wip "Why Samurai"
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This is the beginning of a game I wrote when I first discovered Choice of Games around 1,5 years ago. I was playing a lot of Shogun 2: Total War at the time, so it should be clear what my main inspiration was. Now that I'm learning to work with ChoiceScript I figured I might as well translate the already existing content into a playable format...
Name: Why Samurai
Genre: Historical Fiction
Story:
Set in Sengoku period Japan (the period of the "Warring States") you may choose between three historically existent clans and experience this period of upheaval in the history of Japan. In this game I strive for a pretense of historical accuracy, so most people described are based on actual people that existed in the period. The general idea is that you will find yourself taking part in the major battles and other important events of the Sengoku period, starting in 1566.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/122902630/Why%20Samurai/mygame/index.html
Enjoy! -
Loved it only had one little problem, I don't have an extremely long attention span and the numerous walls of text did not sit well with me, I also wish we could have influenced the fight summore, I also noticed that instead of calling you (name)-sama the servants just called you sama, btw weren't we supposed to get bonuses from clan choice to honor? Bc I got none of that.
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Or well I should rephrase that, the walls of text were so close together and not broken up by choices and options.
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Fantastic start! One main thing I found rather annoying, however, was that on the stat page, there was no translations for the Japanese text. If you could put the English translation in parentheses, it may be a bit easier to make sense of your stats.
But all in all, really great game. I can't wait for more! -
Didn't the Ainu inhabit Hokkaido as well?
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This is great! I'm looking forward to playing the full game when it's released.
My one suggestion is that you might want to condense the historical background: you give the player a lot of information about Japanese culture at the start of the game, and it's difficult to take all of it in.
Will the player's character have the option of converting to Christianity as the game progresses? -
@mistylavenda: They did indeed!
I remember reading about an archeological study a few years ago, which suggests that many of the samurai were descendants of the Ainu ethnic group.
Apparently it's quite a controversial topic in Japan. -
Okay it seems most everyone would prefer to have translations accompany the Japanese, which makes sense.
Thanks for pointing out I still need to add bonus to honor/shame depending on clan choice, Headhunter180.
I've never heard of the Ainu ethnic group so I'll look that up!
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Since I've gotten this critique for my other wip as well, I'm wondering how much blocks of text is too much? If you guys could point me to a game that you really enjoyed that has the perfect balance of text/choices that would be helpful! I happen to be more predisposed to large walls of text, but that doesn't mean I should enforce my preference :p. -
They're the native inhabitants of Hokkaido, their numbers dwindled dramatically to the brink of extinction when the Yamato (Japanese) colonized their land and forced them to assimilate. There is still a great deal of discrimination against the Ainu in Japan today.
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Sorry I'm nitpicky about the weirdest things lol xD
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I love the premise of this, historical game books are always awesome and I like the fact that you're using historically accurate clans and types of warrior. There is as the others say a fair bit of dialogue to run throuh but I can see myself going through it just fine.
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this game is great so far any Idea to how long it is going to take to be finshed
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I agree the stat screen needs work, English subs, and it could be cool if it mite have a description (maybe just a sentence) of how renown you are/get as you travel. And like Headhunter, I to was hoping to be more involved in the dual. But loving your work, I'm hoping as a fan of the total war games myself, there all be plenty of battle scenes and political betrayal :-D
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I'd also suggest you put the infodump at the start in a separate section you can access on command. Sabres of Infinity would be a good example for that.
You throw in quite a lot of information in the beginning and I found myself copying some parts of that in a separate file so I could look it up again later on.
Alternatively, you could spread the info out over the course of story as to not overwhelm the player right at the beginning.
It also doesn't feel right that there are explanations of the game mechanic inside the story itself. The explanations about the choice of a clan comes to mind first. As example:
[...]
"Note that your clan of origin can significantly influence where you start and your position in the events of the Sengoku period. Each clan will also influence your proficiency at certain Budo and Zen disciplines.
There are three historic clans to choose between in Why Samurai.
The Shimazu Clan. I hail from the southern province of Satsuma on the island of Kyushu. Recently you have come into contact with the nanban traders, while facing war with the rivaling Ito clan to the north. The Shimazu are famed for the honor and loyalty of their samurai, as such, you will receive a bonus to your honor. In war, the Shimazu have been known to combine the disciplins of Seido and Chikaku, Precision and Perception. They are adept at perceiving weakness, and know how to strike where it hurts most. "
[...]
I'd suggest taking an approach similar to "The Seven Winds" and put the clan description in the choice box instead of the story. I'm thinking something like this:
"You are a member of...
The Shimazu Clan, which hails from the southern province of Satsuma on the island of Kyushu and is famed for the honor and loyalty of their samurai. In war, the Shimazu have been known to combine the disciplins of Seido and Chikaku, Precision and Perception. They are adept at perceiving weakness, and know how to strike where it hurts most. Recently, they have come into contact with the nanban traders while facing war with the rivaling Ito clan to the north."
Regarding the story itself, I think it's off to good start. Looks promising :) -
I don't mind the way you have things set up now. The history stuff got boring after a while. In particular, the geography section was boring to me but I just skimmed it so no harm done there. The rest of the story was exciting. I was dreading the end because I wanted to go through the story more.
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Am I the only person that thought the geography and history was actually interesting and not some thing you should not skip over?
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seems interesting but I thought there were too few choices. It was more like a story than a game.
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