Bad apple wars ~ overall thoughts

Published by: Idea factory/otomate
ENG: Aksys games
Available for Psvita

Another blog post in short time,yes! 
So finally I finished Bad apple wars. Some how I wasn't that excited to start playing this game or even to finish it. Even though the game and characters looked interesting  but some how starting to play this game was kinda unmotivated I guess? 

Bad apple wars was published 2015 in Japan.  2017 Aksys games published Bad apple wars in English. I didn't know anything about this game. I had watched some old pv videos for it, but back then I didn't look for more information about the game. So it was kinda nice start playing it without knowing what was going to happen lol. 

Bad apple wars is school themed game but in afterlife (kind of). 

Our heroine (Rinka) had first day in school but ended up to be in accident that day. But later she "wake up" and found herself from unknown school which is called Nevaeh academy. This mysterious school is for people whose souls were left behind their dead. However this school is not just normal school. You have to follow the rules and be good student (good apple) and you would be able to "graduate" and  "resume your life". 

Heroine meet mysterious looking person in front of school who told to her that she is dead. This person end up to be one of the school teacher. Teacher leads heroine to entrance ceremony and there heroine gets to know more about the school. But suddenly there is explosion and group of students which are called "Bad apples" appears to ceremony to break rules. 

Suddenly there is red haired guy in front our heroine. He ask if our heroine want to go with good apples or bad apples...

Overall thoughts for the routes:

Bad apple boys!

Higa (seiyuu: Suwabe Junichi), Shikishima (seiyuu: Akira Ishida) and Alma(seiyuu: Sakurai Takahiro)

SO I decided to write my overall opinions for all bad apple boys and then good apple boys. 

Different reviews and people recommended start from Higa's route and so I went to play his route first 

(recommended route order to play: Higa,Shikishima,Alma, Satoru and white mask).

When I started playing this game it seemed interesting and the setting seemed promising too.

I enjoyed to play Higa's route and he ended up to be one of my fav characters from bad apple side. He was this "I'm cool but also very awkward person". After his route I was really looking forward to other bad apple boys and what kind of backround they had. 

In the game you don't choose from different options like usually. Of course there is some "place" choosing opinions.  This time you have to touch the CG photo and then some conversation happen between the characters. I found this interesting and new way to find "right answers" for the route. Or should I say Rinka touch the character and then she is able to see some memories from the other person. 

But when I went to play Shikishima's route my motivation to play this game went kinda low. While I played this second route I realized it repeated a lot same moments from first route which was kinda boring. Felt like I had to skip most of the game before I was able to see moments with the boy whose route you where playing. So this kinda ate my motivation to play this game a lot. 

When I was able to get know more Shikishima's past I found him a really lonely and sad character.
To be honest I was a little disappointed to Shikishima's route. I guess expected different kind of route. His route was nice but felt like there wasn't something.

After finishing Shikishima's route I took veeeery long break from this game. I played some other games and kinda forgot that I had started playing it.

And after loong break I decided to try finish this game. So to be honest I don't remember that much from Higa or Shikishima routes lol. 

So I had only one bad apple boy route to play and it was Alma's route. I thought Alma was this "main boy" for the game but after finishing this game am not sure anymore if he really was. (opinions?) 

For me Alma felt more like "big brother" character than love interest. For some reason I didn't like Alma that much. Not sure if I found him boring or too edgy sometimes :'D 

My overall opinion about Bad apple boys is kinda mixed. I was really looking forward to play their routes, but most of them ended up to be kinda boring for me. But I guess one reason to found those other routes boring is bc there was a lot same stuff in the routes and not that much interacting between Rinka and the boys. Hmm, but maybe that is not the main point in this game, don't know.

 Higa's route ended up to be my favorite one from those 3.

Good apple boys!

Satoru (seiyuu: Hanae Natsuki) & White mask (Tachibana Shinnosuke) 

At this point I was relieved I was able to finish all bad apple boys routes. I was way more interest to play good apple routes than bad apple ones. 

First I played Satoru's route bc white mask route was kinda this "final route" for the game.

I ended up to enjoy good apple routes more than bad apple ones. There was also some repeating with the story but it didn't really bother me in those routes. Because those ended up to be more different than in bad apple ones. It felt kinda wrong to like Satoru's route bc he felt younger than Rinka and all the time I was kinda "is this okay...". But to be honest first Satoru and Rinka seemed more like siblings than couple.

 I felt really bad for Satoru while I get know more about his past. Actually same with white mask too. White mask route was good but depressing at the same time.

Final thoughts

After long time I was finally able to finish this game and it sometimes felt like mission impossible to finish. Because my motivation to play this game wasn't big. So sometimes it felt like I forced myself to finish it even though I really didn't enjoy it. 

To be honest I was kinda disappointed to this game. First it felt like really interesting game with interesting setting but then it fall flat. There was some routes which I really enjoyed but most of the time playing this game was kinda boring. 

With afterlife/dead theme I was kinda hoping more shock value with the theme but that really didn't happen for me. Of course there was some dark and depressing topics in the routes, why some of the boys ended up to there etc. But after realizing "secret" for the school it felt kinda "are you serious". If I had to give number from 0-10 for this game it probably is 4,5 or 5. 

Character designs and ost for the game where good and I really liked those. I didn't really like the font what aksys used for the game. Sometimes it hurt my eyes a little bit. 

My favorite list ended up to be like this after finishing the game: 

White mask,Higa,Satoru,Alma and Shikishima