Arts & Hearts Academy

[h1]Need a Christmas Cracker? Found one![/h1] [i]Arts & Hearts Academy[/i] is a fun visual novel created by Vera Florentine and relates the story of a young college student taking part in a competition to win a place at a prestigious, expensive art and architecture academy. If that doesn't sound appealing to you right off the bat, let me quickly confirm that I have never been into art and architecture before, either. Trust me that your personal absence of interest in these subjects will have no bearing on your enjoyment of the game. The MC, named “Miss Bell”, is given a forename by the player, and we learn that she has been chosen for the team representing her college due to an apparent clerical error, which immediately puts her ill at ease after boarding a train and meeting her two new teammates.. both of whom are eligible bachelors, and not without attractive qualities. Well, how about that! As the story progresses, an extra dimension is thrown in by way of an unresolved murder case dating back to 2005, and Miss Bell's interest in solving the case. (During gameplay, she is referred to by the forename that the player gives her, there is no laborious “Miss Bell” repetition to deal with). There are 3 potential love interest routes to follow, two of whom we meet on the train and are our heroine's teammates, and one who represents the opposing college team. Each of these routes weaves in and out of the main storyline, meaning that you will encounter unique and common passages throughout the game. There is a skip feature, which is fast, so nipping through the common sections after first play through is painless. You will be dealing with three threads throughout: the contest, the investigation, and a potential romance; and all three flow seamlessly together. The narrative occasionally provides educational content about both art and architecture, and successfully does so in a way that makes it entertaining and informative, without ever veering into [i]too much information[/i] territory and becoming boring as a result. Thumbs up for crafting a nice balance. It is worth paying attention when the MC is being educated, as the knowledge gleaned will be useful when faced with a team knockout quiz late on! [h1]Positives[/h1] - Obviously the graphics in the game stand out, as has been mentioned in a number of other reviews. So, let's kick a certain elephant out of the room immediately. Yes, AI has been used to assist in the creation of the visual splendour which awaits us. I know that many people will baulk instantaneously at the mere mention of AI, but in a case like this where we have a single developer creating a game, and keeping that assistance down to providing extra polish to enhance the user experience (which it certainly does); I cannot easily see any cause for alarm. It's pretty obvious where it has been used, it does not dominate, but it does provide greater user satisfaction from the end results therein. - The story, based in 2021, features flashbacks to 2005, and some of the characters appear in both years. The ageing of these characters between time periods is fantastic, subtle facial shading and hairstyles really bringing into focus the intervening years. I loved that. - Character sprites also have subtle expression changes, and appear within the backing scenes on occasion. I find that this always brings a greater feeling of reality to proceedings. - The translation from Russian isn't perfect, but it's very good, probably about 98% accurate. Slips and incorrect word usage is very slight, (and for anyone who has read many of my reviews, you'll know that I'm pretty fussy about English standards in VNs) and is not enough to affect enjoyment at all. There are zero problem captions in terms of understanding. - Achievements are sensible and well placed. You won't pick up a load simply by reading through, but all of them can be found via carefully considered choices. Player options are also regular without being excessive, appear when you'd most expect them, and have impact. - A personal fave in any game: clothing choice! The MC has her own “wardrobe” with her at the academy, and at various points you can get to select from two or three options, what she will wear for the scene following. All of the outfits look good (discreetly letting her impossibly narrow waist in two of the outfits slide xD) and then show in all of her appearances until she next changes. Huge plus for this! - Player interaction is not restricted solely to making choices. The investigation part of the game provides simple point-and-click moments when magnifying glass icons appear on the screen to alllow close-up inspections of items. - Later on, there is a very enjoyable sliding-block type puzzle where you have to correctly position 12 pieces of a picture together. If you're not a sliding-block fan, don't worry – neither am I. Any two of the pieces can be exchanged at any time, irrespective of position – and they don't all start upright, so you can rotate them, too. This is a nicely gauged diversion from the reading, and is not frustrating in the slightest. [h1]Negatives[/h1] It would be easy to forego this section, such has been the enjoyment level of playing through this game. So I am including the following mainly to keep those happy who are unable to be so without having something to moan about. - There is no CG gallery. Honestly, if I hadn't been playing this specifically with a curator review in mind, I may not have noticed. Yes, it would be nice to be able to review some of the lovely pictures afterwards, but in this instance, it doesn't feel overly important to the whole package. - The in-play functions available is just the Ren'py standard word list across the bottom of the screen. These words are in small text, people with any visual impairment may have difficulty seeing them. I don't, but did find it hard to tell at times whether the skip was available or not, as the command word merged with the backdrop beneath it. [h1]Verdict[/h1] I wasn't expecting a non-Christmas themed visual novel to drop for review so close to Christmas, and especially not one as thoroughly enjoyable as this. It didn't escape my attention that Vera Florentine is credited with just about [i]everything[/i] in the creation of this game, from coding to writing to audio and translation. This is an astonishing achievement by one seriously talented individual. Having read other reviews before playing the game, I noticed that Theo was not faring too well in the likes department, so I did his route first, using the logic that I'd get the “worst” one out of the way. Sure enough, I didn't warm to the character – you'd be hard pressed to find a girl in her right mind who would want a guy like that – but his dubious personality in no way diminished the enjoyment of his route. And it gets better after that. Overall I had about eight hours with the game (a small amount of time I had it in the background, chatting on discord) and thoroughly enjoyed ALL of it. If you're one of those VN fans who usually resorts to the supposed “safe” option of the latest big-name release, comfortable in the knowledge that you're getting another expensive rehash of previously told stories featuring standard tropes and copy/paste character sprites with accompanying dodgy translation; then this is the ideal opportunity to remedy that particular malaise, open your mind and support an indie developer who puts their heart and soul into producing something original and rewarding. This is excellent. Buy it. Otome Lovers wishes to thank [i]Vera Florentine[/i] for providing a free review copy of this game. [quote]Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]

