Hakuōki SSL: Sweet School Life

The Good
If you know anything about the Hakuoki series, you know that it’s been milked for years. Ever since the success of the original PlayStation 2 game, Idea Factory decided to rerelease it so many times that it’s getting hard for a collector of the series to keep track. I could barely contain my excitement when I saw that a brand new game with the same lovable cast was being released. The story has its flaws, and some routes are stronger than others, but the balance is there and the men of the Shinsengumi are depicted perfectly in modern times. Hijikata, a strict authority figure both in the past and in the present, struggles with his conscience when it comes to his feelings for a student; meanwhile, Heisuke, the childhood friend, is always encouraging the protagonist but may also have a bit of a crush himself. The stories are well-told and don’t have much of the death and heartbreak of the Shinsengumi life.

A nice bonus to this game is the characters that didn't have much attention before being given their own routes. These are much shorter and not nearly as romantic as the main routes, but the stories can be very sweet. I actually found the route involving the protagonist’s twin brother to be very heartwarming; it turned out being one of my favorite routes in the game, proving that Idea Factory can tell good stories without all the fluffy romance.

Lastly, there’s the emails. Throughout every route, Chizuru can text back and forth with various boys. Like any teenage girl, she has access to her phone at all times, so you may get a text right in the middle of a conversation. Some of the mail may be comedic while others have to do with a recent story event; either way, you have two options for a reply, which after being sent will get you a reply right back. I thought this was a neat idea as something that could keep the player interested through numerous replays, and there’s a lot of mail to obtain. After clearing all story routes, I still didn’t manage to see all of it. It’s too bad the game didn’t have more original ideas like this.

The Bad
Disclaimer: I love sweet and bubbly stories. Stuff like Saya no Uta and Fate/stay night, as amazing as they are, initially put me off due to their dark and gritty tales. As you may suspect, that is not the case here. Almost unfortunately so. Sweet School Life is all about the romance revolving around a shy schoolgirl. Considering the depth put into the story of the original Hakuoki, such a simple background with a lack of serious problems is somewhat disappointing. It's a cute story, sure, but a visual novel should at least be a tiny bit more engaging. Case in point: a few of the selectable bachelors are members of the kendo club. They train to fight on a daily basis. They never actually fight. Even your typical high school drama has its battles. Almost makes you wonder if the developers took the words “Sweet School Life” too seriously…

That being said, if you’re a fan of the characters (or at least enjoy cute and comedic stories if not), the story shouldn’t be a gripe. If the developers left it at that, their target audience would have had a nice and simple (if not a bit short for retail price) visual novel to enjoy. Unfortunately, the company decided to be a bit more ambitious. The mini-games could have worked if they were done right, but there is so much wrong with them that they probably would have been better off not included at all. For starters, the first four mini-games are painfully easy. If your Japanese isn’t too great, you may have a bit of trouble with the classroom-trivia one, but the questions are simple for the most part (unless you hate math as much as me; yes, I had to pause the game to figure out arithmetic). The water gun fight is a cute little distraction the first couple of times, but gets old fast; the same goes for the Diner Dash clone. And the fourth is something you would think you’d find in a children’s game: it’s basically a game of I Spy… Actually, I’ve played children’s games that were more difficult. These tedious games must be played throughout every route at certain points in the story. Every single one of them, for every single route. A ray of hope comes in the form of a pass that can be bought from the shop, giving you the freedom to skip all instances of that game. It’s only too bad you need to clear these games numerous times to earn enough points to actually purchase these passes. The points can also be spent on sub-stories, pictures, and voice clips, meaning you cannot complete the game without playing these awful mini-games over and over. I ended up grinding points on the I Spy one, just because it was the quickest. It’s an easy platinum trophy, but not exactly a fun one.

So, with such insultingly easy mini-games, you would expect the fifth one to follow the same pattern. Not only is it a difficulty spike, but the only one you really need to clear to avoid getting a game over. Each boy presents a mini-game within a mini-game (micro-game?) before they can let our heroine, Chizuru, pass. Five of these must be cleared to win the game, meaning a happy ending for Chizuru and the boy of her choice. Easier said than done. This is a mini-game that at times requires annoying precision, and the worst part is, unlike the other four overly-simple mini-games, you get no instructions. You must figure out what every boy wants of you for yourself, essentially making it a process of trial and error. This is a nightmare if you haven’t done a lot of saving, as I foolishly avoided doing much of on my first playthrough. Not fun.

The Bottom Line
Being based off of one of the most popular visual novels with a female target audience, Sweet School Life has a lot to live up to. Whether or not it delivers is strongly based on your opinion of the series going in, along with your tolerance for its lackluster mini-games. Personally, I like the game, but if I’m being objective, I wouldn’t recommend checking it out unless you’re a fan.