Choice of the Petal Throne

I first played Choice of the Petal Throne when it was first entered into Introcomp. It did fairly well there, winning third place. I did enjoy what little there was, since there was a severe shortage of good choicescript games at that time.

Now, I’ve returned to revisit the game. Unfortunately, those experiences haven’t aged well. The worldbuilding feels very heavy, and it’s not very well explained to the reader in general. I found myself losing track of the setting pretty quickly. The plot and characters, on the other hand, have little in the way of depth and also end up being uninteresting in their own way.

There is one romance interest which started out fairly interesting, but started to feel flat as the story went on. I ended the game by asking for marriage, but it also felt pretty forgettable.

The game feels fairly long for the wordcount. Unfortunately, the problems lie elsewhere.

I have little knowledge of the Tekumel setting, and if that describes you as well, you might be hard-pressed to enjoy this game. The writing is solid for the most part, but it’s nothing which can save the weak plotting and characters.