Don't mind me, my psychologist told me I should write this down. And to publish it, unproofred, on the internets.
Nothing below is "objective" criticism, just my biased reflections on this CYOA and others an hour after finishing my Epic-Legend-Spiral marathon that took...I don't know, a week or two? All my time has been overgrown, never known.
The thing I think most exemplary about treave's writing style is his ability to weave the string of decisions-by-committee, no matter how brilliant, stupid, or schizophrenic, into a coherent narrative.
In other words, (most of) treave's interactive fiction somehow has the superior flow and pacing of a more conventional narrative, due to a combination of his writing talent and rigorous planning. Simultaneously, the user participation enhances the work even to late-comers such as myself who missed out on the voting process, as treave expands on the worldbuilding and reveals alternate outcomes while incorporating elements of the discussion directly into the main narrative. The final result is enjoyable on multiple levels.
This is what made EPIC a fucking amazing read for me, and is also present to an IMO lesser extent in his subsequent CYOAs. Binging them was a mistake - overindulging in art, as in food, produces a kind of bloated, confused feeling. Still, my appreciation for Epic is sharp and profound. It was entertaining from the beginning to the end, and I actually thought it got better the longer it went on. Another one of treave's superpower is his ability to greatly expand the story's worldbuilding while maintaining its focus and coherency - an untold rarity in the world of internet interactive fiction written by amateurs. Again, Epic was a whole rollercoaster of forum-generated triumphs and fuckups that was somehow woven together into a complex and sensible system of (meta)physics (apart from explicitly gratuitous elements like anime mecha and black hole tech etc,) and provided a satisfying and meaningful narrative. Consider how Ean's final decision to sacrifice the Tree of Life and all of its denizens in order to preserve Earth is contrasted by Senya's rejection (of both Ean and his former self) of sacrificing all immortals in order to build the world anew, instead returning to an older status quo, to a more merciful and foolish end. In the story about immortals shaping human history while divorced from the cost of their ambitions, it is thoughtful to consider that perhaps the world one is trying to build is not worth the sacrifice necessary to achieve it. Or perhaps it is? What else could unite men and immortal but a recognition of this struggle. It's just like poetry, it rhymes. Of course, such subtext might very well be entirely accidental, but I don't really care if it is intended as long as I see or invent a pretty story that like.
Legend I thought was a really entertaining tale. To my taste it is not quite on Epic's level, lacking the P R O F U N D I T Y of the subtext and its narrative focus. Probably due to its more sandboxy nature, I found more hanging plot-lines and occasionally meandering pacing. Lastly, the discussion that was so beneficial to my enjoyment of Epic became borderline unreadable as it was not common for it to go on for 10s of pages of heated vitriol between updates. There is something fucking hilarious about the fact that Legend, in spite of being a shorter story than Epic, has a thread nearly 3 times longer. Still, much of what I appreciated in Epic I found in Legend, and the adventures of Man Harem Pig and his fateful end I will remember for quite some time.
Then, Spiral.
The first 4 nights are some of the most magical and haunting horror I have ever read, committing every sin that they could - so good. They invaded my real nights and days, and my thoughts at work and play. I was already used to the "quaint" quality of the early stages of Treave's CYOAs - another sign of his largely excellent pacing ability - and the first half of Spiral is easily my favorite thing he has ever written. Which set up quite as a disappointment as the second half, particularly the final night, turned out to be his content I found least enjoyable. I actually did not mind the ending itself - I thought it perfectly meaningful (in its meaninglessness) that the shell of the main character found its way into its own virtual sub-purgatory, having lost control to his real self to complete the futile ritual, the whole vicious cycle having started because of the obsessive inability to let go, and the shell's singular meaningful act in the entire narrative, that of letting Maeda go out of hell and into purgatory. Holy shit, I think I just wrote the worst run-on sentence in the world, but I can't help explain it in any other way. Unfortunately, up to that ending, the terrific horror/mystery atmosphere has evaporated into a vague sense of confusion and a profound sense of fatigue. Perhaps it is due to codex's stupidity or treave's frustration reaching critical mass near the end of the narrative, or my lack of culture leading me to miss the finer nuances of Japanese horror (I thought the UwU book and disemboweled maidens blushing as the sight of the protag's manhood was not conducive to the horror atmosphere, although I have since headcannoned both as being retroactive manifestations of the gratuitous illusion that ensnares the protagonist in the finale.) Still, it was something of an unpleasant surprise to me, considering how agreeable to my tastes treave's ability to weave Codex's horrendous decisions into a fundamentally satisfying, if bittersweet tale.
But that's enough negativity, because Epic I find to be a holy grail of CYOAs in being one I could see myself re-reading as if it were a book, so as to experience it from the very beginning and see it in a new light, have it grow with me. And I will find some way to save this entire fucking thread so that I might come back to it at some point in the future. Legend is certainly approaching that level in my eyes. And Spiral...is Spiral, and I don't know if it would be easier for me to think more or less about it.
Perhaps in a day or week or month I will reach Test Run a few chapters of Overlord and see what this whole Tower business is about. Until then, I thank treave for giving me comfort and unease for the last [period of time,] expanding my cultural horizons (you better believe I will be watching some of these ani-mays after reading this crazy shit,) and all of you stupid fucking idiots for participating in his stories. Fuck all of you, seriously. And thanks again.
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