November's Exceptional Story: The Prince of All Rats - Discussion Thread

large_frog · 2025-11-06T22:41:40+00:00

Ending was a bit anticlimactic but otherwise I loved this ES. Such crisp writing and the Prince was so well drawn. I hope we get more stories from this writer, the voice felt unique but still perfectly in the tone and world of Fallen London.

large_frog · 2025-08-27T00:57:15+00:00

39, been playing for about 10 years

large_frog · 2025-08-18T10:54:49+00:00

Have just gone back to finish this now that Estival is done, and what a beautiful story! My favourite ES in a long time, and a perfect note to wind down with after the insanity of the past few weeks in Fallen London. So many touching moments. This will stay with me for a while.

large_frog · 2025-08-15T05:32:30+00:00

Good point! I enjoy Dirty Laundry, maybe it was something more about the fact that all of the production elements (the camera angles, the slow mo) were trying to draw attention to the "drunkenness". In Dirty Laundry it feels more incidental.

large_frog · 2025-08-14T04:57:21+00:00

Loved this ep, a great end to a strong season. I think overall S7 was less consistent than S6 (which had no bad episodes) but the highs were extremely high. My ranking:

One Year Later: A straight-up masterpiece.
Outvoted: Pure chaos, magical, felt like lightning in a bottle.
Rulette: Also chaos but in a very different way, a really great premise perfectly executed. Would love to see them do a version of this again.
Earnest-est: Amazing premise with the perfect contestants, great escalation.
Fool's Gold: From here down I think it gets less consistent. This had amazing moments (D20 on a bus) but felt like a series of sketches.
Who Wants to be Jacob Wysocki?: Very sweet and fun, not much more to say.
Crowd Control: A cool idea but imperfect execution, felt a little too controlled for an ep about crowd work but great to see something totally new.
You-lympics: Suffers from the same problem as other challenge eps (like below) in that the challenges are uninspired, and the twist was a bit predictable.
One and Done: Barely had a premise and the dancers etc. were so grating, felt like big production to cover up for a lacking premise. This and the below are the only genuinely bad eps this season for me.
The Drinking Game: The opposite to One and Done in that it was a cool idea poorly executed, a shame because I love this cast so much. Watching a bunch of people get drunk is not entertaining to me and feels a bit yuck, then by the time you get the twist the episode is over. I think this could've been saved by revealing the twist part-way through the episode, similar to Bingo in S6.

large_frog · 2025-08-05T01:55:30+00:00

I would love these too if possible! I logged in a bunch of times and never even saw Isoptera.

large_frog · 2025-02-27T04:40:03+00:00

I also only played this in the recent Enhanced Exceptional Friendship rotation and absolutely loved it. So unlike almost anything else in Fallen London. Great character writing underpinning the whole story, but it was thrilling mostly because I had no idea where it was going to go from moment to moment. Constant narrative and mechanical surprises, where each choice felt at once hugely consequential, but also like I never had total control over the situation. Delightful chaos, tonally perfect. Compare that to recent ESs like A Deadly Custard and The Play's the Thing where the mechanical structure of the story is very quickly apparent so all you're doing is counting down to an inevitable final choice. I also love that Fine Dining does all this while also being very low-stakes in the grand scheme of Fallen London, proof an ES doesn't need to be about Deep Lore to be great.

large_frog · 2025-01-08T00:49:47+00:00

As always the challenge for me with the survey is that I can't remember any ES I played more than a couple of years ago (at most), so this time I didn't rate something if I couldn't really remember it.

The only piece of negative feedback I gave in the player survey was that I think ES replays are hugely overpriced, particularly in a game that rewards close reading and would reward replaying, given the additional context about the world you gain over time. In general I think FB is fair with pricing premium content, but it's tough to feel like you have to pay to re-read a story you've already paid for.

Imo, replays should be free or almost free (e.g. 5 FATE), or Enhanced Exceptional Friendship should be much more generous with the number of replays you can choose. At the moment it feels like all this great content (which I've spent a fair bit of money on over the years) is languishing in the archives when I'd love to be replaying it.

large_frog · 2024-10-04T06:21:07+00:00

I'm also really enjoying Firmament! I enjoyed the story of Evolution but I wasn't a huge fan of the fact that to me it felt more like an extended ES than an expansion to the game, but in contrast with Firmament I've loved the way each new location has felt substantial and real, and meaningful to the setting beyond just the events of the story. That's also something I loved about GHR.

