Choice of the Petal Throne Reviews

This is no way a 5 star game. The author tries too hard to immerse you in the gameworld by randomly using words in their made-up language. The only effect it has is forcing you to look at the Glossary, breaking the flow of your reading.

The last chapter also felt rushed and forced out of nowhere. The majority of the game, you are leading armies into battles, suddenly you're dungeon-crawling?

Again, ignore the 5 star reviews. They were probably left there by the author's friends or fellow forum-goers in the CoG community. (I know an author there who purposefully leaves 5 star ratings without reading the book first, "just to help a fellow author".

Fake reviews ruin the rating system and waste my money. There is absolutely no way that this is a 5 star game. Sure, you conned me into buying this one through deceit; but all that you are really doing is ruining the credibility of the user rating system.

This game was too immersed in a fake culture to enjoy; I haven't read ten novels about the fake world this is set in and so lost interest shortly into the game. It needs to be written more simply from a perspective that our culture can relate to and interact with. Keep your fantasy culture, but make it accessible to people who haven't always wished that they were born into whatever books this as based on.

It should also be more choice focused and the choices should make sense to players from our world. I can't even tell if my choices are making any difference in the story.

I published my review weeks ago. If it isn't posted then I am going to file a formal complaint.

If so, pay $3.99 for this story.

This reads like a confusing Literotica story. The author has built a world that I am sure makes a great deal of sense to him or her. But as an outside looking in its bewilderingly hard to follow.

Reading this, I found myself screaming “WHAT?” more than a Biloxi wrestling crowd during a bad promo. There is so much reliance on strange terms that it’s hard to glean any kind of story from Petal Throne. This ruins any sense of immersion. The “glossary” is actually four separate glossaries, that’s how much in-universe verbiage the author uses. Besides customizing your name, gender, and sexuality there is nothing here that Choice Of customarily offers and that I have come to love.

I have played other Choice of games before and they have delivered - this one did not. Not sure if I am simply playing it wrong or what but due to the writing I am never sure what is going on. Additionally, it always seems like the game ends too soon so I felt like I was cheated out of the money I paid for it.

So I have mixed thoughts about this game.

First the Pros:

The writing is solid all the way around (not a guarantee at all in CoG games) and the world building is quite unique and interesting and I kept wanting to know more about it. Also there’s some nice degree of choice and how the plot moves forward can very much alter with your failures and/or successes.

Some of the encounters or events are quite imaginative. I was particularly taken with a sequence in which you encounter a “whimpered” which I think is one of the more chilling types of monsters I’ve ever encountered in a game like this.

The cons:

The game is short. Way too short. I felt like I was about getting to the halfway point when the game suddenly ends with barely a resolution, and that’s on a “good” ending. This to was it’s ultimate crime. I felt at the end, regardless of what choices I made, that I barely impacted the overall resolution of the story, and that’s because at the end of the day, your character IS tangential to the larger narrative (The game of the Petal Thrones). I mean sure, you get to side with one royal or the other in who gets a particular maguffin (whose importance is never explained) but you’re left to your own imagination how that pans out.

I recognize that writing these branching stories is an arduous and time consuming process but I really felt short changed, especially when there are so many other CoG games that feel truly developed and are easy to invest in. The same goes for the relationships you have in the story. Completely underdeveloped and while your two relationships have great baring on the ending of the game, it doesn’t seem to matter how well or badly you’ve treated them, they’re going to make the same choices, and you spent such little time with them that they feel fairly personality-less.

One other thing: I appreciate the thought that went into the world building. It’s great. But EVERYTHING has a weird name in a made up language, and I can’t tell you how often I had to consult the glossary, which itself was filled with MORE weird terms in the made up language. If the game had been longer and I felt like it was important to know this stuff to make smart decisions, I think I would have happily looked past it, but for as slight as the story winds up being, it seems like an awfully big ask to require your readers to learn a made up language for the purposes of what is essentially a short and uninvolving story.

I know that all sounds harsh, but again the writing is good and the world is interesting, but I don’t think that’s enough. Especially when there are so many other much better CoG out there.

As someone utterly unfamiliar with the pseudo eastern world this is set in, I can confidently say this games greatest flaw is assuming I understand the world. It's the same flaw skyrim has in its opening. So many terms are thrown at you at once that you just start filtering things out.

That aside, I just couldn't get myself immersed, again because the game assumed I understand my character's situation and culture. I often found myself utterly disinterested in my family and clan even though the game speaks as though they are important, which they are supposed to be. Nothing really drives that home in the beginning... Nor later on really...

Besides that mistake, some attitudes are chosen for you, like as a teen you just up and decide to start sleeping around. Totally the norm in that culture, big time, but that value is just up and thrown on you with no justification...
All of these issues could have been resolved if this work were much longer, drawing out ones childhood to learn and adopt the culture... In fact, every stage of life here could stand to be longer and more defined.

If you know the world this is in Down pat, or at least are very familiar with the cultures it frankensteins together, then this may be for you. Otherwise... It can be tough to get through and enjoy.

The setting for this game is very unique amongst choice games and the writing is solid. It can be very difficult to follow along with events as there are loads of made up fantasy words and hard to remember names and titles and I didn't find the glossary of terms included in the game to be particularly helpful.

As others have said the ending feels incredibly abrupt. I was thinking that is just completed the first leg of a great adventure when the epilogue events started and I was surprised to see it end when it did. Still worth the price though!

Three stars is being generous, honestly. The CoG tried too hard to be taken seriously, trying to elevate itself into novel status instead of being exactly what it is; a text based game. There's so much description and world building the story gets lost in between, and it can be hard - not to mention boring - to follow. Seriously disappointed, because the description sounded promising. Would definitely not recommend this game to people looking for a fun CoG, especially with it's price tag.

I have so far enjoyed all of the choice of games. this is no different it is definitely fun to read but aside from choosing a different God each play through felt like almost a carbon copy of the last. It felt a little to linear, it's definitely a good story but the story is not good enough to make me want to play through it multiple times.

I’ve always been intrigued by Tekumel and really never had the chance to play the game

This is short but rich. Feels like Barker’s vibe.

Wish she would write a whole book

My hopes for this game wasn't high in the beginning but after experiencing it I really took a liking of it and played it over many times.
But to play this game you have to be open to learning the lore and how things work(which is done through a mini guide that the game provides)
I hope to see more
(Mostly because I have to keep the harem alive and keep my title as harem king)

This world is truly remarkable, full of magic and a peculiar sense of honor. The game thankfully provides a glossary, which is in some ways almost indispensable. I wish that the ability to access it's contents were a little more streamlined, but this is a minor quibble. The story is a delight, and clearly offers multiple ways to play. Definitely recommended for anyone who enjoys unusual fantasy.

This game seems brilliant to me. I have loved the setting of Tekumel since the early 1980's and have always found it hard to explain it to others. Now I can point them to this game and let them get a taste on their own. Nothing new has come out for years for this world and finally I and other fans can dive deep again.

I am no Tékumel expert, but the game did a pretty good job of bringing you into one of the richest fantasy worlds (Glorantha and Middle Earth being its only rivals).

Sometimes I got a little lost in terminology, and an illustration or two would have helped, but the story itself was compelling and did not require any knowledge of the setting.

It was a very immersive story and I had fun taking the many different paths. Usually I would get bored playing through something several times, but this one I couldn't put down until I explored every option.

The world is beautifully fleshed out and the characters are likable. I like all the different paths you can take to being a good worshipper of your specific god and rewarding all choices in some way by doing so, so long as they're consistent. Fun and playable; one of the better CoG games.

This game was one of the beast txt adventures I have ever played and In my opinion it was worth the money. Do u know that empty feeling where u don't know what do do next after finishing a game or book? Well that happens to me.

Some people are complaining about the abruptness of the ending, however, I think that all of the options are explored quite well. The game has good replay value, and I enjoyed it very thoroughly.

Out of all the "choice of" games I've had this has peaked my interest. Love the feel I get from the story & choices. Oh & thank you for polygamy… gotta spread the love! lol

I’m giving this five stars because it’s very well written and the devs clearly did their homework on a very obscure pen and paper classic. This game is an excellent recreation of M.A.R Barker’s world of Tekumel. While the writing is excellent and the lore is rich, it’s fair to say newcomers to this world may find this particular game difficult to jump right into. I would suggest that the devs provide a slight intro in the beginning that explains (in a basic sense) the point of clans, or perhaps a brief description of current events to set the scene and the tone of the world. That said, thank you for the story, it was a blast!