Text used in Japanese games

[Pacman555]

This might sound a stupid question, but in most japanese games (e.g. not RPGs, something more along the lines of racing games and games like Made In Wario), is the japanese text Katakana?

I was just wondering, as through knowing which text I was looking at, I could give myself a better understanding of japanese through a little bit of home learning.

Thanks a lot!

[Yoshimoto]

Its mainly a combination of kana and hiragana although there is some kanji from time to time.

Check out the feature in the Import / Tech section of the site for more information.

[Saurian]

This might sound a stupid question, but in most japanese games (e.g. not RPGs, something more along the lines of racing games and games like Made In Wario), is the japanese text Katakana?

I was just wondering, as through knowing which text I was looking at, I could give myself a better understanding of japanese through a little bit of home learning.

Thanks a lot!

Definetly learn the Katakana table man - it'll help you loads, It's very easy to learn and a valuable skill!

http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/table_k.html

The games you mention (Wario aside) will have either full English text for options etc or they will be written in Katakana. Even in action/adventure style games (Resident Evil/Devil May Cry etc) you'll be able to get by a lot better as important words within sentences or important functions will most likely be written in Katakana to add emphasis (even if the word is Japanese and not of foreign origin).
It's a little strange to read at first cos of the way it differs from our system, but once you get use to it, it's very logical.

[labrat]

Those of you who play Japanese games, how long did it take for you to become somewhat proficient in the language? Would you be able to understand most of what is said in say Final Fantasy XII? And what about games with voice acting?

[Pacman555]

Fantastic cheers Saur! I'll definitely crack on with learning that table now. I know that games like Ridge Racer et al nearly always have English, but I really meant games like Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, etc. Sorry should have been a bit clearer! And labrat, I would imagine that the text in a game like FFXII would be of a very complex nature, due to the complexity of the plot.

Probably anyway.

[Saurian]

I know that games like Ridge Racer et al nearly always have English, but I really meant games like Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid,

You wont regret putting the time in I promise. In games like Resident Evil/Dino Crisis etc when you see a sentence full of Hiragana and Kanji you will have character names, places, items and important words written in Katakana (mostly always the words are English). An example of Japanese words in Katakana would be in games like Biohazard (Resident Evil), Devil May Cry and Dino Crisis - you have words like Kagi (key) and Hashigo (ladder) - written in Katakana to add emphasis even though they are not words of foreign origin.

What makes Katakana easy to learn for gaming is that the words you will come across are like 95% of the time English.

[Tom Salter]

*cough* http://www.ntsc-uk.com/tech.php?tech=GuideToJapanese *cough*

If you play ANY Japanese games you can't afford not to learn Katakana. I'm shocked at the amount of people on here that don't know it really, it's invaluable.

99% of menus are in Katakana, and it's a very simplistic character set to learn, even if a few of them are a little similar.

You certainly won't be able to play a game like Final Fantasy with Katakana only, but games such as Biohazard (most Capcom games actually...), Winning Eleven series, and loads more are much more enjoyable if you can work out what you're buying in shops, or whatever.

It took me about a week to learn it, with a couple of hours a night. Just take a game that you can see lots of Katakana in and try to translate all the words you see. Or take pics and ask here if you're not sure

[Pacman555]

Thanks a lot boog, yeah it'll be good to actually understand key parts of memos in Resident Evil, stuff in Winning Eleven etc.

[NeilMcRae]

so what you are saying is that the Japanese use their own english written alphabet? So that if you learn this alphabet its actually english words on the screen? Jees why didn't I look into this simple.

[Pacman555]

Pretty much Neil, though it's not letter for letter, it's phonetic.

[Tom Salter]

Yes Neil, it's English words written in Japanese characters.

In that page I posted, look at one of the lower pictures. It says "Mi ssyo n" in the Japanese characters, which translates as Mission, naturally.

I really can't understand why all import gamers never learnt Katakana! It's so simple, and it gets you so far in import games without ever having to touch *shudder* gamefaqs for translations.

[NeilMcRae]

Yes thats what I meant.