Cheers for the heads up, and the list! I’ll probably just start skimming some things. My progress has been at a snails pace because of reading hahah
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Same here, I’m still only HR3, but I’m hopeful that I’ll have all the tutorials behind me soon and get to spend more time enjoying the hunts themselves!!
I played MHW in English, but despite the slow pace due to all vocab lookups I’ve had to do up front in this game, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with my overall ability to enjoy it in Japanese so far 
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Who makes a reference list and then blocks text selection! 
Nice resource. Btw. some of the streamers I watched play Rise when it came out also struggled with these.
I think RPGs are often a bit more difficult because they have so much domain-specific language that’s not useful for anything else, and animals and plants often have unique names too. There’s a bunch of words to learn in any language. Monster Hunter is especially guilty of this, and also tries to feel very traditional. I can’t really compare in terms of language used, but the overall setting in Rise is the one that feels the most “traditional Japanese” to me so far.
It’s also pretty funny to me that I’m enjoying MH being old fashioned while I absolutely can’t stand my native language’s version of RPG speech.
I’m also pretty pleased that I can play MH in Japanese now. But I’m noticing that this feeling of happiness from understanding games in Japanese affects my taste, I like visual novels now and I started reading comics… 
That’s unfortunate. English could really use some IPA furigana 
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Oh, by the way, @Asher and anyone else who’s new to Monster Hunter:
I’d very highly recommend looking up YouTube tutorials for the weapons you’re interested in using!
I still remember the very first time I tried to hunt with the Bow for example, I almost hit the 50-minute time limit before I finally got the kill. The weapon felt pathetically weak and incredibly clunky for the whole fight.
I told a friend about this experience, saying I’d definitely never use the Bow again, but he explained to me how it’s meant to be played, got me set up with some gear that synergized well with it, and now it’s my absolute favorite weapon to use
MHR’s still pretty new, so IDK how thorough or helpful existing guides are so far, but I still firmly believe that this game series is waaay more fun when you’re made aware of your favorite weapon’s full potential 
Edit:
I’d especially recommend checking out the Charge Blade (チャージアックス in 日本語) and Switch Axe (スラッシュアックス), because they’re both incredibly unique due to their ability to transform: The Charge Blade is a sword/shield that can become a two-handed axe, and the Switch Axe is a two-handed axe that can become a two-handed sword.
Honorable mention goes to the Insect Glaive (操虫棍), since if it’s like MHW (I haven’t tried it yet), you can spend more time fighting in the air than on the ground, which makes it even more unique than it already is, haha.
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I just got it yesterday, not even gonna attempt it in Japanese since I’m new to the series, all my friends who play do so in English (so I can ask them for advice), and I’m bad enough at it anyway without extra worry about language. It’s really fun so far though! Insect Glaive is probably my favourite weapon so far, but I haven’t played around too much with different ones yet.
You know, when I asked a japanese teacher about reading this type of various “BS-style” words the teacher said “you are not meant to read them, just look at them” 
In the context that even some Japanese people will often not be able to read some of such coined words, but since they know the meaning of the kanji it’s good enough.
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I’ve been watching a few Japanese streamers for it, but yeah I really need to watch some more tutorials. I am using the 太刀, it’s fun but feels sooooo slow. I need to learn properly
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That’s a very fair point, and I think there’s some merit to letting the players decide on their own preferred readings. Like, even 日本 itself doesn’t have an “official” reading (にほん vs. にっぽん), since when it was brought up for discussion by the government, it was dismissed because “people would just continue to call it whatever they want.”
Still, I have the game set to Japanese so that I can learn, and I feel like there’s absolutely nothing to be gained by a learner’s (my own) guesses at made-up words. I’d much rather have the official readings, or at the very least, guesses from native speakers 
I see what you’re saying Kuro, and I completely understand your teachers point. I have often thought the same thing myself. The only problem with that is that is coming from a language where almost every piece of information is readable, it makes guessing if I should learn the word or not (if it even is a real word) sooo time consuming.
