lets just say if you cant read japanese its impossible and it lacks the fun since its a choose your own adventure game meaning the main point of it is reading. the only way you'll be able to beat it is to use a guide or have a lot of time on your hands since the game is really long (short if you die).
Have to politely disagree here; the game only took me about three hours to finish with no Japanese literacy. I don't personally consider that to be very long. I do, however, have a history of playing games in languages I can't read any of, so.. I might make better time than some folks.
But no, you don't need to know any Japanese to beat the game. You just need a bit of patience and short-term memory. Every choice shows a 'page' number next to it like those old-fashioned 'choose your own adventure' stories people used to read waaay back in the paper age when people read things in books rather than on computer monitors, so it's not too hard to note which 'pages' suck and which don't. If all else fails, you can write them down. There aren't any layered choices except deciding where to go in the mansion, which inevitably forces you to move on after you pick three rooms, and there are no quiz sections that I noticed. All other choices cause instant progress (potentially instant bad ends) or will move the story along when you exhaust the options you have.
To top it off, after you've finished a character's story, you can begin a new game with either character to start with whatever items you possessed at the end of your previous play (minus starter gear, which always resets to the values you start the game with). Items also stack when you pick them up (to a cap of thirty, I believe). This means you can save up the awesome one-use items across plays to beat enemies that would normally slaughter you, which helps a lot for the boss of the good endings.
Otherwise, the item system is durability-based, you can take twelve items into battle, battles are timing-based with an attack and defense phase, stat checks are dice-based (cake once you get the timing down, but it will require some save-loads at first), clicking on the light bulb when it shows up by your portrait will pick up an item from the area you're in, etc. Is it difficult to play or hard to figure out? Not really. Is it fun? Without being able to read moon runes, the entertainment in a text-driven game is limited. I can't honestly call it fun beyond the first play through, and that's probably pushing it. I did, however, enjoy collecting various types of pantsu and laughing at their pitiful stats only to find myself using them in battle out of necessity due to equipment breakdown.
By the way, the update patch wasn't included in the links at the top of this thread. Since I already have it, I may as well do an uploady thing here. It fixes a fatal error in the prison area, among other things, so it's worth a load down if you plan on playing this. Saves seem to be compatible enough as long as you're not in the aforementioned prison area. ... But enough talk. Have at you!
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C54BWILX
