I started playing the free version yesterday 'cause I was bored, yes, and 'cause of how highly you… - Feed Post from Koukyoshi to mog86uk
I started playing the free version yesterday 'cause I was bored, yes, and 'cause of how highly you spoke of the game. It's pretty fun, actually! I have no problem with having no sound. I have my own music playing in the background. I plan on taking N1 in July, so I'm trying to use every resource at my disposal. I currently have the grade school version, but I'll be upgrading to the common use one soon.
I have a question for you. I know I'm supposed to go to study in the forest areas, but whenever I go into the dungeons I always encounter words that I haven't studied yet. Why is that?
I have a question for you. I know I'm supposed to go to study in the forest areas, but whenever I go into the dungeons I always encounter words that I haven't studied yet. Why is that?
posted by Koukyoshi
Comments 31
It's probably better to ask questions about the game over on SFA's website rather than on here.
Basically, each dungeon floor tests you on a specific set of kanji, so you have to keep doing training battles in the forests until you've learnt all the kanji that will appear in the dungeon.
I'm guessing you're playing on the no kana version of the normal story game mode? I think that first dungeon tests you on 25 different kanji per each of the 4 floors. So the first floor teaches kanji 1-25, floor two teaches kanji 26-50, etc.
There's a setting under "System Menu" called "Training Focus". If you turn "Focus training for next cave" on, the forest battles will only introduce the new kanji you need to know for the next dungeon in the story. With this turned on, if you keep doing forest training battles and it suddenly stops giving you new kanji to learn, then you know you've learnt enough kanji to be able to complete the next dungeon (or to complete however many floors you're supposed to do on your first visit to the dungeon).
As your status shows "kanji: 102", it sounds like you shouldn't be encountering any new kanji in that first dungeon. Are you talking about the dungeon on the second island?
I'm glad you're finding the game fun. Once you're really in the swing of it, you can learn to identify kanji at quite a rapid pace. ^^
what game is this?
@mog86uk: I thought about that, but then I actually went over to the website; it's not very active. Plus, I saw you answering questions there as well. :)
I was a little too quick to ask a question, but your answer was indeed helpful. I've gotten a much better feel for the game.
As for my question, I just didn't train enough. I made it to the 3rd floor of the first dungeon and encountered words that I hadn't studied yet. I knew the majority of them, so I was able to advance with no problem.
I read that the standard game only goes up to about 1000 kanji, so I think I'm gonna start over on hard mode after upgrading and trying to finish what I've completed thus far.
Were you able to "beat" the game without any help? I've used the SFA Wikia and searched on the forum to help me progress, but I've still hit a brick wall, lol.- Yeah, it's not terribly active and I'm not too keen on the 'channel' system. It would probably be me answering your questions over on there anyway! :D
Until fairly recently there used to only be Episodes 1-4. These episodes test roughly the first 1,000 kanji. Hard mode tests you on all 1,972 kanji within those same four episodes, just that each dungeon floor has twice as many kanji to reach that target.
However, Episodes 5-8 were added three months ago. These new episodes test on all the remaining kanji. So it's not necessary to switch and start again on Hard Mode (which still only goes up to Episode 4), because in the full version the Normal story mode teaches all 1,972 kanji within Episodes 1-8. I think it's also possible to continue your save over from the free version. ^^
I used the forum and http://slime-forest-adventure.wikia.com as you mentioned. That wiki hasn't been filled in very well yet, but it helped me a lot to get far enough to reach Episode 4 and to understand how the game works. As I'm now one of the most active users of SFA, I should probably help fill in the wiki...
I was probably the first person to complete Episodes 5-8, which I managed to do without any help. They we're fairly easy to understand what to do. Also, in these episodes you get new items to let you switch the forest training battles to "readings", "words" or "compounds", instead of the usual "kanji" battles.
