What if the end of high school were the end of the world? No: literally. All the feels, all at once. Very minor gripes about gated content necessitating several full replays to see all possibilities aside—and at least one character that might be a secret jerk but, okay, whatever: teens be like that, it's not their fault—I think it's a beautiful little masterpiece and an absolute standout of the genre.

peak

I picked up Goodbye Volcano High last year on a sale and thought I'd give it a shot. Looking through others' reviews about this game, there is definitely a common trend of “the game is like marmite”. Some love it while others don't. I fall into the middle of both. The soundtracks are really well composited and I enjoyed listening to them as the mini games progressed.

However, I wasn't so fond of the writing. With the choices you could make, it felt very restrictive in some areas. One example was when winning the competition and you could go out back to meet Naomi (Secret crush) with the only two options both saying you're not ready?? You've spent all this time texting her back and forth, clearly showing a connection for her, and not even an option of “I like you” is available. This would not have affected the story in any way down the line but it felt wrong to put her aside when I, the player, was clearly interested in going forward (With the way I interacted with her over the course of the playthrough).

Also, I do have beef with Trish. Having her shove “you only care about the band and never the people around you / there life” while I've been the most supportive to her across the whole playthrough, annoys the hell out of me. Having a band is challenging and of course balancing friendship with a career is also a challenging thing but Fang, myself, feeling disappointed / annoyed that she isn't available, MULTIPLE TIMES, to practise is a normal reaction for a band who is about to enter a life changing competition. Trish needs to realise she put herself in this when she joined and just casually dropped an uno reverse card to switch career paths, like hello??. “I want to spend more time with my friends” while also being a lot of the time her issue such as babysitting as a common occurrence. Spending twenty to an hour after school days does not cause that much of an effect.

Why should i also be the one to apologise to Naomi for telling her to “**** off” when she literally was dubbing everyone out for no apparent reason? And not having the option to mention this while talking felt like it was my fault?

Secondly, it felt rushed. With there only being 8 chapters, I really couldn't get a feel for the characters due to not having enough interaction with them. Obviously, some characters get more priority due to the story but someone like Rosa, who I was quite interested in getting to know, did not come up all that much towards the ending chapters. Additionally, I'm quite underwhelmed by the plot. Massive meteor possibly coming towards earth and that causes a pandemic like effect? Really?.I felt like there was more to this game.

I understand it's a smaller studio and there are limitations to budget, but it didn't really go anywhere for the original 25 bucks they are asking for. However, I still enjoyed it for what it was. Definitely wish there was a chapter viewer so I could easily replay areas of the game and multiple saves slots would be useful too.

I'd still recommend picking it up on a discount and giving your own opinion about the game. Like I and others have said, it's like marmite and your opinion may vary. And if it turns out you like it, support them back by buying their Soundtrack.