Ren'Py - Pokemon Academy Life Forever [v12.27.2024] [Pokémon Visual]

Just gonna do a quick review, because there's really no point of making long winded commentary given what it is, and given that its in no hurry to get to a finished state.

Firsts things first, and I suspect many will stop reading after this paragraph. There is NO sex in this game. Yes, not a single fucking, disbursement of seminal fluids, or even so much the flashing of dicks is present in this game. In other words, if youre looking forward to boning that gardevoir or lopunny, you'll likely find yourself disappointed.

Second point. The game is playable despite its unfinished state and that's because it has a coherent story and the story is long enough that 90% of its playerbase would probably give up before getting to the end point of the build, let alone hypothetically finish the game.

Third point. The game is great. In fact, Id go so far as to say its breath of fresh air for the pokemon series as a whole. The story is basically a retelling of the protagonist going through pokemon school to eventually becoming a champion. You still train pokemon to do it, but within the confines of the typical highschool anime trope. In terms of worldbuilding and characters, the game absolutely nails it on the head, and I can find no real contrivances. Hell, I actually read all of the dialogue, and given my distaste for long winded dialogue filled games, its incredible.


Conclusion...

Gamefreak should pay close attention, because for years their games operated within this loophole of repetitive game mechanics, predictable storylines, and lately, subjectively ugly pokemon designs. In comes fans with limited funding making out a VN game with a worldbuilding that makes the original look more like PG rated fan fiction.

Some points of criticism:

- I dont like the limitation imposed on leveling up pokemon. I understand why its there, and how it forces players to make intelligent choices, but I just dont like it. Believe that your playerbase arent idiots and offer better reasons to choose their curriculum, rather than semi-force them.
- The artwork is basically recycled over and over in the game. You'll be lucky to spot anything remotely new artwise. Seen Leaf looking smug once, and you literally seen it all because youre not getting anything different.
- Its a fangame so its a bit harsh to even point this out...but the game is developed rather slowly, like really slowly. And I should perhaps mention that it has undergone radical changes before. At this point, its easier to imagine pokemon being supplanted by another franchise before this game even edges to the finish line.
- There's explicitly no H in this game, but there is a small dating mechanic...to one character thus far. Id like to see this expanded. If I may suggest, make it so you can date May because I really want to see how the devs handle the dynamic. At least it gives some agency to pursue the game further.

All in all, recommended for pokemon players. You'll be surprised at what has been accomplished, or maybe surprised that there is a world where pokemon games may actually have a rational storyline where kids arent dumped into the world and asked to chase an ethereal crown with nary a thought for education or responsibilities. I mean, the game even went so far as to explain that pokemon dont just obey their trainers just because you wear a nice badge and threw a prison ball at it, not that the canon gives an ounce of shit I guess.

Top tier SFW VN bro, that best of the best that i had the pleasure to play
the only problem would be the poke pool variety onely giving you the only possibility to get what u want in the starter
So far i love the personallities of every character

Perfection, it was simply perfect. Detailed storyline to the point where the smallest difference of how you play the game can subtly change some of the dialogue in the later story. Characters have realistic and great development, the game makes a effort to make developing a relationship with a character subtle and gradual resulting in a more rewarding and realistic progression with the characters you decide to pursue whether romantically or friendly. The game makes some minor tweaks to the pokemon battle system but overall it mostly stays fateful to the original system, not to mention it has implemented many existing moves and pokemon/abilities in the game [not all, but most likely due to it being a demo], never had i binged played a game and enjoyed it so much, especially a visual novel no less. That being said, my one grip is THEY DONT STAY FAITHFUL TO THE ORIGINAL SHINIES MAAAN, I WANT MY BLUE GARDIVOIR AND SYLVEON, that i can get over tho. Still really good game. Ps console commands are a life savior

A great work was done on this VN. Nice models, nice event flow, and cool interactions. But the tests in class makes no sense, and your choices doesn't make many diference in the story progress.
A beautiful game, but need some more work on the dating sim rewards.

The game styles itself quite well mechanically with plenty of logic puzzles utilizing traditional pokemon moves from the games only to throw a curveball half way through the game with scripted losses that completely ignore all you've been supposedly "taught".

The freedom of choice is an illusion, there is a correct path and obviously wrong answers that serve to further nothing but make this project more angst than it already is.

I think some of the tags should be removed here, like milf, big tits, big ass, ... what's the point of these tags when this is a non sexual game?

