Faerie's Bargain: The Price of Business

[h1][b] Faerie's Bargain: The Price of Business [/b][/h1] [b]Summary:[/b] • In the world of the fey, anything can be bought or sold as a good. As a merchant, you know this better than anyone else. In this game you barter for your heart’s desire (whatever than may be), and you might get attacked by assassin, tussle with other merchants, or meet a queen along the way. [b] Thoughts [/b] It's not bad, but it's not for me. It’s a fine execution of (what to me is) a kind of convoluted concept, but I personally wouldn’t suggest it. That being said, I still have positive things to say about it, I just wouldn’t say I personally enjoyed the experience. [b]The Good:[/b] - [b] The Character Creator [/b]: Honestly, this was the thing that made me buy it while playing the demo. Gone are the standard, humanistic characteristics that I’m used to. For example, I chose to have pearls for eyes and fog for hair. I thought the way these elements were described was really compelling and lyrical. Honestly, this was probably my favorite thing about the game. - [b]The Writing[/b]: The writing really fits the mood of what I’d expect a faerie story to be like. At times it’s lyrical and whimsical; other times, it’s dark and disgusting. It definitely helped get me into the mindset of what this strange, beautiful, and twisted setting would be like. - [b] The mirror [/b] – This was so inventive! Like the worldbuilding was honestly A+, and the mirror was a great example of that. [b] Questionable: [/b] - [b]Plot[/b] – The plot: This is why this review swings negative for me. I’m not convinced that the plot is bad, it just didn't appeal to me. In this game there are several mysteries you need to aim to solve and errands you need to run, but they kind of have a janga effect. Like you think one thing is going to be what you’re going to focus on and then—oh, no wait—here’s a new thing you’re going to focus on—oh, no wait—until you reach the conclusion and all of sudden it's over. This was an issue because I just wasn’t that engaged initially, and then I was pretty distracted by all the new things introduced. - [b]The characters[/b] – I didn’t get a great sense of them, which for a person who is more character-driven than plot-driven is a bigger issue. I think part of this is because you’re not supposed to know who to trust (faeries, am I right), and everyone has their own agenda, but the only one that really made an impression on me was the mirror, and I didn't get to see them as often as I would have liked. [b]You’ll Like This If: [/b] You like management. - You really like faeries???? I’m not sure! - You are into worldbuilding!

Where to begin. Ultimately, I wish I could give them a meh review, rather then a straight thumbs up or down. I really wanted to love and enjoy this title, being a fan of magic, folklore, fantasy, etc. But in the end, I've had more bad then good. To begin with, the story at times is very dense with unfamiliar terms and strange convoluted choices. Halfway through the first chapter, it was so hard to really understand exactly what was going on and what my choice options would do that I resorted to reading the coding just to get a better idea. But even that became a convoluted mess, as the labeling for choice stats and their effects is so odd that even with the code guiding me, I never really knew what outcome I would get. A seemingly obvious devious decision (even using the term devious in its text) would fail despite my devious stat being higher then my forthright! And a choice you think would obviously boost a stat (like being compassionate), at times instead boosted ambition. Making it really hard to know what the heck result you could expect to get. Couple that with very convoluted writing at times, and by the end of the faerie merchant council, I was so tired of the story that I had to quit just to give my brain a break after realizing the story was STILL going. (the following will contain story spoilers about certain characters. heads up...) Then there are the really odd bugs currently going on in the story. At one point in the merchant council meeting, I was allowed to present evidence of the Knights Malleus and the spymaster's involvement with them...although I had NEVER at any point in my story up till then found, read, or discovered anything about this. So how I suddenly had this magic knowledge and physical proof, I've no clue. And instances of this and other story elements coming up that my choices had never exposed me to kept popping up. Finally, near the end, I started running in to really odd bugs with my romance. At the time, I was romancing my ally, the Fog. Yet the code for our date seemingly forgot the aspect of reality was even a choice, and so when it went to mention their name...it was blank instead. Plus, I had chosen magic to cancel the stars, not the statue, but the date still ended with the Fog playing around the statue before we kissed? Finally, since I was romancing Mr. Fog, the code seemingly broke at the end when I discovered my betrayer...who apparently defaulted to Yuvraj, since I wasn't romancing the other three (Gove, Anf, Ethel). I'd had very min interraction with Yuvraj, and so my characters reactions to this betrayal meant seemingly nothing to me. And the fog referring to Yuvraj as my beloved was even odder, since...uh...I'm romancing you, Foggy-love. Yuvraj and I weren't even opposing each other, as I was supporting the queen and status quo anyway. What I was more concerned about was my discovery of Gove, my dear friend, being a knight...and went to speak with him. And here the game really broke, forgetting I had just selected to meet Gove about my discovery, and again defaulted to Yuvraj. So the whole time I was supposed to be talking to Gove, it was skipping any Gove specific lines and using Yuvraj's name. I literally had to resort to reading the code...again...just to get the PROPER story elements I should have been having. (even more amusing, since I'd literally just met with Yuvraj at a hotel just before choosing to also visit Gove. xD) So again, I really wanted to like this story...but there are just a lot of issues right now just with the flow of the story and its characters. Coupled with the almost exhausting level of trying to understand what the heck is going on, and your choices seemingly failing when they shouldn't or making no sense stat wise...I just can't give it a thumbs up.

