Hiragana Pixel Party

At first, I was going to recommend it. However... After completing the first three levels, this got INSANELY hard. You need to have basic knowledge of Katakana and Hiragana. *THIS WORKS BETTER AS A STUDY GAME*

Originally I voted this game up but after progressing through half of it I have decided to change my review and downvote the game. The reason is quite simply that this game has too many bugs that become more and more frequent as the game progresses. Random pausing while playing. Achievements broken. Unplayed levels completing themselves. Sometimes the kana required isn't listed. Glitches, in game lag. Dakuten sometimes covered by other graphics. Seems to be abandoned by developers. 3/10 I wouldn't recommend buying this until it is resembles a finished product. ----------------------- Original review: Simply an awesome game. It leaves total beginners in desperation and pushes them to the limit until one day they realise that the game slows down and gets easier the more you play and the more you play the more you learn. It can't get any better than this. Is it perfect? No, it has a few tiny bugs and it would be awesome if every so often your score on a level would reset in order to encourage spaced repetition (I felt on occasion that 100% was achieved on some levels by luck). The music is awesome and it is also a big part of the learning/ gaming experience. I would recommend getting the extra tracks. Beware: this game is highly addictive and it gets under your skin. It annoys and irritates and provides complete satisfaction all at once. A great way to get initiated with the Japanese language. My vote: 9/10

One of the harder "learn Japanese" game I've played. Pros: - Great chiptune music (if you're into that) - Hard game - Really tests your Hiragana and Katakana more than other educational games Cons: - Hard game - Slow progression between letters This rhythm game is aimed to test your hiragana/katana memory. Every section of the music, the game assigns selected Japanese letters to your direction buttons (WASD, Arrow keys, or as clickable buttons). You will listen to the japanese sounds and time the button to the beat (or just by timing it on when your character should jump on-screen). The game randomizes which buttons is assigned the letters so you won't memorize the combinations. Unfortunately, this changes the game from a memory test to a speed-reading test. When playing, I found these two strategies of playing: - remember the letters spoken, then look up at the prompts and read the letters. - or look at the prompts, listen to the letters and remember the button order. One complain I have is that the game has slow progression. It took me an hour to finish the K- Hiraganas. For someone who is familiar with Hiragana and was looking for a game to test my memory, it feels too slow. I hope the later part of the game will mix up the letters instead of batching them up. In conclusion: On one hand, the gameplay made the memory test harder than it should. On the other hand, I feel that I am becoming a fast reader of Hiragana/Katakana - which makes the game highly recommended.

Learn japanese (Hiragana and Katakana) symbols by playing? Fast thinking, memorizing, repeating and getting all those symbols in your head at the same time, while listening to the sound and repeating the same rhythm. Not as easy as it sounds as the layout on the controller is changing constantly to keep you awake. All the while a nice manga backround is scrolling by. Update one day later: Contacted the developer, about the problems I had. One day later and he gave us already an update to those problems. Holy that was smoking fast. Those big indie developers that won't fix their big games, should take it as seriously as these guys here :)

I love the concept but it's way too hard. The letters/kana that appear in the bubbles above your character (that let you know what to press on your keyboard) change position throughout the level. This means you have a split second to mentally re-map the characters to the position of your fingers, over and over, turning the game into a frustrating quick time event. I noticed the developer is aware of the difficulty problem but they've been quiet for months. I really hope more work is done on this game because it has great potential. Until then, though, I can't recommend it.

I like it! Yes, it's pretty hard as far as the button switching goes, but I think seems pretty good at getting your character recognition as instantaneous as possible. That being said, I did in fact grab this as a changeup from the memorization I've already done. I already know both hiragana and katakana, but I think this helps me in my aim to read them less consciously. Also I'm not great at rythm games, but the challenge makes it fun. To the Dev: If you do patch the difficulty down, it would be cool if you put the original difficulty in as a hard mode or somesuch. Also it seems that the achievements aren't triggering properly.

Honestly This is a great tool for learning the hiragana alphabet but it has giant flaws. There is two massive flaws with it. The too early or too late system that punish you for the right answer. And the inability to speed up or slow down fast pace button presses. So what is the too fast / too slow system, well let me explain it. Well if you hit the button too soon or too slow it doesn’t count even when hitting the right button. Now this would even be okay if half the time it didn’t say it was too early or too late when you are on time. The fact is though this isn’t DDR or Guitar Hero, it is about learning the language not about hitting the buttons at exactly the right time. The fact that it is bugged when it come to hitting the buttons on time also takes away from it even being a positive experience once you get past the basic levels. The second issue is the fact that it is like DDR or Guitar Hero. The fact is the Hit this and that button can get hectic and when happens even if you know the right answer you may be button mashing to keep up and fat finger the wrong button trying to meet the time to hit the button. This again isn’t a skill game it is learning game so while in DDR or Guitar Hero it is important to not let the game slow down, this game it is important. You are learning and sometimes it throughs you in the depths and says hit button, button, button, button, button, button, you have 2 seconds enjoy. So in that time you have to make sure your hitting the right Hiragana letter and it is only compounded by the fact that the letters will change locations on the AWSD keys. I am sure the key switching is needed for later levels so that isn’t something I am going to complain about. I would refund this dumpster fire of a game, but I really want to learn Japanese and it and the two other games on steam are about all we have so for now it is a great tool, because of a lack of alternative game education tools. The graphics and sounds are decent for what it is, so if you like pixel art and chiptune music you will love it. While I really want to learn Japanese, I can't recommend this to other people unless they really really want to learn it.

People are complaining that the game is difficult, and it is, but I view that as a good thing in this case. It means I have to play each level several times over to get a perfect score, and that only further cements the quick memorization of each symbol. I would recommend having a basic knowledge of hiragana before buying.

Why the keys for the same letter change all the time? Annoying and not fun at all.

This Game tricks you into lerning without you noticing it ;) But don't think you can play thour it in one sitting. You can't only do a few levels, before you concentration gives in. If you stock, wait a few hours you try it again tomorrow, you will see it's way easyer after a good nigth sleep.