Hiragana Battle Guide

Hey, warlordzen-senpai here lending a helping hand to your Hiragana studies. In this guide, I'll be covering how to beat the game from start to finish, loot locations, character info, strategy suggestions, & Kana characters. And my own charming personality added in as a service free of charge :3

Walkthrough Part I

Yo! Warlordzen here again with a guide to a game that no one else seemed to create. While Learn Japanese to Survive – Hiragana Battle! is a straightforward edutainment game, I’ll be covering the RPG elements in this walkthrough. Anata wa iku junbi ga dekite imasu ka? Yoshi, ikuzo!

Dramatis Personae:
Claire: Our protagonist, and well-balanced to reflect that. She has decent stats all around along with several useful skills. Early-game, she’s kind of weak and lags behind Leon and Eric in terms of damage, but by late-game, she’s stronger than Leon and can one-shot most enemies. She’s very fast and almost always acts first, so use her as your set-up character. Uses Fist weapons.
Skills
Level 3: Bless
Level 5: Speed Up
Level 7: Antidote
Level 9: Awaken
Level: 14: Revive

Misaki: The sensei. Aside from imparting knowledge to the characters and players, she’s not very useful in battle. She has poor defense, poor offense, and low HP. She knows the most Support Skills, but as many of them aren’t that good, Misaki is basically an ambulatory HP recharge station with Bless and Blessmore. Even late-game, she can’t one-shot enemies. Usually, it’s best for her to guard, unless you want to take advantage of her second-highest action speed to help Claire with killing an enemy before they can act or to kill-assist (steal –cough cough - ) another party member to tap out foes with low HP. Buy weapon upgrades for her last, but armor first (maybe second behind Eric) and the Coffee and Snowglobe equips help her HP problem as well as her utility. Uses Swords.
Skills
Level 1: Bless
Level 3: Reflect
Level 5: Antidote
Level 7: Awaken
Level 10: Blessmore
Level 12: Strengthen
Level 14: Revive

Eric: The handyman/friend. He’s slow and will almost act last unless you outfit him with Agility-boasting items like the Straw Hat or Skills like Speed Up. Eric also has defense that’s almost as bad as Misaki’s, so it’s usually best to give him the armor upgrades first. However, Eric is good at one thing: demolishing bad guys. Early-game, he’s only marginally stronger than Claire and Leon. By mid-to-late-game, he can one-shot enemies by himself with his massive attack power. His Skill is pretty useless, since, as long as you keep upgrading his weapons, he doesn’t need extra strength and his actions should be spent killing things, not buffing others. Uses Axes.
Skill
Level 10: Strengthen

Leon: The comedic relief dimwit. He’s fairly slow and usually acts behind the bad guys, but almost always acts before Eric. Leon is the party’s tank, but, unfortunately, he has no way of drawing aggro. He does decent, consistent damage throughout the game and relies the least on gear to be self-sufficient. Leon can take a punch, having the highest defense in the game, so give him armor last. Mid-to-late-game, he can one-shot most foes except in the final level around when Claire outpaces him in damage and is just better overall. Use him primarily with kill assists (STEALS) with the others to finish off weakened foes. Like Eric’s, his one skill is pretty useless, since his defense is really high, but if you don’t need him to attack for a given round, he could buff Misaki or Eric I guess. Unless he’s at-risk for dying, Leon seldom needs to Guard. Uses Polearms.
Skill
Level 10: Reflect

Past lvl 14, no one learns any new skills T.T And aside from weapons, anyone can equip anything, btw.

General Notes/Tips: The game is a bit repetitive, but the point is to learn and drill Hiragana characters, so it’s a given. It takes about 9 hours overall to finish, assuming you do all the side-quests, and the levels present some variety of challenges/puzzles, so kudos to you, devs, for making mastering Hiragana both timely and entertaining. Wish this game had come out a few months earlier so I didn’t have to learn the hard way. Also wish I had thought of this -.- If you’re not sure what to buy concerning equips, you can read ahead to learn what loot you’ll find in the dungeons as to not waste 円(yen). Generally, the strategy is to slay the enemies as fast as possible using the Answer command. Only use Guard if someone is close to dying or if Misaki and Eric don’t need to attack and risk eating massive damage. Most of the Skill buffs are useless, especially if they waste MP you could used on healing instead. Also, all Status Effects wear off after battle (except Death), so that renders most of curative Skills and Items pretty pointless. The name of the game is DPR (ok, not really). Strike hard, strike often, strike first. Ganbatte (good luck), grasshopper!

