Yes! Shujinkou can be a powerful tool for learning Japanese, especially for reading and listening skills needed for exams like the JLPT N5. The game teaches hiragana, katakana, basic grammar, sentence structure, and essential vocabulary through immersive gameplay, quests, and interactive minigames, all designed to build a strong foundation in Japanese.

However, Shujinkou is first and foremost a story-driven JRPG. To get the most out of it for language learning, we recommend enjoying it as a game while taking time outside of play to review and practice what you learn. For a taste of what to expect, try our 15-hour demo with full progress transfer to the main game.

Yes! Shujinkou was designed from the ground up to support both learners and non-learners alike. When you begin the game, you’ll be asked about your language background and gameplay goals. Selecting non-learning options will push you towards the “Gamer” emphasis and tailor your experience toward traditional dungeon-crawling and story progression, disabling many of the more language-intensive features by default.

All learning-based content—such as writing practice, minigames, and certain dialogue branches—is completely optional or skippable. You can also switch to full English UI, auto-equip Kanakae Orbs and narratively treat them like “spells” or “hieroglyphs,” and even activate “English-Only Mode” at any time. We want everyone to enjoy the game their way, whether you’re here to learn or just for the RPG adventure.

Read a more detailed response on the Steam forums 🔗 here.

The Nintendo Switch version has been announced as of September 4th 2025, and is planning to release on October 2nd 2025, with pre-orders beginning on September 18th 2025. You can check out the Announcement Trailer here:

You can read more about the pricing structure changes here:

Shujinkou Announced on Nintendo Switch!

Rice Games announces that Shujinkou will launch digitally on Nintendo Switch in the Americas, Europe, and Australia on October 2nd, with pre-orders starting September 18th. The game includes major upgrades and two story arcs, Genya and Sabaku. Pricing differs for the Switch version, and pre-order discounts are available. Shujinkou combines RPG gameplay with optional language…

September 3, 2025September 5, 2025

A physical edition of Shujinkou is something we’re actively planning, especially for PlayStation® 5 and eventually for Nintendo Switch™ as well. Because we’re self-publishing, producing a physical version involves covering manufacturing and operational costs ourselves—so it will take a little more time as the studio continues to grow. That said, we are committed to making it happen! After all, we actively and strongly support the production of physical copies of video games for the sake of the fans and long-term video game preservation.

We also want the physical release to be special, and are exploring the possibility of including extras like a printed game manual or other small goodies. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we have more details to share. Thank you so much for your patience and support.

We understand your concerns. Many publishers do not prioritize players’ best interests when it comes to downloadable content. At Rice Games, we take DLC seriously and ensure the main game offers exceptional value on its own. Playtesting before Shujinkou’s release indicated that players typically spend 100–200 hours with the base game alone, a finding supported by our internal data and public records like HowLongToBeat.

Our additional, completely optional Day 1 content focuses on Swimsuit and Akuma costumes, introducing entirely new quests where the six Fuu Lobby partners don these outfits. These quests add meaningful, flirty exchanges, including new cutscenes and decorations for your base, designed to enrich the experience for players who have completed the main campaign or want a fun diversion without impacting the core story.

First of all, our sincere apologies for the inconvenience. There are four quick ways to reach us, listed below in order of the fastest response times:

• Create an inquiry thread on Discord in our Shujinkou Discord server. You can join the server here. We won’t bite!
• Send us an email at contact@ricegames.net.
• Post a forum post in the Bugs & Reported Issues section on Steam if you are playing Shujinkou on PC or Mac.
• Fill out the Inquiry Form by heading over to Contact Us and choose the Bug category.

Please include the platform where you experienced the issue, along with as many details as possible. The more information you provide, the faster we can investigate and release a hotfix for you.

Please note that a hotfix can be released within 12 hours of a fix on PlayStation and Steam, but will take at least 2 weeks to be released on Nintendo Switch due to Nintendo’s patch verification and release process!

As this is our first major commercial release and a premium title, we are committed to providing personalized, responsive support that exceeds expectations—delivering the kind of dedicated service larger publishers often can’t match for our growing community of players.

In very rare cases, roughly 1 in every couple thousand of players, we’ve seen instances where save data becomes corrupted. This can happen due to factors like powering off the console during a save, storage issues on the device, or other unpredictable variables.

If this happens to you, please email us at contact@ricegames.net with your PSN ID and a brief description of what occurred. We’ll do our best to liaise with PlayStation support on your behalf and attempt recovery. In the past, we’ve successfully helped players recover 100s of hours of save data. Note that there is hope, and we will do what we can to support you.