College Craze is an adult dating sim and life simulation game where you attend college as a freshman and have various options to choose the way you experience your college life. You can either study hard or party hard — either way you’ll have a ton of options to make so there’s a lot of replay value (trust me, I made so many saves). This review contains slight spoiler content until Chapter 5 of the game.
Welcome to Sugardale, a mid-sized college town and home of prestigious Sugardale University. You play as an incoming female freshman, ready to make your mark in the world. Choose to study hard, work off campus, or party every weekend. Manage your grades, followers and bank account as you meet and interact with the 15 (and counting!) unique characters of Sugardale. Create your own story and get into steamy situations, all while helping (or sabotaging) your friends, keeping secrets and revealing mysteries about the town’s shady happenings. — via itch.io/collegecraze
Create Your Own Character!
In College Craze, you have some options when it comes to customizing your own character — such as the skin tone and hair. What I find most impressive about this is that every CG reflects your MC’s appearance so this adds a layer of variety when you play with different looks (I ended up changing my character’s appearance each time I replayed for fun).
The MC is very much a self-insert, but there’s definitely pros to this such as being able to choose what sort of approach you’ll take when it comes to flirting with others or keeping it casual. What I liked most about the MC is that she is super sex positive and doesn’t kinkshame; so no matter what you choose to do, it doesn’t feel like the MC is being forced into it (you make the choices and she goes along with it!)
The choices you make do matter and typically the characters will remember them so you’ll have a lot of change in dialogue depending on what you say or do. For example, if you say you’re not or are a virgin, this can effect sex scenes where the MC may or may not be experienced.
Premise
The premise of the game is fairly simple, you’re a freshman at Sugardale U where you move into your dorm to start your first year of college. Once you settle in, you’ll have the option of joining three different clubs or finding a job. These four options will diverge you into a set path where you have various romance options to pursue in each. You won’t always see the same faces so you’ll have plenty of reasons to replay and join a different club. To clarify, each club has different characters you can meet and branches into separate storylines along with them.
I honestly expected this game to be more linear when it came to the branching story, but there’s a lot more to it. I was a bit overwhelmed by the huge cast of characters and didn’t really know where to start first so I went into the game blind and got a feel for them by just merely playing the game. So don’t worry about the order or anything I think the best advice I have is to just jump into it blind without worrying about it.
Gameplay
The main mechanics of this game are stat building; so you have a body count, GPA, PopMe following, and money. These specific stats can effect how you develop relationships with other characters and the outcome of certain scenarios. I personally enjoy this type of gameplay because it means there’s a lot of different ways to replay the game.
As for the controls themselves, the gameplay is pretty straightforward like any other visual novel. You can save, load, q.save, ect. like any other visual novel. There’s also conveniently a rewind button which I found super useful when I wanted to go back and redo a choice I made. I ended up making plenty of save states as well as there’s so many different choices you can make and you can end up steadily increasing your body count on one run. There’s a CG gallery as well and plenty of them to come by.
Characters
Bryce is part of the Investments Club and the first character you meet at the start of the game. Depending on how you first approach him, you can either be on his good side or bad side (which determines whether you get his PopMe info). He is obviously that ‘rich frat boy’ type that believes they can get whoever and whatever they want which isn’t exactly my cup of tea but I didn’t mind the story itself. I also liked that I could see more of Trish who I honestly feel bad for because boy is he shitty boyfriend material.
Trish is the MC’s roommate and Bryce’s girlfriend. At first glance she really does live up to her name ‘Trish the Bitch” but as you learn more about her, you definitely warm up to her! I really liked the scene where she let the MC borrow her dress. She’s very much a ‘tsundere’ type where she’s aggressive on the surface but is obviously just under a lot of pressure and very misunderstood. She is a romance option (you can get a pretty steamy scene with her) and it only made me more curious as to where it will lead.
Chad is Bryce’s friend who is another frat boy and also part of the Investments Club. Similar to Bryce, he’s that typical frat boy who flirts with girls and when the MC and him first meet you can pretty much hook up with him instantly. The initiation scene was fun to watch since he would hype up the MC when she continued to plow through them.
Rafi is the president of the Art Club and off the bat a pretty flirty dude. He also buys drugs on campus and seems to cause trouble for those around him (such as Demi). Blair has a crush on him though so she clearly is against the MC trying to make a move on him. There’s clearly a lot to learn about this guy; he traveled a lot apparently a got himself into a shit load of debt due to drugs. I’m interested to see where exactly his route will go since he’s clearly such a mess.
Blair is the MC’s best friend from high school who has a very complicated relationship with her depending on the choices you choose. For example, you’ll have the option of bailing on plans with her at some point and that is kind of the turning point of the relationship you’ll have. However, if you join the Art Club you’ll have option of being around her more and even hanging out with her and Ruby (not sure if this is triggered in other routes). There also feels like a potential romance between the two (especially when Blair got high). She could definitely be seen as a ‘bitchy’ friend and there are things about her that annoy me (like how judgey and rude she is to Ruby), but I’m curious to learn more about her — especially the strange relationship she has with her ex-boyfriend Gabe.
Ruby is one of your classmates that you’ll meet during one of your lectures. She’s definitely a good friend to the MC and really looks out for her (especially during the stalker incident). You eventually find out she’s a camgirl and have the option of joining in on it for fun (I like how you can give yourself a stage name). I can definitely feel a romance budding with her and I’d absolutely love to see more of it because I really like the dynamic between her and the MC. They have fun, cute scenes together where they shop, go out, or even get piercings. There’s was never hint of “fakeness” with Ruby and while there’s still more to learn I just like that she’s genuine.
