I have reviewed two original English-language visual novels by PixelFade Studio, a Canadian-based visual novel circle. The first of these was PixelFade’s first complete commercial visual novel, ACE Academy (see my ACE Academy review), which had been re-worked from an earlier demo called Kendo Crush (which I had played as a demo many years before reading and reviewing ACE Academy). I subsequently reviewed Kaori After Story (see my Kaori After Story review), which is a side-story successor to ACE Academy following from one of the routes in the main game. Kaori After Story has been my most “popular” visual novel review by a wide margin, finishing as our most-visited article of January 2025 and our 9th-most visited article in 2025 overall. ACE Academy has been one of my better-performing visual novel reviews while not reaching the heights of Kaori After Story (mildly perplexing since playing through Kaori’s route in ACE Academy is effectively a prerequisite to following Kaori After Story).

PixelFade Studios has published three other full-length visual novels: Crystalline (2018), Ethereal Enigma (2019), and Astral Ascension (2025). After my Kaori After Story review had its moment in Google, I decided to eventually play and review the other three PixelFade visual novels to complete our collection. Before I could start that project, however, PixelFade Studio announced on Steam (where it distributes its novels) that it is retiring.

Screen capture of PixelFade Studio retirement announcement on Steam. Text: Hello PixelFaders, After an incredible journey making OELVNs, we have decided that the time has come to retire PixelFade Studio. This was not a decision made lightly, but one we are making with full hearts. We are incredibly proud of the worlds we’ve built and the stories we’ve had the pleasure of sharing with you. As we move toward closing this chapter, we want to let you know that our games will be removed from sale starting next month. If you have already purchased our games, you will generally continue to have access to download and play them through your library. Looking back, this journey has been nothing short of amazing. We started with a passion for visual novels and a desire to create something special, but it was all of you who believed in us that let us breathe life into our work. Your overwhelming support allowed us to grow and dream bigger than we ever thought possible. We are happy to be wrapping things up on our own terms, feeling accomplished and deeply grateful. We are stepping away not with sadness, but with a sense of celebration for everything we achieved together. Thank you for playing our games, for loving our characters, and for being part of the PixelFade legacy. It has been an honor sharing these stories with you. Signing off with everything pleasant (with the exception of fireworks :P), The PixelFade Team

Moreover, not only is PixelFade Studio exiting the indie English-language visual novel business, but it is also de-listing its five visual novels from Steam beginning in February 2026, meaning they will no longer be available for purchase.

One may think that removal of PixelFade Studio’s visual novels from Steam would scuttle my planned project to review Crystalline, Ethereal Enigma, and Astral Ascension, but one would think wrong. On January 20, 2026, I purchased Astral Ascension, which was the only PixelFade visual novel missing from my library, and I have decided to push up my project to review the PixelFade novels in winter 2026 (on-point with my Winter 2026 season theme). However, I have work and other projects, and the remaining three PixelFade novels are not short by any means, so I will not publish all of the reviews (perhaps not any of the reviews) before they are de-listed by Steam. Thus, this project announcement article serves two purposes. Firstly, I am of course introducing my PixelFade review project. Secondly, consider this a public service announcement of sorts for anyone who may be interested in purchasing the novels before the disappear from the Steam store in February 2026, whether the reason is to collect and read them all or to be more able to follow along with my articles (people interested in ACE Academy and Kaori After Story specifically can consult my existing reviews). Note that while the novels will no longer be available for purchase, games purchased on Steam will remain accessible on Steam and the PixelFade visual novels do not require Steam to launch in any event. If you are too late or not interested in purchasing the novels, I will write my last three reviews in a way that contemplates the fact that the novels will no longer be available for purchase. (I will update this post and my reviews if necessary if there is any news about legitimate channels for being able to acquire the PixelFade novels after they are removed from Steam.)

Kaori Itami in Ace Academy stating that it would be interesting to make a visual novel.
A fitting screenshot from ACE Academy for the subject matter of this article. Pictured discussing visual novel development is Kaori Itami, who is one of the five “heroines” of ACE Academy and the main character in the spin-off follow-up, Kaori After Story.

One reason I undertook a project to review 31 English localizations of indie Japanese visual novels that were completed as part of the three “al|together” localization festivals in 2005, 2006, and 2008 was to shed light on an interesting period in visual novel localization history (see my al|together collection post). Another was to highlight some of the genuinely good games that were made accessible to English-language readers through al|together. Perhaps my finest accomplishment was playing a role in ensuring that people can continue to read Midsummer Haze, albeit I would not recommend doing so for anyone who is not prepared for a potentially frustrating experience. I undertake the PixelFade project in a similar spirit. I first became aware of the studio in 2014 when it released a polished demo of Kendo Crush (which evolved into ACE Academy), that came out a bit before big-name Japanese visual novels became ubiquitous on Steam. While neither ACE Academy nor Kaori After Story are masterpieces – ACE Academy suffers from an in medias res ending which may have been caused by an excess of ambition, and Kaori After Story, while fun enough, is effectively an ACE Academy character fan game created by the creators of ACE Academy – both serve as early examples of polished and generally entertaining original English-language visual novels (see also my review of Save the Date for a freeware example that was released several months before the Kendo Crush demo). As someone who played through the Kendo Crush demo after stumbling upon it almost 12 years ago, I like idea of giving the PixelFade novels a proper send-off and continuing to make The New Leaf Journal a place that covers niche visual novel history (granting PixelFade is almost certainly less niche in 2026 than the al|together novels and some other pieces I have covered).

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