This is such a convincing depiction of confused teens & young adults trying to figure themselves out that it feels... viscerally real at times. Sitting there, biting your nails waiting for them to finish typing. Holding two conversations simultaneously, waiting for the drama from the first conversation to somehow spill over into the second conversation. Trying to convince your parents that yes, the people you've met online are genuine friends and no, you're not giving out the family address. I've never been too involved in fandom spaces and have never written fanfic in my life, but I held my breath as Alex was waiting for feedback on hers.

Admittedly, a large part of this is presentation - the dialogue choices are mostly there to give you your choice of emote flair on a preset message and thus aren't really significant choices, save for a few occasions. The narrative can be a little clunky and for people who didn't spend time on the internet pre-2008 I imagine the writing could come off as too "quirky", but it's such an emotionally honest game that I'm willing to forgive an occasional plot contrivance. I may be lucky enough to feel like I was assigned the right gender when I was born, but it doesn't mean that this story is at all unfamiliar - my friends and I too caught up in our own heads, fucking up in our efforts to be there for a friend while wanting to vent our own thoughts. And it's because I remember the experience that the presentation does so much to sell the story here - when I was this age I was also staring at some austere chat client, trying to figure out how to respond to a dear friend when literally all I can come up with is a crude translation of my teenage brain just fucking screaming.

Recommended for anyone who spent their formative years on Yahoo Messenger.

It's like Hypnospace Outlaw for trans people. Gonna make sure I buy this for all the eggs in my life. It's been a while since I've been this immersed in a game world and it's characters. The writing style may turn a lot of readers off, but beneath it is the best portrayal of trans discovery I have ever seen in media. Beyond some pretty serious bugs and a weirdly rushed maturity of the player-character in the final act, I found the game near-perfect in the portrayal of ideas, vibes and the era. It felt like I was interacting with real people in my life, and their unique flaws, talents and reactivity made the experience absurdly believable. This is something I strongly recommend, especially if you're trans or questioning your gender identity.

Oh man I really messed up on this one. I have a really bad track record of ending games on a sour note. I really love this game, but I was so confused with the terminal. I didn’t know that ls was with a lowercase l, not an i, and I stuck for like over 40 minutes on just figuring that out. I was so excited to get back home and finish this game today, so I kinda ruined it for myself a bit. I finished the rest of the terminal stuff but I just felt so disconnected at that point. I honestly would’ve been fine without the terminal stuff, or maybe just in a more simplified way? Either way, I still identify with this game A LOT. I’m not trans, but I am bi and it almost feels like this game was made for me. Obviously, it was not, but there are so many personal things about figuring out your identity that I can relate to. Like feeling like your tricking yourself into being gay, just because. Or just because you feel like you’d want to be, which apparently isn’t a valid reason enough. I literally had that thought this morning. It’s still a little hard to believe myself, but like they’ve said so many times in this game, she’ll figure it out. And I kinda did. I had/have HOCD so it was really difficult for me to accept myself as possibly bi, but without a label, but that led me to where I am now. Just accepting it is the first step, and it’s a damn difficult and important one to accomplish. I resonate sooooo much with this game. I just don’t know why I have a bad touch with games. Ikenfell crashed on gamepass so I could only watch the epilogue on somebody’s walkthrough, I got really irritable with The wild at heart new the end because I was getting really stuck. Uggghhhh. I love this game so much, and I’m just really upset I kinda ruined this one for myself too. Oh and I also love Sailor Moon too, so it really feels like this was made for me, even though yes, it’s not and it does tell a separate story, but it still tells an amazing universal tale of exploring your gender, sexuality or just finding out who the heck you are, in general (or all three!). Such a great game, I just wish I could code better. Laguna is too smart for me

P.S. also, one more thing. At the end, I kinda did the ending wrong where the dad was just irritating me so much I closed the message app and then I couldn’t get back in and closed the game and then I had to replay the ending part before the dad conversation again AHHHH why do I do this to myself? :(

One of those rare games that just feel special.

I don't think you'll necessarily "get" this game if you're not transgender yourself, or questioning (granted, I doubt most people would play this if they weren't), but I do still think many of the overall themes are still a fairly universal.

So many little bits of dialogue resonated with me so strongly, the feeling is incredibly difficult to put into words.

a stunning entry in what is fast becoming my favorite genre of game: nostalgic y2k online adolescence simulator. thoughtful, character-driven, authentic, and intelligent about the interaction between game form, aesthetic, and story. I could write more but I kinda just want to luxuriate in how impressive and delightful and homey of an experience it was

has me very much missing a pink seahorse avatar friend who was a cross between prplsqrl and jenni. kaya if you're out there, I hope you are well!!!

This is a game where you play as a teenage trans girl on the internet in the 1990's, finding out that she's trans. The entire game takes place on the interface of the 90's computer, and the gameplay is primarily talking to friends on the messenger app, while also dealing with an abusive parental situation. The dialogue in this game is so well written and really captures the way someone that age would be talking to their friends on their 90's dial up internet connection. There is definitely a lack of stories about trans people in media, let alone in games, and I can't really think of any that are specifically about someone finding out that they are trans. In every movie or game with a trans person that I've seen, they were already out to themselves. So I really liked this because I think it's a story that very much needed to be told somewhere, and I think the way they told it through this game was really well done. I also ended up watching the trans speedrunner proto magicalgirl play through this game (at normal speed) because I needed help with the one puzzle in the game, and seeing how strongly the game resonated with someone who clearly had a similar experience was really cool to see. It's always great when a game can connect with someone in that way.