I like a time loop recreation. Give me an Outer Wilds, let me do a sixteenth replay of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. That sense of with the ability to freely discover repercussions (after which getting a clear slate), of constructing stacked, fugue-like methods by days lived time and again — that’s all I need in a recreation. That, and a superb romance arc…or ten. With I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, you get all these parts. And it’s set in house. And one in every of your potential companions is a dog-boy? What was that final one, once more?
In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist from Northway Games, you play as Sol, one of many first youngsters born aboard a colony ship en path to the alien planet Vertumna. You age from 10 to twenty over the course of the sport, and each formative occasion of your life — a battle with a pal, the primary time you kissed somebody, the worst factor that ever occurred to you – will get transformed right into a literal enjoying card representing that reminiscence. Later within the recreation, when that you must, say, ace a faculty challenge or survive an encounter with the planet’s wildlife, you don’t roll cube or unsheath a sword. As an alternative, you assemble a poker-ish hand out of your individual childhood…and hope it does the trick.
It’s an odd mechanic to take a seat with. On a structural degree, the sport is arguing that you’re manufactured from what’s occurred to you. Because it progresses, that mechanic goes a step additional. You’ll be able to select to delete your lower-level playing cards to make room for others as you develop — which, translated into real-life phrases, means you possibly can select to overlook issues. Earlier reminiscences like “guffawing” or “crawling” get shuffled out; one thing doubtlessly heavier will get swapped in. In a 2023 interview with Sport Developer, designer Sarah Northway described needing one thing in-game that the participant might take a look at to strengthen who they have been. The deck does that, like a stat sheet or a talent tree does. However because you compile it and swap playing cards out and in and might (metaphorically) maintain the deck in your arms, it feels extra actual…and extra fragile.
However that’s the big-feelings message of the sport. Once you play, you begin by choosing an exercise for the season — a part-time job scooping bug guts in a xenobiology lab, hanging out with different colonists, looting the perimeters of the map, or college. Each alternative you make does lock you out of the opposite paths for that point interval, which nudges you to specialize. You’ll get hold of factors by succeeding at card challenges and hitting story beats, allocate these factors to statistical data like Revolt or Empathy, and, as you degree up, notice you could have new dialogue, new actions, new folks you possibly can date, all open to you. Ignore a stat fully, and there could or is probably not complete characters you’ll by no means fairly get to know, or storylines that you simply’ll by no means be capable to expertise. (There are zero life classes right here.)
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist typically crops up as a advice in cozy-game circles. Simply as always, somebody will reply to level out that it’s completely not a comfortable recreation, because it will get into actual trauma, loss, and grief. I don’t suppose it is a contradiction. I believe a recreation could be cozy and troublesome, comforting and devastating. I Was a Teenage Exocolonist has earned its spot in each camps; it’s cozy as a result of the artwork is delicate, the music is light, and the rhythm of every day colony life is intentionally unhurried — and it’s a narrative you’ll always remember, as a result of its hardest and saddest selections don’t maintain again.
You gained’t overlook the story, however Sol would possibly. End one life, and your subsequent, in a New Sport+, begins with information baked-in that you simply shouldn’t but have. Sol will see shortcuts by relationships already constructed, or expertise odd visions warning you away from risks you’ve already stumbled into. It’s much less a real new recreation, and nearer to what The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Masks does with its loop…only a full decade as an alternative of three days, and a card recreation as an alternative of an ocarina.
When you can breeze by an preliminary run in 12-15 hours, many players sink 80, 90, 100 hours into this game. Because it seems, that “strive once more, however in a different way, and also you may need extra perception this time” is an idea many people want to see in our personal lives. In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, we are able to try it out.
And in addition, Rex is there. Who’s Rex? Rex is a fan-fave romance option. He’s additionally a dog-boy — and a well-written character with actual insecurities. You would possibly even find yourself with him, for those who’re fortunate. However that’s simply one of many recreation’s 29 doable endings. That feels like so much, till you do not forget that only one decade of your one life on this one planet incorporates a whole lot of tiny, consequential choices. You would possibly end the sport operating the colony’s authorities, piloting a analysis vessel, or tending to your vegetable backyard. Irrespective of the place your one life finally ends up, getting there feels so very earned — each single time you reside it.
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is obtainable on PC, PS4, PS5, and Change.