The ideal introductory course to the Japanese language! Learn how to read and write Japanese characters (Hiragana) at a steady pace. A full-blown RPG specifically designed to keep you engaged. By playing along, you’re going to be introduced to the Japanese language like never before!
Very Positive
2,071 Steam reviews
| LANGUAGE | AUDIO | SUBTITLES | INTERFACE |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | — | Y | Y |
Thanks to this game, Hiragana was permanently burned into my brain. If you're a newcomer to Japanese, this game is a MUST PLAY. It also teaches some words and grammar. Definitely complete this one and Katakana War before tackling Genki or Wanikani.
The hiragana game is ok. I would like it more if the answer selection was more intuitive in battles. It's pretty clunky.
For teaching vocabulary, I don't like that it used katakana words to teach hiragana when there are plenty of words that they could use instead. It would be good to see words that really use those hiragana that we've learned up to that point in vocabulary lessons, instead of just random words.
Once I've proven mastery for the characters in an area, it would be nice if I didn't run into so many battles constantly. It would be nice to be able to pass through areas more quickly if I've already been there, OR actually change up the battles once you have "beaten" a character a certain amount of times, then it changes to words or something helpful, but reduced occurrences would be helpful to continuing the game with out getting annoyed and frustrated that you can't progress an area with out doing the same exact stuff over and over and over (When you've already gotten it right so many times).
Good but why is there a brown character that is all dignified while the white guy is portrayed as a troublemaker? wrong way around 0/10 Not realistic
Lovely gameplay
Its buggy, doesn't run properly, crashes a lot. Don't buy this! If you're learning Hiragana there are much faster and logical ways! I've tried to run this game multiple times on different devices and it's been a complete waste of time every single time.
I love the game and I think it's a wonderful idea. I've literally been wanting something exactly like this. However, I bought all 3 of the games but not the study guides to go with them and now I'm broke for the month... So I have to wait until next month and buy the study guides.
Maybe some people don't need them, but right away I am confused and don't know how to pronounce anything and there's no voice acting from what I can tell. Because there is no voice acting I will need to buy the study guides and also use something like Google to pronounce certain words out loud so that I understand how to write and speak Japanese.
I think it's very important and fun to actually learn the characters too though so this game will be a fun tool to add to my language studies. I am going to start dedicating at least 1 hour to language studies every day. This game will make me end up spending a bit more time I can tell lol...
I am happy I bought the trilogy and look forward to buying all the study guides for them so I can continue playing next month! I'll keep studying until then too and maybe the characters will look more familiar. I just started getting into this language study thing as a hobby and because I want to travel some day.
The game plays like an old school JRPG while also including the studying of Japanese. It seems like each game focuses on different ways to write in Japanese. I just looked it up. Kanji is the traditional written language taught in ancient Japan by Chinese monks traveling or something like that. Then the other 2 are styles used in modern Japan.
I just looked it up and it says this specifically about what each game should teach, I would try to make things bold or something and organize things to look nice, but I don't know how:
*Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle*
Hiragana, The "cursive" alphabet: The foundation of Japanese writing. Used for grammar (particles, verb endings) and native Japanese words. You can write any Japanese word in Hiragana.
*Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War*
Katakana, The "blocky" alphabet: Used primarily for foreign loanwords (e.g., "computer," "coffee"), foreign names, onomatopoeia (sound effects), and for emphasis (like italics in English).
*Learn Japanese To Survive! Kanji Combat*
Kanji, Logographic symbols (like pictograms): The characters adopted from Chinese. They represent words or ideas. There are thousands, but this game teaches over 200 essential ones. Learning Kanji is key to understanding vocabulary and reading fluently.
Thank you development team for making something so cool!
Good Game
Fun way to learn hiragana! I recommend that students practice writing down what you learn, if you want to make it easier on yourself.
Gillade: Enkelt att lära sig
Gillade inte: Lite för lätt att dubbelklicka på menyn när man håller inne tangenterna
Within a week it gave me a little kickstart in reading Hiragana. Though I can't say this should be your sole learning experience, it's a wonderful and helpful way to learn some fundamentals.
My only criticism lies with the UI, which can make selecting Hiragana/phonetics, and targeting enemies, a little clunky, but at least the game does have controller support.
A minor note - the game must be framerate locked via your graphics card settings. On a 240hz monitor it ran at mach 5 for a bit.
All in all, I'm glad this exists. ありがとう！ またね！
good, fun to learn, textbook is recommended
The answer to attack system is nice for repetition memorization and I quite like some of the dialogue.
Ótimo para aprender japonês! Está me ajudando muito.
Crashes at launch on mac and pc audio is playing broken tracks on pc
I played 9 hours, divided half into learing and half struggling with the tedious controls. Now I know hiragana and marry a girl from Japan.
I played through the game in a few days. It was really fun. The basic story is quite interesting.
Can you learn hiragana through the game? Yes, you can!
You don't just learn hiragana, but also whole words, some grammar, and cultural aspects of Japanese culture.
The hiragana symbols are taught gradually, including voice output, so you know how to pronounce them.
I can't wait to start with the katakana sequel!
PS: Every word you learn will be needed in the end game.
Learn Japanese To Survive – Hiragana Battle is a clever and approachable fusion of educational software and classic role-playing game design, built specifically to ease newcomers into the fundamentals of the Japanese language. Developed by Sleepy Duck and published by RIVER CROW STUDIO, the game sets out with a very clear goal: to teach players how to read, recognize, and recall Hiragana in a way that feels engaging rather than intimidating. Instead of relying on traditional flashcards or rote memorization, it frames learning as an adventure, using familiar JRPG conventions to turn study into progression and repetition into gameplay.
