The Lost Heir Trilogy

Different strokes for different folks. Jess is the most popular romance, and yet I never saw the appeal on her.

thats fair, jess is probably my favorite romance tbh

1 Like

I played an entire playthrough with her as my romance and I just didnā€™t care for her lax morality and haughty aloofness.

Which is probably what attracts people to them, especially me.

While I donā€™t romance Theo/Thea, I still fucking love them to bits.

1 Like

No love for Gale? Shame!

3 Likes

People actually pick Gale/Gill?

Holy crap.

Gale is the best childhood friend. But a lot of people choose Petra because of the initial training bonus you can get, so few people actually meet her.

Yes, with her you can get 100 Stealth without ever choosing a class that gives you bonus in Stealth.

1 Like

I didnā€™t know that, but Gale is definitely the most fun RO, especially compared to boring Karla and stick-in-the-mud Petra.

4 Likes

I love Gale as the childhood friend, she is actually your friend instead of the ever judgemental Petra.
I like Karla as a friend, I remember what she said when the MC asked why she was risking her life to help him, ā€œBecause you are my best friendā€. Loyalty is something I respect a lot.

6 Likes

Theo-My best friend who I always send to be the Red warrior and then surrender for them.
Jess- My wife.
Petra- Sheā€™s only on here for the vampire bonus.
Gale-Clearly the better childhood friend.
Karla- Sheā€™s sweet.
Demon Summoner- theyā€™re fun.

I care about no one else besides animals and demons.

5 Likes

Greetings community!

I just finished the whole trilogy this morning. I started the whole thing last Thursday. I discover Choice of Games universe last Tuesday with The Great Tournamentā€¦ then Swamp Castle (too hard / frustrating for my taste, or more precisely, not the kind of experience I am seeking with that particular medium), Evertree Inn (really enjoyable!) and then The Lost Heir Trilogyā€¦ I was just taken away by this absolutly fantastic gaming experience, which share the personnal podium with the Lone Wolf gaming book series by Joe Dever and the 90ā€™s Quest for Glory computer games.

So here are my reflexions regarding some mechanics of the games that I wanted to share with you.

A lot of the time, when you make a choice, the MC will succeed to overcome the current conflict if one or more of the appropriate stats are high enough. If there is success, the MC usually ā€œgains xpsā€ (I think Willpower checks are the only exceptions, but there might be more). In the case of a failure, the story goes on but there is no XPs reward. While I can understand some logic behind this, it does affect the ā€œfun textureā€ of the game by turning it into a ā€œWin Moreā€ kind of vibe. What I mean by that is the mechanics reward you to take choices into things you are already competent in, and ā€œpunishā€ you for making choices outside the MC domains of expertise. It is a little less true in the first game, but during the second and third chapters, I felt that my character was a one-or-two-tricks pony, that he/she will always win the checks associated higher stats - which will continue to sky rockets - while going out the comfort zone will result, most of the time, in a failure (which are all very well managed on the narrative level, so nothing to say about this).

So, on a gamist level of analysis, I think it could be interesting if the MC would learn XPs even if there is failureā€¦ Learning through trials and errors, so to speak. That would have dimnished the ā€œWin moreā€ vibe, really present after the first chapter.

What do you think about this way of viewing thing? Am I the only one who got this ā€œWin moreā€ vibe?

Oh yeah, and just to be clear : I want to share these thoughts with you because I love the game. So itā€™s not a beef I have against mr. Walter, nor whining.

2 Likes

I agree with you. I made LH1 this way because I didnā€™t want someone with a 65 in something to lose the check because 70 was need, then gain 10 points, look at their stats and say ā€œhey, I have 75, why did I fail a check needing 70?ā€ :slight_smile:

So, I only rewarded successes. :slight_smile: It wasnā€™t perfect, but it worked. Then came LH2 and LH3, where I didnā€™t want to change the established system.

Iā€™m glad you enjoyed it. I have several ideas for future systems, although rewarding successes is still a clean mechanic, but I may try one of the other ideas floating around in my head. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

The fun is making a build that allows you to be good at almost everything.

2 Likes

Well, maybe not everything, but itā€™s fun (for me) when the mechanics (not the narrative, that part is handed with great care and thought) donā€™t ā€œpunish meā€ but offers incentives to try different avenues. Which it does not.

(I donā€™t know if this off topic or not) I just want to say happy forum birthday @Lucid!

4 Likes

Technically, it is off topic. But who could flag such a nice gesture?

Happy Forum Birthday! Here, Iā€™ll give you cake. :cake:

5 Likes

Could it not look like this?

[Stats not High Enough] : You fail, but as such you gain some insights about the failure (Gains X Stat).
[Stats high enough] : Same as usual

Actually, it think it would be even better, when it comes to merge the narrative and mechanical aspect of the game, if you can succeed with greater success, such as when your stat is, say, 20 higher than what is needed. Then there is a narrative ā€œRewardā€ or some mechanical one (like reputation or fame or thing like that), but a very small XP reward : your character is so experimented in the stat involved with the task / conflict at hand, that he/she overcame it almost routinely, so there is no or just small XP reward. I suppose that could be fun, from a reader perspective (say, mine :wink: ), but from an author standpoint, it might be a little overwhelming (I mean, to write 3 possible outcomes (Failure, Success, Great Success) for ever stat-based choice can be daunting. Also, I donā€™t even know of the CoG engine can manage that kind of choice resolution).

Iā€™ve just finished Life of a Wizard, and there the resolution mechanism : the choice is available only if you the stat is high enough, and then you will gain XP in the stat, and sometimes, some extra goody. That kind of mechanism was totally coherent with the narrative structure of the autobiography (which is awesome, by the way), and I never had the feeling of the WinMore kind of vibeā€¦ Maybe because the game force you to be a jack of all trade to unlock the coolest achievements.

Anyway, thanks for taking your time for creating such great games, and as I just read, happy Birthday :D.

1 Like

Having only success options available in Life of a Wizard actually made a lot of things easier. Writing 5 choices, all with various degrees of success and failure in the Lost Heir is a lot of work, a lot of which never gets seen. :slight_smile:

8 Likes

happy anniversary Mike, remember to keep a bit of cake for me :smirk:

about your comment i agree is a lot of work for you but in the end it makes the lost heis the best out of all you have writted so far and the most replayable of themā€¦ even if is pretty hard to call it the best considering life of a gansters and life of a wizard are so awesome games :heart_eyes:

you know i want to ask what your going to make next.

1 Like

Thanks!

Iā€™m working on my game for the big CoG contest. Currently Iā€™m calling it The Last Wizard. Itā€™s another fantasy story. :slight_smile:

Iā€™ve altered a lot of things to try out their esthetic. Less stats, fair math relationships, no good/evil stat, and a few others. Despite being a little more like they view their games, it still feels very much like one of mine. I hope that doesnā€™t hurt me with the contest. :slight_smile: Itā€™s going well. Iā€™m about half done the rough draft. If I can finish it by Sept, Beta test Oct-Dec, submit in Jan.

The downside of it being a contest entry is that it wonā€™t release until like April or so. Iā€™ll likely return to my other project in that time: Life of a Starship Captain.

7 Likes