ACE Academy
PixelFade · 2016 · Visual Novel, Dating Sim, Choose Your Own Adventure, JRPG, Romance
PC
Overwhelmingly Positive95% · 1,405
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →
Screenshots
About ACE Academy
✦ AI summary
Join a ragtag GEAR pilot team at a prestigious Japanese academy and compete in mecha sports tournaments while navigating comedy, romance, and sci-fi intrigue through hundreds of story choices. Fully voiced with stunning HD artwork, your decisions shape relationships and branching paths in this slice-of-life visual novel where an American underdog finds his place among advanced Japanese technology.
Story
In the year 2049, mechanized robots commonly called GEAR were developed for military application. Since then, their versatile functionality has led them to not only become commonplace in commercial use, but also spawned an entire sports entertainment industry. The prevalent use and popularity of GEARs has created a new academic field known as “Cenorobotics”.
Due to unforeseeable circumstances, the protagonist finds himself transferring to ACE Academy, a premier school for Cenorobotics studies in Japan. He struggles to find a team willing to accept him and his outdated “American” GEAR to compete in the intramural tournament. When compared to the sleek, robust, and advanced technologies of the Japanese counterparts, his search feels utterly hopeless. That is, until he finds a group of pilots just desperate enough for another member. This is where your story begins.
ACE Academy is a comedy-centric, slice-of-life, visual novel with sci-fi and romance elements. With hundreds of choices available, you can experience the storyline and interact with characters in a much more personalized way.
Key Features
FHD Artwork
- Developed for Full HD (1080p)
- Panning artwork are created at resolutions higher than 1080p to avoid zooming – end result is clearer and sharper graphics
Unique Playthrough
- Hundreds of choices craft a personalized story
- Nurture romantic and platonic relationships
- Variety of branching paths
Fully Voice Acted
Original Soundtrack
Welcome to ACE Academy!
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
What a waste of talent from the creators side. Ace Academy was one of the VN I managed to play out, like literally I have tried over 15 LN and not one got my attention to outplay it. This was no other in aspect to skipping some of the dialogue tbh but 80% I didn't skip thats a big word from me. Pixelfade even made sick animations when talking to the charachters which kind of keept me playing, that story of the "robots" was ok, the view stayed more on the romance for me since because I am a man and I wanted to catch 'em all. Fly high Pixelfade! May you not fade!1 found this helpful
I wish I played this before the company shutdown. Just started playing last month and I really enjoy the characters and the greater GEAR world. And it's refreshing to play a VN with English voice acting and built for a western audience. It sucks that I won't be able to play the Kaori fandisk for this game or the other works atm, but I am holding out hope that they find a way to distribute these games once more, and maybe make more games in the future. (I write this not knowing why the PixelFade closed, just hoping everyone involved was able to do okay afterwards)
Really liked this first visual novel from this studio. You can tell they were experimenting with this one compared to their later ones. Sad to see the company go under.
(Already finished this game before, ignore my time played) ✅ Surprisingly high production value for an indie VN ✅ Fully voiced main cast adds a lot of personality ✅ Characters are likable and the comedy actually lands ✅ Relationship routes feel natural and well‑paced ✅ UI, art, and CGs look polished and modern ✅ Easy to get into even if you’re not a big VN player ❌ Story is fun but not very deep ❌ Choices don’t drastically change the overall plot ❌ Mecha combat was awful ❌ Some scenes drag a bit depending on the route ❌ A few jokes miss, especially if you’re not into anime humor Sadly, the publisher has permanently pulled the plug for this game so you can't legally buy/play it anymore. I still would highly recommend it (assuming you enjoy VN) if you can play it some other way
+Fun, decently well written story. It's nothing special, but competent enough for a good play through or two. +Characters are typical archetypes but are written well enough to feel some level of attachment +I love how the love interests actually get into their own separate relationships if the MC doesn't pursue them. ~Ending definitely sets up the game for sequels that never came. -Some major disconnects in later chapters if you haven't gone on certain character's routes before. Like Mayu and MC suddenly forming a band or random Miguel person popping up with no introduction when helping Kaori out.
Good fun; too bad there's no sequel. And that PixelFade closed. Wish I had heard of them before that.
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