Steam Games - Learn Japanese While Playing

Eye spotted this odd game, where you can learn Japanese while playing. On top of that it is calimed to be an RPG as well. The lengthy name of the game is: Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle.

Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle is an educational game that is the ideal introductory course to the Japanese language!

You’re reading this page now because you have more than a passing interest in learning Japanese. Maybe you’ve tried learning it before, but never had any luck? That’s completely normal, so don’t worry! Learning a language can be daunting. And with a language like Japanese, full of strange and wonderful written characters, you might not even know where to start.

You need a learning tool that’s going to keep you interested, challenge you at the right pace, and most importantly, keep you coming back for more.

That’s why Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle was made! This isn’t just educational software – this is a full-blown RPG specifically designed to keep you engaged. By playing along, you’re going to be introduced to the Japanese language like never before.

Learn how to read and write Japanese characters (Hiragana) at a steady pace. There’s a new set of characters to learn each chapter, and your revision takes place on the battlefield! If your knowledge is up to scratch, you’ll claim victory in exciting strategic battles. If you’re falling behind, you have the opportunity to revisit specific chapters and brush up on your knowledge.

As a bonus, you’ll also learn common Japanese words and phrases and important grammar points!

What is Hiragana?

Hiragana is the basic writing system used in Japanese. Japanese actually combines 3 different sets of characters to form written works – Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. This game focuses solely on Hiragana, the foundation. By learning Hiragana, you can write and pronounce nearly any Japanese word.

Features:

• An exciting story based on the concept of learning Japanese. As the characters in the story learn Hiragana, you learn along with them!
• Learn every single Hiragana character, with detailed instructions on how to read and write each character.
• Visual animations displaying how to write each character.
• Audio speech examples demonstrate how to pronounce each character.
• Exciting gameplay with familiar RPG elements – collect items, complete quests, engage in battles!
• Earn experience points and level up your characters.
• Revise completed lessons to brush up on your knowledge.
• In-game quizzes to test what you’re learning.

More information.

That looks interesting, thanks Eye!
I never managed to learn very much the short time I was in China, about all I can remember is the symbol for Man and Woman (many of the public toilets were not marked with International symbols). From what I understand, if you can read Chinese, you can read Japanese too, though I am sure there are some differences.

Can't I just watch Shogun again?

Nice, the game actually look awesome lol.

Originally Posted by Xian
From what I understand, if you can read Chinese, you can read Japanese too, though I am sure there are some differences.

Only if it is all in Kanji, Japanese text can be written in Hiragana (what the game teach) and Katakana syllabic as well.

Someone try and let me know if they actually learn Japanese with it

Thanks for this link; most interesting. One of my friends studying Japanese at university this year might find it useful to check out. I'm also slowly trying to win him over to gaming (he's a film buff) though aren't having much degree of success so far. This may help turn the tide.

Great, I love this idea of learning from games!

Can't imagine how awesome this would have been growing up as a kid. Being able to choose to learn any language from a RPG game. Instead I was raised in the US, with a reprehensibly education system due to greed, religion and politics.

That's neat! I already know hiragana, but might pick this up for reinforcement. I also wonder if there'll be an expansion (katakana) and a sequel (Kanji). RPGs should make for a great medium to learn any language.