<report>I’m usually all for maintaining some sense of professionalism/casual readability when writing reviews, but this? This game???

To put it simply (and excuse my juvenile language) this game is shit ass doodoo water that lacks all of the charm that made the first two any sense of defendable when they were already under a heavy sense of scrutiny from VN purists. Character assassination left and right, poor pacing that focuses way too hard on weird fanservice while forgetting the meaningful commentary that needs to go with it, absurd endings with little to no substance, and a BS “message” from the author calling everyone who dislikes the game or series Ped*philes (lol) sums up everything needed to be the nail in the coffin for this series. A last hooray and a terrible one at that.

<report>I played Class of '09: The Flip Side hoping it would be a change of pace from the previous two. The main character was now Jecka, the best friend of previous protagonist Nicole, and while she was also troubled, she had a better head on her shoulders.

No such luck.

The Flip Side is, in some ways, the series at its best: scathing commentary on how unfair the world can be. Its cynical comedy still gets in its own way in this regard (I've seen people say that The Flip Side isn't funny; I don't know what they're talking about).

But, like the first two, the story's extreme cynicism keeps it from revealing any meaningful insights; just a simple "doesn't this suck?" Yeah, it sucks. So what? I never bought the idea that Jecka and Nicole had no choice but to be terrible, and I still don't, now.

<report>After reading the other two, I was eagerly awaiting for this one as well.

This time, we have Jessica as the protagonist instead of Nicole, which marks a significant change in tone. Nicole is a sociopath who doesn't care about anything and does drugs to feel something, while Jessica is a girl with traumas who uses drugs to stop feeling. The big difference is that one of them knows when to stop while the other is capable of taking her endevour to the most radical and extreme situation posible with no remorse at all.

They're like your typical (and excuse my Jeffrey moment) Manzai Japanese duo, with one acting as the funny one and the other as the straight man. But now, imagine removing the... Read more »

<report>Actually improves and fixes some of my previous criticisms, still has flaws, but serves as a good blueprint together with its prequels for any future Devs that want to make a realistic American High School VN.

Pros
The game is finally linear and has few choices. By putting it in the point of view of Jecka, we can see how she reacts to things compared to Nicole. The game is also shorter so it can be done in one sitting like the first one

Cons
Nicole is just fully indifferent and cynical. The cultural references and humor are noticeably less than before.

If the first one was real and authentic to the edgy era of the the late 2000s, and Re Up was that but darker, then this one is finally... Read more »

<report>Class of '09: The Flip Side is the controversial third entry in the series, taking the point of view of Nicole's friend Jecka (Jessica). The selling point of the game is this "different perspective", which is a nice change, though I would have liked to see more of the previous games from a different perspective since that only happens in a very limited amount. That point aside, I would say that while the story does follow a broadly similar path to the other entries that the quality is definitely a knotch down here, Jecka's dad especially gets really repetitive, and there is of course the infamous foot fetish stuff (which goes well beyond "haha foot fetish" into very overindulgent... Read more »

<report>I got through maybe two of the routes before deciding this was the most shit entry out of the three. Contrary to what many of what others are saying, I don't think it's "too edgy" or "too deep". I just think the jokes straight up don't hit (given that this humor was also common in the last two games and just wasn't a great shock to me), and just dragged on for too long. The feet thing went on for way too long ngl. The whole thing with the Hatman was really funny. It also seems like in contrast to Nicole sort of getting a lesson out of everything she does, Jecka doesn't, and that was kind of a weak-point to me. Maybe one day I'll pick it up again and do the rest of the endings, but right now it's staying abandoned.

<report>It's very obvious that the writer just isn't into it this time and probably did it for the moeny. This third entry fails to reach the peaks of the previous two games. No social commentary and witty references from the mid 00s this time. Just rapid-fire snarky dialogue with some funny one liners every now and then.

Truly a lost opportunity, since Jecka is a very cool character and this could have been something really special, specially with how good the Re-up was, I really expected greatness here. Still probably worth it if you're a fan of the series. It only takes a couple of hours.