VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - A.O.A. Academy [Ch.5 Gold] [TLGGAMES]

Damn, Jade is some character, one of the best girl out here.
The main plot if I'm not wrong is about the egomaniac brother trying and succeeding (till now) to screw his adopted sister jen's life at every opportunity possible and for obvious reasons money and power and he's ready to sacrifice anyone comes in between.
Premise: when I'm talking about the premise of AOA academy, sure the game is based on the college lives of all those involved but the extra and important seasoning of whole cartels and mafias have taken this to next level.
My problem
-I personally felt like the main character was for supporting role, i mean it's understandable that this one's still in early phase of development and hopefully mc has some leeway and assertiveness going forward. Looked helpless but again story demands so I'll take that.
Good thing is that there weren't many free roams and ingame mobile usage this update.
-Some trivial choices seems to be illusionary.
Personalities :
Mc: way too lazy (in the past) if he didn't learn how to swim or at least be ready for brawl being a country guy. But my boy has charming aura, helping hands , and six pack abs.
Ashley: sweet, lovely, gorgeous, always there for you, i mean they all are. And perfect waifu material..
Jenny: brain tumor surviver, Live let live kind of personality, guilty conscience (perfectly natural even so in her case), another perfect waifu.
Jade: this girl makes me crazy everytime she appears on screen.
Rebecca: another sweet, innocent girl, quite bubbly and way too attractive.
Vicky: hotty and that too just in normal attire, has dikheadish brother, former judo champion.
Valerie: abundance of willpower, free spirit lately if you get to know her, a beauty. Handle with care plz.
Elizabeth: sexually frustrated beauty and a well known ice queen, though lately she's getting too hot to handle.
Sung Ji: last but not least asian hotty, always ready to patch things up between you and Ashley but lately she's getting more interested in you.
Please do not prejudice this one as solely a college theme game i mean there are plenty of them out here but rather keep an open mind and dive in you'll enjoy it.

Positives:
~ It started out great, the first part of the story gets you hooked, emotion, drama and seems like an actual movie.
~ Music is amazing, chosen as per the scenes and environment.
~ Renders are good
~ Girls are really hot, unrealistic, but hot.

Negatives:
~ After the first part, the story which was supposed to be great, just gets so unrealistic, annoying and cluttered, so hard to keep track of what's happening, and seems way too unrealistic.
(for example: within the first 10 minutes of the game, MC gets a blowjob and then nothing....)
~ Again, as the games doesn't have more or less any sex scene, the only good thing was the story which as you keep on playing starts getting more and more bizarre,
Example: MC hangs out with sooooo many girls and almost all of them have hots for him but still, nothing happens, and then the amalgam of the college life and mafia gangs sometimes just makes no sense, a famous tv actress or world's no. 1 pianist's daughter who no one recognizes, a teacher who is known as the hot headed one and is terrifying doesn't look terrifying at all after the first scene, in-fact she's the most approachable and sweetest women ever. and many more...
~ unnecessary choices which might not make sense, for example if on call you say "goodnight" it's +1 point but if you say goodbye then nothing happens, doesn't seems like it's much different.

Overall, it started out great but as it's progressing, it doesn't seem like it's going anywhere.

Overall an average visual novel with plenty of problems.

Pros

• Excellent character models
• Beautiful and sexy female character models
• Likable characters (MC is questionable)
• Excellent animations
• A good amount of content