From a native persons perspective this must be hard too. When they see a new word do they think ‘oh this is a real word that I don’t know’, or do they think ‘oh this is a made up word that I don’t need to know’. I guess the only example I can come up with off the top of my head is a word like ‘horcrux’ in Harry Potter. It’s not a real word, however in the process of being used in the story it becomes a real word that we can give a definite meaning to. For a learner of English though, imagine looking in the dictionary trying to find horcrux, and being frustrated when it isn’t there. Then as a learner you have to mentally decide if it is worth remembering or not.
Hahah, such is life I guess. I think Kai put it well. The ‘front loading’ time in Monster Hunter is big, cause you have to learn a lot of new words… which may or may not even be actual words.
Sweet! I’m playing Disgaea 5 in Japanese right now.
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Well, but that’s what native speakers do - just guess the reading!
For example I recently talked with someone here and we were talking about soba.
Turns out she didn’t know how to read 十割そば and she read it as じゅうわりそば when the correct reading is とわりそば.
And yes, there is some arguments that both are correct, but ultimately if you ask japanese people most would say that とわり is correct and じゅうわり is not.
I knew that, yet that person who is a native japanese speaker - didn’t.
So yes, that’s reality and even japanese people themselves don’t always know how to read certain words because they never actually heard them said in real life.
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I understand that, but that wasn’t really my point.
I meant words that don’t actually exist. Food names and things like that do exist and can be looked up. For example if you are having a conversation with someone about a game you like that uses a lot of obscure terms, that don’t actually have a decided reading, how are you supposed to actually discuss that? Your teacher says it is not meant to be read, which means essentially that it’s not supposed to be spoken about. How do I tell you that like the effect of (blank) item in xyz game, if I don’t know a way to express (blank). Then if I am expressing it the wrong way, chances are that I actually won’t be understood, as opposed to the food example that it’s painfully obvious what she meant despite using the wrong reading.
I guess you can just describe the kanji. But then you gotta hope the other persons kanji is good.
@Asher Well, wouldn’t just reading it in whatever fashion be okay? And if the listener doesn’t understand you can just describe the kanji.
I would assume that using the default (or the most common) “on” reading is the way to go unless the word also has kana which would imply “kun” reading. Or just use whatever sounds the most logical given a particular word.
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Isn’t that the same in any language? If I discuss melee or dps or afk or kiting with native non-gamer English speakers, they would be kinda lost without explanation. If I get into game-specific terminology, gamers who don’t play that specific game would also be lost like lurker, ultralisk, hydra, archon, viper, etc.
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You can at least read those in case of english. So, is not about the meaning, but more about the reading. Because with japanese you can never be sure how to read a word if you never heard it spoken before.
It’s the same with English actually. English don’t have spelling-sound matching either. You would still have to look up how certain words are pronounced if you never encounter them before.
I’d say in English it’s easier to believe that I can read something because at least I don’t have to look up the individual letters. In Japanese it’s just more obvious when I don’t know something.
“The kite was used for measuring silver and gold”
I’m sure many would read “kite” as カイト here and not think twice about it.
Disgaea 5 is probably my favourite game! hehe. I have sunk way too many hours into it
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It’s easy to pick up and swing about/learn how to use but to get the most out of it you need to be familiar with all the monsters move sets, when the openings you can exploit are, etc. It’s not a good beginners weapon imo. Faster weapons with combos that you can roll-cancel out of in a pinch are more forgiving.
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Yeah, that is what I assumed, just read it however and describe the kanji. Really sucks in the situations that it is a really obscure kanji that they dont even know the on-reading for though. Just different to English I guess, sometimes impossible to sound something out.
But then again there are English words that sound wildly different to how their letters appear, like faux (not technically English in the first place anyway). So it would kinda just be the case of the first person saying it wrong, the second person being ‘huh?’, and then the first person explaining the meaning of it and hoping the other gets it.