If you're stuck on something specific, I can probably help. I'll keep checking this post if you want to ask anything on here, or can ask on SFA's site. ^^ - I agree with you. I don’t particularly like the layout. It feels unintuitive and uninviting. From what I saw, you seem to be the most knowledgeable, anyway! ;)
Ah, I see. Hard mode pretty much crams everything in. I will still probably eventually try it out, but I prefer the pace at which it’s going right now.
Yes, it’s possible. That’s exactly what I did. Tho, I didn’t have the free version for too long. I would’ve bought the $20 version, but I only had about $12 in my PayPal account. I will most likely get the full version today or tomorrow.
It was masterfully done. I really have to tip my hat off to whoever did the maps. Helped me out a lot. You know, I was thinking about that. I don’t know how much free time you have, but if you want to do it, I’d help out since I seem to be on episode 3. I could try to write down what I have now for the later episodes.
Really now? For some reason, I had a feeling the latter episodes would be easier to complete. Episodes 2 and 3 may be the hardest.
Actually, I’m up to where you and the other user on the SFA channel were talking about. I followed the walkthrough from wikia exactly. I got the Navigation Book, and I brought it to the sage in the castle on Jagaimo island. He tells me that the apparatus points toward Ytlin and away from Catwald; however, when I go to Catwald, I’m not getting new words. It’s stuck at 400 kanji.
Since I know quite a bit of kanji I decided to power my way through. I made it to the dungeon on Catwald island and got something from the treasure chest there. I don’t remember its name. I brought that to the sage, and he said it’s missing keys, which is why it will not point to Ninjinia or Kabukabu or something like that. I know I’m doing something wrong ‘cause whenever I go east or west of Jagaimo, I arrive at the desert island.
Do you know what I’ve missed? I plan on going back to Ytlin’s dungeon ‘cause I’ve missed a couple of treasure chests to see if that will progress the story. - You can just turn "Training Focus" > "Focus training on next cave" off. With this turned off, new kanji will keep being introduced in forests regardless of whether you need to be learning them yet.
However, if new kanji weren't being introduced in the forest, then that must mean some story related event should have been completed first.
I can't remember too well exactly what items I got where at Catwald. The item you have is the "Chronolabe" right? If you have taken this to the sage and he's saying that, then I thought that would mean you're now on Episode 4. Once you're on Episode 4, you can get to Ninjinia by heading west from Jagaimo, and Kabukabu by heading straight east from Jagaimo. If this isn't happening, then you must still be on Episode 3.
At Catwald, did you complete all the following: the first cave, then the six villages/towns around the spiral, and finally the second cave?
Also, I think you may need to return to the first cave again for something after completing all that (I can't remember though).
It would be good if you keep a note of everything you're doing. I might have a go at re-doing Episodes 1-4 to jog my memory for when people ask these questions. I'll try to write some stuff on wiki, but I've not really edited wiki's before. - Could try talking to the king too. I always talked to every NPC because I enjoyed the story... Maybe this is why I didn't get stuck like you and the other person who asked me this.
- Oh yeah, the Chronolabe is in the second cave, so you must have done all the things I asked. Is the Chronolabe now in your inventory?
- Okay, I decided a couple of hours ago to make a new save (Normal story, no kana). I'm going to try to sprint through the first 4 chapters, so that I can remember where everything is, and write down more detailed notes this time. I'll try and replicate the problems you had, so I can figure out what causes it.
I noticed when I was training for the Jagaimo cave, that the forest battles stop giving new kanji at "kanji: 50". The four floors in the cave test 25 kanji each, but on your first visit to the cave you only need to reach the second floor.
The forest battles only begin introducing kanji 51-100 after you've returned with the 'princess ring' to the king. So you have to do more forest battles before returning to the cave to do the last two floors.
Then the Island of Slimes cave tests kanji 101-200, which you can train in the forests for immediately after you've paid for the ship.
