Japanese School Life Review

Platform: Steam
Players: 1

Have you ever wanted to attend high school in Japan and befriend two Japanese high school girls who accompany you practically everywhere and teach you about the intricacies of Japanese daily life and culture? Well, then you'll probably love "Japanese School Life" from code:jp and published by Sekai Project.

The girls in their natural form.

This line defines the game basically.

Okay, well I gave away most of the plot in that opening paragraph. In "Japanese School Life" you assume the role of Brian who is an American high school junior who is spending a year studying abroad in Japan. Brian is your typical anime fan/otaku who spent his entire life dreaming of this very moment and things get even better when he is immediately befriended by Chiyoko (referred to mainly as "Choco", which is how I will refer to her from here on out) and Arisa. This is in typical anime fashion of course and this trio makes up the main cast of characters. Actually, they're the ONLY characters we ever see. There are other male classmates that are sometimes mentioned in passing (and briefly featured in one CG still), but the pair of Choco and Arisa are the only characters the player encounters in this game.

This is VERY important for travelers to Japan.

Hina Matsuri is explained in detail.

Now this game is a little hard to pin down. It's a visual novel for sure but I feel that it serves more as a teaching tool to those who are either studying Japanese or who want to learn more about Japan in general. There are options to play in either English, Japanese, or both. This was a pretty cool feature and I actually played most of the game using both once I realized this was an option and practiced my rusty Japanese by comparing the translation. Also, even though it's a visual novel, there isn't much of a "story" here in the traditional sense. You literally are out to have an awesome year studying abroad, see lots of Japanese things, and get closer to Choco and Arisa while you're at it. That's it. Don't get me wrong though, this game isn't exactly what I would call shallow, it does do a really good job of teaching those unfamiliar with Japan a lot of cultural and historical aspects, some of them are pretty obscure and might be a little hard to research elsewhere. There are some really practical bits here too, such as examining the proper way to line up and use escalators (a huge faux pas for foreigners), when and where to find good deals, and the actual convenience of convenience stores in Japan. These lessons are well played out and even though the game does stop when they appear, it doesn't feel unnatural. There are also Japanese terms that show up highlighted in the text and these can be clicked to learn more that isn't discussed directly in the dialogue. There really is a lot to see and learn here and I almost want to stop the review here and tell everyone to just go out and buy it if you're interested in learning more about Japan and Japanese culture, but let me continue examining this game a bit and take a look at some of the things that keep it from true perfection.

Other cultural aspects explored...

This is true.

First, let me get my biggest complaint about this game out of the way: Brian. I have no idea why you have to play as a pre-made character at all. More than any other visual novel, this is one that should have allowed the player to input their own name and play as "themselves". Brian does have something of a character (more on that in a bit), but he's enough of a blank slate that this shouldn't have been too hard a thing to do. Being able to truly insert yourself into a game like this would have helped out a lot and would have made for a more immersive experience. Now, let's talk a bit about Brian's character and what it means to the game as a whole. Brian is a self-styled "otaku", as many Japanese will tell you this isn't exactly a term one casually uses to describe oneself in Japan, I found it weird this was not addressed within the game itself. This is central to understanding the character though as it permeates every aspect of the game, not the least of which are the interactions with Choco and Arisa, but also influences which aspects of Japanese culture are focused upon. Now, due to the fact that Brian is an otaku a lot of this game revolves around nerd culture and cool Japan trends this might be fine for most players, but it does limit the playing field a bit. While we do learn a lot about things like obon and hina matsuri, this is balanced by a back story that involves the characters going to Akihabara every free second and constantly referring to anime, manga, figures, and the like. Also thanks to Brian's views on Japan being some sort of holy land of anime there are some VERY cringe-worthy lines and moments where Japan, and even Choco and Arisa, are reduced to overused stereotypes with misconceptions about Japanese popular culture running amok. I'm probably being a little too hard on this game, but these moments really took me out of the game and made me almost want to stop playing besides everything else being so amazing.