The structure of the game is built around a simple but effective loop. As the story unfolds, players are gradually introduced to new Hiragana characters in small, manageable batches. Each character comes with clear explanations, stroke-order visuals, and pronunciation cues, ensuring that learners understand not just what the symbol looks like, but how it sounds and how it is written. These lessons are then reinforced through turn-based battles, where enemies are represented by Hiragana characters themselves. To defeat them, players must correctly identify the corresponding sound or meaning, effectively transforming every fight into an interactive quiz. This constant cycle of learning and application helps reinforce memory far more naturally than passive study methods.
Beyond basic character recognition, the game lightly expands into simple vocabulary and foundational grammar concepts. These elements are introduced through NPC interactions, quizzes, and contextual prompts, providing a broader sense of how Hiragana functions within the language rather than isolating it as a purely abstract system. Importantly, the game allows players to revisit previous lessons at any time, acknowledging that language learning is rarely linear and that repetition is essential for retention. This flexibility makes the experience welcoming for players who may need extra reinforcement without penalizing them for slower progress.
From a gameplay perspective, the RPG mechanics are intentionally straightforward. Exploration follows a familiar top-down structure reminiscent of classic 16-bit role-playing games, complete with towns, dungeons, and random encounters. Combat uses a pre-planned turn system where players select actions in advance, emphasizing accuracy and recall over complex strategy. While this simplicity keeps the focus firmly on learning, it can also make battles feel repetitive over time, especially for players approaching the game primarily as an RPG rather than a study tool. The story itself is light and serviceable, providing just enough motivation to keep moving forward without becoming the main draw.
Visually and aurally, the game adopts a charming retro pixel-art style that reinforces its nostalgic RPG identity. Character sprites, environments, and menus are clean and readable, which is especially important given the educational focus. Audio pronunciation clips play a key role in reinforcing learning, helping players associate sounds with written characters, though the balance between voice samples and background music can occasionally feel uneven. Still, the overall presentation is warm and approachable, avoiding the sterile feel that educational software can sometimes fall into.
Where Learn Japanese To Survive – Hiragana Battle truly succeeds is in motivation. It understands that one of the hardest parts of learning a new writing system is consistency, and it uses progression, leveling, and a sense of adventure to encourage players to keep practicing. The repetition built into combat is not accidental; it is the core teaching tool, and for learners serious about mastering Hiragana, that repetition becomes a strength rather than a flaw. At the same time, players looking for deep RPG systems or a rich narrative may find the experience shallow once the novelty wears off.
Overall, Learn Japanese To Survive – Hiragana Battle is best viewed as an educational companion rather than a standalone replacement for formal study. It excels at introducing Hiragana in a friendly, low-pressure way and reinforcing recognition through play, making it especially valuable for complete beginners or learners who struggle with traditional memorization techniques. While its RPG elements are modest and its gameplay repetitive by design, its effectiveness as a learning tool is undeniable. For anyone curious about Japanese and looking for an enjoyable way to take their first steps into the language, it offers a genuinely useful and thoughtfully designed starting point.
Rating: 9/10
あ あ い い う う え え お お
か か き き く く け け こ こ
dakuten 濁点 ten-ten
が ぎ ぐ げ ご
After having played the game for a few hours, I noticed a couple things!
First off, the game is wonderfully detailed and goes at a nice pace for learning. At first I was frustrated that enemies seemed to show up so often, but then once I thought about it, it's pretty genius! It makes you frustrated juuust enough to want to hurry up and defeat the enemies, therefore pushing you to actually memorise the hiragana! There's a part where you're sent to an "alternate reality" and have to put the hiragana to an English version, which is a lovely addition. I love RPGMaker games so much, it gives me so much nostalgia!
The game also includes pronunciation guides and extra vocabulary lessons for a few additional words, which is super neat! it also asks you if you'd like to save often, which is perfect for people like me who forget to save. It *is* also 10 years old, so that's something to keep in mind.
The downsides, the game itself is a little buggy, Not horribly so to the point where you can't play, but enough that it does frustrate you a little. Sometimes the audible vocal guide won't play, so you click "listen again" a couple times and then it overlaps a bit. Sometimes the dialogue box shows up without any dialogue for a bit. Again, not horrible! As for the gameplay, Misaki is horribly weak for awhile and kept dying and the "Guard" action didn't activate fast enough, and revives are a little pricey, but after you get to the Ghoul Ruins, you get a bunch of really helpful weapons and money, so I got a bunch of defense for her and it really helped, haha! Again, the enemies show up super often, but you do have the ability to escape, or force yourself to memorise everything so you can defeat them :D
The game is cheap enough that I would absolutely say the upsides are absolutely better than the downsides. 9/10, I highly recommend! It's fun and educational, I'm excited to finish it and move onto the next ones~
excellent. good repetition to drill the alphabets into your memory, and the random enemy encounters will expose your weakness and allows you to realize which letter you are messing up the most. The RPG itself is quite fun too. Totally worth the purchase!
It's a good way to practice hiragana and learn some basic vocabulary. Simple game with simple but entertaining story for what it is. Definitely good enough for a beginner in learning Japanese but I recommend having a notebook when you play and actually writing down the vocabulary and hiragana as you learn it so you can practice both on screen and in real life.
RPGMaker game that gives a fun way to learn language. It's fun and educational and I like the approach, but I'd appreciate it more if they remade/revised the game in a more friendly game engine. RPGmaker has a TON of issues with screen capture, full screen, options, etc.
But as I do enjoy it, I did send the complete series to a few friends. Anyone who wants to learn Japanese should play it, it can't hurt and can only help while scratching that JRPG itch.
