Shujinkou

Shujinkou a game you'll love or hate and locking at how many hours I put in it I say I love it. At surface is a simple 2D JRPG with visual novel portraits and first person dungeon exploration. A simple and decent story with some memorable characters. The puzzles are ok and a little challenging latter but doable. Fighting can be tuff and challenging especially some optional bosses if you're underlevel gut you can grind verry easy buy doing sidequests since they give a lot of exp and you can do the main quests verry easy. Fighting is you're typical JRPG turn base attacks in first person, every character and enemy has a turn and it depends on each character speed if you want to attack first. Besides normal physical attacks you can use elemental magic (fire, water, earth, light, etc.), buffs, debuffs, special attacks and ultimates, verry standard JRPG. The difference is and is linked to the other main attraction of the game and that is learning japanese. When exploring the main dungeons you came across special elemental orbs that represents a letter from the 3 japanese alphabets. You can equip this orbs to your weapons and when attacking an enemy you have to form its name using this or…

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 …

I’ve known about this game since 2021. When I got to play the demo in 2024 and it released last year, I was excited to finally play it on the Steam Deck. An RPG that teaches Japanese was an interesting premise. As time went by, I decided to keep up with my studies with other material (textbooks, workbooks, videos, courses, etc.). Started learning Japanese when I was in college and picked it back up some time after graduating. Started learning Japanese again from the basics and worked my way up to reading books, playing video games, watching dramas. While waiting for this game to release, I feel as though my Japanese has improved and think of this as good review and supplementary learning. They also have a lot of animals that I did not know the names of in the game. Plus, there are some culture points here and there that I found interesting. (Tip: If you want to skip the guessing game of throwing out random kana orbs at an enemy, I suggest playing on easy.) MAIN STORY As of this initial review, I have completed the Genya Arc (aka Part 1) of the game. The story is good so far. I like the character interactions and how the characters in the party have personality. Even the minor cha…

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 du…

This game is one of the best language learning tools I have every played. It doesn't play like a lot of other RPGs. The labyrinth navigation, needing to switch attack sets, and storage sell system are a bit confusing at first and the amount you have to learn to play can be overwhelming in the beginning. That being said you can tell the creator put a lot of time and thought into this game. The story is interesting, the battles are difficult but worthwhile, and my most important concern: the battles and interactions actually teach you vocabulary and memorization of kana and kanji. I think the creator did a really good job with this game. If you're stuck or find it difficult, I would recommend joining the Discord to ask questions. There's a lot to keep track of, but when you do, the game becomes a really enjoyable experience.

Amazing tool for learning Japanese with an dungeon crawler/Etrian Oddysey style game.