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Chronicles of a Nihongo n00b Gamer

By usagijen ⋅ March 27, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Rumors of my identity have been greatly exagerrated, such as being this Reisen bunny of the game Touhou

The comments I’ve read in my Shugo Chara DS game post reminded me of the time I was in the same boat as them. When I was a Nihongo n00b, yet filled with the desire to play Japanese games, and become a weeaboo On my part, it became a prerequisite that I memorize the Japanese alphabet first, at least, before anything else. Though my original intent in memorizing hiragana and katakana way back elementary grade 5 was no other than to impress my crush and to follow anime songs LOL.

I didn’t touch any Japanese import games before that, except maybe for those action or VS games where Japanese knowledge isn’t necessary for its full enjoyment. From what I can remember, the very first Japanese RPG game I played (and finished), during mid high school, was Slayers Royal. I blindlessly followed that game, going to places which the characters tell me to (thanks to my little Chinese knowledge I can have a sense of direction), fight in battles, etc. But the saddest part was when I managed to finish it. It ended, and I didn’t even know what the heck just happened lol. It’s like “uhm, what’s the plot? I think I left it a long the way?”

The second Japanese game I finished was Twinbee RPG, which I was able to understand for the most part, due to its simplistic nature. As such, I was able to infer what was happening despite the lack of knowledge in Japanese. I did however, find it difficult to get past one part, because I didn’t pay attention to the previous instructions given, and I didn’t have the heart to continue playing till about a year after I got stuck in the middle of the game orz. It was only when I decided to let the characters sleep inside the hotel, out of pure chance, that I found out that was the very thing I had to do to trigger the next set of events =/

The Ever Memorable First Otome Game

Fast forward to two or three years after the aforementioned n00b gaming, and I’m now going to share about the very first otome game I played. Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side, which marked the beginning of my journey into the otome game fandom. This is also the first original PS2 game I bought (during my 2nd year in college), somewhat out of sheer fangurl impulse, because of the longing I had to play a dating sim for girls. I knew about the existence of this game since high school, but since I wasn’t resourceful enough back then (and also because I was stuck with a dial-up), I didn’t really know how else I could get my hands on that game. Until, 2 years after, I saw it in this comic and game shop I visited one time, which went out of business a few weeks after.

I learned the most kanjis and vocabularies in this otome game of mine, for reasons I don’t think further explanation would be necessary. With a great motivation to want to understand something (like what the bishies are telling you?), you’ll be able to translate it into language learning Though hmm… I think I relied on some walkthroughs on the net for this one, but still, I learned a lot from it

That’s all. This yet another nonsensical post is brought to you by… the absence of the bunny

Feel free to share about your similar Nihongo n00b gaming experience, that’s the reason why I posted this in the first place

Discussion

10 comments for “Chronicles of a Nihongo n00b Gamer”

Now that’s just riveting ^^

Posted by Ryan A | March 27, 2008, 12:53 pm
@Ryan A: hehe, glad to see someone found this nonsensical post amusing, at the very least

Posted by usagijen | March 27, 2008, 10:48 pm
I’ve been trying to get my hands on the La Corda for PC or PSP game (to no avail). Len, Hihara and Tsuchiura seem to be calling to me, so I decided I didn’t care if I have zero knowledge of Japanese. LOL.

I’m aiming for a DS Lite since there are more games for that console. The Hayate no Gotoku one looks nice. But I should probably be aiming for a language class first. Haha. Must save up!

Posted by hazy | March 28, 2008, 7:57 am
@hazy: aww… *cough* I got it somewhere here *cough* Corda is fun!! it’s a must! It’s more fun and interactive than most dating-sim games you’ll see.

though of course, DS has a lot more games to offer :3 go learn Nihongo~ hehehe

Posted by usagijen | March 29, 2008, 2:17 pm
I played quite a share of Japanese RPG and strategy games when I was younger. Back when there was no Gamefaqs.

You want to know what gaijin protection means? ask me about that

on an unrelated note, I’m more of a Mokou person

Posted by T_I | March 30, 2008, 3:43 am
I’ve been going through just those sorts of experiences — despite only having 5 (going on 6) semesters of Japanese knowledge, I’ve recently bought same games in Japanese. It makes playing the games so much slower (since I often try to look up all the kanji I don’t know in order to understand it ), but I have learned some new words/kanji on the way, so I think it’s worth it. I hope someday I can get to the point of being able to play Japanese RPGs almost as fast as English ones!

By the way, do you think Tokimeki Mem. Girl’s Side is easy enough to understand for a relative beginner like me? I also would really love to play some dating sims for girls (and I have both DS and PSP).

Posted by Senna | March 30, 2008, 1:34 pm
@T_I: no gamefaqs… wow, that’s hardcore! x__x! as for gaijin protection, I think I get what it means, based on the context. It’s mostly present in complicated game genres, like RPGs, strategy, etc., from what I can see…

@Senna: Tokimemo Girl’s side is fairly easy, moreso because of the availability of the walkthroughs and translations for it. Visual novels are a tad simpler to play than RPGs, though of course the exciting action games fall on the latter category.

don’t get frustrated when it takes a looonng time to understand the dialogues and events in the game, coz that’s really a stage we have to go through as Nihongo n00b gamers I’m also hoping for the day I can play RPGs or other games as fast as the english versions, coz I’m sooo not there yet

so many kanjis to learn still =___= I used to keep a notebook of kanjis I encounter in various games, just so I can practice writing, and be able to memorize them better.

Posted by usagijen | March 31, 2008, 7:39 pm
Well, just got into the whole anime scene around half a year ago, but what really got me to learn Japanese were the various imported games I felt like actually buying for my DS. The Ouendan series was a big reason.

I remember studying by myslef for around 2 weeks, and learned my ‘gana and ‘kana. Kanji looks like some sort of hell… I’m still learning, slower than when I used to, but I’m still going…

Posted by Scotty | April 13, 2008, 8:22 am
@Scotty: DS~~ D: Man, I have to go get myself one before the year ends~~

and God Bless in your endeavors! Remember to do it for FUN :3

Posted by usagijen | April 13, 2008, 1:22 pm