Sword of the Slayer — Fight monsters with your magic talking sword!

Announcements
,
1
Sword of the Slayer

We’re proud to announce that Sword of the Slayer, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, Android, and on iOS in the Choice of Games Omnibus app. It’s 40% off until September 19!

Fight monsters and free the ancient city with your enchanted talking sword!

You’re a common orphan scraping a living on the streets of Targas Adur—a city older than memory, full of dark corners and darker magics, ruled by a merciless Sorcerer King, Demorgon. While exploring one of those dark corners, you stumble upon…the sword, an ancient weapon of power. And it can talk, in a voice only you can hear.

“Sword of the Slayer” is 185,000-word interactive fantasy novel by S. Andrew Swann, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Dark creatures do as Demorgon bids, and his royal guard keeps order with an iron fist. All gods and temples are suppressed except for his own Dark Tabernacle. But with the re-emergence of the sword, Demorgon’s power may be waning. Evil monsters invade the city, and sections of Targas Adur have fallen to their influence. It’s up to you to slay them.

You must train yourself in sword-fighting to protect the ones you love, as you battle the demons of Targas Adur, including the dread White Wyrm. Thrust into the role of monster-slayer, you find yourself the focus of decadent nobles who want to return to power, devoted monks who want to see the gods return to the city, and—most troubling—you now have the attention of the Sorcerer King himself.

Will you become a foe of the monsters, a threat to Sorcerer King’s regime, or a hope for the forces trying to bring down his rule? Or will you give yourself over to the sword, losing control of your mind and body?

  • Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, bi, or asexual
  • Rise from the gutter to the highest level of power
  • Support the gods, the nobles, or a rival sorcerer for the rule of the ancient city
  • Bring back the gods or fight the Great White Wyrm when you enter the Dark Tabernacle
  • Make allies in your quest to free the city
  • Protect your childhood friend, and your swordsman trainer from capture and death
  • Face monsters of all sorts, up to the Sorcerer King himself
  • Save your place before a chapter and you can return to that point after the story’s end and try a different set of choices

An enchanted sword. An ancient evil. A hero waits.

We hope you enjoy playing Sword of the Slayer. We encourage you to tell your friends about it, and recommend the game on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our ranking on the App Store. The more times you download in the first week, the better our games will rank.

17 Likes
2

Yep, played it last night. It was a quick read, I must have been at it for a bit longer that two hours. The story was entertaining although a bit too linear. The characters felt kinda bland and I couldn’t grow attached to any of them. Except the sword, the sword was fun. The save system made me think it was gonna be harder than it actually was, I didn’t die even once. It was mostly there for replaying values I feel. All the endings felt a bit rushed and simple but like I said, it was entertaining.
I’d give it a 6.50/10.

15 Likes
3

Just finished my first playthrough. Overall I enjoyed it tho I wouldn’t say either that it was a flawless piece of work. I appreciated the simplicity of stat building in this game and how the choices were clear about which stat they boost/rely on. The story was engaging too, and the MCs interactions with the sword were really well done. There are two things I’d criticize: I wish there would have been more to romances. With Ashana I got exactly one scene where she and my MC confirm their interest in eachother and then it only gets mentioned in the epilogue, that isn’t really satisfying read to say the least. Another thing what seemed more on the flat side to me was the epilogue, I agree with @Baam it was kinda rushed.
Edit: Almost forgot, another thing I liked that my MC didn’t have to be a generic heroic type from moment one to the ending, I could start her off as a selfish and kinda cowardly person at the beginning who starts to make more and more “heroic” or selfless choices as the story goes on, to be able to play an MC who has flaws and improves while the story goes on always makes me feel more attached to my MC.

13 Likes
4

The game isn’t without its flaws, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. The plot is good, the sword is snarky, the save system is a very nice addition (although I managed not to die a single time). Characters are hit and miss, unfortunately; some are quite bland and some have decent depth to them. I would say that the weakest points are romances (it felt like they were added just to… be there; no development at all) and end/epilogue (both felt rushed, short and anticlimatic). Despite all that criticism, it was a nice read.

There is also a bug I run in on Steam: achievements aren’t working. I reloaded both the game and the Steam and even quickly recreated my playthrough, but got exactly zero achievements.

11 Likes
5

Yep finished it just a bit earlier. Like it as well. It wasnt something mind blowing but it was plain and simple which i found to be pretty interesting. The characters and the romance part might have lacked a bit but overall it was ok. Easily a 4* out of 5

1 Like
6

I agree with this. It just… ended. I wanted something about my chosen RO and something more, I suppose. An epilogue, if you will. This was rather abrupt.

It was easy to read and well written, but perhaps… superficial? Not sure of the right word there. Kind of like the fantasy series with Sword of Shannara trilogy, rather lightweight but easy and fun to read? In my opinion.

4 Likes
7

All in all, I think the story might have needed a little more… panache? Epicness? Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty well written, but for a quest where you’re apparently playing as the chosen one with a divine artefact and with slaying monsters as your main hobby, things are usually… weirdly straightforward and drama-free?

