Teahouse of the Gods

[h1][i]“Rekindle an ancient romance…”[/i] – OK, I’m sold, she said. Oh, poor naïve girl…[/h1] Short story: I was left severely disappointed. And you can read the long story down below. Now, a very important note before we start with the actual review: Teahouse of the Gods is this type of story that you either hate or love – no in-between. Even though my own experience was negative, other people found the game very enjoyable, even brilliant. So, instead of just reading what others have to say, play the demo first. It will give you the general idea of what you get in the full version (except for the romance and its problems). [h1]"I love you, with and without time or place."[/h1] [b]TL;DR for pros: beautiful descriptions of Chinese traditions and culture, interesting personalities of the main cast (with some reservations), mouthwatering dishes, great attention to environmental protection, Chinese phrases in dialogues, LGBTQA+ friendly, many choices, an easy-to-und...

Someones gotta lay it down, Halfway through, your stats that you worked on get nuked back to around 50%. I don't know if this is a bug as the story beat that happens implies it's intentional. If so, that's wild. My entire play style went from mind/environment to body only because suddenly body was my highest stat at 53% and there wasn't enough time or opportunity to re-build the other two. Here are your romance options: A god who will love you no matter what, [spoiler] as long as you agree to erase who you are and be the mountain spirit you reincarnated as that the god ACTUALLY loved, hah did you think they wanted YOU? SILLY HUMAN [/spoiler] A tortured soul fox god with a sweet heart, [spoiler] who only will ever see you as their mentor mountain spirit, or be reminded of a sexually creepy clone version of the dead mountain spirit that traumatised them who surprise, looked exactly like you. But don't worry, the fox boy is also in love with the god who loves mountain spirit you, and yo...

This is another no for me, and I was shocked that for once me and another reviewer actually agree! (I dont think that has ever happened lol) Long story short, the World building and story setting are spot on, and thats about the only thing I can say as a positive. Stat building is pointless, as story events hose whatever type of character / build you were going for. Romance options are Fixed, gender wise, and honestly it wouldnt matter, because everyone in the story if fixated on an alternate version of you (either a dead version of you that doesnt exist anymore, or a fake version of you that has been running around pretending to be the old you... yeah its complicated) In no case do your opinions or actions with the LIs matter, because it's not "you" they are interested in. Finally the story itself cant figure out what it wants to be, or wants you to be. You go from applying as an apprentice for a job position overseas, to having tea with God... yeah its that out there. Anyways ...

Recently, I've found myself disappointed by CoGs. I'm extremely picky when it comes to games and even the CoG that I've played for 121 hours hasn't hit a 10/10 for me. Regardless of how much I love something, I reserve that score only for that which I think truly deserves it and Teahouse for the Gods deserves that 10/10 in my mind. First off, I want to address the Mandarin in the game. I was confused at first but quickly grew used to it. Early on, you get the option to choose your character's fluency and I chose to match it to my own fluency - or rather, complete lack thereof. I didn't translate any of it for myself yet I never felt like there was a large amount of gaps or that I had "missed out" on anything because of this. I can't wait to play this for a second time and translate everything - part of me fears that google might not do the best job at maintaining the original meaning (especially after reading the author's interview) but I am excited for it nevertheless! This isn't som...

I usually finish CoG games in a day or two depending on how many times I read them. It took me [i]two weeks[/i] to find the will to go through this one. It was my most laborious read so far. [h1]I'd give it a solid 2/10.[/h1] [b]Writing and story :[/b] The writing style is unremarkable, it's getting the job done. Some issues with pinyin editing and a couple of typos. I don't have much to say about it. Lots of lore and a whole plethora of settings, it can be hard to keep track of everything, especially the settings. Often we are presented with way too much informations at the same time. Names, places, mythology... all the time, which can turn it into a tiring read. But it's clear the author put a lot of heart and effort into it, which I respect. Now the pacing. The last few CoG and Hosted Games I've read struggled with pacing. Teahouse of the Gods isn't the exception I thought it'd be. It's too slow or too fast, events either drag on or just rush into each others. It's not rare ...

I constantly double guessed my choices and found myself going back to see alternative paths. There is so much exciting lore and I know I barely scratched the surface. I can't begin to recommend enough. 10/10

So, I'm pretty rarely harsh about these stories. As a matter of fact, I've found few that I didn't outright love. This one, I got through a few pages of it and couldn't keep going. Not that I'm a multilingual genius or anything, but this story seems to have been clearly written by someone that doesn't have English as a first language. I found the pattern and flow of the wording to be confusing and unnatural. I found myself having to re-read each paragraph multiple times and then the entire page at least a second time before I was able to wrap my head around what was going on. Then from what I'm seeing from other reviews and the previews on the game's store page; it just looks like a mess that sin't very fun to play even whenever you do understand the story. This one is getting a 2/10.

I was absolutely not prepared for how completely and utterly off the chain this game is. If you like Choice Of games, give this one a shot.

Good

A masterpiece. This game is like a book which hero you are, based on modern and fantasy rural China. You can choose very diverse playstyle, build up your own character and the book is weel written. I played one and half hour so far and I like this game! I don't understand the negative reviews. I highly recommand this game and I advice to playing it with a cup of tea, relaxed, not tired and with chinese music in the background. I recommand these tunes, from the series "The Untamed" which suits perfectly the game : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ciCko7iqEo ([s l o w e d] THE UNTAMED - INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC) Edited: Just finished the game, and I found the ending disapointing. It was a nice experience, though.