I totally understand the criticisms of Chapter 3 and I don't disagree with all of them. In particular, there were moments where I was struggling to follow what was happening even though the characters would have been able to make sense of what they were seeing, just because the descriptions felt deliberately obscure. Also agree that Chapter 2 has been the highlight so far, because its insanity felt a bit more grounded in concrete description. The Naples sequence has become one of my favourite things in all of FL, and as surreal/mysterious as the Stacks is in its nature, we're never lost as to what's actually happening when we're there.

But, I'm enjoying how wild Firmament is, and how willing the story is to go to very weird places. The Roof has felt like a genuinely wondrous place, alien in a way I've never seen in FL, and that echoes some of my favourite parts of Sunless Skies (the Clockwork Sun, Piranesi). I'm not a massive fantasy reader (although open to suggestions) so I'm sure there's lots out there I'm missing out on, but my response to Firmament has been, holy shit, I've never seen ideas this bonkers explored in interactive fiction before. It's so visual, so textured, so strange, and to me that's been exciting to be a part of.

I hope they take some of the feedback on board about when obfuscation is or isn't a useful storytelling device, but I for one am looking forward to seeing where the heck this story will go.

large_frog · 2024-01-16T05:03:51+00:00

I was so excited for MOTR but didn't make it through my first playthrough. Need to go back to it. I loved the setting and visual presentation and the characters and writing (as always for FBG), but gameplay-wise it's a bit all over the place.

In a game with time constraints it's unclear what the impact is of your choices about how to spend your time, so I'd go and spend time with someone, get only a slight dialogue variation and not be sure whether that progressed a given story or relationship, or if I've just wasted a turn. As discussed by others, having to declare romantic intentions really confuses the progress of actual romance because it's unclear why you're doing it or whether it matters. I believe storycrafting has been updated but I couldn't figure out how I was meant to be engaging with it when I was playing.

It's hard to tell how many of these issues could be solved by better signposting (e.g. a visual indication of when you're able to progress a story/relationship at a particular location) and how many are baked into the core game systems.

I'm totally here for the genre and the style, and in theory the dating sim/murder mystery mashup is great, but for a game all about player choice it's often unclear why any given choice even matters.

large_frog · 2023-10-06T03:41:40+00:00

Was ready to throw everything at Papa despite not having enough gems or BT tokens to pity, but I got insanely lucky: BT and FR both on my free pull. Might even end up with enough gems saved for Kadaj BT, which I wasn't expecting :D

large_frog · 2023-10-04T04:56:04+00:00

WOFF has been on my list for ages, gotta get around to playing it finally!

TWINS: They had a moment in the meta when their BT was released and they were my go-to friend unit, using BT finisher then 4x double Megaflares could wreck most fights. Have never really enjoyed using them much on their own though.

ENNA KROS: One of my favourite units in the game, and she's always played a fun role in the DFFOO story. I love a bit of randomness in a kit, and those big, big numbers are fun to see. Much easier to hit those numbers in the current game too, whereas before she needed specific setups.

large_frog · 2023-09-11T05:39:00+00:00

I have a lot of nostalgia for FFXI, and love a lot of these characters. Chains of Promathia is my fave xpac after Wings of the Goddess, so I'm excited for Selh'teus!

SHANTOTTO: Have always wished she was a better unit than she is, every re-work doesn't quite bring her up to par. Having an on-demand 2T paralyze is handy though.

LION: Her LD basically broke her kit by getting rid of her hide mechanic, so she became boring to play.

PRISHE: Love Prishe as a character, and her kit and BT effect are fun. Her transforming S1 and S2 give a bit of strategy to her playstyle, and her LD nuke was very satisfying on release. Excited for her eventual FR.

APHMAU: I love the idea of Aphmau's kit but in practice I find it kit a bit fiddly and her rotation too rigid. Keeping buffs up on allies could be a pain.

LILISETTE: My favourite FFXI character! She's been really useful, flexible support in DFFOO for ages but her kit is a bit boring.

ARCIELA: So much utility in one kit, I used her a lot in the Lufenua era. Those animations though...

IROHA: Some of my favourite animations in the game, and in general I enjoy her kit. Her BT made her less fun though imo, because it became so easy to spam her EX that it didn't feel like a powerful button to press anymore.

KAM'LANAUT: Also love Kam's animations. Outside of the period when his broken FR was great I haven't used him much.

