Some spells only appear once and are never usable again, and sometimes they even automatically fail, meaning you never get to truly see some.
My favorite RO, Yurui (when can she step on me?), comes super late in Book 1, which only greatly increases the importance of ensuring multiple interactions before the endgame, and in my playthroughs, there’s only one possible optional scene. No one should be expecting Ilya- level interactions already, as pacing is important even in good romance, but I felt just a tad too limited with her compared to other options. I’m sure Book 2 would make up for this, obviously, but I digress.
Book 2 needs to have all-new spells. We have a good amount at our disposal and each and every one of them are so creative and impressive, like the entire story, but man, will it get old if I have to cast the Fist of The Dark Lord again, and that’s one of my favorites. This is perhaps my biggest complaint.
I agree that we should have gotten more opportunities to raise our school skills again before the execution, at least one more chance to study would be enough for me.
It will be a complaint in the future if I can’t be crowned the Arcadian Emperor eventually…a big one.
I didn’t get to punch Falco in the face. What an annoying dunce. Also, a real buzzkill. He’s not poorly written, just very agitating, and I played different types of characters with differing personalities, and not once did he become less of an adolescent headsore.
Now onto postives:
Leomar. What a stud. What a Prince. What a traitor.That’s how you write a lovable character with a twist. This is your writing debut? Shit, mate. You are a mage with words.
Ilya. What a loyal friend and level-headed person. I quite enjoyed her. Definitely my favorite White Fang. Her will alone is inspiring. I would greatly look up to her in reality.
The setting, story, spells, enemies, skills, customization (the Nightsaber path has all perfect options), choices, themes, and art all all impressive. This will be a juggernaut of a series. Holy Hells, mate. The whole thing feels like a masterful and lovingy crafted DnD campaign, and I am here for it. I would rank this above Lucid’s works if the level of quality stays. I cannot believe this is even real.
The Arcane Patrons are all so. sick. And I could barely choose mine. I loved their designs and powers, each one had such an impact and differed so much in the story and what they can do in general. That is one unique and fun idea that is worth replaying for alone. Cannot wait to see how they play in later on.
That is all I have, currently. Noticed some typos, will send those later if I play again. For now, I depart with some spell ideas. Don’t know if you’re even accepting those, but it’ll be for fun, mainly, either way, so here ya go:
Red God Bolt: obvious school. The caster instantly summons a crimson lightning javelin in one hand and must say their target’s name. Upon identification, the caster must hurl it and it will magically track and follow the desired enemy until it lands or hits a solid obstacle. Either way, it will explode on impact in a flourish of red sparks and fire.
Declaration of The Damned: Spiritism. The caster’s eyes roll into their head as they chant, “kos,” translated from an ancient tongue as, “die.” The word will echo across the immediate area as a bone-chilling, ghastly whisper, and a bell will toll from nowhere, whereupon whoever is the intended target will be slashed by a spectral knight wielding a ghostly two-handed scythe.
The Jester’s Fit: Alchemy, not a pact power. The caster flings a round vial of green, smokey toxin at the feet of the target, effecting only them as it explodes open and the wispy trails magically flow into their orifices and instantly twists their features into a painful grin, causing them to laugh and cough into a violent fit of agonizing joy. Can either kill or incapacitate.
Somehow, this bit of your feedback made me think of something I hadn’t noticed before; while researching how to thwart Mireil’s magic super bomb, we’re technically studying Thaubal’s library of knowledge. It stands to reason that the MC gleaned at least something more from all of that, end-goals aside. Even if it were a tiny boost to all stats (and completely negligible/noneffectual to the strongest, most likely) it would make sense to gain the tiny boost in that interim.
in our defense is was justified! And Ilya and Saine believed us so I can see why it’d feel like a betrayal with Leon being the only one not to believe us
In my character’s eyes, no and not really. We’ve shed blood together, we’re both killers. He doesn’t get to claim the moral high ground because he’s king or because of who I killed this time. He could have heard me out, exiled me instead, gave me a trial, or just plain see me to a less harsh punishment. Taking the life of the Saintess was not something he wanted to do, and he regrets it every day. Which doesn’t matter, I know, but my point being Leon didn’t want to do shit for my MC, in his opinion, after everything. And regardless of the crime.
Obviously, my real life views differ, those being that Leon will be a great king and that the MC committed an atrocity by flat out assassinating who was essentially an agent of the state and also a literal mass healer, her church standing aside, and thus deserves due punishment.
That’s exactly my point. You can’t compare whatever happened during their mercenary days or the war because, without context, MC committed a really serious crime, and was seen as a threat and heretic on top of everything else. The only evidence of the truth wasn’t discovered until later, and it was time they couldn’t give MC or it would be seen as playing favorites with their prisoner due to their history together. And that was a bad look for a recently appointed King, which could have led to unrest.
