King of Dragon Pass - (by A Sharp)

[Xapped]

Originally Posted by jinchoung

this is frustrating.

i'm a gamer. have been for all my life. paper, pencil, pc, pc xt, nintendo, playstation, etc.

i have no idea what this game is. zero. the descriptions are worse than nothing.

jin

ever played a gamebook?

[Dominic White]

I just posted my full review of the game over at DIYGamer - http://www.diygamer.com/2011/09/kodp-ios-review/ - Not attempting to poach folks here, but I attempt to explain exactly what this game is, because it is utterly unique. Never played anything like it before or since, so it requires quite a bit of writing.

It really is a blend of strategy/management and Choose Your Own Adventure. You need to explore the surrounding lands, establish diplomatic ties with neighbors, form a larger government and research new and lost magics, and the rituals to perform them.

[abstractgamefreak]

@Arta Tx for posting the PC videos- they give quite a good impression what to expect here. On the A Sharp web site you can still download a 'Guided Tour' like a kind of demo for the first year of gameplay, both for Mac and Windows. I was reminded of hours playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms on my Amiga way back- but there's also a good part Civ in it. Seems a nice and deep game.

Originally Posted by Misguided

My one complaint after nearly three hours zipped by is that the appearance of the text varies from so-so to poor at 2x. Otherwise I think the game looks fine.

Pity, I'd love to play that on my iPad. But, as there is really a LOT of text in this game, this will be most probably a dealbreaker for me.

[Tuxedosteve]

This game is amazing. Playing it on my iPad and having no problems to speak of. Is there any way to turn off the tutorial?

[Dominic White]

Originally Posted by Tuxedosteve

This game is amazing. Playing it on my iPad and having no problems to speak of. Is there any way to turn off the tutorial?

I think the tutorial is mandatory on your first play, but isn't very long. Once it's over, you don't have to do it again, and your next game can start with whatever settings you like.

[TheSporkWithin]

If they just made a universal version with the same exact images but with appropriately scaled and formatted text, I'd think that would be quite sufficient.

I think the game looks quite interesting, but I'm really leery to plunge into something so text-heavy on my 3GS now that I have an iPad 2.

[LordGek]

Here's my big fear...

I know the game claims some 500+ random event/decision points, I have to wonder about the replayability of such events. Take image #1 of the game. I'm willing to bet that the basic facts of this encounter would always be the same, right? I mean can this encounter have widely divergent facts behind it (on one play through the mother is criminally insane and best not allowed in your clan but on another play through she is powerful shaman that would greatly bless your clan by adding her). So while I like how the game weaves a detailed story as opposed to simply being an interactive spreadsheet of stats, I fear many of these encounters won't be that replayable once encountered in a previous run. Please tell me this isn't the case!

[NuclearWinter]

Originally Posted by LordGek

Here's my big fear...

I know the game claims some 500+ random event/decision points, I have to wonder about the replayability of such events. Take image #1 of the game. I'm willing to bet that the basic facts of this encounter would always be the same, right? I mean can this encounter have widely divergent facts behind it (on one play through the mother is criminally insane and best not allowed in your clan but on another play through she is powerful shaman that would greatly bless your clan by adding her). So while I like how the game weaves a detailed story as opposed to simply being an interactive spreadsheet of stats, I fear many of these encounters won't be that replayable once encountered in a previous run. Please tell me this isn't the case!

The replayability of the individual events may not be great, but there's a ton of them and my bet is that it will still last you far longer than the majority of iOS games before you've seen them all. Plus you're likely to want to try out different things with the same events as from what I've seen so far there's no simple right or wrong with most of them, and plenty of pros and cons that can make the choices difficult.

[TheSporkWithin]

Originally Posted by NuclearWinter

The replayability of the individual events may not be great, but there's a ton of them and my bet is that it will still last you far longer than the majority of iOS games before you've seen them all. Plus you're likely to want to try out different things with the same events.

What you may not realize is that Lord Gek is not satisfied with the mere illusion of randomness and chance like us "normal" folk. His ideal game would actually consist entirely of procedurally generated procedural generators seeded with chaos itself.

[Dominic White]

Yeah, each event (and there are a ton of them) has multiple positive or negative outcomes. Sometimes, even picking the 'wrong' option can work out well - during a few hero quests, my characters clearly had high enough stats to just improvise their way through the myths, rather than just following them verbatim. Likewise, sometimes even picking the 'best' option can result in a catastrophic failure, as there's always a chance that the characters involved will screw something up.

A lot of the story events can even spiral out into smaller plot arcs, with characters returning years later with additional problems, or with gifts and rewards for your earlier assistance.

Even when you know how something should play out, it doesn't always mean that's how it'll go down this time.