How do you play Japanese-only games?

[kawaii-neko]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm curious how everyone here handles games that don't have an official localization.
Do you:

Use machine translation while playing?
Play in Japanese because you understand the language?
Wait for an official localization, even if it takes years?
Or just play in Japanese and look things up when you get stuck?
I'm especially curious about people who don't fully understand Japanese but still play the JP version. Do you find machine translation good enough to follow the story, or does it end up taking away from the experience?
I'd also love to know what you usually do with games that you really want to play but have no localization in sight. Do you just bite the bullet and play the JP version, or wait patiently for a localization?
Would love to hear everyone's experiences!

 

[orionsbestie]

people who don't fully understand Japanese but still play the JP version. Do you find machine translation good enough to follow the story, or does it end up taking away from the experience?

I used to rely on google translate for the bits I didn't understand, which were many-- but because I've learned a bunch of dramatic (?) vocabulary from anime and localized otome as well as some random kanji learning apps, I could get the meaning almost perfectly. I couldn't give anyone a decend translation that wasn't too literal, but it worked out for me when playing Dance with Devils for the first time. Nowadays I've gotten a tiny bit better and discovered Meikipop exists, so I just use that to read the kanji I don't understand and if somehow that's not enough, I look it up online.

I don't think it takes away from my experience?? Particularly because of the voice acting. It takes me a **While** to read my/heroine's lines because there's no voiceover other than mine trying not to sound like a toddler with a language disorder trying and failing to pronounce 暖かかった lol but the rest of the lines by the rest of the caracters? I understand those surprisingly well! I've been playing Hakuoki's FD Ginsei no Shou and while there might be some nuances I'm missing here and there, even the super formal way of speaking Saito has makes sense to me when I hear what he's saying instead of just trying to descipher wtf is written in the textbox. I don't think I'd recommend to someone on my level to play any Hakuoki game (except maybe ssl) in japanese tho. I just do it because I was desperate for more Saito content after all these years hehehe

 

[kawaii-neko]

I used to rely on google translate for the bits I didn't understand, which were many-- but because I've learned a bunch of dramatic (?) vocabulary from anime and localized otome as well as some random kanji learning apps, I could get the meaning almost perfectly. I couldn't give anyone a decend translation that wasn't too literal, but it worked out for me when playing Dance with Devils for the first time. Nowadays I've gotten a tiny bit better and discovered Meikipop exists, so I just use that to read the kanji I don't understand and if somehow that's not enough, I look it up online.

I don't think it takes away from my experience?? Particularly because of the voice acting. It takes me a **While** to read my/heroine's lines because there's no voiceover other than mine trying not to sound like a toddler with a language disorder trying and failing to pronounce 暖かかった lol but the rest of the lines by the rest of the caracters? I understand those surprisingly well! I've been playing Hakuoki's FD Ginsei no Shou and while there might be some nuances I'm missing here and there, even the super formal way of speaking Saito has makes sense to me when I hear what he's saying instead of just trying to descipher wtf is written in the textbox. I don't think I'd recommend to someone on my level to play any Hakuoki game (except maybe ssl) in japanese tho. I just do it because I was desperate for more Saito content after all these years hehehe

thank you for sharing!! and i really relate to the "i understand it but couldn't give you a proper translation" part lol. being able to understand something in context and actually translating it naturally are two completely different skills.

 

[Daisy Magnus229]

I'm not that good in Japanese, so I use translator. Before, I used Visual Novel Reader or textractor, but sometimes it couldn't hook into games. Now I use OCR-based translator, like Luna Translator. It's much easier to use.

Still, if there's a proper localization of that game, I'll play it again. Machine translation isn't perfect and can be confusing if you're not used to it after all. Especially if the game set in historical Japan or include some regional accent (like Kansai Accent).

 

[SweetTranq]

Since AI is really advanced now, I use LunaTranslator with an API to help me understand Japanese in games.
Luckily, I've been a big fan of Japanese anime since I was young, so having been exposed to it for so long, I can understand common Japanese phrases.

