Goodbye Volcano High has been the subject of a lot more attention, and the accompanying online slings and arrows, than your typical indie visual novel. The game’s quirky “dinosaur teenagers on the eve of the apocalypse” premise garnered a lot of attention when it was announced as a PlayStation console exclusive back in 2020, and in the years since, it’s suffered through several delays, a complete revamp of its story, and other controversies. Despite all this, Montreal-based developer KO_OP weathered the storm, and Goodbye Volcano High was finally released this week (without review codes going out early to the press, hence the slight lateness of this review).
Is Goodbye Volcano High worthy of the outsized amount of attention that’s been paid to it? Or is the end result a brontosaurus-sized letdown? Time to go back (way, way back) to school…
Goodbye Volcano High casts players as anthropomorphic pterodactyl high school senior Fang, who has grand plans to win a competition (it wouldn’t be a teen drama without a battle of the bands) and take their group Worm Drama on tour post-graduation. The problem is, Fang’s bandmates don’t really seem as into the idea. Guitarist Trish is all fired up to be an entomologist, and drummer Reed seems to be leaning towards a writing career (don’t do it, Reed). Oh, and it seems a giant asteroid may just be coming to obliterate all dino civilization, which would likely mess with any potential record deals.
High school friends drifting apart as they discover their true paths in life is a pretty universal and relatable experience, and this game handles the subject with a fairly deft touch. There’s been a lot of conversation this year about games like Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum overdoing it on the snarky Whedonesque dialogue, but despite appearances, Goodbye Volcano High isn’t guilty of this. The game is happy to let its characters breathe, rarely coming off as too cloying or over-eager.
This laid-back approach to storytelling is both a positive and negative. You can be chill, but you don’t want to be inert. The conflict I described a couple of paragraphs up – Fang wanting to go all-in on music while their bandmates are into other things – is fine as a minor conflict. Worthy of a subplot in a story with bigger fish to fry. Unfortunately, Goodbye Volcano High never lands those bigger fish. This band spat remains the central conflict right until the end.
Even with an asteroid looming overhead, Goodbye Volcano High feels extremely low-stakes. The game’s entire cast of characters are endlessly nice, understanding, and supportive. No conflict is ever anything more than a misunderstanding, easily resolved with a quick heart-to-heart. And what I’m describing now is the dramatic stuff. Fairly large swaths of Goodbye Volcano High are devoted to objectively boring things, like assemblies, school pictures, and college applications.
Maybe teenagerdom has changed since I was a callow youth, but I recall it being a time of heightened emotions and experiences. While playing this game, I couldn’t help but wonder… where are the bullies? The mean girls? The genuine betrayals? The sex? The drugs? Those particularly raw heartbreaks? The not-so-easily-resolved confusion? The plain old youthful callousness and stupidity? Heck, most of the characters’ parents are inexplicably away for most of the game, and we don’t see anybody throw a single party! Everybody in Goodbye Volcano High is a teacher’s pet who’s already discovered that special thing they’re great at. Nobody’s truly lost or searching. Even Fang, who’s painted as the superficial rebel, is a keener – they just polish apples for the local music promoter instead of their teachers.
The way Goodbye Volcano High treats its impending apocalypse is also somewhat bewildering. Early on, characters barely pay the asteroid any mind, which makes some sense as it’s more of an abstract threat at that point. Later, the danger becomes more imminent, and the game switches from using the asteroid as a metaphor for climate change to a metaphor for COVID, which feels… off. Characters whine limply that the asteroid has caused the cancelation of the local music festival when they should probably be more concerned that they may soon be violently wiped off the planet in a hail of fire. I can see what the writers were aiming at, but it just doesn’t quite fit.
While I’ve spent the last few paragraphs venting, I should say I did find the characters in Goodbye Volcano High likable, even if their personalities blend together a bit. By the end of the game, I did feel immersed in this group of nerdy friends and had my favorites (the bookish Naomi) and not-so-favorites (Stella and her tarot cards can hit the bricks). There are some charming moments sprinkled throughout, with a sweet subplot involving a secret admirer coming to mind. Perhaps I’m just too old for this and those closer in age to Goodbye Volcano High’s teenage protagonists will find their minor dramas more compelling than I did.
While Goodbye Volcano High’s storytelling is sometimes a bit flat, its visuals certainly pop. Characters designs won’t be for everybody, but they’re expressive, and the game has a nice crisp, colorful look to it. The game does take some shortcuts when it comes to animation, with characters popping from pose to pose and mouth movements not always syncing perfectly to dialogue, but you get used to it fairly quickly. While the breathy indie pop that makes up the majority of the game’s soundtrack isn’t necessarily my thing, I can appreciate the catchiness of these songs, and Fang’s singing voice Brigitte Naggar (aka Common Holly) has good pipes. The game’s voice work is generally good, with recognizable names like Lachlan Watson (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Allegra Clark (Apex Legends and countless other video games) bringing the characters to life.
Speaking of the game’s music, perhaps we should discuss how Goodbye Volcano High actually plays? The main interactive element of the game are a series of rhythm challenges that task you with tilting the left analog stick and hitting buttons in time with the music. The system is simple; you don’t need to have any musical knowledge at all, but it works well enough. It would be nice if the game provided you with a bit more feedback. Not a lot actually happens if your timing is off, but getting into a good flow is satisfying and later songs throw a lot at you.
Outside of these musical interludes, most of Goodbye Volcano High is fairly standard visual novel fare. There are many dialogue choices, and while the game arrives at a set ending, your decisions will allow you to become closer friends with specific characters and unlock extra scenes with them. The game also peppers in a handful of fun asides, including designing your own logos and posters for your band and even taking part in a few D&D-like roleplaying sessions.
Goodbye Volcano High throws quite a bit in the pot, and the end result is a fairly hearty experience, at least by indie visual novel standards. Your first playthrough will probably take most players five or six hours and there’s some reason to replay if you want to change your responses and friendships, although I’m not sure everyone will want to repeat their senior year.
This review was based on a PS5 copy of Goodbye Volcano High provided by publisher KO_OP.
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