Guide:
Snowleaf Village: Ok, so the game starts off in your typical, remote, idyllic village where the worst thing that happened was when Leon was kicked out for turning the elder’s prized pumpkins into pie. Personally, with all the ice and snow, I would’ve chilled the puree into ice cream instead, but hey, that’s just me. Dessert preferences aside, this place is the kind of village that just begs a BBEG to show up and trash it, which is exactly what happens. A man in a black robe that is totally not an megalomaniacal, evil wizard bent on world domination shows up and tests the waters by throwing Japanese phrases at our protagonist, who is utterly clueless (こにちわ = “Konichiwa” “Good day/hello” ,btw). Parting with さよなら “Sayonara” (Good bye), our black-robed friend proceeds to trash the entire place with his incredibly deadly Hiragana Warriors. Claire, our female protagonist, is having none o’ that ****; so she decides to punch the evil dude in the face; kudos to her. Begin battle. However, it quickly becomes adios to her, as it doesn’t matter what action you take during the fight because Claire gets wreckt along with everyone else. Unfortunately for the BBEG, he doesn’t kill the protagonist, which will totally not come back to bite him in the *** in the future; let’s make sure that happens, shall we? After another cutscene, a new party member will appear to save the day: Misaki-sensei! Your first lesson will be to learn the 5 Hiragana vowels あ (a), え (e), い (i), お (o), う (u), so have some paper and pen(cils) handy. I could tell you how to answer the quiz questions, but that would probably defeat the purpose of playing this game, wouldn’t it? Ganbatte~! Anyway, armed with their new knowledge, our brave heroes take it upon themselves to rid the nearby forest of those evil Hiragana Warriors. However, during the first battle, Leon and Eric get themselves captured during a Leeroy Jenkins impersonation…dumb brutes >.< So, it falls upon the ladies to rescue their sorry butts. The Hiragana Warriors have about 80 HP. Battle your way to the right and take the path downward to find Eric; now head up toward the top of the screen to find Leon in the graveyard. Fortunately, neither of them needed a tombstone, but they will complain about the pain and limp back to town…very tough. Oh well. Head down back towards the beginning, but this time, head up the left trail. As you approach the opening at the top of the screen, Misaki will stop you and you’ll be ported back to town for another lesson.
か (ka), き (ki), く(ku), け (ke), こ (ko), が(ga), ぎ (gi), ぐ (gu), げ (ge), and ご (go). Talk to Misaki-sensei again to learn that our next destination is Castor Marsh. Buy arms and armor if you wish and then go!

Walkthrough Part II

Castor Swamp: Alright grasshopper, now the game really begins. These 100 HP Hiragana baddies do more than just smack you…they smack you REALLY hard with their shiny new skill, Hiragana Hit. Go a little to the left and up the stairs for a chest containing a Buckler. Now, advance all the way right, head down onto the peninsula, and head back left for a chest with 1400 円 “yen” inside. Head north around the pond for a chest containing another 940 yen. Continue north and Claire will comment about the bridge being broken and Eric will claim he can fix it; I knew we brought him along for a reason! Head back down and walk all the way to the left until you reach the signpost. Go up, then left, then down for a chest with 3x Ramune. Now, head up the stairs and cross the bridge to the right. After you collect the three logs, return to the broken bridge and the heroes will repair it. Cross it and approach the weird evil shrine thing for a boss battle with…Noburo!!! As Misaki says, don’t bother attacking him. Instead, kill his minions; when all five are slain, he will bravely run away, away; he’ll bravely run away.

