Also are there more than two endings in the game. I managed to get the otherworldly one and the more magic on island one.
I got this as an Easter weekend treat and am loving it so far! It feels quite cosy, at least at the moment, which is nice for what I’m in the mood for right now.
8 Likes
To grab multiple files:
- Spotlight < 60 for two, < 55 for three, < 48 for all 4 for low profile
- Social > 65 or Jules and Rosalind relationship both > 60 to ask friends to help (gives you all four)
So to get away scott free:
- “I use my acting skills on a convincing lie.” you need arts > 66
- “I gamble that Agent Cody has said enough good things about me that Engle will trust me.” requires Liminel relationship > 46
- “Everyone knows I’m usually a rule follower. I’ll plead innocent, and the others will back me.” requires lines > 62
- “I throw Mr. Delgado under the bus.” has no requirements
8 Likes
I’m going to try to get the requirements from dreamofeden’s post and check if any of it is bugged or not (I think I did have low profile and the arts one down, but it’s better to check with numbers and I still need to grab screenshots to report it)
Might take a while though 
Thanks @dreamofeden ! I owe you one.
1 Like
I really like the lore of the game and the world the author is building, which makes what comes next really frustrating. In these CYOAs the appeal is the matter of choice affecting the story, and in this one, if your choices aren’t the ‘right’ ones then they don’t matter. I didn’t want to help Aidan and in fact the moment I could point out he was an undocumented elf I did and nothing changed. I was still forced to help him up to the point of personal sacrifice for someone I didn’t want to help in the first place. Then you’re forced to withhold information about the event despite it being completely contrary to the character you’ve built up to that point. Same thing with the files scene, you’re forced to take them with no option to deny doing it in the first place. The game also tells you it’s important to build bonds and despite being a solidarity character, you don’t have the option to not hang out with anyone and focus on school at certain points. Which begs the question of why that bar is even there to begin with, especially since the Aidan sequence raises it as if you chose to be there. These are just the hard forced actions however, there’s a lot of soft blocks too.
At 67%, Non-human Restrictions, despite selections inline with them every time, won’t rise at all. Advocating for Non-Human Restrictions leaves you literally wasting your time and tells you that you don’t like the people, despite never being the option to like them. When you rise fervor about the situation with Danny the scene is less about Non-Human Restrictions and more about following the rules and you fail it if you don’t have high enough Rule following. Now this wouldn’t stand out so much if it was inline with things, Non-Humans are being actively oppressed on campus and it’s within the rules to keep it that way. However when the Agency shows up, you’re actively hiding your involvement with them from the teachers, in stark contrast to openly supporting Danny where you can give a rousing speech to the kids in the gymnasium.
Now if we were going with the idea that a freshman couldn’t do much to change the course of things and that it would be expanded upon in a possible future game, then that’s one thing. However you can rise Non-Human Rights, you get more options about what’s happening with your advocating, and the people there you actually like.
All that being said, I can understand as an author not wanting to write something where xenophobia and speciesist ideologies win out. And you shouldn’t be forced to write things that aren’t part of how you want the story to go, or are out of your comfort zone.
As a player, its frustrating to have those options there and then being ignored when you chose them. It feels like you’re being presented with the choices of staying in the house and playing on the PS4 or going outside to play and both options are equal in value. Then choosing to stay inside to play, only to find out the only game on the PS4 is pong and there’s a bouncy castle outside.
10 Likes
Anyone know how to get the bitten by the werewolf achievement?
Spoilers for how to get werewolf achievement:
After the class debate on species rights, in study hall it doesn’t matter what action you take until you are given the option to respond to Danny’s transformation you have to select “Sweet, a werewolf! I’ve been wanting to fight one of those!” and then Fail an Athletics Check (Athletics < 63)
Ok, so I actually really liked the basic concept of Blackstone Academy for the Magical Arts. The writing here is really good. Like, the author should write a paperback YA novel or something, it’s good. However, I felt like the actual gameplay is lacking.
When I play a interactive fiction, I usually plan two runs. One good or neutral good, and one completely terrible and evil (or as evil as the setting will allow). Usually this means that I get two very different stories with different endings and character relationships. But in Blackstone, no matter how badly I wanted to be a jerk, throw people under the bus and generally act like a jerk, none of the choices mattered. Reporting characters didn’t affect anything or their reactions to my MC interacting with them. Which sucks, because I’d like to have my MC called out for being a jerk.
