Created On: Sun May 01 2022
General Game Info (Availability, Price) [8]
Sumire is an indie game released in 2021 for the Nintendo switch, pc and mac - this game was brought to my attention through the comments section of another video - so thank you for the recommendation!
Sumire is a narrative driven exploration game focussed around a girl (named Sumire…) and the game revolves around life issues such as family and friendship, right and wrong etc. The art style has a nice water painterly feel, and the music is overall pretty nice, fitting and relaxing.
The game is super cheap. Usually $10 or less when in one of the many sales, so for that reason I think it’s a pretty good investment, money to time-wise! Cheap is good, and a nice art style is great but we want to answer the question. Can you learn Japanese with Sumire?
Japanese Level [9]
Firstly, the Japanese level of this game is very approachable. It uses some kanji and has no furigana, but in general it’s mostly simple language, a variety of everyday topics but most importantly most things make sense in context - which is one of the reasons learning via video games is better than from a textbook.
I’ll admit there were some words and expressions that I didn’t know while playing through, but overall I think a lot of the words you will come across are the same as those in your more traditional kanji/vocab study using anki, wanikani or similar systems. So seeing these words in context really helps join the meaning, reading and usage together.
The story has some magical mystical elements to it which might call for some more uncommon words at times, but on the whole I’d say it’s a pretty good level.
The major downside is there is no voice acting in the game. But from the credits, this game was made by a tiny team and for the price you can’t expect full voice acting! But the font is big enough and you can take your time to read everything at your own pace … apart from a certain mini game that I’ll get to later…
Story Progression [10]
The story is somewhat linear, you pretty much just go left and interact with anything and anyone you can to learn more about the town, the story and your partner, the flower. I don’t think there’s any part of the game where you can get stuck - even if so the ability to switch language to English at almost any time within a couple of seconds should be able to help you out!
The game does seem to have some sort of karma system and to see everything the game has to offer might need another playthrough, but honestly I’m not sure how deep this system runs. On an emotional level I felt kinda bad if I chose the negative option and that could be punishment enough.
There is a map with which you can fast travel and a quest log of people you can help in the menu but these are all optional - as far as I can tell.
There’s lots of people to talk to and definitely a lot of things you can miss if you just rush through the game. So as with most games used as a language learning tool I would really recommend you to take your time and interact with everything possible!
(Gaming to Learning) Ratio [10]
The gaming to learning ratio in Sumire is very much towards the learning end of the spectrum. And by that I mean there isn’t an awful lot of gaming. The distance between things to interact with is very minimal and maybe 85% of the game is conversation, dialogue and descriptions. Which is really great for studying but it does cause one major problem which is…
Fun Factor [4]
As already mentioned I think the art style is wonderful, and walking around and interacting with people, and animals and things is really cool. Seeing Japanese cultural symbols such as shrines 神社 and even post boxes gives you that sense of being on holiday when maybe we can’t visit Japan right now. And the story of the game is pretty emotion driven and might really resonate with some people. It’s a really interesting game. But I can’t say that it’s “fun”.
There are some minigames within the game, such as card games, board games and some red light green light style events. But these are all very shallow, or just a bit boring unfortunately. At least with the card games, trying to understand the instructions and rules of the games in Japanese is an extra challenge! But overall it’s not a game I’d like to play again.
Verdict [8.2 - beginner]
So we’ve analysed Sumire as a language learning tool and now it’s time for the verdict. Can you learn Japanese with Sumire?
The answer is absolutely yes.
The language and kanji I feel are pretty appropriate for beginners albeit probably quite challenging for absolute beginners… but challenge leads to growth so embrace it! For everyone else it’s a great chance to practice reading, grammar and vocab in context and most importantly: the game is not too long. So if you’re yet to finish a game in Japanese Sumire is a great candidate to say “Hey, I played and finished an entire game in Japanese!” and use that feeling to motivate you to keep going and complete longer and more difficult games in the future! However if you’re a fan of FPS games or RPGs I feel like the lack of actual things to do in this game could make it more of a chore than enjoyable. So with everything, if it’s not fun, stop.