Learn Japanese Online Hub

Free guide · 5 min read

Japanese for gaming

Menu vocabulary, online play, and the words you need to get through a Japanese-language game without guessing which button saves.

Games are one of the best reading practice grounds available: short lines, repeated vocabulary, and immediate feedback when you understand.

Menus and screens

The words on nearly every title screen:

hajime kara
new game (“from the beginning”)
tsuzuki kara
continue
settei
settings
hozon / sēbu
save
kettei / modoru
confirm / back
shūryō
quit
Why it works

はじめから and つづきから are the two you must not mix up - one overwrites, one resumes. Both end in から (kara, “from”), which you met in the lessons as “from”.

In-game vocabulary

tairyoku
HP, stamina
kōgeki / bōgyo
attack / defence
buki / bōgu
weapon / armour
keikenchi
experience points
nakama
party member, comrade
kaifuku
recovery, healing
Why it works

経験値 breaks down as 経験 (keiken, experience) + 値 (chi, value) - Japanese compounds are often this transparent once you know a few kanji, which is why kanji study pays off fast in games.

Playing online

yoroshiku onegaishimasu
said at the start of a match
arigatō gozaimashita
said at the end
donmai
“don’t mind” - never mind, no worries
naisu
nice (good play)
kaisen
connection
ochita
disconnected (“dropped”)
Why it works

The same よろしくお願いします / ありがとうございました bookends from the dojo guides show up in online lobbies. Japanese online play is markedly more polite than most Western equivalents - using them makes you an instantly welcome teammate.