Can you play Devil May Cry 5 in Japanese?
Short answer: the tabs are English, the buttons are not. We scanned the SKILLS, DEVIL BREAKERS and mission menus from a real playthrough against a JLPT wordlist — DMC5 looks like an English game until you highlight anything, and then the game switches to Japanese to tell you what it costs and what happens if you press A. Here's exactly how hard, word by word.
Menus
N3
Descriptions
N1
52 words on its skill-shop and customize menus
We matched every word on Devil May Cry 5's SKILLS tab (Abilities and Red Queen sub-tabs), the DEVIL BREAKERS purchase screen and the mission menu against Playto's JLPT wordlist — dictionary matches only, with kanji compounds outside the lists counted honestly as "beyond JLPT." Here is where those 52 words land:
The smallest scan we've run, but the shape still tells a story: a solid N3 core of ordinary menu words, and then 14 katakana freebies from skill and Devil Breaker names. The sting is in the tail — 7 words beyond the JLPT lists and 7 more at N1, and several of them are exactly the words you need to read before you spend orbs.
The words that make it hard
習得
Beyond JLPTしゅうとく — acquire — confirms a skill purchase, no warning text
購入
N1こうにゅう — purchase — the Devil Breakers buy button
決定
N3けってい — confirm — the A button, on every menu screen
戻る
N4もどる — go back — the B button
選択
N3せんたく — select — choosing which Devil Breaker to buy
態勢
N1たいせい — stance / posture — what Helter Skelter breaks on an enemy's guard
貫通力
Beyond JLPTかんつうりょく — penetration power — a Devil Breaker stat with no textbook entry
None of these are lore words tucked away in flavour text — 決定 and 戻る are on literally every screen, 購入 and 習得 are what you press to spend your currency, and 態勢 and 貫通力 are stat words for gear you'll actually equip. DMC5 keeps its tab names in English and puts the words that carry real consequences in Japanese only.
The button that spends your orbs
The word next to every price tag
習得 しゅうとく
acquire — the button under every skill you highlight
GET MORE ORBS costs 50,000 Red Orbs, your main currency, and 習得 sits right next to that price with no English label. Highlight the row, press A (決定, confirm — also unlabeled in English), and the orbs are gone. 戻る (back) is the only way out once you're looking at the price, and it's Japanese too.
Reading Devil May Cry 5's Japanese, in 60 seconds
Is Devil May Cry 5 good for learning Japanese?
Good for short, repeated exposure. Combat itself needs no reading at all, so the Japanese only shows up in the menus between missions — short enough to read every time you shop for skills or Devil Breakers, not so long that it interrupts the action. That makes the SKILLS and DEVIL BREAKERS tabs a low-stakes place to drill functional vocabulary: 決定, 戻る, 選択, 購入 repeat on nearly every screen until they stick.
The catch is that the words worth learning are also the words with real consequences — misreading 習得 or 購入 does not just cost you comprehension, it costs you the orbs you just farmed. Paired with a screen reader that shows what a highlighted skill or Devil Breaker means before you commit, the shop stops being a guessing game and starts being a fast, low-friction vocabulary drill between fights.
Read every screen like this as you play
Playto reads your game screen in real time and shows what the text means where it is — skill descriptions, Devil Breaker stats, the confirm/cancel labels under every menu. You read the original Japanese and lean on the hint when you need it, and it saves the words you meet so they turn into review.
Common questions
Is Devil May Cry 5's Japanese hard?
Not as a wall of kanji — we scanned 52 words across the SKILLS, DEVIL BREAKERS and mission menus, our smallest scan yet. But 7 of those words sit outside the JLPT lists entirely and another 7 are N1, and they're not decoration: 購入 (purchase), 貫通力 (penetration power) and 態勢 (stance) are exactly the words that tell you what a button does before you press it.
What JLPT level do I need to play Devil May Cry 5 in Japanese?
Around N3 gets you through most of it — navigation words like 決定 (confirm) and 選択 (select) are ordinary menu vocabulary. The catch is the words that actually matter for not wasting currency: 習得 (acquire) sits outside the JLPT lists altogether, and 購入 (purchase) is N1, even though both are just confirm buttons.
The menus are in English — why do I need Japanese at all?
Because DMC5's English localization stops at the tab names. SKILLS, DEVIL BREAKERS, CUSTOMIZE, EQUIPMENT — all English. But the moment you highlight a skill or a Devil Breaker, the explanation on the right, the orb cost, and the confirm/cancel labels underneath switch to Japanese with no English fallback. The interface looks like an English game right up until the part where you'd actually decide whether to spend 50,000 orbs.
Can I play Devil May Cry 5 in Japanese on PC?
Yes — switch the game's language to Japanese in Steam's properties, and a screen reader like Playto shows what the highlighted skill, Devil Breaker or button actually says as you shop, so you're not guessing at price tags.
Verdict data from a JLPT wordlist scan of Devil May Cry 5's SKILLS, DEVIL BREAKERS and mission menus, captured in a real play session. Screenshot captured in-game and shown with commentary. DEVIL MAY CRY 5 © CAPCOM. Independent language guide, not affiliated with Capcom.