What is the significance of a choice?  In addition to its primary themes, existentialist questions such as this line the edges of Adastra: a transportive visual novel that positions the reader as the central character in an extra-galactic political thriller and love story. 

Adastra is told from the perspective of the reader, a 20-year-old college student who encounters an alien named Amicus.  Through a series of events too memorable to spoil, you and Amicus wind up on his home moon of Adastra caught up in a power struggle that has emerged after the unusual death of the emperor five months prior to your arrival.  Posing as a servant of sorts and estranged from everything and everyone you know, you take on an increasingly pivotal yet paradoxically self-deprecating role in the political machinations of the resulting power-vacuum.  

Howlie relies on emotion to drive up the intensity of the plot and the stakes at play.  Simultaneously, Haps’ sprites and art compliment this style of writing by using rich, saturated primary colors and clearly defined lines.  The art pays homage to the Warner Brother and Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 50s and 60s, and perhaps with that they also draw on the purer and stronger emotions of our youth. 

There are moments that the cycle of escalating angst and relief is so consistent that it risks becoming mundane, but as a whole even the most stone-hearted reader may find themselves tapping the right side of their screen at 2am enveloped by the story, sprites, art, and music.  It’s a wild ride propelled by the intense feelings of its characters – but boy is it fun.  

Astute readers will also pick up on the heavier philosophical questions.  Can there ever be consent when one has power over someone else?  In what circumstances is it ok for someone else to make a decision for us?  Is it wrong to allow someone else to guide our decisions? If our destinies are already plotted, what is the purpose of free will?  While Howlie is unafraid of asking these questions, he’s not overly provocative or confrontational.  He merely puts his characters into such quandaries and allows them to feel their way out. 

I hope that you will choose to read Adastra and support its creators on Patreon if you can.  It’s a captivating and endearing tale, not to mention a completed project that stands out among its peers for its impeccable art, writing, scope, and attention to detail.