Whimel Academy

The game is incredibly cute and the customization options are amazing. The gameplay, however, is very repetitive. It was really fun at first, when there were new things to discover, but very quickly you're just pushing the same buttons over and over again. You can "upgrade" most activites (classes, jobs, etc.), but that doesn't really addanyting gameplay wise, you're just pushing the same button for more points now. The game has 30 endings, and various elements carry over between saves, so it's clearly meant to be played through more than once, but I'm honestly struggling to even finish my first run. It's just grinding at this point.

The game is amazingly done for a solo developer. It's interesting, looks very distinct, creates a nice dreamy atmosphere, fully playable from start to finish & I totally want to support the effort that went there. Pros: + Graphics ooze of style. + Tons of customization options for the PC. When the game lets you choose colours - there really is something to choose from and the artist outdone themselves. The dorm room is also customizable, though the options are more limited. + Outfits can be bought, won in a lottery and obtained for leveling up stats. There are really a lot, definitely more than any other game of the genre has, and I liked quite a few of them. + You can drastically change mostly everything about your character at any weekend, if you wish. Got a new cool outfit but it doesn't go well with your body type, haircolour, eyes or even name? Not a problem. But it will cost you time and money. + Unlockables can be shared between saves. + All of the characters have a pretty lengthy storyline and lot of events of different nature. At first it may seem like there's nothing more than short and meaningless 10-line banter of "hey you - hey you too", but in actuality that is not the case. The characters also have relationships between themselves, which are ironically more fleshed out than their relationships with PC, since both sides are actually actively conversing here. + The game is generally very forgiving. Plants will wait for you, friends will wait for you, classes will wait for you, grades will wait for you and no content is permanently missable. You can't offend anyone, and even if you try to answer all their self-pity sessions with a meaningful "........" they will still love you. And even as a coach potato they will still love you. And you have the option of loving every one of them back with no repercussions. Using the dialogue choices which require certain ability levels is completely optional as it will not change the storyline in any way. While some of them change current events slightly, some may not even trigger a unique response. You absolutely can finish the game by sleeping and playing with cat only. You wouldn’t even need to eat then. + Every ending unlocked in one save, character’s or a career one, can be viewed at once. You don’t need to reload or watch credits, you just click on it. And you can come back right to the ending screen later, as the game saves that state. Cons: - The game doesn’t in any way look demanding on the hardware, but it did overload my GPU before I forced the fixed framerate and VSync through NVIDIA panel, so something like that should probably be included in settings. - Bugs like the decorations or customization options are not showing. I couldn't use the freckles or the decor Lumi gifted, for example. - Everybody has one sprite for the childhood years, one for the adolescent years. That’s it. No expression changes, no movement, no event CGs. No rare sprites or small pics to represent meeting a prank victim, an animal, a teacher or a blooming plant. - The endings are barely there. No pic or a scene from your future job, it’s just a couple of sentences like “you were such and such and became such and such” presented by a simplest wall of text. There is no motivation to work towards it. - No overall storyline, no narration, no anything except dialogues in which you are mostly standing in silence while the characters are talking at you. Whatever you do say doesn't change anything except the choice to have a romance or not. They all love you, but there is no way for you to make some impact on relationship. The most jarring example of choice with no choice for me was the event where Ida asked my opinion on Cyrus. Now Cyrus was in my eyes an even more important friend than Ida, but the options I had were "I don't like him", "I don't know him" and "I have no opinion on him". There was an option to tell her maybe she's being too harsh on him, but it was locked beyond Courage threshold I wasn't able to pass as I didn't and wasn't planning to grind that stat. No way to tell a simple “stop that, he’s a good guy and my best friend”. So my character becomes a liar and a hypocrite who trash talks behind her friend’s back for no apparent reason. But it means nothing, there’s no one to call me out, like Ida or Daisy could see that in truth I’m all buddy-buddy on the verge of romance with Cyrus or he himself could hear our harsh words and be hurt. Maybe that exchange could make more sense if it was done very early in the game when you still didn’t really know Cyrus and just were going through “boys are ew” phase with the girls (well, if you are not a boy yourself!), but that happens very late for you to not yet meet the characters. - The financial system is horrible, you can do work for a couple of times and still not be able to buy yourself a much needed lunch. The stuff like clothes and furniture is pricy and there’s a ton of that you maybe wish you could buy. There is an alternative route to getting rich in the form of selling your own creations, but that process is overly complicated. You have to go shopping in exchange for two timeslots, buy the equipment, buy the materials, build the thing (one at a time), go back to the shop for two more timeslots... Did I mention your skill also needs to be on advanced level before you have a chance with that and you always have some probability of messing up, wasting time and material while not producing any item? Our poor kid has no allowance whatsoever. As to why exactly PC has to work for food (in a boarding school!), it is never made clear. From what I can tell it’s no orphan story. - Most of the food having negative effects seems unnecessary. - Now on to the more petty and subjective thing, but all that Ida fangirling on two profs story was completely inappropriate. It’s even lampshaded, it even reflected on by herself but it still goes on and on and on to the point where the game finished twice on me but that stuff wasn't closer to the end. You can't stop her or at least tell her you're not interested. A word of advice for the new players: ~ There is "shorter timer" option in Gameplay settings, which warns you it may ruin your first experience. It won't, it just shortens the waiting time before the activity result appears. Longer wait adds nothing, really. I mean, you are probably expected to wait for each randomized result eagerly? Nah. ~ Read the newspaper and go shopping when there's a sale going on. Starting with year 2 there would be blind boxes in general store, if you have enough money - buy them all, open and sell all the sellable contents right then right there. In two more pricy boxes there can be a collectible or the sellable item, and after you received the most of the collectibles it becomes a pretty handy source of money. In the cheapest box there are only the sellables. ~ When you are out shopping, you also have to buy snacks. You can later use them to restore energy without wasting time. ~ Bags and binoculars are mostly useless, just buy the broom and one equipment corresponding to your highest production skill, if even that. Some suggestions for the betterment: ~ The items in the closet and decorations had the description and name when they were bought. I think it would be nice if they retained it when you already have them and you could always choose not only by the visuals but by some idea behind it too. ~ Please add a skip function for the events! ~ Please let us read the ending letters of the characters in plain text in addition to the “handwritten”. ~ Maybe the production system could be rebuilt to add some little quests for items and in this way boost the motivation to actually use all the different equipment and materials, but that’s too much work, I know. I really look forward to next creations of this developer! This here already is a great accomplishment.

