VN - Ren'Py - Westview Academy [v0.6.4] [Tako Yuh]

- Excellent renders and animations, very realistic and smooth.
- Generic college story but I approve of musician/basketball routes
- Music is good
- Characters are so far well written

Look forward to see the development, this has ton of potenial and if developer do it right with basketball and music stuff + romances.

A steaming plate of hot garbage. The first star is because this game has some excellent visuals, like some of the best I've seen, the second star is because MC seems to be written likeable enough but those are about the extent of praise I can give to this game.

When it comes to the character development, there is none, MC meets people and immediately becomes close friends with them and gets into their inner circle after only exchanging three sentences, most of them he doesn't even exchange more than 10 words with. The pacing is all over the place.

The novel has no narrative, I don't know what this is about, there is no incentive to do anything in this game. This game is about nothing at all, just MC existing in his environment is the main narrative of this game. It's even worse for the music route because for one, the dev doesn't really understand different genres of music on a basic level as indicated by some of the choices and dialogues in the game and second, it feels like a parody, MC has sex with a married woman infront of her husband in the middle of a cafe, as in on top of one of the tables while the cafe is still open and also MC is pretending to be an employ there while a random worker of the cafe is helping him. Tell me that doesn't sound like something straight from one of those early 2000s parody movies.

Very beautiful LIs...but that's it

Pros: renders are gorgeous and original looking (I mean seriously everything from dresses, faces, body, and environment), animated scenes are pretty cool.

Cons: relationship building and time skips. I feel like pacing is a little bit fast, I would really have loved to get to know them more even if it means you know fooling around. Writing is decent but things moving too fast after just 1 or two interaction makes it come off as shallow. Second, Time skips should also be lowered cuz it seems like we jump from scenes to scene. Finally, more college stuff would be good you know like more classes and normal stuff.

Verdict: I would wait till there's actually character development and better transitions.

Game has really nice renders, writing is pretty smooth to read and people talk like real people.

One suggestion from me is to create something "unique" as the main plot point. For me the execution so far is very good but there is nothing that really stands out conceptually (e.g. BADIK story is centered around a frat, Artemis is around AI, Chasing Sunsets around estranged siblings).

Sometimes even if execution is sloppy (like Ataegina or Mist) an interesting concept is sufficient to retain readers. Just my opinion though, feel free to disregard.

This is a really good game, with funny humor, and great renders. Both paths seem like they can provide interesting content. TakoYuh seems to know what he's doing. This new update was pretty good as well. I'm excited to see where Tako takes this game in future updates!

Westview Academy [v0.4.1]
Awesome game.
Very well done renders, beaultiful girls, not filled with already known faces (at least for me), no bugs, good animations, good amount of content, good and balanced MC, i liked the writing and i didnt feel the need to skip dialogue.
There are different branches where you will have a closer contact with different girls, no forced sex, no forced relationships and no forced kinks...so if you are like me that dont like bissexual/lesbian girls you can avoid them easily. And in some stances you can even not accept a girl's invitation to go somewhere, this is quite rare.
I dont think is possible to have a single playthrough while getting all girls, so depending of which girl you want or if you want to see everything you will need more than one gameplay, and im not saying this as a bad thing, im saying this as a positive aspect of the game, to be clear.
A honestly i didnt see anything i dont like to the point of removing stars from the rating. Strongly recommend.

One of the better games I've played so far and one of the few that keeps me playing without using the auto skip function. Very good story, scenes and the choices feel like they actually matter. Definetly would recommend to anyone who is having doubt about playing it, 10/10

Cons :
Name of game is Westview Academy

2 redheads, that's two redheads too many.

No landladies or attractive milf's yet, there's that teacher but she's aight, nothing special

Jalen hasnt been signed yet

Not enough dunks or clowning on CP3

Pro's:
Basketball

A dunk

Lots of brunettes

Dev is cultured

That being said here's your 5 stars, thanks for letting me pirate your game

Very good game.

Characters in this game actually speak and act like human beings would act, which is a surprise in the most of AVNs. Very relatable and funny references and writing overall is good. Not to complicated, yet not just a simple "sex, now".

Models look very nice, lighting is on point, love the angles of the camera, and camera work in general. Game features many seemingly random animation, but I love them personally. They give life to the game and characters overall.

Game offers two major paths, whether you are into sports, particularly basketball or perhaps a musical career. Whichever you end up choosing you will not regret it.

