pause the game after the cut scenes and rewatch recordings. Make your own push to play
Matt could you please do a dedicated vid on visual novels, and whether each has furigana etc, thank you so much
What do you mean by archaic with Breath of the Wild. Playing it is one of my language goals. Is it archaic like Arceus or worse?
The logs/quest summaries are different in Japanese, they give link more personality. So I really want to experience them
resuming my journey to learn japanese and i'm excited to try out some of these games to complement the usual textbooks and kanji SRS apps... 😅
Can you make a tier list for steam games ? (As they are available in the west
, Maybe USA)
Enjoyed the video and found out about some interesting new games. But shouldn't Final Fantasy 7/8/9 be even lower than Final Fantasy X? At least X has voice acting. They all require a script like Xenoblade or X. X has pausable cutscenes. I think the accessibility is the same for 7-10 pretty much. FF12 can be lumped together with FFX I feel as well.
Thats a great point! I feel personally that because FF7/8/9s dialogue is push to continue allows you to look things up much less stressfully, whereas FFX is more movie-like. So for a learner being able to take the game at your own pace is really important. i didnt include ff12 because its a bit more difficult due to politics/fantasy. However I agree it could totally be in a similar place ish to FFX! :)
FFX has an additional problem. Al Bhed. Doesn't help you learn Japanese when the game throws a fake Japanese-sounding language at you.
@@GameGengo Oh okay, from the push to continue point of view i see. And i think you mentioned that in the video. I kinda agree with you now. Thanks for the reply!
How would you place Nier on this list?
Didn’t he cover Neir on the Steam tier list?
Do you have a similar video but for 3ds? I find myself using it more than my switch, currently playing OOT 3D in Japanese and it's pretty fun!
Hi do you think that the switch lite is fine for learning japanese or do i need the normal switch for the bigger screen accessibility?
Go with Switch OLED as it has the biggest screen and you can hook it up to your TV if the text is too small.
Which place Ninja Box would fit in this tier list?
Something I have to say about Xenoblade!
It is actually one of the games that taught me THE MOST Japanese. For me, it’s almost the same as Persona in matters of learning, especially Xenoblade 2. Played it with Japanese audio and English subtitles.
It’s an awsome source of new words, variety of dialects or colloquial speech and listening practice.
Also, all of the skills are being said in katakana-English words, hence it also does wonders to your katakana comprehension skills!
That is, indeed, if you are already somewhat familliar with the language and can grasp the words and sentences they are saying. The reason is that they repeat so many phrases thousands of times.
Xenoblade 2 English translation is a disaster. The most butchered game by western Nintendo all time. Even fire emblem fates isn't close to this abomination. Basically a full rewrite.
@roybs848 perhaps as you mentioned playing it with English subtitles?
Are you getting Neo:TWEWY mixed up with the original The World Ends With You? I'm fairly certain Neo is a relatively new game released on Switch at the same time as other platforms, and it's definitely a sequel to the original on the DS (which also got a re-release, the World Ends With You: Final Remix). A largely standalone sequel, but the events of the original TWEWY are heavily referenced, with many recurring characters. Heck, there's a bit where the characters hear a rumour about the original game's protagonist and try to track him down. I think even the creators recommend at least watching TWEWY The Animation (which is a passable adaptation, though I was a little annoyed at how much more hand-holdy the plot was) before diving into Neo.
The World Ends With You is a masterpiece, distinctly less... _anime?_ than Neo is early on (Some side characters, like Minamimoto who you've met in Neo, are still very OTT, but Neku and his partners are a bit less so than Fret, Nagi, etc), with more focus on developing its own characters (b/c obviously it doesn't have another set of characters it needs to give closure to).
In terms of learning Japanese, though... I can't imagine it being particularly great. The game isn't accessible in Japanese worldwide, doesn't have voice acting for the most part, and I don't think it has furigana either. Also, a lot of people complain about the controls - I find it easy enough (though having controllers you straight-up can't use takes a bit of getting used to) but I grew up with Solo Remix on mobile, and the control scheme for Final Remix in handheld mode is lifted directly from there.
Huge thanks for the video! 😊 Which do you think is better for learning japanese, 3DS or Switch?