Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

[God]

Even though I 100% saw this coming, I'm kinda disappointed in Zorlok tbh. Three months ago, the author posted the first part of Episode 1, and said part 2 would come in August/September. Then she updated saying she was planning to post the update on September 13th if possible. Then, on the 13th, she pushed back the update to September 28th. Already here I assumed the update would never come tbh. So on the 28th I go to the Zorlok itch.io page and guess what, she's had a "family emergency" and will update as soon as she can.

I really don't want to be an ******* but all the comments on there are expressing support, etc etc, like am I the only one seeing this? If the update was done, clicking on the post button would have taken way less time than making a post about family problems. And that was 20 days ago, you're telling me that in 20 days you can't find the time to post an update that's alreaady done? I feel like she's obviously lying, if the update isn't ready she could have just said it, why lie about family emergencies?

Oh I knew it was cooked, because it was like 2 years for the demo to get updated, and the demo was rewritten lol. I did not expect much after the demo but as not updated but “still working on it” like I get life gets in the way, but let’s all be honest.

 

[dimadaberry]

Oh I knew it was cooked, because it was like 2 years for the demo to get updated, and the demo was rewritten lol. I did not expect much after the demo but as not updated but “still working on it” like I get life gets in the way, but let’s all be honest.

Fr, at some point authors need to be honest about their progress instead of just giving the readers hope for no reason by saying they "haven't forgotten about [x]". But yeah for sure saw that coming, was too good to be true

 

[ferrugem]

After playing the disappointment that was Bloodlust.exe (who paywalls the playtime equivalent to a demo), I once again mourn that IF spaces are so sterile, for lack of a better word. LIs (in general but I'm talking about so called yandere and unhinged ones) either come in two flavours: The personality of wet paper cardboard or just a terrible person. The sad part is, as a yandere lover, is the lack of main character agency. The only stories that target people like myself are just straight up misery ****. You'd think with Night Road being so popular, there'd be more Julian Sims.

Same!!! I love toxic relationships in fiction, but it took a lot of disappointments for me to realize the Dark Romance trend is not for me. I ****ing hate those types of LIs that just abuse you and you can do nothing about it. Let the MC be toxic too! What happened to choosing your own adventure? Some authors are just making self-insert Wattpad books and calling them "IFs" nowadays (looking at locria-writes).

 

[Ireth313]

Ouroboros, another one that never comes back. Still waiting to finally find Leith, even to this day

The author posted on their tumblr some time ago (back in Augist, I think?) that the writing is done, but they need to edit and code stuff and those are the parts that eat up time for them. Waiting for them to get their energy back (as a chronic migraines girlie I get how it is when your body actively sabotages you trying to exist and be creative tbh) and sending well-wishes

 

[solavellan]

Even though I 100% saw this coming, I'm kinda disappointed in Zorlok tbh. Three months ago, the author posted the first part of Episode 1, and said part 2 would come in August/September. Then she updated saying she was planning to post the update on September 13th if possible. Then, on the 13th, she pushed back the update to September 28th. Already here I assumed the update would never come tbh. So on the 28th I go to the Zorlok itch.io page and guess what, she's had a "family emergency" and will update as soon as she can.

I really don't want to be an ******* but all the comments on there are expressing support, etc etc, like am I the only one seeing this? If the update was done, clicking on the post button would have taken way less time than making a post about family problems. And that was 20 days ago, you're telling me that in 20 days you can't find the time to post an update that's alreaady done? I feel like she's obviously lying, if the update isn't ready she could have just said it, why lie about family emergencies?

Tbh I forgot about this game and the summoner after months of silence

 

[solavellan]

Oh I knew it was cooked, because it was like 2 years for the demo to get updated, and the demo was rewritten lol. I did not expect much after the demo but as not updated but “still working on it” like I get life gets in the way, but let’s all be honest.

Wait two years?! I didn't know it was rewritten since I first saw it in one of the game jams this year

 

[Ireth313]

Wait two years?! I didn't know it was rewritten since I first saw it in one of the game jams this year

Nah, it had a demo 2 years ago, then the author vanished, then did a re-release. Tbh I decided to not even bother with reading the remake before the author gets at least 2-3 chapters out.


Speaking of beloved games that got stuck in limbo... I am really sad Attollo got ditched Was one of my fav creepyville type of stories.

 

[solavellan]

Nah, it had a demo 2 years ago, then the author vanished, then did a re-release. Tbh I decided to not even bother with reading the remake before the author gets at least 2-3 chapters out.