Snowleaf Village: Talk to Misaki-sensei for an introductory vocabulary lesson and then the S and Z group Kana (and “Ji,” the staring sound effect “jiiiiiiiiiii. 0.0”): さ(sa), し (shi), す (su), せ (se), そ (so), ざ (za),じ (ji), ず (zu), ぜ (ze), and ぞ (zo). Do the quiz and you will learn about every gamer’s favorite thing: side quests! First, talk to the blue-haired twin-tailed girl with an orange exclamation mark over her head and she’ll give you a quest to appropriately greet: the grey-haired man, the brown-haired guy, and the blonde lady. When finished, talk to her again for some more info, 500 yen and 5 Bonus Points (hereafter BP). We’ll cover more about those later. For now, enter the inn and take the old man’s quest to learn about inquiry after someone’s age. He’ll reward you 3x Ramune, and 5BP. Now, go left into the restaurant. Take the red-haired man’s quest. After learning the word for “Cheers!” talk to the old lady innkeeper; return to the man for drink info and 5 more BP. Finally, talk to the fellow with the blue hat for a food-based quest. After listening to the man, you’ll get an image based quiz. Never seen Japanese dishes before? Warlordzen-senpai is here to save! In a rare mood of magnanimousness, I’ll tell you how to solve it: “Takoyaki” (is tasty) is C, Soba is B, and Sashimi is A. Douiteshimashite (you’re welcome). You get 5 BP and a Chef’s Apron. Talk to Misaki and after she tells you about Sunnyvale Farm (totally nothing wrong with that place >.>), she’ll transmute the cat into a magic exp-dispensing crystal…how mean T.T R.I.P kitty. You can spend 10 BP at it to gain one level for your party. However, it actually only advances you to the next one, so don’t use it if you only have a few more EXP to your next level; otherwise, you’re wasting your BP. Buy anything you need let’s set out for Sunnyvale Farm…which is completely innocent.

Walkthrough Part III

Sunnyvale Farm: Ah-ha! Not-so sunny, are we? Especially with that melancholy background music. And Hiragana Warriors with about 150 HP two new skills called Poison Ink (effect obvious) and Hiragana Hack (a more powerful version of Hiragana Hit)! Totally called it. Anyway, complete ignore the left side for now; you’ll thank me later. Instead, go right and wrap around the lower fence for a chest containing 3x Antidote, which isn’t as helpful as it sounds since status effects in this game wear off after each battle. Now head north to the top right-hand side of the screen. Go a bit left and then down around the right fence for a chest with a Heavy Coat inside. Head back down and left; walk upwards along the left fence until you reach the garden/pasture. There’s nothing interactable here except the door, which is, of course, locked. (sigh) Nothing is ever convenient, right? As if to expound upon that theme, the barrel in question is the one aaaaaaaaaaaall the way around on the other side, and our heroes can’t climb fences, apparently. No one has Lock Picking as a skill either…should’ve brought a rogue. Well, no use in further griping; move it, soldier! Backtrack all the way to the beginning, NOW head left. As you go up along the fence, take the detour to the right and down a tad for a chest containing Iron Knuckles. Continue on your way upward to click on the barrel with the key in it, ugh. Now (you guessed it), head aaaaaaaaall the way back to the farmhouse door. Yay! We’re safe…not! Continue forward to the door down the left hall and we find out that our heroes and are locked inside the creepy, abandoned farmhouse…without a conveniently accessible key to let them out. Totally called that this level was going to be a pain -.-. Welp, gotta start somewhere. Somehow, Leon didn’t get random encountered running back to the front door AND back to the party, but I doubt you’ll be that fortunate…gotta love plot immunity armor. Of course, the broken crate we need to make a Search Check at is the one inside the little library room to the right of the entrance, so get there and click on it. Apparently, the key has meta-powers; it knows its dirty and needs to be washed in the sink in the top left hand part of the map and it can write instructions. That or the ghosts of the farmers that lived here hate the living and want our heroes to succumb to the same fate that befell them. Or the Hiragana Warriors are the biggest trolls in bad guy history. Speculations aside, go to the aforementioned sink for a new menial task: finding a book…for some reason! So, go back to the bookshelf room near the bottom right and click on the middle shelf; we FINALLY have the key. Go back (groan) to the locked door in the back and walk forward. Our reward is a boat that our heroes are perfectly okay with commandeering; I say it’s well-earned at this point. Thank God we’re finally done with Backtrack Farm >.<

Snowleaf Village: No new quests . Misaki will teach the T and D Hiragana plus some grammer: た (ta), ち (chi), つ (tsu), て (te), と (to), だ (da), ぢ (ji), づ (zu), で (de), and ど (do). Honestly, I don’t think you’ll see Ji (D) or Zu (D) anywhere unless you read Japanese classic literature, but it’s nice that they included it for posterity. Besides, dakuten Hiragana aren’t that hard, are they? When ready, talk to Misaki-sensei again and move out to Dorfin Village, probably one of the toughest areas in the game, so make sure you packed enough Ramune.

