Interesting game, but it does feel a little too long in the tooth. The writing is well done and I liked that you can't do everything in one go, and things will go wrong and people will die and you might not finish a questline in time to stop someone from doing something or solving some problem - but the gameplay is very one note and gets tedious very quickly. I did one and a half playthroughs and I'm honestly spent on this game. I don't think I'll ever go back to it, but what I did experience was very good. I just wish there was a way to experience the story in a much faster way on replay.

Turns out the way to get me to play a roguelite deckbuilder is to make it a life sim where the runs are 5-8 hours long and the cards are tied to the narrative.

In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, you play as the eponymous teenage exocolonist (who knew?), born on a colony ship bound for the planet "Vertumna". The ship lands when you are age 10 and the game continues until age 20. Each year has various bespoke narrative events and about a dozen "turns" where you can grow your stats and manage your relationships.

Notable narrative events award you a new card, the deck contextualized as your memories. Cards have suits (yellow for social, blue for mental, red for physical), a number value, and possibly an extra effect like "+1 during mental challenges". For skill checks, you draw a hand from your deck and try to beat the goal number with the card slots available. You get extra bonuses from pairs, straights, flushes, et cetera. If you puzzle out the highest possible value with your cards, you get a minor cash reward. If you can't hit the goal, you can take a stress penalty to push through anyway.

It's a solid gameplay loop that carried me through a couple runs before I eventually turned on Debug Mode to skip every card battle and tweak stats to my liking (humans are just human, yeah?). There's also an option to ignore the cards entirely and turn the challenges into straight stat checks, if you're into that.

Of course, I wouldn't have cared about the cards and deckbuilding if not for the narrative context in which they exist. But the writing is... uh. Well. It doesn't really jive with my personal tastes, but I think it would for a lot of people. Another review (positively) describes the game as "queer socialist propaganda", and I can't really disagree with that assessment. I appreciate the game's politics, but not its aesthetic.

The colony is some kind of anti-capitalist, communal child-care, anti-cultural, vegetarian collective. You can change your name, appearance, and pronouns at any time along a spectrum of female-presenting to male-presenting. There are multiple romanceable characters across the LGBTQ+ spectrum and the game lets you date any of them, though that doesn't mean the relationship will always work out. It's better than I expected from a game that puts "you can date a dog-boy" on its Steam page, at least.

This is also a time loop story, which helps contextualize multiple playthroughs and allows you to pick options on later runs that help optimize your new life (a unique narrative strength of video games as a medium that has been insidiously co-opted by the isekai genre). For example, instead of spending several months figuring out a solution to an impending famine, you can guide characters directly to a solution you figured out last time, saving lives and giving you more time to spend patrolling the walls or repairing robots. Figure out someone's likes and dislikes, and those will stay in their character window in the next run.

But with one foot firmly embedded in the Twee Zone, Exocolonist could headline a Wholesome Direct (derogatory). Your menu doesn't have an Achievements section, it has a "Cheevos" section. Vertumna is cast entirely in pastel blues, pinks, and yellows; populated by aliens like "floatcows" and "unisaurs". Every character has a cutesy hippy name that's shortened from a longer word, so you're hanging out with Marz (Marzipan), Kom (Kombucha), Tonin (Melatonin), Seeq (Obsequious), et cetera. The fictional space sport is literally called "sportsball". Un-fucking-bearable.

The game advertises a large number of endings, but it's more of an Obsidian-style modular ending slides thing. Depending on what jobs you picked most often and the status of your relationships, you get some paragraphs about how they all turned out. I played enough to get three different job-related endings and most of the bespoke endings that require more specific sequences of events, and my Steam runtime is listed at about 35 hours. Though, as noted, this was with me using Debug Mode to speed up later runs considerably.

Despite my issues, I'd say enjoyed my time with Exocolonist. While I'd love to see its broad structure applied to an aesthetic I find more personally appealing, its (relative) simplicity compared to the big RPGs I usually play starts the creative gears turning in my head. Whether it's actually realistic or not, games like this and Citizen Sleeper make me wonder if this is something I could do one day, as late a start as it might be.

A thought for another day, perhaps.

This was a roller coaster, where I'd experience highs of genuine awe realising just how far I could affect my own character's, and the world's, fate, then lows of utter disappointment at how meaningless so many interactions with the core cast of the game actually are, and how little they truly matter. The art, by Bkomei, is spectacular, and the overall execution of this extremely promising idea is positive, but a core aspect of the game feels unfinished. Still, a game that so effectively blends visual novel elements with a life simulation game and deck building aspects is one of a kind.

