I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Huge amount of content, 29 endings, this is what choices matter genre should be.

Best game I've played in a while

Crossing into an unexplored world with no map, a body that won't stop changing, hostile locals and adults pretending they have a plan. Also, there's a wormhole and an alien planet. I don't do forced replays. But this one lets you redo puberty remembering how it went last time, which is the deal everyone would have signed at fourteen. Watercolor art, clean writing, choices that actually branch, and a soundtrack worth leaving on.

its good i loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it

A fun little visual novel. It really captures the feelings of childhood and adolescence. The cast of characters and the writing are memorable - I have clear memories of my favorite moments even writing this review over a year later. The "game" elements are more to help carry theme than to provide any challenge. Your choices and events become the memories that form your deck, reminding you of who "you" are and the moments that defined "you" even late into the game. As a VN, the game excels at encouraging replayability. You only have so much time to get to know people and explore the environments, and a unique mechanic that appears at the end of the first run helps spice up events you once thought were fixed points in the story. It took me four runs before I felt I had seen everything I wanted to see, which is more than most games get!

So far, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is probably my favourite game I've picked up this year. I've spent most of my time playing on the Switch version rather than the steam, so just know I have many more hours there. I've had it on my radar for a while before getting it because I thought it wouldn't really like the deckbuilder (?) side to it. Not really true. It's not Really that big of a part of the game and it gives a nice little break from long novel segments. The card art is cute, I love the inclusion of community art. The world is interesting, I love the characters all so very much. I love their designs, I love the naming conventions, I love discovering their augments. The only main criticism I really have is how the beginning of the game after starting repeat runs can be a bit of a slog, especially before you can go out exploring.