Just viewing the trailer, it's easy to tell that the game is high quality and a step up from Sakevisual's old game Re:Alistair...but when I played it, Backstage Pass was way better than expected. The characters are lovely, the art is beautiful, and what I've heard of the voice acting so far is fantastic. Sian, the heroine, is also a very believable character who is better than most other vn/dating sim protagonists I've come across. There's also a huge amount of represenation of difference races, sexualities in this game and multiple characters with ranging disabilities.

My only complaint is that there may just be little too many possible endings. In my game, Sian and John were dating and I merely was half a heart away from having full hearts with him..and absolutely nothing happened in the end. It was a little disappointing since I wasn't sure where I had gone wrong and it's tough to find guides online.

It could be helpful for Sakevisual to include a walkthrough for each character online. I realize that many people enjoy finding out on their own, but if someone wants to unlock every CG and is just missing one or two they don't know how to get...an official walkthrough could be very beneficial.

What I think so far of the game as an early access:

Amazing! This game has so much potential! I'm glad that the creators of this have thought of new ways to this game less bland and the same ol' same ol'.

I would say that once it's finished it will be worth the money, you can tell a lot of effort went into this and that makes me all the more glad that it's all coming together! None of the date-able characters are bland or annoying, they all have pretty good character development and all and all I had tons of trouble choosing which one to go with.

Early access flaws:

So this is indeed an unfinished version at the moment, so there were a few bugs, although I'll be glad to say none that were game breaking, the worst one that I encountered was when I brought up the in game reply to mail screen the sound started skipping and it froze for about 3-4 seconds, it did that about four or so times, no biggie.

Another thing is that sometimes during transition it fades twice, comes back tot he screen, then fades again to show the correct thing, not so much a bug as something that needs polish, and of course there are some moments where you can tell that more is going to be added.

What do I think overall?

If you want to be able to help the creators with feedback and are patient then, go for it! As long as they finish this game (Which I believe they will.) then it'll be worth the price.

If you're not good at waiting and you don't care to write a review or give feedback then wait, wait until the full version of the game is released.

Definately worth a try. Even if it was a bit expensive i have enjoyed immensely. 9.5/10 only leaving out the .5 for small errors in the game but it's early access and still this good!

Worth the buy and the time.

Hope you enjoy the game as much as i do!

This game is really fun, can be a little difficult to begin with. But once you start and know what to do with it you will do good. There should really be a guide to get all of the achievements though.

It ended so abruptly after going on a date with Matthew, but in the end I was doing well at work and had a GPA of 4.0 so i'll be playing again because I want to see what happens with John. I am really enjoying the game and can't wait to see what it is like with the voices in. I will definitely write more once I play again.

My first experience with an Early Access game. It's a fairly normal otome with multiple endings and plenty of adorable characters. The four main guys are each amazing in their own way, and the story is fun and fast-paced. There are still some minor bugs and flaws as of now, but if the product is this good currently, I can only imagine how wonderful the final product would be.

By far the best VN/dating sim I have ever played. Even as an early access game, the price is definitely worth it. The storylines are engaging (to the extent where at times I had 'heart in mouth' moments), the art is impeccable and the characters are very well rounded and believable.

I suppose the best part of the game is that it's actually quite hard. It's challenging to get the endings you want; I have spent hours trying to unlock different CGs and get all of the endings and I'm not even halfway through yet. As irritating as it can be when I get to the end and find a 'bad romance' ending, I'm glad this game is worth more than a couple of plays through. I can't wait until the next update!

For a game that is still in progress/early access, Backstage Pass is remarkably polished. I didn't notice any real bugs, though it's obvious that some routes are still (sadly) unavailable, so I'm definitely looking forward to the updates when they open. The game has really great graphics, interesting storylines, intriguing characters, and an easy to use stats control system. My only real complaint right now would be that the game REALLY makes you work for achievements (10 hours in, 4 romance routes played, only two achievements!).

That said, what really makes the game great isn't the graphics or the characters or the storyline, it's the way the game represents and portrays social anxiety and other mental illness with sensitivity and heart. None of the characters shown with mental illness (and there's three I've found so far, including Sian, the main/player character) are mocked or made the butt of joke or just written off as "crazy" because of their disability (one character even calls out this kind of reaction within the game!). I didn't realize Backstage Pass would have this kind of representation going in -- I thought it'd just be an interesting industry-based game -- so I was pleasantly surprised to see it and how well it was handled.

