KO_OP developed Goodbye Volcano High has been a long time coming. First seen way back in 2020 at PlayStation’s ‘Future of Gaming’ showcase, it was thrust well and truly into the spotlight. Revealed alongside massive titles like Ratchet & Clank, Demon’s Souls, and Horizon: Forbidden West; there were automatic expectations placed upon the game.
Then, it kind of just disappeared… For a long time.
And now here we are. The game has been released, with little to no fanfare. With few reviews out, critics presumably weren’t given the opportunity to play it ahead of release. Signs were pointing to the game being a flop.
My curiosity got the better of me, and I had to dive in and see for myself. What I found was an engaging visual novel with a lot of heart and a dope soundtrack. It has some rough edges in places, but certainly nothing warranting the game being quietly ushered out like this. It’s a head scratcher.
Lyrics
Goodbye Volcano High follows the trials and tribulations of Fang, a teenage pterodactyl, starting their senior year of high school. They’re struggling to figure out who they are and how they fit into the world; retreating into their music to cope.
This teenage drama treads some familiar ground. Would it surprise you to find out that a good chunk of the plot revolves around a battle of the bands competition? Or that Fang is slowly realising that the other members aren’t as committed to the band as they thought? Probably not.
A classic coming of age tale then? Well not exactly.
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An apocalyptic backdrop underpins the main story.
It starts with mysterious cell phone outages, which already sound like a nightmare for teenagers. Turns out, an asteroid is on a collision course to Earth, sending electromagnetic pulses to the ground.
As you’d expect with any high school drama, it has its fair share of cliché; but the game spends enough time with its characters that you end up getting emotionally invested in their story. I found myself wishing for a happy ending, even though the odds were not in favour of that.
I think everyone can relate, on some level, to the struggles of the dino-gang. Finding your identity, not fitting in, feeling unaccepted by family, bearing the weight of other people’s perceptions and expectations — the game touches on some pretty complex and heavy themes, not least LGBTIQA+ issues.
Also, a big shout out to Legends and Lore, the in-game version of D&D. You get to participate in several sessions with your friend group, making choices to shape the campaign and combat scenarios. The L&L story often parallels the events of the main story itself.
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Set List
The core gameplay of Goodbye Volcano High is that of an interactive visual novel with some rhythm elements thrown in for good measure.
There’s a big emphasis on making decisions, and the game makes it clear that your choices will shape character relationships in some way, shape or form. There’s a range of player involvement, from seemingly insignificant things like picking what emoji to send to a friend, to more meaningful choices, like what sort of life advice you will give your younger brother.
There will often be a set amount of time to make a decision, prompting you to go with your gut and not overthink things too much; it’s not super fast though so you do have a few seconds to consider your options.
This may sound pretty trivial, but making choices is as streamlined as it could possibly be. You simply move the analogue stick in the direction of your choice and hold it for a few seconds as the game confirms your selection. You also get a little haptic rumble as you make a choice, which just feels nice in the hands.
Many of the choices have you picking between your own self interests and supporting your friends. It made me really curious as to what would happen if I went full ‘selfish asshole’ and let all of the intrusive thoughts win. I may have to do a second play-through for science!
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There are also multiple rhythm game sections when Fang jams out solo or with their band, ‘Worm Drama’.
You’re essentially just entering button prompts when they appear on screen. Moving the left analogue stick in the correct direction to catch the beats, pressing the indicated face buttons at the perfect moment, and dragging both analogue sticks down as the indicating arrows overlap.
It’s pretty simple stuff that could’ve used a little more fleshing out, but overall these sections were pretty enjoyable; the music was good and hitting a ‘perfect’ note always provided a twinge of dopamine.
Melody
The music within the game is a standout. The teenage-rock/emo genre isn’t usually my area, but I enjoyed every song in the game. Fang’s singing voice is especially ethereal and really resonated with me. Combined with the rhythm game elements, the music felt like another character in the story, rather than just something to colour in the silence.
The game is also very pretty, utilising a minimalist style for the backgrounds of scenes, combined with colourful and more detailed characters.
Its cartoonish art style might be a barrier for some, but I think the whole visual package came together in a pleasing way.
There were some minor visual glitches around the border of the screen when cutting between scenes, but nothing too noticeable.
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A cappella
Dialogue in the game is a bit of a mixed bag. There’s a clear quality difference between some of the characters in both performance and writing.
Fang and Reed were the standouts, while some of the others felt a bit stilted and wooden. Often, emphasis was put on the wrong words, causing voice lines to fall flat or sound off.
On the plus side, every major character is voiced, helping to give them more depth and personality.
The further I got into the story, and further endeared to the characters, the more I found myself overlooking any problems I had with the performances.
Sound design is the area I had the biggest gripes with. I could often hear when a piece of recorded voice began and ended; the slight hum behind the dialogue would suddenly cut off to nothingness after the line had finished which was noticeably jarring.
The developers needed a ‘buzz track’ between snippets of dialogue, to keep the room tone consistent.
It’s much more noticeable when there isn’t any background music, such as the scene where Naser is giving his class president speech.
Many conversations don’t feel natural, with voice lines delivered one after the other, there’s very little overlapping dialogue like there would be in a real life conversation.
I also had a bunch of voice lines finish too early, cutting off half of the last word, resulting in an abrupt end to the sentence.
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Encore
Goodbye Volcano High is an enjoyable visual novel experience with a charming art style and rocking sound-track. Its somewhat cliché main story is made unique and interesting by way of an apocalyptic sub-plot and endearing dinosaur characters.
Sound design is such an integral part of a visual novel, as there isn’t much gameplay to lean on; something that could definitely be improved upon here.
More fleshed out rhythm sections would have also been welcome.
I thoroughly enjoyed my six or so hours with the game, and now I’m left even more curious as to why it had such a quiet launch. Hopefully it can regain some spotlight during awards season as I think it definitely deserves a nod in a few categories.
Quest Daily scores Goodbye Volcano High: 8/10
