Stardander School for Witches

This is a 4-days-after-launch review. I've just finished Year 4, which is all the content there is in the game right now, out of a planned 7 years in the future. I like this game very, very much, so understand that when I am ripping this game to shreds below, I am doing it out of love. The devs claim inspiration from games like Magical Diary and Long Live the Queen when making this magic school heroine raising game, but this game also strongly reminded me of a little-known Steam game called Academagia -- if you can get past the fact that *that* game is basically text-only with a simple UI wrapped around it, it's actually pretty great. It's also completely abandoned, and has been stuck at the end of Year 1 of *their* magic school story since the early 2010s. I also loved that game very much, but it'll never be finished, and this game reminds me of that one, except this is far more linear, but also far more focused and streamlined and pretty. Is that good? Bad? You decide. There's magical school hijinks, slice of life scenes, school classroom and dorm scenes, a good amount of world-building, a very strong dose of mystery, some character drama, and a fair bit of character personality development. I love what I have read so far, the atmosphere of the game is great and on point, and if you like stories in the Coming of Age genre, and "witches in school trying to save the world while also balancing their studies and being somewhat vulnerable young adults" sounds great to you, then you'll probably like this game. There are also some very cool scenes that I have seen, and likely more to come. However, I am going to spoil one aspect of the game right now, though it's hinted in the game description -- you play as four main characters, literally, and the way this works is not that you get to "raise" them all and see the story from all their points of view at the same time, which was what I thought initially. Instead, the "point of view" switches to a different witch at the start of each year, so you play as Callie in the first year, Mira in the second, Freya in the third, and then Rory in the fourth. I like all the characters, however this design decision is very weird to me. The character you just relinquished become a background NPC that your new main character can interact with, but you lose out on reading her thoughts, her struggles, her dreams, and she just sort of fades into the background. You also lose mechanical control of the girl in the raising sim part of the game, and instead inherit another girl with a completely different set of strengths and have to try to figure out what direction to steer her skills in. All this helps contribute to the linearity of the game. Every month, you get a scene introducing whatever aspect of the main plot happened that month from the point of view of your current protagonist, then a bunch of short scenes with some of the girls at wherever they're hanging out, and then you get 2 units (default) of "free time". There is always exactly 1 "investigation" action you can do, and then some stat-raising actions you can spend the other time units on. There's no variation and no alternate route, and the only way that you can miss a clue for the end of the year climatic event (which often involves a "witch trial" where you pick clues to support your case from what you've found during the year) is either by ignoring the very prominent monthly event action, or failing a History/Knowledge skill check. Because the protagonist keeps changing though, the bar for all the skill checks are very low, and attuned to each new girl's "preset" History levels plus a little bit, because you inherit a new character each year. So what was the point of all that training I did? I strongly question the "Choices Matter" tag that this game claims to have. Virtually all the choices given are cosmetic, and there are no "bad ends" that I know of (not even losing in combat, or flubbing the witch trials, though I haven't tried absolutely every single option). You often get +2 to one stat or other for picking one option over another, or even worse, you sometimes get +5 for picking the "good" option and nothing for picking the "bad" option, but every decision leads to the same place in the end. And the stat boosts are by and large meaningless, even in combat. The main thing the stats do is that every 2 ranks in a skill grants you access to a new spell. But you only get these spells after an exam in June and December, *and* you can only gain one rank in a skill at a time even if you have studied enough to leap 3 or 4 levels at once, *and* you can only take 3-4 exams out of the available 13, *and* you actually get penalized for "barely" passing a skill rank, even if the exam you took was a high level one, rather than crushing a lower level exam in another course. Except that *that* penalty also basically means nothing anyway. It comes across as a really forced "balance mechanic" that constricts the characters down whatever paths they were already strong in before, and by the end of it I had totally lost interest in this part of the game and was just picking whatever because the spell gain is so slow and by the time you gain a new spell that character won't be your main character anymore anyway. Tying spell gain to exams is very weird, and led to a case where two characters were unconscious through midterms at one point but still somehow managed to take them, because otherwise it'd break the system. The game sort of presents you with the choice to roleplay your characters differently, like Callie in the first year has more scared and submissive options or more brave and defiant options, but then snatches it away from you, because no matter what you pick for her, you lose control of her after Year 1 and her personality becomes exactly the same as what the writers intended anyway. Mira in year 2 starts off as a solo character, but regardless if you try to make her stay that way and decline all her friends, she integrates in with everyone else and becomes BFFs anyway because railroading. And so on. There's other stuff too, like a whole bunch of UI complaints that I don't have room for (except that right click is cancel in most cases EXCEPT when you're hovering over a button or picking a spell target, at which point it acts as a left click, and also that the Greenhouse UI desperately needs a Harvest All button, and the % success chance thing for harvesting/crafting is terrible and should have been tied to specific skill levels instead), but all this led to a very fun, though ultimately very railroaded experience. The sound and music design also felt very underwhelming to me, I feel like some interesting witchy or Celtic-style new age music could have been used here but it all felt very generic and I don't remember a single tune, with one obvious exception that I did very much like. Also, it's very, very jarring that the very introduction to the game is voiced for some reason, and then nothing else in the game is. What was the point of that? Also also, I hate Freya's two "circusey" sound effects. That was extremely out of place and got on my nerves like nothing else. Anyway, I did love the game, but I wished that we could see each month and each year from the perspective of *all four* main protagonist witches, and perhaps some of the other witches too, to see what they were doing. The story felt like it got more and more rushed the further along in the game I got. Whereas earlier years had things like the interlude between year 1 and 2, later years had certain things skipped due to plot events. Yes, the stakes got higher as time went along, but we also got less downtime and interaction scenes between the characters, especially in year 4, where basically all the girls except Callie got sidelined by the focus on Rory's angst. Year 4 felt very rough and threadbare to me, the main story was great but the side stories were nonexistent.

