Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

[GodSlayer]

Honestly I find the premise of being forced into a married, official relationship a bit skin crawling, but I still tried to play this game regardless. The way the protagonist felt to be lacking so much in terms of grudge and there being so many 'forget it all and move on' options honestly irked me a lot. Buddy, there wasn't any misunderstanding, or any other nuanced bs, the king murdered your entire family, your father, mother, twin brother who you loved the most, plus your elder brother.
It was honestly iffy how little thoughts of the protagonist seemed to be dedicated behind his family and their deaths. Also, the inaction, damn, I played through a chunk of it and the lack of initiative on the part of the protagonist, except some petty little things that were treated as such and you were made to feel ridiculous for doing them, there wasn't much in terms of progress in any sort of revenge plan.

Also how the author tries to force you into a snarky-a** relationship with the king is nauseating. 'Little bird' he called the protagonist. Ew. If the author tried to sell the king as a nuanced character, she has failed miserably. There wasn't much to even compromise about in the first place, I mean, he's the guy who murdered your entire loving happy family for someone that was not even part of your family.

The protagonist is utterly underdeveloped, hell, unless you head cannon the protagonist to be a submissive little joke, he doesn't even work as a protagonist.

It felt like a complete waste of time really.

 

[GodSlayer]

My next gripe would be about Superstition. On my playthrough of it, I tried to play as an average joe who has no belief in anything superstitious. Someone who does not find a person with foul mouth really likable. First season of it was.....not memorable. I remember that the protagonist's uncle dies in it and he goes on a journey with Sydero.
Season 2 is the one I have actual problems with. The protagonist's party makes so many dumb, infantile mistakes that.....I honestly thought they weren't making mistakes, rather it was part of some grand scheme. Also, the world itself of the superstitions doesn't make any sense.

Here's a bit of what happened in s2. It'll probably not be entire accurate as it's been sometimes since I read it, but here it goes.

Sydero needed a bowl for completing a spell(divination iirc). Antagonist A had the bowl.

Bradley, the tech guy tracked down the bowl in an antique shop. Why did the bowl go from antagonist A's hand to an antique shop? The antagonist needed money, or maybe he lost it for some reason.

Okay, a bit of a shaky hypothesis, but regardless this isn't that dumb.

So protagonist and Sydero decide to cooperate in order to get that bowl.

Surprise, surprise! It was a trap by the antagonist A all along! Our glorious protagonist and Sydero flees the scene extremely desperately.

Next, Bradley tracks down the same bowl, in a museum. How exactly did it reach museum? Wanna know what was our protagonist's hypothesis?

The antagonist decided to donate it to the museum................... Yeah. And believe me when I say this, it wasn't a trap at all! Protagonist found out it wasn't an obvious trap, got the bowl, won the fight, ban*ed Sydero, and lived happily ever after.
.....
.....
Next would be how hilariously horrible the protagonist acted towards Bradley after the kid went through physical torture for 2 days straight.

A week after Bradley got tortured, he had nightmares, he cried a lot, he felt scared. So our protagonist decided to talk to him. And within that conversation, without any agency of the player's, the protagonist said 'You aren't the only one with trauma, kid'. That was just.......yeah. Even I'm not that bad. I dismiss most of the claims of trauma I see on the internet as fake attention seeking behavior, but even I wouldn't say something like that to a kid who just got tortured, and almost died.

And there was a dialogue made by Sydero. It was just so funny that I cackled for about 10 minutes straight.

When the protagonist asked her 'How strong are you?' She replied 'If I use my full power I will be able to destroy this whole world'..... It was just so da*n funny, I tell you. She's scared of a head shot using a pistol that has silver bullets but apparently she could destroy the whole world. Her feat till that point was supporting a falling beam of a building with one hand, killing a bunch of zombies and using anti personnel attacks to kill people. And you're telling me she could destroy the whole world? It was so hilarious.

World building is a awful mess. Like, everyone and their mother know about supernaturals except any govt. agency. Maybe in later part it got mended and world got a bit more fleshed out, but what I had seen till that point, and what I had heard about what the future holds made me quit it and never look back at it.

 

[God]

Wait I’m kinda confused? Aren’t you remembering wrong? The museum thing happens S1 because Syd is not around in S2, And the bowl thing, they first heard about it trying to steal it from the pawn shop but it was a fake, they knew it was a trap and planned for it, but it went sideways. Also the Bradley thing happens S2 and you actually had the option to erase the memories of torture, I can’t speak on it because I do not remember saying that to him. Also have you seen any type of mythology? There’s been people who can destroy the world lose and die in stupid ways that are head scratchers, remember this is inspired by the old school monster of the week shows, where they strong main characters have to keep losing or getting out into situations until the end of season episodes. I have a lot of complaints but you’re thinking of S1 not S2 of it. Also the uncle death is also avoidable lol.

