Fang from Goodbye Volcano High

Goodbye Volcano High’s story of a modern society of anthropomorphic dinos preparing to endure the meteor that we all know destroyed them captures a lot of the anxiety everyone feels about deciding what to do with their life. Those fears are multiplied a hundredfold when what little time you have left brings you and your friends’ every lingering tension bubbling to the surface. Fang has spent their high school years wanting to be in a band and tour with their pals. They have aspirations to be in a creative field as their friends, family, and society pressures them to pick a more sensible career. But even as a meteor plummets toward the planet, Fang grasps at any straws they can to create some facsimile of the life they wanted, or at least some validating sense that it would have been possible under different circumstances.

Fang and their friends have to grieve the lives they wanted and accept the hand they’ve been dealt, and Goodbye Volcano High explores every version of that process. Fang has some universal story beats, but as the player, you can express your own rage or acceptance throughout the game. Fang’s story ends on an ambiguous note, but their declaration to be themself up to the last moment is a powerful statement to the very end. — Kenneth Shepard