I also really appreciated some of the realism to the industry element as well. It's obviously a "light" version, compared to the real thing, but the terminology and the basic shape seems accurate, given what I know from friends who do work in the industry.

Finally, there's a ton of content for each route. It took me about four hours to complete my first route (and sadly I got a bad ending) and another hour and a half to complete the next route I tried (with the skip function used liberally). Each subsequent route took about the same hour and a half. Right now the four main routes (Benito, Adam, John, Matthew) are all open and I've only completed the romance routes on all four. So I expect another good six hours to unlock the friendship routes and even more game time to try the non-romance routes suggested by the achievements (I'm definitely looking forward to being a director!). So there's plenty of story in the game and you won't finish everything in four or five hours like a lot of VNs. So if you're worried about the price (and it does feel like a lot of money for a VN), think of the potential amount of time you'll be playing. Not to mention what is apparently in the pipeline for the game (more routes, fully voiced, etc.) so it's definitely worth the money even at this stage in the game.

Definitely one of the better VNs I've ever played (and I'm definitely planning on trying out Sakevisual's other games after playing this!).

Even in Early Access, Backstage Pass is easily one of my favorite visual novels to date. The storyline is interesting, the art is BEAUTIFUL, and the voices we've heard thus far have been top knotch. Funny, charming, and had me at the edge of my seat during the month of January FINALLY sealing the deal with one of the many guys every single time. Wholeheartedly recommend, can't wait to see this once it's in its full glory.

Bit of fun, Starting story line a bit long but once you get into it .......you gonna wish they hurry up and make the rest of it lol

Considering I've only played the beta-version, this game has a lot of potential. The characters and landscapes are really well drawn, the love routes that avaialble are diverse, the love routes that I've played have interesting storylines and the beta version had minimal bugs from what I've played.

I love the idea of being able to customise what clothes the female main character wears and that these clothing changes also affect clothing stats like "cool, cute and classy." - although I'm not sure how much changing clothes really affects the love route you choose to persue. I think it would be great to have access to further customisation too - like changing hair style and colour, having the option to choose the female main characters name or even being able to customise what the female main character looks like before you start the game. I'd also love to see more multiple choice options when talking to different characters.

I'm really excited to see what changes are made to the finished product of this game. If you like a good dating sim/otome style game with interesting storylines - then this is definitely worth your time.

I think this game has a very interesting setting and many routes open to explore.
I enjoyed every part of it. Really looking forward to the actual release

Before I start the actual review I would like to point out that I only have done ONE ending so far.

This is a great game. I love how you get to customize what you do on a weekly basis as well as all of the clothes. All of the guys are really cute (though I feel like a bit of a pedofile for Benito o.e)

What this needs is more places you can save the game. I want to be able to save before I choose what I want for the next week. There have been so many times where I needed to stop playing, and I can't stop because I want to finish the week AND weekend.

I'm a big fan of the dating sim genre, and I'm excited to see more of these being ported/created stateside in recent years. This if you're a fan of visual novels/dating sims, this is definitely worth picking up even if it's only in beta stage. I've played out three of the end scenarios and like that they're a little difficult to suss out; it makes each playthrough challenging. Can't wait for the secret one to be added in once the game's complete! Very few errors for the stage the game is in as well.

This is an early access game at the moment, of course it has flaws, but even so; this is really an amazing game!
At first I was really not sure if I'd buy this game before it was fully finished, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. After a month of this game constantly on my mind I just couldn't wait anymore, and I don't regret buying it at all. The really sad part was that the script crashed after 6 hours of playing, but I don't actually mind starting over because of the amazing gameplay.

So if you like visual novel games like magical diary, shira oka, katawa shoujo etc. give this game a chance, you won't regret it!

I really enjoyed playing this game! The artwork was nothing to look down on and the characters themselves are some of the most realistic characters I've ever seen/interacted with in any visual novel game I've played!
Even though it's still in early access, the storylines are well written and the characters personalities are unique. The only thing I mildly dislike is the fact that there is a lot of reading and not as many choices as I'd like. But that's my own opinion.
I thoroughly enjoyed the feature where you could change your character's outfits. Honestly I've never come across that in other visual novel games where you can actually decide what top goes with which bottom.
So I reccomend this game to people who like visual novels with stories that will draw you in and make you like the characters more!
(Edit made 21/12/2014)
I have come across a problem with the loading feature, I don't want to change my review suddenly but it's too big to ignore. If I try to load a saved game it will play the scene to the end of the sequence then it will freeze and soon after send me back to the title screen.

