What game is better in terms of narrative and characters? goodbye volcano high or snoot game?
Goodbye Volcano High, on both points, no contest.
GVH sets up everything clean and neatly in its first chapter: Fang wanting to win Battle of the Bands and play CalderaFest, their anxieties about Trish's role in the band, the anonymous crush, and the incoming asteroid. The plot and characterization tie together perfectly, so you know intrinsically why Fang and the other characters make the choices they do. It encourages you to care not just about one plot thread, but all of them simultaneously, and it does so in a way that feels effortless. Even the LnL sections weave into the plot and characterization, with Reed's narrative structure of the game changing as his anxiety about the asteroid grows. And the way things unravel, and the way episodes 7 and 8 play out, makes all the choices feel the more satisfying.
Specifically, Fang frames their dream for playing at CalderaFest as their big first step into their music career, yet always sees Trish and Reed as part of that dream, disregarding their feelings. And the more Fang tries to ignore the truth and pursue the dream, the more they end up pushing Trish away, until it hits a boiling point that damages their relationship, and Fang's pursuit turns out to be for nothing as CalderaFest is cancelled because of the asteroid. Yet it's after Fang is able to rebuild their relationship with Trish that they decide to perform their own show for the city, turning their once selfish dream into a selfless act that unites and comforts the entire city in their darkest moment. The gameplay element of bringing Fang closer to their friends blends into the narrative of the Dinogang bringing their world together. It's beautiful and empowering.
By contrast, Snoot Game is horrible about setting anything up, owing to its slapdash nature. The prom, the pivotal part of the narrative that makes or breaks Fang, is not mentioned at all until chapter 11, after the player has made all of the choices that determine the game's ending. All of the characters have flat, dull personalities, Anon being the worst offender. No narrative through line is ever established besides Anon being an asshole who would rather be anywhere else besides Volcano High, and the good choices - aka the one that lead you to the game's best ending - are all out of character for the way he's presented otherwise.
So there's a severe disconnect between character and player when a guy who in one chapter goes on a neo-Nazi "the world is too full, the undesirables are outbreeding us" rant unprompted later says heartfelt, meaningful advise to a struggling friend because the player just so happened to make the right choice in that moment, then switches back to being a shithead. The response to criticism of the game's narrative is usually "Yeah, Anon starts off bad, but he gets better over time" which is demonstrably untrue. As the "good" choices dictating the best ending are out of character for him, it feels more like the player is forcing him to behave for like... nine scenes in the game. And the sum total of those five choices leads to drastically different outcomes for the story's endings, despite chapters 1 through 10 playing out almost 100% identical.
And I think that's what it boils down to. Goodbye Volcano High is a game defined by so much: its world, its characters, its music, and every part of its story. Snoot Game is defined as a culture war product first, by its endings second, and by its story dead last.
