Goodbye Volcano High
Review

Goodbye Volcano High (2023) is a high school coming-of-age adventure set in a world of anthropomorphic dinosaur characters. You play as band members, non-binary Fang and best friend Trish as they navigate the last days of high school. It's a mix of making choices about conversations, rhythm challenges and dealing with the ongoing drama of growing up.

It's the final year of high school, and graduation looms on the horizon. Your decisions (and rhythm) determine whether the students of Volcano High manage to figure themselves out before it's all over. As you talk to peers, walk the halls and get down to band practice you decide what risks to take with your heart and friendships.

The game is fully voiced and - through exploration, dialogue and a range of cinematic minigames - offers a branching narrative where you control the journey through difficult choices with far-reaching consequences. Depending on how you interact with characters determines the depth of your relationship and whether you can interact with them at different moments in the story.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm just standing on the edge of doing great things," says Fang. "But something's holding me back. Maybe it's just nerves. Maybe it's the fear that I'll never be as good as what I imagine." Goodbye Volcano High is about the beginning of a love story and the end of an era. In magical realism style, the narrative spins together an eclectic mix of teenage hopes for fame, fears about life after graduation, a potential apocalypse and budding romance.

Our examiner, Oli Hawkins, first checked Goodbye Volcano High 3 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 2 weeks ago.