[color=#e53e00]A new sensation in Bohemian circles. Sharp knives. Deadly poison. Elaborate and rather impractical deathtraps.
Murder has always featured in Fallen London, but never has it been so fashionable.
The Art of Murder is the second story in the Heart’s Blood season. Play An Exceptional Story: Death from Above to begin. The Art of Murder is written by Gavin Inglis, writer of Hana Feels and Neighbourhood Necromancer.[/color]
edited by babelfishwars on 12/31/2015
For the record, the reward for the ‘inspired’ ending, with six or seven temptations, has a total value of 12.5 echoes.
Fun story, but unless there’s a hidden card or something, the reward is a joke.
I don’t want to be all negative. The story was fun, and the mechanic when, uh, exploring, was interesting, even if I didn’t understand why there was a topic for conversation until it was over. My alts picked other options, and the rewards were nicer.
My objection to the inspired reward is simply that this game usually encourages playing the game as your character, but here playing a less virtuous character is punished.
[color=#e53e00]Hello,
I’ve taken a quick look at the reward, and am upgrading it. If you played that branch before I changed it (a couple of minutes ago), and want to upgrade your Direful Reflection to a Night-Whisper, send me a support ticket. The usual place, remember to give me your character name: support@failbettergames.com
No one who plays after I’ve posted this should need to do this, as I’ve tweaked it in game already.
My comments (ALL SPOILERS):
Positives:
Negative:
The reward for the ‘inspired’ ending was a joke, honestly. While I normally don’t give a damn about the EPA for exceptional stories, this was a days worth of actions for a very small payout, which made the overall experience a bit tamer.
Both of the trackers were poorly explained, and involved a lot of guesswork, which detracted from the overall experience.
I might just be disillusioned by Flint, but I felt this was one of the weakest exceptional stories.
So… in order to continue with the Heart’s Blood 3-part sequence, you need something gained during Flint, right? Now that it’s out, can someone tell me if one shouldn’t play this before finishing… all of Flint? Before finishing Part I? Before heading off to Apis Meet? Before going to the Dish & Spoon? What item is it, or at what point in Flint is it gained? I don’t want to accidentally do things out of sequence.
metasynthie you gain the item at the end of flint
[color=#e53e00] Ah… no. You’re fine to play! You can do the stories out of order - the item you collect doesn’t impact on the next story, but on something you can unlock if you get all three items.
See here:[/color] http://community.failbettergames.com/topic21330-a-season-of-exceptional-stories-hearts-blood.aspx
Ah thank you! I misunderstood.
This was interesting, but felt awfully short – maybe it’s just that as a stat-capped player, I didn’t have any difficulty progressing. Very atmospheric, though!
I am pretty sure it’s the vial you received before descending!
Also: I enjoyed this story. Thought it was fun to play, liked the pursuit & it had an intriguing concept. Good job!
I found this story of strange baroque murder and mayhem SINGUALRLY DELIGHTFUL
Did anyone not revive the second judge? How does the story proceed from there? (I’m curious to know what murder they had planned for you, since the competition devolved into chaos when I revived the tragedian.)
I found that quite enjoyable. The gallows humour was delightful, and I thought the mechanical representation of chasing someone through dark tunnels with a series of looping options was quite effective. I’m looking forward to seeing where this trilogy goes.
While the mechanical award for awarding first place was not the best (love story and a few other items) I did like how it built upon the lore introduced in the Flint. What do others think?
Otherwise, I have to agree with some issues with unclear mechanics-though I did like how to topic of conversation changed during the pursuit. I wished we had a bit more time to dive into the some of the surrounding art side before getting involved with the competition; there were clearly people just doing performance murder for the sake of it.
edit: fixed your spoiler
edited by babelfishwars on 12/31/2015
So, the Heart’s Blood season started with the Flint two-parter? Well, I picked a perfect time to get back into Fallen London! And I love gallows humor, so it’s doubly perfect!
I just finished the story, which took me a lot of actions because one optional luck-based challenge kept failing, hahaha ^.^
I really liked this story. The topic is interesting, developped in a surprising way, and we learn a nice bit of lore.
[spoiler]The twists, once you’re below, are funny and I didn’t expect them. I especially liked the gentleman with the trap, just imagining what happens made me laugh. The text in Watchmaker Hill, with the Eradicators, was very nice as well !
I’d liked to have something more complexe about the "aesthetics"… acts, maybe something like the Black Ribbon, but I get that it would be too similar.[/spoiler]
To sum up : very nice story, thank you very much ! These monthly stories are a very good idea and add just what diversity is needed ! =)
edited by Emain Ablach on 12/31/2015
Well, what we saw of the story was certainly interesting, but it seemed a little… underdeveloped.
[spoiler]I would have liked to explore more of this murder society instead of simply seeing a few set-pieces and then everything dissolving into chaos. The ending felt awfully abrupt - I was expecting the chase with the Snuffer to be the beginning of a wider story instead of simply being the end.
The ‘Topic of Conversation’ quality that kept popping up made me think that there would be a more in-depth conversation like the ones with the Bishop in Flint, and it was very disappointing to not really get to talk to the Snuffer much.[/spoiler]
It certainly has its merits, but it has to be the weakest Exceptional Story I’ve played (the others being Flint and Discernment).
I have to agree with what other have said: this story stars well, with some really fun (in a gallows humour sort of way) moments and great atmosphere. But the ending feels rushed and underwhelming. It is an ending that makes sense within the story, but there are things which could be explored and developed further.
Not a bad story at all, but it feels like it could have been even better.
A fun and exciting story, wonderful words! The investigation had an initially confusing metric for tracking progress, I feel it was a nice way of going about it in the end. I especially liked having the opportunity to explore every option there. Your twist in the contest’s nature had a thrilling bite to it for the player, and then was twisted again, but on the entire audience! I must agree though that the item payouts were a bit disappointing. It’s a once-per-character experience, and while I certainly don’t want to have massive piles of rare and/or unique items thrown at me, seeing "Extraordinary Implications hasn’t increased because it’s already at 29" as part of my final payout felt unpleasant.