Tower Behind the Moon

Man, this one hurt me. It hurt me because so far Kyle Marquis has been my favorite author without question. Silverworld is easily my favorite Choice of Games game, with Empyrean a close second. So when I heard that he had a new Choice of Game coming out, I bought it the very moment it was available. It is...such a mixed bag. First thing I noticed was that it was following a trend of recent Choice of Games(CoG), even by other authors. That is to say, you get to choose what you do or say but your character doesn't have actual dialogue. The story just describes in general terms what you're saying. I think that in theory this is supposed to raise your immersion as you imagine what exactly your character says, in practice it pulls me out of the game. I've played quite a few CoG games before, and even the ones I didn't like but had actual dialogue didn't break immersion by giving some even half decent dialogue. Some go further than others, and you're playing something more along the lines of Mass Effect where it feels like you're playing one of a few variations on a pre-defined character. This has still never been an issue so far, and this recent trend is something I hate. That was a lot of negativity, so now I'll talk about what's good. What's good is that, as is tradition, Kyle Marquis has a great big world full of worldbuilding to give this fantastic world a unique feel that's an absolute delight to discover. It dives hard into magi-babble at times, but like Star Trek you adjust after a while and it actually works to make the world feel well thought out. The main story itself is great, and feels properly epic as is fitting for a story about ascending to godhood. By the end, despite my many many problems with the game I was fully engaged. Now for all the bad. Remember that fantastic story? It railroads you hard. Empyrean had a much lesser version of this problem (and that game was fantastic), and Silverworld improved massively on that so you would think that Tower Behind The Moon would be even better. It was a giant step back. I actually restarted a few times before getting through the game just because I felt like such a complete and total failure at everything I attempted. Then I discovered the secret to "winning" at this game: be as selfish as inhumanly possible. You see there was a point in the game where I had so far been trying very hard to raise my relationship with every character I could, as doing so is always a good idea in a CoG game. "Strong Characterization for characters you care about" may as well be a mission statement for CoG in general, as all the best ones have a cast of characters that you love and want to see them happy. Everyone but about one character in this game ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hated me and or was openly just trying to use me no matter how nice I was to them. After completely failing to make any progress in making anyone like me, I hit some sort of supervillain epiphany and started thinking only of myself. All of a sudden, when I had been consistently failing at almost everything beforehand, I was doing a lot better. For someone who traditionally tries to be super best friends with my entire squad and also romance one of them, this felt..wrong. I got the most hollow victory ever as I became a god and all of my squad was either dead or they confirmed that they indeed were only using me for personal gain/advancement. Along the way, there were flashbacks to before you were the super awesome archmage on the verge of godhood that you are in the present. It was the weirdest feeling ever as it all of a sudden felt like an actually unambiguously good CoG game again. I had a squad that didn't hate me, I wasn't failing at everything no matter how good I should theoretically be at something, and I was having fun. Then I would be yanked back to the present, surrounded by people who ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate me and an overwhelming sense of failure. These flashbacks actually did quite a bit to make me feel like I had grown, and give me a tragic past. I was but once a lad stalking through dungeons with a cast of characters that are cool and I want to be friends with. Now I am but some sad old(read: middle aged) man, forever alone despite my incredible magical prowess with nothing better to do than become a god. Because if everyone hates me, I can at least transcend the need for feeling loved and cared for. The characters themselves were...so close. They were so close to being characters I really do love and want to improve my relationship with, something I know for a fact Kyle Marquis is capable of. They don't get there, and as time goes on it gets worse. Hell I managed to start to romance my bodyguard/housecarl, and then she goes and reveals that she was born a he and used magic to change that and oh maybe that should have come up earlier. Thanks, Kyle Marquis. With you and other authors on the case of trans folk not needing to actually disclose that they are trans when getting into a relationship, we can go back to a time where stereotypes about trans folk being deceptive are in vogue again. Note that this is not me saying that being trans is wrong, this is me saying its something you should bring up with a potential partner at the start of a relationship because hey you should probably go for someone who's going to love you for you and not have to be lied to about who you are to fall in love because people have immutable preferences and its immoral to pretend otherwise. It only comes up when you're romancing them, so it sure seems like we're going for a moral to learn here. It doesn't break the game for me, but it is one of those things that I dislike and I feel strongly about. (Wew lad too much ranting) I think this would have worked out far better as a non-interactive book. Yes as it stands you get notably different flavors of story depending on what school of magic you're a master at. I still think that that isn't enough to make up for all of the flaws that would go away if this wasn't trying to be an interactive story. Not entirely though, as there are still some things that just...don't make sense. Things like [spoiler]your very mortal companions who are competent but not world bending arch mages like you going toe to toe with literally countless ascended gods and other beings of literally indescribable eldritch power. I'm serious, the text goes out of its way to make sure you know that these things are basically mortal born great old ones who are literally rewriting reality with their mere existence. And unless you hardcore made a hash out of your relationship with them, they're going to survive this fight against the whole of the Cthulhu mythos coming out to personally spank you.[/spoiler] So if you're okay with CoG games being a slightly interactive book with some very well defined rails, get this game because its a fantastic book with amazing world building that freshens up the stale fantasy genre. If you're looking for a fantastic entry in the choose your own adventure genre that makes you feel like your choices matter with a cast of characters you actually want to strive to see happy, skip this game. I feel like this game should have been good, I wanted it to be good. It had elements of a good game. It just wasn't. It was a good book (with some flaws) and a not at all great game. I've played other CoG games that had stories that weren't as incredible as this, but at least the actual gameplay was solid enough that I didn't feel like a horrible failure incapable of doing right for most of the game.

