Ren'Py - Academy: Live! [v0.08.1a Alpha] [passhonQ]

Definitely a lot of potential with great execution thus far.

Storyline is realistic, Gameplay structure is there, and the girls have distinct personalities.

Only downside I can see this project taking awhile to fully flesh out the less important students.

Version 0.08.1 Alpha

This definitely went much better than I expected. Academy Live boasts adequate storytelling, interesting characters, comedy and dialogue as well as a nice gameplay experience that balances resource management and choices without getting too convoluted.

Although it is not as famous or well-rated as the other two similar "MC runs schools to corrupt girls" counterparts, I personally felt Live is just as good, if not slightly better.

Story
After getting fired from his teaching job, MC was offered the role of a Chief Academic Officer for a private academy for working adults. Turns out said academy is simply a front to run a reality TV show with hidden cameras for elite subscribers to satisfy their voyeurism on female students.

Thus begins MC's role to facilitate scenarios to corrupt and have sex with the girls in school to pander to the viewing audience. Four students are identified as popular enough to be appointed as main targets and they are basically your main LIs for this game.

A notable observation is this developer is very good at posing and using sound effects to drive home humour and WTF moments. A lot of subtle changes in facial expressions match the dialogue and makes what is essentially a corruption driven story funny and endearing at the same time.

Game Mechanics
It's a creatively blended setup that borrows elements from visual novel choices and resource management without descending into the usual sandbox grind. You mainly juggle between various points like board satisfaction, student trust, perversion, viewership, academy results etc. using a combination of policy setting and in game VN choices.

Many of these choices are similar to the ones found in VN like allowing you to reject side girls, avoid NTR, increase corruption or love elements with the LIs etc. The catch is these choices all come with costs - a lot of times they will result in changes to some points which you will have to in turn find some other way to balance them back.

For e.g. if you choose to reject certain acts with a LI, this will lead to a drop in board satisfaction and viewership which you then have to be more spontaneous on other fronts to compensate and bring these points up to avoid a game over.

Background / Character Renders
Although made with Koikatsu, the character renders are actually quite different from the usual fare made with a similar engine. The character designs are much more intricate and "solid" with an end result that looks like a halfway house between standard Koikatsu assets and conventional anime.

For someone like me who doesn't like Koikatsu, this is a great plus.

Character Development
I wasn't expecting much given the premise of this genre, but am pleased to report the characters are actually very well modelled and multi-dimensional. For a start, MC is surprisingly not a total jerk. Most of the time he does what he needs to do to corrupt the girls and placate the board, but within that he seems to also care about the LIs.

LIs like Emie and Mai are somewhat tropey playing the archetype of the innocent virgin and bimbo respectively, but it's well-executed even for a trope. It doesn't come across as cringey and makes you go "not again".

My initial impression of Izumi is that of the typical nympho nerd you see in AVNs, but turns out the developer assigned this trope to a minor character Yoko instead. Izumi is more of a smart girl who has quite bit of emotional back story and also some perverted kinks which MC gets to unravel as he interacts more with her.

Haruka is a pleasant surprise and highlight of the whole game. She started off playing the usual slut role, the kind writers use to introduce sex scenes early in the game while other LIs are still warming up. But it turns out she has a very robust character build up - funny, quirky, pals with the MC, kinky during sex and even ends up being his co-conspirator in the academy. Most of the comedic moments come from her.

Sex Scene
Impressive for a Koikatsu game - all of them come up adequate sexual tension build up by dialogue, BGM and sound effects. The animations are superb with good camera angles (many scenes have multiple angles you can switch at anytime you want) and the attention to detail especially facial expressions is not something you see often in Koikatsu.

Some of the notable scenes like Emie's deflowering (one of the best virgin scenes I have seen to date), kinky high energy scene with Haruka at home, Izumi's masturbation in the toilet listening to audio erotica and also the domination of Natsuha were fun.

BGM and Sound Effects
There are enough BGMs to fit the mood from serious to funny to kinky. Sound effects are mainly used to drive home certain dramatic scenarios and also sometimes during lewd scenes.

Conclusion
Academy Live is a pretty innovative all-rounder game which you can't tell from the way it's marketed. It features a system that amalgamates macro attributes management with visual novel flow without the nitty gritty micro decisions.

