A Saint Beckons

you have found ALL allies along the way. Even if you just miss one, it's an automatice failure! If you want to try playing through it again, let me know how you get on. I'm not sure if it would be an idea for a 'solutions' section to be included on the FFProject. They do exist online for the published series of gamebooks.

I am talking, of course, about going to the Raven's camp and getting killed there. I see someone else complained about it before as well, and with all due respect to Robert Douglas, his response "Even the best agent/professional can make mistakes which actually creates some edge-of-the-seat twists and turns in a plot... EVERY real-life spec ops soldier worth their salt will tell you - that nobody, including themselves, is infallible. Everybody takes wrong turns in life." is completely ridiculous when throughout the story, you can get not one, not two, but SEVEN or EIGHT separate "hints" (some of them are like flashing neon signs, really) that the Raven is evil, yet only one of them actually stops you from going to the camp.

0: In his rantings, Brother Jacob somehow makes the conclusion that the Raven would necessarily be implicated in the scheme if you are telling the truth. I do not like this part, because it appears to come out of nowhere (same as the whole scene with his unchallenged accusations, really), and would like to see it removed, but while it's here, it's certainly a hint.

1: Prior explicitly tells you he doesn't trust the Raven and it's pretty clear he is suspicious of his involvement.

2: If you go talk to Pilgrim Seb, the protagonist's OWN THOUGHTS say that Raven must be playing some game. That choice ALONE should prevent you from going to the camp, regardless of anything else.

3: Visiting Tobias (necessary to reach Sheinton in the first place and avoid the caravan ending) tells you about the Raven's behaviour towards Annabel. Not directly related to theft itself, but certainly not good.

4: If you rescue Mary, she proves beyond doubt that the Raven is evil.

5: Lukas accuses the Raven if you beat him, regardless of what happens next. Yet, sparing him is the only thing which stops you from going to camp, and not anything else.

6: Mary's brothers tell you what happens once you reach Sheinton, and it is completely impossible to avoid that if you have made it that far. Even the Priest will tell you the Raven's soul is like that of Satan himself.

7: If you get healed by the Priest, he'll also tell you to beware.

In the light of all this, just the unavoidable hints (1, 3 and 6) should make going to the camp a choice rather than a necessity, even if the player simply gets a different gameover as the result. Getting 4 or 2 should prevent you from going to the camp same as 5, even if it won't let you win without doing everything else actually required by the narrative.

Unless cooking that rabbit is the difference between whether you still have to fight some vagabonds after killing Eli as an Archer or not? Not sure how that worked. I'll also note that if you have the flint, you should probably find and cook that rabbit even if you slit Lukas' throat.

Halberd's penalty doesn't seem to activate after the third round in the Vagabond fight? (But it does for the Lynch Mob and other infantry encounters.)

How the hell are Vagabonds armoured if you manage to snipe their crossbowman as an archer, but unarmoured if you fail, or fight them as a different background?

Does Spiked Gauntlet ever do anything, or do you have to have a non-Halberd/non-two-handed weapon?

Are the brigands who attack you at the sacred tomb mounted (even though the text says nothing like it), since you get a bonus when fighting them with the halberd? I also wonder if the dogs/hawk should have spotted them tracking you.