Hope you give us more recommendations game like this. Thank you so much man, this is pretty good
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A Tale of Crowns - Chapter 6 is released!
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Thanks for the recommendation! I didn’t know exactly what I expected when I opened the link to the Tumbler blog. itch.io is a very populated website and I know very little about IF text-based games there, so thanks again!
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PSA: Chapter 7 released today!
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HOLY HECK. Bless you, your ancestors and your future bloodline for bringing this up! I’ve not been checking itch.io for a long while.
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interesting concept can’t wait to try it once it’s released 
In case you are not following the game’s development, chapter eight has been released two weeks ago.
It is advised to start a fresh game (or at least from chapter five) or risk the game breaking.
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It already chapter 11, but chapter 10 is heartbreaking for X romancer. Reading your choosen RO getting railed by a farmer is very heartbreaking
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For real! It’s one thing to know they’re doing it (which is whatever tbh X is a flirty mercenary) but it’s another thing entirely to literally be a part of it as the reader lmao. And the author basically just tells X-mancers on tumblr to suck it up because y’all ain’t even dating, RIP to you all. I’m so glad that I’m an R-mancer. That precious angel baby is way too busy plotting and pining to make me an omniscient cuck and bless them for that.
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After that X has the gal to say they would go back for the mc to mayabad and no one even commented how mess up that is. Yooo you just fucked someone else and now you say that?? The worst of it all is them saying they won’t ever change and they would never bend to what the mc want. Like what??? Are you gonna keep sleeping with other people even when were dating? They have more red flags than them stars in the sky hahaha
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That’s because X is the kind of “I’m gonna eat my cake…now let me go find more cake” kind of guy he’s always (and the people around him have also always said or implied he is) admitted to being. Because even if you’re in the background, chasing or pining after him to the tune of “I have cake too…if you don’t like it I’ll make another” well…there’s that cake right over there that he might like the taste of. And that one there, just behind it. And look, over there, there’s another cake to try. And it’s got a friend that’s also cake. And you’re still back there desperately waving your cake around, so you must be okay with it and he’ll be able to find out about your cake later. But oh, look…a foreign cake just walked into the room…
Truly, he is a red flag parade. 
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The author clearly was going for the bad boy persona for X. But letting us read while they get fucked is too much for people who are not into that kind of kink. The worst part is that the IF’s main tag is romance. Who in another universe would ever find that romantic.
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It’s honestly a bit weird because while the game is described as a romance game, I don’t feel like it wholly is. Like, I think it’s more about politics and these characters’ stories, which is completely fine except all of this is tied to the mandatory romance, which I don’t feel it had to be?
I used to be very into AToC during the early chapters, but then my interest just kinda… died down. I can respect the author having a certain vision for the story, and the writing is genuinely good, but there are some design decisions that didn’t sit well with me. Why does my Crown, regardless of their personality, suddenly start talking like a tyrant? Why is there an obvious golden path that needs trial and error (or thinking exactly as the author does, I guess?) to reach? We are told to just play and see how the story unfolds, but it doesn’t really work when one outcome is obviously better than another, and I don’t want to replay endlessly just to hope the options I pick this time are right or use a guide for a romance IF game (which brings me back to the point that it doesn’t fully feel like it should’ve been a romance game).
@Leon_Kincoln To be fair, the author has the right to write the story however they wish. And theirs is a popular one, and I assume that most people supporting it are fine with the way it is written, so it makes sense not to listen to outlier opinions - can’t please everyone and all that. Or maybe the author just has a really strong vision for the story. Either way, it’s not bad, just not entirely my cup of tea.
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The author want’s it to be romance, but the author in my opinion suck at writing one (though considering the setting, it could be cultural difference. Maybe other culture has different vision of romance). The worst part is that they won’t take criticism towards their work and would flag every comment that has a sliver of criticism. And they would just say that we should just “suck it up”.
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This is a big part of the problem for me as well. I just…get bored. Both because the story itself doesn’t give enough of what it promises and because the characterisation that you build seems to rather often be at odds with (and therefore wholly ignored for) the story and the way the story is wanted to be told by the author. It is too narrowly focused on the author’s wants and needs for the story to really be an IF, let alone a romance IF. It is or it should be categorised differently, like maybe “choice novel” or something. It just flips all the switches to turn me from being an active reader to being one who goes “well, it’s dumb to stop in the middle of a chapter, so I guess I’ll keep flipping through.” After a while you stop absorbing or reacting to the story and just stop every once in a while to read a vignette. That should horrify any author who generally cares for their readership’s opinions.
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When it was just… what, 5 chapters? It already had a guide for the romances and future chapters, it was strange to say the least, but, thats was when the autor dindt grew that big thanos ego and the game had the ilusion of choices
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You worded so so well the constructive criticism that I had for ATOC and why I ultimately dropped it. There are obvious “good person” and “wow bad person >:(” paths, which I find a little condescending as a grown adult reader that doesn’t need literature to spoon feed me, but it’s not too unusual a game design choice because that does tend to be a thing in visual novels. The issue I felt here though, is that the choices for either path are all generally innocuous. The crown will make a logical choice like increasing security and patrols during a high profile time and later on the game will act like they ‘hate the peasants’ and deserve every bad thing that’s ever happened to them lol.
It ends up feeling like a thinly veiled ‘morality’ test that’s based on the strangest and vaguest things rather than an intriguing political fantasy drama. Especially when all the politics themselves are little more than endless exposition and world building dumps.
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Tbh at some point I started simply skipping all the political stuff (of which there was… a lot). If my choices are only judged by what the author thinks is right - which is not necessary what I think is right - then why would I try and wrap my head around all the lore and details? I’ll just play it the same way I did with otome VNs way back when: by following a guide 
But that’s not a very exciting way to play a game.
Honestly I think the high/low romance thing is even worse in this regard, because I don’t think it is ever explained in the game? Like you can get a bad relationship with your RO and not know that you needed to pick very specific options at very specific conversations to avoid it? Please correct me if it does come up in the game, because as far as I remember I learned it from the author’s blog. That means your first playthrough’s outcome is almost guaranteed to be miserable, because playing blindly you’re more likely to make all the ‘wrong’ decisions.
As I said, just not my cup of tea.
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Yeah, gameplay mechanics aren’t described at all in the game. But it’s definitely a game you’d need a guide for in order to get an ending where the kingdom doesn’t riot for your head on a pike lol. It’s a free project with a lot of love so I’m sure there will be a ton of guides once it’s finished and hopefully that will save future players the frustration of bumbling around in the dark.
Also, ironically, 7KPP should finally be releasing soon - and I think that game definitely scratches the ‘political intrigue with a dash of romance’ itch. Absolutely adore that project and highly recommend as a fellow otome VN fan but I’m sure you’ve heard of it by now 
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its been a will since i played A Tale of Crowns but doesn’t getting mad at X for putting you in the hot seat when they fail to assassinate that Mir Behram count as a bad chose. i remember this being one of the reasons i groped this game since i don’t like when i can’t get mad a RO for a valved reason and not fuck up the RO path
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