Gakuen Club Reviews

Gakuen Club was enjoyable to play, though it seemed a bit like a "shall we date" for beginners. There weren't really that many choices to make and the conflicts were mild. There was really only one path that had much difficulty for the protaganist aside from the "Normal Endings" at the very end. The characters made the game for me and learning their background stories. They were all varied and interesting.

The only PROS for this game I'd say are the CGs and Voice Acting. The backgrounds aren't nice, they reuse scenes in each route, the stoyline is pretty much the same for each guy, The MC is your typical otome heroine: Timid, always apologizing for things she doesn't need to apologize for, innocent/naive, intimidated easily and as clumsy as always (constantly tripping or dropping things). She doesn't really have much of a story or background. SPOILER? The storyline for each route pretty much goes: guy meets girl > girls curious about guy > girl watches (stalks) him while she should be working > girl finds out guy has problem > girl tries to help guy > guy ends up liking girl bc she's worried about him??? > guy pushes girl away > guy/girl come up w solution to fix his problem > problem fixed > happily ever after. The end. So in the end although I did like Saku's route I would not reccomend this game, esp not for it's price of $29.99.

I want to be the first to compliment the writer and creator of the game. It is nicely put together and I recommend this game to all enthusiasts who also like otome. Now I continue with the things I like about the game. The main character named Akane, the characters you can choose from for the route, I love seeing that each male character has their own personal story. This will only make the game more interesting to play. Now the less fun things come, I find the story a bit standard. It could have been a bit more challenging, the full price is not worth buying the game. I think it is a bit too expensive for this game. Only buy it if you have studied the game very well and before you buy it, maybe watch videos if it seems interesting to you. For the rest, no negative things. But the price can be a bit lower.

I really enjoyed this. At first I only bought it because one of the choices is voice by my favourite Japanese VA, but I really loved the story and I'm excited to go through everyones stories.

Gakuen Club felt very forgettable to me. It was hard to pick back up in my free time. I found that I had to replay routes just to remember the plot of each one. Story: The heroine makes it into a prestigious school only to be forced to be a server at a secret night cafe for the alumni/rich and powerful. Each boy competes as hosts to garner social connections. Once one of them proves to be the best, they earn any wish from the headmaster. - My biggest complaint is the non-sensical way they tried to describe this situation throughout the whole game. Only a few routes try to explain the purpose of the night club, why they even have a secret club in the first place, why it was necessary for them to compete in this manner for the headmaster's favor, and why the heroine is forced to go along with it the whole way. Character: Only half of the routes had substance, while the other half fell flat. Each boy focused on their dark backstory for 85%-95% of their route. I liked the heroine more in the good routes. She felt relatable to me when she questioned things the same time I did. I recommend Toma, Asahi, and Saku's routes. + Toma had the most character growth, which was really refreshing for me. The heroine shined the best in his route by encouraging him in positive ways. Sad that he's barely there in any of the other routes. + As the poster boy of the game, Asahi has the most romance and story content. The whole plot of the game revolves around him the most. Be warned that his normal ending is a bad end and is not normal by any definition. + Saku's route has some lighthearted moments while also laying on the angst, but it was an interesting read nonetheless. - Wataru has been rude every route I've encountered him on. His main conflict never hooked me in and felt poorly written near the end half. - Renji's character fell into the playboy stereotype. He is seemingly better and good-mannered in other character's routes except for his own. Usually the playboy is associated with "another woman" problem. That's exactly what I got, but with a slight variant. I consider his normal ending the second worst bad end. - Oh Yuya. I went in expecting a secret yandere character based on his sprite art. Every time the heroine had a conversation with him, he went full angst, followed by a "just kidding ^_^". Zero romance, all plot to mirror Asahi's route. -- + CGs are beautiful and the sprite art is very good as well. + The VAs were excellent. Each voice suited their character. + I was expecting bullying by the heroine's peers, which is common in school stories. However to my surprise, she doesn't encounter bullying in any of the routes and even makes friends with her classmates and dormmates. I could fault that on the writing focusing solely on the boys, but I was glad to not have to deal with that here. - Repetitive music, nothing special even for Renji's route where he played several piano pieces. - Low quality stock backgrounds which are used in several mobile titles. The most glaring issue is the height of character versus the height of the furniture in the background. - Low resolution on fullscreen, windowed is recommended. - Very little choices and half of them make no sense in why they're the better answer. In conclusion, I would recommend this game for half of the routes. You should only consider buying this if you really like the art and school life settings.

