Playing Pokémon Games in Japanese

So you are learning Japanese and you want to play your favourite Pokémon game in Japanese. Where do you start? Which game to pick?

This is what I have done in the past, the things I consider when I have to choose a game and some useful tools and websites that helped me.

Before you start

Even before you start, there are things to consider when you choose to play a Pokémon game in Japanese:

Can my cartidge run in a different language?
Does the game have kanji or furigana functionalities?
How accessible is the game? Will it get frustrating to play in a different language?

Japanese box art of games from Red to Black 2

Gen I ~ Gen V

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You might be most familiar with the story in these games and could be fun to play a childhood classic!

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Second-hand Japanese copies of these games tend to cost less, depending on the version and where you live

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If you are using an authentic cartridge, you will need a Japanese copy – these games do not have a language selection screen

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Hiragana and katakana only! Reading kana-only text can be difficult for language learners, the lack of kanji (except for B/W) makes it harder to understand the sentence structure

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Despite the charm of the classic Pokémon experience, old games do not have modern quality of life features – this can get quite frustrating when you add language learning on top of that!

Japanese box art of games from Y to Brilliant Diamond

Gen VI ~ VIII

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These games have a language selection screen! Any copy of X, Y, Sun, Moon, Sword, Shield will have Japanese as an option

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Using the in-game settings you can switch kanji on – even if you don't know many kanji, it will be much easier to look up new terms

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Sadly, most of these games still lack furigana, so you might find yourself looking up the pronunciation of many words

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Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the first mainline game to offer furigana! However be aware the faux historical setting of the game can make the terminology more complex

Gen IX

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Like previous games, these also have a language selection screen regardless of their region

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Kanji option is available and all character dialogues have furigana

While you play

There will be many made-up terms that are specific to the franchise, such as Pokémon moves. Use PokéJisho to translate the names of items, moves and characters. It's much faster than looking up each term up on Bulbapedia;
Use settings to your advantage when you start the game, by setting text speed to low, for example;
If the game allows it, turn on kanji and furigana.

Still unsure?

Watch some playthroughs to see what it's like to play in Japanese. Game Gengo ゲーム言語 has some amazing videos breaking down the first few hours of many Switch games, including Pokémon;
Not ready to take on a mainline game? How about a spin-off? I had a great time playing Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX on Switch!

originally written on Tuesday, 22 August 2023

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