I cannot remember the last time a video game had me excited to play it again when at work or right after I stop playing it for the day. Love Love School Days nailed that feeling at the very first playthrough after around a decade ever since I had this feeling last in 2016. When initally buying this game, the concept of comedy horror was still foreign to me but the gameplay looked exceptionally appealing through gameplay seen in videos.

Admittedly, this game instantly clicked with me. There is something fun about an anime troped school combined with horror that simply works. This game can give you a couple of scares which I'll get more into detail about later (though they aren't your conventional loud screamers or pop-ups), but for the most part you will be dropped into a school setting where roaming the halls is less about keeping your heartrate down and more about avoiding the silly shenanigans that the game throws at you.

Love Love School Days, while not containing any in-depth lore or story writing, cleverly explains the game's plot with it's opening cutscene only to throw the player right into the gameplay. Accompanying this good opening come great endings. 14 of them to be exact. For the scale of gameplay that Love Love School Days gives, it provides adequate content for tons of replayability through not only it's routes, but also it's items, randomized layouts and Makina. Who is Makina you may ask? Great question! You'll be seeing each other a ton in-game.

Makina is the poster child of Love Love School Days and your main reason to use the sprint key. Nine out of ten times, she will be the reason you take damage, change your gameplan, force a game over or be the one to jump you. I think the best comparison to make with Makina is to Saiko from Saiko no Sutoka: Both characters are given a good amount of abilities that makes them unpredictable and keeps the player on edge. (Refer to the scares I mentioned previously.) I'd really hate to spoil the things Makina does to ambush the player but know that even if your playthrough count reaches two digits and you start reading her a little better, don't think you know her by heart. Makina WILL still jump you at moments when you lower your guard and she CAN break your ankles the same way you can break hers during chases. True equals playing a game of cat and mouse.

Love Love School Days' fascinating gameplay structure has me so hooked up that I refuse to let someone handhold me through guides or videos in order to get every ending which, so should you if you decide to bite and pick this game up. Most items that seem useless at first will usually find their purpose once it clicks in your head and I think this should be the natural way of progression to prevent you from rushing through the game like it's a chore.

Unfortunately, Love Love School Days has seemingly reached it's end of support as it's final update was given to it in December 2023 and OTL GAME has since utilized less animes in their content since: While Deadbug Deadline doesn't utilize it at all and Riruri Tachibana: Reincarnated is some kind of hybrid, I'm still excited to see the release of the latter coming soon as of writing this review.

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/steamstore/app/3344750/DEBUG_DEADLINE/
https://testx-steam.c5game.com/steamstore/app/3874890/Riruri_Tachibana__Reincarnated/

Lastly, if you enjoyed Love Love School Days, I suggest checking out the demo release of the game on Itch.io as well. I've seen several people insist they prefer the demo over the main game and you may as well.

Thanks for being all ears throughout my review. ~ Casual