Cons

• Blueball simulator - the game is a poor adult xxx game title - very few sex scenes - way too much teasing and blueballing that never goes anywhere!
• Lots of render problems - It seems like the dev was experimenting with render filters and made things worse as a result. The majority of renders have one or more of the following problems: 1. Too bright 2. Too much contrast 3. Over exposed - Some renders have all three problems. The prologue through chapter 2 renders are largely too bright and then in chapter 3, all three problems are common. All three problems frequently ruin the color and detail of the character models in the renders! This is not an improvement dev!
• Lots of English problems. Lots of misused words. Lots of tense problems (past, present, future). Lots of missing words. Lots of gender pronoun problems. The game badly needs a proofreader!
• Two major stories going on that don't fit well together - college life and mafia/drug cartel crime novel. The two stories really detract from each other in my opinion.
• Major plot and story holes in the game. The author frequently forgets what was said in earlier dialogs and creates new narratives that conflict with what was said earlier in the story. It happens so much that I'm guessing the author suffers from some sort of short-term memory problem (just a guess, I'm not trying to be mean here). A prime example is when the group is in Elizabeth's class, she tells the group to put their desks together in a circle so they can work together on the quiz and then she has all of them do their quizzes on their own and picks them up to grade them without any collaboration whatsoever??? There was no point in putting all the desks together like that to work as a group. There are dozens of examples like this, it is really concerning.
• Poor character development - tons on nonsense and fluff dialog and events with no defining characteristic development or real character development going on.
• MC is a farm boy but can't swim and has never used a gun before??? I grew up in a small farming community and pretty much everyone used guns. There wasn't a lot to do in a small hick farming town so guns were used for recreation commonly. The MC doesn't know how to dance either. Oh, and we learn that he doesn't know how to fight either! Did the MC grow up in a farming town or a convent, I'm confused?!?! I was really shy growing up but I learned how to swim, use guns, and dance. I got in four fights in middle school and two fights in High School (this is common and I made a point of avoiding trouble).
• Lots of WTF moments. Jenny going to her brother Adam for help was one example. All the girls willing to go topless if the MC does was another one (they just barely met). Too many to list here but there are dozens of instances that damage immersion and the story.
• The prologue doesn't reflect what the rest of the game will be like. It is more of a tease of what you won't be seeing in the game rather than a proper introduction to the game. Bait and switch here!
• Some player choices aren't honored in the game. The story text is hardcoded for one of the possible choices. One example is when the MC and Adam are in the elevator together at the fancy hotel. I chose to be silent but Adam said that I insulted him and then the MC tells Jenny that he insulted Adam also (which never happened). Don't give us choices if they don't matter; it is much worse than not giving the choice to begin with!
• Several times, characters in the game are called the wrong name. One example is that Adam is often called Clint (in chapter 3).
• Several times, characters will say lines meant for other characters (usually the person they are having the conversation with). The author sometimes gets sloppy here.
• Several story paths that aren't developed. For example, the MC gets a job at a girls only home as a maid. He only works ONE day for all four story chapters and gets handed an envelope full of cash for doing so.
• The game is poorly designed in that if you want to see all the content, you have the play the game multiple times (up to 6 times). Hell no! I barely got through the game once, there is no way I want to go through it a second time!
• Another design flaw is that you have to have a perfect relationship score with love interests in order to unlock romantic content with them. I did not play the game using mods or a walkthrough and missed some content as a result. I tried really hard to make the best choices throughout the game but I obviously wasn't perfect. When a walkthrough is required to fully experience a game it is a poor design. There needs to be some forgiveness if the player doesn't make perfect choices all the time (perhaps base it on 90% or greater of maximum relationship score).

The story is somewhat interesting but is filled with lots of fluff and mundane activities and events. I personally would have either stuck with the college setting or the mafia/drug cartel crime story and not try to force them together.

The dev does a great job with the character models in the game and the animations, no question! The rest of the game's execution is done poorly overall.

I only encountered two sex scenes my entire playthrough which is very disappointing. The author constantly teases sexual situations and then blueballs the player. The animations are excellent however. The sex scene with Ashley was excellent and a highlight of the game, I just wish there were more of them!

I can't recommend the game to anyone except those looking for a pure non-adult visual novel with an average story and average writing with plenty of flaws (and some eye candy with beautiful character models).

As of Ch. 4 Public

The good:
- The slow-burn. Feels like you're actually trying to build a relationship with each of the girls than simply find a breathing sex toy
- Rebecca
- Writing is good with few mistakes, doesn't feel rushed
- Render quality is impeccable
- While pacing of the overall plot (see below) is iffy, the quiet moments are much-appreciated breathing space.
- Did I mention Rebecca?

The bad:
- Some bugs here and there, but nothing that breaks progression, although a new save is required for Ch.4 for some reason.
- Plot feels rushed with almost little time for proper character development. Imagine you're sitting on a chair one day and then a car slams into the back of you - that's what it feels like between Chapter 1 and 2.
- A lot of 'tell' moments where 'show' would have been better.
- Lack of any meaningful male friendships (this IS a mixed school afterall)

The ugly:
- The Richard family inheritance dispute is probably the most illogical, improbable, and insane part of the story. Either that or Adam is far dumber than he or the story makes him out to be.

Anyone dismissing this game off the bat is doing a huge disservice to a masterpiece.

The characters are great, the renders and animations are beautiful. The world blends the light-hearted, slice-of-life aspects of the university and the more dark and seedy aspects of the deeper plot perfectly. I have nothing bad to say about this VN.

