Senior Year

[mikey]

Basically, the whole review introduces the concept of VN from a newbie perspective, describes the gameplay, and then praises the concept itself, the VA, the multiple girls, graphics in manga style and so on. There is a lot of praise for each of the aspects from the reviewer. The 9/10 is of course a good thing, 90%.

Some of the comments from the discussion then point out that the behavior of the protagonist isn't realistic, more or less in the spirit of some of the comments here on the subject.

[EwanG]

Whereas the only thing I was able to gather from the website is that they had it as platform being only for Windows. Not sure how to let them know there's also a Mac and Linux version.

That said, it's nice to get a good review even if you have to get someone to translate it for you!

[M.Ko]

I really enjoyed all the paths... though I needed a clue to find annette.
I found just one illigical'?' thing on this line: After turning down Linda's offer for breakfest, and taking Julie into the cafe, Becky is talking about not telling Linda, which looks a bit out of place.

and then there is, apart from the reported dicreancy of Carla's text noted before, also some longer text of Annete. I did not marked the place exactly, but it is one of the longer texts, and she's talking about her place.

btw. domain .cz is staffed with windows only. We do not have many Mac's here and Linux users are ususally checking other sites than this particular one... Anyway, they give a link to author's original page...

[south desert islander]

TO be honest, I did not have much trouble finding Annette. I suspected after finishing the game four times that I needed to take a road less traveled. In a sense, I had an idea where she was hiding based off the game itself. What I meant by that was the way the paths were set up. I tried to think like a designer for a second and ask, if I had five girls, threee of them straight up easy to find, one a bit hard to find, where would the last one be. I then concluded that he hid it at a time where protaganist was unsure of himself in the middle of wooing. I tried the theory out and it worked.


... Maybe I think too much into these games...

[Counter Arts]

That is what you call the metagame. It is when you try to use common patterns of games to figure out what to do or otherwise try to use your outside game knowledge.

Funnily enough, some visual novels you can't really metagame like higurashi.

[teankun]

Anyway, the game is great, the fact that you can easily get any girl is great,
But, to be honest, this type of game isn't my cup of tea. The girls are too direct too quickly, calling you 'hon, 'sug and the like. Also, a bit too vulgar without warning. It's not that it was going too far, it's just that the game never really gives you ANY warning. Like:

[You know the virgin Julie for five minutes (text-reading time), and she wants to show you her... *gulp* trim.]

I had no real time to get into her personality and then she does that all of the sudden. It made me think that she thinks that I'm cheap.

In the end, this is what Senior Year is, and I think the problem for me was that I somehow expected romance, and in this game, it wasn't there.

everything seemed to move a little too quickly and didn't really allow for much pure romance?

I mean, within the first 10 or so minutes you're having sex with a character? And you've only known them for...a few days? Maybe it's just me thinking that...

Overall, it was a fun, light and enjoyable VN! Congratulations on making the first ever fully voiced OEL Visual Novel!

I don't know if he's Super-Stud or has incredibly strong pheromones or something, but the girls' extreme sexual aggressiveness, especially given some of their personalities, seems consistent only if you use "hentai game logic"

Eh, I don't quite see it that way. Hentai game logic is basically the same as porn movie logic. What I've seen in this game is girls that are lonely, horny, and have strong crushes on you from the outset, in some cases for years.

I feel somewhat responsible for this. Back before SY was in development, EwanG asked if it was okay to have H in the game, and I sort of responded, well, you needed voice actresses who were comfortable with the (then unproven creator), so keep it tame (and the fact that no OEL previously seriously went the H-game style), so it was decided to be PG-13.

It seems like many of the voice actresses are underage. If they acted out hentai scenes the game might technically be child pornography, hah . I wonder what the regarding this is?

Anyway, good game, can't wait to see more from you.

Okay, here is my review. This was a really nice attempt to use voice and it was nice to have a selection of five girls, but my gripes are pretty much the same as I quoted.

I am already much of a prude I pretty much am a prude (and not the least bit ashamed for being so), thus I am usually a bit squeemish about sex in general. This game seemed to pretty much be a response to my "Implide sex" thread since nothing extreamly graphic was drawn (i.e. nudity was present but obscured) which (for me) may be bad enough, but I think the main problem I had with this game is that it was pretty much too easy.
In fact it seemd it took more effort to wind up with nobody than have sex with one of the girls, which leads to another gripe is that one can easily have sex with any of the girls. Either one will go all the way in a very short time. The example Mikey seems to fit the "horny virgin" IMHO, the girls seem to be trampy if not complete sluts. (It made me even more uncomfortable with the audio voice.)

I feel it would have been better if there more standoffish girls that would require more effort to work on and even at least one girl that would want to wait for marriage-no-ifs-ands-nor-buts.

Otherwise a nice attempt.

I would like to seem more games with voice, but some that are more conservative. Other varriations could include a set name for the protaganist as well as male voices.

