For a native English speaker reading translated visual novels (VNs), I’m not really sure if the benefits would be comparable to reading more long form text like an actual novel.
That said, VNs are often brought up as a really good option for people studying Japanese to practice reading. It’s a nice middle option between manga, which is 90% pictures with 10% dialogue, and novels, which give you no additional context to help you figure out what a text is saying. They also vary in difficulty depending on the game. Some are only dialogue, while others are full of descriptive text (there’s even some that will cover the entire screen with text lmao). I think for a Japanese learner, VNs provide a lot of benefits when it comes to improving your reading skills.
But that’s reading native content. Translated VNs tend to have a lot of errors and awkward language even when translated professionally.
There are VNs produced in English (often called OELVNs), and those might be a valuable resource for people who struggle to read English. Whether or not you can gain anything more than entertainment from it just depends on your current skill level imo.
For a native English speaker reading translated visual novels (VNs), I’m not really sure if the benefits would be comparable to reading more long form text like an actual novel.
That said, VNs are often brought up as a really good option for people studying Japanese to practice reading. It’s a nice middle option between manga, which is 90% pictures with 10% dialogue, and novels, which give you no additional context to help you figure out what a text is saying. They also vary in difficulty depending on the game. Some are only dialogue, while others are full of descriptive text (there’s even some that will cover the entire screen with text lmao). I think for a Japanese learner, VNs provide a lot of benefits when it comes to improving your reading skills.
But that’s reading native content. Translated VNs tend to have a lot of errors and awkward language even when translated professionally.
There are VNs produced in English (often called OELVNs), and those might be a valuable resource for people who struggle to read English. Whether or not you can gain anything more than entertainment from it just depends on your current skill level imo.