Backstage Pass is a really well made game, and for early access it seems quite polished to me! I really can't wait to be able to hear voice acting, because the samples sound good, and it would add a lot to the dialogue. The dialogue is fun, and I found myself giggling on more than one occassion - this game really sucked me and got me excited to keep playing. I really wanted Sian to do her best, so I tried my hardest to build her good states and keep her career on track. Honestly, stat raising games can get a little tedious; I've played my fair share of them and while they've never particularly bothered me personally, I find Backstage Pass general has a good interplay between story and stat raising gameplay.

Notably the art is fantastic, though I always felt Adam looked a little... awkward. I dunno, something about his sprite. But aside from that, I loved the character expressions, and the change in clothes, and the cg's were looooveellyyyy - I remember seeing the one where Benito broke his arm and I just - wow, nice gore dude!

I have to say I love the way the story handles issues like social anxiety and other disorders as well - it's not mocking or insensitive, and it really made the whole experience and plot better as a whole. There was also the forum for Vice/Versus which I personally loved reading - the fans were funny and totally accurate to life. That's another thing about Backstage Pass - with a few exceptions, the dialogue often doesn't feel forced.

Having said all this however, I do have my gripes about the game. While it's mentioned that excercise is supposed to lower your stress, no matter what I did with it, my rates never really seemed to change, and it seemed I was having to sleep more often than not just to prevent Sian from getting sick, with no real improvement. This was frustrating, and if I hadn't been so convinced my stats just werent high enough, I would have just stopped having Sian excercise altogether.

Another thing, having only had the time to play through Benito's route, I'm not entirely sure if it's just my ending or what, but it ends verrrryyy suddenly. Sian and Benito kiss and pronounce love for one another and the game just ends. Suddenly I'm done playing. It was very jarring, and kind of completely tore me out of the experience - it was really frustrating. I didn't feel like I reached any closure. Forgive me if the comparison isn't known, but in Tokimeki Memorial you get a follow up from your year; "I did this well in school and this happened for me" etc, and then a short piece about the protagonist and their love interests continued relationship.

I didn't feel that at all with the ending I got; Benito's arm was still broken, Sian's future was up in the air, and while I could speculate all I like about what happened after I never got any of that closure. Did Benito become world famous??? What happened to Sian's career? Did they end up travelling together? Did Benito ever talk to his parents?? Not even a little hint of that. They kissed and confessed their love and that was the end. I honestly thought my game messed up and reloaded a save but it was the same.

So basically, I really hope the endings are fleshed out way more in the future - and hey maybe it was just the route I took, or maybe I had to do something else?? I don't know. Either way, it was kind of a sad finish for a really good game.

Having said that, people should totally buy this game, it is well worth the price, and considering this is still early access there is plently of room for improvement in all areas! Backstage Pass is a wonderful game with a good outlook.

This is an early access review, so my opinion will likely change once the game moves out of beta.

Having only played a couple routes so far, I'm quite excited for the finished product. Backstage Pass is your standard otome (girl main character) dating sim/visual novel; perform tasks to skill up attributes which open up options for you as you target each guy to romance. There's a little more to it than that, but for the most part that's the game. If that doesn't really sound like your thing, you may want to pass on this one.

Yes, the game is still littered with bugs, but those are being actively rooted out and squashed as the devs move through beta. If you can get past the issues, though, the game has a TON of promise. The artwork is beautiful, drawing inspiration from Japanese sources while adding a nice touch of western flavor, and some of the CG's are simply gorgeous. The UI is one of the better ones I've seen for this type of game, especially since there are some pretty horrendous ones out there; you'd be surprised at just how distracting a bad UI can be.

