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

I took a break for a few months and didn't play this game hoping for the best after a couple of updates. But unfortunately, as much as I don't want to admit it, it got even worse.
This project attracted me with awesome renders, but I stayed because of the story that started so well. After a few updates, the plot has ceased to be as fascinating and intriguing as it was at the beginning. I thought that the dev just has a small creative crisis and after a couple of updates everything will be back... But no, the plot still has big problems. And I don't even know the specific reasons, I just lost my interest in this narrative.
Now I continue to play only because of the beautiful renders, high-quality animations, music... But I still hope that this game will be great again someday.

A.O.A Academy is a victim of its authors ambitions. It attempts to make a slow-burn college romance with a MC whose farm-boy charms and massive penis help soothe the damaged souls of the impossibly beautiful women that come into contact with him. A Visual Novel with multiple branching romantic trees and mutually exclusive actions and scenarios that, I expect, were intended to mesh seemlessly, and in the early chapters it works pretty well. In the later chapters however, things begin to unravel as the villian plot gets sillier, the characters including the MC start making poor and oddly irrational choices, and the branching romances begin to overwhelm the author with scenes getting repeated with different simultaneous love interests.



It's not all doom and gloom as I'll illustrate now.



Pros:

1. The renders are some of the highest quality I've seen in a visual novel as are the variety of faces, hairstyles, and characters. A lot of work was done to make sure the various love interests were easy to differentiate. No plethora of tractor tire breasts as far as the eye can see. Background characters are also rendered well and there are numerous non-love interest men and women you interact with who are also well rendered and unique.



2. Music. It's there, and it's excellent. It does a great job of setting the mood and keeping you emotionally invested in the story and characters, like a good movie soundtrack does.



3. The animations are very well done. There are quite a few non-erotic animations, flowing hair, blinking eyes, etc which make the characters feel more alive. The sex animations are also well-done with lengthy setups and executions and multiple stages filled with dialogue that gives a mental account of what the characters are feeling to go along with what the animations and still frames are showing.



4. The story is, in the early stages, entertaining and with a decent setup. You're leaving the farm after a tragedy and joining a college program that just so happens to be filled with beautiful troubled women with extensive backstories that can only be cured by your folksy charm and massive erection!



5. Long story, and I mean LONG. A lot happens and a lot is said about what happens, and that's not including the numerous mutually exclusive paths you can take with different characters. You might take Jenny out for a date which can take a solid 30 to 45 minutes of scenes and dialogue, or go to the movies with group of possible love interests which will take a similar amount of time. This VN is insanely long given the short time the author has been working on it.





Cons:

1. The plot after Chapter 2. As of writing there are 5 chapters, and everything after Chapter 2 quickly devolves into what Roger Ebert coined The Idiot Plot, defined as when a movie would end within five minutes if the characters weren't idiots. Starting in Chapter 3, the MC and his love interests begin making uncharacteristically fatalistic and irrational decisions despite the villain of the series making blunders that would get even the most well-connected mobster thrown in prison with ease. At one point a character is kidnapped at gunpoint in front of witnesses and not only is nothing done at the time, but the other characters return to their dorm as if there's nothing more to be done. They can't even be bothered to make the effort to contact people that might be able to help, or to even inform other important characters what has transpired. After the kidnapping is resolved, no one even discusses how they could bring the perpetrators to justice, which is insane given that the plot itself was executed terribly and would have left an easily traceable electronic paper trail. This continues on into the 4th and 5th chapters with the MC and love interests continuing to be act perplexed at the very notion that the law, despite it's alleged corruption, might actually help them with their problems. "Oh gee, he's just so powerful" with no real evidence to the contrary.



2. The series is a slow-burn, but an inconsistent one. Some love interests are ready to get down within minutes of seeing the MC while others don't have a single scene after five chapters. As far as sex, despite an epic length of 10 - 20 hours depending on how fast you read, there are only two or three characters you actually reach home base with. There's no group sex yet though it has been teased, and while there are non-sex intimate moments, most of them end with a rather lukewarm hand-job or mutual masturbation. I appreciate a good slow burn, but given the time involved the MC should be further along by this point.



