WEEK 19: Library Expansion | Kanji Tower Floor 2 | New HUD Plus

From the Developer

The biggest additions include several Japanese classic stories in the Library, Kanji Tower Floor 2, a brand-new on-screen HUD, and many quality-of-life improvements requested by the community.

Thank you again for all of your Steam reviews, bug reports, suggestions, and encouragement. Every update helps shape PLAYNESE into a better Japanese learning experience :)

Library Improvements

The Library has received several improvements to make reading much more enjoyable.

Copy & Paste Support

You can now select text inside the Library to easily copy and paste it into other applications if you'd like to look up words or study elsewhere.

(The Bible currently does not support this while additional improvements are being developed)

Keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrl + A - Select all text

• Ctrl + C - Copy selected text

Feel free to paste stories into Word or other documents for offline reading or study.

Other Library Improvements

• Larger reading area with more text displayed per page

• Improved colors instead of the previous solid black background

• Removed the bottom transparent prompt box for a cleaner reading experience

• Improved lighting within the library with small performance optimizations

New Library Stories

Four Japanese classics have been added to the Library.

Story 1

走れメロス (Hashire Merosu) - 1940 Japanese Classic

• No graphic violence

• No explicit sexual content

• Themes: Friendship, trust, loyalty, sacrifice, justice, and human nature

• Recommended Age: 12+

• Difficulty: JLPT N3 / N2

Story 2

桃太郎 (Momotarou) - Traditional Japanese Folktale

• Mild fantasy violence

• No explicit sexual content

• Themes: Courage, kindness, teamwork, justice, and overcoming evil

• Recommended Age: 7+

• Difficulty: JLPT N5 / N4

Story 3

坊っちゃん (Bocchan) - 1906 Japanese Classic

by 夏目漱石 (Natsume Soseki)

• Mild violence

• No explicit sexual content

• Themes: Honesty, pride, justice, social criticism, and standing up for what is right

• Recommended Age: 12+

• Difficulty: JLPT N2

Story 4

鼻 (The Nose) - 1916 Japanese Classic

by 芥川龍之介 (Ryunosuke Akutagawa)

• No graphic violence

• No explicit sexual content

• Themes: Vanity, pride, insecurity, appearance, and human nature

• Recommended Age: 13+

• Difficulty: JLPT N2

Main Menu Improvements

The Phrase of the Day system has been improved.

• Added furigana to every phrase

• Using the おみくじ (Omikuji) shuffle will no longer repeat the same phrase consecutively

Music Room

Two new songs have been added.

• コーヒー中毒 (コーヒーちゅうどく) - Coffee Addiction

• ヒーローになろう - Let's Become Heroes

The Bible (Library)

Added:

• Hundreds of English translations covering the first 40 chapters of Exodus

More books and quality-of-life improvements are planned, including much faster chapter navigation.

Kanji Tower Floor 2

Floor 2 is now open.

Added:

• The next 50 kanji quizzes (100 randomized)

• Three new background music tracks

• A new Card Battle Gym Trainer with new dialogue and voice acting

• Earn the Floor 2 Badge after victory (replacing your Floor 1 badge)

New On-Screen HUD

A completely new HUD has been added during gameplay.

New features include:

• HP, MP and Level displayed on screen

• HP and MP bottles glow briefly when restored

• Bottle liquid decreases visually as HP or MP is lost

• Better number visibility with background bars

• HP and MP labels beneath each bottle

• Player level with experience progress shown underneath on the left

• New Shield icon displays your current shield amount during battle

General Improvements

Visual Improvements

• Money now appears as realistic Japanese yen notes instead of pixel art

• Improved outdoor mineable stone graphics

• Improved art for several small outdoor trees

• Warmer daytime screen tint

• Redesigned on-screen date/time display with a glass-style interface

• Time-of-day color indicator:

  • Light Blue - Dawn

  • Orange - Day

  • Maroon - Dusk

  • Purple - Night

Gameplay Improvements

• Characters and events behave more naturally in Performance Mode

• NPCs, animals, and other moving objects continue moving more frequently even at longer distances

• Outdoor flowers no longer unnecessarily block player movement. Walk over them!

Bug Fixes & Improvements

Thank you to everyone continuing to report bugs!

Fixed

• Fixed a battle bug that incorrectly increased your SHIELD by +1 or +2 depending on equipped items. This now correctly matches the value shown on the new HUD.

• Fixed JLPT N1 Quiz #1 typo

• Corrected card description typo:

  • Shiriken → Shuriken

• Kanji Tower Floor 1 Quiz #47:

  • Furigana changed from じゅ to じゅっ

Important Notes

• JLPT N1 quizzes were originally planned for this update but didn't quite make it. I hope to release a batch next week.

• Many players have asked whether grammar will be included in PLAYNESE. The answer is yes! Grammar lessons and in-game practice exercises are planned for every JLPT level. They need a little more development time.

ありがとうございます！

As always, thank you for supporting PLAYNESE during Early Access.

Every Steam review, bug report, Discord message, and suggestion helps improve the game.

I hope you enjoy exploring the expanded Library, climbing Kanji Tower Floor 2, and all of this week's improvements.

よろしくお願いします！

ライト = Light 🎮