How much Japanese do I need to know to be able to play the Gyakuten Saiban games by myself?
. A lot. The Gyakuten Saiban games are very vocabulary-intensive. And the kanji, considering it’s on a GBA screen, do not have furigana. You need to know words that aren’t normally taught in classes like “murder suspect” and “instant death”. Some are easier to learn in the context of the game than others. There are a lot of puns, there are several different dialects and speech patterns, and a lot of slang. No two characters talk the same way and several of them make up words entirely. You need several YEARS of study in Japanese to be able to understand the games without an aid. That being said, with the help of a walkthrough, someone who is able to read kana can probably make it through the game with 2 or 3 semesters worth.