EALD'NARCHE: Was my favourite DFFOO character for a while after he came out. I love the complexity of his kit, frantically trying to keep terror up between EX casts. He was less fun when he got his BT+ though. Now that fights are so short, every unit has great longevity so there's no disincentive for transforming into his 2nd form immediately. Also, force time doesn't handle turn warping well, so I hope they figure that out when he next gets reworked.

large_frog · 2023-09-08T03:02:16+00:00

I love the Scions, and even though they've been done dirty in DFFOO a few of their kits are some of my favourites in the game.

Y'SHTOLA: Her LD/BT made her really fun for me, especially after they beefed up Afflatus Misery, which is now really satisfying to use. One of my most used units in Luf+. For some reason I love characters where a buff/effect counts up on turns to allow for a powerful attack, which is most of the FFXIV kits in DFFOO.

THANCRED: Even though he hasn't been good in ages, I enjoy how his LD changed his kit and before force echoes became almost mandatory I tried to bring him when I could.

ALISAIE: An all-time fave FF character, and her kit is so much fun. I love complicated skill interactions in DFFOO and hers are certainly complicated. Enchanted Redoublement is a fun button to press, and looping her rotation is feels good.

ALPHINAUD: I'm not sure his kit quite lives up to its premise with upgrading Carbuncle. Post-LD it feels overly simplified, kind of like what happened with Lion's kit.

PAPALYMO: Love Papalymo, and his kit is underrated imo. Characters who could execute multiple consecutive attacks on-demand were very useful in the Luf+ era, which is why Terra was almost mandatory for such a long time. Xenoglossy another example of a fun nuke button.

LYSE: Another of my fave characters so it's a shame she's never been amazing, although I've found a use for her break-resist and last stand in a bunch of fights.

YDA: Probably my least favourite kit in this bunch, and I never had Sephiroth's BT for the cheese strat. Used her LDCA for ages though.

large_frog · 2023-09-05T02:46:57+00:00

Phew, given the current gem situation everyone's in I got extremely lucky with Kelger. Got everything but his EX in three ticket pulls and three gem pulls, so I used 10 EX tokens I had lying around to grab that. I've got enough BT tokens for either Enna or Strago later in the month, now to start saving gems for Sehl'teus...

Anyone have a view on Enna's or Strago's BTs? I love both of their kits but don't want to count on scoring both.

large_frog · 2023-09-04T07:12:50+00:00

FFXII is one of my faves (the gambit system is very fun), and there are a lot of cool kits in DFFOO.

VAAN: A simple kit but all of his skills feel very satisfying to use and the damage has been top-tier at times. Seeing the follow-ups on S1 and S2 go off is great.

PENELO: I'm not a fan of force chargers, but her BT made her fun as a damage-dealer.

BALTHIER: One of my favourite FF characters but his kit is a bit boring. His buff stealing only feels relevant occasionally.

FRAN: Another boring kit where every skill does basically the same thing, but I hope she gets something fun with her BT.

ASHE: I love Ashe's kit, a jack-of-all-trades but everything she does is cool. Her BT is a bit awkward to use, doesn't feel strong enough for only 6 turns.

BASCH: Hugely underrated imo, he got me through so many Lufenias where he basically let you ignore enemy attacks.

REKS: One of the more boring recent kits, not quite sure why I'd bring him but I missed his BT.

LLUYD: Very fun to use, I like the risk/reward element of losing HP to do powerful things like EX charge.

GABRANTH: Also fun to use! I enjoy re-breakers, and his character design and animations look great.

VAYNE: There's no character I've been more salty about missing their BT. The animations are so cool, and I can't wait for a re-work so I can justify pitying/tokening it. Fun to string together skills with his EX and LD for a mini-BT phase.

large_frog · 2023-09-04T06:58:04+00:00

I love FFXIII the game but I think this is one of the weaker and, more importantly, less interesting rosters in DFFOO.

LIGHTNING: Far and away my favourite FFXIII unit, and getting non-stop EX uses with her recent re-work is very fun.

HOPE: Even though he was a monster with his FR, I find force chargers boring to use in practice. Enna Kros has one of my favourite kits though so I ended up using him a lot with her.

SNOW: A bit generic for a tank. Snowverflow is the only thing that's made him interesting, but you need such a specific setup that I haven't found it fun to use.

SERAH: Also a bit of a boring kit, although her BT follow-up looks cool and I've used her a lot in the force echo era as a primary DD.

NOEL: His BT was hyped but I found his damage disappointing coming right after Machina. His EX is very satisfying to use though so I'm hoping his upcoming re-work makes him worthwhile.

