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Agh! Wandered into this thread as I didn’t see the wip and was wondering what it was like and there’s massive spoilers! @Ryu_Dragon please consider those who haven’t read it and edit your post to use the spoiler tag!

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I’m sorry I just don’t understand this story so far. I mean my family, my friends all the people I knew just got killed by these guys and I seriously consider being pals with them? I can understand if this was one option for a quite cold hearted character but I struggle to find a way to feel, in the story, the dramatic consequences of that moment for my MC. The silent obedience worked just well at the start, but it’s only out of realizing you can’t do much… so I thought ok, I’ll play along, get stronger and have my revenge even if I have to die trying to kill all these bastards. But every step I take I find the MC ends up liking too much the ones who killed everyone he knew and cared about. Am I the only one struggling to go on with the game?

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I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking, but if you want to know if all the endings end with your character’s death, then the answer is “yes”. Everyone dies, it’s just up to you to decide if that means peacefully with your loved ones or if you’re cut down early.

If you want revenge, you need to wait until the ending. This is a game about relationships and working within the hand you are dealt, so to speak. If the MC rebelled openly very early-on, they would have been killed just because the characters (except maybe Sulo) have no problem with that, and that would have been a very short and very boring game. The twist at the end also explains why no one just up and killed you even if you disobey at every turn.

HUGE SPOILERS - DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE FINISHED THE GAME

If you’re a huge screw-up that nobody likes, then it’s all the better for them to kill you and seize the opportunity to invade Primeo. Nobody ever expected to become friends or lovers with you.

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I’ll give it another try focusing more on your point of view; but again I’m not against the MC complying with the orders, that I really do understand! It’s just that I don’t feel the loss, anger, frustration or pain in what is written between the lines.
And please, don’t take this as an attack to your work or the way you decided to write it… as I wrote in many other topics I really think that these kind of things are really personal and what I find unfitting for me could be the best story for many others. Please, I just want to apologize if you felt like I was diminishing what I’m sure is a lot of work.

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That’s fine – no one can or (in my opinion) should force you to feel or experience anything that doesn’t feel right to you.

This a very kind thing to say and I appreciate you thinking about me, but I really do understand! Some stories aren’t for everybody, and that’s perfectly fine with me. I write because I enjoy it and because I want other people to enjoy writing, too. It doesn’t need to be what I’ve written, though! (:

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15 ways to die

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I’m afraid I don’t get the reference. ):

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Anyways… I have found something…
When you first met with the man with strangely long name(???)he knows your name even if you didn’t tell him…is it intended???

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Yes, it is explained in the ending.

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I guess you meant that everyone will eventually die one way or another, it is inevitable after all. Kinda cryptic in a way. Though I was quite confused with the epilogue because it felt more like the partner was the lover regardless if you choose the mentor, so was it all just a fling with the mentor? Why would the MC get buried with their partner as if they were lovers? Well, maybe it was just me. Anyway, it still was worth every penny, so congratulations with this game!

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It does feel like MC is always out of loops in every aspect… everyone is laughing behind their backs probably…

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I understand that, I do, but I would point to something like the recent game Gladiator where you definitely feel strong-armed, abused and trapped but within the tiny universe that you’re left you have many choices that make you feel that you are still playing a gamebook rather than reading a straight story.

That being said I will play again at some point and try to discover more of the story and I would say to anyone reading this to not let my opinion prevent you from trying this one out because it is just that, my opinion and there is definitely strong writing and interesting stuff going on in Paths to Greatness.

Thank you Writing_Fever for your comprehensive and non defensive reply you are a gentleman/woman/non-binary person :wink:

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Damn straight! Hear, hear!

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I think you mean Damn straight/gay/bi/ace/ar! Hear, hear!

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I genuinely loled :rofl:

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I love it when someone genuinely does 'cause I always say when I genuinely do.
p.s hot avatar :wink:

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I am truly sorry.
Now i know why mine got flag . Really am. I’ll try not to do so in future

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I didn’t flag you but someone else probably did to hide the spoiler. It’s all cool, just try to remember to put spoilers over stuff like that in the release threads in the future :slight_smile:

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This game… exists I suppose. I won’t make a test for it because I feel like I would be biased. But in short:

-the characters are boring archetypes, and I didn’t feel any connection to them. The emperor is interesting but that’s mitigated by the fact that you have to s*** him off despite him having murdered your whole family.
-the story is too linear, and the ending feels more like “ahaha, you didn’t see it coming did you?” than one with actual foreshadowing.
-missing potential. I kept thinking “man that would be so much better if I could do that”, like try to attack the Emperor as soon as you meet him or something then get killed immediately because, you know, reality.
-speaking of reality, how the hell does the empire even exist? The head tactician and quartermaster are the probably the least qualified people for their job (seriously, I wouldn’t follow the plan of someone who looks like he’s about to shit himself during basic social interactions).
-show don’t tell. There game is basically saying “ok, so you learn this and this” but almost never shows us.
-lack of world building. I get it, it’s hard to do in 5 chapters, but I would’ve loved to see more of the empire’s history or the Megaman guys.
-lack of scale: “empire” doesn’t seems like a good title. The battles have what, less than 500 people in it? Seriously, with how everything was handled, it felt more like a big gang war.

