Lately, I’ve been using gaming as a way to practice. Been playing through FFIX in Japanese and aside from place names/tech names that use weird combinations of like 7 kanji back to back, its been pretty encouraging with how high my comprehension is, though the fact I’m familiar with the plot most definitely helps out there. Curious if anyone else out there is currently doing this/has a game as a goal to play through/etc. Always looking for good games, I’ve recently stopped having furigana be a requirement though its definitely helpful. On and off playing through Persona 5 Royal as well, on the side, though not very far into it.
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Hello.
I am watching Detective Conan and writing down the words I hear.
It’s a series so they have words repeated in all episodes. It helps me to remember them and have visual ques.
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Yeah, I’ve been playing through Ghost of Tsushima in Japanese and even though I’m not that far into my learning of Japanese, it’s always a good time hearing a sentence I can fully understand. Would definitely recommend playing through Persona 5 Royal though!
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Yes! I’ve started playing Nintendo games almost exclusively in Japanese. In particular, I’ve worked my way through Paper Mario and most of the 牧場の物語 and Rune Factory series.
I’ve been meaning to try playing FFIX in Japanese at some point, since it’s my favourite Final Fantasy, but keep pushing it to the back burner. How are you finding it in terms of obscure vocab? I feel like some parts of the game use some pretty flowery language.
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So far, it seems kinda interesting. Zidane is super, mega casual so he is always easy to understand. Steiner’s speech is super stiff and formal, so sometimes I dont quite get what he’s saying. Early on Garnet speaks only in keigo too, but she’s definitely easier to understand than Steiner. I’m still only about halfway through the 1st disc’s story, so lots of characters I haven’t run into yet. I think it seems like a really great game to get exposure to reading a lot of various speaking styles all at once. Some of the words they use for airships are long and caught me off guard though.
飛空艇団 for airship fleet
飛空艇操縦士 for airship pilot
But outside of words like that, the kanji hasn’t been super rough, I feel.
I want to play Tsushima in Japanese though, so thats gonna be on my list for sure. How’s that?
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I played both Ghost of Yotei and Tsushima with Japanese audio and English subs as well to get some extra exposure to the spoken language (and because it fits the setting way better!). But from what I understand it uses some semi-archaic words and sometimes exaggerated language (similar to anime) mixed in with modern grammer and vocabulary. So maybe not take everything at face value when using it to actually learn regular Japanese.
The story and gameplay are REALLY good though - so I would still recommend playing these.
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I’m currently trying to play Famicom Detective Club in Japanese now, but that’s still a bit harder to understand at my current level (mid N4 ish). Lot’s of (spoken) dialogue and an interesting story that keeps you hooked. It’s great for learning IMO and should be easily accessible for someone with a higher Japanese level.
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Playing a lot on 3ds in my spare time.
I am currently going through Pokemon Ultra Sun, and some Animal Crossing New Leaf when I’m not feeling like going through too much new vocabulary.
For a working dad, this is perfect, as I can pick up and put down the thing anytime 
I have some games like Final Fantasy 7 and Persona 4 Golden that I would like to continue playing on Switch, but the kids hog that most of the time One day…
Would also love to start up Persona 5 Royal again
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Hello there!
I usually don’t write in the forums, but this reminds me of a post of mine when I asked for game recommendations for playing in Japanese as a learner around N4 level about 4 years ago.
I’ve since played several Zelda games as well as Katamari Damashii and Ni No Kuni.
Zelda games, especially older ones, are a good resource for intermediate learners in my opinion, because the rather obvious plot will help bridge eventual gaps in understanding.
Katamari Damashii was more of a challenge due to the high amount of modern-day slang and popcultural references.
I now have Persona 5 Scramble in my shelf waiting to be played, but I’m still a bit hesitant, as it’s quite notorious for its use of advanced Japanese.
Well let’s see where that goes!
Good luck to your all, and have fun gaming 
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I’ve played GoT in Japanese and am halfway through GoY. They both use a sort of fake old Japanese that is common in period dramas. So there are some archaic grammar forms, but they’re still understandable to modern audiences. Think the equivalent of using words like thou/thee/thine/thy or more convoluted sentences like “Twere he not foe but kin, perchance I would’ve acted” in English. Another aspect of this is a general adherence to avoiding modern loanwords (i.e., English loanwords), so there are a lot of historical terms used as well. Importantly, it isn’t actually accurate to the setting exactly, but it gets across the feeling of the setting.
As I mentioned, this style of language is common in historical dramas and books. A lot of grammar is N1 or beyond though, and the vocab is especially difficult. It’s maybe not the best game to learn Japanese from, but the vibes are immaculate for a period drama (時代劇).
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I started replaying MiSide in Japanese
I’m a couple of hours in, mostly done with N4 content, and I barely have to look anything up. It still hits a sweet spot in difficulty because I often have to re-read something 2-3 times before actually getting it
I haven’t played any viddy games purely in Japanese yet, but sometimes I do stop looking at the (English) subtitles and try to understand what they’re saying just by listening. At this point, for me personally, it’s a bit demotivating. The simpler sentences I do understand, but out of normal sentences, I can understand about 2% or 3%. This was in Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian, which has a lot of light-hearted casual banter, so it’s disheartening that I can follow so little of it.
