The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ Review – A Flawed Classic Worth Falling For

The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ Review

The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ is a Japanese-exclusive dating sim from 2005 starring anime tennis players. Based on the classic sports anime The Prince of Tennis, it became a cult classic.

But does this two decade old dating sim live up to its reputation? Surprisingly, yes. Like Geppy-X, it’s a nostalgic delight for fans of its genre.

It’s the early 2000s, middle school tennis is important, and six schools have decided to hold a joint school festival. Players take on the role of an 8th grade girl on the festival committee. You choose which school she attends, and thus which of over 30 boys she can pursue.

Every tennis team can make up to three stalls at the festival. With pride, competitive spirit, and grant money at stake, it’s up to you to lead your school to victory. Hopefully you can do that while also wooing your favorite tennis player.

This title is without a doubt a tie-in game that fans of The Prince of Tennis will get much more out of. However, it’s also a fun dating sim in its own right. It could well serve as an introduction to the franchise.

Love 30+

The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ is, as I said earlier, a dating sim over two decades old. As a result, it lacks a lot of modern quality of life features, such as quick saves. And a flowchart.

The player wanders around a map, talking to characters, triggering events, and raising affection. Different guys respond better to different conversation topics. As their affection increases, more options unlock.

It’s a true dating sim rather than a visual novel in the vein of Birushana. As such, jealousy mechanics, random encounters, and schedules are in play. More aloof and antisocial guys are much harder to get close to than the outgoing ones. And character relationships play a role in how a route unfurls.

Every character has his own motivations and subplot within the larger storyline. Even plot-focused otome games often have one love interest get left out. So this is quite a remarkable achievement. Each route is pretty short, but there’s a lot of them.

With a limited number of actions every interaction period, it’s key to Look at characters first. Checking if an event is coming up is important to schedule management. Seeing certain events unlocks keywords you can use in conversation.

Some options also trigger little minigames. Most of them are even fun.

The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ is a Classic for Good Reason

The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ is an adventure in nostalgia. The character portraits and overall art style is a fair bit dated. There are a few modern CGs, but for the most part, the game uses classic art.

The classic art definitely has a charm to it. I found myself turning off the modern CGs most of the time.

By virtue of using existing designs, this otome game actually stands out nicely from the pack. Most dating sims in the genre feature a relatively limited number of builds and face types for their bachelors. This one has cute boys, tough boys, mean-looking boys, and even boys with thick sideburns.

That last one is almost unheard of. Even if you’re not familiar with The Prince of Tennis manga, the sheer variety is impressive.

It is extremely funny to see these tennis prodigies out of their natural element. Watching them bumble through regular high school life is hilarious.

Finally, the voice acting is quite impressive. It’s only in Japanese, though.

What’s With These Controls?

The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ does have a few major issues, though. For starters, the controls are very unintuitive. Minigames require a controller, but the naming screen functions best with mouse and keyboard. And I got softlocked in the middle of the final date once.

The game refers to everyone by surname by default rather than localize it to first name basis. I noticed some awkward sentence structure and spelling errors. And somewhat inconsistent localization choices. Also, a few options are either mistranslated or hilariously unintuitive.

This title assumes you’re familiar with the characters already. It does make a brief introduction to their relationship dynamics within the school. However, you’ll need to play other schools to fully understand the levels of sports drama on display here.

Lastly, it’s very obvious this game is from 2005. Pop culture’s view of what is and isn’t romantic has changed a fair bit since then. In other words, I’m saying this game’s views of women aren’t the most progressive. But it’s still an entertaining title if you’re willing to meet it where it is.

All in all, The Prince of Tennis Sweet School Festival ~♡-40 and more…~ is definitely a flawed classic. But as much as I complain about specific annoyances, I had a ton of fun playing this title. Fans of the anime and fans of dating sims will find something to enjoy here. Just be prepared to fight the controls a little.

***Steam code provided by the publisher***