Recent reviews by grave mistakey

Honestly, I was hesitant about getting this game for a while. I'm a sucker for narrative-heavy games, dating sims, and visual novels, but the title of this game made me worry that it would be a romanticized depiction of colonialism (Space Edition TM).

But I'm glad I decided to take the leap and play it.

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is an amazing game to experience playing. There's very few games I can handle focusing on for more than 5 hours at time, so it says a lot that I spent 23.7 hours just on my first run. (Apparently, this isn't normal, but alas, I'm a slower reader and spent a lot of time exploring.) Contrary to my initial assumptions about this game, Exocolonist does dive into the theme of (exo)colonialism, delving into the way human colonizers may view it as a way to create a utopia that escapes the issues of their old world, but also addressing how this utopia would be founded on violence towards its indigenous life. It also doesn't really pull any punches when it comes to death, loss, and interpersonal relationships, something that's made eminently clear upon a certain character's death early on in the game, and reinforced through the ending I got on my first run (Explorer).

I think, if you play this game, it's best to just jump into things, and experience it all firsthand for yourself. Don't read too many reviews, don't look up guides online as you play it (for the first time).

Anyway, 10/10, would definitely recommend to anyone who's into narrative-heavy stories. (Or possibly into card games? There's a lot of those, but you can turn them off if they're not your thing. Or make them harder ig.)

EDIT: Also, this game has a banger soundtrack. Anytime I hear the main theme, I lowkey wanna cry.