The Voyage
- A Guided Path: Penko Vox now has a clear journey. Each town on Kotoba Islands is a chapter, from Hajimari Town (N5) to Kotonoha City (N2/N1), and arriving in the next town shows how far you've come.
- Today's Voyage: One Continue button builds a short session for you: your review words, the next conversation in your town, and a quick look back at today's mistakes.
- Kotodama: Earn word spirits by finishing conversations, using new phrases correctly, finishing your reviews and exploring. Collect enough and you can sail on to the next town.
- Town Journal: Every town has a journal with gentle hints, so there's always something to do.
- Free Practice: Everything is still open whenever you want it, under Free practice.
A New Look
- Visual Overhaul: A new pixel-art style across the whole game, with a redesigned Home, Practice and Passport, and a new opening scene with Penko.
- Pitch Accent: Turn on 高低 to see the pitch of every word (high and low) above the text in conversations.
- Cosier Interiors: Houses and shops on the island have new walls, floors and furniture.
Kotoba Islands
- A Story in Every Town: Five town stories with a trial at the end of each, written in Japanese at that town's level (with furigana, romaji and translation as always). Earn a keepsake in each town.
- Meet Sora: A fellow learner travelling the same route, who turns up in each town and wants a friendly duel.
- Wild Word Spirits: 60 new spirits hide in tall grass and on the beach. Type their reading to catch them, or switch to quiz battles in Options (great on a controller). The Spirit Book now holds 100 spirits.
- Fishing: Buy a rod at Minato Mart and catch 20 kinds of fish by typing their names. Fill your fish book or sell your catch.
- Ferry: With a ferry ticket, travel quickly between towns.
- Side Quests: 16 side quests across the island, with money, items and 5 new hats to unlock.
- Everything Has a Use: A pocket dictionary you can open from your bag, food that gives you energy for battles, a lure for rarer spirits, gifts from best friends and a gashapon prize.
- Voices: Island residents now each have their own voice.
- The island stays open: explore in any order, like the classic games.
Mini-Games & Duels
- Five Mini-Games: Karuta (listening), Ear Training (similar sounds and pitch melodies), Shiritori, Memory (kanji and readings) and Sentence Builder (particles and word order).
- Play Anywhere: Practice → Mini-games (on your own or against Penko, N5 to N1), or accept challenges from 11 trainers along the routes and from Sora in each town.
- Gentle as always: losing only means no prize this time.
Japanese Typing
- New Practice Mode: Type real words from N5 to N1 with an on-screen keyboard guide.
- Two Ways to Type: Romaji (shi or si, tsu or tu…) or the Japanese JIS kana layout. No need to change your system keyboard, the game handles it for you.
Achievements
- 29 New Achievements: For the voyage, the town stories, spirits, fishing, side quests, trainers and Sora (39 in total).
- New Icons: All achievement icons have been redrawn.
Controller & Steam Deck
- Better navigation in the Notebook, mistake retries, the Home screen and the placement check, and B now leaves the Voyage ending screen.
Fixes
- Fixed switching JLPT level saving your word progress under the wrong level.
- Fixed choosing a different scene in the menu replacing that scene's saved conversation with your current one.