Platform: PC (version reviewed), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
Genre: End Times-Setting Visual Novel Philosophy Pondering Written By Juveniles

In Malaysia, there is a derogatory term called “syok sendiri” which is basically “self-conceited/self-absorbed”, a dangerous feeling and mentality to have when making games in a very competitive field. Sure, if you’re doing an art indie project, that’s fair game (free speech and all). But when your visual novel in development hell (due to unreasonable issues) ended up being in a PlayStation Showcase trailer, expectations are high, especially with the amount you are charging for a complete game for your intended audience.

Goodbye Volcano High is a prime example of a “syok sendiri” game: a visual novel made for certain folks who find the tackling of an “end of the world is coming” scenario with specific current-times viewpoints seminally entertaining and insightful. It’s as whitebread as visual novels can get, doing little to showcase the genre’s virtues.

Jurassic Rock?

The story and philosophy of Goodbye Volcano High is interesting: what would you do if it were your last days in the world you’re in? The setting itself is interesting: a high school and middle-class area run by anthropomorphic dinosaurs (dinosaur furries), with you playing the role of Fang who just wants to get into a Battle of the Bands type competition while convincing her bandmates to keep at it, despite them having different goals and expectations.

And they’re the feathered kind to boot. I can let the “feather dinosaur” aesthetic slide; while the artstyle isn’t that good-looking personally, the animation and key moments are at least done up well production-wise. Ditto the music; the original songs played here are at least done well, with an appropriately simplistic rhythm minigame that is “Hatsune Miku rhythm game but for beginners” tailor-made for its visual novel-playing audience who probably aren’t used to the genre. It’s no Guitar Hero, but it’s serviceable since the game’s main focus is its story and the choices you make.

As you make your decisions as Fang -bond/flirt with your middle-class suburban schoolmates and bond/argue with your middle-class sibling- you unlock flashbacks that flesh out the characters and photos to commemorate key moments leading to the climax of the 5-hour game you’re presented. There’s even a neat effect where the “correct” choices are highlighted with squiggly lines, denoting either the “right” choice or the angry choice to forward the plot to your liking. Ultimately, though, it does reinforce the game’s illusion of choice because the game is leading you down to its intended paths and themes. Is it good and insightful though? No, it isn’t.

2 hours into the game, I only laughed at one joke. Within those 2 hours, I just felt like going through Goodbye Volcano High’s text and stories were more of a professional obligation than an actual interest in the subject matter. For a visual novel that needs to balance drama and humour with a cheery art style, that’s not a good sign.

The characters from Fang to Trish to Naser are just recreations and mashups of teenage tropes you’ve seen in the past few Netflix teen dramas and comedies that have been showing up; they feel less like characters and more like obnoxious walking caricatures with messages they want to shove down its audience’s throats. The same kind of Western-style writing and narrative that has haunted the visual novel/narrative-heavy game genre since 2013’s Gone Home is pretty much in full effect here, just in a furry-covered school drama setting. I really tried to jive with Fang’s passion for getting the band playing for future opportunities, but in all honesty the writing and characterization isn’t doing it for me. In the hands of better writers, the selfish “world revolves around them” archetype would be relatable and even likeable to a fault.

As a “bonus”, the game features a Dungeons & Dragons segment that wears out its welcome way, way fast. The game also handles the “in-game version of Twitter/X” poorly and half-assed, with not much care given to dress it up in its dinosaur setting. And I have seen tons of terrible parodies of Twitter/X in games.

Triassic Tepidness

Goodbye Volcano High just feels like a very tryhard Life Is Strange with furries and full of hodge-podge maudlin writing. And if your story isn’t strong enough, what hope is there for your gameplay aspect in the visual novel, where there branching paths are minimal, with some choices not mattering in the long run and all leading towards a schmaltzy Hallmark moment, tacked on with brain-dead rhythm game mechanics? And why don’t these songs have lyrics on-screen especially if that’s your selling point and it’s all original music? That seems like a wasted effort, but at least that’s one thing that can be fixed with a patch. Pity I can’t say the same for the majority of the game.

Art is subjective; I may not be a fan of the visual stylings here which feel like they came out of a Newgrounds fan game, but it does look better in motion. However, if everything else that makes up the visual novel aspect (the writing, the characters, the storyboarding flow) isn’t up to par with other indie titles that deal with topics just as heavy and depressing, you’ve got problems. It’s not the worst visual novel experience I’ve experienced, but it’s hard for me to recommend Goodbye Volcano High to anyone who isn’t the current woke gaming audience (which is a minority when you think about it). Especially when you’ve found out that there’s a parody game, which delivers the opposite message but in an arguably more entertaining way, that costs you zero dollars.

I’m very sure this game will satiate its niche audience, but I can’t say this is going to change anybody else’s mind about visual novels made by Western developers. Personally, the end can’t come soon enough for these brand of dinosaurs.

Final Score: 40/100