Weyrwood

Very much has the vibe of a Regency novel; it's pretty clear what your choices will do and the stats are easy to understand. Well-structured and well-written; definitely one of the better offerings from Choice Of.

This is just what I was looking for, elements of political intrigue, charm, and supernatural mystery interweave to create an enjoyable experience with a strong pace of plot. It moves a little quickly in places, and I would've liked more time with the characters, especially the romances, so that the relationships felt more fleshed out and grounded, but it's already 170,000 words for only 11 chapters. This is the challenge with multiple-choice stories sadly. Overall, and excellent piece of work in my opinion, and totally worth buying/playing. 8/10

Julian Fellowes, eat your spina out.

This is a fun short game good for a Saturday evening and to give you some feel good vibes if you get a good ending. It is fun to live as the main character and you have so many choices on customizing everything about her personality and choices that is really awesome and characteristic of Choice of Games' excellent games that I look forward to buying and playing almost every weekend. Cheaper than a movie ticket and lasts just as long if not longer, worth the money. I had to play twice for a unexpected good ending - I didn't like failing the first time and getting punished the second time but ending up with a good ending - that means this game can really make you feel something and is genuinely tricky at times but follows a pattern if you are able to sense it out (not like I did haha). I got a good ending even though it's not a wonderful ending I feel like it went well. I love these games even though this one kind of freaked me out I got so into it. You can really get into this game. It has a lot of perspectives, choices, ways to live, outfit customization, statistics to manage, good characters, and of course it's gender inclusive with diverse characters and allows for friendship instead of romance if you so choose. The inclusivity and acceptance of gender expression really make these Choice of Games unique and Weyrwood is no different. It makes me feel accepted for not wanting to be the status quo in a way no game series ever has - especially this game with its surprising and interesting challenges. I also love the customization of the story and characters which I don't think many games can match - I can't think of any except for My Life Beginnings and Always which is a great game that deals with more relatable issues and of course, it's sequel. Great game!!! I love this series and I honestly think getting a new one every weekend is really fun!!! Better than binge watching Netflix for another ten hours haha. Thanks for reading and have fun with more games like this - they really are awesome even without pictures, voice acting, or music!!!

I am disappointed to select "no" as my recommendation for this game. I love the setting, the story is good, and the writing style is decent. Unfortunately, the game has a lot of technical issues that really made it impossible for me to enjoy. There were lots of places in the game where it behaved as if I'd made choices I hadn't, or as if I hadn't made choices I had, or brought up "what happened" in entire sections of story that I'd never even been through in my playthrough. In other places, I got a number of choices to select from, but anything you selected just sent you into a little dead-end alley that brought you back to make the original choice again, until you guessed which choice the author considered the "right" one. Basically, I walked away thinking "I would probably have really enjoyed a book by this author, but I hated playing a game by this author.

The game is well written, the choices are logical, sometimes to the point of being obvious (i.e., the game will sometimes tell you which choice corresponds to which attribute) and you can replay the game at least three times (choosing the woods, demons or the town).

However, the game is very deceptive. About 90% of the game is you engaging in various high society shenanigans, with only a few pages dedicated to the supernatural aspects. The supernatural is a constant backdrop, but nothing more than that until the final chapter where everything is suddenly resolved. I think I only used magic twice, and I chose the magical woodland path.

That's another problem - most of the game is very slow paced, until the last two chapters when everything is suddenly switched into top gear.

Nevertheless, the game is enjoyable. It's definitely not one of the best Choice of Games, but it's above average and for that I recommend it (though you might wait for a sale to get your money's worth).

Weyrwood does not waste time throwing you into the world. It shows the rarely explored but incredibly thrilling world of surviving a society where status is literally life and death, and currency isn't just a matter of coin. It definitely avoided info dumps, but at times this could be more confusing than not. However you can click the grey box options to review your stats, definitions, and generally get additional intell. I would highly recommend checking your stats often while still taking risky or even out of field choices. What the game does well is it doesn't just reward you for choosing the "right" answer as a player, but the complex answer as your character. Just because you're good at something doesn't mean other characters immediately yield. If I was to compare this to a AAA game experience it would be Dragon Age: Inquisition's The Winter Palace quest and the Dragon Age flash game "The Last Court". This game does an excellent job of showing that wars are fought and won in a conversation as often as a sword fight, while still indulging in compelling action.

