New Review is Live!
We got a review from Robert Allen (Tech-Gaming), scoring Shujinkou a very high 90%, their third highest score over the course of the last year! The reviewer put around considerable time into the game, mentioning the Kouryuu system, Kou's Theme (music), and other elements of Shujinkou that require the player making it through the majority of the Genya Arc.
Please give the full review a read here:
https://www.tech-gaming.com/shujinkou/
Excerpts from the Review
- "(...) There’s a heartfelt dedication from lead Julian Rice to his late mother. What follows through the next seventy+ hours is one of the most ambitious, independently-developed dungeon-crawling role-playing games since 1987’s Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei."
- "But between Brian LaGuardia’s majestic main theme and at least a dozen compositions built around traditional instruments like the koto, shamisen, and taiko, Shujinkou repeatedly soars. (...) At present, (Shujinkou) seems like a solid contender for one of this year’s best scores."
- "As someone who’s played everything from Influent, Kagami to Learn Japanese to Survive! Hiragana Battle to brush up on my skills, I can securely say that Shujinkou is the most comprehensive package."
- "Some small control issues can emerge, especially if you opt for mouse-and-keyboard input instead of a controller. Meanwhile, text can intermittently spill from dialog boxes and ultra-wide monitor support can be spotty. Yet none of these blunders fundamentally impair the experience and are mostly minor inconveniences."
- "Simply put, Shujinkou is nothing short of a marvel of indie game development. Not only has Rice Games bested the exploration and monster encounters of Etrian Odyssey with a far richer storyline, but the studio has also supplemented the adventure with an optional language learning component. Dungeon crawling with a side of Duolingo wasn’t something that I expected 2025 to deliver. However, Shujinkou is one of the single best surprises of the year."
Review Conclusion
"Inaugural efforts can often be unrealistically ambitious. But miraculously, Shujinkou nails nearly every single one of its elevated goals. From engrossing dungeon crawling, a cast that remains compelling across an 80-hour storyline, to a capability for teaching you spoken and written Japanese, a new watermark for indie RPGs has been established."