Gaokao.love.100 days (Review)

Gaokao.love.100 days (Overview)

Evening my ladies and gentlemen. I wish everyone a happy valentines day. A day where we are reminded to appreciate and give to our loved ones (generally speaking of course). To all those lonely gents, or ladies (I'm not judging); do I have just a game for you to play this Valentine. Ever wanted to relive your old high school days while stressing about college and love life at the same time?. If you said yes to that question, then this game is perfect and hopefully got your interest enough to read through the review. Best part, it's at a sweet price at just ten dollars. Gaokao.love.100 days is available for Steam on PC and Nintendo Switch and was published and developed by Navila Software Japan- a Japanese indie games studio that "aims to create games from delicate ideas, and introduce the right games to the right people". The company seems to have a good track record, and even have their own visual novel tool kit. It's hard to get information about the people who worked on the game since the homepage for the game is in Chinese and google translate can only take you so far, so I, unfortunately, can't give that information. Don't let that deter you though. The game offers a fun, engaging, deep love story that'll have you feel all sorts of ways. Right now, I have over 16 hours of gameplay and have 4 endings out of 61 (yes there are 61 endings). With the overview out of the way, let's talk about the most important thing to any visual novel game- the story.

Story and Characters

Gaokao.love.100 days takes place in Chinese society, and you play the role of a male high school Chinese student (sorry for those wishing to play a girl). The game immediately drops the ball on you as the first thing your character does is confess to the girl he likes and isn't rejected. You, you actually start with a girlfriend which is different compared to other visual novel games where you usually have to earn one. It isn't all fun and games though. Turns out, your character confessed just three months (or exactly 100 days) before Gaokao which is the "National Higher Education Entrance Exam" that takes place all over China. This is the most critical part of any students life and committing to a relationship will make it harder on yourself and the girl you confessed you too. Now you must figure out how to balance your studies and your love life at the same time. Ah, what a way to start a story, but what is your girlfriend like?

(A picture of Muxin, your girlfriend)

Muxin is the name of your girlfriend. She's a bright, cheerful, kind girl who loves to eat food and take care of animals (certain ones anyway). She acts as the driving source of the story and your motivation for reaching a happy ending with her should you choose to stay committed to her, and I say that because just like real life, a number of things could change that in a heartbeat. This game does an excellent job of helping you integrate with both the story and culture. You learn real fast what it means to have a relationship not just in Chinese society but for typical life too. Muxin doesn't want people to know about the relationship and asks you to keep it a secret as it might get in the way of things and make trouble. That and China doesn't like students having intimate relationships. They want students to focus 100% on studies. Add that to the fact that Chinese families are strict when it comes to school and will practically disown you for even thinking about dating. Have them find out during Gaokao and you'll have heads turning. So yeah, your character honors this request and keeps this relationship a secret (for now anyway). Other then confessing to Muxin and having to keep the relationship a secret, your decisions in the game are your own and the choices you make will reflect that and lead you to just one of over 60 different endings. During your story, your character will encounter a variety of events besides school. Your next door neighbor has a crush on you, your best friend will challenge you and distract you from your studies, your family pressures you to keep up your grades, and other random events that will affect your life. It's completely reminiscent of everyday school life, and being a college a student, I totally get the stress the main protagonist feels during his academic journey. Even you aren't in college, or in high school; the game does an excellent job of making you feel pressured through its story and gameplay. My first experience with the game, I struggled with my grades and broke up with my girlfriend. A result that hit a little to home for me. Of course, your experience might be different. How will you handle your 100 days before Gaokao?

Gameplay and Features

screenshot of gameplay

Normally I don't talk about gameplay when it comes to visual novel games as they are a visual medium that is either a choose your own adventure style or along for the ride type of story. However, Gaokao is a unique choose your own adventure story as it offers not only story choices but a unique studying system.

Basically, you'll have your lessons and events during the day but the real action happens during weekends and at night during Night Class (yes Chinese students take school all day, and even clean the school afterward. They are very dedicated). Anyway, when in Night Class, you'll have a number of options before you. I won't go in full detail as the game does a pretty good job explaining its mechanics. Essentially, you'll have the option to either review or talk to Muxin. Studying will increase your ability score which will affect how you do on Gaokao. Talking to Muxin will increase your relationship with her. Both will have an overall effect on the story. Be careful though. You have both stress and a health meter. As you progress through the game; decisions you make will affect these meters. Let them get to low and your abilities will be affected and you'll get a chance of getting sick. If you get sick, you'll be out of commission for a bit and this will heavily negatively affect your how you do on Gaokao (Did I mention that your parents will also hate you for getting sick? I'm kind of grateful I didn't have these kinds of parents). You can choose to sleep or relax to help recover from stress and regain lost health but you miss out on studying or talking with Muxin. On the weekends, you'll have these options plus the ability to call friends, teachers, and Muxin which will affect your abilities and other random events. You can exercise to increase health, and take a walk outside to certain locations for a chance to encounter a random event. This gameplay is simplistic, but it's fun and helps add to the overall immersion of a pressured high school student.

