What language should I learn to make 2D turn-based video games?

Question

I want to make 2 dimensional turn-based games for the PC. Something like early Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger. Is C++ the only plausible option? I keep getting told that C++ is the language of choice for games, but is this the case even for 2D, turn-based games? Are any other languages good for this sort of thing? I'm really big on clean, readable, extendible code, so a language that fosters that sort of thing would be great.

Doing this for fun, not business. Java is the only language I really know well right now.

By the way, this is my first question and I'm a noob. I read the FAQ, but if I'm doing anything noobish anyway, then I'm sorry.

Answer 1

Just about any language will do.

C, C++, Java, C# - they all have good supporting libraries.

If you know Java, stick with it, find a good 2D library for it and play around.

Here is the official Java 2D Graphics tutorial from Sun.

Here is one graphics library for Java.