Creme de la Creme

年轻人的第一款choice of games， 没那么好也没那么糟，剧情设计和人物塑造与晋江小白文基本持平，喜欢玛丽苏/杰克苏的可以考虑。

[h2] Introduction / TLDR [/h2] Fun, fun, fun! Creme de la Creme is a romance-forward IF novel set in a fancy boarding school. As someone who has grown up with Harry Potter this has been an intensely nostalgic read as it straight up borrows motifs and tropes from those books, but transforms them into its own thing. The result is an engaging and joyous book with charming and deeply familiar setting, characters and romance. If you want a social-focused board-school-em-up game, this one is excellent. [h2] Writing and setting [/h2] Let's get the Harry Potter comparisons out of the way. Last time I read them was half my life ago, the last 2-3 books I recall reading without caring too much about them and I have since grown even further distanced from them. Still this game manages to lean on those books in a way that makes me genuinely nostalgic and feel right at home. Tropes and motifs are remixed very efficiently to create an instantly recognizable setting, yet they're used in ways that makes the setting and characters feel like their own unique configurations of literary units than some sort of fanfic. It's difficult for me to try to imagine how it would be to read this for someone not familiar with HP or other similar youth literature set in boarding schools, but I would want to imagine this book still really holds up well. Creme de la Creme is paced well and quick. Powell-Smith is very efficient at setting up vivid scenes, so despite there being a lot of different things happening rather quickly the setting feels alive and engaging. Drama and intrigue is also nicely tunes to an upper-class high school setting. We're not saving the world, instead we are defending ourselves against slander, romancing peers and trying to win the sports day competitions. Overall this is just really fun, with the one downside that those few times the writing turn to more serious and heavy drama it can feel just a little bit whiplash-y. The setting is cute, too! "Boarding school without telecommunications" is a very efficient way to make a world feel believable without having to take too much of the exterior world into account, and while Gallatin is not the most richly developed world lore-wise it's an excellent setting for an interactive fiction book with an abundance of social skill checks. While there is a healthy dose of competition and some drama going on, characters are given room to display the kinds of insecurities and awkwardness that comes with being a teenager, which makes for a story that feels pretty grounded. And the world outside of the school gates is almost a little bit too idyllic, but unless you're going to think too much on it that only makes the book more appealing to lose yourself into. [h2] Characters and romance [/h2] There's a lot to love with the wide character gallery. Literally. There are 9-10 different romance options, I think, and they are all catering to different flavors of romance tropes / archetypes. They all have variable genders that you can set depending on preference, which works pretty well (more on that later). The sheer width of the character gallery means that no one gets the character depth that you can get from stories focusing on a smaller cast, but overall I have felt that the characters have been given enough space to come into their own. The pacing of the romance is great; you can start pursuing your love interest early on in the story and have the relationship progress as the story moves on -- super engaging if you find someone you really like and want to see more of. Characters in this book feel very familiar, bordering on trope-y. Some even feel like they are direct references to characters in other works, but they are always given enough rework and space to feel like more than just collections of tropes. And the width of characters and their sheer difference from each other makes Gallitin feel like a living place. The one thing I wish I had gotten more of would be insight into their internal lives, as the dialogue is very driven by plot, character motivations and giving the setting texture. Oh, and being able to set the genders of the characters works relatively well. However, in particular when it comes to tropes and references that [i]are[/i] heavily gendered there is a bit of friction that kinda starts highlighting the artifice. There is a good chunk of romance content in this book and it is surprisingly straight forward and un-elevated. You don't get much in terms of description of what the main character feels, and when it comes to your love interest (in the path I read at least) the feedback you get is mainly social cues and physical reactions. At the same time people are surprisingly straight forward and attracted to you in this book, and there is a wide array of different kinds of romantic and sexual behaviors represented amongst the cast. This makes for a surprisingly down to earth, but at the same time friction-free romance. It's been super fun to read the romance content, but the lack of friction really makes me feel like something fundamental to interpersonal communication is missing. It's kinda alienating that everyone is so sure of themselves, what they want and communicating with the MC without failure or misunderstanding. ...I still want to play through the game like another 5 times and romance the cuties I didn't the first go-around though. Oh, didn't know where to fit this in, but if you enjoyed this games setting and want an explicitly lesbian game, Hanako Games wonderful visual novel / student council management game Black Closet also set in an upper-class boarding school will be straight up your alley.

年轻人的第一款cog游戏👍🏻 风格轻松愉快且目标明确，RO众多且足够讨喜，多周目重玩价值高。 [strike] 不能水仙差评，内卷之王诡计多端精明强干力力扛家族复兴的主角sukisuki [/strike]

开着翻译器打完了，整体来说还是很有意思的，通了Blaise、Hartmann、Delaxroix、Rosario四条线，顺利拿了A+考上大学推翻校长获得了creme de la creme的胜利，游戏内容很丰富，也有吸引人一口气打完的潜力。如果有什么小问题，就是部分人物塑造太少，例如我心心念念的仇人姐感情线真的太短了，完全没有展开，又比如rosario，虽然很完美，但感觉有些太按部就班。目前还是比较喜欢第一遍通关就选的Delaxroix，以及二周目混乱邪恶档走的级长。总而言之，就算冲着体验贵族学校生活都是值得一玩的游戏，有空去cog看看作者其他作品。

it very entertaining! but I want a save option! It will be less frustrating and more breezy!