Not recommended if they're not on sale, but I did enjoy the story and character develop. Overall 7/10. Details below~ ---{Graphics}--- ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ Paint.exe ---{Gameplay}--- ☐ Good ☐ It‘s just gameplay ☑ Mehh ☐ Starring at walls is better ☐ Just don‘t ---{Audio}--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Good ☑ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ Earrape ---{Audience}--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☐ Adults ---{PC Requirements}--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato is fine ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi only ---{Story}--- ☐ Good ☑ Average ☐ If you want story, then go read a book. ---{Game Time}--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of tea ☐ Short ☑ Average ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{Price}--- ☐ Worth the price ☑ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money

I personally loved this one and enjoyed the storylines and characters across the board. But... Cons - The Price vs The Content: The game is beautiful visually and has many lovely CG's for the six character routes, but there is actually very little art and while it is fully voiced by many wonderful actors (voice acting and the amount of art for six full routes wouldn't be cheap) it still doesn't justify a $30.00 price tag. If this was ten dollars cheaper I'd say the full price was worth it if you don't mind a mostly kinetic experience. Otherwise I'd say get it on a deep sale as, honestly, it's not worth the full price in my opinion. Static Experience vs Player Choices: There are very few choices to be made, roughly five per guy, with a couple having even fewer...and that's bad for a game that calls itself a Visual Novel. We make an assumption that there will be more of an interactive element and the fact that for some guys the choices don't even start until Chapter 10 makes you start really noticing how much reading you're doing and choice making you're not doing. That distracts from reading a route and since this tells the story of one year in the MC's life, meaning certain events have to happen each route (the school festival) it makes it feel even more like you're just reading a kinetic novel...which makes the price tag feel even more out of place. There's a whole ton of reading for very few choices and a lot of it starts Chapter 8 or later in a 15 chapter story. Con or Pro - Percieved Agency vs Railroaded into the Plot: This one is a lot more a personal player preference. The whole set up is to force the heroine into a situation where she gets to know the six most popular boys at the school she just transfered into. This is a huge staple set up in romantic otome manga and anime (Boys Over Flowers, Ouran High School Host Club so on) normal girl meets unattainable hot, talented, rich boys and hot drama ensues. Hell this is a staple of RomComs and a lot of teen fiction in the west too. But the MC is also fairly laidback and passive. I actually didn't mind since this time around I felt the devs did a great job of making her an emotional touch stone and the rocky foundation of the group. She's a great listener, she's caring and nurturing and in most routes she doesn't let anyone walk all over her. If she was a guy she'd be the wing man or guy that everyone is friends with, but no one dates. As a girl she's closer to the 'always a bridesmaid' trope, awesome to talk to, rarely gets the guy. If you're not into any of those things combined, you're gonna hate the pacing, the set up and the heroine. Groundshog Day: As mentioned you play the MC's 2nd year of high school at a prestigious Academy that she's transfered to after her father recieves a largish promotion at the corporation he works for. So each guy has a normal and good ending, which means even if you make a save before the first choice (and it's always recommended in VN's with multiple endings or good branches to save for rereading) you're going to have a lot of the same experiences or events happen. Add to that the guys routes actually tend to pair off a lot. As an example at one point earlier on three people go out together, always the MC, but then two of the boys. If you happen to read their routes back to back it really feels like you're just reading the same thing over and over again when you see it with the same trio twice in a row. Fish out of Water: In Japanese culture there's the office worker. This is the person who goes to work at a decent corporation in their suit and tie and provides for their family. It tends to come off as a worker bee participating in the larger structure to keep the whole hive going. MC's dad is one of those people, only he's actually climbed to a fairly reasonable station now. So being offered a transfer to live on campus at a school with the children of much higher social status classmates is tossing the MC into the deep end. There's a reason for this that isn't outright explained, but you see glimpses of thanks to the largest driving background force, the headmaster. If you don't mind reading AU (alternate reality or what if I hung out with this guy instead this year) or shady background forces, then this ends up being a pro. If you're not into it then this could easily be a con instead. Pros - The MC isn't a doormat: No really, she actually isn't. She's passive, but she's actually got a pretty good head on her shoulders, shows a decent amount of common sense (still lower then the average actual human) and in a lot of routes feels like she does become friends with if not at least pretty damn good acquaintences with the guys around her. She also shows a surprisingly large amount of self awareness and yes she's a kindness-Sue (seriously not even Saints are that nice girl) but she's still not someone that's going to just let the love interest run roughshod over her...in most of the routes. There are actual differences between the Normal and Good Endings in a route: Some of them aren't huge, but still noticable and other ones are like, wait, what just happened?! On top of that a lot of the 'normal' endings are actually pretty sad and many of the 'good' ones are bittersweet, but hopeful. MC got tossed into a high-powered, shady place with little to no social standing and no real power of her own and it reflects in the endings. There is an internal continuity: This tells the story of one school year in the life of the MC. There are six romanceable men and they're naturally paired off and with that comes a lot of shared background. What I mean is, if you pick Renji, the stuff that's happening in the background for the other five is still happening. The guy you choose means you're helping your love interest win a competition, but that doesn't mean everyone else past or motives just disappear. They're not made up for the trope-y plot, they existed before, during and after the story you read. So who you chose tends to be one side of a larger story with shared consequences. What you do with A will effect B, but when you read B's story you might see a different side to A & B's overall motivations, even though their pasts are the same. TL;DR - It's a nice game, but it's full of tropes and it's too expensive in my opinion for what you get (amount of money spent on voice acting, art and music aside the story doesn't feel interactive enough even with six romance options to justify the steep price tag). I'd recommend it on sale if you like the set up and don't mind a largely static reading experience with few choices. The guys, for me at least, were different and interesting enough and the endings varied so I didn't mind the hours I put into it. And yes, those are my actual hours. Once I realized there could be pretty major differences between a normal vs good ending and that the guys naturally paired off narratively I found myself slowing down and re-reading a lot of the last third of each route to see the full changes. Final Note: The boys pair off as so narratively: Asahi X Yuya, Renji X Toma and Saku X Wataru. So if you don't mind retreading a lot of the same things I'd recommend reading them in pairs so you see both sides of the mini-arcs (except for Renji X Toma, those two don't actually interact a whole lot, but they naturally pair off together because their personal stories are very stand alone). If you want to feel like you get to see a different thing each read through then pick one of two so you see different interactions during the school festival and so on. It helps cut back on the samey samey feeling. If you only like happy endings save before choices and load if you don't get the brighly colored heart with an UP written in the middle. If you don't mind a wide range of endings I'd recommend doing the normal routes then using save files to get the good ones.

