A Gaijin's Guide to Solo-Leveling with the Best Games for Learning Japanese

Ever switched a game's language to Japanese, convinced that immersion will help you learn? Three hours later you're drowning in kanji and have no idea where the story went, wondering whether any of that counted as studying.

That is what it feels like when you walk into an S-rank game dungeon with E Rank stats. Ok, maybe you are C Rank, but you get the point. Let's find out how to learn Japanese with games that are actually built for learning Japanese.

1. You've started with the wrong video games to learn Japanese

Games like Pokémon or Persona 5 played in Japanese are what we call entertainment games. They're built to entertain, and so any Japanese you learn is a side effect. That makes them better for testing and reinforcing the Japanese you already know than teaching it, but unforgiving when you're still building your foundations.

Language learning games work the other way around. They build a dedicated curriculum straight into the gameplay itself while keeping the experience fun. The words, grammar, and skills you encounter are deliberately sequenced, with repeated chances to use them as you progress. With language learning games, learning Japanese is literally how you play the game.

2. How to solo-level your Japanese with learning games

This guide is for those who want to learn Japanese through learning games and solo-level their way up.

2.1 Start by determining your Rank

Your Rank is where you are. Pick whichever description sounds most like you, and start there.

Rank	Your Main Quest	You're probably here if
E RankBeginner Gaijin	Learn the alphabets and your first words	You can successfully pay at a konbini, provided the cashier only asks 現金 (genkin) or カード (kādo). Can also ask where the toilet is, but fully understanding their answer is another story.
C RankIntermediate Gaijin	Turn Japanese you know into Japanese you can use	You can customize your coffee order, make small talk with the barista about today's shitty weather, and Japanglish your way through a 30-minute conversation — with a little less English each time, ideally.
A RankAdvanced Gaijin	Handle Japanese you don't know	You can watch the latest episode of Jujutsu Kaisen without English subtitles. Then call a friend and discuss how hot Satoru Gojo was, in full Japanese.
S RankExpert Gaijin	Trick Japanese people into thinking you were born in Japan	Japanese people are confused that you're gaijin-looking but sound like you were born and bred in Japan. They're wrong, but you delight in not correcting them.

2.2 How to judge whether Japanese learning games are useful

Every game in this guide is scored 0–5 across five Learning Stats, based on how well it trains each skill at that rank.

The five Learning Stats

Stat	What it answers
Vocab & Grammar	Do you know the words and grammar you need, and can you retrieve them when it matters?
Reading	Can you understand written Japanese with less and less help?
Listening	Can you understand spoken Japanese as it gets faster and more complex?
Speaking	Can you produce your own Japanese, out loud, in real time?
Self-Reliance	When you hit something you don't know, can you keep going anyway?

You'll also find the full levelling criteria for every stat in the methodology section at the end. Now let's get to the fun part.

3. The best games for learning Japanese, dungeon by dungeon

After analyzing dozens of Japanese-learning games, here are our top picks by rank. Pair the games within each rank to cover different skills.

3.1 E Rank — the awakening of the beginner gaijin

You know a handful of words from anime, and katakana still looks like hiragana with a haircut. 80% of beginner Japanese learners quit within a year (Rubino & Hajek, 2024). Not you, though. These three games together can help you complete E rank.

The best E Rank game pick for learning new words & grammar from zero

Why we recommend this game-dungeon, and what 1,500+ reviewers on Steam said

• Teaches kana from scratch. A lot of beginner games assume you can already read hiragana. This one starts at zero, and is one of the rare few that teaches hiragana characters stroke by stroke. It also uses them in the very next conversation so they actually stick.
• You have to pass tests to advance. Every town ends with a test, and you can't move on until you pass it. Unskippable progress checks matter most for early beginners, because rushing ahead of your skill level is why most give up. 1 in 5 reviewers said previous learning attempts had failed before they tried Wagotabi. One player, after 10 years of learning Japanese: nothing worked, but this does.
• The gameplay feels like Pokémon but educational. You travel across Japan, talk to characters, and solve puzzles. As of our review, that includes 195 kanji, around 400 words and grammar points combined, and 2,600 voiced lines. Best one-line summary, from one player: if Pokemon and Duolingo had a baby.
• Speaking of that green owl. 69 of the 70 reviewers who mentioned Duolingo said Wagotabi taught them more. One wrote: I've reached the same level of Japanese in two days with this game as in 300 days with Duolingo.

