Wooo! That was a fun one! Sorry for my video occasionally skipping, was a problem with my new recording setup but I've fixed it now so shouldn't be a problem again! Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video! What do you all think about using Pokemon games to learn Japanese with? :) I had such a blast playing these games and would love to cover more on the channel! Let me know in the comments what you want to see more of on the channel!
Thanks for the shout out and I am so glad you made this!!! I haven't played a Pokémon game since the DS and my Japanese friends kept saying I should just play one, as they've been playing it to learn English (also a lot of them are watching Friends for some reason.) I never would have thought to play Let's Go at all. Maybe that's the change up I need to get back into it. Thanks again 🙏
Haha true story, it was actually really expensive getting the games/consoles to get all this footage legitimately recorded from Nintendo hardware, absolutely nothing was emulated :) BUT! Good news is, now its much easier to make videos for a bunch of retro games now haha
Babe wake up, new Game Gengo video just dropped and he sunk HUNDREDS OF HOURS into it again... seriously dude, your work deserves all the credit in the world. ありがとう❗
With legends Arceus, I bought it day one and I took a very long time to get through the introduction because I read it all, looking up what I didn’t know and taking notes in what became my legends Arceus language specific notebook… I got overwhelmed with the language and had to come back to it later on, a year later on actually. But with my notebook to help me through the intro and knowing more Japanese at that point. It was a much nicer time. I find that one you are into it there isn’t too much to read unless you want to find it
Thank you so much for this video. I’ve been doing a sparse playthru of Omega Ruby in Japanese and I’ve been able to get decently far with your help! Also taking into account that many of us have been playing these games since we were children so even if you don’t know Japanese it’s easy to get into these cause you simply know pokemon well enough lol. I appreciate your hard work and effort you put into making these so much I watch you almost daily and I feel like slowly but surely I’m getting somewhere with this. ごくろさまでした!
I’ve stayed away from Pokémon games because I feel like once you get past the intro the amount of text to gameplay ratio is too lopsided towards gameplay. But I might try it now. Love this style of video!
For sure! It really depends on what games you play and how you play them :) If you want a ton of dialogue even after the beginning, then the newer games will definitely have you covered. If you want to play the retro ones though, make sure to talk to every NPC and read every Pokedex ;)
As far as weird fonts go, it's a good exercise to get practice reading them! There's a ton of fonts and writing styles used in _any_ language, and you don't want to go from reading expert to practically illiterate just because something is written a little funny. Besides, when you're reading words and sentences rather than just characters, the context will help you fill in gaps until you get used to that font/style.
Hi! I just discovered this channel a few days ago and I'm really impressed by what I've seen so far in terms of production value and usefulness. I'm still N5, only 5 months into self study, but finding resources like yours REALLY helps with keeping up in terms of motivation and variety (especially since I love video games as well)! It's funny that this video should come out now because I had been wondering this exact question just recently - I noticed that some Japanese screenshots of Scarlet & Violet had furigana and spacing in their dialogue which helps with reading kanji. I'm sure you hear this lots, but I'm surprised that you don't have more subscribers! Keep at it, this channel is a gold mine and I've been recommending it to all my fellow learners.
The timing on this is great, just last night I was going through my switch case trying to decide which Pokémon game to try in japanese for reading practice, so this breakdown is very helpful
Tremendous video, I've wondered which pokemon games to play for learning Japanese before because I'm only familiar with a few. Great breakdown of each too
What a video Matt. Well done! I also feel like there is a somewhat intangible difficulty element as well. For example, it seems like when I am playing Pokemon X&Y, some of the grammar, or shortening of phrases, or the modern speech/slang is hard to understand. Compared to playing something like Breath of the Wild, where the words may be more rare/difficult, but after a lookup or two it becomes clear what is being said, not as easy to do in some of the sentences I see in Pokemon, in my opinion.
I started learning it back with Diamond in 2006. But have played most of the series in Japanese at this point. Gen 5 is where Kanji started popping up.
