Recap / Soul Tide Monster Academy

A project by Litoris's Templar Order is underway. Its objective is to foster an understanding of humanity in monsters of Graveland, leading to a future of cooperation between humans and monsters.

The catch? The monsters for this project had their memories removed, giving them fake identities and new appearances as humans that allows them untainted perspectives of human life by attending Monster Academy, an institution set in an ordinary town; the entire thing itself is actually a large-scale virtual simulation. That said, these students still emit power unconsciously that is bound to break the simulation they are in, which would lead to the project's failure should they realize the truth and fail to comprehend humanity.

And so enters the Evoker, given a cover identity of a new student to bond with these girls to calm them down, and in doing so, teach them about human emotions, chief of all 'love'. It is up to him to juggle student life with his romances in this wonderful school tale.

Monster Academy is a special event in Soul Tide that replaces any form of combat gameplay with a traditional, old school dating sim. Your goal is to build relationships with all the capture targets as you make your way through school life, then reach an ending with any of the girls—if not all of them at once.

Currently, the event has two seasons: Monster Academy and Monster Academy: The First and Last Academy Festival.

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Monster Academy in General

A Monster Academy romance is blooming under these tropes:

• Academy of Adventure: While not all that different from the average academy or particularly dangerous (monsters of the Wildwood Trial aside), the very fact that it's attended by monster girls who can kick up a ruckus makes it qualify.
• Anti-Frustration Features: You can get the contact number of four girls within the first week at the academy, the fifth made available after two months or so. This ensures you aren't overwhelmed by planning the girls' dates from the get-go until you're used to the game flow.
• Benevolent Conspiracy: Though ethically questionable, the Order probably wasn't left with much choice to wipe the monsters' memories given their violent dispositions, and it's ultimately to everyone's benefit that there be peace for them and their enemies. That said, everyone involved in the plan still have to maintain the illusion for the students lest it all fails.
• But Thou Must!: Played straight in some inconsequential cases, but subverted for important Dialogue Trees. All yellow-marked special encounters with the capture targets will often have you pick a choice that will affect the girl's route (the game will even warn you), usually locking you into an incoming Bad End if you picked the wrong choice (but easy to fix if you load a save file before the mistake). It's thankfully no longer the case for the second season though, where picking the wrong choice will only reduce your affinity with the girl but not a bad ending, albeit unfavorable if you're trying to go for achievements.
• Dating Sim: Though Soul Tide simulates something like it with you building affinities with your Dolls, this event is all but a love letter to Dating Sims of old; one can see it as a Shout-Out to Tokimeki Memorial given that it's got romanceable girls, Multiple Endings, takes place in a school, there's a calendar for events you have to plan for, an attribute system you can grow through learning in classes (or boosting with tomes), and even multiple save slots.
• Extranormal Institute: To the inhabitants of the simulation, it's just an academy, magic and 'training simulacra' in the Wildwood Trial notwithstanding. However, those in the Order know this town as such, which is meant to reform these obliviously extranormal monsters into being friendly with humanity. The second season has Dallian elaborate that though all the simulation's inhabitants are monsters, only students who have the power to destroy the world are enrolled in the academy, while the ones with less power live as ordinary residents outside the academy.
• Fake Memories: The monster students have their memories changed so that they believe they're ordinary human students attending an ordinary school of magic. This prevents them from immediately trying to destroy the virtual simulation they're in and let them understand human life, though some story events of the students, especially Pride's storyline being all about this, have them suspecting their own identities.
• Girl of the Week: "Girls of the Season" to be exact. Each Monster Academy season has its own set of five girls to romance: the first season has Towa, Asmodie, Beelzebuby, Leviathany, and Lucifee; the second makes Shinobu and Yukie available, in addition to Belphie, Sataniya, and Mammony. Dallian is always in every season as an unromanceable joke character, genuine affection aside.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: While Golden Crepuscule was one other unusual event in which you and the monsters work together to fight aliens (the entire shebang actually a movie), here you're all fellow students; the second season also introduces more monsters outside of the capture targets, especially in the group chat. It's justified by the fact that all their memories were wiped to make it work.
• Golden Ending: Every season has an ending with all the girls you've gotten together with that can only be achieved if you reach full affinity and completed their routes without mistakes.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • You can expect to encounter a lot of these moments if you don't have any prior guidance going into this (for instance, picking the wrong choice can lock you out of a girl's route). It's pretty much what the save system is meant for, giving you as many chances necessary to correct mistakes as long as you've disciplined yourself saving every day.
  • The game tells you that you need to raise your affinity with girls and your attributes, but it does not tell you the exact numbers or conditions to unlocking special events; the attributes required can be looked up in the achievements section, labeled "[Girl]'s Test" (though they aren't bound to special encounters), but everything else is a matter of trial and error.
• In-Universe Game Clock: A semester is made up of 135 days. A week in it has 5 days (called Moons), and each day is composed of 4 periods—Dawn, Morning, Afternoon, and Dusk—giving you 4 action points to use. On weekdays (New Moon, Half Moon, and Full Moon), you use AP to attend school classes, and on weekends (Round Moon and Dark Moon), they can be spent on either commissions or dates; special events represented by a yellow exclamation bubble (disregarding the Merchant Fleet event at the Port) also need 1 AP to attend and can happen any time, though you can also choose to play at the Tea Club Garden to skip the day.
• Love Triangle: One happens between the Evoker and two girls every season that leads to a trio ending when you build high affinity with both girls:
  • In the first season, you have energetic Asmodie and reclusive Leviathany.
  • The second season is the younger sister Belphie and her older sister Mammony.
• New Transfer Student:
  • Played straight for the Evoker who has to get into the academy for his mission this way, but subverted for all the Dolls who miss him being away from home and are trying to invoke the trope, which includes Virgina, Juewa, Akaset, Mako, and so on. It's usually because they get caught by the Evoker, who appreciates their thoughts but has to tell them off.
  • After leaving last semester, the Evoker has to enroll again in the second season, which was noted by Shinobu and Yukie, prompting the Evoker to make up excuses.
• One-Hour Work Week: On weekends, you can spend action points doing part-time jobs at the Commission Center to earn 2000 Academy Coins per job. Just remember you only have four AP and that you aren't missing out on dates.
• Progressively Prettier: While the monsters you previously fought were certainly cute, here they've taken on more human forms that hide their actual looks, likely as a part of the memory wipe.
• Relationship Values: The system here is more conventional compared to the base game; each of the capture targets have a total of five hearts you can fill by choosing the correct choices for their scenes, give them gifts, and so on. When you fill a heart, a special event exclusive to these girls will become available. Reaching maximum affection is one of the requirements to view their ending.
• Save Scumming: You are given nine save slots and one for auto-save, any of which you can freely load at any time without any penalty. As the old video game adage goes, remember to save a lot!
• Student Council President: Lucifee is this in the first season, though following her graduation after her semester, the seat is held by Mammony in the second season, who also works as the principal as per her father's wishes.

