It's cool, I should've been clearer myself probably.

Thanks for the recs.

>He made a thread with a giant OP complaining about Eternal, the emphasis on games was an attempt at passive aggression.

"Passive aggression"? Oh come on man, gimmie a break, I was just looking for recommendations.

Read his previous post, I only copypasted his own term.

The Broken God

What are some of the best games on the site?

14 days ago

Do me a favor and click on this, then read all of the stories on there starting with Rogues, then read Read My Storygame or Die, then read Arkhan's Vengeance. If you prefer storygames rather than storygames, I can give you a separate list.

Could you recommend anything for storygames?

Well I liked the story, but for real tho, the Eternal doesn't show a whole lot of initiative for what I've seen in the Struggle route.

In the first half, before the undead assassin, perhaps he's really indoctrinated, and never met any ambitious characters to influence his views, so he never saw the use of replacing the Emperor, which is fine. No "rebellion" route then.

After the undead assassin, it's tricky. Since Semra the elf helped him fight off the assassin, it probably wasn't her that sent the undead. By elimination, the only suspect is the only other mage we've seen: the Emperor. But I suppose the Eternal could be dense and never suspect his beloved Emperor.

However, after the island portal/Emperor's death scene, the Eternal learns that immortality is achievable if he goes to the island, well he knows the Emperor tried it but bungled the baby/ritual section. Or if he doesn't, he learns that even Emperors die along with their empires.

In either case, further research might be fruitful. I assumed that if the protag becomes Emperor, he would issue some orders to the Empire like "go find me immortality" or try to reform the Empire to make it a bit more lasting perhaps.

But even though the word "eternal" is always alluded to in the epilogues, the Eternal never does try to make a lasting impression.

He runs the Empire like it previously was, and only solves short-term goals like a war with a neighbor. The Eternal never does start "eternal"-seeming long-term goals to fit that "Eternal" line in the epilogues, which feels really strange.

IRL, we know many rulers were concerned about building lasting legacies. They tried many things like building eternal empires (always collapses eventually), built statues/buildings and carved their deeds in stone (torn down for bricks or vandalized), or sought immortality (drank alchemist's mercury potions etc), or lied a lot to deify their reputation after they die.

Which makes most of the endings I saw not very satisfying since the Eternal doesn't quite do any of those.

In my personal best 2 Struggle endings: In the first one, the Eternal gets a great reputation, but only after Jennifer wrote him a nice book - on her own initiative. In the other, he did the fertile Eternal project, also from his scientist minion's own initiative. Plus only at the end of his life. And the Empire soon collapses into infighting without the old guard Eternal's guidance.

So none of the endings felt particularly "Eternal"... unless the theme's supposed to be ironic the whole time. Erm, it probably was I guess.

In Eternal, you only defeat Semra after becoming a near-demigod brainwashed immortal minion ("beg" invalidates your earlier "struggle" choice, the Eternal becomes suspiciously infatuated with killing; entire route feels like a bad end imo), or Semra dies of old age or a stray nuke after being ignored, or Semra dies from a random firebomb from the hijacked flying city.

It didn't feel as satisfying to overcome obstacles here, than in Price of Freedom: Innocence Lost. I guess I preferred the smaller-scope decisions in Price of Freedom. The player personally besting Zeke and the big guy in the endgame, even at their own specialties, felt quite satisfying. I liked that style of "shorter text scenes" and "immediate choices" made it feel like the player's doing the actions, instead having the Eternal do it in a longer text scene, which makes it read more like a cutscene. Different styles I suppose.

Overall, the "struggle" feels off. Seems like Eternal's led by his nose for most of it, by the Emperor's schemes or Semra's.

Oh, and the random "death by bullet" dead ends in Eternal's non-branching routes. If even the Eternal can get one hit killed by a scientist or a smuggler with a gun, or a lucky crossbow bolt, then a platoon of gunmen or crossbowmen following the Eternal would make him that much more lethal. Or some troll minions from the dwarf's lab lol.

Well, that's my opinions anyway.

Thanks for the story EndMaster. :)

So I got all the the True Eternal (Struggle) Epilogues, and they weren't that satisfying.

I chose Struggle at the start and expected perhaps a "Betray the Empeor/Make myself king" or a "Bwahahaha immortality and UNLIMITED POWERRRR" path and didn't really get it.

Eternal Guy does bad stuff on every route, but I suppose life is cruel and the "best" outcomes don't always happen, but the whims of fate aside, Eternal Guy never works to better himself or leaves a lasting legacy.

BTW for new players, the walkthrough is here at the end by BerkaZerka: http://chooseyourstory.com/forums/the-parlor-room/message/10357

• Eternal Destroyer - Wake up from magical cyrostasis. Without Jennifer's advice, the plague fucks up your neo-Empire, which collapses, and you die of old age.
• Eternal Hero - Wake up from magical cyrostasis. Plague goes fine, and you're fondly remembered because of Jennifer's flattering not!Mein Kampf book about you. Still die tho.
• Eternal Paragon - Empire continues. Sacrifice your magic at the end of your life to produce the Eternal race, die peacefully on your own terms, your 2nd love, Decena. But Empire collapses again without your protagonist powers.
• Eternal Emperor - Empire continues. Manage to piss off your Eternal siblings but become brain in a jar, die at 1000+, bored of life, and without Decena.
• Eternal Harbinger - Manage to kill off ALL your Eternal buddies, and decimate your own Empire for some ritual. Then betray your origins to become an immortal slave. 2 more sub-endings of these are: "Be banished to super-Hell", and the other is "Become brainwashed in afterlife, but be reunited with Alison".

Why not perfect the necromancy/immortality ritual? Or start an expedition to find Mortos, the necromacer island? Eternal Guy sees the Emperor betray him at the magic island, and his motivation is to Struggle, not just be content as a run-of-the-mill mortal ruler.

Man I miss the Ominous Secret Projects and "Bwahahahahaa UNLIMITED POWWWEERRRRR" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg14jNbBb-8 or backstabbing stuff typical emperors types do in fantasy.

Plus all the Dead End side paths where the Eternal dies from a random gunshot. Walk into the evil dwarf's lab and die from a headshot. I thought he wore armor for a reason.

And he's supposed to be this great combatant but it's only implied, never shown. Eternal Guy supposedly solos orc tribes, but when you choose to "push through" orc lands, he dies. Go inspect a ship and Eternal Guy is shot dead. wtf

Also never improves himself to be a better combatant than the elf Mistress either, in any of the Struggle routes, which is strange. Or train an Elite Guard/Elite Minions to help or something. Perhaps because I read Berserk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eYP1KWBmvo first, the character of the Struggler I had in mind was a bit different than this one.

None of the endings felt epic enough to be "Eternal", as the endings claim, it's more of bittersweet victories, rather than Ultimate Victory.

I'm left wanting a bit more I guess.