Item - The Forbidden Castle

I actually enjoyed this one more than The Cave of Time, mainly because of the fairly strong internal consistency. Also, the 'right' decisions were generally the logical and sensible ones, with reasonable foreseeable outcomes. The medieval setting didn't hurt either.

More reviews by Aussiesmurf

Having read this book for the first time, I had not realized that it is a sequel of sorts to The Cave of Time. On this adventure through the Cave, you find yourself sent to medieval times where a riddle sends you on a quest to find the Forbidden Castle. I really enjoyed the riddle aspect of this story, and there are at least 2 optimal endings that reveal a satisfying solution. Packard's writing nicely depicts the romantic, chivalrous, humorous, and sometimes violent aspects of life in medieval times. The Choose Your Own Adventure series, like classic fairy tales, doesn't shy away from horrible endings. You may be tortured to death or eaten by wolves in this volume. There are plenty of well-written characters to encounter: mad kings, evil kings, peasant girls, a band of foolish philosophers, and many more. I give this adventure 3 out of 5 stars.

More reviews by auximenes

I have the U-Ventures print of this title and I did have a lot of fun reading and re-reading through all the choices.

It is insanely tricky to make it through to the ideal ending, as you have to make the correct choice at every turn and it's not at all obvious which choice is better.

I found this very satisfying. It's good to have choices you have to reason through a bit and go with your gut instinct on, over "Here's the responsible choice and here is the reckless choice" which you can bump into in many titles.

The gimmick of finding two parts of a secret name is nowhere near as complicated or sophisticated as I was expecting.

All the U-Ventures titles have a "quantum divergence" choice, which is essentially just a coin toss. While philosophically I'm against having that sort of thing in a Choose Your Own Adventure book, and think it would always be better if the situation was framed as a choice, in practical terms it doesn't make the book itself less satisfying. What I mean is, in the U-Ventures books you have a page which says "Turn to page x or page y," which feels very random and unsatisfying. It would feel more consistent if it was presented like "There's a control panel here with a green button and a blue button. You can't resist, which one do you press?" It has the same overall effect, but at least it would be masked as a choice. Anyway, that aside, The Forbidden Castle is awesome! Get it!

More reviews by charlesdaniels

This sequel to The Cave of Time is quite good. Once again, a clear quest makes the gameplay more fun, and it's actually something of a challenge to reach the ideal ending.

More reviews by Demian

I read the U-Ventures edition and found this book much less satisfying than the same edition of Return to the Cave of Time. For me it's because of the same reason Demian liked it better. The specific quest of finding the castle was something I found to be frustrating, because I found many other endings (some of which were kind of amusing), but it always felt like failure. With Return to the Cave of Time there was no agenda, and I could enjoy the story wherever it went. This is the version wherein you find half of the 8 letter code word. It is a bit odd reaching a page that says "turn to page 8 or 42," and then if you manage to choose a certain half of the word you can easily guess the other.

More reviews by Dtar

This is a great book. Edward Packard is an exceptional author, and this book is no different in terms of his ability to produce a great, coherent story. This book has a clear objective that can be reached successfully. I also enjoy the addition of the cryptic poem that accompanies the story which the reader's character attempts to solve--this makes the quest to find the Forbidden Castle that much more intriguing and rewarding. Kudos to this title and to Edward Packard for being such a great author.

More reviews by Enigmatic Synergy

I enjoyed this book quite a bit more than its predecessor. The medieval setting is well fleshed-out, there's a nice variety of interesting characters, and the book is more challenging than most in the series.

More reviews by Gartax

A bad entry to the series.

Too many die or go on ends, instead of normal Choose Your Own Adventure: Both choices lead on, instead of ending.

Garth makes the read more exciting. Worth a few reads.

I never plan to read the NEW version, where you find one half of a code. Better? How am I to know?

Rating: 3.5/10

More reviews by Good

I thought that this book was close to The Cave of Time in quality, the former being one of my all-time favorites. The story moves along at a fast pace, with a lot of excitement and very little room for error. Those philosopher knights are hilarious, too! This is some of Edward Packard's most intriguing work.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74