Pesterquest

I was pretty surprised when I saw this game in the catalog. I haven't read Homestuck since I was a kid, and I've definitely not read the newer installations, but, having played through this VN, don't think it really makes a difference besides a few allusions. It's entertaining, regardless. The game itself is made of ten-minute vignettes revolving around the core characters. Keep in mind there's fourteen of them, so it adds up to about the length of a short VN. It took me about two hours to finish, I'd guess. The narrative itself is basically linear. It's understated, stylistically, compared to mainline Homestuck. Not a lot of songs in the soundtrack, but the tracks that are there are fine and perfectly sufficient. The way the characters and settings are composed are, make no mistake, adroit but kind of lacking identity. Not nearly as decadent as, say, Hiveswap, but I think most people would argue that's for the better. Maybe a good word is "humble"; I could even say minimalist, but that sounds weird in the same sentence as Homestuck. The prose is extended but in the kind of way that's pretty boilerplate for any one that's sunk in a decade on Homestuck. To paraphrase David Foster Wallace describing his very indulgent debut novel in describing this very indulgent, overdrawn web comic, it feels like it was made by a very talented thirteen-year-old, and Pesterquest is unashemedly an extension of that. It's good fanservice and a very entertaining VN, but it lacks depth. Then again, so did Homestuck. I'm just grateful there's Linux support, even though it is a RenPy game.