Where it falls short — skip it if you already read kana, or want speaking practice

• Slow start if you already know your kana. Early levels can't be skipped, so more experienced learners might find the unskippable opening scenes boring. One reviewer went further, arguing that learners on a clock get basic entry-level knowledge and no more.
• No speaking at all. Levelling up your speaking skill is needed to clear E Rank, so we don't recommend using Wagotabi alone.
• The game is not yet finished. At the time of our review, two of five planned regions were available. So you might finish the game before you're ready for C rank.

The best E Rank game pick for your early speaking & listening foundation

Why we recommend this game-dungeon, and what 700+ reviewers on Steam said

• It lets you start speaking ridiculously early. Noun Town eases you into speaking by starting with single words. 1 in 4 reviewers praise the speaking feature, with one saying it forces me to confront how terrible my pronunciation is. That matters because most speaking tools start teaching in phrases or sentences. For earlier beginners, practising one word at a time is less overwhelming, and fixes your pronunciation before moving on.
• Native audio makes the listening practice feel more real. You hear 16 characters speak, helping you get used to how Japanese actually sounds across different voices, speaking styles and pitches. One player said it kinda feels like learning from a native speaker friend.
• Its 7 mini-games make revision sessions fun. Learning Japanese takes a lot of review. These mini-games make drilling Japanese into your memory less boring, and they're also required to progress through the main game. 4 in 5 reviewers who mention the mini-games are positive, with Learning Rush singled out as the standout — incredibly fun and helps to study without it feeling like studying.

Where it falls short — skip it if you can already speak in sentences, or want two-way conversations

• Mic drop, literally. Roughly 1 in 3 Noun Town players who mention the microphone report that it mishears them. One said [the mic] works like 80% of the time.
• It lets you speak, but not have actual conversations. Characters reply with pre-recorded native lines, so it can't react to anything you say. It's great for practising pronunciation and hearing natural Japanese, but not for actual conversational progress.
• Grammar is thin. 1 in 10 reviewers raise it. The most-upvoted version of this complaint, from a player six hours in: Great idea for a game, now I just need Grammar Village.

Best E Rank game pick for its early Self-Reliance feature

Why we recommend this game-dungeon, and what 250+ reviewers on Steam said

• It starts building Self-Reliance early. As you progress in the game, more dialogue switches into Japanese and gradually makes you rely less on translations. And it stays fun while doing it: 40% of reviewers use the word fun, vs 27% for Wagotabi and 31% for Noun Town — the highest share we measured in this guide.
• Review is built effectively into every battle. 12% of reviewers mention how effective the game's learning reinforcement is. Most who mentioned this were long-time players. One reviewer praised how effective the word retention is. It's easily the game's underrated selling point.
• A beginner-friendly game for learners who want more control. You can choose from 7 word-difficulty levels, giving you customization of your learning experience. This flexibility comes up in 13% of reviews, including one player who said it lets you learn at your own pace without ever feeling stressful or overwhelming.

Where it falls short — skip it if you want to speak from day one, or need lots of words and grammar

• It's a short introductory course. Roughly 250 words, 136 kanji and 50+ grammar tutorials are not enough to graduate from Rank E. One player confessed they learned them all in two weeks and 20 hours of total play. This is why it isn't our top rank pick for vocab & grammar.
• Its anime-centred script may not be for everyone. 13% of reviewers mention anime, weebs or otaku unprompted. That tracks with the game itself: much of its vocabulary, dialogue and humour is designed around Japanese you hear in anime.
• It doesn't ask you to speak. No speaking, no ranking up unfortunately.

