Import RPGs - do you play them? Can you read Japanese?

[Cthulhu]

I've taken about 5 years of Japanese (4 in college, one year after that on my own and at private schools) so while I'm pretty good at Japanese now, back in the 16/32 bit days I did import a few RPGs even though I couldn't read em. I'm just curious about people here... do you import RPGs? If you do, do you know enough Japanese to play them? Poll votes and comments are welcome~ :D

[stonecutter]

I once imported Seiken Densetsu 3 ( Secret of Mana 2 ), but I cannot read Japanese so it got very very little play time. So now it collects dust. I melted off the tabs within the SNES so I could play Super famicom games, but this is the only one I have.

[slownerveaction]

I tried it a couple times (mostly with Turbo Duo action-RPGs), but it just gets too annoying trying to work past the language barrier. I'm fine with anything action-based that only has a few menus though.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I've got a whole bunch of japanese RPGs for numerous consoles of mine. However when it comes down to actually playing them I have no idea what's going on. I don't know why I'm into them or why I collect them, but I must admit they look really good on my shelf. Oh well, maybe someday I'll try to learn some basic japanese and try to take them on.

[Aussie2B]

Most of my imports are RPGs. I started with absolutely no knowledge of Japanese (with Star Ocean on SFC), but over the years I've learned how to read katakana and hiragana and a handful of kanji characters. While I can read hiragana, my vocabulary is almost nonexistent, so I can't read native Japanese. Katakana is very useful, though, since most character, item, and location names are in katakana, and the majority of it is English. It can be daunting at first, but after awhile reading English written in katakana is no more difficult than reading numbers in Roman numerals.

[pookninja]

i import very few rpg or heavy texted games,because i dont read japanese.i usually import shooters and fighters,stuff like that.the last rpg i imported was blue seed for saturn,and i was getting by fairly good in the game without knowing japanese,but it would of been really cool to know what was being said and to follow the story line.

[Fuyukaze]

I know less Japanese then I would like to. Even so, I still get RPGs and text heavy games because I want them and know they will either not come out, or are out but at a price I dont believe is worth paying.

Aussie2B>A few questions for you, what books do you use for refrence? Do you have any recomendations? What books I have at my disposal are mostly kanji related. The few that deal with kana do so in a way I have yet to fully understand. What I am looking for is one that would break down the individual kana into their various meanings. That and something to help with the phonetics of it. Any recomendations would be apreciated.

[Ed Oscuro]

I tend to go with importing action games (person-based shooters I tend to like more than ship-based ones, hmm) and versions of games I like here in the US. I've got a few RPGs, but don't play them (I have very very little/no Japanese language knowledge...I should work on that this summer), and they tend not to have enough action for me :O Well...I'm sure a playing one of my three (well four, really) SFC FF games should be interesting enough in Japanese, especially given I haven't tried any others yet! :)

For the Neo Geo...I buy imports only, pretty much. Some games are cheaper than their US counterparts, and you can get Waku Waku 7 that way!

I also like puzzle games; I can't think of any that I've imported so far (unless you count Lode Runner Twin).

[ventrra]

I don't think that it's always a requirement to know japanese to play some RPGs. I played the US version of Final Fantasy to death when I was younger and playing the same game in a different language isn't much different.

[Cthulhu]

Since someone asked for recommendations about how to learn Japanese:

If you can take a class anywhere, do it. No matter how well a book about a foreign lanugage is written, a class with a teacher that knows the language well (better yet, speaks it as their native language) and classmates who are also interested in learning will be better overall.

That said, if you can't take a class, don't give up. Start with a book designed for self-study, not a regular textbook. Get a nice one that you feel comfortable with - everyone's learning styles are different. Go to a bookstore and browse. Learn hiragana and katakana as fast as you can and stop using romaji (romanized Japanese) the instant you don't need it anymore. Try to get a book that nudges you in the right direction by not using romaji after a chapter or two.

Along with your main book, you'll want a Japanese-English / English Japanese dictionary (you'll need both, try to find a nice two-in-one book) that, again, you like. Try to avoid romaji in your dictionary too.

Kanji study comes later. Don't even try to learn kanji for at least a few weeks. Once you're to a point where you're comfortable with hiragana and katakana and some basic lingustic functions, then you can start kanji. Buy a learning-kanji book only at first, and then a few weeks later buy a kanji dictionary. There are tons of these, ask around for recommendations.

Hope this helps. :D Learning Japanese is a lot of work but it's really rewarding. You'll be able to understand a few words in your games after just a few days (the first word I learned in Japanese was "good" - and lo and behold, they said it in Marvel Vs. Capcom a whole lot LOL )! Playing RPGs is probably a couple of years (at least) down the line though - keep studying and don't get discouraged though. You can do it if you apply yourself! :D

[Iron Draggon]

I started out importing only action oriented types of games with very little or no Japanese text at all in them, and never had any problems at all playing any of them. But now I'm mostly importing extremely text heavy games, like RPG's & SRPG's, strategy games & simulations, and I'm just about completely lost trying to play most of them. I can make a few things happen in some, but hardly anything in others, so they kinda just sit around and gather dust for the most part. But I still think it's very cool to own them. If I ever do learn any Japanese, I'll have more than enough to keep me entertained while I try to build up my vocabulary. But to be honest, I'll probably never learn how to read Japanese, and I'll just have all these really cool looking games that I wish I could understand well enough to play. And of course, I'll always hope that eventually they'll all be translated for me!

