Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

[God]

I agree. Unlike most people on reddit, I actually rate SOH. I hear people saying Wayhaven is better than SOH and I'm like wth are you taking about? Wayhaven is a good romance IF. That's it. Otherwise I wouldn't compare it with SOH.

Me who has a low opinion of both hiding, I used to love SOH but really don’t like linear stories much, but my taste of anime and manga changed a few years back and I can’t help, but cringe at SOH. Just aren’t my medium anymore, for Wayhaven I was an A romancer and I just got fed up tbh plus MC bothered me too. I’d rate them both good for what they are trying to be and genre imo. I won’t be in a rush to play either and SOH I think I dropped like book 3 or 4 so I’ll pass.

 

[Gone_Dead]

Me who has a low opinion of both hiding, I used to love SOH but really don’t like linear stories much, but my taste of anime and manga changed a few years back and I can’t help, but cringe at SOH. Just aren’t my medium anymore, for Wayhaven I was an A romancer and I just got fed up tbh plus MC bothered me too. I’d rate them both good for what they are trying to be and genre imo. I won’t be in a rush to play either and SOH I think I dropped like book 3 or 4 so I’ll pass.

I understand. There's a bunch of cringe scenes that I tend to ignore. I barely scrolled through book 4. I'm not a fan of linear books in general but I can suffer through it if the world building and characters are good. SOH has its faults but in no way is it a bad book.

 

[God]

I understand. There's a bunch of cringe scenes that I tend to ignore. I barely scrolled through book 4. I'm not a fan of linear books in general but I can suffer through it if the world building and characters are good. SOH has its faults but in no way is it a bad book.

Yeah think last manga/anime medium I got into was TOG manhwa Like I was never into it heavily anyways but when covid hit I just never went back to anime or manga. I still know about a lot from memes and such. Feel like I know whole JJK story not reading or watching a second just from memes tbh. I will say SOH is good at what it wants to be, I will say if a certain romance option is true it really is living up to its anime comparisons

 

[Achilles]

I don’t know why nobody is talking about how Kingdoms and Empires has become so shitty lately. Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion since everyone is too busy d***riding the author like he’s writing the second coming of Tolkien, but let’s be honest it’s just not good anymore.

It used to be a simple, captivating story with actual direction. The rebirth plot, the goddess, the clear mission, it had flow, purpose. But now? We’re stuck in this painfully boring-*** childhood arc, meeting one annoying character after another in scenes that drag on forever. Like bruh, what even was that whole Sukkar or "sugar" scene? That was straight-up garbage. I don’t know what kind of emotional payoff the author thought that was delivering, but it just felt obnoxious and forced.

And now these massive walls of text that aren’t even fun to read. And not the kind that pulls you in, these are the kind that make you start skimming halfway through and wondering why you're even still reading this mess. It’s like he’s trying to pad out word count with zero substance. The adult characters are cartoonish as hell and there’s barely any realism in the world anymore. I get it’s fantasy, the MC’s reborn in another world and all but even fantasy needs internal logic, and this ain’t it. It’s just lore dump after lore dump now. No emotional core, no grounded tension, just endless exposition.

It honestly feels like the author just wants to make it “deep” for the sake of it, but it’s not working. It’s just bloated, directionless, and painfully unfun to read now. The charm is gone. The pacing’s a mess. And worst of all I actually used to love this game. Now I just feel like I’m hate-reading it out of loyalty.

 

[God]

I don’t know why nobody is talking about how Kingdoms and Empires has become so shitty lately. Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion since everyone is too busy d***riding the author like he’s writing the second coming of Tolkien, but let’s be honest it’s just not good anymore.

It used to be a simple, captivating story with actual direction. The rebirth plot, the goddess, the clear mission, it had flow, purpose. But now? We’re stuck in this painfully boring-*** childhood arc, meeting one annoying character after another in scenes that drag on forever. Like bruh, what even was that whole Sukkar or "sugar" scene? That was straight-up garbage. I don’t know what kind of emotional payoff the author thought that was delivering, but it just felt obnoxious and forced.

