"Nippon, here I come!" - Random Review - Tokyo School Life
Entry posted by Satsuki
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Okay, this will be my first blog entry, and my not-really-first-but-let-just-call-it-that-way attempt of reviewing a visual novel. I'm still inexperienced, so please forgive me if I made any mistake 
The first VN I will be doing review is Tokyo School Life, a visual novel made by M2 Co., Ltd., and published by Dogenzaka Lab on Steam in February. This VN somehow slipped under my radar for some reasons, and it was not until about 5 days after released that I noticed its existence. Seem like my radar need a remodel 
WARNING: SPOILER! (Can't be helped)
WARNING: 100% PERSONAL OPINION!
Story
This is the story of your trip as an exchange student in Tokyo and the three girls you meet there. Although you don't make the greatest first impression, you quickly settle into the kind of everyday life you've seen in anime and manga -- filled with laughs and tears. By the time you have to head home two months from now, you might find that you've fallen for one of your new friends... (Source: Steam Store)
Not much to say about the story, it's pretty much the same as Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~, but it will focus more on the story, rather than "promoting tourist destination".
Character
1. You (yeah, I mean you, the player, not Kogasaka You) (you can name him!)
An exchange student that, presumably come from the US (the game did not tell you exactly where he came from, but he talked about "buying anime in North America" and "eating raw cookie dough from a tube" so I just took my guess). Unlike the retarded caveman in Go! Go! Nippon! who surprised at convenience store and vending machine, he has quite a lots of knowledge about Japan culture. He is an otaku, and learned about Kanji mostly from reading manga/watching anime (damn it!), and also from a neighbor guy who he called "Sensei". He came to Japan, hoping to get to know about Akiba, yakuza culture,...and get a Nadeshiko girlfriend.
One thing really bugged me about him is the fact that he know nothing about some really 101 stuff like "itadakimasu", "gochirousama", tanabata...despite knowing a ton of other things like dougi (karate uniform), tanzaku paper, sumi (ink), Takeshita doori... He even thought that Go-Home Club is a real club. Seriously guy, how many manga/anime did you read/watch?!
2. Minazuki Sakura
Your classmate, and also housemate. A "Nadeshiko" girl that actually is a closet otaku. She is a light-eater, soft-spoken person, with a weak body due to her illness. She is also a fan of Samurai Maiden like the protagonist, thus making him her first ever otaku friend (she has to keep the Nadeshiko-image at school). She takes charge of writing calligraphy in Tanabata festival.
3. Yayoi Karin
2nd member of Tomoe Dorm - where the protagonist is living in. Energetic, and somewhat of a tsundere, she tried to kick him out of the house at first, due to the not-really-good first encounter between him and her - a nice crash resulted in he groping on Karin's boobs. Despite acting all tough and protective, she actually really loves cute stuff, and ready to throw money away to get them. Outside of school, she is known as the new idol Yayoi Karin-chan, a rising star that has a good amount of fan.
As a descendant of Kogasaka Chinami and Isshiki Akane (nope, joking 
), she is a super-mayo-lover, that put a ton of mayo on everything (mayonnaise pizza, anyone?), and also a big-eater. She is weak at studying, and really afraid of ghost.
4. Hazuki Aoi
3rd member of Tomoe Dorm, Aoi is the tomboy who in charge of everything in the house - from cooking, washing to cleaning. A good-in-nature mother-like girl who always takes good care of people in the dorm. She loves cooking and practising non-violence karate. Despite the boy-ish appearance, she is a puppy at heart that love people patting her head (LOL!).
Route
1. Common Route
There is pretty much nothing to talk about, just the everyday icha icha between the protagonist and 3 heroines. The choices will require you to save the game a lot, since quite a few of them are unclear. The game will give you a recognizable sound after you made a choice so you know what the hell did you just do (a loud one for affection choice, quieter one for neutral, and no sound for "I dont want you, get out" choice).
2. Sakura Route
Sakura route talks about her attempt of drawing a doujinshi based on her favorite character in Samurai Maiden - Takamori Saigou, and her fight against the illness she has. Her route is supposedly the main drama route of the game. However, in my opinion, her route is the worst out of three. They used a really weird way of telling story, by jumping from event to event, "highlight" only some "comedic" moment between Sakura and the protagonist, making the sleepiness keeps winning over me. The speed got pushed up a little bit when
Sakura collapsed and got sent to the hospital.
Just when the I finally got some excitement back, the game nicely gave me ANOTHER segment of painfully boring talk. I pretty much gave up at this point, and despite trying really hard with the drama near the end, I just couldn't feel anything for the character. The ending is, well, no surprise at all, I guess (don't want to spoil anymore)
Another thing though. I'm not sure if it's just me, but Sakura route really makes me feel like the protagonist "bought" Sakura with money. He is an exchange student, she is also just a high school student, and guess what was the first present he gave her? A FREAKING 500$ POCKET WATCH!
3. Karin Route
Mainly about Karin's road of becoming an international idol (wow!) and her struggle with choosing a performing style - Should she go for the cool style of her favorite idol, or the cute style that she has always wanted? (Obvious answer is obvious). It's a really nice and relax route to read, without too much of drama this and that. Man, if only they released her character song, I would be sooo happy. Her ending is also the nicest out of the three, imo. My only problem with this route is the protagonist - playing on the beach for too long and end up hallucinating about Karin's voice everywhere he goes, everything he does. His dere gauge is totally over the top!
4. Aoi Route
Aoi does not practise karate just because she feels like it.
Her parents were killed in a quarrel with yakuza, so she ended up hating violence, and decided to practise karate, both to become the next head of her family's dojo, and also to protect her friends.
Containing some nice action scenes, as you can expect from the route of a karate practitioner, you will get to know about her will of proving to people that a non-violence karate is not impossible. Though I have to say, they got a bit overkill with this route: I feel like watching not a karate girl but Haimura Moroha chanting his world destruction spell Come on writer, get realistic a little won't you?
Graphic
Really nice with the E-mote system. Character's movement doesn't seem too unnatural like some other E-mote VNs. The artwork is pretty good, though I do have some problem with the character proportion (looks really weird from time to time, especially Aoi). Oh, and they even use real image for some BG too!
Music
Not much to talk about since I'm not a pro in this field, but yeah, at least it's not boring 
Conclusion
Tokyo School Life is a short charage that shouldn't take you more than 5 hours to finish. If you want to enjoy some light-hearted romcom to relax after work/school, this is a good choice for you. That said, I won't recommend buying this game at full price - 15$ is kinda not worth it. Just wait for a sale off, then take it home!
Score:
Story: 7/10
Character: 9/10
Route: 8/10
Graphic: 9/10
Music: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
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