A Blade for the Emperor

This story is well-written, and an enjoyable read. It is remarkably better than many of the recent releases from Choice of Games, and there are a great many very satisfying scenes. It is not very much spoilers to say that the scene where you kill the Emperor (if that is your path) is deeply satisfying. However, I want to temper my praise significantly because this story has a major, glaring, unforgivable flaw. I have read it once, and shall never read it again, because of this flaw. Spoilers Ahead, Seriously I cannot talk about it without spoiling almost the entire story, so I will simply say it as plainly as I can; [spoiler]it is not possible to destroy the dynasty. It is not possible to destroy the Virdeus line of rulers. Your choices are Erid, Arella, Esteon, Saior, and Moridum. It is not even possible to achieve a partial victory by ensuring the deaths of all of the above and seeing the child, Eda, take the throne with a regent. For a story about assassinating an emperor, in which the author does not shy away from addressing the simple fact that his siblings and cousins of the royal bloodline must own their own complicity in his cruelties, I truly just do not see how it is…

I would like to recommend this game without reservation. It has an engaging premise, impressive world building and the characters are well developed, if not always internally consistent they do adhere to their assigned tropes. The many choices for character building are as advertised. The pages with a wall of text tend to read like an AI went on adjective overload binge, but that is just how some authors write so its a personal choice to count it a pro or con. The author does give the player freedom to experience an immersive narrative story. I felt compelled to share my reservations and give the simple warning: the choice of multiple paths to 'success' is an illusion. The PC is forced to min-max to pass the brutal, rigid gatekeeping stat(s) to have any hope of achieving a desired ending. Yes, there are multiple possible endings, and at the most generous reading any ending is 'good' if it is the intended one. Over time the disconnect between the visible skills and mechanism governing the gatekeeping "Subtlety" stat (a stat that only ever goes down) makes even meta-gaming a challenge. Blade for the Emperor commits not one but two cardinal sins of CYOA games: 1. Invisibl…

Quite long, but absolutely worth it. Among all the mediocre releases that have come from COG recently this one is special, an absurd amount of branching paths, Vivid descriptive writing that doesn't overstay it's welcome, Extremely flawed characters, who still have qualities worth redeeming, and dozens of endings all tracking major and minute decisions made throughout the story. Absolutely worth it 9/10

A Blade for the Emperor delivers an intriguing dark fantasy adventure built around assassination, political manipulation, supernatural abilities, and the difficult choices involved in overthrowing a tyrannical ruler. Developed and published by Choice of Games and written by Samuel Gohra, this text-based interactive RPG places players in the role of an assassin determined to infiltrate the imperial court and eliminate an emperor whose seemingly unnatural immortality has allowed his oppressive reign to continue. Instead of traditional action sequences or elaborate visual presentation, the experience relies on descriptive writing, branching dialogue, and player decisions to create an expansive adventure. Its ambitious narrative explores the complicated relationship between power, morality, personal ambition, and the consequences of political change. The story revolves around Emperor Erid Virdeus, a feared ruler whose brutal policies and supernatural influence have transformed his empire into a dangerous and oppressive society. Players must navigate a world filled with suspicious nobles, rebellious factions, ruthless soldiers, and individuals whose loyalty can change depending on pers…

I've been playing COG since Choice of the Dragon came out. This is by far the best one I've ever played, and I'm including all of the hosted games as well. It's in-depth, has excellent prose and dialogue, a compelling and well-executed plot, interesting main and secondary characters, balanced difficulty, long satisfying endings, and I've never felt railroaded or like something was incomplete. I was surprised by how easily it left me change my path in a way most IFs wouldn't, and happy with the balanced difficulty of doing so. The only thing I could complain about is (Ending Spoilers) [spoiler]that it's impossible to fully wipe out the bloodline if that's something you want to do. But that's not your mission. A "truly" cold blooded assassin wouldn't care enough to end monarchy purely for other's potential wellbeing. Meanwhile, most softhearted types would dislike having to murder those who've probably already surrendered/agreed to help you. So it's a relatively minor issue for a very specific roleplay imho, but still worth noting.[/spoiler] The best compliment I can give it is that it feels like it's been written for grown adults that genuinely like to read actual literature, b…

This is one of the better Choice of Games novels I've ever played through. It's a very unique setting, which is part of what Choice of Games excels at - putting together games about kinds of stories you'd never see anywhere else and that fit no genre conventions. My only complaint is that the story can sometimes leap in ways that are slightly jarring without a lot of setup. But it is a very long story with a lot to fit in as it is, so I sort of get why. Edit: I'm mostly keeping my review positive because I have a very high standard for choosing to give small creator games published by COG negative ones, but that was perhaps the worst ending in the history of COG. The story prompt near the very end literally ended with "No matter what, I know this will change nothing." (COG code for "this is a flavor choice") and it quite literally ruined my entire story path and changed everything. That is a misuse of how COG dialogue conventions work and was an awful design decision.