I’ve spent bits of the last several days playing an educational video game (yes! shocking! :shock:). I know that educational video games are generally designed for children under the age of 10, but I can’t say no to a game of Carmen Sandiego.
Or Slime Forest Adventure (SFA), for that matter.
SFA is a very simple old school RPG. You live in a hut with your brother and you grow potatoes (a plot point which has very little to do with anything.) Your brother sends you to the village to sell the potatoes, where you hear that your princess is missing.
Obviously, the plot isn’t the strong point of this game. Much more interesting is that in order to kill the slimes, you have to type in the pronunciation or meaning of a Japanese kana or kanji. It’s designed to sharpen your recognition skills. It does its job well; the drills don’t seem that tedious and some of the slimes are pretty cute. (There’s one with a little hat! :cheerful:)
Gameplay is simple. There aren’t many commands to memorize (“Oh no! I forgot how to do the hero’s super-awesome killer combo attack!”); instead, you memorize kana and kanji. In fact, when a new kanji is introduced, the game will give you a mnemonic.
The graphics outside of battle are–to be honest–pathetic. But you’re not here for eye candy, now are you? In battles, they’re a lot better than you might expect.
I have a few gripes about the game, though:
1. It’s not designed for the beginner. The game is best played if you already have a working knowledge of kana. (You don’t need to know any kanji; the game walks you through all of them.) It doesn’t introduce the kana at all, and it could get frustrating while you’re being killed by slimes and trying to match squiggles with sounds.
2. There is a preponderance of obselete and obscure kana. I don’t even know if the ones for “wi” and “we” are used anymore; I think they’ve been replaced by “i” and “e.”
3. There is little direction. The game tells you how to fight, but I couldn’t figure out how to save (sleep–preferably at the inn) for the longest time.
4. The game has never heard of synonyms. For example, it will not accept “round” for “circular.” In addition, Japanese often has several readings for the same kanji, and it’s not always possible to guess which one the game wants.
5. The game has specific romanization rules. “acchi” is not acceptable for “a~?,a~??a~??”. Only “atchi” will do.
That being said, the wacky mnemonics make up for it. I actually find myself recognizing a few more characters in Chinese subtitles because of this game. :happy: