Pokemon Academy Life

Pokemon is one of the most popular anime series out there, and almost everyone is familiar with the main characters and a few of the Pokemon. Naturally, there are a lot of video games that touch on the subject as well, some of which got to achieve the bestseller status over the years. However, there is always another angle you can use to provide people with a new perspective on things.

Pokemon Academy Life is an interactive story and a visual novel, which means that your main activities are dialog and relationships with other characters. There is no combat system in place as of right now, nor are you able to roam the world in search of rare Pokemon, but that doesn’t mean you cannot have fun. In fact, as long as you are comfortable with the visual novel genre, the game is actually quite intricate and well thought out.

To begin with, you play the role of a college boy arriving to his new university. You have the option to stick with the original names or choose your own, depending on what you prefer. The story is not overly complicated, but it features a plethora of characters you can interact with, as well as many choices that affect how your relationships and maybe the final ending of the story.

You can meet and talk with many different characters, all of which can become your friends if you so desire. Dialog is sometimes the only tool at your disposal, but there are multiple answers to choose from most of the time. Romantic relationships are possible as well, although they are obviously a bit more complicated. Even so, it’s nice to know that you are not being forced on a specific path in regards to the people you interact with over the course of the story.

Lastly, the technical aspect of the game is quite impressive too. It may be developed in Ren’Py, but you probably wouldn’t be able to tell in most cases. The artwork is sharp and clean, making it a real pleasure to interact with the game world and the characters. Even the backgrounds are carefully designed to please the eye, which is nice to see in an indie production.

In the end, it’s a bit too early to declare Pokemon Academy Life a success, mainly because it’s missing a lot of content. However, as long as everything goes according to plan and the developer stays on track, the game can turn out to be huge.