http://thegameprogrammer.blogspot.com/2 ... iewed.html
This appears to be the blog of one of the developers. He writes very positively about the game and trivializes the idea that there are any errors, but the comments on that post have a fairly detailed list of the kana stroke order and direction errors, as well as many other inconsistencies (kana being right in one place, but wrong in another, such as ワbeing 2 strokes when you learn it, but only 1 stroke (incorrect) in the mini-games etc.
I will continue to use the game for learning vocabulary, but I'm staying as far away from the kana writing and kanji as I can.
I haven't learned how to correctly write even the kana yet, so I was excited about this until learning that almost 15% of the kana are incorrect.
!!!
As a matter of fact, I'll paste here the list I've been putting together of the errors I've found so far myself, and those that others have reported.
Incorrect hiragana: na mo ya yo
Incorrect katakana: e ka chi ne no hi me wa wo
In other words, about 14% of the basic kana characters are taught and/or graded wrong in this program. Count 'em, 13 kana have either wrong stroke order, wrong stroke direction, or wrong stroke count. AAAAAGHHHH! How could they?
No, really... seriously, how COULD they? The correct stroke order for kana is in any number of reference books. It's not some arcane 18-stroke kanji--we're talking about characters with four, three, two.. even, for pete's sake, ONE stroke. (Katakana "no" should be drawn north-to-south, not the other way.)
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Pardon me, but that's not VERY FEW. That's 14 out of 94--just shy of 14% of the basic kana characters have either wrong stroke order, wrong stroke direction, or wrong stroke count (!) This is really inexcusable--especially considering that hiragana "mo" and "yo" are frequently used particles.
What's even more discombobulating is that some of the characters listed above are shown correctly in their first introduction but graded differently in the mini-games. Katakana "wa" is correct in the example (two strokes, short one first) but requires you to write it as all one stroke in the mini-games.
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Lesson/screen/syllable:
10/2 na
10/10 pu
13/2 mo
17/4 ya yo
17/7 kya cho
17/11 e
20/4 ka
20/6 me
22/4 chi
22/5 ne no
24/4 hi
24/7 wo
24/9 (fading characters game: wa=shown correctly but graded wrongly)
In mini-games, hiragana bu is also wrong (see manabu, 21/7).
However, since two of the six hiragana y-row characters are wrong, that also means that many of the combining-y characters are also wrong (kya, kyo, sha, sho, cha, cho, etc.)
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On Bridge Building the current level should not change until after the fade out and fade back in.
Tapping often makes the sound, but doesn't register the tap on a button (doesn't actually activate it).
On bridge building sometimes a piece will not "lock into place", thus causing the clock to run out and the game to end.
On bridge building, the cars driving and explosion sounds should not overlay the voice reciting the phrase, as it defeats the purpose of trying to hear the proper pronunciation.
"demo" sound file has bad pop.
Occasional screen glitches.
"み" hirgana example is drawn poorly.
Stroke order for "な" is wrong. last 2 strokes should be switched around.
lesson 21 - page 3 (actually shows vocab from lesson 19 page 5), and page 5 (actually shows vocab from lesson 19 page 12) - text talks about informal forms, but the examples are the exact formal forms from the earlier lesson 19.
lesson 40 - page 10 - the voice says "kore ga" but the text says "sore ga"
We could probably build on this... perhaps we can create a Wiki page that details the exact errors and list the incorrect kanji as we find them, with links to the correct stroke order, direction, and counts for the different kana and kanji.
I haven't noticed any real vocabulary errors so far, but I'm only a beginner myself, so I wouldn't know for sure anyway.
