User blog:General Khor/2020 In Review

Hello and welcome to another semi-annual review blog by General Khor. With 2020 coming to an end, it's time to leave our disappointments of the year behind and hope for an exciting 2021. As usual, I'll be discussing the state of Choices as of now, and of course, giving book reviews, so without further ado, let's begin.

Choices as of Now
So as of now, the poorly rated Baby Bump series is on its 2nd season, and I've seen some reviews saying there's some improvement, with more exciting events happening and all, but I'll wait until the series is over to give my official review. Also, Distant Shores turned out to be a solo book, and I think I know the reason it's not serialised, which I'll explain later. Then there's The Nanny Affair. Now this is a book most fans would want a sequel to, and guess what, we got our wish. While I still don't like the fact that there's only one LI, I'll still read this once the series is over (I also plan to read Wishful Thinking and Ride or Die next). Meanwhile, TRH has finished its 3rd season, and surprise surprise, turns out there's still one last season to go. As for OH, Season 2 wrapped up 2 months ago due to a real life medical crisis and a real life murder that left the writers rattled, and I understand how terrible this is, especially the murder case.

Next there's Queen B, which some would call The Freshman (or rather, The Junior, since we're already in junior year) done right, since we have to really fight for our life against Queen Becca. I played this book betting it would be a standalone, but surprise surprise, it's getting a sequel, so the review for this series will have to wait (Let's hope the next book will be The Senior done right). Closely following QB is the first daily series - er, book in Choices, My Two First Loves. At least the devs didn't make any of the LIs gender customisable, otherwise they should make this a gender of choice lead book, but honestly, this book also works well with a male MC, 2 girl LIs and 1 guy LI, after all this book picks up the topic of sexual orientation a lot. But then again, I get it, having everyone be gender-locked makes writing easier and the story simpler. Another book that should have been gender of choice is Rising Tides, which features gender customisable LIs despite being gender-locked. Sigh, why do they have to be so unfair to their male fans? Men can be eco-activists (and singers, and be in witness protection) too, right? Well, if there's anything that can cheer up the male Choices fan base, it's Foreign Affairs, the last book of the year and another break in the female lead wave. Besides, who doesn't love political drama?

Finally, as you know, half of this year has been dominated by Witness: A Body- actually, I'll just give my honest opinion here: *clears throat* Witness: A Paywall Romance, which as it turns out was originally planned as two books with 14 chapters each, so in the end, we got tortured with a really crappy story with too much S-E-X for 7 months (technically 6, since it ran from mid Mar to mid Sep). Also, someone calculated the total diamond cost for this book, and it's... over 2000 diamonds?! Crazy, right? No wonder only one sneak peek was released, after all this book flopped so badly, they just wanted to get it over and done with. In fact, I'm glad I never touched this book at all. Let's just say, this book will be remembered as PB's all time low. Let's hope PB learns from this greatest mistake, so that fans will return to the Choices community in waves and the game will be saved.

All in all, this year's slate is also mostly romance, but at least there are more adventure and mystery books, and from what we know in PB's end of year blog, we're in for a great treat next year, including more gender of choice books, and I hope they make good on this promise. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, another surprise the devs have given us this winter is the first ever VIP book to be officially released, Hot Couture. As for the others, well, I don't want to spill any secrets.

Sidenote
As of now, I'm back. Why? That's because I realised there's still so much work to do, such as finding the critical threshold (the threshold for avoiding a bad ending) for ILB (which I accomplished not long ago), finding the threshold for defeat for AME3 and completing a page that has been left empty for far too long, so I'll still be focusing on Choices while navigating through Romance Club series by series.

Also, according to a last minute poll I made, more wiki players prefer to pursue someone than to matchmake them with an alternate LI (as of now), so there must be another reason why LIs who have alternate LIs are less popular.

Distant Shores
Rating: EXCITING!

Plotwise, this book is great, from having to deal with a mutiny to fighting the British navy to discovering secret treasures, who doesn't like this story? The characters are awesome too: Edward has a sense of justice, and is willing to go to any lengths to stop the ruthless Admiral Cochrane, even though sly Robert staged a mutiny and later double-crossed him, not to mention his ship got destroyed. Speaking of Robert, it turns out he and the Admiral only care about themselves, which makes things more interesting. Speaking of the Admiral, in the beginning Oliver is introduced as his right hand, but then (spoiler alert), he's revealed to be the Admiral's son, which left everyone shellshocked. Luckily, he also has a sense of honour, and turns against his own father after the Admiral destroys our ship.

But then again, this story wouldn't have ended with just one book had the devs not included the time travel element. We could have just been someone living in the 18th century, trying to escape a cruel governor and invited to join a pirate crew, and the admiral would be the governor's right hand. There will be a lot of betrayals and conspiracies, and we also get to help the poor. In the end, we defeat the villains once and for all and conquer the island, with us as the new governor. But no, we had to be someone from the modern era who got thrown back in time, which in my opinion made things more complicated. Ah well, at least there are some collectibles which unlock a bonus scene. This is a really great story for beginners to see what Choices stories are like.

Hot Couture
Rating: EXCITING!

This is another one of those books which seems boring at first glance, but is actually more awesome than you think, and a great beginner book. At first, we start off as a model, but what we really want is to be a fashion designer, and yet the ruthless COO tries every step of the way to drive us out of the industry, including taking credit for our designs and trying to stop anyone from helping us. In the end, we win! We're famous! Hooray! Well, if this isn't exciting, I don't know what is. Add some collectibles and you get a story worth replaying.

The LIs are ok, but there are other characters whose personalities stand out more. First there's Bridgette the *beep!*, the de facto Chief Operating Officer of HB. At first I wondered why she hates us so much, and now I think she's jealous of us and views us as competition. Her ruthlessness when doing business really stands out. Then there's Otto, our biggest rival, who's not above using underhanded tactics to win fashion shows, not to mention stealing talent from rivals. What's more (spoiler alert), he took over HB in the end. It's nothing personal, he always says. He and Bridgette deserve each other. Next there's Jimmy, our best friend who gets jealous of us and tries to ruin our reputation, and later apologises and tries to repair our relationship and help us any way he can (I chose to forgive him). And let's not forget Cleo, the sweet, kind model who supports us every step of the way.

Finally, there's the Hazel of Hazel Boutique, our kind and helpful boss, or so we thought. Yes, she supports us and our efforts to advance our career, but when things go wrong, even if we choose to stay on, she ends up firing us. That scene made players go from shock to sadness to fury, and I'm sure many players wasted no time to lash out at Bridgette. Because of this, we establish our own company. In the end, it is revealed Hazel wants to be our mentor, not our boss, and she did a very good job at that. She's really determined to see us succeed, as she still goes out of her way to help us after firing us, and even after she's ousted from HB in a coup, no wonder many players like her so much, too bad she "dropped out" of the LI list.

Conclusion
Before I end this blog, I have to mention, now I know the reason the devs want a Rys to be on the throne in The Royal Masquerade, because they want the Rys line to continue ruling into the modern era. I guess having an unbroken dynasty for over a millennium makes writing easier. So, I'm sorry PB, for my outburst in my previous review blog.

In short, 2020 has been a year full of hardships and heartache, mainly because of the coronavirus pandemic, and as a result, in recent months, there has only been one book per month. Let's hope for a 2021 that will bring us more excitement and joy, and an end to these trying times. That's all for today, until then, this is General Khor. The end, and thank you for reading.