Dorfin Village: So…yeah, this place is a veritable ghost town. If the point of this game wasn’t to learn Hiragana, we’d probably encounter undead cowboys here or something. Anyway, Noburo’s literary henchman must’ve looted the place down to its bare bones because there is NO LOOT ANYWHERE!!! –sniffle- So, don’t waste time looking in barrels or trying to enter the houses. These T & D group guys have about 200 HP, Hiragana Hack, and a new skill, Papercut, a weak attack that can inflict the ever-annoying Paralysis debuff on one of your characters for several rounds…ugh. Follow the path right and up until you reach a fenced-in moat-thing with a strange lady with cool hair standing in front of a magic portal. After taking to her, she’ll leave and the door will glow, scattering lights everywhere. It’s old FF time, because you get to hunt for crystals! While, the difference is that they’re people trapped inside crystals, but anyway, the first is just below the entrance to the moat-thing, the second is directly right of the moat. For the third, go up and around the moat to the far left; forth is straight down from there near the town entrance. Finally, the fifth is one is all the way in the lower right-hand part of the map. After you’ve rescued them all, go back to the portal and talk to the cool-hair lady for a cutscene; then Hiragana evil-doers will attack you After all four of them are dead, watch the next cutscene; people die when they are killed x.x

Snowleaf Village: Nothing new here, just more lessons. Misaki will teach you ten words for animals, the N-group Hiragana: な (na), に (ni), ぬ, (nu), ね (ne), の (no), quiz you, and tell you that Ghoul Ruins is the next place to go. That’s obviously not an ominous name. Congratulations, btw. You are now the Knights-Who-Say, “Ni!” :3

Walkthrough Part IV

Ghoul Ruins: …and there’s no ghouls here. Those Hiragana Warriors must be pretty hardcore baddies to beat out rancid, flesh-eating fiends from the Middle-East, even though aside from Attack, all the N-group kana have is Drowsy, a no-damage sleep spell and around 250 HP. But, cool-hair lady is here, but we’re going to ignore her for now. Instead, go all the way left and all the way up past two stone pillars into a room with a blue chest filled with 3,200 gold. Now take the path directly right, ignoring the empty room with the two large stone pillars until you come to a set of smaller pillars; in this room there’s a blue chest with 3x revives. Now, head down and right, following this winding corridor until you reach the right edge of the screen. Past the these two stone pillars is a chest with 3x ramune and the stairs to the second floor. The path that leads downward has no loot and leads back towards the entrance; aren’t you glad you listened to me and didn’t follow the cool-haired lady? On that subject, we see her again once you head down the stairs; saving the world can wait. Instead, head straight down after you take the right fork path, ignoring all the pointless rooms filled with non-interactive debris along the way; at the bottom is a chest with a pike inside. Now, head back up the way you came and take the left path at the fork this time. Ignore the first two divots downward and take the third. When you come the four-way intersection, go left and grab the katana inside the box there; now follow the path downward and take the left fork at the bottom to find the stairs down to floor three. Ooo, a bunch of arches and a long hallway…must lead to the boss area. Except Ms. Boss doesn’t actually fight us; when you talk to her at the end of the hallway, she’ll port your party into the N-Zone…♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ (how rude!). You’ll wake up in the N-Zone, Tesseract, Shadow Realm, Insert-Extraplanar-Badness-Land-Here place. Weave your way upwards and you’ll be attacked by…(le gasp!) ENGRISH LETTERS!!! AHHHHHHHH!!! These guys are about as tough as their N-group Hiragana buddies, but they have a variety of attacks instead, including a fun new aoe called Hundred Hiragana Hits…which is odd because these guys aren’t Hiragana >.>. Anyway, up to the top right-hand corner of the floor and walk all the way to the left; there you’ll find a tomahawk. Now, go all the way back and take the path straight down until you come to a fork at the very bottom; go left to find knuckle dusters. Now, back up to the fork and go left; follow the path straight left until you come to the left side of the screen. Go down past the red-orbed pillars and down to the second floor. Follow the path downward and to the right; when you arrive at the four-way intersection, take the path up. At the next fork, ignore the down path and keep heading right to the edge of the screen, then head down until you reach the purple coffin; you’re outta that place!