This is where I'm up to. My stats say kanji:200 and I'm about to enter the Island of Slime cave. Still got a long way to catch up to where you are, with that mining quest to slow me down. ^^; - Yeah, I was thinking about doing that, but I then thought it would be better to know I’m on the right path. If I continued learning kanji, I wouldn’t have known I was missing something.
I’m not sure if it was the Chronolabe because the sage took the item. I don’t have the item in my inventory any more, which leads me to believe it wasn’t it. Though, I’m not exactly sure how the Chronolabe is used. Is it like the apparatus? Based on what you said, I should still be on episode 3.
I actually thought maybe what happened to me the first time I asked you a question is happening again. Unfortunately, since I couldn’t play yesterday, I couldn’t test it out. I will be able to play a little today, so I’ll try to train in the forest a little more to see if any new words appear. I’ll also try to go back to the first cave on Catwald.
When I got to Catwald, I went to the dungeon and made it to the treasure chest that had the key in it. I went past that area to another area that led to nowhere. I kept walking to the right, but it seemed that was there no end to it, so I used the escape twine to get out. After that, I did exactly as you said and made it to the second cave where I got another item, but I don’t think it was called the Chronolabe; I could be wrong.
Ah, that makes sense. I didn’t know about the train for the next cave feature, so I was probably over studying in the beginning. It’s possible then that to do the dungeon in Ytlin one must have studied 400 kanji.
After getting the Navigation Book in dungeon on Ytlin, I gave to the sage, and that’s where I’ve been stuck pretty much.
Actually, I think the mining has changed a little since you last did it. It wasn’t bad at all. The person who did the wiki said it took him nearly 3 hours to get one of the items, but I got all the necessary items in less than 30 mins, I’m sure. - After I found the princess and she teleported us back to the castle (this is where Episode 2 starts) I walked straight out of the castle and went into the forest. Right away, the forest introduced kanji 201-400. I learnt the 400th kanji before even leaving Jagaimo. As it stopped at 400, your guess about Ytlin cave testing kanji 201-400 is probably correct.
I've had really good luck before with the mining quest, one time even getting that "Blackish Rock" on the first time I walked up to a mountain!
However, I've just finished the mining quest. I managed to finish the Toolbag quest before I found that Blackish Rock. All the other items only took a few fights, but I probably had to do 30+ battles just getting that Blackish Rock to drop.
I'm now about to enter Ytlin cave, so should be able to catch up by the end of tonight. ^^ - I'm still puzzled thinking about what you could have missed. It seems like you just needed to get the Navigation Book from the Ytlin cave and take it to the sage at Jagaimo castle. That should have been enough to make forest battles introduce new kanji (kanji 401 onwards).
http://slime-forest-adventure.wikia.com/wiki/Ytlin
If you look at the comments on the Ytlin page, do you remember seeing that full conversation with the sage? If not, maybe you needed to talk to him more times for him to say something different? I would have thought the story would progress without this though... - There is one thing which I guess could possibly be causing the problem...
The Free Version didn't always contain Episodes 1-4 and 1000 kanji.
Originally the Free Version only had 200 kanji. When I first played the game a couple of years ago, the Free Version only had about 300 kanji, then soon after was extended to 1000 kanji and Episodes 1-3. However, just over a year ago it was changed back to being limited to just the first 200 kanji and only Episode 1. Only two months ago was is restored back to having 1000 kanji and with all 4 episodes.
So maybe there is a bug in the Free Version from all these adjustments? I guess most people would upgrade before getting too far into the free version, if they like it that much, so maybe there's an unnoticed bug? - Finished Ytlin cave. First floor tests on kanji 201-250. Second floor tests on kanji 251-350. Third floor tests on kanji 351-400. There are no battles on the fourth floor, just the Navigation Book key item in the chest.
I didn't pick up any items in the cave except for the Navigation Book on the fourth floor. (The item name for this is just "book", which is the same item name that is used for the spell book, even the item descriptions are identical... Navigation "book" is a key item though, whilst the spell "book" is an equipable tool.)
