"Salutations. Would you like to attend a school for girls?"
This romance visual novel explores the question of gender integration at a private school.
A curious series of events leads to our hero becoming the only boy at a prestigious girls' academy...
But over 99% of the girls are against integ...
"Salutations. Would you like to attend a school for girls?"
This romance visual novel explores the question of gender integration at a private school.
A curious series of events leads to our hero becoming the only boy at a prestigious girls' academy...
But over 99% of the girls are against integration!
The girls are so sheltered, that they actually run away screaming at the sight of him!
Our hero needs to befriend them if he wants to stay, but the situation's looking grim...
The sole girl in favor of reform looks to our hero with hope in her eyes.
Thus, he must fight -- to convince the few neutral parties at the school, his childhood friend... and even those who show him open disgust!
The game spans a full year, divided into 26 "anime-like" chapters.
Colorful movies and SD illustrations bring the classic girls' school events to life!
Athletics festivals, elegant balls, swimsuits, love rivalries... and romance that would make a true lady blush!
The game spans a full year, divided into 26 "anime-like" chapters.
Colorful movies and SD illustrations bring the classic girls' school events to life!
Athletics festivals, elegant balls, swimsuits, love rivalries... and romance that would make a true lady blush!
and quickly added ALL AGES to the games title as soon as they finally got to reading my email, mangagamer is never getting my money again, scamartists.
Save your money for KaguraGames and JASTUSA, from them directly, NOT THROUGH STEAM.
TL:DR: Game is great, only felt compelled to skip one route (Rise's)
I would give this game a 5 star if not for, what feels like, the main heroine's route. If you look at both Ayaka's route and Rise's route from a reductionist point of view. They are both very similar in the story being told. They're both about mothers stuck in the past glory days and unable to move on. So why does Ayaka's story feel so much better then Rise's? I think a big problem with this game is how easily conflict gets resolved, it actually made the game really hard to finish. And by easy I don't necessarily mean the characters didn't struggle. I just mean that what ends up being the resolution feels VERY convenient. Rise's route exacerbates this issue a lot where as Ayaka's problems were more personal and very deeply rooted in her and her mother's character. It was simply way more compelling and in my opinion better written. So, basically, what I'm saying is Ayaka is best girl.
By the way, I recommend playing Ritsuko's route before playing Ayaka's as Ayaka's route kind of spoils some aspects of Ritsuko's route in a "oh btw this happened" kind of way. Also it is of my opinion that Ritsuko's route makes Ayaka look really good going into her route. Highly recommend. As for Ritsuko herself, her route was alright. I think you can't go wrong with a story about someone breaking out of their shell/mold in order to find happiness. A lot of people say the mother is a cartoonish villain but after playing all the routes I understand where they are coming from but I almost sympathized with her. Almost.
Chiho's story was the second best in my opinion but I think that's because Chiho's route feels more like a main protagonist route then anything. You hear a lot more about Masaya's past and his hardships in Chiho's route. Plus I really enjoyed the banter between Chiho and Masaya the most of all the girls. I'm of the belief that romance between friends is best so I may be a bit biased on that front.
pros:
interesting story
good graphics
good voice acting
cons:
token characters, some more token than others forced arcs, some more forced than others
- rushed ending, it takes a lot of chapters to get to the mid-year elections and then half of that for the final year
- long and boring chapters, some more long than others
- extremely few meaningful choices given the length of the game
- extremely poor ending (read ahead)
The ending is by far the most disappointing I have ever seen in any VN. That alone gets -1 star from me.
Without spoiling the fun, the issue is that, unlike any other VN in existence, Evangelie manages to have this message as an ending:
"Bad Ending. Unfortunately you have not chosen a girl from start to end...." and you cannot "play" the last chapter. The End! Credits.
This is not a joke. If you're not choosing the same girl throughout the entire game, then tough luck buddy, you have wasted 5+ hours of your life!
While any other VN gives you a choice in the end to select the end-route, or at least does an average and chooses the girl/boy that you spend the most time or raised the most romantic flags, in Evangelie you actually have to choose the same girl, or get royally screwed!
And to add insult to injury, after hours of playing their game, the devs have the impertinence to not even give you a "bad ending" scenario, like a chapter. They literally use a message box to tell you that you did not "choose right". And the title of the message box is "Bad Ending"!
This rushed and insulting ending combined with some forced token characters and stories makes is a rather poorly designed and even annoying VN, with one of the worst and insulting endings I have ever seen.
If they wanted a railed ending they could just make a "kinetic novel" and don't bother with their less than 15 "decisions" in 5+ hours of play.