Nice, Even If You Don't Read Japanese
I picked this title up after reading a few English language books on Mah-Jong. I don't know how to speak much Japanese and, can read even less. I knew I'd have to work my way through many screens of text to get into an actuall game however, the game was fairly easy to navigate and, I was playing a round of mahjong in just a few seconds. Unlike many other Mah-Jong titles out there, this one has no real "story" mode full of people and situations that you can't read anyway to figure out. It basically is a Mah-Jong tournament (Taikai translates into Convention/Competition). You'll play a bracket of the tournament for a while and if you place high enough, you can play the next round. New rounds bring new themed rooms to play in (tiki hut, emperial palace, etc.) and, new opponenets that will blurt out comments occasionally. Even if you don't speak the language, their attitude will usually give you a good idea of what's on their minds. There are several options to tweak the rules however, if you just leave everything alone, it seems to play a standard 13-tile Cantonese rules game with no Seasonal or Joker tiles included. There may be a way to change that in the options but, I haven't really messed around with the options too much..... If you know the basic rules of Mah-Jong, you'll find it plays a good game. Even without a strong sense of the language, you should be able to get a satisfying game out of this.... I did anyway. Have fun.. Go get your Mah-Jong on!!!!!!