New games are so tempting — but localizations can take forever. So if I really want to play them, I just have to push through and play in Japanese.
For words I don't know, I use the built-in dictionary in LunaTranslator.

I think when reading in Japanese, you don't necessarily have to understand every single word. Some words just aren't that important — and it's not like we're taking a test.

With AI translation now, I can understand about 98% of it. The other 2% is usually lore or world-building terms specific to the game.

If there's a game I really want to play but it doesn't have localization, I just go with my heart and use a translator. Maybe later, if an official localization comes out, I'll play it again.

 

[nekoky]

You just have to tough it out and play the Japanese version. You can't miss out on something you're interested in, right? And hey, you might actually learn some Japanese in the process.( ﾟ∀ ﾟ) Plus, with AI translation now, you can usually understand most of it – pretty convenient.
Sure, there's always a chance some games will get localized, but it's really a matter of luck. And sometimes the localization quality is all over the place – translations can be inaccurate, lose the original feel, or stray too far from the meaning. So it's pretty common to just go back to playing the original anyway.

 

[luvsubaru]

I always use a translator! But I don't play many recent Japanese otome games, because there's always a chance they'll be localized soon, so I prefer to wait.

 

[Liiiii]

If it's a game that I really want to play and that doesn't have localization in sight, I play it in Japanese. I'm just learning the language, so I'm really, REALLY slow (it takes me about six or seven times longer than an English game), so I haven't done it as much as I'd like. My dream is to one day play all otome games in Japanese with the same ease as English ones, but for now I only play the ones that don't have an English translation in Japanese because of the speed. I also use an app on my phone to manually translate all the words I don't understand yet. My first Japanese otome game (Gensou Manege) was quite difficult and it took me a long time to finish it, so I'm currently thinking about which games are better suited to my Laguige level. So if you know which games are easier than Gensou Manege, please let me know!

 

[6161xx]

When I play Japanese games, I always use an OCR translator or hook the game. Usually, when translating, you can choose multiple channels to translate simultaneously and display them, so in most cases, understanding the game's story isn't a problem. If your computer can handle it, you can use a better translation model for setup, which makes the translation more accurate.

 

[AkaTe]

I use VN Translator Pro, agent and AI to translate the games. Works pretty good.

 

[haiane]

I usually wait a while before playing newly released and popular games because there's a chance they'll get an official localization. I don't mind waiting a few years.

Since my Japanese vocabulary consists of maybe 500 words that I've passively picked up from anime in spoken form (plus the character の), I have to rely on machine translation if I really want to play an unlocalized game.

MTL has come a long way since the 2010s, thanks to AI. Back then, you had to use quite a bit of imagination to figure out what was happening in a visual novel, but now the translations are generally very fluent and accurate, with only minor imperfections.

Tools like HIllya51's LunaTranslator and Minh Shiba's Sugoi Toolkit are also a significant improvement over AGTH, ITH, VNR, and Textractor. I mostly use LunaTranslator with Google translator. I've heard that DeepL is even better, but it has a usage limit.

 

[ksana65]

I use Luna Translator and dictionaries. I've played a lot in this format, so I've already learned many phrases in Japanese, but playing without a screen translator is still difficult.

 

[Yara010]

I play with Luna translator, there are some words I don't understand even with it but overall it's pretty comfortable

 

[O cha]

From the comments, it looks like a lot of people use LunaTranslator. That's what I use too.

It uses OCR, so there's no need to hook the game, and in my experience the text recognition is almost always accurate. Setting the game's text speed to the fastest option also helps.

It can also use AI as the translation engine, but even without AI, the translation quality is surprisingly good. Personally, it's good enough that I don't really feel the need to wait for an official localization anymore.