3.2 C Rank — the awkward middle of the intermediate gaijins

You can mostly read a menu, and you know maybe 800 words. Then a real person says something to you and all your brain can produce is ええと (etto).

This is where you shift your focus from mostly learning Japanese to actually producing it. It's arguably the ugliest phase of learning Japanese. You'll sound awkward, maybe even cringey, but everyone who becomes fluent goes through this 'language puberty' phase. The good news? Our game picks below can help you outgrow it faster.

The best C Rank game pick for conversational practice with AI characters you can befriend

Why we recommend this game-dungeon

• You can have real unscripted conversations anytime. Change the topic, ask random questions, or say something unexpected, and the AI characters keep the conversation going. One user said: I love how I can improvise & ask other random questions, and the AI characters will still reply! They also correct your pronunciation and grammar as you go.
• Character memories give every conversation something to unlock. Characters reveal more of their memories as you keep talking. It's like getting to know a real friend, with more history, funny stories and shared interests to talk about.
• English translations, if you need them. If you get stuck, say it in English and the character secretly gives you the Japanese, so the conversation keeps moving. It makes speaking less intimidating for newer learners.
• Six characters make you practise six different kinds of conversation and levels of politeness (keigo). Some are friends you speak informally with; others work at a cafe or konbini, where you speak more formally. Different situations mean different ways to practise everyday Japanese.

Where it falls short — skip it if you don't know kana yet, or want to build vocab before you speak

• You should know kana before starting. Gaijin Mode won't teach you hiragana or katakana from scratch. One user notes: I feel like a beginner who doesn't know a lot of kana will face difficulty in conversing with the NPCs.
• There are no flashcards or structured vocab drills. You learn new words and grammar as they come up in conversation. That works well if you prefer picking things up while speaking, but can feel harder if you want to study the material first or revise it easily afterwards.
• JLPT tracking is still a work in progress. The word-progress map is still in beta and isn't something you can use for spaced repetition practice, so it's not yet ideal if JLPT study is your main goal.
• It can still feel a bit laggy. The conversation experience isn't always perfectly smooth yet.

The best C Rank game pick for learning grammar & vocab through a real RPG

Why we recommend this game-dungeon, and what 20+ reviewers on Steam said

• Enough Japanese content to take you through intermediate level. Shujinkou covers all kana, hundreds of kanji, thousands of words, and 100+ grammar points from N5 to N3. Its 700+ voiced lines add listening practice too. One player said: I realized how many Hiragana I had learned and how many words and grammar points I've learned.
• It's a real RPG-first game. You get 16 hand-built labyrinths, two story arcs, combat gameplay and side quests, while learning Japanese through the game's dialogue, mechanics and progression. You can also play it on Switch, PS4 or PS5. 80% of reviewers praised Shujinkou for feeling almost like a full-fledged entertainment game; one went further: I'm just as invested, if not more invested in the world and the gameplay mechanics as I am to learn Japanese.
• Some of the highest playtimes we've seen from learning games. 1 in 6 reviewers logged over a hundred hours; the highest at 489. That's rare for a learning game. That player 489 hours in simply called it a game you'll love or hate. After that much playing, take a guess which side they landed on.

Where it falls short — skip it if you're on a budget, need structure, or don't enjoy grinding

• It's expensive. Around 1 in 3 reviewers bring up the price unprompted. One calls the price tag the sort of elephant in the room.
• Ironically, learning Japanese is optional. The developers' own word, not ours. One player said they didn't engage too much with the Japanese learning parts. Great for self-directed learners; less so if you need the game to make learning unavoidable.
• Learning progress can feel slow, especially if you don't love dungeon crawling. Shujinkou takes its time introducing new language content. One experienced learner found it frustrating to spend 30 + hours collecting hiraganga [sic] and katakana orbs before moving past the basics. Around 3 in 10 reviewers mention grind or difficulty, so you need to enjoy the core dungeon-crawling loop.

