[quote name='chickenhawk']Just out of curiosity, would Romance or Ghost in the Shell be unplayable without being able to read text or understand dialogue?[/QUOTE]
Well, I think GitS has subtitles in the main game. The menu would still be in Japanese but you could probably figure it out just by playing around.
I don't know about Romance 6 but I assume that's all Japanese and so wouldn't be very playable without the ability to read it. But I could be wrong.
Someone please correct me if I am.