A short while ago I’ve reviewed PixelFade’s Crystalline, expressing my disappointment at what was a visually brilliant, but rather hollow experience, in many ways inferior to that studio's first project, Ace Academy. While AA, a mecha-themed game set in near future’s Japan, mixed convincing drama, a cast of archetypical, but compelling heroines and great SoL sections, providing a fairly balanced and enjoyable game, Crystalline focused much more on comedy and despite the fantasy adventure framework, failed to produce an engaging plot or characters interesting enough to make the whole experience satisfying. The genuine chemistry between Ace Academy’s characters and its compelling atmosphere let me even forgive its anticlimactic ending – PixelFade struggled heavily with that game's development, being forced to cut a large portion of the plot and rush the conclusion, infuriating many fans. The cuts and omissions were definitely visible, for me however, what was already there was simply too good to disregard and I still consider AA as one of the best EVNs I’ve ever read.
As you can imagine, it was hard for me not to get excited when, shortly after Crystalline’s release, the studio announced Kaori After Story – a spin-off to Ace Academy, continuing the romance arc of Kaori, arguably the primary heroine of the first game. Using the Live 2D engine and animations from Crystalline, it promised to be another eye-candy, this time directed to the fans of PixelFade's debut title. What worried me, however, was that it was also described by the devs as primarily a comedy, most likely ignoring the bitter-sweet climate of the original and its somewhat ambivalent ending. Thankfully, as much as some might be disappointed with this game’s obvious disinterest in continuing Ace Academy’s main intrigue, connected to protagonist’s father’s scientific research and tragic death, there are many things here they should find highly satisfying – and even I, as reserved as I was when approaching KAS, couldn’t help but to enjoy it quite a lot.
The spin-off might disappoint those hoping for any kind of elaboration on Ace Academy’s main intrigue, but the SoL fluff it offers is of excellent quality
Kaori, the leader of the protagonist’s team of mecha pilots (the story is based around a futuristic sport, involving team battles between specialized mecha called GEARs), was the heroine with probably the most intricate and fun romance arc in Ace Academy. While her modern-tsundere attitude might be off-putting to some (she can be standoffish and often rude towards the protagonist even after they become a couple), there were many highly amusing interactions connected to her and fairly unique, memorable scenes that still stick to my mind, more than a year after reading AA. Especially if you chose the athletic archetype when starting the game, it was easy to create a genuine chemistry between her and the protagonist, both highly skilled and ambitious pilots, pulling each other up on their way to the very top. However, maybe more than any other route, it lacked genuinely romantic moments, in which Kaori would truly open up to the protagonist or show him affection, even though it was clear enough that she loved him. Whether connected to the whole project being cut short or not, it left me feeling just slightly unsatisfied with the whole scenario at the end of the original game.
Kaori After Story feels like it was created exactly to fix this issue. Starting a few months after the end of Ace Academy, it involves the couple spending their Holiday break in Kaori’s hometown, along with her family. It focuses on the blooming relationship between her and the protagonist, completely forgoing the drama and delivering a few hours of absolutely lovely, light-hearted romantic fluff. Also unlike Crystalline, it toned down on the popcultural references, which I really never enjoyed that much in PixelFade’s games (although I admit that in this case, the sequence of the protagonist playing one of Kaori’s otome games is rather hilarious), instead delivering the humour primarily through some highly-amusing SoL scenes. The chemistry between the couple is definitely there, and Kaori’s family is highly likeable – as always in PixelFade’s games, all of it enhanced by good-quality voice acting.
Kaori’s romantic arc in Ace Academy felt particularly inconclusive, with few compelling, romantic moments – After Story makes up for this perfectly
Obviously, it doesn’t mean the experience is flawless. Just like with Crystalline, my possibly biggest gripe is connected to choices offered to the reader. While the romantic/slight teasing ones feel lovely and satisfying, you also have the option of being an over-the-top pervert or an annoying grump. The problem is, making these latter choices is nearly completely ineffectual for the plot and the ending – and there are paths in which there is really no reason for Kaori to not lose at least some of her faith in the protagonist. In what is essentially a piece of “fanservice” for people that liked Kaori’s arc and want to see her romance with the protagonist blooming, some of the choices really make no sense whatsoever, especially considering the fact that the conclusion is always a decisively positive one. While I can see the reason for including a few over-the-top, “stupid” choices, the unromantic/insensitive options simply leave a bad taste with your mouth, also serving no real purpose other than creating additional “interactivity”.
