VN - Ren'Py - Westview Academy [v0.6.2] [Tako Yuh]

[Reviewed v0.6.2]

This has the makings of a top-tier game -- it features high production values and a compelling (if cliche) story. It is undeniably inspired by those other massively-popular, college-bro, multiple love interest titles and it doesn't measure up in overall quality, but there's not much wrong with this one -- if you don't mind a lot of familiar beats from other games.

Premise: Disgraced former high school basketball player MC arrives at university looking for a fresh start, but is pulled back into familiar problems.

The Good ()

• High production values -- the game just looks great
• Gorgeous, hyper-detailed models and renders
• A diversity of love interests with different personalities and body types
• You can pursue multiple love interests without obviously excluding the others (so far)
• Well-executed cinematography and visual storytelling
• Good animations
• Hours and hours of content
• The plot forces the MC to make a choice of basketball or music focus, which results in choice-specific storylines with different groups of LIs

The Not-So-Good ()

• The beginning starts a bit slow / takes a bit to buy into the narrative -- I almost bailed on the game before coming back and giving it a chance
• Your mileage may vary with the sidekick / roommate who gets a lot of screen time
• Some scenes jump around narratively -- you just had an important basketball game and then the story jumps to going on a random date
• Most the female characters are very quick to cozy up to the MC in a very accelerated way

Overall, a promising title with great content and beautiful character models. Can't go wrong.

I feel like this game is really underrated

I enjoyed playing this game firstly due to how humorous most dialogues are
Jayden, MCs best friend is extremely hilarious and he does weird stuff time to time that can make anyone laugh

Mc himself is funny as well, especially with some of his dialogues

All of the girls are unique in their own ways, and they look quite good as well

If you are looking for am avn that can make you laugh and comes with a good story, look no further than this one

Top-Class Game Design, Image Rendering and Animations. If quite impressive the interactions that are available and the large number of choices and paths that a player has.

With multiple "Career" Paths for the Protagonist with a difference experience for each Path you can see the fine Game Design and 100's perhaps 1,000's of Hours that have gone into the creation of this Visual Novel.

My complaints which I expressed to the Creator was being Scolded in-game by the MC Mother in a Cutscene about modifying my Own Save Game and that doing so made me a Coward as oppose to Someone that Wants to Play the Game The Way They Want to Play It.

Also the MC is TOO Tentative. Plenty of Times he should have just "Gone for It" but falls back talk talk talk Talk! (A Little Less Talk A Little more Action by MC)

Outside of those Complaint I look forward to Financially supporting this project after further conideration. 9/10

Good graphics and some attractive LIs, but the content is not appropriately spread between them. Some LIs already have 3 lewd scenes while others have none. The lewd scenes themselves are not even that satisfying. How does Alyssa's lewd scene have no dialogue at all??

Also the writing and story are very uninspired. I think the setting itself (a college slice-of-life type story) could be fine, but this just seems very directionless and not funny.

the overall lighting in the game feels excessively dark. The dimmed lights inside buildings and even the sunlight seem subdued, creating an atmosphere that strains the eyes and feels uncomfortable during extended play sessions.

It would be great if you could brighten the lighting slightly—both indoors and outdoors—to enhance visibility and make the experience more enjoyable.

Thank you for your hard work, and I appreciate you taking this into consideration!

I really enjoyed this! It has everything needed for a great story. It's funny and sometimes hilarious. The characters are genuine and original with their own personalities. The render quality and the writing are top notch. Hard not to fall in love with Alyssa. Keeps me wanting more. Good luck with this and other future projects.

i’ve been enjoying it so far. i’ve followed this since its initial release, and the developer has shown remarkable growth. i always believed the game had potential. while i feel that each update adds only a small amount of gameplay, every update feels entirely worth it. If this approach helps maintain or even improve the quality, i certainly don’t mind.

the renders are stunning and visually impressive. i particularly love the story, which doesn’t feel “forced.” Each LI has their own distinct personality and doesn’t overly try to grab the MC’s attention in an aggressive way or throwing themselves at the MC. some people might find the choice of a linear route rather dull, but i see it as a positive decision by the developer, especially in the midst of so many other Visual Novel where it’s too easy for the MC to form a harem or casually pursue multiple LIs.

