The cold palace.
Oh, can you elaborate? I'm curious since it seems very popular
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Stories that left you disappointed for a reason
- Thread starter Sant
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I can, but tbh I'd rather people play and form their own opinion. It is popular, after all, so this might just be a me thing. This particular scene just... really ticked me off.
Is it The Cruel Palace?
Edit: Oh, my page didn’t update and I missed your confirmation! Anyway, yeah that game has grown disappointing… to see so many new words for very little pay off, no stats that mattered and a rewrite that was mostly unplayable because it was heavy with lore… idk why the author doesn’t just focus on 7 Days as that’s a genuinely interesting story with decent work done to it so far.
Ah...don't get me started with 7 Days, I still haven't gone past the first pages because having to set everything about mc AND the family was boring to me and what I saw at the beginning didn't really convince me to push forward. And it was disappointing since I was excited for a new zombie story. At this point, I admit that maybe this author isn't for me.
But one thing that I found funny was that I could have a wild age gap relarionship with the spouse. Like 26 (?) mc and a spouse who was in their 30s with a 12 year old in the mix. And vice versa. Sorry if I messed up the ages, been a while since I tried it.
But one thing that I found funny was that I could have a wild age gap relarionship with the spouse. Like 26 (?) mc and a spouse who was in their 30s with a 12 year old in the mix. And vice versa. Sorry if I messed up the ages, been a while since I tried it.
I was waiting for someone to talk about it. I didn’t read the scene with Accolon, though, and I guess I won’t be reading it after all.
I played the first version of Le Fay, and honestly, I didn’t really like it. I found it boring and ended up mostly skimming through it and “turning pages.” I much prefer Arthurian Tale: Camelot, which is more like a simulator where you get to shape your own version of Guinevere, but in a good way, with interesting choices, a fleshed-out plot, and characters that actually kept me interested.
The choices in Le Fay felt more like a “Next” button. You don’t know how much I hate those walls of choices where you have to click through every option just to get information before you can move on. It didn’t feel like the choices had much impact on Morgana’s personality, stats, or the story.
I don’t know if it’s just me,
but I really wanted to drop the game when the birthing scene came up. Like, what do you mean she’s giving birth and there’s a whole audience watching, talking about her as if she isn’t even there? I really wanted a choice to kick everyone out. If you’re not involved in the delivery, get out.
Especially for a setting that puts so much emphasis on misogyny and modesty, and where Arthur gives people the stink eye for flirting with his sister, yet he apparently has no problem with everyone watching ? The whole way it was described gave me the ick, especially with the amount of detail given to the scene, only for the baby to barely have any presence afterward.
Like, let me hold and spend time with the baby. I don’t want to immediately hand him over to someone else to take care of. I understand that Morgana is now royalty and that there would be a wet nurse for breastfeeding, but outside of that, there barely seems to be any opportunity to spend time with the baby or seek him out. At this point, it feels like he’s going to grow more attached to the wet nurse and Arthur than to his own mother.
Edit : And I just remembered, I knew there was something else that rubbed me the wrong way, and I’d completely forgotten that: WE DIDN’T EVEN GET TO ****ING NAME HIM. When Arthur said he had already named him, I genuinely wanted to throw hands right there and then. **** postpartum, apparently we’re just supposed to suck it up and go, “Oh, alright.” If he needs to have a set name for the story, then let Morgana name him or even express not liking the fact that Arthur named her child/not liking the name. Or give us a few names that resemble Yvain (Was it ?), or at least let us give him a middle name. Something. Let Morgana have some say over her own baby.
Especially for a setting that puts so much emphasis on misogyny and modesty, and where Arthur gives people the stink eye for flirting with his sister, yet he apparently has no problem with everyone watching ? The whole way it was described gave me the ick, especially with the amount of detail given to the scene, only for the baby to barely have any presence afterward.
Like, let me hold and spend time with the baby. I don’t want to immediately hand him over to someone else to take care of. I understand that Morgana is now royalty and that there would be a wet nurse for breastfeeding, but outside of that, there barely seems to be any opportunity to spend time with the baby or seek him out. At this point, it feels like he’s going to grow more attached to the wet nurse and Arthur than to his own mother.
