Koe (声): Part 1

The game resembles Persona very much, though, of course, it's nowhere near budget-wise. While it shows, it doesn't take away from the story or gameplay. It's great fun if you like JRPGs and don't mind the graphics being a bit rough around the edges. The game is a bit slow sometimes and a lot of locations seem to be a bit bland, but it still manages to make language learning fun. For Japanese learners, there is one big caveat: you won't really benefit language-wise from playing it, unless you're at least pre-intermediate. I would say the people that will benefit the most would be intermediate learners, (N3-N2 level of 日本語能力試験). You will be able to understand most of what is being said, but will still be able to learn a lot of new stuff. If you're a beginner, you will simply not understand that much and will either end up frustrated or will simply keep reading everything in English, thus hindering your own progress.

Disclaimer: Pretty early on in game... I really like this game overall. If you follow youtuber game gengo and like his style/recommendayions - I think you will like this game. There is lots of listening practice, ability to see a log and replay sentences and toggle english rough translation on and off. I would describe it as an immersion experience. You don't have to understand all of it... You can pick up bits and pieces of words/meanings of sentences as you go. You could also go back and do translations yourself at any point. However, maybe it could have started with simpler language and more repetition of simple grammar patterns at the start. Your character is a foreign exchange student. So it could have made sense for the other characters to speak a little more slowly/easier sentences to start. In summary, a good game with lots and lots of content, listening practice, and learning from context in an immersive way. The battle system I believe is also designed to reinforce words and learn from context. I think the developer has done a good job :)

Kickstarted this back in the day, but the interest I had in the subject matter didn't survive the 10 year wait. I will not likely put any more time into the game than I have so far, surface level appears to be a riff on persona with added language learning. Back when the first trailer was released for kick-starter it had not fully realized its visuals, the art is significantly different, but something about it just puts me off from the game. I can't put my finger on it. While I'd love to give the game a fair playthrough my interest faded and theres many more games in the genre (and my library) I still haven't played and may never either.

It's a fun way to try learning some Japanese. Maybe it is not perfect but it is a lot better than the other games that supposedly teach you Japanese. I think it works best for someone who is also studying Japanese by themselves. So it is more of a supplement. If someone had absolutely zero Japanese knowledge I am not sure how much they would pick up.

Good if you have the basics down. I'd say at the very least N4 level.

I supported this game more than 10 years ago on kickstarter. took a very long time to come out. well now ive learned alot about japanese before i evenm got this game. will give it a good rating just because i know the creator probably worked really hard on it