I didn’t expect *My Harem Academia* to actually take itself half-seriously, but weirdly it kinda does, in that “we know this is dumb, but also we care” way that only parody hentai games pull off. The humor hits different - like someone who’s been online too long wrote the script between horny breakdowns. You play this knockoff hero trainee who’s supposed to save the school, but let’s be honest, the only thing getting saved is your stamina bar. Everyone’s wearing those too-tight “hero uniforms” that are basically excuses for boob physics, and yet the writing sometimes just... swerves into emotional territory? Like, one minute you’re clicking through a blowjob scene behind the gym, the next you’re stuck thinking, damn, this girl’s actually carrying trauma. It’s messy and that’s why it works.

The pacing’s all over the place, which kinda helps. The visual novel parts drag just enough for you to notice how weirdly real the characters’ awkwardness feels - especially when you realize you’ve been reading dialogue about quirks and power-ups while someone’s moaning in the background. I wish the humor leaned even harder into absurdity though. There’s this one bit where you’re supposed to “train” your classmates for a mission, and it’s just a thin excuse for a gangbang route. Funny at first, then absurd, then... fine, kind of hot. I mean, it does parody itself mid-scene - there’s literally a line about “genre tropes” right before someone gets railed on a desk. That’s the sort of self-awareness you don’t see in every parody game. Still, the UI’s clunky, and I swear the text box sometimes just refuses to keep up, like it’s embarrassed for you.

What really surprised me, though, is how the game doesn’t care if you’re laughing or jerking off or both. It lives in that liminal space of horny irony, where you can’t tell if the devs are pervs or geniuses. Probably both. I’d love a DLC that just goes full meta - like, let the heroine break the fourth wall while she’s, uh, busy. I’d play that. Or not play it. Whatever.