The Cat and the Crow

I had some reservations about playing this storygame given my history with storygames featuring a cat as the protagonist, but I'm surprised to say that "The Cat and the Crow" exceeded all expectations by a large margin.

The story is about a cat named Cat that's on a mission to save the village from an evil force. I won't go much further than that as I don't want to spoil anything, but for what this story is presented as, it offered a number of surprises that kept me interested enough for me to keep reading even despite my distaste for cat stories.

Most of the choices you make do, in fact, affect which of the six endings you'll get and this story avoids the common issue choices being a mere illusion entirely. This was yet another pleasant surprise for me because some of the choices you make seem mundane, but they do place you on one path or another.

The story is well-written, excellent grammar and punctuation, and a decent variety of choices. It's a simple story with good execution - plain and simple. My final verdict is a 6/8.

You adopted this original perspective with remarkable ease and I liked the concept of using animals as demonic/angelic figures instead of the usual antropomorphic ones.

The technical department (grammar, writing style) was also without any particular flaws and I liked the way the story branched out despite being relatively short.

The only thing I didn't appreciate much was how there was no way of straying from an evil ending, even if I know that the themes of the contest could have been interpreted so as to make it a strictly bad-ending story. I still think at least one slightly good ending could have added to the variety of the CYOA, but I liked most of the existing finales nonetheless (especially the ones in which Crow seems to be questioning her choices).

I am impressed with this story. I haven't read any of your other storygames, but I'll consider this one to be a gateway drug.

I enjoyed the narrative style. It lent itself to a perspective that was flexible enough to objectively dictate the story, but still convey the world as the protagonist (or other POV) perceived it. There were moments, however, where the narrative seemed to clash with itself.

An example of said clash, "Then dropped the damn hammer onto his foot." This line feels like the perspective belongs to Mr. Manson, or even an unseen narrator, moreso than Cat. Would cat think of it as being the 'damn' hammer? It seems to be a frustrated sentiment while Cat's demeanor is more concerned and empathetic. Even with a detached narrative, a consistency of perspective is necessary to maintain cohesion between clauses.

I thought the multiple endings were interesting and independently-developed well, not just a different dressing on the same salad. The impact of the choices selected were meaningful, so I did more link exploration in order to get all of the endings (not sure how many endings existed outside of the counted ones). Each path was strong enough to warrant it's own investigation, though.

This was a fun storygame. Thank you for the interesting read.

Side note: More fun to be had when read in Morgan Freeman's voice.

Yeah, got a huge scare that I sure didn't expect from a cutesy children's story.

It was long and interesting but hard to do during work hours

Huh? You said something about interesting pictures but I did not see any.

Endings 5/5

Absolutely horrifying. The writing itself was great, but the choices left a LOT to be desires (I made 2 choices in the whole story). My biggest problem with this story comes from finding it in the "Family Friendly" section, only to have it end with the cat being brutally murdered and the crow using his body for a sacrifice to Lucifer. Nowhere near family friendly.

I'm just glad it wasn't porn.

Very well written. I was caught up in this world the author created. I could almost see the lunar eclipse, smell the barn straw, and feel myself leaping away from danger. I had to find all the endings. Unfortunately a personal preference prevents me from giving this a higher rating, but I highly encourage readers to find all the endings for themselves.

Not terrible for an animal story but the rating seems a little high for what's here.

When I saw I was having dinner with the Manson family I expected so much more.