Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle

I went into this one expecting a throwaway novelty, and came out mildly impressed by one specific thing: the Riichi Mahjong underneath the anime veneer is the real deal. This is not the tile-matching solitaire game your browser offers for free. It is four-player Japanese Mahjong, the same rule set you have seen dramatised in series like Akagi and Saki, built around building winning hands, calling tiles, declaring Riichi, and tallying complex Yaku scores. The game handles all the score arithmetic for you, which removes the biggest headache for people still learning the system. The structure is straightforward: pick one of 23 fully voiced AI opponents and sit down at a four-player table filled out by bots. Each AI character has its own play style that mimics strategies real players use, so matches do not feel completely scripted. Games move noticeably faster than a real-life session, which makes it practical for short bursts of practice. You start with only four characters accessible and unlock the rest by winning repeatedly with specific girls, a thin progression layer that feels tacked on rather than motivating. Here is the honest problem: the game will not teach you how to play. There is no tutorial worth the name. If you do not already have a working grasp of Riichi Mahjong, you will be staring at tiles with zero guidance. The English localisation makes things worse. Rule set options involving Yaku variants are confusingly labelled, and the hand-result screen after a win is unclear about what you actually scored. Switching the interface to Japanese reportedly improves accuracy, which is a strange thing to have to tell someone about an English release. Players who want nudity or explicit content should also know upfront that none is present; the fanservice is limited to voiced character portraits. The mixed Steam reception at 62 percent positive reflects a split audience: Riichi fans who appreciate a cheap, always-available practice table, and people who picked it up expecting something different and found either a game too complex to parse or too thin on content to hold attention. The character roster is wide at 23 girls covering archetypes from ninja to demon to mahjong goddess, but since you spend most of your time looking at tiles rather than character art, the visual side is more background texture than selling point. As a functional Riichi Mahjong client with a light anime skin, it does one thing competently. It does almost nothing else. If you know the game and want a no-fuss digital table, the value proposition at its price point is reasonable. If you are hoping the pretty girls are doing the teaching, look elsewhere. Alex, Scout Team