For reactions relating to the source material and the trolls featured, go here.
- Accidental Innuendo: One of Amisia's bad endings has her say that she was going to let you into her "pusher" had you not screwed up. It was meant to refer to "blood pusher", the troll term for the heart, but fans unfamiliar with troll terminology could have interpreted it... much more erotically.
- Alas, Poor Scrappy: As hated by most of the fandom as he is, some people can agree that Zebruh getting his limbs torn off and dying in Marvus' bad route was quite horrifying. Some felt that even if it was satisfying to see him die, they didn't want it to be that extreme.
- Awesome Music: The original music used in the game, most of which is by James Roach, is very good to listen to. Most of these songs can be found here
. - Bizarro Episode:
- Both routes on Volume 16 are weird for various reasons. On Fozzer's route, a mysterious flash of light resets time and alters his personality. On Marvus' route, there are a lot of references to unusual fetishes, and on the path that leads to the bad end, the timeline seems to fall apart after Zebruh is killed.
- Lanque's route on volume 18, which is different depending on your response to Ardata asking if you're alright with the mature content or not. Lanque is presented quite differently in both versions. This route was very divisive, as was Marvus' route, and it didn't help that they were written by the same person, who is unknown and only goes by "V".
- Crosses the Line Twice:
- Diemen, a relatively young-looking troll, is surrounded by a tornado of hotdog-themed innuendos. If it doesn't make you feel uncomfortable, then this can come off as downright hilarious.
- You can potentially try to murder a troll for Amisia and fail horribly. How does the game respond? By insulting you for being "terrible at murder".
- One of Bronya's bad endings is caused by you sitting on a grub. The game over screen calls you... Alternia's deadliest ass. Becomes even more darkly comedic when you realize that this is a Call-Back to one of Diemen's bad endings back in Volume 1, in which he gets his neck snapped after you sit on it while he's up against a sharp rock.
- The first bad ending on Stelsa's route has you getting reduced to a skeleton by acid rain after attempting to run back to the car instead of getting Stelsa's attention as she returns to her hive. The ending screen says "Well, that didn't work..."
- Ensemble Dark Horse: The hotdog juggling troll who appears in one of the backgrounds in Marvus' route gained a lot of attention and some fanart for their cute design, enough to appear in the backgrounds in Nihkee's route in the following volume, and Lanque's route in the volume after that.
- Fan Disservice: The sexual or fetish-related humour is usually quite uncomfortable, ranging from discussions of teenagers wearing diapers to draining life energy with a kiss to characters doing a Spaghetti Kiss with a hotdog that looks to be made of insects.
- Genius Bonus: Zebruh's dickish nature is actually a reference to the behavior of real life zebras. Zebras are mating-obsessed animals that live in harems and tend to monopolize the resources in their area, making it difficult for other animals to live around them. The leader stallion will often get quite aggressive when another male approaches a female from his harem, similar to how Zebruh lashes out at you if you inquire about his poor treatment of his lowblood servants.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Tumblr user banavalope made a mockup of a potential Galekh route, jokingly passing it off as a leak. One week later, an official Galekh route was released, and the mockup actually wasn't far off.
- Similarly, someone did a similar thing for Daraya, drawing her with a spiked collar to match her bracelets, something that isn't shown on her Hiveswap sprite. A few months later when her route was announced, she was indeed shown to be wearing a spiked collar.
- Tumblr user banavalope
- It Was His Sled:
- The fact that you can kill Diemen became widely-known very quickly, since most players accidentally found themselves going down that route.
- The mysterious Goldblood actually being Polypa in disguise was widely known even before Volume 5's release, thanks to some of the volume's code being datamined before release. It's even lampshaded by the developers inside the code.Volume 5 image changes if the player has actually started Polypa's route. If they haven't, she's in disguise. Makes for a fun little surprise.
- The fact that what appeared to be a second route for Amisia in Volume 9 was actually Chahut's route was so easily noticed and guessed that by the time the volume was available in the store, they didn't even bother to keep it a secret and showed her in the preview images.
- The name of the unknown Purpleblood being revealed to be Karako Pierot quickly spread online. In fact, his first name was revealed before the volume was released.
- Jerkass Woobie: Cirava, despite their mellow appearance, is a huge Jerkass who's a bit too easy to set off. However, they're an asshole for a good reason, as they almost became a battery after their False Friends tried to turn them in, had said friends completely abandon them, and ultimately ripped their own left eye out because of it. Quite a few fans wanted to give Cirava a hug because of what they've been through.