Если вы реально учите японский, то поможет закрепить иероглифы
[h1]Short Review[/h1]
I already know hiragana and katakana. I mostly bought this as a refresher and wanted to check it out. Its not a good learning game by any means, especially due to how tedious it feels. I rather recommend the duolingo kana learning system than this game. Not only is the game, aside the kana, completely RPG maker stock gameplay, You fight kana by having them appear as random encounters. They are always in the same formation during an area. Not only do the battles offer no depth, they waste your time by making you grind areas for money to get better gear. Kana wont get one shotted if you choose the correct answer. You get the kana for ki for example and have to find the latin alphabet version of it. Dont forget that there are almost like 50 of those. This is tedium at its finest. If you defeat one of them and your next character wanted to attack the same one it will do no damage.
Additionally they only have two sequences where the system is switched and you see latin alphabet kana and have to answer them with kana. The system does not teach you well by not offering for example words to defeat during the whole game.
All in all a bad experience.
Though it's clear that this is your average RPG maker game using mostly RTP assets, the custom assets used for explaining hiragana and how to write it serve their purpose well. The game itself is decent.
The main story is a bit overdone, but it's edutainment so any story is better than none. Gameplay is quite basic, consisting 99% of matching a "skill" with the romaji name of a hiragana enemy you're using it against. It's a creative way to re-use the rpg maker combat system for edutainment purposes. Out of combat you can find a lot of npc's who give you sidequests, the reward of which always consist of vocabulary. You should write down every word you learn, as it's good writing practice.
The dialogue that doesn't cover the japanese language (aka filler) is mildly amusing, which got the occasional cackle out of me.
All things considered, I think this is a decent entry into the japanese language, if you're willing to do the work, e.g. writing along with the explanations, and actually trying to internalize the vocabulary that the game covers instead of keeping a cheat sheet in every battle. If you don't write along, you will run into a lot of trouble near the end...
Teaches the whole hiragana table, including the Yoon hiragana. In addition, it teaches an initial set of vocabulary and a bit of grammar. Both could have been more detailed, but it’s fine for a first impression.
The story is not amazing, but good enough to keep you going through the game. The fights against the hiragana warriors are useful for repetition and learning. My gripe with them, however, is that the battle sequences are a bit too frequent, and the items to collect on the map are spread into the furthest corners. The hiragana combinations within a battle are repeated quite often as well; the randomization could have been better there.
The side quests teach you more vocabulary or show you sentences in hiragana that you can translate. This part was something I enjoyed quite a bit, because translating hiragana into romaji and then into English showed my learning progress and further engraved the hiragana into my mind.
The story ends with an interesting twist to the hiragana battles and a satisfying boss fight.
I liked the game a lot, and I see potential for Hiragana Warriors 2, which could focus more on vocabulary and grammar. See you in the next game, Katakana Warriors.
しつれい します。
a good and fun way to practice the basics of japanese, helps with learning the Hiragana alphabet. But this is no substitute to studying from a serious source.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠄
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠸⠿⠛⠉⠉⠉⠻⠿⠿⠟⠉⠉⠉⠛⠿⠇
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠸⠇⠀⠀⠶⠀⠸⠿⠿⠇⠀ 🌀 ⠸⠇
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠻⠶⠤⠤⠠⠿⠃⠘⠿⠄⠤⠤⠶⠟
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠻⠶⠜⠰⠭⠩⠍⠭⠍⠭⠱⠠⠶⠟
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|⠀えええええ。えええ。ええええ。ええ。え。⠀|
|⠀えええ。え。ええ。えええええ。ええええ。⠀|
|______________________________|
💋
Seems like a cool idea, but I didn't really learn any Japanese.
I got so bored I started working out of a textbook. The textbook helped a lot, this game was definetly motivating.
とても たのし です！
Very Fun :)
The joy i felt when i could spell baka in hiragana surpassed the joy i felt when America destroyed Iraq's national air defence grid in one night of bombing during the second gulf war.
Japanese, you learn
the idea is nice, but if you want to really learn japanese efficiently, stick with anki decks and immersion from other online sources. (including games you already have dubbed in JPN, or shows, etc.) this game doesn't quite bridge the perfect line between a useful educational tool and a fun game. buy on sale if you want. またね～！頑張って！
It's an adventure story with plenty of drill and practice to learn Hiragana characters. Most of the time, it's the set you're learning, but occasionally it's previously learned characters to keep you learning. Yes, the premise is a little silly - say the name of the character to defeat it - but it helps!
Highly recommend this game when starting out learning hirigana, I do recommend focusing on armor rather than weapons in the early game since it will make the areas last longer, which is something this game kinda stuggles with. The enemies you have cleared will appear again from time to time again so dont worry too much if you are afriad im forgetting throughout the game ^^
Si bien como RPG el juego deja mucho que desear, especialmente en lo que respecta a la curva de la progresión de niveles y estadísticas, lo cierto es que como herramienta didáctica me ha dejado satisfecho. Genuinamente considero que el juego te ayuda a familiarizarte con el silabario hiragana, pero también con algunas nociones básicas y gramática y vocabulario.
Great for refreshing your hiragana! The lessons are broken down to easy segments so they aren't overwhelming at all. I feel much more confident in my comprehension after playing
このゲーム好き
To preface: I started playing this game after I had already began the journey of memorizing hiragana and katakana, so the system was already a bit familiar for me (if anyone is wondering, I'm learning solo via Genki).
Even though I came in with a bit of knowledge, I didn't feel like this game was pandering, or anything like that. It was a good refresher, honestly. The story was pretty decent for a learning game and there was a lot of love that went into this game. My only complaint about this game is it felt like the animations were VERY fast, almost like the game was being sped up. I got used to it, so it wasn't some game-breaking issue; I came here to learn, not necessarily to play a "game of the year".