Edit : And I just remembered, I knew there was something else that rubbed me the wrong way, and I’d completely forgotten that: WE DIDN’T EVEN GET TO ****ING NAME HIM. When Arthur said he had already named him, I genuinely wanted to throw hands right there and then. **** postpartum, apparently we’re just supposed to suck it up and go, “Oh, alright.” If he needs to have a set name for the story, then let Morgana name him or even express not liking the fact that Arthur named her child/not liking the name. Or give us a few names that resemble Yvain (Was it ?), or at least let us give him a middle name. Something. Let Morgana have some say over her own baby.
The characters didn’t really interest me either, and overall, I never felt like I had much agency while playing Morgana. Honestly, I’d rather play as Morgana from Bastard of Camelot.
And the way Accolon is apparently handled reminds me of another trend I’ve noticed in some IFs. Some authors seem much more willing to poke fun at, mistreat, or portray their male characters as evil, even when those characters haven’t actually done anything to deserve it. You can slap them, swear at them, and generally mistreat them in the IF.
While, in my experience, the female characters often feel much more protected by the narrative. It can feel like you’re not really allowed to argue with them or criticize them in the same way. You can’t ignore them, be rude to them, or even get the last word in. They always have to clock you.
It also feels like the female characters get much more attention outside the game. Answers to asks about them tend to be more detailed, and they’re often described almost like angels. And don't even think about sending an ask that expresses a negative opinion about them, while the male main characters can end up feeling like random, unlikable NPCs you no longer even want to romance. I’ve noticed this to some extent in Crown of Ashes and Flame (which I dropped partly because of this), DarkfictionJude's IFs, Press Play, Remember You Will Die, Pillars of the light...
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Now I want to talk about it, too.
My main issue is that Morgan is basically a set character, and one I don't particularly like. Take the birth scene, for example. Alright, Merlin is acting as a healer there, but Arthur is a complete stranger to M at this point. Yet there are three options accepting of his presence (one even asking him to stay) and none to kick him out. Then, the naming thing: you have two options going "how wonderful
DD" and one being "I wanted to be consulted but nwm how wonderful DD". This about having no input in naming your own child.Which brings me to my next complaint: Arthur. The game doesn't allow you to dislike him no matter what, but you can basically declare you'd die for him day 1. Fine. He's young, he's a brat, he's a king, so he's pushy asf... but why is my Morgan not allowed to dislike him???
Because she's a damn set character. Whose trauma insta-disappers past the prologue outside the few moments where the author wants it back. She's childish and airheaded, blabbing the supposedly horrible secret that she tried to murder her husband to a 12-year-old girl she sees for the first time ever, and it's treated as something cute and funny.
Her marriage to Urien is for some reason treated as something unlawful. It was her father who decided on it, so I don't see how it's illegal. Oh, they didn't ask for her opinion? Sorry, but in these times a woman's consent mattered little. Oh, he was abusive? There were no human rights and abuse laws, so it's horrible, but still not illegal. So, once again, why are we supposedly justified in abusing Accolon? What exactly was he supposed to do?
And it might have been acceptable if the narrative showed Morgan gradually becoming more bitter, angry, vengeful and cruel. But no, she's all
DD, so such a scene just looks like a random psycho moment that everyone is a-ok with.Fun fact: if you confess that you tried to murder your husband to the local priest, he says you were 100% valid, too.
There's other small things like forgetting the kid even if you pick to care about him that make it clear that there's only really one version of Morgan you're supposed to play, but I don't like this character at all.
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i know we ve been through this but i have to laugh at an unromancable male character getting more votes than female LIs
bruh... (anyway this was an art comm poll...yall kno Blade won the first round..Trouble s heading second place and Chase third) (Shery got a %10 at least? Lets go lesbians)Attachments
If the majority of a given community - and I think that is the case in the IF community - are hetero females, there's nothing strange about it.View attachment 42820
i know we ve been through this but i have to laugh at an unromancable male character getting more votes than female LIs
just thought there would be more people into female lis from what i see around
Are you talking about the first release? If so, there is a rewrite going on that goes deeper, though I haven't played it for a while. If you're talking about the rewrite, well, I didn't know how the author is tackling the events.
There's that Phantom of the Opera IF, Le Fantome (always the French sounding ones, I swear to the big G) where all important characters are gender selectable except for the abusive monster Phantom of the Opera — he's genderlocked to male. Which, after being able to set ROs and MC's gender to either or, feels a bit... questionable ಠಿ_ಠ
I like how The Lost Bride made Dracula gender-selectable.
