Unity - Wizard School Exchange Student [v0.65] [Blue Witch Games]

Disappointing.

Im not a huge fan of Ai art. But i think this dev does it pretty well. All the characters are very hot and the scenes that i could get too are good.

Everything else about this game is a slog. The map is far to large. It requires a internet guide to get around because there is basically no directions in the game. The issue is that every fucking quest is somewhere that requires so much struggle to get through. At one point even though i was looking at the guide, it still took me about 20 minutes to find an entrance because everything looks the same. So its an issue with not only the map design, but the fact that every place has the same art design, so its hard to identify locations.

This game has potential if the dev would just make the map better to traverse. Its 2 star for potential.

Wow, first thing I got to say is this game is ambitious. Even in its unfinished state, you can tell a lot of time and effort went into this game. This is not a Renply game where you click on options and get screens. You physically move your character throughout Hogwarts. You actually get to explore a 3D environment.

Though do have the negative of the quest markers being a bit hard to follow. Would have much preferred that you could do a shortcut and a golden line or some other obvious markers would show up to point you in the right direction. Had quest makers for Advanced Charms 1 and the quest markers were so confusing, I accidentally took the stairs to floor 1. Had to turn around and then see that I was supposed to continue past the stairs to get to the objective.

And when I said you explored Hogwarts, expect to actually explore the entire castle. This place is huge. Full of NPC’s. Though don’t expect perfection as a few characters could be spotted T-posing or clipping through wall.

Also really like the artwork scattered throughout Hogwarts. Not only a great callback to Harry Potter but also just a cool design for the castle. Make the place feel much more alive with artwork.

Also, when the school year passes, there is no need to have the camera looking directly up at the sun to blind us. Feel free to show the shadows on the school changing to show the passage of time.

Thought will say this, the marble minigame for the physical activity was great. Actually had me feeling like I was playing a video game. And for those who just want to skip ahead, there is an option for those people too.

And while it is great that the creators developed a walkthrough for players to follow, the walkthrough should not be required to do the game.

The artwork for all the lades is fantastic though.

Love this game, dev seems cool. Only game with ai art that I actually like. Dev seems to know how to use ai art tools. The characters art are distinct and recognizable between characters and across the game's story line.

I 'finished' the game (ver 0.60) up until the point where it ceases to proceed any further so I thought I give this a first impressions review, word used loosely because Ive sunk anywhere around 10 hours on this game already.

So where do we begin? You play as a random guy that came from a random place, transferred to hogswart as an exchange student. But its patently obvious that you're not what you seem to be, and you soon find yourself between an intricate political-religious web of intrigue and being the school silverback with a harem of ladies fighting over your cock.

Of course, you'll perhaps be asking wheres all the important harry potter characters are? Well, this game does have most of the characters in it, with the sole exception of Harry himself, who has been conveniently moved out so you can be the main character of this game. Some obvious liberties have been taken (Hermoine sporting watermelon jugs would be one) but by and large the dev kept most things in line with how they appear in the canon.

GAMEPLAY

Gameplay consists mostly of fetch questing, or otherwise go-here-and-do-that kind of game. While it is in full 3d, and you get to actually explore the castle, you dont really do anything that's particularly out of script. You can't, for example, enter the girls dorm unless the game requires you to, and in fact you cant speak to anyone unless its very specifically scripted to happen. So what you essentially have is a game that's fully explorable but all agency to exploring the damn thing is completely linear making it redundant.

There's some minigames, but if I have to be completely honest, that's not a plus. The jumping minigame is completely skippable (with reduced rewards) because its evident to even to the dev that its incredibly annoying, and while I like the dueling minigame, there's not enough feedback to show that youre doing things correctly.

Credit where its due, at the very least the dialogue, very long winded as it is, doesnt grate. I dont feel the usual need to skip it as I do most other VN games so that's one thumbs up to the writing.

H GAMEPLAY

Yeah, pretty much VN style. Just press spacebar until it goes away. Youre not making choices, there's no animation, and only sometimes theres VA. Just fuck until the game decides to stop.

