Well, this is uncanny. This school management sim bears a startling resemblance to Two Point Campus, especially when it comes to planning and decorating rooms. Be sure to add a window and a radiator, along with a plant or rubbish bin. Indeed, certain aspects are almost identical – it’s just like revisiting Two Point Campus, only something is…off. It’s the visual style that leads to the uncanny valley feeling, using a low-poly PlayStation/Saturn aesthetic. An odd choice, considering the 32-bit consoles didn’t have a great amount of management sims. The PS1 did have Theme Hospital though – with Two Point Hospital being Campus’ predecessor, so we guess we can give it a pass on its artistic intent.
As you’ve likely summarised by now, if you’ve played Two Point Campus, you’ll have a firm grasp on what Let’s School entails. You’re given control over a school and must hire the appropriate staff, place and design classrooms and facilities, listen to complaints and suggestions, and make the steps necessary to ensure students pass their exams – with your school’s reputation playing a bigger part here. It’s also more in-depth than Two Point Campus, although partly to its detriment, as you’ll also need to arrange teacher’s schedules. This can be automated later, but until then there’s dull spreadsheet maintenance to dive into. Using a controller, this is finicky – even with button prompts, it’s very easy to accidentally flick tabs or back out of menus. The UI is one of the most cumbersome of recent times. It also doesn’t help that the tutorial has some untranslated (Japanese) text.
Yes, Let’s School originates from Asia. This gives it surprising appeal, as the school life we’re introduced to mimics that of Asian students. Wearing smart uniforms (which can be customised) they’re well-disciplined and keen to study. Place a cleaning station in a room and they’ll even clean up after themselves. The tearoom isn’t for teachers either, but rather for students. It’s also possible to place food bowls and toys for neighbourhood kitties, buy large ice blocks to reduce heat during summer and (bear with me on this) place broccoli on a student’s desk as a form of encouragement. Is that even a thing? Noticing these differences between Western and Eastern academia is a small joy.
The Campaign Mode has a tutorial and gradually introduces new facilities while walking through the finer points, such as each facility having its own manager. There are four multi-staged Victory Goals to work towards, which will trigger the game’s ending. Along the way, you’ll get to expand the school, and research new locations and facilities, all while juggling expenses. A year takes a couple of hours to play through, with seasons changing and students eventually graduating – along with the chance to give a speech and take a photo. Students increase in grade once per season, meaning you’ll need multiple classrooms to assign grades to. This led to some confusion early on but soon made sense.
Sandbox Mode has more to offer and comes recommended once the basics are mastered. Infinite cash is granted, and everything is unlocked from the outset, with the only setback being that your school starts ranked low and needs to grow in popularity. It’s during Sandbox Mode that you can appreciate the amount of stuff that can be placed and created. Schools can be multifloored, dormitories created for live-in students, and there’s a long list of facilities – including an arcade with a choice of cabinets and a supermarket with an assortment of items that can boost stats. Large ‘wonder’ buildings can be constructed too, such as a museum, library, and sports stadium. Each takes around an hour to construct fully, and will unlock an event that’ll greatly boost student’s stats.
Going back to the subject of seasons, there are a few different events, including Christmas and Halloween – both of which provide a decoration kit. During the former kids build snowmen, while during the latter they dress up as ghosts. Seeing students go about their day is quite mesmerizing, stashing their bikes in the shed, attending classes, mingling during breaks, and heading into the canteen at lunch. After school clubs are available, opening a new goal of becoming a district number one in sports or music. Incidentally, every student also has a name and can be customised. Check their inventory, and you may find contraband. The scallywags are fond of sneaking handhelds into class, which you can choose to sell or give back.
As management sims go, Let’s School isn’t too demanding once the fundamentals are established. You’ll need to vet student applications, assign new students to classrooms, break up the occasional fight, mull over pay requests, and plan schedules. Schedule planning becomes a lot easier once several different teachers are under your wing. It’s also essential to regulate temperature with air con and heating units, although this did seem temperamental – during winter students complained that it was too hot, even though each room only had a single radiator. It’s the presentation that lets the package down, with not just the unwieldy UI to contend with, but also the constantly looping music that’s barely a minute long.
While seeing student’s exam results isn’t quite the ‘big payoff’ it is intended to be, Let’s School is nevertheless pleasurable to play. This is especially the case for the Sandbox Mode, where you can dive into creating a uniquely designed school and explore some of its hidden depths. If you played Two Point Campus extensively, it’s likely you’ll find it just as enduring with more to offer when it comes to facility types and extra goals, but may wish that it had a full campaign and just not goals to meet within a single school. It isn’t necessarily any better or worse overall – it’s merely different. This is the gaming equivalent of watching a movie remake where just enough changes have been made to justify its existence.
Pathea Games’ Let’s School is out now on consoles. It first launched on PC in 2023. A retail release is planned for later this year.