If you're partial to text based games and don't mind a whole lot of reading this might be right up your alley. Beware though that the game does not extend past the first year as expansion packs are planned but have not been delivered as yet.

I have yet to finish my first play through although I am past the halfway point of Year 1 and Love this game and all the multitude of choices and options. I didn't imagine so many events nor nearly the amount of actions to choose from. The variety of options and styles of play to take your character down is staggering, whether the book nerd, adventurer or powerful caster so many interesting stories unfold. Now if only I could stop getting into detention and free more time to do more interesting stuff in the game.

Arcademagia has so great potential... But in the end, the game is boring and someone, who don't know English will have a problem with understand all of the features. For me, game offers too much options. It will be great, if this options will be avaliable gradually, not everything in the same time. Because of it, player can quickly lost himself. I'm sorry, but I can't give higher note.

Oh, and the price is definitely to high.

Works fine on Windows 7, not sure about other OS.

This game is SERIOUSLY addictive. It's one of those where you think, "Oh, just one more day. Just one more. Well, okay, one more after this."

THE GOOD

The concept is nice; a fun magic school that manages not to be a Hogwarts rip off.

The artwork's fair. Most of this consists of 2D scenes with description underneath, but those scenes are well done.

The character creation is very detailed. I would have liked more choices on the portrait, but that's just me.

THE BAD

While the adventures are good, there are very few ways to know which skills will be required. While the choices do occasionally give you a hint, it's mostly trial and error (Erm, I have to hide somewhere; do I need to study Espionage or Illusion, and if I study Espionage, is Concealment enough or do I have to increase my spy level as a whole).

The game is too short. Not in terms of actual gameplay, but in game time. I would have liked to have gone through all four years of magic training and graduated at the end, not just the first year. What with classes and familiar bonding and training...there are a whole lot of things you can do in Academagia that I just never had the time to get around to. While this offers good replay, I'd rather have had more game time.

There's no handy tutorial (at least, not one I found). This meant I was clicking around for several minutes trying to figure out how to do this, that or the other. When all you have are pictures to go on, it's not easy.

Too many variables for a character. Again, this is back to the game time thing; your character has all these potential talents, but by the time you've studied up in your school subjects, there's very little time left to develop your character (and your familiar) in other ways.

AND THE JUST PLAIN MISC

The color scheme in quest choices was a good idea, as it lets you know which options are most likely to succeed. However, there are a few too many variables (Red means small chance of success, green means success almost guaranteed, but what the heck am I supposed to do with blue, black, purple and orange?)

The choice of subjects is very good and varied; however, unless you're going to keep flipping between the manual and the screen, it's very hard to know which subjects your character will find easy (A beautiful character will waltz through Glamor, for instance).

All in all, though, this was a fantastic game. Glad I bought it!

Academagia is a fantastic game that tragically few will ever know about and even fewer will appreciate. A text-adventure based around a player's decision making, time periods on a daily basis must be balanced between school, adventuring, and improving sundry skills.

Players choose their background and initial path upon starting the game and may proceed at their own pace to create their own story. Every playthrough is shaped via randomized events so no two games will be exactly alike. The stories are fantastic, funny and silly, serious and have a lot of depths.

The downside is, the interface lacks a serious amount of polish, particularly in regards to inventory; it's difficult to tell what items the player has or when/how to use them.

I'm satisfied with my purchase and have netting a good 10-15 hours with plans to go back for more with a different character. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the old "choose your own adventure" novels.

This game is fiercely addictive for the right sort of gamer. There are any number of diffrent corners of the rather detailed world to explore, meaning you can reply it quite a bit. It should be noted that the support for this game is excellent, the makers have been releasing both new content and patching what problems have been found very assiduously. It's true that there's no meta-plot yet, but their are practically endless corners to explore and things to do. If you enjoy management style games with lots of choices, ways to do problems, and a sense of humor, this game is for you.

This game is based off of a fairly decent concept, but the creators did not deliver in the end result.

After spending probably close to an hour and a half with the initial text based character creation, and modifying my schedule and then submitting it, an error came up on the screen and it closed out of the game, making me have to restart.

The second time around was even more dull than the first, and mind you I greatly enjoy reading.Furthermore, you have so many skills to focus on you don't even have that great a concept of what is important and what is not.

As far as the adventures and things that occur it is more of a guessing game rather than any actual skill, and you might try four times for the same adventure and fail all four times.

All in all it has far too many defects and is just not the most captivating, esp for the asking price of 25$.

Academagia is one of those games that had the potential to be great, but didn't quite make it. Of course, being a text-based game Academagia isn't for everyone, but even fans will find it lacking in certain key respects.

The events and adventures while beautifully written feel disjointed. The only grand narrative I could discern was the narrative of your rising skills and grades. Friends are just designated by numerical value, nothing else. You might help someone out and raise your relation to 2 only to have them play a nasty practical joke on you the next day. There is no distinction apart from really low, middling and good relationship and whether or not the person in question is in your clique. The same feeling holds true for the magical school itself. The locales are beautifully described, but they don't really give you an indication where they are. A map would have been very helpful.

Another thing that is sub-optimal is the interface. While not as bad as some reviews make it sound, it could definitely be improved. Especially inventory handling and the most important stats (stress and fitness) should be more accessible. The manual doesn't help much except for the very basics most people would have figured out on their own.

There are, however, some really nice things in the game. There is a great variety of skills, background options, familiars that will make sure no two mages are the same. Each and every character has an interesting backstory, character and an associated adventure. There are tidbits of the world background given to you as you learn your subjects and some of them are really cute.

All in all a game with a few too many defects that might be worth the price to real fans of life-sims and text adventures. There is a lot of space for development and I will be on the lookout for them in the next episode. Yes, despite all its faults I'd be willing to shell for another one of these, but only if the developers address some of the problems.