3. The author does a poor job of letting you know when a choice you make is going to lock in a love interest and exclude others. You might be expecting to eventually get in good with a particular character only to find out that you’re missing all the romantic scenes because a choice made far earlier locked you out of that path without any warning. Scrappy’s Mod is a must, though I would prefer if the author simply made it crystal clear when these choices occurred. “If you click yes, you will get to romance Ashley, but you will no longer be able to romance Jenny. FAIR WARNING!!”



4. While some love interests are locked out by choices, others seem to not care that you’re dating others. Useful if the author intends some type of harem building later on, but in this case, it leads to a lot of buggy scenes where you’ll trigger a love interest to converse with you at the back of the bus followed by a jealous glare by another, and then the scene will play over again with a different love interest who is also jealously glared at by another. At a party, I had a love interest approach me on a balcony until we’re interrupted by a shout off-screen. Instead of cutting to the new situation, I reappeared at the balcony and a different love interested had basically the same conversation the previous one had followed by the same off-screen shout! In Chapter 4 I had two different love interests fetch the same medical kit for me so that the other could talk about her feelings. This should be easy to fix but these bugs have persisted for several chapters, and they’re quite immersion-breaking.



In summary, there is potential here. The sex scenes, when they finally arrive, are well-animated and well-written. The love interests are gorgeous with well fleshed out backstories and interesting personality quirks. If the author can get the plot back to a saner level, clean up some of the older bugs, and expand on the less advanced love interest paths, it could easily be one of the best VNs on F95. As it is now, I’d say it’s a solid 2 ½. There’s potential, but the current issues really bring the enjoyment down.



On a side note, much is made of the MC’s massive penis. Normally this is enjoyable wish fulfillment, but for some reason the author has decided to have it cause more scenes to end disappointingly than anything else! More than one erotic scene is ruined because a love interest couldn’t fit the MC’s girth into… well, pick a hole. A puzzling choice, having the player all ready to finally get a sex scene after 15 hours of play time only to find that it just doesn’t fit, so settle for a weak hand job. REALLY!!??

play chap3.gold in french trad (which explains my poor written English, sorry)

story: 2/5 I don't know if it's due to the translation, but we quickly get away from the story which seems much too convoluted
characters: 4/5 Many characters a little too stereotyped, but overall we are happy with the variety offered
sex scene: 1/5 You really have to be patient! Especially since as said before the story did not hook me
renders: 5/5 là Nothing to say, it's really the positive point of the game! It's absolutely beautiful
animation: 4/5 very good
sound: excellent !
gameplay: 5/5 complete and satisfactory!

I have mixed feelings about this game. I've started and stopped this one a number of times because for what it does do right it does just as much wrong. There are some spoilers in this so be warned if you don't want that.

When it comes to the visuals of the game the bulk of them are done really well but they aren't perfect. There are some that are that are overly noisy and even a few with clipping cloths. For example you can see the MC's nipples poking out of his shirt and an LI's underboob coming out of a towel she is wrapped up in. The lighting and environment shadows are also done well I think so it adds to the overall feel of the scenes and that's a plus. The few videos that are actually in this are also hit or miss. The animations are smooth for the most part but it almost feels like they are rendered at 15 FPS so they all seem like they play in slow motion. Some of them don't make any physical sense though. There will be an "animation" of one of the LI's standing in a bathroom with the only animated part being her hair blowing in the wind for some reason. If the visuals are what draws you to these things then you may like looking at he the pretty pictures but to me there is more to a VN than that, and that's where the problems start.

The story of the game is a mess in how it is delivered and is also full of holes and missed or conveniently placed pieces of information. It also changes dramatically from the prologue to the rest of the game. It starts off as a slice of life or a new beginning kind of game where the MC has some unfortunate thing happen and then he starts over somewhere else to make someone proud etc.. etc.. But even that is steamrolled into the story and happens just to happen and to magically re-introduced you to someone you haven't seen in years. The story progresses some and again this great opportunity lands in your lap and you are off to collage where of course, the person you reconnected with is also going and it just so happens she is already in love with you. More things happen and you now have a job in an all girls house that pays absurd amounts of money, so yeah that good too I guess. There are other scenes there that I will touch on later but that general feel that you get from the prologue is quickly swept under the rug and completely switches gears after that. You will see people claiming it as a bait and switch and I can honestly see why. The introductory scenes of the game and story are not at all what the game is like, it's the complete opposite in fact.