(Special specific S/0 to the character Jessica, whom is one of the most, if not the most, stunning character I've ever seen in any game. Wow.)

It's right up there with the very best of VNS in general. Low on sexual content at the moment, so if you want a quick nut, this ain't it, chief. But if you want a slowburn, please, check this one out ASAP.

This game is what so many others of the genre try and often fail, to be.

Unlimited *

Version: Ch. 4 Public Edition

Review:
It's great that I didn't waste my time downloading the 1080p version of 10gb. I had played the first chapter a long time ago, I didn't think the story was very good, but that could improve since it had a school setting that I like.
I didn't expect the game to be a romance and that there was no erotic pornography. Basically it's the summary of this game, you have a lot of beautiful and attractive girls but you will play a game with content that the MC will give advice, hugs, kisses and comfort to the girls.

History:
It looked promising, but it's just an adult story of an educated MC who isn't looking for fun. You know those guys who hang around with girls just to carry their handbags? This is the MC. The author does not know how to develop a pornographic erotic story, maybe it's not his taste, ok no problem, but basically the story of this game is a boring romance that won't get you anywhere, or maybe I'm wrong as the MC can end up being a hero and get his big reward in the end. But remember, you will spend hours in this game just reading the dialogues, if you are the type who likes to read stories and dive into them, ignore everything I said and enjoy, otherwise it's pure blueballs.
Gameplay:
Do choices matter? not. I didn't really understand what the gameplay proposal would be, because you have two choices and one of them the female npc will like your answer. And where is the HUD or the graphic to know how much this female npc likes the MC? But that's not all, the game is also point-n-clicks, there's an NPC in the hallway and you go there to interact with him, but you end up entering a series of events as if you were doing some mission in an rpg game. The game basically doesn't tell you where to go, it just let you free to make your choices and go back to a new game and repeat all over again to choose other paths and unlock the image gallery as there is no scene gallery.
Graphics & Sexual Content:
Female models are great, good renderings. Some animations are good, although nothing surprising or bad. But what about sexual content? you will see a lot of exhibitionism and teasing. There is very little explicit sexual content, It is very difficult for you to see two or three sex scenes with the same girl. Maybe you find one blowjob, handjob, vaginal sex scene, but anal sex, threesome, or some other, don't.

Why I did gave 1 star?
I wasn't interested in the story. It's not because there's no explicit sexual content, but of having a plot with a story that didn't interest me. The game has somewhat constructive characters, without seeing that crazy girl wanting to ride your cock. But I didn't understand why Jenny inviting you to meet other girls and asking which ones you would like to see them stripping and of Jade licking and sucking the MC's cock in front of them. After that, the MC goes on to become a girls' handbag carrier. Now you understand why the game is so bad. What could have been an MC game work and conquer the girls turned out to be a boring, affectionate and super respectful game. If you just like history and don't want to see those slutting games, this game is for you. But if you want to see a game where the MC hooks up and has sex with every girl during their constructive relationship, like other games you have around here, stay away from this game.

[Ch.4 Beta]
Interesting proposal, each character is unique in its way in quality and defect, the story is interesting and has a nifty narrative, the animations and illustration are excellent, I had no problem with bugs and as much as in the tag is not written "sandbox" this game has sandbox elements, these elements are well implemented within the game with intuitive locations, in general I play this type of game with the audio at zero volume, so I can not evaluate the audio quality, a nifty thing, choices has consequence, of course still keeping a certain route, but can change events and as a character sees you, anyway, despite everything I said above the game is not perfect, some may find that the story takes place at a slow pace precisely by not spawning sex scenes every 5 seconds on the screen...

Below will be my grades for each category and 10 is the top score:
Graphics: 10;
History: 9.5;
Animations: 10;
Character development: 10;

Verdict: I recommend to you this game, I will follow the next updates and recommend the same to you ...

It started off interesting but before long I started off noticing a lot of issues with renders which were quite obvious and distracting. Th e writing never seemed to flow and often felt stilted.

I kept going though and then we have the 'office' scene. The writing took a big downturn, choices which don't make much difference as it leads to the same decisions.

Playing logically, after being insulted, having the 'dean' just stand by and let it happen then being in the midst of a sibling power struggle the logical choice would be, I'm out of here

So I ended up with the 'Prologue: Bad End" which suited me fine as I wouldn't likely continue with the game.

