Player Comments on Goldbird and Whispers of Snow

I've reached three separate endings for this storygame now (not sure if the third one was the 'true' ending or not, but it did have an epilogue, so...maybe?) and I have to say, I did quite enjoy it, even though I didn't explore all of the potential paths and endings that there were.

I did like the plot of the storygame, and I did find Nyvella to be quite an interesting player character...although I did find it a bit confusing about why she was a thief. There wasn't really enough background given to allow me to understand her motivations and reasons behind those actions.

I do have to say that some of the choices I made didn't really seem to have a huge impact on the storygame, apart from some small changes in the narration. For instance, the decision whether to wear makeup or not...or to cast some kind of magic spell to make yourself beautiful, which just seemed kind of...odd. I didn't really see any difference in the actual plot, just in the conversation Nyvella has with Mother.

I did feel like there was a bit too much summarising of events and history. That didn't happen all the time. I enjoyed reading the interactions between Nyvella and her brother, and Nyvella and Tyran. I did, unfortunately, find Zaphira a bit hard to really understand. She was one of the 'bad' characters, but there was little about her motivations and reasons behind her actions, even when I made the decision to pursue things with Tyran. It also made no sense to me that Telmar would turn against his sister, even with the revelation about the player character.

I thought the whole idea of the Chosen was interesting, but it seemed like I found two very different pieces of information about the Chosen, which did contradict each other. I did think that maybe the different pieces of information might change the storyline, but the truth seemed to lie somewhere in between.

There were a lot of good descriptions in this storygame, but they were sadly let down by a lot of errors in the writing; not so much spelling errors, but more the wrong word used that threw me out of the storygame a bit, as it was distracting. There's one line where it kind of seems like Telmar's house is moving of its own accord, and I took a moment to try and work out if that was actually the case; i.e., if it was moving magically by itself.

Despite the storygame being a little hard to read at times, I did actually enjoy reading and learning more about the world. Initially, I thought that there was only one real path, but when I made a different choice towards the beginning, I was able to explore a whole different path that I hadn't realised was there, so that was a lot of fun.

On the whole, I did enjoy reading this storygame. The bit about the ice sculpture at the beginning was very intriguing, and drove me forward to find answers. Eventually, I do intend to explore more of the storygame and see if I can find all of the different paths and reach all of the possible endings, so as to hopefully answer the rest of my lingering questions.

The writing in this story is simply outstanding but sometimes a little bad. The setting, character, and the theme match each other pretty well. The descriptions of Solhaven are delivered in a measured balance without much complexity, and the tension is let build at a slow pace that draws you in. In addition, it has well written and flowing grammar., something which not all stories succeed in having.

Yet despite all the interactivity, the story falls a bit short. There are too many meaningless decisions, and too few actual branches that have any impact on the story's progression. Sometimes you'll be asked to decide on your next action, but often the story will insist on taking you down a single road regardless of what you choose. The restriction prevents replay value and can frustrate players who are expecting their decisions to have consequences. There are also moments when higher-tension scenes feel a little pointless, and the chapter breaks can feel a little boring at times.

However, it's a worthwhile adventure for one who's fascinated by the story. It leaves one thinking long after they've concluded it, ideas are remarkably original, and the writing quality makes it stand out compared to most story games one can play on the website. It lacks much freedom, but it's well written. In the end, I would never have suspected the main character was the chosen one himself.

I would like to congratulate the writer for a well written ( sometimes not as well as expected but still good ) story. My honest rating is 6/8. Also, more people need to read this story, it does not deserve to collect dust on a shelf.

This had real promise, but most choices lead to the same place. There's very little player control, which is too bad.

This is well written and should have a lot more reviews than it does - the writing is good and flows well, the settings are interesting and the characterisation is good. Not much else to say, on the whole this is just an interesting and well written story that more people should read!

This is good for what it is