I do love how there was a smattering of vocab, phrases, counting, and such. That was where I kinda struggled in my own studies before I played the game. It helped me figure out a way to study that wasn't overstimulating/frustrating, which I really appreciate.
Makes learning hiragana fun and easy
The game is a pretty good way to review and solidify your knowledge of hiragana, but I wouldn’t recommend playing it with zero prior knowledge
I’d also like to mention a problem with the fonts: the writing animation uses one font, while the rest of the game uses another. This inconsistency might confuse a newcomer to the language.
That’s why I’d suggest using this game mainly for revision rather than as a first-time learning tool
ありがとう
Very useful
Haven't played too much
A great idea for games
Great to learn the very basics of Hiragana but this isn't enough to learn Japanese, so use this as a start to your Japanese learning Journey!
Best of Luck my fellow Anime and Japanese Culturists!
7/10
humble beginning for sure, there is no medium option so i have to go with not recommended
´Man kan die Hiragana sehr gut spielerisch lernen
A very fun little game with simple, easy JRPG-style mechanics. It helps you practice and learn all the hiragana; the game will explain how dakuten and handakuten work, introducing them in a sensible way. It also demonstrates the stroke order for each character, shows each one in both a more calligraphy style and a more standard text font, and gives relatively useful tips for writing and pronouncing them.
A lot of the dialogue is cheesy but funny. You can keep playing after you finish the main questline, and also access all the "Study Guides" acquired as you pass each of Misaki's lessons. There is one single advert at the end of the game after you beat everything, with a discount code which apparently can be used on the developer's website displayed on the main menu (haven't tried it personally) to use toward purchasing their other study materials.
One criticism would be introducing words before you know all the hiragana for them. Personally, I think it would have made more sense to wait to introduce a set of vocabulary instead of having it half in hiragana, half in the English alphabet. Some vocabulary is much more practical and useful than others. At least they include some basic sentences and sentence-structures toward the end-game, as well as cultural knowledge (common honorifics, "anata" is usually impolite to use compared to someone's surname + san, etc.) which is nice.
For people who learn by doing, and want learning to be a bit more fun or interesting than strictly dry studying, this can be a helpful tool for beginners. Intermediate or advanced learners of Japanese won't get much if anything out of this, and that's fine, the developers knew their target audience.
Is it worth $7 USD? I think so. Looking forward to trying their Katakana and Kanji games—I hope that they are of the same quality as this one. 8/10.
Fun little game. I'm getting to the age where I want to learn something while playing and "gamifying" things is a great way to make learning fun. I always liked the simple RPG interface (like Final Fantasy 1-6) and this game uses that and teaches one set of the Japanese characters (Hiragana). It would be even better if they could come up with some way to use a drawing tablet to have you practice the drawing of the characters during the battles. It is simple. It was worth the Humble Bundle purchase. I'm learning Japanese with DuoLingo and this complements that as well. I can already identify characters used in Japanese games and anime. It is slow going, but learning has been accomplished! Recommended game!
Très bonne idée de jeu.
Avec le recul ça semble anecdotique, mais personnellement je n'aurais sans aucun doute jamais "appris" le japonais si je n'avais pas commencé par ce jeu.
el concepto esta bueno, salen las letras o palabras en hiragana, tu escribes la respuesta en romanji y los enemigos reciben daño, el problema es cuando todos los enemigos estan bien tanques y pegan como papa borracho, hubiera estado chido algunos buffs si acertas correctamente causas mas daño y recibes menos y por cada error recibes el doble de daño o algo asi, de cualquier forma para ver lo basico y aprender el hiragana esta bastante bien.
Edit: la parte final del juego esta bastante bueno, me hubiera gustado mas peleas en las que pones las palabras completas
Edit: intenten usar realkana.com para recordar las letras en hiragana, tambien vienen palabras
good way to get started
Fun and help a lot to memorize hiragana
基本就无理硬记平假名和罗马字…虽然很多视频是这么教…记不住。需要正经的教材为主，组词并且反复听和读。
配乐还是太干扰了（建议关掉），且没有足够的听的部分作为补充。适合看到罗马字能正确发音的人。否则口音会太重了。
没有专门去辨析长得像的。おねれわ、ぬめ、たなを、さち、はほ。
优点是，想要打通关！所以我已经背下来了（大概……）
Good game on the whole but best used with a base knowledge of Hiragana and Katakana already and use the game as a break from the books ( James Heisig remembering the Kana is highly recommended ) like i did otherwise it's a slow and quite difficult way to learn from scratch. Wish the devs had not used the Manga style font for the letters as that's not the easiest way to draw them so adds unnecessary confusion there tbh.
As a means of reinforcing learning - yes. As a means of learning - no. It is more productive to learn hiragana using other methods (flashcards, for example).
But it works well as a means of reinforcing previously learned hiragana in your memory.
I would write down the RPG component as a negative. It needs to be mercilessly cut out and simplified. I came to the game to cram hiragana, but one of my party members is poisoned, the second is paralyzed, the third is blinded, etc. And I have to do some nonsense instead of cram hiragana. At some point I got tired of it and edited the save file, filling the inventory with all the potions and the best gear. Seriously, if I want to play an jRPG, I have many more interesting options.
I have questions about how the vocabulary is presented. The developers just dump a bunch of words on you, and... that's it. There is no attempt to teach you this vocabulary. But suddenly it turns out to be needed at the end of the game. Guys... that's not how it's done.
However, despite the minuses, I leave a positive review. As a reinforcement, the game fulfilled its task.
Works fine with proton and is a fun way to learn hiragana.
Easy game to pick up to learn Hiragana. Two things I didn't like about this was Leon's character and how some areas had seemingly pointless mazes to pad out the area.
