Vocabulary will probably be the biggest limiter in most games, but N3 grammar will allow you to understand the grammar of most things you encounter. One of the things of course will be that in order to play games early, you need to be okay with a level of ambiguity in that you aren’t going to understand everything for a while. So its best to be OK with sort of taking what you can understand, and trying to follow along as best you can. Some people have no problem but some people get incredibly frustrated doing that.
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I would echo this, but I’d also go for anything you really want to play. The first two games I really put effort into playing in Japanese were Live A Live and Marvelous for the Super Famicom (did I mention I’m old?). In both cases, I was so interested in the games themselves that I found it easier to push past the frustration.
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About to start the fate/stay night remastered VN because I’ve never read/watched/played any of the fate series and I see it literally everywhere in Japan. Seems like it’ll be kinda hard but doable.
Got back to some Final Fantasy 2 today, started it in Japanese over the winter downtime but have had a pretty busy new year, and the limited gaming time I’ve had was directed at Pokemon Z-A (also in Japanese, also a ton of fun).
Really enjoying playing through FF2 in Japanese. Some cool new vocab to learn, a lot of fascinating themes about Imperialism, and I appreciate that there isn’t Furigana. I’ve absolutely hit the point where Furigana is now my enemy in my Japanese learning journey. I’d rather stop and spend the time looking up the word and then making a flash card of it, it helps me ingrain the knowledge so much better.
I have so many games in Japanese, mainly retro ones, since my hubby and I are collectors. I have Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3 in Japanese, as well as Fatal Frame (or Project 0 as they call it in Japan) 1, 2, and 3. However, I am really scared to play them and not understand anything which will likely impact my self esteem! But I LOVE Japanese horror. They can do it like no-one else.
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For beginner or low level japanese learner, there is wagotabi.
https://www.wagotabi.com](https://www.wagotabi.com/
It’s a game design to learn the language from scratch.
It’s available on steam and mobile phone.
There is a demo available and you can also buy the game.
It is still in development and currently below N5 level. It has a lot of good reviews.
I guess this year it will be at N5 level and hopefully next year at N4.
Game Genko did a review on youtube of the demo before the game was available. The development team improve it since and continue to take care of user feedback.
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I’ve started playing マジカルクラフト 猫と魔法のドレス and am finding it’s very good for N4-ish learners. Designed to be kid-friendly, so it has simple dialogues, plus furigana for the more advanced kanji.
This is the most recent game from the Style Savvy series developer, and so far it hasn’t been translated. It’s very inspired by Kiki’s Delivery Service, I think.
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I found a game that I first thought was interesting to learn Japanese but it appears the Japanese inside is not very natural according to what people said, it’s “IN KONBINI”. I wonder why the Japanese text is not good as it is a Japanese developer (maybe full of non-native devs). Too bad because it’s a narrative game with content that could be useful.
That said, I, personally, play Animal Crossing occasionally, which notably helped me to remember the 〜てちょうだい grammar point (for people who don’t know, it’s like 〜てください but for friends/family).
“Mika and the Witch’s Mountain” is a cosy, Kiki’s Delivery Service-inspired game with a Japanese translation option. It’s aimed at younger players so the language is quite accessible for N5/N4.
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Currently making my way through ジャジアイズ / Judgement fully in Japanese with no aid. The story is pretty complex already, and I am learning a bunch of new words I didn’t know before such as Public Prosecutor, kidnapping, etc. Lotta legal terms and stuff like that.
Because I haven’t played it before, when there’s a scene where I’m like “I wanna make sure I understood that properly, a lot happened there” I’ll explain my question in Japanese to ChatGPT and ask if it I’m understanding things correctly.
So far, so good, its been pretty enjoyable and also the game itself is pretty fun!
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Played that in English with the Japanese voice over earlier in my Japanese journey and I lived it. Lost judgement is great too. I need to go back and re-play them in Japanese once I feel better about my level of understanding
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The Resident Evil games are very good in Japanese. It is a good mix of standard gameplay with slightly difficult text here and there that you need to read carefully in order to solve puzzles and find secret items etc. I would say that it is a great game that falls into the category of ‘want to enjoy gaming still but want to get an occasional brain workout’.
As for games that feel more like active study, I can 100% recommend any of the Persona games, as there is absolutely tons of reading and you will get exposed to many different varieties of both casual and formal Japanese grammar being used to express each character’s personality.
One game that is genuinely difficult, Monster Hunter. I haven’t played all of them, but dang there is a heck of a lot of strange item and reagent names that use non-standard kanji. Your first playthrough will feel like you are learning Japanese all over again 
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I’ve played a bit of the Resident Evil 2 and 4 Remakes in Japanese, I was surprised how understanding the puzzles wasn’t quite as impossible as I expected going into it!
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Monster Hunter is definitely a work out, but Monster Hunter Stories series is a bit easier and a good starting point for anyone looking to play the series.
Slightly different game style though (a little like Pokémon with the collection aspects but a more engaging story), with chibified characters and monsters to boot.
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