Speaking of beloved games that got stuck in limbo... I am really sad Attollo got ditched Was one of my fav creepyville type of stories.

Man guess Zorlok is officially going to the graveyard now.

Anyways what's up with Attollo tell me about it I'm curious

 

[yourstalkeroutside]

Same!!! I love toxic relationships in fiction, but it took a lot of disappointments for me to realize the Dark Romance trend is not for me. I ****ing hate those types of LIs that just abuse you and you can do nothing about it. Let the MC be toxic too! What happened to choosing your own adventure? Some authors are just making self-insert Wattpad books and calling them "IFs" nowadays (looking at locria-writes).

I don't even want toxic any more, I just want to play an MC who isn't the equivalent of a porcelain doll with no brains. Like, let the MC have actually conflicting emotions, let them fight back and say no. It's so frustrating, I'm considering learning choice script.

 

[CQ2205]

I don't even want toxic any more, I just want to play an MC who isn't the equivalent of a porcelain doll with no brains. Like, let the MC have actually conflicting emotions, let them fight back and say no. It's so frustrating, I'm considering learning choice script.

I’m getting to that point too. Pretty soon I’m gonna learn ChoiceScript just to make an IF for myself and finally relieve my frustration lol

 

[solavellan]

I don't even want toxic any more, I just want to play an MC who isn't the equivalent of a porcelain doll with no brains. Like, let the MC have actually conflicting emotions, let them fight back and say no. It's so frustrating, I'm considering learning choice script.

Do it. I'm doing it so I can play the yandere game that i want but from the looks of it mine is better as a book.

 

[Ireth313]

Anyways what's up with Attollo tell me about it I'm curious

You mean the premise of the game or the tea about the game being ditched? Well, it's under 'rewrite'. Basically, the author was pretty consistent with updates (and pretty sizeable and good quality ones, at that!), but they got a lot of anon hate which discouraged them, they dropped the game for a year and now are rewriting it, and we all know that 'I am rewriting my game' is 'we took your old beloved pet to the farm' of IF games. Idk a single game that came back after rewrite and continued to be updated consistently. Usually it's hiatus→rewrite→limbo pipeline. Would be super glad if they proved me wrong, because Attollo is the only horror-themed IF game that managed to actually unnerve me.

 

[CQ2205]

You mean the premise of the game or the tea about the game being ditched? Well, it's under 'rewrite'. Basically, the author was pretty consistent with updates (and pretty sizeable and good quality ones, at that!), but they got a lot of anon hate which discouraged them, they dropped the game for a year and now are rewriting it, and we all know that 'I am rewriting my game' is 'we took your old beloved pet to the farm' of IF games. Idk a single game that came back after rewrite and continued to be updated consistently. Usually it's hiatus→rewrite→limbo pipeline. Would be super glad if they proved me wrong, because Attollo is the only horror-themed IF game that managed to actually unnerve me.

Ah, the rewrite curse has reached them too? Extremely contagious

 

[solavellan]

You mean the premise of the game or the tea about the game being ditched? Well, it's under 'rewrite'. Basically, the author was pretty consistent with updates (and pretty sizeable and good quality ones, at that!), but they got a lot of anon hate which discouraged them, they dropped the game for a year and now are rewriting it, and we all know that 'I am rewriting my game' is 'we took your old beloved pet to the farm' of IF games. Idk a single game that came back after rewrite and continued to be updated consistently. Usually it's hiatus→rewrite→limbo pipeline. Would be super glad if they proved me wrong, because Attollo is the only horror-themed IF game that managed to actually unnerve me.

Oh it's horror themed? Perfect it's October I'll play it and suffer with u in solidarity

 

[Vicissitude]

Nah, it had a demo 2 years ago, then the author vanished, then did a re-release. Tbh I decided to not even bother with reading the remake before the author gets at least 2-3 chapters out.


Speaking of beloved games that got stuck in limbo... I am really sad Attollo got ditched Was one of my fav creepyville type of stories.

