Low G Man
02-16-2009, 07:25 AM
Hey :-D this will be my first post here. I've been a long time reader, and finally decided to join.
As someone who really loves Japanese video games, I often get really frustrated when a game I'm interested in comes to the U.S. and gets tons of ridiculous modifications, or just plain butchered beyond belief, or older titles that i feel should've had a standard localization. i'll give two examples
then-games localized by Working Designs. I know a lot of people loved them for the way they did their games, but i just don't get it. I recently got interested in titles from Falcom and Game Arts, and learned WD published some of them here, and decided to give them a shot. after playing their version of Popful Mail and saw their PSX Lunar making of video on Youtube, i just couldn't bare any more of it. I would be willing to tough-it-up a little more if the obnoxious pop-culture references were the only problem-but then i learned they fucked with the game mechanics in most of their titles, to apparently make it harder.
now-Retro Game Challenge-i was excited when i learned this was coming here, but was skeptical about how they localize it since the game is based on the Japanese Game Center CX show, which i really love watching. then after reading an interview with XSeed on Gamasutra, i was dishearten to learn they would be removing references to the show. I know these kinds of things are really minor to most people, but it personally bugs the hell outta me and I'm tired of being the "it's in English so it's just fine" person
At the moment, I'm mostly interested in older games for consoles like the famicom, PC engine, saturn, and a few others.
And now the next subject-learning Japanese. For many years I've always wanted to play these games the way they were meant to be, and of course there will always be those awesome titles that will pretty much never see the light of day outside of japan. I've always heard about the "import friendly" games, but i want to actually UNDERSTAND it all and observe every piece of the game and get the full experience. I'm currently looking for a good self learning program. most people would probably say take a course in collage, but sadly the collages around me don't offer Japanese, and i don't have the money. the best option i see right now would be Rosetta Stone, but I'm gonna keep looking for a bit longer just in case.
so, what would your suggestions be? And if you are Japanese fluent, how did you go about learning it?
As someone who really loves Japanese video games, I often get really frustrated when a game I'm interested in comes to the U.S. and gets tons of ridiculous modifications, or just plain butchered beyond belief, or older titles that i feel should've had a standard localization. i'll give two examples
then-games localized by Working Designs. I know a lot of people loved them for the way they did their games, but i just don't get it. I recently got interested in titles from Falcom and Game Arts, and learned WD published some of them here, and decided to give them a shot. after playing their version of Popful Mail and saw their PSX Lunar making of video on Youtube, i just couldn't bare any more of it. I would be willing to tough-it-up a little more if the obnoxious pop-culture references were the only problem-but then i learned they fucked with the game mechanics in most of their titles, to apparently make it harder.
now-Retro Game Challenge-i was excited when i learned this was coming here, but was skeptical about how they localize it since the game is based on the Japanese Game Center CX show, which i really love watching. then after reading an interview with XSeed on Gamasutra, i was dishearten to learn they would be removing references to the show. I know these kinds of things are really minor to most people, but it personally bugs the hell outta me and I'm tired of being the "it's in English so it's just fine" person
At the moment, I'm mostly interested in older games for consoles like the famicom, PC engine, saturn, and a few others.
And now the next subject-learning Japanese. For many years I've always wanted to play these games the way they were meant to be, and of course there will always be those awesome titles that will pretty much never see the light of day outside of japan. I've always heard about the "import friendly" games, but i want to actually UNDERSTAND it all and observe every piece of the game and get the full experience. I'm currently looking for a good self learning program. most people would probably say take a course in collage, but sadly the collages around me don't offer Japanese, and i don't have the money. the best option i see right now would be Rosetta Stone, but I'm gonna keep looking for a bit longer just in case.
so, what would your suggestions be? And if you are Japanese fluent, how did you go about learning it?