You can learn authentic modern French by listening to podcasts, watching movies and shows, or reading, but you can also practice French comprehension by playing video games! In this post, I share three recommendations to read and listen to French while having fun.
This post is about games that allow to select French as the language for the story and dialogs, it’s not about games developed in order to teach a language.
Those are games I played myself, as a French speaker. I specifically paid attention to the quality of French dialogs and how interesting they could be to French learners.
I’ll probably publish more recommendations in the future, so don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter if you don’t want to miss them.
Hey, did you know all my articles are available in French? If you’re learning French, I strongly advise you to practice by reading the original French-only version first, and use the English version for support, if needed. You can always switch by using the language option in the top bar menu. Please note the English version is not a literal translation.
A plague tale
- French in vocal and written dialogs
- Style: adventure, action, RPG
- Language style: neutral
- French difficulty: easy to intermediate
“A plague tale” takes place in French in medieval times and was actually developed by a French game studio. Although the story is not contemporary, the language style is not especially convoluted or much different from our current French. There are few difficult words and the sentences are pretty simple, because it’s one of the few games that doesn’t take place in a fantasy or futuristic world. It’s thus a very good game to listen to French.
Even better, it’s possible to choose a different language setting for vocal dialogs, subtitles and game interface. You can listen to dialogs in French and read their meaning in your own language, or turn everything to French.
Donut County
- French in written dialogs
- Style: cosy, casual
- Language style: colloquial, casual
- French difficulty: intermediate to advanced
In “Donut County”, characters have very colloquial direct and message conversations, often using figurative expressions, plays on words and puns. Those can sometimes be a bit tricky for French learners, but as they don’t run automatically (you must click to show next sentence), you can take some time to search what’s difficult. This game has a contemporary setting.
I posted several videos on my Youtube channel, this is a playthrough where I explain some of the puns:
And here are a few more examples of dialogs (without comments):
Hades
- French in written dialogs
- Style: dungeon crawler, rogue-like
- Language style: neutral
- French difficulty: intermediate
Although “Hades” is based on Greek mythology, the dialogs in French are pretty simple and not written in a convoluted style. Dialogs also have some figurative expressions, but not too much. Also, you don’t actually need to understand everything to play the game, dialogs are part of the atmosphere and add some humour to the story. The dialogs are a bit longer and less dynamic than in RPGs.
Buy games at a discounted price on Instant Gaming.
Donut County, Hades, A plague tale and many more games available for Nintendo Switch, Steam, Epic, GOG, Xbox, Playstation…
More tips to learn French with video games
First time using video games as comprehensible input content? Read my advice on how to improve French with video games.
Watch gaming sessions with French comments
If you want me to post more French playthroughs on Youtube, let me know in the comments and tell me the kind of games you’d like to see!
Read posts about video games in French
Read stories in comprehensible, natural and modern French about The Sims and Cult of the Lamb.