Despite this and the simple story, I had fun learning Hiragana from this and look forward to playing Katakana War next!
I'd say it is a really good game to "gameify" learning Hiragana, but should not be the only method to learn. This should be used while also learning via other methods.
While great for memorization because you get punished for getting it wrong, mnemonics is usually the favored method. The game does a decent onboarding for learning, but becomes repetitive early on. Players will need to grind out exp on hiragana characters, but the game uses this as a method to continually learn the characters.
I didn't finish the game as it really became pointless once I got the memorization down from other studies.
The game is also limited by the RPGmaker as some aspects become clunky and lacks QoL features such as a decent UI when fighting.
Definitely use this as a tool to learn along side other methods, but not as the sole tool. It does a good job for early learning, but that's about it.
want to learn hiragana? but can't afford some tutoring?
this game surprisingly work well
the repetition can help you remember the word
After finishing the game after 12 hours i am very pleased.
pro:
1. The goal of teaching Hirgana-symbols is achieved.
2. The story is well enough writen to get me motivated to go on until the end. Nothing super creative, but engaging enough.
3. The "beat the symbols"-system made me much fun: If you know the symbols, it's very easy to win - if you don't know the symbols it's very pleasing to "punch the s** symbol into the abyss after trying 5 times, what ist correkt" ;-).
4. The game is charming.
5. The japanese explanation a not that deep. Wich is good, because i found learning the symbols hard enough.
6. The Endboos was well crafted.
7. The soundtrack ist nice.
Con:
1. There are 1-2 mayor bug, thats need a relaod to go on. (Elevator-door). The game seems not to get updates anymore, so you should look in the discussions-section.
2. It's a realy simple game. The explanation of japanese do not go in the deep.
Overall ist a "ok" game, wich gets the job done. For the very low price i can recomment it with a smile. :-)
Хорошая игра, неплохо обучает основам если вы как и я либо японский не знали вообще, либо учили но забыли и вам нужно начинать всё с нуля, потому что японский это такой язык, без конкретно закрепленной в голове базы забывается на раз два, особенно сами иероглифы.
Так как я человек ленивый и мне самому лень было разбираться во всём, эта игра неплохо так стимулирует обучению, хочется и поиграть и поучиться, хочешь поучиться? Заходишь поиграть! Хочешь поиграть? Заходишь поучиться!На удивление работает, лично со мной так точно. Музыка приятненькая, не бесячая, обучение языку происходит на простецком английском, разобраться легко. Чтобы вне игры материал закреплять я всё записывал на тетрадке, прописывал иероглифы по кучу раз и вдумывался на что они похожи чтобы выстроить ассоциацию чтобы в следующий когда я его увидел то подумал: О, иероглиф て на h если голову повернуть или と похожа на русскую У только с огромным крючком и так далее. Те же иероглифы, что были друг на друга похожи выстраивал ассоциацию по другому, но это неважно, главное что игра стимулирует на подобные размышления, чтобы при следующем уроке ты знал, что готов уже к новым.
Единственный минус это интерфейс под конец игры, когда на экране кучу символов и тебе приходится каждый раз долго листать чтобы под конкретного врага выбрать конкретный иероглиф, неудобно.
По итогу: Для новичков самое то, если хочется хотя бы вкатиться в язык начиная с азов и не лезть лишний раз в интернет-крайне подходящий вариант
Прикольный тренажер для запоминания хираганы.
Сразу предупреждаю: многие слова, которые тут встречаются в реале пишутся либо с кандзи, либо вообще катаканой. Так что имеет смысл запоминать только их произношение. Ну и ограничиваться только этой игрухой не стоит. Если занимаетесь всерьёз изучением японского, то параллельно осваивайте материал через приложухи, видосики, курсы и т. п.
Eh.. It's a good idea, but the ui is clunky, and it's a pretty slow way to learn Hiragana. Mnemonics work much better
Hiragana Battle is language learning game hobbled by the limitation of the RPGmaker system more than anything else. It's a noble effort, but system mechanics get in the way of being an exceptional and effective learning system.
The way this game works is that if gives you 5 (usually 10 actually) Hiragana letters per lesson and uses those letters as monsters to battle NES Final Fantasy style. Where you need to have each character select from the menu of learned options and pick the correct one to deal damage based on the character's strength and weapon. As you learn more hiragana, this menu becomes quite cumbersome.
Additionally, the player has to gauge how much health of the 'hiragana warrior' has vs. the damage each character inflicts. Because a character targeting a defeated warrior will just attack the next one. And is almost never the correct letter. Thus a wasted attack.
Honestly, I think a game like this would work better more like the original Dragon Quest/Warrior game. With only a single character. I found myself lower areas trying to get more practice to familiarize myself with earlier hiragana only needing a couple of the characters to attack to defeat all the hiragana warriors. Yet, I had to navigate the menu for the whole party.
Fortunately, the game does have each character stay on the previous option they picked. Which is handy when the player miss judges the amount of damage needed. As well as each area tends to focus on a particular group of hiragana.
The game part is standard turn-based RPGmaker fair. The music is nice. The characters and gear are bare-bones. Which feels more like a feature to focus on the educational aspect. The game developers did a good job fitting the square peg of of learning hiragana into the round hole of RPGmaker. But it is clear the the limitations of that don't offer more effective learning than flashcards.
Which is where I ultimately can't recommend this game. If you enjoy retro turn-based CRPGs and want to learn hiragana, this game is okay. If you just want to learn hiragana. Just make some flashcards instead. I think your progress will be much faster.
Learn Japanese To Survive - Hiragana Battle is a good effort, but is too limited by mechanics to be a highly effective learning game.
