Autumn's Daughter

"Autumn's Daughter" is a quick little CYOA, offering a short glimpse into an unfortunately familiar situation. I rather wish it could have been explored more. The story follows a number of different paths based on your reactions to events, but these paths always end just as the story got interesting. It's as if the whole story is about setting up the premise for another story.

(As a note, I often think that arranged marriages get a bad rap. There is this assumption that one will never be matchmade with a spouse whom one could love. But then again, if the arranged marriage did work out, I suppose there wouldn't be a story to tell. And I suppose that the point being made in "Autumn's Daughter" is not that the protagonist is being put into an arranged marriage, but that she is being used as a political pawn, and the "marriage" is no more than a mercantile contract -- her father has arranged it for his own benefit rather than for hers.)

One interesting thing I would like to point out is this apparent break in internal consistency, when the results of appealing to Layla results in two very different endings, depending on your reaction to her. Depending on whether you react with suspicion or with trust, Layla can turn out to be either a procuress or an agent of a women's emancipation organisation. Or so it appears. Taking the latter ending with a grain of salt, I wonder if the only difference is that our protagonist is, in that second ending, willing to take part in the (cough) activities demanded by Layla in the first ending -- that is, Layla's still a procuress, but now the protagonist is totally okay with that.

The game is like a croissant with a bunch of grapes and two cups of Turkish coffee. A beautifully presented wake-up call, but not very filling.