The cast is decent as well, although I do feel like Jule’s pop culture references got old after a while and kinda painful to read. Romance also had no factor in the game and just felt like it didn’t matter. Heck, I threw a character under the bus by reporting them but still got together with them with no mention of how badly I’d treated them. Maybe I’ve been spoiled this quarentined by Persona 5, but I think each character really needed something special to really make them stand out. Maybe adding a list of characters so we could keep track of them would’ve helped. It doesn’t help that they don’t do much in the story’s context as well. I liked X and her desire to merge magic and tech, but nothing came of that by the end of the story. I just felt like I needed to connect more with the cast beyond ‘roommate’ and ‘popculture lover’.
The representation is okay for this kind of game. Honestly I didn’t care as long as I could cast spells. Which as it turns out I already could and with little variation I quickly crew bored of. Being able to pick from a larger list of sexualities is nice and adds some flavor, but again I don’t believe anything changes if I’m not mistaken. The First Nations dinner scene during the break was neat, but the other options seemed to be cut, as those aren’t even more than a few sentences, while the dinner is several pages. Kinda sucks because I wanted to see my MC and their home life.
So is this game good? Sort of. It works in some areas, particularly the writing and concept as a whole. But the other parts don’t fit quite right in this first outing in what I hope is a series. There is a lot of room to grow and change, but the choices we take need to matter first and the story is second.
5 Likes
Yeah; I grabbed three files and was psyched to get away with it, but the game only let me do anything with the file on the island (which I decided not to give to the professor). I told Aiden I didn’t get his automatically when he texted about it even though I took pictures of it, and I never got to give the one Perry asked for to them.
im having fun with this game! i think the story is light enough to enjoy even with all that’s going on and which is just what i need now…im just feeling like the classmates (other than rosalind and jules, and aiden near the end) don’t get enough airtime that i dont remember them enough to tell who’s who…i also would like an option to not steal any files from liminals. and maybe bc english is not my native language, i dont know 90% of the mythology stories referenced here…
Thank you!
Yeah…get bitten by a warewolf…
(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)
1 Like
This is false.
7 Likes
The Perry romance, or, yes I would like cream on that, thank you.
Had a lot of fun with this game. Sorta Harry Potter but more blurred lines between between the magical and mundane worlds. And sailing! I forgot how much I missed sailing.
I haven’t finished my first playthrough yet, but I already have several gripes.
- During the first philosophy class, nobodies arguments seem to have anything to do with each other. We have the teacher saying no one knows whether humans or non-humans came first and then immediately someone accuses them of being specieist. I feel we either weren’t provided enough information to understand the subtexts of the argument, or the argument didn’t make sense in the first place.
2.during the event with Perry, Vi, and the vampire, you never have the option to just leave. I wanted to make sure they knew the vampire and what he was and then leave,
but there’s never an option to trust them and leave like they want you to. (although I loved the “vampires must count” thing. I happened upon that information randomly and didn’t know others knew about it)
1 Like
It’s hard, really unusually hard. I’ve replayed the beginning 4 times already, but it seems that the onlyway to be " behind the scenes " instead of " in the spotlight " is to be, to the extent that the game allows, a reclusive loner type. Other than that, it seems like every action you take forces you into the spotlight. I’d rather my character be focused on the arcane and studying or art. But even the artistic character options aren’t satisfying and still manage to push you into the spotlight. Tbh I’ve given up on the idea that my character can mind their own business and not be the business of everyone else. I also thibk it’s weird how you may be given an option, but all of those options seem to rely on one skill. I’m assuming you can successfully sneak into the woods to attempt to help Danny if you’re character is " behind the scenes " enough, starting the game by waving to a parent and compressing your discomfort is enough to put one at 59% in the spotlight, and i don’t understand why I have to work for the story. Out of the three options for sneaking into the woods, why do none of them work for someone in the spotlight? Why does the amount of files stolen depend on one skill too. If there are multiple options, and the character is more than one or two dimensional, why can’t we utilize other skills to reach the outcome that we want?
I just finished my first run of the game and I really loved it.
1 Like
How can I get SlashFic achievement?
Requires you to show romantic interest in Jules but be rejected. In chapter 5 and 6 theres an option to “#I want to go for it.” when talking about your relationship as friends