Psy High

*edited to black out spoilers* This story was short, predictable, and easy. Sad, because I liked a few other stories from Choice of Games and would usually want to replay them. But not this one. First off, the characters' personalities barely had depth. No one was complex, which pretty much guaranteed my lack of attachments towards the characters. I didn't feel anything when making choices or reading because I couldn't relate to any of them. They were stereotypical to a fault. There were also a few inconsistencies in the story. For example I was holding a job, yet the father of the protagonist said that he was the only one making money if the mom lost her job... and then the game suggested that I had too many things to do, so I had to drop something. I ended up dropping the job since it didn't seem like it had any real significance to the story. The cash I made didn't have any bearing to the game at all. What was the point of getting a job if it was barely acknowledged? [spoiler] It also all just seemed so convenient to take down the villains, like how the protagonist just *happened* to find confidential tax information by doing some internet research, of all ways. Thing is, taxes aren't public unless the protagonist was some kind of elite hacker, but the game didn't make any mention of that. Also, students would not be normally suspicious about a teacher's salary and a nice house unless they had real reason to care or had it out for them. As for the villains, they barely had any chemistry at all. Their partnership was barely just a thread. People who commit tax fraud and brainwash people together would have a more familiar relationship, no?[/spoiler] Anyway this story has potential, but my impression is that it gave the bare minimum and it's still not complete. Even the endings could've been a bit more expanded upon to at least instill some satisfaction on the choices I've made, but it just lacked there.

Astonishingly poor. Very lazy and formulaic writing. While the author is mechanically literate and capable of basic plot planning, it reads like a condescending impassionate account of a middle aged person who is struggling with both remembering what those wacky tasteless dumb teenagers are supposed to be like and not falling asleep from the lack of any genuine interest in the subject matter. Needless to say, anything anyone might consider exciting about being a teenager is presented clinically at best. Often it's, again, condescending to a degree that is irksome even to someone who isn't a teenager anymore simply by the virtue of empathy. Which just makes you wonder who exactly was supposed to be the target audience of this work. Who is supposed to enjoy this oversimplified mockery of teenage life and why? I can only imagine perhaps pre-teens actually getting excited over this glimpse simply due to the fact that they're the only ones who might not know better and not realize just how hilariously fake it is. There is very little to enjoy in this from any perspective. Every plot element is sterile, predictable and pragmatic. The way it's delivered it could as well have been about financial bookkeeping rather than magic, friendship or romance. There is no feeling to anything. There is absolutely no subtlety. Certain events and scenes are absurdly blunt and cheesy, serving as the only real source of amusement together with some silly action choices here and there. There is even a blatantly obvious self-insert character. I honestly don't know how much mindnumbing is necessary to be able to take any of this seriously. I certainly couldn't. ... And then I got an ending where my character ended up being a [spoiler]permanently confused mentally impaired couch potato incapable of coherent thought or perception[/spoiler]. Which has left me with very strange feelings. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm all for depressing endings that punish me for acting unwisely, which I absolutely have, but if you try to match this to the rest of the game which is absolutely impossible to take seriously... it just doesn't work. You can't just make me respect your story in one swift vindictive move. I mean, this ending is actually the most, or rather the only daring unexpected plot device in the whole story and how dark and depressing it is only makes it even more absurd and hilarious. It doesn't help that it's possibly a punishment only for my very last action and it's hard to say with certainity if that's the case. It's really hard to describe just how out of place and how big of a mismatch in tone this feels, but I certainly found it noteworthy so there you go anyway. So yeah. This simply won't do. I can't recommend this to anyone for any reason. Especially not to fans of Veronica Mars, from which this work... tries to... take inspiration... sort of. Unless you want to see what a fanfiction of a cool drama series would look like if it was in the accounting book genre.

Game says : "this is your crush, love her/him" Me: "I don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about her/him" Game: "Sorry, that isn't an option." ... What?

