So to Speak

Release Date: March 31, 2025

Adventure, puzzle elements, 2D, educational, indie games, Japan, singleplayer

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An adventure-logic game about learning the basics of the Japanese language. The gameplay in So to Speak is focused on solving puzzles, involving challenges like learning the meaning of roadsigns or conversations. We combine Japanese words with different objects and expressions in English.

Gameplay
Graphics

So to Speak is an adventure-logic game in which we solve puzzles related to the Japanese language, gradually learning vocabulary along the way. The game was created by independent developer Erik Andersen. He himself admits, at the time of creating this work, his knowledge of Japanese was "poor".

Gameplay

During the game, we watch events from a bird's eye view. The creator's guiding purpose was to recreate the feeling of wandering in a foreign country, while also writing a kind of "love letter" to the Japanese language.

Learning Japanese

We take on the role of a character who travels Japan, visiting places such as cities and villages, picturesque gardens, and magnificent temples. In each of them, we will find road signs and transcriptions of conversations in Japanese, which we need to decipher in order to be able to proceed further.

The process of discovering their meanings comes down to connecting Japanese words with their corresponding objects or expressions in English. The game offers contextual clues that we can use if we feel lost.

Over time, puzzles are becoming increasingly complicated, and instead of single words ("bus", "tree", "parking"), whole sentences ("The parking is intended only for grocery store customers") are replacing them. In total, there are over 300 words here on a variety of topics - from numbers and colors, through time and directions, to travel, nature and family.