Japanese Video Games

Dear Diary,

There’s something I’ve often wondered about since I came to Hong Kong — why do the video game shops here usually prefer to carry the Japanese versions of games instead of the English versions of games?

Of course, I understand that if a game is only available in Japanese, then we would get it in Japanese, but what about games available in both languages? Why does Japanese seem to be preferred?

Why am I even curious about this? Well, it seems to me that more people in Hong Kong speak English than Japanese. Sure, some Japanese live and work here, and yes, some local people can speak Japanese. However, English is the preferred second language in Hong Kong, and it is taught in every school. So again, why the preference for Japanese language games?

This intrigues me even more when I find myself looking for a RPG (role-playing game). These games are usually dialogue heavy, and the story is often one of the key factors of the game. Yet, of all the game genres, this seems to be the one where the Japanese language is most preferred.

Wanting to understand the phenomenon more, I decided to try a Japanese RPG for myself. I bought myself a copy of Final Fantasy XII International. (This game had the bonus of allowing me to watch the cut scenes in English while the menu/commands were in Japanese.)

To prepare for my experiment, I printed out some Japanese/English translations I found for the game online. So, dictionary in hand, I started to play the game. It wasn’t too bad at first, but the deeper and more involved the game became, the more I was forced to pause to look at my dictionary. In time it just became too tedious and I eventually stopped playing.

I wonder what local Hong Kong people do to play these games. Do they print out similar dictionaries? Or have they been playing these games in Japanese for so long that they have sort of learned all the important words?

Curiously, though, not all games are preferred in the Japanese language. For example, most games in the sports genre are only available in English (in my experience at least).

So, for now, (at least until I can get an answer to this interesting bit of video game news) I’ll go back to playing Fifa 10.

I remain respectfully yours,

Stephen

PS: Thank goodness I can buy the games I want online.

PPS: And thank goodness I have loving, sweet, great, awesome parents who will buy me games for Christmas.