I thought the setting was beautifully crafted, the story was sound if a bit too short and especially liked how the world tailored itself to your wizard path. Now then why do you ask would I give a game I just praised a thumbs down? Well in the beginning of the game we are given the chance to choose our companions and future possible romances names & genders. I defined my Castilian as a female named Leah. Now getting into the game, I'm intimately holding hands with Leah, flirting with her and generally building up a romantic repertoire with an achievement for it even. Here is when communications start to break down-- Me and Leah are alone having an intimate moment where she is discussing her childhood past to me when I see she refers to herself as a young boy. Now when I see that, I immediately think that the game must be bugged at that point and not tracking flags right. Oh how wrong I was, for the next thing Leah says is she used to be a man before she had a crisis of identity and had some Shamans magic her into a woman. She then proceeds to follow up with a "I probably should've mentioned that before." [b] YOU THINK!!!??? [/b] And to really rub salt in the wound, there is no option to express outrage at being deceived. You can either choose to continue the romance or let them down gently as a friend. I just sat in front of my screen, teeth gritted, eyes bulging and head hot with rage reading those lines over and over to make sure I had not made a mistake. No mistake was made. Now everyone should be able to follow their heart and romance their clearly defined romantic preference, I take zero issue with that, but what I want to know is why the author found it necessary to trick me into romancing a different preference when I clearly defined the character's gender? Oh wait wait... I know the answer to this one-- Ulterior Agenda. Ruins what could've been great games every time. I don't appreciate being deceived like that so I will be uninstalling, avoiding this author and letting my friends know to avoid it. I should hope in the future that should the author write any more tales, they will focus more on the story instead of trying to undermine the readers romance preferences with ulterior agendas.

I am extremely conflicted about this game. On one side, it's lore is very detailed, original and compelling. There are very interesting ideas about the worldbuilding I found here. The whole story, characters, setting is simply... fabulous. There's a feeling of genuine magic and ancient mystery here that I think goes beyond many of fantasy worlds in books or media. The bad, now. I feel the game was trying to railroad me too much. I felt that some choices didn't really matter (my Ritualistic/Sorcery stat didn't even budge once after Chapter 1), and despite trying to do what felt right, I can now see my bad end was inevitable. Like real life, you could say, but I consider it a mistake from a gameplay perspective. Anyway, despite getting the bad end, I feel I accomplished something, and the story itself was nothing short of amazing and original. This, despite some things that really don't make sense from the setting's perspective [spoiler]Like, for example, how can my damn companions, a fricking bard amongst them, hold off and even defeat literal hordes of ancient ascended gods at the climax? Come on, *I* am an ascending archmage, they should be shredded in seconds. [/spoiler].

sad. played for 3 and a half hours, as the good guy as is my want, and get a bad ending. play through in an hour just being an ass and choosing everything mean and evil, and i end up a demon god.... Says something right?

I recommend the game and say it's worth a purchase, though you have to be a hardcore gamer to get the most out of it. From a worldbuilding perspective, the game is excellent, and offers a new perspective on tired medieval fantasy: instead of being a lowly knight or wizard making his way in the world, you're shaping that world, and the stakes are much greater. The book reads well. Sometimes magibabble heavy, but you get it within a few playthroughs. The story's tone is excellent, and it strikes a perfect balance of gravity and levity to keep things engaging. The game introduces some interesting mechanics such as Transcendence, which require planning and forethought to utilize fully, but when used properly can bring you towards new heights, and make you feel very accomplished when you do so. One criticism I had was that the choices in the game were somewhat opaque. For example, after several playthroughs and successful ascensions, I was still at a loss as to how you actually progress towards ascension. I eventually figured it out (you basically gain Ascension progress by passing skill checks), but this is a core gameplay mechanic that should have been better elucidated. Having made that point, I recommend purchasing Tower Behind the Moon. While it has some gameplay flaws, it's a fun and fresh read, especially for hardcore gamers and long-time fantasy fans.

