Sweet Elite

Didn't see a thread for this and with the full version releasing soon I figured now is the best time to make one. Sweet Elite is a free online visual novel where you can play as a guy, girl, or nonbinary character and romance one of ten characters, five guys and five girls. There are fifty chapters planned with the prologue and the first two chapters currently out as a demo. Currently, these can be played for free as much as you want but the creators have said that once the full version and chapter three release it'll cost money to replay those. However, if you get in now and play before the release of the full version you'll be required to restart and thus get to replay one last time for free.

Check out their official website here to get a better feel for what the game is about and maybe try out the demo before the full release.

EDIT: Full release is already out with the first three chapters.

Edited by Chariot on Sep 9th 2018 at 7:11:20 AM

Bump! (or necro, both count)

"Fifty chapters"?! Gotta give 'em credit for ambition. ^^

I made an account for SE when it was first officially released. I dropped it after the fourth or fifth chapter and didn't get back into it until recently.

I have to say, revisiting it felt great. My main issue with the game when I first joined was the art. (To be fair, I'm kinda choosy about that.) The more realistic, paintbrushed style worked well for some characters, but not all of them. Alistair and Claire especially didn't look quite right, imo. Plus, at the time there were apparently two artists working on the art, and it showed. While their styles weren't completely different, you could still tell that not all of the art was done by one person. [I understand that the devs are still smoothing out the game's edges so stuff like that is bound to happen. :)] As it is now, I'm really liking the slicker, animesque art!

Kinda wish we still had that dog-walking mini-game. Ah well, maybe that "coming soon" link will be something that replaces it?

Anyway, there are currently nine chapters and I've started the latest one. I've picked Tegan as my LI. How about the rest of ya?

Yeah, the dog walking mini game was nice. The replacement system doesn't really work for me.

I actually like the previous artstyle more for the most part. That said, Axel, Claire, Neha, and Alistair all look better in the new style in my opinion. Neha less so than the others, but still. For the rest of the cast, I consider the new artstyle a step down to be honest.

I've only played the first eight chapters but my Love Interest is Ellie.

Fair enough. ^^

Ellie is pretty cool too. Although I have to wonder: does she insist on holding that screwdriver at all times? Knowing her, I wouldn't be surprised if she kept it on her person just so she could use it for a potential prank or building job. xD^* I understand that that's just the way her sprite is drawn. Still can't help but wonder though.

Made a work page for the game. I've already got a few tropes on there. Any help would be appreciated!

Aaaaaaand Chapter 10 is going to be released soon! Glad I got back into this game when I did.

Edited by Oratel on Jun 18th 2020 at 10:55:49 AM

Chapter 10 is out! And it starts with Serena warning us that discussions of mental health and eating disorders will appear. (Skipping these scenes is optional, for those who were wondering.) How to Establish That a Chapter Will Be a Punch in the Gut 101.

I'm a little over halfway (ran out of Energy) and this is already a gut punch of a chapter. Poor Neha. :"( I feel bad for Karolina too, but I admit that her attitude towards scholarship students makes it harder to sympathize.

Ugh, I don't care if this game doesn't necessarily need a guide, I need them, because I wasted most of my Energy looking around for characters 'cause I couldn't guess where they were. And the one time I thought they wouldn't be in a particular area, they were!

Anyway, Chapter 10 ended just like you think it would: on a cliffhanger.

I don't usually seek out fan content, but I did after finishing this chapter just to see other people's reactions. A lot of them are pretty positive, but there is one critique that caught my attention. Basically, the writers didn't completely think through the little details when it comes to which department Scholar is in; Scholars in the mathy department still need to have those concepts be explained to them, Scholars in the Fashion department still have to be explained what FAXION is and why its a big deal, etc. I wonder if they'll realize this and give the chapter a soft rewrite. I doubt it, but it would be interesting to see.

As for my own thoughts? I liked it! I viewed the content warning scenes the first time around because that's just how I roll. (Apparently if you don't, the experience isn't lessened any which is good.)

I think the biggest surprise was not that Karolina has anorexia or that Neha has had a crush on her for awhile. Both of those were foreshadowed/easy to guess respectively (and why I'm not putting a spoiler tag for either). No, it had to be the fact that Tadashi knew Karolina has been pining after him. I just... what??! He knew?? And didn't say anything?? Why?! And there's the whole "Neha is actually a scholarship student too". Don't really have much to say about that, other than Alistair and Neha being friends was something I didn't think I needed, and yet here we are.

Edited by Oratel on Apr 22nd 2022 at 5:24:22 AM

Just finished plaything through chapters nine and ten over the past few hours. I didn't really care for chapter nine if I'm being honest but chapter ten is probably the best chapter of the bunch so far. I made the mistake of reading this thread ahead of time but that's okay because the character development was that good. While I didn't like Karolina to begin with and this chapter made me dislike her even more, I always liked Neha (Even if she isn't my choice of love interest and my Infinity Meter doesn't reflect that.) so I feel for her for all the things she's going through. I'm also curious as to the fallout next chapter as a result of the cliffhanger.

Time to save up my energy since I ran out and had to use my ingame currency to replenish it. Hopefully I can save up enough for chapter eleven and then some by the time it releases.