3.3 A Rank — the advanced gaijin learns to rely on themselves

At lower ranks, language games are built with support to help you learn: furigana above unfamiliar kanji, English translations one tap away, hints when you get stuck. But eventually, that help becomes something you depend on. A true A Rank player is someone who turns away from all that help.

There's another problem: most Japanese learning games eventually run out of Japanese. They're built for beginners and intermediates, so once you know thousands of words and need harder, more natural Japanese, you outgrow them. Frankly, no single learning game has been built to carry you through A Rank yet.

So instead, build your own game dungeon out of things you already enjoy.

Quest for Listening Self-Reliance: watch your TV shows, subtitles off

You build listening self-reliance by following spoken Japanese even when some words go over your head.

Watch a Japanese anime or drama you already love with subtitles turned off. You might not catch everything, but that's the point. Listen closely to the words you do understand, the characters' reactions, and what's happening on screen to piece together enough to follow the scene, all while not pausing the episode. Think of it as eavesdropping for educational purposes.

Quest for Reading Self-Reliance: play your favourite game in full Japanese

You build reading self-reliance by learning to keep reading on even when you don't understand every word.

Go back to playing Pokémon or Persona 5 or whatever game you'd happily spend 50+ hours on, but this time, switch the language to Japanese. Entertainment games give you hundreds of hours of exposure to vocabulary and grammar through dialogue and gameplay.

When you see a word or sentence you don't know, use the story, characters and what's happening on screen to work out enough meaning to keep playing. The key is to understand Japanese contextually, instead of translating it right away.

Not sure what to play? Game Gengo's list of Japanese entertainment games compares games by difficulty, vocabulary level (up to N1), whether it has kanji, and other learning-friendly features.

Quest for Speaking Self-Reliance: have unscripted conversation daily

You build speaking self-reliance by learning to keep a conversation going even when you don't know exactly how to say something.

Talk about your favourite hobbies, your chaotic day at work, or how you literally bumped into your crush at the konbini. And when you don't know a word, don't immediately switch to English. The real test here is being able to describe it another way using the Japanese you already know.

It doesn't matter whether you strike up a conversation with a tutor, AI conversation partner, or language-exchange friend. Just keep the conversation unscripted.

3.4 S Rank — live in Japanese

Surprise! There is no S-rank dungeon. At this point, Japanese is something you regularly use in real life.

So spend time with Japanese-speaking friends. Work or study somewhere Japanese is used. Move to Japan, if you can. You don't have to literally live there; Japanese just needs to become part of how you live.

That's S Rank: stop training for Japanese and start living in it. And that's the end game. Sugoi ne~~~

4. Side quests worth taking

Our Main Quest picks are the games we'd use to progress through ranks. Side Quests are games that do one particular thing unusually well, or may simply click better for a certain kind of learner. Three are worth calling out here.

4.1 When you are a visual learner or have photographic memory

Side quest pick for visual learners

Why we recommend this game-dungeon, and what 600+ reviewers on Steam said

• The best game for visual learners in this guide. 28% of reviewers love the photography mechanics. Photograph a vending machine or postbox, and you get to keep the photo complete with the object's kana, kanji and audio pronunciation. One player said it probably doubled the speed at which I memorized common nouns.
• The game makes studying unusually relaxing. Nearly 1 in 5 reviewers describe Shashingo as relaxing or cosy. You wander a small Japanese neighbourhood, take photos, and learn at your own pace. One reviewer praised how the atmosphere in the city is relaxing and the music is just calming.
• It actually makes you recall what you photograph. Find Mode sends you back into the world to locate Japanese words from memory, while Quiz Mode tests the vocabulary directly. One reviewer found that with a little daily practice in quiz mode, [it] is surprisingly effective for learning basic phrases.