- Folykl can be just as much of a Troll as Kuprum and even drain the MSPA Reader's energy, but it's hard not to feel sorry for her when you learn that she has something called Voidrot that leaves her with empty eye sockets and the need to drain energy from others to survive.
- The Scrappy: While Zebruh is an intentional one, an unintentional case is Tagora, who received not a little flack for being made almost entirely out of some of the worst stereotypes of Jews.
- Scrappy Mechanic:
- The fact that the Steam and Android versions of the games are separate from each other and there is no way to share data between them, meaning that unless you want to spend more money, you have to play one or the other. Usually this wouldn't be too much of a problem as the volumes are generally released on both platforms around the same time, however, a later release time for Volume 11 being prevented by unforeseen changes to Steam's release policy meant that the volume would only be available on Android until the following Monday, frustrating fans who usually played on Steam, and causing some of the more impatient ones who didn't want to run into spoilers from Android players to have to buy the Android version just so they could play it sooner. The other problem comes from the fact that you can't just buy that single volume, you have to buy the base game and then the volume you want to play.
- Galekh's citations in Volume 12 can be clicked to bring up a window with additional messages. However, they are very tiny and if you click in the wrong place, you'll move on to the next text box and miss your chance to read them unless you play through the route again. It's especially frustrating on the Android version, as it is hard to accurately press such small buttons with your fingers.
- Shocking Moments:
- Meeting the Grand High Blood on Chahut's route.
- The bad ending of Nihkee's route, where the MSPA Reader not only has visions of previous routes and their bad endings, but also has visions of what appears to be the future if they returned to Nihkee.
- The epilogue with Doc Scratch.
- Squick: Diemen's sprite in the Troll Call is proportioned like a toddler; in-game he doesn't look quite so young, but still comes across as too young for it to be entirely comfortable when he takes off his shirt and tries to make out with the MSPA Reader. Slightly less disturbing when later volumes heavily imply that they are quite young too, and Diemen is slightly older than he appears.
- Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The first two Volumes are fairly divisive in the fandom for different reasons. However, Volume 3 combined the best traits of its predecessors (the dark writing from Volume 1 and the Awesome Art from Volume 2), and as such it's been greeted with warm reactions.
- Take That, Scrappy!: Zebruh became one of the most universally despised characters in the fandom after his route was released. Two volumes later, it's revealed that he's regularly swindled out of his money by Remele for his commissions, which lead to many fans cheering her on. Later on, Marvus' route has either Zebruh being killed, or Marvus saying a few of the things wrong with him, and he even helps the MSPA Reader because he felt sorry that they were at the concert with him.
- Unexpected Character:
- Very few fans anticipated the fact that you'd get to meet the Grand High Blood on Chahut's route. The few fans that expected to see a Homestuck character in the Friendsim most likely didn't anticipate seeing an Ancestor, of all characters.
- Many people guessed that Doc Scratch would turn out to be involved in the game's plot around the time of the thirteenth volume. However, not many people expected that he would actually show up in person in the last volume.
- Unfortunate Character Design: Many people mistook one of Cirava's bongs in the background for a dildo, due to its phallic shape and sexual pink color.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: To Cirava's detractors, their route definitely came off as this. They're supposed to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who acts as such because of how many False Friends they've had throughout their life, and how said friends later tried to turn them in to be used as a living battery. However, some felt that the way Cirava chose to cope with their situation (AKA being a massive Jerkass with a Hair-Trigger Temper) didn't make them feel as sympathetic as intentioned.
- Values Dissonance: A good deal of the Broken Base over characters like Cirava comes from newer fans who aren't familiar with what a Crapsack World Alternia is and how horribly lower blood castes like Cirava's are treated by those higher up in blood color. While becoming a Hair-Trigger Temper Jerkass after being burned by bad friends might not be considered the proper response for a human it's perfectly reasonable for a goldblooded Troll like Cirava, who very specifically was almost forced to become the living power source of an Alternian starship, which would see them literally wired into the ship's systems and in perpetual agony as seen with The Helmsman.
- Viewer Gender Confusion: Many fans thought Lanque was a female when his sprite was leaked. Justified because Jadebloods are almost always female, and he was later confirmed to be a transgender man.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Given that the first Act of the Hiveswap was rated E10, many people expected the Friendsim to have a similar rating. However, the series ended up being rated M instead, despite it being a simulator all about making friends. And it was rated that for a good reason: there's swearing, sex jokes, and one of the starter trolls is an Ax-Crazy internet celebrity who kills trolls for entertainment. Also, you can accidentally kill the other troll on his route. And that's just the first volume!
