Games in Japanese

[Tiduas]

The reason i mainly started learning Japanese was for these wonderful Japan Only games, so i wanna know how much Kanji there is used in them?
Do i need to learn 100, 200 or 1000 to even be able to understand anything in them?
Can someone just tell me little about it, becuase someone must be playing these games =D

[Jonas]

Depending on what console you play on. The old nintendo and gameboy games tended to use hiragana a lot more than kanji. I suspect because of display limitations. Current games like on the PS2 etc uses kanji where kanji should be used, so you would need to know atleast the ~2000 joyo kanji to be able to read everything. I guess you would get far by just knowing the 1000 most common ones though.

[Charles]

Games for young children don't use as much kanji, so check the age level.

You might not find those games very satisfying, though, beyond a few minutes of amusement. But I think everyone should play Hello Kitty: Magical Block at least once. ;)

[Tiduas]

Today i played the game "Feel the magic" or "Project Rub" in Europe.
And found myself understanding many things in the menues since this game has both English and Japanese text to choose.
I went really happy since this is the thing i study Japanese the msot for, understanding the games ^_^

[jacksonboyle]

I played Final Fantasy IV on the Super Nintendo/Famicom in Japanese about two years ago, when my Japanese was even worse than it is now. I got through it, only having to resort to a kanji dictionary now and then. Its mostly in hiragana, as are the menus, and you get used to them quickly enough anyway.

You can get Doraemon study programs for the Gameboy, although we're back on a for kids tip with that suggestion...