additionally, the choice of background music is spot-on, and the side characters feel alive, not just there as filler, they feel genuinely dynamic and more than just “NPCs.”

i hope the developer continues to give their best with every update. this has undoubtedly become one of my favourite visual novels, and i might consider supporting the developer in the near future.

really enjoying it so far.... the soundtracks, the renders, the character models, writing, everything feels on point. honestly cant wait for the next update. keep up the good work. good luck with this. everyone including me wants more frequent updates but take as much time as you want to make sure the quality remains the priority

WOW! Just played this first time at version 0.6. The artwork is just so good and the music just elevates the scene to other level. Also really like the dialog and relationships with girls. Also like both main plot lines and feels like lot of great content coming up.

I played this game some time ago, I guess it was 0.3. It had potential at the time, the renders were good, the plot was missing a bit.
But as of now the game really stood up, the plot is linear without any incredible drama but it makes you bond with the characters, the music, or simply the way the story is. What I'm trying to say is the dev is really skilled also in the "writing", combined with his elite renders this put the game in the A tiers.

I like that you can't bang everyone, if you choose a girl then the others will be opt out. I hope the dev keep this up, there is a simple branching for every girl, but it is well made and not forced like some other games out there. Or the harem game where you can do a +- of the number of girls you want and they stay motionless on the background ( not literally but I hope you get what I mean)

I played this game a long time ago, when it was still in a very poorly worked version, in fact I think that in those times, there was also the “aquainted” game although I'm not sure, however, I liked it a lot as it has very good characters and a very good humorous vibe. Now that I play it, I love to see how the game is progressing along a romantic/humoristic branch.

This game has some strange vibe. It is a bit goofy, I guess... The atmosphere is pretty light. And all the girls are nice. By nice, I mean looks like that are all pretty decent people. Yes, some are more shy than the others, but that is it. No crazy bitches, no overbearing dramas. At least for now. I dig it a lot. Recommend from me.

I think the humour on this game is very good, if you want to just laugh at random scenes playing a visual novel I think this is the one.
In terms of actual visual novel things I liked the visuals alot, and there are some sex scenes and pretty good romance with some LI's, but the humour is definitely what made this game a 5 star for me.

A comedy trapped in the body of a dating sim. Good visuals, light.

There are a lot of characters and the split between music and sports is interesting as an idea, the cast breaks up based on that, so if you want to see everyone you need to hit a lot of different branches.

This is a good game. Writing is solid, some player choice, good pacing, and nice graphics. For how long its been in development it also has a solid amount of content. The story line is progressing, albeit there hasn't really been an inciting incident yet - more of a slice of life game so far.

The two concerns I have is 1: too many characters, 2: branches too much. In the long haul this will dilute the quality of the game, since character progression will be bogged down by the size of the cast and the varying choices a player makes.

Really amazing visuals. Production values are off the charts with this game. And I haven't seen any spelling errors, either. The MC is not a complete and total loser; the choices seem significant and meaningful (I hate when games only offer choices like 'blowjob or sex?' and give no power to effect the story). Everything about this game screams "PROFESSIONALLY MADE".... except....

The story is all over the place. It's incredibly common in Westview Academy for there to be a whole conversation where someone is identified only as "?" - so if i have no clue who is talking. And then, when they are introduced later, I suppose the player is supposed to piece together the context clues and figure out the background, but that doesn't work when there are 60 fucking characters!
Also, the continuity is a complete mess. Take the first party the MC goes to. He brings along Haley, the shy/quiet girl who lives in the dorm room near his own. Haley's uncomfortable at the party, so the MC sits outside with her until some other girl comes along and chats with them. Then the MC goes inside and Haley is never seen nor heard from again for the rest of the party! Like.... what? Did a wormhole open up and transport her to a different universe?
That's just one example, but it happens with a sad regularity. It's like Westview Academy is written by a team of a dozen people who have never once spoken to each other about what the game is about.

