With tablets serving up books of all sorts, it was only a matter of time before choose-your-own adventures started popping up. The field has now become quite crowded and fans can purchase titles that span the gamut of “pure” classic written fiction up to titles that are half reading and half strategic combat. Narborion Saga falls squarely in the latter camp. A rich backstory with plenty of narrative to go around, paired with a bit of role-play stats and turn-based tactical grid combat encounters.

As a sequel, you play as a young page newly promoted to squire after successfully defending the crown’s interests in far off lands (Book 1). Choose your characters starting characteristics, prepare your starting materials, and hop into the action off to the north to figure out what is up with those pesky orcs.

The title provides lots of narrative branching within the overall plot, giving the game/book an open-ended feel despite the need for consistent plot progression. For example, in the starting chapter, one is presented with many choices to prepare for the coming adventure. Several can be chosen, but each choice moves the game clock forward so that one must eventually sleep and prepare for the next day, thereby making one choose from a large set of potential preparations.

After the entertaining preparation (and fingernail biting – hoping I chose the right stuff), you are presented with the first of the combat encounters. Here’s where the game loses traction for me. Whether it was my poor choice of starting stats, my lack of “buying in” of the in-game gold currency, or whether I needed to “upgrade” my character in the out-of-game arena, I found the combats to be extremely tedious. I’d “roll the dice” to attack and miss, then they would “roll the dice” and attack and miss. Back and forth this would go with the occasional “hit.” After several minutes (which felt like dozens), the battle would end – perhaps even with my loss causing me to go back and do it over again. It was enough to sour my taste for the otherwise interesting prose. What made it worse was the lack of any way to “speed up” the combat turns, which quickly became far too slow and tedious for my taste.

I suspect the combat issue may be reduced (although I suspect not completely) through several possible factors. I didn’t want to “design” my character to be a pure combat machine, I had initially hoped to be more defensive than offensive, with a bit of ranged ability – but combats often benefited either choice. Second, the game is a sequel to the first Narborion book. You can import your (presumably more powerful) character from the first book, which would (presumably again) make those initial few combats go much smoother. Third, there is an option to take one’s character into an out-of-game arena where experience earned (not cash or equipment) is transferred over to one’s in-game character. Of course, this does require even more of the under-par combat. (Essentially an out-of-game way to grind for experience.) Finally, there is the Freemium aspect of the game which can give a character an edge.

One can purchase in-game currency (gold) or spend a hefty amount of money ($20!) to “unlock” the full game. The full game provides a large initial gold boose and guarantees a much more generous loot system throughout the game. The freemuim aspect is nice to give players a try before you buy option, and the game can be completed without buying any gold (although it is a very skimpy loot system) but I’m not sure the enjoyable prose outweighs the failings of the combat system.

Both books (I and II) are free, and I think interested parties should attempt the first before going after the second. While it may also be a bit challenging without spending your hard-earned actual cash, it would provide a better “boost” as you enter into the second book. While the apps have some failings, I would still recommend the Narborion Saga books for big fans of the genre (although the pricing on the second one is insanely high.) However, if you aren’t a big fan of choose-your-own-adventure style narrative apps, these are not the books on which to start.

Kid Factor:
Lots of reading here, which could be good or bad… nice to encourage more reading or a possible roadblock for beginner readers. My primary warning would be the Freemium aspect. This style of game funding tends to hit the younger, less self-controlled folks the hardest and so it may be best to avoid these for gamers that don’t have as much self constraint.

Tags: Game Reviews