Friday, September 13, 2013

VN Choice advice for those new to playing in Japanese

First, don't even consider playing a VN in Japanese if you don't have the grammar down.  If you have the grammar and a moderately large vocabulary, kanji weakness can be got around by utilizing the Translation Aggregator/Jparser combo I mentioned in the previous post. 

Second, pick the level of game you want to challenge.  Moege (games that focus on cuteness and simple stories) tend to be easy to read, with short lines in simple Japanese.  If you prefer action VNs, you will be in a bit of trouble, as the language used in such games tends to be more complex. 

Third, pick your strategy.  If you choose high-difficulty games from the very beginning, you will improve your skills that much faster.  However, in exchange, you probably won't get everything on your first playthrough.  For action/fantasy VNs this actually makes it fun to come back later and enjoy the game a second time.  Also, if you pick a high difficulty game early on and switch to an easier one after, you'll find that the comparatively easy language makes your playthroughs that much more smooth.  If you pick a low-difficulty game, you'll probably be able to muddle your way through it with crappy Japanese skills, but at the same time, your skills won't improve that much playing them, if that is one of your goals.

As an example of first choices, I picked Jingai Makyou and Dies Irae for my first two games, simply because they were in my favorite genre.  While I already had a good grasp of Japanese, these were two enormously difficult games to play.  When I picked Draculius and Tayutama for my next two games, the difference in the linguistic levels made for an easy playthrough.  I plowed through better than a dozen high-level games in the months after that, and I eventually got to the point where I could play most VNs with a speed approaching two thirds of that of my English reading speed. 

4 comments:

  1. Hi Clephas, found your blog.

    I want to learn japanese, and I was wandering how to start, I can recognize hiragana and katakana without much problems (there're those tricky katakana wich look almost the same haha). And I saw a lot recomend Genki for grammar (though I want your opinion about how learn grammar effectively). I "played" a few VNs in japanese, so I recognize some kanji of common use like 神, 見, 覚, etc. so I have confidence in memorising them with constant exposure.

    I can relate to you, I love action stories (Chuuni genre is my favorite). I heard about Dies Irae from users in animesuki forums, I fell in love with the characters and the setting itself. That's the reason I want to learn and as fast as possible. I love Jingai Makyo and Muramasa too so I can say that I have a pretty high aim thanks to my own tastes lol.

    I'll wait for your response if possible. I hope you do more entries about learning japanese here.

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  2. Honestly? I learned basic Japanese almost a fourteen years ago. Also, the method I used (learning grammar through a class, then spending several years doing little but watching anime and gaming) isn't exactly an efficient one for most people. Most textbooks for Japanese have the grammar separated from the vocab, so it is probably possible to learn just by extracting all those grammar lessons out of any of those. Grammar is a framework of understanding the language, and vocab is the cement poured into the mould. I'll warn you though... it is probably going to be hard if you choose not to take a class, at least for the intro levels.

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  3. I think is hard learning a lenguage (english is my second), even more an asiatic one wich differs too much. Sadly taking classes where I live is imposible so I have to live with the fact that I will learn by myself. Good to know that you learned through classes, so you formed a good base. It was similar for me, I took english classes for almost 3 years, that give me a base and the rest was gaming with a dictionary.

    Thanks for the quick response.

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  4. The first VN I played in that way is Midori no Umi, if I remember right. And I'm still challenging myself...

    On another note, how're you doing, Clephas? It's been a long while. :)

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