Created On: Wed Mar 09 2022
General Game Info (Availability, Price) [4]
When this game launched alongside the Nintendo Switch it changed the concept of open world games and completely blew my mind. The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is an experience I would recommend to almost every video game fan… but can you learn Japanese with it?
Firstly, although the game launched over 4 years ago as of the time of recording, the game is still nearly full price - though you can buy special editions with all the DLC and it occasionally goes on sale - it’s never more than around a 30% discount - as is the curse of a first party Nintendo title. So compared to other games you could practice Japanese with - this one is on the more expensive end. Being an exclusive as well means if you don’t have a switch you’re going to have trouble finding a way to play it… if you do have a switch however - luckily you don’t have to worry about buying the correct regional game as you can play the game in Japanese regardless of the region you bought it in.
Japanese Level [7]
On the whole, the Japanese level is not too difficult. The game often talks of soldiers 兵士, knights 騎士, heroes 勇者, battles 戦闘 and destruction 破滅. But after learning these words and hearing the repetition you start to get used to them. The rest of the language in the game is mostly instructions , descriptions or simple conversations between the few NPCs in the game. The game does have voice acting, but it’s reserved explicitly for only the most important of NPCs… and even then they have some dialogue with no voice. This is nice listening practice when you hear it but I would say 99% of the play time will be reading or combat and exploration.
That being said there is quite a lot to read… if you look for it. Every time you pick up an item - it gives you a description of the item and how to use it. For example with foods it has a short description and then what properties it adds if combined in a dish!
The story is both interesting but also very sparse. If you can follow what is being said, learning about the land and the lore is super interesting and they even verbally tell you what to do and where to go next. If this causes problems there is a quest log and map markers - but these aren’t the most detailed quest trackers I’ve seen.
Most of the language input, aside from the descriptions, will come from talking to the NPCs who reside in the several towns and who travel the roads that connect them. These conversations aren’t essential, but they usually have little bits of humour or world building that makes talking to everyone a little bit more fun than tedious. Finally all these dialogues and descriptions come with furigana and a nice clear font - which really wins the game some bonus points for accessibility if reading isn't your strong point.
Story Progression [7]
I briefly touched on it earlier but the story in BotW is rather unique. The first hour or two of the game is somewhat focussed - needing to clear some objectives before the rest of the world opens up to you (though even this initial area has some freedom). Once you have the parasail there are some story beats to help you progress but in general you’re free to go wherever you want. This is great because you can let curiosity be your guide. There are some puzzles you really should solve, some dungeons you really should beat. But all of this is optional. If you want to, you can go straight to the final boss and try to tackle it. In a normal playthrough I wouldn't recommend it - and from a learner's perspective even more so.
The puzzle shrines usually are named something relevant to how to approach solving them, so if you can’t understand the hint in the name, some puzzles can be very difficult. However, if you do get stuck in one of the puzzles or quests having the freedom to stop, go somewhere completely different and maybe try again later with new equipment or information is great. So my advice to get the most out of this game is to find people and talk to them and really experience life in this new world…. In Japanese.
(Gaming to Learning) Ratio [5]
However this freedom also comes at a cost and that cost is potentially spending hours walking and exploring with very minimal Japanese exposure. You can unlock some fast travel points - but even unlocking all of these takes a very long time with minimal input. The time between voice acted cutscenes is also quite large. And being caught in a thunderstorm inhibiting your ability to progress and causing you to fall down a mountain, losing 20minutes worth of progress is just as disheartening as it would be in real life.
So overall the gaming to learning ratio here is very much in favour of gaming. Which is okay - if you wanted your input to be super dense reading all the time you’d read a book right... But learning via video games is just so much more engaging it’s just so… fun.
Fun Factor [10]
Of course, nothing is for everyone and I’ve heard people have valid criticisms of this game. But it seems the vast majority believe this game is a lot of fun. Though exploring is immersion dead time as I have decreed - even exploring and climbing and flying in this game is super fun. I might suggest to split up your play sessions into talking to everyone in a town, looking up new vocab and really trying to learn about the story taking place in the game. And then other times put on a podcast or a tv show you’ve seen before in the background (in Japanese of course) and go exploring. Climb all the towers, challenge your brain with the puzzles. Fight the big monsters! All while getting some sweet passive immersion.
Verdict
So thus far I’ve said a lot of good stuff about botw but not an awful lot of good stuff about it as a language learning resource. So let’s answer the question. Can you learn Japanese with tloz botw?
As always the answer is yes, but with a hefty price tag, Nintendo switch exclusive and large portions of downtime. I would recommend many other games over this one first. Again because the efficiency is so low I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners, but if your motivation towards this franchise overpowers your desire for efficiency, I think beginners could find it useful thanks to the furigana and context. Also if you already own a switch, this is a game worth playing in it’s own right - perhaps practicing your Japanese study could be a secondary reason to play. Or if you have already played the game once and want to get familiar with the game and the world again before the sequel is released - then to you I honestly recommend playing BotW in Japanese.
For it’s hours and hours of content, interesting story filled with reading practice and the large immersive world to get lost in and meet so NPCs who can’t wait to tell you their cooking recipes.