Quirky, awesome branching of storylines, multiple endings, decent writing, and engaging. Psy High is really quite fun if you grew up with Choose Your Own Adventure novels growing up (like myself). In terms of a text adventure, it doesn't compare being that progression through the story is more linear than an open world of TAs of old. BUT, the writing draws you in, the characters are believable and interactions are fun. I found myself wanting to boot up another game or two just to see what happens if I had chosen my path differently. Which by the looks of it, and knowing how these sort of "games" work; there seems to be a good amount of variability in story if you make different choices. I failed my first attempt, in the sense that I didn't get a perfectly happy ending. But because it was just a whole lot of fun reading the story and playing the game, I'm plesantly surprised to say this game gets my stamp of approval. 8/10

Everything was going nice until a scene kinda broke the whole experience. [spoiler] I had just joined the Golden Crown Club, and my GF Taylor was happy about it. Then in the next scene she just walks up to me and says "Were done! I`m breaking up with you after THAT." Id didnt make any sense, and the game didnt said anything about "you were confuse about that" or "You didnt understand why that happend", it just went like "She broke up with you. Now what youre going to do?". Nothing against a break up (Oh it happend so many times IRL) but this is a crucial momment and it was poorly written. Ruined the experience for me. [/spoiler]

The game is too predictable; it's hard to enjoy a mystery to solve when the mystery is solved very early. It's a shame since the world itself is rather interesting and could have been so much more; as it is, I don't want to replay it to explore other plotlines since the story was boring after all. It could have been saved if the characters you meet were interesting but no, they're just walking stereotypes. Overall this felt like it was written by someone who has left high school in the 90's and tries to relate to teenagers nowadays by watching high school musical.

I was seriously disappointed by this game. I played Heart of the House many, many times, and absolutely loved it. The ability to name your character, choose your sexuality, and mold your talents was something I'd never really experienced before, but fell in love with regardless. Psy High has these features, but not to the extent I was expecting; that, however, was not my main quarrel with the game. My main issue was the lack of character depth and development. Psy High, like Heart of the House, has romancable characters that your character can enter into a relationship with. However, Psy High's characters don't even feel like they exist. They're just descriptions of a person, as opposed to an actual character. Taylor/Tyler is a perfect example. Early on, it's revealed that your character has a major crush on Taylor/Tyler, however, the only reason I could find for this crush existing was the fact that your character found them beautiful/gorgeous/handsome. That's all well and good, I've no qualms with attractive fictional characters, but there is more to a person than their looks. They have a personality. They have flaws. They have interests. They have goals. They have paradigms and philosophies. Almost none of these are present in the romance options in Psy High, at least for the straight male route that I played, that is. Sure, Alison is well described, and your character has known them for a long time, but you still know next to nothing about her personality. Carla, is somewhat different though. Her character and personality was decently described, but rather unlikeable, if you ask me. Come on, Choice of Games, I know you're better than that. Heart of the House was absolutely enthralling. I spent way too much time on that game. But that's how good it was. Psy High doesn't even come remotely close to Heart of the House's level of quality. TL;DR: Characters feel one-dimensional and lifeless. Romance almost feels impossible. Not worth the $3.89. If you want a good Choice of Games game, get Heart of the House.

While the story premise is good, the whole implementation of the CYOA of the game leaves a lot to be desired, and most of the characters are shallow due to very little character development. On the CYOA front, the choices seems to have very little real impact throughout the story. I see-sawed from one side of the stat spectrum to the other, did questionable things for money and played the dating field with zero noticeable consequences throughout the story. All the choices could be made to feel more important simply by removing some of the ones available to you based on your current stats. Story wise the game has promise, but there was a definite feel of it being rushed towards the end, and the ending itself was a bit of a letdown. It's possible that if I were to replay the game that I might see more impact on some of the other choices available, but after the experience had on my first playthrough I just don't feel compelled to return to Psy High anytime soon.