There's a chance that you can receive items from random events that will help in numerous ways such as lower stress, boost your test score, or force you to fail the Gaokao (items like these are there to help people who want to see the bad endings). The best part is that once you receive an item, you keep it with you on subsequent playthroughs to help achieve other endings if you desire.

I do look out for specific features when it comes to visual novel games. This is important to create the perfect visual novel experience. This game almost has everything going for it. Standard settings like increasing volume and whatnot, and the ability to save at any point in the game to replay past decisions or experience different endings. Unfortanly, there's no autoplay feature which I despise when it comes to visual games. Reason being is that you have to click every time to move through dialog. Simply having an autoplay feature makes this less of a tiring task so you can focus on reading. This is a nitpick sure, and it doesn't affect how I feel about the game but I needed to point this out none the less. There is a skip dialogue button, but if you press it, you'll skip all dialouge instead of just past dialogue. I like it when visual novel games only let you skip dialogue you have already read so you don't skip any new parts. If this sounds like jargon to you because you haven't played visual novel games before. You'll want to trust me when I say these features are practically essential when making a visual novel game.

Art and Music

(Gaokao.love.100 days OST 10 Nuit Silencieuse by House Greg. Click on the link to support to the channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_EXJh5Vfo4)

Art is very well done. Every character is drawn with numerous facial expressions, and there are many well-done scenes that also have a variety of expressions. The music is charming and simplistic. When the mood calls for quiet melodrama, the soundtrack reflects that. If a serious moment in the story is happening, then the music will reflect that. It doesn't get tiring or repetitive. You also have the ability to listen to any of these tracks on the main menu through your own leisure.

I forgot to mention as this has less to do with the music and art style, but the Chinese voice acting is also very good and different from what I'm familiar with. There is definitely emotion through the voices and helps add life to the characters.

Additional Content

(DLC header for Yes Monitress)

There is DLC for the game, and I'm happy to announce it's free to download. If you have the Switch version, the DLC is already included in the game which is really nice. To access the DLC, you have to follow a certain amount of steps in the game so I recommend following a guide.

The DLC features Cokkie, a side character in the main game who acts as the head monitress (which is basically a class president to some comparison). She is also a good friend of yours to some extent. Cokkie is sadly not a romantic option, but you can choose how to impact her story through the DLC. In short, Cokkie has a crush on Joey who is Vice Commissary and a close friend of yours and hers. Depending on what you do will affect her relationship with Joey in the ending. She has her own unique CG and Endings that are also well done and well written. The only gripe I have about the DLC is the fact that you can only see it if you broke up with your girlfriend and stay committed to helping Cokkie with her dilemma. I understand why this is the case, but I wish it was more fluid as it feels like your ruining your own life just to help (or ruin) another person's life.

Conclusion

(Screenshot of the Gaokao.love.100 days trailer)

Gaokao offers a unique visual experience that greatly differs from other visual novel games. That being said, it's linear to an extent despite having 61 endings. I say that because some endings are basically variations from another end, and events barely differ from each other after subsequent playthroughs. Still, the game shouldn't be ignored. The story it offers is something anyone can learn from and enjoy. It makes you feel pressured, happy, and sad during critical gameplay moments during your first initial playthrough. I encourage you to try this game out for yourself and see how will you on your first playthrough. I guarantee you'll feel something, and enjoy the experience. If you like the game and it's characters, the go for other endings to see how your story could've played out. For only just 10$, this game is well worth the price. So...I'll ask this again- How will do you think you will do in your 100 days before Gaokao? Will you choose to study or will you choose love? Will you stay faithful or will you abandon your relationship? Perhaps there's a way to get the girl and good grades. Of course, there is, but how far are you willing to go to achieve that dream?

Gaokao.love.100 days is own by Navila Software. All images, videos, and music are owned by them. Please support the official release and tell me what you think of the review and what I should review next.