Welcome to the first part of Fallen Hero: Revelations!
Due to the many ending states, there will be several opening demos, each following a particular path until things start to fuse. This demo follows one of those paths; even if it isn’t your personal Sidestep’s ending, I encourage you to explore and have fun and see what might have happened. Other demos will come later, until they finally merge into a huge one, and we will finally have a proper alpha.
Structure
So, let’s have an overview of the structure of Fallen Hero: Retribution endings and what demos you might expect. I first needed to catalog the main ending variants of Retribution. And by main, I mean the ones that will lead to different starting positions in Revelations. There will, of course, be a lot of variables within them, but that will be dealt with later. There are four major paths where you can end up. They are:
1: Crashed as Sidestep, stuck in Sidestep.
2: Crashed as Sidestep, stuck in Puppet.
3: Crashed as Puppet, stuck in Puppet.
4: Crashed as Puppet, Stuck in Sidestep.
A fun fact, a little less than 30% of you ended up being stuck in the puppet. Good to know! Now, let’s go through them one at a time.
Path One
This crash path splits in two parts, innocent and guilty depending on whether you are revealed as a villain. So, let’s call them 1.1 (innocent) and 1.2 (guilty). And not only that, this is the most widely split path where you end up. Unless I have missed something (which is possible) these should be the major branches:
1.1.1 (innocent, staying with Ortega)
1.1.2 (innocent, staying with Daniel)
1.1.3 (innocent, staying with Chen)
1.1.4 (innocent, staying at the Ranch)
1.2.1 (guilty, Sky-Raider rescue, Mortum end)
1.2.2 (guilty, stuck with the Rangers)
1.2.3 (guilty, Ortega breakout)
1.2.4 (guilty, Daniel breakout)
1.2.5 (guilty, Argent breakout)
1.2.6 (guilty, Chen breakout)
In addition, it is important to remember varying poly situations, especially for the innocent variables. It is also important to remember your possible HG variables.
I can guess that the innocent paths will fuse rather soon, as will the guilty with Ranger breakout ones, or stuck at the rangers. The Sky-Raider rescue will be the odd one out here.
Path Two
In this one, Sidestep still crashed, but you are caught in the Puppet and is desperately trying to get your body back. The paths with the Hench and/or Mob Boss Team are similar in all but numbers and will be abbreviated as H/T.
2.1 (saved Sidestep with H/T and escaped afterwards. Blissfully unaware of the Impostor.)
2.2 (saved Sidestep with H/T and escaped afterwards. Knows of Impostor and ran.)
2.3 (saved Sidestep with H/T successfully but was arrested)
2.4 (saved Sidestep with Mortum/Sky-Raider )
As you can see, there’s only four variables here, a much easier time. However, they all lead to very different paths, so no quick mergers or similarities other than possibly between 2 and 3.
Path Three
Crashed in puppet and stuck in puppet is a painful path.
3.1 (saved by Mortum/Sky-Raider )
3.2 (stuck in the hospital, innocent or protected)
3.3 (stuck in the hospital, under arrest)
There are a lot of general variables of importance here. Who did you ask to check on Sidestep if any? Is Sidestep coming to read your mind? How guilty does Ortega think you are? How loyal is your Hench or Team? There are not many different situations, but a lot of different ways it can play out.
Path Four
Crashed in puppet and jumped to Sidestep is the closest thing to an easy path. Still free, still in control. Well, in most cases.
4.1 (saved Puppet with Mortum and was betrayed)
4.2 (ignored puppet, still free and whole)
Again, there are a lot of variables here that open up new paths at the start. However, the important thing here is that apart from the captured by Mortum path, this will be all player choice. Did you go into Chen’s mind? Did you learn where Hollow Ground lives? Did you get any Sentinel clues? In this one, the plot can start immediately.
Please remember that:
- Not all variables are there yet!
- You cannot build your perfect Sidestep in the character creator (which only covers what is needed for the demo)
- Stat shifts are not all there yet, and in some cases not added at all.
- Grammar is… meh, spelling is variable, and pronouns are wild. They keep popping up.
- Please note any proper bugs you find!
- Expect to be confused.
- For anybody who was around during the writing of Rebirth and Retribution, you know how much things can change as we go. This is literally a first draft, no polish, only a single bug hunting pass.
With that being said, have fun!
FEEDBACK INFO
At this point in time, I am looking mainly for this:
- Bugs and rogue pronouns.
- Pathing, did it flow weirdly, or did you end up where you did not expect?
- Long passages that need breaking up.
- A place where you REALLY wanted another choice.
- Bad confusion. You will be a little confused, but when it becomes so much you truly don’t get it.
But honestly, mostly, I wanted to share this with people. This is for you and for your support. Have fun with it! That’s the most important task here.
Now go explore!
OCTOBER 23 UPDATE
Length: The length of the demo is 180 700 words with code and 155 850 without code.
An average playthrough is around 32 100 words, varying between 28 000 and 35 000 depending on path and choices. Some of the shorter paths will have more content later, but this is the nature of a demo. I need cutoff points.
Paths: This follows three puppetstuck paths where you either were arrestedat the end of Retribution (with or without functioning legs), or broke your legs and was rescued by Mortum. It also includes the path where Mortum betrayed and sedated you in your own body.
This demo will be updated and extended, and more and more paths will be folded into it as I work. It will also recieve bug/grammar/content update as we go.
Future demo plans: The hardest part is done. I have worked on the paths that I have had, because they are the ones where I have had to plan and develop the most content for to make sure they fit together. These have also been the more stressful paths, which has been fitting considering my mood. I have been saving the Innocent Sidestep paths as a future treat, because writing those will be a delight as they contain a lot of dialogue and not very many plot-related problems to solve. We are getting to those now, with the latest good news my mood is up so I can relax and focus on the nice things in life. Maybe even write some romance! As always, new demos and exerpts will be up in my Patreon first, any support is much appreciated.
Patreon: Malin Ryden | creating interactive fiction | Patreon
Future project: Work is ongoing on what I am tentatively calling a Los Diablos sourcebook, written by a fellow author and long-time collaborator of mine, CJ Håkansson. It will be based around a series of articles by Mia Ochoa, detailing various parts of Los Diablos, and its life and culture. Think a bit Hunter S. Thompson, gonzo journalism vibes. I am still unsure exactly how to publish it, with the current uncertainty about tariffs, de-minimis exceptions, postage and printing all my previous plans are out the window. So we will see once it gets closer to finished. I will start to share wip parts on here once they have reached a stage where I am happy with it.
Personal news: My mother’s bloodwork and CAT scan came back fine! It looks like they managed to get all the cancer, no need for further chemotherapy at the moment. She is still healing very slowly (she is old, and the operation was massive (HIPEC)) but that is very god news! I can’t begin to describe how much that has been weighing on me, especially in combination with other people irl having a less than great time in their lives.
THE DEMO LINK: https://cogdemos.ink/play/malin-ryden/fallen-hero-revelations-fusedemo-path/mygame
An accompanying playlist: Fear and Violence.
CURRENT LINKS:
Path 1.2
If you want a playlist to go with this demo: Here you go
Path 4.2
If you want a playlist to go with this demo: Here you go
Path 3.1-3.3 & 2.3
If you want a playlist to go with this demo: Here you go
OCTOBER 23 UPDATE
Here is the link to the new update for path 3.1-3.3, 2.3, 4.1.
… but interesting.