In short: Faeries-Bargain is a masterpiece. By far the best that has come out on the platform for ... i can't quite recall what else i would compare it to. It is definitely better than anything that has come out recently, including the vampire the masquerade novels (which aren't bad, but a bit run-of-the-mill with the things that have come out for VtM over the past year) I used to buy every CoG on release day, I even tried to finish most of them. Sadly many CoG have fundamental flaws that are just unacceptable for a good book. Or game for that matter. Many authors write as if they never heard of "elements of style", much less actually read any guide on writing. Anyways, what makes Faeries-Bargain special? For me its three things: it is [b]crafted[/b], consistent and has world-building that feels as if the world is really bigger than whats in the book. Oh and the writing is absolutely beautiful. It has a Susanna Clarke vibe but still feels surprisingly fast paced. The world is believable and something i actually really would like to be a part of. To borrow a quote from the book: "There is a distinct pleasure in a thing well-made. Related, and not dissimilar, is the distinct pleasure in the acquisition of such things." 10/10 (the hours in-game do not reflect the actual time spent reading for my CoG for some reason)

I enjoyed it, but there were a number of instances where choices one made completely broke, and splintered off into story paths that were entirely not what the choice would denote. (i:e, talking to a character, and then moving to talk to another one, only to talk to the same character again, and never talk to the character the option had stated.) Which, frankly, is a shame, because it completely ruined a plotline I'd been angling towards for most of the game.

So this one caught my interest, when it was First posted on Steam and I added it to my wish list. Then there was the inevitable delay, and Id honestly forgotten about it, until It showed up on the list of new releases. Was it worth the wait? Yes and no. The story was interesting and contorted in a way that only stories involving the Fae can be. The writer has a solid understanding of the lore (well the bits the story involved anyway) and did a great job of bringing life to the characters and events of the story. Nothing is ever straight forward, trying to focus on and persue any one line of action is nearly pointless. The reader is forced to juggle constantly trying to keep up with the changing events around them, and sometimes it feels like you will never get back to what ever it was you were doing, or trying to do in the first place. And there is a bit of railroading involved too. I wont get into details as it would definitely be spoilering, but trying to avoid interacting with certain characters is impossible, as at some point in order for the story to move on, you Have to go spend time with one of them (no option to say, thanks but im not interested, lets just go home.) You can choose how you plan on using said relationship (friends, romance, lying and manipulating) but you cant get out of having a relationship of some sort with one of three people. And TBH none of them interested me, and as the plot played out it proved that I was right in my distrust of them. Despite the railroading of an unwanted relationship, the Rest of the characters are actually pretty good. Indeed Id have loved to have been able to have a relationship with one in particular, but that was never an option. I did end up with an Aspect of Reality, which was cool in a couple of different ways. I've literally had discussions with others about what an Aspect of Reality is etc., and to see them in a CYOA and so well done made me smile alot. All in all i'd say this is a decent game, with a few bad story mechanics. If you enjoy Fae in general this game will give you a healthy dose of that, and all the magic and weirdness that their alternate realities entail. If your bothered by having the story line interrupted over and over again, or have trouble trying to keep up with several different ongoing plot events that may or may not ever come together again at a later point in the story, you may want to find something else to read.

I did enjoy my first playthrough, as flawed as it was. Let me detail : [b]Flaws :[/b] - The plot is all over the place and the ending just feels rushed. - The characters are rather uninteresting and the romance is poorly handled. - The choices don't really seem to matter. [b]Qualities :[/b] - The settings are detailed and enjoyable (though a tad too much lore dump). - The stats are well-used. I wouldn't have posted a negative review had my second playthrough been as nice as the first. Unfortunately, the replayability of the story is terrible. Different choices lead to the same outcomes and it doesn't matter who you build a relationship with since nothing changes. All in all, I'm disappointed as it seemed like a great story.

