Blood in the King's Court

Disclaimer: to the author, take everything in this review with a grain of salt. I’m not a professional writer and only somewhat of a seasoned reviewer. To the readers, this review will contain lots of spoilers, so I suggest you read the storygame first.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

This storygame’s description introduces readers to the protagonist, her situation and the stakes. It’s a story of survival—both physical and social. It also mentions the king, who may feature as an antagonist.

Onto the first page. The story starts with a scene between the protagonist and the king, as they’re finally able to steal a moment together, away from the rest of their wedding guests. I like how his true intentions are subtly foreshadowed from the start: the use of the words ‘grabbing’ and ‘dragging’ hints at his aggressive nature, and her nervousness infers she isn’t fully comfortable in his presence. Even his kisses are described as “rough”.

Wait what? He’s a vampire. Oh, that explains the ‘bloodlust’ part, as I was somehow thinking of a plotline like ‘the bloody chamber’. Haha, I like how the phrases “Daniel is eyeing your chest as if he'd like to devour you whole” and "You beast!” take on a more literal meaning now.

This reminds me of something I once read: characters in a story never know what genre they’re in. For the first half of the page, the protagonist believes she’s in a romance story, with the prose focusing a lot on how she believes she’s in love. Only towards the end does she realize she’s in a horror story. This switch in tone is abrupt, but not out of place due to the foreshadowing. It’s a good use of an unreliable narrator and the reader shares the protagonist’s surprise, making it easier to empathize with her unique situation.

WRITING STYLE

The narrative style utilizes a deep point of view, as readers are privy to the protagonist’s inner thoughts. It’s a good technique to create immersion. For instance, when she is being bled dry by her husband, she attempts to distract herself, though her efforts are in vain. She thinks about meat at the butcher and wonders how long it takes to be bled dry: “How long before the last drop fell from them? Hours? Days?” These sentence fragments convey the urgency of the situation and the looming threat of death.

This also makes the protagonist much more relatable. Readers knowing her intrusive thoughts and how she struggles to keep them under check allows them to empathize with her. If we were only to observe her exterior actions, for example, a lot of the current emotional impact would be lost. I particularly enjoyed this part: “You want to scream. You want to jump on the table and kick over every platter and glass. You want to pull the wig off every man and woman in the room. But you don't. You take a careful sip of wine and smile politely at the Countess of Fredericks while she goes on about the drought.” It conveys the struggle she goes through to achieve her goal of fitting into courtly life.

It was amusing how the narration is filled with constant reminders of the protagonist’s hate for Daniel. When she’s embroidering, there’s the line “Don't be ridiculous, you'd never make something he may actually like.” Her personality shines through the prose. And it’s a nice use of language when she states, “The yellow rose is coming along nicely and you add a few buds around the blooming flower to represent your budding hatred.”

There are a few proofreading errors like lack of capitalization, but nothing too grievous, especially for a story of this size. A quick note on dialogue: when using a dialogue tag in between two lines of dialogue, do not capitalize it. For example, consider this line: ‘"HOW DARE YOU!" He yells as if you're the one who started it’. The word ‘he’ should not be capitalized, otherwise it infers that after speaking the line, he yells randomly (instead of him yelling that line).

I enjoyed how the metaphors were relevant to the setting and time period, such as “Your voice is as soft as a field mouse”, “With a face as red as the roses around you” and “Lady Beth looks at you as if you’ve just asked a squirrel what time it is”.

CHARACTERS

Daniel seems kinda psychopathic (or maybe bipolar). After borderline murdering the protagonist—crushing her lungs and draining her of blood—he treats it like it was a minor accident. The next morning, he speaks with her as if it never happened. He’s even somewhat polite: ‘apologizing’ for it, enquiring about how she slept, and thanking her when she mentions the blood. He’s an unpredictable villain and this adds to the tension, keeping readers on edge about what would happen next. When the protagonist chooses to confront her, he reminds her how futile it all is: no one would believe in vampires. Again, when he sees how upset she is about Lord Beth’s rigged trial, he simply smiles like he’s won. He’s a villain that readers love to hate.

As for Lynn, she shares the protagonist’s shock and horror if she is told of what occurred. It’s a relief to know that not everyone in the castle is in on this. Her concern for the protagonist comes across as genuine, as she shares her own opinions openly.

