Welcome to Hiveswap Friendsim, a darkly comedic episodic visual novel set in the Homestuck/Hiveswap universe, created by American author and artist Andrew Hussie. You’ve crash landed on a dangerous alien planet with no food, medicine, or prospects, but you do know one thing - you are absolutely desperate for friendship. Travel from grimy underground clubs to stately mansions, meeting trolls up and down the hemospectrum along the way. Hiveswap Friendsim is a quick, loosely-canonical visual novel adventure following the efforts of the unnamed protagonist (that’s you!) to survive and maybe even thrive on the harsh surface of Alternia...

Your character has crashed on the alien planet, Alternia

In Hiveswap Friendsim you play a character who has unfortunately crashed on the alien planet, Alternia. Knowing that survival is your main goal, you set off in search of friends.

Hiveswap is a visual novel, a form of game which has been around for a long time. Popular in Japan for dating sims or detective novels, the game is mainly set against a static background, with the player reading text and making branching decisions. The goal of the game is to progress through by successfully making friends with the people and creatures you meet.

It’s not exactly taxing, I platinumed out the game in a single day. For the most part, each chapter of which there are eighteen, plus an epilogue, has two initial branches which lead to two further branches.

A lot of the branches are either failures or game over. If this happens you start back at the beginning for another go. So that you don’t have to read all the text over again the story comes with a fast forward option. This also means that it is next to impossible not to get all the friends and achievements in the game.

The game features often risqué and ribald content

There are thirty-six trolls to befriend in all and some turn up more than once in the story. Because the gameplay is so simple what you’re really buying into is the art style and the often risqué and ribald content. Based on the Homestuck web comic by Andrew Hussie, the content is, in points, adult in nature. That said it is not necessary to have read or even have been aware of Homestuck to enjoy the game.

Overall, it’s a quick, but also an inexpensive game, which will be of interest to fans of the Homestuck and Hiveswap franchises, but if you like amusing dialogue and making friends this may while away an afternoon for you.

6

Charles Packer