And now these massive walls of text that aren’t even fun to read. And not the kind that pulls you in, these are the kind that make you start skimming halfway through and wondering why you're even still reading this mess. It’s like he’s trying to pad out word count with zero substance. The adult characters are cartoonish as hell and there’s barely any realism in the world anymore. I get it’s fantasy, the MC’s reborn in another world and all but even fantasy needs internal logic, and this ain’t it. It’s just lore dump after lore dump now. No emotional core, no grounded tension, just endless exposition.

It honestly feels like the author just wants to make it “deep” for the sake of it, but it’s not working. It’s just bloated, directionless, and painfully unfun to read now. The charm is gone. The pacing’s a mess. And worst of all I actually used to love this game. Now I just feel like I’m hate-reading it out of loyalty.

Idk the point of the rewrites tbh, just know it originally reached the birthday arc. Making side stories and what not. It was good imo idk the reason for the rewrites, I tried new demo but imo it was just something off, the new structure of goddess visiting in dreams now, also making new childhood scenes??? Bro our complaint was too much childhood so you decide to invent new scenes…. Just wait until the IF authors learn about milking I wouldn’t be surprised if FF was the first to start the milking trend. I’m saying this and he’s one of my favorite authors but this is getting too sus. Also he hasn’t heard about show don’t tell, all his world building is through lore drops like chill

 

[Gone_Dead]

I don’t know why nobody is talking about how Kingdoms and Empires has become so shitty lately. Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion since everyone is too busy d***riding the author like he’s writing the second coming of Tolkien, but let’s be honest it’s just not good anymore.

It used to be a simple, captivating story with actual direction. The rebirth plot, the goddess, the clear mission, it had flow, purpose. But now? We’re stuck in this painfully boring-*** childhood arc, meeting one annoying character after another in scenes that drag on forever. Like bruh, what even was that whole Sukkar or "sugar" scene? That was straight-up garbage. I don’t know what kind of emotional payoff the author thought that was delivering, but it just felt obnoxious and forced.

And now these massive walls of text that aren’t even fun to read. And not the kind that pulls you in, these are the kind that make you start skimming halfway through and wondering why you're even still reading this mess. It’s like he’s trying to pad out word count with zero substance. The adult characters are cartoonish as hell and there’s barely any realism in the world anymore. I get it’s fantasy, the MC’s reborn in another world and all but even fantasy needs internal logic, and this ain’t it. It’s just lore dump after lore dump now. No emotional core, no grounded tension, just endless exposition.

It honestly feels like the author just wants to make it “deep” for the sake of it, but it’s not working. It’s just bloated, directionless, and painfully unfun to read now. The charm is gone. The pacing’s a mess. And worst of all I actually used to love this game. Now I just feel like I’m hate-reading it out of loyalty.

The old demo was fine imo. Idk why he decided to do a rewrite. I enjoyed the old demo although the childhood was kinda getting stretched. I think hes doing a rewrite so that he can better minimize the childhood and compartmentalize the story. The lore he's written is so vast so he should just reveal relevant lore as it comes into coversation and make the rest optional. Even then I think he finds it difficult to figure out when and where to stop the lore exposition.

The new demo is just so off for some reason. The paraphrasing seems weird, the structure too. Too many unnecessary side content. He's stretching this festival arc too much imo. He's a good author but he's bad at putting it on paper is what I can conclude. Characters and dialogue is good but there's just so much clutter which he could do without.

Other than that I don't see any issues. I actually love that he puts so much effort into the lore but sometimes it's what undoes his work in the end. He needs to figure out when and how to say no to himself.

 

[God]

The old demo was fine imo. Idk why he decided to do a rewrite. I enjoyed the old demo although the childhood was kinda getting stretched. I think hes doing a rewrite so that he can better minimize the childhood and compartmentalize the story. The lore he's written is so vast so he should just reveal relevant lore as it comes into coversation and make the rest optional. Even then I think he finds it difficult to figure out when and where to stop the lore exposition.