What about the relationship building leading towards sex? Well, its subpar at best. There is a reputation meter, but Ive never got the impression that this mattered, if at all. The game is too linear, and since you dont actually get to speak or interact with the girls on your own volition, there's little to no reason to care about it.

Would be better if you get to interact with the girls regardless of the quests, even if its nothing more than small talk, and their reaction to you changes as your rep improves or worsen. Like May can be a cold hearted bitch at the start but turns complete tsundere style as you progress. As it stands, their dialogue, and indeed their reaction, to you doesnt really matter. You'll fuck them because theyre scripted to do it, not because you made any effort towards it.

Oh, and the sexting in this game is woefully short. Like seriously. Even poor VN games Ive played usually dont fuck this up. Sex scenes, particularly when they are not animated, not interactive, and doesnt sport any VA, should at very least be of decent length. Something for the dev to ponder on.


ART DESIGN

Perhaps controversial to some, because this game is made with AI art. But really, this is perhaps one of those few games with AI art that actually make it work, so the game is elevated by it, not otherwise.

But I would point out that this game is perhaps a shining example of why I dont think AI art will be replacing real artists. Well drawn as they are, you can plainly see the lack of artistic vision, the lack of strong poses, the lack of variety; stuff of which are automatic to any seasoned artists but otherwise easily overlooked. For example, many of the girls plainly look too similar to one another, with the same stony lifeless face that suggest nothing of their personality. The color choices thats realistic but without any artistic flair, the lack of poses that suggest their state of mind. Hope has the same blank look on her face even when youre ramming her with your massive cock. May is supposed to be this arrogant little bitch and yet her face is that of an annoyed school teacher. Small little details like that make or break art design.

A small suggestion to immediately improve the game in terms of aesthetics - Just change the girls' facial expression to match what they feel when you talk to them. That's basically the very foundation of a good VN game. Something this game presently lacks.

Oh, and for fuck sake not every one has to have two basketballs in front of their chests. These are supposed to be students. I can understand the school slut having planetary sized cups but the majority of them shouldnt look like theyre suffering from a reverse hunchback.


IN CONCLUSION...

Its not a masterpiece of a game, it cant even be described as a flawed masterpiece. But what it is is an ambitious project, with room for improvement but presently doesnt disappoint though it could use some polishing.

If you made it so far down my review you'll perhaps be surprised how I didnt touch upon the issues with the map and the innumerable bugs. Well, firstly, the map did annoy me but after my 2nd hour I more or less got a grip on how the pathway flows so it wasnt a problem for me. I would perhaps suggest that you take full advantage of the shortcut from the dorms (via the painting) to the courtyard which helps a ton, not to mention you can get help from a very helpful community. Needless to say, its something that can be improved upon but a little patience goes a long way.

As for the bugs, I have to commend the dev, because Ive not seen a game with so active a developer since forever and credit to the man, hes perhaps the sole reason why I think this game does not deserve the poor rating it has thus far received on this website. Its not often we see what is obviously a passion project and its even rarer to see a dev being so helpful despite the frankly ridiculous amounts of bugs present in the game.

I would rate this game as a 3 at present, but Im disposed to be generous and give it a 4. Its a game that has massive potential, of which I would like to see realised.

Story is different. Concept is good. Art is great. Game clearly in development but so much gameplay potential. Doesn't look or play like any other game on here, that is fucking refreshing. It's not a straight up porn game and navigation is not easy at the start. It is AI art but it's made but a game developer not an artist.

Its a pointless waste of time, even if story is good its wouldent be worth the time you use running around with no clue how to get anywhere, map in game is useless and hints are shitty and really of no help, so doing a quest becomes boring since you just run around hoping you run into the right spot before wasting to many hours to do it.

Then theres the bugs when just finishing a quest and you end up falling through the floor so you have to use unstuck and wait for ages untill it loads.

Then theres the issue of finding your way around and it tells you go to western building but you have no freaking idea what way your pointing since there is no compass so your truely just running blind.

