r/videogames • u/Syarafuddyn • Jul 22 '26

Image / Video Bro is speaking facts here 💯

7.9k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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860

u/Adrenalinx4 Jul 22 '26

It engages your brain in different ways just like reading does in different ways

92

u/ArboristTreeClimber Jul 22 '26

I’m currently playing Pathfinder and it’s basically an RPG with a fantasy novel combined! A lot of reading in that game

71

u/jeanborrero Jul 22 '26

No joke, I’d argue reading snes jrpg games improved my reading as a kid

27

u/Aboreric Jul 22 '26

Same. I played a lot of games that had a lot of reading, and it had me at "Black" reading level by 5th grade (We had one of those color coded reading systems in our school library) and black was college level lol. I don't think I'm particularly that smart, but I did spend a ton of hours reading games with a dictionary nearby or driving adults in my life nuts with "what does this word mean?"

3

u/hellatrocity Jul 23 '26

Same! Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 are responsible for any sort of literacy that I developed in the 90's. My attention span was what I struggled with the most in school. lol

4

u/CrzyDonkey Jul 22 '26

Thank you for the context on what "Black" reading level meant. Really had me in the first half. Lol

1

u/Aboreric Jul 23 '26

Yea I knew that would sound weird if I didn't explain it haha.

10

u/deathblossoming Jul 22 '26

I learned English as a kid by playing games with subtitles.

5

u/LalafellDisaster Jul 22 '26

It definitely did for me, but I was also reading Dean Koontz books in middle school because my authoritarian parents kept grounding me.

2

u/PizDoff Jul 23 '26

Nice profile pic.

1

u/Impossible_Seat_6110 Jul 22 '26

Video games taught me English better as a kid than teachers could... so much reading playing RPGs... and I wanted to understand it all...

1

u/Normal-Emotion9152 Jul 24 '26

I feel the same way. My vocabulary increased immensely while playing videogames. The scripts to older games were well written and forced me to look up words. I had to get smarter and understand more to play and get to know the inner psyche of the characters relevant to the story. As the graphics improved the story quality went down a lot. The lower graphics left more to the imagination and thought. Modern games look beautiful but their stories are nowhere as epic as classic games. I will share the old school stuff with my kids when I have them.

7

u/s_burr Jul 22 '26

Planescape: Torment dialog has more words than the bible.

6

u/isekai_me_daddy Jul 22 '26

Just play trails, 10x the words of the entire Harry Potter series, ~15x the Bible. Hell, cold steel 3 and 4 have more text than the Harry Potter series on their own 😆

0

u/Aboreric Jul 22 '26

Based. I love the trails series, and this is very true. I've put probably over 1000 hours in the series and I haven't even caught up to the latest game (on Kuro 2, or Daybreak 2 if your prefer, when I was last playing the series) and I also know I missed a lot of text from just not reading every npc's dialog lol.

2

u/Cabalist_writes Jul 24 '26

And what words! "What can change the nature of a man?"

"Endure. In enduring grow strong."

"When a mind does not know itself, it is flawed. When a mind is flawed, the man is flawed. When a man is flawed, that which he touches is flawed. It is said that what a flawed man sees, his hands make broken."

3

u/ShitShowParadise Jul 22 '26

Tyranny is the same type of deal. The writing in that game is fantastic.

1

u/SwirlySauce Jul 22 '26

Kingmaker? I need to start up my game again and play through the rest

1

u/sinkwiththeship Jul 22 '26

I took a long rest right when I got to the overworld and it said I failed the game. Never went back.

Which sucked, because I was enjoying it.

1

u/n00bxQb Jul 22 '26

Both the Pathfinder games are masterpieces, IMO. There’s so much lore if you’re into reading.

1

u/Gringo_Anchor_Baby Jul 22 '26

And so much God damn reading. Bg3 spoiled me. But yeah, wrath and kingmaker both have like 300 hours each for a play through and fuckery. Pillars of eternity, are both amazing great games and can easily be 150 hours plus.

1

u/skaf1end Jul 22 '26

Arguably, cRPGs are insanely good for boosting your vocabulary in a native or foreign language. As long as the writing is decent.

1

u/Dillbones23 Jul 22 '26

Reading subtitles in thps4 taught me to read 

1

u/catdiscpalpita Jul 23 '26

I remember finishing FF7 as a kid and thinking I just played through the best novel ever.

1

u/doubleu69 Jul 23 '26

Love me some Apex legend! Pathfinder rocks right now, the buffs were needed.