Character Development of the Week: Marz from "I Was a Teenage Exocolonist"

I recently picked up this game based on a recommendation (a Steam recommendation, as I do not have friends) and I thought it would be the perfect kind of casual visual-novel to help me relax after work. I ended up being wrong because I actually ended up falling in love with it and was glued to my Steam Deck until five in the morning. This game may look simple on the outside, but it is actually incredibly intricate with a huge, beautiful world to explore. The characters are fleshed out and realistic, the animation is unique and the writing is next-level. I enjoyed every second of it and knew I wanted it to be the subject of my next blog post. Particularly, I wanted to make the subject one of the game’s main characters and eventual love interests: Marzipan.

This paragraph will contain some spoilers pertaining to the game’s main story mechanic. If you haven’t played but plan on doing so, maybe skip to the next one. You won’t be missing too much of my babbling. "I Was a Teenage Exocolonist" is a game that not only has almost infinite replay value, but actually has significant plot points that can’t even be experienced on your first run. Your character is trapped in a time loop, and the decisions you make during the ten years you play as them will impact the next cycle. As you repeat this loop, you'll be able to recall memories from your past lives and use them to influence your decisions. There are main characters that you can’t save until your second "life," small details and dialogues that might change every time and 29 different endings you can achieve altogether. I’ve played all the way through the game a whopping two times and am therefore an expert. 

Anyways, here is my ode to dear Marzipan, who I believe has my favorite character development arc out of a lot of the games I’ve played recently. She starts off as a bully. I decided not to invest any of my time on my first playthrough in building my relationship with her because in a life sim, why would I invest any time with a mean girl? That's what real life is for.

I instead elected to farm my relationships with other characters including Tan (they were the good kind of mean to me), Dys (reminded me of Sebastian from Stardew Valley) and Cal (golden retriever person with a dinosaur caterpillar as a pet). My run ended rather tragically, which I suppose is the entire point of the game—to learn from my horrible decisions and do better next time. On my next run, I decided to do better at investing in every relationship, including Marz. Besides, I did notice that she seemed like less of a shithead as a grown up; perhaps a little on her high horse, but she honestly has good reason to be.

I slowly realized there was more nuance to her character than just being a “bully.”

 Her attitude isn't always provoked, but a lot of the time it isn't without good reason. She obviously dislikes Dys because he expresses no desire to contribute to the colony, and is often openly aggressive towards him. However, you can choose to stand up for him in this scene and Marz reacts surprisingly.

She doesn't get angry that somebody challenged her, but instead respects that you stood up to her. Marz isn't a bully (well, maybe to Dys), but rather she’s a girl who knows exactly who she is and what she values in the people around her. In her mind, there's no room on a new planet to be weak or unwilling to contribute to the newly formed society. It doesn't necessarily excuse being so hostile to a ten-year-old, but the colonists are in a high-stakes situation with very real consequences. 

Marz definitely has flaws as well, and at times her facade of unfailing self-assuredness is dropped, revealing a normal girl that just wants to be liked. I thought I would find it satisfying to see that nobody asked her to be their best friend on Valentine's Day, but her reaction was so...sad? Defeated? To see her strong exterior crumble for a moment contributed a lot towards humanizing her in those earlier years of the game where she doesn't know how to be powerful and kind at the same time.

As I got to know her better, I began to feel deeply shameful for misconstruing her character so wildly. Oftentimes, loud and confident women are immediately dismissed as being "too much" because there is an inherent expectation that we be little more than furniture. Expressing an opinion typically elicits the response to "calm down" from men, and I regret not initially giving Marz the platform she deserved to be the intelligent, thoughtful and loyal character she is.

She becomes one of the best friends you could have on an alien planet, even going out of her way to organize a huge party on your birthday.

Another huge turning point for Marz is in your late years when you can express discontent for Governor Lum, the blatantly fascist leader of the Heliosphere. She agrees and states that she believes she could be a great leader for the colony. After convincing the other adults in positions of authority (through some increasingly difficult card games), you are able to help Marz overthrow Governor Lum.

She turns out to be a wonderful governor, and with her leadership you're finally able to establish peace with the aliens on the planet and achieve what I perceive to be the game's "perfect" ending. When the game asked if I was satisfied with the life I had lived, I was able to say yes.

Marzipan represents a shift in thinking from the old ways: viewing sex as more than a means to procreation, placing value on art and creativity over investing resources in violence and refusing to sit comfortably and accept outdated government. The idea of the game is that the earth is uninhabitable because of the decision of the elder generation, so why would they choose to put them in charge of their fresh start on a new planet? She actually stood up and refused to let them make the same mistakes.

Here's to Northway Games, the creators of Exocolonist for creating such a nuanced female character that genuinely took me by surprise. I'm off to get myself a Hopeye plushie.