Court of Swords – Review by Ozark

By: Ozark
Originally posted: 14.12.2018

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Review of “Court of Swords”, written by Ouro (Snakecatcher Quest, Lamplighter Quest)

Synopsis: In the magical City, the young Sophia Pseudonym is a newly minted Public Defender, a Duelist that fights for the common people that can't afford to enlist the help of a professional Duelist when they are being challenged over slighted honor. With the help of her sword and a mysterious magical curse Sophia must set right the record and find the truth then fight for it in a duel to first-blood.
tl;dr: Ace Attorneys with Swords in magical Venice.

Story:
As a mostly episodic/slice-of-life quest (as Ouro puts it himself), CoS is less concerned with a grand overarching plot or multiple-level intrigues and more with creating a playground for the main character to evolve and develop in. Contrary to Banished Quest for example which encourages the players to go out and explore the whole wide world, the fact that the setting is limited to the City and each thread usually revolves around one duel makes it so that Sophia's story is a more personal one.
She isn't out slaying dragons or fighting ghouls, she's interrogating people that live in the next street over; she isn't setting up camp in the wilderness during downtime, she's drinking a cafe with a friend while wondering what her place in the world is.
It's very important to recognize the place the City (which we'll talk about in Setting) takes in the story as each different thread serves as much to flesh out the background as it serves to make Sophia evolve... somewhat.
As it happens, Sophia was gifted something by her magical godmother which turns out to be as much a curse as it is a boon. She is somewhat ambivalent to this as she desires to get rid of it but has a hard time not using it to further her means which is a fine motor for the “plot” to go forward.
But beyond all this, CoS is also about a young woman living in a magical city and what she does when she isn't fighting.
Note: “Nichijou/20”

Setting:
And to this end, the City is the perfect playground. Equal parts amazing and terrifying, the city reflects Sophia in it's gracious and elegant callousness, where wonder can leave place to death and even worse if you cross the wrong people.
Ouro said he wanted to make something with a “lighter tone” (which is pretty easy given Lamplighter), nobody found it strange when we saw the first chapter... But then comes the nightmare fuel which can be jarring and downright disturbing to the unprepared. When you look at the city in it's whole, it's kinda like a bear: looks beautiful, can even be cute, will definitely tear your face off if you let your guard down.
Rarely will you see a place and it's inhabitants represented so vividly (it always help to imagine it as Venice) and all the various descriptions of magic only help to consolidate the air of “otherness” the place has. Though the story may start somewhat tame in regard to general eldritchness, you'll quickly find out that all established rules of “normality” fly off the rails and you'll be constantly surprised left and right by whatever disturbing creation Ouro can come up with at the moment (special mention goes to the full-body massage of Thread 6, dear lord).
It doesn't help that Duellists themselves tend to be weirdness magnets, giving each opponent and their entourage a nice “Enemy of the Week” flavor that only goes away after Sophia inevitably manages to become “friend” with one of them. And it's a good thing too, Sophia reads the best when she has someone to play off, be it in fights or casual conversation.
Note: “It's not Warhammer you cuck/20”

Writing in general:
The writing is competent, no need to point that out. It gets detailed as needs be in the downtime but can pick up the pace when during fights or other situations. This greatly serves the quest when it gets into its weirder moments as it can properly make them shine without overstaying their welcome. Aside from rare moments in which Anon couldn't make up his mind, Ouro can usually flesh out whatever options is decided upon and while I don't know how much is prepared before hand; no particular section of the story strikes me as rushed.
The descriptions are obviously a very strong of Ouro especially when he gets into the more “out there” qualities of his work, something I can't overstate will probably creep out you out. But despite those very apparent qualities, it's hard to deny there is a very comfy aspect to this quest that shines through the grim dark cracks of this otherwise wondrous world.

Main Character:
Sophia is a... complicated character. As I said previously, her gift/curse is a source of contention for all the Anons but even then she has trouble deciding upon what kind of person she wants to be. While this is usually fine, any MC that is indecisive will have that nature naturally amplified and I feel that Sophia misses out on being more defined because she especially cannot put her mind to any single characteristic. In essence, the Sophia of Thread 7 at this point in time feels a tad too similar to the Sophia of Thread 1 except for her growing entourage which can hardly be called character development.
The worse is that it's obvious she has the opportunity to learn from previous experiences despite her curse but Anon is too much of a moron to decide what it wants to do. So while there are areas of opportunity for her to improve and become a better human being, it will be heavily dependent on Anon's input (i.e not fucking up) and them not aggressively floundering in battles due to poor comprehension of the system.
I'd argue that she suffers from not putting in the work required to overcome her curse, which makes all the “situational landmines” she walks on all the more annoying. Maybe she just needs some common-sense?
Note: “Indecision/20”

Side Characters:
As a slice-of-life quest, the characters don't have much of a chance to grow over time but all of that is wonderfully compensated by the fact that they're all fleshed out from the start and nobody feels like an afterthought. Even throwaway characters seen only during one thread are all each bizarre and distinctive, while recurring characters are charming enough that none of them come across as unneeded  even when they're written to be annoying.
I need to make an aside in regards to romantic prospects for Sophia and... well she's attracted to everybody she sees, it's actually pretty baffling.
Note: “Maccio is best waifu/20”

Rolling/Dices:
I'm writing this in my review because... boy oh BOY. This isn't your average run-of-the-mill “best of three roll 100s”. This isn't even about lifebars, specials actions and stamina points. To be fair, I could probably manage to grasp it better if I put a lot of time to it but I don't myself see the point when somebody who understands it better can put in a better and more well put action.
In fact, I'd argue this is the biggest “failing” of the quest: the system looks really well done/balanced and Ouro has enough flexibility in the workings of it that he can really make each of  our opponent's personality show (which I applaud very much)... but I cannot for the life of me use it decently. And neither can most Anons, which has lead to some disheartening defeats that many would argue were avoidable.
In essence, it's the equivalent of giving a monkey a typewriter: sure you might get Shakespeare once in a while but unless someone competent takes then reins you'll more likely end up with garbage.

As a side note, I've outsourced a more in-depth review of the fighting system to someone who gets it better than me (not an extremely difficult feat).
Note:“Couldn't understand the fighting system/20”

End word/Recap:
If you come into this quest looking for great atmosphere and mood-setting then you'll have everything you want and more. I suggest taking a cup of tea, a bunch of blankets and some strong alcohol for when the weird shit starts coming in and you should be ready for a very good quest.
But unless you have a PHD in Quests, I suggest hanging back during fights as they have a tendency to be... “complicated”.

Special note: The Anons of this quest have diverging opinions which shows, especially during fights and important decisions like which Technique to copy from a defeated opponent. To quote: “I'd liken it a lot to a california university. In absence of intelligent thought, they all feel very strongly.”