Yep, I have been side eyeing it since the first demo with soooo many custom options, is like cool but for what? Is 90% of it even going to be relevant?
And also consumes a lot of time to finish the character creation so it can seem like the demo has a lot of stuff, but nah, and to be honest, as someone who read it when it first came out and more recently I didn't even noticed it had been rewritten, is basically the exact same thing as before, maybe with one or two new customization options and a couple of new lines of why the kid's end up trying to summon a demon, and ends the exact same way and place as the first demo

You really can't tell there has been a rewrite, so yeah don't hold your breath for it

 

[Vicissitude]

Fields of Asphodel was nice, not amazing but a nice read, I read it many times while on demo and when it finally released I had played recently so I wasn't really on the mood to read everything all over again so I ended not actually playing it, tried many times to but got bored and said "later"

so when I did finally decide to actually play it it had had a update, and I was forced to start from the beginning but then the prologue was different, was well written, actually better than the original in my opinion, and had some neat new customization to the MC's personality, so I was hooked again it was nice, but then it ended and we got the exact same scenes from before, what was the beginning was now like chapter 1 after the prologue and you can just feel the writing go back to being not as good, and everything you chose in the new prologue didn't carry through to the rest of the story, it was the exact same thing as before
I made a MC that wasn't good at expressing themselves like they couldn't emote, it was WRITTEN that they weren't good emoting and doing stuff like smiling, and it carried through the prologue but when it got back to the original story my character was smiling and expressing themselves like any one else. I thought it may be cute being like social awkward around the kid trying to be "I like kids and pets" being sincere but not able to express it well with a blank face, but nope, MC was all smiles and sunshines.

Anyways I got really bummed about it and lost all interest. Like I said it wasn't the most amazing IF but I liked it, but then this rewrite I think you could call it, months after it being released, was soo good but for what?? If it doesn't carry through the rest of the story and everything after it is the exact same that was before????

Just something that I keep remembering about and getting disappointed about

 

[LosLorento]

You mean the premise of the game or the tea about the game being ditched? Well, it's under 'rewrite'. Basically, the author was pretty consistent with updates (and pretty sizeable and good quality ones, at that!), but they got a lot of anon hate which discouraged them, they dropped the game for a year and now are rewriting it, and we all know that 'I am rewriting my game' is 'we took your old beloved pet to the farm' of IF games. Idk a single game that came back after rewrite and continued to be updated consistently. Usually it's hiatus→rewrite→limbo pipeline. Would be super glad if they proved me wrong, because Attollo is the only horror-themed IF game that managed to actually unnerve me.

I know of exactly one (just the one!) IF that has actually successfully done a rewrite/rework without going into limbo (I believe as of Sept. the rewrite, which started around end of May, has gotten mostly up to par with the old version too); and that is Bride of Shadows which is not going to be everybody's cup of tea (nsfw, dark romance, fem!locked mc, and a huge pregnancy + religion focus) but is a good example of a writer actually sitting down and locking in to write the story they wanted to write even if they had to redo it a time or two in the process. Like a lot, a lot, of these IF writers could learn a thing or two about discipline from this lady.

But it's kinda sad that a relatively newer IF is the only example I can think of off the top of my head to actually do this successfully (oh actually Arcadie: Second Born probably fits too but that was more an engine switch than a straight up rewrite/rework).

 

[solavellan]

I know of exactly one (just the one!) IF that has actually successfully done a rewrite/rework without going into limbo (I believe as of Sept. the rewrite, which started around end of May, has gotten mostly up to par with the old version too); and that is Bride of Shadows which is not going to be everybody's cup of tea (nsfw, dark romance, fem!locked mc, and a huge pregnancy + religion focus) but is a good example of a writer actually sitting down and locking in to write the story they wanted to write even if they had to redo it a time or two in the process. Like a lot, a lot, of these IF writers could learn a thing or two about discipline from this lady.

But it's kinda sad that a relatively newer IF is the only example I can think of off the top of my head to actually do this successfully (oh actually Arcadie: Second Born probably fits too but that was more an engine switch than a straight up rewrite/rework).

Oh bride of shadows mentioned! I like that game it's dark but ive expanded my horizons because of it lol. Is it finished or is still on going?

 

[LosLorento]

Oh bride of shadows mentioned! I like that game it's dark but ive expanded my horizons because of it lol. Is it finished or is still on going?

Still on-going but the writer is very consistent with updates so I'm pretty hopeful it'll eventually be done. IIRC she even made it her full-time gig to write the game.

 

[Ireth313]

so I'm pretty hopeful it'll eventually be done.

She slowed down with the updates, so I am not so sure if she will be able to keep up the pace I am an IF veteran (have been there since choice of romance and choice of robots, so, yeah), and now my minimal threshold for hopefulness is 50% of a game done. If it's less, I usually check the demo out, but I don't hold on to any hope about a game being finished,
(and I am going to say it about the bride: I preferred the game pre-rewrite, since the author obviously strongly favours Valdricht, and it shows even more in the newer version)

Oh it's horror themed? Perfect it's October I'll play it and suffer with u in solidarity

Attollo is imo the coolest take on 'so you got transported into this freaky paranormal-ish city' IF trope out there.