However, that was also my experience playing games like this back in the day

Exactly my experience as well. It’s very reminiscent of that time when I was given a GBA emulator with a bunch of US and JP roms without any explanation. I didn’t know what an emulator is, or that there were game consoles other than the GBC. I didn’t knew my way around English either and Japanese looked like some sort of bug to me.

There’s just something stumbling through a big library and slowly making inroads in your favorite titles.