Anyway... After I obtained the Navigation book I made sure not talk to anyone or pick up anything. I sailed straight back to Jagaimo island. I did a few forest fights outside the castle before entering, to check whether new kanji were being introduced yet, but was definitely not introducing any new kanji (still at kanji:400).
After this I went into the castle, walked directly to the sage, and talked to him only once. He said the following things all in one go:
"Eh? What is this?"
"The pattern on the cover reminds me of the Apparatus."
"Gently! Gently!"
"It is so old and delicate! I fear to touch it!"
"AAAA!"
"Even as I opened the cover, the pages broke away!"
"I mustn't read carelessly!"
"I will copy each page as I go."
I only clicked on the sage that one time and didn't talk to him again. My items are unchanged and I still have the Navigation "book" key item in my inventory. I just went straight back out of the castle, not talking to anyone...
Now, the very first forest battle I did, while still on Jagaimo island, it is introducing the new kanji--401 onwards! I have no idea why it didn't work for you, other than maybe what I said about a bug in the Free Version. I kind of wish I'd started this new save on the Free version instead now, as that would have been interesting. ^^ - Wow, you really flew through the game, lol. Ah, ok. Glad to know I was right about that.
Yeah, the Blackish Rock took the longest to get, but luckily, it didn’t take too long.
That’s very weird because that’s exactly what I did. I remember reading it in the wikia. And yes, I remember seeing that entire conversation. Now, if I’m not mistaken, the only thing he says now is that the apparatus points toward Ytlin and away from Catwald. I’ll be able to check for sure in about an hour or so when I get home from work.
I definitely upgraded to the gradeschool version before getting the Navigation Book, so it’s possible there’s a bug as you say. I’m going to try to see what the sage says when I get back home. If it still doesn’t work, I’m just going to start over again because I didn’t make it far anyway. I followed the walkthrough on the wikia, so that’s what I’ll do again.
The only thing I can say I did differently is that after he said what you wrote, I kept trying to talk to him because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do. So essentially, I only had to talk to him once and no more?
Also, I know I have a book for sure, but it’s definitely the spellbook since I can equip it, and I then get the slimes that quiz me on on-yomi. - I think it's strange that he didn't take the Navigation book away from me. The sage is meant to take the book away from you, analyse it, and then tell you what it says. But I definitely still had the book in my inventory after that first conversation with him. I still have it saved with the Navigation book in my possession and my status now showing kanji:411 from a couple of forest training battles.
When I wrote my previous post, I saved the game for the first time and closed SFA. After reading your post I decided to check out what the sage says when I speak to him again, so I have just loaded my save again...
Because I still have the book in my inventory, he repeated exactly the same lines he said last time. However, immediately afterwards he actually took the book away from me! No idea why he didn't do it the first time, so there seems to be a slight problem with the way that part is coded.
Without leaving the room I talked to him a second time, and he said this:
"Do not be impatient!"
"Reading is slow, difficult work!"
"There is no other man on the island who can do it!"
Then a third time:
"Hmm... it seems to be a book about the world, the places in it, and how to travel between them."
"I suspect these are the unshared secrets of Kabukabu."
"Kabukabu, Jagaimo, and Ninjinia are described, and two other islands: perfect rings called Ytlin and Catwald."
"The Apparatus should always point toward Ytlin and away from Catwald: two perfect rings of land parting sea from ocean."
"The line between them, which Jagaimo falls upon, divides the great ocean into equal halves."
"Kabukabu is in one, and Ninjinia is in the other, but I can not see how to reach either, even with the Apparatus."
"There is much in this book which I can not understand. There are diagrams, symbols, and codes unknown to me."
"I doubt the Kabukabuans will surrender their secrets, but it is said that the Twin Rings are home to great cities."
"Perhaps more may be learned in those."
"A great traveller such as yourself should be able to find Ytlin and Catwald!"
Then a fourth time:
"The Apparatus points you toward Ytlin and away from Catwald."
