Space Pilgrim Academy: Year 1

Another solid space pilgrim story although it feels like 20% of any previous game, the other 80% is running between empty lifeless campuses with boring "classes".

What a charming little game. Some of the puzzles were a decent enough challenge and the story was quite enjoyable. I can't wait to see what the next games of this saga bring for further developments in the story.

Space pilgrim academy: year 1 is an adventure game, with no combat. In fact it is quite close to a generic point & click game, down to the infamous item combination puzzles of those. I actually filtered point & click games out, but gave this game a chance anyway because its sci-fi and story rich tags.

The game always starts in windowed mode, in a 720p window. In most RPGMaker games Alt-Enter can be used to turn the game into full screen, strangely it is not the case with this game. Instead F4 is used for full-screen, but that isn’t mentioned anywhere in the game, I just found it out accidentally by browsing the forums.

As with the old RPGMaker games that I’m used to, I started playing with keyboard only. I play with the numpad, but the game sets that up a bit different than my defaults. For example I use Numpad5 instead of Numpad8. The key mappings cannot be changed in the options, so I resorted to an AutoHotkey script to map the buttons as I like. Before the end of Act I I discovered that the mouse interactions offer a lot of hints with the way things are interacteable. so I switched to explore the environment with mouse, and used the keyboard mostly for dialogs. Those mouse hints sure help in narrowing down the puzzle pieces. A lot of environmental items trigger some kind of remark.

There are guides for the game in the community hub, and I highly recommend checking out 2 of them. The first one is for the achievements only:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1166202530

The second one is for a full playtrough, with puzzles and achievements :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1342228994

For the achievements I used the first one, as it doesn’t spoil the puzzles. When I got stuck on a puzzle, I checked out the second one. While not as notorious as the item puzzles associated with some point & click games, I still reached points where I couldn’t figure out in a timely manner how to proceed further (like the access card part in the hospital). At those points I just resorted to the guide listed second. With the help of these walkthroughs I managed to unlock all achievements, which a lot of the players of the game seems to do too. Even the lowest achievement's completion rate was above 30%.

There is background music in the game, but throughout my play sessions there were frequently segments with no music. Not sure whether these were intended, or if it was a bug in the game. When there is music, it is an expected MIDI like background music.

You can save the game when you have freedom of movement (i.e. not during dialog sequences – and those can get rather long). There are several slots to save to, I just cycled through the first 4. Generally speaking you should save before each class, as those are the parts where achievements can be unlocked. The correct answers were given in the first class after my fails, but for the rest of the classes I just read on prior the correct answers and used them to prevent unnecessary replays for the achievements. As for the story, it is completely linear, so no need to replay it for different outcomes/routes. Failing the answers merely prevents the achievement unlocks, the story just carries through. If you want, you can roleplay a wisecrack student, kinda like keeping with the sarcastic answers in Fallout4.

The story of the game is a bit too juvenile for my taste. It feels like a high school drama, with high school tropes. The fact that it takes place in the future merely changes the settings in which those tropes play out. It has a mischievous feel to it, serious sci-fi it is not. As such I assume it should resonate more with teenagers. Still, I kinda enjoyed the story, mostly the non class parts.

If you want to buy the game, I would recommend buying the Space Pilgrim Academy bundle. It is frequently sold below 3€, which isn’t a bad amount even if you will ultimately play the first game only, as I did. Maybe down the line I will play the next installments too, though my backlog of interesting games is huge, and this game didn’t manage to stir my interest in point & click gameplay with its puzzles – there is a reason why I generally eschew such games.

The game was stable for me, it didn’t crash, the saves didn’t corrupt.

These entire series is HIGHLY recommended.

Here's the play order:
-Space Pilgrim Episode I: Alpha Centauri (2015)
-Space Pilgrim Episode II: Epsilon Indi (2016)
-Space Pilgrim Episode III: Delta Pavonis (2016)
-Space Pilgrim Episode IV: Sol (2016)
-Space Pilgrim Academy (2017)
-Space Pilgrim Academy: Year 2 (2018)
-Space Pilgrim Academy: Year 3 (2018)
-Space Pilgrim Academy: Reunion (2019)

Nice game, enjoyable series. Simple yet fun adventure.

Soooome grind if you are trying to do all the achievements, which means going back and replaying. It would be nice to have a way of escaping/bypassing cut-scenes (or of saving in the middle).

(Note that I have the same review for all the games in the series. They were all pretty fun in a low-key way.)

Lovely! I recommend this game and every other game from the series. I'm excited to start my second year at the academy.

Bought the package on sale a few months ago, but didn't play this one until I saw the 2.0 update.

