I really hope Martin have some serious character development…I felt my MC was more his mother than his patner.
I am not sure about others, but i had manage to interact quite nicely with the heir , especially the investigation of the poisoning of the queen
I can say that Dinoknights is a classic interactive fiction, by meaning of interactive … we have multiple and lots of choice interaction with various characters , each choices will lead to different scenes and different understanding of a specific character, hence there are lots of replay values… we need to keep picking interactive choice of one particular character in order to understand his/her story fully , in my first playthrough, i switch between all my choices and it result in less meaningful storyline with a certain character …
I am also intrigue with the interaction with the Dreadbone the dragon , his friendship was totally unexpected …
I would love to have a sequel for Dinoknights , but i think it is almost impossible since the branching are too wide … there are simply too many possible outcomes based on our choice of interaction 
2 Likes
My experience was bad. I don’t have absolutely any relationship except kiss goodbye. Game try shove hard the prince through my throat. You can end with absolutely no plot if you don’t follow the rude plot lines that forces you do x task in x order and absolutely nothing else. You can’t betray all parts game makes you believe that then changes in the last scene and forces you to a every thing is darkness you are in a dungeon. The end… Probably the most railroad track game in last five years. Same level choice of ninja. . A pity because the writing is really good.
Not sure what you meant… i got the best happiest ending after Tin Star and Slammed ! , all my friends are with me in the final battles , including the dragons , everyone survive with me being the new queen advisor … and i am not parley with orton
The purpose for some of us reading interactive fiction is to find our own happiness in a fantasy world , which we couldn’t do it in real life … I am happy and satisfy that my choice and action manage to gain me an enjoyable journey through my reading, it was money well spent for me
And i will enter for another happy journey later on
5 Likes
I end with no romance, no friends no dragon dying in a dungeon in a darkness world. Twice in a row because i don’t follow the railroad tracks inevitable that you only could do a thing in all game. or you end mage or you help dragons of you save your village. Evil is directly bad end i role-playing i can’t meta task to have a remotely interesting ending.
Game is well written an interesting but is created in a way you have no freedoms you have to close yourself in a only objective to end well game i don’t like that it has no sense in a rp
Can atm only judge what I saw in the beta (no money to get the final game atm) but there the romances where rather… haphazard.
The plot itself was not more or less railroady than the average cog game, just the romance paths were (imho) as some NPCs would suddenly be there even if you never really interacted with them.
But as said. Dunno if that got fixed since the last beta playthrough
1 Like
Maybe is my fault to not play as the game wants splay as a metagamer and doing the same task only. However i don’t enjoy that. I prefer a organic experience that let me choose what to do in base the different characters i am starting to know in the adventure
As said, I beta-ed and I never once had the feeling the game wants me to play a certain way.
There was never a ‘you think of X but then decide to do Y instead without any reason’.
I think I get what @poison_mara is saying.
I did feel a bit like I’d have to pursue the same goals consistently, or I wouldn’t be able to reach them.
It just didn’t bother me so much, as that’s not uncommon in games, and to me it actually, in some way, feels more real and non-meta-gaming, than shifting between lots of different stuff.
When I played, I didn’t achieve all I might have wanted, but that felt realistic, as I hadn’t dedicated enough time and effort to some of the goals.
This is not a game where you can achieve everything in one playthrough.
2 Likes
Ah, that’s what’s meant. Sorry, understood things wrong. I thought mara meant railroading where the game sets your goal.
But yeah, that kind of railroading is there a bit. Unfortunately. But even then, IMHO it makes more sense than in some other games where you have it.
My problem is you can only have one . But half of them are pretty much presented almost end game. And well so i started trying to be a mage but my character wanted power so entered the plot. I can’t be amage and enter the plot and that doesn’t make sense. I tried romance the mage and romance stop after the first kiss… Is all felt like stop just when started. And I ended up with the worst ending both times. If i have to change the way I enjoy playing for a game well for me is not funny. I don’t want have to follow a task with a exactly order and set rules to don’t end up dying in a dungeon with everyone else dying
1 Like
I guess discussions with poison_mara made me much more sensitive toward needs of “evil” characters. I currently can’t buy this game and read only couple of pages, but the fact that scene with bullying already kinda forces you to be someone who dislikes such things are slightly discouraging.
But setting seems interesting, so I still gonna buy it some time in the future. Post my full impression when this happens. 
2 Likes
All due respect to what players want from our games, playing a PC as an active force for evil in the world is not a playthrough many games offer, and it typically isn’t because of the way we design personality stats–both sides of which are meant to convey equal advantages to the player in the form of tests throughout the game. Our guidelines specifically call for writers to avoid good vs evil type dichotomies in stats.
9 Likes
Yup, I can understand that. And I usually end up playing quite good “white and fluffy” MC’s, so it isn’t big problem personally. I simply think that it’s important to have option to be a douche, even if you unlikely gonna use it.
