Isekai Diary is a pixel-art game in which a hero who lost their life in modern-day Japan is reincarnated in another world and tries to survive for one year (52 weeks). Something happens every week, and how you choose to act changes your stats, your allies and how the story unfolds. The world you land in, the skill you receive and the events you meet change every time you play, so no two lives are the same. This page explains how to play, how to read the screen, how stats and checks work, and tips for staying alive.
Choose your hero
On the first screen, choose your hero's gender (male or female) and their name in their past life. Names can be up to 10 characters. The prefilled name and the “Random” button give you a Japanese name (Ren, Sakura, and so on). If you start with the field empty, you get a random name. Your name stays the same after you're reincarnated.
After reincarnating, your hero appears in the other world looking just as you picked on the first screen (black hair; blue clothes for male, red for female). Your clothes change color when you get a job. In Reborn as a Slime, though, you stay a slime until you learn to take human form in week 24.
Some characters change depending on your gender. In the Otome Game World, for example, a female hero becomes the crown prince's fiancée as a stand-in for the “villainess,” and a male hero becomes the princess's fiancé as a stand-in for the “villainous young lord.”
Press “Reincarnate” to start a new game. If you have a game in progress, a “Continue” button also appears.
Prologue
When the game begins, you first see how your past life ended. Shielding a child from a truck, collapsing after endless overtime, choking on a rice cake — your death is chosen at random from six possibilities.
Next, you meet a god. One of four appears — a kind goddess, a clumsy goddess, a white-bearded god or an expressionless administrator — and grants you one unique skill. Finally, your destination world is revealed and week 1 begins. You aren't born again as a baby: you appear in the other world with your past-life name and appearance.
How a week works
- The week's event appears (for example “The Glowing Mushroom,” “Bandits on the Highway,” “The Adventurers' Guild”)
- Choose one action from 3–4 choices. You can also use the number keys (1–4)
- The result appears, along with stat changes (for example “STR +2”, “HP -22”) and whether checks succeeded
- Press “Next week” to move on
Choices with a purple border are special actions that use your skill. They appear only when you have that skill, and usually give a good result with no risk. Choices whose conditions you don't meet, such as not having enough gold, are disabled and show the reason.
Reading the screen
- Week and season: The top of the screen shows the week (“Week 12”), the season, which cour you're in, and how many weeks remain until that cour's finale. The season changes every 13 weeks — spring, summer, autumn, winter — and snow falls on outdoor scenes in winter
- Scene: Your hero (left) and the person or monster you met that week (right) are drawn in pixel art. Allies line up small behind your hero (on the left) and follow you (up to the first 5 allies fit on screen). If you have a “Beloved,” they stand right behind you
- HP: If it reaches 0, you die and the game is over. The gauge turns red below 30%
- STR, MAG, INT, CHA: The four stats that affect check success rates
- Gold and Fame: Gold is for shopping and donations; Fame counts toward your Overall Power in the climax, among other things
- World-specific values: Depending on the world, extra values appear: “Reputation” in the Otome Game World, “Villagers” and “Farm” on the frontier, “Rank” in the Labyrinth City, “Evolution” as a slime
- Job: You start out unemployed. Events such as registering with the Adventurers' Guild, winning a tournament or becoming village chief by taking in settlers decide and change your job
- Skill, Allies, Items, Beloved: Allies lend you their strength in the climax. Things you obtain in events, like a guild card or a holy sword, are listed under “Items.” If romance blossoms, a name appears under “Beloved”
- Reincarnation diary: “Open the reincarnation diary” at the bottom lets you look back at each week's event and the action you chose. Big events are marked with ★
How stats and checks work
Many risky actions are decided by a “check.” The success rate depends on the difference between the stat used and the event's difficulty.
Success rate = 50% + (stat − difficulty) × 6% (min 6%, max 95%)Example: with STR 10, trying “Jump in to help” against the bandits (difficulty 12) succeeds 50% + (10 − 12) × 6% = 38% of the time. With STR 15 it's 68%.
Climaxes such as the final battle with the Demon Lord use “Overall Power,” a total of your stats. Here each point of difference is worth 4%.
Overall Power = STR + MAG + INT ÷ 2 + allies × 4 + Fame ÷ 10HP recovers by 3 every week even if you do nothing (8 with the [Auto-Regen] skill). Choices like “Rest” or “Take a nap” and events like hot springs also restore HP.
