Fallen Hero: Retribution

This is the second game in the Fallen Hero series. I'll give a brief, spoiler-free description first, and then dive more into spoilers.

This game has significant branching, so my playthrough may have been very different from yours.

The first game in the series set you up as the former hero Sidestep, a telepath who used to use that ability to detect incoming attacks and 'sidestep' them, but is now (for unknown reasons that are revealed over both games) a villain who uses telepathy to control and manipulate others, including the body of a coma patient that you use as a decoy. Your old hero friends don't know the truth about you, leading to some crucial and stressful decisions when interacting with them.

The first game leads up to your villain debut, while the second one deals with the expansion of your power and the progress towards your ultimate goals. While the first has limited romantic options, the second has numerous options, including villains and heroes, old friends and old enemies, etc.

Okay, into the spoiler territory/my opinion territory.

While I recognized the high quality of the first game, it didn't resonate strongly with me. I generally like upbeat media or 'light conquers darkness despite suffering' media (which is most media). I was never interested in grimdark or villain-focused stories like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones. Fortunately, Rebirth (the first game) had enough personalization options that I could be someone that fits my model more (not a full hero, but not a killer of innocents, for instance).

This game, retribution, resonated with me much more, because what we find here is someone that deeply hates themself, that considers themself a fraud, an impostor, and is terrified of friends and others finding out. In some paths, Retribution can barely stand to look at themselves in the mirror.

I have major depression, which I have some support systems in place for, and I also tend to be my harshest critic, so this resonated really well with me. 'Oh, I'm pulling away from Ortega because if she knew what I was really like on the inside she would hate me and it would hurt her and I could never make her happy? Just like real life!' So instead of keeping the game character at a distance and treating it like watching a show, I instead immersed myself in the character and thought of it as therapy (which is easy, considering you go to therapy).

The puppet character is also a brilliant choice for an IF game. I may have said this in my review for the last game, but it makes it a lot easier to identify with the MC for any player, because we, the player, are playing a game as someone else and messing around with romantic options and ethical decisions with few consequences since our character isn't us. Similarly, our character has their own character/avatar that lets them explore relationships and actions safely.

I stuck with Dr. Mortum the whole time despite a fling with Lady Argent. I saw on a poll that Mortum is the least popular romantic option, but I had a great time. Romancing as the puppet and then getting closer together felt like making a throwaway reddit account that eventually becomes your main but you're stuck with a stupid username.

This game felt less strongly plot-driven and more open-worldish with significant threats (usually related to people learning about you). It's not actually open world, it just feels like there's a lot of time wandering around, talking to people, exploring, digging into things, etc.

The main plot points were great, it's like the author sets up "here's how we will manage your existence. Everything is precarious but we can barely make it through and live unless X happens." And then X happens. For me the biggest X moment was (remember I said this review had spoilers?) Ortega seeing me commit crimes. That was more terrifying to me as a player than my character getting in an accident. I know I have plot armor, but Ortega knowing about me could destroy the entire life I tried to build.

Like the last game, there is very little emphasis on failure through having too low of stats (though failure can definitely happen in a variety of other ways). That's got to be something I can incorporate into my next Choicescript game, though I'm not sure how; even seeing a great game like this up close and analyzing it, it's hard to figure out what to emulate from it, what makes it 'tick' or work so well.

One thing is for sure, it doesn't feel like there is 'one true path'. The long development time and high word count is due, I think, to the author taking different paths or character personalities and imagining what a full playthrough would look like with them at the center, so it feels like that's the 'real game'. This is in contrast to my own work and many other choicescript games, where you can, for instance, romance a side character, proclaim love for each other, and then they show up in normal game scenes acting the same as they do when you don't romance them. Retribution avoids that.

I look forward to the future games, but based on what I've seen here, it takes a lot of work to craft the different paths and it could easily be a decade or more before the series finishes. But that's fine; once it's done it's done forever.