Hikaru no Go - Video Games

This page discusses Hikaru no Go's video game tie-ins, of which there are rather serendipitously 5 in total. None of these games were ever released in English; the first one, however, has an unofficial English translation. While I'll attempt to review each game in as much detail as possible, I'm not a particularly good go player and I'm not 100% fluent in Japanese either, so this is much easier said than done. Still, I'll do what I can.

Spoiler alert! This page contains full story mode summaries and reviews. Proceed with caution!

Hikaru no Go 1 (GameBoy Advance, 2001)

Hikaru no Go’s first foray into video games, and the only one to date to receive an English patch! Thank you to Ricardo Bittencourt for the English translation. :)

Your enjoyment of this game is going to vary largely depending on whether you’re more invested in it for the story, or for playing go. And I don’t necessarily mean that in a “this is a go-based game so if you don’t like go you won’t have a good time” way (although that is certainly true as well), what I mean is like… The plot is uh, not quite all the way there.

Story

The plot of this game is relatively straightforward and seems hard to fuck up, and yet somehow it ends up poorly executed in a way that leaves a lot of questions. Now, am I overthinking the plot of a GBA game made to teach middle schoolers to play a board game as a tie-in to a moderately successful manga? Oh yeah absolutely, but that’s what I’m here for, so you’re all going to go along with it. Understand?

Essentially, the story is just the middle school club arc of the manga, but with some slight modifications to allow the player (a silent protagonist, unseen male transfer student at Haze Middle School) to serve as the protagonist instead of Hikaru. Hikaru is still present, but he doesn’t do as much, leaving the player to handle most of the plot beats. This isn’t what makes the story weird though, and I personally think it’s a reasonable way to allow the player to insert themself into the story without either playing second fiddle to Hikaru, or completely erasing Hikaru altogether. It works!

The game opens on your first day as a new transfer student at Haze. Hikaru introduces himself, it becomes apparent that the player can see Sai, and so naturally the two take it upon themselves to teach Protagonist-kun to play go. You’re taken to Hikaru’s house for a tutorial, which thankfully isn’t intrusive at all; you’re given a table of contents and can choose what subjects you’d like to hear about, or skip the tutorial entirely. You can also go back to Hikaru’s house to review the tutorial at any time. Honestly, it’s not a bad way to brush up on your knowledge if there’s some aspects of go you’re weak at! And of course, if you’ve never played the game, it’s a good introduction. Sai and Hikaru’s explanations are quite charming!

Now, here’s the thing. It’s weird for someone to be able to see Sai, right? I mean, that’s never happened before. Ever. Surely it should be a big deal? Get explained somehow, even if that explanation is just something like “Protagonist-kun is soooooo epic swag poggers at go that they can see Sai”? Yeah, no. They just don’t talk about it at all. There’s a brief moment at the very beginning where Hikaru’s like “Huh, that’s weird. Oh well!” and then this question is never brought up again. And to make matters weirder, throughout most of the game Sai accompanies you on your journey, but… without Hikaru being there? It’s very weird. I played through the entire game thinking “Surely I’ll reach the Protagonist-kun lore reveal soon?” but nah it just straight up doesn’t happen. lol.

Getting back to the actual plot. Sai accompanies you to the go class from early on in the series, and plays a demo game against Akari. You then encounter Akira, who says that he was asked to teach the class (I guess Shirakawa-sensei is out sick or something?), but unsurprisingly, that he’s only there because he knows Hikaru goes to this class too. He is NOT happy when Akari tells him that Hikaru’s not here, and upon being introduced to you, he scoffs at the fact that Hikaru is playing against beginners (wtf? rude). Nonetheless, he says that if you’re truly determined to pursue go, you and him will meet again someday. He then asks you to tell Hikaru that next time they see each other Akira is going to kick his ass.

Back at school, you’re told that Haze will be participating in an upcoming 5v5 practice tournament against Kaio. Why is it only a “practice” tournament? I have no idea. You’re also told that the go club will be shut down if they don’t win the tournament, which is apparently true this time and not just something Kaga made up. Like… why? Are they even an officially recognized club? I mean, their club room is just the science classroom and their equipment is all borrowed hand-me-downs. What’s their club budget, like ¥200? Do they REALLY need to prove to the school that they’re worth keeping around? Come on. But I digress.

Anyway, Tsutsui and Hikaru send you to recruit some players for the tournament. First up is Kaga, who’s easy enough to find, since he just hangs out at the shogi club. Next you talk to Akari, who regrettably says she can’t be the fifth player, since the tournament is gender segregated; however, she saw Mitani solve the puzzle on the club recruitment poster, and while she doesn’t know where he is, she does know where to find his sister. Upon arriving at the internet cafe, Mitani’s sister says that he’s probably at the go salon he always goes to, and she really would like him to play more with kids his own age, but that he probably won’t be convinced unless you can beat him in a game. To prove that you can, she makes you solve some tsumego problems before telling you where the go salon is.