Snowleaf Village: Talk to the glasses gent by the weapon tent to learn some nature vocab and acquire free bonus points. Now talk to the self-professed ninja next to the restaurant. He’ll agree to teach you the words for, “today, tomorrow, and yesterday,” (which are, btw) but this greedy guy wants a gem from Ghoul Ruins first, sheesh! Anyway, as usual, talk to Misaki for your Hiragana lesson, the H, B, & P –groups this time: は(ha), ひ (hi), ふ (fu), へ (he), ほ (ho), ば (ba), び (bi), ぶ (bu), べ (be), ぼ (bo), ぱ (pa), ぴ (pi), ぷ (pu), ぺ (pe), and ぽ (po). Now, let’s go get that gem, shall we? Rather than redundantly reiterate the steps to get to the second floor of Ghoul Ruins and waste space on another heading, just go there and follow the path towards the third floor, but this time, head to the right at the fork of the final bend to see a new blue chest. Inside, you will find the gem, and quite mercifully, the programmers put in an option to Telepo back to town upon finding it (and you don’t even need a Time Mage!). Give it to the greedy ninja-wannabe and he’ll tell you some more vocab. And give you a tidy chuck of kin…maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all. Cash in your BP, or don’t, and head out for Alcott Castle!

Walkthrough Part V

Alcott Castle: The King wants to meet our Hiragana heroes…and yet there’s no royal entourage to welcome them, nor anyone else for that matter. Gee, that’s suspicious! But there ARE evil kana characters, so do what you do best – yell at them and make them die. These h, b, p guys have Poison Ink, Hundred Hiragana Hits, and a fancy new single-target attack called Hiragana Hustle. They also have about 350 HP. Head right and then up towards the gates. It doesn’t matter which one you enter, but ignore the storehouse and the bridge across the pond, since neither of them lead anywhere interesting. Inside the castle, walk past guards and talk to the king. Apparently, he’s not trying to kill us – directly. Inside, he’s sending us to fight Hiragana Warriors (that his knights somehow captured alive at full HP) inside his dungeon to prove our worthiness…what a great guy -.- (Sigh). Well, you know the drill, soldier. Head through the right door and head up the right stairwell for a red chest with a Samurai Helmet. Now, head all the way to the left for another chest with 3x Canned Coffee; now we’re set! Head forward into the dungeon. “You descend the grey stone staircase into darkness. The scent of dust and decay fill your nostrils and a sense of trepidation creeps down your spine as you, too, skulk downward further into the unknown. What awaits you there? Glory? Untold riches? Or painful death, perhaps? Mwahahahahahahahaha!” Ahem, ok, that’s enough impromptu DMing for now. Anyway, first head to the upper right and then down towards a silver chest with 3x Revives. Now head back to the start; go down and then right past the gate at the intersection. Head down and left; at this intersection, go left and head straight down to find Leather Boots inside of a cell with a chest. Now, head back to the insection; head right and then straight down. At the bottom, ignore the empty cells and head left down the stairs. The second floor is very straight forward; just head up towards the big crack in the wall, up two flights of stairs, and voila! You’re in the storehouse…cottage, thing! Sadly, you can’t loot anything from here. After the knight leaves, head back to the castle and talk to the King. At least he’s gracious enough to pay us for our valuable time. At Snowleaf Village and talk to Misaki. Nihon ni ikuzo! (Japan, let’s go!) On the way, Misaki-sensei will teach you the M –group kana: ま (ma), み (mi), む (mu), め (me), も (mo), and some travel vocab.

