Introvert: A Teenager Simulator (2021) is almost a monument to the wasted potential of the Euphoric Brothers. While it was, by no means a good game, it shows genuine drive and passion not seen by their later, shittier mascot horror titles. It's a window into what could have been, had the dev continued on this track instead of selling out for brightly-colored horror games for sticky iPad toddlers, we could have had some modern-day cult classics steeped in gen-z cynicism. Oh, well. At least we have this bullshit. My hope is that after Garten of BanBan finally dies, the Euphoric Brothers will return to this style of game with a less edgy perspective, a higher budget, and more technical skill and make something actually worth playing. I have a feeling that if they do, they'll create a game that's truly spectacular, as opposed to being either pure teenage angst or the videogame equivalent of popcorn.

Man, I was legitimately interested in this game. It came up on new and trending on Steam back in 2021 and I saw the blurb and the artstyle and I was immediately like ‘okay, yeah, I’m sold, I’ll play this at some point’ and then that point finally came and… God what the fuck even was this? It’s allegedly a game that talks about Serious Issues such as mental health and school shootings but it’s treated like a giant shitpost? And, like, yeah, I know that’s Gen Z humour, but as someone who’s part of Gen Z and who’s invested in both of these topics… having a guest speaker suddenly repeat “my ass itches” super bass boosted for twenty seconds while everybody in the room t-poses does not make me think you’re taking these subjects seriously, my dude. Even beyond that, the writing isn’t great. Everything feels so hamfisted and not like a real teacher or student. The game tries to show how isolation and bullying can affect people but can’t figure out how to actually do that without giving the player multiple choices where both options are just “participate in this dude’s bullying.” The game seems to think that being mute makes you unable to communicate at all and it's mostly just an excuse for the main character to stand there, silently, to try and show a message about how staying silent in the face of bullying only perpetuates it. Characters appear and talk to you and loosely seem like they're important and then they just disappear from the script and never get mentioned again. There’s also just… a werewolf? For some reason? And you and the werewolf just go flying through the sky like it’s Robot Unicorn? Whatever... it was trying to go for with that whole thing kind of lost me immediately. I’m still into the… low-fi, minimalist pixel art (even if it’s bathed in visual filters that are all painful to look at), and I can… loosely tell that the developer Tried and does care about these topics, but God, for something I was unironically interested in before I played it… fucking hell what a letdown. 2/10.