The choices are another area that the game does poorly. The vast majority of them are completely hollow and the only thing that changes is the immediate line of dialogue that follows. You are given choices of how you want to approach a scene but in the end it doesn't matter because there is only ever one "right" choice. No matter what you choose the scene will play out in the same way just with slightly different dialogue making them irrelevant. You can try to have opinion and be cool headed but the scenes themselves have other plans. The actions and responses are going to play out in one way, just to make them and the story work. There aren't branching paths or different outcomes except for one and that is a result of getting close to one of the LIs and not so much about the choices at all. Its the same with the choices for the LIs. You are given two choices (sometimes) when talking to them, one gives you points for them because they like or love it the other doesn't. You can't lose points with them at all so there is no real reason to pick the one that doesn't unless you are trying to roleplay but even that is again, just a brief change in dialogue, the scene plays out the same way. The dialogues themselves are riddled with grammatical errors. Nearly every line uses a wrong word almost always having to do with past tense. There are many missuses of knew, can't ant don't that can make it a chore to read on account of constantly having your brain correct the lines. Also the incorrect gender is used many times. She for he, his for her and so on that get annoying to sort out.

The story itself is greatly centered around on of the LIs past, Valery. So much so that she could replace the MC and probably make for a great KN with a little work. You as the actual MC/Player have almost nothing to do with the plot aside from being used as a tool by one of the other LI's brother. Just something to get what he want, nothing more. He says he is after you all because you insulted him, another choice that was helpfully made for you by the dev. But he just comes across as some Disney villain in the end. But he also has the means to contact and hire the cartel to try and kill you and this Valery, who by the way is already being pursued by the exact same people because of more ham-fisted reasons. This particular branch of the cartel is also the only criminal organization in the world that has a rule about not killing anyone in law enfacement, just to keep one of the characters alive for the sake of the story. That character is involved in the outcome I brought up earlier. If you get close to Valery and learn her and his pats he somehow survives a scene later but if you don't he dies. It doesn't make any sense but that's how it is.

As for getting close to the LIs. The game seems to be designed around a Harem playstyle. The extra scenes and plot points are spread around between the different LI's scenes but making a better connection to them and seeing their extra personal scenes plays out much, much better if you focus on just one of them at a time. But doing that leaves the player in the dark about what is going on and will have the character, the MC included, talking about and preforming actions to scenes and information the player hasn't even seen. It's made worse but the minefield that is the arbitrary free roam. Sometimes you can talk to and get to know everyone but most times you can only hang out with one of them before you are shuffled along to the next part of the story, missing out on plot points that are needed to understand what's going on. Another reason I say it plays better as a one on one. You can't get to know everyone at the same level at the same time because the game wont let you but at the same time according to the game you have to and already have even though that's not the case at all. They main LI's stories and personalities are done well so it's easy to make a connection to them. But their content is so spread out and disjointed like the rest of the plots. There are some very sweet and emotional scenes with the girls that really shine but they are dragged down by pacing and an at best mediocre overall plot. If the game focused more on that it would be much better in my opinion. Instead if focuses on a poorly thought out story.

When it comes the the story and lewd content it is hugely unbalanced. As of writing this there is one more chapter to go until the end of the whole first season and the bulk of the LI's lewd content culminates in a kiss. Because for some reason nearly everyone at this collage is a virgin, the MC included. The ones who aren't have a "past" that conveniently delays any kind of lewd progression with them. Unless of course you are pursuing Jade. She is the low hanging fruit of this one and easily has the most lewd content. Content that includes the MC at any rate. Most of that kind of content is just part of the "Gold" feature of the game and that is little more that poorly delivered fan service of the girls just walking around their house naked for some reason. I'm all for a slow burn, it's one of my biggest draws to these things but this is something else entirely. Almost all of the scenes involving the MC and LIs are just abruptly stopped for unrealistic reasons. The LI can clearly be into what is going on the the MC will have some kind of inner monologue where he has some sort of epiphany and has to stop to make sure the girls are okay because it's not right somehow. Then there will be a scene where the MC will keep going and the LI will say they aren't ready for "that" because you have only known each other for a few day, another convenient tool and excuse the dev uses to delay the lewd progression and by association the overall development time of the game. The scenes I mentioned earlier in the prologue are the exception. You are literally given the choice to see on of the LIs topples if you want to. A choice that actually does something unlike the others but that stops at the start of the first chapter. You are also given the opportunity to get a BJ on your very first day or feel up one of the girls just to have her say it's moving to fast after said prologue. When it comes to picking someone to see topless it doesn't matter who because they forget about it after the prologue anyway. You can get a point with the LI you choose but that about it. Say you pick this Valery again, she will be topless without a problem but later after getting to know her even more she will be embarrassed to show them because her tough and bold exterior is really just a façade. It won't even be brought up that you have seen them before, possibly multiple time before depending on your choices. Because the prologue is for nothing more that getting people to play it seems.

