Meets Childhood-tsundere friend for first time
"i never liked tsunderes, il prob skip this route"
Months later
"I wish prez would notice me.. NOTICE ME PREZ!"
Months later
"noticed by prez" achivement
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

First of all: I haven't played Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius. I think the game functions well as a standalone management dating sim, however I believe there are some things you'll only appreciate if you've played the main game.

+ You can download a restore patch from the developer's site. This is essential.
+ Art is pretty cute. The backgrounds are beautiful as well.
+ Protagonist's sister is a hoot and a half.
+ Five difficulty settings, you can choose just how much you want to be challenged.
+ Some funny jokes and moments.
+ Game has you manually choose which girl's route you are going for, so you don't need to wonder who you're ending up with just because you might flirt with everyone.
+ Protagonist Kayto is a surprisingly loyal and decent guy. Refreshing.

- Management gets really repetitive really fast. There should be way better automated mode (best would be if 'waifu mode' allowed you to set auto mode for one week at a time so you don't have to keep clicking like crazy when you only care for the story and not the management)
- “Skip Only Read Text” doesn't work and it will skip everything, and there's no quick stop to it.
- No ability to go back few lines in case you misclicked (or more importantly: When it took forever for Skip to stop).
- Bringing down your stress on higher difficulty levels is insanely difficult to a point of stressing you out in real life.
- Not a fun game to 100% because there are several force-grind achievements.
- I don't know if this was just me but: After few early encounters, I stopped running into Ava, Asaga and Chisaga completely. I only ever ran into Sola and Maray no matter where I went.
- The forced use of “mou...” ლ(ಠ_ಠლ)
- The writing isn't... the best...

Final verdict: ☆☆☆☆☆☆★★★★
4/10 – Below average
It's nothing amazing but it also isn't completely rotten, it was fun to get into and frankly it helps a ton that all waifus are purdy. With less repetitive management this would've gotten couple more stars just for the art. Now it's just not worth it to play all the routes if you aren't hardcore management fan, it's much better to just go and watch the other routes from Youtube or something.

There are four routes(girls) to unlock and each takes roughly around 10-12 hours (including management but not including game overs) when you play very leisurely. And no, you CAN'T unlock a little sister route. It's funny because she might just be the only one you'd want to actually end up with after seeing the other routes, but oh well. I'm going to say a few words about each route in the order I cleared them.

Chisaga: I admit it, I already decided I was going for her no matter what during the opening credits. She's cute and she lives up to being the shy and cute girl of your dreams... until the writing in her route kicks in.
Lynn (seriously? You're gonna have main girl called “Chisaga” and name her sister “Lynn”?) wasn't a bad addition herself, but the fact that you couldn't decide yourself how Kayto felt about her was a letdown. The story could've easily gone from Chisaga route to Lynn route or even both of their route, but dealing with her and even having sex with her was just all forced into being part of Chisaga route.
And the big reveal about Chisaga herself was a bit 'meh' and that if nothing else should've opened up the option to support Lynn instead of having Kayto continue thinking that she was a horrible brat. What followed was very juvenile and poorly executed plot after that, and in all honesty it just made you wish you could press 'abort' and have the protagonist run to one of the other girls instead. The “happy resolve” to the situation was also very poor writing in my opinion and Kayto just sounds like an abused pushover for going along with all of it.

Asaga: Absolute cutie, but hooo boy is she a forced random character to a point where I expected her to go “rawr means I love you in dinosaur x3” at some point.
Didn't really help that even while doing her route, Kayto still didn't seem like he wanted to get with her (at one point the narration damn near chastises the player for not being on Chisaga's route instead) and then it was just made worse by Kayto being guilt tripped into staying with her after the incident with Asaga's father. Any romantic feelings seemed to blossom _after_ that and it's just... not good. It doesn't necessarily help up until the end Kayto too keeps being surprised that this is who he ended up with, haha.

