Purple Herring Games

Summary (retrieved from Itch.io)

"Oh my God, they were roommates."

When an alien boy named Enoch lands on Riley's balcony one uneventful Sunday night, Riley's world is instantly turned upside-down.

Play as either the male or female protagonist, Riley (name changeable) and navigate the complicated maze of academics, friendships and rivalries that is high school, all while trying to keep the biggest secret in the entire world under wraps: the existence of your alien roommate.

Pursue three MALE Love Interests in this romantic BxB/GxB visual novel: the socially-anxious childhood friend Lucas, the intelligent but arrogant "Class President" Felix Yang, or last but not least, the man alien of the hour himself, Enoch.

Reaper Review

As someone who is known for their love of alien romances, I was immediately drawn to My Alien Roommate. The art was beautiful, the writing was hilarious, and I wanted more.

You, the MC, are a high schooler who lives alone when one night something crashes onto your balcony. After seeing a blue humanoid creature exit said something, you pass out, wake back up, think it’s all a dream, and then get freaking jump scared because you’re a scaredy cat and wasn’t expecting it! ….I mean maybe that happens to you.

The adorable creature, Enoch, is just too lovable in his cinnamon roll ways that you agree to help him stay undercover but he just isn’t satisfied with staying in your apartment. This leads to lots of questions and situations that you have to navigate through. Good thing you have awesome friends to help you (even if they don’t know all that’s going on and think you’re being a little…. questionable sometimes). Together you work to keep Enoch safe, enjoy your school life, figure out what is going on with your new and weird substitute teacher, and maybe dabble in some romance along the way.

CAST

Romances:

Enoch He/Him - The alien cinnamon roll that we love to roll our eyes at but would protect with our lives.

Lucas He/Him - The BFF, has our back 100%, and the voice of reason most of the time.

Felix He/Him - Class President, pain in our butt, but also gives me that enemies to lovers trope that I crave.

Others:

Kat She/Her - The last third of the best friend trio and who always speaks her mind and we love her for it.

Gallagher He/Him - Sus.

Each character is so different and distinct when it comes to design and personality that you can’t help but fall in love with them. Even if you don’t want to romance them there’s a part of you thinking “Huh, I wonder what they would do in this situation.” Except Gallagher. We don’t talk about him more than we have to.

I played the original demo (not the extended version) so I can only comment on the fraction of the game that I saw. I think the dialogue is dynamic and the choices that are available so far are really fun and make some great conversations, my favorite being when you have to vote for who’s partner you want to be on a group project. The first few chapters (which is what the demo covers) really lays a solid foundation of intrigue and gives you a slight taste for what each character can offer you in terms of romancing them. 

That being said, I do wish I didn’t have to wait so long to romance the character that I want. The game gives you lots of chances with Enoch making him the easy romance in my opinion, with Lucas being next, and Felix being the hardest of the three. Can you tell which one I chose?

Other things to note:

The art quality is amazing throughout with the CGs being exceptionally beautiful.

A bit of mystery teased in Enoch’s backstory as well as some dangerous intrigue at the very end to really hook us for the main game release.

While there is no clear “This is the romance option” when it comes to dialogue choices, there is a numerical counter that shows if the player chose a bad, neutral, or good option.

65,000+ words making 5-8 hours of gameplay in the demo alone.

Developer is really responsive to feedback, especially quality of life comments.

With a kickstarter just around the corner, I’m very excited to see what all will be in the full game as well as what stretch goals will be offered. 

If I’ve piqued your interest, check out the demo HERE and then come back and leave me a comment on if you liked it or not.