Reviewed via a Review copy of the game
Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip To Japan~ is a Graphic novel about a young man that has accomplished his dream of visiting Japan. You join your protagonist as he is on the plane about to set down in Tokyo. Upon arrival he discovers the two friends that he has been speaking with online, the same ones that agreed to house him for his duration in Japan, are actually two girls. As well as agree to feed you and home you, the girls offer to show you around the city’s major sights all for free! So.. What have you done for a stranger lately?
As you visit the city’s sights you spend time with your new friends, Akira and Makoto as they tell you about the cultural history and significance of Tokyo’s biggest attractions and sights. The more time you spend with them, you learn about whom they are and what they like. Akira offers to show you around the more modern, western-influenced areas of the capital, while Makoto opts to teach you about the more traditional attractions. The story revolves heavily around this aspect of learning and the development of the relationship between you and the girls.
Go! Go! Nippon! features cute, if simple character design for Akira and Makoto. The two brunette sisters are your only company throughout the game, no one else showing up at all. While the characters are visually distinguishable and nicely drawn, unfortunately the range of different emotions their sprites display are somewhat limited. After the first 20 minutes you’ll have seen every emotion and reaction the girls have, leaving the rest to be re-used multiple times from the pool of sprites available which makes the game’s visuals feel a bit repetitive and not visually engaging. The backgrounds for each scene are nicely drawn too as well as the artwork of the food and locales you visit. But the game is a visual novel and while they are pretty, they are no more than just pictures with no animation.
The majority of the gameplay within Go! Go! Nippon! is the choosing of where you would like to travel each day to visit . Each destination costs money to travel to, and any cost of goods/souvenirs purchased are also tallied up to create a total cost of your visit at the end. The story telling within the novel is channelled via the text and pictures. The locales are all drawn to represent how the places look in reality. Your tour guide will appear on screen at each location and will talk you through the details. The game may be worth playing through a second time to check how different events can go when you focus on one girl over the other. However once you have been through and seen all the sights, it feels very much like reading a book that you have already read for the second time.
As a visual novel, the game is not bad. There is unfortunately little to do in terms of actual gameplay, and I do really mean little. However for a Japan novice like me, a lot of what was being said and discussed really interested me. I even managed to learn a lot of quick facts and phrases to do with Japan. People with a desire for active gameplay and/or an already abundant knowledge of Japanese culture may find themselves quickly bored with this novel, but if you want a cute story about sightseeing, tsundere otakus, and love, Go! Go! Nippon! is a neat little purchase that has found its way to steam for the price of £6.99. Check it out.