There appears to be quite a lot of suspicion around Jane, the protagonist’s sister in law. Her absence is often mentioned, drawing more attention to it than the presence of other side characters. It’s good foreshadowing, as it is brought up enough time to keep this information at the back of readers’ minds, but not too much that it disrupts the plot. She’s also the only survivor of a ‘poisoning’ (which is the same excuse as how Katherine died when in reality, she was bled dry), so it makes sense for her to be wary and have some information which may prove useful later.

While there are a number of side characters in one of the scenes, which may be a bit hard to keep track of, this was handled well. Some are more forgettable, but others have unique personalities conveyed through dialogue. This shows readers which characters to focus on. It makes sense for a scene about mingling with other nobles to require a larger supporting cast too.

Next, George seems to know what is happening, using the words “difficult time” and giving the protagonist a wink, hence he may prove to be a useful ally. He also protects the protagonist through caring about her safety and implying he would allow her to commit treason and escape. A slight inconsistency is when he executes Lady Beth without listening to the protagonist, even though he seems to have favored her over him in previous scenes. Yet, he is an effective character foil to Daniel, caring about the protagonist’s safety where the former only seeks to use her for his own means.

And Elric, well he’s the most obvious vampire ever. He’s wearing fashion dated back many years ago and staring creepily at the protagonist. (What is it about vampires and being fascinated with women a hundred times younger than they are?) I suspect it was him who attacked Lady Beth. Edit: yep, called it. His nonchalant attitude about it, along with a ‘superiority’ of noble blood, is concerning, though I suppose it matches Daniel’s tone and how they’ve normalized the blood-sucking part of their lives.

Lady Beth is the archetypal ‘victim’, and the protagonist can choose to protect her several times, from the social interaction with the other nobles to the vampire attack. She faces the same struggles as the protagonist, perhaps to a much greater extent, given her lack of status and power.

PROTAGONIST & PLOT

I like how most of the choices are prefaced by a few lines explaining the protagonist’s thought process. It makes them realistic and consistent with character, which is rare in storygames that make use of the branching structure immensely; I’ve seen a number of stories where there are choices which completely clash with the protagonist’s personality. A good example here is that after getting bitten, the protagonist wonders if she should stay due to etiquette, though she knows it isn’t that important anymore given the recent events. This also ties to her two conflicting problems, as mentioned in the description: physical survival (trying not to die) and social survival (adjusting to her new life at court).

At first, the protagonist appears trapped in the castle, with her immediate choices being to share her experiences with others—such as Lynn, her father or her sister—and await rescue. It’s a nice touch that the letters have different tones, portraying her relationship with both her family members. But when it comes to the dinner, it’s rather hilarious to imagine the protagonist yelling at Daniel and accusing him of being a murderer. Yet, it reasonably leads to death. Attacking Elric with the Bible or cursing him are hilarious scenes, and I can feel the second-hand embarrassment through the page lol.

She grapples between her desire to expose him and her fear of becoming his victim. The most rewarding form of rebellion is through small, subtle gestures, like embarrassing the king in front of the dowager or defending Lady Beth through giving her persecutor a veiled insult disguised as a compliment.

The subplot of court affairs is interwoven very well into the main narrative. By choosing who to trust or speak with, she gains useful allies who provide new information and eventually help her survive. And when she either defends Lady Beth or stays out of the conflict, I like that even if she chooses the latter, she changes the topic to indirectly help her. If she defends her, she does so with a degree of subtlety.

The use of delayed consequences and gauntlet branching is exceptional. If the protagonist chooses to write her sister or father a letter, she could wait outside for them, only to return to see Lady Beth being killed and either be left without a letter or receive a reply that crushes all her hopes. This also transforms her into a more active protagonist, as she realizes she has to take control of her own fate. But if she returns to her chambers and has befriended Lady Beth, there is the chance she would seek refuge in the protagonist’s room before she is attacked by a vampire. The text changes with variables too, like whether Lady Beth is killed or almost killed.

A slight nitpick here: it seems that most of the tension in the story has dissipated at this point. Even when the protagonist attacks Elric or tells George about Daniel being a vampire, she is completely unharmed. It’s inconsistent characterization for Daniel as he kills her when she tells his mum about it, even though she already knows of his nature, but with George who is actively investigating the crime, he turns a blind eye. This reduces the stakes to her life and given that most questions have been answered at this point, the protagonist doesn’t seem to have much of an agenda. It might help to keep some more information unrevealed or give the protagonist a different mission once the immediate threat to her life has died off, such as investigating the death of her husband’s previous wife or finding out more about Princess Jane’s past. Sometimes, it feels like the answers are given freely before the protagonist has time to think about the question.

