From the Developer
This week's update: The biggest addition is a new Main Menu featuring a randomized Common Phrase of the Day, alongside a space-themed mini-game that combines arcade action with advanced kanji practice. I've also added three new original songs, expanded the Survival Shooter, and continued polishing the overall experience.
As always, thank you to everyone who continues reporting bugs, suggesting new ideas, and supporting PLAYNESE during Early Access. :)
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New Main Menu
The Main Menu has been redesigned and now includes a new Common Phrase of the Day feature.
[Suggested by "Tommy" on Discord]
Every time you launch the game, a random useful Japanese phrase, sentence, or character is selected from the growing study library.
You can:
Reveal the English meaning whenever you want.
Skip to another random phrase once during each Main Menu visit.
Quickly study useful Japanese before beginning your adventure.
Current Phrase Library
Total: 548 entries
JLPT N5: 222
JLPT N4: 164
JLPT N3: 71
JLPT N2: 91
New Offline Mini-Game
Space Kanji Destroyer
This took me a while to get right. Blast through enemy fleets while studying Japanese in this arcade-inspired space shooter. More improvements to be done though.
Features
Answer JLPT N5–N1 questions to earn Japanese Yen.
Destroy enemy spaceships to earn additional rewards.
Survive increasingly difficult waves of enemies.
Upgrade or repair your spaceship whenever you need.
Taking damage reduces your ship's movement speed, making survival even more challenging.
Music Room
Three new original songs / lyric-sheets have been added to the Music Room.
New Songs
そばに - By Your Side (JLPT N5–N4)
届かない声 - Voice That Can't Reach You (JLPT N3–N2)
一人ぼっち - Loneliness (JLPT N5–N4)
Each song includes Japanese lyrics designed to help reinforce vocabulary, reading, and listening practice.
Game Center Updates
Japanese Survival Shooter
Updates
100 new Japanese character targets added.
Many single-kanji answers now use their more natural kun'yomi readings instead of selected on'yomi readings where appropriate. (Like 金 is かね instead of きん)
Bug Fixes & Typos
Thank you to everyone on Discord who continues reporting bugs and typos!
Fixes
Fixed a bug where players could continue walking during the Online Hangman mini-game.
Fixed the UI hotbar quantity display overlapping the shortcut key numbers. Shortcut indicators have now been moved to the left side for improved readability.
Corrected typo on Zombie CD cover.
またね！
As always, thank you for your bug reports, suggestions, Steam reviews, and continued support throughout Early Access. :>
See you next weekend!
ライト = Light 🎮