Correct, we don’t disagree on any of that. But not in my character’s head. He thinks you can compare bloodshed. Lives are lives, no matter who the people were. He simply goes by the logic that Leon should have treated as a friend and at least talked to him for a minute, which he tried to do, not like another subject who would have done this. He knows Leon is smarter than that, that he can stop and go over the facts in his head for one second and come to the realization there must be a big reason for all of this. My MC had a massive hero complex up until this point. But no matter what, he believes there are exceptions to things in life and that Leon could have met him on his level one last time in his darkest hour and greatest time of need.
But no, he has to be king, first.
This all will actually serve as the seed for my Emperor aspirations.
But yeah. That’s where my character is coming from.
These are people who have taken lives in the names of causes or money. They perhaps wouldn’t be so quick to understand bigger pictures of civility and order. And I like to roleplay that in this genre. The darker truths of adventuring, you could say.
Still if he had wanted to he could have figured something out. Anything from a staged prison riot to give the mc cover for “breaking out” or conspiring with Ilya to put the mc into a really deep coma, to make it look they “died” to satisfy the people and then banishing the mc to never show their face again, if that is the way it needed to be.
Point is if he really listened to his brother and Ilya and wanted to he/they could have figured out something to both appease the people and not kill the mc.
Anyway as far as mine is concerned what is done is done and that guy is well and truly dead. Whatever he is and however much he may look like a guy they once knew he will make it clear that he is not that person and there are no personal bonds between whoever and whatever thing he is now and the person they once knew.
As he is not that person but at best a pale imitation created by Thalia’s foul parasite powers.
Yes, he will probably go the reluctant Param route but with a very big emphasis on the reluctant part. Mainly because Thalia needs to be stopped. But the people on the Param side will be his situational allies this time around, nothing more, nothing less.
If he survives the end of Thalia then the only thing he wants to do, before anything else, is get rid of the parasites and Thalia has told him the only way that seems feasible…if he finds or creates an alchemical concoction to prolong his useful consciousness he can probably “override” his body’s self-protection and burn out the parasites by deliberately stressing his mana ducts beyond the point of collapse…whether his new body can survive that, seeing as how it was brought back by and may well be a magical construct now,…well that is something my mc hopes to find out in the epilogue.
I believe, deep in his heart, he thought the MC was innocent, or there was foul play involving the MC being framed somehow.
Regardless of his personal feelings, as a ruler, his options were limited on what could be done.
Unlike @idonotlikeusernames above, I do not think the blasphemy and sacrilegious defilement of the holiest place in the kingdom could have been “satisfactorily” appeasing to the Heliophent and the Saint’s religious order.
My MC feels her homeland (the Grand Duchy) is a complete loss and will be taken, but there is still a chance to avoid a wider war into Leo’s kingdom, so she really wants to try to forge an alliance to prevent the spread of war into more lands, if possible.
I completely concur with this, too. That and everything else I suggested are all indeed possibilities. Add that on top of everything our MCs have gone through, it shouldn’t be hard to understand the perspective of being angry at Leon, at least on an emotional level. But this is how logic could be injected, meaning there is a real point to it, whether it is the lawful perspective or not.
This conversation merely accentuates how well this plot thread and game in general has been written thus far. You can have multiple perspectives on it at once, vs most other games’ “MC good” or “MC bad.”
I find it slightly funny that if you romance Leon there is a single dialogue option where he flat out tells the MC that he’d be willing to fake the MC’s death and help them escape if the MC explained and promised this sort of event wouldn’t happen again- and it’s the option when you choose to play the antagonist. Any other choice and nope, the MC has to die.
Hmm. Did not know that. That’s interesting, obviously one could wonder as to why he’s willing to do that for a partner but apparently not a close friend. That could simply be his boundaries, yet it would remain questionable, even still. Especially since he’ll offer that to an antagonist, too.
I wonder his thought process.
One theory could simply be measurement of investment. Perhaps friends are expendable to him, but a partner, to him, is for life, so he’s willing to forgive one and let them go in hopes it would blow over somehow or they could successfully fake their deaths, disappear, then come back.
Oh, Leon, this is why my MC couldn’t just accept that. Friends are resources, eh? But your possible heirbearer could never be.
His options as ruler may have been limited but that does not mean our execution was the ONLY option he had. As for him being ruler part, does that mean neither Saine, his brother, nor Ilya, the next saintess, have any say in matters of the kingdom(by matters I mean our execution) ? I mean 2/3 of the White Fangs trusted us, it’s a majority IMO, aside from the fact we also had saved the whole region and helped Leon get the crown back in the first place
But it comes off as naive, besides in his position it was the only thing he could do.
