I have noticed that some games that use kanji in texts include the pronunciation above the characters in kana. I am fully aware that there are homo-phonic compounds, however what exactly is the point of using kanji in the first place in such contexts if the writers feel necessary to also include the kana?
Why do some video games use kana over kanji
- Thread starter themadprogramer
- Start date
We need examples because there are 2 reasons I can think of for including furigana. 1 that the hiragana part is the pronunciation of another word, added only for double meaning, like some songs write 時間 but sing it as とき even though its pronunciation can only be じかん, and 2, because it's a rare word or a name. Personally, I've never encountered a game that includes furigana for words, I think doing it only for names is more reasonable. You're better off giving us an example. RPG games, for example, don't tend to include furigana because the player is expected to know many of the literary, archaic or poetic words used, you're expected to be familiar with such games already, so, if it includes kanji, no furigana, if it's an RPG mainly aimed at kids like pokémon everything is in kana with spaces. But I think the new pokémon games can switch to kanji, too, and again, no furigana.
黄金の太陽・漆黒なる夜明け uses kanji with furigana for everything (optional). 名探偵コナン games for the (3)DS do it as well, I believe. It's not all that common, though.