I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

This game ripped my heart out multiple times. 9/10 would pursue a doomed romance again.

Despite the large number of very positive reviews, this one pleasantly surprised me. It's a narrative driven skill and relationship building choose your own adventure with a deck building mechanic wherein the cards are memories of events that you have experienced while growing up as a colonist on an alien planet. The card mechanics are closest to Griftlands or Signs of the Sojourner, but it's definitely its own thing. Very unique and high quality.

Reliving my years of teen angst - in Space! 8/10 This game is a coming-of-age story that brings a pretty interesting concept to a tired troupe. You grow up on a new planet, with full access to earth's history and it's downfalls, but never experiencing it yourself. Everything your character experiences is partially, if not entirely, alien to them. At first the planet seems like a perfect utopia. However, cracks begin to show when paradise can't defend itself from what this planet and time itself throws at it. Speaking of troupes, during my playthrough I kept expecting the "are we the baddies?" conversation to take place. However, something I love is this game's writing makes that point well established from the get-go. You are aware of the uncomfortable actions that inherently come with colonization. Which makes those conversations difficult for a society of people which are conflict-adverse and terrified of repeating the mistakes of the past. I found the gameplay elements very engaging, especially if you put the card challenges in hard mode. I'd almost recommend that to any new player, since it forces you to chose which interactions are worth fighting for, instead of always getting the best result. Additionally, the simple concept of leveling up stats month to month as you live out the years in a very Persona-esque gameplay is really explored here. I hardly ever ran into repeat dialogue, which is impressive given how many endings are possible. I can also say throughout my 26-hour playthrough, I was never aware of the game's budget limitations, something that is definitely impressive in this age. And the writing? Absolutely wonderful. This is a text-heavy game with no voice acting, so be prepared to do a lot of reading. I will say, even with that in mind, scenes are no more than a few paragraphs at most and there is so much impact within the interactions. As if each line of dialogue was perfectly crafted to say the most with the least amount of words. I was never found myself glazing over the text at any point. Also, I absolutely love that I can experience a character's full story without being obligated to romance them or partially leading them on at any point. We are truly starved for having just good friends in VN's as well as whomever we are romancing! This game fulfills that need entirely. (And if you're a fan of the "yearning" in romance dialogue, then you're going to love this game :) ) There are a few story beats I feel are missing. Puberty is shortly explored, but It's hard to tell a coming-of-age tale without a bit more themes of girlhood/boyhood (or possibly even the rejection of them). Additionally, there are some racial perspectives completely overlooked. However, I am aware this is explained away by some of the game-lore and the Vertumna Group. So while, I don't think a VN must have these themes to be good, I do think they would have been nice additions. That shouldn't take away from the wonderful stories the game DOES tell. A lot of which I can't delve into without discussing spoilers, but the story really finds a way to burrow into your heart with it's relatability and sincerity. Besides the above, the little feedback I could give is that while most of the stats have an in-game use, a few stats (just one or two) are hardly ever needed. I kept expecting them to become useful later on in the game, but it never came before the credits rolled. All-in-all, I can't wait to get into my second playthrough, and maybe even more after that. I can't stress enough how hooked I was on this story during my playtime. If you're looking for a VN to really sink your brain into for the next couple days. Pick this one up! Similar to the themes of the game, we are coming to an age where passion projects like this are becoming harder and harder to make. Those few moments of a creative team really pouring their soul into their work in a genuine way are truly special. There may come a day where this game is entirely forgotten, maybe even irrelevant in the grand-scheme of things as hundreds of years pass. But that's okay, because it'll be much beyond our lifetime, and I won't forget that time when I Was A Teenage Exocolonist.

i love tang

One of the most unique story-first games I've ever played, with just the right balance of heartwarming-ness, tragedy, romance, and exploration. Have played through multiple times and the itch still comes back. I think about this game often.

pleasantly surprising

This game means like everything to me and, in a good way, I wouldn't be who I currently am without it.