Hiveswap Friendsim

ive been a fan of homestuck since i was in middle school and got back into it earlier this year. i had never played through friendsim in full bc i was a 13 year old with no money when this first came out, so i wanted to give it all a go. some routes are really good and engaging, but i could count them all on one hand. a lot of the characters have bad endings that are so annoyingly easy to get by accident that it feels like a really bad bait and switch in terms of writing, and they do that a lot. like, a lot a lot. the art direction is messy and chaotic and they really shouldve had maybe two different artists at most instead of paying like 5 people to do wildly different things on a budget that must have already been tight. this is especially apparent when two characters from different routes are standing next to each other and the juxtaposition just doesn't look nice at all. this is abstaining from commenting too much on the UI constantly breaking in later routes because the text box has a set size. i would maybe be able to appreciate the troll lore they put forward in this more if it wasnt blithely apparent that the writers just wanted alternia to be "grey earth with a little more violence". even then, that idea doesnt work because aside from all the wanton murder, life here is weirdly contrasted compared to modern earth. its easy to find medical devices that punch your bones back in place as long as youve got a rich buddy and coffee shops hold cross-caste girl power slam poetry events or whatever. it was really frustrating to get through. it starts to pull itself together in terms of writing towards the final routes and it has some really interesting metanarrative twists, but if you dont like meandering stories that are constantly trying to jebait you, id just go play pesterquest and swallow the fact that youre missing some context for karkat's route. because at least when pesterquest jebaits you, its actually funny. nihkee moolah was the greatest hiveswap character ever made. playing that route made me start lifting weights and jogging on the treadmill again. thank you nihkee.