Sola: This entire route will probably be more enjoyable to those who are familiar with Sunrider games, I personally found it dull. The positive thing to say about it was definitely that Kayto started off as just wanting to help and then just grew to be her boyfriend so it felt the most natural out of all the routes. The funny thing was that Chisaga played a major part of this route as well and even if Kayto didn't long to be with her like in the previous route, he did mention how important she was to his and Sola's happiness. This wasn't bad for the plot because it worked out and it was good to see Kayto have only friendly feelings for her, but it was just funny how important she still was even outside of her own route. In comparison neither Asaga nor Ava played any important role in her route, or in each others's route for that matter.

Ava: I may have already grown cynical and tired of the game by the point I started this arc but let me just say: of f**king course the dad beat her, offfffff cooooourse. That was a cliché that I wish had been skipped, but other than that the arc actually moved pretty nicely without any weirdness – no cloning, no mafia, no ancient forces – just two childhood friends becoming infatuated. Ava had an interesting personality behind that “do your damn work, Kayto!!” act she had been showing in other routes, so the route proved to be an interesting read.
And Chisaga DIDN'T play a big role in this arc! She was around about just as much as Asaga and Sola, making this one much more balanced than the previous two I talked about. This route also had more Maray, which is something I personally enjoyed.

In conclusion, writing wise I think the best to worst route are: Ava → Sola → Chisaga → Asaga

Hentai Academy at it's finest

awesome game

boobs 10/10

also download the restoration patch for more boobs
http://sunrider-vn.com/sunrider-academy-released/
This will make the game 18+

TL:DR
Play the main Sunrider series first then buy this game. Claim your waifu and show her your Vanguard Cannon.

The Steam release is CENSORED but you can easily install the official restoration patch from the Sunrider website to view the girls in all their naked glory the way God intended. Now with the most important part out of the way, on to the other stuff.

Made by the same developer that made the excellent Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, Sunrider Academy takes those memorable characters and transplants them into a standard Japanese style school setting as a dating sim/time management/visual novel game. You play as Kayto Shields, Vice-President of the student council, and are tasked with making sure the three "trouble school clubs" are whipped into shape. At the same time, you must also manage your duties as a school student and keep up with homework, exams, and finding a girlfriend before the end of the year otherwise it's BAD END!

First of all, you DO NOT need to play Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius first but I highly recommend you do because one, it's an excellent game, two, it will provide some nice background to the characters and setting, and three, it's FREEEEE. The cast of characters of Sunrider Academy carry the same personalities from the other games from the Sunrider franchise so if you're a fan, you can expect Asaga to be as bubbly as ever and Ava to have the same stern demeanor. Not every character returns however as the devs made it perfectly clear they didn't have the budget for more than 4 main heroines so this is sad news for fans of Claude, Icari, or Kryska. Fortunately, I did encounter brand new characters which I can already tell will be an integral part of the story.

The gameplay should be familiar to veterans of dating sims or visual novels. You'll be reading a lot of text and making the occasional decision to branch out the story as per standard with these types of games. The bulk of the gameplay however, is in time management. Kayto has different stats and each one has an effect on the choices you make in-game. For example, having high intelligence will increase your exam scores while having high athleticism will reduce your chances of getting sick. You'll be raising your stats by participating in activities like studying or exercising and these can succeed or fail based on luck and game difficulty. Fortunately, if you don't like the RNG aspect of success/failure then you can lower the game's difficulty all the way down to "waifu-mode" to make it impossible to fail.

As mentioned before, you are charged with propping up the three worst performing clubs (kendo, science, swimming) otherwise the club will be disbanded and it's BAD END. You can spend your time recruiting more members, overseeing team practice, or raising morale. Each will have an effect on their performance during competitions which is important for winning prestige. If you can manage to get your clubs up to speed and get lots of first place finishes then you'll win a ton of prestige which is important as this minimum requirement goes up every month.

In addition to maintaining the clubs, you also have your own responsibilities as a student. You are assigned homework every week and there are exams every month. You must score above 60% each month otherwise you'll get a BAD END. And of course, the whole point of the game is to secure a girlfriend before the year is over. Flirt, buy gifts, and make the correct decisions to woo the maiden of your choice. It's all a delicate balancing act as you must juggle your time between raising your stats, managing the clubs, and dating the girls.

The art is similar in style to the previous Sunrider games but vastly improved. I personally like it very much and the school uniforms actually make sense this time. It was weird seeing military officers wear school uniforms in Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius but now that they're in an actual school it doesn't look out of place.

