A
strologaster was
described to me as
“sort of a Jane Austen
visual novel”.
Superficially it’s an
odd comparison—Astrologaster is
set in the Elizabethan era and the
visual aspect of the novel is more
about how it’s designed to look like
a pop-up book—but it gives a good
sense of the romantic
entanglements and human drama
contained within. Plus it taught me
more than how a single man in
possession of a good fortune must
be in want of a wife.
Here, Simon Forman consults the
stars—i.e. me—to diagnose his
patients’ diseases and solve problems.
This approach is a wonderful
examination of both the strange cures
that were common in 16th century
England, and the fact that you can’t
heal every malady with bed rest and
herbs. Astrologaster wastes no time
diving into psychological causes of
illnesses, such as an unhappy
marriage. Forman also consults the
stars on crises of faith and neighborly
squabbles. These cases I can only
solve by making informed guesses.
I’m into astrology, I read my
horoscope, and I know that reading it
may do nothing more than set up a
self-fulfilling prophecy, but being the
horoscope really drives home the
absurdity of the stars holding a
solution for people’s individual
problems. Astrologaster is like a
detective game where you build your
understanding out of the smallest
hints. It makes me want to be the bad
cop, bash my fists on the table in
front of a patient, flip my chair and
shout at them to tell me about their
bloating.COITUS POST CONSULTATIO
I feel a deep appreciation for any GPs
who can diagnose a patient the way
my patients in Astrologaster expect“I want to flip my chair and shout at
them to tell me about their bloating”
me to—vaguely pointing at a part of
their body and going “it hurts here”. I
enjoy the realistically awkward dance
between a doctor and patients who
shy away from describing their
pus-filled inner workings, and
Astrologaster’s voice acting delivers
the curious pompousness of each
“prithee” and “full sorry” better than
text on a screen could.
The best thing about Astrologaster
isn’t what I do in it, but what it
taught me. This game made me want
to know more about Jesuit priests
and 16th century immigrants, and its
magnificently rude choir reminded
me of my love of English madrigals.
I also keep thinking about
how Astrologaster has 14 characters.
14! I’ve recently been figuring out
what writing a game would look like,
and the effort that goes into creating
14 distinct humans is awe-inspiring.
You’ll need that cast to fulfil
the game’s end goal of collecting
enough letters of approval to become
a real doctor, but how to get that
approval is a pretty opaque process.
Do patients approve because I
told them the right thing or because
it was what they wanted to hear?
Maybe it doesn’t matter all that
much, as long as I manage to
soothe them.MALINDY HETFELD
THIS MONTH
Helped Londoners with
ailments big and small.ALSO PLAYED
ObservationWhen healing the sick in ASTROLOGASTER, nothing is true, everything’s permitted
IT MAKES ME WANT TO
BE THE BAD COP, BASH
MY FISTS ON THE TABLETHE GAMES WE LOVE RIGHT NOW
NOW PLAYING
Soon the needs of Forman’s patients
and his personal escapades overlap.Never thought being a nurse’s
daughter would help in a game.