I am slow to learn Japanese.with the help of rocket language And as I continued to immerse myself in Japanese games, movies, and music, I was able to occasionally object to the English subtitles on my screen. You can clearly see the difference between the Japanese words “paper” and “kami”. I know “wa” from “ga”.
But I can’t read Japanese. I hope Kanaquest can help there. Without complicating matters (I could be mis-explained anyway), the Japanese alphabet is made up of hiragana, katakana, and kanji syllables. The latter uses symbols to represent whole words or meanings. Hiragana and Katakana use symbols for syllables. One is a monograph (ka, ki, ko) and two are directed graphs (kya, queu, kyo).
Am I boring you yet? sorry. The point is, there are a lot of pseudonyms to learn, not to mention all the duplicates. It’s tough, but Kanaquest wants to help. And that’s… to an extent.
Kana Quest teaches you the symbols and their sounds using a match-em puzzle mechanic. The goal is to connect kana with a common sound in as few movements as possible. So, for example, it might match the k and na symbols. Slide all symbols together to advance to the next level.
Of course, this is not easy. This is because two factors are involved. First you need to recognize the pseudonym. That’s where the educational part comes in. With Kana Quest, you can always tap a tile to hear its pronunciation. You should use this early and often.
Symbols can eventually stick to repetition, but if you don’t keep it up, it’s easy to forget. I was not able to write characters from memory when I didn’t.
Also note that Kana Quest doesn’t deal much with word construction or definitions. You’re learning to identify symbols, but you’re not putting them together in a way that teaches you to read them. It’s unfair to expect games to provide that level of education.
What you can expect, however, is a pretty fun puzzle game. You cannot drop tiles wherever you like. You have to slide in cardinal directions to touch or exchange with others. So once you’ve identified the tiles that need to match, you need to figure out how to put them next to each other so that the tiles on the board can be chained properly. Some tiles cannot be moved at all, others must be moved. Some keep moving until they hit another object. You can merge parts to create new kana.
Kana Quest has done a good job of enhancing the challenge with new tile mechanics, and the developers haven’t forgotten what they’re supposed to be learning here. , the difficulty of the puzzle decreases. Also, there are no tests. Like most puzzle games, you’re graded based on how many moves you’ve made to solve each level. Just keep learning and playing. If something goes wrong, you can always rewind or restart the level.
All of this is presented in colorful, cheerful graphics that are perfect for the Game Boy Advance. The visuals have a decidedly oriental flair, and who would have thought that just adding a little arm or leg to a tile would give it some personality. I would have ended up with an attitude of trying to be cool.
I’m not sure how helpful this would be without supplemental material. However, when combined with Rocket Language lessons, I found Kana Quest to be a great way to practice remembering symbols. And as far as match-em puzzles go, the gameplay is fun and pretty unique. Some people can enjoy it even if they don’t study Japanese. After all, recognizing and matching symbols is what you do in Mahjong. Kana quests just make that step part of the challenge.