4 Likes
Just to be absolutely clear I have never asked for a stat saying EVIL and even less one saying GOOD VS Evil is i found it useless. I am talking about acting evil choosing selfish and power hungry options most people in that universe could consider evil. If all options are ponies and rainbow more ponies… And even more. and the mere mention of something else is like signed as bad well…
But that’s off topic. The game is interesting and well written and if you want remain in what game wants you to choose you will have a good ending so i recommend this to most people
2 Likes
I think I understand what @poison_mara is saying.
For me, the game was too “good” and everyone literally fell in love with me at first sight. I went off to talk on the balcony about learning about my grandmother and - boom!, someone already tries to be lovers with me. I’m going to feed the dinosaur and boom, a romantic scene with a partner.
And it’s not that I’m worried about the “evil” side of the game, but if we play games in which the choice is important, then, well… Making the main antagonist a necromancer who resurrects the skeletons of dragons and who laughs diabolically and in the dark room with a throne … very cliche. Like… very. If they also drank the blood of virgins, the picture of the crazy maniac would be perfect.
In addition, we have a maid who is a little … a little … uh, a little bit too much flirtatious with us? Well, you know maids, they are like that. Fall in love with the first knight in the shining armor.
The princess was stereotypically spoiled.
The magician tried to control everything.
Bard also was too a bit too much flirtatious.
The only one who made me happy is my partner. She was really interesting because she wasn’t someone you would expect. She wasn’t immediately in love with you (if ever), she is shy, a little bit anxious and uncertain. That was interesting.
But, as I said, almost everyone instantly fell in love with me, without even talking and not letting me know them. Which, in turn, instantly pushed me away.
Besides, it always seemed to me that I needed to move from point A to point B. There’s something to do. Return to the point A. Talk. Return to point B. Repeat.
As a result, I could not even finish the game, because it was too boring for me.
It’s a pity, honestly. A little more text, a little more freedom of choice, a little more descriptions. Also, why should I care if some dude calls my village bad words?.. It was really weird, like honestly, I have a dinosaur, my grandma was like a Gandalf in her time and I have magic. Like, why do I even care? Just ignore him. Or beat him up. Or set him on fire if you care so much, like… what’s the big dead? Anyway. Game would have been excellent if we had a little bit more of that.
8 Likes
You can romance your partner and their gender changes based off your preference. (personally their romance was my favorite)
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With respect to the concern of characters all falling in love easily, it was perhaps a bit of misintepreted in terms of courtly politeness and chivalrous gesture , this is a fantasy medieval theme hence courtly love is common
Remembering in a WIP, there was concern raise up by me regarding a RO reacting too fondly towards MC as well, and a friend had point out that we shouldn’t relate the story too much to the real world , because in story world, it will be a place where readers find a better sanctuary than the real one…
I also want to point out that in some scene such as the one asking Mathis to dance wont go well with her
The game made a smart ploy by allowing readers to choose which Companion they want to enter their chamber in a sense to determine which RO they want to end up being together… while other companions can remain as loyal friends , it is too good to be true but i also recall these were also some request by fans of the past that, since they don’t want to hurt feeling of RO who they don’t choose , they hope to remain a good frienship with everyone even though they can romance only one… Well, i would say Dinoknights make a very good efforts in such case , in which all potential ROs will join the final quest in true fashion of fellowship of the ring , which i believe would make many readers feel good about it
However, it is true that no one game can please everyone … the same goes with some darker theme future fiction won’t go well with some readers either…
Hence , we should just enjoy the story that suit us the most while maintain an open mind towards other story
And well… i just realise the character i miss most is Dreadbone …
3 Likes
I think I found a bug… or a funny feature, not sure. Do I report that here?
Picking the “Either works!” option and then going to the stats screen when introduced to the heir makes their gender switch. I checked it a few times (switching back and fort) and it only happens a few times. I haven’t checked for the other characters just yet.
Since i like Dreadbone so much, i decide to dedicate this song to him and all the surviving Undead Dragons, Wish them remain free forever from now on …
"Come and fly away with me
Come and fly away with me
Come and fly away with me
Co-co-come and fly away with me
Come and fly away with me
Come and fly away with me
Come and fly away with me
Co-co-come and fly away with me
Don’t you be afraid
Everything will change
You and I
Jumping off the edge
They say dreamers never die
So, come and fly
Come and fly
Come and fly away with me
We’re rising, we’re falling
We’ll make it through
We’re climbing, we’re soaring
A thousand views
We’re rising, we’re falling
We’ll make it through
We’re climbing, we’re soaring
A thousand views
Somewhere by the emerald sea
Where the moon and water meet
Somewhere close to harmony
When the world is sound asleep
Something’s gonna bring the change
Journeys we are meant to take
Something at…"
and for my merry band of fellowship who accompany me till the end, this song is for them "Beatrice, Laila, Mathis, Aude and Brutus "
"Summer in the hills
Those hazy days I do remember
We were running still
Had the whole world at our feet
Watching seasons change
Our roads were lined with adventure
Mountains in the way
Couldn’t keep us from the sea
Here we stand open arms
This is home where we are
Ever strong…"
2 Likes