Press-Switch Version 0.6c Beta Review

Just the thought of being you makes my heart go into the groove…

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Well, this is not a review I expected to be doing so soon, or under such less than pleasant circumstances.

After working on the latest update of Press-Switch over the past year the game’s creator, Trigger, had been harassed by a stalker. After learning of this stalker, Trigger began tidying up his online identity, closing down the TFGamesSite page and old forums for Press-Switch while making its Discord private.

This community lockdown continued with little explanation until May 29, 2025. In an update made on the private Press-Switch Discord, Trigger announced that due to the stalker, and his own creative burnout, Press-Switch would go on an indefinite hiatus. In addition to this, Trigger released an unfinished beta version of the anticipated Version 0.6c update. One with many errors, bugs, and gaps in its construction, but a playable extension of what came before with several hours of new content.

You can view Trigger’s full statement and my initial thoughts on this announcement on my June 1, 2025 Rundown.

As someone who has been a fan of Press-Switch for nearly 11 years, this is deeply upsetting news to me. However, I would also like to celebrate the fact that we did receive an update. To publish one more review of the game and espouse the virtues of everything new in Version 0.6c as, like every Press-Switch update I’ve had the privilege to experience, it has left me both impressed and inspired.

…But since I don’t want to just focus on one small slice of a game’s content, I will also be lightly revising everything from last year’s review of v0.6b. My thoughts on the game have not changed significantly over the past year, and I don’t want to play through the game in full again, as it’s probably over 900,000 words long. Maybe even a million words! At this point, it’s hard to tell.

Note 6/22/2025: Mariana, who has assisted Trigger with the game over the years, released a patch that makes two previously unobtainable endings accessible and restores the easter egg endings introduced in v0.6a.

Note 6/26/2025: CobaltCore of Student Transfer fame released a version of Press-Switch v0.6c Beta with Mariana’s v2 patch, and ported the game to Android. This new patched version is called v0.6c.1, because that makes some sense.

Edit 7/13/2025: Per a request from Trigger, all download links to Press-Switch have been removed from this article.

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Press-Switch Version 0.6c Beta Review
Platforms: PC(Reviewed), Mac, Linux
Developer/Publisher: Trigger
Flowchart – v2 Interactive Flowchart

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For those coming into this review with no idea what I’m going on about, Press-Switch is an open-ended visual novel centered around Calvin Hintre. An unassuming high school boy whose life changes dramatically when he comes into possession of a device known as the DSM. An enigmatic doohickey capable of body transference, mental manipulation, cloning, and possession among other things. It is a standard premise among TSF/TG fiction, and one that, over the span of more than a decade, has grown into something grand. So grand that it is only rivaled by the titles it went on to inspire.

Now, I have a lot to say about Press-Switch, so for the sake of keeping my thoughts somewhat organized, I’m going to start with some more general qualities before talking about the specifics of each route.

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Table of Contents:

• Subject Matter
• Characters
• Presentation
• Sexual Content
• Goals and Navigation
• Family Swap – v0.6a Content
• Family Swap – v0.6b Content
• Family Swap – v0.6c Additions
• Trio Swap
• April the Witch
• Mika Route
• Ashley’s Eyes Route
• Mass Poss Route
• Mother Route
• Goopy (Elena) Route
• Karyn Route (v0.4a Route)
• The End of an Era

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Subject Matter

When it comes to praising the writers of transformation fiction, I often compliment the writer on their understanding of the genre. On their desire to explore more complex or nuanced stories involving familiar concepts and themes, and, effectively, pushing the genre forward. With Press-Switch… you can really tell it is written by someone who thinks about body swapping and fantastical transformations every day. Someone who wants to tell stories that go several levels beyond a typical transformation narrative, with more realistic, grounded, and often mean characters.

Press-Switch will always be the first work I encountered that did this. Something that went beyond. Something that mingled the more erotic elements commonly associated with TSF with a quality story filled with compelling characters. While a handful of titles released over the past few years have achieved the same thing, Press-Switch still has something that has never quite been replicated. A personality and approach that is distinctly itself. The title shines from the fact that it is developed by a single person. One who uses it as a platform to explore whatever ideas he finds to be fascinating, and going further with them than anybody realistically should.

Press-Switch impressed me when I first played it back in 2014 and now, a decade later, it still impresses me.

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Characters

Over the years, I have covered quite a few transformation focused visual novels. But if there is a single element that I would use to differentiate Press-Switch from its peers, it is its cast of characters. A cast of flawed people who are consistently miserable or otherwise dissatisfied with their lives. What exactly do I mean by that? Let’s go through some examples.

From the onset, it is easy to assume Calvin is an unremarkable visual novel protagonist meant as a self-insert for the reader. Yet through his constant narration, observations, and use of the device, the reader gradually comes to terms with whom he actually is, and his many flaws. They learn about the veritable treasure trove of childhood trauma he underwent on behalf of his family. His lifelong history of bodily insecurities, formed by being the sole male in a household of attractive women. And his general ignorance of much of the world, formed by his wealthy upbringing.

Given his status and age, he should be in a favorable position in his life and have ‘no real problems.’ Yet he possesses a sense of dissatisfaction and aimlessness that makes him a great protagonist for a transformation-driven narrative such as this. Calvin is a deeply flawed person, far more than he is a simple everyman, and this same mentality is carried over to the bulk of the cast.

Mika, Calvin’s school chum, is a bubbly and cheery ADHD dork girl who is eager to dive into anything sufficiently surreal or fantastical. But she is also deeply dissatisfied with her body and expresses a form of self-loathing that makes her pretty much tailor-made for a body swap story. She tries to present as a boisterous and fun force, yet is so insecure with herself that she would rather be (nearly) anyone else.

Ashley, Calvin’s crush, is a school idol and beloved beauty who excels academically. Yet she is also rigid to a fault, believing in reality and status quo so strongly that its defiance makes her physically ill. All of which is before getting into how she leads a taxing home life where she must care for her family as their health degrades, sacrificing her own youth, freedom, and possibly future.

Heather, Calvin’s mother, is a proud, wealthy, successful, and sharp woman who commands respect from family and colleagues alike. But beneath this veneer however, she bears distinct discontent with her life, viewing herself as a failure given the sorry state of her family, while lacking the modesty or strength to admit her faults or even try to improve things. For to do that would mean defying the very things she has used to define herself.

