Game Rec - A Tale of Crowns

A New Interactive Novel A Tale of Crowns is a high fantasy love story with Middle Eastern roots, free to play from start till finish, both on pc as well as mobile!  It’s entirely text-based, with...

I saw this wonderful game in my Tumblr dash and wanted to recommend it to others as well. I’m not involved in any way, but I sure like it.

Author’s Description:
A Tale of Crowns is a high fantasy love story with Middle Eastern roots, free to play from start till finish , both on pc as well as mobile! It’s entirely text-based, with choices throughout to shape both your main character’s personality and skills as well as influence their relationships with others. There are four love interests for you to choose from, both female as well as male, each with their own stories and secrets for you to uncover!

THE SETTING

The story takes place in Arsur, a fictional empire within a fantasy universe that draws inspiration from historical settings in the Middle East. Much of it is based on Kurdish culture, drawing from my own experience as a Kurdish woman.

Your character was born and raised in Arsur, where magic is considered a basic skill no different from reading or writing.

The Arsurian Empire itself is overseen by a single ruler known as the Crown. Unlike traditional monarchies, however, the title is not inherited through blood. Whenever the Crown dies, their famed golden eyes pass on to the one chosen by the spirits of this world to be the new Crown: this appears to happen at random, as Crowns in the past have ranged from the poorest farmer to the wealthiest noble.

THE STORY

Their parents murdered and the previous Crown of Arsur assassinated, your character finds themselves on the run as they’ve been bestowed with the golden eyes that mark them as the new Crown.

Unseen enemies at their heels, will they succeed as the Crown, or will they lead to the downfall of the Empire?

CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION

At the beginning of the story, you’ll have the opportunity to customize your Crown’s name, pronouns, sexual orientation and their skill in magic. You can also customize many parts of your Crown’s appearance: hair color, hair texture, hair style, skin color and height are all up to you and will be reflected in the story as well.

As for your Crown’s personality, there are eight different character traits in total that will be decided based on the choices you make in game. This will subsequently change your Crown’s behavior during story scenes.

The character traits are: Charming/Blunt, Kind/Calculated, Intelligent/Intuitive, Cautious/Adventurous, Flirtatious/Reserved and Assertive/Passive. Some of these will mix and interact with each other in different ways as well!

THE LOVE INTERESTS

Depending on what your Crown’s sexual orientation is, the gender of the love interests will change accordingly to match that. There are four of them in total, and regardless of their gender their titles are as follows: the Sorcerer, the Hero, the Protector and the General. Each love interest will have their own route which you will get to choose from at the end of the common route.

As of today, the common route of the story has been completed at around 117k words, and I will soon start on the individual routes for the love interests! I will release each chapter as I finish it, so the game will be a continuous work in progress. Would you like to know more about the story, the setting, or the love interests? Check out the blog page or the description for links!

NOTE: This game is not suited for those under 16 years of age! Please keep the age rating in mind.

179 Likes

I can’t play it?

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I love this game SO much! <3

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@Illusiveacorn54 Download the game and run it with your browser. Preferably Chrome or Edge.


Also, never thought that my name would pop up in a video game :joy:

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Thank you for the recommendation! I’m enjoying it a whole lot!

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Thank you so much for this! Another high fantasy to read! My list for VNs/Text games that releases in episodic chapters are getting longer. :laughing:

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Can’t seem to open the html file when I download it. I’m using my phone btw.

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Are you somehow getting this?

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@moonfungus Yep…got it when opened with Google drive…I direct downloaded it through Dropbox and opened on my phone with a browser…Internet required for some fonts and pics to load

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Yeah I got that

Try disabling the HTML Viewer. You can do that by;

Settings > Apps > *** (the three dot menu at the top corner) > System > HTML Viewer > Disable.

Then try opening the file by a browser.

You can enable it once again by following the same method after you’re done.

Try this pattern



Now open it using a browser :blush:

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Doesn’t have that option though

Huh, that’s weird.


Two things; See if Apps contain HTML Viewer or not.

If not, then go to your Google Drive/Dropbox app (assuming you have them). Select the *** beside the file and select “Open With”. Then choose a browser to open it.

Reasons I Love This Story

  • Non-eurocentric fantasy world. In addition to the author’s cultural experience, it is also beautifully researched and those historical touches add to the fantasy element of the story without being used as an excuse to include homophobic, transphobic, etc. content.

  • It is the first fantasy universe I have seen incorporate a system where gender neutral language is used until the character introduces themselves with pronouns and I love it and I hope people will use this method more often in the future for their fictional worlds.

  • in addition there are named non-binary side characters who have their own personality and significant role in the world.

  • The mechanics are largely well implemented, and depending on your MC’s personality there are a lot of significant differences in the player experience, so there is a ton of replay value.

  • All four of the ROs are just different flavors of extra and it’s glorious. They are also wonderfully well-developed characters.

  • You get the same amount of male and female RO options regardless of your sexuality and the homosexual relationships (m/m and f/f) do not feel forgotten about or half-assed.

  • Similarly, the male and female versions of the characters feel like they have the same amount of consideration put into them. There are very few significant differences, but you can tell that the author put effort into it beyond merely changing the pronouns.

32 Likes

I can’t play.

I haven’t been able to get it to work on my phone either. Maybe check with the author? I have successfully played on my laptop though.

I was able to play it on my phone. Have you guys tried downloading the html and opening th file with a mobile browser. I used Chrome mobile by the way.

Yup, it just says it can’t open the file. No specific error, just won’t do it. I have a Pixel, so I think it may be a phone-specific hiccup for me. Couldn’t find any information from Google.

It’s not a big deal for me personally, as I can play it on PC. It just means I can’t lay in bed and replay it. :slight_smile: Thanks though! I appreciate the help.

I’m on a samsung chromebook and it isn’t working.