After this, whenever I talk to him he always repeats that last sentence, the same one you mentioned?
It doesn't make a difference, because the story already seemed to have progressed without the sage taking away the Navigation Book, just from that first time I had talked to him. However, he's supposed to take the book away, so there was something wrong with the game letting me keep it that time... You can talk to him as many times as you want and it should be fine, as long as you talked to him once with the Navigation book. ^^ - Oh yeah, once he takes the Navigation "book" item away, you are not meant to receive any new item in return.
The sage taking the Nagivation book and deciphering it is just supposed to be what triggers the start of Episode 3 (supposedly... since it's not very obvious where each Episodes begins and ends). - OK. So I've played the game a bit. I first checked to make sure that I have the Chronolabe, and I do. It's in the toolbag, which I keep forgetting that I can check. I was already in the castle in Jagaimo, so I went to talk to the sage. He said this:
"Your chronolabe is missing its keys To The World.
They would guide you to different islands.
Seek the Keys."
I have no idea what that means, lol. I'm assuming it has something to do with what you told me before--that there's something in the first cave on Catwald that I have to get.
Also, as I said I would, I stayed in the forest area training for about 20 mins. Guess what? The status now says kanji: 410? What the hell? I played for quite some time on Sunday and no new kanji appeared, yet today, I'm getting new stuff. I so baffled.
But I have no idea the keys he's talking about. Also, when I talk to the king, he says this:
"Sir Jenk!
It's good to see you again!
...
But our land is still troubled.
Travel across the seas has become treacherous and uncertain.
Trade is disrupted and monsters still plague our land.
Come again soon.
Perhaps my men will learn something that can help restore our land."
- So the problem of new kanji not being introduced seems to be completely fixed somehow?
I did everything on the Full Version of the game. I tried to do the bare minimum, not talking to any unnecessary NPCs and avoiding picking stuff up. I obtained the Navigation book, went to the sage and talked to him only once. Yet I didn't encounter that problem at all, as that was enough for the story to progress past 400 kanji...
So it seems safe to assume there is a bug in the Free and Intro versions of the game, making it more difficult to get the story to progress. (Or related to upgrading from the Free to Intro version half-way through the story.) I'll send a potential bug report to Darrell later.
You should be on Episode 4 now, if you have the Chronolabe in your inventory. I think I was thinking of something else when I thought of the Catwald cave (although I could be wrong, you might want to check it out still). I think the first "Key To The World" is actually at Ninjinia, directly to the West when sailing from Jagaimo. So Ninjinia is the next place you should probably head to.
As for the "Keys To The World", I think there are five of them in the game. Each time you find a Key To The World, they will appear on the list within the Chronolabe. Each key directs you to a new Island. There's only one key in Episode 4, which directs you to Kami No Mushi. The other four keys are found in Episodes 5-8 and are how you reach the four new islands in those episodes. ^^
For Episode 4, the order of travel is something like: Ninjinia (hidden testing area in its forest) ⇒ Kabukabu 1st castle ⇒ Kami No Mushi ⇒ Kabukabu 2nd castle. - I might have forgotten something important about that Episode 4 order of travel. Should probably check all the buildings and towns in each island. Also, the Kami No Mushi testing area has a hidden entrance in its forest too.
One other thing you might want to think about doing...
Now that you're not on the Free version, the Intro version should have the Elemental Islands (which appear once you reach Episode 2, where the Island of Slimes was).
These Elemental Islands have shark around it and slimes on the island both training kunyomi words. Each island has a cave which starts a testing battle. You learn a new spell each time you win the battle in each cave. There are seven Elemental Islands. Each new island appears where the old one was. The first island is the desert-like island. This is quite a challenging side quest, which will take quite a while to complete, but some of the spells are very useful to learn. ^^ - Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. When I played on Sunday, I gave the sage the navigation book. Then I head to Catwald. I forgot I had to train a bit to get new words, so I went to do that. I was there for about 30 mins, and I received no new words; but I didn’t know what else to do. That’s when I decided to power through Catwald even though I hadn’t studied the necessary words yet. It’s also worth mentioning that I upgraded to the common words version on Monday, even though I didn’t play at all.
