Cup of Frost, Palm of Gold

One of my favorite writers is Ursula Le Guin. This game reminded me of the beloved Earthsea series.

It shares the theme of children leaving home early, torn away from their families to gain supernatural powers, the convincing depiction of human emotions, and also the elevated, poetic writing style resembling that of myths and legends.

The game only uses the narrative, no visuals at all, but the descriptions create a distinct atmosphere and vivid picture of what is happening.

The story is rather short, but extremely branching. Almost every choice you make here leads to a different ending. Trying to unlock them all, I have counted 12.

The author took no shortcuts in developing alternative stories, fleshing each one out in full and lending it a distinct vibe. In fact, there are several stories packed in one: those of love, those of family, and those of rebelling against oppression. Some of those are inspiring, some are sad, and some are deeply moving. For me, coming back again and again to discover them all was totally worth the time. I don't think I spent more than 5 minutes on each replay as I am a rather fast reader.

I'd recommend this game to all high fantasy lovers, and to those who enjoy good writing and mythical tropes.