Learn Japanese RPG: Hiragana Forbidden Speech

Doulingo but actually good. While no game alone can make you fluent in a language, this at least cares more about you learning something instead of only caring about showing ads for crypto slop. This game is as things should be. No subscriptions, no life system, no ads and no AI. You pay once and get a full experience that includes character stroke order, suggestions for memory methods (which are always appreciated even if some feel very far fetched), etymology & syntax explanations and voiced dialogue to listen to. I especially love that you can press Z to repeat voiced dialogue, but i wish you could maybe hold hold down the button to play the dialogue slower. I also wish there was more voiced dialogue to listen to. I love that the game tries to suggest memory methods for each character even if some require a lot of imagenation to see. When tasked to write translations of words during battles, i wish the game would accept more synonyms to avoid accidental confusion or let the player choose shorter words. Example being when translating "わかる" to "grasp" which in english can refer to grabbing something, when writing something more exact like "understand" could help users get closer to the true meaning. I love that you can repeat lessons you had with other characters in NG+ but i wish you could do that from the pause menu instead of having to find these crystals. I also think the game ends too abruptly but hey, thats a sign that i enjoyed it and that it didnt waste any time. Highly recommend if you're interested in the japanese language!

10/10 learning tool Incredible game for getting springboarded into japanese-learning, the demo has an incredible amount of content to make sure you'd like it and the overall game does a phenomenal job at easing you into new words and letters over time. I will re-review the game whenever I finish learning katakana and play this again to start doing kanji mode to get myself started on the third set of letters. The game is also never going to go on a sale, so if you're waiting to buy it for those reasons, don't waste your time, just hop in and play it now.

The bad parts first: 640*480 is the only window size supported, and the game does not support mouse. What is missing on the technical side is made up by the japanese teaching: You get a good explanation on the topics many beginners struggle with(at least I was confused by wa vs ga particle), you get good training system for Hiragana and for words, and the game shows many examples how these words are used in conversation. The Japanese is not only the polite version most introductions focus on, but also the casual and rough versions often seen in Manga, Anime and similar media. Also, I like the story. It is kinda stupid, but my type of stupid, the humor just lands right with me. The characters are memorable without being soppy. Finally, the demo goes quite far into the adventure. if you are unsure, use the demo to decide (warning: you might be hooked after it - just like I was...)

I've learned so much, thanks for putting together something so useful and enjoyable, learning Japanese can feel overwhelming but I think this game gives you a great start, highly recommend a 2nd playthrough in kanji mode.

Great way to start learning Japanese, or get back into it if it's been a while. The vocabulary tends to focus on what you'll encounter in anime, manga, and video games, though the game does point out to you words/phrases that would be considered rude in real life conversation in Japan. The second half of the game can feel a bit overwhelming in how often it gives you grammar lessons, so I would recommend in playing short, regular play sessions and doing other Japanese study or immersion in the meantime. I also recommend keeping the learn speed settings at their default as it's easy to unbalance the game by messing with them. The demo is a very generous length, so try that to decide if the game is for you.

After trying to begin learning Japanese and failing a few times, this game was what finally helped me stick with it.

It's an incredible game to enforce Japanese. This game uses the same words over and over again and as you learn them you've already listened tons of times these words. I could say it's the best way to enforce and learn vocabulary words. The fighting is by recalling romaji or the english meaning of words and this is excellent because after some time I don't even think and I recall all words. I felt really good in that situation, seeing the improvement. There is also tons of grammar lessons which is incredible. The game is really fun and also funny. It makes it 本当に楽しくなる. It is "text" based meaning you always read the text while listening to the sounds and I believe it's really useful even for intermediate learners as it enforces these many useful words and grammar. It was a pleasure and I hope this style gets continued.

You'll see many learning games for Japanese on Steam nowadays. Most of them are just memorization games that don't actually teach you the proper context. This game does. Alongside TPRS, this game is amazing at learning Japanese. With Kanji and soon Katakana being in the game, one will really end the game with a good foundation of words. There are 250 words in the game with 16 bonus words, totaling 266 words. There are 137 kanji in the game as well. It's honestly a good start to learn Japanese with. I would HIGHLY recommend newcomers to turn on Kanji. It's a lot, no doubt, but it is essential to learn and you'll be glad you did in the long long. The game will convert certain sentences to full Japanese text once it sees you have gotten a understanding of all the words in that sentence. For example, "I like roosters." If you only only 好き, it won't change. But if you know 雄鶏 and 私, you get,「私は雄鶏が好き。」 If you want to learn Japanese from scratch, this game will be the perfect start.