Duke Reivier's Grand Game Emporium

 

                                                                                                                 What happens when a semi-famous(by RPG Maker standards) writer of relationship dramas tries to roll a murder mystery, alternate timelines, wish fulfillment critiques and the dangers of playing with life all at once? Complete chaos, that's what! Index: Chapter 1: A Mysterious Girl in a Mystery Manor Chapter 2: It's Murder o' Clock! Chapter 3: Childish Ambition Chapter 4: Puppy Love

 I was inspired to pen reviews for short stories selected by a certain book club, as I had an interest in joining them but could never work up the courage to either talk with my own voice, or even attend their live meetings. I decided that writing my opinions on my blog would serve as a fine alternative, and additionally provide the advantage of being viewable for posterity, barring extreme circumstances. With that in mind, let's look at the first entry(that I'm reviewing in depth), The Black Cat . The story starts with the author trying to convince people that this is a real account of events that seem extraordinary, which, yeah, whatever. I get it, you want to sell us on the horror, now show us the story. The protagonist, who is also the narrator, then goes on to wax about his love for pets. He specifically starts focusing on a cat - a black cat named Pluto. He briefly talks about his blossoming friendship with him, but really, this is Poe, and he already warned about this be...

 I've looked around for advice, and most people suggest that Blogger is an old, decaying platform that's no longer taken seriously, and is deprioritized by, funnily enough, Google's own search engine. For these reasons, I'm going to be moving over to Medium instead - it looks sleek, offers a approximate reading time, has a text to speech feature, lets you easily quote posts, and more. While it doesn't have as much customization as Blogger, that's not really a problem considering what it does offer. So, I'm moving. I will keep the posts here, and only copy my latest one there. But, all future posts will now go here:  https://medium.com/@countrevier . Thanks for reading, and hope to see you there! Edit: The move turned out short lived. Medium's audience generally seems far more interested in politically charged topics than musings on adventure games. Which is understandable, but not what I cater to.

 This is a series I made covering nearly the entirety of Arc 2 of  Quintessence , the very first story Freebird Games wrote. I find that part of the story quite interesting and enjoyable in particular, and so decided to try and showcase it to others through this. I hope that you will share my opinion of it too, but if not, I will have no qualms about it. Feel free to tell me what you thought of it, here or elsewhere! Index of Chapters The Aerian Court Intrigue 1 - Child's Play The Aerian Court Intrigue 2 - Royally Arranged The Aerian Court Intrigue 3 - Role Play The Aerian Court Intrigue 4 - Familial Ties The Aerian Court Intrigue 5 - The Death of Plots The Aerian Court Intrigue 6 - Free of Aeria

Last time, both parties involved quickly realized that their plots had come undone because the Duchess of the Third Quarter herself had died, and revealed inadvertently that she had escaped Duke Rayne's grip before doing so. Today, both deal with the fallout as things start unwrapping quickly. The Intrigue Rayne's party naturally become suspicious of Lunair after this, and decide to search for her. We then cut to Revier and Lunair themselves hiding. Revier is curious about what happened, and more than a little unnerved by how calm Lunair is after seeing her own mother dead. She coldly replies that her death meant little to her, since she never took care of her as a mother. After cutting short some of Revier's protests, she moves on to cover the current situation: while she doesn't understand it completely either,  she knows that they need to leave the city as soon as possible. Revier is taken aback. He asks about rescuing Serai, but Lunair outright points out that they ...

 Last time, Revier finally got to meet Serai, and spent time blissfully with her. However, at around the same time, the Duchess of the Aerian Third Quarter herself arrived and tried to warn Lunair to flee, as well as administer her a cure for the love drug. However, she was cut short by some inexplicable pains, and had to flee abruptly. Afterwards, Lunair and Revier prepared for the wedding, and everything seemed to be going well. The Intrigue However, Lunair notices General Dirk and Lady Windelle talking in hushed tones to themselves, and decides to listen in. He enquires about why the Duke didn't show up for the ceremony, then sets out to meet him. When he does, he finds that he's dispatched a posse of guards personally. Curious, he enquires about the situation, and finds that Duchess Fione has gone missing! She wasn't seen since the experiments yesterday, and none knows where she could be. A worried Dirk then asks if Fione has broken from their control, more or less conf...