Learn Japanese RPG: Hiragana Forbidden Speech
Small update
1. Improved some hiragana hints (mnemonics)
2. Improved opening scene text (fade in/out subtitles)
3. Small fixes
Happy learning!
Lun
Volume Controls for better experience
Today's update (Version 2023-08-03) has some small fixes and the addition of Volume controls for music, ambient sounds, sound effects, and voice overs. It's all available from the main menu under the Volumes submenu.
If you've enjoyed the game, please give us a positive review on Steam! Even if it's only a few words, it really helps us get visibility in this massive marketplace.
Happy learning!
Lun
Small update and official release date news
Second, we're planning to "officially release" the game sometime at the end of August or in September. What does this mean? Mostly it means we've accomplished what we've wanted in Early Access, the game is feature and content complete, and we finally have some semblance of a marketing plan in place to celebrate the big day. For you, the player, nothing will really change whether you buy the game now or after the official release.
As always, a big thanks to everyone who has left a positive review! If you liked the game and want more content like this, please consider leaving a review for us, even if it's just a few words.
Happy Learning!
Lun
Small Update
We are getting closer and closer to settling on an official release date. The dream is to find a way to get featured on Steam's front page, so I'm applying lots of brain power towards this goal and wish I'd started sooner.
Thanks to everyone who has posted a positive review on Steam! If you want to support the game and haven't reviewed it yet, that's a great way to help us out, and we certainly appreciate it!
Happy learning!
Lun
Warm Up Mode is Here!
How do I use it?
Press the Ctrl key during the first few seconds of any battle to activate Warm Up Mode
What does it do?
While in Warm Up Mode...
1. Enemy attacks always miss
2. Your attacks do 0 damage
3. Your hiragana and words will not level up
Why is this helpful?
It lets you extend battle drills for as long as you like. Thus, it's a convenient way to get lots of extra practice or to warm up if it's been awhile since you last played.
How do exit Warm Up Mode?
Just press the Ctrl key again
Thanks again to everyone who has left a positive review and has followed us on Steam and/or Twitter! It really helps us!
Happy Learning!
Lun
Small fix
Happy Learning!
Lun
Small fixes
A big thanks to everyone who has taken the time to leave a positive review! It means so much to us!
Happy learning!
Lun
Official Release - Update
We are still prepping for our official release. Seems we were bit optimistic in our initial projections, but that's us, always the optimists! We don't have an exact date yet, but will keep you posted. The good news is that the Early Access version of the game is essentially feature complete. Most of the work we have ahead of us involves devoting energy to our least favorite task (starts with an 'M' and ends with "arketing").
If you're a fan of the game and would like to see more content like this in the future, you can do great things for us simply by writing a positive Steam review. Even a 1 or 2 word review is great! すごい！ Positive reviews help give us more visibility on Steam and attract more players to the game.
Happy learning!
Lun
Official release and price update
We're pleased to announce that we are preparing to officially release Learn Japanese RPG: Hiragana Forbidden Speech on Steam in March. No exact date yet, but that will be determined very soon. Thank you to everyone who provided feedback through the beta testing and Early Access phases of this project.
In preparation for the official release, we will be updating the price. We've kept the price down during Early Access because it didn't feel right to charge early adopters full price for a game that wasn't feature complete and still had many potential bugs lurking about. With the game now in a more polished state, we still didn't want to blindside early wishlisters on the official release date with a price update, so we're letting everyone know ahead of time that we're planning to price the game at $19.99. We arrived at this number through our own market research and based on the feedback of testers. The new price will take effect no sooner than March 9th, so if you want to buy before then you can still get the current Early Access price.
It's important to us that you get great value out of the game if you decide to purchase. That's why we provide a free demo with around three hours of gameplay and the ability to start from your last save point when you purchase the full product. With Steam's refund policy, that allows you to play the game for about five hours before deciding whether the game is for you.
This game is an introductory Japanese course designed to immerse you and get you comfortable hearing, reading, and understanding basic Japanese sentences. We've invested a lot in professional voice acting and worked very hard to make the story, conversations, and tutorials both entertaining and highly educational.
We've also included a lot of features to help you tweak your learning experience to your liking. For example, you can change the battle encounter rate at any time, adjust the rate that new hiragana and words are learned, put the game into reading mode (voice overs only play if you press a button), skip tutorials at your convenience, change the font, and more. Battle drills have also been optimized for speed. No long, slow animations bog things down. We also introduced the "auto-accept" feature to reduce keystrokes and save you even more time.
Many of these features are designed to eliminate any grind and make playing the game as convenient as possible. We especially wanted to make second playthroughs a breeze. Because the game adapts how much Japanese you see based on your learning level, a lot of Japanese is hidden from beginners during the beginning and middle parts of the game. (If you're curious how much, start a new game in Max Japanese Mode). That content is just waiting to be found, but we knew no one would do a second playthrough if it was a grind. Once you learn everything the game teaches, you can essentially configure it to play as an interactive novel that only contains Japanese that you've been taught, sort of like the ultimate starter anime or manga.
We believe the game offers a great value and we hope you'll agree! This has been a long journey from inception to official release and we couldn't be more excited.
Thanks for your support and happy learning!
Lun
Small update
If you've enjoyed the game, please consider leaving us a positive review. It helps the game get visibility on Steam.
Happy learning!
Lun