So you recruit Mitani, thus finally reaching five players for your team. (Funnily enough, Mitani’s cheating problem is never mentioned even once. Lol?) Everyone knows Akira will be first board for Kaio, but Hikaru says he’s not yet strong enough to take on Akira, and that Protagonist-kun should be first board instead. After some debate, this is agreed upon and you go to the tournament. Here you encounter Akira, who is of course furious that Hikaru’s not first board, because again, he’s Literally Only Here To Fight Hikaru. Mitani comments that it’s a practice tournament so who gives a shit anyway, and like, THANK YOU FINALLY SOMEONE SAYS IT. Mitani is ignored.

So you fight Akira. Upon winning, everyone agrees that you’re super talented, and Sai is like “Protagonist-kun… You have done well… You don’t need my guidance anymore… Farewell” and like, fades away? And then… that’s it!

No, seriously. That’s it, that’s the entire game. After the credits roll, you’re free to visit the same places around town you had access to before; Visiting Kaio Middle School will simply cause the tournament scene to start over again. While there is no “post-game content” for this reason, there are two hidden opponents: clicking the sign that says 本 downtown will take you to the bookstore, where you can play Kishimoto, and clicking the wall of the shed-like building to the left at Haze will take you to the gym, where you can play Kaneko on the go board that all school gyms clearly have.

Gameplay

For what it is (i.e. a Hikaru no Go themed go emulator), I do think this game is quite good. Ignoring the lackluster plot, story mode allows you to learn go in a somewhat organic fashion, with the games starting out at a very beginner level and gradually getting a little harder. There’s also two points in the game where you’re made to do tsumego (the first being beginner level with Tsutsui, and the second being medium level with Mitani’s sister), and you can revisit these, the tutorial, or any of the other characters at any time. All of this can be accessed via a super cute overworld map of Hikaru’s neighborhood, which I absolutely love :)

Aside from story mode, there’s also a 2P versus mode that seems to function via the GBA link cable, an archive for saving up to 24 free play game records, and free play mode, where you can visit the Touya go salon to play against any of the characters from story mode. After you play free play for the first time, the computer in your room gains a Hikaru no Go wallpaper! It’s the chapter 1 cover art.

Whether you’re playing free play mode or story mode, the game has several features to help you. There’s a hint button, which can be set to suggest only the best option, or to suggest two or three possibilities; I like this a lot, since it allows you to learn and make your own choices, without feeling entirely like you’re just straight up cheating. There’s also real-time territory calculation, which will shade in parts of the board to show territory as you move your cursor (although it has a tendency to cause lag, especially on the bigger boards), or the analysis button, which will show you the current standing with greater accuracy.

Free play mode also allows you to customize all kinds of settings, such as board size, komi, handicap, and I’ll be real I actually have no idea what all settings free play mode has because that menu is untranslated and big as fuck and I ain’t putting all that shit into Denshi Jisho. Sorry.

Graphics & Music

The graphics in this game are quite lovely. The sprites are a beautifully accurate rendering of Takeshi Obata’s art style (I assume he actually drew them? Not sure since I can’t find the credits for the game), and background and GUI elements like the board itself look great too. Sometimes when your opponent plays a particularly good move, you’ll see a fancy portrait of them, and the board will turn into a spinning galaxy. On the other hand, when you play a good move, it turns into a blooming flower (camellia maybe?), and when a lot of stones are captured, it turns into a flashing bolt of lightning. Also, Hikaru has different talk sprites for when he’s at school vs. at home, which is a nice touch.

The music, on the other hand, is not as good. It tends to range from mediocre to bad- seriously, the tsumego music is downright unsettling. And you can’t blame this on it being a GBA game, since I’ve played plenty of games on the GBA that have great soundtracks, and some on the original Gameboy or the GBC too. It’s simply not good music.

Final Verdict: 7/10

If you’re looking to teach yourself go and would like something a little more engaging than a book and an empty board, I definitely recommend this game. It’s beautiful and very beginner friendly, although the limitations of the GBA do make the AI rather slow to take its turns.

Where the game falls short is the story mode- quite literally, since if you’re halfway decent at go, story mode shouldn’t take more than a few hours at most. Why can the player see Sai? Why can Sai follow you without Hikaru, and why does he seemingly disappear after you beat Akira, only to be perfectly fine in the next game? Why is the tournament such a huge deal despite being just “practice”? The game doesn’t even attempt to answer these questions, which makes it feel pretty disappointing.