Imagine you were hired as a “teacher” but instead of teaching, you were tasked with drugging girls in classrooms and turning them into sex slaves… Does that sound kind of outlandish and silly? That’s because it is! Holy Slave Academy is one of those games you have to HEAVILY suspend your disbelief for in order to really invest yourself with the material.
Saint Dorei Gakuen is a 2006 game by the Nexton brand Liquid featuring art from Hikage Eiji. It had a remaster in 2020 which was announced to be one of Shiravune’s early 2024 titles in late 2023—and it’s finally here!
Before I begin this review, I would like to thank Shiravune for giving us the ability to try the game before its public release!
First and foremost, I do want to say that this is a very odd title for them to localize, in my opinion. Not because they haven’t worked with Nexton in the past but because of how old this game feels—and to some extent, is.
This isn’t inherently a bad thing, though. I myself believe the early to mid 2000s were the best era for visual novels and all of my favourite games came out during that period. However, the story being told and the whole aesthetic (hell, even the plot to a degree) are such relics of their time that it’s just interesting that they ended up choosing this title.
All of this being said, let’s get into the actual story!
The game revolves around a man named Ryuunosuke, who was hired to turn girls in the school into sex slaves for the rich elite of the region. There are a few people he runs into whilst on his journey that help him, like a student named Yu and a doctor named Minoru.
This game has all of the set pieces and the general story to make for an amazing simulation game, something akin to Yakin Byoutou, Saishuu Chikan Densha, and especially Gakuen—except it doesn’t become that at all.
This seems like a very odd complaint, but the game feels like a SLG without all of the time management and map movement and uniqueness, keeping it in the generic ADV format instead, like a lot of modern nukige.
In a way, this makes Holy Slave Academy actually ahead of its time, but at the same time that’s to its detriment as it doesn’t feel quite complete. It feels like they either didn’t have enough time to make a more complex game or they took a more complex game and just cut it down to the bare minimum.
For the positives, I will say the art is actually really pretty. Hikage Eiji is a pretty renowned artist in the nukige sphere and his work here has definitely aged, but it still shines through.
There are also some fun moments revolving around the antics of the main character and his relationship with the other characters, although I feel that most of them are very under developed despite it all.
I feel like all of the building-blocks for an interesting game are here: multiple endings; unique looking characters; a decently charming protagonist; and a not very unique but serviceable setup. The issue is how they just aren’t able to link any of it together in a way I would consider satisfactory.
With all of the above being stated, I do wish to clarify that I do not vehemently dislike this game in any way, shape or form. I personally had fun with a bunch of it. The problem is that of the roughly 9 hours I spent on it, I enjoyed maybe 4 of them with the other 5 being me either taking breaks because I was so bored or just slogging through the generic and uninteresting bits of the dialogue and game.
I think there’s a very good reason as to why this isn’t considered a nearly as popular of a Liquid game as say, Kuroinu, seeing as the latter is both more unique and more “complete.”
I can recommend this game for anybody that enjoys older art styles and also people that enjoy nukige in general, just don’t expect anything too interesting or unique despite the length and artist behind it.
You can buy the game on Steam now that it’s out!
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