However, this is rectified as she thinks about holding the vampires responsible for their crimes. Soon enough, there’s the opportunity to take vengeance, in the form of Jane’s plan to kill her family’s murderers. Princess Jane frames it as justice. But it’s soon revealed that she’s every bit as bad as the vampires, as she would kill the protagonist if she doesn’t agree to her scheme. Their plan fails and I’m a bit disappointed at how the story ends there. It seems like it has been building towards something more, like a showdown or confrontation, but even with the two of them knowing about the nature of vampires, they just…die. I expected something more, especially since the choice to tell George about the vampire attack felt significant.

Oh, there’s another path: agreeing with Lord Elric means gaining his favor and having a visit from him instead of Princess Jane. This explains so much more about the story, such as the deaths of King Andrew, Prince Henry and Princess Jane’s sons. In a way, Elric is a more malevolent villain than Daniel. But it’s a good detail that each character has their own motives and agendas. In one of the endings, the protagonist is content with her child: “Sure, he has a weird thing for blood but he's so cute, you're able to forgive him that”. Well, that probably explains the dowager’s motives for the story haha.

This story continues to amaze me. Only after reading Darius’ comment did I realize there’s a whole other path where Lady Beth dies. Though it appears it links back to either Princess Jane or Lord Elric’s visit, and from there, it goes towards one of the endings.

(Major spoilers)
Due to all the delayed consequences, it took me a while to find the true ending, but all those other attempts made it all the more satisfying. I had to use hints from the other comments to find George’s path; it requires the protagonist to stay with him that night, even at the cost of Lady Beth’s death (unfortunately), then tell him about the vampire attack. Together, they piece together the truth: he killed his previous queen by feeding on her blood. And I like how their comradery is formed over their hatred of the king, haha. A small suggestion might be to introduce him as Katherine’s brother early on, as this would add more suspense to the narrative, where the protagonist may be curious about her death and desire to ask him more while holding back due to the fear he cannot be trusted.

His affection for the protagonist develops well. During the time they spent together, however short, he has always made sure she is alright and believed her words. He’s strongly characterized too, having his own goal of killing the king. Still, it doesn’t make sense for her to turn him in, even for some misguided notion of ‘duty’, though he doesn’t condemn her and only asks if she’s happy. These endings seem a little more detached from the protagonist, as unlike the start, there isn’t really a reason for why she tells George he cannot trust her.

It’s an interesting worldbuilding detail that the king always wins the hunt. This showcases the dynamics in the story: hence, it makes sense that the other men instantly defend the king and behead George when he tries to kill him, without stopping to question why the sword bounced off the king’s chest.


My favorite is the path where they work together to take down the king. While George handles the actual ‘killing’ part, she ensures they’re able to get away safely. But there is a minor inconsistency error: if she was always able to get away from the palace this easily, why has she never attempted it in any of the other paths? Regardless, it’s a good conclusion to her character arc as she regains control of her own life and defeats her tormentor.

Only after I gave up on searching for it did I find the path where the protagonist kills Daniel on her own. It is thematic and marks her character growth well. For most of the story, she plays the role of the obedient wife: allowing Daniel to continue sucking her of blood, pretending to have slept well the next morning, and even enabling him to consummate their marriage. Hence, it is satisfying to see her burn him alive. And it makes sense that she does this alone, as it signals her transformation into someone who finally takes her own fate into her hands.

I think I’ve played through all the paths, though given the delayed consequences of this storygame, I can’t be sure. Even the small choices appear to be important. So far, I’ve read Jane’s, Elric’s, George’s and Daniel’s paths, though I’m unable to see how the choice to tell Lynn the truth affects the story.

Overall, it’s an excellent storygame with lots of hidden branches, which means readers may get vastly different experiences on various playthroughs.

Review 19: Blood in the King’s court
I get why people like the story so much. Friggin hell, I didn’t expect to like it so much as I do now. Its biggest strength is that the story is very much aware that it is a story game and fully utilizes its unique qualities.

