Learn Japanese RPG: Hiragana Forbidden Speech

I just finished this and would definitely recommend it to others. Most other 'Learn Japanese' games that I've tried seem to go the route of 'see object - learn object's name in Japanese - move to next object'. It makes me feel like I am collecting dictionary entries rather than actually playing a game. This one does actually feel more like a game. You will still 'collect words', but in the context of an actual story that is playing out. I already know hiragana so set it up at the beginning to use Kanji instead. My lowest Japanese skill is in listening so it was great to get practice at hearing the dialogue and trying to understand it I also am mostly familiar with the polite forms of words and sentences and haven't had much exposure to more casual or rougher speech so getting this exposure was also good. As well as 'collecting words' via a battle system, there are also mini episodes of explanation on some topics so that you as a learner can get more insight into why sentences and words are constructed in the ways used within the game. I actually ended up taking some notes from the explanations as they were helpful to revisit at a later date for my own learning. I would absolutely recommend this game The demo is very generous (I think I got about 3 hours our of it) so there's also plenty to try to see if you'll also find it good before buying. The save game ports over from the demo so no need to replay anything and waste time. So to complete the game it's taken me around 18 hours. If the Developer ever reads these reviews then please know that I would absolutely be interested in a further game (or DLC!) that allowed further learning and the next ~250+ words!

While I have a few complaints, overall I enjoyed this game and despite having some existing Japanese knowledge was able to learn some things too. In particular, the gradual transition to more use of Japanese in the dialogue seemed very effective. The content is also pretty focused on the parts of the language that are commonly used in anime and manga which made it a more useful companion to other language learning resources. Resources focused on real-life usage are all well and good, but let's be real. If you're looking for a Japanese learning game on Steam, you're probably mostly interested in learning the language to better consume Japanese media. As an RPG, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The story and dialogue are interesting enough. Combat is effective as an educational tool, but not especially RPG-like. Your character does get stronger as the game progresses, but mostly by acquiring more hitpoints. More complicated words introduced later in the game do more damage, but you don't really have control over which words you use in combat. Still, it's fun enough that it didn't feel like the game dragged at the default encounter rate. My biggest complaint, is that it felt like new words were being added too quickly at times. I'd be struggling with a particular word (mostly because of unfamiliar kanji since I was playing in that mode) and still getting new word unlocks at the end of combat. I ended up running out of words that could be unlocked in combat well short of the end of the game as a result. There are some settings around learning rate that maybe would have helped here, but it wasn't really clear how they worked. I have some additional complaints with kanji mode, but since the game is called Hiragana Forbidden Speech and not Kanji Forbidden Speech it feels a little unfair to be too upset about them. Still, I'll note them here in case it helps anyone make a purchase decision. The biggest problem with it, is the game isn't really built to teach you kanji. Kanji mode replaces hiragana with kanji where appropriate and you can see the reading used when the word is first introduced (or in the vocab page), but that's largely the extent of it. This is fine as a way to practice reading kanji you already know, but I don't think it's enough for learning unfamiliar kanji. The other problem is that the way kanji are rendered in battle mode makes it difficult to make out all the strokes in more complex characters like 鍵 (key) or 鶏 (chicken) despite them being rendered at a fairly large size. This was especially annoying for the latter since I knew 鳥 (bird) and it being present as a radical in 鶏 is a hint that the character is bird related if you could actually make it out.

いいです！Finished one playthrough so far and it helped me a lot, much faster than just Anki card memorization.

すごい

Very easy to understand and play

this game is fantastic for learning japanese as a beginner, really makes the vocab, sentence structure and grammar stick better than anything else I've tried.

Great Learning Tool. Runs on Linux, too. Achievements would be nice to have and Trading Cards when the Sales threshold is met.

Pefect to start with japanese. It is teaching you hiragana pretty well and on top some basics words too. Fun way to learn hiragana <3