School Days (visual Novel) - Gameplay

Gameplay

As a visual novel, School Days contains extremely minimal gameplay. The game's core onscreen presentation is composed of scenes that are viewed from a mostly third-person perspective. At predetermined intervals, the game pauses, and players are presented with one to two responses or actions relevant to the scene in progress to make, or not make, on behalf of characters. Each selection branches the game's progress up to that point in an alternate direction, while also causing the player's love toward a character to blossom, plateau, or diminish, thus providing for a nonlinear storytelling experience. Being an erotic title, relationships between characters may become sexual; scenes of this kind depict a varying combination of French kissing, masturbation, oral sex and intercourse, with the genitals pixelized.

Each route the game takes invariably concludes with an ending specific to the choices made up to that point. Depending on these choices, the outcome of the story will either be good or bad. School Days became popularly known for its bad endings, which depict the deaths of characters. In one ending titled "The Bloody Conclusion", a character's neck is slit open with a dōzuki, causing her to collapse and die in a fountain of blood to the manic laughter of her assailant. In another called "Eternally", a character commits suicide leaning over and falling off the roof of a school, landing headfirst on a sidewalk to the horror of other characters. The game's good endings, by contrast, depict the well-being of characters and their relationships. In the ending "Christmas Eve", a couple share an embrace in a hotel room as snow falls around a surrounding cityscape. In another titled "Two Lovers", a pair of characters agree to have a polyamorous relationship with the male lead instead of rivaling with each other. Because of the numerous alternate endings that can be achieved, players who wish to watch additional endings and sex scenes will have to play through the game more than once.

Unlike traditional visual novels that consist of static characters with subtitled dialogue, School Days is unusual in that it incorporates motion and voice, making it reminiscent of an animated series. Cinematics naturally play on their own, and players are afforded the ability to pause, fast-forward, and even skip those they've seen before. Male and female voices can be muted, subtitles can be turned on or off and the game can be played from a window or fullscreen ratio. Progress can be saved at anytime in up to 100 slots and loaded from either the main menu or during play.