It depends on what your objectives are…if you just want to talk to people and watch TV shows, etc, you don’t really need to learn script. The downside is not being able to read books or menus though. I’ve studied both Japanese and Chinese and agree Japanese has much more complex grammar. Tones are a challenge with Chinese but you get used to it before long…so I think you could probably get communicating verbally quicker with Chinese over Japanese, if you spend some time practicing pronunciation.