I had fun with it, therefore I recommend it and cannot wait to see more. Overall 5 outta 5.

play v0.3.2 with french trad (which explains my poor written English, sorry) and without minigame

story: 5/5 Very good, I have never been out of the story and I am eager to know what happens next.

characters: 4/5 Pretty good, the characters are physically quite different, personality-wise they are also quite different, although in that aspect it could be even better.

sex scene: 2/5 Quite few for now, but the big drawback is that they are really too short, which leaves no room to feel any kind of eroticism.

renders: 5/5 The game is truly magnificent, with some very good ideas for staging.

animation: 4/5 They are completely smooth and quite well done, but just like what I mentioned about the sex scenes, there are very few of them.

sound: Unfortunately, like in many games, there are dull moments.

gameplay: 4/5 There are enough choices with consequences.

Just found out about this this morning totally by accident on another obscure game's Discord (won't name it but it rhymes with lemon.... but I'll stay on topic ) and got to say I was quite impressed. Very sweet VN, love the high quality renders, the humor, quite interesting characters especially your friend is a total bro so far very likeable.

Each girls are quite good too but I got to say Alyssa is my favorite even though it seems like she is the one that will take a while to develop intimately I suppose I should be happy with holding hands scene from the photoshot for now and maybe in the 4th episode we will finally get a hug from her (I know such a degenerate behavior). All jokes aside there are other good and interesting LIs there for each taste.

The pacing is good, seems like the story progress goes fairly quickly without wasting time or unnecessary filler which is always welcome, the music choices are also great, jokes on points, also the little effects enhance them. Overall the quality is on point.

I also liked that early story branch for the upcoming career focus Sport/Music and I was quite surprised to see different scenes and on my both save files. I hope the the dev manages to develop both paths without being overwhelmed.

To end the review I can say I was quite impressed by this and seeing it coming out on Steam is also a great plus. Added it to my wishlist and will definitely get it once it releases. Wish the dev all the best luck with this project and hope to see this little gem finished because it has a very good potential.

Honestly, this game's story is a mess to a point where you hardly even comprehend what and why is happening.
Intro feels jagged af:
Episodes this game let you be the witness of feel just as disjointed.
Characters are not being consistent in their personality so you are not able to relate to what they are trying to be.

nice visuals tho, overall a waste of time in current state imo.

Easily one of the best new games on this site. If the developer continues at this rate, I am confident this game will grow quickly. The writing is good and all the girls look so unique than other games. The big thing though is that they also look real. The girls, the clothes, the environment, the situation etc. Also, the dev is trying new and interesting things with the renders and animations, which sets this one apart. Can't wait to see more.

For three chapters, this seemed a little short, but I enjoyed what was there. The renders are all made well, the writing is pretty good, and all the LI's are interesting. They all play into a typical troupe, but there's a reason why it's so common, it works. I think everything could be written with a bit more depth, as it is, conversations feel too short and lack depth. There was also some weird conversations around the coach not starting the MC, that I feel could use a rewrite. It's not made clear what exactly the coach is saying, and it feels abrupt from the scene before it. Also the coach basically saying he was wrong, after a single exhibition game, was weird.

I definitely look forward to seeing what else is in store for this game, and hopefully with the Steam release, updates become a bit meatier. I feel like the entire story could use a touch up though, giving more dialogue and depth to the characters. There's just not enough here to really hook you in, and feels more like a rush through a crowded theme park. You enjoy your time, but there's just not enough time spent to enrich the experience.

Based on 0.3.1
So far, very good game, indeed. Maybe not the most original premise, but writing is pretty decent, story is easy going, as good schnapps. MC is not brainless hormon overpumed creep who's every second thought is -ooo, boobz, what an booty, I'd bang that, I'd desecrate this...
Renders are good, there are plenty of nice looking female NPC's - for all tastes.
At the moment, there is not much of sex content, but most importantly, none of it is forced, so player have freedom to choose with whom to hook-up MC.
There are mini-games, but it's not pain in the ass and it's easy doable.
Would recommend to others.

The narrative style in Westview Academy is somewhat unorthodox. It almost feels a little episodic because you are always jumping to certain interactions between the protagonists. As a result, I didn't always find it easy to tell who was a real LI and which characters were just driving the plot forward.

The teacher for instance? Honestly not sure. Is Mary a LI? Or Kiara? I couldn't tell you by just playing the game. You could argue that makes it more real since in real life you always have to act based on limited information about your surroundings and about people you just met. But it also feels a bit imprecise and makes you wonder whether you closed a potential LI path in favor of a random character. It's not bothering me that much but I noticed.

