Tale of Two Cranes Steam Charts & Stats

Story was interesting. There are few paths which I believe we can tackle. I make only one playthrough but I have to say that I enjoyed it. There is one twist at the end which I definitly didn't see it coming but at least I can say that ending was still to my liking. The thing which I didn't really understanded was adding money at this game. Could be even better if we could spend them. I think at the whole day I spend around 2k where I had about 7k at the end? Could be nice if we could recruit our own troops which technically is mentioned but I didn't have that possibility during my playthrough. Maybe I missed some content regarding this but I am not sure.

A long-going tale with plenty of decisions both big and small to make. While the jumping of years took a bit of getting used to the overall intrigue of the plot made up for it. There's also plenty of room for multiple go-throughs as there can be drastically different choices to make and experience.

Meh ! Did almost finish it. But all are generic and predictable. Everything ! In the end the story leave everything behind and continue by itself not caring about who read it. To respect the extensive work on it i had to stop it on the last fight then reload the chap, confirm what other choice was before the stop reading again. Yeah, the generic story and dialogue ruin it. The good part was the development of the character minus the time skip. If you buy it, don't hope munch.

Despite the wonderful and indept writing i am not happy with this game. Why? Because every Chapter you are send out to accomplish something, get no choice in it, have to cater to the court even when your character woudlnt want to, making a loyal charater the only thing that can be played resonably and then! The game throws a massiv curveball, everything changes, your efforts are negated regardles of stats and then comes a three year timeskip. This is great in a story when it happens ones or twice but here it happens ever single chapter. Your just left exausted and often confused at the change of fortune. It kind of takes the joy away.

As one who loves stories such as these, this one went from interesting enough at the start and ended with something that couldn't be called lackluster at best The main issue wasn't a dozen paper thin characters or a dozen stats that did next to nothing, choices where if you didn't pick the "correct" stats to spec into you would be doomed to fail (IE: 3 choices and all of them using your lowest stats out of a possible **4** stats) or even that those stats degrade or raise for no apparent reason but rather the uncountable number of times wrong events would trigger; be they the low/neutral/high relationship value dialogue showing up right after the others, making a choice and it acting like i didn't or in a particularly noticeable time acting like i picked one when i didn't or just flat out not flagging. As stated in another review it's a constant "build up, time skip, resolution while talking about what happened in the time skip", but i'd rather focus on another part, that being the character you play as, they are erratic and hardly in line with at least how i was playing; it makes total sense that a stoic, noble and forgiving character would be yelling and making rash choices about an order that they *know* to be a lie or something they just wouldn't care about which bring me to the "classes" and not just that calling them that feels *off*; one can detect lies which you'd *think* is helpful but it's mainly just flavor much like your other powers (at least if you pick strategist) or the crane which does nothing but tell you to stop interacting with it I wasn't going to write a review but then i finished the game and got perhaps the biggest slap in the face "everything you did didn't matter" ending even though i was not only well liked by named characters but groups such as the army and court; as i sit here writing this i *want* to say something at least decent about it but, TLDR: it tries to do too many things at once, has too many characters, doesn't expect you *not* liking some characters, keeps teasing the idea of you *doing* anything, gives options where you might just have no chance to pass, bugged flag and skips around so much that nothing feels like it matters since the next page could be years in the future which makes the sudden events at the end feel even cheaper

