Waaoooowww, I love it!!! U have such a knack 4 writing engaging dialogue – I could literally hear the character’s voices in my head while I read!!
Going for a lawless & hesitant run rn, and it’s been soooo fun. Looking forward to see where u take this 
Take care of urself, author!
Thank you! A lot of this is dialogue so I’m happy to hear! I hope the lawless, hesitating run doesn’t disappoint. Take care of yourself too reader!
Alright! I played through the update and, since the next one will be the last openly available, decided to finally stop procrastinating and write the gushing review I’ve been meaning to for months 
This IF is nothing short of phenomenal. To begin with, while I have only a passing awareness of The Dark Tower, I’m a huge Souls fan and you’ve managed to capture the vibe perfectly: the end of the world as this slow decay which breeds despondency, the emptyness, the constant reminders of What Once Was 
, all tied together with great writing.
I also love how you brought common tropes of the series (dragons older than time, deconstruction of, usually gender-related, binaries), but made them your own. And it can’t be emphasized enough how the experience of playing through feels, almost mythological in a way, but at the same time grounded, just *chef’s kiss*
For the spoilery stuff:
I was pleasantly surprised to learn more about the Angels! I really thought the meeting in Dridgend would be left as a “mystery of the wider world”, but am glad to see them so connected to the plot!
Finally, here are my stats at the end:
Chulainn views you as a: lover Noemi views you as a: friend Styx views you as a: rival Your knight companion views you as a: friend Your knight companion is: Passerine (Arch got a silver bullet for what she did in Dridgend!)
You have this many injuries: 3 You have this many bullets: 1
Your westbound quality is: 68 Your knightly quality is: 68
You have taken the Stranger’s deal: no
@GeneralEnigma Your comment absolutely made my day! Thank you, I really, really want that vibe of everything falling apart, despair, no one trying to fix everything. Of walking through the ruins of an older, greater age. I really love that you enjoyed the angels! And congrats on Chulainn and keeping Passerine around!
@Crane Those are the more common forms in standard English for Newt or Arch, but I decided, as a stylistic choice, to keep Prince and Sir. Prince because it makes it feel, hopefully, like an odder title, and Sir Arch because I think Arch would insist on something like that. Thank you so much for your comment (and the rant)!
Ok, played once, some thoughts. Managed to bag a nice prize on those mountains too.
“Execo Gas and Convience,” Chulainn reads,
Convenience
“Hush,” Noemi chides, “she is threatening us, clearly.”
During the earlier parts, Arch is sometimes refered to with they/them pronouns, sometimes with she/her.
“I have heard what you have to say, travelers,” the opposing knight says, after clearing their throat, “and now I believe, in the rules of such encounters, among those blessed by knightly duties at least, it comes my turn to speak. I do believe that you are servants of Prince Newt, one way or another, sent her, more or less willingly, by her. I do believe that you seek the west, truly. But the way west is unsafe, at moment. The city lies in ruins, and mad scavengers prowl it, seeking to destroy. For this reason I mean to take you to my Prince, Prince Geb, at Castle Bridgend. There you may palaver with him, if you want, and he shall decide your fate. You will make this journey with me as your ward and guardian both. Agree you to my terms?”
here
Plus, I think there should be an option to negotiate or flee, even if it eventually fails.
“Then let our duel begin,” you opponent yells, and you see spurs dug into black horseflesh, feel a whiny, know the charge is coming.
your
As you watch she casually reaches up, kisses a man who looks old enough to be her grandmother.
grandfather
The informal one there is a late edition
addition
“Noemi, Chulainn, Styx,” you say, stay here.
I think stay here should be in quotes?
“Nay, let her not downplay such things,” Prince Geb says with a nod, "she is loyal to me long after ideas of loyalty hold little value in these late hours. She is loyal to us. Your compliment will have meant something to her as well.
no closing quotes
Your companions have already been briefed in the prince’s decision, and have been told they have free reign of the Castle.
free rein
"so neither will I. There are training swords there, in the rack by the wall. Sparring practice, not duel, so we will not be going to blood or injury. But we can yield if the combat gets out of hand.
I can’t remember why I copied this part. I think it’s missing closing quotes?
Author’s note: The final version of this game may have more explicit romance/sex scenes, with various choices, I am still deciding. Feel free to weigh in. For now, there is just this disclaimer
As long as it’s optional, I am in favor of adding it.
And As she rides up to you, for a moment, you see her mouth open up, her tongue loll out, almost like some sort of wolfish smile.
as
Chulainn views you as a: friend Noemi views you as a: friend Styx views you as a: rival Your knight companion views you as a: friend Your knight companion is: Arch
You have this many injuries: 5 You have this many bullets: 1
Your westbound quality is: 62 Your knightly quality is: 80
You have taken the Stranger’s deal: yes
Here you go. Found that nice sword on the mountains. Had six injuries, but I tried role playing a reckless person for this round. Negotiated it down to five.
Good luck
Edit: also, just curious, does sparring with Arch make you a better fighter in choices later on, or is this mostly flavor?
Oh, wow, this was an incredibly helpful comment, thank you so much!
Adding an option for both of these choices in the next update!
Next update should include optional scene with more spice. I decided I’m not comfortable writing extremely explicit scenes, but will have some that are hopefully uhhhh idk how to characterize it. Playfully suggestive? Two peppers out of five?
Nice! I’m glad someone may experience what happens when you hit six injuries, given the amount of writing I’m doing for it in the coming update
It does not directly impact anything, and is there for flavor currently. Although there are some checks that do benefit from Arch being there, conditionally also benefittting from being friends or being a Knight of Geb, such as the final check to get the sword in the mountains or the check to kill the dragon.
Thank you so much again for playing and the detailed feedback! Super helpful 
One of the best stuff out there, definitely deserves more recognition. Love the setting, love your characters, mc feels really good in the terms how you want to play them. Story pace is something you’ll need to get used to from the beginning, little bit choppy, I suppose, but fine, really don’t need to be anything else, as it serves great to the narrative about ending world where things get forgotten and disappearing, it’s really non-issue after couple of chapters
I’ve played westbound non-knightly path, and let me say, that knights you have to deal with are douches lmao, STEALING IS NOT KNIGHTLY, GAL, whatever thing is happening with Passerine and the dragons – just leave me out of it, mate bro
Ugh (love em and love em to hate)
Chulainn my boi, so confusing (and confused) I like it
Everything Styx saing is morally correct
Noemi is sweet and correct about most of the stuff
All of their quests are top-tier in the terms of character development and the story development (things we meet during that – wow)
Stranger is a weird thing, I can say that much
Mc is my favourite type to play with (confused amnesiac, let’s gooo)
Things you can choose to do, and skip (like sword, I’ve skipped it for this run) – yes (just yes)
And have to ask, is it intentional in these conversations when you picking sides between your companions, that your character doesn’t have mind of their own until some point? Like, option to be mysteriously silent is there, I mean one’s starting to appear from the point what to blame when things gone sideways at the summersday
Option to shoot shit is best thing ever 10/10, no other notes, 10/10
In short: I love it, don’t know why I skipped it for so long
Wrong bullet count, like I’ve shot crow headed knight and the dragon, but stat screen still says I have two (before that it worked as it should)
And I’ve picked one from child skelly near tanks/saw that skeleton, but the option to tell a story about it was greyed out for both times (I’ve gave the Stranger another memory about tapestry fron the beginning and this one worked properly)
Chulainn views you as a: lover Noemi views you as a: friend Styx views you as a: friend Your knight companion views you as a: rival Your knight companion is: Passerine
You have this many injuries: 0 You have this many bullets: 2
Your westbound quality is: 68 Your knightly quality is: 44
You have taken the Stranger’s deal: yes
Thank you! I agree with the assessment about the early stuff being a bit choppy, which is why I want to rewrite some of it with the new update, along with adding new choices, fixes, etc.
Lol, I agree with all of this, thank you!
Hmmm, is there any specific choice that stands out in your mind where you wish your character could have said something? Something you would have liked to say at Endsummersday?
Fixed the bug that kept the dragon shot from “counting”, and it’ll be in the next update! As the game is right now you either get the memory or the bullet from the child’s skeleton, but not both. I am considering rewriting this and changing this around on the next update!
Thank you so much for your detailed response!
Honestly? I can’t remember
Buuut, if there’s nothing like “people from there didn’t had anything else except the faith to keep them together”, would be nice to add? But I don’t really know how much our amnesiac mc understands the ways of the society and what makes of it. “Not enough bullets” would be fine too /joke? (this suggestions are completely unserious, like there’s something you doing with that story, right, who can really tell how to do it right except for you, certainly not me, I’m here just for the King vibes in more modern reading/writing)
Oh, and I probably worded it in the wrong way, question was “is it intentional that our character have only tree options at the debates like this, until that point with endsummersday”, because it would seem, that you starting to take over this journey, not your fellow knight or circumstances such as this cult of old people and whatever. Like there’s starting to show up the statements like “they will listen to you, you decide now, do your moral briefing”. I think this is cool narratively, when your guy (or lass, or non-binary liege) getting grasps over the world in general and what they want, and what they are. Agency thingy (even if there’s question about free will) born from the violence, now THAT is the statement lmao
Oh, didn’t know that was intended. But in the way, you do see the thing, picking up that bullet surely did not erase your memory (question mark?)
Can I add how I liked your treatment of the lgbt stuff? Yes (I’m non-binary myself, feeling Styx on the couple of levels here)
Hmmmm, probably not gonna make a huge fork or anything but I’ll add a few more little things in Dridgen.
I am at least somewhat doing this deliberately! I think that when the MC wakes up they are very, very out of it, and easily directed by people like the knights, or Prince Newt. And then through a combination of surviving Dridgen, however that happens, the duel, and rescuing people in the grey they assume the role of leader, replacing Arch/Passerine who had that role briefly, and I’m trying to give more agency to reflect that. (Also it’s easier to fork later chapters).
Lol, thank you. I am myself some flavor of queer and there is a lot of myself in Styx, which probably explains why I am putting so much effort into an exclusively T4T romance.
11/16/26 Major Update: Huh, way wrong with how long I thought the next update would be. 40,000 words, largely at the end, detailing the Sunset Paths, romance scenes, and a big boss fight in the Westerne City, leading into the end game, and a few other endings, including death scenes. Also editing of some early material, fixing errors, names that changed, tone that needed fixed, adding some more choices to exposition scenes. 312,000 words total. Next update would be the final chapters of each companions quest, and the endgame, at the Numinous Throne. I believe I will likely keep that update for a closed beta, and will be reaching out to staff about the steps of getting this game hosted, if possible? I have never done that before as I have never gotten this far in writing, so any help, advice, things I need to fix first, please let me know. Thank you so much for reading and playing all this so far!
I believe there’s an error? After shooting Arch in a duel it’s not letting me move on to the next chapter? It’s stuck loading.
So sorry for that! It looks like there was an error uploading the documents to cogdemos, but should be fixed now!
Another error is when talking to the stranger in the city after slaying the prince guarding the gate. For some reason after asking about Arch it switches the scene to Styx??
Found the mislabeled *goto, sorry about that. Fixed now, thank you for pointing it out!