One of the best games in this style,beautiful renders.Girls are one of the best looking in all games.Story is pretty nice maybe little slow pacing but that's okay.Gameplay is nice and smooth,developer is nice,posts previews for little money and all.

One of the best games on this site, my only issue is with the pacing of the story..other than that it's pretty amazing, and probably the best looking VN out there. Give it a try, you will not be disappointed.

This VN has some exceptional renders and animations! I just finish Ch.5 this week, after re-playing it again from the beginning!
The characters look fantastic, each with a different backstory and unique feel to them!

What I don't like that much is a part of the story, not the college or mafia part, that's fine for me, the author can take this wherever. But the excess dialog between different LI/characters where the MC isn't present makes this feel like a TV series or a Movie, for me!

That's my nitpick, overall still 5 ★

(Review is for Ch. 5 Gold)

I kind of really don't know what rating to give this as 3 stars seems low and 4 seems high. The best way to describe it is "Good, but -".

The MC is the classic "wish fulfillment" type: hung like a horse and every girl likes him even though he really doesn't have much else going for him. It's not a huge negative since so many VNs do this, but the only other nice thing you can say about him is that at least he's not a complete jackass.

The story is...surprisingly interesting, as a concept. More on that in a bit. The collection of main girls hits the general categories you'd expect, but several of them have a bit of a dark past that gives them some moral ambiguity, which is kind of a breath of fresh air. The big problem is that a few of the girls are developed strikingly more than the others, and this is not immediately obvious. Furthermore, hang out with the wrong girl and you're off the path for a different one. So if you happen to fancy someone who isn't one of the few who have more screen time, you're left with a bunch of stuff you're less interested in until you get to the occasional scrap of a scene with the girl you wanted to pursue. Of course, if you happen to like one of the more developed ones, this is less of a problem.

The really big problem with the story is the absolutely atrocious pacing. The entire story so far takes place over, like, a week. In this week everyone has developed these incredibly deep, long lasting feelings for each other. Granted, in said week the characters have all "been through some shit", but for most people, you might go get a coffee with them after a week. The other problem with the story is its (to this point) main villain. It's completely fine to have a villain who is just completely unlikable, but said villain still has to make sense. This one isn't a "I just want to see it burn down" type. Instead, they dedicate themselves to ruining another character's life...for no real apparent reason, at least not one that you end up seeing. The villain doesn't even seem to feel strongly one way or another about doing it. And while the villain does stand to gain financially from doing so, they're already in a position where the target of their ire isn't competing with them at all, and they seemingly have the resources to go buy a handful of Senators. It would be like if a mafia boss who was running a 9-figure criminal enterprise suddenly knocked over a convenience store for the $73 in the register and a pack of gum.

The other thing that deserves criticism is the fact that the game's writing desperately needs proofreading. It doesn't even get the names of its own characters correct at points, and some of the dialogue feels like it came from a Google translate. I don't know if the author is a native English speaker (and it's obviously more forgivable if they're not) but still, the writing desperately needs proofreading.

So like I said, "Good, but -". There's some potential here and the story could still go in interesting places. But even if the girls don't get equal screen time, the story really needs some better pacing if it's going to be as enjoyable as it could be.

Pacing is a huge issue. Through the 2nd chapter, this is slice of life with a little nudity sprinkled in. If I wasn't using the walkthrough, I think I'd probably be completely lost, because even with the dialog pop-ups, it feels like the story is just meant to go in a certain direction regardless of the MC.