 

[Parallax]

Honestly I find the premise of being forced into a married, official relationship a bit skin crawling, but I still tried to play this game regardless. The way the protagonist felt to be lacking so much in terms of grudge and there being so many 'forget it all and move on' options honestly irked me a lot. Buddy, there wasn't any misunderstanding, or any other nuanced bs, the king murdered your entire family, your father, mother, twin brother who you loved the most, plus your elder brother.
It was honestly iffy how little thoughts of the protagonist seemed to be dedicated behind his family and their deaths. Also, the inaction, damn, I played through a chunk of it and the lack of initiative on the part of the protagonist, except some petty little things that were treated as such and you were made to feel ridiculous for doing them, there wasn't much in terms of progress in any sort of revenge plan.

Also how the author tries to force you into a snarky-a** relationship with the king is nauseating. 'Little bird' he called the protagonist. Ew. If the author tried to sell the king as a nuanced character, she has failed miserably. There wasn't much to even compromise about in the first place, I mean, he's the guy who murdered your entire loving happy family for someone that was not even part of your family.

The protagonist is utterly underdeveloped, hell, unless you head cannon the protagonist to be a submissive little joke, he doesn't even work as a protagonist.

It felt like a complete waste of time really.

... And why the hell are these kinds of IFs still active while all the ones that seemed promising are dead or on hiatus.

 

[SasariRomanii]

... And why the hell are these kinds of IFs still active while all the ones that seemed promising are dead or on hiatus.

Maybe the reason why those promising abandoned IFs are so good is because they died before they could turn into another bad IF ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[SasariRomanii]

My next gripe would be about Superstition. On my playthrough of it, I tried to play as an average joe who has no belief in anything superstitious. Someone who does not find a person with foul mouth really likable. First season of it was.....not memorable. I remember that the protagonist's uncle dies in it and he goes on a journey with Sydero.
Season 2 is the one I have actual problems with. The protagonist's party makes so many dumb, infantile mistakes that.....I honestly thought they weren't making mistakes, rather it was part of some grand scheme. Also, the world itself of the superstitions doesn't make any sense.

Here's a bit of what happened in s2. It'll probably not be entire accurate as it's been sometimes since I read it, but here it goes.

Sydero needed a bowl for completing a spell(divination iirc). Antagonist A had the bowl.

Bradley, the tech guy tracked down the bowl in an antique shop. Why did the bowl go from antagonist A's hand to an antique shop? The antagonist needed money, or maybe he lost it for some reason.

Okay, a bit of a shaky hypothesis, but regardless this isn't that dumb.

So protagonist and Sydero decide to cooperate in order to get that bowl.

Surprise, surprise! It was a trap by the antagonist A all along! Our glorious protagonist and Sydero flees the scene extremely desperately.

Next, Bradley tracks down the same bowl, in a museum. How exactly did it reach museum? Wanna know what was our protagonist's hypothesis?

The antagonist decided to donate it to the museum................... Yeah. And believe me when I say this, it wasn't a trap at all! Protagonist found out it wasn't an obvious trap, got the bowl, won the fight, ban*ed Sydero, and lived happily ever after.
.....
.....
Next would be how hilariously horrible the protagonist acted towards Bradley after the kid went through physical torture for 2 days straight.

A week after Bradley got tortured, he had nightmares, he cried a lot, he felt scared. So our protagonist decided to talk to him. And within that conversation, without any agency of the player's, the protagonist said 'You aren't the only one with trauma, kid'. That was just.......yeah. Even I'm not that bad. I dismiss most of the claims of trauma I see on the internet as fake attention seeking behavior, but even I wouldn't say something like that to a kid who just got tortured, and almost died.

And there was a dialogue made by Sydero. It was just so funny that I cackled for about 10 minutes straight.

When the protagonist asked her 'How strong are you?' She replied 'If I use my full power I will be able to destroy this whole world'..... It was just so da*n funny, I tell you. She's scared of a head shot using a pistol that has silver bullets but apparently she could destroy the whole world. Her feat till that point was supporting a falling beam of a building with one hand, killing a bunch of zombies and using anti personnel attacks to kill people. And you're telling me she could destroy the whole world? It was so hilarious.

World building is a awful mess. Like, everyone and their mother know about supernaturals except any govt. agency. Maybe in later part it got mended and world got a bit more fleshed out, but what I had seen till that point, and what I had heard about what the future holds made me quit it and never look back at it.

