So last time I started a run I said it was going to be the last one. A standard teenage love story where the childhood best friends end up together after the girl gets hurt by a bad guy, but I didn't like the ending that resulted in for either party.
I thought maybe if I made peace with the planet, the outcome will improve dramatically. So my goals for the run are negotiate true peace, date anemone, and become governor.
So breaking this down to its requirements as I see:
80 toughness for free friendship with anemone
Max persuasion for becoming governor, helping anemone, and the final negotiations
Max(?) Animals for final negotiations
Max(?) Reasoning for final negotiations
I don't know if peace ending changes the final scene, but also max in bravery, biology, or combat to avoid the ded
35 biology for xenobotany
Keeping hal alive for the data stick
Keeping eudicot alive for a free council vote
Max friendship with anemone
Max friendship with marz
Max friendship with sym
Max friendship with dys
Man that's a lot, and given that maxing sym and dys requires going on expeditions I'll also be resting a lot until max bravery and even beyond. It sounds like a lot when I write it down, but it's it manageable? I know peace and governor are possible since they require one another. Exploring a lot will get me plenty of gifts, in my experience, so hopefully I'll be able to get everyone a loved present once a season. Exploring will also help max toughness, bravery, and animals, and progressing dys and sym relationships. Augmenting bravery with sports all and guard duty will progress anemone's friendship. Working at the government building will get me both persuasion and marz friendship.
I'm thinking the best start will be the +persuasion gear, and friendship with anemone, as it will instantly give me access to sneaking out and delivering supplies, advance me in the friendship that's most likely to lag behind, and give me a +friendship response to the soysweets event with marz.
My big concern is reasoning as it seems the schedule is already going to be right, I don't know if I'll have time to sort out reasoning on top of everything else.
So what do you guys think? Possible, or a pipe dream?
Hi @LegendofDragoon, I know I'm the one who invited you here, but I'm not sure if this really fits with the content of this sub. I'm going to leave your post up ~~for a while~~ in case anyone else has an answer for you or wants to weigh in. I'm afraid I don't have any insight to whether what you want to do in exocolonist is possible.
Back on reddit discussion of this game was mostly posted on rainbowotome. Since the fediverse isn't big enough to have that equivalent community, we could encompass their topic here like we are doing for BL.
edited
@LegendofDragoon
I haven't played the game so I can't help, I'm sorry. But I do like stat raisers for the most part. Can you elaborate more on the ending you didn't like? I've run into a few unsatisfying endings that make me concerned about signing up for a long game if there isn't a payoff. How long would you say one run through is?
Individual endings aren't super long to get to on their own. My first run took between 10 and 12 hours, and subsequent ones a little less. I think I could go beginning to end in maybe a 6-8 hour session.
Some of the endings are great. As I mentioned in the op, making peace is an option, and as I hadn't done it on the playthrough we were still at war in the end, leading to the early death of both the main character and the bachelorette, I'm thinking perhaps making peace would lead to a better end.
Trying to avoid any more major spoilers in case you decide to play
I would go for it. I consider 6-8 hours to be pretty long, but you don't seem to lol. The only other thing I can think of it to reach out to devs themselves and ask if what you want to do is possible. From what you've said though, it sounds like it should be an ending they've thought of.
@Catch42
@LegendofDragoon
I spent 45 hours on Gilded Shadows (8 routes) so even VNs can have a lot of time put into them. I usually try to get $1/hour of reading/playing. Video games are almost always a good exchange for money.
I probably spent 160 on Dragon Age Origins, 120 on Dragon Age 2, and 350 on Dragon Age Inquisition so I am used to games that are part time jobs for a couple of weeks for $60.
Yeah, old habits I guess, coming from RPGs where your time in theme is often measured in hundreds of hours. I have played a few VNs where individual routes can be kind of chunky
@Catch42
MC can be whatever gender. There are 10 romanceable characters in I Was A Teenage Exocolonist for you to fall in love with. These are Marz, Anemone, Tangent, Tammy, Dys, Cal, Sym, Vace, Nomi-Nomi, and Rex. 5 are male, 1 non binary, and 4 female. Why is it not considered Otome? Because of the stat raising?
Definitely not because of the stat-raising! I don't really know why it wouldn't be considered otome, but I've never seen games like it discussed on the old r/otomegames subreddit. That said, we are not them, and we can encompass a broader slice of otome games than them. :)
@Catch42
I think we should generally be more broad in that the definition should be "option of female protagonist, more boys to kiss than girls/non binary and a strong focus on romance." So I wouldn't count Stardew Valley because there actually isn't that much romance in that game. They (reddit otomegames) actually exclude newer Otome games that are stat raisers or have a lot of video game mechanics like fighting or farming sims. It may be why this game wasn't brought up there. But in general, that reddit just isn't interested in English as original language visual novels in general.
I’d imagine heavy focus on romance, a female protagonist, and majority-male romance options is enough to qualify for otome over there. I don’t remember them explicitly excluding stat raisers or games with more than visual novel mechanics, just excluding games where the protagonist isn’t always a woman. I do love me some inclusive games but, influenced by r/otomegames, I mentally categorize games with a romance focus that aren’t solely “woman with majority-male romance options” as amare games instead.
Maybe that's why my gut reaction was that this game didn't belong; you can play as any gender, but you can't play as any gender presentation. The main character has the same androgynous look no matter what pronouns you choose.
r/otomegames excluded games where the protagonist isn't always a woman, but at seems needlessly exclusive to me. Perhaps we can set the minimum to having the option of a protagonist who is both female and female presenting. Having a romance focus and majority-male romance options are necessary too and seem to be something we all already agree on.
I'll make a dedicated thread tomorrow so everyone who wants to can weigh in without having to click on an unrelated thread.
…except Our Life lmao, brought up on that subreddit frequently. I think the canon or default protagonist is non-binary. You can absolutely play as a girl (because this mostly takes place at 18 and below) who’s female-presenting though.
Thanks for checking in with the users by the way!