On the other hand, I really like the division into a music and a sports main path. I don't know where this will lead in the end, the development is not far enough along for that, but such decisions feel as if you as a player have a lot of influence on what happens.
Many smaller decisions, on the other hand, seem to be mainly flavour, whether I react angrily or calmly, whether I am very convinced of myself or have doubts. It remains to be seen if that has any impact whatsoever.

I would probably give Westview Academy four stars at the moment, but I'm giving it a fifth star for potential. There are many conflicts and issues that are only hinted at so far and I think as the plot progresses, some of them will intermingle and create an exciting overall picture.

The mini-games that the game has are entertaining and not annoying, so I would recommend everyone to leave them activated. If necessary, you can always rewind and try again.

Update for v.0.6.4 - Haven't played since v.3 or something.

TLDR: Visuals are fun, unique, and creative. Mind blowing, in fact. Character models are hot as fuck. Actual writing is pretty terrible and sex scenes are robotic. I'd just grab the update to look at the gallery in the future. It's not bad but I just don't have the kind of time I used to have anymore. (Coincidentally, a lot of people have reached the same conclusions about the visuals and writing.)

• I think the dev's started to get a better handle on letting things build up and providing details but after playing this again, I think the only things that really shine are 1. The visuals are fun and creative and 2. The character models are all really fucking hot.
• The dialogue is just not good. It reminds me of every shitty writer in this generation.
• Grammar is worse than I remembered. A lot of "they" "them" when it doesn't make sense. (Referring to a guy and "he" is even used in literally the next sentence. Confusing. Instances of British-English when I'm pretty sure this is set in the States. It's actually starting to help me narrow down where exactly all these translation companies are outsourcing their translations to for them to all suck this bad.
• The actual plot is boring. The main draw is the love interests but not in the romantic aspect. It's just because they all look incredible. But the actual sex scenes are underwhelming.
• But hiring a writer is probably useless since you're probably going to get the same level of tired, old "spunky millennial" type of shit. Once you see the patterns, you never stop seeing them.

Original Review:
It's good. It has my kind of humor with all the random effects and setups thrown in.

• Characters all look attractive. It's actually weird that they look better in the game than what's shown in the preview screenshots
• It's just that I feel like something's missing or that the story goes too fast. Like I need more context or fleshing out of scenarios. Seems like it just jumps from one thing to the next. It always feel like it's just "half of a scene" for some reason if that makes sense. There are times where you're kind of forced to infer a lot of things.
• Also, the mini-games come at really random times and catch you off guard.
• Some warning or notice would be nice for the slideshows too . I had to just guess half of the time when I was supposed to start clicking again.
• Sometimes there's music and sometimes there's not.
• Overall, this was a good find. I don't really know why I thought the renders didn't look that great from the previews but it kept me from trying this for a long time. Still, I just wish the writing for scenes was fleshed out more. Feels like everything goes too quick or again just more context that needs to be added. Feels kind of like half-ideas written down on the back of napkin then not expanding on them to flesh it out in full. Even in just the form of exposition narration through inner monologue. Idk.

Dear TakoYuh,

Pretty good game, loved the presentation, clever use of UI, random animations and automatic sequences. Interesting camera angles, good dialogue flow and good humor. Lighting is vastly different from what I do which leans more on the darker side so that's a plus to me. Something different to appreciate.
I noticed a few noisy backgrounds and one missing image on my playthrough but they didn't impend the gameplay and story at all.

Personally I went with Jordan which is the best to me, no competition. But the selection of ladies is wide and I'm sure anyone will find their own dream girl.

At this point it was an easy 5 stars for me. But then something terrible happened... I noticed a serious lack of mommies and that, just pulled the whole experience to a 2 stars...
As I kept going though, I never stumbled upon a single yoga scene.
So We're back at 4.4 stars.

Now as for the dev, knowing him a little, I rate him 0.2 stars so added to score would make 4.6. Rounded to 5 stars.

Good job my friend. Will never play again. Too jealous.

-LeIGN

This game is in my top 10 for AVNs without a doubt. What is not to love about this game? An amazing bestfriend, beautiful women, hilarious moments. The potential of this game is limitless and I can't wait to see how it progresses.

Review of Version 0.3.1.

I just discovered this game and enjoyed it. The story is interesting and the characters don't seem to be dull sex objects. Yes, there is one or two that seem that way, but that that is ok. I can't say much for the sound because I don't use sound when playing first playthroughs of games. I get distracted from the text otherwise.
There characters are very different in looks and body styles. I like this a lot. My favorite character at the moment is Leslie, BUT there are others that could take that spot as the story progresses. This game has a lot of potential. I'm looking forward to the next update.