The game improves over every aspect of Hiragana Battle, so much so that I kinda wish they went back and redid that game with this game's improvements so those learning hiragana would have a better time with it compared to this game's teaching of katakana. So, let's get into where this game improves and how it could hopefully be improved further for the Kanji game.
Character arts are actually drawn out and no longer look like they're built off a template. They look much, much better realized and since they are actually designed you can sense elements of their personality in their looks.
Music - For some reason this game goes really hard in spots, like the title/alternate dimension killing it on the piano or the Megaman X styled battle music or the final boss track.
Characters - Okay these still aren't the greatest and feel rather stock with little synergy with each other. For being from all over the world I wish you could have felt that with their voice acting and incorporating a little worldlyhood in this game about Japanese. The humor isn't always the greatest (Corn Soup wasn't funny after the second time) Some of the social link scenes are kinda cringe but I'll still take it considering this game actually has something resembling characters this time. There''s also voice acting, for better or for worse at times, but it's there!
-The lessons are improved in their structure but they still suffer from pacing. For some reason vocab is in the ハヒフヘホ lesson, easily the longest in both games, when the アリルレロ lesson is just the 5 words and nothing else. They feel sped up even if the writing is still slow.
-The overworld is better since it's just one bigger overworld and feels more lived in, with a lot of levels within it. The one weird thing I'd say is later on, Hokkaido is there but you never go to it, and for some reason you have to waste your time taking a train when you want to access the eastern half of Japan, which you do multiple times. Most importantly, no more random encounters! Seriously this game makes Hiragana Battle look like garbage in comparison.
-Story's still not great but when education is the name of the game that's not the worst thing in the world. It's a step above mwahahaha evil bad man but still mwahahaha evil bad girl.
-Combat is the most improved aspect: The turn order is visible at all times, the characters say and draw out the katakana as they attack (although I wish they were using individual character voices rather than one male and one female for all party members), selecting enemies is much better navigated and communicated, and most importantly, offensive magic now exists! This adds an extra layer to combat as magic can deal damage but can't kill, still requiring the proper katakana to succeed, and allows for more character archetypes, which is great since rather than 1 static party member you get 8 teammates to assemble a party of 4 with this time!
Seriously, huge props to the devs for making this massive step up in quality. If only Hiragana Battle could have received the same treatment!
Character arts are actually drawn out and no longer look like they're built off a template. They look much, much better realized and since they are actually designed you can sense elements of their personality in their looks.
Music - For some reason this game goes really hard in spots, like the title/alternate dimension killing it on the piano or the Megaman X styled battle music or the final boss track.
Characters - Okay these still aren't the greatest and feel rather stock with little synergy with each other. For being from all over the world I wish you could have felt that with their voice acting and incorporating a little worldlyhood in this game about Japanese. The humor isn't always the greatest (Corn Soup wasn't funny after the second time) Some of the social link scenes are kinda cringe but I'll still take it considering this game actually has something resembling characters this time. There''s also voice acting, for better or for worse at times, but it's there!
-The lessons are improved in their structure but they still suffer from pacing. For some reason vocab is in the ハヒフヘホ lesson, easily the longest in both games, when the アリルレロ lesson is just the 5 words and nothing else. They feel sped up even if the writing is still slow.
-The overworld is better since it's just one bigger overworld and feels more lived in, with a lot of levels within it. The one weird thing I'd say is later on, Hokkaido is there but you never go to it, and for some reason you have to waste your time taking a train when you want to access the eastern half of Japan, which you do multiple times. Most importantly, no more random encounters! Seriously this game makes Hiragana Battle look like garbage in comparison.
-Story's still not great but when education is the name of the game that's not the worst thing in the world. It's a step above mwahahaha evil bad man but still mwahahaha evil bad girl.
-Combat is the most improved aspect: The turn order is visible at all times, the characters say and draw out the katakana as they attack (although I wish they were using individual character voices rather than one male and one female for all party members), selecting enemies is much better navigated and communicated, and most importantly, offensive magic now exists! This adds an extra layer to combat as magic can deal damage but can't kill, still requiring the proper katakana to succeed, and allows for more character archetypes, which is great since rather than 1 static party member you get 8 teammates to assemble a party of 4 with this time!
Seriously, huge props to the devs for making this massive step up in quality. If only Hiragana Battle could have received the same treatment!