I do think a big point against SV is that there are cutscenes in which you do not control the text. So the text shows up, and you better read it fast or else it's going to disappear. This happens toward the end, but also at the very start with the school principal giving his speech. I also think it happens with Rose's speech at the very start of SwSh, though I don't remember that as clearly.
I love your videos! I watch them religiously and I've learned so much from them. I'm moving to Japan for 3 months next week, I'm going to a Japanese school, and I'd like to know what's THE BEST Japanese game to jump-start my learning? I'm currently N4-N3 level!
Wonder where Colosseum and XD would fit in this list, as well as some of the others like Ranger and Conquest, or even Snap, Stadium, or Puzzle League. Stadium is especially unique, with the battles having voiced narration.
What I really wish you could do in Pokémon games is start them in one language and then switch to another mid-playthrough; would be so cool to be able to wander regions of games I’ve already beaten in a different language, but I don’t think that’s an option in any Pokémon game
Pokémon is awesome! I loved it since I was a child. And I even started playing some of the games in Japanese (for learning practice). But I'm actually also die-hard Digimon fan. Now unfortunatelly there aren't that many 'good' Digimon Games, but one that is absolutely AMAZING is Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory. It's an absolut recommendation and it would be sooo cool if you could play it on your channel. 😊❤
Have you ever done a video about how to setup the Switch (or other consoles) to be OCR-able? I would love to see that video. Also, great content as always!
This should be interesting! I hope one day you can do one like this for the spinoff games. Anyways, thanks for the great and helpful content as alwayss!
The DS games are region free so they work in any regions DS or 3DS Just remember 3DS gamer are region locked so if you do important any of the 3DS pokemon games you'll need a Japanese 3DS. But like said in the video american version has the japanese language option
Do u plan on making more contents on 13 sentinels: AR? Imo, that was the best series of all. And, contents like Nier Automata and Buddy mission bond are great too. Loved all of these. Would love to have more like these.
Would you consider making a video about how to use a capture card for translating a game as you go. Many people, myself included, have never had a capture card and are a bit intimidated by them as they’re expensive and it makes me worry about getting the wrong thing/ not using it well.
hope to see some pokemon on the upcoming nintendo direct! who knows, maybe some of these finally come to the switch online stuff, would make it a lot easier to play them in japanese! I've been playing some jrpgs on the switch with it, like breath of fire and shin megami tensei on the super famicon app. i hope they bring some pokemon there too!
I'm sure if they ever release the originals on the Switch they'd do it with a separate release instead of Switch Online. I do hope they come to the Switch, too.
You can learn any language with videogames, I'm studying English with this method and yeah I'm a beginner but it works.... The best genre for learning is an RPG in my opinion.
I would recommend the Avermedia cards more than Elgato (had terrible experience with Elgato) however if its jist for OCR even a cheap USB capture card could work! All you need is that text on the screen so anything can work :) if you need lagless gameplay/upload footage etc thats when you invest in a better one like Avermedia etc
There is a reason for intermediate to advanced learners to play early pokemon games. Reading only hiragana is a decent way to improve your reading speed.
I'm just at the beginning of the video, and I'm sure it will come up, but since the older games are in kana only (starting from the Switch releases you can choose if you want kanji) they are much harder to understand and playing is not as fun...
Ooo this might be useful! I tried playing Leaf Green in Japanese a few months ago, but the old man lingo immediately threw me off, still have no clue what "おるよ" means 😭
If you're still wondering, おる is basically the same as いる, but in "old man speech" as you pointed out. And よ is the particle for emphasis. Usually you can almost ignore whatever is in the end of a sentence without missing most of the context lol But don't get discouraged, the beginning of the journey is the hardest, but also when you learn the most! Two years ago I was playing a kana-only game (Monster Rancher on the GBA) and "mining" pretty much every word into anki, with DeepL translations (godawful), while I was pretty much unable to parse a sentence on my own, but I still had some fun, and I learned really fast (a few months later, I was playing Chrono Trigger with a script, and actually understanding quite a bit, one year later I was playing Rune Factory in full JP with no OCR, just immersing). So just take your time, and remember that even if it feels like you're stuck, as long as you're studying a bit every day, eventually you'll try again and Leaf Green will feel a walk in the park ;)
Hey yo Mr I want learn Japanese so bad through pokemon but don't know what's a script and what's an ocr I don't know where to begin what should I memorise do you have any beginner advice
I had a very bad experience in BDSP in japanese. While I was going home to talk to my mother I found a Shiny Bidoof... but without Pokéballs 💀💀💀 Since that day I've never touched a japanese Pokémon Game ever again, but maybe I'll restart in these days. Great video Mat ❤
Start with Ocarina of Time, then Majora's Mask, then Wind Waker, then you might possibly have enough knowledge to challenge Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. If the language in BotW/TotK is still too hard even after the first three, try some of the 2D games and maybe Twilight Princess first.
