What's special about a Japanese Sega Saturn?

[Breetai]

Because of my love for video games, I decided to take the time to learn the language. Now that I can play Japanese games with little trouble, it feels so good. Being able to play and enjoy the original versions is awesome.

Really? Holy c--p man, that's hardcore. How's your 漢字?

[Inazuma]

Because of my love for video games, I decided to take the time to learn the language. Now that I can play Japanese games with little trouble, it feels so good. Being able to play and enjoy the original versions is awesome.

Really? Holy c--p man, that's hardcore. How's your 漢字?

My kanji is pretty decent considering I played Japanese MMO's for 5 years, and those only had text based chat. There are still tons of kanji I can't read though but I learned a lot of the common ones. I don't play any Japanese games online now but I do watch raw Japanese TV exclusively, so I am still learning new words here and there.

[Allenkazaam]

Because of my love for video games, I decided to take the time to learn the language. Now that I can play Japanese games with little trouble, it feels so good. Being able to play and enjoy the original versions is awesome.

Really? Holy c--p man, that's hardcore. How's your 漢字?

My kanji is pretty decent considering I played Japanese MMO's for 5 years, and those only had text based chat. There are still tons of kanji I can't read though but I learned a lot of the common ones. I don't play any Japanese games online now but I do watch raw Japanese TV exclusively, so I am still learning new words here and there.

How'd you learn cuz ive been considering teaching myself

[Inazuma]

How'd you learn cuz ive been considering teaching myself

I started by watching subtitled anime for a few years. That taught me a lot of random vocabulary but I didn't know enough to actually put sentences together or have a conversation in japanese.

Next I jumped right into full-on Japanese MMO's. I quickly learned how to read basic hiragana and katakana since I was dealing with it in menus and items that were dropping, etc. After a few months of getting familiar with basic Japanese characters, I attempted to play and communicate with random Japanese players. At first, I could barely understand/read anything and I couldn't form sentences well at all, but I did my best and kept learning new things. After about 1 or 2 years of doing that, I was at the point where I could hop into a game with random players and get along just fine and they wouldn't be able to tell I wasn't Japanese.

The 3 years after that were cake. I had little trouble with anything. If I ran across a kanji character I couldn't read, I would ask someone how. I was always good at vocabulary so once they told me how to read it, chances are I already knew the word.

All of my free time went to either watching anime without subtitles or playing Japanese games. It was the constant immersion and lack of English translations that really did it for me. I put myself in an all Japanese environment so I had a very strong motivation to learn the language.

I think you could compare it to how babies learn languages. They learn from it being all around them constantly. They have to learn it to survive and communicate. You can learn words from context. It doesn't always have to be from subtitles or translations, but sometimes it is nice to look a word up that you aren't sure of.

[Breetai]

All of my free time went to either watching anime without subtitles or playing Japanese games. It was the constant immersion and lack of English translations that really did it for me. I put myself in an all Japanese environment so I had a very strong motivation to learn the language.

I think you could compare it to how babies learn languages. They learn from it being all around them constantly. They have to learn it to survive and communicate. You can learn words from context. It doesn't always have to be from subtitles or translations, but sometimes it is nice to look a word up that you aren't sure of.

That's basically how I've learned as well. I haven't taken a single Japanese class or even finished 1/3rd of a Japanese study text in my life, but I'm conversant and definitely read a few hundred kanji at least. How? Immersion, just like you. When I came to Japan originally, I could say hello and count to ten. I didn't even know how to say thank you or good-bye properly (no, people NO NOT usually say "domo arigato" or "sayonara"... I found that out pretty quickly). Now I can talk to my Japanese mother-in-law, who doesn't know any English beyond "hello", "thank you" and "please".

Still, the kanji makes playing RPGs difficult. I've made it through the PS2 version of Phantasy Star II and Saturn Lunar, but it was a struggle (I did not use any FAQS or help at all, other than a dictionary or annoying my wife with questions like "what's this?"). Online RPGs, I think, would be somewhat easier as you can ask in real time and communicate a lot easier. Most of the time when you type in a few kana, it gives you a choice of possible kanji. Makes it a lot easier!

I've taught English before and people always ask me thing like, "how do you teach someone a language when you can't speak their language?". Well, it's a lot easier than some people think.

[emwearz]

i see cuz i was thinking about getting a saturn but i was gonna mod it so i can play burned games cuz a lot of those games are quite expensive...

Even this is (or was, when I had a modded Japanese Saturn back in 1999-2001). The Saturn is not region-free and a mod-chip WILL not get around this. Even if you have a US (or PAL) system modded, you STILL need a Pro Action Replay 4 in 1 cart or something similar to play games from a different region (unless that's not the case anymore... my experience is outdated by about 8 years).

If you have a basic knowledge of electronics you can built and install a region circuit that lets you switch between the three regions. Its not as simple as a SNES or Megadrive mod, but its still fairly easy and cheap.

[GSZX1337]

but they tend to be superior to the American versions (well, at least if you can understand the Japanese language).

I've personally experienced this with Silhouette Mirage, the translated PSX version was butchered. Compare the screenshots on Hardcore Gaming 101. A whole background layer was taken out!

[fingersmaloy]

but they tend to be superior to the American versions (well, at least if you can understand the Japanese language).

I've personally experienced this with Silhouette Mirage, the translated PSX version was butchered. Compare the screenshots on Hardcore Gaming 101. A whole background layer was taken out!

They also tweaked the gameplay in horrible ways for the US release. There was already too much money-grinding in the original, but the American version is like "Money-Grind Mirage: The Grindening".