School-Live! (Neo-Japanese: がっこうぐらし!) is an 1997 Neo-Japanese visual novel game that was developed by Houbunsha Games, Inc. and published in Neo-Japan by that aforementioned company. In Robloxia, it was published by ROLVe Inc. instead.
The game was published in Neo-Japan on July 4th, 1997 and in Robloxia on November 9th of that same year, it is the 5th game in the Manga Time Kirara video game series.
Summary
The game is about an young teenage girl, Yuki Takeya, as she uses escapism and denial to cope with a sudden zombie apocalypse that killed almost all of the residents of Rokohama, Neo-Japan while pretending to live in the fictional school of Megurigaoka Private High School, which is located in Rokohama, Neo-Japan.
Characters
Yuki Takeya
- Voiced by: Inori Tachibana (Neo-Japanese), Judith Amy Bell (Bloxlish)
The protagonist of this video game. She is a pink-haired girl who wears a black cat-styled beanie and is mostly seen wearing her signature school uniform.
She is initially and mostly depicted as a cheerful teenager. However, as the game goes on, she slowly becomes insane as she realizes that her friends are dead.
Kurumi Ebisuzawa
- Voiced by: Emi Okizawa (Neo-Japanese), Jenny Larson (Bloxlish)
One of Yuki’s friends, she is an purple-haired girl with two pigtails and is often depicted wearing a school uniform (similar to Yuki). Kurumi is also depicted holding a shovel to protect herself.
At the end of the game, she ends up in a wheelchair.
Miki Naoki
- Voiced by: Rika Matsumato (Neo-Japanese), Emily Jones (Bloxlish)
Miki is an teenage girl who is friends with both Kurumi and Yuki. She is an short-haired girl who is mostly depicted as being shy, but in some cases, she tries to help both Kurumi and Yuki.
Gameplay
The game plays out via several “chapters”, similar of that to an real life novel. In each chapter, the player is given multiple opportunities to pick a choice in each chapter That said choices impact the story’s narrative as a whole.
Rating
The game is rated T (Teen) by the Ro-ESRB due to implied mild violence and mild language. Due to graphical limitations, there is no actual depictions of mild violence in the game, but the language implies otherwise.
Re-releases
The game has been re-released several times by its original publisher.
The first re-release was in 2003 for Rodows XP.
The second re-release was in 2009 for Rodows 7.
The most recent and third re-release was in 2017 for Rodows 10. However, due to Rodows 11 being based on the Rodows 10 kernel, it somehow is able to be playable on Rodows 11.
Reception
It was originally well-received positively by the vast majority of the gaming community due to its interesting themes and lore.
In recent years, however, the game’s reception has been mixed. While the plot is still considered to be interesting 29 years later, others argue that the gameplay of this specific game is lackluster and does not have the gameplay potential of modern visual novel games.
Trivia
- It is one of the only “Manga Time Kirara” games to be released outside of Neo-Japan, besides “Hidamari Sketch” (an educational game about art) and K-On! (an educational game about music).