Where it falls short — skip it if you want one game to teach you from scratch, or to play for dozens of hours

• 11% of reviewers say the game needs more content. There are only 145 objects to photograph, so the game ends quickly. One reviewer said you can finish the game in 2 hours even while taking time to explore. Another: the entire map is only a block or 2.
• It won't handle long-term review for you. There's no spaced repetition system that automatically brings back words you're about to forget. 15% of reviewers mention supplementing Shashingo with Anki or other flashcards. One reviewer put it simply: Alone it's probably not very helpful. 7% of reviewers say outright that it can't teach you from scratch or carry you for dozens of hours.

4.2 When you're specializing as a kanji monster

Side quest pick for kanji writing

Why we recommend this game-dungeon

• Huge vocabulary coverage is impressive for such a cute game. Drill thousands of words by JLPT level up to N1, by topic, or by choice of cat. Few learning games go this deep. It suits a focused 20–40 minute drill when you know what you need to practise.
• The kawaii factor makes people forget they're memorizing. One reviewer said: The cute cats and great practice methods really help things stick. For me, the typing mode works the best, and having 4 different game modes ensures I don't get bored while memorizing.
• You have to recall words by typing. Instead of picking from multiple choice, you type the word from memory, which forces active recall instead of simple recognition.
• Radical mode makes kanji less intimidating by breaking kanji into smaller, reusable pieces. One reviewer said breaking kanji down into smaller parts makes the whole thing feel a lot more manageable.

Where it falls short — skip it if you need a story to stay motivated, or want the game to plan your reviews

• You're expected to know kana already. This isn't where you learn hiragana or katakana from scratch.
• No spaced repetition system, so you have to manually pick your own review sets. And the scheduling is on you.
• The gameplay is still mostly drilling. If the cats lose their charm or novelty, repeating words and kanji can start to feel repetitive.

4.3 When you want to learn Japanese through romance (NSFW)

Side quest pick to learn Japanese rizz

Why we recommend this game-dungeon, and what 150+ reviewers on Steam said

• It's a dating sim with a real beginner Japanese course underneath. 22% of reviewers mention the romance, while 21% call the game fun. But the game also packs 50+ lessons and tests on kana, basic vocabulary and simple sentences. A review upvoted 223 times expected a wifu simulator [sic] and was surprised to find a real beginner course.
• You can start with zero Japanese. It teaches hiragana and katakana first, then moves into numbers, time, directions, everyday phrases and simple sentences. The game tells you what to learn next, so there's no study plan to build yourself.
• Timed tests can speed up your kana recognition. Eventually, you have to recognize characters on sight instead of slowly sounding them out. One player said the game trained this pretty effectively.

Where it falls short — skip it if you need a reliable main resource; it's much safer as a side quest

• Some of the Japanese it teaches is wrong. One review with 194 upvotes shows a test incorrectly grading それ vs これ. Others flag typos and mistakes, including a 2024 review citing blatant mistakes in the test content.
• The tests can reward guessing and speed. 12% of reviewers say some answers are easy to guess, while later tests give you just 60 seconds for 10 questions. One reviewer called them more of a speed challenge than anything.
• It's buggy and hasn't had a major update since 2019. 12% of reviewers report issues like repeated questions and missing content.

NSFW as it has suggestive content but no explicit scenes.

5. The era of Japanese language games has only begun

At the start, we told beginners not to jump straight into Pokémon or Persona in Japanese. By A Rank, we tell you to do exactly that. That's because the game you need changes as your Japanese gets better. Beginners need tons of learning support while advanced learners need to learn how to use Japanese on their own.

For years, most language games were limited by what technology could do. They could check whether you picked the right answer, matched the kanji, or passed the quiz. Only recently have they been able to listen, react, and talk back in real time.

Great learning games and great entertainment games are still mostly separate today. The future of Japanese learning games probably looks more like an actual video game where Japanese is both immersive and playable: talk your way through hours of quests, build relationships with characters, explore the world, and unlock harder challenges as your Japanese improves.

Until then, pick your rank, choose your dungeon, and keep solo-levelling up.

