you are an ancient chinese poet at the neo-orchid pavilion
I played through this once during the comp and meant to give it at least one more playthrough before judging it, but I didn’t end up circling back. It’s also been a while since I played it now, and unlike some of these other reviews, I didn’t write down any real notes or thoughts afterwards, so some details might be wrong and others are definitely fuzzy. So this might not be a completely sound review. But I did want to acknowledge the really interesting historical setting, and I wanted to reflect on the part that didn’t work for me.
This is written in Twine.
It’s ancient imperial China. There’s some backstory but the important thing is that you’ve been pseudo-anonymously writing poetry, and the emperor has taken notice and invited you to a gathering at the palace. You’re going to present a poem there. Through the gathering, you will explore the outside of the palace, talk to other people there, and then construct a poem about that night. This poem will effect the thinking of the emperor, and afterwards, the player gets an epilogue detailing the cascading effects of their choices: on who gets the throne, who lives and dies, who rises and falls.
The poem’s effects reminds me of Floatpoint, which is my favorite Emily Short work, a parser game. In that, you’re a diplomat sent to an offshoot colony on another planet. Their planetary conditions are worsening, and you’re there to negotiate on behalf of mother planet Earth an agreement on what to do about it. You can walk around and explore the colony, learn background about what’s going on, and, as is tradition, pick out a gift to present at the beginning of the negotiation that signifies the diplomatic relationship you see between the colony and Earth. In a way that reminds me of how some cultures have different honorifics depending on age and status between people, your gift represents the way your side sees the colony going forward. You get an epilogue afterwards in Floatpoint as well, detailing how the negotiations went and what happened to the colony afterwards. Books sometimes use epilogues to detail “the rest of the story” and this is a really cool idea to see in interactive narratives as well; what better way to make a choice seem meaningful than to see their cascading effects on history?
The poem construction, the setting, and the backstory is really interesting. But after meeting the emperor, you walk around a bit, and can choose to visit different areas of the palace courtyards and meet with different groups. One area had some revolutionary types (“The Conscientious Anarchists”), loudly discussing their plans to overthrow the emperor. I did find it a bit odd for invitees to be discussing as openly as they do their plans; regardless of the political climate or whatever political speech freedoms there are and aren’t, it just seems impolite in general to accept an invite from a political head and then discuss at their party how to remove them, doesn’t it?
Regardless, they ask you about your opinion on… I think political expression. And I didn’t know what to pick.
There’s this issue I’ve sometimes run into playing Choicescript games especially (but other choice systems as well). I understand the appeal of putting yourself–or an idealized version of yourself–through a story, so picking gender identity, romance preferences, race, eye-color, etc. Dilemmas, where I’m able to put myself into the shoes of the character and make decisions that way can also be fun: so like, CYOA type choices where I’m choosing between the more dangerous or the longer route, choices where I can see possible repercussions and weigh them.
A type of choice I struggle with are ones where it’s more asking me what type of role I want to play in the story. Am I brash, or sincere, am I stealthy or a strong negotiator? What kind of story do I want, I feel like it’s asking me. So if I’m being asked what my opinion on political dissent should be as a Chinese poet, it’s not like I just answer based on my own views; the settings and contexts are all different for one thing, but also if I’m trying to define a character that creates an interesting path through the story, I find it hard to create a consistent image in my head off these on the spot choices and then follow through with them in any later choices. The on the spot nature is also a huge part of it; in Floatpoint, I can wander around and think about the gift, but here, all I’m doing is staring at two choices. The river only flows one way.
So okay, back to the political dissidents. What’s my opinion? I don’t know yet! The character I’m playing as has a backstory, but how would that backstory effect their views? Does either answer seem like it’ll lead to a more interesting story, which is how I might make the decision otherwise? Are there repercussions to picking either choice, is it that type of game, will the emperor hear about this? I didn’t know. I think I decided to pick no to what they asked me. There was also the “Lotus Bud Eaters” group I met after that, but I don’t fully remember what they asked (all I noted down were the names of the groups I met during my playthrough). Perhaps because I answered arbitrarily, I remember finding parts of the epilogue a bit confusing as to what caused certain things to occur even if I did like seeing what happened.
There’s more peaceful parts of the palace, more nature oriented scenes. Those were nice, tranquil. There are two other characters, a general and a princess. You can talk to one of them, and I think you can basically choose to support one of them. That’s the type of choice that I find easier to make, thinking about other defined characters and choosing which to support.
I got ending 4/23. I enjoyed constructing the poem, which is done one line at a time based on which places and people you saw and met. It’s a really interesting setting and backstory, and I really like the poetry angle and the whole idea of constructing a poem and seeing how it shifts the political currents in the epilogue as well. That’s a powerful idea.
