Learning Japanese (To Play Mother 3)

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Unassuming Local Guy

Unassuming Local Guy

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I need to play Mother 3. It is the very root of all that is good in gaming. But there's a problem. I can't read the text. How would one start on an internet quest to learn Japanese for the sole purpose of gaming. I don't need to be able to understand spoken word, just the text present in most games.
 
[quote name='siamesellama']I'd still like to learn for the sake of knowing.[/QUOTE]

A lot easier said than done. I suggest that you learn the katakana and hiragana. Once you get the hang of each set of symbols, get a dictionary and start translating the words instead. Although I haven't played the game I'm sure Mother 3 would require more than basic Japanese.
 
win the heart of a cute japanese girl who can translate for you. It'd be much easier than learning japanese yourself.
 
[quote name='siamesellama']I need to play Mother 3. It is the very root of all that is good in gaming. But there's a problem. I can't read the text. How would one start on an internet quest to learn Japanese for the sole purpose of gaming. I don't need to be able to understand spoken word, just the text present in most games.[/quote]
There's pretty much no chance of you learning written but not spoken Japanese, or of translating your game from a book or the internet. It takes work just to learn how to look up kanji characters in a book, never mind understanding the different ways to read them.

I'd wait for a hacked rom or go with jer7583's suggestion. ;)
 
Assuming you have little to no knowledge of Japanese you could try this series:

http://www.jlist.com/SEARCH/GENKI_INTEGRATED

But Japanese is a very difficult language to learn. It could take years to pick up enough of an understanding of not only meaning, but the context of the language, let alone get through a typical RPG.
 
[quote name='jer7583']win the heart of a cute japanese girl who can translate for you. It'd be much easier than learning japanese yourself.[/QUOTE]

Cheapyd's life story?
 
If I recall, wasn't Mother 3 slated for a European release by the end of this year? If you want to wait (hell, I don't, but...) then that may be your easiest option.

Then again, to be fair, learning some katakana and hiragana is a great way to make heads-or-tails of a lot of imports with only a small to fair amount of text.
 
All NoA has had was the "Stay tuned for more info!" line on the Mother 1+2 page on their site from about 2 years ago.

I'm starting to doubt the Europe release, especially when you consider even Earthbound was never released in Europe.

Maybe they'll announce something at TGS.

Mother3.org is slowly working on a fan translation, but I believe they were only around 65% last time I checked in.

There are a couple of quick walkthroughs floating around (Essentially a Point A to Point B one), but nothing major is on the immediate horizon.
 
Personally the game is just a port of what the N64 game should be. The big bad guy is obvioulsy Pokey from the last game after taking success over the original badguy.....( Mewtwo ) or Ness darkside
( since the SNES game abandon the past game or was another story )

You can finish the game in less then two days including sleep.

Towards speaking and reading Japanese and other by watching Anime and various movies. What I really need is kiddy shows to sing along to. As if there is a Japanese Saseme Street. You know things like "how to eat at a Sushi bar" or "how to use the bathroom". I have some "Learn Japanese tapes" lying around the place along with a Dictionary and coursebook also.

My advice is just to play the game and remember meanings and positions. I was recently palying my "Dragon Quest V" without turning to guides unless I was stuck in a certain area or want to get extra items and I could just pcik up the game and play it without any mistakes.

I also went threw the entire "Wonder Project J2" ( Which I own ) and did every single task done to get her the dress she wears on the cover yet I still messed up when I scared off the boy and was stuck right when I was going to finish the game thus eventually my memory card tapped out.
 
Japanese is not a hard language to learn. I've been teaching myself the language for some time now. The hardest part is devoting time to study.
 
Japanese is twice as hard as a Western language because not only do you have to learn a new language itself, you also have to learn a couple of new "alphabets."
 
[quote name='jer7583']win the heart of a cute japanese girl who can translate for you. It'd be much easier than learning japanese yourself.[/QUOTE]

This is a guy who has placed the ability to play a single RPG as being of such importance as to make a serious educational commitment. Somehow 'babe magnet' doesn't seem likely to also appear on his resume. Perhaps he should start with 'Don't cause cute bilingual Japanese girl to flee in horror and disgust at your apporach,' and work his way up.

A few years of intense study of Japanese may be faster and less costly.
 
I can think of a dozen languages that would be easier to learn that Japanese just by virtue of sharing the alphabet I already know and using generally the same phonemes and syllabic break structure. OTOH, Japanese would be terribly useful for the geeky stuff and opens up some job opportunities.

One way to deal with Mother 3 is to get a really detailed walkthrough that includes all of the dialogue. If you can OCR the text from that you have a shot at simplifying the translation process. The problem is that it will lack much of the spontaneity of playing the game normally.