 

[raccoonNiko]

I use LunaTranslator along with dictionaries. It works really well with pretty much any PC game, and you can hook it up to an emulator too, so it extracts the text directly from the game without any delay. OCR works well too, but I've never had any issues with the hook, so that's my go-to.
If you want even more accurate translation, it's also possible to download and run your own large language model locally and connect it to Luna. That way, you don't have to worry about hitting the usage limits, and everything runs offline.

 

[yuriia]

Yeah. At first, I used the translation patches that everyone shared. Later, after watching more Japanese programs, I could understand them, so I could look up words in the dictionary while playing and learned a lot of Japanese, but it was super tiring, haha. While current AI translation still has some shortcomings, it's much better than the old machine translation, so I'll still choose a translator when I can't wait.
However, I prefer to play the original game only after I can understand both spoken and spoken Japanese, because I think this allows for a better understanding and experience of the story and the connections between the text.

 

[pingtoryan]

I've gotten to a point where I can understand enough to go on with minimal to no assistance, so it's strictly Japanese original for me where possible.

...and I gotta admit, I forgot how not knowing the language feels... Knowing the language and having my own interpretation on things also make me cringe on official translation and especially localizations...for the most part.

 

[Arietta08]

I studied Japanese on my own years ago, and so I just play them in Japanese.
Minute differences in word choice can have a large impact on the tone (like how a casual line from a character might come off as flippant instead with just a small change of wording) so I definitely prefer to read the original text.
I still do encounter words I'm not familiar with yet though, and so I'll just look those up in a web dictionary when it happens.

 

[sky1]

I use AI translation tools! Specifically, I use LunaTranslator hooked up to AI LLM APIs as my translation source. Whether it's grabbing text via text hooking or OCR, the results are amazingly good!
To answer your question about machine translation: modern AI LLMs handle context and nuances so well that understanding the story is barely an issue for me anymore. It really doesn't take away from the experience at all.
So if there's a JP-only game I really want to play, I definitely don't wait. I just play it right away this way. Like I mentioned in another thread, if I 100% complete a game like this, I don't even bother buying the official localization if it comes out later!

 

[emik]

I usually use LunaTranslator but the accuracy of the translation depends on the game cuz even tho usually the translation is clear with only a few words not making sense, sometimes I can't understand it at all which is really frustrating so I end up dropping the vn

 

[dogiwall]

Would rather wait for an official localization or just study Japanese atp. Other than my many gripes on gen AI models, I refuse to pay to use AI APIs and my laptop can't handle local models. I also refuse to read long stories with classic MTLs because I tried to read a fanfic on Pixiv with that and it massively killed my enjoyment.

modern AI LLMs handle context and nuances so well that understanding the story is barely an issue for me anymore.

I disagree. Modern AI LLMs aren't always 100% accurate with translations. It definitely isn't capable of capturing the nuance of a language since it's not human; such as it's likely make metaphors literal, not pick up regional speech, and make subtle themes not so subtle. Nor would it able to capture the emotions of the original.

Also, AI's extremely bad at creative writing lol.

 

[marinech]

I've been learning Japanese for about two years I think, and I've tried VNs like pretty early. It was really really hard (´°̥̥ω°̥̥ )

At first I tried like taking a picture of the screen + selecting the text + pasting the sentence of dictionary jisho + noted down the words and their translation in my phones notes (it's way too time consuming so I wouldn't recommend UNLESS your japanese level is good and you're playing on a device that cannot be OCR/hooked)

Now I'm using Lunatranslator + browser which copy pastes the otome text to then look it up with yomitan (a dictionary extension). It is definitely easier and better, but it could prooobably get easier using meikopop instead ? (=ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ
If I'm not playing on PC then I go back to my traditional method minus the noting part, or directly translate it with Google Lens.

And with that I learnt a sizable amount of Japanese, although sometimes I got confused or unsure about the full meaning of the sentence, and the fact that sometimes reading can get quite slow doesn't make it as enjoyable as you'd read it localized... but at the same time, you won't improve as much if you don't actually read stuff in Japanese, so I accept not getting everything from the get go! (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))♡
(That and it is also rewarding when you understand what's going on on its own)