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Managing videogames in Japanese


MisterIceTeaPeach
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I started a new trend to myself. I am importing videogames from Japan, if they are not available for my video game consoles or I cannot wait for the date of release in EU.

I play(ed) JP-imports:

Fire Emblem 12 Heroes of Light and Shadow

Tales of Vesperia

Kirby's Triple Deluxe

My experiences are different:

Kirby's Triple Deluxe is a platformer without a huge plot, so it is easy to play without knowlegde of JP. I haven't finished it yet, but it is not hard.

FE12 was not too bad either. The menu was easy to understand, because I played the prequel. The symbols of the weapons and items and the numbers helped me a lot. However I had to watch a LP to manage the spheres and recruit all the characters.

Tales of Vesperia came out in 2009 worldwide for the XBox360. But I don't own a XBox so I imported a copy for PS3. The "Tales"-games are JRPGs, so it is impossible to play them without knowledge about the story and battlesystem. I always have to watch a LP of ToV first so that I know, what I have to do. It's pretty laborious, but it is the only way to do it. The main point is that you have fun with this game! And this game is really fun, even if I cannot understand some parts of the story.

So your experiences of imported videogames from Japan interest me and how do you manage the Japanese language.

Edited by MisterIceTeaPeach
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I don't do this on account of moon runes scare me but I'd figure, like, the best way to manage would be to learn Japanese, or at least enough to be able to muddle your way through?

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I don't do this on account of moon runes scare me but I'd figure, like, the best way to manage would be to learn Japanese, or at least enough to be able to muddle your way through?

Yeah, the main problem of most games with a story except for platformers:

If you watch a LP, you are "spoilered". That is, what I have to do in Tales of Vesperia. I always have to watch Rey's LP first, so that I can continue. So the tension drops of course.

Japanese is a very VERY difficult language anyway. Nevertheless I am trying to learn it in my study.

Edited by MisterIceTeaPeach
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I've played some 40+ games from the Super Robot Taisen series in japanese to date, and if they're voiced, I can usually get a general idea of what's going on. As for playing itself... well, after so many games of the series I can practically play it by muscle memory. XD

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You'd have to play a lot of Japanese games to justify the time investment required to get fluent enough in the language. The language is so incredibly different from English (and presumably German) in basically everything it does, and it's hard to get your brain to learn how to parse language in a completely different way.

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Japanese is very VERY difficult language anyway. Nevertheless I am trying to learn it in my study.

You'd have to play a lot of Japanese games to justify the time investment required to get fluent enough in the language. The language is so incredibly different from English (and presumably German) in basically everything it does, and it's hard to get your brain to learn how to parse language in a completely different way.

But Japanese isn't that hard...

...At least compared to some other languages...

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But Japanese isn't that hard...

...At least compared to some other languages...

English is pretty hard for some people to learn.

Those freaking exceptions when it comes to... well... everything.

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But Japanese isn't that hard...

...At least compared to some other languages...

Non Indo-European languages are even hard to learn, but Japanese is a complete different area!

People from the Indo-European culture does not know the system with the Chinese/Japanese ideographs. The grammar and the syntax are also totally different. If you can speak JP, I envy you! A great thing! Which languages are harder to learn?

You'd have to play a lot of Japanese games to justify the time investment required to get fluent enough in the language. The language is so incredibly different from English (and presumably German) in basically everything it does, and it's hard to get your brain to learn how to parse language in a completely different way.

Japanese has a complete different system. The grammar, the syntax and the signs make this language so difficult to learn. It is probably similar to Arabian and other Asian languages. English and German belong to the same language group, so the requirements are the same.

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Non Indo-European languages are even hard to learn, but Japanese is a complete different area!

People from the Indo-European culture does not know the system with the Chinese/Japanese ideographs. The grammar and the syntax are also totally different. If you can speak JP, I envy you! A great thing! Which languages are harder to learn?

The thing about Japanese grammar is that - although different - it's relatively simple. Vocab I suppose could be a problem, as well as kanji, but it just takes some time and dedication to overcome that wall.

English - although it's my primary language - I'd say is hard for the reason Rey mentioned. Exceptions. Everywhere.

I also found Russian hard because of its many grammar rules. I mean, it's more organized than, say, English, but DEM RULES. ;n;

Korean is similar to Japanese and I grew up hearing it so it's not too bad. Pretty simple. Relatively speaking.