I really really really hate 'Humans were better off when we lived in harmony in nature and used to hunt and fish and light fires' mostly because it's written by authors who definitely can't live without coffee and social media but because it's also the dumbest crap that's ever written.
It (ironically) shows how disconnected these writers are from actual nature. They complain about cities and light pollution, but I can bet none of them have ever spent time in the wilderness without a flashlight or sleeping bags or any modern technology. They complain about feeling like cogs in a machine then sit on their sorry butts and blame the 'machine' and 'the system' instead of trying to make their own piece of the world a little more bare able. Then they write some preachy trash about how things were best when we died of dysentery or any amount of illnesses because we didn't have the ability to deal with them.
The worst part is that the problem would be looking them dead in the eye, and they would still default to this crap because it's far more comforting to them than the truth.
Gotta give my props to God of Chaos because I haven't been this pissed at any game's underlaying message since 'I was a teenage exocolonist' (This one was just straight up eco terrorism is good actually)
It (ironically) shows how disconnected these writers are from actual nature. They complain about cities and light pollution, but I can bet none of them have ever spent time in the wilderness without a flashlight or sleeping bags or any modern technology. They complain about feeling like cogs in a machine then sit on their sorry butts and blame the 'machine' and 'the system' instead of trying to make their own piece of the world a little more bare able. Then they write some preachy trash about how things were best when we died of dysentery or any amount of illnesses because we didn't have the ability to deal with them.
The worst part is that the problem would be looking them dead in the eye, and they would still default to this crap because it's far more comforting to them than the truth.
Gotta give my props to God of Chaos because I haven't been this pissed at any game's underlaying message since 'I was a teenage exocolonist' (This one was just straight up eco terrorism is good actually)
Technology sounds bad until you need to pee in the middle of the night, the only toilet is outside (used to be a latrine) and you accidentally step on a snake you couldn't see because it's too dark to see.
Quite a few humans sucked at living in nature back then, but that's because they didn't actually live in harmony with nature. Personally I think some certain populations of humans would have been much better off working with nature, other populations would, as you said, die of dysentery
That said, I have no idea which work you were referring to, and I'm unsure of how preachy they were, but I am curious about what prompted your complaint. As for myself, I can't live without technology XD, but I am impressed and interested at the people who can. I also don't really mind people who preach what they want but don't do much else, but I do understand that my type of opinion is very much in the minority
Oh yeah, what is the problem/truth that you are referring to?
*on the caveat that they aren't insulting/demeaning/whatever to others
God of Chaos. It just released.
Human corruption and to an extent obsession. One could write a whole story about how 'the machine' is bad but the actual reasons behind it are given next to no thought. You'll have a story filled with people worshipping technology and efficiency, but the conclusion always ends with the technology is bad and not that the way we use it is bad. I find it a cop out because it puts the blame elsewhere instead of blaming ourselves. It's annoying reading these types of stories because it's usually written by people who have never lived anywhere rural or spent time in nature longer than a day trip so they have rose-coloured glasses about the realities of nature and how life was 'back then' when the truth is everything but. They have never carried a bucket of water from a stream or hand washed more than one item but they romantise it.
In God of Chaos You learn that the guy who killed you is the one running the machine that's running humanity, this gets very little screen time before he dies and humanity is set back to basically nothing. From the very beginning of the story, you get 'everything about this is bad and should be destroyed' there's little world building (though I have given up on getting decent world building in an IF these days) just an endless sermon. Even the route that is closest to 'technology and nature can coexist' basically ends like you didn't make that choice.
If you don't go in with the mindset that 'cities and technology is bad' then you will not enjoy the story because that's all the story is about.
I don't mind myself. I do hate stories like these though. The only purpose it serves is to stroke the authors ego and sense of morality rather than tell a story or even impart a message properly. Basically, I hate when things lack nuisance and this particular issue gets a lot of black and white thinking from 'grass always greener' syndrome.
Besides, there's a massive difference between 'I believe that this is better but recognise that certain things benefit me' and 'I believe this is better and everything that isn't that is bad, and I refuse to recognise the ways it benefits me because I solely look at the negatives and this is what I know.' The latter is annoying as hell to deal with.