The Night Market

Well written; but I don't like cliff-hanger endings. Since nothing in the store page indicated or warned that this was an incomplete story; I can't recommend it.

I think you’ll like this if you like the concept of the night market itself -- but world building does nothing for me when I don't care about the characters that inhabit it. I also do think that there are many that do and will like the Worst Cast Vibes Lineup of All Time ROs lol, even if I personally didn't. Constructive criticism regarding the player experience below. Outside of the cast that I unfortunately found unlikable and tiresome, and the constant repetitive exposition -- the book is really hard to get through because the protagonist is lifeless. They have no voice. They're a blank slate that varies in absolutely zero ways. They have nothing going on. Like. Nothing. Not a thing. This is supposedly rectified and explained by putting the protagonist in a ‘major’ role in the story but the role is meaningless to their character writing. The same issues plague the PC regardless because they're not written to be a character, or even mildly interesting, in their own right. This execution leaves everything to be desired - to the degree that when I'd finished I was left wondering what was the point, why the voiceless PC and interactive story element was even included, and why the audience was dragged along on this soulless adventure. I cannot stress enough how little the protagonist and player matter here. Reading through this felt like a tapping simulator with word building lore dumps and side characters interactions that we are given no reason to care about. It reads like the author had an idea of what they wanted to do, in the world they wanted to do it, with the characters they wanted to do it with, and then created excuses to drag the PC along the way - not once did this ever feel like a cohesive narrative experience that necessitated the need for the player or the protagonist. This is odd considering I think the author intends for this to be a character driven work given the focus on the side characters and world. But there's no branches or choices to account for the the [b]literal[/b] protagonist’s existence as a [i]character[/i], their agency or their motivations. Or any meaningful character roleplay choices at all lol. As it stands now, The Night Market isn't effective as an interactive work but it's certainly not effective as a linear book either. It lives in a weird in-between space that drags it down into a muddiness that ultimately really has nothing to say. [b]TLDR:[/b] Even acknowledging my bias as someone spoiled by many great COG/Hosted Games/Itch works and VNs - I can't regard this as a good interactive work of fiction given what I see to be a rather negligent execution. And even as a non-interactive story, I couldn’t recommend it because you would still be lacking an authentic main character, a compelling narrative, an interesting cast, or any reason at all to care about what’s happening. Nonexistent character voice, zero agency and a lifeless perspective from the protagonist in a character focused work makes this uninspiring to both read [i]and[/i] play. Save your money and go buy Fallen Hero, The Golden Rose, Tally Ho or Tin Star or something. I promise you’ll have more fun. *Note that I don't think this is only the book in the series given where the story left off, but I don't plan to read the future books or read this again so if anything ever does improve on the reading experience, that's great. Much needed. Check the review date, compare it to your dated copy, and take it with a grain of salt :)

Okay I gave up trying to finish this story. It is bland asf and so are the romance interests. Everything jumps around and the mc does "tricks" for the story.. like a dam parrot. The story consists of 90% descriptive backgrounds and 10% actual story/immersion. I legit hated the outside reference to greek mythology characters it seemed so vain n tiresome reading them. I felt like they didnt want you to like the mc and just wanted to drag your feet through every piece of ♥♥♥♥ on the way. The personality choices felt too limited to be a person and too extreme. ugh anyway i feel i wasted soooo much time reading this

This game is riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes and continuity errors. Feels very unfinished for the price.

You can love a character & still admit when they’re wrong. I love Gabriel Caine but can acknowledge his flaws (he has none) & can hold him accountable for his wrongdoings (he’s never done anything wrong in his life) & call him out for his actions (which are always correct)

