Shujinkou

Absolutely phenomenal dungeon crawler that also happens to help you learn Japanese. Great art style, great mechanics, and loveable characters. Hell, the demo alone is longer and more full of content than some AAA games I have played! I say, check out the demo, by the end of it you will know for sure if it isn't for you, or you will be going to buy the game to continue the story and finish more labyrinths! Criminally underrated. More eyes need to be on this hidden gem. Check out my podcast's episode on the game here! https://open.spotify.com/episode/2SeTLVcS6Bo3owWFB3ldTG?si=83279dd9765a4d7f

I bought this game because I'm trying to learn Japanese, and although textbooks are very useful, I'm struggling to find 'fun' stuff to play or read when my Japanese ability is not very good yet. So as long as this game was half-fun, and taught me a bit more Japanese, I would've been happy. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this game was far better than I was expecting! I've now completed this game, I've played it for 90 hours, and I still want to play it even more, to try and complete as much as possible, and get various achievements. (At 90 hours, I still have over 100 sidequests left to do, I've only got the highest rank in 1 minigame, I still have several 'relationship' quests to complete, and I have 3 (out of 6) optional labyrinths I haven't even started yet, so there's a lot of stuff!) I like JRPG's in general, but I haven't enjoyed any DRPG's I've played - this is the first one I've completed. So I only started playing it because I wanted to learn Japanese, but actually the DRPG side was pretty fun - I played it on the easiest mode, so I could focus on the language-learning aspects, which definitely helped. I mostly just focused on attacking monsters using their Japanese name (to practice my Japanese), rather than using any skills or magic. I managed to complete the entire game using just the 'normal' kana orb attacks (and healing magic), but again, this was the easiest mode, but if you're not good at RPG's you can probably still complete it on the easiest mode too. There's actually an Auto-Battle mode, and an item that stops monsters from appearing if you really don't like battles, and just want to focus on just the story/language learning. I wasn't expecting the story or characters to be too good, as long as it was halfway good, I would've been happy - but I was surprised here too. I would say the story/world has lots of detail and thought put into it - with a large number of major and minor characters. It has some GREAT moments, and the rest of the story is above-average, with a seriously impressive scope for an indie game. Without spoiling anything, my favourite part of the story was the ending of the first arc, as the music, art, and story slowly built up for a great experience. Overall, I'd say the 2nd arc was even better than the first - some of my favourite characters and locations appeared there, and the story flowed nicer. The main reason I played this game was only to get some practice in with Japanese, so now I'll talk about that. Firstly, this game is mostly in English, and only a small part is in Japanese - but over 90 or more hours, that's still a LOT of Japanese practice I got. (I think there's thousands of words of Japanese or something crazy in it) So, if you can already read something that's 50% or 90% Japanese, then that's probably going to be better practice than this game. But if you're like me, and couldn't even read simple children's stories in Japanese, then I think you'll learn a lot here. Although the first half of the game is about 'collecting' the hiragana and katakana orbs, which sounds like it's good for complete beginners or people who don't know anything about Japanese (which it definitely is, as well!), there's a mode to show lots of stuff in Hiragana or Kanji right from the start, which you can turn on if you already know the hiragana/katakana alphabet. (Eg. people's names, weapons, items, most of the text in menues, etc. can all be displayed in hiragana, or even kanji.) Although I couldn't read much in Kanji, shortly after starting the game, I felt confident so I turned on Kanji mode! And although there's a lot of 'difficult' kanji in the item names and so on, slowly I learned a LOT of kanji readings, by doing this. The villager names also appear in Japanese/kanji too - (In fact, since starting this game, I've met a few people who have common Japanese names I learned while playing this game!) The 2nd arc in this game, replaces collecting the hiragana orbs with collectin…

Let the journey begin... Disclosure: I have been aware of SJK since the crowdfunder & been following it through the beta and working on current guide projects. While not 100% through with the game, I've spent a good while on PC and Switch versions on recent patches. As a dungeon crawling enjoyer (Etrian Odyssey) who imports JPN action games. This hits the spot with content and polish with the higher notes of modular language display, deep dungeon RPG and superbly illustrated and scored stories. That being said, I'd like the sequel to surpass it with this one being patched where practical. Pacing is unlikely to make major changes though I'd like more NPCs pointing out systems in town and less/optional tutorial popups. At present, the flow is good for newbies and intermediate Japanese learners especially if comfortable with using it as an extra or on a second monitor. Sidenote: It supports also my Wacom tablet for the kanji practice minigame which takes place mid-dungeon in-game day - very neat. The storytelling, while uneven in less important sidequests (some being timed), manages a fresh and rotating playable cast with distinct voices which can even come out during banter during exploration, level up phrases and even defeat dialogue for specific encounters. If you like detailed item descriptions, the game has merchant specific ones which add a lot for that merchant and item alike. Despite dozens of NPCs with unique names, minor ones do get mentions and make cameos which helps building the world especially when the better sidequests are in action. The main story is more consistent in levels of detail with detailed CGs and choices which so far seem to have little consequence in the opening half of the game - though they do lead to branching dialogue or even a range of buffs/debuffs mid-battle. Back to pacing, scope may have gotten in the way for its utility as a language learning tool and escalation as a dungeon crawler. It excels by allowing players to decide the Japanese quantity/type of distribution on names, items, places (including an option to toggle at a button/key press & an English only option at one tap) but there is no fully Japanese option for all text and it is structured around the introduction of Kanakae orbs. These spheres are equipment (each branded with a Japanese character including kanji) which function as early elemental damage access but also allow permanent debuffs to enemies if you spell out their name. As these show up over the course of dungeons, players with better Japanese may be limited to practice at some periods through some puzzles, signboards, SMT-like negotiations (not immediately available - can be lore based) or escaping battles (immediately available - but you won't run away regularly) as well as Blue Text. I recommend that players take advantage of the option to toggle all item names, character names, place names etc to be in Japanese/Furigana etc to up the intensity if learning is a specific goal, though quite few games can work as a substitute for a proper learning structure so add it to your rotation with flash cards and reading. Regarding the design of the dungeons themselves, the complexity escalates quite quickly but they may be a bit too big. There still appear to be some soft locks/crashes (unfortunately at the end of battles most regularly for me), though the ability to save almost anywhere you can pause, adjustable difficulty and the save reminder do help. The game has a stacked soundtrack, so it is difficult to narrow down a favourite - but I'll choose Ryo Noguchi's Genya Kaikou (Night) as a town theme I'm borderline nostalgic for but the battle, character minigame and dungeon themes are no slouch themselves. The Switch version inherited some of the best strengths on PC as touch screen is supported, but I'd like to see some tweaks to allow it or the sequel to blossom both as a learning resource and an RPG you can play anyway with more focused controls. This game…