I thought chapter nine was cute. I didn't care about the Arlingtonator shtick, but being able to hang out with our LI for the majority of the chapter was nice.

Yeah, that's my issue too. :") I wanna feel for her, what she's dealing with is really rough, but her attitude is poor.

As for Neha, out of the main 10, she's the one that's grown on me the most (so far). I wasn't entirely sure what to think of her at first, to be honest. However, as we've slowly gotten to know her better, I've grown to like her a lot.

That's what I'm most eager to find out. How the characters will react to Karolina fainting, what Tadashi is going to do, if Neha and Karolina will be able to make up, and, most importantly, what the hell is Vuitton's problem.

You may be in luck. The team has proposed a summer hiatus, during which they would prepare more chapters. That way they'd be able to release chapters in a more timely fashion. So far, the fans have been overwhelmingly supportive of this idea. Two months should be enough time to stock up some energy. ^_^

Personally, I wouldn't mind if they took a break either. Eager as I am to see what happens next, if a hiatus means quality content, I'm not gonna complain. :)

ETA: I posted this too soon. xD The team are taking a hiatus! Chapter 11 should be out on September 15th. Looks like you're in luck!

Edited by Oratel on Jul 19th 2020 at 6:42:15 AM

Just finished chapter eleven and this was a good one for Neha and Karolina's character development. I still chose not to forgive her though. Got some really cute scenes with Ellie as well since she's the one I'm the closest to romancing. With Karolina and Scholar starting over if you choose not to forgive her I'm looking forward to seeing how their relationship changes.

It was definitely worth the wait. My personal favorite moment was the second visit with Karolina, where Neha confesses, Tadashi's well-handled rejection, and Karolina Apology: Part 1. Just a good scene all around. Made the stressful events of the previous chapter worthwhile.

I wouldn't have forgiven Karolina if it weren't for the fact that doing so lower's her infinity.

Agreed! I'm intrigued to see where things go from here. :)

Edited by Oratel on Oct 21st 2020 at 1:25:23 PM

Chapter twelve is out! Not much followup to your decision at the end of chapter eleven but it's a nice buildup chapter. You get to choose who you want to romance for the rest of the game and there's a lot of ship tease with your love interest of choice. The mistletoe scene and the ending with things being awkward between you and your crush are painful though.

Played through the episode. The moments with our LI were super sweet and fluffy. I just hope that the kerfuffle with the mistletoe will get sorted out in the next episode.

Chapter thirteen is out. Started out rather light on the feels but hit hard once [[spolier: truth or dare]] came out. Sucks that we got no kiss but it's a good thing they didn't stretch out the awkwardness between us and our love interest for too long.

Just finished the latest chapter. That was nice and chill. I question the logic of having an electronic door to a basement, but, ya know, plot and stuff. Also, Scholar, it took you that long to figure out that the mistletoe situation was the cause of this conflict?

What stood out to me the most was that brief moment where the tense for Scholar's narration changed from past to present, italics and all. So this whole game is being told from future!Scholar's perspective? Interesting...

Edited by Oratel on Aug 5th 2021 at 1:24:30 PM

Finished the premiere of season two/chapter 14. I should've expected Scholar to fall out of the rankings but I was definitely caught off guard. Lotta good drama and relationship development and it's nice that Tegand and Tyler are helping Ellie in her effort to help you out on her route. More mystery for Lady A as well as confirmation that the school is definitely untrustworthy given that they've messed with Scholar's file somehow.

Thoughts?

I really liked this chapter as well! Lots of good character moments and the scene with our LI was just the right amount of bittersweet.

One of the reasons why I got into this game was the hint of mystery surrounding what's going on behind the scenes at the academy. We've had hints here and there, but I'm glad it's finally come to the foreground. I wonder if Scholar was the only one who was affected by the new requirement(s). Also, did this new rule affect all other students or just ones with a scholarship?

Here's a small detail that someone pointed out: Lady A's favorite dish is lasagna and Papa Scholar mentioned that he was getting the ingredients to make lasagna a couple chapters ago. Coincidence? ;)

So, back in November, someone posted- what is essentially- a call out post of screenshots from Discord of Serena's (creator and writer of SE) and MJ's (Dulcet's community manager) messages. You can view a list of them here. Serena's responce/apology can be read here and MJ's here.

The only reason I even bring this up is to inform everyone about what's been going on behind the scenes. There hasn't been any official word regarding Chapter 15, and I won't be surprised if we don't see it until very late this year. Not every fan has jumped ship, but significant amount have turned on Dulcet and Serena that I doubt Dulcet's financial situation will allow regular chapter updates. (Not that they were all that regular in the first place, but we got at least on chapter per year. I doubt that'll be the case for a long time.)

As for myself... I was losing interest in SE for multiple reasons. If there were more dialogue options and other fun little tidbits, I might be more torn about whether or not I want to keep playing, but the past couple chapters have been mostly kinetic. (Ten romantic options is cool for the player, but hell for the writer, something that I don't think Serena thought about when planning SE.) I think I'd rather watch playthroughs then play the game itself.

Yeah I gave up on the game after reading the variouds callout posts and skimming the screenshots. I hadn't been in the Discord for awhile but that pretty much convinced me to drop the Discord and the game completely.