Mostly because it's easier to understand and there's a ton of text to read, so it feels less like work when I play. But I have the voices in Japanese, so it feels like watching an anime. Sometimes I'll play in Japanese, but I usually default to English.
So Japanese still feels like work after all this time? Playing games like Metaphor in the original language is probably the main reason I've been studying Japanese, so I was hoping of one day getting to a point where it feels at least somewhat natural to do so.
Also, since I forgot to mention in my first comment - thanks for all your efforts over the years. I only recently stumbled onto your blogs but they've been really enriching so far.
One of my college professors once said this to me about reading Japanese: "It's always a struggle." He's not totally right, but he's also not wrong lol. And a translator I know once told me she doesn't read Japanese novels because it feels like work. I think I played a lot more games in Japanese when I was living back in the US and when I was studying. Now I do a little of both, but I find that playing in English is helpful to see the choices that translators made. I do read Japanese books, but I try to find authors who I really want to be reading, and whose writing I find pretty easy to get through. That's really the key for me. Once thing that's also a factor is that games like Metaphor have pretty complicated systems. Maybe I'd have more success playing something like a visual novel in Japanese where there's less in-game system verbiage to need to understand (and potentially mess up)...I'll have to give that a try and report back. Thanks for reading!
This is great, Daniel. Because I study myself and don't have any humans to ask questions of (one of those "downsides to social isolation in a post-COVID world"), I don't know why I haven't been subscribed to your Substack before; but this is precisely the kind of thing that helps with reading no end! Thank you.
What made you choose to play Metaphor in English instead of Japanese?
Mostly because it's easier to understand and there's a ton of text to read, so it feels less like work when I play. But I have the voices in Japanese, so it feels like watching an anime. Sometimes I'll play in Japanese, but I usually default to English.
So Japanese still feels like work after all this time? Playing games like Metaphor in the original language is probably the main reason I've been studying Japanese, so I was hoping of one day getting to a point where it feels at least somewhat natural to do so.
Also, since I forgot to mention in my first comment - thanks for all your efforts over the years. I only recently stumbled onto your blogs but they've been really enriching so far.
One of my college professors once said this to me about reading Japanese: "It's always a struggle." He's not totally right, but he's also not wrong lol. And a translator I know once told me she doesn't read Japanese novels because it feels like work. I think I played a lot more games in Japanese when I was living back in the US and when I was studying. Now I do a little of both, but I find that playing in English is helpful to see the choices that translators made. I do read Japanese books, but I try to find authors who I really want to be reading, and whose writing I find pretty easy to get through. That's really the key for me. Once thing that's also a factor is that games like Metaphor have pretty complicated systems. Maybe I'd have more success playing something like a visual novel in Japanese where there's less in-game system verbiage to need to understand (and potentially mess up)...I'll have to give that a try and report back. Thanks for reading!
This is great, Daniel. Because I study myself and don't have any humans to ask questions of (one of those "downsides to social isolation in a post-COVID world"), I don't know why I haven't been subscribed to your Substack before; but this is precisely the kind of thing that helps with reading no end! Thank you.