Что могу сказать - игра с задачей справилась. С, по сути, полного нуля (едва ли тут пригодятся знания катаканы), я, пусть и не в идеале (даже на последних этапах игры иногда путал символы), но вполне неплохо освоил хирагану. В геймплейном плане приходилось перезагружаться и гриндить перед несколькими моментами, но конкретно тут это едва ли минус, все же гринд, который здесь повторение, как говорится, мать учения. Как новичок новичку, рекомендую - не так нудно, как гонять карточки, но эффект едва ли будет хуже (ну если повторять регулярно)
I love the idea of gaming while also learning <3
I had difficulty continuing too far in this game as the game itself isn't very fun or engaging. The waiting times between learning are also quite tedious and if I remember correctly the chatting can't be sped up.
My issue with the game though is it is too slow and only teaches hiragana which is only one of the three alphabets the Japanese use. For a child this game is ideal but for adults I would recommend something else.
like this series. if you are the type of person who needs something to learn and do drills that isnt just reading Qcards this is perfect. i only wish there was a button to skip the writting parts after youve seen them
It's a really useful tool to complement an independent study of Hiragana. Sometimes studying may be a little stressing or overwhelming, but through this game you can both play a decent game and revise hiragana bit by bit. While this game is not a bad teacher, I'd recommend take notes and be curious. Learn new things and spend time learning this language because now seems hard, but in the future you will see the fruits of your work.
P.D.: The soundtrack is actually nice.
[h1]
Good game for learning japanese. It plays just like your usual RPG except you take notes of characters and words that you learn. You will encounter hiragana, katakana and kanji along the way. Soundtrack is nice and story might grab your attention. Just take your notebook and learn some japanese!
[/h1]
日文完全新手推薦，認真玩完至少可以將五十音與對應的平假名記住
I'm a few hours in and I like it! The combat is of typical RPG Maker kind, but it works pretty well with learning the signs.
I think it'd be nice if there would be an internal counter that tallies up how much a certain glyph has appeared to make it more effective - on my third kana set I started forgetting the previous sets.
This game did in a few hour what months on language apps could not do
[b]My Playtime:[/b] 10:52:49 (based on in-game clock, finished the game)
[h1]Intro[/h1]
[b]Learn Japanese To Survive - Hiragana Battle[/b] is an educational game that serves to teach you hiragana, one of three Japanese letters, in an RPG format. It focuses more on learning the letters to help you memorize, listen, and write the words.
[b]Pros:[/b]
- Learning aspect is integrated well into the game to force you to remember
- Explanation for each letter is done in detail
[b]Cons:[/b]
- Pronunciation voice is too small compared to the BGM
- Non-learning aspects are underwhelming
[b]Specs[/b]
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
[h1]Should you buy this game?[/h1]
[b]Yes.[/b]
[i]If you are interested in learning hiragana with no experience, I suggest buying it at a sale.[/i]
[hr][/hr]
[h1]In-Depth Review[/h1]
[h3]Visuals[/h3]
Most (if not all) of the assets use the default RPG Maker assets. The layout for the towns looks okay, although the dungeons look bland. It's as if the developer auto-generated the dungeons and left it with minimal decorations. Most of them are designed in a square-shaped area with a lot of partitions to make them look like a maze, with little incentives to explore all nooks and crannies because there is nothing at the end of the corner.
[h3]Story[/h3]
I like how the game embedded learning Japanese into the game while still introducing fantasy elements in it. The story is pretty much straightforward otherwise, with it serving as a way to travel to the next destination.
[h3]The Game[/h3]
[b]Gameplay[/b]
The gameplay is repetitive: you learn five sets of hiragana letters, go to a dungeon, and repeat. Advancing the story is always done by talking to one of the characters in the town, which will become your study guide to learn hiragana. Some people will also give simple quests and give you more words to memorize if you manage to finish them.
I like how the game doesn't focus just on teaching you the letters. You'll be explained how to write them and listen to the pronunciation as well. However, I found the writing system to be confusing since different fonts give different results. The voice for the Japanese words also tends to be lower than the in-game music—I had to increase the volume to listen to it most of the time. That being said, the game also tries to give tips on how to write the character properly, and how the words came to be.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2185881315
Sometimes, you'll also be taught how to read Japanese phrases in hiragana. The game will tell the English translation and how the words connect. Since Japanese has a different word order from English, it's very helpful. I also like how the game changes some of the key items and uses simple greetings in Japanese near the end of the game. I felt challenged to read the words, and in turn, it helped me to gain an understanding to read the letters. I still needed to keep my notebook at hand to read it at first, but as time goes, I started to rely on it less and less. I think it's working.
[b]Dungeons[/b]
Dungeons are short. Most of them only last within one or two areas, although the longer one usually has smaller rooms. However, the encounter rate is too high; you can get into a battle within one step from where the previous battle took place. It might be a good idea to do this since you can learn more this way, but as an RPG, it is tedious. Moreover, it's hard to memorize the whole dungeon layout this way.
Battles are the most reliable way for you to refresh your knowledge. Enemies will be in the form of hiragana and you have to hit them with their English spelling. Each area has a certain set of enemies, mostly in the form of the new letters that you learn. I prefer the game to mix some earlier words to make it stick to my head. This was done slightly near the end of the game, although I wish that it would also be implemented early on.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2200148427
The game can be too short for the learning sections. The early game forces you to remember 5 words, more if dakuten and handakuten (symbols that change the pronunciations) were involved. It can be hard to make them all stick in your head within one dungeon section. Moreover, there was a section in one of the dungeons where you needed to translate English letters instead of Japanese hiragana. I realized that I had issues with it, but sadly, the game doesn't seem to think that it's a good idea to make such dungeons. There were only two areas that had that part, and the second one was very short.
