Wagotabi: A Japanese Journey

As a linguist who focuses on language learning I was interested in the immersion approach ... only to be completely let down by this game. It does not seem to understand what "immersion" is. I already played the mobile version, so consider this in terms of playtime. I played until beating the first master and the gameplay loop is entirely clear ... and has nothing to do with the established theories of language acquisition. It really seems to like the Duolingo approach, where they basically tell you the answer and then let you repeat it. Then you can be happy about being "correct" and move on, without having learned anything. Furthermore: If you look up linguistic research regarding the test types the game throws at you, you will notice something: These test types were never made to improve language skills. Just to test it. It's fun. Yes. It's fun increasing a word counter. It's fun to level up words. But that's just it. It's fun. It doesn't really improve your language skills. Just...

I've complete basically all the content available on mobile (yes, there is cross save) and am very excited to see this game finally on steam! If you are looking for a fun and engaging way to begin or even continue your journey of learning Japanese look no further. As someone who has been studying Japanese on and off for years and pretty seriously for the last year I think this is the single best way to get your feet underneath you. This is especially true if you struggle with motivation. Wagotabi is actually fun which is more then a lot of language learning games can say and it comes with the added bonus of exploring real cities in Japan. As you learn Japanese you'll also learn about the unique culture of the cities and prefectures you're in. Okay, lets get to the part people really want to know, how much Japanese will you learn. At the time of writing this the game has 262 words in it. That may not sound like much to some of you but I promise it is a sufficient jumping off point. If...

Rus: Игра реально очень полезная, в интернете тяжело найти что-то структурированное для изучения японского, а тут все прям для самых чайников объясняют, прикольные квесты, да и темп игры мне лично нравится, довольно быстро все идёт, но и при этом повторения немало Eng: The game is really very useful, it is hard to find something structured for learning Japanese on the Internet, but here everything is explained for beginners, cool quests, and I personally like the pace of the game, everything goes pretty quickly, but at the same time there is a lot of repetition

This is easily the best app I've used for learning Japanese! It actually teaches the "why" behind different ways of speaking, regarding politeness levels, context, and relational levels. I've used Duolingo for years, but it does a terrible job with providing those context lessons and when to use which forms of words. I've learned more about grammar in a few months with Wagotabi on Android than I did in over 3 years of Duolingo! The fact that it plays like a retro Pokemon game is also a fun perk! It is also fun to see areas in-game that I explored while in Japan a few years back! While Wagotabi isn't at the full N5 level yet, it will be eventually, and hopefully all the way to N1! I am excited to learn more as the game progresses. It's definitely a must-have for anyone trying to learn Japanese!

Best way to learn a language outside of interacting with real native speakers. As a beginner maybe better because there is no pressure here and you can take your time. Feels very different than watching videos. Much higher retention. The in game dictionary is superb for meaning, usage and pronunciation. Be interesting to see if anyone else can pull this off for other languages. Knowing the alphabets before playing will make your experience much smoother.

I've been using Duolingo for about a year now, and I can defintely say playing Wagotabi was a completely different experience. Instead of spending time on random sentences like "犬がいます" or "りんごはおいしいです", the game teaches you the language by making you explore a digital version of Japan, just like the one we can find in Pokémon Red & Blue. You'll find yourself asking for directions, telling others how you want your ramen and even working part-time protecting a village from Ninja takeover while you travel. The thing that really made it click for me is that Wagotabi works both as a casual game, where you can take it slow and just enjoy the story, or as a hardcore challenge, featuring complex tests to get words tagged as "Mastered" on your status screen. While I chose the former for the most part, I've been able to enjoy the tests more since growing used to the more complex kanji. Anyway, いっしょに和語旅で日本語を勉強しましょう!

This game is in a strange place, I wouldn't appropriately give this game to a beginner in the language but I would not give it to an advanced learner either. The pacing is too quick for a beginner to grasp but the game would work as a great supplement alongside the N5 or Genki or even みんなの日本語. It might even make a great refresher for people who have stopped learning and need a crash course. Very nice charming game

So, I'm writing this review as someone who has spent 1,5 years on a bad Japanese course at university, and I am pleased to see that this game solves all of the problems I had there. Everything is just really good. I will list some of my favorite things about this game below. - The game is so well organized. For example, there are small units in which you learn around 5 new words and/or some grammar, and it is really well-paced, and the words fit together, so after one unit you feel like you can really talk about this theme now (for example, weather, or directions). - The order of the words you learn is also pretty good in my opinion. Many NPC's talk about Japanese culture and they start to talk in Japanese about it pretty soon after you started the game. It is just nice to see that the words you learn help you to talk about many different topics. I know that sounds a bit weird, but my university course started by introducing professions, so that you can say "Hi, I'm xyz and I am ...

I really love this game so far. While there are some features that mimic other language learning methods that I don't really care for, to me what really stands out is the gameplay built to have you use the Japanese from the lessons in several different contexts. I don't just memorize phrases or words, I learn how to use them in real world scenarios. Second thing that makes this a 10/10 for me is that Kanji is introduced almost right away and I can turn the furigana off to remove the crutch and just practice my reading and comprehension. Overall this game comes closer to the style of comprehensible input than any other language learning game that I've seen and it is rekindling the desire to study Japanese for me.

A very nice game to start to learn Japanese. It tells the player not only about basics, but also about Japanese geography and culture. The customization is also nice, e.g. you can disable furigana or voice for keyboard input at all. There're also dictionary and focus test with advanced filtering (you can filter by types of grammar, such as verbs, conjugations, i/na-adjectives, particles, etc) and also Duolingo-like SRS. The game also tries to give the player real phrases and situations (some of them are silly though). To sum up, 10/10. Definitely worth it!