怎么说呢，前面其实也还可以，但是结尾部分进度发展依旧需要搬出白用不厌的“十二点DDL截至十一点才写了个标题”的急急急比喻。都说一篇好文是凤头猪肚豹尾，这个文给我的感觉就是它压根没有尾。目前的收尾部分只能让我给出差评，等第二部出来再看是什么情况了··· ··· 用哈利波特来打比方： 什么，我来到了魔法世界？ 什么，我竟被卖到倒翻巷？ 什么，我失忆了？ 什么，我见到了罗恩赫敏？ 什么，我们要找到哈利拯救魔法界？ 什么，我原来是路人？ 什么，我见到了邓布利多？ 什么，我要去见尼克勒梅？ 什么，我要去见小天狼星？ 什么，[spoiler]我竟就是魔法世界？[/spoiler] 什么，[spoiler]罗恩就是哈利？[/spoiler] 什么，[spoiler]罗恩竟是二五の仔？[/spoiler] 什么，竟然还有伏地魔？ 什么，我被伏地魔杀死了？ The End 重点是这最后三个部分是放在一章里进行的。看的时候观感就是莫名其妙[spoiler]我成了魔法世界[/spoiler]，莫名其妙[spoiler]罗恩（甚至是RO）叛变了[/spoiler]，接着莫名其妙我被出现占比不超过总内容5%的伏地魔杀了，然后莫名其妙游戏结束了，关键是还没有后记。整个文的最后一部分就是MC倒在地上，然后The End。 看到这我只想说一句 “啊？” 你说得对，但是前文80%的部分都是找在哈利，推到最后20%的时候作者讲私密马赛其实我们的进度才刚写了20%接下来时间要加速了。好不容易确定的RO关系（没错这里甚至有稀有之poly线··· ···）到结尾部分也是几乎没有描写也没什么动静，关键是突然一下，嘎，啊我死了，然后噶，啊游戏结束了（棒读）。我死了之后魔法界呢？二五仔[spoiler]罗恩[/spoiler]呢？？我RO什么反应呢作者你倒是说一下啊（流汗黄豆.jpg）。总之结尾就是突出一个已经要收卷了但是作文还没写完怎么办啊干脆直接结尾吧祈祷阅卷老师看不出来··· ···

Your choices don't matter. The world is a patchwork quilt of every other culture. Most of the characters are repulsive.

So far, I wish the game had character portraits like the ones in the photos of the game, rather than just all text. I'd recommend the game if they had those elements, yet I also believe that the price is too high for just text.

I think this is a game for a very specific kind of person and yes I am that kind of person. Pros: - Gabriel Caine is hot as ♥♥♥♥ and I'm tired of pretending he's not. - While some of the descriptions and dialogue is a bit canned, the characters frequently surprised me with their choices and the things they say. They don't feel like cardboard cutouts, even though the author has picked up some sort of fanfic-y turns of phrase (/affectionate). - Clearly a really richly developed world with a lot going on and a lot of politics - In my extremely brief experience of using Twine and interactive novels / visual novels / anything this story-driven, it is extremely hard to make it feel like you are making your own choices in the world and having an impact without the twine map spiraling into a horrific tangled web. I think this game succeeds in offering up the illusion of impact really well, and I don't really question events that are clearly rails for the train until I've stepped away from the game. Cons: - Really severely needs an editor or beta reader. Formatting/grammar/spelling errors don't make it unreadable, but the frequency of the errors was irritating and made the game feel very unpolished. - The artwork on the steam store page is not in the game (as far as I've seen) and I sometimes felt the game could use a place to look at characters or otherwise remind yourself who someone is. Lots of folks have multiple titles, and there are quite a lot of characters to keep track of in this political intrigue. - This is possibly just a rehashing of Needs An Editor, but there were a couple of places where I felt the game was confused about its own timeline or was just missing scenes or a scene had been cut but possibly references were not totally removed. Early on MC is unconscious for "two days" then seemingly passed out "last night" then has also been in the house for "several days". - Certain things did seem a little glitched. One of the barons said "Unknown" the entire playthrough even though I very much did know who they were? There was also one instance of seeing some code that either wasn't hidden or wasn't implemented correctly. Twine's a tough cookie so not a HUGE deal. Most of these cons for me are pretty easily overlooked.

This is a very good story. Angsty, but very good. Without giving spoilers, I'd say that I appreciated how the plot twist was pretty neat, yet had plenty of foreshadowing so it didn't feel contrived.