I didn't buy a Nintendo Switch to have to sit next to a computer! And I don't get why each person should have to use OCR technology... Why don't we have a website with all the text? Better yet, the text and translations. I wouldn't want to have my Nintendo Switch connected to a PC, but I wouldn't mind having my cellphone nearby, reading the texts and translations. 🤔
Haha of course, however as a language learner having the power of a PC to help is preeetty amazing ;) Of course you don't have to have it, and this video was not made under the assumption you would. I mentionin the video how the games in hiragana/furigana are best if you dont have any OCR help
@@GameGengo yes, as a relative beginner, I'll have to choose from games with furigana. But having the script next to me in my phone would be great too. That's an option with some games, right? I decently found your channel and it's awesome. 😀 I'm still not big on sitting next to a computer. 😅
@Zaurthur I'm a huge sucker for having my pokemon walk behind me lol I didn't like that the gen 3&4 pokemon are in the national dex tho. I wanted to maintain the gen 2 experience. Didn't make sense to me for gen 3 and 4 pokemon to be suddenly in Kanto and Johto.
He means run your switch’s HDMI through a capture card and connect that to your PC. You can run Kamui or whatever OCR you’d like on your PC’s window that is displaying the output of the capture card.
Wooo! That was a fun one! Sorry for my video occasionally skipping, was a problem with my new recording setup but I've fixed it now so shouldn't be a problem again! Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video! What do you all think about using Pokemon games to learn Japanese with? :) I had such a blast playing these games and would love to cover more on the channel! Let me know in the comments what you want to see more of on the channel!
Shout-out to @littlered6340 for asking about Pokemon games in Japanese that led to me making this breakdown for you all!
This might be a wild ask but would you consider content on Pokemon TCG as an entry point for learners?
Thanks for the shout out and I am so glad you made this!!!
I haven't played a Pokémon game since the DS and my Japanese friends kept saying I should just play one, as they've been playing it to learn English (also a lot of them are watching Friends for some reason.) I never would have thought to play Let's Go at all. Maybe that's the change up I need to get back into it.
Thanks again 🙏
This week, Game Gengo figures out how to make spending $100s completing his pokemon collection a business expense.
Haha true story, it was actually really expensive getting the games/consoles to get all this footage legitimately recorded from Nintendo hardware, absolutely nothing was emulated :)
BUT! Good news is, now its much easier to make videos for a bunch of retro games now haha
@@GameGengowould you ever consider a video for Dragon Quest 8?
Babe wake up, new Game Gengo video just dropped and he sunk HUNDREDS OF HOURS into it again... seriously dude, your work deserves all the credit in the world. ありがとう❗
With legends Arceus, I bought it day one and I took a very long time to get through the introduction because I read it all, looking up what I didn’t know and taking notes in what became my legends Arceus language specific notebook… I got overwhelmed with the language and had to come back to it later on, a year later on actually. But with my notebook to help me through the intro and knowing more Japanese at that point. It was a much nicer time. I find that one you are into it there isn’t too much to read unless you want to find it
Thank you so much for this video. I’ve been doing a sparse playthru of Omega Ruby in Japanese and I’ve been able to get decently far with your help! Also taking into account that many of us have been playing these games since we were children so even if you don’t know Japanese it’s easy to get into these cause you simply know pokemon well enough lol. I appreciate your hard work and effort you put into making these so much I watch you almost daily and I feel like slowly but surely I’m getting somewhere with this. ごくろさまでした!
