Created On: Mon May 02 2022
General Game Info (Availability, Price) [4]
Pokemon Sword and Shield were released in late 2019 as exclusives for the Nintendo switch. They received major paid DLC updates during 2020 and as of the time of making this video both games and DLC still retail for almost full price (with a minimal discount for a newer release of the game, bundled with the DLCs.) So I’d class this as a fairly high investment compared to other games. That being said the games are quite big with lots to do, but more on that later. The games are available worldwide in stores and on the eShop with Japanese as a language option regardless of region - what’s more this includes both a hiragana only text option, or a more natural kana and kanji mix - selectable from the settings ((I’d really recommend the mixed option for learners of all levels, due to the sheer number of homophones in Japanese))
Japanese Level [7]
In Pokemon sword and shield, there is no voice acting, so once again it’ll be reading practice only, however most dialogue requires a button input to advance the text, meaning you can really take your time to look up any new words and re-read sentences multiple times. There are a few times (such as status effects during battle) where the text will auto advance quickly, you can change the default text speed to slow, but sometimes it’s still hard to catch these moments. Luckily they are few and far between.
Most of the dialogue in the game is fairly straightforward since the target audience is children (despite what the hardcore breeding and battling scenes will have you believe) - some of the themes of the game talk about some supernatural phenomena however, again, this isn’t too often.
The main criticism people have against learning Japanese from pokemon is “you have to learn all the pokemon names and moves, which aren’t real words and thus a waste of brain space and effort”. This sounds like a valid criticism on the surface but I think it’s irrelevant. As someone who has been playing Pokemon for over 20 years I know most of the standard attacks which persist from game to game, and any new moves are basically subtle tweaks from existing moves. I’d argue that having Pokemon moves in a different language encourages you to read the moves description more closely than you would in your native language - and these descriptions tend to use real words. And with regards to Pokemon names, it can be annoying thinking “I dont know what pokemon to use next because I dont know this name” and sure maybe you are at a type disadvantage for one turn. But with nearing 900 monsters, I’ll be honest I struggle to remember names and types in English at the best of times!
Story Progression[8]
So in Pokemon Sword and Shield there is a story...
But it all seriousness it’s a mildly entertaining story that puts children in the shoes of a new pokemon trainer on the road to become a champion - it does it’s job but isnt too deep. Thus there arent too many points in which language learners can get stuck. There are a couple of occasions where main NPCs will ask you to do something, or collect something or go somewhere to progress, but with the help of the map menu with a handy waypoint flag - plus a short description of the objective it shouldn’t cause too big a problem.
Pokemon games have been gaining the reputation of getting easier over the years, whether thats true or not - for learners thats great because time grinding is not time learning. If you want a bit more of a challenge make it yourself, in my playthrough of sword I decided to use only grass 草 type pokemon for the entire game!
Pokemon games can have progression in more ways than just the story however. Gotta catch em all right. And though it’s a daunting task nowadays collecting is still a fun objective. On the road to catching them all though there are some big road blocks, one example with regards to evolving pokemon, there are times you must use certain items on certain pokemon, find secret areas, and make your pokemon happy at different times of the day - this isn’t so much a language problem as it is a “new to the pokemon franchise” problem. I’m sure NPCs somewhere in the world do give you hints and advice on catching and evolving pokemon, but it could be a bit overwhelming to keep track of it all. However talking to every NPC isn’t that bad an idea as I’ll discuss in the next section…
(Gaming to Learning) Ratio [5]
The majority of gameplay time in pokemon is battling and walking around the overworld - which in itself doesn't require that much Japanese reading or comprehension - so if you want to maximize your immersion time I highly recommend talking to the NPCs… sometimes its nonsense, sometimes it’s advice, sometimes lore, sometimes its funny albeit a little corny - but just trying to decipher which kind of dialogues it is, is comprehension in itself. As well as filling in lore about the world of Galar and Pokemon in general so it pays to talk to people!
Another method I really recommend to get your immersion up is… catching pokemon!
That's right. Every time you catch a pokemon, their data is logged in the pokedex ポケモン図鑑, along with a short snippet of facts or other info. This can be super interesting, crazy, creepy and they are just really nice bite size pieces of language comprehension practice.
Something I like to do is catch a pokemon, read the pokedex entry, and then send it out into the world with a wonder trade… when I get another pokemon back in return, I then read their entry before repeating the process.
In this regard I think the ratio is pretty good if you want a more laid back study session, small chunks of info spliced between longer stretches of just playing the game
Fun Factor[8]
As always, fun factor depends on you as a person and as a gamer. Sword and Shield have gotten a lot of negativity since release, but I was pretty satisfied with it, and part of the allure of playing in a different language is that it really feels like you’re in a different world. And thanks to the nice visuals, expansive world and whimsical music its a pleasant experience and an exciting world to discover. If you’ve never played a pokemon game before you might struggle with learning all the different types and moves and abilities - but there are some quality of life upgrades over the earlier games, such as the weakness and resistance indicator for moves alongside just accessing the info for each move much quicker during battle.
I think with the DLC, the game is a really vast experience and you can expect to spend upwards of 30 hours, but of that time, the productive learning hours will depend on how you’re playing the game. Catching, training and exploring are just as fun as they’ve ever been but its talking to people and reading in game texts that make up the learning portion.
Verdict [6.4]
It’s that time again to answer the question of “can you learn Japanese with pokemon sword and shield?”
And you’ve guessed it. The answer is yes, but there might be better options out there. If you’re a pokemon fan, and as the most popular media franchise of all time I’m betting a lot of you are, then this is a great game and possibly the best Pokemon game to learn japanese with period, thanks to the quality of life upgrades, easy to read fonts and kanji options and a more streamlined story.
But if Pokemon games have never done it for you, or you’ve really come to dislike the series as it’s evolved then due to the spread out nature of the japanese reading content, it might be better to spend your time playing something a bit more hands on - where progress is reliant on reading and understanding the Japanese, or just something in Japanese you really enjoy (if you want some advice please check out my other videos). Personally I enjoyed my experience with the game, I felt it was a good length, and I got some good reading practice out of it - particularly from the Pokedex entries.