The game, as mentioned before, is absolutely lovely visually, capitalizing on the technical expertise and assets the studio gained during the production of Crystalline. I was worried that with the repurposed animations and new sprite, the story might lose some of its personality, but in reality, everything felt appropriate and genuinely nice to watch. All things considered, this should be a great treat for the fans of Ace Academy, and especially those like me, who really enjoyed Kaori’s arc. And if you haven’t played AA… What are you waiting for? Go grab it already! It’s really worth it.
Final Score: 3/5
Pros:
+ Lovely visuals
+ Satisfying SoL/romantic content
Cons:
- No substance beyond light-hearted SoL fluff
- Choices are ultimately meaningless and some of them can be obnoxious
VNDB Page
Buy Kaori After Story on Steam
Ain't gonna lie, I was also a bit hessitant about going into this, even though I've found the original AA pretty fun
ReplyDeleteThis is probably the push I needed in order to go for it, so thanks a lot.
Also I fully agree that the decisions can be very off-putting at times. Like, it's allright to throw some obnoxious lines like the famous "coming for that booty" here and there, but this approach loses a lot of its flare when it can be used on every little thing. The only route in which the "pervert" choices kinda worked was Valerie's, because you were actually on the same note - and it was very fun looking at her reactions when she didnt expect to hear something even more daring than she did. Outside of that however, the decisions are just too one-dimensional to be really taken seriously imo. You're either the sweetheart, the pervert or the guy who doesnt care about anything.
Thanks for this one, good read once again. Are you planning to read Don't Forget Our Esports Dream, the SC2VN successor? I though it was suprisingly good, especially if you have some sort of interest in the esport scene.
Sorry for some spelling mistakes or something by the way. I'm writing this from a phone.
I'll definitely get to Don't Forget Our Esports Dream at some point (I've really enjoyed SC2VN), but I have a lot of things in my schedule right now, so I'm not sure when.
DeleteAnd I'm glad the review was helpful! I've only now realized how little I actually wrote about the game itself, but I guess it is the context that makes it worthwhile. It simply managed not to break the characters and relationship AA built and capitalize on decently enough. :>
(btw this is still the same guy replying, I just bothered to actually create an account this time around)
DeleteIt's definitely a worthwhile read and Jett is just freaking awesome in it. The endings are a bit too rushed but overall one of the better EVNs for sure.
I think the context of the review is enough in this case. I don't think many people who haven't played AA would even open this up in the first place.
Now that we're in this, what titles are you looking forward to in early 2019? I think there's quite a lot. Heart of the Woods is the obvious n.1 for me, but stuff like How to Date a magical girl (every Madoka clone counts) or Faulty Apprentice and some others have also caught my attention. There are also the two titles from Studio Coattails incoming, so I think there's plenty to look forward to.
It's great that so many english VN creators have embraced creating vndb.org pages of their games. Without that I wouldn't have known there are so many of them in works.
Hearts of the Woods is I guess the main thing for me this winter. A few delayed projects too, like Our Feelings (a yuri I backed on Kickstarter last year) and Chemically Bonded, but there's no guarantee those actually come out before spring. :>
DeleteI'm actually pretty busy catching up to things from last year, so I guess I wasn't looking around that much yet to not give myself a giant headache with how many things I should probably cover. ;)
A question just popped in my mind: Aren't you burning yourself out a bit with all these indie VNs you read?
DeleteLike, I really appreciate that you spend your time finding and writing about new potential talent as well as reviewing contest works and such, but still, I think sometimes one has to take a break from amateur's work and instead focus on something more professionaly produced in order to keep their sanity intact. You know, I don't want to pry into what you read or something like that, but I also don't to see you grow tired of this project in the near future.
Well, I'm doing it for a year now and I'm not there yet. Honestly, I more often than not I have better time digesting those small, indie project then I have large JP VNs, it's just hard to find that kind of time and energy to go through them at a reasonable pace. I also circulate between reading stuff by myself and watching let's play's (I can often get away with having those on while I'm working), for those less "serious" projects at least, where I don't write in-depth reviews. Also, if I just read some of that stuff for myself, I probably would be sick of it, but reviewing is always a bit different - a bad game can be just as fun to tear apart as a good one is to compliment, even though having the ability to compliment something and congratulate the dev on a job well-done is always most satisfying. ;] And I have yet to find a VN so dull it leaves me with nothing interesting to write about it.
DeleteThe more important issue is the schedule, because it can be surprisingly hard to make meaningful content on a weekly basis, with how long just getting through a VN can take, but I'm also nearly done with reworking my old content for the new site, which meant additional work on every Wednesday... It's ok for now and if I ever have to make adjustments, I will make them. After all, no one pays me for this (yet). :>