Consume Me

**Gentle spoiler warning and trigger warning for discussion of disordered eating** Man, I really loved this game. For most of the experience it feels like a total masterpiece — the pacing, the tension, the way every new stressor folds into the mechanics. It’s so well done that by the end I was feeling the stress in my own body. Jenny’s [spoiler]under‑eating, the headaches, the way studying becomes impossible, the stats cratering no matter what I tried… I ended up making her exercise two or three times a day because it was the only way to keep things from falling apart.[/spoiler] The religion storyline was another interesting thread. My read was that it was just one more way Jenny [spoiler]avoids dealing with how badly she’s hurting herself — another distraction, another coping mechanism layered on top of the dieting and over‑exercising.[/spoiler] But then the ending hits, and none of that seems to matter. [spoiler]When Jenny finally crashes out, it has little to do with under-eating, the compulsively exercising, or using religion to prop up her self-harm. [/spoiler]The last chunk of gameplay, where everything is spiralling and the player is fully complicit, ends up feeling weirdly irrelevant. In the epilogue Jenny says she just… stopped dieting. Stopped caring about religion. Moved on. Which I’m happy for on a human-level. But it also serves to deflate all the tension the game spent hours building. It also feels a bit harmful that the player can push Jenny through all this self‑destruction and the story never acknowledges it, never reflects it back, never gives it any weight. The whole thing feels like the designer pulled something incredibly personal and original into the game, but couldn’t quite step outside her own experience enough to land the ending. Still, I’ll be watching closely to see what she does next, there’s clearly something special here!

To be clear I understand this is an autobiographical work and its based on someone's real life but I cannot recommend people play this and I'm really sad about that. Mostly because if I had a friend who were struggling with these issues or other self-worth or mental issues, I would in no way recommend that they engage with religion to solve them or even to feel better about them. I think that can easily result in a harmful mindset where people who are looking for validation from others turn instead to getting validation from religion instead of finding it for themselves and accepting themselves. And for that reason, I can't recommend it. If you don't mind that aspect and just want to experience the good music, fantastic art, and decent game systems, I'd recommend this. I think it was worth a look but ultimately didn't connect with me the way I wanted but I hope it can help more people than this mindset hurts.

There is a deep mismatch between gameplay and messaging on this, that comes crashing together in an absolute puff of nothing in terms of a climax. It is fun, and if you think you'll like it from the trailer I think that you will. You should buy this game and support this developer because I believe that they will only go on to make better things because the potential shown in this is huge. But the narrative on this is a total nothingburger because it's autobiographical and not even a particularly interesting autobiography. It's about the stressors of being a girl, of developing an eating disorder, of meticulously juggling the expectations of every aspect in your life, and then all of the fine-tuned, very fun gameplay that you spent the whole game experimenting with different combos on and fine-tuning with great joy, comes crashing apart and you're told-not-shown, how that was all solved by Christianity, but then not really because Christianity stopped being super important in the longterm, and then life kinda just moves on. The game makes it very fun and cute to try and efficiently max out your eating disorder diet, study for your SATs, try and get teacher recommendations, and save up enough money to visit your long-distance Cornell boyfriend. But the narrative of the game by its very nature is forced to contradict the feelings its gameplay is giving you. Eating like this isn't healthy, living like this isn't healthy, it says-after creating a million different cute animations and happy sound effects for whenever you achieve a goal, resetting the game if you fail certain ones so that you can do them over and over again until you get it just right. And so how could it end? I kept expecting each chapter to show how much worse this new diet and lifestyle was, for stress to really start to show, for cutesy music to turn dark and dreary. But no, life just, kinda goes on, and the game ends without any real fanfare. A disappointing ending to a really otherwise very strong game. I'm eager to see what the development team comes out with next.

I liked it at first but when it got to the jesus stuff I got turned off from the game I wouldve liked if it was mentioned before I got this game.

Hate it, LITERALLY. People should be warned before they download that they will be forced to finish bunch of TDLs (most of them are anti-human, honestly) just to KEEP THE RELATIONSHIP with a guy WHO DOESNT WANT TO ADMIT U AS HIS GF. And suddenly all the effort seem to be in vain only bcz HE DUMPED U. SOMETHING U MAY CONCERN: The final solution was found in religion.

was good and then it got weird and religious

Consume Me is one of those games that completely hooked me, even when it was actively making me miserable. The presentation is great. The art style is charming, the soundtrack fits perfectly, and the minigames are surprisingly fun. More importantly, the core gameplay loop is incredibly addictive. If you've played games like Persona, you'll immediately recognize the appeal of having a limited number of actions each day and trying to optimize every single one. Balancing the main objectives, side goals, school, dieting, chores, relationships, and everything else turns each chapter into a really satisfying puzzle. …At least until you make a stupid mistake. I failed Chapter 2 four times before finally getting through it, and I almost failed Chapter 5 as well. On the very last night I somehow squeezed in what felt like thirty different actions to complete every objective. It was one of those moments where you sit back feeling like a genius... only for the ending to make most of it feel irrelevant anyway. That brings me to my biggest criticism. I understand this is a semi-autobiographical game, and I respect that the developer is telling a deeply personal story. Not every part of it has to resonate with me. But the whole church section, the "Jesus Loves You" sequence, and especially the song that goes on for several minutes were simply too much for my taste. Chapter 5 was easily the weakest part of the game for me because of it. On the other hand, I really liked the final chapter. Seeing Jenny's story come full circle and realizing that she eventually made the very game I had just played was a clever way to blur the line between the game and real life. That ending landed much better for me. Despite my issues with the narrative in the later chapters, I genuinely had a great time with Consume Me. The strategic time management, the constant feeling that you're never doing enough, and the addictive "one more day" loop kept me invested from beginning to end. It's frustrating, stressful, funny, and engaging. I may not agree with every message the game wants to convey, but I admire the creator for telling such an honest and personal story. It clearly meant something to her, and even if parts of it weren't for me, I'm glad she made it. Score: 4/5

A classic story about navigating all the expectations (both self-inflicted and general) of growing up as a teenage girl, presented in a charming and enticing way. While in general it is light-hearted and fun, the game does also allow for the dark and serious moments to land and ground the player enough to remind us that this was, and still often is, real for many. It is still gamey enough to be more than a visual novel to be clicked through, and I did find it challenging to meet the required goals of each chapter. I also reflected how my choices to 'win' reflected the choices of someone burning themselves out...and I suppose that is essentially the point. This game hooked me so instantly and thoroughly that I've felt compelled to finish it, which honestly doesn't often happen. Having completed the story I want to go back through it and do better now that I now what to expect...which I find a lot of us wish we could do in our own lives...