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is an interesting game with a lot of moving parts that have a distinct take on social simulation VN games like Princess Maker. The game tackles a lot of interesting science fiction ideas, with an engaging story that encourages multiple play throughs so that someone can get various different endings and variations on each playthrough to make each one feel unique as you cannot complete everything in one playthrough, much less your first which does lock you out of certain content.

However, the gameplay does not support multiple playthroughs. Each playthrough is very lengthy and time consuming, while the means of playing the game being tiring after even just one playthrough. The VN portions while having decent albeit young adult writing, can start to feel dull due to the text window needing a bit more refinement. The day to day movement along the map while being charming at the start begins to overstay its welcome due to the way it handles finding collectables which are very helpful with low respawn rates and also when events come up with certain characters, requiring you to run around the entire map every day to ensure nothing new came up. Furthermore, while the card game is interesting and fun at the start, it overstays its welcome and gets extremely tedious later on, especially once you start doing a lot of expeditions outside of the colony where you do multiple card game checks a day. The game just doesn't support multiple playthroughs through its gameplay, since it gets dull halfway through your first playthrough and will only get worse as you get to other playthroughs.

Speaking of, in your first playthrough there are many things you cannot do until your second playthrough, which does lock out some things. This would be really cool and something I would praise the game for, but its rough when each playthrough is so incredibly draining that I do not think I can handle a full second playthrough despite the good ideas behind it. As it is, this does mean the game locks you out of being able to get with one of the 2 women characters that will actually stay with your character in the ending, since 2/3 of the women characters you can date in your first playthrough will break up with you and sleep around with others after it despite you telling said character you're fine with open relationships, which can feel a bit problematic considering everyone in this game is bisexual so 2/3 first route romances with bi women end in getting broken up with for them to mess around feeling like a harmful stereotype. Speaking of, a lot of progressive ideas in this game can feel almost regressive or problematic at times which can be quite rough. While it has some interesting things to say about gender, some stereotypes and how it expresses polyamory, open relationships, and sexuality in general can be very rough. I will say I will always appreciate a piece of media that tries and fails to explore LGBTQ+ topics than one that doesn't bother at all, but it still bears bringing up.

Definitely a very ambitious, creative, and interesting game that is dragged down by a tedious gameplay loop that doesn't evolve enough as the game progresses to be able to support all the content in the game. Which is a shame, since there is a lot of good content in this game post a first playthrough that is worth exploring. I will probably get back to other playthroughs another time, but right now I feel it would be unfair to be trudging through gameplay I am burned out on to get to the new content.

An insanely addictive game with engrossing life sim/RPG elements intermingled with the story. While I generally didn't find the actual writing particularly compelling, the gameplay and story integration is very satisfying and the characters are likeable and interesting enough. I hesitate to give it a full 5 stars because while it's a very finely-crafted experience I don't know that it's one that will necessary stay with me for a while, but it's up there as some of the most fun I have had with a game.

He leído en varios sitios que el juego tarda en arrancar, pero tras 4 horas del mismo bucle jugable, creo que ya le he dado oportunidades suficientes para que me sorprenda. Pese a que la idea es interesante y algunos de los dilemas que plantea pueden estar bien escritos, el juego falla prácticamente en todo lo demás:

- El apartado artístico es muy mediocre. Las ilustraciones de los personajes no varían ni un ápice para mostrar ninguna emoción. Casi ningún evento va acompañado por imágenes, solo por textos.
- El juego de cartas, pese a ser entretenido por momentos, es muuuuuy básico y se vuelve repetitivo con demasiada prontitud.
- Como he comentado anteriormente, el bucle jugable no varía prácticamente nada durante el juego, con la única decisión como jugador de qué barrita subir ese mes.

An incredible game about relationships, capitalism, colonialism, and what it means to be human.

It's one of the most touching video game stories I've played. A story that can wrap around you like a cozy blanket, only to tear you away and toss you out into the rain.

I don’t normally NG+ games because I have so much to play but I immediately jumped back in the moment credits rolled. There’s a compelling time loop mechanic that provides context for it.

I’m kicking myself for not having played it at launch. If you've had even a slight interest in Twine, I highly recommend it.

I have so much great things to point out that I'll probably forget half of them!

My first long review (because this game deserves it):

This game has everything I love from games: marvellous world-building, perfect screenwriting, the characters feeling ALIVE when you're getting to know them and having events with them, lovely aesthetics, heartwarming little details, how it's political without turning tedious, the super interesting choices-matter mechanic accompanied by the timeloops, how LGBTQ+ friendly it is and the management mechanics

Once I started playing, I couldn't stop thinking about the game while I was doing other stuff; wondering what skills I'd like to polish. Plus, right now that I finished my first game, I can't wait to try out the timeloop mechanics!!

