Eldritch Academy Review (Yuri Visual Novel)

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of the game by the developer. All opinions presented are solely my own.

One of the interesting differences between yuri in Japanese and Western VNs is that while in Japan it’s mostly limited to a very specific niches, with either nukige or fluffy high-school romance dominating the genre (meaningful exceptions can literally be counted on two hands), among EVNs the theme is prevalent enough to frequently find its place in all kinds of stories. Eldritch Academy, a low-budget project by a single developer using the label Jackkel Dragon and the topic of today’s review, is among dozens of examples of this trend, mixing tame yuri romance with horror and chuunige elements – while it uses many tropes typical for Japanese media, they're all set in a configuration you would be unlikely to actually find in any of them.

                Released in early January 2019, the game promised a fairly impressive amount of content (over 10 hours of reading) and a tense thriller story, starring a group of high school students put against a supernatural threat none of them even suspect to exist. Directly referencing magical girl stories and various other types of otaku media, while also being set in a Japanese all-ages school, it’s definitely one of those distinctly “weeb” projects, but one that avoids pointless fanservice or forced sexual content and dedicates itself to telling a compelling story, with mystery and romance subplots being of more or less equal significance. Does it manage, however, with it’s obviously limited resources, to make this concept actually enjoyable to read?

The unlikable protagonist makes the game relatively hard to get into, even if her attitude changes along the way

The introduction to Eldritch Academy’s story is not overall bad, but quickly reveals one of my major issues with the game. At the very beginning the protagonist, Yue Ishikami, while trying to find an excuse to not sit during the launch break with a pair of her classmates who recently became a couple (and irritates her with their flirting), begrudgingly asks Cho, a tomboyish girl she apparently dislikes a bit less, to eat together. This way, she gets introduced to Cho’s small group of friends, including timid and disturbingly-stoic Kasumi and an unbearable flirt and glutton named Akomi. Later that day, a strange incident happens, in which one of the girls in the school gets heavily injured. Unable to contain her curiosity, Yue sneaks out to investigate, soon followed by the whole group – this leads to them finding magical stones, to which they refer as petals and being forced to fight the ancient evil that lurks within the school, for both their own and other students’ sake (while also forming strong bonds thanks to their shared, life-and-death struggle).

                 The general premise is nothing unusual, at least at surface level, but stands out through its focus on horror and the growing toll the progressively more hopeless fight takes on the girls. New plot developments frequently reinforce the urgency and danger of the situation, with little chance for outside help or any kind of relief from the constant onslaught of monsters (which come out only at night, but don’t release the heroines from keeping the facade of being proper students) and various side-effects of this supernatural predicament. And while it sounds cool in theory, there are some glaring issues with this setup. The first, already suggested problem is Yue herself, who is not just asocial and standoffish, but an all-around jerk who on multiple occasions astonished me with her insensitivity. This theoretically gives her a lot potential for growth, but details like her apparent total lack of sympathy for the girl that nearly got killed by the monster at the beginning of the story and her obviously-distraught girlfriend is not something I can easily look past. Even after the wounded girl’s return from the hospital, she treats her like a pest and is similarly dismissive towards the main heroines most of the time. The argument that she “cares deep inside, but have trouble expressing it” doesn’t help her from being one of the most unlikeable and alienating leads I’ve seen in VNs and I find it unbelievable that anyone would be able to put up with her, unless forced to do so like the three other “chosen” girls fighting the monsters.

The horror elements of the game are not utterly unenjoyable, but only rarely manage to create proper tension or disturb the reader, at least outside of the bad endings

The second major issue is the repetitive nature of the story, especially in the context the repeated playthroughs. Every night, the girls venture into the abandoned portion of the school, hunting for monsters before they can break through and hurt other students, while also looking for clues that would lead them to the source of the whole phenomena. Considering the limited visual resources, there is relatively little flair to the fights and while their exact details vary depending on which girl you pair up with, the sequence in which the monsters show up and the general outline of the story are identical every time. These scenes get pretty old even during the first playthrough, but when aiming for new heroine arcs they’re pretty much completely skippable, making much of the 130k+ word script into essentially just brain-melting mush, that you’d never want to read through in detail, but at best quickly scan through to notice most important differences in girls reaction's and fighting styles.

                There are also major issues with the game’s tone. While it goes into fairly disturbing and tense territories in the last act, when the girls are learning more about the meaning behind their situation and are progressively more and more on edge because of it, it definitely underplays the initial shock and danger of what’s happening. The first explicitly life-threatening incident comes very late into the story, making it very hard to care about the fights and giving space for some overly-fluffy slice-of-life moments. Those, by the way, consist mostly of the romance-related events, in which the protagonist decides to spend time with one of the heroines, usually initially not enjoying herself very much, only to warm up to them over time (as it's often the case in VNs, the overall timeline of the story is too short to make this change really believable, but its also not the most egregious example I've seen). The girls, for an unclear reason, are all otakus and the romantic arcs are closely related to their hobbies, which they bring the protagonist into – this is not a major issue, but the lack of thematic variety feels a bit lazy and adds another layer of repetitiveness when replaying the game.

The romance plots have some genuine charm to them, although they are rushed and shallow in typical VN fashion, and recycle very similar themes through all three routes

To be perfectly clear, the main intrigue of the game isn’t bad and there are some interesting touches that show the genuine care and effort that went into crafting its story, like the bonus side-chapters for both all of the main characters and  some supporting ones, unlocked by reaching specific endings. Those provide epilogues for all the romance arcs, supplement some missing pieces of the game’s mystery plot or simply expand the setting in ways that aren’t really necessary, but which give it some additional depth and make it feel more alive. The end effect is slightly brought down by the minimalistic production values, especially the lack of action scene related CGs and very average character designs, but the art is at least competent enough to never feel completely amateurish or unappealing. The game uses royalty-free music for all of its soundtrack, which is something I don’t really mind in this kind of productions and for the most part, it works well enough.

                In summary, is Eldritch Academy something I recommend buying? I’m a bit on the line in this regard, as while “on paper” it offers a lot of content and includes themes that I very much like, the execution is still deeply flawed, maybe not to the point of making it unenjoyable, but definitely discouraging a careful, 100% readthrough. It’s also a bit pricey, going for $12 on Itch.io – once more, a price that sounds reasonable considering the size of the VN, but I'd typically argue that games with this level of production quality should be slightly cheaper and I’d be more comfortable suggesting to buy it when on sale. However, for fans of yuri romance and horror themes, it’s a decent-enough value proposition at least to consider picking it up – and if you do, you should have a reasonably good time with it.

Final Score: 2,5/5

Pros:
+ Interesting mix of themes and character archetypes
+ Decently-written main intrigue
+ Enjoyable bonus content

Cons:
- Visuals are average at best
- Repetitive routes and mostly dull combat sequences
- Off-putting protagonist


VNDB Page
Buy Eldritch Academy on Itch.io