Stars Arisen

玩过的IF里能稳定前三的一部，这个作者真的蛮会写的，她的新作specters of the deep的demo也挺有意思的。经典龙王归来类爽文，主角的妈是暂时落魄的神，主角和一个幽灵踏上夺回神力的冒险旅途，中间有假扮路人潜入高塔以及参与政治投票的路线。Romance不是故事侧重，除了一直跟在身边的Vivian以外对别的角色都没有很大印象，感觉都挺路人的。

The writing is good and the story is enjoyable. I wouldn't rate this as one of my favourites, or say that it's definitively a must-read, but it's definitely among the better titles. This book seems to offer a lot of variability although I suspect the main story beats always stay the same. The main stats are assigned at the very beginning of the game and in that very same beginning you get plenty of opportunities to fail checks. I believe this is the only game where I felt the need to restart a couple of times until I understood exactly how the author wanted me to play.

This is another game with a tentative recommended. Honestly, I think it's just not for me. For the backstory, I went back to it and gave it another chance after falling utterly in love with "Specters of the Deep" (same author). I disliked "Heroes of Might" very much, but on my first try, I just got bored with "Stars Arisen" and ended up dropping it. Now on this second try, I actually finished my playthrough. And my opinion is "it's not bad once you get through the start, but also not great either". Setting is good and premises are interesting, but I feel like aside from Vivian and Em, the ROs (and characters in general) are a bit on the weak side. In a way, while "Specters of the Deep" has incredible characters that are really the driving force of the game in a lot of aspects, in this case I think the characters are devices at the service of the plot rather than what moves it. Some people may prefer that, but it's not really for me. Next part will be a bit spoilery, so read at your own discretion... Based on the premise you probably read, the game offers you a few "mindsets" for your character to be in, which could be broadly divided in: - Want to take back your mother's th…

Bought the threefer from this author when the new book came out, felt that one suffered from arrested development of a sort (the description and reality are technically the same but I felt off), decided to give the rest a shot and....Idk my man, couple hours in and I had to tap out. Could just be a taste but but felt very YA section and like there were two versions of a charecter you could be....naive puppy that love mommy and petulent child that hates mommy. Both were weird. IMO? Unless you've gone through and done all of the good COG/HOG collections I would not glance in the direction of this. IF that sounds too harsh, I will say this is far from the worst one I ever saw.

I see complaints about the romance options being rebels. They are by people who have not figured out the correct way to play the game. That being as a complete psychopath who sleeps with someone days after killing their father, then, when they find out, kills them. This is good game design. The setting itself is well-crafted and the story largely delivered on a magical counter-revolution and twisted family relations it promised. Though I wish it spent some more time on the epilogue, you saw how the city and its politics changed after the Sorceress's absence, it would've been cool to see it changing in response to your actions in the end in more detail. The skill system was fine, never particularly punishing, sometimes a bit vague or unintuitive. For example it seems Strength means both physical prowess and the capability for destructive magic, which is somewhat odd (Pretty funny though, imagining a caster character I pictured as quite frail successfuly tackle a veteran soldier twice her age). Enjoyed my time with it. Happy to recommend.

Pretty good story with plenty of choices to alter your path and shape your protagonist. My only complaint is that the skills of the character are a little ambiguous, and it's not always clear when a particular dialogue option is going to apply them. This has led me to pick options that I thought were just branches of the story, only to find out they were a skill check for one of the skills I did not specialize in. (e.g. I stand between a character and their attacker, turns out to be a strength skill check and I just get pushed aside) Aside from that, though, its a good novel and I'd still recommend it.