Just started Legends Arceus in Japanese for reading practice. Cant wait for this list!
I’ve stayed away from Pokémon games because I feel like once you get past the intro the amount of text to gameplay ratio is too lopsided towards gameplay. But I might try it now. Love this style of video!
For sure! It really depends on what games you play and how you play them :)
If you want a ton of dialogue even after the beginning, then the newer games will definitely have you covered.
If you want to play the retro ones though, make sure to talk to every NPC and read every Pokedex ;)
As far as weird fonts go, it's a good exercise to get practice reading them! There's a ton of fonts and writing styles used in _any_ language, and you don't want to go from reading expert to practically illiterate just because something is written a little funny. Besides, when you're reading words and sentences rather than just characters, the context will help you fill in gaps until you get used to that font/style.
Hi! I just discovered this channel a few days ago and I'm really impressed by what I've seen so far in terms of production value and usefulness. I'm still N5, only 5 months into self study, but finding resources like yours REALLY helps with keeping up in terms of motivation and variety (especially since I love video games as well)! It's funny that this video should come out now because I had been wondering this exact question just recently - I noticed that some Japanese screenshots of Scarlet & Violet had furigana and spacing in their dialogue which helps with reading kanji. I'm sure you hear this lots, but I'm surprised that you don't have more subscribers! Keep at it, this channel is a gold mine and I've been recommending it to all my fellow learners.
The timing on this is great, just last night I was going through my switch case trying to decide which Pokémon game to try in japanese for reading practice, so this breakdown is very helpful
Awesome video! Thank you for your hard work Matt. Now to go play some pokemon!
Great video, for a beginner in japanese like my self this really helps me in finding other engaging ways of learning the language.
ありがとうございます
Thanks for these recommendations :D
Appreciate what you do 🙌🏾
As an absolute beginner in Japanese and pokemon fan, count me in chief 🫡
Tremendous video, I've wondered which pokemon games to play for learning Japanese before because I'm only familiar with a few. Great breakdown of each too
What a video Matt. Well done! I also feel like there is a somewhat intangible difficulty element as well. For example, it seems like when I am playing Pokemon X&Y, some of the grammar, or shortening of phrases, or the modern speech/slang is hard to understand. Compared to playing something like Breath of the Wild, where the words may be more rare/difficult, but after a lookup or two it becomes clear what is being said, not as easy to do in some of the sentences I see in Pokemon, in my opinion.
I started learning it back with Diamond in 2006. But have played most of the series in Japanese at this point.
Gen 5 is where Kanji started popping up.
baller video 👍 been binging your content while i had my all nighter and gotta say, i love your enthusiasm :)
I don't usually comment but I really loved this video and would hope to see more of this on other game series!
I do think a big point against SV is that there are cutscenes in which you do not control the text. So the text shows up, and you better read it fast or else it's going to disappear. This happens toward the end, but also at the very start with the school principal giving his speech. I also think it happens with Rose's speech at the very start of SwSh, though I don't remember that as clearly.
I love your videos! I watch them religiously and I've learned so much from them. I'm moving to Japan for 3 months next week, I'm going to a Japanese school, and I'd like to know what's THE BEST Japanese game to jump-start my learning? I'm currently N4-N3 level!
Wonder where Colosseum and XD would fit in this list, as well as some of the others like Ranger and Conquest, or even Snap, Stadium, or Puzzle League. Stadium is especially unique, with the battles having voiced narration.
Thank you for this video ❤
What I really wish you could do in Pokémon games is start them in one language and then switch to another mid-playthrough; would be so cool to be able to wander regions of games I’ve already beaten in a different language, but I don’t think that’s an option in any Pokémon game
Pokémon is awesome! I loved it since I was a child. And I even started playing some of the games in Japanese (for learning practice).