First, the positives: The writing is good, the epilogue is lengthy, and it's an interesting setting. The bad: Many choices are presented that lead to bad outcomes not because of a skill check failure but because the choice itself was misleading. E.g. when choosing how to prosecute a war, if you select the option that is basically to exercise caution and surgical strikes, the *actual* choice and way it is perceived is cowardice. The story is much more on rails than most CoG stories. It leans far more into "game" than "story." The ROs are bland and you have too few interactions with them. I lost count of how many situations are lose-lose no matter what you do. Going back and altering save files to maximize skills, alter personality traits, and increase relationship scores - in many situations, none of this will alter key outcomes. This is forgivable with situations like when a particular lord is killed while you are away, but I can't fucking stand it when it's something like failing to persuade someone or getting your ass kicked in single combat. Why even present the reader with the the illusion of choice, the illusion that you have any control? Anytime interactive fiction titles pull that, I view it as the author expressing contempt for the audience. The vast majority of the story is also barely about the central conflict. It comes up at the very end as a sudden betrayal by a character I'd disliked from the moment they were introduced. My playtime is crazy long because there were several times when I got so irritated that I just walked away from my laptop without bothering to close the game. The writing here, in terms of prose alone, is good, the setting and the overall plot are a solid backbone to build a story off of. But the execution is lacking. There's a whole entire mechanic around building up your estate and deciding what to do with it, but it is only tangentially relevant to the plot and you never get any sense of connection to it. I feel almost like the authors were inspired by Lords of Infinity, but didn't pick up on the fact that that was the third title in the series and is explicitly structured as being part of a buildup that will pay off in future books. I really wanted to give this one a positive review, but I think the simplest indicator to me that I wasn't enjoying myself was seeing how many tabs in my text editor I had open with prior save states to revert choices because I realized that a seemingly innocuous option selected previously had led to some stupid outcome that wasn't even slightly hinted at when the choice was made. When I start making more and more checkpoints for myself to go back, the entire exercise becomes less and less about immersion and enjoyment and more about frustration that the poor structure and deceptive choices are breaking up the flow.

This is a really well-writen IF (Interactive Fiction) that definitely deserves some more love! The story's pretty captivating from the very beginning and, while there were some... weaker moments (looking at you chap. 4), it really picks up around chapter 5. Some pretty significant parts of the game (including a whole chapter) are pretty much open for you to choose and do whatever might compel you, be it boosting your own standing in court, assisting the military, or even the emperor himself. Your choices are also [i]really[/i] important - supporting certain characters in chapter 3 and 5 will (indirectly) bring far-reaching consequences up to the preparations for the final battle. Hell, even your origin story (like whether your character was born in nobility or not) is relevant in most chapters. Take that, Cyberpunk. Fights were engaging and not too challenging, though I wish a few stat checks were less demanding. I'm sorry, I'll never agree with using personality stats as a skill. My character made a quick joke two pages ago and now she's precisely 1% less Serious™, so she'll fail this next check and have a scar for life :( Jokes aside, like others have said, Tale of Two Cranes does suffer from an unfortunate case of having just enough to create a very compelling and interesting narrative, but not fully dedicating enough time and depth to all of its arcs. Almost every chapter starts with a two- to five-year timeskip - there's nothing necessarily [i]wrong[/i] with that, of course, but it does skip through very intriguing moments right to their resolutions. All that to say I often found myself a bit disconnected from my character and the current plot, as I didn't see most of the events unfolding. The writers did manage to do a good job at describing these past events after the facts, yet... I still wish I had actively participated in the full-on wars we missed out on. It's still a REALLY long game, so I understand why they couldn't reasonably spend too much time fleshing out every single conflict. This also applies to romance and more importantly to the characters themselves. While I liked most of their introductions, the protagonist's main party didn't develop much at all through the story (with one exception which I'll mention later). Also, the game really insisted in only ever allowing the player to talk to up to 3 characters during "free roam" sequences, so, yeah, I never chose to actively interact with a few of the more standoffish characters, as my character would reasonably have a preference to spend time with her spouse, best friend, master, and/or family. That made it so that most moments of camaraderie, such as when your friends would gather to party or celebrate victory, felt a bit... empty? "Here ya go, you won the war! Time to celebrate and see how the others are feeling!" [Interacts with a single character]. "Welp, that was fun! You'll see them again three years from now." Big spoiler warning here: [spoiler]The Other Crane is definitely the most important NPC and I wish he had a bit more time to fully develop. He's a major character in chapter 3 and 4, but he suddenly turns into a side character like most others up until chapter 6. Everything that happens following that caused a bit of whiplash, even if I expected it beforehand, to the point where the title Tale of Two Cranes felt almost ill-fitting before then.[/spoiler] [spoiler]Kinda reminded me of Revenge of the Sith? I guess???[/spoiler] While I wish we had more "personal" quests and interactions with the companions, I still had fun with the latter half of the romances. Stakes are high and the characters are pretty realistic about it. You didn't hear it from me, but a few scenes did make me tear up a bit... Chapter 5 and 6 also let you spend a bit more time with characters by selecting them to help you with your own goals, which is neat! Just wish we saw a bit more of the opposite too. Finally, the last two chapters were awesome. I wanted the final choice to detail its consequences a [i]bit[/i] more, as my character completely changed a few, uh, important things, but I'm alright with it. Overall, I think the plot would've benefited if it was split into two or three parts/games, each fleshing out its wars and such (big spoilers: [spoiler]so Tale of Two Lords, Tale of Two Empires, and Tale of Two Cranes[/spoiler]), but it's still a great story as it is. I had fun and I'd recommend it for anyone interested in Ancient China or other IFs such as The War for the West. TL;DR: It's great! just wish it was more fleshed out. 9/10 :3

