It's oftentimes a running joke in Japanese media how the general populace are required to learn English as a second language, but most of them almost always fall flat when it comes to practical use due to it's purported "difficulty". As a Japanese language student, I find myself befuddled by this mentality mainly because English is built on just a few simple rules, whereas Japanese has more complicated quirks, leading a handful of frustrated people to call it "The Language Of The Infinite".
To make the "Language Of The Not-So-Infinite" less difficult, a few English-themed edutainment games have been circulating around. Of course, with the still-prevailing moe culture among otaku fandom, decrypting the lingo will bear more fruit when you feature cute 2D girls as your virtual tutors. Unfortunately, most of these games still fall under the hit-or-miss category, with one or more factors (uncomfortable testing system, poor seiyuu diction, etc.) ruining the whole thing. Mirai Shonen's Moe Star: Moeru Toudai Eigo Juku is one of the more notable titles of it's kind, and while I personally do not need to learn English, I was still curious to know how this game plays out.
For this girl, Hajime is willing to forsake his dumbass habits... but he might end up becoming a ronin anyway.
Hajime is pretty much your average dude. He mainly focuses on his (otaku) hobbies and doesn't study all that much. When he finds out that his childhood friend/super-crush Wakana is planning to take the entrance exam for Toudai (Tokyo University), he resolves to follow suit so they can go there together. But as mentioned earlier, Hajime is anything but Toudai material. His grades are only so-so, and is especially horrible in English. Hajime hightails it to a nearby shrine and prays hard to the gods in a desperate bid to make himself pass the exam. A haphazardly thrown coin offering hits the head of a god, who laments that Hajime is beyond divine intervention and should just go home and study his ass off like everybody else.
Despite having said so, the god still sends three angels to assist Hajime in his weakest subject. Each angel specializes in a particular aspect of the English language and are named as such: Word handles basic word formation and translation, Idiom teaches the ambiguous usages of English terms, and Grammar emphasizes the necessity of proper sentence construction. A fourth angel named Conver appears later on and will focus on everyday conversational responses.
Word: Bu-buu! Don't you dare flunk this level 1 test, Hajime onii-chan!!
Moe Star has two play modes: A galge mode and a test mode. The galge mode is pretty much a linear story where you read through Hajime's comedic exploits in his quest to become Toudai-worthy and win the affection of Wakana. The stories are divided in parts; you can only access the latter ones when you get satisfactory grades in the test modes and pass a level-up exam. Obviously, the higher your level, the harder the tests become. Aside from the new story parts, passing tests also grants certain rewards like costume changes for the angels, among other interesting things. The degree of Japanese kanji can also be toggled between "children's level" and "adult's level", making it surprisingly accessible to the young'ins despite having a CERO B rating.
It's 2 AM and Hajime still hasn't gotten the hang of this test... guess what Idiom wants to do...
The test modes make full use of the DS' touch screen, requiring you to either tap on the right item/sequence of words or manually write down each letter input. The latter can be a bit problematic since the system only recognizes a specific number of strokes. As such, inputting letters "b", "d", "h", "k", "r" and "q" will prove to be a pain in the early going until you figure out the right way to write them. (unless you give up and just use a hint). Moe Star utilizes a "combo system" for the basic tests. If your correct consecutive answer count is high, you'll progress through the level faster.
The conversation test would have made more sense if you could use the mic for it... but meh, writing on a touch screen is fun too.
So can a dumbcluck like Hajime actually make it to Toudai? You'd best go through the game to find out. The tests can prove repetitive, but frankly speaking, studying is nothing more than routine repetition of relevant data for purposes of retention. Moe Star is only recommended for those people who aren't allergic to edutainment games, which sadly constitutes a significant minority of gamers.
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