Having Fun Now?? A Review Of The School Days Visual Novel

 

 Disclaimer 

The following review is intended for those over the age of eighteen or twenty one depending where you live. I do not take any responsibility if you choose to ignore this warning so don't come crying to me later on.

So what is School Days? It is a adult visual novel/eroge developed by "Overflow" and published by "Stack" game productions in April 28th 2005. An all ages version was released/published by Interchannel for the Ps2 by on January 17, 2008 as well. The Ps2 Special edition/normal version of the game came with a limited edition "ova" in-titled "School Days-Valentines Days" which is much more light/heart-full to watch than the dreadful anime series. Another ova came out in-titled "Magical Heart Kokoro-chan" which is just a magical school girl parody that came out March 26th 2008.

This visual novel/eroge also has an anime adaptation produced/animated by "TNK" that aired from July 3, 2007 – September 27, 2007. I have such a hatred for the anime adaptation that i will not, can not, or ever review it. So if any of the other reviewers want to review the anime be my guest. The only other related media is a two volume manga which I have yet to read, also the two spin off games "summer-days" and "cross-days" that re also available for the PC but no patches have come out for these games as of yet and it seems as if none will ever come out at all.

With the synopsis out of the way let's get down the the main portion of the review. School Days has to be the most interesting adult visual novel I have ever played to date despite it being six years old now. What I happen to love most about this game is the amount of possibility or endings that you can achieve within the game due to it being a "tree-branch game". This means that you the player have the ability to choose the ending depending on branching choices that can either lead to more open scenes with even more choices or cut off short if you choose nothing at all as well. Your ending that you get is solely based on these choices you made as far back at the beginning of of the game so tread carefully and save often.

School-Days main cast of three characters "two females and one guy" are also the ones with the most screen, sex and screwed up endings. The male leads name is Matoko Ikuto who just appears to be your average high school kid, nothing really special or great about him aside from being slightly aggressive. Up next we have Katasura Kotohana who happens to be Matoko's main crush and love focus for the series who rides the train with him everyday to school and is your very shy/timid type of character. Lastly we have up Sekai who is class-mate of Matoko who first learns about his crush on Kotohana and sets up their first date/meeting on the school roof for lunch and she has a really noisy/opinionated attitude about her-self which lands all three of them in hot-water down the road.

Something that needs to be pointed out is that isn't your standard eroge either. Everything in this title is fully animated, voiced over and split in to different episodes like an ova series. The choices that do come up are time based so you either you make choice or it will choose the default choice zero to where matoko doesn't say anything at all. I'll openly admit to this being one of the biggest surprises when I did my first play through. Personally I'm just being kind to give you all heads up now on the game-play mechanics now. You can pause the game, fast forward or rewind through previous read text or scenes once you have completed one route in the game.

As of now I've gotten over ten different endings so far out of whopping twenty one endings total. Not all of the endings are dark or creepy as in the anime adaptation, it's actually quite the opposite here. This eroge has taken away lot of my free-time, but to be honest I have had fun so far. I love ever character despite "Matoko" on how you play can be the biggest asshole in the world in which deserves more than a slow painful death. I know a lot of people out there hate this male lead so much for some reasons or other. I can not bring myself to hate him despite being the massive douche that he really his and still is through out a majority of the routes you choose to play.

Yet despite this flaw he has, for some reason I just feel some level of connection to him so I do understand why he did it. Matoko starts off shy, clumsy and in the end being pushed to be aggressive from an outside source and then loses all self-control becoming a self centered prick. Still I am sadly stuck at the point now in my life, thus making me a no worse than him on a lot of levels. I do realize this now but I am still wary of what could have happened to me if I knew a person like "Sekai", I would do the same things he did in the anime adaptation, however this is a review for the source material not the adaptation that spewed a famous 2007 famous meme keep that in mind.

I will just be blunt if you liked the t.v anime series or you are looking for a good romance eroge I hihgly recommend this title. So if you are interested in any-way, shape or form, please just click the links below. You will also need to go to my "previous post" to set up your PC to play this game as well. Just to let most of you know this game is coming to America from "Jastusa" so please support the new version "School Days HQ" when it does come to America sometime at the end of this year or beginning of next year. The game will be fully uncensored and will be for the PC of course "I have no word Mac Os Compatibility as of yet but it will be most unlikely".

This version that is come here legally is an updated version of the game that came out last year for the 5 year anniversary of the original release of the game. Also this version has even more endings with a new good/bad of course and a massive upgrade to the art work to near "High-Definition" quality so it is a warranted purchase in the end unless you want to pay over 200 dollars to import the original game. In all honesty no piece of IP is worth that much to me used no matter If really need it for my collection.

One of the greatest high points for music is really a great high point even with the tragic ending song that still makes me tear up a bit to this day. Hell it's the song Kanashimi no Mukou e that still sends chills down my spine every time I hear it on a an bad ending for a route I was playing. I haven't personally heard anything emotional powerful to eerier as this song in my fifteen years of being an anime fan which is saying a-lot coming from some like me.

Another high point is Everyone in this eroge is fully voiced over even down to the tiniest of the character roster which is still just amazing and greatly adds a lot to this genre. In all honesty I think school days is the first full eroge to have a voiced over male lead taking out that self-insert character they normally do most in the eroge genre overall Actually I think it's quite nice to control a character with a personality rather than a creepy insert character they usually write in for these games. One quick thing I do need to point out one other tidbit and it's this the partial patch from the sekai project only covers up to episode four of the game so I highly recommend using a guide if at all possible or saving before any major choices.

Now maybe I am praising overflow a little so much for this IP, however it was the first to break the mold of most standard games in the genre. School Days does suffer from some huge faults as well and those need to be addressed. So lets address them shall we are that some latter choices really don't effect the outcome that much it just adds some different scenes. However in one route your choices also go form one extreme to the other such as the best ending possible to the entire game, to the worst ending possible in just once choice. This is just highly unbalanced and I hope is fixed in the newer version because one choice should not effect your effort or outcome that much.

Overall this is a great Visual Novel/Eroge with so many possibility and out-comes it feels like the game of life. However I cannot recommend this for the faint of heart due the graphic sex or murdering that does occur due to your actions.These moments in the story where I just wanted to slap some of the minor characters across the face due in part of their horrible nature/attitude towards other people as well. Well that wraps up everything people, I hoped you enjoyed reading this review and you make sure careful what decisions in your life you choose to make. I'll catch you all later on my live-stream~

 

Animation: 5/5

Game Play: 4/5

Story/Plot: 4/5



Characters: 4/5


Music: 5/5

Overall Rating:4/5

Age Rating:18+

English Patch

Setting Up Your Computer

Strategy Guide

Pre-Order School Days HQ

-Cecil The Dark Knight

-Image credit for the nice boat banner goes to "Tamadachi-san"