The weakest part of this game is the spina system. It doesn't feel completely worked through. For the limited resources you have the cost of Spina exceeds your opportunities to get it if you play a character relying on cunning. This doesn't really sink in until the end game where I, one of the most respected and influential among the gentry was shunned at 0 spina. It's not that it should have been easier to get spina, but that the definition of what earns spina is unclear or inconsistent. Bold actions can gain you spina, but subterfuge is not inherently in conflict with boldness. Several points in the game you can make potentially life ending choices and have to rely on either a particularly brilliant lie or speak out and risk everything. So with this in mind how far must one go to earn spina. It says willpower is a determinate hence boldness, but both are more than overtly risky actions like a duel or race. They are risky lies. They are pushing your influence to the extreme. It should be hard to earn spina but my first play through never gave me the opportunity not because the text didn't support it, but because it seemed like the game had a very specific thing in mind.

There are significant problems with continuity in the endings, logical errors in the dinner party, and similar issues.

This game let me defeat the evil army through the power of social capital and that's all I ever needed.

I really enjoyed this game! It is a stand alone story, but has a lot of choices! I liked the world, characters, and that stat building made sense. I like the romance options Wren is the best, I love him so much! and I def will play through it again!
Overall, just a really nice game with an interesting story!

I've had Weyrwood in my library for some time. I liked the idea of the setting, as a kind of regency comedy of manners, started playing it, enough to be aware of it having at heart a kind of detective story but not getting into it because it the build up was subtle and I wasn't really connecting to the characters. A year later, I poured myself a glass of red wine, put on an appropriate sound track to immerse myself and opened it up. I finally hit the cathartic moment of the detective story, stopped and restarted the story to examine the clues again and read it to its end, finally connecting with the characters and getting the story. Once the setting is elaborated and the plot established the story becomes about marshalling resources with various romantic developments taking place. The reader can create their character of various orientations and skills, I developed an educated dilletante and ended up enlisting the aid of a kind of philosophical society, but there are other routes, some of a rather frightful nature. I found the conclusion, which really is quite a delicate process, quite satisfactory and expositioned quite sufficiently.

Its a good story.

9 / 10

The choices made a difference, which is important to me. There was a good amount of branching for a relatively short story, but the story was also pretty well-developed. It had a good mix of choice and story, and neither got in the way of the other. Also, it was usually pretty clear how the choices would affect the stats. Therefore making it not overly difficult to pass the stat checks and progress satisfactorily through the story, without too many embarrassing failures.

I'm always a little annoyed when there are CoG games where I'll choose something, but it is has a completely unforeseen effect on the stats, and where the stats are really confusing to figure out. Especially when it's important to have high stats to accomplish different things. It's also annoying when the choices will end up relying on a different stat than expected. Like I expect it to be a charm-stat check. But it's actually an honesty-stat check or something. Fortunately, this game had neither of those annoyances.

The characters were all very interesting, which is a huge plus. Personally, one of my biggest pet peeves is when the characters--especially the romance options--are boring and difficult to really care about. In this story, all of them were each different from each other, and yet all interesting in their own way. So the character and romance development was pretty good, at least for my character who was an androphilic male. I really love Wren, a lot.

The only thing that was strange was how one playthrough had me engaged to Alcindor at the end, even though our relationship was only 67% and we flirted just a couple of times. This was even though I said that I wanted Wren as a lover (because I thought it was too early to marry him). So you have to show 0 interest in Alcindor at all, and / or agree to marry someone else, to not be made to marry him. On another playthrough, I just decided to marry Wren and barely talk to Alcindor, and this time I got the ending that I wanted.