But I'm actually also die-hard Digimon fan.
Now unfortunatelly there aren't that many 'good' Digimon Games, but one that is absolutely AMAZING is Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory.
It's an absolut recommendation and it would be sooo cool if you could play it on your channel. 😊❤
Have you ever done a video about how to setup the Switch (or other consoles) to be OCR-able? I would love to see that video. Also, great content as always!
I definitely think an OCR video is something I'll be doing sometime soon! Seems really revolutionary for game-learners for sure!
17:05 "しょうりゅうけん kinda catch Pokémon on the way there"
This should be interesting! I hope one day you can do one like this for the spinoff games. Anyways, thanks for the great and helpful content as alwayss!
The DS games are region free so they work in any regions DS or 3DS
Just remember 3DS gamer are region locked so if you do important any of the 3DS pokemon games you'll need a Japanese 3DS. But like said in the video american version has the japanese language option
Thanks. will you ever do Gran Turismo games?
Dude I always look forward to seeing more Game Gengo... Any chance we can get a Ghost of Tsushima first 30 minutes? 😊❤
Thanks for enjoying the channel!
Do u plan on making more contents on 13 sentinels: AR? Imo, that was the best series of all. And, contents like Nier Automata and Buddy mission bond are great too. Loved all of these. Would love to have more like these.
Been playing frlg and hgss in japanese and its been really fun + a great learning experience
Would you consider making a video about how to use a capture card for translating a game as you go. Many people, myself included, have never had a capture card and are a bit intimidated by them as they’re expensive and it makes me worry about getting the wrong thing/ not using it well.
Would have loved to hear how Mystery dungeon and Snap on switch compare, but this was still awesome!
hope to see some pokemon on the upcoming nintendo direct! who knows, maybe some of these finally come to the switch online stuff, would make it a lot easier to play them in japanese! I've been playing some jrpgs on the switch with it, like breath of fire and shin megami tensei on the super famicon app. i hope they bring some pokemon there too!
I'm sure if they ever release the originals on the Switch they'd do it with a separate release instead of Switch Online. I do hope they come to the Switch, too.
Oh my goodness... I learned english through Pokemon games when I was kid and now it's time for another language learningggg
You can learn any language with videogames, I'm studying English with this method and yeah I'm a beginner but it works.... The best genre for learning is an RPG in my opinion.
Excited for 100k sub sensei🎉
i haven't played alpha sapphire since i was little so i'm definitely interested in replaying it after watching this!!
Excellent video, you do an incredible job.
By the way, I wanted to ask you: do you recommend 乃木恋 for learning Japanese?
You are one of the best Japanese language learner youtubers man.
Great video Matt. I guess it is time to give Alpha Saphire a new try :D
Currently playing JP HG on a DS lite... no kanji makes things difficult as a low N4 😅
Hey Matt, what capture card should I buy to use OCR?
I would recommend the Avermedia cards more than Elgato (had terrible experience with Elgato) however if its jist for OCR even a cheap USB capture card could work! All you need is that text on the screen so anything can work :) if you need lagless gameplay/upload footage etc thats when you invest in a better one like Avermedia etc
There is a reason for intermediate to advanced learners to play early pokemon games. Reading only hiragana is a decent way to improve your reading speed.
I'm just at the beginning of the video, and I'm sure it will come up, but since the older games are in kana only (starting from the Switch releases you can choose if you want kanji) they are much harder to understand and playing is not as fun...
ポケモン ZA Please Be challenging and give us more メガシンカ
also ふりがなand Great story
while also being 超楽しい
The ds is not region locked but the 3ds is but that can be fixed by installing basic custom software
Ooo this might be useful!
