Highschool Possession

Developer: AJTilley.com | Publisher: AJTilley.com | Release Date: 2015 | Genre: Adventure / Indie / Visual Novel | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam / MangaGamer.com

The protagonist of Highschool Possession, Hikaru, is just an ordinary student who is fortunate enough to know two of the most beautiful girls in school. He also has a crush on both girls, but are not sure how they feel about him. This all changes one day when Hikaru falls asleep after a terrible headache and wakes up to the fact that his conscience keeps shifting between the bodies of his two crushes. While inhabiting their bodies Hikaru discovers that their lives are not as problem free as he had imagined and so he sets out to try and help them overcome their demons.

Highschool Possession features a very interesting premise for a visual novel, but because it is such a short game it doesn’t really make full use of the scenario. Hikaru continually jumps between the bodies of Akiko, one of the most beautiful and intelligent girls in school and Kasumi, a gorgeous but shy member of the swimming team. Both girls have to deal with some very serious issues in their lives, but since the game is so brief they don’t feel very fleshed out. Akiko battles with depression due to a boyfriend who is only using her while Kasumi dreads school thanks to a bully who is making her life hell. With Hikaru in control of their bodies players are given the opportunity to intervene and solve their problems. Doing so leads to one of two good endings, depending on which girl was favored, while failure to help results in the bad endings.

Since Highschool Possession is a casual visual novel, there are not a lot of choices and the ones that are available doesn’t exactly branch the story significantly. This is fine for players who are looking for something light and entertaining to pass an hour or two, but anyone looking for something a bit more involving will be disappointed. A lot of important elements, such as why Hikaru “possesses” the two girls are glossed over and the way that he resolves their problems is also very abrupt.

Despite the serious issues tackled in the game, the protagonist still finds time to get up to some perverted stuff while inhabiting the bodies of the girls. Those playing the Steam version of the game will find these scenes get cut off rather abruptly though thanks to the censorship. The game is available from MangaGamer in uncensored form though, and comes with a free Steam key, which makes it the best way to experience it uncut. It has to be said that the h-scenes feel a bit out of place though, especially the ones where Hikaru has sex with another guy while in control of Akiko!

As far as the art is concerned, Highschool Possession is good, but not great. The girls look very attractive and the backgrounds are quite detailed, but the game doesn’t feature a lot of locations. The amount of CGs available is also rather low. In addition, the choice for blue text with white borders for all the dialogue in the game is rather questionable as it is not very easy on the eyes. Speaking of the text, we also encountered a couple of errors, such as “they” being used instead of “the” and “way” instead of “was.” Unfortunately, Highschool Possession does not feature any type of voice acting for any of the characters either. At least the soundtrack is decent enough and features a selection of good tunes.

With only two good endings and two bad ones it doesn’t take very long to experience everything that Highschool Possession has to offer. Newcomers to the genre will find it enjoyable enough, but there is not much here that veterans won’t have seen before. If the story and characters were more fleshed out it could have been a great game, but as it is Highschool Possession feels a bit average compared to other titles in the genre.