The renders are different from the usual Koikatsu types and should appeal to players who prefer conventional anime. The story is standard for the school management cum corruption genre, but the commonality is more than compensated by good humor, interesting characters and nicely done NSFW scenes.

Great game so far. Not gonna criticize any of the gameplay elements, since they're not developed yet, and i hope that the dev doesn't get lost in the sauce trying to add too many features in that regard. But the story and the girls are A+ material, and subverted some expectations in that regard. Was actually disappointed when i reached the end of current content, and will be watching future development with interest!

The positive point of this game is that it has a good and different story, now the negative is that the entire gameplay and map of it is very boring and frustrating since the game is made to end on a certain day of the week, that is, it doesn't matter if you saw a certain event or not, when that day comes the game simply ends and you can't do anything, you can't continue playing or unlocking scenes that are still in the gallery, so you have to wait for the next update to see a certain scene, this shouldn't happen when all the current content is finished, the game should send us back to the map to continue playing, I can't have a good game precisely because I have to keep worrying about what day the game will end, man, this is too boring, if it was going to be like this, why not make a normal game? Without a map, just with the story? It would definitely be much better than the way the game is now

Had a ton of fun with this game. Graphics are done well. I enjoy the sound effects. Spanking scenes are top tier. Choices have a lot of meaning. The management system has a very good base as well. I can tell this is going to be one of the greats on this site!

Excellent take on the popular setting where the main character is the principal (or has a similar role of authority) in a school that has some perverted secret goal. As is typical for this genre, it is in the form of a sandbox. The sandbox format is often problematic, but here it works quite well. There are some inefficiencies in the sandbox interface that seem related to future expansions.
There is a very good plot that draws you in and keeps coming up with surprises. It is also quite funny.
The game features excellent Koikatsu graphics. Towards the end of the current content (as of version 0.07.3), there is a very sensual defloration scene. At the most critical moment, part of the scene is pixelized. But instead of being annoying censorship, this is actually a hilarious visual joke. (We are not missing anything important.)

good game so far the animations are very well done. the character models are great and the story is a very interesting concept that is executed well. i also very much like the ability to change the story depending on your chooses. i also think the school management is so far well implemented. im interested to see where this game will be when the final update comes out .

Fascinating, can't wait for more content. The swinging doesn't feel too force and the urge to fall and dominate the main targets it's great. Also, needs more services on npcs and main protagonist but it's ok, as I said, can't wait for more

[v0.06.2]

Despite all prerequisites for success it manages to miss an opportunity and focus on boring stuff. Its in early stages of development, and maybe there is more content planned for daily activities. But right now its not even good for quick fap, because of all the text I have to read to get to next scene.

Pros:
+ Nice models with distinct look and realistic proportions
+ All sex scenes are animated
+ Every girl has some kink
+ Good premise for a sandbox game
+ No grind, except reading overblown dialogs

Cons:
- You cant walk around. You could look at the hidden cameras, but there is only 1 event at a time, if anything happens at all.
- There is too much dialog to read and just a few actions to choose from.
- MC is passive, everything happens to him in a strictly scripted order.
- Sex scenes have too much empty dialogs to skip.
- Transitions are annoying. Even if you turn them off in options menu, there are still frames without text that stick for a second before moving forward.
- Girls dont act according to their stats, they jump on you even with zero corruption stat.
- The 'Board' requests predict what 'spontaneous' events wil happen during the week.
- Annoying male characters. A bunch of criminals and nerds, that I'd like to expel from the academy but have to deal with.

The direction and production are excellent. The frame & camera angle is very well done. The appearance of the characters, their type corresponds — very well + with their actions and erotic scenes. All characters are interesting, there are no empty ones. The humor is top-notch. The sex is varied, not typical, thoughtful. The animations are very decent. This game is an example to follow in its setting, especially considering the plot basis, which fits perfectly into the local logic of the world.

I liked the game very much, and the very concept and implementation and design, everything was done "perfectly", although it would be nice to add the tolerance that is so fashionable now and more random factors. I would really like to see pretty boys in the role of "traps" and gender diversity itself in general, as well as even more coercion, as in the case of Ayumi and Soushi. I will be happy to buy the game, but I can only do it on Steam.