Ciel, the maid of the Hintre estate, is initially presented as a simple bitter household employee. But throughout the Family Swap route, it becomes clear how she’s, in many ways, a person broken by her lived experiences. At age 26, she’s already burdened by her past mistakes and misfortune, drowning in debt, yet rather than coming away from this experience a stronger and more serious person, she’s a deeply fragile individual. So fragile that even though she wants to be someone else, to get rid of her problems, she lacks the conviction and strength to ever commit to… much of anything.

I could go on… for at least another dozen characters, but I think I made my point. The cast is not populated by persons with a slight ennui or a passing longing for something to change. They are all written as people with issues. Issues that are realistic, relatable, and are rife for exploration given the premise of this title.

This leads to a wonderful cycle where the more routes the player plays, the more they get to know and know about these characters, the more context and meaning is added to each subsequent route or appearance. Everything accumulates into a broader image, rather than have each route read like a disconnected story, which speaks volumes of how consistently the characters are written.

…That being said, with a cast of 50-some-odd characters, not everybody is explored, developed, or given more than a light supporting role. A lot of them are these enigmas gushing with potential for exploration, but without a full route to flesh them out as people, they exist as just that. Potential. And while potential ain’t worth bupkis on its own, everything that is done with them is pretty darn good.

While I’m sure if I tried to look for flaws, I could find them, the character writing generally remains quality throughout. Dialogue feels natural, characters express a lot of… character with the way they speak. It is funny when it wants to be, passionate when it calls for, and remains engaging throughout almost all routes.

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Presentation

Let’s address the most obvious part of this game’s presentation first. Press-Switch is a 4:3 visual novel with a native resolution of 800 by 600. This is because Press-Switch uses and remixes assets from commercial Japanese VNs and the first public build came out in 2011. While this was acceptable at the time, it makes the title look super dated nowadays, and hard to play on a higher resolution display. While you can blow things up to full screen, it’s not particularly pretty, and while the game can look better if you lower your monitor’s resolution, that’s not the most ideal workaround either. Unfortunately, the game’s animations are complex and its assets were all designed for this resolution, so the game’s kind of stuck looking like this.

Edit 6/03/2025: I was actually mistaken regarding the resolution. Mariana, who helped a lot with back-end stuff for Press-Switch over the years, actually made engine improvements that allow the game to cleanly scale from 800×600 to 1024×768, which is a considerable leap. However, you need to manually adjust the window to get to this specific resolution, which is a bit of a pain unless you use AutoHotKey or something…

It’s a dated element, as is the UI for much of the game, but in a ‘retro yet sleek’ sort of way. In addition to new story content in the Family Swap Route, v0.6c also redoes the UI. It replaces the interlaced text box of v0.6a and v0.6b with a flat blue background, along with smaller black fixtures along two of the corners. There’s just enough consideration and style in its design for it to look sleek, practical, and like a natural extension of the UI we see of the DSM itself. Something that is occasionally seen throughout the game, but mostly as a sporadically chosen visual aid.

Version 0.6c also introduced a significant bump in the font size of the text, making it considerably easier to read, and an attempt to make the character names easier to read with the introduction of black and white borders. I see what Trigger was going for with these, but the sharp contrast between the white, black, blue background, and colored body-based character text do not mesh into the most readable thing. It would probably look a lot better if the background for the nametag were white or a brighter blue.

Similar improvements also carried over to the save screen. Unlike prior versions, it actually covers the full screen this time— something very important for any 18+ game— and the sometimes intrusive author’s commentary has been shrunk and relegated to the top of the screen. Even the options menu has been redone to something less stock Ren’py and more reminiscent of the retro sleek aesthetic of the text boxes. It’s all little things, and the alignment is strange, but it makes for a vastly better save screen.

Now, beyond the resolution and UI, I would still say that Press-Switch is one of the most visually impressive visual novels I have ever seen. Why do I say that? Well, it entirely comes down to how the game uses its assets. The way they flicker through expressions and poses in a manner both natural and stimulating, making it clear who the speaker is just by looking at how the characters move. The deluge of zoom-ins to emphasize character emotions and appearances, rather than keeping the cast at static length. And so, so many little things.

Characters flash red when struck by another. Laughter or chatter is sometimes represented with text pouring out of their mouth. Characters sometimes fervently bounce up and down as they run. Characters quiver in fear and uncertainty at a deliberate jittery speed. Mirrors shimmer and glow as characters stare into them.

I love the framing and details of the first-person scenes, narrowing the field of view, incorporating wide sweeping motions as they move their head, even including a pseudo 3D perspective at times. In this update, characters are particularly keen on frantically bobbing across the dance floor or flipping around like the paper-thin 2D creatures they are. There are just so, so many little moments where Trigger went above and beyond on the presentation of these scenes.

Despite using assets borrowed from other sources, mostly BISHOP games, Trigger puts more time, effort, creativity, and energy into moving these sprites around than just about any other VN I can think of. Sure, production values might be better, by having on-staff artists, but the more ragtag approach weirdly allows Press-Switch to achieve a higher level of ingenuity, personality, and variety in its presentation. Press-Switch has no reason to look this good, and no market it is trying to please. It merely looks this good because its creator wants it to look this good, and is willing to put in the work to make it look good.

Now, I say that in reference to the newer content, particularly the Family Swap route, but I should clarify that the presentation runs the gamut in quality. With older 2017 and 2018 content looking plain by comparison, with fewer close-ups, edits, or complex animations. However, even at its worst, the visual presentation of Press-Switch is better than most commercial VNs I have covered over the years.

As for the audio presentation, Trigger has repeatedly cited the audio end of things as being his least favorite part of the development process, and it shows in some regards. The music, repurposed from myriad sources, is used well enough to establish the mood, and I actually find some tracks to be iconic at this point. But there simply is not enough music to go around, and what’s there can be a bit repetitive in its implementation.

This is taken to its logical extreme in the release of v0.6c. Because this is a beta, Trigger did not select the music beyond the theme for the title screen and club, where he used the track Stolen Paradise from the Cupid Parasite Losyork Dream (2020) soundtrack. It’s an odd choice. A 100 second track with repetitive lyrics is not really ideal for heavier reading, but it works for the setting. However, Trigger never programmed an ending point for the track, so it just plays throughout the rest of the game. Meaning no matter the scene, you’re listening to someone go on about how “I want to be your heartbeat tonight” and “Just the thought of you makes my heart go into the groove.” …Well, assuming you leave the music on.