I definitely dislike the "oh no, you didn't spend enough time, or get enough love points with this one girl so you get to see the "bad ending" (while not really an ending, there are things in the walkthrough that have made me notice I'm seeing scenes from the opposite side). In this case, rather than having a certain replayability factor, it's just cumbersome and off-putting. The pace doesn't really make me want to go back to see other branches, and I dislike just clicking through dialog.

this game started really well and has amazing renders and very beautiful girls but the MC is so passive, i really hope the coming updates will have him doing more, so far he has been only a sex toy and isn't even thinking on how to solve the problems they're facing

(Edited for version 0.5 Gold)

Welcome to MrDiabetes 5 Star Reviews! Each one of my reviews does a deep dive on the 5 main points to every game covered. From Gameplay, Story Progression, Character Development, Audio and Visuals. Then, each point is rated 1-10 and tallied together for the final rating. Now, each of my reviews contain a TLR analysis section at the end. So, with that let's go!

-Warning this review contains "HEAVY-SPILERS" so please be advised-

1. Gameplay - 2/10

Oof.. idk where to begin with this but here we go. The gameplay design for this VN is game breaking awful IMO. There are multiple scene triggers that happen with no flow continuity in the slightest. For example, early in the game there are two paths and avoiding one means you still are not introduced to a character. Fast forward to the next appearance and it is like intros are made and everything. There are no two options like it was assumed you would always be introduced to her at a certain point but failing to remember there was an option where you do not. This happens consistently throughout the game. Using a walkthrough, it is possible to romance multiple girls and remain on their path. However, doing so can cause story flow breaking scenes to trigger. Like "oh where were xxx and MC at huh?" then flashing back for the same walk-in but with a different girl “oh where were yyy and MC at huh?". The whole experience is weird because the game does not allow for any proper transitions. Free roams exist in the game but tbh they are so lackluster with only a few options that they should not exist. The phone in the game appears at the most random time. With next to no content and a janky phone messenger that does not always give alerts to when you do receive a text. On top of force closing itself after you read a message. Again, it should not exist and just be a static thing the MC does in the story. Which funnily enough it is, and it works that way. Making the whole experience even more frustrating. With the current version (0.5 Gold) there are a few broken scenes in the game which do not play such as the intro cinematic within the first 5 minutes. This category is easy too rate because there is just so many negative things about it. That the only thing it does right is still let you progress towards the end without shutting down the whole game.

2. Story Progression - 3/10

This is going to be the hardest part for me to write. As a person who has played and followed A.O.A. since release I am highly disappointed with this game. The first two CH. are IMO top notch. You meet new people, a little drama for everyone, you gauge who your MG might be, just a little slice of life college VN that has some interesting stories and experiences. Then BAMM!! We are deep into the Cartel world now baby!! One of the MG has a dark past involving the Cartel and are out to kill her. Now, I do not want to really judge too harshly here because it is the direction the developer wanted to take his game and that is fine. The problem is that it last way too long, kills the mood it established, and alienates certain girls from the game (with only one of the MG actually able to help/be involved and the rest standing around saying “I wish I could help somehow countless times.). Now I have heard from multiple people this game is supposed to be a harem type game, but from my runs I would have to strongly disagree. The best way to play this game is to pick which girl you want to romance in CH 1, grab a walkthrough and use it to make sure you do not build too many points with the other girls, or you will break the story. This game IMO is designed to pick a singular girl and ride it out, but somehow it seems like the developer forgot a few times and lets you romance more than one girl. Now the problem with this is as I mentioned before cause breaks in the story that mess up the flow of the game. However, the biggest problem is the fact each girl you meet that is romanceable seems like a MG but some of them do not get any real development until the end of CH 4!! On top of that each girl you try to have sex with (if you can even do that at this point) just results into some petting which makes this seems like a slow burn when it does not really have the vibe for one. Like how many virgins are in this fictional world it is insane. The only redeeming quality is that one of the girl's is a former prostitute and you have more sex with her by CH 5 than you do with all other MG combined. *sigh* Okay ending this one here and honestly this rating is purely based on initially built nostalgia or it would be lower.

