• Price: $24.99 USD
• Developer: Northway Games
• Publisher: Finji
• Release Date: August 25, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by ICO Partners on behalf of Northway Games and Finji. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

CONTENT WARNINGS: The game is rated T, and includes themes such as death (adults AND children), starvation, mentioned teenage sexuality and more. Click HERE for an expanded list of warnings.

I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is a simulation game where a group of people have had enough of Earth’s many issues, and decide to leave to form a space colony on “Vertumna IV.” Inspired by the Princess Maker games, Long Live The Queen, and Chinese Parents, the game has you make decisions on how your character will develop across a 10 year period in these new lands.

As the game involves growing up on an unfamiliar alien planet, there will naturally be many dangers there. The developer included a list of the game’s content warnings directly on the main menu (and website linked above), and clicking on each warning will give you more detailed information on that specific content. I think it’s really considerate to list these front and center before you even start. You’ll lose many characters during the 10 year timeframe – at least in your first playthrough.

Your character was born on-board the colony ship, and spent their first 10 years of life there. You can choose your character’s name, pronouns, and appearance (feminine/androgynous/masculine) for their late teen years. There are transgender and non-binary characters for you to befriend as well. The inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters is yet another example of the developer’s thoughtful consideration for the player’s comfort and delight at having representation in a game.

After determining your character’s gender, you’ll select one of six “genetic enhancement” options as well as the character you want as your childhood best friend. The enhancement you choose will affect your stat growth. Once you’ve finished deciding on your character’s specifications, the spaceship will land, and it’s time to explore.

At first, you’ll be somewhat limited by what you can do. Your stats and the passage of time will determine when you can access a certain building, job, or class. One job may require a stat to be 30 or higher in order to unlock it, and an action on an expedition or during a friend interaction may have similar requirements. There are 12 stats with 3 levels each, which will give you additional perks such as being able to skip non-boss events on expeditions. You’re allotted one major action a month; talking to your friends and parents won’t pass the time, but going to class, performing a job, or going on expeditions will cause the month to end.

Each year lasts 13 months across four main seasons plus a special season. The four main seasons have three months each, which are simply known as Early, Mid, or Late “Name” Season. While you can choose one thing to do per month, you can only give your friends one gift per season. It’s important to be strategic in how you spend your time in order to get the maximum effect from your actions. (For example, there is a stress gauge that increases with each action, but it seems best to wait to rest until it’s full due to resting decreasing stress by 100%).

Regardless of what you choose to do, when you work or go to school the gameplay involves card-based challenges. You’ll play a card challenge as the month goes by, and if you win the challenge the relevant stat(s) will increase. Cards will belong to either social, mental, or physical categories (corresponding with your stats), which work better for certain card challenges. Each card has its own value, ranging from 0 to about 11, and some also have bonuses like additional points when next to a card of the same number or color.

The goal of card challenges is to place five cards that at least meet the numeric goal (if not exceed it for a bonus). There are more difficult challenges with three rounds that have you play 3 cards in Round 1, 4 cards in Round 2, and 5 cards in Round 3. It can be challenging due to the random hands you get, and if you want an even bigger challenge you can turn on harder card challenges in settings. You can even choose to skip the card challenges all together, but I wouldn’t recommend skipping them because it seemed like there was a higher chance of defeat due to a lack of control there. To help you succeed in card challenges, you can acquire new cards with higher values through interactions with your friends and through jobs, classes, and expeditions. The cards are aptly called “Memories,” as their names and art tend to be related to the interaction where you got them.

While you can also interact with the adult characters like your parents, the main focus is on your fellow teenagers. There are 9 main characters (and 1 “special” character) for you to befriend and possible romance. I loved that they chose to allow you to date any character regardless of gender. As indicated in the content warnings above, teenage sexuality is mentioned in the game. It’s not a huge focus, but they have a sex ed scene, mention birth control implants, and there is talk of hickies and offscreen “encounters.” (The game covers up to age 20.)

Polyamory is even an option depending on the character’s wishes. Two characters seem to act as romantic rivals; they get together by default so you may have to put in a lot of effort to romance one or the other. There’s also some sort of secret admirer mechanic, but I wasn’t sure how it worked because I had characters with less friendship who would end up as my admirer instead of the one I wanted. 😢 Anyway, as it seems to usually go with teenagers, the romantic interactions aren’t overly deep during the game; you’ll learn more about their relationship as adults after finishing a playthrough.