And don’t get me started on the holes in the story: the emperor is obviously a conqueror ruler . Which, if we look at history, means that the tiniest weaakness could create a butterfly effect that brings everything crashing down. Yet no one points that out when he’s beaten by some schmuk conscript with potentially less than a year of experience (in spite of his fighting prowess being mentionned as why he’s the emperor). Moreover, he’s very obviously a bad ruler and planner: he’s paranoid and his final gambit… Oh my god, why…

WARNING: RANT INCOMING

There’s so many ways it could have (and actually should have) gone wrong. Litteraly anyone else than the MC would have been a better scapegoat. Like, you kill everyone they know, abduct them and then give them a position in an army where there’s other people in the same case AND teach them how to be skilled in war AND then you kill them. What could possibly go wrong? At best you create a martyr instead of a scapegoat. worst you end up creating an enemy too powerful and ends up destroying you (I know it happens in an ending, but that brings other problems. Like, how the f*** did an apprentice accountant even bring down an empire to its knees?). And finally, how the hell would that dissuade anyone to rebel? The MC has been in the army for one year. Even if they were a rebel they 1) wouldn’t have had the time to raise a sufficient army. 2) wouldn’t have been trusted by anyone because they are new. 3) wouldn’t have been missed (we’re talking about an apprentice there). Actually, there’s more chances that people would realize what the emperor has done.

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Yes, very much so.

Ahahaha thank you as well, you are very kind!

Lol!

You absolutely do not have to do that, but you do need to put in the least amount of effort in order to stay alive.

It is linear, yes. It is very subtle (perhaps too subtle, oops!), but the intention is that you are put on a path that leads somewhere and there are choices you make along the way rather than an open-world sandbox type deal.

There are a lot of people that say they enjoy realism, but would give my game one star anyway because their choice to attack the Emperor as soon as they met him would inevitably result in failure and they would have to start the game over again. It also doesn’t fit the theme of travel/making your own way with what little you have very well if you could die before chapter two, so I left it out.

And that’s why Wiley is not the Spymaster, lol.

How do you mean? I tried to be quite careful to illustrate how your MC learned. For every mentor and situation, there is a scenario (strategy games, trying to guess lies, etc.) or narration that tries to explain your character’s thinking relative to their choices.

Maybe in the future, but this is not their story – it’s yours.

Pretty much? No one ever said that anything would be an epic life-and-death struggle between equal armies of great strength and hundreds of thousands of troops. People lie all the time and don’t feel bad about it at all. Amerdale and the Emperor lied about there being bandits, and the Emperor constantly lies to himself that he is stronger than he actually is. This might be more obvious if you romance him, but I intentionally made the only things that he is any good at involve him blindly running at things with only the vague motivation of “I want that”. He is a determined, egotistical, manipulative person who inspires those that mistake his recklessness and drive for strength of purpose.

Yet no one points out that when he’s beaten by some schmuck conscript with potentially less than a year of experience) … Moreover, he’s very obviously a bad ruler and planner: he’s paranoid and his final gambit… Oh my god, why…

SPOILERS IN RESPONSE

He isn’t beaten by only “some schmuck conscript”, though – that’s the point. If everyone hates you, and you have done nothing except try to mess up Maganat’s plans, you die. The point is that the relationships you’ve made save (or don’t, it’s up to you) you. He is also not paranoid in the slightest (about people, anyway, he’s far too self-assured for that). Just about everything he ever did (if he did not fall in love with you) was nothing more than opportunity to secure himself.

Litteraly anyone else than the MC would have been a better scapegoat.

SPOILERS IN RESPONSE

Probably, yeah. There’s a reason why the Swollen King isn’t his own tactician.

Like, how the f*** did an apprentice accountant even bring down an empire to its knees?).

SPOILERS IN RESPONSE

They didn’t. Not alone, anyway.

And finally, how the hell would that dissuade anyone to rebel?

SPOILERS IN RESPONSE

You’re not wrong, the Emperor is just too arrogant to realize it. He’s not a stupid or weak man, but he expects things to work out his way for no other reason than that they happen to him. And, maybe, if he had allowed any dissension at all and not killed everyone that believed differently than him, there would have been room for those thoughts.

Also, as an aside, there are a lot of people in the reviews on other platforms saying that there are a whole bunch of glaring, obvious spelling errors. Now, I’ve gone back into the code and I can’t find a thing, but I’m thinking that I might just be overlooking them because I wrote it.

Did anyone notice anything? If so, please let me know so I can fix it, thanks!

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