The last dungeon can be hard for those not familiar with Japanese. I spent most of my playtime memorizing the letters, and while the game gave some vocabulary for me to remember, I just shrugged them off since I prefer to focus on writing and memorizing the letter first. It turns out that those letters were needed for the final dungeon. I was lucky to get most of it since I recognize some words by watching anime and reading manga, but I'm not sure if someone who has not been exposed to any Japanese words can memorize both at once. Sure, you can revise the lessons, but it can be tedious to figure out which one you need.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3279100415
[b]Length and Difficulty[/b]
The in-game clock says that I finished the game in 10:52:49. I finished all side quests and obtained all items in this run. The game isn't difficult at all—you can just take notes of all characters and refer to them as you play, although it will beat the purpose of the game if you do that. I did have a notebook with the set of characters, but that's because I tried to learn how to write the characters too—it helps me to memorize the words better.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
[i]Learn Japanese To Survive - Hiragana Battle[/i] is a good game as a learning material, but not so much as an RPG. The gameplay is too repetitive, the dungeons are empty, and the encounter rate is too high. However, some of the cons can be turned into pros once you consider it as learning material. Repetition is necessary for learning a new language, so the high encounter rate works well for it. You'll get a lot of learning opportunities, and when it's time to learn new words, the game will break it down fully so a complete beginner can understand. It's a good introductory course if you want to learn Japanese casually.
Definitely not a good way to learn Japanese. The sample pronunciation is too fast and sometime wrong. For example, there should be a clear distinction between the hiragana ど (do) and と (to). However in the demonstration, all I can hear is "do" for every word involves. There is no "t" sound in any of them. For beginner, their difference should be strongly emphasize.
The gaming part of this game is also a big fat fail. The enemies are way too strong, and they always go first in battle. I'm 3 hours in and my characters were dying in 2 hits. That means if there are four enemies in a battle, two of my characters would be dead before my first turn. The outcome of this was that I just ran away from all battles, defeating the purpose of learning Japanese through the game. This is so stupid.
日本語
I love it. It's actually a useful learning app and an enjoyable game.
Very good game if you like RPG and want to learn Japanese
### Overview
Learn hiragana through this very grindy turn-based adventure through a fictional town and japan.
### Gameplay
- WASD and point and click, it’s definitely game maker studio or something of that sort
- If you think about this as an educational game, then it’s fun. but it’s not a fun game LOL. I skipped alot of fighting because it was the same ones repeating and repeating and i was also tired of scrolling through like 50 hiragana to find the fcking answer. tedious LOL
- It’s unique in the sense that it really helped me actually learn and retain hiragana, AND it also taught vocab which i wasn’t expecting at all.
### Graphics & Art Style
- Cute pixel-y octopath traveler vibes
- Nothing about the visual really matters though, but I was very happy to see that it was chibis, because i think chibis are so cute!
### Sound & Music
- I had music turned off so that I could vibe with my lofi lololol but i think the sound was pretty generic and knew it was just about the educational experience so it didn’t matter to me.
### Performance
- The issue was it just felt like going through pokemon grass wishing you had repels LOL. i get that its supposed to help you practice but it just got to be SO many back to back fights and the same ones kept getting prompted at you. and the ui for fighting was so tedious to get through to find the right one.
- As an educational game, i guess since i have a rudimentary at best knowledge of japanese through extensive anime watching lololol, and being weeb af, i thought that it really helped me remember some hiragana that i was always getting mixed up on. getting a ton of vocab to remember to break up the monotony of learning the same things was also something i wasn’t expecting (I didnt read the game description lolol in case its in there lolol) and was a nice bonus because i could always collect more words.
### Overall Impressions
- *What did you like most?* I enjoyed the cute little mini story and the small towns and characters that they created. it felt very cute.
- *What didn’t work well?* Battle UI was the worsttt lol
- *Would you recommend it?* Yeah, i actually would! lol just with the disclaimer of its janky but its not bad and you do learn!
---
**Final Score:** For a $7.00 game, for someone who needs to change things up every so often, worth it despite the jank. 3.5 upped to 4 because i love japan 😛
3/5
This is not a good way to learn Hiragana. Too slow.
Honestly even duolingo is better than this.
Actually, let me elaborate. I clearly didn't play much of this. I got this game for a good deal, mainly interested in the 3rd part of the trilogy. I learned Hiragana back in highschool, but I figured I'd give this a shot though, maybe as a review, or a good way to practice my Hiragana reading. It's just way too much of a slog for me. If you want to learn Hiragana, there are so many good resources out there, just search "Learn Hiragana" online, Tofugu has a free downloadable book to teach you hiragana, complete with mnemonics to help you remember each kana. If that's not gamey enough for you, maybe try something like quizlet or Anki (though I think quizlet got a lot worse since I last used it). If you just want reading practice, maybe play the japanese version of a game your familiar with (pokemon is a common rec). And while I have my gripes with it, Duolingo is not the worst tool for studying. And if your interested in learning more japanese, maybe look into people like Dogen, or Yuta Aoki.
I guess if this game works for you, then more power to you, but there are so many other resources I would recommend before this.
I learned hiragana quite efficiently using textbooks, but figured I would give this a try to see how it plays. Sadly this does not feel like a great way to learn. It does a good enough job teaching the information, despite how dry and unimaginative it does it. The real problem is the gameplay. It feels like the only reason this is an RPG is because RPGmaker is the only source the developer had to make a game. The gameplay quickly devolves into you spamming through UI menus to click the correct attack patterns over and over, rather than focusing on actually learning. This would play much better if the game took player inputs and let you type your answer rather than having to thumb through a clunky RPG menu every 5 seconds.
fun and easy game to supplement hiragana instruction
I recommend using a save editor though, it's far too grindy to get money for equipment
Non sarà il gioco migliore del mondo, ma è un ottimo strumento per svolgere i primi passi per imparare la lingua giapponese (per la quale, comunque, è utile affidarsi a diverse risorse).
