Pesterquest Rewritten

hell yes hell yes hell yes hell yes hell yes, no idea how i found this but as a certified mspa reader fan i approve >:) super looking forward to future updates!!

Is Damara supposed to turn into Adult Rose in the prologue route? Because she's turning into Adult Rose in the prologue arc. You might have some sprites mixed up. (Not the kernel kind.)

I found the transcripts for this on ao3 and then played the whole thing a few days back and wtf this is so good?! I never played the original pesterquest so idk how it compares to that, but the beta kids just bantering with each other is so entertaining to read. The star wars scenes at the end of Jade's route were great.

You CANNOT believe the pure hype I felt when I downloaded this latest version and saw a Joey route. Also, I wanna say how much I liked that phonehuskpalmhusk GOD DAMN PHONE joke.

Also lmaoing at garlic press of zillyhoo

Hooly kino.

ok its cool and all but. aradia get the fuck out of my face when i hit the end of what currently exists. i preferred the simple wip message that didnt have aradia jumpscare attached to it (this is a joke but also aradia did scare the fuck outta me when i hit the "route unfinished" message and she was just suddenly there)

wait but this is really good actually

like this feels like it could have been written as the comic was going on, there's no focus on the overarching context of everything or trying to immediately throw the characters in crazy what if situations while at the same time ignoring that sburb not happening doesn't mean all the things placed in advance weren't there, and the character traits that actually make the characters enjoyable are actually in full view

[SPOILERS FOR PQ AND THIS REWRITE]

like rose's route in PQ just only cares about having rose be really rude or just a major focus on how rose's mother's vices and how she feels about them (basically the entire route might as well be some crumby act 6 character development scene)  and then it being a happy ending of friendship, no focus on having rose's personality come out just box ticking for good and bad ending

but here it just feels exactly what i would have imagined a light-hearted sburbless VN to be, you have a fun in-character investigation with either a confrontation that was a long time coming, or just a talk with hopes that with the stakes gone, that the barriers between them might get broken down, and instead of just a sour alternate path where rose acts condescending, it's a very fun exploration of her character by diving into the silly self insert fanfiction and ends up just bringing out a typically unseen joyous side of the character

i was a little disappointed that the text box was not an invitation to name rose "Silly Fendlesnatch" though like a toontown character

I found the transcript for this on ao3 a few days back and couldn't help but be curious and holy fuck checking this out was the best possible thing I could do??  like, I did like Pesterquest a lot but some parts of it always rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. so this whole rewrite project in general makes me  go ???? fuck it's so good?? what kinda magic hoo-ha are these people smoking????

MSPAR is just a silly lil creachur here and I can't?? maybe it's just my weird attachment to them but PQR's version of them makes me cry? it's not even just them though, all of these tweenagers make me cry in this rewrite. (is that too sentimental lmao?) either way, I'm absolutely bawling about this project. I want to frame it and eat it whole, thank u <3

but yes, again, this shit is great, i would eat the art, the kids are doing well, my crops are thriving and I'm hella excited for Damara to be free and well like every other bastard that MSPAR's gonna get their befriending hands on.

Okay so this is like... exactly what I wanted out of Pesterquest when I heard about the concept??? Like the retcon shenanigans and various abstractions actually being addressed? Also I feel like the characters actually like MSPAR, and as lunaman22 said, MSPAR is much more likable. Not only that, but MSPAR feels so much more realistic as an audience surrogate here!

Honestly I could go on (and talk about how I love how genuinely compassionate John is in his route--he's such a sweetheart it actually made me emotional--or how the Reader is actually dealing with the consequences of what has happened so far--finding Dave and Jade and themself a place to stay and those newspapers clippings!--or even something as little as MSPAR's depiction on Dave's good ending--because gender-neutral is not Guy-Lite^TM) but I'll leave it here for now. All in all I'm really excited to read more going forward!!

Pretty funny easter egg. I wonder if it will mean anything later on...

I just played through the Demo and IM IN LOVE WITH IT SO FAR! I cant wait to see more!

Made a whole ass itch.io account to comment on this.

I really like it. Really, REALLY like it. From what's out right now, it explores a lot more of the powers of Retcon, and has some smarter uses of it, like the whole mom and laboratory thing. There's also the fact that MSPAR seems more...likeable now? The fact that he finished reading the entire comic and instantly realised he needs to help people as best as he can, starting with Damara, was great. I also like that we've met up some characters that PQ should not have missed, like Spades. And the Dirk thing. Wonder how that's going to be resolved?

I'm even more excited for meeting the Hiveswap/Hauntswitch characters. These references to smaller stuff, or stuff that was ignored by the original PQ are very nice, this whole game feels like a reward for sticking with HS for all these years and consuming almost all of the content.