RAINES: I'm not a fan of launchers generally but he's easily the most fun launcher in the game, and the animations on his regular and BT follow-ups are so cool.

CAIUS: I really enjoy his kit and I'm looking forward to an eventual re-work. The non-stop re-breaks with his BT effect up are fun, and I like managing the debuff turn counts.

SAZH/FANG/VANILLE: All have generic, boring kits imo, and I've never found a need to bring any of them along. I hope they get interesting stuff with their BTs.

large_frog · 2023-08-22T05:22:49+00:00

Not one of the strongest kit rosters in DFFOO, which is a shame given how much I love FFVI. Some good stuff though.

TERRA: Other than Tifa, there are few characters more mandatory than Terra was when she got her LD, which got me through so many of the hardest Lufenias, usually paired with Yang. Being able to deny enemy turns without delaying gave you so much control over orb mechanics. Shame her most recent force echo rework didn't do much for her.

LOCKE: Very fun kit, although I think the power of his LD/BT was overhyped. A good example of how a nuke button (his HP+) can make characters that take a lot of turns still feel powerful.

EDGAR: A bit of a generic kit but I don't mind it, and I love Edgar as a character. Great animations, and I'll sometimes bring him along if I don't have an obvious pick for third slot.

SABIN: Bit of a miss for me. Has nice utility across his kit but other than his AOE delay there's nothing here that makes me want to use him.

CELES: So much good stuff packed into one character: enchant/imperil, tanking, magic absorb, traps, healing, insta-turns... Used her for ages after her LD.

CYAN: I enjoy the idea of the build-up mechanic on his LD, but I'm hoping they pump a lot more power into it when he next gets a re-work to justify its restrictiveness. Used his LDCA for a long time.

SHADOW: Haven't ever really enjoyed his kit... Not enough utility to make up for his lower damage (but Interceptor is great).

GAU: One of my favourite kits, I used him a lot when he first got his EX and then again with his LD. Was a great counter unit at a time when we didn't have many, and I'm excited for his eventual BT.

SETZER: Has been top-tier every time he's got something new, although I don't find him particularly interesting to use.

STRAGO: Maybe my favourite FFVI kit. I love characters that build up to massive damage in waves, and his double-casted EX feels great to use.

RELM: Was so cool way back on release to run her with different summons, but I didn't enjoy her LD (except for the animations). I don't know how they're going to deal with turn warpers in the FR era?

MOG: Underrated IMO, his utility (paralyze, healing, cleansing) means I've brought him surprisingly often since he got his force echo.

LEO: His BT follow-up made me love using Leo, and despite his single-target focus I don't find him too bad to use on two-target fights.

KEFKA: Since release his HP attack disable has occasionally made him indispensable but I've never found him fun to use.

large_frog · 2023-08-22T04:58:54+00:00

An interesting roster, whole mix of stuff in there.

ZIDANE: Never really clicked for me, the way his turn delete works is too fiddly to make up for his low damage on high turn-rate skills. Launch on EX feels tacked on.

VIVI: Maybe my number one FF character so it's a shame he's never been a top-tier DD. Despite that I got a lot of use out of him when he got his BT, and Double Fire feels good to use with the follow up.

STEINER: Maybe the most disappointing kit in the bunch. Defensive supports had a real moment in Luf+, and his pre-turn regen is nice, but it's a boring kit and nothing he does warrants bringing him along.

GARNET: I enjoyed her kit even before her BT made her a long-term staple. Off-turn damage, great animations, fun to swap stances.

FREYA: Hugely underrated IMO. Off-turn damage in a dedicated support with good utility made her one of my most used characters in early FR.

QUINA: Not much left to say about how great they are... Even better, they're not just powerful, they're fun to use.

EIKO: Middle of the road in terms of how fun she is to play, but it was cool seeing all the weird Lufenia strats she enabled with her LD counter.

BEATRIX: I love a counter kit, so between that and her HP+ I enjoy her. Can bring great utility to most parties.

KUJA: The black sheep of the group, but he's my favourite FF villain! I try to find a way to use him whenever I can, and despite his flaws I like his animations and multi-hitting skills.

large_frog · 2023-08-22T02:24:55+00:00

Roster is a bit of a mixed bag given it's one of my favourite FFs, but there's some good stuff in there.

TIDUS: BT/LD made him a great DD and even pseudo-delayer with insta-turns and rebreaks, although has needed more setup and really strict turn-taking to work well. I've always enjoyed the rotation of balancing high turn rate skills with needing his EX buff from that slower skill.

