A spaceship with friends and family on board passes through a wormhole, loses consciousness, and wakes up days later on a new planet far from Earth. You are her ten years old and this is your new home. It’s time to make the most of it.
of I was a teenage exocolonist, a narrative deck builder RPG, where you come of age on an alien planet. The decisions you make as you grow up from age 10 to 20 will affect how your colony survives on this new frontier. Luckily, we have multiple shots to bring the colony to a better life. marmot day The mechanic can be played over and over with your past life visionaries.The story is beautifully tender and sometimes tragic. Starting over is a precious thrill, teenage exocolonist Unforgettable. How can we help you this time? Will the adults around you believe your strange premonitions, and how will things change in your next life?
teenage exocolonist It has a steady rhythm. Every month I spend building skills such as Biology, Reasoning, and Toughness by doing activities and talking to friends and family. colony base There are classrooms where you can study the humanities and engineering. Or maybe you prefer babysitting or sneaking out on road trips. There are exactly 13 months in a year, so you need to use your time wisely. Each year ends with “Glow,” a month in which alien animals are driven to attack. You have to prepare.
A simple but catchy card game starts when you do an “activity”. Cards are dealt from the character’s living deck and build hands to achieve the highest poker-like score. Flush, Straight and Pairs give bonuses and come in three “suit” colors (yellow, blue or red). You receive new cards in your living deck depending on the decisions you make at key story moments. For example, my sneaking out at the beginning of the month added a yellow card to my living deck themed on my little act of courage. is.)
Image: Northway Games/Finji
Luckily, losing a card game is not a failure. Win or lose, nearly every challenge rewards you with great storytelling and new cards. Playing as a nerdy but brave girl named Solana, I got a card eaten by a monster. I jumped in to protect my friends, but I didn’t really have the fighting skills to fight the beast. As such, the game offers multiple options for advancing the story. For example, use Perception skills to slip past adults when their Persuasion stats are too weak to lie to them. At age 10, the stakes of my choice were low, but by age 17, political tensions had risen in my colony, and the survival of protists on alien planets and my people’s lives in all of it. I had to make a serious decision about my role.
Building relationships is also an important part of the game. As Solana, she rolled her eyes at her overprotective parents, but still tended floating cows with her father. I worked with my botany-loving friend Cal on geoponics, told him fun nature facts, and got a cute blue Hopeeye-themed card for my deck. He didn’t quite get along with my girlfriend Tangente, but we became best friends. (When you hooked up with Tang, you got a fun “endorphin release” card.) In subsequent playthroughs, I fell in love with sweet Tammy, who baked me a cake for my birthday every year, and the ever-ready extrovert I got to know her Marz, a close friend. in plan.
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Image: Northway Games/Finji
The game’s portrayal of intimacy is strikingly nuanced, from hookups to dating. At a high enough friendship level, any of the characters around your age can fall in love, regardless of gender, and some are interested in polyamorous relationships. Darker stories also exist, such as about (you can and, frankly, have to) break up. teenage exocolonistWhen creating a character, instead of dictating gender in binary, you can use sliders to select points on the spectrum. A further menu allows you to select more specific pronouns.A character’s gender expression can be changed at any point in the game and does not affect who can be romantically involved.
teenage exocolonist It makes for a touching and challenging coming-of-age story with real stakes and exceptional replayability. have a life You have to make more friends and avoid more crises. With 30 potential endings, the options are plenty.
I was a teenage exocolonist Released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows PC on August 25th. This game was reviewed on PC via Steam using a download code provided by Northway Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.
