Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Learn the basics of Japanese in this interactive role-playing game! No experience needed – start reading and writing in Japanese!
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War is a rpg, indie and education game
developed by Sleepy Duck
and published by RIVER CROW STUDIO.
Released on January 30th 2017 is available in English only on Windows.
It has received 530 reviews of which 485 were positive and 45 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.5 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 5.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Eneba.
The Steam community has classified Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 (32bit/64bit)
- Processor: Intel Core2 Duo or better
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: DirectX 9/OpenGL 4.1 capable GPU
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 2 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
I played through the game in a few days. It was really fun. The basic story is okay. Can you learn katakana through the game? Yes, you can! You don't just learn katakana, but also whole words, some grammar, and cultural aspects of Japanese culture. The katakana symbols are taught gradually, including voice output, so you know how to pronounce them. I can't wait to start with the kanji sequel! PS: I had already played the predecessor with the hiragana alphabet. You don't have to have played the predecessor, but I think it makes sense. Every now and then, whole words are taught. I'm glad that the game didn't just write typical Japanese words in katakana, but also displayed them in hiragana alongside romaji. These words are optional in this game and are just nice to know.
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Game is nothing grand, but so far I think it's working and it's entertaining enough even if the story makes no sense if you think about it even a moment. Good: Basic RPG (16bit style) set up is overall fun. Maybe slight "dating sim" style get to know your teammates. Entertaining enough way to learn Katakana. Eh: There seems to be class types (mage/fighter at least, I haven't unlocked magic yet) but it's not clear at the start what they are or who is what class. Unlike most RPGs where its pretty easy to tell (or sometimes flat out told to you immediately) who is meant for what job in the party. Bad: The story makes no sense. You're in Japan and need to learn the language but then monster Katakana characters arrive and somehow only ONE Japanese native realizes you just need to speak the character to defeat them? Would make more sense if you were in maybe Europe or America and this happens and you stumble across a Japanese English teacher on vacation recruits you to help with the same set up. Also at the start they're like "oh everyone ran off in fear" so you just hijack an entire apartment building and the next day randomly got a dozen people wandering around town? The sound QC is also pretty bad. When attacking it all is kind of hard to make out. When they're speaking (which sometimes they'll say part of their dialogue, sometimes all, or sometimes none) it's clear each VA recorded their stuff on their own. Some sound fine, others a bit metallic/tinny, and some you'd expect it was a 10 dollar PC mic from the early 2000s. Yes my Bad is longer than the good, but I still think the good outweighs the bad!
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Very much an improvement over hiragana battle, in several ways. Firstly, the difference in presentation is clear: most RTP map assets have been replaced by custom ones, there's voice acting and large portraits of characters, and sourced royalty free music is used in place of RTP music. The game does not feel like your average hobbyist RPG anymore, though there's some beginner mistakes like the music often not looping correctly, the sound effects of multi-hit skills being very loud, and some dungeon exits being handles improperly (for example, the train station dungeon exiting into the old train station). Nothing game breaking though. Secondly, the educational content is better, and there's more of it. The main story is longer, so you have more opportunities to practice your knowledge against enemies, and there's more sidequests which will teach you vocabulary in both hiragana and katakana. Thirdly, combat sees a major improvement. The mana bar has a reason to exist, meaning every character gets a variety of spells to use. A good compromise is that you cannot defeat an enemy with a spell that deals damage, you have to deal the finishing blow with a kana skill. There's also boss battles now, which are just a series of kana stuffed into one enemy that deals a lot more damage. It's not perfect though. The game is longer, but it contains a lot of dialog that has nothing to do with japanese whatsoever. Your party members (all 7 of em) have something to say in most scenes. It's entertainment value varies from bad to decent. Also can I just ask: why does this game have heart-to-heart events? It's really just filler, a sort of distraction from the learning part. It wasn't for me, maybe someone else will feel different about it. And there's more than 20 of these events? If it would've included some vocabulary or some japanese cultural things I would've appreciated it more, but alas. The most important question is: do I remember anything after playing it? I think I can write about 80% of the katakana from memory, and I remember some new words in katakana. I did try learning katakana before starting this game, but that kinda failed as katakana does not seem to want to stick around for long. This is because they seem a bit confusing at first, some looking alike or similar to hiragana but sounding completely different. If anything, this game is definitely a less painful way of learning katakana than any tool out there is, at least in my opinion. Hiragana battle was a steal at 6 euros, this game even more so.
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I do not know that using this game on it's own will make you learn faster than from a book on its own, but in combination it's really quite effective. This game is perfect for making you recognize the katakana as someone who struggled with them. The story is kinda boring, but serviceable. Voice acting as rough around the edges. Combat is nothing special. But I came to this game with one goal; learn the Katakana. Did I do that? Yes. Do I regret not playing this game sooner? Yes. If you want to learn the katakana, get a textbook or online worksheets and play this game alongside. Without hesitation I can recommend this game for its intended purpose. Especially on sale.
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If you're looking as a beginner a good way to review katakana, I think this is worth the time. It's definitely not the fastest way, but if you're looking for something fun to push your katakana review, I think it's not bad. If I were to recommend order: Hiragana Forbidden => Katakana War => Kanji Combat and skip the basic hiragana game unless you're really struggling with Hiragana and need to have multiple games. But these games are much better as review/reinforcement tools, barring maybe Kanji Combat. The Good: 1. This is a pretty good way to review katakana. I'm not sure I'd completely learn from this game, but if you're looking as a beginner to just reinforce katakana this is a great tool 2. Some of the music is kinda a banger? There's a couple things that kinda get annoying after a while, but the weapon shop theme and the Obake world theme? Pretty dope 3. To be honest it's actually got a better JRPG system than I thought it would have. Is it amazing? No, but it did get me building a speed setup to go buffer => AoE mage => physical answers to finish off, which is cool that there's some level of optimization. That being said you can kinda just brute force if you want, there's not really a lot of stat or DPS checks The Neutral: 1. This is about the most standard JRPG story. Don't expect to be wow'd 2. The way music loops is kinda weird The Bad: 1. Some character side stories are just not very exciting 2. Weird bugs randomly, nothing soft locking but some animation slow down 3. Doesn't work on steam deck very well
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Frequently Asked Questions
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War is currently priced at 5.99€ on Steam.
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 5.99€ on Steam.
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War received 485 positive votes out of a total of 530 achieving a rating of 8.52.
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Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War was developed by Sleepy Duck and published by RIVER CROW STUDIO.
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War is not playable on MacOS.
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War is not playable on Linux.
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War is a single-player game.
There are 2 DLCs available for Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War. Explore additional content available for Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War on Steam.
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War does not support Steam Remote Play.
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 22 January 2026 11:18 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 25 January 2026 01:34 |
| Steam price | 28 January 2026 20:42 |
| Steam reviews | 27 January 2026 07:53 |
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- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
2
Developer
Sleepy Duck
Publisher
RIVER CROW STUDIO
Release
30 Jan 2017
Platforms
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