[EwanG]

FWIW, I've just been notified that the Windows version has gone "Live" at Download.com (finally). Had hoped that would happen before Valentine's Day...

Mac version should be up there eventually as well (submitted the same day, but...)

Will be interesting to see how that does/doesn't affect the number of downloads

[PyTom]

If it's anything like MW, you can expect to see a big jump in the number of downloads from your main site. Why? There are a number of download.com wanna-bes, that are too cheap to actually bother hosting the files themselves. So what they do is screen-scrape download.com, but link to your site, rather than mirroring the file themselves.

[kara24601]

I finally took the time to really sit down and play it.
Annette's story almost made me cry and it was fun
trying to get all the endings without "resorting" to a walkthrough ,
then again ,
it didn't take me as long
as I thought it would to reach certain paths.
It was much easier than I expected
and it's really nice that I didn't ever have to use a walkthough.
( not that there was one but you know what I mean )

Player Character : Seems like a "typical" ren'ai male.
( or at least what I think should be the typical ren'ai male )
Gentle in some way ,
but firm when he is approached by a girl and turns her down.
Realizes when he's made a big mistake.
Somewhat of a pervert ,
but that doesn't always mean it's a bad thing ,
as this game proves to people.
( even if he doesn't end up with anybody ...
he's not as horrible as some male characters are when they're upset... )
Too bad more male characters aren't like this.
It's always nice to see this kind of male in a game ,
especially if you are a girl having to play as the/a guy.

"Don't worry about it , we'll just take things a little slower."
"Because I love you , and I can't bear the thought of not being with you for the rest of my life."
"Yes , this is really happening. We're getting married at the same park where I proposed."
"What night would be good for you?"
Uncaring / selfish characters don't care about what night would be good for somebody , they'd just show up or do whatever whenever , right?
So , he's a caring guy.
Not long after the movie started , I felt Becky snuggling up to me.
See? Snuggling is romantic , even if it's the girl that starts it! lol
Then there's : "I decided to let her sleep." Most people don't like to be woken up from their sleep , regardless of why you woke them up. So there's another example of caring , I say that a guy letting you sleep / showing he cares about you by letting you sleep or snuggling with you is just as romantic as a guy taking you for a midnight walk on a beach.
And the idea of marrying her after just a few weeks seemed ridiculous.
Even though though the date isn't brought up , with the way it goes , apparently / it is implied that a good deal of time has passed before he is considering marriage with Becky at the hill or whatever and even then he has doubts that it's the right time as you get to choose wether or not to ask her.
The PC is a virgin , which is another thing you don't really see very often in hentai games or even ren'ai games for that matter.

Carla : Very nice character design.
Great personality and fashion sense.

Ok , so I failed to find the "fluffy romance" part of Carla's story. Hers was a serious / sad story...much like Annette's.
Ok , not everyone equates sex with romance but yes if you think about it , Carla's path is romantic because of the kissing and love making....yes , love making...not "sex just for the fun of it" but "sex because you love somebody" sex aka love making. *wink*

Annette : Not big on alcohol but a touching story.
Good character design , great fashion.

Like Carla's story , Annette's story was a bit more serious than other stories so there's more "oh baby want you now" and love making than "let's just snuggle and take it easy"

Becky : I have Brown hair and eyes and I hate that fact.
I usually hate Brown as a hair and eye color but Becky is cute.
OK fashions.

Sugg , you know I wouldn't miss something this important to you.

Linda : Good.

"I hope you don't think I'm being too forward ,
but I think it would be fun to be more than just friends."
( or something along those lines )
"I guess I'm just embarrassed to kiss in public.
You know , I've never dated that much.
I'm willing to work on it for you."

Julie : I'm not big on short or very short / boyish hair on girls
and Green eyed blondes.
In fact , I usually think Green eyes on
any character that doesn't have Red hair looks odd.
Not a big fan of the fashion.

"Alex , trust me that I wish this was going differently."
Yes , Alex is the name I use when playing the game.
Any way , I think this part would've been even better if it had been put a little differently - "Alex , trust me when I say that I wish that I didn't have a wounded foot right now." or something like that.
Ok , so she kicked him first but then they snuggled.
Again , I count snuggling as romantic. Also , taking care of somebody that's wounded , ill , or upset can count as a romantic moment.

Something I just now noticed...
none of the girls have proper color in certain parts of the eyes.
Instead the skin color is there.
That's a little creepy and weird when you think about it.
Even when the eyes are "open" like that -
( Anime style eyes that have no lines around
certain parts of the eye ...therefore it's "open" ) -
they still put White in not just the iris but outside the iris.
Otherwise and overall the character designs are fine.
A thousand times better than anything I could do ,
but I think the eye thing needed to be pointed out and discussed anyway.
I think it's a very minor rant in the long run
but still worth giving a bit of thought to.