This should be annoying as hell, but I actually think it gives this update a decent bit of character. In part because of how the lyrics loop in between verses somewhat seamlessly. In part to the particular laid back rock instrumentation. And in part because the lyrics sound close enough to sound appropriate. Just the thought of [being] you. Wanting to be someone’s heartbeat can be transformed into having someone else’s heartbeat. “Into the groove” is flexible enough to mean anything, and I am TSF obsessed enough that I can view groove as a euphemism for behaving like someone else. …Okay, maybe I am taking this a tad too far, but I still listened to this song over 600 times. Playing the game, making my flowchart, reading through the code, even writing this review! Because this is, inarguably, the theme for Press-Switch v0.6c! And I love it, just for that.

As for the sound design, Trigger offers a similar level of passion to his visual feats. He frequently uses inspired or subtle effects to enhance scenes, making them feel more realistic, emotional, humorous, or just better. The shattering of metaphysical glass to show a character pass through a threshold or have their mind shattered. The ambient noise of conversations in crowded areas. The rustling of clothes as characters get dressed or undressed. The occasional cartoon sound effect for good measure. Like most sound design, it is all little stuff, easy to ignore if you aren’t looking, but once I started, I was thoroughly impressed.

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Sexual Content

Something that I feel the need to highlight when reviewing a game like Press-Switch is the sexual content. Being made out of repurposed eroge (erotic Japanese visual novel) assets, it is unsurprising that the game features a good number of sex scenes. Sex scenes that can go quite hard in a variety of directions, and involve less palpable elements, ranging from rape, incest, or full-on sexual torment in some of the wilder routes. Violence is similarly not uncommon, with characters being attacked, maimed, killed, or committing suicide in some instances.

Additionally, the title goes out of its way to clarify the ages of many of its characters, including the protagonist, Calvin, who is only 17-years-old. This, combined with a high school setting, means that virtually every sex scene in this game involves a minor. If not physically, then mentally. I personally have a high tolerance for this type of thing, but I understand this is a sensitive subject for a lot of people. (Including politicians…)

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Goals and Navigation

Unlike most games, Press-Switch is one without any projected ‘end state’ and the odds of the game ever being 100% complete are nil. Especially with the release of Version 0.6c, which may be the final version release. Emphasis on may. Instead, Press-Switch is more of a narrative playground for its creator, who updates the various branches and routes of this story as he pleases, going on wild and expansive tangents.

To find most of these tangents, players likely need to rely on an external guide, as navigating the game with no idea which routes are developed is a confusing, if not maddening prospect. Dead ends are everywhere, finding specific paths can require juggling invisible variables, and missing out on major content is extremely easy. This has been a problem since the game was relatively young, and back in 2014 I began my tenure as this project’s go-to ‘Flowchart Girl.’ Nearly 11 years later, I’m still making flowcharts for this game.

I could criticize the game for its lack of navigational aids. But the community, and creator, both seem content with having me pump out WIP flowcharts a day or three after release. Instead, I will just criticize the creator for being utterly nuts with the amount of variables they implement, branches upon branches they create, and the labyrinthine webs they make. Webs that I have had to dig through for dozens of hours at this point. …But for most players, they just need to use my handy-dandy flowcharts on this game and they’re golden!

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Family Swap – v0.6a Content

Before talking about the additions of v0.6c, I need to talk about the expansive family swap route it’s branching off of and… it’s a lot.

The route follows Calvin after he decides to use the DSM to bring his fractured family together via a body swap. One involving his mother Heather, little sister Eliza, older sister Jenna, and their maid Ciel. After waking up in Ciel’s body, Calvin returns home, sees the family enraptured in utter chaos, and through some additional tomfoolery, erases his memories of the device so he can experience the full ramifications of his actions.

It is a lengthy story that, even in its ‘incomplete’ state, is richly detailed and fulfilling to play through. It is filled with a deluge of excellent character moments and instances of fiery interpersonal drama as the cast deal with their predicament. And despite being from one character’s perspective, the story focuses enough on the entire cast that the player is able to piece together all sides of the story and understand what it is like for them. Which is something seldom seen in TSF body swaps, where the focus is typically centered around a single person.

I could probably do a play-by-play explaining why each segment is great, but I can narrow down my praises for this route around three things. The first is Calvin himself.

Prior to this route, Calvin’s persona was always shrouded in a bit of mystery, but here, his complex family life was finally opened up and put on full display. The player learns an exceptional amount about his dysfunctional and estranged relationship to the people he should be closest to. The circumstances of how he is raised and why he is so dismissive toward Ciel. And how Calvin truly acts when denied the privilege of being a rich boy or having ready access to a body swapper. He is forced to deal with debt, hunger, job security, and other real-life problems for the first time in his sheltered existence. This not only adds depth to Calvin’s character in this route, but every other route in the game.

Second is the Hintre family itself. While characters like Heather and Eliza were previously expanded upon in their own routes, here the player is steadily fed more information to form a relationship chart of these five characters. How they perceive and react to the flaws of others. How they view themselves. And how they behave when thrust into an unfamiliar situation.

Seeing Eliza utterly fail to grasp the responsibility thrust upon her, falling back to her spoiled and childish behavior even when people dearly need her. Watching Jenna struggle to maintain her dominant role, furious that she is forced to be anybody but her ‘oh so perfect self.’ All before relying on Calvin to maintain her life, forcing the two to unpack their less than loving relationship. Observing Heather as she ditches her cold and domineering demeanor and pursues a lifestyle she would have never allowed herself to have without this body swap. And witnessing Ciel as she eagerly embraces this new dichotomy, freed from the shackles of bad decisions made in her early 20s and granted power that… she barely knows how to wield. All these people are fundamentally messed up, that’s exactly what makes them so much fun to watch.

Through all of this, the core story never loses sight of its original goal: For the Hintre family to grow closer and learn to accept one another a bit more. To me, body swapping is a fantastical physical change that should be followed with an organic mental change. A change in perspective, in understanding, and behavior. One that enriches and changes a person in some way.

This leads into my third thing. While this route lacks any single definitive ending, this route has a cornucopious deluge of endings, so numerous that I’m not even sure how to count them at this point. But I can say it’s at least 50, and that these endings run across the entire spectrum. The lackluster and rushed that introduce a potentially interesting concept, before discarding it a few lines later, because life’s short a bitch. Divergences to the main storyline that, despite their shift in focus, offer both a satisfying and creative end to the story. Additions that serve as ultimately fulfilling and satisfying endings after all the madness the cast has been put through. And extreme deviations that see the story move in a wild, disconnected, direction.

The disparate quality and flavor of these endings gives the ‘conclusion section’ of each major branch a special quality, as you truly do not know what you are going to get. But chances are that you will either walk away satisfied, or find that another conclusion is just a bit of variable juggling away. Plus, it is easy to ignore the underdeveloped endings, when some of them go so hard on such a good concept that the concept deserves to be imitated and iterated upon by others.