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I don't think that it's always a requirement to know japanese to play some RPGs. I played the US version of Final Fantasy to death when I was younger and playing the same game in a different language isn't much different.

Ummmm, but have you ever played an RPG that you weren't already fimilar with? That's a whole nother story.

[Lord Contaminous]

Right especially something that never had a translation patch nor a FAQ.

[GaijinPunch]

I've studied for quite some time now. On an off mostly after the first 5 years, but a total of a whopping 12 so far. I play quite a few Japanese RPGs... playing one right now! :)

[ventrra]

I don't think that it's always a requirement to know japanese to play some RPGs. I played the US version of Final Fantasy to death when I was younger and playing the same game in a different language isn't much different.

Ummmm, but have you ever played an RPG that you weren't already fimilar with? That's a whole nother story.
Sometimes it it, and sometimes not. I'm not sure exactly what genre the games I've been playing in Japanese would be termed, but they often are text intensive. For example I've played Love Hina: Totsuzen no Engeji Happening and Love Hina: Smile Again for the Dreamcast (and beaten them!). I've also played the ... ah ... "Dating Sim" Harusame Youbi on the Dreamcast and both PC Engine Sailor Moon games (one of which is a "Digital Comic" and the other a collection of mini-games. (Those are just the games that I actually own. On emulators, I've played a few untranslated Famicom RPGs by taking note of what each menu item did and writing it down.)

[Lord Contaminous]

I'm doing that with Lagrange Point for Famicom now.

Translated most of the menus by myself in a notebook, and wrote down any katakana that I came across, and did the "mispractice" of romanizing.

Haven't got to play it lately cuz the controller port in my Famiclone don't wanna cooperate.

[Aussie2B]

I don't think that it's always a requirement to know japanese to play some RPGs. I played the US version of Final Fantasy to death when I was younger and playing the same game in a different language isn't much different.

Ummmm, but have you ever played an RPG that you weren't already fimilar with? That's a whole nother story.

Most of the Japanese RPGs that I've played were games that I was not familiar with at all, and I had no outside help of any kind. Even then, the experience is often not that different from playing an RPG in English, even though I don't know much of any native Japanese. If you're REALLY familiar with RPGs, you realize that most developers create the same kinds of puzzles, dungeons, battle systems, characters, stories, etc.

And to answer Fuyukaze's question, I haven't used any books. :P I used various katakana and hiragana charts online to learn the characters. I've learned a small amount of native words and kanji characters just from being exposed to so much Japanese stuff. When I "read" through my comics (or whatever else), sometimes I'll notice the same word being used often, so I'll figure it out out of context and/or I'll look it up with this dictionary:

http://poets.notredame.ac.jp/cgi-bin/jedi-inon

[Azazel]

I've played plenty of Japanese RPGS and stretegy/RPG without the help of translation guides or faqs. I've never taken one class in Japanese but I know a decent amount and can understand the major parts of an RPG storyline.

[Lord Contaminous]

Hey didn't someone not too long ago post the link to a freeware RPG that teaches Japanese?

[rhiohki]

yeah....the ever popular RPG genre, my favorite and one-a-many haven't hit the U.S shores...so off to the import scene I go.

right now I'm currently focusing in on PC engine games. I started with games that have English Patches. Specifically the Y's releases. There are some games that I would love to play in english like Seiya Monogatari or Startling Odyssey. I have them already, and can get through fairly most of it, but actually understanding what's going on really helps me feel the game as a whole.

[DTJAAAAMJSLM]

I've tried playing two Japanese RPGs, the PC Engine version of Record Of Lodoss War and the PSP version of Tales Of Eternia. I made decent progress in Lodoss even though I had no clue about what was going on and couldn't read any Japanese. That was before I had Internet access, too. After taking four years of the language in high school (and barely remembering any of it), I can identify quite a few words in TOE, but still need to use FAQs to guide me along the way.

[geelw]

there are a couple of japanese rpgs that can be completed with little to no knowledge of the language, but you'll find it far more enjoyable to know stuff like story and dialog. i have a few hundred rpgs here for different consoles, but i havn't had the time to sit down and finish any lately thanks to tons of other stuff popping up. some games have english menus or option screens, so you'll at least be able to play them, and some are so simple that you'll have to be sightless to get stuck. for beginners who want to tackle a few, i'd recommend:

airs adventure (saturn)
seikon no joka (ps one)
meramenoid (ps one)
linkle liver story (saturn)
feda (super famicom)
feda remake! (saturn)
madoh monogatari (saturn)
brightis (ps one)
wizardry: llylgamyn saga (ps one- has english menu option)
wizardry: new age of llylgamyn (ditto)
shadows of the tusk (saturn- strategy rpg w/ cards)

a couple dozen more, but it's late, and i'm too lazy to get up and go into the other room & go through the stacks.

g.