I actually forgot to capture certain key lines, but you can see a bit of the cringe-worthiness here.

I just said everything else was amazing and I meant it. This game has some of the best presentation I've seen in a game period, it definitely stands out in the genre. The designs are perfect and everything just looks extremely well-planned and executed. Choco and Arisa aren't exactly the most original characters, but they look great and there is enough variation in terms of outfits and styles that the player never feels that they're seeing more of the same constantly. Elsewhere the backgrounds and the still are perfect, some even have a really cute chibi look that has a charm of its own. Usually in games like this there are certain characters or scenes that seem a little off and that is usually the result of the independent nature of these releases, but we see none of that here. Everything is consistently good and praiseworthy. It should also be mentioned that the characters are partially animated in that they move, "breathe", blink, and move their mouths when they speak. This isn't too often seen in games of this scale and was a welcome addition. This game also has a "nekomimi" mode (cat ears), but I honestly didn't find it worth playing through just to see this, though this does change the character models and art a bit so it's worth mentioning. Art is this game's strong point though thankfully it isn't the only great aspect of the game.

Now this is what I call Halloween!

More amazing art in the all-but-required beach scene.

Let's move onto music. Music in this game is not standout, but what is here definitely suits the mood of any scene. While there are only a few tracks, they never become too repetitive or boring which is always a bonus and about the only thing you can really ask with music in a visual novel. Also, due to the lack of any true drama in the game, all the music is upbeat. Besides the background music there are opening and closing songs that feature full vocals which are well-done, especially the opening song, though I must say that the closing song was far too quiet. I tried playing with settings to fix this, but it never was at a level that I felt could be heard easily. This bug, if in fact it is one, is not present in the opening sequence, so I am at a loss as to how to remedy this. Everywhere else in the game we see excellent sound and mixing though. Voice acting is of course top notch here and Choco and Arisa's voices match them perfectly. All their lines are voiced and I already mentioned that they're the only visible characters within this game. With sound and music both trying their best to impress, let's move onto our final points.

Of course there is a maid cafe scene...

...and a Christmas scene complete with Santa outfits

This is where I usually discuss the story of the game, but there really isn't too much to say here. You go through a school year, complete with the Japanese term cycles, going about the various activities that that entails. You go to Comiket, celebrate Halloween Japanese style, Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc. all the while continuing on with your studies, tests, and finals. There are a few back stories for the characters, but I feel that these favor Choco just a little too much. Not that this is a bad thing, but there is something of a love story here and there are paths for each character (not a spoiler since there are achievements for this) and at times it feels that all the good characterization moments go to Choco. Not only do these paths favor Choco a bit more, but there isn't too much plot-wise that separates Arisa besides her quirky personality. It should go without saying that this game has your stereotypical scenes that belong in every visual novel, such as a beach scene, but it's interesting to note just how many scenes we see that involve studying. This game takes the slice of life style gameplay and runs with it, thankfully taking us on a great ride. Nothing moves too fast though the game never really drags even in those aforementioned study scenes. Due to the fact that there isn't much in the way of story though, the game doesn't offer a whole lot of replayability besides completing both routes. Speaking of those routes, I must say that there isn't a whole lot of difference between them, though it was still nice to have them in the game. Depending on reading speed and such, this is about a 4-8 hour game and for the price of admission, that isn't bad at all.

The happiness of a crane game... the simple things are always the best...

There you have it, Japanese School Life is a great game if you want to learn more about Japan or just vicariously live the life of a Japanese high school student. There are some bits that keep the experience from being perfect, but it really is a great game that has some of the best art I've seen in this genre. Be sure to check it out on Steam, it even has a demo in case you want to try it out first!

-Manuel (alavic_222)

You can check out Sakura Nova now on Steam at the link below!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/555640/

---

Graphics: PERFECT
Sound: AMAZING
Gameplay/Story: AMAZING
Value: PERFECT
 
OVERALL: AMAZING+

---

FULL DISCLOSURE: This game was provided to A-To-J Connections free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of review.

Japanese School Life PV