What I like about the game:

• Starting to play it feels familiar to pokemon games. The visuals are pretty good, the sound effects are those of pokemon
• Images look good - better than most real pokemon games to be honest
• some of the dialogue is quite funny

What I don't like:

• This is neither a VN or a game. It's too much in between there. The choices you make often have no different outcome and the gameplay - pokémon battles feel pointless too
• Some stuff is really illogical - even for the pokémon world. Like... you would go to jail for opening someone else's letter? Really? Opening someone else's letter suddenly grants you access to the school?
• Pokémon battles are much better - and the story is much better too, so.. I'd prefer just playing pokémon

I really enjoyed the game personally, and I also enjoyed the thread as a whole especially finding the various Console Commands which really allowed me to enjoy NG+ after playing.

Spent a lot of time with this game, and the fact that even after beating it, going back and trying different playthroughs with different strategies was it's own type of fun.

I missed the "no sexual content" tag when I first downloaded this but I'm glad I did because this is great as a visual novel and also as a pokemon game. The characters are well written, there's some real funny, tense, and touching moments, and the art's good.

The battle side of things is also really well done since the base of it is well, Pokemon. But there's a unique leveling system, some custom moves, and starting from such low levels really makes you rethink what pokemon are high tier since battles are actually usually hard enough to have you thinking.

The art was good, the music was good (since I'm pretty sure it's mostly pokemon tracks) and it made me care about the characters. That last one is really the only thing necessary to make a visual novel good but the other stuff is always a nice bonus.

A beautiful visual novel that leaves you with some emotions also due to an in-depth drama and a kind of subplot on Red's personality, and the osts used... I'm excited about how it will develop, how the protagonist will develop the interactions with other characters and whether the school term will be extended. For the moment I will give this personal opinion as a comment (ps. sometimes it is not clear on puzzles, unless they are scripted)

I remember reading this when it first came out, to see it grow so far and be a great as it is warms my heart. The writing is excellent, the art is great, and the story is wonderful. I need to see this finished one day.

As a big fan of the idea of adult based pokemon game, this game actually struck a chord with me. The characters are well written and diverse. My only gripe with the demo is that Pikachu hasn't had much of a chance to shine in this demo. I'm excited and nervous for the game due to how Nintendo is notorious about shutting anything fan-made down but my hopes are high!
5/5 Demo

I guess if the only reason I'm not super into this game is "I'm not sure it'll be completed, and the scaling of the game is something I'm not sure will look good later" and I'm enjoying absolutely everything else, it's probably a 5/5.

The long and short of it is: it's Persona in College + Pokemon and explains away the whole "elite trainers only have 3 pokemon of the same type and gets demolished by a 10 year old" with the college actually having a major impact on your pokemon's efficacy and pokemon training actually being canonically hard. In the first "Persona month" you, not your Pokemon, are the limiting factor- the hedge being that we aren't in the second month so this could be the case the whole game.

So that interesting concept out of the way, college life, socializing and the works are all intertwined. The story is pretty solid- or at least interesting enough to keep momentum.

I think the only knock is that the combat system is sort of janky- it's hard to tell what's happening. A second knock might be "You don't know anything about the pokemon available to you, so it's hard to commit to one type despite the game basically telling you to do so" but since we're not out of the first month, this could just be the game not having all available systems for you out yet.

And I guess that's my hesitancy here: It's already a remake of a different project, the threat of a certain company's lawyers is omnipresent and the game is off to such an energetic start. What are the odds this game actually ever finishes? I can't imagine it's great. The game sure is an easy 5/5 though, so maybe it'll be a fun little ephemeral time-waster and in 2025 we'll be sad to see the premature end of this.

Its an incredibly fun game and my main draw to it was the turn based combat which is fairly good. The main gripe I have is that there is no way that I found to heal the pokemon or properly grind otherwise its pretty fun demo.

Its not entirely perfect, the story and characters are very well written and have their own distinctive personalities...

Though the leveling system gets on my nerves as I was interested on this game for the turn based combat tag, but any who, I will have to rate this base on the games potential as I will probably not gonna change the rating every new releases.

Woah.. I didnt expect like... a good writing in here.. and yet.. here it is..
I got to say this game really does it for me. Very simple tools used with a lot of design going behind it. Avatar animations suggesting the context of events... Actual humor.
I really got into the story and i'm interested in where it'll take me.
Yeah.. god speed dev!