I stayed up all night playing this game an it got me out of a spiral of not attending uni classes and then feeling guilty so not attending and so on. Genuinely just a place where I can come and be calm and hey it got me to enjoy my classes again so definetly not complaining about that!

This is definitely a Time Management game first, everything else second. But for that the time management isn't really interesing enough? It's just grinding. Interactions with the other characters are very shallow, but the game is pretty I guess?

i would not recommend this game it feels too repetitive and all the days are the same instead of providing fun and unique gameplay it uses this idea of the player imagining their character and their life at university i found that it provided ideas for the life of a magic uni student. overall its a tell instead of show. the art is very cute though.

The game is pretty, the art is BEAUTIFUL, but it is true that is a grinding game only and relationships with other students are barely important (nor very much interesting) specially when you have to manage time to make them, also make money and study to get an A+ (and you have to pay in game to customice your character again if u want, which i didn't enjoy) I cannot say I didn't enjoy it, especially when playing with a friend next to me and laughing about being a broke student like irl, it's addictive if u want to get all items and endings, but it gets repetitive and tiring. btw LUMI AND THEO FOR LIFE

I just finished one playthrough and absolutely love the game. It's a cozy and casual stat-raising sim, with no big story, big drama or big consequences. I don't think I'll play more as I have achieved what I wanted and the endings are more a results of your stats than actual endings it seems. I would still recommend it to anyone that wants a chill and cozy time. I grew to like those characters and my time at Whimel Academy.