The greatest example of great variable work is everything relating to Lady Beth. If you didn’t defend her during that tea party, she wouldn’t trust you enough to come knocking at your chambers. If she isn’t in your chambers, she will be chomped up by Daniel. There are also other scenarios where Amelia spends the entire night with George and therefore isn’t present when Lady Beth is attacked. Depending on whether Beth is alive or not, a funeral may or may not occur and also the trial of Lord Beth and some details of the hunt. To all these variables set up and the text be changed according to the choices the player made to such a degree is a showcase of terrific planning.

One other aspect that is very cool is that vampires in this story are the symbol of abusive relationships. I don’t think that I have seen that used very often haha. Blood in the King’s court reads as a whole allegory for this. There is of course as the notes mentioned tons of gaslighting coming from Daniel, but there is also tons of complacency in regards to Daniel’s family members. His mother for example would never believe Amelia. Amelia’s family also turns a blind eye to this abuse. And just like a real life abuser, there are certain moments where Daniel is indeed pretty nice and acts remorseful. He even promises to never harm her again. Yet, like his real life counterparts, he will attack her again at the end of the story like he did many times with his previous wife.

There is only one thing that irks me a bit about the True Ending. I still really like it and Amelia’s dynamic between George is very engaging and I was indeed rooting for them. Plus like I also said in the notes, I was glad that the story didn’t rush their romance too quickly. Nothing turns me more off than characters who barely know each other spouting their eternal love for one another. Instead, their relationship is much more based on mutual trust and also survival. It does make my heart melt a lot when Amelia promised George that she wouldn’t let him die. I also do like the way how they killed Daniel and how they planned their escape.

Yet, yet something about the true ending still bothered me. I think that it perpetuates the whole trope that in order to escape your abusive partner and get the happiest possible ending, you need the help of another man. There’s nothing wrong with a story like that, but I’ve seen this so many times, that I get a bit tired of it. (Abused broken woman gets saved by a white knight who beats up her abusive ex) I would be much less bothered if there was also another possible true ending where the protagonist succeeds in killing Daniel if she got help from Lady Beth or Jane. Every time she relied on a woman, she fails miserably and dies haha and even the ending where she managed to kill Daniel on her own, she is nothing but an empty husk.

Well, all in all, I still like the story quite a bit. It did a lot of clever things and it is definitely a story with tons of replay value!

NOTES
- Yeah, my first reaction was: WTF? I thought that you meant a murder, not a bloodsucking vampire dude. Well, you certainly made me intrigued by what happened on the first page alone.

- Yeah, Amelia’s possible reactions to her husband sucking her blood seems legit. I just can’t help snickering by the entire premise and also the reaction of her husband too.

- I was surprised by Lady Beth’s death, but again with most of these stories, I am hardly attached to her character and also barely remembered her since she only was present in one scene. There was also not much time for Amelia to bond with her; she hadn’t even had the option to confide to her about her strange husband.

- The delayed branching is really cool! When Amelia chooses to send a letter to her father, I thought it would only be a flavor choice, but it came back later in the story!

- On my first playthrough I reached one of the six bad endings. It brought up even more questions than answers. I think it is one of those games where you have to play through it a couple of times to get the full story. In so far I know, Elric assassinated the previous king and his heir to make Daniel king and Jane is pissed about it. So much court intrigue. Also, Amelia failed to stab Daniel; the dagger seemed to have been bounced back, perhaps by some magic?

- You know, in the scenario where Lady Beth survives the night, she is actually quite a fun character and she then does have some time to bond with Amelia.

- It’s sad how much Amelia and Daniel reminds me of real life abusive relationships. He’s also constantly gaslighting her that he isn’t a vampire to the point that she also questions her own sanity. Even when she tries to escape with Beth, he continues to pursue her.

- Gosh, I love the comradery there is between George and Amelia. In the other routes, I was kinda confused why he tried to kill Daniel, but in this route I’m currently on and where he trusts Amelia more, you get the full reasonings behind his actions. And I do think that these two have tons of chemistry. I also am glad that you didn’t rush their romance too much and leave it rather open ended whether they got together or not in the true end.

There's one lesson the reader gets out of this: If garlic and stabbing weapons don't work on a vampire, try fire. That's what got me to the good end. Well, one of the good ends, as for the life of me I couldn't find out the other one or the true ending.