As for the AI i dont mind that they look great not much else to say.

Game needs a ton of work to become playable, or a in-game guide like lights on the floor to lead you to where you need to be, untill then its just unplayable.

Great concept, poor execution. Some basic QOL changes such as a map, markers on where to go and who or what to interact with would make the game so much less tedious. I don't mind the AI art as the art is relatively consistent, but characters do tend to look similar. Other issues I have are how much back and forth walking there is, poor performance, and how slow the game feels to do anything. Game has potential to be so much better than it is now and I hope the dev fixes some of the problems I and others have with the game.

I am not the biggest fan of AI Art because it, at least here, tends to look very generic. Sadly in this case I think that the Art is really lacking. Imagine a game set in Hogwarts with all the characters from the books and maybe remoteley looking like they are described. Obviously a bit older.

Reviewing as of v0.55

Had high hopes for this game as it's one of the few good AI ones in F95 but sadly the author is completely out of touch with his targeted audience.

The map only exists to confuse you, it's a map in all but name. You are expected to memorize all your movements and to every room [the creator even verified this]. There's apparently an unofficial map drawn with paint in the discord server. [Which actually functions as a map compared to the thing built in-game.. which is pretty hilarious.]

A fair amount of people have raised concerns about the map but it seems to fall on deaf ears. As the creator repeatedly just responds with "I'll still make a few more small changes".
Sadly I must regret to inform you that no matter how much you point at a random doodle and saying "it's a map", doesn't make it a map. No amount of "small changes" can fix it.

if you asked just about anyone that isn't the creator [perhaps even the creator] to point you where each room is on the in-game map, you most likely wouldn't be able to name one, aside from the one you're currently in.

As if that wasn't enough, add insult to injury; there was one "1337 gamer" suggested to further add artificial difficulty into the game by making the already "highly complained about" navigation system to an even less functional one + removing the travel tutorial.. which apparently made the creator happy to see.

Simply saying "Out of touch with his targeted audience" is being generous.

Overall I think the game approach is great. The navigation through the floors is tedious but it really helps with transporting the vibe and the athmosphere to the player. Several suggestions to improve the navigation have already been made and the dev seems to be aware, that some changes need to be made.

As for the art I really don't mind the use of ai. I really like the art style and the faces don't seem to change from scene to scene.

As for the amount of CG I would love to see an increase of that. Although the faces / torsos in conversations are quite alluring, you don't get to see them very often due to the grinding. Suggestion would be to implement stuff like hidden pictures that you can pick up during the roaming phases. Something to simply spice up the roaming phases and make them less boring (maybe add some random conversations with npcs / flashing elements and so on).

Overall I enjoyed playing this game and have high hopes for the future (although my PC seemed to explode several times but yeah that's on my side I guess).

As of 0.5 build - very promising game, great use of ai art (especially with the art revamp in 0.5), great use of the “Harry Potter” world mixed with an original story that is honestly pretty interesting. Definitely needs work on the navigation/quest tracking but the dev has been making improvements. This has become one of the main games on the site that I am look forward to every update!

(Also really chill and dedicated dev as seen in the discord)

It's a game that has points of improvement, like the map or a guide for the tasks. But it is very engaging and you can spend hours investigating every corner, in addition to the images that are impressive.

Could have been an amazing game, but fell short in the end (at least for me).
Love the setting and the overall free feel of the game where you can move around the castle and start different quests and bump into different people (some original HP characters and some new ones).
Takes a while to get the basic navigation down but I saw it more as a challenge than a chore and after the first two days it was pretty easy.
The game has a plot and some more lighthearted scenes inbetween.
The art is amazing at first glance but also the games downfall.
I dont care that the graphics are a bit buggy at times but the h-scenes only consist of one AI sprite and a bit of text and often feel very very short.
So the game is mostly beautiful characters sprites and a lot of teasing and blue balling.
Also would be nice to see the 3d models mathcing the AI art a bit more when it comes to clothing color etc. e.g the Hermione bikini or some times the models are still clothed and in a different location when they are portrayed as topless in the overlay, or characters on the beach are still in their school robes in the overlay.
I kept playing to finally get to the good parts but they never came so its just a walking simulaot with some AI Art sprinkled on top. Still have hopes for the game though, the concept with fleshed out art and some other minor tweaks would be 10/10.

