The map is a bit small and it gets kinda monotonous after a while but I'd say this is a good learning tool for beginners. Especially features like the collocations you can find by flipping cards in your album are awesome. That being said, I've been learning Japanese for almost 5 months now, and there weren't really a lot of words I didn't already know. Also, the game only teaches you nouns, and only those broadly applicable in a city setting in Japan. I'd say play this after about one month of learning and you'll get the most out of it. Finally, apart from the educational aspect, the atmosphere is really cozy and I love the implementation of irasutoya art.

I backed the Kickstarter for this, and have also been learning Japanese for about a year and a half - Shashingo is a very neat experience, but doesn't have a whole lot of content and I struggle to recommend it for its price, unless you're a specific kind of person (which is, knows Hiragana/Katakana and some very basic Japanese, but not too much)

You have a small city plaza (with a couple of backalleys) full of props to photograph, which then get turned into flashcards. You can also be challenged by receiving a word and having to go find it. Thirdly, there is a small guide book with some basic Japanese lessons, that explain some key phrases and vocab, which is nicely presented and well explained, but nothing that you can't find elsewhere online for free

So yeah, the content is fairly simple. Honestly I think my biggest problem, which kinda just takes me out of the whole thing, is that to take a photograph, you NEED to be looking at an object that has a word associated with it somewhat directly. This makes it feel restrictive and I'd often use photo angles that the game would allow, rather than ones I wanted. It made my collection of photos look and feel a bit generic since it was hard to get creative angles the game would accept - a lot of the time it was just Thing in the centre of photo because that's what would be accepted

I will say, I think a lot of love has gone into this game. The city, although it can be fully explored in about five minutes, looks lovely and the atmosphere is great. I love that the world has a ton of Japanese posters and signage about for reading practise. The day/night cycle and different weathers add some coziness as well. I can't really complain about the presentation - it's all fantastic, I just wish there was more

Ultimately, I didn't expect a whole lot from Shashingo as a learning tool - games that aim to teach Japanese are almost never more effective than a good flashcard deck, and that's okay. Plus I also kinda appreciate a tool that isn't aimed solely at people new to Japanese, since most will start you off with learning Hiragana, which I'm way past

Unfortunately, the super wonderful vibes, presentation and atmosphere can't quite make up for the photograph aspect being a bit shallow, and a lack of content that makes for a slightly barren experience overall