*I played this game in the Choice of Games omnibus app* In "Faerie's Bargain: The Price of Business," Trip Galey has embarked on a magnificent undertaking, a glorious feast of language and imagery, a twisting of history and folklore in a way that testifies to boundless creativity, lucid erudition, and deep love. And for the most part, he succeeds. For the most part. There's a good plot and some intriguing characters, but this game's strengths lie in the worldbuilding and the sheer ecstasy of Galey's enchanting prose. If you think of fairy tales as charming little stories about people who live happily ever after, you're in for a rude awakening here: Galey's Victorian London - both the mundane city Above and the magical one Below - is driven by some harsh realities, foremost among them greed. Above, factory owners exploit prepubescent laborers; Below, the ruthless goblins and fey of European folklore - the kind of folk who go around tricking desperate mortals out of their firstborns - barter and haggle over such commodities as second chances, true love's kisses, and strokes of genius. It's a world by turns comedic, disturbing, and delightful; and it's always, always surprising. And Galey has the literary gifts to do it justice. Heaven and earth, that man can *write*. To say his prose is lush and sensuous, poetic, doesn't begin to do it justice. He occasionally writes a sentence so beautiful it'll take your breath away, if you're the kind of person whose breath gets taken away by a beautiful sentence, and yet somehow, when I look back, it's not the words that come to me but a flutter of sensations: the whisper of silk, the ticking of a clock, the moist odor of roses and pollution, the glimmer of mirrors and the glitter of gold. And it's not simply the setting that's brought to life by the vivid imagery; the PC is, too, as descriptions and metaphors often vary somewhat depending on the background you've chosen for your character: where the hunter stalks, the tailor threads their way through. There's wordplay, too. Just consider these two sentences: "All around you, other merchants are doing likewise, and you join a growing stream of your fellow fey-folk, flowing without knowing precisely where you are headed. Each holds in their hand a coin, and the subtle tug of it guides you as like calls to like, a gathering hoard." It could almost lull you to sleep, all that alliteration and growing, flowing, knowing, and then suddenly there's "headed" where it could have been "going," and it washes over you like the breaking of a spell. Then, there's that "hoard" - an error, surely? since of course a mass of people on the move is a "horde." But wait, they're being guided to their destination by enchanted coins, and it's really the coins that are being drawn away together, which would make them, in fact, a *hoard* of sorts, and *ye gods* this is brilliant, *brilliant*! Ironically, when it comes to the PC's actions, Galey often seems inclined to tell rather than show. I would choose to have my PC respond to a slight with a devastating witticism, say, and the next page would tell me how my verbal sparring partner responded to his quip, without actually telling me what the quip was. Or I would choose to have him advance his case in an argument by producing evidence, after which I would be informed, without ever being told what the evidence was, whether the listeners found it persuasive. Perhaps it would have bothered me less in a game that didn't so often sparkle with intelligence and wit, or if it had only happened once or twice, but here I always felt just a tiny bit cheated, especially when it happened several times. Also, I would be remiss at this time not to point out that this game has a lot of continuity issues. For starters, the game is often a bit sloppy about keeping up with what the PC knows or doesn't know at any given time. It's subtle enough that I wasn't even always sure when it was happening, whether the fault was in my attention or comprehension or whether a thing sounded unfamiliar because I really hadn't ever seen it mentioned before, but the cumulative effect often had me feeling as if I were trying to follow a movie I'd missed the first twenty minutes of. This kind of error is the hardest to document and report, especially when there's so much of it. Other continuity errors were far more obtrusive (making a choice that brought me right back to the beginning of the conversation I'd just finished), even game-breaking (as in someone being dead who wasn't supposed to be, then turning up alive in the next chapter), but I expect those to be corrected quickly. They may well be working on them this very minute. (Okay, probably not literally this *very* minute, but only because I'm a weirdsmobile who writes reviews in the middle of the night.) On the strength of my conviction that the most grievous errors will be mended quickly, I'm going to recommend that you buy this game. Personally, I wouldn't regret buying it even if that update never came - that's how much I love this game for what it does right. The world of "Faerie's Bargain" is a place I just want to be able to visit again and again. P.S. Whatever goblin is out there supplying Trip Galey with bottles of creative inspiration should feel free to send me a PM. I'm sure there's a little corner of my soul I could spare in trade. *originally posted on Reddit*

9/10, would romance an aspect of reality again, but needs more opportunities to take tea with aspects of reality.

Faerie's Bargain, quite the Bargain it is indeed. Was a little surprised when i opened this particular tome, but i ENJOYED, EVERY, SINGLE, PAGE. A story full of much intrigue to say the least. Who do you side with? What aspect of reality do you align with? Are you a man or Fay? Do you put profit above all else, or do you have a moral fiber? The choice is yours.

