Ren'Py - Tales of Magic School [v0.1.62] [Livia_isButterfly]

As of 12/20/24 I've upgraded my review of this game. I like the characters, the plot seems interesting, and I enjoy playing it. I have upgraded my rating of this game because the playability has improved and most of the crashes are gone. I'm still not happy with the deliberately slow (tho quicker than before) check for paid content at the beginning, and some of the mechanics of the hint system are more convoluted than they could be.

I have a feeling I'd enjoy this game if it wasn't so buggy. I like the characters and the plot so far, but exceptions occur too often to have any confidence that the story is going to unfold in a reasonable way, particularly since the hints sometimes don't seem to result in the progress they promise. I may upgrade my rating if the devs straighten out the code and make things run smoothly (and get rid of a deliberately slow check for a premium DLC). One straightforward bug example is the lack of an increment of the variable spd_mall_guys when that is needed to allow progress with a couple different LIs. (Devs -- get a handle on program state and where and how it is supposed to change) The way to do this is to set up a data structure that holds the game state in one place, so you don't have to have spaghetti code that jumps all over the place checking which events have fired. With the game state stored in one structure, you can get a better handle on interdependencies that may lead to unstable game states or inadvertently make certain routes impossible. Right now, if you don't try going to the station park in the mornings before school, you can miss out on the possibility to follow 2 LIs paths, but there's no indication in the game that this is what is needed.

Cant really say if the story is any good or not, angels and deamons could have some potential, but starting but getting told your a servant to some big titted bimbo isent really something i am into, but maybe its not as bad as it sounds? no femdom tag in any case to we will see.

MCs mother makes little to no sense, see through clothes showing off her tits seems way off in a none incest game and just gives a weird wibe, and why MC is talking with hes mother about sex and how great a body she has makes 0 sense, and we all know it will lead to MC fucking her to in a no incest game....

Story dosent line up with choices, like sumire and her friends talking about MC peeping on her in the dressing room, i never did such thing i picked the right room on first pick..

Interface is absolutly shit, many times you cant scroll back when you want to, annoying map where you have to click phone then map then location its just to much clicking around, even when at school you need to click bottom of screen to open map, no quick save, eveything is just annoying.
And i barely got started before i ran into a renpy error screen...

The guide is awefull, you have to pay money to open guides for each girl and money is not that easy to get, and nothing is really explained to you so all you can do is guess.

Dialogs cant get on your nerves to, that talk with aunt suzanne MC constantly and i do mean every time he talks to her he starts with Aunt suzanne.....its idiotic like the player would forget who MC is talking to every 2 seconds.....
Most dialogs are really boring, like talking to girls it makes you think of a job interview its just weird.

MC also has some kind of medical issue that makes him get a boner from nothing, even girls with all their clothes on,

I had to give it up just to many errors, and no clue how where the 5gigs of content would be, opening clues would take forever and when you pay 100$ to open a single clue and you get in development it just gets pointless, i know i had to get strength but no gym and no idea how to open it, under mother it says find law firm....sure hmm how? game is really just a waste of time as it is now.

Review For Tales Of Magic School V0.9.200
To start this review, I must admit that my initial expectations for this game were not particularly high. However, the fact that it is a parody of the high school dxd series caught my attention, since it is one of my favourite harem animes. Additionally, I observed that there are not many fangames available for this well-known series. Despite the rather lacking overview, I decided to give it a chance.
1.The Main Character
Starting with the main character, he takes the place of Issei (the mc of the show this game parodies) and follows some of the events that the show had Issei go through, which I liked. However, the main character for this game has a completely laid-back personality in contrast to his anime variant, who is perverted and goofy. Overall, he is a good man with nothing particularly unique about him besides his obvious powers, but he serves his purpose as a passable protagonist.
2.The Main Girls
The main girls in this game are the same as those in the show, with the addition of some custom characters created by the developer. They have been expertly crafted to match their anime counterparts, which is a testament to the developer's skill. However, the only minor issue I have is with their names. While it makes sense for them to have different names in a parody, I have played other games where the original names were kept without any problems. It feels strange to refer to these characters by their parody names, so I mentally correct it every time I read their dialogue. Nevertheless, the girls are excellent and I have no complaints about their portrayal.
3.The Main Story
Next up is the main plot of the game, which loosely follows the anime while incorporating fresh and captivating events. Although it contains some clichés, it effectively conveys its message. The plot is currently straightforward and not overly complex, but there is potential for more intriguing moments in the future. However, due to the sandbox nature of the game, the plot may deviate from its intended direction, which can disrupt the flow of the story.
4.The Sandbox
When it comes to the sandbox aspect of the game, it is a significant component of the gameplay and is quickly accessed. Personally, I have a preference for sandboxes that are executed correctly, which unfortunately is not the case with this game. To elaborate further, there are several features that any decent sandbox should possess, such as a quest log or a hint system to guide players towards new events. Regrettably, this game lacks such mechanics and leaves players to navigate through various areas with minimal instructions. While it may not be challenging to progress through the story during the first few days of gameplay, once the introduction ends, players are left to wander aimlessly and click through countless areas in hopes of activating an event. This is not an ideal approach for any sandbox game. In fact, this issue became so frustrating that I contemplated deleting the game altogether. In conclusion, the sandbox aspect of the game requires significant improvement, and I believe that the game would have been better if it were a full visual novel, as the sandbox element holds it back.
5.The Sex Scenes
One of the key aspects of a porn game is the sexual encounters. Based on the current state of the game, the animations are satisfactory and utilizes the Koikatsu engine. While it is unclear to me if the developer has incorporated custom animations, the current animations are standard presets that fulfill their intended purpose. There is certainly room for improvement in future updates, but the current state of the game is satisfactory.
My Final Thoughts
Upon completing the entirety of the current content, I have observed that this game has potential. However, one of the main factors hindering its success is the badly executed sandbox feature. Additionally, the storyline could benefit from further development. Currently, I would rate this game with three stars. I am confident that with the developers' unwavering dedication and commitment to the project's continuation, it has the potential to become an exceptional game. Thank you for taking the time to read my review, and I wish you a pleasant day.

