Let Me Tell You A Story #SimsMedieval
stargrace No one knew how she became Monarch, but there she was. Good, parents eaten by whales – with one fatal flaw that I can’t reveal here because then of course all of her opponents would figure it out and her life as monarch would be over. She ruled kindly – except for that one guy she threw eggs at in the stocks and she released him afterward and apologized. Government pressure, and all.
One day she heard about mysterious fires taking place in the forest just outside the Kingdom. Curious, she went there to find out what was up – and found three peasants burning a large pile of books. When asked why they would do something so foolish (after all, who doesn’t love a good book?) they claimed what was the point! They couldn’t read!
The monarch gasped. Her peasants couldn’t read?! Well this would not do. Not at all. So she decided that the best thing for her to do would be to hire a local teacher, rather then foreign ones. Keeping jobs within the kingdom. The teacher was not that easy to find though. He wanted a duchy in return for teaching and after speaking to her advisory she learned there were no free ones available at the moment – but – if she went and spoke to some bandits and waged a small war she may be able to give that to the teacher and everyone would be happy. The fight was over quickly, she gave the land to the teacher, who in turn told her he needed a primer before he could teach. A trip to the market soon followed. Finally, the new teacher was ready – all he required was that the peasants be lead to the forest and that the queen help teach the first class.
Was that it?
So she lead the three peasants to the forest, and together they and the teacher and her frolicked amongst the trees reading books instead of burning them – and that’s how Lady Stargrace restored literacy to her kingdom.
Above is an example of the very first quest (after the tutorial which I don’t really count) that I encountered in The Sims Medieval which released yesterday. Each step of the quest left me with options on what to do, and I progressed the quest in the way that I wanted. I had any number of options, including forgetting literacy all together, hiring foreign teachers, etc. It was great, and a LOT of fun.
The tutorial to the game is a little dry and gives you a very ‘on rails’ feeling – plus it’s long, and you can’t save during it which bothered me. Your best bet is to finish it as fast as you can and not dawdle until afterward. Then you’re free to do whatever you want – and wow is there a lot to do. Where as with MOST Sims games I’m spending the majority of my time decorating, this game is completely different.
So far I’ve only played the monarch NPC but you get to alternate and do quests with specific other created (or pre-created if you want) characters. I purchased a tavern for my kingdom and created Troubadour Tipa who entertains. I can use that character to complete my entertainment quests if I want. I also built a market, and have a Scopique D’Twitter character who sells wares. I haven’t gotten incredibly far in any of the stories yet or finished off more then the one quest because I’ve been side tracked by the very basic and common Sim things like interacting with every single member of my castle household, and expanding it to allow for a banquette hall for foreign visitors. I think next I’ll be working on the wizard tower, but I haven’t decided.
Learning the controls of the game was a bit different then the regular Sims games as well, and if you were tired of making sure your character went to the bathroom then fear no longer as the only two ‘bars’ you have to watch is hunger and energy. I find it amusing that my Queen is eating everything with her hands – but hey that’s how it was done. She spends a lot of time eating gruel. Gross.
The graphics are absolutely amazing, and I’ll be posting a lot more about this game as I continue playing it. Anyone else enjoying it yet? Let me know in comments! What’s your favorite part so far?
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!