What a unique and fascinating world! It's not perfect, and at times it's just downright weird and hard to follow, but I honestly think that's part of its charm. This is a story about the Fae; you have to leave the logic of the waking world at the door and instead wrap yourself in the logic of dreams. And even then, sometimes you're going to be wrong, and that's ok.

I've always been invested in stories about the Fae, especially when it comes to court politics and deals and the like. This game is exactly that kind of thing, and hit a sweet spot i've been craving for a while. I did wish it was longer, but I thought it was quite fun! The ending was a little ubrupt, but ultimately, I'd highly reccomend this game, especially if you enjoy Faeries!

Fantastic game for fans of the fae and those who like to think a little bit in the abstract. Does a great job of capturing the feeling of magic and whimsy, both in descriptions and game-play, while still generally giving you a good idea of what each of your choices does (or relates to). I'm actually tempted to replay it a few times to feel out the different paths! One interesting aspect of the game, and I don't know if it is good or bad, is that you regularly feel like you're coming up to 'finales' where stuff is getting wrapped up.. only to then realize that 'oh no, there's still stuff unwrapped'. Which is fun because you're getting these steady shots of success, but when the actual final scene happens you kinda feel like you're supposed to be waiting for the next scene. One downside to the game, and I suppose its subjective.. so in the game you get a choice to back certain characters for the big ending. (Not really a spoiler, pretty common in these games). And over the course of the game they do get developed.. But they're not developed when the choice first comes up (so you kinda just look at the names and go 'er.. I mean I saw that dude at a party.. I guess.. don't know if I want to give it my all to support him 'cause all he did was yell at someone..'. And to actually see their development you kinda gotta really go down the path of picking them for all possible interactions, otherwise they and their factions kinda just remain a mystery. Good for replay (did in fact leave me wanting to play again to feel them out) but just feels weird on the initial playthroughs / leaves a space of 'why would my character ever back them before knowing all this other stuff'. Another maybe-positive maybe-negative is that it really does kinda leaving you wanting for a sequel. It ties things up in a bow but it feels like a messy bow - like you really need a bit more for proper closure.

(Hours played include me leaving this up accidentally many times, as tends to happen with choice of games) Tentative recommendation, Very interesting world building, atmospheric and well written. Sadly also convoluted and can lead to accidental choices. Still deserves better than "mixed" as a score

Steam forces us to select a positive recommendation or a negative judgement : there is no option to be neutral, hesitant. Consequently, I do not wish to be a nuisance to a developer's sales by selecting a thumb-down option. This game is an example of a product I am hesitant to recommend, but also, hesitant to reject. I may only give my very personal, subjective feedback -- opinions not applicable to all types of players. I am mostly an emotional role-player, so, to enjoy a game, I must feel immersed into my game persona -- as soon as possible. The problem here is that I am told that I start as a "goblin merchant" ... but I am given, at the beginning, no information whatsoever on what a goblin ethno-biologically is, and no information on my mercantile trade. Also, gender selection happens much later, so I do not know what psychological identity I can role-play with. The game does not make me feel immersed, from the start, in the specifics of a species. a gender, a trade. What becomes even more confusing is that you are told that you lose body parts in your adventures and can buy new body parts to reconstruct your social appearance. What is that?! You are still not told what a goblin is : you are a something that loses and gains body parts !?! Perhaps all this becomes clearer as you progress in the game, but as an emotional role-player I cannot be motivated to invest in a bizarre "something that loses and gains body parts". I eventually got to select a gender -- too late for my taste -- but it was presented as a body-part appearance I could purchase from another merchant !?! Still did not know by then what a goblin was. To be positive, I recognise that the game's creator is a sophisticated author, from a literary point of view. He sure can write awesome prose ... but this points to another problem. If I want to read a novel, I will fire-up my Kindle and read an urban-fantasy novel. I do not play computer games to have to read sophisticated prose. There is too much reading here, not enough immersive role-playing as a specific type of species (goblin). I have lost interest, and have stopped reading. Still don't know what I am supposed to be : a "goblin" who purchased female body parts ?! But I do recommend the game for those of you who enjoy reading sophisticated prose. The author obviously did invest a lot of deep care into his literary design and composition, so I do not dare cursing his work with a thumb-down.

I do like the length of the story, especially for the price, however the prose at the beginning feels like it's trying too hard to be complicated and poetic. I am all for poetry, mind you, but only when it's something that I can follow. This, unfortunately, was not one of those pieces of work. I skimmed a bit and saw that the prose gets a bit more clear and less 'her eyes were like the luminous pearls you'd find in the ocean' but unfortunately I could not get myself past that first bit to reach the second.

The story is not sure what it wants to be. Also is the MC a merchant or a political agent and spy, cause they do not do many mercantile things in this story.

A fun little CYOA, well written.