Having given it a two playthroughs, one village one nomad, I have to say the Xaos-lands were expertly crafted! The horror and drama at the start, the tension throughout the whole journey, the moments of respite, the palpable relief upon finding Cerlotta and, later, Sojourn, it all comes together for a delightful package. Plus, the MC finally gets to do a gender! Well, start to anyways, they’ll figure it out. Part of me was sad that the MC couldn’t talk about it with anyone in the City, but the slower journey is fun too.
The City was a very fun change of pace, and the opening of the rest of the world to the MC is great. I especially loved the MCs reaction to the ocean. Can’t wait for this kind of worldbuilding to continue into the next chapters. All the new characters were slightly overwhelming at first but the second time around it was easier, and they each provide such a distinctive vibe, yet mesh together into a wonderfully weird community.
Gameplay wise the chapter was fun, much more personal stakes compared to the resource-wrangling of Game 1, though I’m sure that will return to an extent soon enough. There’s a bit to minmax if you really want too but overall its a primarily narrative experience, which I think in a full playthrough will make a good change of pace coming off Chapter 4 and the battle.
Also, Vigil! Absolute highlight of the chapter, even from the start you are told ‘this is a very bad idea’ and given multiple opportunities to back out, always a good sign. The journey with Wolfbait is great, features some of the best visuals of the Xaos-lands imo. And the climax! Staring into the abyss and having it spit in your eye is such a wonderful scene, makes the mind run wild with possibility.
@Havenstone first bug report! In the stats page, the checks for if the player is apprenticed to Cerlotta or in Egye check the wrong g2skillpick, looking for the Charisma boosts, and not the Int boosts.
Have to concur, didn’t mention it but it did stand out that the Vigil trip doesn’t come up in Sojourn/with Cerlotta at all.
Completely agree with your assessment. Congratulations @Havenstone its was a real pleasure to read and I didn’t realize how much I had been missing the reading CoR until I got to dive back in.
The Vigil excursion was the absolute highlight to me and as some highlevel feedback I was surprised even as a student of hers I couldn’t discuss the experience with Cerlota!
Sorry, I’m being inconsistent in my language here. Chapters 1-4 of the whole XoR saga were in Game 1; chapters 5-8 are the ones in Game 2. When I say Ch 1 above, it’s actually the one labeled Ch 5 in the text of the game. At some point I’ll make that consistent one way or another…
I’ll add a dialogue option for Vigil with Cerlota.
I’m having a little trouble buying the authenticity of Cerlota’s conversion. I just feel like the reason (duplicity) she gave would have been standard practice known to a Theurge of her station. It just seems like a “I never thought the lions would eat my face” moment. If that’s how you want her to come off then great, but I think it would be a lot more interesting if it was really more linked to the heresy of her xaos-storm research. At this point shes frankly more critical to the rebellion than the MC!
Not that anything needs to change in the text so far, but I think a charismatic MC might have their BS detector going off at this point if there is more to the story.
Me when there’s actively code to track relations with 15 distinct rebel factions this game, including 5 that don’t seem to exist yet, of which 3 have magical potential, and another 13 waiting in the wings.
I have to congratulate anyone who successfully navigates XoR code, it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to wrap my head around the first game’s code, and I already see Stormwright will be even tougher to “crack”.
Chapter 1 of Stormwright was basically a whole book all on its own. The worldbuilding really is absolutely top notch. I also enjoy hard magic systems in fantasy so really liked learning more about this one.
Read it all in one go, incredible worldbuilding, and being a mage also really added a lot of flavour to the interactions between characters. Can’t wait for you to finish this amazing work!
I found the option of “oaths are not enough. They must die” regarding the companions to keep the secrets of Theury to be really interesting. MC could possibly already be further advanced on the road to becoming what they’re fighting than I’d expected this early.
In Aristotelian physics which this world seems to operate under, the eye actively sends forth some sort of power that results in seeing, rather than the eyes just passively receiving light correct?
If someone dropped a mountain on my people causing mass-deaths and devastation while also breaking the ability to conduct organized resistance would it be possible for a bunch of the native magic users to get together, commit ritual suicide, and basically create a time-bomb that would expand out from that area and try to devour your enemies great work as a spiteful last gesture of hate?
Basically direct all their will and hate into something that would devour your enemies lands and holdings.
