One More Run

Twin armies under the twin suns, both ready to lay down their lives for their respective countries. 

One clad in black, and the other in gold; it's obvious who the villains are. 

With a nod, I signal the generals to commence the battle. 

And so, the twin armies under the twin suns fought; molding into a single violent vortex of gold and black death. 

I had lost the battle; my army in black was no more. 

"Defeat." My screen was replaced by the defeat screen as I slumped back in my chair. 

"Shit." I curse, reeling in from the fact that a week of grinding had just gone up in smoke. 

This was Chronicles of Eos, a popular Real-Time Strategy game. It was well received by critics over its in-depth resource management and life-like AI for all of the NPCs in the game. But for the community, there was one fatal flaw that has held the game back– its inflexibility for playing as the "evil" country in the game. 

The evil country, or as it's called in-game, Ars Goetia, is composed of demons that had claimed independence from the Human-led country of Aurum over a hundred years ago. 

The in-game story has both countries starting off at a boiling point in the political climate, as one of the princes of Aurum had been assassinated in a goodwill visit on Ars Goetian lands. From there, we take on the role of either kingdom's lead strategist– and all of our decisions lead up to this one final grand battle. 

But what the game doesn't tell you, or more so hides, is that choosing Ars Goetia as your country means you will always lose. It's a ridiculous statement, that you will always lose if you pick one of the only two available choices in the game; but it was true. I've been playing Chronicles of Eos, or CoE for nearly over two years now. I remember when I had first gotten the game, I played as Aurum on my first few playthroughs; it's what everyone online had recommended to do so. Sure, it was challenging, and the AI-controlled Ars Goetia can and will beat you in the final battle. But as long as you played your cards right and had half of an idea of what you were doing; you would usually win. 

But on the flip side, playing as Ars Goetia against the AI-controlled Aurum… it was a bad joke. You're given only a quarter of the starting resources that you'd normally get if you played as Aurum with Ars Goetia, and the majority of the royal houses under your kingdom were either on the verge of collapse or plotting betrayal. The lesser countries that populate the game are unfriendly towards you and your own people are distrusting of the kingship. Choosing Ars Goetia meant you're willingly setting yourself up for failure, and you have to do everything within your power to eke out any and all minor victories. That was the reality of it all, and even if you played perfectly and got every single possible resource available to you in the game– your chances of victory against Aurum were virtually impossible.

I continued to stare at the defeat screen, my eyes slowly creeping over to the exit button; I should really get some sleep. 

But, before I do– the least I have to do is watch the defeat cinematic– for her sake. 

"Do not weep, my friend." A young demon girl, the country's Queen, dressed in her country's proud black, sat battered and bloodied atop a pile of rubble; she was speaking to you, the strategist. 

"It was not your fault. Why, we had only come this far due to your stalwart volition; your belief in our people." She held the disembodied head of one of her generals, and gently closed his eyes in her lap. 

"There will come a time when this land, our land, will be free. Maybe not now, maybe not in a hundred, or five hundred, or a thousand years… but that freedom, it will come." 

"Let us meet again when that time comes… when our spirits can finally dance in peace under the moonlight." She gave me a warm smile as she closed her eyes, dying peacefully atop of the rubble. 

The screen then turned black, prompting me if I would like to start a new game. 

This was my nine hundred and ninety-ninth run of playing as the Ars Goetia. I had seen this same defeat cinematic every single time, and had scoured the web to see if anyone else had ever gotten the victory screen; but no one ever has.

I stare at the option to start a new game, was I crazy enough to start my thousandth run? Am I in the latter stages of psychosis? Nothing would change. 

Nothing would change…

One more game wouldn't hurt, would it?