Being fans of Nintendo, we stumble across Japanese speech and text pretty much every day. It's an incredibly interesting language and one that would no doubt help us to actually understand what's going on when playing imported copies of our retro favourites, but it just so happens to be one of the hardest languages to learn.
Thankfully, Shujinkou hopes to lend a helping hand. Shujinkou is an RPG designed to teach the player Japanese as they play; it's said to "interweave Japanese language learning into the story and mechanics while maintaining its appeal to gamers".
It has a proper story - things are set in a world where the Japanese language is being erased by Demons, with players having to save it - and the gameplay revolves around a Metroidvania-style setting where players must react to situations on-screen, familiarising themselves with the language as they go.
You can learn more about the game on its Kickstarter page if you're interested; the project is aiming to reach a total of $50,000 to launch on Switch and has just under a month to do so at the time of writing.
What do you think? Will you be pledging your support to the project? Tell us below.
Comments 23
That sounds great, always wanted to learn Japanese
If it releases I'll pick this up, would be a fun thing to learn, and I can remember learning to type with similar games.
Finally some actual news on this site
It looks terrible in my opinion.
I barely passed spanish in high school, no thanks.
I am so so down
Actually a pretty good idea.
@Bunkerneath What's keeping you from doing so?
@DockEllisD Just report the post. No need to break the rules yourself.
@Gio0207 Well, it's educational software, not really a AAA game.
a nice idea but the game doesnt look that great imo
Anything claiming to be a quick simple way to learn Japanese is a gimmick. Source: I learned Japanese. It was a lot of work requiring many different sources and thousands of hours of effort.
The idea is cool, the game looks terrible, and the concept is a lie. Like all of the free app store apps that tell you you can learn a language in weeks. Not going to happen. This thing would need to be 1000x larger than the DQ7 script to come close to being effective at a minimal level.
And the logo is a blatant FF rip off.
As someone who currently does study Japanese in evening class, this game-play video seems very limited. You may learn a bit of words and such but I don't see how this game could help you ask for directions in Tokyo.
@kepsux My thoughts exactly. Actually living there for a few years was the key.
Looks like it was created use Flash Player...
@invictus4000 Living here helps, but you also have to put forth legit effort to move beyond very basic language ability.
Good idea but terrible execution.
Hey guys! I'm one of the developers at Shujinkou. Please note that the gameplay footage isn't finalized in any way, and we've only had a budget of $3000, hence the Kickstarter. Definitely give the campaign page a read if you want to learn a bit more about how the game will teach other parts of Japanese (outside of the standard hiragana, katakana, and kanji). If you have comments or concerns, feel free to message me on the Kickstarter page too - there's an option to direct message me with feedback
I learned Italian and that was fun at first, tough with colloquial phrases and more advances lessons, so I know any language is tough. Japanese changes the characters entirely so I can imagine it's even more difficult.
I like the idea
I want to learn Japanese and Anime isn’t enough to learn so far
@DockEllisD You funny. But that is a side effect of Kickstarter like switch bloodstained slow release and updates.
I remember a mobile game, but it can get easy to get stuck too.
will it help me become perfect?
( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
desuigh!?
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