A cat just explained rats to me.
Well, I enjoyed this story.
[spoiler]Yes, it is VERY linear, but nonetheless I liked the story and all the investigation. It’s true that it felt rushed and with little options… I believe that with a little more time, certain things could have been polished and developed more, in order to not give the impression of being so linear, and giving more weight to the player’s actions.
Sending invitations to Doubt Street editorials seems like a wasted opportunity for those of us that already have a newspaper (maybe we could have brought our own critic in addittion to the others!), as well as the option to go to the Flit (as others have already mentioned).
Something I liked is that you travel the city so much in this story, visiting locations that other ES don’t include for not being one of the initial zones.
I think this is true, but something that I always appreciate is that Failbetter doesn’t always stick to the same formula, trying new things sometimes… In this sense, I don’t mind coming across a slightly different story from time to time, like this one.[/spoiler]
I enjoyed the story. While it felt much more linear, I never felt like Caroline was being pushed into anything out of character. Yes, some getting to choose options with little other effect would have made it better, but it was still good.
My complaint was those of us with Heart’s Desire should have had more options dealing with the Topsy King. There is an early point in HD that should have opened an option, and an Affiliation you can earn that should have opened an even better option. This felt like a major omission, and gave the story a bit of “what you have done outside the story does not really matter” that Fallen London usually lacks.
Still, the story was good, The Growler was excellent, it helped nudge me toward how Caroline related to him, and I was overall satisfied. Good job. Not great, but good.
[quote=Diptych]I will say, there are some changes I could see being made to improve the execution, but I liked the content a lot.
Also, what kind of song did everyone end up with? I went for a powerful belter about the world beneath our feet, which was very much inspired by Tom Waits’ "Underground".[/quote]
I went for a song about my character’s experiences in New Newgate.
[quote=Diptych]
Also, what kind of song did everyone end up with? I went for a powerful belter about the world beneath our feet, which was very much inspired by Tom Waits’ "Underground".[/quote]
My power belter was about the correspondence and it melted a few eyeballs. And picturing Tom Waits in the Neath just made my day.
Me too. High power correspondence, to show the masters… something.
I was pretty put out that I was told I can’t afford Hephaesta. She’s my lab assistant for crying out loud. What do you mean I can’t afford her?
Yup, agree with the lost opportunities!
[quote=navchaa]I was pretty put out that I was told I can’t afford Hephaesta. She’s my lab assistant for crying out loud. What do you mean I can’t afford her?
Yup, agree with the lost opportunities![/quote]
Ah, but Hephaesta may have different prices for different services. What she will do for a stage performance may be very different than what she’ll take to work in a lab.
Or, probably, it’s just that they want to make the story more applicable to all levels… including players who are not yet POSI, for example. :-(
edited by Catherine Raymond on 10/23/2020
That is a very good point, Cathy! But given how far back we go and how fabulously rich I am, it shouldn’t be a problem at all. I mean, she drops everything to hunt nightmares in Parabola whenever I have problems on that front… ;)
[quote=Catherine Raymond][quote=navchaa]I was pretty put out that I was told I can’t afford Hephaesta. She’s my lab assistant for crying out loud. What do you mean I can’t afford her?
Yup, agree with the lost opportunities![/quote]
Ah, but Hephaesta may have different prices for different services. What she will do for a stage performance may be very different that what she’ll take to work in a lab.
Or, probably, it’s just that they want to make the story more applicable to all levels… including players who are not yet POSI, for example. :-([/quote]
That is a very good point, Cathy! But given how far back we go and how fabulously rich I am, it shouldn’t be a problem at all. I mean, she drops everything to hunt nightmares in Parabola whenever I have problems on that front… ;)
[quote=Catherine Raymond][quote=navchaa]I was pretty put out that I was told I can’t afford Hephaesta. She’s my lab assistant for crying out loud. What do you mean I can’t afford her?
Yup, agree with the lost opportunities![/quote]
Ah, but Hephaesta may have different prices for different services. What she will do for a stage performance may be very different that what she’ll take to work in a lab.
Or, probably, it’s just that they want to make the story more applicable to all levels… including players who are not yet POSI, for example. :-([/quote]
Oh, by the way, did anyone convince the Society that the Radical should remain in London, and then let him let loose at the performance? I’m terribly curious what the result there would be.
I did!
He got exiled to the tomb-colonies anyway. Someone from the society stops by and is pretty impressed by the performance.
I agree that the Growling Radical could have had a longer introduction about why our character knew him… especially when my character is an Anti-LoN Bohemian. He’s exactly the kind of person my character would not be hanging out with. Which… also kinda made my stance toward him really simple; my entire goal was to sabotage him and that’s very straightforward to do.
On the other hand, the part where we got to wright the songs was excellent. It was really fun repressing the time when I wrote all those Correspondence Symphonies… by writing a Correspondence Power Ballad (and toning down the power so Wines could actually enjoy it). It was hilarious, especially when Wines ruffles your hair because he knows who came up with the thing.
I do think the execution felt… lacking a bit. But the core idea was good. The Pianist showing up at the end as a companion felt like it was out of nowhere though. I hadn’t had anything to do with him for the entire ES, so why did he show up at my house?
I must say; I really like how you were automatically moved to all the different locations (except for a bug at the end where it said it did but actually didn’t).
It’s nice not having to open the map, click the destination and then click the right gold bordered storylet.
If this was an experiment for future stories; do keep it like this.
I really enjoyed this one, probably because it’s quite close to my IRL job. And I am thrilled with the Rubbery Pianist, since I’m a piano player. I also loved imagining Tom Waits throughout this story, as others have said.
If anything, based on RL experience, this story should have been more tedious, looking for venues, booking an opening act, etc. Thankfully, that part went pretty fast.
I wrote a melancholy song for him…there were lots of tears. This is Myrto’s main quirk.
[quote=navchaa]That is a very good point, Cathy! But given how far back we go and how fabulously rich I am, it shouldn’t be a problem at all. I mean, she drops everything to hunt nightmares in Parabola whenever I have problems on that front… ;) <snip>
[/quote]
Yes, that’s a very good point. But again, ESes are made "one size fits all," and you know how well that works for clothing. ;-)
I thought some of the writing was enjoyable, and the idea of having a Neathy Tom Waits as a friend was amusing, but like many previous comments I also felt very railroaded, that most of my choices didn’t matter, and that there was little consideration to MY character and not to a generic one (though the Flute Street connection was nice).
One tiny bit that was very amusing was describing the barker as having a voice that can throw a cat off a pole at a distance - which gave me immediate Fus-Ro-Dah flashbacks :P
Possibly dumb question - how do I actually start this story? I am an exceptional friend, and I don’t remember selecting the starting storylet, but it doesn’t seem to appear anywhere I can find.
Ah, replying to myself, I think I’ve found it in veilgarden. I guess I clicked on the initial storylet a while back and had completely forgotten.
Direa Erinyes, being a patron of the arts doesn’t like the masters fetter art at all. And it was pretty funny watching Mr. Wines be upset even if he is a pretty chill master. And they have a new friend to play with!
OOC: This was a fun concept especially with showing us some of the master’s memories but it needed more content. Especially dealing with the reviewers - they could’ve been a really fun to discover that part of the backstage of show business.
Hey, I got my review up right before the next ES drops.