I've been a fan of Sarah Northway's games since the halcyon days of Rebuild as a flash game, so I was incredibly excited about this particular one. A VN/raising sim about growing up in space, with a large cast of romanceable characters? Sign me up!
It's exactly what it says on the tin: you're a teenage exocolonist exploring a newly discovered planet and living alongside your family in a hippie compound. Because it's a cult that's escaping Earth and capitalism and trying to build a different way of living in a completely new place, Vertumna. Vertumna is a strange place. See, the name isn't just a reference to pulp novels: the entire game is about the intersection between the liminal state of teenagehood and the liminal state of being in a new alien place. The entire planet is a heaving, alive environment full of hormones and horniness and bodily functions. The plants are kinda animals and the animals are kinda fungus and it's so welcoming and so intent on killing you. And then there's hot aliens! And mysteries to be solved! And famine! And war! And evil fungus!
Any gender for Sol (the game lets you pick their gender presentation, their genitals, their pronouns, etc.) and any ending is fine - but you must keep Sol’s canonical mullet. Important character note, that terrible mullet.
I really ship Rex/Vace and I feel so bad for Rex but i'm sorry, dog boy, I think it'd be hot!
Vace is “and then there’s this asshole” personified. He’s a great irritant on narrative terms, disrupting the well-established dynamics instead of fitting into them like Rex and Nomi. But he’s also such an absolute dick! An understandable one, yes, but still.
Meanwhile, Rex is the goodest boy Vertumna has seen: positive, open, fun. So willing to go out and experience life, to meet new people and with more chill than the Antarctic Circle. So hot, as well! But add Vace to the situation and he gets angry and shows a more aggressive side (which is warranted because, again, Vace’s an asshole).
So of course, they need to be smashed against each other. The tags here run the whole range from dark to maybe fluffy and I’m happy for any type of tone.