ACE Academy

"Ducks fly together!" and "Your care package drop zone is flatlined." have lived rent free in my head for the past eight years since I first played Ace Academy after its initial release. Ace Academy turned out to be an amazing first game by PIxelFade especially considering this is the first visual novel they developed. Although the art work is not absolutely peak it still looks great and has a ton of flair. The voice acting although not super good there is a ton of love put into it, not to mention all the fun cameos they managed to squeeze into the game such as AmaLee and Gigguk. The best part of Ace Academy with out a doubt is the exceptional story and writing. The team did an amazing job at getting me invested into the stories and backgrounds of all the heroines, and I love that even on different routes the other heroines also find love. They did such a good job writing the characters that I got needlessly jealous when seeing the other girls in happy relationships after I went through their routes. The biggest problem I had with this novel was the crashing that kept happening when I was skipping through already read text, and the crashing that always happened to me during the ending credits. Initially for me Kaori was best girl but she is just too violent for my tastes and good looks can not make up for that; therefore Yuuna is best girl. All in all Ace Academy is an amazing first game and does not even feel like a first time game either. It is fully worth purchasing and reading through with a good story and tons of fun humor dialogues.

ACE Academy is a very well made dating sim visual novel that feels like a lot of love went into it. This is probably one of the few true high quality western produced dating sims. The game takes place in a futuristic school environment with mechas, and you build your relationship with multiple female classmates. Although the overarching story is nothing too exciting and mostly linear, the choices are actually meaningful for the relationships/certain events. The dialogue is pretty well written, and you can tell the writers knew what they were doing. There are plenty of witty remarks, references, and a more "western" tinge for some writing/humor (vs japanese style writing). The game is also fully voice acted (English only though), and I think the VAs really did a great job. I especially liked Valerie and Shou's VAs. All the art/character portraits were also very well made, and the music was very solid. The only gripe I have with the game is that the ending felt like it was a bit rushed, and we didn't see a more satisfying resolution for an overhanging plot point. Overall, solid dating sim that grew on me more and more as I played it. I would recommend the game to anyone who likes dating sims, and I look forward to playing the other games by PixelFade.

I'm not even sure where to start with Ace Academy. This is probably my favorite Pixelfade game, hell it's probably in my top 5 VN It isn't the best, I won't be that biased. Some of the references kind of date it But it's characters are great and you'll probably find one you'll get attached to. Overall I give it an astonishing 5/5 despite it short comings it makes up for it in everyway.

I'm gonna be honest. I really enjoyed this visual novel. It combined one of my favorite sci-fi tropes (mechs) with a dating simulator and a really good story. I would recommend this game to anyone interested in visual novels.

peak academy

If you play ACE Academy focusing only on the main story without getting into the romances, it's honestly pretty mid. The plot alone isn't strong enough to carry the game, and the ending... well... what ending? Nothing to write home about. But it gets significantly better if you start messing around with people. Choosing the funny options and just enjoying the banter. The characters become more entertaining, and the experience overall feels more engaging and fun. Where ACE Academy really shines to me is in its romance. The character arcs are completely missiable if you’re not focusing on them, but if you do engage with them, they can be surprisingly heartfelt and rewarding. That said, not all the routes are created equal. It’s pretty clear to me that one girl got the developer’s full attention, with significantly more depth and polish than some of the others. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but it does make some of the other routes feel a bit underwhelming in comparison. Or it could just be me being biased. Also, as you restart to try different routes, the game starts to feel repetitive really fast. A lot of scenes and structure are reused, so chasing every romance feels super tedious even with the skip button. ACE Academy has great humor, heartfelt moments, and pretty solid romance. The music is pretty good and fits the mood well, but I do wish the art quality was a bit more aesthetically pleasing. As for the ending—it didn’t really land for me. It felt like the season just stopped midway without proper closure. Still, despite its flaws, I genuinely enjoyed my time with it. 8/10.

The ending is a bit rushed but it's still good, the characters are all really likeable and the jokes are on point. It's not all jokes though and the novel does also get emotional at times. Plus, when the credits rolled it was quite bittersweet. You get a wide variety of choices too, so (for example) the MC can either be a pervy idiot or an intuitive hardworker, really depends on what you pick. Overall, 7.5/10, 8/10 when including Kaori's After Story.