Also, my Japanese isn't that good. I just started recently. Granted, knowing Korean really, really helps, since the two languages are similar both in grammar and vocab, but it's not like Korean and Japanese are identical. I still have long ways to go.

Rey, TheEnd, and Esau are the ones that know Japanese the best here on SF.

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Japanese grammar is stupidly easily constant.

It's the freaking vocab, kanji, and context reading that's the hard part.

You literally cannot learn the language without learning the Japanese mindset when it comes to things... because there so many damn implications depending on your sentence pattern, conjugation, and tone. Hell with just the personal pronoun alone.

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As said, Japanese grammar isn't hard - it's very regular, and you can easily learn it by taking classes. I'm yet to see someone who's gotten a solid grasp of Japanese grammar through self-teaching, though, so I highly recommend taking classes if you're interested in that language.

It doesn't matter if your motivation is simply playing videogames. What matters is how far that motivation takes you, not how good it sounds.

Besides, the joy of finally beginning to understand those accursed moonrunes can't be easily described with words.

Rey, TheEnd, and Esau are the ones that know Japanese the best here on SF.

I think Agro knows more than Esau, but I haven't been following either one's progress.

And very significant progress can be made in 2-3 years, indeed.

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As said, Japanese grammar isn't hard - it's very regular, and you can easily learn it by taking classes. I'm yet to see someone who's gotten a solid grasp of Japanese grammar through self-teaching, though, so I highly recommend taking classes if you're interested in that language.

It doesn't matter if your motivation is simply playing videogames. What matters is how far that motivation takes you, not how good it sounds.

Besides, the joy of finally beginning to understand those accursed moonrunes can't be easily described with words.

I think Agro knows more than Esau, but I haven't been following either one's progress.

And very significant progress can be made in 2-3 years, indeed.

Japanese grammar is stupidly easily constant.

It's the freaking vocab, kanji, and context reading that's the hard part.

You literally cannot learn the language without learning the Japanese mindset when it comes to things... because there so many damn implications depending on your sentence pattern, conjugation, and tone. Hell with just the personal pronoun alone.

The thing about Japanese grammar is that - although different - it's relatively simple. Vocab I suppose could be a problem, as well as kanji, but it just takes some time and dedication to overcome that wall.

English - although it's my primary language - I'd say is hard for the reason Rey mentioned. Exceptions. Everywhere.

I also found Russian hard because of its many grammar rules. I mean, it's more organized than, say, English, but DEM RULES. ;n;

Korean is similar to Japanese and I grew up hearing it so it's not too bad. Pretty simple. Relatively speaking.

Also, my Japanese isn't that good. I just started recently. Granted, knowing Korean really, really helps, since the two languages are similar both in grammar and vocab, but it's not like Korean and Japanese are identical. I still have long ways to go.

Rey, TheEnd, and Esau are the ones that know Japanese the best here on SF.

Thanks for your information! The vocabulare is also my biggest problem, if I learn languages. But it's good to know that the grammar is structured.

German is also a complicated language in grammar and especially spelling, so I really have to be careful, if I say Japanese is difficult. Every language from a different language group is hard to learn.

A Japanese language course is offered in the third term of my study (autumn). So I will try it out!

Edited by MisterIceTeaPeach
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if your sole motivation to learn japanese is to play video games in japanese, i'd suggest you invest your time in something else.

It's not my intention. I'm going to learn it, because it is useful for term abroad or/and a job after my study. In Europe are some Japanese companies.

Edited by MisterIceTeaPeach
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It doesn't matter if your motivation is simply playing videogames. What matters is how far that motivation takes you, not how good it sounds.

I had my anime and video games motivation go out the window the first year.

...I just kept learning because "I don't want to be one of the people that gives up".

...essentially elitism.

Maybe if you want to see it in a different light... "learning the language for learning the language"?

One thing I deeply regret is now understanding the screwed up Japanese banners I occasionally see on the internet that looks innocent enough, but have really... *ahem*

Edited by shadowofchaos
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I can navigate through Japanese menus because I'm natively fluent in Chinese.

Conveniently just knowing a hell lot of characters that is also used in the Japanese language works pretty well.

From my experience in studying several other languages, however, it takes dedication and time. You have to really be into it to actually get anywhere. And doubly so if it's an entirely different writing system. I don't have much experience in the latter field, though. The languages I can claim to know are either Chinese or runs on the Roman alphabet.

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Well, this topic sure did derail a bit, haha

I started a new trend to myself. I am importing videogames from Japan, if they are not available for my video game consoles or I cannot wait for the date of release in EU.

