Item - Challenge of the Pegasus Grail

The story is mainly centered around romance and the target demographic seems to be early teen girls. Whether something is written as a good end depends more on whether you get a kiss from Bryant (in many cases the path ends at that point) rather than what happens with the plot. For instance, the kingdom may be destroyed, but the ending could be written as a good end if your love was fulfilled. Vice versa, if you pick choices that have Galena not being honest about her feelings (e.g. the choices in the Gaylord part, or deciding not to struggle against Blackthorn) that typically doesn't end well. So you should really read this as the main goal being the romance and the setting being secondary - a lot of the choices lead to deus ex machina solutions (e.g. the animals of the forest, a pegasus, or your magical sword/amulet/Grail resolving the conflict) as long as you stick to love & bravery & honesty. Also it's noteworthy that the only other (magical) female characters are written as wanting to "steal" Bryant from you by enchanting him, and often you have to actually save him from them.

Ultimately it is a rather tropy plot but it has its charm. Moreover, considering the number of pages and number of paths, I guess not a lot more could have been done. Some paths are quite short, but one can get a longer path if they try hard enough (the longest is 11 sections, the shortest is 3 sections, the shortest "good end" path is 5 sections). Most of the endings are good, but there are a few bad ones - even one where you get killed by a monster or where you get brainwashed to be Blackthorn's wife (I guess that some would consider that a good end though). Most of the endings follow logically from your actions, but there are a few that feel somewhat arbitrary (especially if one compares other similar choices that lead to good endings).

As far as I could tell there were two occasions where paths merge but the development in the new section makes sense only if you come from one of the paths, and is somewhat confusing if you come from the other one. One of those was the thing with Fraya - where you can in fact get a bad end due to this merging without actually having deserved it (e.g. if you arrived at 45 without having passed through 21). The other inconsistency was a path where you ask Bryant to kiss you in the previous section, but then this merges with a path where you hadn't asked him to kiss you (i.e. see 29->38 vs 47->38).

Something else I didn't like was that Zorina was written to be rather inconsistent - even in sections that are 1 or 2 sections apart she behaves in exactly opposite manners. I know that it is a plot point that dryads are supposed to be fickle, but sometimes the development simply didn't make sense when compared to other runs.

You can find a text file with the path linked in the Related Documents section of the database entry for this book.

More reviews by criver

In many ways, I found this to be the best book so far in the series. As before, the setting is familiar enough to make it easy for any reader accustomed to fantasy tales to understand what's going on, and, as an added bonus, the writing is decent and the choices feel meaningful. What made the book stand out for me most, though, was its effective characterization -- I found the characters more likeable and believable than those in past adventures, and the romantic element of the story actually makes sense here. Unlike the "romance by default" found in all too many romantic stories, the relationship here is actually based on the characters' history together. It's amazing what a difference a believable context makes. My only major complaint is that the book is rather short. While some paths are longer than others, most are shorter than one would like them to be, and all too many end without resolving the whole story. I would probably have enjoyed myself more if there were fewer (but longer) pathways. A sequel wouldn't have hurt either, though considering the many possible endings here, there would be no easy way to follow this story up, which I suppose demonstrates an inherent problem (though not necessarily a flaw) in gamebooks that don't have a single, predetermined happy conclusion.

More reviews by Demian

A nice solid entry in the series. Like the other novels, it is a nice substitute for Endless Quest books, but the female protagonist versions seem more like HeartQuest novels.

In this one you play a young village girl, childhood playmate of the young prince of the kingdom. Both characters are likable, the prince suffering from a childhood injury which forces him to limp. You can help him on his quest, to help the dryads who guard your kingdom from Blackthorn and his evil kobolds. There are multiple paths, giving the book high replayability, and the choices were not always obvious, to me at least. Most of the endings are relatively happy. The romance angle is stronger than the last book but feels fairly realistic. It also has a wide range of monsters.

A good book overall.

More reviews by Kveto