Better yet, get over it. It's just a friggin' game. Earthbound was amusing but not a life changing event. Realize you've developed an unhealthy obsession and move on.
 
lets not forget the whole tonal thing (which I guess isn't important in this guy's case.) Ko-nI-chI-wA might be hello and KON-ichi-wA might be "I'm gonna splooge all over this ice cream and poop on your dog's chest"

but yeah, you won't just learn japanese over night. languages take years of practice. and with a video game as your motivation, I doubt you'll get far unless you're sick in the head.
 
[quote name='epobirs']Better yet, get over it. It's just a friggin' game. Earthbound was amusing but not a life changing event. Realize you've developed an unhealthy obsession and move on.[/quote]

I think that's a bit harsh. Learning a second language is a perfectly acceptable thing to do as a hobby; good for him if he found something practical, like a videogame, to apply it to, and work towards as a goal.
 
[quote name='RelentlessRolento']int there a euro version in full english?[/QUOTE]

No. Nintendo Power Europe had a story on it a month or so back and it implied it was coming to Europe by Christmas. But realistically, its not going to happen. A game that sold awful in the US, to the point NoE decided against releasing doesn't bode well for the sequel to that game. I figured that something would be announced at E3, but there wasn't. So if TGS passes without a peep...I'd expect the localization movement is dead.
 
[quote name='Vegan']I think that's a bit harsh. Learning a second language is a perfectly acceptable thing to do as a hobby; good for him if he found something practical, like a videogame, to apply it to, and work towards as a goal.[/QUOTE]

Practical? Practical would be seeking work in the industry with the asset of being functional in the two most prominent languages used in games. Learning a new language with hardly any common ground to one's native tongue, just for the sake of a single game is not practical, it's scary obsessive.

It reminds of a friend of mine who was obsessed with going to Japan to try to win the heart of this anime voice actress and singer. He was slowly acquiring some grasp of Japanese as part of his goal. Nevermind that she might be taken aback by a 6'6" negro appearing out of nowhere to proclaim his love. Especially since the cute young girl whose image he fell in love with hadn't existed for many years since those pictures were from the mid-80s when she was in her early 20s and he barely in his teens.

But he at least might manage to channel his interest to cute young Japanese girls in general and apply his studies to winning one over. His obsession at least has a long term relationship as its goal. He seems more level headed in retrospect after seeing this thread.
 
[quote name='epobirs']Practical? Practical would be seeking work in the industry with the asset of being functional in the two most prominent languages used in games. Learning a new language with hardly any common ground to one's native tongue, just for the sake of a single game is not practical, it's scary obsessive.

It reminds of a friend of mine who was obsessed with going to Japan to try to win the heart of this anime voice actress and singer. He was slowly acquiring some grasp of Japanese as part of his goal. Nevermind that she might be taken aback by a 6'6" negro appearing out of nowhere to proclaim his love. Especially since the cute young girl whose image he fell in love with hadn't existed for many years since those pictures were from the mid-80s when she was in her early 20s and he barely in his teens.

But he at least might manage to channel his interest to cute young Japanese girls in general and apply his studies to winning one over. His obsession at least has a long term relationship as its goal. He seems more level headed in retrospect after seeing this thread.[/QUOTE]

those darn negrotakus.
 
Wow. Who would have thought learning a new language would produce such a backlash? I especially like the cute Japanese girl comments. You know, considering I'm married and all.

My initial motivation may be to play a game but I certainly am not turning my back to other opportunities. I'm about two semesters away from having two bachelors in two disciplines of engineering. If I were to pursue this further, I could easily put that to use in business. Aside from that, both my wife and I would like to visit Japan some day, and I certainly don't want to go there without at least a basic understanding of the language.

And what's wrong with just having the knowledge?

Thank you to all who provided resources and info.
 
Just go for it.

However, I've heard people say they want to learn Japanese for the purpose of playing import games before, and eventually give up. I don't know anyone that's actually done it.

I'd suggest classes and having someone that knows Japanese teach you. Learning on your own would be much too difficult. Speaking Japanese is much easier than reading and writing it. And it's always good to have a teacher trying to motivate you.

My wife's Japanese and I've been learning bit by bit for years, and I can only recognize a few characters like montain, fire, fish, numbers, etc. Very basic things.
 
I'm with you Siam, I'm surprised at the backlash. I think though that most people's hearts are in the right place. It just isn't practical to learn a language to play one game. Though, if you learned the language, there are probably many games you would end up playing.

I think you would need some outside motivation. Though, being in business could be enough. Honestly, the easiest way to learn, I would think is taking a class. Your college probably offers classes in the Japanese language. It would be years before you know enough to play a game with it, but it might be fun.
 
you can learn hare basic japanese language which is helpful to you for playing games also. www(dot)learnjapanesefree(dot)com
 
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