I've sort of done that myself, except I'm usually okay with waiting if it's going to get localized. I think the only exception was Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, which I pre-ordered and paid off before the localization was announced, so I was sort of screwed already. But the Limited Edition contents were pretty awesome, and I prefer physical copies over digital, so it's not all bad. Naturally, I'll still get the English version to support such localizations (as well as hopefully have a better understanding of the game).

Fire Emblem 12 Heroes of Light and Shadow

Tales of Vesperia

Kirby's Triple Deluxe

Hey, a bunch of people on this forum worked on the FE12 translation! You should've played ours! XD

Jokes aside, I also imported Tales of Vesperia but I had already played the 360 version 2 or 3 times (can't remember), so I was pretty solid with the story and such except for some of the extra parts. Managing skills and trying to remember which artes were which was super painful and tedious, but with online guides and just working my memory I managed eventually. Took quite a while, but the PS3 version adds some really fun elements over the 360 version, so I think it was worth it, even if the 360 English dub is much more preferable for me (I prefer English games and I liked the voice acting in ToV360).

Kirby I haven't played and since I figured it'd get localized (which it did) I didn't really have any motivation to import it, but it's still cool you did. I wanted to get it when it came out but I'm low on money so I'm waiting a bit.

So your experiences of imported videogames from Japan interest me and how do you manage the Japanese language.

Aside from Tales of Vespera PS3, I've imported:

- Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment - played this, didn't get too far, it was okay but I sort of got lazy and it was really repetitive... and then SAO: HF came out and as it turns out it pretty much includes this game but with better graphics and the new battle system, making this game obsolete (I'd be willing to sell it to anyone if they want it, lol).

- Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment - the newest SAO game that I mentioned before

- Legend of Heroes: Sen no Kiseki - the newest entry in the Trails or Kiseki series, with a sequel coming soon. It was a total blast, and I didn't have a very hard time with the gameplay because I'm able to read katakana pretty well for quartz and arts names (which tends to be the most important as far as setting up characters goes) and I'm familiar with the battle system thanks to Trails in the Sky, but I *did* have a pretty hard time with the story as a good portion of it isn't voiced and I can't actually read Japanese, I can only understand some voiced Japanese and only if I focus (something that easily tires me out because well, I *really* have to focus and I can't like, re-read what they said to reconfirm anything--I only get one shot at translating it in my head, lol). Thankfully though I had TheEnd to help me and fill in some gaps so I understood a good portion of the story, albeit missed out on a lot of secret details and NPC stuff, but hey it was enjoyable so whatever, waiting for the English translation would mean waiting for like, 10 years or something... >_>;

That's pretty much it for imports, only PS systems because lolRegionLock on Nintendo systems and I don't have money (yet) to import hardware too.

I've played lots of other Japanese games but I didn't import them from overseas... including but not limited to:

Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou - a Fairy Tail fighting game for the DS, idk what the English title would be... fighting games are pretty freaking easy to play in any language though

Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand - the fifth entry in the Ys series, I think it was for the SNES, it got a translation patch sometime after I played it in Japanese

One Piece: Giganto Battle 2 - New World! - a One Piece fighting game for the DS

Fire Emblem 12: Heroes of Light and Shadow - you know, before the translation came out, I think I had to play it once XP

Summon Night X: Tears Crown - I'm still in the middle of playing this one, it's a cool RPG, I kinda need to make more progress in it since I'm working on the translation patch for it but I'm simultaneously playing Swordcraft Story 2 (which I haven't made progress in for a while...), so yeah... not enough time >_<;

I've played lots of games with translation patches (i.e. never got official English releases) or with Japanese voices as well which is sometimes annoying since it's not a 100% full translation and I like to know everything and if possible, hear only English voices since it's my native language and I already hear more than enough Japanese (nothing against it I'm just more comfortable with English!)

So yeah, I have quite a bit of experience with it compared to some people and even without really trying I managed to learn enough to make my way through games and understand some of the voiced dialog (which is partially thanks to watching too much anime...). I think if you know katakana, can look up kanji, are willing to do a bit of trial and error, and can do google searches for other stuff, you'll be fine in making your way through most games--actually knowing the story is pretty freaking hard though, and that's a serious commitment to learning the language.

I kinda wish I didn't have to because #laziness but I'll probably learn Japanese eventually since I don't like missing out on good games and though a lot more games are getting localized (and faster at that), there are still lots of games that we're missing out here in the West, so there's not much for me to do except play those as they are or else accept the fact that I'm missing out on great games (something I don't like to do :P).

