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Game Review: So to Speak

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Many years ago I was accidentally exposed to Japanese media, and fell in love. It felt new and fresh, with a variety of themes and topics that I didn't encounter much in stories I was used watching or reading, and spoke to me on an emotional level with stories and characters that resonated with how I felt, my life, my situation, and aspirations.

In the beginning the Japanese language was completely incomprehensible to me. I couldn't even distinguish which sounds I heard first and which I heard after. It was only after dozens if not hundreds of hours of listening to Japanese being spoken in those shows that I started to develop an ear for it, and ever since then I've wanted to study the language so that I could understand without subtitles, or read ahead in the manga, especially for series where the English translation had been discontinued, a desire that is in no way unique to me.

Over the decades I've started studying Japanese many times from books, apps, or other resources. I never managed to keep going for very long. No matter how much enthusiasm I had when I began each attempt, it soon fizzled out. No matter how gamified the language-learning apps were, they were still just language-learning apps. It was still some kind of classroom experience, and therefor not very fun or engaging, and the longer I kept it up, the more it felt like a chore I was forced to do rather than something I wanted to do.

Today, for the first time, I cam across a language-learning game. Not a gamified app, not educational software thinly disguised as a game, but something that actually felt like a game. A very simple and easy game, but still a game with a cozy and relaxing atmosphere that made me feel immersed in the experience. I only got to play the demo, as the full game isn't out yet. Here's a trailer:


When I reached the end of the demo, the only thing I wanted was to continue to the next screen. Despite the simplicity, it was that addictive, and that was with me playing on the Steam Deck, where the word objects I needed drag across the screen were too small for the touchscreen, and the touchpads were too small to do it comfortably without dropping the item I'm dragging. It was tedious, yet I enjoyed it and wanted more.

I do hope he does something to better support controllers and touchscreens, but I assume that if he does it would be in a post-release update as the developer has announced that the full game will release in the first quarter of 2025, so there isn't much time left.

With such a nice and simple concept, it would be nice if after the game's release he'd add more languages, perhaps as paid DLC. It would offer player more languages to learn, and would offer the developer more income as not only do different players wish to learn different languages, but the same player might want to learn more than one language.

Game links

Official web site

Steam store page 

YouTube channel

X account

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