You are seriously on to something GREAT! When I started this game, I was like "GAH I needed this game when I was taking Japanese in 2000!" With that being said, I have always really sucked at hiragana, so I was excited to try this. (Katakana is a breeze for me, and I know that's backward, lol)
ANYWAY.. Aside from it not running well on my graphics computer (which I think it might be something on my end--would be happy to test stuff for you), my only big complaint is it is kinda hard using that English keyboard. And since stuff gets REAL pretty fast in world 1-1, (which might be my other complaint), it is a little tough getting used to the controls. I know that I could get used to the controls after a bit, but it is kinda frustrating.
I wondered if 1-1 was so difficult because, let's face it--your target audience is probably younger gamers which won't normally latch onto an educational game. Educational games are usually SUUUUUPER slow and easy, as we all know. I kinda like that you didn't give us a break...but even so, I think 1-1 was a little hard to learn controls on. If you have never really recognized kana before, now it might be extra hard. I almost wonder if you might want to add some sort of a quick interactive review as a portal into these worlds.
Other suggestions:
- By default, the music drowns out the pronunciation voices. Perhaps as a default, the volumes could be adjusted a little differently.
- I wish the text scrolled a teensy bit faster. (I love the "talking" sfx!!)
- I don't like how you can get attacked when fighting a large monster as soon as you input a correct attack. Not sure if that can be delayed a sukoshi or what... Sometimes it just seems like a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation when you're fighting with others nearby. At first, I thought I was getting them wrong because the attack came so suddenly. I only played 1-1 so far, so I am kinda scared to see what's on the later levels, heh!
- 1-1 seemed a little soon for the powerups; I died from being curious, lol
I am pretty curious about the multiplayer mode this thing has, so I might take this to game night and see what some of my friends think about it. This is an exciting thing you've done, and I hope you're getting some education grants or something! I've been looking for any excuse to brush up on my Japanese, so I will be testing this further. ;) Let me know if I can be of any assistance.