I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a staggering work from developer Northway Games about a group of Earth runaways destined to colonize an alien planet. You create a character with custom attributes and then begin to build your life and future, as well as shaping the lives of others, from the ages of 10 to 20. Dealing with change, grief, life, destiny, capitalism, climate change, animal rights, and so much more, the game has A LOT to say. At times, it can be extremely heavy with no reprieve and at other times it can feel moderately repetitive and without a clear focus, but the desire to see your future may keep you invested to live amongst the stars.
IWATE is mainly a visual novel with strategy/deckbuilding elements. Most of the game is based on your core skills, separated into physical, mental, and social categories with 4 skills each. You can choose where to increase your stats, as performing any activity in your budding colony will raise your stats in some way. The game doesn't hide much about benefits from each action, so you can very easily plan what you want to spend your time on and craft a plan as to how to achieve your goals. There are many ways to advance your colony, from working with your parents in the gardening domes, taking classes, and working odd jobs to make some spending cash. These actions increase in volume and complexity as the years pass, but they are all relatively interesting and grow your arsenal naturally as you get older. In performing each activity, you are tasked with hitting certain skill checks. Simple dialogue options are a pass/fail (you need to simply have the skill number high enough), and others are a contested check. These "challenges" take the form of a card game, where you must assemble a row of up to 5 cards that can add up to the target number. You gain cards by just living, collecting memories, and using their special effects to increase your card score. I loved this system, and the memory cards made me really remember everything my character had been through in his journey. Cards gradually get better, and add crazier effects, so careful placement and strategy will be necessary to succeed. The game doesn't REQUIRE wins every time though, and the story adapts to mark when you fail. The game is very generous about its idea that life keeps moving on, and there is no fail state for the game at all.
The characters in your colony are an interesting bunch. The core cast are the kids who grow up with you, who you'll see mature and evolve as the decade passes. You get 13 months for 10 years to develop relationships with them, from totally distancing yourself from one to falling in love with another. I liked the freedom in choices here, and I was able to completely cut out some vile figures. Unfortunately, towards the back half of the game, I started to feel like there was little I could actually do to sway my relationships with the cast because actions I had made earlier or DIDN'T make had adverse affects and/or I didn't like who these people were growing up to become. I really value how human these people are written to be. There is no single "good" person, and everyone has their flaws and hostile moments, but they also give you genuine moments of heart, with grounded human conversations that dig to the core of humanity, love, and war. There are many fascinating scenes told here, and the sheer amount of text on display is worth the price of admission.
IWATE really hits its stride when it walks the careful balance between letting you choose what you want, but guiding you along with its story beats. Over the 10 years, the kids experience a lot of events, and the game pulls no punches. Unfortunately, much of the tension basically died by the last year of my playthrough, resulting in an ending that felt like the game didn't know what to do with my character or the future I had chosen. The game strongly recommends (and is essentially built for) many playthroughs to change outcomes and see what happens, but the game is just a little too long with no way to speed up progress for me to try the whole thing over immediately. I can see how little I actually was able to touch in one playthrough, but I can't help but be disappointed that I couldn't reach a "true" ending or find some closure for all characters in a clean way. I only hope a second or third playthrough could iron that out once you know more.
For fans of Persona and FE:3H, this game will be right up your alley. There is a lot of game here, and the learning barrier is not as high as other text-based RPGs like Disco Elysium or Citizen Sleeper. But while all of those games find a way to give you an ending worth the investment, I Was a Teenage Excolonist may leave you needing a reset to explore more of its secrets. However, ihe art and music are gorgeous and the script effortlessly floats between dozens of engaging themes and sci-fi concepts that really coalesces into a fleshed out, beautiful world to live in for a while.
IWATE is mainly a visual novel with strategy/deckbuilding elements. Most of the game is based on your core skills, separated into physical, mental, and social categories with 4 skills each. You can choose where to increase your stats, as performing any activity in your budding colony will raise your stats in some way. The game doesn't hide much about benefits from each action, so you can very easily plan what you want to spend your time on and craft a plan as to how to achieve your goals. There are many ways to advance your colony, from working with your parents in the gardening domes, taking classes, and working odd jobs to make some spending cash. These actions increase in volume and complexity as the years pass, but they are all relatively interesting and grow your arsenal naturally as you get older. In performing each activity, you are tasked with hitting certain skill checks. Simple dialogue options are a pass/fail (you need to simply have the skill number high enough), and others are a contested check. These "challenges" take the form of a card game, where you must assemble a row of up to 5 cards that can add up to the target number. You gain cards by just living, collecting memories, and using their special effects to increase your card score. I loved this system, and the memory cards made me really remember everything my character had been through in his journey. Cards gradually get better, and add crazier effects, so careful placement and strategy will be necessary to succeed. The game doesn't REQUIRE wins every time though, and the story adapts to mark when you fail. The game is very generous about its idea that life keeps moving on, and there is no fail state for the game at all.
The characters in your colony are an interesting bunch. The core cast are the kids who grow up with you, who you'll see mature and evolve as the decade passes. You get 13 months for 10 years to develop relationships with them, from totally distancing yourself from one to falling in love with another. I liked the freedom in choices here, and I was able to completely cut out some vile figures. Unfortunately, towards the back half of the game, I started to feel like there was little I could actually do to sway my relationships with the cast because actions I had made earlier or DIDN'T make had adverse affects and/or I didn't like who these people were growing up to become. I really value how human these people are written to be. There is no single "good" person, and everyone has their flaws and hostile moments, but they also give you genuine moments of heart, with grounded human conversations that dig to the core of humanity, love, and war. There are many fascinating scenes told here, and the sheer amount of text on display is worth the price of admission.
IWATE really hits its stride when it walks the careful balance between letting you choose what you want, but guiding you along with its story beats. Over the 10 years, the kids experience a lot of events, and the game pulls no punches. Unfortunately, much of the tension basically died by the last year of my playthrough, resulting in an ending that felt like the game didn't know what to do with my character or the future I had chosen. The game strongly recommends (and is essentially built for) many playthroughs to change outcomes and see what happens, but the game is just a little too long with no way to speed up progress for me to try the whole thing over immediately. I can see how little I actually was able to touch in one playthrough, but I can't help but be disappointed that I couldn't reach a "true" ending or find some closure for all characters in a clean way. I only hope a second or third playthrough could iron that out once you know more.
For fans of Persona and FE:3H, this game will be right up your alley. There is a lot of game here, and the learning barrier is not as high as other text-based RPGs like Disco Elysium or Citizen Sleeper. But while all of those games find a way to give you an ending worth the investment, I Was a Teenage Excolonist may leave you needing a reset to explore more of its secrets. However, ihe art and music are gorgeous and the script effortlessly floats between dozens of engaging themes and sci-fi concepts that really coalesces into a fleshed out, beautiful world to live in for a while.