Kanji RPG Reviews

Good game but needs lots of stuff added and the dev needs to keep working on it

Kanji RPG is a simple, yet fun and effective way of learning how to read Japanese through battling monsters with RPG elements. The strongest aspect of this game for someone learning the language is the options and tools it gives the players for learning. The game starts off with giving the players the option of learning the absolute basics (Hiragana/Katakana). This gives the player the option to slowly build up the knowledge needed to start learning words rather than just throwing them in, which was greatly appreciated for someone who was new to the language. Lessons are also set up to allow players to both smoothly run through lessons if they quickly understand the material, but also review and replay lessons they struggled with. These different styles of learning allow the player to learn/play at their own pace. The different styles of learning are also both rewarded through the game's simple and easy to understand combat/progression, which means the player feels rewarded regardless of the style of play. On top of the many options in game, there are tools outside of the game elements that allow players to quickly review Kanji and track their proficiency with each Kanji. The amount of options and tools available for learning should not be undervalued. The game at the time of this review is currently in Early Access so there are a few bugs/soft-locks that can occur, but they for the most part don't interfere with game play and are assumed to be patched in future updates when future lessons are added. Kanji RPG's cute world and learning tools are easily worth the extremely cheap price and I would recommend this game to anyone even remotely interested in learning to read Japanese.

I still think this game sounds like a great idea, I just don't believe it is being actively developed. It's currently in an unplayable state, and your average playtime before crashing or running into a softlock will be maybe two minutes. Less than a minute if you're familiar with the game already. I waited a while before posting this review, hoping to see some signs of life, at least a reply or some kind of acknowledgement from the dev. There has been no activity since the game launched (October 24/25). There is no new information, or replies, on the steam forum nor the Kanji RPG twitter page. If you were going to buy this in early access to support further development, I would hold off. It seems there is no development in progress at this time. It has been about two months as of writing this review.