And really, I hate having to give this an 'average' rating, because so much of it is truly outstanding. But we're talking about Adult Visual Novels here. If the story is nonsensical, it can't be a 5-star game, no matter how pretty it looks.

The story is very funny The renders are absolutely gorgeous and many of the girls are beautiful. I cannot wait to see where this game goes. My only gripe is the story jumps around a little bit, but seeing as it is the dev's first game they are doing wonderful.

It has some good parts, but the game is fundamentally derailed by the player's inability to choose NOT to do things. In most games, you have an option to not follow a girl's path and not go with her to do boring things, and instead focus on the girls you're interested in. Here, you spend the majority of your time going along with uninteresting things, and there's no momentum for either the plot or the chosen girl(s).
I don't mind mandatory harem games, but this isn't one. You have the option to not have sex, but you don't have the option to focus on what you're interested in. Ultimately, I just couldn't get into it.
The sex scenes aren't that good either.

Severely underrated game at the moment and is up with some of the other most high-quality contenders within this category of AVN.

Animations, writing, and renders are all quality and beautiful to look at. The story isn't great and the pacing is off but hope it ramps up in future updates.

I recommend anyone who enjoys the school setting trope and is looking for something similar but different. New enough to be interesting but not straying far from what we love about this genre in the first place.

Build 0.4.1

This is really a 3.5/5 VN, but I didn't think it deserved the full 3/5 rating so I stuck with 4 stars. The mini games aren't fun at all, so just go ahead and turn those off. The story alright, funny at times and completely nonsensical. Giving the option to have a sports or music career? Bruh, come on. If you're gonna go that far, just making them a future actor/software creator too. Go all out on the "jobs no one would ever be able to do and be good at all at once." Anyway, the models are nice and the animations, while relatively basic, hold up.

The story isn't that interesting and you'll find yourself wondering if you should skip or not. I'd recommend not otherwise you may miss something important with one of the characters. Alyssa, the girl from the main image, is a stuck up b**** and not likable in the least. The only reason to romance her is to see if there will be any sex scene with her in the future. Next to the MC she's the most bland character in the bunch and about as tasteless as the chicken taco's described by the MC. The MC is a decent enough person, depending on what choices you make for him, but he's a really bland character that seemingly stumbles through life getting opportunities thrown at him left and right while seemingly not achieving anything of substance. Even the meeting with the sports agent is so bland I literally skipped half way through the dialogue choices because I simply didn't care. And so far he's doing a great job of either building a harem or ending up alone, I can't tell which this VN is going for. Not that it's a bad thing I just wish the VN was a little more clear on whether any of these relationships will have any real bearing on the story.

Anyway, the one story that seems to be worth seeing this through for is that of the one surrounding Mary, a very late introduced character that seems to have a past with the MC but he seems to see her as a sister more than what it seems she's hoping for. Honestly, if this is another harem VN I'm fine with that, but since there's no genre marker for that I have to assume that at some point all of the MCs deeds will come back to haunt him. Some are clearly one night stands while others seem to be be leading towards certain disaster.

So far the best characters are:
Jalen: he's a goof, but good people and well written
Paige: this is the kind of girl you'd meet and take home to mom
Leslie: cute and she's the kind of girl you'd befriend, help figure herself out so she's not living under the expectations of others, but would permanently be friend zoned in reality.
And that's pretty much it. Everyone else seems to be so shallow or have so little interaction that I can't say whether I like them or dislike them. With the exception of June. She's a hit it and quit it type that really should be treated as such in my opinion. The tired old trope of the bad girl with more going on upstairs and in her soul is so played out with her it's just boring, but she allows for some extra animations I suppose.

Basically, the story requires too much setup to get going and the setup doesn't exactly expand on specific characters enough to make the reader get fully engaged enough to care about what's going on in each of their lives. At least not at this point. I'll have to check back in on the story once things get a little more fleshed out in the future. All of that aside, the VN is well coded, the events/choices make sense, the fact that mini games can be turned off for the most part is good (had one pop up but it was doable), and the humor of the writing helps out a lot.

As usual, I wish the developer all the best of luck and if you are a fan of this VN drop a review and think about showing some support to the dev.