Sunrider Academy Review

Sunrider Academy is a stat management dating sim where you play as Kayto Shields. Kayto Shields is a third-year student at the prestigious Sunrider Academy. He is the vice-president of the student council and he is assigned with helping some of the clubs at school. These are trouble clubs because they lack the required number of members, haven’t paid their dues, and haven’t won any competitions. It is up to Kayto Shields to get these clubs back on track. Besides managing the clubs each day, Kayto also has homework, studying, work, and other activities that are typical of a high school student.

Your job as the player is to control Kayto’s day-to-day activities and his club activities. He manages the swim, science, and kendo club. If any of the clubs lose a competition Kayto will get the blame and it will lead to a bad end.  If the clubs don’t have the required number of members they will get disbanded. Which will lead you to a bad end as well.  You have to manage the stats of each club. This game isn’t exactly a straightforward visual novel where all you have to make is simple dialogue choices. Managing your stats and the club stats are very important in the game. Choosing what you or don’t do is mostly what the game is about.

That’s what I liked about Sunrider Academy. I liked that it wasn’t just about choosing what you say. That’s why I get bored with visual novels at some point. It is just all about what dialogue you choose. Sunrider Academy is refreshing because there are many activities to do in the game. It is very easy to get sucked into the game and play for hours. Your choices do matter in the game because they can change each stat. For example, if you choose to study instead of exercise your intelligence stat will increase. In the long run, if you don’t exercise enough your fitness stat decreases. That can cause you to get sick in the game. If you are sick and don’t buy the medicine you need you will get a bad end.

That was also my complaint about Sunrider Academy. It was easy for me to get a bad end. When you get a bad end you basically have to start all over again unless you have a save point. Each activity you do in the game adds a point to your stress stat. If you accumulate too many points in your stress stat you get sick. That was how I got a bad end a few times. It is easy at first to cure your sickness and lower your stress stat. As the game goes on it is very easy to accumulate a lot of points in your stress stat because of all the things Kayto has to do. There are ways to relieve stress in the game such as going for a walk in the park or playing a game at the arcade. These activities do not take away a lot of stress points. You can also buy an item that relieves 20 stress points.

Of course in order to buy anything you have to work to make money. The problem with that is each temp job pays very little like $5 here and there. With the amount of stuff, Kayto has to do in the game you don’t have the luxury of working every day after school. It may take time, to earn the money you need to buy the item in the game that reduces stress. If you are sick in the game you need to buy medicine and it can take time to make the money to buy that also. By the time you have the money for both it is too late you got a bad end.  My complaint is that if Kayto is going to have that many things to do then the activities that reduce stress points should relieve more than what they currently do. The temp jobs he works in the game should earn more than what they earn also.

You will play the common route until about month 3. Then once you get past those first 3 months you can choose which girl to pursue. My problem with this is you have to survive those 3 months first and not get a bad end in order to get to the dating part. You have to manage your time extremely well and make wise choices from the get go. There is no room for error at all. There are different difficulty settings to choose from.  You can also choose to play the game again and pursue a different character. There is no voice acting included in the game. Just background music.

The graphics are pretty solid in Sunrider Academy. I liked that the background environments were real-world graphics. The artwork is beautiful as well. The controls are easy. All you need is your mouse to play. Sunrider Academy definitely has  potential. It is better than a typical visual novel for sure. Another drawback to this game is that if you are not at the right place at the right time you will miss a scripted event. Missing a few of those can also lead to a bad end. Sunrider Academy has a lot of content and replay is pretty high. If you can steer clear of getting a bad end Sunrider Academy is a pretty good title.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.