It's a good book clumsily forced into being an interactive novel. In contrast to the other Choice of games games I've played Tower behind the moon has a stronger, better defined narrative backed up by a fascinating setting but through playing it I found out why other games like this tend towards a weaker but more flexible narrative. In game unless you Immediately pick a lane and rigidly stick to it according to criteria you won't know until at least a couple full playthroughs, at which point you're moreso compensating for the games failings w/ Meta knowledge than organically playing it. Up until that point (or during your first run) you're supposedly an arch mage of your chosen school, possibly the last guy in history with the opportunity, power, and drive to ascend, with all the pomp and circumstance that brings. But in practice you're routinely an unqualified ♥♥♥♥ up because you chose the wrong option for the lane you didn't know you were in from the vague options you were presented. Don't get me wrong, I don't like power fantasies as much as the next guy and it could serve the narrative that everyone else is fed up with these "maggot gods" and that you're in a brutal struggle to ascend in spite of your aptitude but punishing the player so harshly for a choice they made an hour ago in a game where your only recourse is to throw away all your progress this chapter (or even playthrough) to start over and where the crucial stats required to make informed decisions is locked behind a separate screen you have to halt gameplay just to look at Is a ♥♥♥♥ move. And the "Lanes" as I've labeled them aren't very satisfying to engage with as a player. Outside of the flavor of magic you pick (that the game expects you to always discern which of a given option is tied to and pick only it or else get punished with a page of you tripping over your own feet immediately and/or two chapters later when you fumble your ascension cause you didn't pass enough blind skill checks) that can get into some of the cooler details of the setting, you're presented with two (practically mutually exclusive) options: Either you're Arch Slave driver the pragmatic that couldn't care any less about any of these dirt people that keep complicating your quest for absolute power with their "hopes" and "dreams" that need to hurry up and get out of the way or die for your glory like good pawns. Or you're Arch school counselor the repentant that continually apologizes for actions the player had no part in and sacrifices more and more of his life's work/goal to appease the people around him, at least two of whom wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire and one who's actively your enemy. According to the Achievements there is a way to meet in the middle but thanks to the feedback problems already mentioned without cheating (in a softer manner by constantly checking your stats and noting the results or flat out via a guide) to an absurd extent you'd likely go mad trying to find the exact combination of choices to do it. This review is really negative but I wouldn't have bothered writing it if I wasn't passionate about the game. There is a good, maybe even great narrative under all this and it frustrates me how hard it is to engage with. Maybe If the options had clearer feedback, the skill checks/gains were more transparent, or the author just wrote exactly what your character says this could be an amazing game. But I know better than that, this game is never getting an update and having played it I can confidently say I'd rather have just payed the ~8$ (or whatever price it was/is this week) for a paperback with one of the good endings so I didn't have to deal with the excessively punishing consequences of challenging the Illusion of choice in this "Choice" of games game.

I wanted to like this game but after three playthroughs i can say that none of the choices relate to the stats proposed and you'd need to keep track of it separately which is immersion breaking and stupid. ♥♥♥♥ you Kyle Marquis for wring the absolutely worst worst WORST relevant choices to a story. Don't outsmart your own dumbass, you can't do it.

This has to be Kyle Marquis' weakest story so far. If you haven't read his Empyrean or Silverworld, I would recommend them, because they are so good compared to ---this. After several playthroughs, Tower Behind Moon still left a bad taste in me. The story can be great, but it feels rushed and incomplete. Characters are the worst. Most of them are so one-dimensional that are not unlike those housecarl NPCs in Skyrim. Also as a supposed archmage, you don't feel powerful and in charge at all. You have to especially pay attention to stats building before Chapter 2 in order to achieve any desired effect in the later chapters. Sometimes it's very confusing which stat will be used for certain choices, which can be very immersion-breaking. But I still would recommend this game because of author's decent writing and remarkable world-building ability. The game also has great replayable value because of many different paths and endings. It still stands out among so many mediocre stories nowadays.

It's not too often that I finish one of these stories and am hoping for a follow-up, but this one is most definitely an exception. The characters were intriguing and there was so much depth hidden within the story for you to explore. An absolute must read. 10/10

I should have listened to the critical reviews... The game starts well, with an interesting world and characters. But roughly in the last third of the game, everything felt disconnected, stats changed randomly and the descriptions of progress and relationships did not reflect what was actually happening in the story. Supposedly important achievements on the way to ascension, such as special items and revealed mysteries etc. neve have any relevance and can´t be used at the critical moments you'd think they should. In essence, the last third felt random and railroaded at the same time, to a point that made me give the game a thumbs down in frustration.