Season 1

Tropes Exclusive to Season 1

• Broken Masquerade: Zigzagged. Though not seeing past it (yet), Lucifee is the only suspecting student to realize the academy has veils to it, so her stories rope the Evoker into helping her investigate the school staff, not knowing he's part of The Conspiracy.
• Non-Standard Game Over: You can prematurely get locked out of a girl's route if you choose the wrong choice dialogue, or worse, get a bad ending; one example in the first season can be found with Leviathany, where after picking the wrong choice, she goes berserk, starts terrorizing the students in the academy, forces them to reawaken as monsters, turning the academy into a literal monster academy and failing your mission.

Season 2

Tropes Exclusive to Season 2

The First and Last Academy Festival will come alongside these tropes:

• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • This season does away with the stamina system, which frees you of some activities that needed it:
    • Now the Wildwood Trial can be done anytime without worrying about wasting your stamina in the event you fail a trial or wondering whether to spend on minigames for coin.
    • All three minigames have been moved to the Theater (which is only available on the weekends) as ordinary games that don't affect your AP or earn you money, and as practice for the exams. This saves you time and frustration of having to play for the coins.
• Breaking Old Trends: Mammony's first special date is scheduled at Round Moon Day at noon, making it the first ever instance where an exact dating time becomes a requirement. Mercifully, this doesn't come back later on as a permanent game mechanic.
• Call-Back: Yukie's perceptiveness has allowed her to see the discrepancies in the simulated world the academy is in, just like Lucifee as the Evoker and Dallian recall when they discuss the problem. Unlike Lucifee though, Yukie is willing to let sleeping dogs lie, even if she'd like to explore the wide world some day.
• Continuity Nod:
  • After what happened in the first season, a random event with Asuna has her inform the Evoker that the girls have been warned from trying to fake their transfer into the academy.
  • On a date with Sataniya at the Forest, the Evoker recalls trying to invite Towa there in the first season and her refusing it, being one of the wrong date spots you could choose for her. Seeing as it's way too quiet and desolate, the Evoker could see it wouldn't fit a lively girl like her.
  • One of Yukie's chat topics has her talk about reading a romance novel left by a poster girl of an odd jobs shop, which is definitely Asmodie.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Unlike the other girls, Shinobu's special encounters require you to have given her a certain number of gifts beforehand (the first one needs one pen, the second needs three, increasing in increments of two). Otherwise you'll be locked out of the option to go with her.
  • One of Belphie's special encounters needs you to have gotten Mammony's number, which is going to be fairly difficult since by the time you get to this event, you might not have built enough affinity with Mammony that can only happen through chance class encounters to get to her.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When doing the Shop Assistant job, one random scenario has the Evoker selling fruits and vegetables, only for a customer to wonder aloud why they're being sold when the Fruit Shower event gives them out for free.
• Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: To distinguish this event from the last, it's officially named Monster Academy: The First and Last Academy Festival.
• Pop-Up Texting: New to this iteration of Monster Academy is messaging on your phone. You can send a topic to any girl of your choice to raise affinity with them, though you can also talk in the chat group to see what the other students are up to for fun. However, you can only have five attempts for every week.