Tokyo & Hiroshima: Congratulations! You’ve made it to The Big Peach…or whatever fruit is equated to Japan’s premiere metropolis. The Big Melon, maybe? Anyway, Noburo will spot you as you enter in triumph…and run away like a little *****. Ignore Misaki for now and go to the hospital to accept a sensei’s side quest, then head north to find a dark-haired boy who wants a manga of a certain popular shounen pirate; go to the convenience store and buy a まんが (manga), and return for otaku trivia. Also you gain an equipable piece of paraphernalia from that show…har har har. Good thing its stats are keen. Anyway, go left towards the power plant/armory and talk to the man near the parking lot. He wants a kotatsu, but we can’t get to Hokaido right now. Head inside the store/power plant to accept another quest we can’t finish right now. Now, exit Tokyo and head south west toward Hiroshima. Go to the hospital and talk to the woman at the desk; she’ll claim the medicine the other doctor needs will take a awhile much and mention your studies on an entirely unrelated note. So much for, “do no harm,”…gotta love private health care. Good thing you don’t need to wait for that medicine, since we can’t advance that question line for now. But we can learn about snacks, so go to the building marked with a martini glass, which is, evidently, a café, not a bar. Talk to the hostess/owner girl to learn more vocab, and get a (café) Wristband & BP. Now, haul your rear back to Tokyo and talk to Misaki-sensei; she’ll mention the power plant/weapon shop; return there and go down the elevator for another dungeon crawl.

Tokyo Underground: Were this a different sort of RPG, we’d likely get attacked by yakuza thugs or robo-badies down here...or maybe even Walking Houses (le gasp)! Or at least security guards. But, instead, we get to kick around M-group kana, which have Hiragana Hustle and around 400 HP. Head all the way south; they cleverly disguised chests in this dungeon as locked safes. But apparently we have a party of rogues, so we’re good. These two have 1,200 gold and 1x Canned Coffee. Now head back to the intersection and keep right, going around the wall, and down towards basement two elevator…except the terminals offline (sigh). The first one is in the hallway directly above you; apparently, Eric is tech-savvy. Yay! Now, go all the way up and then left along the top edge of the screen for terminal no. 2. Go straight south for the final access terminal and some Leather Boots inside the safe. Now you can proceed to the next floor. Go left for a safe with an 1x Antidote. Go back towards the elevator and head down until you reach the intersection; keeping going down and branch left for a safe containing 40 gold…really? Now go right for a safe with…ANOTHER 40 gold?! *proceeds to angrily kick the wall* Ahem, back at the intersection, go right for a few squares and then up for a safe with 1x Awaken. Now go further right and all the way up around a wall to find some rats snacking on the corpse of…NOBURO!!! DUN DUN DUN!!! Okay, so maybe he’s not dead, but our kind-hearted NG heroes don’t have the taste to kick a man while he’s down and Noburo reveals a surprising plot twist. Also, we finally learn the name of Cool Hair Lady. “Flower,” is hardly an intimidating name for an onii-chan backstabbing arch-villainess, but, as usual, I digress. You’re done with that place.

Tokyo: Not much to do here. Talk to Misaki-sensei for the R-group Kana: ら (ra), り(ri), る (ru), れ (re), ろ (ro), and then talk to her again to set your sites on Mt. Fuji. At least now you can yell ふっすろだ! (Fussuroda!)

Walkthrough Part VI

Mount Fuji: The R-group Hiragana warriors use Poison Ink, Drowsy, & Hundred Hiragana Hits, and have about 450 HP. Anyway, head up the stairs to the left and continue right along the ledge. Up these stairs you’ll come to an intersection; go straight all the way up for a silver chest containing 3x Deluxe Ramune. Go back down to the intersection and head all the way left. Climb down the vines for a Motorcycle Helmet in a chest. Now, go up and head right along this ridge to find more vines to climb. Keep going up until you reach a cave; enter it. Walk forward and around the wall for a chest containing 3x Revives. Head down a few steps and then left; at the intersection, go up and then keep left until you come to the opening in the top-left room to get the 1,460 gold inside the chest. Now head straight down and a little to the left for the exit. Ah, fresh mountain air again! Head down for the chest with Samurai Armor inside and then right and up to continue. Up the large, totally-not-boss stairs to the summit (climbing a 12,388–foot mountain to literally be “chillin’ like a villain,” is an impressive feat for feet! Bwahahahahaha!). Anyway, watch a cutscene for ANOTHER plot twist! DUN DUN DUN!! After that, saiyonara, Fuji-san!