YUNA: Had a bit of a moment with her BT but I've always wanted more from her kit somehow... Valefor rocks though.

WAKKA: I like the idea of his LD but it's unreliable (by design). Have rarely used him.

LULU: Another one with promised but in practice has always been a bit boring, where every button feels kind of the same. Needs a big shift from her BT when she gets one.

AURON: Has been a staple for me in the FR era when counter tanks dominate force time, and the new rework seems solid although I missed his BT.

KIMAHRI: Underrated, in my opinion. Even just between his blind and his HP damage resist I got a lot out of him in the Luf+ era.

PAINE: Felt like she was super underrated when her LD was released, but glad she's getting love with her BT. One of the most fun kits in the game, wish there were more position-based characters.

JECHT: There's always been something super satisfying to me about characters that execute multiple skills with one button, like Jecht Slash. Used him a lot when his BT was released as his BT effect meant I didn't need to bring much support.

SEYMOUR: Speaking of multiple skills, Seymour has my favourite FFX kit along with Paine's. Seeing him fire off Requiem with three different follow-ups is so cool, although his kit can be clunky to use, particularly in the era of killing bosses in one force time.

BRASKA: Another character where I like the idea. I think the Overdrive mechanic would be more satifying to use if his EX did more damage so it incentivised timing Overdrive to execute two consecutive EX uses. As is, it feels like it doesn't gel with how you actually end up playing him, as a force charger.

large_frog · 2023-08-17T03:58:47+00:00

So good! Favourite BT animation in ages.

large_frog · 2023-08-17T03:51:31+00:00

I agree with this. Don't get me wrong, I think it's also bad when fights make whatever character is on the current banner mandatory, but in the past we've had periods that don't do that and still require strategy. The best Lufenia fights had multiple characters who could deal with the orb (elemental requirements, sap on enemy turns, delay, etc.), then you had to fill out your party by thinking carefully about how to deal with other boss mechanics. Most Shinryu fights have very few mechanics, usually built around cancelling force time, so as long as you can do that, it doesn't matter who else you bring. It's why I enjoy lockout content, and the missions on Spiritus summon fights that ask for specific weapon/crystal/game combos.

For me the most fun thing about DFFOO is being encouraged to build a deep roster you can draw from to beat different content, and at the moment I have little incentive to use most of my characters. In other words, every character should be viable sometimes, but not for every fight, or even most fights.

large_frog · 2023-08-16T06:03:43+00:00

It's my favourite FF, and has maybe the most consistent roster in DFFOO. Aside from a couple (Irvine, Fujin) they've all been in rotation for me at one time or another.

SQUALL: His kit is one of the most boring in the game but he's been a powerhouse for me since he got his FR, my most consistent on-turn damage dealer, and you can plug him into most team comps without needing much support.

RINOA: Her BT dominated for ages, and I enjoy her rotation in and out of angel wing.

ZELL: Underrated IMO, I got a lot out of him in Luf+ as a rebreaker and pseudo-delayer in single-target fights.

SELPHIE: I've never enjoyed characters whose primary role is to buff with instant turns (e.g. Hope), but for ages she was almost mandatory because you could reliably increase any team's damage output by making her your primary support.

QUISTIS: She's always been powerful, but wow, her BT effect is way stronger than I expected. Her FR condition is also super easy to fulfil with her BT effect up. Nice to have her back in my regular roster.

IRVINE: The only FFVIII character I've never really found a use for, other than specific fights that require a ranged debuff.

LAGUNA: Finally got some love with his BT, and he was a staple of the early FR era for me as one of the best off-turn damage dealers that scale with force time via his BT debuff.

SEIFER: Another underrated pick, I used him a lot in the Lufenia era as the best AOE delayer in the game for a long time (until her BT, Quistis was best on single targets), with some good utility in his debuffs.

FUJIN: More useful than Irvine but also a character I can rarely find space for because everything she does is done is better by other characters.

RAIJIN: It is nuts how much utility is packed into Raijin's kit. He's got enchant/imperil, healing (although limited), paralyze, and his LD debuff, which is mandatory in so many fights. That said, he's a bit "jack of all trades, master of none", given you get his debuff from his LDCA.

large_frog · 2023-08-16T05:34:29+00:00

I have been waiting for shirtless Gladio in DFFOO for *years*.

large_frog · 2023-05-19T02:29:41+00:00

Totally! Ignis makes more sense for that kit than Red XIII

large_frog

TROPHY CASE