The big event every 3 months
Like an anime cour (3 months), weeks 13, 26, 39 and 52 are each a “Cour finale,” and a big event for your world always happens. Big events are far more dangerous than ordinary weeks.
- Damage you take on failure is multiplied by 1.5
- Check success rates go down by 10%
- The message window turns red and shows “Big event: failure hurts a lot”
The golden rule is to recover your HP before a big event. The week 52 finale is the climax of the year, and its outcome decides your ending.
The 5 worlds
| World | Cour finales (weeks 13, 26, 39, 52) |
|---|---|
| Kingdom of Swords and Sorcery | Demon Army invasion / the capital's tournament / attack of the Four Heavenly Kings / showdown at the Demon Lord's castle |
| Otome Game World | Beast at the hunting festival / assassin at the ball / false accusation / condemnation at the graduation party |
| Frontier Slow Life | Lord of the forest / great summer storm / bandits after the harvest / great monster stampede |
| Labyrinth City | Monster house / labyrinth overflow / red-horned mutant / master of the labyrinth |
| Reborn as a Slime | Subjugation party / great forest fire / the Hero's hunt / battle for the forest |
What each world is like
- Kingdom of Swords and Sorcery: A classic hero's tale. Getting the holy sword or defeating the Four Heavenly Kings gives you the edge in the final battle with the Demon Lord
- Otome Game World: You're the spitting image of the missing villainess (or villainous young lord), so a ducal house takes you in as a stand-in. Just like the real one, you're fated to be condemned at the graduation party a year later. Raise your “Reputation” with good deeds, gather evidence and befriend the heroine (or protagonist) to turn the condemnation around. Pile up misdeeds and you may lose your life
- Frontier Slow Life: Settle a wild land. Each “Farm” level earns 2G per week, and your “Villagers” and defensive walls help protect the village from the final monster stampede
- Labyrinth City: Dive into the labyrinth while raising your adventurer rank (F to S). At rank D or above, you can challenge the dangerous but lucrative deep floors
- Reborn as a Slime: You start as a slime with no hands or feet. Choose an evolution in week 12, and once you learn Human Form in week 24, events in human towns start happening too
Skills
| Skill | Starting bonus | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Appraisal | INT +3 | Sees through poison mushrooms, traps, mimics and cheating |
| Item Box | Gold +60 | Start with money to spare |
| Sword Saint | STR +6 | Unlocks choices that end fights in an instant |
| All-Element Magic | MAG +6 | On the frontier, earth magic plows fields in one go |
| Monster Tamer | CHA +3 | Befriend wolves, goblins, even an ancient dragon |
| Cooking | CHA +2, Max HP +5 | Earn money and win hearts with dishes from your past life |
| Auto-Regen | Max HP +15 | Weekly recovery goes up from 3 to 8 |
| Language Comprehension | INT +1, CHA +1 | Looks like a dud, but lets you talk with monsters and even ghosts |
Game over and endings
When your HP hits 0, the game is over. You'll see which week you died in and why, and you can read back through your reincarnation diary.
Survive the week 52 finale and you reach an ending. Even in the same world, the outcome changes with the actions you choose and your stats — fight and win, talk it out, run away. Each world has several endings, such as “Condemnation Reversed,” “Exiled Abroad” or “Consort of the neighboring empire's prince (princess)” in the Otome Game World, or “King of the Monster Nation” or “Bridge Between Humans and Monsters” as a slime. At the end, you're also awarded a title based on your highest stat, Fame and more.
On the ending or game-over screen, you can share the outcome on X (Twitter) or LINE, or copy the text. On phones, you can also share to other apps.
Saving
Your progress is saved automatically in your browser (localStorage) every week. Even if you close the page, you can pick up where you left off with “Continue” next time. Data is never sent to a server, and it won't carry over if you clear your browsing data or open the game on another device or browser. Starting a new game with “Reincarnate” erases the saved game.
A game keeps the language it was started in. If you continue a game started in another language, the page switches to that language.
Survival tips
- Use the first cour to build your stats through training and work, and get ready for the big event in week 13. You start with only 50 HP (65 with [Auto-Regen])
- When your HP is low, don't push it — choose to rest. Failing a big event can cost you more than half your HP
- Riskier choices pay off more, but if your stats fall short you'll get badly hurt. Use the success-rate formula as a guide
- Each ally adds +4 to Overall Power. Your first ally joins in week 3, and more people who want to join you appear over time. Prioritizing choices that recruit allies makes the climax easier
- Purple-bordered skill choices are almost always “winners”: safe and highly effective