The music is as great as ever. The backing tracks fit the game nicely and when drama hits, you'll know right away because the music changes and really shifts the mood.

If you're still not sure whether or not to spend the money on this game, then check out the free demo first. Also, do yourself a favor and play the excellent Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius while you're at it!

RELEASE UPDATE
I have completed all 4 arcs and, essentially, the entire game. So here are my final thoughts.

Sola: Very interesting and original story but uninspired ending. Her ending is actually pretty happy but the way it was resolved just reeks of deus ex machina. Poor Sola... at least she still kicks @$$ in the main Sunrider series.

Chigara: My favorite girl from Sunrider comes with a great story and a great ending. Her arc has a nice blend of charm and sci-fi and is resolved quite well. You will get cavities because of how sweet her ending scene is.

Asaga: "The Wild One" has a fun if fairly unoriginal story. At least it is resolved well and Asaga is by far the funniest girl to pursue. I genuinely laughed out a loud a bunch of times playing through her delightful arc.

Ava: Wow, I expected her arc to be intense based on her personality and it doesn't disappoint. Definitely the most rewarding ending as the game makes you feel like you work your butt off to achieve it and it shows. Chigara may still be my number one but after playing through Ava's arc, I may have to reevaluate.

Each arc takes about 3-5 hours to complete. There is no vast overarching story where you have to complete all the arcs before getting a "real ending". Each arc stands on its own as its own individual story.

Each girl, except for Ava, has 4 h-scenes. Ava only gets 3. Boo!

I have two major gripes with the game.

First is the writer's overzealous use of romanji. I understand this game caters to fans of anime and Japanese culture but every time I see "mou" instead of "geez" or "pan" instead of "bread" I roll my eyes. There is no need for this type of unnecessary pandering in a game that is 90% text.

Second is the dull gameplay. The game is half visual novel/half time management. The visual novel part is excellent. The time management... not so much. It's like eating a wonderful steak but being force fed undercooked mashed potatoes in between each bite.

Still, I greatly enjoyed my time with Sunrider Academy. Thirty bucks is a bit steep but I feel like my money was well spent. Should you buy it? I would say yes IF you can stomach the monotonous gameplay to get to the juicy story bits. Try before you buy!

Me: Goes to childhood friend's room

Childhood friend: suddenly pulls down my pants

Me: "What are you doing?"

Childhood friend: "Don't question when your president awards you"

No other questions were asked

"Watching Asagas boobs isn't worth risking my place as student vice-president! But damn.. That was a nice pair though!" - Kayto 2015

"So Kayto, did the sight of my boobies haunt you in your sleep all night?" - Asaga 2015

DO I REALY HAVE TO SAY MORE?!

Like playing Harvest Moon, but instead of crops and cattle, you're dealing with exams and club tournaments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Real Review

• The art is beautiful, the characters, background images, and the soundtracks too.
  
  
• Love the story. A lot of funny dialogues, sometimes they linked to the original Sunrider game. There are times when you feel a little sad, and there are also times when you want to facepalm yourself because of the characters behaviour.
  
  
• There are no voice for the characters. I know there are visual novel games that have voices for their characters, and they are cheaper.
  
  
• It feels kinda boring if you look it from the stat management sim. It's always the same routines. Unless there are story dialogue, but it's not that much compared to the time when we need to manage our stats.
  
  
• As we know, steam does not allow sexual content, so the devs make an official content restoration patch to restore the deleted part of the steam version of the game. In my opinion, even without the patch, this game is already unappropriate to be played by kids. So don't hesitate to patch it if you buy the game. You can find the link to the patch in the discussion page.
  
  
• If you only interested on the story, there are some tricks to make this game easier. I know it's cheating, but if that makes you able to enjoy the game you bought then I think it's not a problem. Check the community guide for more information.

Overall, I enjoy playing this game, regardless of the negative sides this game gives us. I know the price is quite high, but if you really want this game, don't hesitate to buy it. If you patience enough, you can wait until the price drops. Might need some times, though.

"Dear diary, I have 800 Inteligence points, yet Ava keeps calling me stupid."