Koe (声): Part 1

The general idea is great but the execution is lacking, especially for the price. The biggest issue is memory performance. of the 3 hours I played, I was staring at the loading screen for 2 hours. Most cases are just scenes without any game play or interaction. You just press A to continue and then its loading the next scene for like 2 min. Also the fighting system makes no sense and does not help with learning. The game could really have done better. Games like Fun China World have set a really good standard for interactive game play when it comes to Asian language learning. I fell like at least partly this could have been done with this game too but I have no motivation left in me to stare at the loading screen.

Koe really is a gem of a game that shows what happens when developers truly care about their project. While the team was small and maybe not deeply experienced in game development, it’s great to see their dream coming to fruition. It’s a perfect blend of JRPG fun and learning Japanese, and you can feel the love that went into making it. The game is challenging in the sense that it demands your attention, but I wish there were more games out there that put this much effort into making education enjoyable. If you’re already learning some Japanese and want to refine your skills while gaming, Koe is definitely worth checking out! (For context, I backed Koe on Kickstarter long ago and played multiple betas, so my hours don't quite match up, but it's in the best state it's ever been.) 頑張って！٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶

Waited so many years for this game, very disappointing. Edit: Apparently the game is dead, no free part 2, no updates, do not buy it.

Disclaimer: Pretty early on in game... I really like this game overall. If you follow youtuber game gengo and like his style/recommendayions - I think you will like this game. There is lots of listening practice, ability to see a log and replay sentences and toggle english rough translation on and off. I would describe it as an immersion experience. You don't have to understand all of it... You can pick up bits and pieces of words/meanings of sentences as you go. You could also go back and do translations yourself at any point. However, maybe it could have started with simpler language and more repetition of simple grammar patterns at the start. Your character is a foreign exchange student. So it could have made sense for the other characters to speak a little more slowly/easier sentences to start. In summary, a good game with lots and lots of content, listening practice, and learning from context in an immersive way. The battle system I believe is also designed to reinforce words and learn from context. I think the developer has done a good job :)

I like this game! I need to play it more though :(

I'm learning japanese and am around N4. I like it and think it's a good and funny experience & exercise. Hope it will also be released on Nintendo Switch...

maybe just not my type of game, maybe gameplay is no fun, maybe the learning aspect is way left behind. Maybe i had too high hopes for this game? Hope others will like this game more than i do.

The game is getting constant updates and improvements, which is pretty cool! As of writing this 'review' i only finished the first chapter. As someone who started his Japanese learning journey casually a few years ago and took his time trying to understand every single dialog, I did learn new things. This was easy especially after the Dev added the option to switch the main displayed text between English and Japanese whenever you want so you can recognize the Kanji better and see the furigana more clearly. In short the game itself is okay and is kinda successful in its goal which is helping you learn Japanese as well as helping you get familiar with the culture.

Kickstarted this back in the day, but the interest I had in the subject matter didn't survive the 10 year wait. I will not likely put any more time into the game than I have so far, surface level appears to be a riff on persona with added language learning. Back when the first trailer was released for kick-starter it had not fully realized its visuals, the art is significantly different, but something about it just puts me off from the game. I can't put my finger on it. While I'd love to give the game a fair playthrough my interest faded and theres many more games in the genre (and my library) I still haven't played and may never either.

Still really early in the game, initial impressions: As someone who is still struggling to understand native Japanese content, really enjoying all this quality of life options that let me play the game as an intermediate step towards Japanese VNs or manga chapters. I set it to have the Japanese dialog first in the textbox with no furigana so I can try reading the easiest sentences by myself. Then I turn on furigana to review the readings I couldn't recall (most of them) and lastly I reveal the english localization once I feel I gave my best attempt at taking in the meaning. If it gets too overwhelming I start tuning the time I spend on the Japanese version. If you're a complete beginner, I think you'll get a lot of mileage out of the item words (飛行機 as a first word might throw you off, it's the only 3 character word for a while, don't worry). My recommendation is to write them down in a piece of paper as best as you can manage with their reading and their meaning. You'll probably feel like you're being bombarded with a torrent of information, some brief notes can help with that. Consider commiting every kana to memory before starting the game and use Koe to review them. And first of all, don't panic if you can't remember 90% of what you were just taught, it's part of the process! If you still feel like Koe is too fast paced for you consider skimming through a grammar guide like Tae Kim's before playing so you can make the most of Koe. One thing I'm not sure about is the built-in dictionary. I find it a tad cumbersome to navigate and sort of barebones. A bit janky with mouse + keyboard and barelly usable with a controller (is Koe supposed to be a controller game? Steam warned me about needing one when I launched it). At the very least it would be handy if I could click on an entry and copy it to my clipboard so I could keep track of new words on my own. None of these are pressing issues.