Notes on Choice of the Dragon

General
1

Choice of the Dragon, curiously enough, doesn’t seem to have a category of its own, so I’m dumping my thoughts on it here, instead.

Is finding a mate supposed to be so difficult? It seems like the thing most people fail at the first few times through.

It’s really irritating when you accidentally hit the wrong option and there’s no way to undo it. An undo button would be really useful in future installments. It’s true that this would allow the player to back out of poor decisions, but I can get the same effect just by starting over and choosing the same thing, only with more hassle.

There doesn’t seem to be any method whereby I can drive away/annihilate the goblin tribe and assorted human kingdoms completely. This would require a fairly thorough change in the plotline with the neighboring kingdom, as you’d no longer have any minions with which to start a war, but being a lone creature ruling over a blighted, fire-scorched wasteland devoid of life seems like a fairly valid archetype to fulfill.

If you irk the gods enough, they’ll send someone to come and kill you, and there appears to be no way to stop this from happening. Considering the game spends a lot of time building up how matchlessly powerful you are, this is kind of a buzzkill.

The bit about princesses and sexism was hilarious. Every game I’ve played, I took the “I’ll have you know…” option.

It’s probably got something to do with the lack of strong, consistent characters (barring Axilmeus and Vermias, who are very briefly foreshadowed), but the game seems to come to a rather abrupt end. I was kind of hoping for something a bit more climactic.

Why does being generally honest make me worse at chess?

The questions about wings, limbs, and your ridged/smooth head never really seem to come up again. Color is mentioned only briefly. Why not just let people picture their dragon however they like if you’re only going to mention their physical features once, immediately after they select them?

Am I the only one who was hoping for more kingdoms to conquer? I kind of wanted to take over the world.

4 Likes
2

I still fail at the mate part. I have given up ever getting one.

3

I actually found the death by divine hands to be extremely fitting and in-theme. The mighty being laid low by hubris is part and parcel of the fantastic myth cycles that fantasy literature draws upon. A dragon seizing the mantle of a god is also in-theme in certain games, but not in this more fairytale-esque one.

5 Likes
4

I just went to hibernate. Yummy yummy sleepies. I completely forgot about finding a mate, but I’m a hermaphrodite dragon. Surely I can essentially clone myself.

5

Yeah, it was covered before that getting a mate is extremely hard and basically forces you to dump everything into one specific stat depending on the mate.

Given the hoops you do have to jump through, I’m going to be VERY disappointed if the sequel does not give me the chance to raise an egg.

As for ruling a blasted and hopeless wasteland, at some point you’re going to have to raid a kingdom or two to keep the princess and jewel supply up. Are you honestly suggesting that a dragon go without vast swaths of treasure? How barbaric.

4 Likes
6

"Why does being generally honest make me worse at chess? "
Play more chess.

Yes finding a mate is supposed to be difficult, much like it is in real life.

The reason the game is not as complex as the others is because it was the first game made.

A blog post was made a while back about the importance of false choices, decisions you make that give you the illusion of more control but don’t really affect the game.

4 Likes
7

Deceit may be useful in pretty much any real life war game, but that’s because it’s also the heart of war, which means that finesse should be *useless* without a high enough cunning to back it up. An honest dragon who is also really good at chess is a perfectly reasonable archetype to play, and that’s all that really matters in a fantasy story.

Dragons don’t exist in real life, either, so I assume you think the whole game was a terrible idea?

When did complexity come into things?

False choices only apply when it appears to have an effect. It is immediately obvious in Dragon that the cosmetic choices have no impact on anything, whereas the questions about your motivation for doing things have the appearance of impact until you’ve replayed it a couple of times.

4 Likes
8

Is there any way to keep the magic sheild at the beginning from being crushed? I doubt it, but is there?

4 Likes
9

No. They actually have the source code for the first chapter available for example purposes, and there isn’t even a page written for getting away with the shield.

4 Likes
10

Actually, I have gotten a mate many times.

11

Finding a mate means being savvy, figuring out what your mate likes, and going for it. If you’re brutal, look for a dragon who likes brutality and show yours off.

4 Likes
12

Finding a mate means having absurd amounts of points dumped into one of those stats to begin with. If you aren’t heavily min-maxed, you just don’t have any options at all.

4 Likes
13

Try bribing the luck dragon.

Other than that, yeah, the game doesn’t give many points for being middle-of-the-road.

4 Likes
14

yea to get a mate you have to be prepared to sacrifice what you want to do from the start even if you manage to get one she/he just goes to sleep. :X (:expressionless:

4 Likes
15

I think there should be a sequel cause at the end it has u thinking on what ur plans will be when u come back after sleeping. And the mate thing sucks about how right after u get them in the next scene their asleep

4 Likes
16

I think there is a plan for a sequel, it’s just not coming out any time soon at all. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. Also, I agree that it’s annoying that the mate goes to sleep immediately, and then never really influences the course of the game ever again. This was the first Choice of Game game, so it has flaws like that.

4 Likes
17

And let’s hope that there will be more kingdom conquering

18

Aye! And more powerful minions to send out, those goblins are completely useless, they can’t even protect my preciousssss gold.
Something like…that demon I ate would be cool :smiley:

19

yea I agree there ought to be a sequel or a new game with a very similar plot

4 Likes
20

if you want to talk about plot ideas for a similar game go to Plot ideas I created it for this very conversation.

4 Likes