I mean, we’re captured once, i suppose. But all in all, most fights seem rather simple, with nothing really standing out - even the wyrm (if you chose to fight it) is kind of a pushover. All in all, I had the feeling sometimes hat all the MC needed was to wave the supersword at a general direction, and then somehow things worked out. Didn’t really feel much tension for the most part, which is a shame in a game where ‘fighting and killing stuff’ is kind of what the protagonist does.

All in all, not a bad game, but I think it needed a little something extra to make really great.

7 Likes
8

I haven’t read it yet, but what the absolute hell is going on with the Google Play reviews? Numerous people claiming it’s transphobic and anti gay? Is this a troll campaign or what? The reviews almost feel like parodies…

4 Likes
9

It’s totally a troll campaign.

Edit: or rather, a very small klatsch of trolls.

11 Likes
10

Well, you can easily leave a review by simply downloading the demo. I kinda laughed at their reviews, btw xD

But to anyone seeing this thread: no, there’s no transphobic or misogyny or whatever. It’s pure action-fantasy with a bit of political intrigue (overthrowing evil king for another evil leader?) which doesn’t go deep. Not sure if that’s a plus or minus.

3 Likes
11

Finished it, it was alright. As others have said, the plot was very linear. It also ended quickly and somewhat anti-climatically. The save system is very convenient but I never felt like i needed it given that the game seemed very easy. Enemies went down relatively quickly and without tension, granted I invested into a brute force build with some intelligence but i thought defeating certain important enemies would take more effort and casualties. I also felt like i never needed to invest in a second stat seeing as i could mostly just pick all the choices that correspond to my strongest stat and never fail.
Character-wise, none of them save for the sword seemed very interesting and romances dont seem to have any tangible effect even on the ending. I also think the most of the dialogue lacks depth, its hard to describe but most of the interactions with the characters are very straightforward, only talking about what the plot and not about themselves as a person, save Radgar.

What i did like about this game was the setting and premise, Sword was also fun to talk too, overall a decent way to kill time. It just needed…more. If there’s a part 2 id buy it.

5 Likes
12

What’s interesting about the review troll on Google Play is that they’re responsible for all the one star reviews, even the paywall complaint. How do I know? On the console it tells you the make of the phone that left the review and some other data. It’s the same on each review, and it’s a hyperspecific device only available in one country AFAICT.

13 Likes
13

Wow, some people seriously need to find better uses for their free time… I don’t even understand what’s the point of wasting time like that. Unless they have some issues either with the company or the author. Still there are many more reasonable things they could do, like moving on to other games/books/whatever.

Edit:

Now this is something I’d have definitely liked to read more about in the epilogue. Did I actually help the city by overthrowing the sorcerer king or whoever got to be ruler after him was just as terrible?

3 Likes
14

My guess is this is referring to if Mag is the next ruler.

2 Likes
15

I only beta-tested the game and didn’t get to see it into the end, but I’m totally not opposed if Mag actually has evil intention. I don’t know how does it resolve on the end, but damn, what a missed opportunity if it’s not explained – and expanded – well.

1 Like
16

Oh, kinda misunderstood you then. Thought you were talking about all possible rulers not just Mag, tho now that I think about it the latter makes more sense.
Anyway to try to explain what I’m talking about here, in my playthrough got the slayer ending, but it was the nobles who became the new rulers but practically that’s all I’ve read about them in the epilogue nothing about wether anything improved under their rulership or not and I missed that. Also I suppose it’s dealt the same way if you sided with the gods.

1 Like
17

Not played threw the whole game yet however I agree with peoples views so far. I do agree that the setting ETC is interesting but as people have already said it could just do with that little bit more. I do like the idea of the game though and now I have sort of had a taster at most paths think I have decided which one I am going to have a go at completing first.

18

I got very concerned reading those comments because choice of games listened to its readers when they asked for more inclusive stories without making it super forced because the lgbtqia players like myself really wanted a place to just have books that didnt suck and have romances that didn’t suck. Regardles I remember how many awful comments there were when choice of games made the choice to keep being more and more inclusive. And how many players were buttmad over drag star because it was “forced” and “gross” all in all it seems to me the only hateful people her are players not creators. The only story I feel lately that was bland and not inclusive was vampire house could not for the life of me no matter how many romance options I tried trigger it. But that is hosted.

1 Like
19

I just finished the game. Then went code diving. I was surprised when I saw that I missed a lot of content when I didn’t side with the gods.

20

I played through twice–once to romance Freya & follow the gods; once to romance Ashana & follow the nobles.
The story seems has a strong foundation, but I 100% agree that it is lacking some oomph. The personalities are… almost the same? Many characters speak in the same “voice”, sometimes even sharing the same lines. The challenges (villains or otherwise) are short-lived. The romances have zero spark. :confused: like “she leans in to kiss you. you kiss her back.”

I hope the characters/story would be developed much more, because technical aspects seem fine enough.

4 Likes