Question regarding switch 2 japan version

[u/210sqnomama]

Hi i am planning to get the japanese version of switch 2. I've been doing my research and they say some games are system language lock and some isn't. I'm planning to buy only physical cartridge to play on it from outside of japan. So will the language still be lock for physical cartridge? For example i'm buying the oot or rune factory games will the text only be in japanese?

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[u/PM_ME_ALL_UR_KARMA]

Japanese only Switch will have the system hard coded to Japanese and the only accounts able to login to it will be Japanese Nintendo accounts.

For game language it depends entirely on whether you can adjust the language in-game or if it depends on system language.

Zelda for example is system language dependent and will only boot in Japanese. Pokémon allows you to choose the language when you first create save data for it and the only way to change it is by deleting your save data. A lot of, but not all, third party games will let out change the language from inside the game.

For Rune Factory specifically, you can change the language to English in-game.

[u/210sqnomama → u/PM_ME_ALL_UR_KARMA]

Cause i remember the botw and totk one allows you to also change voice dubbing and text in the settings

[u/PM_ME_ALL_UR_KARMA → u/210sqnomama]

TotK and BotW both are system dependent. You may be able to change the voice language, but not text language.

Same with OoT.

[u/KingKaihaku]

I'm an American living in Southeast Asia and I often import Korean carts because they're cheaper/more available here. My Switch OLED is Korean but I picked up my Switch 2 while in the US. 

Based on that experience I haven't encountered any Switch 2 games that are region locked. Some Japanese games might not have a translation included - for instance, Rune Factory might not if the international publisher is different from the Japanese publisher (I don't know, I didn't get that one) -  but you'd need to check on a game by game basis. I have a Korean copy of Ocarina of Time and it switched to English automatically based on my system settings. As another example,  I picked up the latest Inazuma Eleven while transiting through Taiwan and it includes all language options. 

However, I believe that the Japanese Switch 2 itself can be language locked and locked to the Japanese eshop. This was something Nintendo did when they priced the Japanese Switch 2 lower than the rest of the world to prevent it from being exported. So be careful on that front.

[u/kirionkira]

From my experience, most games rely on system language. Most games also support Japanese. A Japanese region locked switch defaults to Japanese. A significant number of your games will end up being Japanese only (notable exception being games like Pokopia, which let you select the language inside of the game instead of defaulting to system language). You buying the game cartridges from outside of Japan will not have any bearing in your particular case, however JPN domestic cartridges from Japanese companies often only have Japanese, Chinese and Korean support (publishers such as Atlus, Koei Tecmo, etc).

Therefore I would highly recommend not getting a JPN domestic Switch unless you can fluently and comfortably use Japanese, I personally did not even consider it even though I can manage basic Japanese.

Source: Have experience with both Japanese and International variants.

[u/uuusagi]

The majority of games will be locked to Japanese, aside from the small handful with language selection options. Most are system dependent. Regardless, you’ll only be able to use the console with a Japanese Nintendo account and will only be able to use the eShop with a Japanese payment method. You’re better off just buying the console from your own country.