Review of Gaokoa.Love.100 Days (Visual Novel)

I started to get into the visual novel genre of video games (if you count visual novels video games) when I came back from my two year church service mission. The first one getting me into this interest was "If My Heart Had Wings". This game was beautiful and it just got me into the story at a early start. The art is beautiful, the characters are very memorable, and there are moments that stick out to me. This game was pretty dang long too and there were multiple endings. Just 5 endings, most of them good.

However, that is for another story on my complete thoughts on that game. For now, I am going to be talking about the second visual novel game I played and I am currently playing as well. This game is called "Gaokao.Love.100 Days". What caught my interest in this game is from the hugely overwhelmingly positive reviews I read on steam or just the internet in general. It claims to have 52 endings. 52 ENDINGS!!! That is way more than 5! But is this just a normal visual novel where I just read and click every once in forever to change my path? Although that is sometimes the case for this one, there are more added features that make this game super intense!!

Here is the basic story: You are a high school student in China who is about to take this test called the Gaokao in three months. I really don't know how to say it, but the point is it is a very important test. However, at the very beginning of the game it shows you asking a extremely lovable character named Muxin to be your girlfriend. She is amazed by this and agrees to do so. Later on you get introduced to other characters with different quirks. They add to your story as you are to prepare for the Gaokao and/or build your relationship with Muxin.

Sounds like a good start out to a game? I thought so. Then they introduce another part of the game other than just choosing a certain choice in this game. The study times! Here is what it looks like:

The numbers on the left are your subjects and your scores. If you want to get good scores, you review a certain subject and it will increase. While you need to pay attention to your health and stress because if your health starts to get close to zero or stress gets too high, your performance may be effected and it can trigger some nasty effects in your story that you wish you can undo. This is where the fun and also the killer stress kicks in. The choice is up to you. Do you want to ignore, though sometimes improve your scores and increase your relationship with Muxin, your new girlfriend, or do you want to focus on just studying. It can be hard to choose at times, because trust me, your choices early on have HUGE impact. But I won't spoil much of the story.

I remember my first play through. I thought I was on the right track trying to balance out my relationship with Muxin and my scores. Then my first mock test, I got a terrible result. Then one thing led to another and I kept making hard decisions that I continuously kept regretting.  I got really frustrated and, I'll admit, took a break from the game because I couldn't take it. But later on, I kept going and my first ending wasn't....terrible, but wasn't good at all. I can say I have played through this multiple times and have grown more attached to this game. It may take over my #1 favorite visual novel, "If My Heart Had Wings".

Are there any faults in this game? Well, being a game that comes from China and being translated from Chinese, there are a couple weird translations. It isn't enough to ruin the game, but they can be a bit noticeable. You may have noticed up in the picture, there is an items button. When you go through this game for the first time, you don't have much items at all that really help you. You can find other items to help you as you go more throughout the game. But you may get a little frustrated seeing that your scores are not improving as much as you want. Especially when you see others play the game and they do tremendously well and you can't seem to do so. Other than those, I don't really find much fault in the game.

Although I consider this game to be more clean than other visual novels I have explored or played, there are quite a bit of swears. But unlike other visual novel games, this one does not have a big emphasis on sex with each other. This is a pretty clean high school relationship game. If you want to start easing your way into visual novels, then cleanliness wise, I would point you to this game.

I really like this game and there are still a couple times where I sneak in a play here and there. The replay ability is there especially if you don't like your ending. I will say that the ones where you do get in a relationship with Muxin or others is really satisfying. If you are interested, it is on Steam for $9.99.

P.S.: I forgot to talk about the music in this game. I love it! It really captures the atmosphere of what you are in. There are some serious songs, but when there is a goofy moment, the song does not disappoint. I do have quite a bit of the songs on my phone and I do listen to them. The theme is really relaxing as well. Although I don't know the lyrics seeing that they are sung in a different language, it doesn't take away the relaxation at the ending of the game where you can rest from all your decisions. Go have a listen if you want!

(From left to right: Xiaohan, Muxin)