PROS: -Beautiful art -wonderful voice acting (even for side characters) CONS: -Each story follows the same path and story, just tweek some things. -Some scenes are completely copy and paste between routes! -Choices only change the next 5-10 chatboxes, but generally dont change anything beyond that. -2 endings per route, miss an answer and you get normal, get them all and get the good ending. AKA: your choices dont have unique endings or meaning, they just are a point system to see what 2 endings you get. -There are only about 3 or 4 choices/questions per route. And there are only 2 answers to choose from. -Ive found myself waiting an entire hour into a route before I got an option. -MC really just kinda wanders around the men. She doesnt do anything else but kinda be there next to them. It really makes the relationships seem forced and one-sided. I can summerize every single route (not really spoilers, but the general gist of the game. If you are SUPER against knowing ANYTHING about the game, dont read): [spoiler] -Girls get jealous as your guy helps you out in the club and around school -You overhear your guy's phone call (Why is THIS common in every route?) -you and the guy plus one other go to the mall to shop for club -insert some event with a child, either a lost child or you almost run over a child with your cart (lol) -you and boy become closer -boy gets mad about something -you and boy become closer -boy gets mad about something -you and boy become closer -You suggest something good -it goes good -doki doki scene. -the end. [/spoiler] This doesnt make the game a BAD otome game- but it is very average. It is currently at a regular price of 29.99$, which I was expecting actual unique paths and meaningful choices at that price! Get it on sale if it drops significantly, or buy the full thing if you absolutely adore the art stye and voice actors and dont care too much about repeated story and scenes.

