Class of '09

Class of '09 is built around dialogue, bad choices, and a very specific high-school social cruelty, so it suits players who want a visual novel that leans hard on comedy and discomfort. By our assessment, its sharpest feature is the voice: fast, mean, and very committed to the setting’s teen cynicism. The trade-off is that this style is abrasive on purpose, and if that tone does not land, there is not much mechanical refuge to fall back on. In practice it plays like a branchy conversation machine where the writing is the main event and the player mostly steers toward different reactions. Compared with more earnest visual novels, it is nastier, noisier, and much less interested in letting anyone feel comfortable.