East Tower - Akio (East Tower Series Vol. 1)

I really liked the idea of dreamworld. It is an interesting concept that made want to know more about the story. The character of Akio is the basic archetype of the cold, rich otome love interest, which is executed decently. The length of the game is lacking compared to the full price, so I recommend getting while it is still on sale. The art is fine. In my opinion the voice acting was great and the pacing of the romatic moments was pretty good. I never found myself bored throughout and there were many funny and cute moments. The female lead had her own character arc, and even tho it felt pretty rushed,the fact she actually had her personality and flaws made her automatically more likeable then many other otome MCs. Overall I really enjoyed playing it and it did a good job as the first installment in the East Tower series.

Nothing connected with me. It felt like the outline of one rather than a proper story. Basically, it desperately needed to be more fleshed out.

Counterfeit Ready Player One story with OG Webcomic One Punch Man artwork quality. And don't forget the annoying Shouta Tsundere.

I only played the first romance path, since they are sold separately, and I'm not really impressed. It is _very_ short, the art isn't that good, and there wasn't much build-up. If the games were much less expensive or longer, it would be worth the cost, but there are much better otome games that you can get for this price. If the series is ever really on sale, I might pick it up, but I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it.

I really love this series and definitely recommend it.
It's much more than your basic dating/romance VN.
You do best to play the entire series really to get the most out of it, as the last one in the series really just goes over and above expectations.
There's quite a bit if replay value to this due to the different endings and achievement hunting.
I personally head canon the main character as a non-binary person, although the dev's indicate this wasn't the intention. But by cautiously playing with gender identity and it's place in romance really is a nice thing to see done well (and without crapping on us trans folk).

An interesting otome VN with the main character's sex changing when in the dream world and their journey about who they want to be. I think Sakuya was the most interesting character for me because a lot of their issues with gender is one I myself have felt but the game is more about Sakuya's discovery in that it's not about gender but the character of a person that defines them. I think it's a good game to check out for it's themes about gender identity and feeling comfortable in your body, but as a romance VN it isn't really all that exciting, and the mystery in this volume is really passive. I'm excited to play the rest of the East Tower games, despite finding this one bit bland because i'm very interested in what was presented of the other characters, and I hear the content in each subsequent volume increased quite a bit. Over all, this is kind of a toss up when it comes to being a reccomendation, but I can see it being a nice game to play if the theme interests you, as it is an original plot idea for an otome.

I loved East Tower - Akio
These "Tower" games were my first roseVeRte games and inspired me to buy more.
Great game series.

I loved every East Tower game by the RoseVerte developers from Japan, and I think I didn't definitely review every single chapter of the story which is actually a different stand-alone game!
Akio is actually the first episode of the four East Tower and the main concern about the series is the price, since the visual novels aren't that long, but you can find them on sale of course!
Even if the graphics aren't that varied and awesome, I enjoyed a lot the stories and all the choices and endings and I'd definitely recommend the East Tower games to everyone who loves pure Japanese visual novels :)
Being a classic visual novel, you'll find the usual features: story, choices, different outcomes and such, nothing really new for anyone, but the plot here is very nice - in these games you're basically a girl acting like a boy and you manage to trap everyone involved in this project in a virtual reality.. which is the East Tower itself (the West one is for females, but.. xD).. it can be a little strange and confusing at times but it's smooth and comprehensible and so quite enjoyable although short.
Of course there are good and bad endings and so on, so it's "short" if compared to its high price, otherwise it's a normal visual novel :)
I'd definitely recommend the whole series, but not at full price!

I first had some issues with the game, because I disliked the German translation, but the developer was so kind to explain how to change the language to English!

So I now can finally recommend this game whole-heartedly. East Tower Akio has been my favourite of the four Episodes. As the first entry of the series it has the weakest overall-plot (not because it was bad, you just get familiar with the game world itself, and the good thing about this series is the way they build up the plot over the following episodes, so Akio is more like setting the stage than anything else), but I liked it's lighthearted tone and Akio in general. While the sereies is more of a funny one, I felt like the plot thickens and gets more interesting and deeper the more you play. But as I said, Akio is like setting the stage, and because of this the story focused on him, which I enjoyed very much, as he's my favourite of the guys.