The 3D models are excellent. Everything else is poor.

It's on plain sight and it´s the reason most of the people started playing this game: the girls look lovely and hot. There are, of course, the inevitable clichés of this kind of games: some girls (specially Jenny) are too curvy to be natural, they wear makeup that is too flashy and inappropriate for most situations, some looks don´t match with the personality of the girls: too many piercings, huge tatoos, the plage of the half-shaved head hairstyle... Also, some characters look too similar. Specially Jenny an Ashley. They have different hairstyles and makeups, but similar eyes, lips and face in general. They could be the older and the younger sister. Also, in the close-ups, skins and nails seem to be made of sandpaper. But those are minor sins. Truth is the girls are gorgeous.

Problem is the writing. According some early comments in this thread, at first Jenny was a spoiled rich bitch with the MC, but there were so many negative reactions that the dev changed the character and made her kind of a mix of a young Marilyn Monroe and Mother Theresa. It´s OK, but there are scenes at the beginning of the game that seem to be made for a "brat Jenny" and, in general, I think it´s not a well defined character. I don´t even know why a girl like her can be so attracted for a boy like the MC, that has the charisma of a wooden plank.

About the other girls, some of them have huge mental problems. I mean, really HUGE. The kind of traumas from a tragic past and emotional baggage that in real life would require years of therapy and probably would end up in suicide or other self destructing behaviors. Not the kind of characters for a game about romance and eroticism. I think the dev has exaggerated the drama A LOT in a game like this one, that would benefit from a little more lightness and humor. There is no humor at all in this game.

And the worst of all: at first the game was the classic "school settings" game with a young and handsome, well-meaning boy having romances and hot scenes with gorgeous girls, but at some point the romance and sex have gone into the background and the game has derived to a far fetched and uninteresting story of "film noir" with the MC, that is just a naif farm teenager, dealing with drug cartels (a drug cartel in... New Hampshire? Is that place in Colombia or Mexico, by chance?), and with a sadist villain that is evil just because is evil and hates him for no coherent reason. The dev has mistaken the tone of the game completely.

I´m not asking for more sex scenes (there are only a few). It´s OK if it´s a game about romance and mild eroticism. But the story should have more sense, and the dialogues should have more interest. It´s a pity, because this game had some of the elements to became in a huge hit, but it´s at this point is just a poorly written story, some boring "slice of life" scenes that seems to be only filling material, characters with an overdramatic background, and yes, some hot 3D models of girls.

Positives
~Amazing renders
~Likable LI
~The romances are all really feels good.
~Mc is nice, if a little simple.

Negatives
~Narrative is really, really short
~Ui is clunky- yet still looks pretty clean
~Narrative bloat- pretty annoying for there to be 4 or 5 different pathings (but only in some places). You end up having to replay / skip a lot of content just to see the stuff you haven't seen.
~Hard to keep track of all the routings in your save file without the ability to name the saves.

Another college theme game, and to be honest i love it. Models and renders are sleek, animations are good too, but there is a one thing I'm disappointed by is early branching, locks out on pretty early for a character and it's content and that makes update shorter, just breaks the rhythm. It's a college life, let the mc get know everyone properly before deciding which girl he's going to end up with.

The texture on the skin is really rough to look at, especially regarding the main character. The characters sometimes clip into objects/clothes or have the clothes hover over their shoulders and stuff like that. I can look past most of that though, had it not been for the writing...
The story itself seems to be alright, but I could barely get through the prologue. the author seems to have a great problem regarding the usage of past, present and future tense. And the conversations really doesn't go all that smoothly at all times, quite the opposite at a frequent rate. Further more I really don't get why the Dev would offer us a choice when it CLEARLY doesn't matter anyway? I opted not to let my temper get the better of me, as I wanted to play as a nice and well-tempered guy if the game would permit it, and indeed I seemingly got that very option early on in the game, when first enlisting. Though it really didn't matter as I was forced to attack by the game. Don't give us the illusion of choice; no choice is better than that.

The game is very dense, the pacing fast and the story somewhat confusing in the way that it's presented. While I get wanting to make the girls the focus of the game at most points the MC just feels like a useless tag-along through most of it, being dragged along as more interesting (if quite cliché) characters progress through their paths.

I didn't get to see a lot of animations before I quit but the renders are quite good, as shown by the screenshots.