A interesting story that kept me on edge.
The charaters seem interesting and i my charater feels like mine.
The game makes me feel like dread is in the air.
There are some sjw undertones it didnt effect the story that much.

On a whole i would recommend it.
If you can ignore the subtle sjw influence's.
If not then i would avoid this game.

This game is the Victorian LGBTQ+ novel I've been dreaming of. There are a number of different people to potentially woo, all in Victorian style, as well as an engaging plotline that varies significantly according to your in-game choices. My only wish would be that the game were longer!

Weyrwood combines two of my favourite things - navigating society and the supernatural. Beautifully written, with a large variety of choices in how to play. The characters are interesting and have their own troubles alongside your own, opening up the world just a little more. And with the spina system, everything seems a little more fraught and dangerous - simple matters such as buying ingredients for a meal take on a lot more meaning, as you dance the line between living and Falling. Truly, an amazing game that I would recommend to anyone.

One of the down sides of Steam's "Do you recommend this game?" system is that your review ends up either being a positive or a negative. I'm a lover of this genre of games and have bought several of them and loved some and didn't love some. I would like to give this game a middling review. The concept of the story is there but the execution of it fell flat. On a technical level there were some aspects that I didn't like for example there was a part of the story where it actually just lead you around in a circle, repeating dialogue and interactions, until you selected the path that the author wanted you to select. Many of the "choices" did not feel like choices at all and given the Victorian themes there were a lot of interactions that were veiled or choices that I thought I was making but then after making a selection the character would proceed to do something else entirely. The plot line was difficult to explore and it kept thrusting decisions on to me without giving me sufficient information to pick a side. Even after playing through, my questions were unanswered and a second play through felt pointless because it would have been equally uninformative and frustrating. I know it sounds like I said a lot of negatives there but this was a decent story and I got it on sale for $2.99 so I feel like I got my money's worth. If you like Choice of Games or Victorian/Steampunk Fantasy themed stories I'd say give it a shot when it's on sale.

Fun game with a lot of choices. As long as you focus on maxing out a couple of stats you can get through any situations and the romancable characters are sweet and charming.

Short, but fun. The story begins in media res so don't expect infodumps on the setting; you have to read, pay attention, and infer the details. That said, the setting is quite interesting since you are a member of the Gentry, a priviliged class, but unlike the gentry in real world history the Gentry in this setting risk not only poverty but enslavement to the demons and destruction of their minds if they lose their status. This makes the characters more sympathetic and relatable than you would expect just from reading the game's description.

The story is short, but good, and the writing is quality prose. The focus is on the town and its balance of power between the villagers, demons, and the Weyrs (spirits of the forest). You are able to choose how you wish to change that balance. I do wish it was longer so you could influence the town of Prosper a bit more but it is what it is and for the price the length is reasonable.

The romance was well-written and you have multiple options and can play as straight or gay. I played as a straight guy and there were three options to choose from, one of them being an affair with a childhood friend. One was a woman trapped in an arranged marriage, and the other was just a shy, sweet girl.

The game offers plenty of choices and I think some of them were fairly impactful. Other than the obvious choice of which romance option to pursue, your decisions affect your standing in the society and let you improve it for the better. In my first playthrough I relied on social grace and respectability, which allowed me to sway others to my side easily due to my untarnished reputation. In my second playthrough I romanced a married woman who was in an open relationship with her husband. My character was scandalous but charismatic, often disbelieved by society when it came to the demon threat but able to sway others with sheer force of charisma.

The main points of the story's plot plays out in similar ways regardless of your choices, but your choices do affect who your allies are, how you resolve the climax, and the condition of the town at the end of the game.

Overall, I'd give this game a recommendation. It could be longer and more in-depth with more changes according to your decisions so it's not quite as good as Choice of Robots or Choice of Magics, but it's still one of the better Choice Of games.

i have played through several times on other stories by this creator and the story element for this issue is just far too boring in my opinion. It made itself much harder to grasp attention and even though it had some creative language it wasn't explaining well enough for me to enjoy the beginning sequence unlike other Choose Your Own series they have done.