you are an ancient chinese poet at the neo-orchid pavilion

I always enjoy playing KA Tan’s games since I like Chinese history and wish more people would create games set in ancient China (myself included). For this title, it seems inspired by a well-known event in Chinese poetry history: the Orchid Pavilion Gathering.

Your player character is a poet from a disgraced family who has been invited to an imperial ceremony. As an outsider, your job is to write a quatrain for the emperor that accurately reflects the conditions of the court and the world, serving as a kind of political code.

The sights and sounds you encounter will evoke the poetic imagery that accompanies your message. You might encounter a group of anarchists who imagine a world without hierarchies. Or you might find scholars interested in using divination to calculate the perfect orderly poem. Either way, your whims align with the game’s fancies in interesting ways, making me feel as if I’m embarking on my own poetic journey.

There are a remarkable number of endings that reflect the variety of choices you can make when writing your poem. Factions can rise or fall based on your diction. You could encourage the censorship of sexual expression. You might even find yourself in danger for speaking your mind. Your choices feel momentous, and I appreciate how your small actions can dramatically change the imperial court.

The writing is lovely too. I like the neat touches of description, and I find the sometimes serene, sometimes funny atmosphere engaging.

If anything, I would have liked more options to experiment with. Many endings seem to depend on making one choice, and I wish I had more sources of inspiration for writing my own poetry. Since the stakes are so high in the last pair of events before the feast, it seems like there should be more choices to try out there.

I am personally biased toward anything related to Chinese history, but I think this is a fascinating approach to creating interactive fiction based on it. I hope this game inspires people to learn cool facts about Chinese history and be inspired to create something.