Made it to the end? Here's your final reward: every Japanese-learning game we scored and reviewed, in one table. 頑張って~ (ganbatte; good luck) See the full list

6. Full methodology: how we score every game

Here's how we scored every game, and how you can judge one we may not have reviewed yet.

Every skill follows the same path: E → C → A → S. Target shows what you should be able to do by the end of that step. What a game should do shows what the game needs to train to get you there.

If a game doesn't train a skill, it gets a 0. That doesn't automatically make it a bad game. Most games are good at a few things, which is why this guide pairs different game-dungeons together to level up.

Vocab & Grammar — knowing the words and building the sentences

Step	Target	What a dungeon must do
E → C	~800 words, N5 grammar. You know the main particles (は・が・を・に・で), te-form, and past tense.	Teach new words in a clear order, bring them back until you remember them, explain basic grammar, and make you build sentences.
C → A	~4,000 words, N4–N3 grammar; you're starting to choose Japanese that sounds natural, not just textbook-correct.	Teach grammar through real sentences, bring back things you've forgotten, and show you how Japanese is actually used.
A → S	6,000+ words; you can choose words based on tone, meaning and how formal you want to sound.	No single language game does this well yet. Use advanced Japanese content.

Reading — reading Japanese with less help

Step	Target	What a dungeon must do
E → C	You can read hiragana and katakana without stopping, and know your first ~100 kanji with furigana.	Teach kana until reading feels automatic. Then introduce kanji with furigana and test whether you remember the readings.
C → A	You know roughly 300–1,000 kanji, rely less on furigana, and can work through manga with a dictionary nearby.	Teach lots of kanji, test both reading and meaning, and make you type or write answers — not just recognize them.
A → S	You know 2,000+ kanji and can read normal Japanese without much help, including handwriting and unusual fonts.	No single language game does this yet. Read Japanese books, games, articles and other native material.

Listening — understanding Japanese as it speeds up

Step	Target	What a dungeon must do
E → C	You understand common words and phrases, then simple sentences spoken slowly.	Use native Japanese audio, then short conversations you can replay or slow down.
C → A	You can follow several minutes of Japanese at almost normal speed, even when you miss some words.	Give you longer conversations, different voices and more natural speed, with less need for a transcript.
A → S	You can follow a full episode or long conversation without subtitles or constantly stopping.	No better way than native Japanese media.

Speaking — speak Japanese out loud, in real time

Step	Target	What a dungeon must do
E → C	You can say single words clearly, then say two or three sentences before getting stuck.	Listen to what you say, correct you, and move you from repeating lines to making your own answers.
C → A	You can handle everyday exchanges and keep an unscripted conversation going for several minutes.	React to what you actually say, move from guided situations into free conversation, and help you recover when you get stuck.
A → S	You can stay in Japanese for a long conversation — and joke, argue, persuade and banter naturally.	Use a tutor, AI partner or language-exchange partner, as long as the conversation stays unscripted.

Self-Reliance — keeping going when you don't understand everything

Step	Where you are	What a dungeon must do
E → C	n/a	n/a
C → A	You can say the same idea another way, ask what someone means, and recover after missing a sentence.	Slowly remove translations and furigana. Make you work around words you don't know and guess meaning from context.
A → S	Unknown Japanese no longer stops you. You understand enough to keep going.	There shouldn't be any learning support. Use real Japanese and learn to deal with the gaps yourself.

7. All the Japanese learning games we found, reviewed

Here's every Japanese-learning game we could find, sorted by the rank it helps most.

How scoring works: 0 means the game doesn't train that skill. 5 means it's one of the strongest games we found at that rank. Scores only compare games inside the same rank — a 5 at E Rank and a 5 at C Rank are very different amounts of Japanese. Lots of games score 0 in two or more skills. That's normal. Most games specialize, which is why we pair them up.

E Rank — Beginner Gaijin

Self-Reliance is still a bonus here.

C Rank — Intermediate Gaijin

Self-Reliance is still a bonus here.

A & S Rank

No language-first game serves these ranks. This section gets updated when that changes.