At the start of the 2nd year, I felt compelled to leave a review. I'm recommending the game because there are a lot of things in it which made it overall a good experience so far. It should definitely be finished. There were some posts citing the low sales figures, and although I bought the game half a year ago, I was also waiting until now to play it because I would've preferred starting when it'll be complete. The atmosphere, world building, characters, and mysteries are great. The writing and art, especially with the animations are also nearly perfect. The music is pretty good, too, and I got the soundtrack for further support. It has to be mentioned, though, that the game has (yet) quite a few things that may leave people unsatisfied. Other than being incomplete, which may be cause for hesitation, the combination of mechanics, while it is proven to be working and a good idea, has several execution deficiencies: [list] [*] The VN pacing and time management seem to be at odds at times. I was surprised by the number of options and apparent complexity when I saw the stats and spell lists, but the time management has so many limitations, that the requirements for passing checks during the story noticeably narrow down the choices that can be made. The battle part is the weakest because of the timing of spell acquisition. [*] The game's art is full of details that show the love that went into it, but the UI invokes the feeling that it went only for minimal viable functionality and beyond that it's just what was convenient for its programmer, not the players. (Or it might use an engine with severe limitations.) E.g. When looking at statistics and time management, there is no way to go one step back or choose the other characters, only to return to the initial VN or map screen, and start from the beginning. The gardening UI looks and feels like a very early iteration on an idea. Again, the battle part drew the short straw. The battles themselves are mechanically fine and they can pose a challenge, but the basic process of selecting which spells to cast, especially if a battle requires more than two, is very cumbersome. Even replacing the two easily accessible spells has some unneeded intrigue, when it comes to which appears where, on top of having to got back to the battle screen and then through two pop-ups for setting each. [*] The choice of switching characters every year together with how much control the player has over the non-current-main characters also feels more like a miss than a hit so far. [/list] Finally, for now, I'd just mention the saving and loading UI. It works, no saves were lost or anything like that, which is great, but it also requires some getting used to. Mostly because the order is the reverse of what the new save choice would suggested to me. Figured it out after overwriting some saves I intended to keep at the start. I may add some ideas as I find the time regarding the listed points, and maybe more as I continue playing. For me experiencing the story and characters made it worth it so far to put up with the negatives, and if the developers could improve on those, too, then this could become an absolutely amazing completed game.

The game was so close to my game-in-dream. Why do you have to change the character in control...Why...

II'll preface this by saying I'm not usually one to lean towards visual novel-esque style choices matter rpgs, but I have been enjoying this one way more than than I thought I would! Excited to play more and see that the game is a solid length. Excited to play again. I did receive a key from the PR team, but ended up streaming it for about 4 hours yesterday instead of my normal hour or two!

Записал первый взгляд с переводом: https://youtu.be/tAo4MKpVFwI Смесь новеллы и ролевой игры с прокачкой через выбор уроков и пошаговыми боями. Сложностей целых 5 от самой легкой, до дикого хардкора и смерти с одного удара. Каждый может выбрать себе по вкусу (и в любой момент ее поменять!). Сюжет довольно линеен, но и в игре пока только первых 4 года обучения из 7, остальное обещают добавить через полгодика. Яркие персонажи, как по характерам, так и по внешности. Да и вообще игра очень красивая и просто приятно любоваться местными видами и персонажами.

This is an impressive blend of visual novel, raising sim, and RPG. Cool story and a lot of depth. The art is very cute too!

To preface, I played the prequel? game and I enjoyed it very much, which is why I have been looking forward to this game... and I love it so far! Stardander offers a mix of everything, a visual novel wrapped with elements of rpg, raising simulation, romance, and detective(?!) genres wrapped up in a enchanting setting with a quirky main cast. The story is compelling as of the chapters that have been released, and the game makes me feel way more immersed with the characters and magical-school setting wayyyy more than any hp game. Looking forward to the last few chapters! [spoiler] hope there will be a choice for the romance! [\spoiler]

ADDICTING! I had planned to play for just an hour or two so I could get a feel for it but DANG! 8 hours later and I am hooked completely! The story so far is very fun and compelling! Characters are easy to love and some easy to hate, which for a game I wanna vibe to and relax after work, that's perfect! I really love the way the magic system works too! Overall a very unique game that I 100% recommend to anyone that enjoys this genre!

Very good game. It combines a visual novel with rpg-elements and a turn based battle system. The story is great, the characters are all unique with their own motivations and surprises. Many of the decisions are a bit useless (the story is linear, there are no branches in the first four years). but not in an annoying way. Not everything feels perfect right now, but the game is still in development. I played over 12 hours and I'm really looking forward for the remaining three years.

This is a stunning game. The environments, characters, and enemies are all beautifully created. The story is fun. You're able to play as four different characters and learn each of their stories over the course of the four years. You learn of their backgrounds and motivations and you get to be part of their development. I am looking forward to the full release.