Notwithstanding the presence of robot fights, ACE Academy is a relatively laid back affair. He also befriends, and is helped by, a psychology student named Yuuna Misaki and an engineering student who is also a foreign transfer student, Valerie Belle. The protagonist joins a team consisting of fellow piloting students Shou Shinjirou, Mayu Akemi, and Kaori Itami very shortly after beginning his new school life. The school holds intramural GEAR battles wherein teams of four students compete against each other. In Japan, the protagonist transfers into the elite piloting program at ACE Academy. The default name is Tristan Spade, but for purpose of the instant review, I will refer to the protagonist as “protagonist.” When I refer to the “player,” I mean the person who is actually playing the game and making choices for the protagonist.) The protagonist’s little sister, Nikki, will always have the last name that the player chooses for the protagonist. Gurbo, unsurprisingly named the protagonist RICHARD NIXON for his play-through. For example, my distinguished New Leaf Journal colleague, Victor V. ( NOTE: ACE Academy allows the player to choose a first and last name for the protagonist. He grew up in the United States but moved along with his high school-aged sister, Nikki, to Japan to live with their Uncle after the death of their parents. The protagonist and view-point character of ACE Academy is a half-American, half-Japanese college student who attending a college GEAR piloting program. Broad Overview of What ACE Academy Is AboutĬGI of the protagonist’s personal GEAR, Eagle. For those of you who are interested, you will find links to the Google Play and App Store pages. While they appear to be identical to the computer version, and I could see some benefit to being able to make certain choices using a touchscreen instead of a keyboard and mouse, my review is strictly of the computer version of ACE Academy. As I noted in my introduction, I do not own, and have not played, the mobile versions of ACE Academy. Mobile VersionsĪCE Academy was released for Android on September 17, 2016, and for iOS on May 19, 2020. I explained the relevant concepts surrounding Steam’s DRM-protection and the surprising number of DRM-free games on Steam in a separate article. The sequel game, Kaori After Story, is also DRM-free ( see review). For whatever it is worth, I purchased ACE Academy on Steam but ran the game fully locally and outside of Steam for purpose of my play-through and review. This means that the ACE Academy executable can be launched from outside of Steam and without the user being logged into Steam. (Note: Many of the images in the Visual Novel Database link are for the 2014 Kendo Crush! demo instead of ACE Academy.) Steam Version of ACE Academy is DRM-FreeĪlthough ACE Academy is only available for purchase on Steam, the game itself is DRM-free. As I noted in the introduction, PixelFade Studio released a small sequel game titled Kaori After Story. If you are interested, I strongly recommend waiting for a sale to buy ACE Academy on Steam – at which time it is often available for as low as $4.99. Thus, the instant review may serve as a comprehensive assessment of ACE Academy for those of you who have already played it in full or in part. While I do not discuss specific plot points and developments with specificity, I allude to them in ways such that readers who are already familiar with ACE Academy should understand what I am referencing and discussing. However, if you already have ACE Academy in your library and on your to-do list, you may prefer to go into the game entirely blind before consulting my review, notwithstanding the fact that my review is free of major spoilers. I am writing the review because I think that ACE Academy is an interesting project, but the review may also serve an additional purpose of helping readers decide whether the game may be something worth purchasing. While I will discuss the plot, characters, and mechanics of ACE Academy in broad terms, the instant review will not spoil major plot events and resolutions in a way that would ruin the experience of playing and reading ACE Academy for those of you who may be interested in the game, but have not yet played it.
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