It's hard to say if this game is effective at teaching the hiragana characters, as I already knew them going into this (I've used the Japanese course in Duolingo). But I will say this game actually teaches and encourages you to write the characters, and in the correct stroke order, which is something I never learned to do, so I had a notebook out and actually practiced writing stuff. For that alone, this game deserves credit.
The way this game made me feel honestly made me nostalgic about PC edutainment games of the past, despite being a completely different genre of game. Stuff like Reader Rabbit or whatever games the PCs in elementary school computer class had, specifically in how there's a lot more learning than actual fun. This is an educational tool first and an JRPG later, so there's not going to be any kind of engaging combat or character building, it's all very basic in order to focus on teaching.
The way battling works is that the characters fight "hiragana warriors" that are just hiragana characters that the player must correctly identify in order to attack. The party members technically have their own unique spells and classes, but none of it really matters, all it is is just attacking and occasional healing. Weirdly enough, early on I struggled with some of the battles, as enemies could take half a character's health in just one hit. This led to me grinding in THIS game of all games. But eventually you do hit a point where damage is negligible and money for healing items is constantly abundant. What I'm saying is you don't come to this game for the gameplay, but I wish there was just a little more going on. Like, I feel like they could have made this more fun somehow, make fighting the enemies still involve hiragana knowledge but do something more, interactive. I don't know, I don't have any great ideas, but I feel like there's some wasted opportunity here, then again I might just be asking for a different game entirely.
This game is very earnest in its goal to help the player learn Japanese, and the story is light and goofy in a way that adds to that earnestness, and I appreciate it. Again, feels very much like the classic edutainment games does when it comes to story. There isn't much to look at in terms of graphics, but I will say the music caught me off guard in how competent it is. I wouldn't say there's anything that really stands out, but I found myself enjoying it often.
Overall, I'm torn because this game wasn't that fun to play, but also I, someone who knows the hiragana characters, am not the target audience. Still, I think someone learning Japanese could get something out of this, I just wonder if you couldn't also get it out of, say, a textbook, or a learning app, or an online resource of some kind, things that might actually be free.
The way this game made me feel honestly made me nostalgic about PC edutainment games of the past, despite being a completely different genre of game. Stuff like Reader Rabbit or whatever games the PCs in elementary school computer class had, specifically in how there's a lot more learning than actual fun. This is an educational tool first and an JRPG later, so there's not going to be any kind of engaging combat or character building, it's all very basic in order to focus on teaching.
The way battling works is that the characters fight "hiragana warriors" that are just hiragana characters that the player must correctly identify in order to attack. The party members technically have their own unique spells and classes, but none of it really matters, all it is is just attacking and occasional healing. Weirdly enough, early on I struggled with some of the battles, as enemies could take half a character's health in just one hit. This led to me grinding in THIS game of all games. But eventually you do hit a point where damage is negligible and money for healing items is constantly abundant. What I'm saying is you don't come to this game for the gameplay, but I wish there was just a little more going on. Like, I feel like they could have made this more fun somehow, make fighting the enemies still involve hiragana knowledge but do something more, interactive. I don't know, I don't have any great ideas, but I feel like there's some wasted opportunity here, then again I might just be asking for a different game entirely.
This game is very earnest in its goal to help the player learn Japanese, and the story is light and goofy in a way that adds to that earnestness, and I appreciate it. Again, feels very much like the classic edutainment games does when it comes to story. There isn't much to look at in terms of graphics, but I will say the music caught me off guard in how competent it is. I wouldn't say there's anything that really stands out, but I found myself enjoying it often.
Overall, I'm torn because this game wasn't that fun to play, but also I, someone who knows the hiragana characters, am not the target audience. Still, I think someone learning Japanese could get something out of this, I just wonder if you couldn't also get it out of, say, a textbook, or a learning app, or an online resource of some kind, things that might actually be free.
2 Comments
Haven't thought about playing simple games I already know in Japanese in order to help learning, sounds like a really good idea actually. Yeah, like I said in the review, I'm not really sure this is any better than any other way to learn hiragana or very basic Japanese, but it surprised me in ways that kind of lead to me being endeared by it, even when it got tedious. I haven't played Kanji Combat, but I would assume any problems you had with that one would show up here, although I never felt the story in this one got in the way, cutscenes were kept pretty brief. I own all three in this series, so chances are I might end up playing the rest just out of curiosity.
PansyDragoonSaga
3 years ago