[Wherefore art thou the chosen hero of the Kingdom? Ye, of sickly green and endless hunger and lust…Pfah! It means little to me, so long as I receive mine elixir of youth, it matters not to I!]
-Quest Received-
▣Old Man Medin's Troubles▣
Instructions: Find and acquire the horn root of Tarbl, Aquinox's tooth, Valed Amphears, Blood of Makhar, and Elf Syrum and return to Medin.
Rewards: Medin's loyalty
[If there is nothing else, begone. My studies are too important right now, and many-a-moon have I spent awake and brooding; including this one! Ack, the migraines!]
-bzzt-
That's enough gaming for today.
This is unexpectedly really tiresome to play.
Especially with the dysphoria I feel, hearing an old man's voice speak instead of the usual lady I know.
Ah, I really miss the Female Medina Mod…
Actually, I'm considering uninstalling; I dislike it that much.
Not the hot lady being turned into an old man, but the game itself, or at least the state of it.
Actually, I'm considering uninstalling; I dislike it that much.
I was lured in by the false promises of 'incredibly fun and immersive gameplay' and instead got a walking simulator.
The Aeons of Fate was a game that had released six months ago to a sudden boom in popularity across the globe.
Like a meteor to the gaming landscape, it gave everything most gamers wanted, and had received reception no other game could match before in history.
Almost instantly, it was hailed as the best game of the decade and greatest RPG game ever by critics, casual players, tryhards, and everyone else alike.
"10/10 game", "Thousands of unique quests and storylines with multiple outcomes depending on your choice", "Fresh battle system", "Random events galore", "HOT BABES", "Diverse characters", "Working, fluid, manipulable economy", "Well-functioning political system", "Philosophically profound", "Traditional game with zero purchases aside from the initial purchase", "Free DLCs", "Modding-friendly", "Bug-free & Crash-free"
What's the point in any of that if you have to ride a carriage or walk for six hours to reach any quest without even being able to quick travel after you went there?
Well, quick travel does exist in-game, but it only exists for major cities.
And even then, you have to wait in a line that is as equally time-consuming and costs way more, as well.
Even before that, you have to apply for a registration to have a permit for it because it's interconnected portals between differing territories, so you have to dive into bureaucracy hell that involves all major nations of the game world.
If this is what 'immersion' is, then I wish to have no part in it.
…That was what my first impression of the game was.
Everything about the game was great; the only issue was that it was just not my type of game.
I wondered if I was playing a different game compared to everyone else, so I checked the forums and asked some questions.
I told them about the long waiting time, and everyone asked me if I was trolling, because apparently theirs took a lot less time and was skippable.
I guess it just doesn't work properly on my device.
Doesn't mean I'll buy another computer just to play this game when it's functioning.
Thinking I had a bugged or out-of-date state of the game, I reinstalled it and updated it to the latest, yet still, I had to wait incredibly long to do any sort of quest because of the 'real-time' aspect.
Instead, I decided to download mods that I thought would spice things up or give quality-of-life perks to ease my boredom as I traveled for hours.
At first, I only downloaded small, vanilla-friendly, easily compatible mods.
But the hunger grew.
I kept downloading and downloading mods; many of which I dare not tell of the contents of due to shame, frustration, fear, and embarrassment.
Eventually, I reached the upper limits of modding, and my PC bricked due to the large amount of mods it had in its storage.
After getting it fixed and booting up the game again, I realized I was back in vanilla.
I checked my mod list, and I saw that every mod was activated, yet none except one were present in my game.
That one being the 'Orc' mod.
A mod that changes your character from the ordinary human model to an orc model; a race which doesn't exist in the vanilla game.
You heard me right.
Orcs, a staple of any fantasy, did not exist in the high fantasy game The Aeons of Fate.
I, being an orc fan, could not understand why they were never in the game, but fortunately, this singular mod that I found in the depths of the modding scene had saved me.
It not only introduced replacing the character model with an orc, but also changed characters' dialogue, storylines, skills, perks, and gameplay to fit with the player character being an orc.
Only issue was that I had to start a new game for it to work, but I didn't mind that.
Despite its high quality, only one other person had downloaded it.
Feeling like it wasn't getting the attention or acclaim it should, I gave it a 5/5 star rating, and posted an encouraging review to the mod maker, telling him to keep it up.
Unexpectedly, the mod maker actually responded to my review.
We had a nice little chat about the state of the game before I went back to mod hunting.
Surprisingly, he was also experiencing the same issue of long travel as me, and told me that we, as players playing the 'unfinished' state of the game, would be able to change that in the next update of the game.
He was probably an insider or had insider info to be able to say that so confidently.
Or a serial misinformer, considering everyone else was saying the game was fast already.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand.
Realizing that all my mods were down, I searched the forums if anyone else had the same issue, but no one did.
Sure, others were filling up the mod limit like I did, but when their PCs or consoled brick, once they started the game again, the mods still worked.
Feeling desperate, I tried to contact the customer service for the game, but when I tried looking, I realized the company behind the game had no way of contacting them.
No sites, no phone numbers, no mailboxes, no pigeon carriers—nothing.
In the end, I was forced to go back to playing vanilla, with its zero quality-of-life gameplay, and the dread of walking endlessly from point A to B.
And now I'm here.
Considering quitting.
I confess, I've never really cared about the story of the game.
I just wanted to try it out because of the reviews and video clips of people I've seen enjoying it.
But saying that, it has indeed left a noticeable mark on my life.
The mods, to me, were the ones carrying the game.
After I get off from work, I boot up the game and try out all the new mods I've installed.
Dealing with all the compatibility issues, finding out what was and wasn't modded in the game, it was all fun to me.
So, I'm sad to see it all go.
But I think it's time for me to let it go.
Clicking the folder for the game, I deleted all the files.
Feeling like a piece of my heart was lost yet also being set free, I pushed through and decided to permanently delete it.
⟨ Do you want to truly experience Aeons of Fate ?⟩
⟨YES⟩⟨NO⟩
I clicked yes.
It's finally over.
…Wait, I feel…
…My head
…
…
…
*Chirp!* *Chirp!*
Where am I?
…A forest?
"Zug-zug?"
?
My voice?
What is happening?