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what’s even more disheartening is that this essentially tells me that while I’m at the very least a solid 2 years away from your level at current pace, I won’t therefore be able to follow this stuff in two years from now either. 
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Thanks for expanding on that! This is essentially what I meant to say, but much better elaborated and with the actual correct terms.
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No, don’t worry about that. I think we’re at about the same level. My Bunpro level is skewed because I’ve linked Wanikani and this adds a LOT of exp on Bunpro. To paint the whole picture: on average I do about 12 new vocabulary on Wanikani every day. Once you correctly review a word five times on WK, Bunpro marks it as Mastered. A word that jumps from Beginner 0 to Mastered adds a ton of exp. Every time I level up on Wanikani, I rise about 1 level on Bunpro. And I’m currently lv47 on WK. So if I subtract 47 from my Bunpro level, I’d land at 53. (But then again, a good part of the WK vocab overlaps with N5/N4/N3/N2/N1 stuff, so maybe I’d realistically be around lv70 on Bunpro.)
It might be more accurate to go by this: I took N4 last December and I’m currently gearing up to take N3 in the summer. I think that’s about the same as you, right?
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Grammar wise I’m not too far away (96 grammar points less than you in N3, but I’ve added a few N2 grammar points manually because I kept seeing them in immersion all the time) but vocab wise you’ve done more than double of what I did (I’m at 2500 words, you’re at almost 7000) and my limiting factor when understanding media is definitely vocab. My 2026 goal is to get to 5000 words known and I think that’s already ambitious for me.
I actually checked your register date after checking your page earlier and the speed at which you’re doing vocab is impressive. Honestly!
the real issue:
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Ahh naruhodo. So it’s the vocab. Thank you very much for the kind words. Well, looks like we’ve got a good reason to get cracking on more vocab! Let’s conquer those video games.
Btw is my date of registration public? Or can you glean it from those graphs that show on what days I added grammar items?
I saw the 3DS mentioned above. I’ve also been playing Japanese games on mine. Not necessarily all 3DS titles, but mostly 3DS-compatible ones, such as:
- スライムもりもりドラゴンクエスト: Dragon quest side series about a slime saving his village. The series goes from GBA (JP-only) to DS (Dragon Quest Rocket Slime in English) to 3DS (back to JP only). I played the DS one in English back in the day and loved it, so it’s been fun going through the entire series.
- Animal Crossing: Of course! A good comfy title once you get a decent chunk of everyday vocab learned. It has taught me some expressions too. I really liked the 3DS one so having a reason to go back to it has been fun.
- Chibi Robo: Another series from my youth about a little robot working to make people happy. The first title is on GameCube, but after beating that in Japanese over the holidays I’ve moved on to the DS titles, and I’m about to start one that never released outside of Japan.
- Yokai Watch: This was actually one of my first attempts at Japanese gaming of the set, and unfortunately the introductory segment and mining the vocab was so taxing I haven’t returned to it in a while. I think I just need to get through the tutorials and take it easy. I want to experience the phenomenon that so many Japanese youngsters grew up with from 3DS onward!
Focusing on media aimed at kids has been helpful to keep my motivation up since it’s generally not too hard, and sometimes there is furigana to help. I actually also was trying to play the Monster Hunter side game ポカポカアイルー日記DX as well, but it’s a little more advanced in terms of language so I’m holding off for a bit. Also on my list to try is the 牧場物語 series and all the other games that taught me English as a second language back in the day.
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I played tokimeki memorial on switch with an OCR and because of the high repetition of the dialogue I was, after a few hours, able to make my way through the game without much help! It had no furigana, and I had to use an OCR. I’m currently now making my way through the Ace Attorney Trilogy and loving it so far! I highly recommend Kamui OCR for anyone who is looking to dip their toes in and needs a helping hand!
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I’ve been having a lot of fun with Neko Tomo on Switch. I’m surprised I don’t see people talk about it much for language learners, because so far it seems great for N5/4ish level learners who don’t want something too hard. I’ve played some more advanced games, but constantly looking up every single word can quickly get overwhelming and tiring.
The main mechanic of the game is talking to the cats and teaching them new words, so it’s a pretty unique way to practice. Aside from the main storyline, they also have 365 days of unique dialogues where they talk about cultural topics like the current holidays, so there’s some educational value there too. I don’t know if I’ll keep at it for an entire year, but I still haven’t unlocked all the minigames yet after a few weeks.
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Perfect timing for this question!
I am in a ‘Beginner Final Fantasy Club’ on Wanikani! We finished Final Fantasy 1 a month or so ago, and are going to start Final Fantasy II this weekend. You should join us!
@lazywerebear has even created some really awesome decks here on Bunpro you can use to learn new words as we go!
Finishing Final Fantasy 1 was pretty cool, as I had never had the patience to actually do that (my heart is with the Super Nintendo and PlayStation games), but the language learning part and doing it as a group helped me finish it. For these first three games I am focusing mostly on words I know will be repeated, like spells, menus, ‘airships’, etc. Going to focus more on comprehension once we get to Final Fantasy IV and beyond.
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