For example, it has been nearly three years and I still am kicking myself for not starting work on a TSF story that features two characters perform a suicide pact where they live on as ghosts. Possessing person after person, changing bodies like they are clothes in the world’s biggest wardrobe, while occasionally running into each other. All before suddenly getting trapped in a new body, where they are forced to deal with the consequences of their recklessness… and horniness. That seems so obvious in retrospect.

I could criticize the consistency here, and how certain character traits feel a bit ‘smoothed over’ for the sake of efficient storytelling. But it really does not matter. Telling a good story is more important than any continuity, and that is what these endings deliver more often or not. Even when they are just a highlight reel, they are a highlight reel of something positively dope! And they should fill you with inspiration! Whether it be for your own creative outlets, your daytime fantasies, or maybe even your nighttime fantasies.

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Family Swap – v0.6b Content

Now, I was primarily referring to the Version 0.6a segments in that last section, as the Family Swap route is so big it needs to be compartmentalized. However, Version 0.6b brought with it a cluster of isolated additions that I highlighted in my last review, and still warrant their own section for how vast and ambitious they are.

Building off of an offshoot of an offshoot of an offshoot, this branch kicks off when the Hintre family attempts to wrestle the DSM away from the person who stole it… only for something to go horrifically wrong, leaving the five as spirits unable to return to their bodies. With the clock ticking, the five venture off to the neighboring Olivian family and must each possess a family member. Except the choice of who ends up in who ultimately falls onto the player, who gets to influence the body arrangement through a robust mini-game.

With 5 characters and 5 different bodies, there are a total of 120 different outcomes players can happen across, which is a frankly insane level of variability for a visual novel like this. While there is naturally a lot of overlap in the ensuing stories, every character has unique scenes written for them depending on which body they land in. Heck, a lot of combinations even have their own scenes.

As someone who likes the idea of mixing and matching body swap pairs, and loves the narrative implications of life swaps, this is one of the coolest additions possible. There is so much that could be done with this, it could be seen as the foundation for an entire VN. Because the sheer amount of possibilities are… staggering.

Sadly, while this concept starts with all cylinders blazing, the story gets sidetracked shortly after the Hintres settle into their new lives with the introduction of a twist. A lovely twist that both makes sense and leads to an incredible alternate ending. But this twist also concludes the stories of the new Olivians with brief ‘where are they now’ snippets. There’s enough there for every combination and pairing to have its own appeal and at least one good scene (at least per the sample I saw). I wish it were a bit more detailed, but I fully understand why the story is what it is.

As for the second part of this expansion, that lies in an obscure offshoot only accessible by choosing one of twelve possible combinations in the Olivian possession route. Specifically having Ciel take Christine’s body and having Calvin not possess either Jillian or Mrs. Olivian. …But that only unlocks some branches. Other branches require the player to get help from Mika earlier in the route, while telling her to not go on a date with Jenna.

…Thank goodness for Unren, Visual Studio Code, Graphify, and Draw.io. Because without tools like these I don’t know how I’d figure this crap out. You could be on a deserted island for years with this game as your only source of entertainment and still not figure this out!

I won’t spoil what happens at the divergence, as it is something well worth experiencing blind, but this combination leads into a completely different story. One that about… a lot of things. Calvin and his siblings get stranded in the bodies of the ‘college trio’ from other routes. The family retakes the Hintre mansion through bizarre means. And then there’s their continued adventures using a pair of soul-sucking orbs and a posse of human-shaped abominations.

If it sounds all over the place… that’s because it kind of is. Hell, one story is interrupted with three side stories inside it. One that explores the previously touched upon relationship between otherwise minor characters. One that sees Mika and her adopted mother, Anna, swap bodies so Mika can become a MILF streamer. And one that functions as a much appreciated expansion of a character who has been present in Press-Switch for over a decade, but has never received her due dividends.

It honestly feels like Trigger just took a bunch of body swap ideas they had, rolled them into a ball, stapled on a generally happy ending, and called it a route. But going through it, the bombardment of new ideas, swaps, and introspections from characters as they adapt to this wild situation is so engaging that I didn’t realize how chaotic it is until writing this.

None of this is a bad thing. I love how this game has developed enough non-protagonists that it can warrant semi-related tangents to a main story. The characters approach body swapping in a very casual way that most other routes are too plot or conflict focused to really explore. And this entire prolonged, spiraling, journey feels like Trigger channeling their inner fascinations and presenting it in a pretty package. It’s scatterbrained, but I still love it.

And that’s not even getting into the fever dream Easter egg ending that I can only imagine Trigger wrote while bored out of their gourd while working a slow night as a 911 dispatcher. Or the submission ending that not only offers a better look at the operations of the mastermind, but contains a unique visual style that tells a condensed and effective side story. Or the bully arc introduced in the sub-ending that sees one of the stronger characters in the cast become blighted with insecurity after the loss of their body (and also hot milk).

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Family Swap – v0.6c Additions

This finally brings us to the new additions brought with Version 0.6c, which sees Calvin get swapped from Ciel’s body to Jenna’s body, where he determines who stole the DSM. Rather than get aid from his family though, Calvin goes about this on his own and decides to lure the thief to a nightclub to loosen their conviction and show them a good time. Except, since Calvin is a teenage dork with limited real life experience, he needs help from high school English teacher, and childhood bully, Reina Fable.

Reina is a character who has persisted throughout Press-Switch, but she has mostly been a secondary or minor figure. This route serves as her big showcase, and… she’s an incredible yet fundamentally awful person. She’s a self-described psychopath with a limited understanding of physical emotions, a visceral disdain of sexual activities, and a penchant for malice, thinking herself to be a superior person. There is some contention to be had with Reina’s claims of psychopathy and how her muted emotions are a biological factor. But it leads to a more interesting scenario, and that’s what I’m mainly here for.

Reina’s stability and maturity make her a great foil for the often temperamental Calvin, flexing her past victories and derisively referring to him as “little one,” not even treating his nickname as a proper noun. She runs a fine line between being an absolute bitch, a genuinely fascinating person, and a force so antagonistic she can never be considered a true ally. All of which is made more fascinating when considering her almost identical looking younger sister, Cindy. An immature woman whose love of cigarettes, booze, and cock leads her to live the life of a party girl even as she has past her early twenties. How did they end up as such different people? There’s a whole ending on that!