I thought they did a great job with the way they handled gender here, as well as the desire – or lack thereof – for children. One character was “assigned male at birth,” but there was apparently some technology that resolved her dysphoria and allowed her to live in a body that truly matched her gender. When speaking of your character’s changing body, the game asks if you have male or female parts – or even neither. I also really appreciated that each female character had their own individual opinions on children. A few were not interested in the slightest, while another was very enthusiastic. Some of these subjects may make some people uncomfortable, but it’s a natural part of life, and teenagers will be teenagers whether they’re on Earth or Vertumna IV.

I really liked most of the characters in I Was A Teenage Exocolonist. Dys and the “secret” character were probably my favorites, as well as Tangent, Rex, and Nomi-Nomi. I liked some of the characters’ personalities when they were children but then disliked them as adults, or vice-versa. I also loved the character names, like Anemone, Tangent, and Geranium – or Professor Hal (it’s actually short for Halitosis – or bad breath 😂). It was cool getting to know the characters and watch them grow up. They all have their own unique personalities, interests, and gift preferences. Just be sure to save before speaking with them in case you make the wrong dialogue choice!

Although you can have good times with your friends, it’s not all fun and games. The alien creatures native to Vertumna IV will attack the colony every Glow Season. Some characters will die during Glow Season, while others may die due to incidents during the “regular” seasons. In your first playthrough, people will die from preventable deaths without fail because you haven’t experienced these events before. I believe one character in particular is unfortunately fated to die no matter what. However, in subsequent playthroughs you can change the fates of many characters because the game incorporates a timeloop into the plot.

Besides the Glow Season attacks, you’ll also go out on risky expeditions to survey the areas surrounding the colony. When you go outside of the colony’s walls, you’ll have to face some aggressive alien creatures who are rightfully incensed at your invasion of their habitat. These confrontations are represented by the card challenges, but your character can still get hurt.

After you’ve finished your first playthrough, you should have the knowledge to prevent some of the deaths that took place. There are other issues plaguing the colony that you wouldn’t have known how to fix the first time. Any playthrough after your first one will include dialogue or choices with a purple icon indicating that your previous attempt has given you knowledge to change something. And when you play through the game again, you can choose to fully befriend characters you didn’t have time to get to know as well before. You can also choose to focus on different classes and jobs – and therefore different stats. (Unfortunately, stats do not carry over into new playthroughs.)

I absolutely love that there’s a timeloop aspect to the game. Time travel is one of my favorite themes in stories. In this game, you live your life across a ten year period, and at the end your consciousness will go back to the beginning. It doesn’t seem like you have full access to your memories, but you have enough that you know where, when, and how something bad happened in a previous life. I saved several people that died in my first playthrough by using this knowledge (based on my memory).

Vertumna IV can be terrifying yet absolutely gorgeous at the same time. When I write reviews, I generally take about 100 screenshots to give myself some variety to choose from. For I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, I got very close to 1,000 screenshots because of how much I loved the art and graphics (and even the dialogue). The character and creature art, the environments, the CGs, and the heart art of the cards are all just breathtaking. And the soundtrack is just as amazing – you can check out the full soundtrack here on the developer’s YouTube channel:

There are an amazing amount of background details in both the art and in the world building. There’s a background AI character that tells silly jokes in binary code. You may learn more about the situation on Earth that made your parents want to leave. There are political and ethical arguments about who is in power and how to handle the surrounding wildlife. Will you be more militant in your handling of the alien creatures’ violent attacks against the colony, or will you try to peacefully coexist with the native beings? Try out one option in one playthrough, then give the other a try in the next.

The developer posted in the game’s Steam community that they’ve worked on this game for 5 years. And to me it really shows with the amount of content. Even by my seventh (!!!) playthrough I was still seeing some new events I hadn’t seen before. I’ve always loved the new game plus function in games, and I’ll usually play in NG+ mode immediately. I don’t tend to replay a game more than twice in a row until more time has passed, but I Was A Teenage Exocolonist really “sent me into orbit” (haha because space) and made me want to play it over and over again to discover what I’d missed before.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is a fantastic visual novel/deck building simulation game set in a space colony. Some aspects could be a little unclear, like the part with the secret admirer or how exactly your occupation is selected for an ending. But it’s honestly one of my favorite games I’ve played in a long time. The art, music, fantastic LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and huge variety of choice in the game are all incredibly impressive. It’s a refreshingly open look at how children develop into teenagers – even while dealing with changes and trauma in their lives on a new planet. The developer does not hide from the reality that teenagers will often concern themselves with their sexuality or dangerous events that adults are “handling.” There’s darkness and tragedy that envelops Vertumna IV, but there are still moments where the characters can act like the children they are and have fun. I know I certainly did, because I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is a real…star. ⭐️😉 9/10