User blog:General Khor/2nd Choiceversary Blog

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to the General... happy Choiceversary too!

That's right, another birthday, another Choiceversary. That means it's time for another review blog! Hello everyone, this is General Khor, and today, I bring you this blog about how Choices is doing as of the first half of 2020, as well as reviews for recently completed series. Well, series I completed, that is. I meant to title the last review blog for 2019 "Reviews for series I completed last year", too bad I can't change the title of the blog once I publish it.

Choices as of Now
So, as of the first half of 2020, I can't really say the Choices Dark Age is over yet, because even though we welcomed electrifying new adventure stories such as Blades of Light & Shadow and Distant Shores, we're also seeing dissapointing new romance stories spring up, but the reason why I say the Dark Age is still not over yet is that the first half of 2020 is still mostly romance. Now, I'm not being biased, I know there are romance fans out there, but the problem is the romances released this year have been rated as poorly as, or even worse than, last year's.

Bad Romance
First there's Baby Bump, which finished its first season last year, and many players rated it as terrible, the lowest rating, which for me would be sleep inducing. I started playing this book betting it'll be a standalone, but when it turned out to be a series, I stopped halfway, not because it's boring, but because I want to see how Season 2 goes. Needless to say, many fans are furious, so I really hope Baby ends with two books, and doesn't end up as a sleep inducing romance trilogy like Red Carpet Diaries. While many players gave the book a 1 out of 10, I would give it a 3 or 4 (maybe a 4, should have given that rating instead of a 3), as there are incidents happening here and there, at the very least, even though I admit it's still boring and the characters are bland, so it's just in the same league as Passport to Romance (so much for trying to lure me with collectibles). If this sounds like a review to you, then I have to mention it's an unofficial one, the official one will be out once I've completed the whole series.

Then, as if Baby is not bad enough, it is closely followed by Witness: a Paywall... er, I mean Bodyguard Romance, and by looking at the walkthrough of this book, I can tell PB are either desperate for cash, or they're simply just extorting from players, which is what many players are saying. While the huge diamond cost is the main reason for the massive backlash for this book, many players also expected this to be a mystery book as well, but PB obviously focused too much on the romance aspect, especially the S-E-X. Yes, with every chapter that comes, it's almost always sex, sex and more sex, it's almost like the whole story revolves around the s-word, which is what makes this story all the more *yawns* boring. What's worse is that it seems this was originally planned as a series, but faced with the huge backlash, PB decided to squeeze whatever they had for Book 2 into one book. Now I don't know how many more years they can last if this keeps up, but I'm guessing not very long. This is just my honest opinion, and I'm not insulting PB in any way.

Recently, they came up with another romance called The Nanny Affair which, while not as bad as Witness, also features only one LI, and the problem with single LI books is, you don't have a choice. Your life is set on a course with said LI, and so you don't get to select your own ending. I mean, LI choice is one of the most important factors that determine the success of a book or series. But still, as of now, TNA is performing better than the other two.

Exciting... Actually, Electrifying Adventures
Needless to say, Blades of Light & Shadow is hands down the best book they ever came up with this year, They said it would be like an RPG game, and you bet it is! What is more, it's going to be a series! Woohoo! But then again, I don't know if it'll make it to 3 books, since the final boss got killed off too soon, just like in The Elementalists, which is the exact reason why that series ended up with only two books when fans expected 4 (If you haven't read my blog about The Elementalists yet, I suggest you go check it out). So, will Blades meet the same fate? We'll just have to wait and see.

Then there's Distant Shores, which as of now turns out to be another top notch story. Besides being gender selectable, there is an assortment of collectibles, which makes the story all the more worth playing, and I hope to see where it goes next. If this becomes a series (and it's highly likely to), I can't wait to play once it's all over.

In Other News...
As of now, Open Heart is on its 2nd season, and it's on a long pause for now, and I understand why, after all what happened that led to this long pause is terrible. If there's something that can console OH fans, is that PB confirmed that it will indeed be a trilogy (I expected that, actually, one book for each year of our residency). Also, this year saw the curtains close on Bloodbound and the HSS: Class Act trilogy (as well as the HSS franchise as a whole, which I'll be doing a review on in another blog tomorrow), TRH has just wrapped up its 2nd season, and TRM turned out to be a solo book. Having said all that, we still have a mystery book to come (most likely in August, and I hope, just as many of you are hoping, that it's the long awaited Most wanted 2), and also the VIP books, some of which turn out to be better than what we have now (No spoilers, after all they're top secret!). And now, without further ado, let's get into the reviews.

Reviews for Recently Completed Series
Ratings from best to worst:

ELECTRIFYING!!! EXCITING! Meh BOOORIIING! ZZZZZ...