This is an engaging enough premise, but you know how I keep prattling on about how Press-Switch keeps going above and beyond? Well, Trigger just might have made this the most ambitious route from a mechanical and presentational level. The first major section in the aforementioned nightclub chapter, where the player must balance Calvin’s alcohol levels as he is forced to engage in typical nightclub activities, trying to curb the favor of Reina while also managing the DSM thief. This was clearly meant to be a robust and winding pathway of variable manipulation hell (this time with visible points), but only two permutations are developed. Again, it’s a beta, and as a code sleuth, I have seen the ways this was meant to end.

The first of these permutations is unlocked by scaring the thief and leads into what feels like the closest thing to a true ‘status quo’ ending. After all the wild transformations that have led up to this point and across every route, this manages to narrowly feel like a satisfying conclusion to the characters’ journey. One that leaves their bodies unchanged, but the experience, the knowledge, and the empathy that comes with the act of body swapping all resonate deeply within them. It’s the opposite of the chaos of other endings, yet is fleshed out sufficiently, and feels like a necessary addition.

Meanwhile, the second complete variant sees Reina assert herself, show her character, and cause… a ripe mess as her psychopathic superiority goes wild, leading into a confrontation that, as a long-term fan of this project, left me dazzled, floored, and rethinking everything. While it is not a full answer to a 7-year-long mystery, it is a revelation that’s handled with a level of presentational flair that makes the encounter feel like a final frontier.

The aftermath of this encounter, however, is a bit more mixed. With the ‘good’ outcomes leading to interesting route concepts with great lead ups laced with tension, dread, and character conflict. But the conclusions don’t quite hit as well as they should. One ends too soon for its own good, feeling as if it lacks a true conclusion. The other ends in a way that feels like a joke from 2011. The middle outcome is exactly the type of sicko freak TF concept that I would only expect someone like Trigger to come up with. All culminating in something that starts tense, gets silly, and then billows over into being four flavored of fucked up as characters are pushed to a precipice and lose their humanity.

However, the real meat of this update, the part that made me physically shiver with dread at its immense scale is the ‘bad’ ending. Not content with the Olivian Mansion min-game, Trigger opted to do something exponentially more complex. A 10 to 12 person body swap simulator with up to 14 different participants, based on variables from hours earlier in the route. All framed with the veneer of a mad science experiment mixed with a twisted game show where you can talk to every character every round before they claim a body, or you claim one.

I said that the Olivian Mansion mini-game could be a game in and of itself, and this most definitely could be. Looking at the code, it is a daunting cluster of writing and variables strewn across 36,000 lines, leads into too many permutations for me to measure with a degree of confidence. I’m pretty sure there are billions of unique permutations, most of which don’t meaningfully change anything.

This is probably the most impressive thing I have seen in a visual novel, period. Trigger is absolutely crazy for even attempting this. And this concept is so ambitious, so brilliant, that I am truly in awe of its scale and veracity. It leads to some truly excellent exchanges between characters, frequently surprising me with the level of thought and insight Trigger put into pairings that I thought would be interesting.

Refusal to play this twisted game results in another ‘status quo’ ending that wraps up the game on a surprisingly satisfying note befitting the fate that fell upon this update. And so much flavor text that it would take hours upon hours to see everything. I know for a fact that I did not see everything and, frankly, I don’t want to. I like maintaining some unknowns in my life and not 100%-ing most of my favorite games. 99% is close enough.

That being said, navigating this section of the game is a pain in the ass. The mechanics of the body swap manipulation are complex, driven by preferences and RNG, and are too complex for me to map how something works. While the player can freely avoid the convincing and conversation angle after getting one ending, the manual assigning of bodies to participants is built like a debug feature. It gets the job done, but you cannot easily undo your actions, the UI does not clearly show who was selected, and a misclick can accidentally wreck your whole swap arrangement

Furthermore, for as much as I adore, and want to steal, the framing angle of the body swap game, it just takes too long for the player to see who is who. It takes about a minute to get past the repeated post-swap encounters and venture to the epilogue. What’s there is very strong on a first run through, but not so much on the second or tenth. It’s a level of clunk that I forgive— as this is a highly ambitious beta shoved out the door because of personal issues— but it prevents me from adoring this section.

However, I do adore this update as a whole. I have said before that Press-Switch never had a planned ending, but what’s here, while not comprehensive, offers enough conclusion. It delivers enough satisfying discoveries and innovations end this game, or perhaps just this era, on a high note. …But before pivoting into the gushing conclusion I know is coming, I feel the need to cover every other facet of this game’s story, as there are quite a lot.

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Trio Swap

Trio Swap was one of the routes featured in the early incarnations of Press-Switch, and after the continuity redux with v0.5a, Trigger opted to rewrite the route entirely. As the name loosely implies, the route focuses on the main three students of Sierra Hills high school, Calvin, Mika, and Ashley, undergoing a body swap that is intended to last a full day of school. A simple premise where the quality lies solely in the execution, and it certainly does not disappoint.

The route is littered with tiny observations from Calvin as he comments and comes to terms with the finer details of Ashley’s body. All without ever feeling overbearing or distracting from the flow of the story. Every class period offers a handful of scenes that add to the experience, expanding upon the main characters, side characters, teachers, and the school itself. It even manages to offer a few parallel sets of genuinely amusing interactions between the main trio, including an excellent side excursion with a surprisingly adventurous Ashley.

In its current form, the route only covers about half of the intended first day. Yet it lays the groundwork for what is… probably one of the best portrayals of a ‘high school body swap for a day’ that I have seen. Something that, despite being so simple, managed to impress me with how well it fashioned these familiar elements into something engaging.

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April the Witch

This is more of a stub, an introduction of a concept, more than a fully developed route. But I want this review to cover everything. This route begins with Calvin deciding to have some fun with the DSM by impersonating Mika’s rival, April, posing as a witch, and using the swap and cloning functions to leave Mika positively dazzled. It is more of an illustration of transformation hi-jinks than anything else, with the potential to veer into… basically any direction.

However, I have to say that I am fond of how Calvin is presented here. In routes where Calvin is forced to present as himself, he tends to be a lot more anxious and reserved, shackled by the passive persona he built around others. When presenting as someone else however, he comes across as a lot more controlled and confident, freed from the burden of his identity and able to redefine who he wants to be. He does not feel compelled to be the person other people think he is, nor does he need to worry about how others perceive him. Just like how he is able to be whoever he wants to be in appearance, he can be whoever he wants to be in personality and behavior.

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Mika Route

Once again, this is not a full route, as much as a bridge to other routes, but things do happen, and there is plenty of stuff to talk about here.

