Language level/difficulty of Shiny Festa (and others)

[Naryoril]

Is it just me or is Shiny Festa relatively easy to understand? I still consider my japanese as beginner level. I'm around lesson 20 in the first みんあの日本語 book (of 25 lessons in that book) and i can read around 420 kanji (after using wanikani.com for about 4 months).
So i recently picked up the Shiny Festa games again (Groovy Tune and Honey Sound) to check how much i understand now. And i'm amazed that i understood about 80% of what's going on in the SOF mode story parts. I can follow the story general story and most of the other stuff they are talking about, but there are some lines where i hardly have an idea what's going on. But compared to when the games came out, i understand a lot more. And i think Honey Sound is easier to understand than Groovy Tune.

So i just wonder, are the Shiny Festa games really that easy on the language side? How about Im@s 2? Due to other games on the list (like Ni no Kuni) i didn't have the opportunity/time to go for another im@s 2 playthrough,  especially when i want to read the promotions, story parts and stuff. What are your experiences? How about other games from the franchise?

[animagic4u]

Well considering there's very little text in Shiny Festa I also find it easy to understand. My only problem with Shiny Festa is lack of voice because I have problems with readings sometimes even if I can understand the general meaning from the kanji. I know a lot of Chinese people in my class who have this problem too because they already know the kanji but they are not sure of the Japanese reading.


I am also just a beginner and here is my experience with idolm@ster 2.

First getting the game:
Almost no knowledge of Japanese. Can read hiragana/katakana, knew basic phrases, a few kanji, knew the idol names.

Recently:
Every single time I come back to this game I can understand more and more.
2 weekends ago I was hanging out with my friend from Japan. She's about the same age as me and has never played the game before but has a general understanding of the topic.
She picked Miki has her leader and I was surprised and amazed at how I could actually understand what was going on during Miki's commus. And even though obviously I am not as fast of a reader as her I could still get a better handle on the situation so the two of us shared some laughs.

Also, one skill that idolm@ster has given me help on is reading people's names. My friend actually has the same kanji "mi" as in Miki in her name too and when I saw it in Kanji I could read it instantly.


I hope if I continue on this route, one day I'll be able to understand this game without hesitation.
Good luck to both of us and all of the other members here who are also studying Japanese.

[chikorita157]

From experience of teaching myself, you should at least know intermediate level Japanese or at least finish it as there are good amount of grammar not covered in an elementary course. But overall, while I haven't play much of Shiny Festa since it's not really that text heavy game and play mostly JRPGs, it's pretty easy. You might come across some kanji you might not know, so its best to familiarize yourself looking them up using radicals, which is parts that compose a whole character. There are usually some Kanji that are taught in Japanese schools, but not necessarily on the Kanji lists for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test).

I haven't play Idolmaster recently since the auto text advance is not really that helpful. I probably will understand it a bit easier once I finish the intermediate textbook, but I still need a dictionary.