Regarding lewd stuff, rather than things being a slow burn (like it so many times is the case), it felt to me much more like there just wasn't going to be any of that stuff after a while. There was no building tension, no relationship progress. There was some sexy stuff at the beginning and then nothing else. I've since found out that may be because certain choices disappear once you lock in one of the girls, but I'm not certain.

All-in-all, I thought this game was going to be trodden ground being given a fresh take but I just ended up feeling confused.

Looks good and lewd scenes animate well when there is one (which is very little right now unfortunately).

The renders and characters generally looks good. User Interface is clean but basic. Still missing basic stuff like the ability to rewatch lewd scenes.

Characters are likeable, but the story's pacing is lightning fast. Over the course of two days at college/three chapters, which is about 2 hrs of gameplay, it goes from a light-hearted, hopeful start at college to lives being at stake.

A neck-snapping tone switch and it's only been 2 days at college.

Next chapter is make or break for the story - will it stick the landing and have it make sense? We'll see.

A.O.A has the potential to eventually stand out on it's own as a great game, but it does feel like it's a work in process. This one shifted from being on the light/serious of adult VNs to something much more dark/serious. This is a slow burner.

Obviously 90% of the games on F95 are unfinished this has has some hard cuts. You can see the shift usage of "free roam" moments and the tone of lewd scenes as the updates roll in. The most recent update is very dramatic.

As a result, it feels really unbalanced and really odd in it's pacing.

I can't say it's an average game, because the presentation and quality is definitely there. The girls are all wonderful to look at and are definitely their own characters. The writing is very consistent and solid as it figured out what it wanted to do.

I actually like the current sense of danger, but probably wouldn't have started going HARD like this game did. It's a bit too much all at once. At least it ties multiple characters together in a well written way. It has completely consumed the plot, and for a good reason. It's just feels sudden and unbalanced for many of the other characters.

I don't know how AOA will end up. It is currently in the thick of something major, and I can't tell if it's how the overall game will feel.

At least it's quite engaging.

It's simply fantastic. Great story, great visuals and stellar writing. I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot if you're someone who prefers the story aspect more when it comes to these sorts of games, because it's bloody amazing in this one.

so far it's been a good story and the visuals are just awesome. i really hope to see more of this game soon.

i recommend to give it a try, there are many routes for all the girls (especially the two girls in the middle of the group photo/"thumbnail")

Lacking in orginality (college drama with cheesy romance), very vanilla softcore (boring lewd content), monstrous (8 GB) cliche Visual Novel (no believable characters or plot) with click-to-see-next-slide gameplay (a.k.a. powerpoint presentation with zero impact on story), some free roam sections with nothing to do (to cover the lack of content) and some in-game decisions (but no dialogue options) that locks your choice of girl extremely early and forces you to miss out on most content (it's been 3 episodes, almost 2 years in making and still little to no sex, slow burn, holding hands, kissing.)
The story is about young farmboy with big magic dick that goes to college and starts working as a maid there. And if you think this doesn't make any sense, just keep on playing, it gets even worse. Your father's dead, yes, very sad :fap :fap, serious health problems, yes, very sad :fap :fap, mafia wants to abduct someone :fap to that too, the list goes on. This VN uses the college trope settings (MC surrounded with young, hot and willing females) and just ruins it. It quickly becomes the teary, melodramatic, soap-opera story that you must force yourself to continue with downer, cliche, childish characters and over-the-top drama. To make things worse, MC is an useless tool (insanely annoyingly nice) with no dignity (man-servant) and zero impact on the story. And every girl here is broken and needs fixing with some sob story to boot. Also, this VN has a harem tag, but choosing a girl will lock you out of content with another girl. And if you want a specific girl you must use a walkthrough (excluding choices). The dialogue is as cringy as expected and just doesn't make much sense. For this many updates, there are almost no sex scenes (it's just another blueballing title that goes entire updates.) Boring, childish game with cheesy romance, dumb drama and little to no sex but highly overrated due to the love of the college trope.

Beautiful game that I thoroughly enjoyed playing. You can shape the path of the protagonist to fit your playstyle, and there are many different opportunities offering the player quite a bit of replayability.

Some of the best looking renders I've seen and the woman look really good.

The pacing of the game is just weird though, first time you arrive at the house of Jenny everyone is just willing to show their breasts (or worse)?
Would like to see some more tension building.
The story is a bit wacky too, but not terrible I suppose

That being said, I really enjoyed the game so far. Good start but definitely room for improvement.