You might be turned off initially by its 'RPGMaker-ness' (at least I was), but I was pleasantly surprised to find the writing was very enjoyable. I found that the story moves at a comfortable pace, the characters are varied enough to make things interesting and there's enough intrigue to keep your attention. Really looking forward to the next game in the series.

If this was a PoC game with full voice-acting and in-depth inventory puzzles like with works by Wadjet Eye such as Technobabylon and Shardlight, this series would have a lot more attention.

Buy it for the writing and forgive it for the engine.

This is a great, great series that deserves way more recognition. The cast is very endearing and the quality of the writing and storytelling is amazingly high for an indie RPGMaker game, and I can't stress that enough. You'll want to play the previous series before starting on this one. And while the original series is also pretty good, you can definitely tell the developer stepped it up with this series.

I'm a sucker for stories or games that revolve around school life, and this game makes use of the setting well. You'll have a lot of fun running around the school, getting to know the various students and faculty, and discovering the ways Maggie's school life become intertwined with the political intrigue in the backdrop. This series is an absolutely steal for its price.

The Space Pilgrim Academy series (Years 1 -3 and Reunion) serves as a welcome continuation of the Space Pilgrim saga. Under the tutelage of the original titular protagonist, you play as and meet new characters as the consequences of her past actions begin to surface and disrupt the current state of galactic affairs.

This series appears to be a tad more ambitious than its predecessor, and leaves a few threads hanging as a precursor to a potential third sequel. While I look forward to experiencing more of the Space Pilgrim universe, the lack of self-contained conclusion does not sit well with me.

The start of a second series of Space Pilgrim Adventure games. I'd recommend playing through the first series if you want to be immersed in the story and characters. This chapter introduces a new set of characters and a new venue, the space cadet academy named after Gail Pilgrim. Gail and Maggie's stories are very different but they fit together well and the game has good continuity even with switching between main characters. The puzzles are on the easy side which is good from a story perspective. People who like a challenging puzzle might prefer a series that is more based on brain bending than on story and character, but I enjoyed the story as I have done with the past games. This is the type of series where you get attached to the characters and want to find out what happens to them next. Fortunately each chapter is inexpensive so you get a lot of story for your money. One of my favourite series.

I am a huge fan of the Space Pilgrim series (1-4) I came into this very excited to see where the story would go. I must say that I had more fun in this one game than in the first 4. This game is brilliant. Mixing in new characters and old characters was done amazingly. If you love stories support this saga. It's so good.

THE PLOT IS AMAZING (no spoilers) I also didn't know how I would feel about the game having essentially tests for the academy but I surprisingly enjoying the questions. You cover some of the backstory to the previous games and present game. At the end you even get to see your grades and it filled me with pride to see those A's (too bad I didn't get to see those irl)

I cannot stress how great this game is, please try it and show the dev how amazing this game is. I cannot wait to see what's next. ON TO YEAR 2 :D

9/10 Game. #SAIL IS STILL ALIVE

TL;DR

Overview

Graphics and Sound

Positives

Negatives

Conclusion

Very hard to write a review for any of the space pilgrim games, because in every review i basically want to write the same thing: Excellent, really excellent story telling. I love the humour, the characters, the universe, the story,... just everything about it. No matter what your preffered genre is, THESE games are an absolutely "must play" for everyone.

Man, i forgot how much i dig Space Pilgrim. The first series was one of the most fun sci-fi adventures i have played, and this new spinoff maintains the high quality of storytelling.

For those who haven't experienced the first ones: Space Pilgrim is a shameless space opera that doesn't bring any new ideas to the table, but it's executed so well that it doesn't matter. The dialog feels real. The characters all have personality. The pacing is exactly on-point - the story never drags. It's just a delight to play. If you're into light sci-fi, you owe it to yourself to check out this series.

The good:
- The story have its moments
- The low price
The Bad:
- The game freeze for me about every 15 -30 Minutes
- It appears to have only one single path of action that move you forward and sometimes you even have to find the right action via trial and error (or a walktrough)
- Fixed window / game resolution (as typicial for most RPG Maker games)

If the game would run without problems I maybe would give a suggestion to get it because of its low price but so no way.

Unfortunately not a good experience compared to the last series which I thoroughly enjoyed. Everything is very clunky and slow for some reason even tho it's still the same nice simple 2D graphics although everything is smaller/harder to see for some reason which takes away from the enjoyment also. Plus going round every class in the academy and doing inane tasks etc. just isn't fun, it's very tedious, not enough focus on the storyline.