1. Навыки. Вернее, основной геймплей игры в их прокачивании - совершенно бесполезен. Иногда в диалогах будут варианты за уровневый навык, которые не влияют ни на что и ответы персонажей будут идентичны бесплатным почти полностью. Более того, в игре есть навыки, которые не используются вообще, по типу навыка "заклинаний" (и это в школе магии, лол. Ни разу даже в диалогах не встречала). Другие же навыки очень нишевые и нужны только в диалогах с определенными персонажами, - но как я уже выше написала, они не влияют все равно на диалоги. Еще в игре есть крафт, но это полный скам. Ты покупаешь для него ресурсы, тратишь энергию - а в итоге персонаж может провалить трижды подряд попытку что-то создать и в итоге тебе обидно за потраченные деньги, за которые ты мог купить просто гача-коробки и получить ТЕ ЖЕ САМЫЕ ПРЕДМЕТЫ КРАФТА для продажи в ЭТОМ ЖЕ магазине и выйти хотя бы в ноль, и заодно залутать какой-то случайный декор или шмотку (которые плохо с друг другом сочетаются и в целом не очень красивые, имхо). В итоге, навыки нужны только для школьной оценки и покупки/достижения шмоток. Вот только с этим там отдельный мем. 2. Концовки. ИХ НЕТ))) "30 концовок" - это все булщит, в конце вам просто ваши друзья скажут пару слов, после чего перебросит в меню, где перед вами будет лежать пару писем от самых близких персов, из которых можно сделать вывод об их судьбе (на которую вы кста не влияете НИКАК. Просто либо вы прошли арку перса, все диалоги, и в конце получили письмо - либо не получили, все.), сводка какие навыки вы прокачали и сколько раз погладили кота, и вишенкой на торте - "какой вы студент"( И да, оценки по итогу ни на что тоже не влияют) . Мне выпало "неуверенный, потому что не знаете, чего хотите". Угадайте, сколько раз меня спрашивали, чего я хочу?)) НОЛЬ НА*УЙ. Я много навыков прокачала до 4 уровня, каждый семестр закончила с отличием, с 3мя персами подружилась и одного заромансила, и в итоге - "неуверенный". Еб*ать спасибо. 3. Перевод. Кривой, косой и временами смешиваются сразу 4 языка. В финале мне персонажи говорили реплики то на испанском, то на корейском, то английском. Треш. Один и тот же навык в диалоге и в меню может называться синонимами еще. Итог. Игра сводится к закликиванию навыков, которые нужны только для шмоток в НГ +, но вероятность того, что вы ее начнете, стремительно катится к нулю.

I have spent 40+ hours on this unassuming little sim game and know I will binge it again at some point. (The secret is obsessing over a single character and a single narrative route and wanting to get the interactions just right - yes, I am a single-minded fool) It's almost exclusively text-based with a few magical dailies thrown in, and it's soft, comforting and just perfect to wind down with. When I last played it, I thought it was a pity that going into the forest location and exploring or gathering didn't get you small items (plant-based potion ingredients, maybe?) as freebies in addition to ability points. I was expecting something a bit like Lioden in that regard, and if it hasn't been added since then, I hope that it eventually will. The artstyle is lovely (with the sole exception of the lack of hands. Where the heck have the fingers and thumbs gone????!?), the soundtrack is lovely, the witch-theme is lovely AND speaks straight to my soul as someone who used to watch Magical DoReMi as a kid. I love the customization options for the avatar, the cat and the room. Wish there were even more of those somehow.

I absolutely love this game. I search for games just like this one, and they are hard to find. The art style is beautiful. Most people would find this game unexciting. It is a cozy game for me. You attend classes from year one to year six for four weeks. You don't have to attend all the classes. You steadily raise your stats each day. By raising your stats, you can approach five of the other students on campus, which are all romanceable. Each student has their own criteria on how to befriend and romance them. At the end of year six, you graduate. You receive letters from any of the students you befriended. I played this game so much and earned all the achievements. It's such a darling game. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone searching for a cozy game where you can play and relax.