Is the vocab/grammar in Fire Emblem 3 Houses relevant for the N2 or too irrelevant/archaic?

Japanese
#1

I’m planning to take the N2 this December and passed N3 last year in July. Recently I’ve been obsessed with Fire Emblem 3 Houses and after completing the game in English, ive been watching Game Gengo’s video where he goes through the beginning of the game in Japanese and explains the vocab/grammar along the way. Getting hit with stuff like おぬし as a pronoun and all the archaic ways Sothis conjugates verbs, I’ve wondering if I’m wasting my time using this as a study resource and I’m gonna end up learning stuff that’s way too far removed from actual jlpt test content and too niche/historical :sob:

For anyone else who used Fire Emblem 3 Houses as a study resource, please give me your honest opinions here

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#2

not playing that game, but have had おぬし come up in manga

It won’t appear on N2, but its not a waste to learn stuff like that if you enjoy media. The best study material is the one you enjoy and feel motivated to keep using, so don’t need to worry too much about min-maxxing imo.

As a related note, I’m gonna have to check out game gengo one of these days… I’m not much of a gamer, but it sounds fun

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#3

Completing the game from start to finish all in Japanese, even if you don’t understand everything, would be highly beneficial. And you would definitely encounter grammar and vocabulary that would come up in N2 and beyond.

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#4

I have no idea of games at all, but you could think of treating the game as pure immersion and structure your other preparation beside it accordingly. Around N2 level I think at least 40% of learning should be immersion, so you are not far off actually.

However, counting the game as a sole source of learning seems risky. You already passed the jlpt N3, you know what I mean.

So beside the game, I would consider reading a lot at N2 level, learning/ reviewing grammar, vocab specifically for the N2 and doing timed practice exams, starting from 2 months before the exam, reviewing and targeting mistakes and weak areas.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

One thing about all kinds of popular Japanese media - most Japanese teachers and natives I met agree that the majority of the language used in these (anime, manga, etc) has little to do with everyday Japanese.

From the stories I read, most people who pass N2/N1 solely by immersion immerse an awful lot, like the quantity is enormous and by the sheer amount of media consumed they cover almost the full spectrum of the language and absorb it. Similar to an LLM :slight_smile:

Also if you are on the younger side, you will benefit more from immersion than older people due to how the brain works and changes.

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#5

I don’t think you would run into ぬし and other historical drama language on JLPT N2 or even N1. The test focuses on modern, standard language. It does include uncommon language, but more in the sense of “academic / critical writing” difficult, not “historical / outdated” difficult.

But you will see characters talk like that in many works of fiction, so it’s definitely going to be helpful for other immersion.

Considering limited time left until December, whether you want to focus more on JLPT preparation, or to get more comfortable / faster with immersion, is up to you of course.

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#6

Nothing you read in a popular mainstream game like fire emblem is going to be so far removed from modern Japanese that it won’t apply to the jlpt, if you enjoy something keep at it because that’ll keep you immersing and that’s what’s important here. You need significant input to master this language. If you want to prioritize a test over actually learning the language then drop the game and and mindlessly do grammar and vocabulary all day. Just remember you can pass jlpt1 and still struggle to talk properly.