I tried playing Leaf Green in Japanese a few months ago, but the old man lingo immediately threw me off, still have no clue what "おるよ" means
😭
If you're still wondering, おる is basically the same as いる, but in "old man speech" as you pointed out. And よ is the particle for emphasis. Usually you can almost ignore whatever is in the end of a sentence without missing most of the context lol
But don't get discouraged, the beginning of the journey is the hardest, but also when you learn the most! Two years ago I was playing a kana-only game (Monster Rancher on the GBA) and "mining" pretty much every word into anki, with DeepL translations (godawful), while I was pretty much unable to parse a sentence on my own, but I still had some fun, and I learned really fast (a few months later, I was playing Chrono Trigger with a script, and actually understanding quite a bit, one year later I was playing Rune Factory in full JP with no OCR, just immersing). So just take your time, and remember that even if it feels like you're stuck, as long as you're studying a bit every day, eventually you'll try again and Leaf Green will feel a walk in the park ;)
Hey yo Mr I want learn Japanese so bad through pokemon but don't know what's a script and what's an ocr I don't know where to begin what should I memorise do you have any beginner advice
your prep work is like you’re about to write a paper on this 😂
I had a very bad experience in BDSP in japanese. While I was going home to talk to my mother I found a Shiny Bidoof... but without Pokéballs 💀💀💀
Since that day I've never touched a japanese Pokémon Game ever again, but maybe I'll restart in these days. Great video Mat ❤
Good timing.
Big fan of these little pocket arsonists! 😁
OK, cool, what about Zelda games? 😃
Start with Ocarina of Time, then Majora's Mask, then Wind Waker, then you might possibly have enough knowledge to challenge Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. If the language in BotW/TotK is still too hard even after the first three, try some of the 2D games and maybe Twilight Princess first.
what about pokemon games for ds or gba?
They are included in this video! :D
Do monster hunter stories 1 learning review!
I didn't buy a Nintendo Switch to have to sit next to a computer!
And I don't get why each person should have to use OCR technology...
Why don't we have a website with all the text?
Better yet, the text and translations.
I wouldn't want to have my Nintendo Switch connected to a PC, but I wouldn't mind having my cellphone nearby, reading the texts and translations. 🤔
Haha of course, however as a language learner having the power of a PC to help is preeetty amazing ;)
Of course you don't have to have it, and this video was not made under the assumption you would. I mentionin the video how the games in hiragana/furigana are best if you dont have any OCR help
@@GameGengo yes, as a relative beginner, I'll have to choose from games with furigana.
But having the script next to me in my phone would be great too.
That's an option with some games, right?
I decently found your channel and it's awesome. 😀
I'm still not big on sitting next to a computer. 😅
Data analytics? Me likey
pokemon soul silver #1. fight me.
Seconded. Best game in the series. But I am a Heart Gold guy. Ho-oh over non-dark Lugia
Crystal > hgss
What special benefits has Soulsilver for language learning over the other games?
Silver/Gold #1 no need to be hoity-toity with the remakes
@Zaurthur I'm a huge sucker for having my pokemon walk behind me lol I didn't like that the gen 3&4 pokemon are in the national dex tho. I wanted to maintain the gen 2 experience. Didn't make sense to me for gen 3 and 4 pokemon to be suddenly in Kanto and Johto.
In the beginning of the video you say ”Most easiest"、Is your brain thinking 一番簡単 ? :>)
遂にヤッタ！
Damn you’re going to make me spend like 350 dollars to get a 3ds and alpha sapphire 😭
I also want arceus 😔
wait, conenct a switch catridge to the PC to highlight the text and translate? how??
He means run your switch’s HDMI through a capture card and connect that to your PC. You can run Kamui or whatever OCR you’d like on your PC’s window that is displaying the output of the capture card.
@@paprikayes yeah I was googling about it, thanks a lot! already bought the card!
YEAH... BUY.. *WINK* *WINK*
Dude, you need a beard and a mustache.
Hahah why do you say that? Haha
@@GameGengo Just a style/fashion advice, you don't have the jawline to support your current shaved style.
@@MGM_Think Haha thanks, I'll give it a shot one day for you :P I have always wanted to give it a go, but I feel too rough/unclean when I try
How dare you imply negative emotions with Bidoof
hahaha im soooory! Please forgive me! hahah
He forgot Colosseum and XD😢
comment for algorithm
Let's stop pretending emulators don't exist, it's silly