[First Impressions] Learn Japanese to Survive - Kanji Combat

Learn Japanese to Survive is an RPG about learning the Japanese language. The series is compromised of three games that teach the Japanese writing system. The first and second games in the series Hiragana Battle and Katakana War teach the two phonetic scripts of the Japanese language Hiragana and Katakana respectively.

This is a First Impressio Review of the third game, Kanji Combat which focuses on Kanji characters. The logographic script borrowed from the Chinese language. I played this game for 2 hours and below is my opinion on it.

Learn Japanese to Survive: Kanji Combat follows four students and their teachers as they get transported to a different world where Japanese Kanji characters roam around and fight people. The game starts by introducing the main cast who came to Japan from various countries from around the world.

They meet a priest who transports them to a world where they have to fight Kanji monsters. These monsters can be defeated by shouting their meaning or pronunciations. The main characters will have to learn Japanese Kanji to survive.

I like the soundtrack of the game so far. The first half hour from Kanji Combat is fully voiced. I loved the personality the voices added to the characters and was disappointed when I realized the game wasn't fully voiced.

Kanji Combat plays like a traditional RPG in which you control party members and gain experience as you fight monsters.

The main battle mechanic is called "Answer" in which you have to choose the right "pronounciation" (or in some battles "meaning)" for the Kanji monsters you encounter. Some monsters die in one attack, and some monsters shapeshift to a different Kanji once their first form gets answered. Attacking using the wrong answer backfires and you take damage instead.

I'm impressed at how they use the systems provided by RPG Maker to make this game. More than once, I thought 'oh, that's how they do that' while thinking back on my knowledge of the engine this game was developed on. This is not a low-effort RPG Maker game.

I read in the reviews that this entry of the series has a much better gameplay compared to the Hiragana and Katakana games. I wonder how much improved compared to them, but I like the systems here.

The reviews also said you shouldn't be your only source for learning Japanese. I agree with that.

I have a modest knowledge of the Japanese. I'm confident of my Hiragana skills, but I had trouble learning Kanji. I played the game on Hard Mode as it uses the Japanese Hiragana characters instead of Romaji for the pronunciation of Kanji characters. I'm glad I played the game this way, it allowed me to review what I already learned interactively.

Playing through this game made me realize how I knew more Kanji characters than I thought I did.

Each in-game day Hana-sensei teaches the party new set of Kanji characters. This knowledge allows them to progress further and learn about the world they find themselves in. I'm now 15 Kanji characters in, and there was only one new Kanji I didn't have in my vocabulary before playing this game. (It's 夕 (yuu) which means "evening.)"

The game also features base-building mechanics and Social Interaction mechanics. I only experienced the Base Building part late in my 1:30-long First Impressions run. The Social part is about leveling up the main character's relationship with his/her friends, but I haven't reached that part yet in the game.

Lean Japanese to Survive: Kanji Combat is an interesting game because it provides an interactive way to review your knowledge of the Japanese language. I don't think it can work as the only learning source, and as far as I played the story is only surface-level, but it was a good time when I played it.

The only problem I experienced was that the game crashed here and there, but I was playing it on a Linux system. I can't fault the game for crashing on a system it wasn't designed to run on, right?

What do you think?

I recorded the first 40 minutes of my playthrough for Learn Japanese to Survive: Kanji Combat. You can watch it on 3Speak here. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and watching the video. For now, I hope to see you in another article.

Please put your thoughts down in the comments!