Games can be, and often are, more than mindless fun. Some of the best videogames offer engaging storytelling, iconic musical compositions, or stunning visuals that make every frame a work of art. There are some more that are uniquely tailored for educational purposes, and Shujinkou is perhaps one of the best examples of making learning fun.
Created almost entirely by a single developer, Julian Rice, who crafted the story scenario, character designs, and worked on programming, porting, and game balancing before bringing in a small team to help out iron out the project over the course of almost seven years, Shujinkou is a surprisingly amusing, engaging, and deep dungeon crawler JRPG that aims to teach Japanese to those willing to give it a shot.
After spending dozens of hours with the game, I can safely say that it has helped me infinitely, especially when it comes to dusting off my Hiragana and Katakana while providing a shockingly in-depth guide for the basics of Japanese as a language. What’s surprising is that Shujinkou does this by actively mixing classic JRPG mechanics with learning tools, never feeling like it’s leaning too much into simply being an interactive educational tool.
How does it do it? Well, the premise of your early hours is very simple: you'll play as Shu, a young Samurai who embarks on an adventure to protect the village of Himamura following an attack by a demonic figure. After getting acquainted with townsfolk, including Momoko, Shu's sister, and Daisuke, Himamura's resident smith, and also Shu's brother, you'll find yourself in the first of many Labyrinths. These are sprawling spaces that you'll explore by using tile-based movement. You'll face random encounters, rest areas, and opportunities to forage or dig for useful items as you delve deeper into them.
Once you encounter an enemy, you'll see one of the best aspects of Shujinkou: its combat. If you've played games like Persona, you'll feel right at home. It's a turn-based combat that mixes elemental affinities to dish out extra damage, but has a few unique systems in play, such as the Kanakae Orbs.
Kanakae Orbs are element-infused orbs that house a kana or kanji. When you face a random enemy during your Labyrinth explorations, you'll have the opportunity to try and strike using an elemental affinity, but you can also trigger an even more powerful attack if you use the correct Kanakae Orb. For instance, if you're facing an Uma (horse), you can utilize the う (u) and ま (ma) hiragana syllables to deal extra damage and reveal a portion of the enemy's name. The more you reveal, the more damage each subsequent attack will deal.
Mixing and matching Kanakae Orbs by analyzing what sort of enemies you're facing in a Labyrinth is incredibly engaging, as you're basically trying to come up with an efficient build while simultaneously reinforcing your kana learning without feeling like a chore; although you'll quickly learn an ability that will let you swap sets mid-battle, it's always good to have the right tools from the get-go. Getting them also adds to exploration, as Kanakae Orbs aren't given to you; you have to earn them by finding sets spread out across each Labyrinth. During your exploration, you'll also come across multiple signboards (kanban). These signboards give more context about kana, kanji, general Japanese grammar, enemies, words, and even proverbs.
While you're not forced to go out of your way to collect these (each Labyrinth houses dozens of kanban), I highly recommend that you do, as all will be stored in a section within your Lexicon tab that will display them fully, with each including a bit of lore, written examples, audio pronunciation, and even mnemonic examples (a learning technique that associates specific information with images).
Progress is a tad slow, but I appreciate Rice Games gradually feeding more and more mechanics as you play through the game to avoid players feeling overwhelmed. It also adds to the shock value of finding out that Shujinkou is much more expensive than you'd originally think, as Shu is far from the only protagonist in the story. No spoilers, but you'll definitely be getting your bang for your buck.
Combat and exploration are so much more than that as well. You'll eventually unlock the ability to make use of your Maryoku (mana), which lets you use spells that are formatted as verbs. For instance, if you want to recover health, you'll have to use the "To Heal" spell. This is incredibly handy as the game lets you easily toggle between different displays, allowing you to see how the verb is written in English Romaji (the romanized version of Japanese words), Japanese, and Furigana (the phonetic characters written in hiragana that help with pronunciation). There are also limit-break-esque attacks each character can get access to, which further deepens how you engage with enemies.
You'll be able to tackle side quests, minigames that help you sharpen your Japanese skills, and more activities that will make Shujinkou a game really packed with content. That said, if you're not that into the learning aspect of the game, then you'll be missing out on much of its appeal, and while it stands on its own as a very well thought-out JRPG, much of its systems work in conjunction with mastering at least a bit of the Japanese language. There are a few that aren't as fleshed out, for instance, the negotiation with enemies similar to those in Atlus Games. It doesn't lead to much beyond avoiding an encounter and some resources, since this isn't a game in which you can utilize the power of, say, Personas; trying to convince them not to engage in combat feels like an afterthought.
Another gripe with the game is the quality of some of the assets. Not necessarily the art itself, but rather that towns, character portraits, enemies, and even some text tend to look a bit blurry on the Nintendo Switch. This is particularly annoying when trying to read a kanban.
There's also the matter of the price. Shijunkou comes with a $30 price tag on the Nintendo Switch. There are three DLCs already out, including the Sabaku Arc, which is essentially a brand-new story, sold for $24.99, as well as two extra quest packs retailing for $8.99 each.
The original Steam and PlayStation releases launched with a $60 price tag and paired both the main game and the Sabaku Arc. So while it feels like Rice Games is trying to make the entry point more accessible, it's still worth mentioning that getting everything there that is available for Shujinkou could cost as much as $73.
That being said, the base game is more than enough content to keep you busy for dozens of hours with a very interesting story, gameplay mechanics that mostly hit the mark, compelling characters, and one of the most memorable soundtracks of the year, a massive compliment considering it's up there with the likes of Hades 2 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Shujinkou has the makings of a cult classic that, hopefully, will be enjoyed by even more players in the future.
A code was provided by the developers for the purpose of reviewing.