It’s super cute game where you travel to different prefectures of japan and learn about the area and culture. You also interacte with people in japanese and pick up new words and lessons as you go.
It’s been a refreshing way for me to learn and has helped me better underderstand where I’m at with the language. Because of wanikani, the kanji lessons and challenges are super easy, but I quickly realized that I struggle a lot with sentence structure and grammer. So it’s been really nice tool to help in that area.
Also, I’ve been struggling to find reading material that fits where I’m at in wanikani and I know around level 20 and up it gets a lot better with recognizing most kanji you read. I’m still reading manga as best I can but get burnt out pretty quickly with all the things I have to look up. It’s nice to have something that goes at my pace and tests that I am good with the material before I progress with new lessons.
I don’t think it can replace wanikani though. Wani’s SRS system is great and the game doesn’t have mnemonics to help with the kanji. You can practice writing them though which has been helpful in learning stroke order. It does have it’s own review system that keeps track of your proficiency with the lessons. I think Wanikani and Wagotabi both compliment each other really well and I’ve found that it has been super useful for me to practice reading and listening comprehension.
Keep in mind, the project is fairly new and still in development. On the current mobile version they have one complete prefecture and are in the middle of the second and have been pushing frequent updates to it. Their current goal is to complete 5 prefectures which will cover the N5 level of japanese proficiency. So this might not be something that intermediate japanese learners would be interested in yet. But I’m excited to see how far the project goes.
They have it available now on mobile for IOS and Android and they are also currently working on a Steam release that has a free demo. I would definitely recommend trying it out and see if it is something that works for you.
I guess it does kinda come off that way, but I honestly have really enjoyed the game and wanted to give some detailed feedback. I also wanted to help them get more recognition so they can continue working on it. But believe what you will.
So we’re attributing malice to people now as our first reaction?
You’re level 14 on here and paying, so that was an indication that you’re probably just recommending a game~ people who come just to advertise rarely do that. It looks like a cute game, though not useful beyond beginner levels. I wish there were more games targeted at intermediate learners.
I think what’s nice about this app is also this bit from their FAQ
Yeah I get that. It’s been good practice for my level right now but will be far too easy for more advanced learners. Hope they can get there soon though.
This reminds me to continue with my game progress. It’s great. I have asked my son who started learning hiragana and katakana via DUolingo to try it.
-wawan-
After going through it, it really seems like beginners best friend. It’s a good practice for me as well since there are a lot of holes in my knowledge and the game has pretty natural repetition of words.
This should be the first thing people start with instead of the one who shall not be named. At least after it gets more updates.
They plan on doing 47 prefectures covering N5-N1 depending on how popular the game gets so this game could someday reach intermediate and advance levels if it gets popular enough/enough support.
I would definitely like to add that Wagotabi has been a game changer. It teaches the language differently than any other Japanese language learning video game out there. The kana introduced is immediately used in sentences so the players get exposed to words/grammar immediately. Due to this kind of teaching style this leads to players getting into full immersion very very quickly. Grammar that is taught is used immediately in sentences so the players are exposed to that grammar point over and over again through reading/listening.
I feel this is a lot better than other platforms that teach grammar just through some sentences in SRS as it makes it feel so separated while this game players are constantly actively using the grammar point all the time in reading and listening.
I feel other languages such as Korean, etc should take note in what Wagotabi is doing as Wagotabi to me seems like the way of the future for language learning video games.
The game is on mobile right now and will be out on Steam next year. So please spread the word so we can see the developers do all 47 prefectures (N5-N1).
Second this!
I had great fun beta testing their French localised version several months ago. I can tell you they were diligently correcting the few typos and error corrections that people sent. There were some bittersweet moments for me when I realised how much easier it was to absorb the material in my native language rather than in English.
Looking forward to the full release
Isn’t that just… playing normal games in Japanese? Simple RPGs and the like typically have a lot of text and are reasonably accessible for intermediate learners. Of course they’re not designed to help you practice your language skills but it’s still decent for that.
I like language learning and I like coding games so I considered joining the two many times but I can’t ever come up with a gameplay mechanic that doesn’t either devolve into “Anki with a fancy user interface” or is just way too complex for beginners.
Yeah, I agree-ish. I still think that when I was still at intermediate level, I wouldn’t have been able to play actual games without having to have some sort of extension to help me figure out the words, though… but if I had the desire to push through, it would’ve been a good learning experience. I meant it more in a sense of games ‘tailored towards learners’. Usually the apps / games you find target absolute beginners / beginners rather than anything more than that (like, think of just how many hiragana/katakana games there are on the google app store VS anything more advanced).
I highly recommend games you have already played through. Less pressure for comprehension and that’ll lend itself to more effective learning as you already understand the context of what’s being said.
I think this tip would be great for people who game enough in the realm of games that also have Japanese text, and who don’t get bored of stuff they’ve already played for sure! They should make Dragon Age: Origins in Japanese that would be the only game I would ever want to replay.
I guess it does kinda come off that way, but I honestly have really enjoyed the game and wanted to give some detailed feedback. I also wanted to help them get more recognition so they can continue working on it. But believe what you will. 
that would be super nice. I think it’s already a really pretty looking game, though! Thanks for posting and mentioning it.