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While learning a different language by playing a game is a novel idea, in practice the scope is limited and the gameplay is lacking
To open I’ll always say that I’m a big fan of developers that swing for the fences with new and even strange ideas. In that vein I do appreciate people being just crazy enough to make a game where there’s a goal to acquire some understanding of a number of foreign languages through gameplay. The problem is, I think with their focus spread between two pretty different goals, to educate or to entertain, they ended up with an end product that sadly does neither particularly well. In terms of language acquisition it works well enough, with you seeing and hearing (I do find it strange that different voices are used for different objects, even within the same language) the equivalent word for things you encounter. You’re then able to quiz yourself on them, review, and then complete different puzzles or challenges that will essentially test your retention. That’s nice, I suppose, but it’s also pretty disposable in this form, especially since the objects are quite random. The other issue is that the gameplay outside of this is pretty dull and generic, with turn-based combat that fails to thrill or inspire. This leaves you with a novelty, for sure, but one that wears out being interesting pretty quickly.
Justin Nation, Score:Fair [6.0]