The following series are good beginner series, except for Bloodbound, which is recommended for intermediates as it contains gory scenes that may be unsettling for beginner players.

The Royal Masquerade
Rating: EXCITING!

So, when I said this book should be gender of choice lead, I meant the devs should make it that way (understand what I mean now, Andisimon?). And believe me, there's no reason for this book to feature a female only MC. I remember mentioning in a previous blog  that it's not fair we get to choose our LIs' gender and not our own (remember Platinum?), and this story also works very well with a male MC. That aside, the story is well written, full of betrayal, intricacy and convoluted court drama. The characters are good too, in fact there are so many personalities: there's caring Hunter, protective Kayden, eccentric Theodosia, cunning Renza, sweet Annalisa and more. But there is just one problem: the ending. Oh, the ending! We've worked so hard to seize the throne, and I can see the perfect ending: King Hunter and Queen Julia. Yes, this is what's supposed to be, but someone had to ruin it all, and that someone is Damnit... I mean Damon Fierro (excuse the swearing). Oh, I hate that guy so much, but PB didn't give us a chance to kill him. Instead, we have to choose between two bittersweet endings: we either have to give up the throne to someone we just met (who turns out to be the Queen's nephew), or marry him and leave our LI. So basically, Damon won, since it is his goal to prevent us from reigning as queen. That said, I'm sure everyone felt like losers after finishing the story. How could you do this PB, how could you?!

Save the Date
Rating: Meh

A decent story. The plot is ok, after all we get to plan all sorts of amazing weddings, such as a zoo themed one, a medieval themed one and one involving an old couple. The characters are also ok, and I especially like how Justin evolved from a judgmental jerk to a caring friend, and believe it or not, I actually fell for him. Add some collectibles and you got a story that's just right: cheap but not boring. I plan to buy some diamond scenes with Justin in the future, but for now, at least I have all the photos, so that's something. Not bad for a romance story, really.

Big Sky Country
Rating: Meh

I know some of you think it's boring, but I find this series to be an average one as well. Sure, the first few chapters are a bit boring, after all they're just introductions, but from Chapter 5 onwards it starts to get exciting, with events happening here and there. While I have to admit the Lonely Pine hike is sort of boring, the whole fight with Agracorp saved the series from landing in the lacklusture category. Come Book 2 and we have a whole lot of events on our hands, including a mayoral election and a reality TV bid. If this isn't exciting, I don't know what is. This just proves again you can't judge a book by its genre. The characters are ok as well, and I like how Cliff and Anna-Marie went from enemies to friends if you spend diamonds to get them together. I also like Brooklynne and Miles, they're kind of smart after all, not to mention they make a cute couple. Besides, this series isn't too long or too short, and can be completed in exactly 5 days. In short, all this is what makes this a series worth replaying.

Bloodbound
Rating: ELECTRIFYING!!!

This should have come before BSC, as I finished this one first, but I decided to save the best for last. Why? Because this series is EPIC. In fact, this series is in the same league as The Crown & the Flame. First, the characters are great: there's determined Adrian, serious Kamilah, protective Jax and smart and fun-loving Lily, as well as crazy Vega, ruthless Gaius and power-hungry Rheya, aka Vampire Azura. Yes, remember how Empress Azura wants to kill everyone so that she can live forever? Well, Vampire Queen Rheya wants to do the exact same thing, but when we finally beat her, I kind of felt sorry for her, since she killed her own child without realising it, and she's been killing everyone in revenge for her child. As for Gaius, I initially hated him as well, but when I found out he was corrupted by Rheya, I decided to go easy on him and pardon him in the end, although I understand why some of you chose to execute him. The plot of the entire series is very well written, and we've learnt so much about vampires:

Book 1: Introduction to vampires

Book 2: Introduction to vampire history

Book 3: Secrets of the vampire world

In addition, in each book you can complete portraits to unlock teasers for the next book and for Book 3, you get a fantastic epilogue. I'm glad this series got a happy ending, I'm sure the bad ending where we bring about the end of the world was too scary even for the devs. Besides, who knew vampires celebrate Christmas? The holiday special also comes with a Christmas... er, Dark Solstice photo that you can complete to see the celebration around the world. So there you have it, an average trilogy requiring exactly 8 days to complete (that is if you add the holiday special), but the amazing storyline and characters more than make up for it.

Conclusion
In conclusion, this year's slate as of now is a slight improvement from last year's slate, but I know PB can do better than this. They've promised that there will be more gender of choice lead books in the future, here's hoping they keep to that promise, and we also hope to see more adventure, mystery and horror in the future.

That's all for today, be sure to check out my blog on High School Story tomorrow. Until then, this is General Khor. The end, and thank you for reading.