• Price: $14.99 USD
• Developer: Not Dead Designer
• Publisher: Whitethorn Games
• Release Date: March 28, 2023 (NA+EU); March 30 (Japan)

A review code was kindly provided by Whitethorn Games on behalf of Not Dead Designer. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

I took some Japanese courses in college. I wouldn’t say I’m fluent, but I know my hiragana, katakana, and some kanji. Even though I’m already quite familiar with the first two, I’m always excited to see new games that teach them – I really love “edutainment” that uses video games as a vehicle to teach something interesting. Kana Quest is a new puzzle game that caught my attention, and it aims to teach players hiragana and katakana in a fun and unique way!

There are multiple “worlds” with their own stages, backgrounds, and music tracks. Each world introduces you to a new puzzle mechanic in its first stage. Puzzles consist of kana blocks that you’ll need to move around and match; this can be done with your Joy-Cons or with the touchscreen. You can match kana blocks that share the same initial or final sounds. For example, in the above screenshot:

こ (ko) く (ku)

か (ka) ぬ (nu)

な (na)

The two kana blocks on the left can be matched together because their initial sounds match (k), while those on the right share a final sound (u). On the bottom row, “na” matches the final sound of “ka” on the left, and the initial sound of “nu” on the right. So to solve this puzzle, you’d drag “na” up and in between “ka” and “nu.” You solve every puzzle in Kana Quest by thinking strategically about where you can match kana blocks based on their initial and/or final sounds. Once all kana blocks are properly matched together in a chain, the stage is complete.

I was a bit “puzzled” 😉 that they didn’t start out with あ, い, う, え, or お (a, i, u, e, or o). Those are the hiragana I remember learning first. I think they could have done some puzzles with those kana in the beginning when players are getting used to the game. For example, something like:

あ (a) —> か (ka) —> さ (sa) —> ま (ma)

Or:

あ (a) —> か (ka) —> け (ke) —> え (e)

In fairness, they do eventually use a/i/u/e/o, but in a different function for the puzzles, which I’ll expand on more below. But they’re introduced about 70 stages in, which is further on than I’d expect for beginners in the process of learning these kana. For people who have already memorized them, I think it’s fine.

Now, matching the kana blocks in a certain amount of moves – shown in the top left of the puzzle area – will get you a gold, silver, or bronze medal for that stage, and a certain number of gold ones are needed to unlock the next world. (I liked that they included options to instantly unlock all worlds and stages without using medals.) You can solve the puzzles using more moves if you’re having trouble, but that means you may only get a silver or bronze medal. It seems like you have to solve each puzzle one specific way to get the gold.

I really appreciated that they included the ability to undo previous moves one at a time and also restart the stage completely. I did wish that there was some sort of hint system for when players have trouble figuring out how to earn a gold medal for a stage. I recognized all of the kana but sometimes had some trouble when it came to putting the blocks together in the specified number of turns.

Anyways, for those who do not already have hiragana or katakana memorized, it’s not a problem here. Double tapping or clicking a kana block will make it turn over to show you its romanized form (double tap か to see “ka”), and you’ll get to hear its pronunciation as well. They also included a helpful kana chart under the settings menu.

There are more than 300 stages, which I thought was incredibly impressive. When I turned on the katakana mode, it appeared that the katakana puzzles were exactly the same as the hiragana puzzles at each stage. I may have preferred an even split of ~150 hiragana puzzles and ~150 katakana puzzles with different solutions, but most people aren’t going to remember 300+ puzzle solutions and will still need to recognize the kana to solve either version.

I was also extremely impressed by the amount of different kana block mechanics they put in the game. Puzzles start out pretty easy in the beginning stages of each world and slowly become more complex. When they introduce new types of kana blocks, they’ll start combining them, like putting stone and ice kana blocks in the same level to make it more challenging.

They add mystery kana to the mix, which you have to “unmask” by observing what they match with when placed next to other kana, then using a move to guess which kana it is. There are stone kana that can’t be moved at all, paralysis kana that can be moved one time before turning into stone kana, ice kana that slide around once moved, and one-way kana that can only go in the direction shown on the block. Then, once you get to the green slime kana, that’s when あ, い, う, え, and お are introduced – you slide them onto another kana block to change its vowel. (Slide あ/a onto け/ke and change it into か/ka.)

But wait – there’s more! Blue slime kana change sounds with ya (や), yu (ゆ), and yo (よ), making it so that you can match multiple final sounds. ひ (hi) slimed with や (ya) becomes ひゃ (hya), which can then be matched with kana with either い (i) or あ (a) final sounds. There are purple slime kana with two subcategories, ん/“NN” kana that don’t match with any other kana, and ghost kana. I really liked the (above) colorful transformation kana, which can be turned into any kana as many times as you’d like without costing a move. There’s even an interesting – and cleverly named – “Kana-veyor Belt” function in later stages.

While I do have some nitpicky criticism of Kana Quest, overall I think it’s fantastic. They did a good job of tying everything together thematically, from the soundtrack to the gorgeous backgrounds to the kana. (I particularly liked the Sailor Moon reference in one of the backgrounds.) The little faces on the kana and the hearts between them when they match are so cute, too!

I don’t think I can emphasize enough how amazed I am by how much effort was put into the game with the artistic direction, number of stages, and large variety of kana block mechanics. I think that this could work well for beginners who need more practice recognizing hiragana and katakana, but also for those who already have them memorized. (Use it or lose it, as they say!) It’s a fun way to be exposed to kana, but it’s also a fairly challenging puzzle game in my opinion.