Psycholonials is the greatest Visual Novel I have ever read. Being a Homestuck fan for almost 2 years, I was naturally interested in reading Andrew Hussie's recent works. However, I had heard nothing but negativity regarding this, which interested me even more. All (but one) of my friends who have played this dislike it. I then began to read it for myself, being curious. The first chapter was nice. A good introduction, with classic Hussie writing that I expected. Very sweet. Then I read chapter 2. The rest of this review will contain spoilers.
Zhen kills a cop in cold blood. Drunk and already holding the gun, shooting him and hiding the body was realistically the only option that her mind assumed would work. After all, to her, all cops are terrible people in this abysmal world. So she dunks the car and his body into the ocean, and gets away with it. This is where I assumed this VN would be a Zoomer's Ultimate Power Trip. And I would be right! For most of it. There are two types of people who read this VN, those who find Zhen's actions empowering (Person 1), and those who find them deplorable (Person 2). I was personally the former. But realistically, it doesn't matter which of the two you are, which I will go into later. The game ultimately frames Zhen as this crazy awesome clown ♥♥♥♥♥ who has huge plans and will restructure society in order to fix it, and all of its terrible, terrible problems. Which she does, partially! But that isn't the point of the game. Throughout the game, the narrative frame of "Zhen is awesome and slays so hard" starts to be called into question, as she slips up, loses sight of her end goal, and starts going along with her plan in a less calculated and more experimental way. Because by now, she is starting to lose herself!

Throughout the game, Abby sticks by Zhen's side. And yet, you wonder, why? Why does she do this? Zhen is out of her mind, and you assume Abby is just a story device, clinging to Zhen because the narrative requires her to. Which, is only kind of true. I'll get into this later.

By the time of Chapter 9, the narrative frame that existed to make you see Zhen's actions as less awful than they were, has been completely shattered. The rose-tinted glasses are crushed. The curtain has been pulled. If you were Person 1, you would by this point realize that the empowerment you felt is wholly misguided. If you were Person 2, you would probably by this point feel anger that Zhen is getting away with all the damage she has caused to the world. However, that is far removed from anything the game tries to say. Zhen and Abby together move to an island, and only then are you meant to realize that the message of Psycholonials is, in fact, love.

All of the awful things that have happened to the world throughout this game, happened to exaggerate the message of the game. The message being something along the lines of "No matter how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up the world may be, you can still find happiness in it, through love". Which as a message stuck out to me. It's not really like Subahibi at all, in fact it's quite the opposite (thank god). Zhen feels incredibly guilty for her actions, she feels awful about the world, about what she did, and how it affected other people. But she faced the repercussions for her actions. She suffered because of them, and she accepted that she made awful mistakes. She accepted that the world is in ruin. And she moves on and becomes a better person in spite of that. Whether you believe she deserved punishment or not is irrelevant to what the game is trying to say. Considering the current world is indeed incredibly ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up beyond repair, learning to pursue happiness not through ignorance, but acceptance is really admirable to me? It is an incredibly admirable message in my eyes, because it is relevant to today's world. It's a cynical view on the world in favor of an optimistic view on individualism, on relationships with others, on finding your own happiness. On finding love. On finding self-love, love for someone else, any type of love. Love is how you attain happiness, and Psycholonials directly highlights this in the short amount of time that it runs for. Abby clings to Zhen because Abby is in love with Zhen unconditionally. It's not for the convenience of the narrative, it compliments the narrative and themes that have been presented. It doesn't matter if you view her actions as good or bad, because at the end of the day, she views them as bad, and moves on from them. Chapter 9 is about her making her own choices, denouncing the medium, revoking your option to choose at all. Because it is a story about Zhen finding happiness through love. Denouncing the awful things social media does to people, denouncing the parasocial relationships that exist because of Cancel Culture (which is a topic I hadn't really touched on, partially because it can be simplified to "obsessive tirades to run someone off the internet are really just a bizarre twisted form of love and need for attention"), and moving on from all of it. That's Psycholonials. It's pretty good i think.

