There is something profoundly sad about Goodbye Volcano High. Even when you put aside the thematic brilliance of angsty dinosaur teenagers fearing the arrival of an asteroid poised to wipe out the entire planet, it captures a youthful experience that has increasingly become all about paranoia, belonging, and fearing what the world will soon devolve into.
For zoomers and millennials, we are constantly dealing with the sins of our fathers. Political division, climate change, and a society that keeps turning against one another in spite of the progress we’ve made. Goodbye Volcano High reflects that even in its short demo - available now as part of Steam’s Visual Novel Fest - which has protagonist Fang and their friends all reacting to the news that the aforementioned asteroid is on the way and could very well destroy everything they’ve ever known. Suddenly, on the dawn of a brand-new school year, our cast is expected to carry on like nothing has happened and chase their ambitions.
When news of the inevitable apocalypse breaks, the immediate reaction online and with friends of the same generation is to make jokes, create memes, and ask if the meteor happens to be single. Our prevailing response to oncoming death is “about time” as the group chat is spammed with suggestive emojis and awkward attempts at jokes. It’s oddly perfect, and wouldn’t be far from how my friends and I might bargain with an event so monumental that the only conceivable way to process it is with a joke or two. That, and all the adults in our lives seem oblivious to the truth as we’re asked to carry on with our lives like our own agency doesn’t matter. Like the world can end at our doorstep but the mundane systems we’ve been asked to inhabit must continue to operate until the bitter end.
It’s a profound coming of age story I can’t help but resonate with even in my 20s, especially as a trans woman who felt like much of her youth was stifled thanks to an obligation to the closet. To revisit this period in my life with all the anxiety and unpredictability that defined it is strangely sobering, but also quite emotional. As teenagers in high school on the cusp of adulthood you are constantly told by adults that the whole world is your oyster, and there are countless opportunities out there waiting for you if you stop being lazy and seize them. But the very same adults fail to consider how the world has changed as a result of their actions, and how we are dealing with challenges, anxieties, and so much more which never existed for them. We’re a phantom generation having to navigate labyrinths we didn’t construct.
It reminds me of Life is Strange from DONTNOD, yet another formative game for me which, despite its cringeworthy writing, was a beautifully effective story about a young woman in a town where she didn’t belong, suddenly given magical powers and the chance to change that part of her life. Max Caulfield could fall in love with a girl and leave her home to certain oblivion, or begrudgingly remain with her family while mourning the one person in life who understood her desire for rebellion. A need to belong and scream out loud from the rooftops.
You make new friends, save old ones, and watch the doomsday clock tick down through visions which, while nebulous in their visual execution, hint towards something greater. The game is fantastic even now, and is a firm favourite among queer circles for good reason. Goodbye Volcano High could live up to that legacy if it sticks the landing.
It’s admittedly more absurd with its cast of emo teenagers and musical tone (not to mention dinosaurs going to high school), but it still wants to tackle the themes of growing up in a world which is only getting worse while having to deal with your own sense of identity and belonging. We want to leave this dying place behind with the prevailing thought that we’ve achieved something, even if that’s just band auditions with your friend or falling in love with a flame who might soon fade away.
Goodbye Volcano High is all about finding small pockets of joy in the fear of the unknown, and the prospect of finding happiness before everything comes to an end is enough of an incentive for me to at least step into Fang’s shoes and do my very best.