I guess I'll end with this:

Biggest Tips for People Trying to Play Japanese Games Who Don't Know Japanese And Can't Magically Learn it In A Short Time:

- Learn katakana and hiragana. Maybe not in that order, but katakana is mostly used for names and will help a *lot* if all you're trying to do is make it through a game. Knowing who is who and what items/weapons are what is a great start. Hiragana is more useful for dialog and some menus, it's also useful but you're not going to understand a lot of the dialog without kanji anyhow, and kanji is sort of where you draw the line with "short time investment" and "huge time investment".

- Perfect the art of trial and error. That's how you'll learn to work your way around the game.

- Watch other people play the game online. You can learn quite a bit just from that, even if there's no commentary or subs. Watch the gameplay parts of the game, not the cutscene parts, though.

- Take breaks. Playing Japanese games can get tiring. You're dealing with moonrunes. Your brain needs a break dealing with a totally foreign language, especially if it's only used to speaking one language.

- Look up stuff online. Plenty of other people import, sometimes you'll find people have asked the same questions you have or such. You might also find places where you can ask people questions. It's not as easy as it is for English games, but for instance, Tales of Vesperia has a wiki with all the skills names in both Japanese and English with decsriptions and such which helped a LOT, and there's a blog for SAO:IM which helped me learn how to play that game and understand the battle and sword skills (and in turn Hollow Fragment, since so much of the game is similar and the such).

- This is mostly a personal approach to them, but don't be afraid. In the end it's just a game, try to have a fun time. We play these games because they're fun and we don't want to miss out on them or whatever, but if you stress too much over moonrunes it might ruin it for you. Again, personally speaking, I sometimes want to know everything that happens in the story and make sure I have the best equipment setups and such, but it turns out to be too stressful and I just give up and take things at my own pace, as I feel like it, and while I do sometimes regret missing out on story or not being able to find secret parts of the game or OP skill sets or whatever if it's an RPG (...I tend to import JRPGs, in case it wasn't obvious), overall it's a better time when I take it easy, because I'm not spending dozens of hours looking stuff up and progressing through the game at a snail's pace. (This is especially true when I actually try to translate the dialog and there are super long cutscenes... gosh it gets so tiring I can't take it and just say "screw it" in the end, lol)

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I haven't really sat down and played a game entirely in Japanese since highschool, but I ended up getting into Itadaki Street, which is essentially monopoly and the stock market on crack with Mario/Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest characters, with only a very basic ability to romanize kana. I also played, you know, Fire Emblem and Daigasso! Band Brothers both in complete Japanese too, but they're fairly easy to navigate. Most games are, as it's not really the text that one navigates but a ludic interface, and many games share the same essential interface. After enough experience, one can intuit how to navigate their games.

More recently I've had my share of Russian mods for the stalker franchise, which at best involve some google translate scripts, and at worst, nothing but Russian. I get by it easily enough.

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Trails in the Blaze's advice is straightforward but good.

If your Japanese is poor you can still play through a lot of games with a basic understanding of the game's mechanics. I imported Fire Emblem 10 when it came out, and because it was so similar to oter games in the series I never felt the need to look anything up. The problem there of course is I had no idea what the story was until I revisited it later.

If you're trying to learn Japanese through playing games, as long as there's a significant volume of text and dialogue it's not too different from learning through reading manga or novels (except you maybe can't revisit past dialogue as easily).

The less relevant the story is to a game, or at least relevant to your interest in the game (ie, you're drawn more to the tactical dimensions of Fire Emblem than the stories), the less problematic the language barrier to your enjoyment (if you can't reerence a translation). I suppose Tohou's a great example of this. I'm sure many people are interested in the story, but I suspect many more pick it up from Wikipedia articles and just play the games as they are.

I started learning Japanese through playing Fire Emblem and the first three Key visual novels. I passed N2 within a couple years, much faster than anyone I know who slogged through years of language classes (I claim the opposite of TheEnd: I don't know anyone who learned better from language classes than those who taught themselves). I did some formal translation work before the three year mark. But I was absurdly motivated.

If you really want to learn a language, and you have motivation enough to make it work, just do it. Classes will only give you a cursory foundation, and they'll do so at a much slower pace than you can accomplish on your own (as long as your methodology is sound). I was surprised to see any recommendaton for formal education as a vehicle of study given how slow and inefficient it is. Is the idea is to take classes to build a foundation before branching off and learning from real exposure to the language?