Space Pilgrim Academy is a very nice adventure game cleverly using what the RPGMaker programming softwares have to offer.
It's a sequel to the 4 chapters of the Space Pilgrim serie, though it's enjoyable even without knowing those previous episodes.
Space Pilgrim Academy is truly faithful to Space Pilgrim spirit, as far as the storyline, humor and, to some extent, philosophical questioning are concerned.

For those who yet don't know the background: the saga is futuristic. It depicts a sight of what's left of humankind in the XXIIth century (if I recall, maybe later), in far away galaxies. There's much about politics, some sorts of foreign affairs between factions, war and terrorism. From a certain point of view it's very relevant and up-to-date with the world we're living in (differently thinking people trying to share the same place.. some more peaceful than others, but all willing to gain power and rule over the others, hence leading to conflicts).
The storyline of this chapter continues to be deeply interesting and the game ends, leaving suspens behind and leaving us wanting more and impatiently waiting for the next episode !

As in the 4 previous episodes there are 2 levels of storyline.
-The background story : what's happening on a wide scale / the political situation. Where are what's left of humankind and this new world going?
-The plot itself, on a lower level : what's happening to the characters / their personnal life. Why and how are they involved in these political events?

Some characters from the previous serie are back, notably the main characters Gail and Sabina.
In this new chapter you'll mainly play as Maggie, a teen girl rescued by Gail during a mission. You'll also play some parts of the game as Gail. And you'll recognize Sabina's delightful sarcasm ;D
At first when I realized I was going to play as a teen I thought "Yikes.. it's going to be boring". I was wrong, deeply. The girl and her school friends are quite funny and bluffing.
The relationship between Sabina and Gail is still at the heart of the plot too (I believe this was an important trait of the 1st Space Pilgrim saga, from an emotional angle).

As for many other (adventure) games I do think it tends to get easier and for that I am a bit disappointed. When I play an adventure game, the least i'm looking for is a bit of challenge, seing various options that make me wonder and hesitate, trying some that make me fail, trying again until I find the right "path".. not only clicking on obvious objects, making the only possible combination of items, using the one clickable tool of the scene. Sadly I didn't encounter any difficulty till the end of the game.
Therefore my playthrough was not very challenging. Getting the non story-related achievements was quite easy too.
However I recall getting stuck and scratching my head in the previous episodes, and also having trouble unlocking some achievements, being compelled to realize absurd and mind-twisted tries. That's where the funniest lies and I missed that..

I nevertheless recommend Space Pilgrim Academy because I definitely think a great and rare effort is put in the script, the whole story and the overall spirit. I totally love them and I am ready to support these precious elements even though the gameplay seemed a bit less challenging.
Besides the game lifetime is quite fair, especially considering the (low) price.

A tip to achievement hunters : Remember to save before entering any class room of the academy (when playing as Maggie) since in each class there is an achievement to get (a non-story related one, that is, you can walk by it). For these you'll need to give the right answers (all of them) or correctly complete the tasks the teacher will give you. You might make mistakes on your first attempt, so bare in mind to save at least before each course. That way you won't have to restart from a far away save to unlock some achievements if you fail on your first try. You'll easily recognize where to get which class-related achievement (those achievements descriptions are quite explicit).

There's a tiny thing I didn't like too. Gail's and Sabina's faces thumbnails (their avatars during dialogues) changed.. but not for the best. Sabina now resembles a man, though she used to be a beautiful woman. The worst change might still be Gail who now looks dumb! Her eyes make her look like she squints.. I'm truly sorry for those who suffer from that sight disease and who I don't mean to offend, I just think it's a weird choice and the change is for the least amazing for those who played Space Pilgrim I, II, III & IV and who were committed to the characters former apparences!
But since amongst the game main topics one can rapidly notice that high values like brotherhood or equality are far more important than superficial aspects such as physical appearence and since that's a lot in regards to those perspectives that I do love the Pilgrim saga spirit (trying and showing what's deeply important in life or in relationships, including the fact that true kindness or inner beauty are far more important than your haircut or the color of your skin), those physical changes for both main characters are only a tiny little (and superficial!) disappointment ;)


I strongly recommend Space Pligrim Academy , as well as the 4 previous Space Pilgrim chapters .

After a little back and forth, I decided to recommend this game, but although I loved the original Space Pilgrim series, this game stumbled a bit...although I have faith that the developers will hit their stride with the already-promised sequel to this, and it genuinely has a lot of good going for it, so I encourage people to give it a try.

I would usually do a pros and cons list, but I don't think that would adequately express both what I liked in this game and what I didn't both of which were plot/character related, so instead I will be focusing on those elements.