As you said, there may be a bug that manifests when the game gets patched. Strange stuff, but I’m glad I’m able to continue with the storyline.
The reason why I was confuse was because the last time I tried to go east or west of Jagaimo island, I ended up at the desert-like place, so I knew I didn’t complete something. I tried going there today, and as you said, Ninjinia is to the west of Jagaimo island and Kabukabu is to the east.
That makes sense. I hope the road to episode 8 is smooth sailing. I do plan to go back to Catwald to retrace my steps to check if I missed any treasure chests. I rushed through it the first time I went.
Looking forward to this hidden test area.
Yeah, that’s the island I kept running into. I didn’t know you could complete it. I remember trying to do the dungeon before and remember thinking that there was no end to the slimes, lol.
After reading your post, I went back to the desert island because I already finished learning the necessary words for it, and I completed it. I completed the second one as well. How do I use these spells in battle? I remember reading that I have to charge them up somehow, but I don’t recall reading how I go about doing that.
- Nice! I haven't heard of other users learning the spells other than myself, as they were added only fairly recently, so I was kind of hoping you might try learning them too. ^^
You've now learned two spells, but you won't be able to see any immediately on the "cast" menu in battles. You need to charge them first to make them appear in this list.
To charge the spells, just equip the "book" (spellbook...) tool, then do forest battles. With this "book" equipped you encounter dark-green Best-Guess Reading (onyomi) slimes instead of the normal bright-green kanji meaning slimes. After a varying number of battles, at the end of a battle it will say one of your spells are charged, and this spell will now be in the "cast" list in the following battles. Once you cast the spell, it disappears off the list and has to be charged again. You can charge up all seven spells so that all of them are in your "cast" list at the same time, ready to be used.
The first two spells aren't that amazing, but the third's pretty cool, but the fourth and fifth ones are extremely helpful HP restoring spells. The sixth one is pretty overkill with how near immortal it makes you for that fight. :D - I think the description for the book in the SFA wikia should be changed to reflect what it does. It's a pretty important part of the game. The third spell is amazing. I'm gonna try to get the fifth spell and sixth spell today before continuing with the story.
About the hidden area, I found where it is on Ninjinia island. Is there a way to train for that? I could probably power through it, but I rather do it after I've trained for it if I can.
I started playing the game on my home and work laptop. My main file was on my home laptop. I got an idea today, and it worked beautifully. I copied my playersdata folder and pasted it where my playersdata folder is on my work laptop, and I was able to continue from where I left off! I don't know how many times I'll do that or if that is even smart to do, so I may just play separately from here on out.
Now that you've "finished" the game, what is left for you to do exactly? - Also, I just remembered that the Chronolabe when you get it from the cave in Catwald is called complication. After he inspects it, it becomes known as the Chronolabe.
- You should be able to train for Ninjinia the same way as for any dungeon testing area. I'm guessing that area probably tests roughly kanji 701-800 (I have no idea if this is correct, just guessing based on Ytlin ending at 400). If your "kanji" stat is lower than this on your status screen, then you'll have to catch up to this number before the kanji for this area start being introduced.
You may want to make some adjustments to the "Trainer Tuning" settings if kanji are being introduced too slowly. There is a good description for each setting and should help a lot with catching up quickly.
That's a good idea copying your playerdata folder. I often backup that folder and copy it between different versions of the game.
I forgot about it being called 'complication' when you get the chronolabe from the cave. That is useful to know.
It's true I've finished the story, which tests on kanji 1 to 1,972. My status page shows "kanji: 1,972".
I've also completed the seven spells sidequest, which tests on kunyomi words 1 to 799. However, you can carry on learning more kunyomi words as there are 1,385 "words" in the game, just there is no testing areas for these yet (although there are other game modes which test on these words). My "words" stat shows "words: 1,385".