3. Character Development - 4/10

Kicking this section off with the MC all I can really say is.... ugh.. His story is that of a country, in the woods, farm town hick that ventures into college life after his father passes. He has basic values and treats everyone he meets with respect (unless they overly continue to make him angry). And this is where his likeable features end if you thought they even were. Because this carries over to sex scenes and inner dialog that is overtly cringe af. Like I think of myself as a pushover/ overly nice person to people but this guy takes it too the extremes of not believable in the slightest. Well, you do not want to believe it but it just gets hammered into you like a big borollic black guy name Raquis. Honestly, it is tolerable until you get to the sex scenes. Then you feel like all the weebs who just hit space bar or hold alt to skip dialog and watch the sex because you would rather not read the inner monologs or constant pillow talk which is just saying the other person's name 900 times.
(Here is a little visual rep. of what I am hinting at. Imagine the MC as a cute little puppy. Everyone loves it and it loves everyone it sees. Now imagine a cute girl in front of it holding a treat. The puppy is super excited and acts like it cares deeply for the girl constantly dangling the treat in front of them. Then out of nowhere another cute girl shows up with a different treat. Instead of the second girl being present the entire time and the puppy giving mixed signals to both girls to the point where the other just accepts what is happening if they are not chosen. Instead the puppy made the initial girl think she was the only one in the world it cared about. Just to all of the sudden switch direction without any indication as to why it even did it. And since its a puppy it does not know itself or even think to itself that it should have handled things differently. Now go one layer deeper and instead of two girls imagine there are 8 of them. As you could probably imagine if someone actually acted like this as a person it would be dumb af and kind of fucked up. But this is exactly how this games MC handles situations and that's why I strongly recommend always pursuing one girl.)

Switching over to the MG(s) this is a mixed bag. While I am not going to delve deeply into each character I will say that most of the stories are wholesome. Which is why I would again recommend playing this game with a singular girl in mind and sticking to that path if possible. The main problem is you have a 50-50 shot of picking a girl who gives you no real meaningful interacting until late CH 4 which depending on the speed you play might take 15+ hours. Honestly if someone told me what I am telling you I would have given this game a higher rating here. I will say if you read this far. If you like Jenny, Valery, Ashley, and maybe Jade or Victoria then stick to their stories solely on the first run until the end.

4. Audio - 9/10

This is the best part about this game tbh. There are a few loveable songs that I looked up outside the game to listen too while I drove that set the mood well for me when I first started playing. Most of the scenes in the game transition well between songs. Which is hard for any developer to do. Take for example Summer's Gone. That game has some bangers but there are certain parts where you cycle a song every 10 scenes and it just ruins the mood. But A.O.A. IMO really nailed it here. The sound effects are well timed and not overly done. And even the simple beat music does a decent job of setting the atmosphere for most parts of the story.

5. Visuals - 9/10

Okay this gets a high rating simply because it does one thing right, The MG are simply gorgeous and honestly I like every model. The lighting has few issues and the only real mistakes I caught were just by chance. The animations in the game are smooth and nice to look at and the overall aesthetic of the game just seems well rendered.

TLR

The game has pacing issues, story breaking design flaws, and a questionable main story line. However, if you can look past that the visuals are top notch, it has great audio, and some of the girls have interesting stories that you can get invested into. I will be back to update this review with hopefully a better result. Despite my rating this game is still in the top ten for me on f95.

I give this game 27/50 or 2.7 out of 5 stars.

Honestly, it's a bit puzzling to see how low this game is rated. Yes, the story/script might seem a bit weak at the moment , but that's not everything there is to a VN...and it surely doesn't warrants a 1*. Anyway.. this is one of the best looking games I have ever played, the quality of renders is second to none, beautiful models, nice music, top-notch animations, good story telling( at least for me), decent amount of lewd content (considering this is just chapter 5) and it gets regular updates (every 4-5 months) with around 3000 renders per update...definitely a lot better than some other higher rated games on this site...eagerly waiting for the next update.

I came for the renders, but unfortunately that's about all this game has going for it. The author is really trying to write an interesting story but it's just slow and boring. This game is the epitome of a GRIND and not even a worthwhile one.