Really enjonyed this. Love the scenes and the art but I like the writing, dialogue and characters way more than I expected so that surprised me and there's quite a lot of content as well. Overall, I definitely recommend trying this game.

+ Insanely good project. Scenes are great. Characters looks hot (some more than others). The story is even believable (that says a lot!).
- The only downside that it's a fast burn: you jump into action (sex) way too quick, so you're missing so many opportunities to get more blackmail/tease/seduce/corrupt less spicy scenes that would fit perfectly and develop farther action.

Maybe you could delay/postpone those scenes that we already have and insert some lesser action moments before? It would open up so much opportunies to make more great content.


Anyway, my big thanks for your work <3

I was pleasantly surprised by this given I wasnt sure what exactly I was getting into... What I got was the beginnings to a well-thought out and explained psychological game with porn which gave me Bible Black vibes. Models are peak Koikatsu, especially Maiya. I hate to beat the "potential" dead horse some more, but that's what this is as the creator seems interested in making the sharing optional for two seperate paths. An ambitious game with extremely high potential and a dev who puts forth max effort. I highly recommend this as an AVN lover if nothing else to just keep up with, and not just as a bro of the dev... (To be fair and admit the truth), but someone who enjoyed what passhonQ did here.

This game is definitely worth checking out. It might have some familiar settings, but the way it's put together really raises the bar. In headmaster, I just couldn't get invested enough to want to read through the text, but this game really nails it.

The characters here are unique and interesting, not just lifeless mannequins. This makes for some funny dialogues and scenes that keep you entertained. Even though it's still early in development, there are already enough hot scenes and content to keep you busy for a day.

The gameplay is still a work in progress, but it looks promising and should add a lot to the game, which for now feels more like a visual novel.

Is it worth the download? At the time I'm writing this review (v0.05 alpha), yes it is worth the download. It's not too long partly because it's still in early development but it has enough content to give you a very concrete idea of where the dev is going with this game. if you want some more details on the game, well, let me list them as much as I can without spoiling the important details of the story.

Positives

• The writing for the sex scenes is excellent. I mean that in every way, the angles the camera takes, the dirty talking that happens thorought the scene, the storytelling through background and position changes to tell the passage of time instead of fading to black or straight up cutting thorought is much appreciated.
• IT HAS GAMEPLAY!? Biggest surprise here, it's not a cut and dry vn where you ONLY make closed question type of choices (which mind you, can still be ok if it were, many games pull it off decently well). Academy: Live! features an actual management simulation game that has you making a few choices of how to lead your school, reviewing your objectives for the week,checking students stats and bios which do change. And somehow, this doesn't feel like an overwhelming system. It's fairly easy to grasp and adds another layer of choices that have the chance of varying your gameplay or run. Bear in mind, however, that it's still evidently in the works as one of the most interesting functions is still just there without having much impact if at all, more on this later at the Negatives list.
• The character writing is good. It's not stellar, definitely not DrPinkCake level of character writing, but this game sells you the current characters' personalities quite well. As of now, many characters in the student body are barebones in their personality mostly because some of them we haven't even met properly. Some of the ones we do get to know are even stereotypically anime. BUT, it's pulled off decently so they do come out as perfectly different for now. Haruka is the one that stands out the most and shows that passhonQ knows how to write good characters that feel like their own person.So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that we have to let him cook, as many characters here could end up being surprisingly well written. It's not the main point of an eroge (), but good character writing is always appreciated imo.
• It has animations and they're good. Not much needs to be added here, I'd even blend this point into my first point but I think this is still a good thing to point out since I wouldn't mind if it had no animations, but I know many othersdo, so there you go, the tag doesn't lie, there are animations, and they're goodso they don't detract from the amazing writing for the sex scenes.

