Introducing Kat!
Kat (Mcartiie) is our new scene artist, and she has been helping create new backgrounds for the individual levels. You'll see some of her work in Grade 4, Levels 1 and 2 (the Sunken Library). She is an extremely talented digital artist and I am so excited to have her on board! Please follow her on X and BlueSky :)
Game Updates
* Grades 4, 5, 6, Middle School Kanji, and Jinmeiyou Kanji, and MORE are all accessible! Kanji Count has gone from 400 to ~5800! :) NOTE: Some bosses in Grades 4-6 are NOT implemented, but see note below about Boss substitution.
* Settings Menu Overhaul: The settings menu has been fully redesigned! You will find an SRS tab and a Graphics tab which currently are *not* functional but will be later.
* Stamp Book Overhaul: The dictionary / stampbook layout has been completely redesigned!
* New Enemies: Bumbuzzle and Tearbear!
* New Bosses: Play to find these! :)
* Boss Placeholders: If you progress to a part of the game with no Boss defined yet, a random boss will be selected. The questions will still be for that grade/level, but the stats will be the same. This is so you can play around with all the Kanji while bosses and areas are being designed!
* Fishing Minigame: You can now find the fish you've caught in your inventory! Click to sell your fish for coins.
* Leveling Enhancements: Every level up increases maxHP by 2 and restores health. Every 3 levels increases damage and defense by 1. XP scaling is now level based.
* Enemy Scaling: Enemy (not Bosses) health and attack now SCALES proportionately to your level.
* Vocabulary Expansion: Added new vocabulary to Grade 3 Kanji (still a work in progress).
* Kana-Insensitive Fill-in-the-Blank: When answering onyomi/kunyomi questions, the engine no longer cares whether or not you typed hiragana or katakana for the answer.
* Scene Improvements: Previously, if a scene hadn't been created yet for an area, it would show a placeholder image. Now, a random, existing scene image will be chosen - so you can play through all the new areas without interruption!
* Code refactoring: Previously hardcoded data is now spread out across multiple files.
* Events: Improved some event handling (such as popup menus).
* Question Types: Stroke Count and Radical identification question types were restored + improved!
Roadmap
* Continue to add vocabulary to individual lessons up to and including Grade 6. Past this, it isn't planned to add more vocabulary.
* Drawing the level specific scenes (this will take the most time).
* Designing more enemies and drawing the planned remaining bosses.
* Designing many more items (cosmetics, badges, weapons) and implementing them.
* Create more music for different areas.
* Vocabulary List / Explorer
* Hiragana / Katakana chart
* SRS flashcards mode (create custom decks)
Features Under Consideration
* Some sort of grammar training mode, or a grammar "viewer" at least
Scrapped
* Gacha game. It didn't make sense to have, and it cluttered the shop screen's space a bit. This has been replaced with the fishing minigame instead.
As always, please report bugs to the Discord!
It would mean a lot if you previously left a review to take the time to play the new content, and if applicable redo the review. I know many were frustrated at the lack of updates while I was out sick, and it's understandable! There should have been better communication and for that I apologize. I will continue to work hard and show my commitment to completing the game and making it as great as it can be <3