[Xantan the Foul]

I bought alot of imports for awhile, just because I could and I was trying to learn Japanese...

Now I have about 2 dozen imports, and I'm no closer to learning Japanese than I was before.

That's what I get for being so impulsive @_@

[devilman]

Hey didn't someone not too long ago post the link to a freeware RPG that teaches Japanese?

I'd certainly be interested in seeing this one.

[VACRMH]

Hey didn't someone not too long ago post the link to a freeware RPG that teaches Japanese?

That would be... Slime Forest Adventure

http://lrnj.com/

[Azazel]

there are a couple of japanese rpgs that can be completed with little to no knowledge of the language, but you'll find it far more enjoyable to know stuff like story and dialog. i have a few hundred rpgs here for different consoles, but i havn't had the time to sit down and finish any lately thanks to tons of other stuff popping up. some games have english menus or option screens, so you'll at least be able to play them, and some are so simple that you'll have to be sightless to get stuck. for beginners who want to tackle a few, i'd recommend:

airs adventure (saturn)
seikon no joka (ps one)
meramenoid (ps one)
linkle liver story (saturn)
feda (super famicom)
feda remake! (saturn)
madoh monogatari (saturn)
brightis (ps one)
wizardry: llylgamyn saga (ps one- has english menu option)
wizardry: new age of llylgamyn (ditto)
shadows of the tusk (saturn- strategy rpg w/ cards)

a couple dozen more, but it's late, and i'm too lazy to get up and go into the other room & go through the stacks.

g.

The Saturn Llylgamyn Saga has english menus too. Also most stretegy/RPG like Langrisser are pretty easy to play as it's pretty hard to get stuck in most of them unless you can't beat a certain battle.

[Lord Contaminous]

Front Mission (SFC) is somewhat English friendly also. Not only there's English menus, but after the first battle, the game states the premise of the story in both Japanese and English simultaneously.

[geelw]

lol- yeah, i forgot about the front mission series. hell, all of the fm games are extremely english friendly, for that matter.

i'd also recommend a couple of the gundam strategy games as well as the super robot wars series and sfc games like lord of elemental, jyutei senkei, and power of the hired, because you'll learn those japanese commands eventually from playing so much.

geez... i REALLY need to do a count on my rpgs here- i was working on a list before construction began here and i still haven't fully recovered, lol...

g.

[Aussie2B]

I'll second Feda. It's a great little Shining Force rip-off that's easy to advance in (like most strategy RPGs). I'm kinda partial to the Super Famicom version because I love the big character sprites, but the Saturn version is nice too.

[geelw]

I'll second Feda. It's a great little Shining Force rip-off that's easy to advance in (like most strategy RPGs). I'm kinda partial to the Super Famicom version because I love the big character sprites, but the Saturn version is nice too.

i thought the game was designed by some folks who worked on the sf series (but it's been a while since i've played it) who wanted a darker tone to their game. it does a few things better in the different skills the characters develop and the overall difficulty of the battles is a lot tougher, but it took me a while to get used to the poor visuals (for a sfc game). i actually played through it couple of times because of the multiple paths you can take depending on a few choices you make during battles... nad yeah, i like the sfc version better, only beacuse the cutscenes in the cd version were sorta rushed out, even though they added depth to the story and characters.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, some of the staff is the same. The artist is definitely the same guy. It's possible to rip-off your own work, though, isn't it? :P

[geelw]

lol, true, true. i always thought that they were trying to improve on the sf games and make something for a slightly older audience- less cartoony colors and stereotypical fantasy characters smiling away in the portraits. feda does have a lot more dramatic stuff in it, but still makes room for humor from time to time. i almost feel like digging out the game now, lol- but i'm too busy!

g.

[Tron 2.0]

I'll import rpgs but only on games that don't have a "domestic release".

Btw long as the game has a...walk through i'll try it.

[Lord Contaminous]

lol, true, true. i always thought that they were trying to improve on the sf games and make something for a slightly older audience- less cartoony colors and stereotypical fantasy characters smiling away in the portraits. feda does have a lot more dramatic stuff in it, but still makes room for humor from time to time. i almost feel like digging out the game now, lol- but i'm too busy!

g.

Funny how you should mention that, cartoony colors and smiling fantasy characters. Throughout the years I always liked the male anime/manga characters drawn like this for that more mature demeanor. This might sound wierd, but in the center of my mind, this kind of artwork complements the colorful Super Famicom logo.

http://www.mikagami.net/hotohori/smallhoriwhite.jpg

http://workingdesigns.com/museum/saturn/dragon_force/screen_shots/graphics/df_pic9.jpg

http://membres.lycos.fr/avordu/C-SEIJURO%202.jpg