I've played quite a few translated Japanese language otoge before, and it always feels like something is slightly off with them (some more than others). Perhaps it's the cultural differences, but I find well written English Visual Novels to be a much easier/more enjoyable read, and Backstage Pass is no exception. The characters feel real with their own distinct personalities that somewhat fall into standard archetypes, but are more fleshed out and human than in other games. Our protagonist, Sian, is a believable young woman who has her faults but isn't a meek little lamb waiting for one of the guys to sweep her away. Outside of a lull in events further into the story (which is being addressed with some added scenes) the plot moves along nicely. The writing is fluffy - meet guy, become friends, fall in love, etc. I haven't come across anything that's overly dramatic or deep, but that's okay, sometimes I want a little less drama and a little more romance in my games. On a final note about the writing, I haven't come across any completely unbelievable situations nor have any of the characters done anything so stupidly groan worthy that I'm facepalming out of incredulity. These characters are written like human beings, and they are placed in believable situations that make sense for the story. That is a HUGE plus for me.

As a slower reader, each of the two routes I played took me between 3 to 4 hours to complete, and I didn't get the endings I was aiming for, so replaying to complete CGs and aiming for achievements will likely double the play time per route. I would estimate that with the 4 main romanceable guys and 3-4 hidden routes, total play time for completing everything in the game could easily bring you well over the 20 hour mark, especially once the voice overs are added which will slow down gameplay a bit. A completionist by nature, I can see myself logging at least that much play time into this game.

I realize there's a sentiment that the price of the game is too hefty for what it is, and to a certain extent I understand that complaint. However, Backstage Pass offers much more than your standard Renpy EVN, the quality is better, more CG's, and the overall high polish even in this state of development is evident compared to what most other genre games are offering with a $20+ price tag (and believe me, I've played some that I felt completely ripped me off, but that's totally not the case here). It plays smoother and is closer to what you might get out of a Japanese dating sim, which is pretty remarkable considering this game is made by a small group of dedicated fans.

If Backstage Pass were to be released finished in its current state, it would be better than 90% of the EVN out there right now, but the devs are determined to continue adding to and fleshing out the game. With full voice acting and additional hidden routes on the way (including a couple of yuri for those who are interested in them), Backstage Pass may very well become my favorite EVN. Keep an eye out for this one once it moves from Early Access to Official Release.

So far I've played Backstage Pass for about 12-13 hours trying to get my hands on all the paths that are currently available. So far the only bugs I found was when Lloyd was going to meet Sian at Pho 24 to discuss what to do about Benito's magic production. The background was Sian's dorm room. Even though its not really a big scene, just thought I would point it out.

Now onto my real review. Personally, I LOVE this game. Sure it's a bit short now, but once the game is completed, it will be longer with more dialogue, more routes, and more endings. The game is actually really realistic. You're given many different types of people with many different types of personalities. Plus, the original soundtrack goes perfectly with every scene. Also, everything is set up nicely and runs pretty smoothly. The storyline is also pretty good, sometimes it can be a tad sad. Other times it just makes you wanna giggle.

I've played other otome, stat-raising, dating sims, and visual novels before. Backstage Pass has amazing originality, creativity and art. If you're wondering to buy this game or not, I recommend playing some free stat-raising/otome/dating sims before buying this game. A good free one is Re Alistair ++ (by Sakevisual). You can also play demos such as Always Remember Me, The Flower Shop: Winter in Fairbrook and more (both from from Winter Wolves). (EDIT!) I forgot! There is also another free amazing stat raising game you should try out. It's called 'Heartstring Bugs' and it's by Unbroken Hours. It's long, has 5 main guys and is over the course of 3 years. AND ITS FREE. ERMAHGERD. Go check it out! (End of edit. 6/14/14)

So far I've focused on Adam x2 and Benito x1. I'm going to start John and Matthew after I'm done writing this xD. But this game will truly come out to be something special. I can't wait for the voice acting to be done.MICAH SOLUSOD (voice of Soul Eater Evans from Soul Eater) WILL BE VOICING ADAM. I literally had a spazz attack when I first found out!!!... *cough cough* Ehem.

The price for the game is amazing at just $30 with all that's going to be included when the product is officially done. And replay is going to be high trying to get all the CG's, scenes, Steam achievements, Steam trading cards, items in game, unlocking new places to shop/hang out, and try any and all possible routes.

Right now my current rating for Backstage Pass is 8/10. Which is stunning because this is only the Beta version! I've played a few finished games, and their no where near as good as Backstage Pass. If you want to follow Sakevisual about new updates on the game, visit their official website weekly. You can also sign up for mail updates, follow them on Twitter, Like their page on Facebook, view their Tumblr and more xD

I spent $100 making cupcakes. Gave one called The King, with banana cake batter, peanut butter, and bacon to a love interested. Turns out he was allergic to peanuts. 10/10