Gabe is what I feel like would be considered the ‘trashy problematic fave’ but boy is he confusing as hell. He’s Blair’s ex but clearly they still got some shit going on — especially when you get an entire front row seat to watch him bang Blair in the storage closet (which happens at the very beginning of the game). Not sure what his motives are half the time, but he’s interesting to watch and clearly has this sort of ‘dominant’ role going on with him. There is obviously more to learn about him, since he plays guitar and is clearly passionate about it. So regardless, I think his character is interesting enough.
Thomas is the president of the Science Club and Blair’s stepbrother. This guy is such a gentleman and he was definitely my favorite character. He is certainly cold at first, yes, but that’s the charm of ‘kuudere’ types! They may be cold at first but just gotta let them warm up to you. I’m all for a sort of slowburn romance too and while his was definitely leading somewhere quick, there was a lot of interruptions and him playing hard to get but I’m okay with that. I think what I like most about him is that he’s very delicate and less ‘rough’ than the rest of the candidates. That is to say, I like the gentlemanly types that take it slow and he certainly does. I loved how protective he was when you tell him about the stalker incident.
Jay isn’t a college student and lives in the shady area of Toffee Springs. He runs into the MC while running from the police and when you meet him again, you can address that you’ve seen him before. Similar to Thomas, he had a very timidness to him that I really liked? Not super in your face and very protective of the MC from well… himself, which was interesting. I certainly like those ‘I’m no good for you’ type romances where the LI pushes the MC away because they think they’re bad for them. But that of course just makes the MC want them more. Either way, Jay is an interesting character because not only is he hard to pursue but he’s more of a gentleman than you’d think he’d be at first glance. That sort of ‘looks tough on the outside’ but ‘super sweet on the inside’.
Shaun is a member of the rich ‘Arroyo’ family that apparently owns Sugar Dale U in the sense they built it. First impression of him was that he was a bit of a dick but when he opens up to the MC he definitely has a more genuine side to him. At one point he rejects the MC when she makes a move on him but then pretends to have her as his girlfriend. Not sure what his motives are but I’m interested to find out more about him.
Samir is one of the Science Club members you can hook up with and well, not much to say about him except he’s clearly just a horny dickhead. Thomas is the one who advises that you stay away from him but if you do choose to pursue him… you screw him in an alleyway. Either way, like Thomas said he’s clearly a stuck of rich asshole who always gets what he wants (so when you reject him he becomes a complete dick). Definitely not interested in him but I think its realistic to not make everyone your cup of tea.
Demi is also part of the Art Club and always keeps Rafi in check. She’s super passionate about the arts but unfortunately has to keep cleaning up Rafi’s messes and hiding the fact they’re always using. She also finds it frustrating that Rafi just invites anyone to their club since it seems like no one cares about it. Depending on how you establish your relationship with Rafi, she’ll either like or dislike you. She’s very ‘no-bullshit’ and is blunt about how she feels. That being said, she’s definitely a sweet character and her hook up scene was pretty wholesome.
Grady is an older man you can meet at a bar after your job interview. His scene was hard to trigger as I made the wrong options the first time and kind of forgot about him since there seems to be only one scene where he appears. He immediately talks about how he hates college students so the moment he finds out the MC is one, he’ll lose interest in you. I managed to eventually hook up with him and it was… an interesting scene to say the least. He has a foot fetish, so you’ll definitely get a type of guy that’s into something kinky one way or another. I didn’t mind his vibes as a whole though, he kind of reminded me of a character in Life is Strange to be honest.
Professor McGregor is that hot professor you really want to notice you but keeps lecturing you to stay out of trouble (lol). I can tell it’ll definitely get somewhere eventually but I have to admit that scene with him and the sink had me in tears because I just did not expect it — but damn was I really trying to get in his pants (just let me bone you sensei)!!
One character I really need to boast about is the mysterious caller because holy shit is he creepy but the voice acting for him is absolutely amazing. This is the only character that is fully voiced (it seems) but I was super impressed by his voice actor. If he’s supposed to given me the creeps, he really nailed it because the performance outdid it with the creep vibes.
There’s many other characters to encounter and possibly raise your body count, however I almost feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface since there’s clearly much more this game has to offer as this isn’t the full game (the story is ongoing and there’s still more to come!).
Final Thoughts
I’m very impressed that PrettyInk is a solo dev because this game has so much content to offer. I can see a lot of passion in the writing and the characters and it’s just really impressive overall to see. It’s nice to finally see a explicit visual novel for the female audience that actually has more dating sim aspects to it. I highly recommend this game to those looking for a modern dating sim experience in a college setting. I’m a big fan of the Life is Strange series and I felt this was reminiscent of that.
I think the most impressive part of this game to me is that the choices you make really do feel like they affect the story. There is a lot of replay value to this game even with it not being completed yet and I still found so many things I could do different. Your stats, or your money and GPA, actually do affect how characters will respond to you or if you’ll be able to pursue them. In a way, I find stat building more challenging because its not as simple as choosing a choice for affection, but rather how your stats are built will affect if a character is interested.
Lastly, if you’re looking for a game that has many kinks and character types, this could be the game for you. There are so many types of characters in this game and a lot of them have their own unique and distinct personality. It’s really fun to go into the game blind and see where you’ll end up based on your choices. That being said, the story itself usually consistently the same of course but the way you go about it will change depending on how you start it.
There’s a demo available here if you wish to try, trust me when I say there’s a lot you can do even within the span of 3 chapters so I do recommend checking it out! You can also support PrettyInk’s patreon to obtain the latest chapters. I’m very thankful to able to try this game out and finally get me off my game hiatus.
Otome Adventures 