[h1] Disappointing, but I can see the appeal for CoG fans [/h1] Perhaps my expectations were a little too high for this one. Everyone is always hyping about the CDLC games and the author is such a wellspring of helpful information and a pillar of the IF community, so I thought I'd have more of a reaction than just...meh. But I can see why it does so well for CoG fans, as it nails the CoG style. It's certainly polished and has decent gameplay, with a wide range of goals and personality customization for the MC (though I found the stat checks a little too pervasive and punishing for a supposedly cozy game). Had I liked the game more, I could see it being highly replayable. It's also a good examplar of CoG's commitment to diversity and particularly LGBT inclusivity. Players can choose from three different genders for the MC and romance options and the game is filled with gay couples and non-binary characters, including an option to join in a polyamorous relationship, all in a world that's deliberately crafted to be basically gender neutral so that there's no drama over anyone's gender or orientation. It's basically a queer, cozy, non-magical Hogwarts story, but without anything close to the level of characterization and enchanting worldbuilding that Harry Potter is famous for. In general I found the world, characters, and romances to be flat and uninspiring. The thing is, there are just way too many characters with way too many options. I saw someone else say there are 10 romance options (I lost count myself), and each (or at least most) can be three different genders. That's 30 different possible variations, not to mention the other non-romanceable characters we can curry favor with. There is no possible way to do each of these romance paths justice in a game of this length. Frankly I'm not convinced any of the romance paths feel fleshed out and real but certainly not the ones I toyed with (I flirted with Freddie, dated Hartmann, then married some aristocrat from a competing school and I just finished the game a few hours ago and already forgot his name because I cared so little about him in the end). Not every game needs good romance, but this *is* tagged as a romance game, and certainly character interactions are kinda the main point, so I was kind of hoping to care about at least one of the characters before finishing. (Please disregard play time, I played the game in my browser rather than through Steam)

Creme de la Creme is Hogwarts except instead of a Wizard boarding school, its a boarding school for socialites. It's generally an okay story. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who is only starting out text adventures / choice or hosted games since there are better options to get them hooked but it's also a decent read if you want something to pass time with. I did two romance routes ( cause let's be real, chances are you're here for the romance options ) Two that weren't exactly who people would romance on their first game... One that I wasn't even sure was a romance option until later on but still tried to flirt as soon as I met them and the other one was... Someone who no one with a sane and healthy mind would romance unless they have very strong I CAN FIX THEM mentality. Its an okay read my only issue is that (spoiler): [Spoiler] Blaise Romance route made no sense. They bullied me all through out the beginning, disappeared then suddenly (because I'm somewhat of a masochist) my character missed them even though they tried to get me expelled. Still, I like Blaise (I'm a masochist) and I think the ending between them is really cute. I just don't know if I'm missing scenes from the early options or if it just really lacks justification for them to get together [spoiler]

I couldnt recommend this book more than anything!! its been 1,5 year since ive read it for the first time - and i completely fell in love with this world written by the author!! The world seting is very engrossing and i couldnt help but keep replaying it over and over to get as much info as i could. Meanwhile i have 48 hours on steam, i have around ~60 hours on my phone. Whats good; - very thought through world scenery, each of the lands has their own culture, traditions and its so so so well written - pretty good characters!!!! i loooooveee them so much theyre all so different and unique - character customisation; do i have to say more? i mean, in comparion to Harris' later games its a bit vague but still cool! Whats meh; - The writings a bit dry to my liking; i like books with emotions, and it sometimes lacks it here - character route dialogue can sometimes be dissapointing; it can be too small, some of their answers can be a bit meh, like you'd expected something more but oh well overall, i do recommend this game. its a good read, especially for first timers, and a beautiful continuation to the series!!! ps i write super quickly and cant be bothered to neaten up my writing hence many spelling errors lol

本来就觉得只是个普通的文字养成游戏，没想到剧情文笔什么的竟然也超出心理预期。不难因为数值判定不会卡那么死。美中不足就是不能自由随时存档，回溯选项只能按照回溯整个章节（可能因为我第一次玩这个厂的游戏orz)，除此之外都很好玩！！自由度很高所以不一定专攻学习方面其实也能最终上个好大学[spoiler]但是要人缘好一点或者跟专业课老师的关系好一些[/spoiler]

A roughly 3 hour read with lovely characters and a fairly simple plot with some twists. I read it all in one go and it was a, in my opinion, really good one. I enjoyed most of the characters, though at times there were too many to keep track of.