The game length of Gakuen Club is around 8-12 hours, not the 20 hours it probably shows on my stats. I have a terrible habit leaving games to run while I am not playing. I also tend to read quickly, so it might be more accurate to say that each route is generally about 2 hours. Summary 2.5/5 A girl gets transferred to a top notch school for reasons that are never fully explained, but it is usually only exceptional students or students with exceptional parents that get accepted. The same night she finds herself in a secret club where she meets the main cast who serve important figures of society in a cafe like setting. Somehow she is suckered into the whole mess and begin working in a kitchen as an extra helper. No one else in the entire school is aware that this club exists nor are they allowed to talk about it to the other students. The club is exclusive only. The MC 2/5 The MC is your typical otome female lead: selfless, kind, and somewhat of a klutz. In every route she manages to trip over her own feet to which each suitor ends up having to save her from that dreaded and terrible face planting fate. Drawn to each of the six character, she learns there is something more behind the "mask" that each character wears, and earnestly desires to help them in whatever way she can. The Characters 3/5 It was no accident that each of the suitors are involved in the night club. [spoiler] Each character has a goal or dream seemingly beyond reach that can be quickly fulfilled if they become the most popular server by request. The headmaster has promised to grant the wish (if possible) to whomever wins the popular vote. [/spoiler] Each character’s wish is motivated by their own personal aspirations while at the same, hindered by feelings of self-doubts and worth. It is the MC’s job to help them through them. Game Mechanics 3/5 - Visually, the art is appealing. There are plenty of backgrounds and expressions from each of the characters. - Background music is well done and the voice actors were clear and articulate, though at times it seems like there was a slight echo to them. I cannot assume the cause except guess it might have something to do with the microphone during recordings. Still, it was minor and should not prevent anyone from enjoying the game. - There were few grammatical errors. I normally tend to overlook them, but now that I am trying to improve my reviews, I guess I should mention it was only one that really stood out and can be chalk it up as a typo. - Each route follows the same general pattern of events: working at the club, shopping at the mall for club supplies, and the school festival. However, each route has its own unique features and rarely overlap excessively. In the shopping event, for instance, the route is similar between Saku and Wataru until that point when the MC and route suitor split off to run their errand together. Other routes are paired in similar fashion. This being said every route does successfully separate from each other as the character learn to overcome their internal conflicts. I am positive there are many out there that would enjoy the game. I did not necessarily hate the game, but I didn't love it either. I wish there was a middle ground instead of recommend or don't recommend. Since I didn't LOVE it I can't pick recommended because I only do that if I really like a game, but just because I am picky avid reader doesn't mean it doesn't have its merits. I did like trying to figure out the characters and each character did have a different problem so in my book that was a plus. I just I should add, my overall feeling after finishing this game was like "meh." okay. whatever. I have a final note that I had only recently discovered about this game. I decided I wanted to learn Japanese, but when I tried to change the language into Japanese it cut out all writing out from the story. Not cool.

I'm not even going to sugarcoat this; Gakuen Club is boring. Boring and bland. The characters may look and sound great, but there's no substance to them at all. It's not even just your stereotypical tropes that are the issue (I honestly have no problem with tropes as long as the characters are interesting enough), it's the lack of fleshed out personalities for just about every guy that kills it. Every one and every situation feels so vanilla it's mind-numbingly dull. I don't care how attractive the character sprites are, if you're putting me to sleep, you gotta go. Characters with depth should not be the exception in a visual novel. Literally, all you're doing is reading and looking at pretty pictures. If half of that equation isn't working, we've got a problem. Avoid this. Even on sale, it's not worth the money. $30 will buy you 2 or 3 much better otome games on Steam. Or hell, play the half dozen Free-to-Play otoge by developers who can write circles around this. Granted, they may not look as pretty, but you're sure as hell going to get more entertainment out of them for zero the cost. [code][h1]Curated by: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32217440-Bad-Otome-Games/]Bad Otome Games[/url] & [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33004802-Chudah%27s-Corner/]Chudah's Corner[/url][/h1][/code]