Guh! My guilty pleasure IF that I hate more than I love but can't stop reading cause I wanna know how it ends (jk, season 3 does a great job at killing any smidgen of interest I have for it)
Superstition, I find, shares a few similar problems with The Night Market. Annoying as hell ROs and side characters, wonky world-building, and a wimpy as5 protagonist. In Superstition, the MC is death incarnate, we are created to become a vessel for death itself (which will basically erase everything of our being except the body) while in The Night Market we are supposed to be the very eldritch godlike being that is the market itself but it doesn't feel like so because we're always so f8cking helpless and useless! (・―・)
I'm so done with these IFs they should've made a novel instead of a friggin' IF since they seem to conveniently ignore the INTERACTIVE part of IF ( ⩌'︿'⩌ )

 

[God]

Guh! My guilty pleasure IF that I hate more than I love but can't stop reading cause I wanna know how it ends (jk, season 3 does a great job at killing any smidgen of interest I have for it)
Superstition, I find, shares a few similar problems with The Night Market. Annoying as hell ROs and side characters, wonky world-building, and a wimpy as5 protagonist. In Superstition, the MC is death incarnate, we are created to become a vessel for death itself (which will basically erase everything of our being except the body) while in The Night Market we are supposed to be the very eldritch godlike being that is the market itself but it doesn't feel like so because we're always so f8cking helpless and useless! (・―・)
I'm so done with these IFs they should've made a novel instead of a friggin' IF since they seem to conveniently ignore the INTERACTIVE part of IF ( ⩌'︿'⩌ )

I mean tbf we did not know who our father was, and who we are that’s a big theme of season 2 MC can’t control their powers and needed training, and was getting stronger before leaving in season 3. I will say I agree with the helpless and useless part, nothing made me feel more useless there than the sins bar scene. Actually the thing that bothers me is they clearly know who MC father is it’s referenced multiple times like oh didn’t think it was possible such and such, and in this universe from asks on tumblr death is one of the top 5 strongest and they still keep trying to kill MC with no fear of ruining the big deaths plans. Now that makes no sense tbh.

 

[Gone_Dead]

I tried playing Superstition, but the first book felt like the MC was playing second fiddle to Sydero. At first I thought it was going to be similar to the Keeper series but as a full adult. Idk if i can suffer through 3 books of the 'useless MC syndrome'.

 

[GodSlayer]

Wait I’m kinda confused? Aren’t you remembering wrong? The museum thing happens S1 because Syd is not around in S2, And the bowl thing, they first heard about it trying to steal it from the pawn shop but it was a fake, they knew it was a trap and planned for it, but it went sideways. Also the Bradley thing happens S2 and you actually had the option to erase the memories of torture, I can’t speak on it because I do not remember saying that to him. Also have you seen any type of mythology? There’s been people who can destroy the world lose and die in stupid ways that are head scratchers, remember this is inspired by the old school monster of the week shows, where they strong main characters have to keep losing or getting out into situations until the end of season episodes. I have a lot of complaints but you’re thinking of S1 not S2 of it. Also the uncle death is also avoidable lol.

My mind's wonky as hell it seems. So everything I talked about happened in s1? Except maybe that acting like an a--hole to Bradley? But honestly that whole bowl thing was dumb. I'm not changing my stance on that. First time they had plans, but during that museum thing? I honestly don't remember much but I remember it being so dumb that I felt like crying.

Also, we actually said that to Bradley, now I don't know whether personality stats change how the protagonist talks like, but he said some extremely immature and harsh things to Bradley.

Honestly, if a person's claim is not supported by any of her actions, it just feels like nonsense. Sydero didn't have any feats that would make us even remotely believe in her claim of being able to destroy the whole world. So her words feel empty. And honestly it'd be just as bad if her claims weren't empty. I mean, billions of humans dying to a single person without being able to do anything? How exactly is the world still going on with these rampaging human hating monsters is something I feel baffled at.

Also, apparently you can't choose to dislike Sydero. Even if you keep choosing options like 'Let her rot in hell', 'I don't care about her', 'She deserves it', during a dream(or a vision?) sequence protagonist had to act like he cared for her for some inexplicable reason. This happened during s2, I'm sure about that.
.
.
It'd appear I had problems with both s1 and s2. So s1 is not blameless either it'd appear.

 

[seneya]

Superstition's author has a very... haphazard? way of writing, tbh.
Also both Superstition and Throne of Ashes (?) have an MC that's a) dying from a supernatural cause and b) suffers from some sort of trauma. That's what people read these stories for, I think: trauma and drama.
Oh, and smut, how could I forget about that one.
Their other (sci-fi) story seems to fit the mold as well.

 

[SasariRomanii]

Superstition's author has a very... haphazard? way of writing, tbh.
Also both Superstition and Throne of Ashes (?) have an MC that's a) dying from a supernatural cause and b) suffers from some sort of trauma. That's what people read these stories for, I think: trauma and drama.
Oh, and smut, how could I forget about that one.
Their other (sci-fi) story seems to fit the mold as well.

