Games are a fun way to practice reading and get interesting Spanish input. With games, you can go at your own pace, get feedback through your in-game actions, and gather context from what’s on-screen. I recommend starting with visual novels or simple RPG games you have played previously in English. To play a game in Spanish, you either need to go into the game settings and change the language or go to your game launcher, such as Steam, and change the language from there. If you’re unsure how to change the language for a particular game, you can Google it.
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Translate Games as You Play
You’ll inevitably come across some words you don’t know, and in order to continue with the gameplay you’ll need to be able to decipher what to do. With the OCR capabilities of Google Translate, you can easily take a picture of the word or sentence you don’t understand and quickly get the translation. Start by opening Google Translate on your phone and press the camera button in the bottom right corner.
Next, take a picture of what you want to translate, and it will automatically show you a translation of the text.
To see the Spanish text, go to the top of your screen and click “original.” Now you can highlight individual words or sections to see a translation. If you would like to make flashcards out of the words or sentences, you can copy them into Anki or your Spanish-English dictionary of choice.
Stardew Valley – $15
Stardew Valley is a cute, relaxing RPG that is great reading practice for intermediate learners. It has a lot of dialogue, and you will learn the names of many everyday objects. It is $15, but it has a lot to offer, and I highly recommend it for someone who is just starting to play games in another language.
Steam Visual Novels – Freemium
Steam offers a variety of visual novels at different price points. Some are free to play, while others are pretty pricey. However, you should be able to find something that fits your interest and language level with how many games are available.
You can see if a game can be played in Spanish by scrolling down and looking at languages. The game in the image below has support for many different languages, including Spanish.
Epic Games – Freemium
The Epic Games store routinely offers free games, and you can often find interesting games with multilanguage support.
To see if a game can be played in Spanish, go to that game’s store page and scroll down to the specs. It will say which languages are supported all the way at the bottom. This game supports both Latin American Spanish and European Spanish.
Genshin Impact
Genshin Impact and other Mihoyo games are free RPGs with thousands of hours of content. There are many interesting storylines and characters, so there is plenty of content for immersion. However, there is no support for Spanish audio, so you can either set it to English to have dual input or change it to a language you don’t understand, so you can focus on reading in Spanish. The game can be very difficult to understand at times due to the complex language used, so I wouldn’t recommend playing it if your Spanish is below the advanced level.
Multiplayer Games
Multiplayer games are very popular among language learners as they let you interact with native speakers in a natural environment. Two of the most popular multiplayer games for language learners are VR Chat and Minecraft because you can easily find servers from other countries and talk to people. For Minecraft, I highly recommend finding a group to play with over Discord, so you can have a voice call going at the same time. Other popular multiplayer games include Fortnight, Among Us, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends. If you already play any of these games, it’s just as simple as switching servers and possibly creating a new account, however, for some games that require fast server connections, you may have issues if you are located far away from the country of origin.
Mobile
If you’re looking for something free and casual, there are many fantastic free mobile games for practicing Spanish. However, they can sometimes be difficult to follow because you can’t translate the in-game text. Don’t worry, there are some great apps to help with this problem. Instant Translate for Android and iTranscreen for IOS are two great options for on-screen translation when playing mobile games.
Many mobile games default to the language of your phone. If you’d like games to automatically be in Spanish, you can set your phone’s default language to Spanish. However, I wouldn’t recommend doing this unless you’re comfortable navigating menus in your target language.
Once your phone’s default language is changed, you’ll also find it easier to see which games are available in Spanish by checking their descriptions and images in the app store.
To access more mobile games, you can also change what country your app store is in. Changing the country of your app store will allow you to access region-locked streaming services, games, and more.
Hogwarts Mystery
Hogwarts Mystery is a popular RPG where you play as a student attending Hogwarts and discover the secrets of the castle as well as the mystery surrounding your brother’s expulsion from Hogwarts. The story is interesting but not too complicated, so it’s great for intermediate and advanced Spanish learners. If you are a Harry Potter fan, you’ll love this game and learn lots of Spanish at the same time!
Unsolved: Hidden Mystery Games
Unsolved Mysteries are a series of games where you solve puzzles and collect clues to unravel the case. With a huge library of games, there is plenty of content for immersion, and the games are free, but they do require you to wait for energy to continue playing. However, the games are interesting and a great way to expand your Spanish vocabulary.
June’s Journey
June’s Journey is a hidden object and mystery game that’s perfect for practicing vocabulary related to everyday objects, all while enjoying the unfolding story!
Dark Dome Series
The Dark Dome Series is a mystery, horror escape game. This unique series is highly rated with a mysterious connected story and interesting puzzles. The first game in the series is “The Girl in the Window,” and it can only be downloaded from Google Play.
Tokyo Debunker
Tokyo Debunker is a story-based gacha game, with lots of mini-games and activities built in. The game also features various character interactions and choices that influence the storyline, adding an extra layer of depth and engagement. When reading through the story, you can slow it down and read at your own pace by turning off “Automático.” However, keep in mind that while the game is free, its gacha mechanics can make it a potential money sink, so if you have an addictive personality, this may not be the best game for you.
When you start the game, it will match the default language of your phone. If the game is in English when you launch it, you will need to play through the introduction and tutorial before you can change the language. If you don’t want to read the story in English, you can skip it and read it later. When you reach the home screen, click on your profile portrait in the upper left corner, then you will be able to click on settings, and change the language.
The Grand Mafia
The Grand Mafia is an action-packed fighting game where you work as part of the mafia, expanding your territory and influence. If you enjoy mobile action games, this can be a fun way to practice your Spanish! Keep in mind that the game’s language can only be changed by setting your phone’s default language to Spanish.