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I was surprised to see any recommendaton for formal education as a vehicle of study given how slow and inefficient it is. Is the idea is to take classes to build a foundation before branching off and learning from real exposure to the language?

video games and manga do not constitute "real exposure" to japanese.

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Japanese is a lot easier to learn if your native language belongs to the same family as Japanese. People whose native language is English, Spanish, German etc. have a harder time learning Japanese but people whose native language is Mongolian, Korean, or Turkish have an easier time learning it. I also think it might be easier for Chinese speakers as their language family should be closer, too.

Edited by Chiki
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Japanese directly evolved from Mandarin, Chiki

...No, it didn't. The Chinese writing system was taken by the Japanese, but the language itself (speaking, etc.) wasn't from Chinese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language

A common ancestor of Japanese and Ryukyuan languages or dialects is thought[by whom?] to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from either continental Asia or nearby Pacific islands (or both) sometime in the early- to mid-2nd century BC (the Yayoi period), replacing the language(s) of the original Jōmoninhabitants,[2] including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language. Very little is known about the Japanese of this period

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altaic_languages

According to Juha Janhunen, the ancestral languages of Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean, and Japanese were spoken in a relatively small area comprising present-day North Korea, Southern Manchuria, and Southeastern Mongolia (

I do think that Chinese is probably closer to Japanese in the evolutionary tree, so if that's one's native language, it would likely be easier for them.

Edited by Chiki
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Well, this topic sure did derail a bit, haha

I've sort of done that myself, except I'm usually okay with waiting if it's going to get localized. I think the only exception was Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, which I pre-ordered and paid off before the localization was announced, so I was sort of screwed already. But the Limited Edition contents were pretty awesome, and I prefer physical copies over digital, so it's not all bad. Naturally, I'll still get the English version to support such localizations (as well as hopefully have a better understanding of the game).

Hey, a bunch of people on this forum worked on the FE12 translation! You should've played ours! XD

Jokes aside, I also imported Tales of Vesperia but I had already played the 360 version 2 or 3 times (can't remember), so I was pretty solid with the story and such except for some of the extra parts. Managing skills and trying to remember which artes were which was super painful and tedious, but with online guides and just working my memory I managed eventually. Took quite a while, but the PS3 version adds some really fun elements over the 360 version, so I think it was worth it, even if the 360 English dub is much more preferable for me (I prefer English games and I liked the voice acting in ToV360).

Kirby I haven't played and since I figured it'd get localized (which it did) I didn't really have any motivation to import it, but it's still cool you did. I wanted to get it when it came out but I'm low on money so I'm waiting a bit.

Aside from Tales of Vespera PS3, I've imported:

- Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment - played this, didn't get too far, it was okay but I sort of got lazy and it was really repetitive... and then SAO: HF came out and as it turns out it pretty much includes this game but with better graphics and the new battle system, making this game obsolete (I'd be willing to sell it to anyone if they want it, lol).

- Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment - the newest SAO game that I mentioned before

- Legend of Heroes: Sen no Kiseki - the newest entry in the Trails or Kiseki series, with a sequel coming soon. It was a total blast, and I didn't have a very hard time with the gameplay because I'm able to read katakana pretty well for quartz and arts names (which tends to be the most important as far as setting up characters goes) and I'm familiar with the battle system thanks to Trails in the Sky, but I *did* have a pretty hard time with the story as a good portion of it isn't voiced and I can't actually read Japanese, I can only understand some voiced Japanese and only if I focus (something that easily tires me out because well, I *really* have to focus and I can't like, re-read what they said to reconfirm anything--I only get one shot at translating it in my head, lol). Thankfully though I had TheEnd to help me and fill in some gaps so I understood a good portion of the story, albeit missed out on a lot of secret details and NPC stuff, but hey it was enjoyable so whatever, waiting for the English translation would mean waiting for like, 10 years or something... >_>;

That's pretty much it for imports, only PS systems because lolRegionLock on Nintendo systems and I don't have money (yet) to import hardware too.