The new demo is just so off for some reason. The paraphrasing seems weird, the structure too. Too many unnecessary side content. He's stretching this festival arc too much imo. He's a good author but he's bad at putting it on paper is what I can conclude. Characters and dialogue is good but there's just so much clutter which he could do without.

Other than that I don't see any issues. I actually love that he puts so much effort into the lore but sometimes it's what undoes his work in the end. He needs to figure out when and how to say no to himself.

Yup it’s great, top 5 potential imo. I think what happens is he gets asked a lore question and does not know the answer so he goes and create a whole new lore from scratch and gets caught up in it. I think he was one of the Authors that said he found Mac boring though, and one of the reasons he created the side story. I wonder how romance was changed because pretty sure he’s been getting pressured to change it since the beginning. He had a great idea since he wanted to keep it real life accurate, but some hated the idea that they’d have to give up the seat or have fake marriage if they choose same *** relationships. It is a hard place to be in because realistically you need heirs, and that’s why they said just make Aurelian the heir. Hard choices for him. My theory is Rem seems like his favorite character to me tbh and I feel like his death is approaching and he’s dreading writing it.

 

[Gone_Dead]

Yup it’s great, top 5 potential imo. I think what happens is he gets asked a lore question and does not know the answer so he goes and create a whole new lore from scratch and gets caught up in it. I think he was one of the Authors that said he found Mac boring though, and one of the reasons he created the side story. I wonder how romance was changed because pretty sure he’s been getting pressured to change it since the beginning. He had a great idea since he wanted to keep it real life accurate, but some hated the idea that they’d have to give up the seat or have fake marriage if they choose same *** relationships. It is a hard place to be in because realistically you need heirs, and that’s why they said just make Aurelian the heir. Hard choices for him. My theory is Rem seems like his favorite character to me tbh and I feel like his death is approaching and he’s dreading writing it.

I remember. The fans kinda bullied him into a rewrite imo. He seems like a great dude and he looks to genuinely love writing, else no one would put in so much work to write lore and past events. He'd do well as an actual novelist. I remember long back when he said that gay MC's would be forced to have heirs anyway and people didn't take it well. So he started to dull the grittiness of the world.

I feel bad for him tho. I once sent him an ask in Tumblr complimenting his lore and world building and he said that he appreciates my words and that unfortunately not all share my sentiments. The way he answers asks in Tumblr tell me has the general outline of the IF figured out long ago but he just struggles to paste it into IF medium. But the fact that he actually listens to the fans is a good thing but I sometimes think he listens too much.

 

[Fuffff]

I don’t know why nobody is talking about how Kingdoms and Empires has become so shitty lately. Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion since everyone is too busy d***riding the author like he’s writing the second coming of Tolkien, but let’s be honest it’s just not good anymore.

It used to be a simple, captivating story with actual direction. The rebirth plot, the goddess, the clear mission, it had flow, purpose. But now? We’re stuck in this painfully boring-*** childhood arc, meeting one annoying character after another in scenes that drag on forever. Like bruh, what even was that whole Sukkar or "sugar" scene? That was straight-up garbage. I don’t know what kind of emotional payoff the author thought that was delivering, but it just felt obnoxious and forced.

And now these massive walls of text that aren’t even fun to read. And not the kind that pulls you in, these are the kind that make you start skimming halfway through and wondering why you're even still reading this mess. It’s like he’s trying to pad out word count with zero substance. The adult characters are cartoonish as hell and there’s barely any realism in the world anymore. I get it’s fantasy, the MC’s reborn in another world and all but even fantasy needs internal logic, and this ain’t it. It’s just lore dump after lore dump now. No emotional core, no grounded tension, just endless exposition.

It honestly feels like the author just wants to make it “deep” for the sake of it, but it’s not working. It’s just bloated, directionless, and painfully unfun to read now. The charm is gone. The pacing’s a mess. And worst of all I actually used to love this game. Now I just feel like I’m hate-reading it out of loyalty.

