Thread 719949240

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1386630/Shujinkou/

Forgot I had this on my list, but it launched! Did anon give it a try? It appears to be a really comprehensive Etrian Odyssey / classic SMT / Wizardy style dungeon crawler, but also includes (optional) language learning content. Its built into the lore that you collect language orbs and most enemies have ontological weaknesses; its something like an elemental system. You can turn all that stuff off, but it claims to have JLPT N5 to N1 content so that's quite a bit more comprehensive than most, but it doesn't claim to be a complete course or anything. Still I'd think it would be shitty to not use it as a resource unless yo're already fluent. From what the videos show, it seems to have a nice aesthetic and there are both monster girls and tits abound both as enemies, NPCs, and party members ; pic related from a cinematic. There's even a DLC expansion that is basically the "beach / hot springs episode" with new costumes for everyone and special encounters.

The only downside seems to be that the AAA pricing of $60 on a lower profile, niche title means that few are going to roll the dice on it just for the fuck of it. Sadly it isn't present on ITAD listed sites either, but it is on sale on Steam itself for the moment; only reason i got a notification. OpenCritic has it nearly universally praised as Mighty, Steam has only like 14 reviews so its Positive, but won't hit Very or anything else until it gets more.

I love drpgs but I am not touching this
Story focused ones are always extremely slopful with brain dead difficulty
Day 1 dlc is another massive redflag

>>719949240 (OP)
>Gameplay overview trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u52sjnVv54
This looks like one of the earlier general trailers

>Language Learning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xsP6pg1jic

>Combat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sukZmnjthfM

>Post Launch updates trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXDA1wqPBt0


>>719949552
They claim 80+ hours, and all of the Japanese stuff seems to be in depth so I think if you leave that on I don't think the difficulty will be too easy; can't speak of just the pure JRPG experience though. Seems there are a fuckload of combat elements and getting things right requires a tactical understanding of the enemy, its name, weaknesses . Even in the overview they talk about special enemies chasing you that can wipe you out if you're not prepared, so maybe its challenging enough?

>Day 1 DLC
Looking at the intended launch, it apparently launched in Nov 2024 through some Playstation 5 Indies partnership, but the PC version didn't show up until Feb 2025, so I don't know if all of that was there on day 1 or not. Some of the notes about adding one of the DLC campaigns post-launch on PS5 suggest that isn't the case, but can't be sure. In any case, it at least seems there's a decent amount of content (each one lists 10-15 hours of new content) and its not just buying costumes or whatever alone so I can't be too upset if its well made, for $10 or less. Looking at the media for the expansions, it does seem there's new locations, costumes, enemies, quests etc..specific to them so its not just recolors or whatever. I agree that given the price of the full title though it does make things harder to justify. I really do wish they'd have done the
>Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions
differently, putting the artbook + soundtrack + both DLCs in Super Deluxe and putting the expansion DLCs in Deluxe without the artbook/soundtrack.

The devs seem to be keeping it updated, which is promising to see - a lot of shifty indies do a few patches and then fuck off to the next project as soon as able. Patch 1.41 showed up at the end of August and soon after it became Steam Deck Verified, which is nice to see. I may ask them if they'd see about native Linux support, as they apparently support Mac so Linux should be easier especially these days. Still Verified means its probably going to work on desktop Linux with Proton without an issue.

Looks like they're porting it to the Switch come October, but an interesting element is that they're going to basically cut the price, and the game, in half for the "base version". Pic related . PC players are getting both halves of the game for the full price; I wonder if they'd be open to offering a basic/intro version to get people onboard cheaper?

>Demo
Reading one of the replies on the forum (which are very comprehensive) the demo on Steam is like 15 hours+ (apparently 20-40 if you do everything) and can be imported if you buy the game ,so maybe I'll give that a shot.

>60 dollar indie game
hard pass

>>719949240 (OP)
Tons of mixed red and green flags with this, but I'll check out the demo at least.

>>719951348
Yeah, people are almost conditioned to pay $60+ for any garbage from a big AAA studio, but indies are often smaller in scale and cheaper; though not necessarily worse. I mean, the HD remasters/or remakes of Etrian Odyssey and Wizardry games on Steam are at least $40 and sometimes considerably above that, plus DLC. If we assume this game is at least of that quality, plus adding all the language stuff, it seems at least plausible it could be worthwhile.

Its on sale now so its a little easier, but I do wish they'd get it on all the legit keysellers for more exposure - I never understand how some of these smaller titles that really need to get their game out there (and even those with much smaller prices), sell only directly on Steam and aren't usually involved in any special events aside from occasional sales. Really promising things underperform unless they get hit by some major streamer or whatever because of visibility.

>>719951737
Seems reasonable. I'm going to do the same. I hope they updated the Demo to go along with all the QoL stuff that was put in the main title. Demo's progress is importable to the full title supposedly so that would suggest this to be the case, but not a guarantee

Demo does seem to be updated to 1.41. I did find a bug though, doesn't seem to happen to everyone. If on the main title screen it says
>press any button to continue
and yet nothing works except your controller's back button (in my case a DualSense, so its an O; on Xbox it would be a B etc) that then gives you the choice to leave, etc.
>Alt-tab and return
and the save files will show up. I thought at first my controller wasn't working (its native supported, not Steam Input ) or something, but on the Steam forums apparently this was a bug that happens infrequently to some people reported.

But an ad

>>719953627
>but an ad
??????

>>719949240 (OP)
She looks like she shatters rings.

I'm confused, this game is from Japan?

>>719956983
I can't imagine any Jap calling their game fucking 主人公. I went looking on their page for any actual Japanese, they got a couple of mediocre composers on board, that's it. The "writing team" is entirely women.

Looks like a complete waste of time for retards.

>>719958054
>other two are "woman"

>>719958054
omg Caitlin is literally me!!!!

>>719949240 (OP)
>Etrian Odyssey / classic SMT
These games live and die by their combat balance and encounter design, I'll have to wait until the verdict is out for those. EO/SMT 1 and 2 weren't great in that regard if you're not already a fan of the series, both got a huge improvement in 3 in regards to the combat.

>>719960453
I was going to ask which one you'd fuck, but all of the choices are so fucking terrible that I'd have to just blow my brains out instead.

>>719958054
Aaaand there goes my interest. Never in my life have I ever played a westoid game that tried to be Japanese that was actually good.

>>719949240 (OP)
>3 people in game
>13 all time max
grim
I have it wishlisted but I heard it did a mediocre job with the teaching, and I'm not paying this much for a DRPG when I have some good stuff in my backlog.

>>719960931
The whole "edutainment" thing should've really been ringing the alarm bells, but what really pisses me off is when they move to Tokyo to LARP even harder, like this dude did. On the plus side, his studio "Rice games" sounds comically racist even though it's just his last name.

>For context, I'm a Japanese learner who is somewhere between N4 and N3, so that's going to color my review a bit. For those of you that aren't really JP learners, that's between 'pre-intermediate' and 'intermediate'.
Found this fucking gem in the steam reviews. For reference, N1 is pre-intermediate.

I could never get into dungeon crawlers.