As can be gleamed from the title the story setting is the typical "European-like" medieval fantasy world and courtly life. There's court intrigue, fancy tea parties, hunts and disbelief of anything supernatural, making it seem a bit too modern, as medieval people used to be crazy superstitious.

Adhering to the "Crisis Contest" requirements, the story aims to instill a sense of crisis in the reader, leveraging Daniel's unpredictability and relative lack of control. The new queen's head is violently pulled down from the clouds on the very first wedding night, making her, and by extension the reader, understand that she didn't strike gold with this marriage. She's in a race against time on ensuring her survival.

A wise use of the "show, don't tell" technique can be seen in the vivid depiction of Amelia's emotions through her interactions with Daniel. Her shock at the start, fear, disgust and anger towards not only him, but also towards her family who sold her for status. She may be one of the top female protagonists on my list.

Now, while I can understand the intent behind what and how it was written, the problem is that for me personally, the initial tension dissipated quickly after reading the first few bad endings. It quickly turned from the "defy the cattle's destiny" to the "have to save myself from this Bad Endings maze". The pace was alright, though I think the story would benefit more if the world or the characters are explored more. There were all kinds of interesting characters: Elric and the knight commander, but more importantly: the court intrigue which set the course for the story's events to happen.

Overall, despite the my nitpicking of the details, I enjoyed reading the story which I was going to rate 5/8, but that ending of burning Daniel down was too satisfying, so my final rating is 6/8.

This is a fun storygame! The branching was good, it's less cave-of-time-ish and more of a string of linear events which can resolve in different ways, which affects the ending. I usually prefer the former, but it was done well here. I found it pretty tricky to get the True End though, maybe that was just me, but it feels like I got every bad ending possible before finding it. At least that let me experience more of the story!

The characters are somewhat generic but they all fulfil their roles very well, and the way in which their stories revolve around their relationships to King Daniel and the protagonist means that they all feel important to the narrative. I liked the protagonist's relationship to Lady Beth, too bad you can't run away with her.

There was a good deal of intrigue surrounding King Daniel at the start, but it feels like the protagonist figures out what's going on with him a little too abruptly. Then again, having her strive to convince people of his true nature is pretty fun to read, and recruiting Sir George in the True End is a pretty good payoff to his character given his past with Daniel, so it's all executed well.

The writing was really good, albeit with a few grammatical errors, so clearly this story's been proofread well. I liked the dialogue too; the story's pretty dialogue-heavy, but justifiably so. The prose is short and snappy for the most part, but I liked that, it let things progress quickly. This did mean that there weren't many detailed descriptions of stuff like the setting, but this story is more character-driven so I can understand why.

All in all, I enjoyed reading Blood in the King's Court, definitely worth a read and at least a 6/8.

A nice survival story. I'm a bit of an anime enthusiast so I couldn't help but get some tokyo ghoul vibes from this. If a monster does monstrous things, is it truly evil? You can't really fault vampires for draining blood if that's the only thing they gain nourishment from, or in this case, I suppose they are cursed to have to drink regularly or something?

I couldn't really follow which choices leads to which events. For example, I still don't know what stops Jane from coming to your room. I also don't know what prevents Lord Elric from showing up either. I guess it's if you try to curse or attack him? Not really sure.

Still, very fun concept that was executed well. It made me do multiple playthroughs to try and get the good end which obviously means that it got me invested enough in the fates of the characters involved, so a double thumbs up from me

This was a truly satisfying story of a woman trying to get out of a toxic relationship. Joking understatement aside, I liked seeing another story about vampires that focused more of relationship and court dynamics. I liked the different characters, the variety of endings and the pacing of the story.

SPOILERS:
At first, I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more to do with Lord Elric, but then after seeing the full scope of the story, I realized that the limited presence of the character (and not being able to kill him) actually helped maintain focus with the main villain of the story. Sometimes, less is more, and the conflict between Amelia and Daniel was more than enough. I was satisfied with the True Ending and running off in the carriage.

Here’s to killing vampires, by God and Saint George!

It was good! 6/8 for me, I had a lot of difficulty getting the good ends, so much so that I've given up for now, unsure of what I'm doing wrong; the dialogue is great, it paints a vivid picture, things flow smoothly between scenes which was the standout aspect of this storygame. Nothing felt abrupt, random or out of place. Overall, solid entry.

I can't seem to find the lesbian route.