
Dialogue changes from English to Japanese as you learn and progress in this comedic RPG backed by professional Japanese voice acting. This is a full 18+ hour introductory Japanese course and adventure all in one. Master hiragana, 136+ kanji, basic grammar, 240 common words used in anime.
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About

If you like the free demo, buy the full game and continue from your last save point!
Dialogue changes from English to Japanese as you learn and progress in this comedic RPG backed by professional Japanese voice acting.
Learn Japanese RPG: Hiragana Forbidden Speech is aimed at anime fans with little to no Japanese ability, but any beginner may enjoy and benefit, even those who have studied Japanese and hiragana before. This is a full introductory Japanese course and adventure all in one. We've made the game we wanted to play when we were first learning Japanese.
Cheaper than popular beginner textbooks
Features that textbooks and other learning resources can't match
Conversations with pro voice acting and full context
System that adjusts dialogue to your level
Story with colorful characters, comedy, and music
Battle system drills on hiragana and words + kanji
Focus on content relevant to anime fans
Probably! There's still 136+ kanji to practice!
Can you quickly read and comprehend the following sentences easily? If not, the game should offer you great value.
でも、それはちょっと変だった
この小さい雄鶏は誰だ?
もうこの船が必要じゃない
ここは面白くないだろ?
またあの馬じゃないか!
もう危なくないよ
俺はお前が本当に嫌い
まだ終わりじゃねえ!
お前らはだめな奴だ
あいつの名前は何?
いいえ、だめな猫だよ!
Mild Immersion
Our frustration with other Japanese learning games is that while they teach hiragana and words, they rarely (if ever) use these learnings in actual conversations. Almost everything is out of context. A random character, word, or sentence here or there. On the other hand, trying to learn Japanese by watching anime or reading manga is overwhelming (for a beginner).
We try to strike a balance between these two worlds. This game strives for “Mild Immersion.” We want to immerse you in Japanese as much as possible, but only beginner Japanese. We want you to feel confident that any Japanese that comes your way is something you’ve been taught and are capable of understanding at a basic level.
Small Step Immersion
This game also strives for “Small Step Immersion.” We want to immerse you in Japanese one small step at a time. After learning a new hiragana, you will soon learn words spelled with that hiragana and immediately start seeing and hearing those words in dialogue and battle. Slowly, but surely, your vocabulary and reading ability will grow as the game gently immerses you, more and more.
We believe context, immersion, and fun are key to effective learning. This game isn't just an RPG with Japanese flashcard-type battles. It is much more.
How to read, write, and pronounce hiragana
Hiragana is a set of characters used to write Japanese words.
Over 240 common Japanese words used in anime
136+ kanji used in the Japanese words
Grammar to understand basic Japanese sentences (50+ tutorials)
Listening skills with over 4000 lines of dialogue by pro Japanese voice actors
行 怖 可 愛 君 美 味 熱 痛 強 助 待 本 当 分 違 元 気 母 生 徒 先 遅 小 忙 下 猫 酷 人 間 船 男 頑 張 危 動 物 残 念 早 良 名 前 女 何 山 羊 豚 馬 鼠 寒 見 大 丈 夫 島 秘 密 面 白 友 達 犬 楽 彼 化 煩 誰 私 奴 変 皆 夢 無 理 持 別 日 陰 性 心 霊 水 僕 俺 冗 談 手 紙 悪 息 子 今 好 魚 来 不 音 蜂 必 要 鶏 庭 綺 麗 嫌 蜜 久 姫 天 使 蛇 蛙 配 疲 野 郎 次 雄 貴 様 弱 所 明 部 屋 花 落 着 砂 漠 終 鍵 敵 町 姉 事
The Adaptive Dialogue System helps you learn by doing. It determines whether to show dialogue in Japanese or English based on your current knowledge. The more Japanese words and grammar you learn, the more dialogue will appear in Japanese!
For example, consider the following sentence: "doko iku?" (Where are we going?)
If you don't know one of the words "doko" (where) or "iku" (go, going), then this sentence will be shown in English. This is to avoid frustrating you with content you haven't yet learned.

However, if you know both words, it will be written in Japanese hiragana.
Pressing a button displays the "roumaji" of the sentence. Roumaji uses the English alphabet to describe Japanese sounds. A second press displays the English translation.

Professional Japanese voice acting (Over 4000 lines of spoken dialogue)
Teaches Japanese starting from zero
Teaches all the most common hiragana
Teaches over 240+ Japanese words commonly used in anime
Practice 136+ kanji
Teaches word usage and Japanese grammar (over 50 tutorials)
Adaptive Dialogue System gets you reading Japanese fast without being overwhelmed
Real-time battles and humorous dialogue make learning fast and fun
Gradual Reveal Dialogue System lets you conveniently check your reading comprehension
All Hiragana Mode lets advanced adventurers immerse themselves instantly in a deeper Japanese experience
Battle drills can be disabled at any time
Level up controls allow you to adjust the pace of your learning
Disable automatic voice over to practice reading comprehension easily
18+ hours of gameplay
Tremendous replay value. Game adjusts Japanese content to your level from the very beginning
Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 41 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 41 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
This is a great way to learn Hiragana! I'm a Japanese beginner, and this is a great introduction. Not to mention it's entertaining and fun to play! I recommend playing with a notepad nearby, so you can practice new Hiragana as you learn them!
The game has such an interesting story! It kept me playing even when I was tired. I already knew hiragana and some beginner japanese grammar so I was glad that u could skip lessons on the kana and that u could turn on kanji mode from the start. Fighting is easy and fun too. U can make random "fights" more frequent or turn them off completely. I got really invested into characters too. The only downside for me is that the ending feels abrupt and left open to the continuation. I wish there were more. I would definitely buy a sequel if it's ever released just bc I enjoyed making Kai loose to Lenoa and laugh at his many excuses why he lost. One of my most favorite parts of the game. And Augusto sama. Kinda was more interested in Red than Sachiko tho. Literally couldn't care about saving her but oh well.
Gostei bastante, jogo todo dia por mais ou menos 1h e tem me ajudado muito a aprender hiragana, vale a pena se quiser aprender se divertindo e devagar.
すごい
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.
Crazy value for your money. I expected it to be a quick and simple game but it was full of hours and hours of delightful content, witty humor, fun characters, an intriguing story, all while providing in-depth and useful Japanese lessons that not only build a foundation for your Japanese language study, but also provide insight into real, practical spoken Japanese (so you don't sound like a walking textbook). HUGE RECOMMEND for anyone with an interest in Japanese.
Actually: Depends. While the game as such is ok and seems to prefer un over hai, it also feels like it's a gameboy/telefoon game transfered to pc. Especially on a ultra-wide it's a iesie-pitsie tiny window in the middle with no opties to enlange or whatever. [edit] there is a fullscreen through alt-enter which is only mentioned on the very first screen in small characters at the bottom. Oh well.. I also feel that they keys react a little slow, but that can be proton as I play under linux. As for the game, it's ok, it has the look and feel of an older Zelda game, but explanations are comprehensive. It's to early to say if I actually learn something, but if you're an absolute beginner, you will learn the basics.
Very easy to understand and play
Perfect way to learn a lot of information with a beginner level of Japanese. Plus the game makes it to where you can learn kanji if you're literate in reading hiragana. Play this game if you like RPGS, anime, or want to learn more commonly used words casual speech and polite speech.
Really useful. Thank you!
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Trends
Modeled estimate over time, reconstructed from Steam's monthly review histogram.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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