Pokemon (Pocket Monsters ポケットモンスター) (Gameboy)

To kick off the new blog, we'll start with a nostalgic favorite for most people. Pokemon, known in Japan as Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター)

To be as brief as possible,  ポケットモンスター was originally released in two versions，Red (赤) and Green (緑)．Then, a Blue (青) version was later released which featured updated artwork on monsters, a few bug fixes and other minor changes. This was the standard that was used for the US releases of Red and Blue. A Pikachu (ピカチュウ) edition was also released in Japan which was as close to the anime the game could get.

 ミュウちゃん元気そうだね？

BUT! This is not a review of the games. Hopefully by the end of reading this you'll be a bit more informed on what to expect when purchasing these games in Japanese. 

For starters, there is no kanji (漢字) in the games. This may come as a shock, since kanji seems to be everywhere. The Game Boy could not handle all those characters, so what we're left with is hiragana and katakana (ひらがな/カタカナ) with spaces none the less!

Now before you're either
a) Extremely excited to read spaces in Japanese sentences or...
b) Scared there's no kanji

RELAX! Japanese kids played these games just fine didn't they? You're an older, wiser person. You can do it!

If you've played these games before, in English or your native language, it may throw you off to see most pokemon with different names. Pikachu has managed to transcend borders and retain its name, but I myself wasn't used to リザードン(Lizardon, also known as Charizard) right away.

While most characters, towns or items are called different things, the game play is the same. What you see is what you get, Pokemon in Japanese, with no kanji and spaces!

I've played through all 4 of the generation one games in Japanese, and I would suggest having some type of dictionary on hand at all times. The most obscure words are names of people or towns, but it's important especially when dealing with items. Basic katakana should be able to help you figure out a lot of important ones, however.

マスターボール

If this is your first venture into playing a Japanese game, then you're in for a good time. I find there's a nice mix in familiarity and uncertainty. But where to buy?

eBay is the only reasonable place to buy these games. You can find them boxed or unboxed according to your liking and they generally run cheaper than their American counterparts even after shipping. If you have to pick one, I would go for Green (緑) or Red (赤) because of the ridiculous pokemon designs but any choice is fine.

Wrapping Up:
Kanji (漢字)? No
Large knowledge of Japanese? Basic amount
Should I have a dictionary with me? Definitely 


Thanks for reading, hope to see you for the next post!