Tecnicamente ha diversi bug, ma basta salvare frequentemente per evitare disagi.
Le conversazioni con gli NPC sono sorprendentemente ben scritte, e il finale del gioco è una sfida abbastanza divertente.
In sintesi: non è perfetto, ma lo consiglio assolutamente.
A little too grindy, however it does achieve its' purpose I can read and write all hiragana now :) onto the next one!
Desde el principio del juego hay varios errores de ortografía al escribir palabras sencillas como "Hola" o "Adiós", o como cuando en la primer lección te enseñan las 5 vocales, uno de los personajes le pregunta al profesor si se pueden formar palabras en japonés con lo poco que han aprendido, y le responde que no, que es necesario aprender más silabas que contengan consonantes para poder formar palabras, lo cual no es verdad, hay muchas palabras que se componen unicamente de vocales.
Fuera de eso la mecanica para aprender los silabarios es buena, pero va a confundir a los estudiantes porque enseña mal todo lo demás.
Además de que trata de enseñarte vocabulario sin antes enseñarte como se escribe, por lo que recurre a romaji, lo cual no debería ser si se supone que el objetivo es enseñar hiragana
Guess who died ...
over the weekend type game to learn and memorize the entirety of hiragana
skill issue if you can't desu
So I probably have way more hours than a person who would only complete the game normally would. This game does NOT have cloud save, So if you lose the save, you have to restart. I think there is away around this but all I could get to is modifying the save to make my people strong and have custom names. Also since I finally beat this game on an arch-based linux distro, this game suuuuucks for linux where needed PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command% in the launch commands to even run it, was laggy, bugged out, and even crashed sometimes entirely. On windows it was fine. Overall: 7/10
Cons:
-Not linux Friendly, more so linux hostile, but can play through
-No cloud save
-No steam achievements
-can be annoyingly slow
Pros:
-kind of enjoyable
-decent learning pacing
-some variety
-teaches all Hiragana, and multiple words
-has some post game stuff it seems (haven't tried, and likely won't, 100% won't if I lose my save again)
-good additional supplement for learning
You will not learn japanese with this game, but it will supplement your education in a fairly enjoyable way of playing an RPG. I'm not sure what I paid for it, but I recall seeing these games are ~$11? I personally would value it less, but nothing wrong with that price. The way I see it, a book is $10-$60, and this supplements part of that so it's fair. However at same time, you can use a library (but library won't teach in hiragana in and RPG!
When I bought this, the other 2 games didn't exist (and for a long time) but I am strongly considering buy Katakana Warriors then Kanji Warriors to even though ~$11 because though a little high for the limited learning, you still learned a good amount here, in a good way, and in a turn-based RPG video game!
Hope this helped! Sorry for rambling as I do.
Edit: Just saw these games are actually $7-$9 (at least now), definitely trying more since liked this one and spent good amount of time!
decent enough to start learning Japanese if you can't stand more traditional ways of studying, you won't be reading Japanese just playing this game but you'll have a start at least
the main issues I have with it are the vocabulary lessons obscuring hiragana that weren't taught yet but never revisiting the lesson to show you the ones that were missing previously(you will forget to revisit those words on your own) and that the game is a bit grindy at times
My Japanese Journey:
1月30日：One night I laid in bed feeling like a loser and said to myself "What am I doing with my life?" because I literally just played games, went to school, repeat. I then thought about it and was like.. "Wait, I'm totally going to learn Japanese." I hopped out of bed and instantly bought this game and it really kick started my journey.
今日：To be honest, this game didn't really help me much at all because I ended up using Tofuguu's guide to Hiragana and Katakana but it all worked out, because here I am, going to study abroad in Japan within a month. I already know about 2k words, can read articles without furigana and feel confident having small conversations with native speakers only about 6 months after starting! Now, if you're at this point and still feel behind (compared to me) don't worry. I put in a crazy amounts of hours some days and one week I remember I studied like 5 hours a day the whole week. Anyways, thank you game dev for starting my journey because it's the perfect mix of cultural knowledge and fun gameplay I needed to transition into a real study routine.
Japanese is the most beautiful language so if you're new, which you probably are if you're reading this, don't give up. Seriously don't give up. I've met so many Japanese people, made friends (even a special someone) through Japanese and it is by far the most beautiful, well rounded country on this planet. Keep going guys!
頑張ってください！！！！
Thanks for the lessons!
This game does an excellent job at what it aims to - using turn-based RPG combat to force you to memorize the Hiragana syllabary. If you struggle with using flashcards, this will help.
にゃにゃにゃにゃにゃ
For now, I am good not having to learn Japanese to survive. At worst, I just have to run it in the background for a couple hours for dropping cards.
But, who knows in the future...
I already knew hiragana but surprisingly I still enjoyed the game and its story. (Though it can be cheesy. But if you don't expect the best story ever, it's fairly funny.) They found a very creative and fun way of learning the Japanese alphabet but also vocabulary and a bit of Japanese culture. The game offered more than I thought. Also, the dog's name is Steve.
I loved this game, it helped supplement my learning quite a bit. If you love the older school final fantasies then you will like this. My gripes are minor, as I understand this is a teaching game, I wish there were a few more locations and more side quests.
This would be a great study tool, but wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to Hiragana. It throws a new character at you every few minutes and it gets overwhelming very quickly.
