New Heart's Choice Game! "Dawnfall" by RoAnna Sylver

this game is simply epic. the characters, the romance, the action, everything is awesome. thank you for creating such a masterpiece :slight_smile:

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I have only played the game once so Iā€™m not a hundred percent sure about this, but, I feel like

if the player wants to romance either Averis or Oz, the player kinda has to get into a polyamory relationship. (Cuz Averis is already in love with Zenith and Oz is with Rune. Although I havenā€™t tried Not saving Rune. I guess itā€™s not polygamy if Rune remains ā€œdeadā€ ?) Iā€™m not saying that this is a bad thing, but maybe it feels a tiny bit awkward?

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What does the ghost queen dislike?
Iā€™ve been really defensive against her and going for the loyal part. i distrust her and want to shield my friend from her (even if she doesnā€™t want to hurt them, my character donā€™t like her) and she seem to like it.
Am I gaining her trust by distrusting her?

I donā€™t know if this was commented before but why is Dawnfall Heat Level set to two? Unless I missed something, I donā€™t remember reading any ā€œspicyā€ scene.

My opinion about the game: most of the story the MC was more like a side character than a protagonist. It felt like few choices mattered.

Also for a game focused on romance, the romantic scenes felt weak , for lack of better word. Most of LIs are already in some sort of relationship with each other, it kind of discouraged me to pursue romance.

Overall, itā€™s a good piece of interactive fiction to pass the time, but I expected more in terms of romance. 2/5.

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Thereā€™s Something About Zenith

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Yeah, itā€™s about being in tune with your Circle and the flow of energy around you. It is also about the high you get at a concert or performance. The charge in the air before the music starts, everybody losing their minds at a songā€™s climax? Itā€™s THAT.

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Thank you for enjoying it!

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I agree with Daydream. I know every story wonā€™t be everyoneā€™s cup of tea, but it felt weird that MC was instead more of a background character and everyone else had their own relationships going on.

I feel like this couldā€™ve been a regular COG story. It doesnā€™t seem like romance is the main focus.

The description is also kind of misleading. Like if you want a male romantic interest, you have to become polygamous because both Oz and Averis are. Or your PC just ends up alone.

I usually donā€™t have the PC romance a female but felt I had to, just for a monogamous option. I romanced Gwen, and she is great but it feels like a letdown.

Jazz Age and A Pirateā€™s Pleasure are rated low in terms of its ā€˜spicy levelā€™ despite a few spicy scenes (so to speak) and yet this scored higher, and Iā€™ve no idea why. Iā€™m pretty sure Gwen and the PC just kissed.

The story itself is fine, but there is definitely a lot I donā€™t like.

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Hey there, the only reason Iā€™m replying to this (bc doing that feels weird and invasive as the writer, and you not liking this game is completely fine) is to ask if Chapter 8 worked right for you, because there are definitely choices in there to have sex, with anyone youā€™re romancing, and if they didnā€™t show up, thatā€™s something I need to look at in the code! (This was to @emisnothere, sorry)

Havenā€™t finished this yet. Was just wondering though, even though itā€™s quite different, did you take a little bit of inspiration from the Galactic Milieu series? Just a feeling I got from it with the emotional bird species and people using their minds to move ships around :slight_smile:

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Also, here is a small bug that happens if I romance both Oz and Averis

Yeah, I havenā€™t fully played through it yet but I feel as if the MC is almost intruding into the world. All the ROs have all these established relationships that make it feel like the MC is getting into a polygamous relationship no matter whatā€¦ and also makes it feel like MC is a side character. (And nothing wrong with polygamy, just not my cup of tea, and the game was advertised as having the choice between being monogamous or polygamous so it just feels weird.)

But I do like the world and the lore! It really does remind me of Treasure Planet, which I love. And itā€™s cool that we get to play as an alien, you donā€™t see that a lot in COG :slightly_smiling_face:

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Ha, it was inspired by Treasure Planet! (And Mass Effect). And yeah, I knew writing something like this would be a gamble - I wanted to make everyone feel real and like they had their own things going on aside from the player which I actually like in games, because they feel more like actual people to me? But I can see how that might make the PC feel unimportant when people are used to games revolving around them (not a negative thing, just how it is).

And the polyamory is just becauseā€¦ we donā€™t really have that in any stories aside from very indie things, so. Felt like giving us at least one thing! (And itā€™s cool if you donā€™t like either. I knew writing it this game wouldnā€™t be for everyone.)

Edit: Also @Jacic Iā€™ve never heard of that but it sounds cool!

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AGH thank you for pointing that out! Thatā€™s a tricky bug thatā€™s popped up a few times. Do you remember where that is?

I think itā€™s somewhere in Chapter 7

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I read them ages ago, but remember enjoying the series. I was actually thinking the ship moving stuff was more the Talent/ Tower and Hive series anyway. (I forgot they werenā€™t by the same author/different universe until I just checked :slight_smile: ) Anyway, looking forward to getting some more time to finish Dawnfall, it looks interesting so far.

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@Jacic Those sound cool. I like that sort of semi-fantasy sci-fi feel, as you can probably tell. I hope you enjoy whenever you play!

Also thank you @boodini, Iā€™m looking into this now!

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Just wanted to extend my Congratulations to the author! surely I will check this one as wellā€¦Cheers!

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Ahh thank you so much! I really appreciate that, and I hope you enjoy whenever you play!

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This was so so so cool! I read it all in one day and canā€™t stop thinking about it and especially Averis and Zenith (since I romanced them lol). I felt like the characters were their own people and they all felt so real and I got so attached to them as my circle!

Also there have been other cogā€™s where we can romance multiple characters at once but none where they interact with each other like that. It felt nice that we had the choice to do things as an actual triad rather than never having that aknowledged and I loved that about the game!

In some romantic scenes though an elusive ā€œnobodyā€ seemed to also get in haha. Which Iā€™m assuming is a bug. It happened two time throughout my playthrough but I only screenshotted here.

2 Likes