If you check out my profile page on JCJP or one SFA's website, you can see my current stats. I've got a lot of onyomi "readings" to learn and a lot of "compounds" to learn still. So this is what I'm currently doing when I'm playing on my main save game, to get a perfect status page.
There are no testing areas for "readings" and "compounds" in the Normal story mode (yet). "readings" you equip the spellbook, and for "compounds" visit Jagaimo cave in Episode 2-4 (changes in later episodes though). Once you reach the later episodes you obtain new items for training whichever type you want in the forests.
Once I have completed my normal story save with 100% perfect status screen, I'll probably start the Miscellaneous > "Storyless: Unhinted Word Readings", which you encounter all the "readings", "words" and "compounds" questions in the game, all three types mixed together but progressing through in order. - Oh yeah. I emailed Darrell about that bug like I said I would, and he replied today.
He's had a hard drive failure and lost a lot of data, which has set him back a bit recently. There were frequent updates up to a couple of months ago. Darrell still has plans for expanding and improving the game and the story, so eventually the game might test more fully on everything else.
The other game modes are definitely worth checking out. They are more interesting than they first appear. The grammar ones are really neat. I also learnt to use kana keyboard layout with the "Storyless: Kana touchtyping" mode, and now kana layout input is what I always use as I got used to it and prefer it.
When you started this conversation I had actually taken a temporary break from doing Normal story mode. What I'm currently playing is another mode on the Miscellaneous menu called "Easy Mode". This is MUCH more interesting than it sounds. It doesn't use kanji at all, but it teaches a lot of useful vocabulary in a helpful categorised order. After I complete it I'm going back to finishing my main save. ^^ - Ah, I misunderstood then. I thought the hidden training area on Ninjinia was to be done if you wanted an extra challenge, but it’s mandatory? Ah, ok. Yeah, I don’t have that much yet. I’ve learned 678 so far. I’ll make a note of it when I reach it. I’ve already written down how many words one should know up to the fourth elemental island.
Does Catwald ever disappear? I was writing a rough draft of a walkthrough for the dungeon there and the testing cave last night. There really isn’t much to write since, I think, it’s pretty clear which direction to go except for one particular testing cave. I think it’s the fifth one that’s a little difficult to navigate. I got lost myself, lol, so I’ll have to go back there. If it disappears, I’ll try at it again before moving on with the storyline.
I want to get at least the fifth spell before continuing. Having spells that heal HP will be quite useful.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is new kanji won’t be introduced unless I’ve reviewed all of the kanji of I’ve learned even if train for the next cave is on, right? But I’ll try to investigate it a little more. I haven’t really looked at the section much.
You have different versions of the game?
Ah, I see you’re referring to the Storyless: Special Readings Vocabulary. So 1, 385 is the max number of kunyomi words we can learn right now. Got it.
Also, for the spells, I’m a little confused how it gets charged. Let’s say for this example to charge one spell, one has to enter 10 battles. Would it be 10 battles in the forest area with the book equipped to charge it up, or could it also be 9 battles in, let’s say a dungeon, with the book equipped and one battle in the forest area?
Ah, I didn’t know I could start learning compound words already. I may check that out to see how that looks. It’s definitely useful and smart to have a way that the user can choose which he or she wants to train later on.
That storyless mode sounds like the ultimate challenge. I can’t wait to try it out.
Really? That sucks. I’m sure there’s plenty room for improvement, but this one games does so much already. I’m really baffled I never took it seriously.
It’s funny you should mention the kana layout. I actually used to use it! I use a non-standard keyboard layout called Colemak, and I thought using the kana input made sense. I ended up changing the keyboard layout that’s used for the Japanese IME in the registry to my keyboard layout now. With a formal tutorial, I think I’ll give it another try.
