A Squire's Tale

Stay away. I altered stats and found a lot of illusion choices where stats mean nothing and are set up so you either fail or succeed with slightly altered curtailing according to the authors railroading plan. That for me is a cardinal sin in any [b] Choice [/b] game that I can not and will not abide. If you're too lazy to write different outcomes for your choice scenarios, write a novel, not a choice game.

Not enough chances to increase your skills. One chapter or two became too much fantasy based and seemed to forget its medieval age genre; It honestly took away from the story. They're more annoying than they add substance to the story. Most choices seem to not affect the story as you may want them to, since in most cases it seems to fail a check of sorts. It mostly seems you're just always making a bad choice. Sometimes choices aren't as straight forwards as they seem. A save and reload function would've been nice to have; At least in between chapters. A skill stat for stealth would've helped indicate if choices were being made properly when choosing options of that nature.

This was not my cup of tea, though it wasn't objectively awful. In short, one's skills increase far too slowly to be of use, and despite being supposedly able to hone one's music, one often faces monsters that do not give a sideways crap about music. You will need a sword, or people important to you will die, with little mention again. The setting is mostly the dusty roads of Ye Olde England, and it doesn't spend enough time in any one place for one to really get a feel; if the game wanted to make one feel like one was traveling constantly, it succeeded, but there wasn't much to latch onto. One also doesn't feel like one advances much, unlike other games where one starts as a lowly squire, like Dinosaur Knight. In all, I'd much rather have had it focus on either the medieval stuff, so I'd've known not to buy it, or gone full fantasy.

As others have said, there's very little actual choice that matters or that isn't rail-roaded. A shame because I did like the setting even if most of it took place on the road and I didn't mind the more fantasy elements. But as a "choice" game I can't recommend it.

Every fiber in my being is saying "Hit yes to recommend, don't be mean", but it's not mean, it's just... accurate. I'm struggling to get through this game. The story isn't gripping. The characters don't interest me. The story is confusing, so are the choices. I keep telling myself to go back and then every time I return, I make it one page and choice further and have to call it quits at the end of the next page with the next choice glaring at me to pick something. Ever since I started playing choice games I've been devouring them. I put this on my wish list as soon as I read about it and bought it as soon as it became available. And I want to rip my hair out at the potential. I WANT to like this story, but I just CANNOT focus. Aside from the story, why does our *Squire start out with garbage stats? Especially as an "almost at the end of Squire-hood" Squire? I know... practically nothing? What am I supposed to do to progress? And there are no real opportunities to improve any stats alo...

Personally, I enjoyed [i]A Squire's Tale[/i] quite a bit. Is it perfect? Hardly. There are issues that can be spotted right away with even just the slightest bit of scrutiny. However, for those looking for a relatively light read, especially compared to some of the denser works in Choice of Games catalogue, this is a pretty decent pick, depending on your tastes. For anyone that's played any other game by Choice of Games, [i]A Squire's Tale[/i] doesn't break new ground gameplay-wise, at least for them. But for those who haven't, it's a text/based CYOA game with choices that serve primarily to raise/alter your stats (in this case, your skills and attributes one might associate with any knight/squire), determine whether you succeed or fail at certain checks pertaining to said stats, and change relationship values with relevant NPCs. Repeat till you reach the ending, where your all your choices culminate into what happens during it. More complex and gamey than a physical CYOA novel, but s...

I was really excited to see this when it came out and I bought it immediately. The premise seemed interesting and fantastical. After playing two routes, I hate to say it, but I'm not really happy with this game. If you're looking for an okay casual game to pass the time, this is fine. But the description promises a lot of intriguing things and it had a lot of potential for more. Sadly, there's just so little time to develop any meaningful skills. So little time to spend with any of the characters, they feel shallow and 2D. So many times where no matter what choices I made, it led to the same linear path. In some instances, there ARE minor side branches, but they just lead right back to that path. I tore my hair out when I thought I made a bad decision at certain parts (and would have to pay for it), only to replay multiple times trying out different choices to get the same exact thing. This story is kinda mysterious with the supernatural aspect, but it doesn't really explain it fully t...

I've liked a lot of games like this from this publisher and I was very attracted to the setting for this one, but this is one to miss in my opinion. I did one complete play through, got what I assume was intended to be a "bad" ending, and got 1 of 22 achievements. Browsing through the achievements I didn't get, I apparently missed a TON of this story. The problem is I really have no idea why. The problem with this one is that it just doesn't do a very good job of conveying what you should be doing and when. "You go to the fair, the sun is setting so you've only got time to do a couple of things." Okay, I do this. "Nothing really happens, now you've got less time." Most of this story was just me selecting stuff, being told it either didn't do anything useful or failed miserably, and me sitting there wondering how I was supposed to know to make one of the other choices. Just not this publisher's best work.

A short tale that made me think of it in the end as a "week in the life of" a squire. Not at all a bad thing, but it definetly feels more short story-ish than novela. I did enjoy the quick romp around the country side and the excitement of figuring out what was really going on. TBH I really just wanted it to be more than it was, would have been amazing to get to know more of the MC before running off on this adventure, and Id really have enjoyed having more time to spend with some of the people I met along the way. All in all id say this made a good but shallow impression. Id be very much interested in reading further works in this setting and or by this author, if they take the time to spin a longer yarn as it were. This one is just long enough to wet one's whistle, but not enough to sate ones thirst. Edited 02/23/21 to fix a mixed metaphor ; )

As with other COG titles this is a choose your own adventure multi-choice text only video game, a sort of hybrid book/ video game. This game has loose ties to the war of the roses, GOT, and Arhturian chivarly tales. Overall while I found the story enjoyable I wished there were more oportunites to branch off from the main narritive. Perhaps romance was possible, but if so, I did not find it in this game. The story and ending were a bit forced. I decided towards the end that I would side with a certain faction, and despite my desire to join this faction, I was forced to fight against them and lose everything and have a bad ending. So there's that. However, if you can forgive the plot being a bit forced and there being a bit less choices that really matter than some COG games, it was overall a good tale with a strong romantic chivarlrous knight errant tone and style that I found very charming. So, in short, if you like choose your own adventure style adventures, are okay with your video g...