I remember that, at first, I was only planning in becoming an explorer, a kind one, however, when circumstances started to show up, I grew attached to the characters and the nature, to the point that when "circumstances" happened, I decided to fight to be a governor and protect peace forever

And that's just how great the game is! There's so many endings, so many options to select from!!!

It has every quality I like from Stardew Valley, Detroit: Become Human, Spellcaster University, Sims, Monster Prom, Death and Taxes, Animal Crossing and more

I wish the developer made a sequel or something like that!!!! Perhaps just another game with similar mechanics and loooovely characters

Anyways, some other thing I'd like the game to accomplish in the future is that we get it in different languages <3

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a difficult game to explain - it’s part life sim, part visual novel, and part deck builder. Miraculously, I think it brings those elements together remarkably well even if it doesn’t quite nail some of the individual mechanics.

We played this game for Pride Month and I was thrilled by how well queer themes are presented throughout the entire game. The game opens and you get to choose your gender and pronouns, but more importantly - you can also adjust your gender throughout the game adding a lot of fluidity and freedom to how gender and sexuality is represented. Relationships throughout the game are not as binary and homogenous as we’re used to. It’s a wonderfully queer game.

The life sim elements are the main foundation of Exocolonist as you work on improving your skills and relationships with the other characters. The deck building comes into play as you have to basically assemble poker hands to beat challenges throughout the game using cards you’ve acquired through events and skill-building. My main annoyance with the deck-building is that it’s much easier to accumulate cards than it is to get rid of them. You get a few opportunities to remove random cards but you can’t fully tailor your deck to your liking as much as you typically can in deck-builders.

I’ve lost track of the amount of games that tout the whole “your choices matter” thing, but there aren’t a lot of games that do it better than Exocolonist. I feel like 50 people could play this game and all have pretty different experiences depending on which skills they decide to work on, which colonists they decide to be friends with, and which events trigger because of how you play the game. It’s pretty cool talking to friends and seeing how we all had pretty different experiences. However, because the game is built so dynamically, sometimes it doesn’t totally react properly to things you’ve done. For instance, I got a card late in the game that featured a character that had died years earlier.

Overall, I loved my experience playing through the game and it was cool how much the story I told really felt like my own. The game has so many different possible endings and events that could happen, it makes me want to play it again and maybe I’d do that if the runs weren’t 10 hours long.

+ Fantastic queer representation
+ Fun story with great characters that evolve in meaningful ways as the game progresses
+ The game reflects your choices so well that your experience ends up feeling unique
+ Neat card system for beating challenges
+ Great character art and illustrations

- Deck-building is limited
- Card puzzles get a bit stale
- Some game elements don’t react properly to your choices
- Multiple playthroughs are encouraged but the game is too long for that

Ridiculously engaging VN! While it can be considered a dating sim, I think it does plot and friendships better. (More later.) Plot is amazing, characters are (mostly) likable and have growth! Epilogues are very detailed, the best in any game I've seen! Love the main gameplay draw, that you remember your past lives and can influence events in your next playthrough! Many different activities with unique scenes that help subsequent playthroughs feel fresh! You can have pets (and interact with them-not just eye candy!) Graphics are pretty, and I like that the seasons are part of the plot too, also not just eye candy! Card battles help add some variety.

My main complaint is that some of the things you need to do (either for friendships or dating) can feel uncomfortable. There are a few characters that you need to break up to be able to date. There are a few characters that will break up with you in the epilogue no matter what. Hence why I'm hesitant to like this game as a dating sim. There's a character that starts off pretty toxic, and while there is growth if the friendship is high enough, to get that friendship up you have to pick options with violence towards creatures. In this same vein: there's a character that will always die, and for a game that's main draw is replaying to save characters, this feels bad.

A smaller complaint, but it can feel repetitive/grindy on subsequent playthroughs. It does a good job of having enough content/adding content, but a lot of big character/plot scenes will repeat.

I still recommend this VN and had a great time! I spent 64 hours on two playthroughs.

(copied from my gg review)

this game is so good it's insanity actually. the premise & gameplay are so simple, and yet it hooks you hard! i've never been THIS invested in a game's worldbuilding - you literally got no choice but to try to do multiple playthroughs to see how each event might turn up with every different decision.

p.s. tangent and rex, you both are beloved to me

Despite its Sci-Fi setting I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, like few other games I have played, encapsules what it is like growing up.
To become an adult, see you friends grow up into real humans with opinions and hopes and dreams that sometimes mesh with yours, and sometimes clash. Some people you will be close to forever, some you might grow apart from.
Discovering romance and sex, in all its innocence and awkwardness and sweetness. Celebrate birthdays. Morn losses.
Look back at it all, years later, realizing that you truly are a combination of everything you ve ever met, and everything that ever happened to you