ACE Academy Review (SnS)
If you play ACE Academy focusing only on the main story without getting into the romances, it's honestly pretty mid. The plot alone isn't strong enough to carry the game, and the ending... well... what ending? Nothing to write home about.
But it gets significantly better if you start messing around with people. Choosing the funny options and just enjoying the banter. The characters become more entertaining, and the experience overall feels more engaging and fun.
Where ACE Academy really shines to me is in its romance. The character arcs are completely missiable if you’re not focusing on them, but if you do engage with them, they can be surprisingly heartfelt and rewarding.
That said, not all the routes are created equal. It’s pretty clear to me that one girl got the developer’s full attention, with significantly more depth and polish than some of the others. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but it does make some of the other routes feel a bit underwhelming in comparison. Or it could just be me being biased.
Also, as you restart to try different routes, the game starts to feel repetitive really fast. A lot of scenes and structure are reused, so chasing every romance feels super tedious even with the skip button.
ACE Academy has great humor, heartfelt moments, and pretty solid romance. The music is pretty good and fits the mood well, but I do wish the art quality was a bit more aesthetically pleasing. As for the ending—it didn’t really land for me. It felt like the season just stopped midway without proper closure. Still, despite its flaws, I genuinely enjoyed my time with it.
8/10.