Tokyo: Talk to Misaki-sensei for people vocab and Y–group Kana: や (ya), ゆ (yu), and よ (yo). Talking to her again will reveal the next destination, Shofukuji Temple in the south, but saving Japan can wait because there’s always time for…SIDE QUESTS! Talk to the nearby girl to the left and she’ll want five gems from Mt. Fuji, so time to go hiking again. Good thing our heroes are from a cold place. The first is off to your right near the tree wall. By picking it up, it’ll tell you the color あき(“aki” - red) in Hiragana, cute. Head left, up, right, all the way forward again where the 3x Deluxe Ramune chest was for the みどり“midori” (green) gem. Back down with you and all the way to the left. Down the vines, you’ll find the あお “ao” (blue) gem. Go into the cave. Cut through the cave towards the summit; no gems are here, ironically. Outside, go down the ledge were the chest was and the しろ “shiro”(white) gem is trying to hide. And failing. Head to the summit and collect the くろ “kuro” (black) gem. Curiously, crystalified Hana isn’t here anymore. Hmm… Anyway, you’ll be ported back to Tokyo; talk to the girl for your reward. We get a Rusty Necklace and 20 tasty BP. Head south across the magically-spawned bridge to Shofukuji Temple.

Shofukuji Temple: Strange music for a Shinto temple filled with hostile Hiragana Warriors. Anyway, the Y-group Kana have about 500 HP and a shiny new attack called Hiragana Hammer, which does MASSIVE damage to a single party member. There’s nothing outside, so head on in. Another boring room, head through the crack. Now, things get interesting. Also, the music is much more ominous. Forward pad, forward, right for a gold chest containing a がんとれっと(Gantoretto), Claire’s legendary weapon. Now go left, left for a chest containing a なぎなた (Naginata), Leon’s legendary weapon. Now go up, step on the green pad. Go back down, right, down, down, right, up, green pad. Down, left, up, left, left, left, down, green. Up, up, up, green. Right, down, right, right, up, left, new area! With creepy snoring. Just literally walk straight forward until you get the cutscene. SHOW ME YOUR MOVES!! FALCON KICK!! YES!!! Bye-bye, Shofukuji Temple!

Tokyo: Talk to Misaki-sensei to learn the two w-kana and the only consonant ‘N’; わ (wa) を (wo) ん (N), along with some food vocab. Now, go back to the Hiroshima hospital, get the medicine (finally!) from the receptionist, and give it to the doctor in Tokyo. Were I that patient, I’d sue for malpractice. Anyway, pick up some phrases, 1x vitamins, and 10 BP. Talk to Misaki-sensei again and cross the new magic bridge north to Sapporo.

Walkthrough Part VII

Sapporo: Not much to do here. Go to the inn and talk to the only quest-giver. He’ll tell you about Japanese inns, give you 5 BP and a hotspring ticket. You could give it to the man in white to the right, but hold onto it for now. Visit the large and only unlocked house in the south for a funny and cute scene with the “meganeko” (glasses girl) if you wish. Buy the こたつ (kotatsu) at the shop and give it to the man in Tokyo for seasonal vocab, 1x Snowglobe, and 10 BP. Go back north; it’s time to demolish Hokkaido Gokoku!

Hokkaido Gokoku: Boring shrine exterior and interior; walk straight through both; w-kana +n consonant have around 600 HP, which you should be able to 1-shot by this point. Now we’re inside another teleporter maze, yay! Up, up, up, up, gold chest with the おの (Ono), Eric’s legendary weapon inside. Right, green pad. Left, left, down, left, green pad. Right, up, right, down, down, right, up, green pad. Down, down, down, left, left, up, left, down, left, gold box containing the つるぎ (Tsurugi), Misaki’s legendary weapon. Up, green pad. Down, right, up, up, left, up, up, right, new (not really) area! Same as before, keeping moving forward until you get the cutscene. Yay, we saved Japan…or did we?

