Cherry Tree High Comedy Club Short Review

There are plenty of games out there that are so hyped up but are eventually released and disappointing a lot of people. There are also games that nobody have ever heard of that are hidden from plain sight but are actually fun to play. In my opinion  Cherry Tree High Comedy Club would fit the latter. A time management game with anime-style art where you run around town to level-up your skills and try to improve your friendship with the other characters? sounds quite fun to me.

CTHCC is an interesting game published by Nyu media and made by a studio called 773 which is pronounced Nanami in Japanese. Some people might think of this as some Dating Sim but as there is really no dating involved they might be wrong and besides, when I hear "Dating Sim" it's usually people who doesn't know anything trying to talk about Visual Novels anyway. While CTHCC does have a bit of a VN feel to it, the main gameplay revolves around how the player manages the limited time they have to maximize the recruiting effort.

With six different characters to befriend and a list of repertoires to train, CTHCC will keep you playing again and again until you get the best possible ending(where you get all 6 characters in one play-through . Of course  you can do that with the help of a "New Game+" feature where you can load a save file of a completed game and start the game again with the same repertoire level as that save file. This makes the game easier in a way but getting all 6 characters in one play-through is no easy feat.

Each character have their own hobbies which you can learn by talking and spending time with them. Leveling up the right repertoire will make it easier to be friends with certain characters but do remember that you can't talk about the same topic over and over again with the same character. So you have to vary your approach by doing random chit chat, calling their phone and avoiding talking about topics they dislike.

The story of CTHCC is ok with some funny dialogue, although some aren't really that funny IMO. The "Americanized" setting and character names is a negative point for this game however as I think this is unnecessary and makes the setting a bit less believable. However that is a really minor thing and doesn't really reduce the enjoyment of playing this game by much.

This game is available from their website http://cherrytreehigh.com/ , Gamersgate, Capcom Store and Desura. There is a Steam version planned to be released a few months ago but they seem to have some problem with it. I really hope they can make it to steam though.

For those who liked more depth in their game or doesn't like anime style art, I don't think this game is for you.But, if you like time management games or even visual novels with a light story this game might interest you. I had fun playing this game and have already finished it twice. It is a very fun casual game and good for some laughs. Remember! Laugh, and the world laughs with you.