Great Visuals and almost all of the girls are really great and different from each other with a unique story behind them. But this game is honestly missed potential and that is beacause of how ridiculous the story is. so many actions from characters that just don't make any sese (Adam mostly). The dev made a huge mistake picking to write this sort of mafia story because atm he is just way out of his element.

let me tell you the art of this game is the most beautifull i have ever seen in a game ... seriously the models are soo high quality and the story is good so far although no sex as of now but i feel it's going to be a reward for me when it happens. thank you to the devs for this gem of a game

Incredible Visuals Mired by Problematic Storytelling
A v0.5 review. Spoilers ahead.

There's no way around it, this game is visually stunning. High-definition renders, beautiful detail, incredibly smooth animations (if you can find them) to go along with a cast of very good-looking girls. If this game isn't the best-looking game on the site, I would certainly like to play one that's better.

You can probably nitpick a few things about the renders, sure. But it's a pretty scant list. Some of the girls' posing is ridiculous (e.g. they'll have their heels hovering off the ground even in high heels), or certain scenes try too hard to create the DreamGirl aesthetic by oversaturating the render, or certain framing/blocking critiques, or the fact that you still can't tell the difference between Rebecca and Aurora's faces. But if visuals are all you're looking for, then by all means, play this game.

Once you get past the beautiful renders, however, all sorts of problems arise.

I believe the game has heart. The characters are all written as human, albeit with incredibly melodramatic backgrounds. The MC isn't someone who just waltzes into their lives and behaves like a dick to them and yet they like it. There's an attempt—an earnest attempt—at elevating girls beyond the generic sexdolls you see in a lot of games. Unfortunately, these attempts are often hit or miss.

The game is not explicitly a harem game, but yet it's written in a way that should lend itself as a harem game, or at least harem-adjacent (allowing you to romance all the characters before deciding at the very end).

Why? Because pretty much every significant scene is shared with a love interest. There's no stock of background characters that serve as neutral parties or non-romantic plot-important actors. Pretty much everyone the MC interacts with is a potential love interest, a filler character just to make the scene seem less empty, or related to the big bad. There's no buddy or major supporting characters who have scenes which don't devolve into flirting. It's just one scene with someone who wants to fuck the MC into another scene with someone else who wants to fuck the MC. And if you choose not to pursue them (or often, pursue someone else), you just skip their scenes altogether, including relevant plot-important information therein.

It doesn't make sense in this game to close off routes or have diametrically opposing branching paths, because cutting off these characters also cuts off valuable plot development at the same time, contributing to the weird staccato storytelling that's already a problem in the game as is.

You're left in this simmering crockpot of sexual tension at all times, but pick the wrong move and, for reasons beyond comprehension, you might lock yourself out with a completely unrelated character. Playing this game without a walkthrough is utterly impossible. Why would agreeing to study with one character lock you out from dating another? Why would agreeing to go to breakfast keep you from interacting with someone completely unrelated? Who knows, but it happens a lot in this game. You essentially need to play the same VN a half dozen times (with a walkthrough) to get all the content, and there's still plenty of opportunities to fuck it up.

The writing is certainly questionable. The MC is this hopelessly naive man from Hicksville McHickerton, and yet everyone is charmed by this. Half the girls are apparently virgins willing to get topless in front of the MC the first time they met him. The Big Bad is more of a snivelling sociopathic pain-in-the-ass than a real menace. Rather than inspiring any real dread, most scenes you just end up wanting to slap him for being an edgy dork. The girls in Jenny's program often have so over the top awful backgrounds that you blow past the threshold of actually caring about them and start rolling your eyes at the absurdity of the storytelling.

Consistency is almost nonexistent. The Academy is presented as this huge, impressive building with a multistory dormitory. But apparently it's also so arcane that you can't just Google Maps the location and have to resort to trolling around asking random girls on the street. And why are these gangsters approaching girls and creeping them out instead of just trying to be cordial to local men who might not be on as high alert about them approaching them? Why are some characters sometimes sometimes clairvoyant to the point of being able to tell someone is a bad person just at first glance, or intimate that something weird is happening if a girl talks to a student in a letterman's jacket, but utterly obtuse on other occasions? The mysteries never cease.

Treatment of the characters is extremely uneven. Jenny is pretty much front and center throughout the game. If you want to romance Elizabeth or Aurora you're left with table scraps in the few scenes they're actually on screen. SungJi is arguably worse, since a lot of her scenes are gated behind Ashley, who is arguably the token "other route" in the game besides the Jenny/Valery A Plot.