The Mika route sees Calvin share the DSM with Mika while at school where, unsurprisingly, she decides to make ample use of the doohickey, becomes a spirit, and causes some mayhem. Afterward, Calvin rightfully yanks her back to reality, where he urges her to have fun without making a mess of the entire school, and use the DSM in more ‘boring’ ways. Switching bodies, trying food with another tongue, doing some light mental changes, and introducing Mika to the worst part of male anatomy, the usual.

It is definitely on the sillier end of the ‘transformation doohickey story’ spectrum, and seeing all the antics play out makes for a grand little time. However, what I appreciated the most was analyzing Mika herself. On a surface level, Mika is an eccentric and mischievous girl with a level of ennui who wants something interesting to happen in her humdrum life. However, all of her actions have an underlying sense of self-loathing.

She relishes in the idea of being someone else, to the point where she seems satisfied with being anyone but herself. Despite being Korean, she is fascinated by the idea of being someone more ‘exotic,’ such as her Indian physical education teacher, Shreya. And while she puts up a playful and boisterous front, she crumbles into a timid mess when someone applies authority or resistance to her chipper nature.

I find her to be a deeply entertaining character whenever she is on screen, offering a degree of levity and absurdity to most situations. Yet this deeper insecurity is also alluring in and of itself. It’s something that is admittedly covered in other routes, and I will say that the darker parts of my soul enjoyed seeing her lighter persona crack under pressure.

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Ashley’s Eyes Route

Branching off of the Mika Route, Ashley’s Eyes is arguably the most unique route in all of Press-Switch. After some sloppy overuse of the remote as Calvin and Mika involve more and more people, Calvin attempts to undo the fine mess he created. In doing so, he winds up uncovering an oversight in the DSM’s functionality. An oversight that links his consciousness to that of his crush, Ashley, rendering him unable to move, talk, or communicate with the outside world. Instead, he has no choice but to perceive the world through her eyes. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say through her body.

Rather than just sharing her vision— something excellently conveyed through a first-person perspective and narrower field of view— Calvin feels everything Ashley feels. What she touches, her fatigue, and even things not typically considered senses. The panic that fills her body when she is exposed to something she does not understand. The loneliness she feels when divorced from the handful of people she is comfortable expressing herself around. The simple pleasures that she indulges in during her leisure time. And the immense love she feels for her ailing mother.

Calvin is exposed to the entire range of her emotions, things that define her, and as he does so, he begins to fall for her. He recognizes the finer qualities of her person. Accepts whatever few flaws she may have. And the line between the two starts to blur as Calvin lives through Ashley for a prolonged period of time. It all makes for a heartfelt transformation story. One that remains true to the tenant of exploring what it is like to become someone else, but in an unconventional and passive way.

The story, naturally, also offers a plentiful amount of insights into one of the more interesting characters in this entire cast. Ashley is someone who is committed to normalcy, to order, that she reacts with horror when things get worse. It initially seems irrational, but as the route progresses and more of her life is revealed, it becomes easy to piece together the pieces as to why she is like this. The trauma, responsibilities, and self-imposed restrictions she uses to live her life. Despite being considered such a beauty, Ashley is someone whose life is filled with a deluge of melancholy.

It all makes for an excellent example of a type of story that I wish was more common in transformation fiction, and easily one of the best routes in the game. I do wish it were expanded in some ways, but it does everything it needs to, while delivering something distinct and genuinely heartwarming.

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Mass Poss Route

The Mass Possession, or rather Mass Poss route follows an alternative branch where Calvin gives up the DSM prior to using it and, after a week or so, things take a turn for the bizarre. The entire population at Sierra Hills High finds suddenly themselves divorced from their body, traversing around the school as spirits. Chaos follows as students realize they can possess the bodies of others, and use this as an opportunity for body-jacking. Depending on how quickly Calvin reacts to this, and where he travels during this pivotal period, the route can change significantly, but most permutations follow the same structure.

After some confusion, everybody finds themselves in a new body, the faculty calls everybody to the gym to issue a cover-up story before interviewing everyone to find out who is who. Then, after half a school day of confusion and unrest, everybody heads home, ordered to present themselves as the person they appear to be.

The first thing that I love about this storyline is its scale. Mass Poss is a rare mid-scale body swap event. One affecting hundreds of people, large enough to not be a close-knit group, but small enough that there is a chance for authority figures to cover it up. The fact that there are a school’s worth of people involved allows the story to capture the chaos and confusion of a large-scale body swap, without involving a societal collapse event. The method of possession gives people autonomy, allowing them to snag some ‘choice bods’ if they act fast enough. And only about 60% of the school population switch bodies with someone, meaning that while everyone experienced this, some are more inclined to write this off as a mere hallucination.

Here is where I would go into describing the greater ramifications of this route and how those in power, and the students themselves, deal with it. Sadly, this route is only updated through the end of the first day, meaning it leaves heaps of potential by the wayside, and I’ve already said my piece on potential. Fortunately, even if its length is brief, it casts a wide net, and has several distinct ‘paths’ developed, all of which have their own distinct flavors.

The Mika path is mostly concerned with impersonation, where Calvin assumes the role of Mika next to an imposter in his body, while trying to determine who is the real Ashley. It’s a fun investigation and impersonation affair that still manages to take the whole body and life theft concept as seriously as anything else in Press-Switch.

The Megumi path is an interesting one to me, as Megumi is presented as a school beauty. Yet in this route, Calvin is routinely at odds with this body, clearly attracted to it, but also overwhelmed and discomforted by it. The billowing hair, the breasts, the general structure of the body, and even the heat distribution. It presents beauty as a burden in a way that other routes touch upon, but never really delve into, and raises a lot of questions about Megumi as a person if she chooses to present herself in this way.

The Silease path sees Calvin nestle away in the body of his small and girlish art teacher. A fact that initially fills Calvin with dread and disappointment, having lost his height and becoming a woman without gaining more ‘womanly’ features. Yet as he is forced to deal with his new disposition, he begins to find several perks. His access to a car, his own home, and body that, while not the most attractive on the surface, ‘comes with big surprises.’ It is a pleasant subversion of expectations that, oddly, empowers Calvin.

The Jaina path is particularly interesting, as Calvin finds refuge in a quiet neurodivergent girl with potent analytical abilities. Something manifested by numbers that unconsciously fill Calvin’s vision as he tries to maintain some semblance of order. It is a rare example of a transformation story where someone both ends up in a different physical form and gains a brain that processes the world differently than how they are accustomed to.

It is a bold concept that demonstrates just how many different factors one can change when undergoing a transformation. However, this is also a subject that needs to be handled gently, and it strikes me more as Trigger coming up with a concept before doing all that much research. Which is fine, a condition doesn’t need to have a name associated with it, or be based in reality. …But then I realized her bio describes her as “a functioning autistic.” Which… boy. I could go on for a paragraph or two about the problems with that descriptor.