I've played lots of other Japanese games but I didn't import them from overseas... including but not limited to:

Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou - a Fairy Tail fighting game for the DS, idk what the English title would be... fighting games are pretty freaking easy to play in any language though

Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand - the fifth entry in the Ys series, I think it was for the SNES, it got a translation patch sometime after I played it in Japanese

One Piece: Giganto Battle 2 - New World! - a One Piece fighting game for the DS

Fire Emblem 12: Heroes of Light and Shadow - you know, before the translation came out, I think I had to play it once XP

Summon Night X: Tears Crown - I'm still in the middle of playing this one, it's a cool RPG, I kinda need to make more progress in it since I'm working on the translation patch for it but I'm simultaneously playing Swordcraft Story 2 (which I haven't made progress in for a while...), so yeah... not enough time >_<;

I've played lots of games with translation patches (i.e. never got official English releases) or with Japanese voices as well which is sometimes annoying since it's not a 100% full translation and I like to know everything and if possible, hear only English voices since it's my native language and I already hear more than enough Japanese (nothing against it I'm just more comfortable with English!)

So yeah, I have quite a bit of experience with it compared to some people and even without really trying I managed to learn enough to make my way through games and understand some of the voiced dialog (which is partially thanks to watching too much anime...). I think if you know katakana, can look up kanji, are willing to do a bit of trial and error, and can do google searches for other stuff, you'll be fine in making your way through most games--actually knowing the story is pretty freaking hard though, and that's a serious commitment to learning the language.

I kinda wish I didn't have to because #laziness but I'll probably learn Japanese eventually since I don't like missing out on good games and though a lot more games are getting localized (and faster at that), there are still lots of games that we're missing out here in the West, so there's not much for me to do except play those as they are or else accept the fact that I'm missing out on great games (something I don't like to do :P).

I guess I'll end with this:

Biggest Tips for People Trying to Play Japanese Games Who Don't Know Japanese And Can't Magically Learn it In A Short Time:

- Learn katakana and hiragana. Maybe not in that order, but katakana is mostly used for names and will help a *lot* if all you're trying to do is make it through a game. Knowing who is who and what items/weapons are what is a great start. Hiragana is more useful for dialog and some menus, it's also useful but you're not going to understand a lot of the dialog without kanji anyhow, and kanji is sort of where you draw the line with "short time investment" and "huge time investment".

- Perfect the art of trial and error. That's how you'll learn to work your way around the game.

- Watch other people play the game online. You can learn quite a bit just from that, even if there's no commentary or subs. Watch the gameplay parts of the game, not the cutscene parts, though.

- Take breaks. Playing Japanese games can get tiring. You're dealing with moonrunes. Your brain needs a break dealing with a totally foreign language, especially if it's only used to speaking one language.

- Look up stuff online. Plenty of other people import, sometimes you'll find people have asked the same questions you have or such. You might also find places where you can ask people questions. It's not as easy as it is for English games, but for instance, Tales of Vesperia has a wiki with all the skills names in both Japanese and English with decsriptions and such which helped a LOT, and there's a blog for SAO:IM which helped me learn how to play that game and understand the battle and sword skills (and in turn Hollow Fragment, since so much of the game is similar and the such).

- This is mostly a personal approach to them, but don't be afraid. In the end it's just a game, try to have a fun time. We play these games because they're fun and we don't want to miss out on them or whatever, but if you stress too much over moonrunes it might ruin it for you. Again, personally speaking, I sometimes want to know everything that happens in the story and make sure I have the best equipment setups and such, but it turns out to be too stressful and I just give up and take things at my own pace, as I feel like it, and while I do sometimes regret missing out on story or not being able to find secret parts of the game or OP skill sets or whatever if it's an RPG (...I tend to import JRPGs, in case it wasn't obvious), overall it's a better time when I take it easy, because I'm not spending dozens of hours looking stuff up and progressing through the game at a snail's pace. (This is especially true when I actually try to translate the dialog and there are super long cutscenes... gosh it gets so tiring I can't take it and just say "screw it" in the end, lol)

Thank you very much for the tip with the online stuff!

I think it is a great idea to use ToV Wiki instead of watching a LP first. I didn't think about that. The PS3 version of ToV includes more stuff than the XBox version. However I like Japanese voice acting since FE13. It sounds strange, but also funny.

When I played FE12 a half year ago, I did not know about the link to the translation patch unfortunately, because I wasn't member in SF yet. But I know how to do it. But first I have to "pimp" up my laptop to get an emulator.

I don't know, if I import more games from Japan in the future. In general it's not very clever to do it, if you just cannot wait for the date of release. JP-imports are pretty expensive. I had to pay for "Triple Deluxe" around 50% more for the import than it will cost in Germany. "Triple Deluxe" is the only one exception anyway, because this game is great.

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