Pendragon Rising

Story was mediocre at best and the "romance" options were terrible, either be gay, date your half brother/sister or your aunt/uncle. Constantly being told you're essentially useless and nobody wants you, even though you've gathered lot's of allies and are supposedly adored, isn't great storytelling in my opinion.

“Pendragon Rising” initially presents an intriguing premise for a text-driven RPG, but its execution is fundamentally undermined by a volatile and opaque stat system. While the genre thrives on consequence, the mechanics here frequently feel arbitrary rather than earned, leading to a gameplay experience defined by frustration rather than strategy. The primary issue lies in the game’s lack of transparency regarding character progression. Player choices routinely result in massive, irreversible stat shifts with no prior warning or narrative justification. It is common to see a substantial portion of one attribute stripped away in favor of another based on a single dialogue choice. Because the game fails to communicate these trade-offs in advance, character development becomes a matter of guesswork rather than intentional role-playing. This leads to a jarring dissonance between the narrative and the mechanics. A character established as a fearsome, experienced warrior can effectively "lose" their combat proficiency after a single decision, becoming incompetent at the very skills they must have honed over many years. When a character ends up mediocre at everything due to obscured sys…

[h1]TERRIBLE PACING[/h1] Pendragon Rising is an interactive text-based novel (or interactive fiction, if you prefer) heavily inspired by the Arthurian legends. It isn’t exactly "just" another retelling of King Arthur’s story, but it draws heavily from well-known myths. As much as I liked the initial idea, the execution falls short. The pacing is extremely rushed, pushing you through major events without giving anything time to develop. Honestly, Pendragon Rising is one of the weaker IF titles I’ve read recently. It’s not that the writing itself is bad - [b]it’s simply bland and too fast-paced to leave any real impact.[/b] The story barely lasts four hours, and even then it feels like it’s hurrying you to the finish line. [b]I can’t recommend it.[/b] [b]Story[/b] You play as a young Arthur or Arta - a bastard child of the aging ruler Pendragon. There’s a bit of appearance customization, but that’s about it when it comes to shaping your character. There’s not much point in going into detail about the plot. At its core, it’s about the war between the Britons and the Saxons, eventually leading to [spoiler]a decision about who will become the new queen[/spoiler]. The choices feel mos…

It's a choose your own adventure book, like many others from this publisher. I enjoyed this one. I liked the setting, I liked the low magic, grimdark take on the Arthurian legend that felt historical. The choices were all non-obvious and interesting, and the story was satisfying with enough twists and turns that I'll likely play it again some time to see what other paths I could have taken. Recommended if you like this sort of thing.

another missing review =/ This one is a good one, if an older one. That is actually a good thing, as back when this was written, there wasn't as much focus on making you find and pick the right choice, or else suffer nasty consequences. Dont get me wrong, you can make bad choices in this game, but it is also possible to "win" (if such a term even applies to a story) several different ways, so you are not stuck trying to figure out the author's one way through said story. All of this is a bit off kilter as a review, and I am sure my original one was much better. Still, if you like King Author stories, this one is an interesting take on the legends that puts you in the driver's seat to experience in your own way. Highly recommended.

"you might be a male hero in a world where most warriors are men and it's women who guard the mysteries of the Veiled Isle. Or you might be a female hero, and it's the women who go to war and men who talk to the old gods" What kind of crap is this? I want to be a female hero in a world where most warriors are men. This is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Seriously though, it's way too short but otherwise enjoyable.