The Timothy path… goes hard. With death looming over him, Calvin decides to take the body of Mika’s friend, Timothy, and he immediately regrets his actions. Throughout the game, Timothy is someone who Calvin views with envy due to his close relationship with Mika, but also a level of disdain. To Calvin, Timothy is an exaggerated version of everything he loathes about himself. He is weak, anxious, and bereft of masculinity. As such, he cannot help but view his new status as Timmy as a decline in the social hierarchy, becoming someone worse in every quantifiable way. It leaves Calvin fuming throughout much of the route, before the story finally opens up to reveal more details about Timothy as a person.

They come from a hard home life where they are fed toxic masculine ideas. They are a fervent fan of body swapping media, namely anime and the ilk. And as their choice to snag Mika’s body implies, bear a deep desire to become a girl. This makes Timmy a rather… sensitive character to explore. Someone who in many ways reflects a common variant of TSF enthusiast, and one who very well might hit too close to home for some fans.

Personally, I cannot help but feel a sense of kinship with this little dork. I mean, I was not as meek as Timothy was back in high school, but I used to jerk off to TG and body swap stuff before going to bed every night, while desperately wanting to be a girl. …Then I became a girl, and that’s my story!

Background aside, the path in question deals with Calvin as he tries to navigate through the first day in his life as Timothy. A day is punctuated by a decision to either conform to the meekness he now embodies, or to fight against it and try to become a ‘better,’ more masculine, Timothy. It is an interesting concept, and, bizarrely, the only significant male-to-male swap in this game. Sadly, as a stub, there is only so much that can be explored.

Nicole’s path sees Calvin seek refuge in the androphobic Japanese idol of Sierra Hills, Nicole. The path starts similarly to the others, but right as Calvin adjusts to her body, he is approached by its former occupant. By massaging the truth, Calvin learns that ‘Nicole’ has intimate familiarity with body swapping, and underwent certain traumatic events that are related to this mass possession event.

On its own, that is merely a stub for what could be a broader narrative, but with the addition of the Karyn route from v0.4a, it becomes a lot easier to connect the dots. To determine where ‘Nicole’ was prior to this, understand the origin of her trauma, and theorize how she ended up being in this situation. A situation that I recall being far-fetched when I first encountered it. But the more I learn about the world and the desires of the wealthy and powerful, the more I’m convinced it’s milder than what happens in reality.

…Oh, right. I should also mention the gag endings. In addition to offering the start of six distinct paths, the Mass Poss route also contains its own nexus of bad ends triggered by entering “Trigger” as Calvin’s pseudonym during a name input screen in the Nicole path. This, more than any other aspect of this entire game, is a prime example of Trigger’s love for the unnecessary, as there are 10 tiny gag endings, including ones that cross over Press-Switch with Student Transfer. I knew they took place in the same universe! Candice is the one who got the original alien remote!

…Also, here are some observations I noticed in reviewing the code for the gag ends. Observations that really do not fit with this review.

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Mother Route

As the name implies, the mother route sees Calvin bust out the DSM to use it on his mother, Heather. In his eagerness to play with this new toy however, Calvin proceeds to make pretty much the worst series of decisions he could, thinking of a complicated mental command before processing it in detail. Not backing away after he unintentionally turns his mother into an incestuous nymphomaniac. Undoing the mental command while running away. And leaving the DSM on his nightstand, allowing Heather to snatch it as he sleeps.

This leaves Heather fuming and ready to punish Calvin for his transgressions, and she decides the best way to do so is to rob him of everything. Like a genre savvy pro, she steals his body, trapping him in hers, and issues a series of succinctly worded commands, robbing him of most autonomy and forcing him to act as Heather Hintre. Locked within this prison, Calvin confirms just about everything he suspected about his distant mother. That she is cold, uncaring, aggressive, and demeaning to those she interacts with. That she prioritizes work over all other aspects of life. And that she is something of a sadist who gets pleasure from hurting others.

This malicious nature is seen in how she builds punishments on top of each other. She starts with small durations for their swap, only to slowly extend them. She uses Calvin’s obedience as a justification for her to enjoy the life of a teenage boy. And when he resists by seeking aid in others, she uses this as an excuse to enact misery upon more people, while presenting it as a twisted little game, or gift, to her victims.

Heather is someone who views others with such contempt and lack of empathy or care, that it begs the question if she has even a flake of humanity or humility in her body. However, the more I think about it… she actually just behaves like a ruthless female executive. Someone who will stop at nothing to get what they desire, and who will use every resource available to her to get what she wants. They exist in real life, you’ll probably one at some point, and they make for great villains.

Sadly though, Heather neither snags a decisive victory nor is met with her downfall, as the story stops after making a single deviation. One branch sees Calvin and friends make the most of their situations, mostly by abusing the power of liquid assets. While the other sees Heather doubles down on her spiteful personality, abusing Calvin and friends for showing signs of resistance, and using the DSM to adjust them to her liking. Both of which are excellent angles for the story to expand upon. …And boy do I wish that it would, as this was my first and favorite route back in 2014, and I have been waiting a bloody decade for it to be finished. Now it’s just not going to be! Oh well! Guess I’ll need to write my own version one of these days!

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Goopy (Elena) Route

Okay, so this route is pretty strange. While Trigger is adamant about keeping Press-Switch his own creation, back in 2013 or so, he fulfilled a request from another TFGamesSite user by the name of Goopy (or Goopie) to create an Eliza twinning route. Which, for whatever reason, was the only route from v0.3b to carry over to v0.6a. I say ‘for whatever reason’ because it really does not mesh with the modern incarnation of Press-Switch.

The story sees Calvin use the permanent clone function on himself, turning him into Eliza’s clone. She is ecstatic by this, Calvin’s disgust is downplayed, and Eliza then uses the DSM to change the memories of everyone to think that Calvin has always been Eliza’s twin sister, Elena. This is not really how the DSM works, but whatever. From there, the two then go to Eliza’s all girls’ school, meet up with some major characters, see Calvin either go on a ‘date’ with one of them, or see the twins returning home.

It is a… nice idea, but the story does basically nothing with it. Characters feel flat and surface-level, nothing very much happens beyond set up, and the story does little to stress or explore what it is like to be someone else. It comes across as dull when compared to everything else in this package, and I cannot even determine what it is trying to be. Maybe this is more reminiscent of the quality seen in v0.3b, but I even remember this being a weak route at the time. Still, I’m glad this is here to preserve a part of this game’s early days.

