Free Online Japanese Teaching Games Posted by Unknown on 3:50 PM

I'm currently trying to teach myself Japanese. This means that I could use all the help I can get. For a fun alternative to regular studying, I usually try to find a fun game to play to help me learn. Now, edutainment is normally frowned upon, but can be fun on occasion and helps you in practice and repetition (perfect when you're trying to learn a new language)

However, when looking online for a game, I want to know 2 things: is it free and is it fun? This is hard to figure out when a quick search gives you a million different choices for games and very few reviews of said games.

I will attempt to review these games when I come across them.

For my first review, I will review Slime Forest Adventure. 

This is an interesting choice as it's an RPG where you wander around an open-world type area, talking with human characters in English, and battling slimes.




Gameplay

When you run around the open world, you encounter slimes that present you with a kanji symbol, to which you have to type out the english word that corresponds with the symbol.









If you don't know the kanji or get it wrong, you get hit. You are also presented with  the correct answer and a small description to help you remember.











Story:

You start off in a small hut, where your brother instructs you to go out into the world and sell potatoes.There are small towns scattered across the map that you can explore. As you do, you find out that the princess has been kidnapped by the Slimes who have infested the land and steal gold from travelers. The story is cheesy, and the dialog is so bad it's hilarious.





Other:

There's also a demo mode where you can battle slimes using hiragana, katakana and grammar.

These are mostly just an infinitely foresty area with the encounter rate set really high. Here, you can play until you die.

The white slimes ask you to repeat a phrase or character in english, and then the game provides you with a tip on what it is or how to pronounce it . These are present in story mode as well. However, some of these are obvious and easy, like "k."








Issues/Bugs:


If you notice, this game is a cheap Dragon Quest knock-off. It's ok for an edutainment game, but it sucks as a regular rpg and leaves you wanting some good old fashioned DQ.

Another issue I have is the battle system. The game doesn't explain how to attack. It took me several tries before checking a readme in the folder I downloaded. You attack by typing in the corresponding word, rather than hitting enter or space bar. This unconventional away to attack makes it confusing if you don't already know what to do.

Thirdly, there's a bug in the game that doesn't accept the apostrophe key. This can leave you stuck in battle if you find yourself against a white slime because if you get the answer wrong, it makes you retype it exactly. This means that you're stuck if it won't recognize a key. The online FAQ doesn't exactly help solve the issue either. It suggests  either plugging in a separate keyboard or changing the language options on your computer (which doesn't work). 

Fourthly, when you're learning the kanji, the game doesn't provide you with the pronunciation of the different symbols in romanized format. Instead, it offers it in katakana. This is inconvenient if you don't know katakana. It also doesn't allow you to write down the romanized form of the word. For instance, if the kanji was 一 (one), and I wrote "ichi," I would get it wrong. 

Fifthly, there's no sound. They never programmed any music or sound effects into the game, leaving you feeling awkward as you're playing. However, you could argue that, at this quality of a game, sound would just end up annoying the crap out of you.

Lastly, this version is only a demo game. If you want a full version of the game and a site membership (so that you can ask questions), you need to pay $20 for the download. This seems like a lot for a cheap knock-off that teaches you Japanese symbols, and it's not worth it.

Overall, this is not a bad edutainment game. It offers the repetitive nature needed for learning a new language as you fight slimes. However, as a game, the cheap Dragon Quest-esque graphics leave you yearning to play a good rpg. If you want something to break the monotony of learning symbols, download it. If you're looking for a quality game, go find some Dragon Quest.