It started off interesting and I wanted to see where it went, so I tried just going with it and letting it do its thing. However that turned into giving it passes which turned into disinterest, then calling it quits. It's a good concept but it's heavily expositional and too fast-paced. I know it's hard to fit a huge timespan into a single game but it goes by in such big chunks while basically just telling you what's happening in detail, often in dialogue, that it feels like the game is passing you by. This lead to very simplified choices as well where you get one chance to choose a path- like which general to support or who to romance- and then that's just set in motion and you watch it play out almost without you. Aside from these major story-altering choices that come up your choices seem superficial. And it's not just the setup phase either. I quit at the discovery of the second crane almost three hours in. It fell victim to [i]all[/i] the above flaws. I expected a challenger and the crane patron spirit had been talked up so much only for the main character to find another kid like them and go "Whoa, another crane! That's crazy!" and then it's just accepted on like one piece of evidence that "yeah there's two now actually" and then you're moving forward again. I think the idea was just overly ambitious. This game's full potential doesn't fit in one game, or maybe just didn't fit in the timeframe the writers were working with.

This game can be broken down into 2 halves. I did not enjoy the first half much and would give it 5 out of 10. Choices are abundant, but barely affect anything plot-wise. I also found romances lacking. The game just throws 6 potential romantic interests in a row at you one after the other and prompts the player to express their interest (or lack there of) on the spot after a couple interactions and... thats it, you won't meet them again until the second half. The game redeems itself with the second half where player choices start to truly matter and the story picks up. I would give it 7 out of 10. And hence the "thumbs up". While I've enjoyed the game overall, the first half could've been better. Updated: Nominated for Story-Rich Game Award. To be honest, it doesn't deserve it, but I had to pick something and there is not a lot to pick from this year.

[h1]This game skips too much![/h1] Practically every chapter ends just when things are getting interesting, and the start of the next chapter is always a time-skip with a couple pages of explanation as to what happened in the intervening year(s). You don't get to experience things with your character for the first time - you're always thrown in the middle/near the end of events. First day of Yǒngshì school? Nope, you go from discovering you're a Yǒngshì at the end of chapter 1 to being a student about to graduate at the start of chapter 2. Final exam? No matter what you do your rival has you dead to rights and... the next chapter starts, 3 years later, with your character ruminating about how you somehow got out of that very unwinnable situation and barely beat out your rival in a no doubt impressive turn of events that everyone thought was super cool. Something exciting happening? Better skip ahead a few years, nothing's more exciting than the ending or being told about it after it's already happened! Also, the romances are just a checkbox. You barely spend any time with these characters and your only option to express any romantic interest is after interacting with them - interactions that don't even have a lick of romantic interest/flirting mind - and choose the choice that says "they are everything I want in a lover. We are soul-mates. I am crushing so hard". I'm not even exaggerating, that's how intensely written the "romance please" options are, which make no sense for how little we interact with them. I just want my character to show a mild interest or maybe open to the idea of that character making a move... [strike]but God forbid any on these games have characters that show romantic interest in the player without having to actively pursue them.[/strike] All that said, it's not [i]bad[/i]. It's written well, as far as I can tell (I am a troglodyte so YMMV). It just feels incomplete not only because of how much is skipped, but [i]what[/i] is skipped. In my opinion, the most interesting parts of the story are missing, and that's a shame. (Also, my time played isn't an accurate representation of how long the game is. I just kind of left it running in the background (even when writing this review. Because I'm dumb.))