1 star because is unplayable, just at the start after talking with the mom the game ask you if you want to "skip to the next day" or "save the game", I choose sabe the game and then I could close the save screen, I had to go to the main menu to start again, then the next day in the school you are talking with two students and ask them something, I don't know what I could ask them because from nowhere I got an error, I restarted the game tried again and the game didn't give me an error but I have nothing to do, there aren't decisions or anything. Terrible game. And at the start it confused me that thing about "Skip to the next day", it makes more sense if the option say "go to sleep", because is night time and he is going to sleep, he is not going to skip a day.

Too broken to play.

First time download, and no mods, so nothing to mess with the game files, and I'm five minutes into the game and stuck. I've had two ren'py screen bugs. The first I could ignore and continue through. The second, when I hit ignore, it takes me back to the game, but I can't click on or interact with anything.

If I can't continue past being in school and the two other male students talking to me, then I can't play the game. And any game so broken you can't play it can't be rated any better than 1 star, because you can't actually experience it.

So, in my limited time, what else did I think?
Mom, in see through lingerie, seems a weird thing to put in a game without any incest tag.

Dialog is clunky. If I want to get a glass of water before bed, and mom asks what I'm doing, and I tell her "getting a drink before bed, because I have school tomorrow," having her tell me, like four times over, "You shouldn't be awake, you have school tomorrow" just feels.... stupid. Like my character was conversing with a bad chat AI who didn't grasp the context of what I was saying or why.

Why, when she left, did she tell me "don't tell your father about this?" when literally all i did was walk to the kitchen for a glass of water? Like, is he a hardass? Unreasonable? Would the MC get in trouble for getting water before bed? Just another example of dialog being weird.

Why is MC tatted up all over? Even the mini-flashback of working out over break shows less tattoos, so apparently they're new? Maybe this would be addressed later in the game, but I'll never know, as the game is broken.

Another thing about tattoos, and these games? In Japan, tattoos are a big taboo. They're not socially acceptable, and people with tattoos are seen suspiciously. Some of that prejudice may be slowly going away, but it is still there. It seems so weird to me that MCs and LIs in these games, especially the ones that take place in Japan in some way, shape or form, are tatted up.

Look, maybe there is some rough writing that needs to be addressed. Maybe the dev has plans for a decent story. But as long as the game is so buggy is can not actually be played, it is a complete waste of time to download. Move on, find something else.

For a first public alpha build, I've seen more rough projects. The game itself seems interesting and there has been a lot of care put into it so far. Something that surprised me is that it already has music and sfx. Usually that stuff gets added in later or not at all, and I am not one who enjoys silent games. The UI looks pretty good too, with some unique UI stuff I've not seen yet - and I've played pretty much all of these Koikatsu games.

This is very much an alpha though. Some of the shots with characters feel really stiff. The biggest turn-off for many will be very rough english. It is simple sentences and broken grammar, with some dialogue not being english at all, presumably a bug. Some of the humor still worked for me though, the game got a few chuckles out of me.

Even if you can't tolerate the broken english at this point, I do feel that this one is worth a watch. I look forward to checking up on it again in the future. Some of the earlier shots might need revisiting at some point once the dev is more experienced, but their main priority at this point should be readability. All the polish can come later.