Yoo what up. I thought it'd be cool to have a thread to discuss act 1 and act 2 of hiveswap, more specifically which one you guys fw more cuz i think there's room for interesting discussion about that stuff. i can go first cuz i like writing stuff
ACT 1
easily my favorite of the two. i think it's only real downside is of how short it is: even for someone like me who REALLY went in-depth with finding all the different interactions with items, and getting all the achievements, it still only took like 4 hours or so. like the game can be beaten in like 30 minutes if you're REALLY speeding through. also the puzzles are pretty light like I don't think you have to think at all.
however, it makes up for this in like every other aspect. there's only really 3 characters you meet in total but all of them get a ton of time in the sun and really stand out: joey, jude and xefros are all awesome and i love them to bits. this game's main selling point being the fact EVERYTHING has unique dialogue was also really nice to explore in, and not a single stone feels like the team left it unturned writing wise. was still cracking a smile like right as the game was gonna end for some of the jokes. also the music's super good like please listen to Joey Claire, Extraordinaire and your life will lowkey change for the better.
ACT 2
i don't have too much i like about act 2, but one thing i can respect is the amount of characters: i didn't play any of the VN games so i didn't know any of the fantrolls BUT there were some i liked, notably gaegrl is kinda the goat forever and ever. also the art is forever gonna be good (its a homestuck game) and the CGs were awesome asf. that one frame with the clown guy and joey listening to that guy's mixtape was my pfp for a while
however, i didn't like this act nearly as much as act 1. i think my main gripe is just how much of it feels like filler so you have a reason to go talk to all of the fantrolls. legitimately all of the train quests are just "go through every traincar until you find the specific troll needed to meet the criteria". all of the cool item interactions that made up most of my act 1 playthrough ended up feeling like they got kinda stuffed out, with a noticeably different and less interesting vibe to them. all the stuff with mutually exclusive routes makes it actually feel a lot like a VN, which given the fact that i've read a lot of the new team worked on the homestuck VNs makes sense. overall i didn't like it as much and the fact so many achievements are locked behind multiple playthroughs suuuucks (versus act 1, where you can basically get all but one mutually exclusive achievement in a single playthrough if you're nice like that).
i'm typing this from the perspective of someone who hasn't been too(?) tapped into like, ACTUAL homestuck stuff like that since like summer 2024 when i first read it. i'm more into mspfa stuff nowadays, which mighta shifted my opinions a lil bit.
would like to know what you guys think though! i will always fw reading discussion threads of media like this it's interesting to talk about
the yung filipino prophet