Tokyo: Talk to Misaki-sensei for home vocab and numbers 1-10, and again to learn (unsurprisingly) that Noburo is up to no good again; should’ve killed him when we had the chance, eh? Now we’re stuck having to storm his dark citadel, appropriately yet tastelessly called the ‘Grim Tower’ . But first, show the guy inside the power plant/arms store your Tsurugi for weapon vocab, a Sword Keychain, and 10 BP. That’s it for side quests. Talk to Misaki-sensei to head towards the final battle at –dun dun dun- The Grim Tower!

Ship: ….or not. We get attacked by…ENGRISH AGAIN!!! Noooooooo! Well, you know the drill. They have about 550 HP and use Hiragana Hammer (but they’re not Hiragana!) and Papercut. Slay four waves of them and you’ll be ported to Snowleaf for three final lessons concerning grammar and simple phrases. Now we’re off to –dun dun dun- The Grim Tower!

The Grim Tower (dun dun dun): Okay, so not a very original name for the lair of the arch-villain, but it works. Personally, I would have gone for something like, “The Awesomely Spiked Gothic Death Tower of Impending DOOOOM (DUN DUN DUN)!!!” or something like that. Guess I’ll have to wait until I finally become a super-villain, eh? Well, I’ll help you clear this Noburo guy out of the way so there’s less future competition for me. Pretty villainous of me, darou? Don’t expect me to write a guide on how thwart my own nefarious deeds, btw. Anyhow, buy any last-minute supplies, use the Sapporo Bath Ticket if you want, and head to our final destination. Aside from groovy music and some cool dragon statues, there’s nothing on the first floor, aside from Hiragana Warriors…THAT FORMED WORDS!!! OH NO!!! Fortunately, you kill them by choosing the correct word, rather than having to spell them out in order. I hope you paid attention to the vocab >.>, they have about 700 HP. Head straight up the stairs; on the second floor, go down and left. Hey look, an easy maze on the third floor. Go straight up and a bit left for a grey chest containing 1x Canned Coffee. Go back down, to the right, up and a bit right for a 1x Deluxe Ramune inside the chest. Now, go down a bit, right, and down. Fourth floor: just go left and up until you reach the fork at the top, the right path takes to a chest containing 1x Revive, the left takes you to the next floor. Fifth floor: go up and then come down the center, branch right. No chests here, just a new set of vocab. Sixth floor: Go around the wall and up into the blue portal to enter…A GIANT MAZE!!! With a new set of vocab, no less. Head down and left to the fork, take the left path downward to another fork. At this one, keep right and until the three-way fork, keep right. Go up all the wall around and down to the stairs. Now it’s time for the SMACK DOWN!! As before, attacking Noburo is useless; destroy his Hiragana Number minions with your mad Kana skillz. After you slay 7 of them, he’ll unleash his ultimate technique…De Mon Ta RaN Su Fu MeI TsuN No Jutsu!!!! And he’ll insta-death your party and chuck a mega debuff at Claire…what a jerk! To beat him, match his Japanese word with the correct English word 10 times and then turn around and walk away as he explodes in slow-motion. High five, grasshopper! You did it! Now let those credits roll!

[Stephen]

I saw Crunchyroll-Hime playing this on her Learning Japanese stream.

[CptKakise - カキセ]

ありがとございました

[terminalcountdown]

Also, "it’ll tell you the color あき(“aki” - red)"
it actually says あか , aka. Which does mean red.

[terminalcountdown]

In the part where you say "go left to find knuckle dusters." in the alternative dimension, isn't it to go right?

[shaq o'tmeal]

Thanks for this guide! I think in Part VI, red is 'あか' instead of 'あき', right?

[TacticalShota]

Attention, kouhei! I just released the guide for Kanji Combat, if you're been keeping up with the Learn Japanese to Survive series!

[TacticalShota]

どういたしまして, ムゥンスブス-さん.

[moonsbro]

ありがとございます

[TacticalShota]

どういたしまして, クリエタオブリヴィオン-さん。

[creatoroblivion]

ありがとうございます