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!!??
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!!??