Our 10th Metacritic-affiliated review is here! We got a comprehensive review from Senior Editor Evan Norris of VGChartz, scoring Shujinkou at an amazing 8/10. VGChartz is one of the toughest critics, averaging at just 6.5/10 for their reviews.
"Thanks to its lovable characters, addictive dungeon-crawling gameplay, meaningful side-quests, great music, and inventive syllable-based fighting mechanics, it's both an outstanding video game and an effective teaching tool."
"You can take advantage of elemental weaknesses: water beats fire, fire beats wood, wood beats earth, and so on. For another, you can take advantage of ontological weaknesses. This is where the game really shows off its cleverness."
"But the central plot hook turns out to be less important than all the character-building and camaraderie that surrounds it. This is where the game truly shines."
"Shujinkou is filled with quality-of-life features designed to accommodate even the fussiest and most forgetful players—It's all incredibly considerate."
"The game's soundtrack is perhaps the most pleasantly surprising piece of Shujinkou. I quickly fell in love with the soundscape of Genya."
"Thanks to Shujinkou, I know more Japanese than ever before. I have a basic understanding of sentence structure and logic, and can call upon a limited vocabulary. More importantly, though, I can say I've played a legitimately great RPG (...) Now, not everything is perfect. Some of the menus are clumsy, the Kanakae system can be overwhelming, and there are rare instances where the language-learning and role-playing aspects fight for control. But, in general, the game accomplishes its very ambitious goals."
🎷 Listen to the soundtrack here: