[quote=CaptainNemo]Suggestion:
One thing I would’ve liked to see is the option to allow the snuffer to kill you (not perma-death of course) so she can complete her destiny. Not sure if declaring her the winner would satisfy that concept as I chose to kill her instead and declare myself the winner. While I don’t particularly care about rewards, I can see how some might be underwhelmed by what I received.
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I’m not sure that’s possible; wouldn’t she need to take your face to complete her destiny? And if so, wouldn’t that spell permanent death for you?
But we know from The Face Trade that it is possible for you to be given someone else’s face for a while. Think of it - the last-minute arrival of the Face Tailor / someone similar to give you a temporary face (a criminal, maybe?) and you rush around London trying to recover your face while the snuffer spends your money and ruins your reputation! What larks!
I happened to join the exceptional club at the time of the Flint story, which I liked a lot. But it seems it spoiled me. I tried The Art of Murder and a few exceptional stories from the past and… despite the perfect writing, they give the feeling “ah, is that all?” I don’t mean the rewards because rewards are not important to me, the story itself is important, but they all are so short that I feel cheated :(
I really enjoyed this quite a bit; I don’t think it was confusing, narrative-wise, but I do think that it’d be nice to get a little recap on what happened in Flint/etc, because I think if your memory of Flint isn’t sharp, you might have missed out on the real gems in the narrative here.
I am one of those sad unfortunates who does lose some details, and I’m worried that I won’t really be able to appreciate the next Exceptional Story; do you think it’s likely or possible to have some sort of narrative recap of the 2 first parts, maybe in the House of Chimes?
I really liked the Temptation; it is fitting that it’s both benefit AND menace. If you’re character is like mine–loathe to kill for pleasure, sympathetic to oddities like Snuffers–then you’re probably also playing for a minimum of Temptation, & it means less of a penalty for your final choice, so it works perfectly. If you’re perfectly happy to get violent, it’ll play out well at the end for you, too.
I loved this story. The hook and "judging" scene were intriguing and perfectly in line with failbetter’s funny-macabre side. The twist felt like a weird Holmes knockoff (in a great way), and the author showed an experienced hand at mechanics design. The notoriously awful maze chase idea somehow became perfectly paced and varied. The opaque temptations mechanic added a whole extra layer of suspense, and surprised me by ending in a result that felt satisfying to both the obvious role-play options.
The only flat note was the final confrontation. Since you find out what’s going on during the pursuit, there’s no opportunity for a dramatic villain speech. I expected the ritual to have some effect, even if it’s just 2-3 more actions to wrap it up. I agree with @SamNorrey that the pacing is great, but I only enjoyed the denouement because I killed her. One last ramp-up could have held that high note a moment longer, and given a more satisfying option for pacifists. (Why are you even chasing her if you just want to let her go?)
Also, I may be thick, but I still don’t know what was up with the conversation topics. Did they effect what the Snuffer said during the pursuit? edited by TheThirdPolice on 1/7/2016
[quote=RandomWalker]
But we know from The Face Trade that it is possible for you to be given someone else’s face for a while. Think of it - the last-minute arrival of the Face Tailor / someone similar to give you a temporary face (a criminal, maybe?) and you rush around London trying to recover your face while the snuffer spends your money and ruins your reputation! What larks![/quote]
That’s interesting. I am not familiar with the Face Trade, but I suppose it might work the way you describe it. Of course, the story would be considerably longer that way, and quite different in character, so it might not work as intended in storytelling terms. But it’s definitely fun to imagine!
@TheThirdPolice:
I actually LOVED the lack of a villain monologue. I get tired of that trope, so I thought it was refreshing to have the information come out during the chase.
Thus far having played only Trade in Souls and Flint, this story was enjoyable, but surprisingly short, especially compared to the sprawling Flint.
It ties nicely into Flint, but I’m not quite sure how it stands on its own. Flint would have been enjoyable even if deprived of the overarching threads leading into The Art of Murder, and whatever next month’s story will be. On the other hand, I’m not sure I’d recommend The Art of Murder without Flint. It feels like Flint Part 3.
[quote=streever]@TheThirdPolice:
I actually LOVED the lack of a villain monologue. I get tired of that trope, so I thought it was refreshing to have the information come out during the chase.[/quote]
Yes, and it made the chase more interesting too. Nevertheless, it did leave a gap in the final scene that needed to be filled with something else.
[quote=Alexis Kennedy][color=#009900]Thanks for the feedback, all! As ever, we’re listening.[/color]
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[color=#009900]I do want to add a datum, though - Art of Murder, measured in number of branches, is a middle-of-the-road size for an EF story. It’s bigger than Marsh-House, Court of Cats and Last Dog, and shorter than Lost in Reflections, Cut with Moonlight and Discernment. It only feels smaller than usual because Flint was so preposterously big.[/color][/quote]
I was actually looking at the Fate store, considering if I should pick up Marsh-House or Court of Cats. If they’re even shorter than this story, then I am glad you made this post. Now I know not to waste the FATE on what is probably going to be the length of pamphlets :(. I love and adore the writing of Failbetter Games, but the amount of content that is provided is woefully lacking far more often than I’m content with. I was hoping that Flint was an attempt at upping the quality of the game. I wasn’t expecting it to be a single experience that somehow exempts the team from equally exciting content. Paying a subscription for ten minutes of thrills isn’t exactly my idea of a worthwhile investment. I’m sorry if this offends, but the string of disappointments has been chewing at me for too long.
To those that are going to respond, "Well, IIIIII don’t have an issue." Your contentment does not invalidate my feelings.
Writing stories the size of Flint takes a lot of time and effort, though. If all Exceptional Stories were of that size I’d be concerned that they wouldn’t have the time to produce the free content everyone can enjoy.
If you’re looking for a high ratio of "minutes of original entertainment" to "money spent," there are probably better "bulk experience" games than Fallen London, it’s true – but this particular flavor is very hard to come by.
The Marsh House and Court of Cats just have a smaller number of branches than Art of Murder; they don’t necessarily take less time or feel shorter. The Blemmigan Affair, on the other hand, is quite large in terms of branches because of all the random events in Bugsby’s Marshes. But I doubt that part was the most memorable when compared to the events of that story which only took up one or two branches.
Given that producing Flint-size stories might be ruinous, seeing as that one took many months, the most efficacious thing to do for those who want to see larger Exceptional Stories and more free content is to help FL grow. The larger the base of subscribers, the more cost-effective it is to put time into creating longer stories. Tell your friends; help test the mobile version; keep this small business going! edited by metasynthie on 1/7/2016
Just because they’re not working on Epics doesn’t mean people should have to settle for penny dreadfuls. Now, one might like penny dreadfuls, but they’re priced a penny for a reason.
[quote=metasynthie]If you’re looking for a high ratio of "minutes of original entertainment" to "money spent," there are probably better "bulk experience" games than Fallen London, it’s true – but this particular flavor is very hard to come by.
The Marsh House and Court of Cats just have a smaller number of branches than Art of Murder; they don’t necessarily take less time or feel shorter. The Blemmigan Affair, on the other hand, is quite large in terms of branches because of all the random events in Bugsby’s Marshes. But I doubt that part was the most memorable when compared to the events of that story which only took up one or two branches.
Given that producing Flint-size stories might be ruinous, seeing as that one took many months, the most efficacious thing to do for those who want to see larger Exceptional Stories and more free content is to help FL grow. The larger the base of subscribers, the more cost-effective it is to put time into creating longer stories. Tell your friends; help test the mobile version; keep this small business going! edited by metasynthie on 1/7/2016[/quote]
Sorry for the double post, just noticed this one.
Part of the reason I’ve stuck around even after playing through some disappointments is because I like what Failbetter is trying to do here. I picked up Sunless Sea not too long after I started to run out of stuff to do. But, every time I tell any of my friends about the game, it’s usually met with fairly negative responses and I don’t really have much to retort with. Granted, I’ll keep telling friends about the game, but at this point, I’m not sure if I can keep recommending they should try the subscription if they like the base game, due to how many disappointments I’ve had with the "Exceptional Stories". Honestly, if I were to recommend the subscription for anything at this point it would be for the action and opportunity cards and I’d end up saying, "Oh, and also you get another story once a month."
Ever since I started my subscriptions I can really only think of Lost in Reflections and Flint as really enjoyable experiences. Everything else was either average or disappointing.
All this sad business aside, I did rather enjoy the promo art for this month’s story.
[quote=Spooky] Ever since I started my subscriptions I can really only think of Lost in Reflections and Flint as really enjoyable experiences. Everything else was either average or disappointing.
All this sad business aside, I did rather enjoy the promo art for this month’s story.[/quote]
I’ll have to try Lost in Reflections soon, it’s consistently getting praise here.
Also, I agree the promo art for Art of Murder was great. edited by PageofCups on 1/8/2016
I think you just answered your own question, so to speak. You’ve seen the Exceptional Stories so far - if they’re not what you’re into, then weigh up the value of subscribing based on the actions and cards. Our satisfaction doesn’t invalidate your dissatisfaction, as you say, but the reverse is also true - just because you didn’t like the stories doesn’t mean they’re sub-par product and inherently a bad deal. That’s just the risk we all take when paying for something as subjective as a piece of fiction.
(Speaking for myself, I’d say my favourites so far have been Cut With Moonlight and Lost In Reflections.)
I rather liked this story, it was a nice spiritual sequel to The Blemmigan Affair (an artistic fad organized by inhuman creatures as part of some larger agenda). Something I particularly liked about both stories was how their structures complimented and reinforced their content. With The Art of Murder the story starts out slow but suddenly becomes jumpy, tense, deranged and messy, much like, well, an actual murder. That’s very good writing.
I also liked how there were a number of checks based on quirks rather than stats. edited by Anne Auclair on 1/8/2016
Thank you, Failbetter team, I also liked this story.
I will echo what some others have said — I left wanting to know more about the murder-as-art connoisseurs and practitioners of Fallen London. But I have a feeling that their story was incidental to the three part story you’re telling about the face-wearing snuffers. So I only hope we can revisit London’s murder enthusiasts at some future date.
The early investigation was exquisite. A really sublime at-your-own-pace investigation which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was sort of like at first my character was looking into this in his spare time, out of curiosity, and then he sort of got deeper and deeper into it.
The murder competition was hilarious and the reveal was well done. I enjoyed judging the contestants (my character is quite Wildean if not Huysmanian so he sort of has a non-practicing conscience).
As others have said, the chaos in the darkened room and chase through the tunnels was tense and claustrophobic.
The options at the end were great and I enjoyed indulging my red temptation.