Battlemage: Magic by Mail

hmmmm Ill give this a hesitant thumbs up. Its one of those stories, where I was treated with pretty much failure upon failure for each choice I made. I lost every event at every tournament, I sucked as a mage anytime it mattered, oh and got kicked out of being a squire for said practicing of magic. All of Which could mean that Im just really bad at choosing. It could be that the story is just set up with alot of "failure" baked in. Would require several more play throughs to find out, but meh if you dont win me over the first time, Im not really inclined to go through again and again and figure out what it is you wanted me to do to get to your good ending. Bottom line this is not a play through the story "your way" kind of game, but a "figure out the right choices" game. Some people like that. as always YMMV. PS just go for death and elemental magic, healing and illusion choices are NOT there when you need them, and often provoke negative reactions from those around you even whe...

Awful. The story felt both rushed and railroaded. You go from squire to mixing with nobles, but so quickly it strains credibility. The same speed makes it so you can't develop relationships effectively (particularly as choices you might be intrigued to befriend can be dead-set against your goals with no opportunity to win them over). I tried to play to my strengths, developing stats I liked (in particular illusion and healing, class, and ambition). But I was punished for this. The game rewards you if you play as the author expects/intends you to play it. On most CoG you can find some kind of winning combination through a variety of means. I didn't come away from my playthrough feeling that it was possible to win with the kind of play style I preferred. You might like this story if you happen to play the author wants, and if you don't mind feeling rushed. I can't recommend such a story.

The story has a similar tendency of other past stories by Choice of Games. Effectively every single leader character is a women to push feminism, and there is an unlikely and unrealistic grouping of diversity to push crt. For this specific story, there is little to no indication as to what choice levels up a stat or which choice requires a stat to indicate if it will be successful or not. The locations go from what sounds like a classic European setting to the middle of a desert, which is not very realistic even in a might and magic style setting. The placement of magic being looked down in society seems forced and contrived with no decent explanation given. The moral choices are not that meaningful with a few forcing the player to be shoved back to a narrow path. I half expected this to become a multi story game with this being the first of other books, yet this whole story is stuffed into one book with time passing rather quick. In what seems a few days is listed in the story as bein...

Overall, a solid B. I did not notice a single spelling mistake on two playthroughs, the story was coherent, and the game generally indicated reasonably well which skill would be used. Romances are moderately underwhelming, as is the ending; what happens to your character over the span of years is summarized in a few pages. Some skills are far, far more useful than others; they weren't terribly well balanced, but it was not though it was especially egregious. The world was reasonably well-described, though many things are discovered through reference and inference. Overall, not a bad game, and worth the money, it just lacked a special something that would have brought it from decent to truly great. Recommended, but perhaps best purchased when on sale.

What a snooozefest. Forgetable NPCs a story with no substance. Just disappointing overall.

I'm really hesitant to criticise this game (but I'm gonna anyway) because most of the issues I had with it where more to do with the fact that it is more geared toward a younger audience rather than young adults and above which is my fault for doing more research. This review would be somewhat neutral, coming from a young adult so take this with a grain of salt starting with the negative as I may be salty for getting the 'bad' ending. [h1]-Cons:[/h1] The pacing was fine up to the midpoint of the story, but after that, we rush over through the introduction of new characters, the climax, and 3 obvious 'plot twists', like we are just teleporting from one scene to the next quickly without letting anything sink in. I would normally replay games to see the other ending, but after my first playthrough I just found the story structure rather basic and unsatisfying when completed, I'll properly dislike this game more if I force myself to continue. [h1]+Pros:[/h1] If there's something I li...

6.5/10 It wasn't bad, but I couldn't get as immersed in it as I have with some of the other COG's In a game where the player character is supposed to be customizable or meant to represent the reader, the railroading should be as limited as possible, if it can't be eliminated altogether. One of my biggest and most common pet peeves is when the player character is described saying, doing, or feeling a bunch of things that the player didn't choose. I understand this has to happen sometimes, but not as often as it does As a personal preference, I'd rather my character be a silent protagonist and not have his feelings or actions described unless they're ones I choose. I don't like when they assume I feel sad or nervous or excited or happy about something; just let me choose how I feel about it, or don't describe the character's feelings at all Also, there were several times when it forced me to give an opinion on a matter I have no interest in or make small talk with an NPC I don't care ...

I'm a simple man. I see magic. I see swords and knights. I like. I do wish this game had some kind of stat tracker option? But otherwise...it's fun.

Necromancy in this game is useless in combat! Who would have known?! I've focused on necromancy and can't do anything. And what magic schools are most impactful besides elemental magic? Ilusion and healing. Ilusion and healing are the most helpful in combat and other events! Just animate some corpses, summon a demon or shoot necrotic energy from your palms goddamnit! What a stupid idea to have necromancy as a ,,subtle magic school that helps in subterfuge". Uhh!

I will recommend buying this game. I played it on a friend's computer, and decided to buy a copy for myself. It's quite well written, and the world is reasonably well built. The game places a lot of significance on the choices that we make. Based on what you choose or who you decide to be, the trajectory and the ending of the game will differ. I have been able to get through around 5 different endings, including the 'ultimate bad ending' and I do wonder if there are more. The game definitely doesn't try to spoon fed you, a fact that I really liked. If you like your choices to be spoon fed to you, then you might wanna reconsider purchasing. That said, its also not super hard. It just allows you room to think. I also really enjoyed the fact that game allows you to be gender and pronoun flexible, and that I could romance characters of different genders. The romance itself wasn't of paramount importance but felt more like a process of choosing - a fact I liked and which moved away from th...