Negatives

• Character design feels too basic. This is almost a nothingburger complaint, and while it is appreciated that character design is not a fiesta of over the top looking students. I found myself confused at who some of the characters were because their design made it so they blended into eachother. Nanako, Sayoko and Satsuki were near impossible for me to distinguish from one another. HOWEVER, I want to believe it's because there's no content for those girls so that would explain why we haven't properly met them, thus they blend together as "the people we don't actually know yet".
• No way of knowing what student will have an interaction when called. I mentioned this in the Positives list, during the management game phase, you can call a student to your office and check for how their studies are going or go for a special interaction. I did mention and the game does tell you that this system is still in the works and it's mostly there to show you how it will work. Well, as of now, IT DOES HAVE a special interaction implemented that I lucked into because of all my available calls to do during this version, I happened to call a student that had a scene attached to the Call Student game mechanic, I was just trying to see if any of them had dialogue or reacted to current/recent events, well they do, and I don't recall getting any clear indicator telling me that I should call that student myself for a special interaction. This tells me that there's a big chance that in the future, I could call the wrong students and miss out on scenes because you can only call one per day. And with no indication, it's very likely you don't choose the 1 student out of the 17 or 18 students that have a pending interaction. This should be solved pronto, as I really don't like the idea of missing out, and I doubt other people would think differently.
• Too much ambition and that is scary. Writting a game with multiple characters that react to dialogue and events is difficult. There's ~27 named characters in this story. That just spells writter ticking time bomb to me as a fellow aspiring VN writer. Juggling that amount of characters will make writting and coding the dialogue a lengthier process for all scenes, not just sex scenes, while this is manageable at first. As a story progresses, it becomes an exponentially bigger mess. I know that the setting calls for many characters to be in the story, and I know the game explicitly tells you it will only focus majorly on the story of 3 or 4 students at most. Which is wise, and a temporary solve, but it will only delay the problem because these characters still exist and can still be called an interacted with, they will all obviously have scenes of their own and have their own bio to boot. Make your cast too big and your updates will grow exponentially slower each update because stories and events will intertwine and will need to check many flags and change accordingly. I HOPE that psshonQ has a plan to avoid falling into an extreme update slowdown due to the size of the character cast, because it would be sad to see another game with tons of potential fall into the "1 or 2 updates per year" territory.

LASTLY AND MOST IMPORTANTLY:
Don't let these negatives I listed deter you from Watching this thread or supporting passhonQ (the Dev). Academy: Live! is very interesting idea for a VN. The first negative, as I said, is mostly a nothingburger, the second negative will most likely be solved by the time the Student Call function is properly implemented. And while the third negative is actually scary to think about, I believe this game and the dev are worth supporting. Thanks for reading through my comprehensive review. Academy: Live! has tons of potential and for this version, on massive potential alone, I believe it deserves a rating of

5/5

I love the scenes, especially the ones with Haruka. but I feel like MC needs a better personality where he commands more power. Seems to me he lets everyone run over him, even tho he is the highest-position staff in the school. Hopefully, in future releases, MC will become more dominant and more self-assured when he adjusts to the position. At this point, he behaves like a student rather than a Principal.

(Also game has really heavy opening sequence, that really needs to be fixed, it drags on for far too long.)

Will come back after a few more updates, don't let the negative comments demoralize you, I think the game has promise, Good Luck.

Promising start and a lot of potential imho, girls are cute, scenes are nice, looks like our choices will matter and we will have to balance between love/corruption and what our employers want.

Just keep in mind it's not a power fantasy, MC is more like normal guy that found himself out in this weird situation and trying to get the best out of it for himself - and it's the same for other characters.

review for v.0.0.5a.

was expecting so much more due to the premise, but got some boring barely any degen weak ass corruption, where everyone just seems to jump on mc's cock at first sight.
mc exists i guess, not much to say about him, barely a character, bit too passive for the type of character he supposed to be tho.
girls are cute, scenes are mid at best.

Very decent quality 'management-style-lite' school game where you play as a teacher of an already corrupt (but wait, there's more.. ) school.

The scenes and animation is good (providing you like the art style, I realise there's plenty of people who don't).

The writing is decent although it's easy to argue there's a little too much for a porn game (but hey, that's what the skip function is for if you don't like it).

Altogether, a decent start to a fairly high quality game in this genre. Looking forward to more to come.

Worth noting that it seems as though most non-vanilla kinks are avoidable through choice in the game (so far I've seen urination/choking/ntr all as optional, as an example). Also worth noting that I think there's implied NTR that isn't skippable (this is assuming you class NTR as literally anybody other than MC having sex with a woman in the game, I know opinions differ).

Man, it's rough writing reviews objectively.

tl;dr, Game good, worth a look.