Who Killed My Father Academy

[got_quiet]

Name: Who Killed My Father Academy
Status: Complete
Site: https://ntagonistic.itch.io/wkmfa
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: F/Fish but you date F/M
Description: Crazy ass rich kids murder each other a lot.



As the title of this game suggests, the twist to this VN is that the LIs are all suspects in the protagonist's father's murder! You, the player, have been recruited by the protagonist to help her get to the bottom of this murder by choosing her actions for her, then keeping in mind the result so that you can go back again and give her better choices in a different run through. This fourth-wall-breaking premise is stated explicitly at the beginning of the game, and the MC speaks to you directly in her inner monologue as you guide her through her little investigation. After going on multiple dates with each of the suspects, almost all of them ending poorly, you can tell her that you've figured things out, at which point you have to tell her the information you uncovered and get to play through the final ending.

 

Your four suspects are:

Crispin - The president of the council. He is hyper polite and refers to everyone as Ms/Mr.

Ellis - He's a shy guy with a flowing pink hairdo, and a bit of an airhead

Dex - The "nasty boy" (he literally wears a shirt that says this) He's the rule breaker who is constantly trying to escape school.

Victor - The MC informs you he is her ex-best friend when he shows up. She is not happy to see him but he is overjoyed to see her. As she says, he doesn't know when to quit.

All of the guys in the game are extremely effeminate, like, eyeliner, women's hairstyles and clothing, I would have assumed this was F/F if I hadn't been explicitly told I was dealing with guys sort of effeminate. Their behavior is the same.


 

The art is... not great. Everything is pastel, which I don't mind by itself, but there's no contrast at all and the color values are so fucking close to each other, plus the line work is done in a light gray, so everything looks kind of like a glowing blob. The backgrounds are processed photos, which is an easy and understandable way to quickly create a setting in a game like this, but they also are shades of pink and red so I actually had a hard time looking at this game for any length of time without feeling like my retina was starting to separate from my eye. The character design also makes everyone kind of look like the horror version of of a polly pocket, mostly because of the eyes, which are wide, with small irises swimming in white and no pupil. Basically imagine the eye of an anime character having a mental break and that's what people look like in this game all the time. I couldn't tell in the beginning whether this was intentional (It's a murder mystery after all) or just a tragic outcome of the artist's style, but once I had gotten into the game the freakiness of everyone's faces kinda fit with the fucked up nature of the plot.

And the plot is good. The writing is fine, and doesn't waste my time. The conceit that the MC is actively goading you to put her in positions that will likely get her killed because she needs more information is actually a great idea, because it erases the apprehension I irrationally have about fucking imaginary people over, and actively encourages save scumming. The game in fact notifies you via the narration when it thinks you really should save because you're likely going to have many branching paths in the near future.


 

The narrative structure of the game isn't unique but because of how taking multiple tracks is a canonical element the execution is still novel. A lot of games that lock a final ending behind multiple playthroughs never explain why suddenly there is a new option. This game does. It also tries to explain why you are a disembodied voice in the head of the MC, and then later in others, which ties into some of the more sinister elements of the plot. It pulls all this off pretty well, and on top of that each of the different endings you get while searching for clues are unique and interesting enough in their own right that I enjoyed what could have been a tedious process. There was some overlap of information but that just ensured that whatever you picked first still made sense.

As far as characters go, the MC is antisocial and dislikes everyone in the school pretty much immediately, which I can definitely relate to. But she's also there to get information and solve a murder so it would make sense for her to want to get in the good graces of the students. Every time you get an option she makes it clear she would prefer if you chose the meaner or more dismissive option, as if she's actively trying to prevent people from talking to her. I do like her personality though, which is good because most of the game is her talking to you. The only real issue is that it's impossible to tell when she's talking internally or externally, as everything is formatted in exactly the same way. The only way to know is if a character ends up responding to something.

I ended up in a semi-hilarious situation, because the MC asks you to give her a name, and I went with Julie Smith. It was about as bland and anonymous as I could think up. But it turns out that a lot of the early plot involves people immediately knowing who you are due to your last name. So everyone's like, "Oh, Smith, yes of course I know who that is" as if there couldn't possibly be any other Smith out there. I kept doing a mental headpalm every time it happened.

The other characters are pretty over the top, which is in line with the conceit, which is full of very unrealistic drama, murder, conspiracy, and so on. A lot of the background details are not filled in, and in the final ending the fate of the big bads is left a little vague, but I think that was the only thing that was disappointing. The whole overarching plot has to do with a rather murderous high society, where the richest of the rich are killing each other regularly, and for some reason children in a very prestigious school are being abducted and disappeared. It doesn't make much sense, but the game doesn't really expect you to make sense of it, just kind of go along with the fun, which I found easy to do.

Keep in mind that in order to complete the game you have to be able to write out the names of some of the characters. I am HORRIBLE at remembering names and actually got stumped because I keep track by thinking "the hair guy, the blindingly white guy, the clingy one" when thinking about people, so if you're the same way write them down or something.

 

I had to avoid looking at the graphics while I played, but luckily for VNs good writing is always more important, and this game has that. If you can get around the assault on your eyes (or who knows, maybe you're into it) then this is a fun game worth checking out.