I’m sorry, but, I feel like there is a big chunk of Pokemon inspiration in Wagotabi. Even in the Steam page description of “Will you become a Japanese master?”, the “kanjidex”. The trailer also has some puzzle rooms that give the same vibes.
That said, I felt like the game had a decent approach to it’s teaching, from what I already know, between the gangrene owl lessons, kanji garden, and other games that take approaches to teaching it like the “Learn Japanese to Survive” series. I wish I was some sort of expert, but, then I’m not sure I’d be out here trying new games to learn it…
The game itself features a number of different minigames to teach the alphabets, as well as quests to help fill in regular vocab words. It was easy to go back and look at different things you’ve already learned and the game also promises to get into touching on a bit of Japanese culture as well. I don’t recall a whole lot of that from the other game series from what I played of them, but, was certainly an aspect of “Tokyo School Life”, a VN I enjoyed.
The demo doesn’t take long to play through, but felt worthwhile. Wagotabi doesn’t have a release date beyond “2025” right now, so if picking up Japanese is in your interest, give it a look and maybe a wishlist.