On the sex and romance issues :
I think it's going too far to call characters "slutty"
just because they are more foward than other / some girls and
that things seem to be moving "too fast" for some people's liking.
Also , like Ewan has stated , remember that the
PC has already known some of the characters for quite a few years.
And there's this :

That would be Linda.
I knew her from when my family lived here the first time.
We only moved back here about four years ago when I started at Alta.

I also disagree that there's no romance in this game. I count this as a ren'ai game , it's just different from a "fluffy kawaii" or "emo" ( man I hate that term ) ren'ai game. Not everything has to be or should be Fruits Basket in game / visual novel form.( not that there's anything wrong with that...in fact I _love_ FB and can't wait to own the boxed set and even
FB has sad and serious moments )
For those thinking "ok where's the romance?"
The guy has known some of the girls longer than the other girls.
That implies that they've probably already been out
( even if they didn't consider them or call them dates back then ) -
in the past.
Linda is a good example of the "romance" thing...you've known each other longer , and if you choose her...you love her ...she loves you ...
you start dating for real or whatever...eventually marry...
How can that be unromantic?

Some good points other people have brought up :

They show hesitation and regret about their choices, which characters in hentai games rarely do.
What I find much slightly more unrealistic than the sex is how quickly most of the girls want to get married,
but I know people that have done it so its not too unrealistic.

I think the sex without porn works pretty well and is a good middle ground for games that don't want to be X rated or don't have art that is up par.
It always seems unrealistic to me to have completely G-rated games where the most anyone does is kiss,
at least the ones that feature older highschool or college students.

I think EwanG stated somewhere that Linda is in the twenty-something range when it comes to her age and I got that feel with the other gals too. So , to me , it's not THAT farfetched or weird or creepy that they all are interested in sex ....have jobs ....but still go to school...ect.
I like to think that even though alot of people still make a big fat hairy deal out of it , adults ( that is to say people in their twenties or if they are twenty-something years old ) having jobs *and* school plus maybe also still living with a parent or both parents....stuff like that is becoming more acceptable here in the states and possibly other places too.
At least , I hope that's what's happening....
Like others have stated , on the one hand....it does seem a tad unrealistic to have all that stuff jammed into one game but on the other hand there can be situations like that in real life so it's not too untrealistic.

I think this game is good , to me it's not that it "can't decide if it wants to be a hentai game or a ren'ai game" or whatever but...
it's more : a ren'ai game with straightforward and suggestive dialogue. /
a ren'ai game with adult themes.

The hentai fan in me is disappointed with the lack of "more" for the sex stuff and another side of me is happy that it doesn't go further than "naughty text omg" hahaha

Oh , Ewan did all the character art...baka me ( *blush* ) wow great work Ewan!

( but how come you didn't do most of the background art if you are a good artist? heh ...the background art is great but it would've been nice to see your bg art....)

I have a "guidebook" or some kind of book about Texas...somewhere.
Dur , I _just now_ realized the game is set in Texas even though it's got Anime style graphics...I figured the American names and such were for the benefit of an American / english speaking audience. *blush* Hahaha!

Wow , I ended up typing alot.
Sorry if it was stupid to put certain things with spoiler code...
At first I was gonna have them using the quote code
but then I thought that some people would think that I'm giving spoilers...
If I missed anything , sorry...

[EwanG]

Appreciate the kind comments, and definitely adds to the list of things that I will consider for Camp Handiba (next story I'm working on).

As for the background art:

A) I'm lazy, and there was all this good background art already done that I could use

B) I wanted to start out a bit more conventionally. The character art was difficult enough, and my BG art would have been a bit of a distraction from the game.

Thanks again for the review, and I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

[ssssss]

eh i think the voices could use some work and i think the story moved a little to fast you meet them 2 days ago and your already aving sex sorry if i come off a jerk

[Malyszeq]

Myself, i didn't have any trouble with getting the Annette ending. The story was great, but I think the girls were too "impatient" (How I wish that girls in reality would be like so )

Anyway... agreat game, great voicing, with no major bugs... I liked it much.

[Air-Dragon]

The game was awesome, the voicing was just fantastic, it really gave the game push in the right direction. The girls were assortive and fun but it should of been longer with more dating senarios because the story line just goes to quick. Maybe make it more challenging beacuse it seemed all too simple, or i just played it all to well?

[Hakura0]

Just finished playing through the game half a dozen times, I got all of them but messed up with Becky at the last minute.

I went for Annette the first time and...

I'll have to say it made me feel bad to have her death referenced in the other ones. The 'Oh!' when she loses her balance or whatnot in her story was very good though.

The girls are a bit forward, but I really appreciate it not really going into 'full' hentai. I play the games for story and decisions.

I did really enjoy the game though, the voices were good though I'm impatient and after the first few playthroughs I started not waiting for them. Sorry.

[EwanG]

Glad to hear folks are still finding things to enjoy in this game. I do hope to eventually finish another one, and to make it longer and a little more "difficult". Of course I keep reminding myself that it's always better to have folks wanting more, than telling you they got bored or wished it was shorter.

Thanks again for the comments,
Ewan