Атмосфера тащит! Мне понравилась интригующая часть, масики тоже ниче такие Я, как коренная петербурженка, люто респектую за выбор места действия, ну прям жиза, мне аж выбраться из своей конуры погулять захотелось

I wasn't sure about trying this game, since playing a game as a female protagonist with male love interests is a big role reversal for this old guy. But I had a lot of fun, the romance aspect tugged at my heartstrings, and the ending I got was a real feel-good one... with a huge twist I never saw coming. I'm curious as to how the other possible endings play out, and I will do more playthroughs to see them all, but I just had to give this game a big thumbs up now and leave this review to encourage others to play this game. You get to play detective while participating in an architecture design/history competition. Meanwhile, you've got three guys vying for your attention, other girls making things confusing for you, faculty members behaving badly, your mother dealing with her own problems, and you with your own dark secret that could ruin everything. The story is well-plotted and well-written, for the most part. The UI and subtitles are available in both English and Russian, which leaves me to wonder if the original text was written in Russian, because the English does seem to have failed in translation in a few places. (Very few, but they are there.) I still got the intended meaning, I believe. Background music and sound effects added to the atmosphere of the piece. I typically don't listen to background music in games, but it fit the mood so well for me in this game, I opted to listen to it. The sound effects matched the scenes, with background crowd noises, train noises, falling rain, etc. The sound effects in one extended scene early in the game got on my nerves, but once I got past that, they all started to feel natural. Many visual novels I've played don't have sound effects to the same extent, so I'm not used to them much, but in this game, they quickly became the norm, and the few occasions of silence were overtly noticeable. Overall, with only playing the one route to completion, I'm ready to give this game a 10/10 rating. I can only guess the other endings will be just as intriguing and rewarding as the one I played. If it turns out otherwise, I'll be sure to update this review. (UPDATE 01/21/2025) I've played many other routes at this point, and believe I've gotten all the endings. There are several endings, most of them good enough for me to consider them happy endings. Only one ending would I consider a bad ending for our MC, and I had to work at it to get it. It certainly wasn't one I'd expect anyone to get as their first ending. And it wasn't necessary to reach that ending to get all the achievements, which I did manage to earn. The choices really do matter in this game. The first ending I got was my favorite, because I didn't know anything going into it. Reaching the other endings was more a matter of satisfying my curiosity, and didn't have the same emotional impact as the first one did, but I can imagine how I'd have felt if I'd done any of them first instead, and I still think none of them would have given me more of a good feeling than the ending I got first. If you haven't played the game yet, all I can say is to go with your heart when making choices, and you probably won't go wrong for yourself. After playing all the endings (I'm pretty sure I got them all) and earning all the achievements, I'm standing by my rating of 10/10 for this game. However you might feel about otome games in general, put any reservations aside and enjoy this one.

Не разделяю общего восторга. Ни один романтический интерес не заинтересовал меня. Люсьена проходила на скипе ради достижений. Ожидала точно большего, потенциал был, но не дотянул.

Recommended. This is an interesting story with mysticism, intrigue and romance and I really like it. The atmosphere, the landscapes, the sketches and the music are 5 stars!

I liked this game, the mystery and architecture drama keep me engaged. If you like the romance part, you also have to check it out. Right now, I’m all about Ryan, but Lucien is pretty intriguing too. Theo is not my type, but my friend told that she have chosen him. I hope to get a happy ending.

Interesting picturesque scenes, characters are drawn well, the game conveys its cozy atmosphere, the text is well written. I'm glad that the developers continued development after the release of the demo version of the game, I'm sure the project will find its audience.

Остросюжетная детективная история с романтическим элементом, хорошей интригой и классными твистами в конце (и нелинейностью, конечно). Круто, что новелла посвящена необычной теме — архитектуре и искусству, и передана эта тема достоверно. Интересно и подробно прописано и окружение, в которое попадает главная героиня — те же исторические здания, которые она идут рисовать на пленэре. Да и в целом, всегда есть контекст, из-за чего история приобретает необходимую глубину. В общем, матчасть супер и в этом, на мой взгляд, главная фича игры. Ну и в остросюжетности, конечно. Ещё очень понравилась эстетика. Все эти вот кофейни с книжными стеллажами, картинные галереи, старая архитектура и живопись. Удачное решение для романтической детективной новеллы, мне кажется. В качестве бонуса — инструкция по реставрации картин! Класс.

i’ve been waiting for this game since the demo came out. it’s rare to see games in the dark academia aesthetic, especially ones aimed at girls. i liked it, so sad the game isn’t very popular. the twist at the end was unexpected, and the nancy drew vibes in the mini-games were nostalgic. in my first playthrough, i chose ryan, and in the second, lucien. i honestly don’t understand how anyone could choose theo, but taste is subjective.

У меня не было особых ожиданий, но игра удивила. Сюжет держит в напряжении, персонажи классно прописаны, главная героиня вызывает смешанные эмоции. Порадовало, что можно вести ее как по светлой, так и по темной ветке. Концовок несколько, так что игру можно проходить по-разному. Единственное, что хотелось бы видеть больше - это побочных активностей, чтобы исследовать город и свободно передвигаться по карте. Но это не так важно, в целом всё понравилось.