Really now? The way the Darrell described it in the description I wouldn’t even have tried it out, lol. - Yeah, you find a really cool item which you probably want to fill up your inventory with "Cinquefoils" before handing it over.
Catwald never disappears. The only islands which completely disappear are the seven elemental islands. You might think I've made a mistake in stating that... :P
Yeah, it introduces the kanji in a set order. Your "kanji" stat doesn't increase when you fight testing slimes in the caves. It doesn't skip teaching you kanji just because you've cleared the cave that tests them.
I've kept previous versions of the game installed, as the game is only a few megabytes in size, mainly just in case the updated version had a bug which made it worse than playing the previous version.
I also installed the Free and Gradeschool versions, so that I can check out the difference in which features they contain. I also considered testing this bug you encountered by starting yet another save to test it. :P
You don't have to start a different game mode to learn the remaining kunyomi words, as you will obtain a very cool item in the later episodes to carry on doing kunyomi training battles in the forests. ^^
The spellbook item doesn't work in the dungeons. That would make it way too easy if you could swap out the dungeon's testing slimes with onyomi training slimes. So you have to charge up your spells before entering the dungeon. (The effect of the second spell only makes sense in the dungeon, btw. I was confused for weeks about the point of that spell!)
Interesting about Colemak. I know Qwerty is supposed to be pretty ineffecient for Japanese, but I don't know a lot about how good Colemak is for Japanese, probably much better than Qwerty? There's a setting in SFA's menu to switch to kana layout for playing game, which is probably how I managed to get so quick at touchtyping it. I might try out Colemak some time as Kana layout isn't without it's problems too (I wouldn't really recommend Kana layout over Qwerty, but it's just what I like).
- I caught the flu, so I haven’t played SFA in about a week!
I got some of those, but I used mostly all of them when I powered through Catwald.
If that’s the case, I’ll go back to it when I’ve progressed a little further in the game. I know you haven’t made a mistake! The one completed disappears and a new one takes its place.
That’s a great idea. I’m going to do that as well. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Did you try to recreate the bug I was experiencing?
Ah, ok. I’m glad to hear that. Though, I think it’s going to be a little harder to clear the latter elemental islands. I knew a lot of the words and kunyomi for the former islands, so that made clearing them quite easy.
Haha. Of course the spellbook doesn’t work in the dungeons. That was wishful thinking on my part, lol. Is that so? I tried the second spell in the training area, but I didn’t find it useful, so I never bothered trying it again. I’ll test it out today.
Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that Colemak was good for tying Japanese; it’s not. It’s optimized for typing in English. The reason why I started using it for Japanese is because I use sites like sharedtalk.com where I talk to Japanese people for language exchange. It would always annoy me that I couldn’t reply fast enough, so conversations would unfortunately be one sided. I can type about 90wpm using Colemak, so I thought that gave me a fighting chance, lol.
- I haven't played SFA for a week either! I wanted to but it wouldn't be very easy with one hand, as one of my fingers got chopped a bit at work... Stitches come out tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to use that finger again soon and start playing some more SFA. ^^
You don't need to go back to Catwald for cinquefoils. I was talking about the Ninjinia testing area. Just suggesting that you might not want to be too hasting returning the tool you find there to its owner.
I didn't try to recreate the bug on the other versions, although I've got some pretty big withdrawl cravings to play a lot of SFA, so I might still start on that. It's funny how much you suddenly want to do something the moment you aren't able to do it anymore.
I think I was confusing the layouts of Colemak and Dvorak. Dvorak is the one with the five vowels in a row all on one side of the keyboard. I remember people claiming this made Dvorak good for Japanese, but I'm not sure how true that is in practice.
I hope Darrell isn't having too much of a problem after that harddrive failure. Everything seems a bit quiet on the site right now, although the last update was a major one (since it added episodes 5-8), so I guess there probably wasn't going to be an update for a while either way. Wish more people knew about SFA, because it definitely deserves to receive a lot more attention than what it is currently gets. :/