What I liked:
The new characters were charming and wonderful. I genuinely liked all of the children, and while Maggie perhaps should have shown a little more indication of trauma after the game's opening, that wouldn't necessarily lend itself to a good game, so I'll let it pass. Maggie is cheerful, sweet, and sarcastic...the perfect video game protagonist imo.

Although the pacing was a little weird, I did like the back-and-forth between playing as Gail and as Maggie, investigating what was going on through the eyes of a child, and of a war hero. It made the game seem less silly than it would have had it been another 'child saves the day' epic, but firmly differentiated itself from the previous Space Pilgrim games by not focusing on Gail.

The characters from the previous series have genuinely grown and changed and are leading their own lives. I really liked that the devs weren't afraid to go somewhere new.

Zubar's return. 'Nuff said.

What I disliked:
The 'in class' sessions felt too drawn out. They were interesting (and I'm ocd enough to have gone back to make sure I got the achievements for completing them perfectly), but took away time that would have been better spent developing the characters or plot. Further, they seriously threw off the pacing of the game, moving from fairly fast-paced moments to 'oh, now I'm playing a memory game' to creepy horror moments that just didn't work or build the story well. It was an interesting idea, but I wish they had cut back on the number of in-class sessions.

Original series easter eggs -- yes, a lot of characters from the original series turn up, but I was really disappointed that Ashanti, Gail's father, and Jojo didn't...they were three of my favourites! I understand that due to the choice given to players at the end of Space Pilgrim it would have made incorporating them more difficult, but it was disappointing. Further, Gail's character lost a certain sparkle of what I loved about her...she was no longer as positive and at times felt like a beaten-down and bitter person. It took the positive element that is a character I'd grown attached to, and spoiled it a little.

The worst element is, I think, that the game generally felt like it just needed another good edit. The writing is good, as always, and dialogue is engaging, but there were certain elements that felt weirdly tacked on. For example, at one point (and even though I'm putting this in 'spoiler' blackout, you could probably read it because it really had no impact on the plot Maggie reveals that she had surgery for brain cancer in a throw-away line. Now I get that it probably has something to do with the game's ending, but it just felt out-of-place and like it should have been mentioned elsewhere.

Finally, I wish there had been more time developing the antagonists. I DO like that they are left as a bit of a mysterious evil, but some hints as to societal problems that might be driving them, even if those reasons aren't outright stated, would have made the universe feel a little more flushed-out.

Oh, and as an afterthought...the character portraits were really missed.

That all being said, I am definitely looking forward to the sequel's release.

**EDIT**
I just wanted to add this as I have just finished playing the follow up, Year Two and am about to write a review over there.

I just have to say: ALL of my criticisms of the first game here have been completely wiped away in Year 2, and I thoroughly enjoyed that entry. So PLEASE play this game, so that you can move onto Year 2, which is excellent.

This is a fun adventure game. I love how well writen it is and how it expands upon the universe already setup by the previous games. The tie-ins to the previous games are all well done to where you get more out of it if you've played them, but it's not necessary either. It looks like they took some care in keeping that balance so it'll be more accessible.

It's a bit on the short side, but still feels like a complete story that leads into their next game so I don't mind. Speaking of which, I'm really looking forward to the next one! It feels like they're just getting better and better with each game so I'm really looking forward to that.

Another excellent Space Pilgrim adventure.

As the blurb says, this game takes place after the end of Space Pilgrim episode IV. Eight years have passed since the events of that game and things have moved on. Gail Pilgrim is now an ambassador with responsibilities, the life of a roaming space captain behind her. In the opening she rescues a young girl, Maggie, from a mysterious attack on a seemingly mundane industrial research facility. Placing Maggie into school at a local academy, Gail sets out to find out what really went on at that research base.

Gameplay is divided between both Maggie and Gail, as Maggie deals with school work and gets to know her fellow students while Gail does some hands on investigation. As with the Space Pilgrim Saga, the games story is well written and engaging. The central story will keep you interested and it also has some good humour too. As this is an episodic game there is enough left open at the end that when the credits roll you will be eager for the next release.

Just to be clear to anyone who hasn't played the other Space Pilgrim games, these games are not RPG's, they are adventure games. Expect lots of conversation and some puzzle solving, but there are no stats, levels or combat. So long as you go in knowing what sort of experience you are in for you should have a good time. Speaking of the other Space Pilgrim games, you don't need to have played them to enjoy Academy, but you will get a lot more out of it if you have and the other games are excellent and very well priced so I recommend you go through them first.

All up I am happy to see this series continue and I can't wait for the next one.

The game is around 5 hours long so its a bargain at $2.

8 out of 10, recommended.