None of this would be a problem, except for the fact that if you do want to romance Aurora or Elizabeth, for instance, you would have to essentially neglect all of Ashley, Jenny, and Valery, and be left with a game with almost no relevant scenes except a bad crime thriller—where you're missing a lot of context, because for whatever genius reason that's also packed in with Jenny or Valery scenes.

Pacing is all kinds of fucked. The game essentially progresses on a day-by-day basis. But all that means is essentially everything happens within a week in game. Everything seems to move at turbo speed. You essentially have girls completely falling in love within 36 hours, and it takes you all of about 3 days before you can seduce your teacher despite sharing all of four scenes with her. Characters and scenes don't have time to breathe. It's like a bad porn parody of 24.

That's not to say that the scenes with the girls aren't nice (if you manage to get them). They are, with strong emotional notes and tender, quieter human moments. They just happen much too quickly—to the point where it would make a lot more sense if the events of the VN were spaced out over weeks or even months. The MC is enrolled for the whole year, right? Why not use the time given? Why is he trying to speedrun the whole college experience in his first week?

The curious, frankly bizarre choice to pack so much of the story in so little in-game time makes the entire story feel strange. It attempts to be an organized crime thriller in the middle of a young love novel, weaving in moments where you're supposed to be scared for your life in between casual dates in the park or steamy makeout sessions on the street. Much of the ridiculousness seems to stem from this all-too-short timeframe, but a lot of it is simply arbitrary, like being unable to have a conversation in your room with another character after coming back to your dorm around 9 in the evening.

This game has a lot of potential, but the developer badly needs a new writer or editor, and learn to pace and arrange the scenes. And for god's sake allow people to talk to all the characters in the game without arbitrarily cutting off their future scenes just because you decided to hug another girl.

I've tried playing this a few times since it's launch and can't never stick with it. For a game that has such solid renders, it's amazing just how bad it is.

Sentences don't make sense and characters say and do really stupid things. It's not natural. As an example; it's not a spoiler to say the guys father just died. Why then, when he calls his long lost childhood best friend does he not mention that? Why doesn't she ask how his dad is? Why doesn't he really mention it in any conversation with anyone, unless they "somehow" get a sense that his dad isn't around anymore. It's so dumb, and thats one of the most minor issues I'm seeing. Let's not even get into the fact that the rich chick that part owns the school he goes to seems to just take her top off and get him to feel her boobs for no reason.

And all of that would be fine if you just wanted some fap material, but it's clear the dev is trying to not go down the fap game path because they're trying to make it about the story (I think).

And if that's the case, the developer needs to hire a significantly better writer, and get things rewritten. I swear if I had free time and energy I'd do it voluntarily, because the bones of a good story are there - just hidden in poor writing and super unnatural flow.

Oh and if you decide to try this, take some painkillers first, and then make sure you save before EVERY decision. You'll say yes to hanging out with someone, and then a few minutes later you'll find out you missed hanging out with someone else. You don't even get the choice of cancelling on the first person. I'm guessing the idea is that you absolutely ignore everyone except the one person you want to pursue?

Anyway, it gets 2 stars because the renders are much better than the average game.

Great renders, great animations, and actually a really great story. I skipped it a couple times and decided to actually read it and enjoyed it. The only gripe I have is how choices are made and how content gets locked. I am totally ok with girls getting locked out and having to make choices. But if I have made those firm choices, and then made every good choice with someone like Valerie, why would I miss content with her based on choices that are not clear. If that was cleared up on what the choices I am making are doing, it would be one of the best games there is.

This one started out with a lot of promise, great character design with a lot of diversity but the story is bland? Don't know how else I can describe it, I feel that the game itself is trying to cockblock me at every turn really. The story in some phases outright ignore the choice you have made rendering them useless and other times insignificant choices locking you out of paths doesn't really make any sense to me. Last but not least I can honestly say that lewd content is kept to the minimal to say the least! I can't really recommend this game to anyone as I feel that there are plenty more games worth the time you would invest playing it, I might come back when it's completed and see if anything will be changed by then but as of now(chapter-5) it's just... bad!