Topic: A Tale Of Two Kingdoms (Deluxe Edition)

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Ayuh - there'll always be people who just play it through, and people who actually live the experience. It's just that even after I played the game, and up until the moment I read Fizzii's post, I didn't realise it was THAT kind of game - or rather, THAT kind of part of the game. When playing a fantasy game, you don't expect to actually solve a separate mystery - rather, it gets solved as you go along, maybe requiring you some deduction. What I mean is, the extent of the required deduction is not at all what you expect from this kind of gane, so you're on a totally different mental track.

Anyway, I agree - lots of mileage. And don't get me wrong - I did LOVE the game. Guess such non-linearity's not my cup(pit) of tea, I like to see everything...

[shbaz]

I dig the multiple side quests and endings most of all.

Excellent work.

[Radiant]

Wow, according to the counter we have over 10,000 downloads now! Thanks, everybody, for your support!!

[Buckethead]

I still haven't tried this one... I guess I should do so because it looks (and must be) great 

[Ieremiou]

Been a while since i've been on the forum and I just downloaded your game and it is version 1.2.
Shortly after the opening credits, Whiteblade says "Festival or nay, this man may have [neither] meat nor wine from my table."

From what I remember from English and the either/or and neither/nor usage this sentence is missing the word "neither."

Just wondered if you had noticed.

EDIT:
I accidentally found another "error."
Here is a screenshot of the error.

First run a new game and then clicking through all the dialog during the eating and landing sequence. Then after the Chapter 1 screen, the screen of the castle from the outside shows. Immediately press escape and the above screenshot happens.

Btw, wonderful game so far and I love the music.

EDIT 2:

There seems to be some inconsistency with the name of the country. I've seen both Theylinn and Theylann. Which one is correct?

[Radiant]

There seems to be some inconsistency with the name of the country. I've seen both Theylinn and Theylann. Which one is correct?

Both are correct - Theylann is the adjective form.

[Erwin_Br]

You might want to check the links on your site. When I thought I was downloading the patch, it actually downloaded the full game again. And when I clicked on a second mirror, it was pointing to the correct file, but my "download limit" on that file hosting site had exceeded.  :'(

--Erwin

[DragonRose]

I just finished playing. Fantastic game! Great puzzles, VERY pretty (I love the rolling clouds in particular) and an awesome story. I only got 90% wisdom and 90% honour, though, so I'm going to have to go back and do it again.

Oh shucks, oh darn.

[DeadSuperHero]

Hey, seeing as this works pretty well on Linux, I'd be more than happy to package this in a .deb file, and submitting it to various Linux game sites.

[Radiant]

I'd be more than happy to package this in a .deb file, and submitting it to various Linux game sites.

That would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

(please ensure you have the latest version, v1.2, and please include a short file that points to crystalshard.net )

[DeadSuperHero]

I'll announce when it's ready.
EDIT: Can you send me some sort of icon that you would like to use for it? If not, I can just draw a vector image in Inkscape for it, or whip something up in GIMP.

[Radiant]

Certainly.

How about this one: http://crystalshard.net/temp/User.ico

[Ali]

Since this game was very much in the vein of King's Quest, I didn't expect it to be my kind of game. I was pleasantly surprised, because ATOTK improves upon KQ in a number of ways. The puzzles are more coherent and unfair deaths are few and far between.

Though the style didn't appeal to my tastes, it was a lot of fun to play. I enjoyed it even though I did very badly. I'm probably the least wise and honourable person in the thread!

[Sythe]

This game is really excellent. I find many AGS games lack good narrative, this one does not. Excellent work.

I have a bug to report (may have already been reported:)

Spoiler: ShowHide

At the goblin place I never saw the rune and never picked it up.
Thus when it came to freeing the princess from her enchantment, I could not.
So the princess remained in limbo until I approached the end of the game.
After retrieving the truth gem I returned to the castle and the princess was magically there despite never having been released from limbo...

Maybe this isn't a bug, but I never read any explanation for it.

[Radiant]

Thanks, but that's not a bug. As Maeldun has (likely) been trapped in a faerie spell a couple times over the course of the game, he knows it's possible to escape from that; it just takes awhile.

[Sythe]

Thanks, but that's not a bug. As Maeldun has (likely) been trapped in a faerie spell a couple times over the course of the game, he knows it's possible to escape from that; it just takes awhile.

Ah, a real bug this time... although it did not affect game play.

* error seeking entry!
(please note room number 17, and from where exactly you entered it)

Spoiler: ShowHide

This is after being turned into a rabbit when I emerge outside. Game play wasn't affected however

[Traveler]

Very good game, thanks for making it!

[vertigoaddict]

You know, I still haven't played this game...

Can anyone describe it to me in one word? It might motivate me to take the time to download this.

[GarageGothic]

Um, one word? Flawed.

Of course a single word can't do any game justice, so I'll use this chance to elaborate: I honestly disliked the game after my first playthrough, which is also why I haven't commented on it so far out of a "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything" philosophy. However, replaying it with the help of a walkthrough, I enjoyed it quite a lot, discovering how much I'd missed due to a couple of unforgiving design issues.  I could discuss these at great length, but the major failure of the game, as I see it, is that it shuts the door to some of the most interesting part of the story without even letting the player know of his mistake*. And what could have been a really interesting whodunnit subplot is so poorly clued that even the most observant might be in doubt when pointing their finger at the culprit (quite like some of the lesser subplots in the finale of Dagger of Amon Ra).

That said, A Tale of Two Kingdoms is a major achievement in amateur game development. I can't think of any other large-team game of this scope that has actually been finished, and even less so with such a consistant and professional looking result. Hats off to the developers for that impressive feat.

I think A Tale of Two Kingdoms would benefit greatly from a Deluxe editions, where some of the event triggers/inventory items were handled differently and the whodunnit plot was beefed up a bit. But as most of these seem to be design decisions rather than oversights, I doubt it'll happen.

* Let me give my favorite example:

Spoiler: ShowHide

Having to pick up the rope at the beginning of the game to be able to retrieve the bridle is madness. First of all, you have absolutely no reason to even try picking it up. At this point of the story you're getting to know people and trying to locate the scepter, not robbing generic inventory items from your hosts. Second, it doesn't seem very likely that there's only a single piece of rope to be found in the whole land. I mean, isn't there always coils of rope lying around in harbors? And third, why can't they just go over the wall on the vine like you've been doing for the rest of the game?

Some other things that bothered me were the disappearance of the iron rune (why shouldn't we assume that using it on the thief would count as its single use, which then wouldn't have been a very wise decision), and the fact that despite being noblemen none of your friends can borrow you a coin or two.

[Radiant]

Can anyone describe it to me in one word? It might motivate me to take the time to download this.

One word? For a 100-Mb game? Not really

But here are links to half a dozen reviews of the game.