Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~

In Go! Go! Nippon! you are foreign guy trying to get the most out of your trip to Japan.

User Rating: 5 | Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ PC

By pcty | Review Date: October 23, 2012

Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ is a Visual Novel that tries to offer you a simulation of a trip to Japan, the game presents itself as way for you to know Japan's famous places, cultural aspect, food and even as way for you to train or improve your japanese reading skills since the game offers both English and Japanese text printed on the screen.Unfortunately Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ fails to fully achieve all of it's premises.
The first thing that anyone will look at Visual Novel is, of course, the narrative and this game it is really weak. You make friends with, what you assume to be, two guys - Makoto and Akira - from Japan through the internet, and now you are going to stay in their house during your one week trip to Japan, but as soon as reach the airport you discover that Akira and Makoto are in fact two cute girls and you will spend the next seven days with these two sisters. That is basically all the plot in the game, during the first three days of your trip you will have to choose between 6 destinations that you want to visit, each destination will have one of the two sisters guiding you through, these same three days will define which girl you are going to end up with in the end of the game.rnDuring your visits to the selected destinations the girls are going to talk a little about the history of each place and some aspects and curiosities of the local. These parts of the game were quite enjoyable for the texts were really well written and the places are always interesting for those who appreciate the japanese culture.
Aside from choosing your destination you will encounter few opportunities to make choices and even when you do your choices will have little to none influence in the narrative which is absurd to a Visual Novel.
In the whole game you will only have contact with three characters you (the protagonist), Makoto and Akira. Akira is the little sister and she is your typical "tsundere" character, if you are not familiar with the term, tsundere is a character which acts aggressive towards a certain character but then starts to gradually show her sweet and warn side. Makoto is the older sister and she is the "perfect girl" with a sarcastic personality and a clumsy side to give her a cute side. And finally the protagonist, the typical main character, a normal guy with an absurd luck that somehow always manages to do and say the right things. In fewer lines you could say that all the characters are shallow and unremarkable.
As a tool for Japanese learners I would say that Go! Go! Nippon! is a big let down. Of course it work as train for your reading skills but is no different than reading any other Japanese text. It could have been such wonderful tool for Japanese learners specially beginners if it offered an option of furigana or even small explanation about the grammar used in each sentence.
Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ tries to do a lot of different things but unfortunately it fails to accomplish almost everything it tries, with just a few moments worth playing or reading it is very difficult to recommend the game.