This is a cute little visual novella. It is one of a series of four, that basically are each what in a traditional visual novel is a path. So basically, consider this as having chosen your path first. Sakuya (you can rename her) is a young woman who... does not want to act girly. As such, when offered the chance to be a test subject for her cousin's new attraction for women, she manages to convince him to let her try the other attraction... the one geared towards men. In the first few moments, she finds herself trapped with one of the four other participants. In this title, a young boy named Akio (who isn't really a young boy). Oh, and since she can choose her avatar, she chose to partake as a male.

There are three endings. The bad ending is unlocked if you make a wrong choice (one of which also unlocks an achievement about a carrot). The neutral/friendship ending depends on you choosing the lesser of two choices at the end of a stage. And the good/love ending is the better of those two choices. Oh, and choosing that better one also unlocks a small additional scene for the story (and accompanying CGs).

The game is beautiful, at least for the time. I have a feeling this is one of the first products put out by this publisher, as it is a bit rough around the edges.

Also, my suggestion would be to buy the East Tower Complete Edition. Especially as the last volume is almost three quarters of the price of the bundle...

I definitely recommend you play this if you want to play a romantic comedy where you can turn your love interest into a freaking CARROT!

I liked all four of the tower routes. Akio was the first one I played and I reallly enjoyed the route. Despite some of the negative reviews all of the routes are worth playing. Akio was adorable and the route made sense I would reccomend this to all my friends.

Very short in and of itself, but when you consider it's part of a "pack" not that bad price/game ratio. There was very little facial expressions/movement from the character: Eye open/shut, Mouth open/shut and checks blush. Odd "anime" style of artwork, but I don't dock for people having their own art style. Story line was okay, but it was not obvious what was the love path vs the friend path. Cute main male character.

[possible spoiler]

I felt like the girl struggling with her sexual identity was thrown in without real thought. Her struggle with wanting to be a man [only because she wanted to be strong to protect people and have more freedom from her father] seemed pushed. Really felt like it wasn't necessary or really resolved with the main female character. Nor does the male lead seem to care that she decieved him about her gender.

Bite-sized, but lots of fun! WORTH IT, trust me :)

This review covers all 4 of the East Tower games in one. Simply put, the game isn't very good. The art has occasional good moments but most of it is pretty bad. The story is set up in such a way that it could lend itself to an interesting discussion of gender identity and digital sexuality but it instead chooses to do cliché "oops, I tripped and grabbed your boob" moments. There are dialog options but the game is still very linear; you either die instantly, find a solution, or pick a solution that gives you a bit of extra dialog.

I would not recommend any of these games except for Kurenai (which was admittedly pretty good). However, there are parts of the Kurenai story that won't make any sense without playing at least a bit of the other ones.

The game is also way too expensive. I bought them all as a set with 40% off ($18 total) and I feel ripped-off. There are much better VNs available for much less. Takashi, Kuon, and Akio were each only about 1.5 hours of play time, which is not a great value.

Finally, every time you finish a section (and there are at least 7 sections per game) the game tries to get you to post to social media. That really pisses me off. It takes me out of the moment to try to get me to advertise for a game that I paid for. Dear game devs, please don't do that!

short and sweet. Good if you like the strong, serious type with a side of gender-bender in your plot.

Like other people already said, this game is way more interesting than certain other VNs with good art and terrible story. The art style isn’t that good… but the story is quite cool! I liked the concept of the virtual world and wishes.

This first chapter was short, but I enjoyed. Akio was adorable as little boy and cool as an adult. What I liked the most in this game was the fact that you actually have an option to go for a romantic route or a “friend” (normal) route. The interaction between Akio and the main character felt solid, and that’s quite an accomplishment for such a short game.