Yeah the author. 13 Leagues? More like 13 Icks aight Imma head out

Honestly the sci-fi one seems a bit more interesting story wise plus the world building is solid-er, the MC is not dying — on the contrary, MC has super enhanced healing that makes dying quite difficult. Though, looking at the author's other works, my expectation is six feet under and slowly making its way to the ninth layer of Hell .⋆‧₊\(°∀°)/₊‧⋆.

 

[seneya]

Honestly the sci-fi one seems a bit more interesting story wise

Yeah, I quite liked the option for MC to literally jump out of the plane in the middle of flight lol
Reminds me of Project Hadea a bit in terms of premise?

my expectation is six feet under and slowly making its way to the ninth layer of Hell

I'll meet you there. We have, uh, lots of ice and Satan frozen over.

 

[Ireth313]

I have a confession: I dislike the Night Market not because MC has no agency and I feel like the author doesn't give a damn about them (well, that too, but...), but because I cannot stand the author's 'writing style'.

 

[Juh]

Whiskey four, because I didn't like the story, the characters, anything... when I play this if, the only thing I feel is boredom.

 

[Parallax]

Maybe the reason why those promising abandoned IFs are so good is because they died before they could turn into another bad IF ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Most of the cases. But I have to admit that there were also a few that I honestly believe would be great if the authors had enough determination to finish. I really need another Malin Ryden FH is the closest to the ideal of interactive game for me and I can trust this author with his projects.

 

[Parallax]

Whiskey four, because I didn't like the story, the characters, anything... when I play this if, the only thing I feel is boredom.

Somehow the author managed to write it in such a way that the action was fast as **** and there was constantly something happening (mostly MC trying to avoid being killed) but I felt tired and bored of reading this. And at the end also angry because

Spoiler

I didn't manage to kill that shitty Ulysses

.

 

[GodSlayer]

Somehow the author managed to write it in such a way that the action was fast as **** and there was constantly something happening (mostly MC trying to avoid being killed) but I felt tired and bored of reading this. And at the end also angry because

Spoiler

I didn't manage to kill that shitty Ulysses

.

People who played with the mods were quite lucky actually. Imagine going through all that without any save points...... Honestly my first run was fun, but the later ones I did were to just see what happens in other endings. And stop repeating my playthroughs at an ending I liked. There's not much in terms of variance in different playthroughs except the ending. Eh, it was like an action movie, just as short and fast paced. Not my cup of tea tbh.

Spoiler: Lame

Gonna disagree with the RO though. What's there not to like about an unhinged RO who's out there to murder you and bang you at the same time? My unhinged a-- protagonist was into that s-it this time......

 

[rinnanru]

Right now? Just read The Soul Stone War 3 beta build and boy..... What do you mean that is all there is? Only 3 chapters, nothing actually happens.... NOTHING.... Short AF, it feels more like a prelude or unfinished than anything.
TSSW is not the most incredibly witty/smart/profound game, its fun, funny, and scratches an itch. And yes, its the beta build, maybe the link people shared didn't had all the material.... But boy, if the 3rd book is really just that... Freaking disappointment is what that book is.

 

[SasariRomanii]

There's something that's been bugging me about IFs with Tumblr or Patreon page. They rely too much on social-media interaction — rather than in-game — to relay informations and some pretty important aspects of their stories. Example one is the Fallen Hero world-building, that is kept behind the bane of broke IF enjoyers (which, let's be real, made up most of the IF ecosystem lol) called Patreon. Recently saw Fallen Hero's compiled Patreon contents shared by a member, and found lots of vital infos about the world through the Q&A section. Things about the Void, the Nanosurge, etc.

And then there is this: https://www.tumblr.com/jcollinswrit...-round-with-a-late-teens-mc-they?source=share

Nothing wrong with it. Basic Tumblr ask stuff. Just wondering if it's necessary to be "realistic" and "nuanced" that readers confuse the personality of a character. Shouldn't a good writer be able to convey their character's personality and attitude clearly, so that we can understand — even if not deeply — the reason why said character reacts a certain way? Me thinks this author is just covering up their lack of solid characterization behind a shroud of "realism" and "nuance".

 

[seneya]

found lots of vital infos about the world through the Q&A section

In my opinion, any vital character/worldbuilding info should be available in-game. Period. Just put it into an in-game codex if you don't want to infodump. Stuff like RO scenarios or whatever can be paywalled for all I care (which isn't much, I don't even read it when it leaks).

covering up their lack of solid characterization behind a shroud of "realism" and "nuance"

I think it's just that the author didn't want to bother writing a million variations for all the MC ages.

TSSW is not the most incredibly witty/smart/profound game, its fun, funny, and scratches an itch.

I found it boring tbh. I love drama, but Manerkol's path is such a nothingburger. No real exploration of what it means to be unwillingly soulbonded beyond dumb pining. No opportunity to actually talk to him about what he's doing and why, just more dumb pining. And everyone else is about as interesting as cardboard.