It's kinda annoying that I have to give a recommended or not recommended when really I feel in between.

For reference, I have been using the Japanese language learning, so this review is in reference to that.

Positives: I like the way this game presents learning. You go to different locations and learn five nouns related to that area. For example, one location is a cafe so you learn like "drink", or "sandwich", or "lamp". At the farm, you learn farm related words, like "grain", or "donkey", or "bull". They limit you to five words a day per location (but you can override that if you wish) so that you don't overload your learning. You can also explore the town in between those learning areas and pick up a handful of various words, numbers, colors etc. in between.

Negatives: In regards to voice recognition, the game is pretty poor. I have a good mic and a quiet setting, so that's not my problem. There were times I would say the EXACT word and the exact way it tells you to say it, and it would tell me I was wrong over and over. After saying it the exact same way half a dozen times or so, it would finally recognize it as the right word. But since the player is going to be new to these words, they will constantly think they are saying it wrong, which I think will hurt their learning in the long run.

You can also switch from speaking the words to typing them. For Japanese, onscreen options appear in Hiragana for you to click on. Seems fine in theory. However, most words they give you, they show you the kanji of that word, not the hiragana equivalent. So when you have to type it, you have no idea what to type because they didn't show you the hiragana equivalent.

I think this game should not be your first stop on trying to learn a language. It feels like you should only use this when you are intermediate fluency and want to broaden your vocabulary to multiple areas you might not have touched during your studies.

You should also not use the voice recognition mode. Because it is so poor in determining whether what you said is right, you will constantly be second-guessing whether you have a word right and hurt your learning overall.

I like the premise. Most of the tools are useful. It has the potential to be extraordinary. However, several things hold it back from delivering a solid experience.

A few reasons why I can't recommend it: Objects are very tiny. The hipster art is way too simplistic. Couldn't tell what a napkin or a piece of beef was. I had trouble differentiating a bottle of beer from wine. Trying to pick up objects is awkward. I pick up the wrong things often because the objects clutter the rooms.

I deleted things to help organize my ability to see. The menus are also cluttered. The menus are separated from one another, so I have to press a specific button to spawn an object. Consolidation goes a long way. I also wanted to spawn an item based on category. It's very unintuitive to navigate.

No cloud saves so I have a separate game file to work on depending on what device I play on.

yes