Can’t wait to play the other chapters!

8/10. I gave an extra point because of the amazing opening video plus the main song, which is quite cool and catchy, haha.

East Tower - Akio had an interesting premise. In it, you play as a heroine who goes into a virtual reality game that's meant to fulfill the players wishes. However, things go wrong when the game is hacked and you end-up working as a team with Aiko to make your way through the levels.

Even though the concept had promise, the execution of the game wasn't all that great. The artwork is rough and the storyline is extremely superficial. Since it only took me an hour to complete the game, I'll play through the other three in the series. However, if I didn't already own them, I wouldn't bother.

East Tower - Akio is a great little visual novel. Nothing to heavy, nothing trying to change the world. Just a bit of fun with some interesting characters. I enjoyed it enough to want to play through all the endings, and there is enough of a mystery that I want to play the next chapters. If you're an otome fan, it's definitely worth a go.

I can only review this from the standpoint of what it advertises itself to be, and that is as a Japanese visual romance novel especially designed for female interests.

Before I begin with my normal rant I must confess to you that this is my first ever Japanese visual romance novel and hopefully it will also be my last Japanese visual romance novel.

I'm so much in shock after playing this I really don't know where to begin.

Let's start with the artistic style or the lack there of. From the very first chapter nearly right up to the last chapter you will be staring for 1.5 hrs at basically the same stencilled forefront, with the same animated background running on a loop, over and over again. It NEVER changes. Things that should look 3D, look fake even on a 2D scale. The only thing that changes is the characters which fade in and out as you click your way through a Hodge podge thrown together romance story.

Now don't get me wrong this is not my first visual novel, I’ve played through a few and they were all pretty good and entertaining and many cool pictures or backgrounds, but such is not the case here. Though the story mentions things like dream chambers, rooms of treasure, hideous monsters, none of them will look good. In fact even the game 'Biglands a game made by kids' has better and more interesting art work and that's really saying something.

Now let’s look at the story. A girl who wants to be a man is paired together with a man who wants to be a woman in a new attraction at an amusement theme world where participants enter dream chambers and have to go through a series of 7 tests and save the princess in the end. Once inside they find out that there is a hacker controlling the game from within preventing them all to leave. They also realize that this dream chamber serves to make all their darkest desires come true. Hence before you know it, hotel rooms with King Sized beds are popping up everywhere.

The romance side of this story is as cute as a seagull dry reaching a half-eaten sardine and the morals that you will learn from this story were no doubt drafted up by a blonde sniffing painted dry salts. The only thing this game has taught me is that it is apparently wrong to prefer meat over curry rice. It is also wrong to aim a rocket launcher at a puppy that snarls at you and more ultimately it is unforgivable to hold a carrot with two hands or kiss someone who looks exactly like you, just to see what happens. This game has made me so sexually confused that I was praying that the amusement park would forget to pay their electricity bill and be turned off, so I could watch everyone suffocate to death in their dream capsules. Alas that did not happen in the LOVE ENDING!!!???

The biggest thing that really gets my frilly knickers knotted up is the price and the sly advertising behind it all. They recommend that you play all characters of the game in a particular order to get the full sense of the story. They recommend Akio - Takashi - Kuon - Kurenshai. What they don't tell you is that only one of them is playable with the price here which is $5.00. There is no way on this planet that this novel is worth $5.00. Plus the further you go the more it costs. Each one progressively gets more expensive and the whole collection will eventually cost you $30.00. I can only gauge the worthiness of that price from what's available in the first episode. To play through the story it will take you 1.5 hrs - 3hrs if you want all achievements. Also the last episode has an R rating in comparison to the PG rating which is in this first episode.

Instead of buying this I would recommend buying for $5.00 a bag of carrots and hold them in your hands and then go and eat some beef knowing your being really, really naughty...

Excuse me now while I go and blast alien scum in another game and regain my masculinity thanks...

Below is an example of someone else's play through...

https://youtu.be/ebbJbdoW02Q

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