I've followed Kingdoms and empires since its first release and even joined the exclusive discord for those who had the early access. At the start, the author was visibly excited, writing new content every day. The main problem was that instead of continuing the story, he kept rewriting it and focusing on side stories for characters. After all this time, the main plot has barely progressed by 1%. He's the type of author who focuses way too much in world building.

 

[Vamp-kun]

I agree with you, when I used to follow this author it always seemed like they would constantly defend Luceris’ actions. The child marriage thing is still sick to me and like someone else said, it hasn't been all that relevant in the story. Maybe later down the line it will be, but I don't know. Also, not to downplay anyones trauma but compared to what he did to the MC, him losing ONE person he loved is nowhere near as bad. And he gets to move on and have his happily ever after, while the MC will never get to see their loved ones again. This man isn't redeemable in my eyes, I try to look at things from both sides, but his irrational treatment of the MC makes him a completely unsympathetic character to me. It almost feels like his crappy choices are being rewarded.

Does anyone remember Dragon Age Origins back from 2009? Where Bioware had explicitly stated that they took inspiration from Game of Thrones? You know, with Arl Howe brutally murdering EVERYTHING at castle Cousland and the protagonist being the only one left alive? Remember? Remember ?

Those writers had a similar ideology to the writer of ACoAaF. The payoff in that game was inserted into the protagonist's playthrough nicely.

Then what in the seven gates of hell happened between 2009 and 2025 to have a similar plot get way more creepy and having the murderous villain as a figurehead to be lusted at?¡?

 

[yourstalkeroutside]

romaticized stockholm syndrome simulator

I ****ing wish. I would be singing the game's praises if it really was that type of story, it's not even that. It's (one of the many) IF equivalent to a teenager's edgy wattpad story.

 

[Gone_Dead]

Does anyone remember Dragon Age Origins back from 2009? Where Bioware had explicitly stated that they took inspiration from Game of Thrones? You know, with Arl Howe brutally murdering EVERYTHING at castle Cousland and the protagonist being the only one left alive? Remember? Remember ?

Those writers had a similar ideology to the writer of ACoAaF. The payoff in that game was inserted into the protagonist's playthrough nicely.

Then what in the seven gates of hell happened between 2009 and 2025 to have a similar plot get way more creepy and having the murderous villain as a figured to be lusted at?¡?

Man i loved gutting Howe. Bastard deserved worse. During the meeting with Howe and Loghain in the Denerim estate, we can properly threaten Howe when he hides behind Loghain. And also, we can stare him down during his dying moments not giving a **** about his monologue to the point Howe gets insecure about himself and dies like the ***** he was in life. That is what you call a proper payoff in a choice based narrative driven game.

 

[Vamp-kun]

I remember. The fans kinda bullied him into a rewrite imo. He seems like a great dude and he looks to genuinely love writing, else no one would put in so much work to write lore and past events. He'd do well as an actual novelist. I remember long back when he said that gay MC's would be forced to have heirs anyway and people didn't take it well. So he started to dull the grittiness of the world.

I feel bad for him tho. I once sent him an ask in Tumblr complimenting his lore and world building and he said that he appreciates my words and that unfortunately not all share my sentiments. The way he answers asks in Tumblr tell me has the general outline of the IF figured out long ago but he just struggles to paste it into IF medium. But the fact that he actually listens to the fans is a good thing but I sometimes think he listens too much.

In my opinion, he should just write his very own book series with lots of special spin-offs, have his own Jon Snow style protagonist to do all the Isekai things the author wants him to, and write his own lore encyclopedia with no interruptions.

Forget about the rewrites! That scene, as it was unchanged, in the carriage attack with the brave knights fighting the monsters with their semi-enchanted weapons awoke something joyful and happy inside the writhing darkness of my heart, that I thought to have been lost to the endless night of eternity.....