To translate a Japanese game to English on a console or handheld, pause on the text and point a phone camera translator at the screen, or take a screenshot and translate the image. The English replaces the Japanese where it sits, so you can match each line to the dialogue box. On PC there's a faster route: text hooking tools read the script straight out of the game.
Which method fits depends on the hardware, not the game. A Switch import, a PS Vita, a Super Famicom cartridge and a Japanese only release on PS5 all have one thing in common: nothing can reach inside them, so the text has to be read off the screen. That's the case this guide is built around.
The short version Console or handheld: phone camera on the screen, or a screenshot sent to your phone. PC: a text hooker that extracts the game's text, then machine translation. Before any of that: check whether the game already has an English language option. Many Asian editions do.
Check for a built in English option first
A lot of "Japanese only" games aren't. Asian editions sold in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore often include English, and many modern releases follow the console's system language. Big Western games go the other way: GTA 6, for instance, ships with Japanese subtitles over English voices, which we cover in GTA 6 languages and in how to change the language in GTA 6.
So before translating anything, set the console to English, restart the game and look at the title screen. If the menus switch, you're done.
Translate the screen with your phone camera
This is the method for anything you play on a TV or a handheld. It takes about five seconds per text box once you've done it twice.
- Pause on the line. Most games wait for a button press before advancing dialogue, so the box stays put. For cutscenes, pause the video.
- Kill the glare. Turn off the lamp behind you and tilt the phone slightly so the screen's reflection slides out of frame. A reflection across the text is the usual reason a line comes back wrong.
- Frame the text box, not the whole TV. Get close enough that the dialogue box fills most of the camera view. Bigger characters mean cleaner recognition, especially for dense kanji.
- Hold steady, or take a still. Live translation works on a sharp image. If your hand moves or the screen flickers, capture a still instead and translate that.
- Read the original next to the translation. Names, attack names and made up words often come out odd. Glance at the katakana to see whether it's a name before trusting the English.
On a TV, the refresh can show as faint bands through the camera. Stepping back a little and zooming in usually clears it.
Use a screenshot when the camera struggles
A screenshot is pixel perfect: no glare, no angle, no bands. The catch is getting it onto your phone.
On PS5 and Xbox, the official PlayStation App and Xbox app can show your captures on your phone once you've turned that on in the console settings. On a Switch, the album can send screenshots to a phone by QR code. Once the image is in your camera roll, open it in a translator that works on photos, and you get the same in place translation without fighting the TV. For handhelds with no capture button at all, the camera is your only option, and it's fine.
Every method compared
| Method | Works on | Speed | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone camera on the screen | Any console, handheld, retro, arcade | About 5 seconds a line | Glare and screen bands need a little care |
| Screenshot to phone | PS5, Xbox, Switch, anything with captures | Slower, a few steps per image | Not every handheld can capture |
| PC text hooker | Many PC games, especially visual novels | Instant, line by line | PC only, setup takes time, not every game is supported |
| Official English option | Games that include it | Instant | Only exists if the publisher added it |
The PC tools are free, open source projects like Textractor and LunaTranslator. They're great for visual novels on PC. They don't help anyone playing on a TV, which is most people asking this question.
Why Japanese games are harder than Japanese menus
Game text breaks the habits that make restaurant menus easy for a translator.
No furigana
Games written for adults use kanji without reading aids, so a word you could sound out in a manga stays opaque. (If that's new to you, furigana explained has the background.)
Pixel fonts
Older games draw characters in tiny bitmap grids, where similar kanji can blur together. Getting the camera closer helps more than anything else.
Hiragana only text
The flip side: games for kids and many 8 and 16 bit classics are written almost entirely in hiragana, with spaces between words. That's easier to read with a hiragana and katakana chart than you'd expect, and it's where a lot of learners start.
Names everywhere
Characters, towns and spells are invented words, usually in katakana. A translator will try to give them a meaning. Treat any odd English on a katakana word as a probable name.
Japanese menu words you'll see in almost every game
You'll meet these before the first dialogue box. Learn them once and you can get through settings and saves without translating anything.
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| はじめから | hajime kara | New game (from the beginning) |
| つづきから | tsuzuki kara | Continue |
| セーブ | sēbu | Save |
| ロード | rōdo | Load |
| せってい / 設定 | settei | Settings |
| けってい / 決定 | kettei | Confirm |
| もどる / 戻る | modoru | Back |
| はい / いいえ | hai / iie | Yes / No |
| アイテム | aitemu | Items |
| そうび / 装備 | sōbi | Equip |
| たたかう / 戦う | tatakau | Fight |
| にげる / 逃げる | nigeru | Run away |
| ステータス | sutētasu | Status |
Notice the pattern: the same word often appears in hiragana in a kids' game and in kanji in a game for adults. Both are right.
Turning it into Japanese practice
Translating every line forever gets old. The players who stop needing the camera are the ones who use it to learn: translate a line, read it once in Japanese, then play on. The repeated words (menus, battle text, shop clerks) stick within a few hours.
Yomi's camera translator handles the screen, either live or from a screenshot in your photos, and its Learn mode has short daily Japanese lessons for the grammar the game won't explain. It needs an internet connection to translate. If you also read manga, the same approach is laid out in learn Japanese with manga, and for photos of printed text, see translate Japanese from a photo.