I want to recommend titles to a newcomer friend of mine.

[Lord Zero]

Greetings everyone.

 

 Oh well, this is the deal. Im a second year japanese translator, just beggining to grasp the minutiae of japanese grammar. While many of my fellow students like manganime and games, they are regular people who only know about the popular shows and the like.

 

 Recently a teacher mentioned how useful are visual novels towards getting more familiar with the language. I knew that already, but i had been unable to convince my friends otherwise.

 

 So i have this girl friend of mine who ask me for some games.

 

 I have several titles on mind, but i think that many of them may turn out to be too complicated, too severe for the uninitiated.

 

 So i would like to hear your opinion on whose games would be better to spark interest, while not being too intimidating.

 

 PS1: We are spanish natives. So their base english is weak at worst, enough at best. Plenty enough to understand basic speech at least. But i`m doubtful about their vocabulary range. And i think that some people feel tired of reading stuff in other languages, so maybe something that doesn`t feel hard to understand would be better ?

 

PS2: The games i picked so far.

 

 - Grisaia no Kaijitsu = The setting and characters are great. The language used is not that complicated. I think that both girls and guys would find it entertaining. My most secure choice.

 

 - Hoshisora no Memoria = A classic moege with a lot of character types, ranging from imoutos and sempais to sickly girls. But maybe it`s way too male oriented ? Too much moe ? Maybe normal people won`t get it.

 

 - Rewrite = It`s a great adventure, both romance, jokes, fights, the end of the world and more. Then again is way too long. Someone who has never played a galge before would be able to enjoy it ?

 

 - Cross+Channel = The story is great, but will it appeal to a girl ? Kurosu jokes may appear rude and unappealing to people who don`t get what does they represent... and i think that the story is kind of convulted.

[Chronopolis]

Ah, I can't think of many suggestions. Steins gate is a pretty exciting story, and the struggles are easy to relate to. The only problem would be some mini info dumps about physics and pseudo-phsyics, but the harder stuff is just background info.

[Clephas]

Mmm... once they are ready to move to the untranslated (testing the waters, check my beginners list, from the link in the stickied topic above.

 

As for VNs that would be good teaching tools, even in English... it is easier to tell you which ones might give you trouble, than those that might be useful (since all of them are a little useful).  Hoshizora no Memoria uses a lot of obscure/archaic/ritual Japanese in its more serious points, and this could intimidate a reader trying to learn from the voices.  Rewrite suffers from chuunibyou in the worst kind of way at its most serious points on the heroine routes, and the results can be unfortunate for a beginner, because it mixes odd katakana word usage (which can sound deceptively Engrish) with rare-kanji/language usage, which, while it might be useful if you already had a working knowledge of Japanese grammar and common vocabulary, would actually cause you trouble if you hadn't already gotten to that stage.

 

Cross Channel is probably ideal from a beginner's point of view, save that in the H version there is a lot of borderline rape, and the protagonist is certifiable, literally. 

 

Grisaia... might actually be the best option of all, as it mixes military language, espionage language, and everyday language fairly well.  I really suggest you introduce them to Full Metal Panic (the anime) then tell them about how the protag in Grisaia resembles the one in that anime.  Using common elements in things they already like is a good tactic for corru- I mean, converting new VN-readers.

 

For those looking to recommend FSN or Tsukihime to draw in new readers (the most classic method) that mostly works on people that already like 'modern-day setting fantasy' and it also requires a familiarity with chuuni-influenced settings... or at least an ability to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy them.  Also, since Tsukihime has aged horribly (musically and - to an extent - visually) and has no voices, it is not a good choice, overall, for trying to use the 'it's a good way to try learning Japanese' tactic.

 

Edit:  One thing you should consider... since yall's first language isn't English, you might want to consider bypassing the translated games entirely once you think you can.  You'll only slow your acquisition of the language if you get reliant on filtering it through your already limited understanding of a second language. 

 

Edit2:  Also, if you do decide to bypass the Engrish translations entirely, I'd suggest avoiding Grisaia, Hoshizora, and Rewrite.  At points, all three are way too high level for beginners.  To be blunt, when you are trying to addict a new reader, you need to provide three things:  attractive subject matter, good writing, and writing that doesn't use hard to interpret language.  The first is dependent on the tastes of the potential reader, the second is hard for the inexperienced to pick out (in other words, ask a more experienced reader), and with the third... no chuuni, no hard sci-fi, and no mysteries.

[Nagisa_Fawkes]

Well, Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo was translated to spanish, according to vndb --> http://vndb.org/v57

It's a very good story anyway, what you'd expect from Akabei. As long as your friend doesn't mind H-scenes, since she's a girl, I think it would be great.

[AnimalSoundss]

Well, the first three you mentioned might be a bit much. I've read them and they have a fair amount of wordplay  and strong vocabulary, might be a bit tough for your friend. I'll list some that I've played that have good stories, but don't have much complicated dialog (as far as i can remember >_<)

 

- Clannad: funny and cute, might appeal more to a girl

- Shuffle: also a cute story

- Kira Kira: Fun, good music, interesting twist but not a hard story to follow

 

 

Also, maybe a Otome game? I don't play them so i can't reccomend one, but she may be more interested in the game if the main character was a girl

[Darklord Rooke]

Hakuoki - on the 3DS, PSP or PS3. Probably the best otome game available in english. Lots of pretty Shinsengumi boys. 

 

Dandelion - An otome sim game by a South Korean company (Cheritz). Competes with Hakuoki for the title of best otome released in english but it has stats. Some people don't like stats. 

 

Nameless - An otome made by the same people who made Dandelion, but it's not a sim and so has no stats. 

 

Second Reproduction - Not a bad otome and I don't think the language use is very complicated. 

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention Dandelion and Nameless have restrictive DRMs. Always online if I remember correctly. It's extremely annoying, unfortunately the games are SO VERY GOOD!

[Clephas]

The Second Reproduction is the sequel to Queen of Darkness, which was reasonably high quality doujin rpg-VN/otomege by Heterodoxy, which was infamous for escaping the usual otomege tropes (DID Syndrome).  He's right in that the language isn't terribly complicated, though it is still mostly ranked around a 7 at the hardest parts (on a scale of one to ten). 

[DoodlyNyan]

I don't think you should recommend Cross Channel for your friends now. Cross Channel is a little too perverted so yeah, I think Grisaia no Kajitsu might be the best.

[Vokoca]

For untranslated games, I would recommend Akatsuki no Goei. It's kind of like Grisaia without the military vocab - so it isn't that difficult to read. The MC is great, the humour is amazing, and the overall story is also interesting if you like slice-of-life with some spice to it. The second game is a bit more difficult since it focuses on the politics a bit more, but the overall writing style is still relatively simple.