Psycholonials is the greatest Visual Novel I have ever read. Being a Homestuck fan for almost 2 years, I was naturally interested in reading Andrew Hussie's recent works. However, I had heard nothing but negativity regarding this, which interested me even more. All (but one) of my friends who have played this dislike it. I then began to read it for myself, being curious. The first chapter was nice. A good introduction, with classic Hussie writing that I expected. Very sweet. Then I read chapter 2. The rest of this review will contain spoilers. [spoiler] Zhen kills a cop in cold blood. Drunk and already holding the gun, shooting him and hiding the body was realistically the only option that her mind assumed would work. After all, to her, all cops are terrible people in this abysmal world. So she dunks the car and his body into the ocean, and gets away with it. This is where I assumed this VN would be a Zoomer's Ultimate Power Trip. And I would be right! For most of it. There are two types of people who read this VN, those who find Zhen's actions empowering (Person 1), and those who find them deplorable (Person 2). I was personally the former. But realistically, it doesn't matter which of the two you are, which I will go into later. The game ultimately frames Zhen as this crazy awesome clown bitch who has huge plans and will restructure society in order to fix it, and all of its terrible, terrible problems. Which she does, partially! But that isn't the point of the game. Throughout the game, the narrative frame of "Zhen is awesome and slays so hard" starts to be called into question, as she slips up, loses sight of her end goal, and starts going along with her plan in a less calculated and more experimental way. Because by now, she is starting to lose herself! Throughout the game, Abby sticks by Zhen's side. And yet, you wonder, why? Why does she do this? Zhen is out of her mind, and you assume Abby is just a story device, clinging to Zhen because the narrative requires her to. Which, is only kind of true. I'll get into this later. By the time of Chapter 9, the narrative frame that existed to make you see Zhen's actions as less awful than they were, has been completely shattered. The rose-tinted glasses are crushed. The curtain has been pulled. If you were Person 1, you would by this point realize that the empowerment you felt is wholly misguided. If you were Person 2, you would probably by this point feel anger that Zhen is getting away with all the damage she has caused to the world. However, that is far removed from anything the game tries to say. Zhen and Abby together move to an island, and only then are you meant to realize that the message of Psycholonials is, in fact, love. All of the awful things that have happened to the world throughout this game, happened to exaggerate the message of the game. The message being something along the lines of "No matter how fucked up the world may be, you can still find happiness in it, through love". Which as a message stuck out to me. It's not really like Subahibi at all, in fact it's quite the opposite (thank god). Zhen feels incredibly guilty for her actions, she feels awful about the world, about what she did, and how it affected other people. But she faced the repercussions for her actions. She suffered because of them, and she accepted that she made awful mistakes. She accepted that the world is in ruin. And she moves on and becomes a better person in spite of that. Whether you believe she deserved punishment or not is irrelevant to what the game is trying to say. Considering the current world is indeed incredibly fucked up beyond repair, learning to pursue happiness not through ignorance, but acceptance is really admirable to me? It is an incredibly admirable message in my eyes, because it is relevant to today's world. It's a cynical view on the world in favor of an optimistic view on individualism, on relationships with others, on finding your own happiness. On finding love. On finding self-love, love for someone else, any type of love. Love is how you attain happiness, and Psycholonials directly highlights this in the short amount of time that it runs for. Abby clings to Zhen because Abby is in love with Zhen unconditionally. It's not for the convenience of the narrative, it compliments the narrative and themes that have been presented. It doesn't matter if you view her actions as good or bad, because at the end of the day, she views them as bad, and moves on from them. Chapter 9 is about her making her own choices, denouncing the medium, revoking your option to choose at all. Because it is a story about Zhen finding happiness through love. Denouncing the awful things social media does to people, denouncing the parasocial relationships that exist because of Cancel Culture (which is a topic I hadn't really touched on, partially because it can be simplified to "obsessive tirades to run someone off the internet are really just a bizarre twisted form of love and need for attention"), and moving on from all of it. That's Psycholonials. It's pretty good i think. [/spoiler]