I think the game has great future and can't wait to see it finished, tho i know its gonna take a long time but i understand that its a single person working on this project, then again for a single person i think the dev is doing a great job

I'm not sure what makes me feel about the AI, with the consistency of the art and it just kinda bothers me that AI is even taking up indie works.
Nothing much about this game really, just another Harry Potter game, a relatively high-quality one.

Your roommates are femboys. Might be a 5 for some of you

But srsly i dont even suggest trying it in the current state ( v0.4.6 ). First of all, it lacks the basic movement input. W and S key for movement, A and D steers your direction (or you can pull and drag with your mouse). Q and E moves you diagonally. The inputs felt very weird and no key bind changes at all. And that is just the start of all.

This one needs a whole heck of a lot of work and right now it's a 2

- There were some interesting bits and pieces here that did keep me playing for a few hours just out of curiosity if nothing else. Story isn't bad but it could have worked a bit better in some sort of pre-Harry Potter setting or a post movie setting as it definitely comes off a bit awkward in the place it's sitting currently.

- I know not everyone can afford artists nor can just anyone become one overnight, but the A.I. art here is also a touch awkward and I feel takes away more than it adds.

- There really needs to be some sort of fast travel, a better laid-out map, or an incredibly detailed "go here, and this is how", or perhaps all of the above. There were times I would try to go back to places I already was and felt like I was in a maze running in circles until I learned where everything was, which took longer than it needed to, given most of the places you never need to be the majority of the time to remember them.

- Along with the map, the quest system needs a lot of love. I mentioned at least in part how there needs to be more detailed mission objectives. More than like "go find x" or "walk along this place till you find the thing". It's not even puzzle games so much as searching for the cheese in the maze.

- All of the above I would say could be fine, but the issue is there is not really any pay off to any of it. You might at the most get an ai boob image.

- About 60% of the time the little mini game would just bug out and fill my screen with garbage or I'd have to spam click on the screen as the prompts wouldn't pop up and so on.

A lot of the faults can be fixed, but everything needs work. The biggest issue is the one I mentioned of no real pay off, as a loooooot can be ignored or forgiven but that just isn't a thing here.

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March 2024 and very little of what I said above has changed. The devs gave a walkthrough but you literally need it to get through the game even still, which is silliness.

I keep seeing 5 star reviews that are not reviewing the game at all just "omg amazing" in 2 sentences. The troll 4 and 5 stars are definitely pulling this up a higher rating than it should be in the current state.

Deepest respect to the dev, I can imagine how much heart and work he puts into this and others have said he is the only one working on it. So I hope he takes this as simply a fair criticism with the aim of improving his game in certain areas, as I really think this has a ton of potential and could quite possibly be a great game.

I will keep it short and simple..
What the game excels at in AI Art (absolutely stunning), it lacks in gameplay, navigation, UI, and story writing. I played it for several hours, clenching my teeth the whole time with the movement and navigational challenges, interaction with people and objects, etc.

My hope is that the dev can find or hire someone experienced in coding Unity games to compensate for the problems its having in that area. Also a seasoned writer might be of help as well, to flush out a story outline, subplots, and endings so that the dev can be free to focus on the AI sugar that got us here in the first place.

Best of luck and I look forward to a more positive review later down the line! Fighto!

Truly more potential than anything I've played of similar style. My rating may change, of course. But for now, at least; it has all the potential in the world, and I can only hope it is met.

Wasn't sure the AI art would be consistent at first (you never know, some people get lazy), but so far so great. Hope to see plenty more of this one coming along.

This game is really terrible in its current state its so buggy. Running around looking for rooms and your classes isn't hard but the mini game with the ball is so difficult when it's overly sensitive. The Ai generated art is fine, but it's not worth all the hassle