Stronghold: A Hero’s Fate
"Stronghold: A Hero’s Fate" is a 250,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Amy Griswold and Jo Graham, where your choices control the story. It's entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
Monsters have plagued your valley for as long as you can remember. But if anyone can destroy them, it’s you: you’ve already killed a powerful undead lich, and your sovereign was so impressed that he gave you a town in return. As the ruler of this new settlement, you’ll fend off invading goblin armies, flesh-eating bats, and feuding warriors in your quest to build a thriving community.
Now that you have your own stronghold, will you raise an army to repel the monsters once and for all? Or will you hold power for a lifetime without ever attacking another soul? Harness your strength, cunning, and even magic to defend your citadel and help your people prosper.
Invest in trade, mining, or farming—but choose your favorites wisely. Show mercy and forgiveness to your enemies, or be bold and aggressive as you expand your realm. Will the burden of governance make you serious and solemn, or will you retain your sense of humor and win fans near and far? Which groups will you please, when you can’t ever please everyone? And when the end draws near, will you be respected, forgotten, or reviled?
Will you triumph as a great leader, or see your stronghold fall?
• Play as male, female, or non-binary, gay or straight.
• Enjoy an epic fantasy of adventure, friendship, and city-building.
• Lead your people as a bold warrior, clever diplomat, or fledgling sorcerer.
• Defeat a goblin army or make peace with your people's oldest enemies.
• Rule on blood feuds between your townspeople, or just judge the best pickles at the harvest fair.
• Court a spouse (or two), or found a new family with a sworn sibling.
• Select an heir to continue your legacy.
Category : Role Playing
Reviews (23)
Really cool story, good game, only one issue: it's kind of annoying you don't have the option to undo your last choice, or rewind to the beginning of a chapter. You can only restart the ENTIRE game, which is annoying as all hell when you accidentally click the wrong button. I'll give it a higher rating if an Undo and/or Restart From Chapter option is added :)
A very interesting story that really draws you in. The variety of endings are nice but replaying to see all of them quickly gets repetitive. I wish it was longer and that there was more interaction with the different buildings possible to build. I greatly enjoyed how inclusive the game was, it is fantasy as it should be.
I enjoyed this game greatly. I was slightly annoyed at how politically correct it was, but then again... These games are supposed to give you as many choices as possible sooo... *shrugs* After the final battle with the goblins I recommend setting up the "Its been a wonderful life" song. It just happened to be playing while I was reading the epilouge and it brought all kinds of emotions to the surface.
While I was enjoying the story I have to agree 6 dollars for a game that isn't very long seems a little over priced. Now this can be fixed by reducing the price or making it free and offering ingame options that u can pay for. Say u pay 3 dollars and you get a special gift say it's a sword or something that goes along with the storyline. Or maybe even just have some choices that u can't choose unless u purchase the game, hopefully in the future these things can be worked out.
One of the best choices stories. It felt good playing it from beginning to end. I'm sad it ended.. a part 2 as a continuation would actually be great. The game usually offers multiple choices to choose from which are different.
It starts out decent enough, but the fact that every other character you run into happens to be nonbinary is a bit distracting and annoying. It's fine enough giving the player choice to choose your gender (or lack there of) but it seems really shoehorned in when there's so many nonbinary characters running around that the MC just knows automatically are nonbinary is a little immersion breaking at least for me.
I was disappointed in this title, I found the stronghold / City management portion to be very superficial and most of the game devoted to interpersonal relationships which is fine, but not what I was looking for. I found titles like Swamp Castle or especially Choice of Rebels to be much more inspired.
Very good game. Wish it were a little bit longer, it definitely needs a sequel. Maybe play as Petta or Rana. Only real criticism, it needs a section that explains the stats and how they are used, like alot of other games. But overall a very solid game. I would recommend.
Amazing! A great choice of games. So many intricate systems and choices, with great and memorable characters. The writing and humor are great. This game has definite replay value and was a thrilling ride from beginning to end.
I played through once, and was pretty satisfied with how things developed. I feel a little underwhelmed by my story's finale, but it was a reasonable conclusion. I reccomend it for other people who like Kingmaker style management.
I seemed to have zipped through this quickly and it was not worth the cost. I barely had any conflict and managed to get a perfectly good character and a perfect city with little struggle. Wish it were longer and more challenging.
A well written story where choices matter. While the supporting characters are tropes, they are well described and you do care about what they think. I've run through it three times in less than a day and enjoyed it each time. I am glad I bought it and appreciate the effort that went into creating it.
An interest adventure into the role of a leader. It does an excellent job portraying the difficulties and controversies faced by budding community. The characters feel real, and I can't wait to see more of them as I explore alternate story paths. All in all, an engaging and rewarding experience.
The game was really really good, one of the best 'choice of games' titles i played, the only thing that kinda threw me off was the fact that no matter what everybody was so forgiving and no one really opposed me (bit too light fantasy for me). If there were more internal conficts or characters that would forgive another no matter what that would be cool. Btw i played a scolar so my knowledge(and only that) was high
Honestly this was a low point for 'choice of games' this story while mildly entertaining is far too short and far too exspensive. I actually got it refunded not because of the quality(it was decent) but for the shortness of it. I plan on buying another 'choice of games' product perhaps one that is longer than 1 hour.
One of the best interactive novels I've tried. It is written very well and appeals to th emotions of the reader. I love the way all the romantic paths were written and how it turned out, and although it has elements of fantasy, it feels very realistic. I've played this game so many times I lost count. This is a game worth trying, I'm in love with it and I know others will too.
I was pleasantly surprised. From previous reviews, I expected a shallow experience, but I must say that I fervently disagree with these negative criticisms. The story is really well written with good world-building, and excellent options that lends itself well to several replays. The characters are far from generic and are fully developed, even if their inspiration come from common fantasy tropes. I look forward to reading more works from this author in the future. An enthusiastic 5 stars!
Not very good. the story is very straight line with pretty weak dialogue and characters with zero depth. Also it struggles to be very PC making a third of the characters transgender or something. Not worth the time and definitely not worth the money.
What a great story and I mean it's a story of you caring for your land and it make care for the people who live there and make me want to protect it like a family and I can say all the character are well developed with a sense of development in every plot, I go through the pacifist route and I can say it was worth it for befriending the king of goblin man that was an exciting story.
Fun adventure, good characters only a few minor complaints about something's not available to all genders. Normally I am annoyed with the dozen of Pronouns but they are used not as the characters defining trait which is nice to see.
I was hoping it would be a really good town builder with armies and territories. But it's far more basic and limited. A world style conquer/diplomacy with main storyline was needed but never achieved.
its great! i love the attention to detail, and the inclusivity is a joyous sight in a setting often refused it. Any further compliments would be spoilers, and you'll have to find them for yourself!
Very satisfying experience with memorable characters. I really appreciated the nonbinary inclusion. I did encounter one bug where some text was messed up and the person I was courting accidentally got me into a three person relationship somehow! But it didn't detract from the overall experience. It was a lot of fun trying to carefully pick my way to a nonviolent ending, and I can see there's a lot of potential paths and replay value here.