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Karyn Route (v0.4a Route)

Now, this is the big one. The route that almost killed Press-Switch and led to an 8 month development hiatus, where zero work was done on the game. It also has not been reviewed in detail by Trigger since its 2017 release, contains numerous things that are no longer in continuity, and has oodles typos. But it’s still good damn it!

The route follows Calvin indulging his little sister Eliza by using the DSM to switch bodies between her and her friend Michelle. Not wanting to miss out on the day’s worth of hi-jinks the two would inevitably get into, Calvin decides to join them by switching bodies with, or becoming a clone of, Eliza’s classmate Karyn. From this initial buildup, the route shapes itself into an introduction of sorts for a new cast of characters, all based in the Olivian’s School for Girls high school.

As the player is introduced to them, they are given various opportunities to mess with them. Swapping around their bodies, potentially losing the DSM, and choosing what level of chaos Calvin should make as he goes through a normal day of school. What’s there is, generally speaking, good. The characters are endearing, if a bit bratty. Calvin’s observations, while a bit different from the style seen in most other routes, can be insightful. And player decisions lead to some novel situations as characters are trapped in bodies they dislike or are infatuated with. Which is always fun.

Navigation however… is a bit of a mess. For the bulk of the route, the player is just going through the motions, choosing to go with impulses or not, as the day goes on and they are given the opportunity to shuffle bodies about. Conflicts are tiny and personal, and most routes end at the exact same place, with some minor variation of who is who and who is joining Calvin to fix this fine mess. To me, this is an instance where the volume of decisions hampers the experience, but maybe I’m just bitter about needing to test all of this before I learned about Unren.

However, I am just talking about the ‘core’ branch. Because there’s an offshoot where Trigger went absolutely insane and completely lost sight of the project, delving deeper and deeper into a bad end, probably added on a whim.

There are a total of 21 endings in this route, 11 of which are standard bad ends. Wildly detailed bad endings containing some custom assets, but still regular one-in-done minutes-long bad endings. While the other ten are locked behind a 30 second timer, a 5 second timer, and an hours-long sub-route wherein everything goes wrong. Thus leading to a tangent run-off branch that can conclude in ten possible ways. Six of which are based on which variable the player triggered at the very start of this route!

After everything Trigger has done, I am not baffled by this decision. The Mass Poss, Family Swap, and various permutations have made it abundantly clear that Trigger is someone who looooves digging into wild rabbit holes of transformation chaos. But I am amazed at how well it works.

I don’t even know where to begin with this route… The sense of dread that comes with suddenly becoming another person with no resources. The burden felt by a child as they are forced to not only fend for themself, but care for others as well. The triumph and horror that comes with encountering the person responsible for a device as destructive as the DSM. The bonds the characters forge over the course of adversity. The decision to add physical flaws to most characters, or turn boons into flaws. And the dog wild shit that happens in the bad endings.

It is a bitter yet fantastical culmination that wonderfully demonstrates Trigger’s style. Delivers upon pretty much every variant of conclusion I would have wanted to see. And goes above and beyond in a way that no project of this variety and notoriety should.

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The End of an Era

As an… enjoyer of things, I am well versed in the sense of loss that comes with a story not reaching its conclusion. A comic petering out until it dies. An artist deleting their work with no warning. A creator ghosting their account, never to be heard from even after a decade. Or a game that became part of my daily life being callously shuttered after years, my commitment and dedication relegated to mere memories. And the older I get, the more things are pried out of these hands of mine. It is a feeling that I have experienced many times, but… it doesn’t get easier.

This is all to say that I am sad to hear that this may be the end of Press-Switch. In writing this, I don’t think I’ve fully processed just how much I’ve looked forward to seeing each update this game had over the past 11 years, and how much it truly means to me.

As I’ve said in the past, and as I shall continue to say, without Press-Switch, there would be no Student Transfer. No re:Dreamer. No Mice Tea. It is a truly revolutionary title that, through stolen scraps of other assets, a powerful yet frustrating engine, and a deluge of dedication, managed to inspire… god. I don’t even know how many people. Well, I do know how many have read my reviews, looked at my flowcharts, and searched up information about it on my website. About 180,000 page views and 50,000 flowchart views, ignoring all the times my flowcharts have been reposted elsewhere. Interpret that data however you see fit.

I also know that without Press-Switch, I would not have had the courage to pursue my passions in writing TSF stories, talk about TSF games, or analyze assorted TSF works. Without Press-Switch, this would still just be some rinky dink video game blog, and I would keep my interest in body swapping a dirty little secret. Natalie.TF would not even be Natalie.TF! Of course, it was not the first big TF game to crop up from TFGamesSite, but it was the first that made me really think this genre could be so much more. It expanded my mind, broadened my understanding, and for as long as I am creating, I will be carrying its influence.

I utterly adore Press-Switch. It is a glowing testament to the TSF genre. It is an inspiration to myself and an incalculable number of TSF creators. It is a genuinely impressive visual novel with a vast scope, impressive detail, and a lavish presentation. I have always known that the game would never be ‘finished.’ That it would never be ‘whole.’ Yet, I still consider it to be one of my favorite games of all time. I loved it enough to give it my silly Natalie.TF Certified DOPE Award last year!

Fortunately, as a game that can be simply downloaded and played on one’s computer, I don’t need to worry about Press-Switch going away or becoming lost media. Or, at least I didn’t need to worry about it. With the privating of the Press-Switch Discord, with the loss of the TFGamesSite pages, and with the finicky nature of download links in the modern internet, I do worry about the game being lost. So much of its history and discussion has already been lost with Trigger’s purges, and now… Natalie.TF is the main place on the public facing internet to learn about this game, to download it and play it.

It is an enormous shame, as this game offers so much, is such a wonderful, fulfilling, and creative experience that I want it to live on. I want it to continue to inspire creators. I want it to continue to make people think about how they view themselves, and the world. It just needs to be promoted, to be spread, and… while I cannot do much, I will keep it around for anybody interested.

With that, I don’t know what else I can say other than… thank you.

Thank you to the community for keeping it going all these years, motivating Trigger through every delay, inspiring him, befriending him, and cultivating a fandom for this weird-ass freak game. Thank you Mariana for helping Trigger with the game’s development, managing the community, and re-implementing the Karyn route. Thank you Skillet for being the best junior maid the community could ask for. Thank you to… whoever made the original flowchart for inspiring me to become part of this game in my own roundabout way. And, most of all, thank you Trigger for dedicating so much of your life, energy, skill, and passion into creating Press-Switch. Your contributions will be missed, but your legacy will never be forgotten.