Philosophy is useful for winning video games? Who knew? Turns out it’s true, at least in one case!
Back in the spring I heard about this indie game that was getting great reviews—and it was free! Asagao Academy, a visual novel/dating sim based on a bunch of anime tropes. I’m not huge into VNs or DSs—as in, I never played either before in my life. But I’d just finished most of Stardew Valley, and found that I enjoyed the relationship-building and “heart events” in that game. So I looked around for a good relationship-oriented title, and lo and behold, I found one!
But would somebody like me, who had never (I repeat) played such a game, enjoy it?
Curiously enough, I did!
At the outset, when Hana is arriving at the academy, the story moves a bit slow and I wasn’t sure I would stick with it. What kept me going was the music! The music in Asagao Academy is so much fun! And eventually I found myself really enjoying the gameplay and story as well.
I played through PBG’s route first, and got one of the bad endings. However, I gleaned enough information from that experience to deduce the underlying ethics of Asagao Academy:
Show respect equally to others and to yourself.
With this single principle as my guide, I got the best ending on every subsequent playthrough—with every boy—except Shane’s. (Shane’s route is cruel! I had to look that one up.) Not to give away too much of the game if you haven’t played it, but if Hana forces what she thinks is best on the boys (e.g. PBG), they feel hurt and won’t let her stay close to them; if she doesn’t stand up for herself (e.g. Jared), they won’t respect her. It’s really that simple.