Talon's End
Latest major update: 12/31/23 | Blog link
Talon's End is a fantasy interactive fiction game about transformation, growth, duty, and love in its many forms. It is written with an adult audience in mind and contains some darker themes, but the demo does not contain any explicit content and should be appropriate for ages 16+. The age rating may change for the full version. Please check CWs when starting the game!
You were never destined to marry for love.
As the third child of the Earl of Eastthorn, your purpose is to marry to your family's advantage, but after one failed engagement already, your prospects are less than promising. So when the Crown calls upon you to infiltrate the lair of an Elven sorcerer in search of a powerful magical weapon, the offer is too good for your family to refuse.
But leaving your respectable home to marry an immortal being of immense power quickly puts you in uncharted territory. Between your secretive, disagreeable spouse and their labyrinthine spire infested with strange creatures, your mission to uncover their secrets is risky from the start. But as you come to know both your partner and your new home at Talon's End, you discover terrors and wonders unlike anything you've known–and the true price of your mission.
Hawk (gender-selectable m/f/nb)
Ancient, inscrutable, and ornery, Hawk is your immortal Elven spouse. They are a being of few words, and those words are often less than friendly. You're taking your life into your hands coming to live in their tower and spy on them. But are they perhaps kinder than they let on? Or are they just as dangerous as they first appear?
Shea (gender-selectable m/f/nb)
Shea is the outgoing and kindhearted owner of the general store in town. Through their regular deliveries to Hawk's tower, they've gotten to know Hawk- -and now, you. They seem eager to make you feel welcome in your new home. But do they have other motives? Or is their compassion genuine?
Current demo features:
- Player character with customizable gender, pronouns, romantic/physical attraction, etc.
- Relationships with Hawk and Shea can be romantic, platonic, physical, or a combination; plus, a poly triad option!
- Options to explore the player character's gender and attraction beyond initial choices
- Choice-heavy (not stat-heavy) story with narration that adapts to your MC's personality
- Achievements for doing silly (and cool) things
Upcoming features:
- Option to bypass mentions of societal bigotry
- Additional codex and story journal entries
- More detailed character profiles
Development log
- The State of Talon's End: November 202412 days ago
- Talon's End - Demo Update 1Dec 31, 2023
- Talon's End Extras & Progress UpdateOct 18, 2023
- Demo v0.1.1 Update & Blog LinkJul 01, 2023
- Demo v0.1.0!Jun 30, 2023
Comments
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I LOVE this!!!!! I love the story and i was SO HAPPY to finally have an intersex option for my characters!!!!!!! The characters in the story feel pretty real and i just... I just love it. Thank you.
I hope this is still being worked on. It's a really unique story and I'd love to read more.
Edit: Found their Tumblr. It's still being worked on so I'm happy.
I hope there would be further update for this because it's so fascinating:3
this is amazing!!!!! your writing and worldbuilding is so captivating and enchanting i was just sucked into it completely and lost all track of time. the descriptions, the dialogues, the choices - they were all so satisfying to read and experience!!! and i absolutely adore the characters, especially the siblings / in-laws, they're so?? they have so much depth as side characters and i love their interactions with the main character. it's so heartwarming T_T thank you for sharing such a wonderful story with us, i can't wait to see where this goes!!!
This is great! Love the tone of this, it really feels like a fairy tale. I have a question about the male protagonist though, is there a reason he isn't obliged to serve in the army like Soren? Or has he already? Also how old is the protagonist supposed to be?
Those are great questions! There isn’t currently a draft/forced conscription, but Soren felt compelled by the family’s military history to enlist. It’s his own sense of duty that made his enlistment inevitable rather than a legal requirement to do so. The protagonist doesn’t have a set age, but I usually consider them to be somewhere in their mid twenties to early thirties. A significantly older protagonist may need a little looser interpretation of canon, but anything early twenties and up could work if you squint!
i love my husband hawks and i will stay be side him
whos invitation will you acceptI WANT TO GO WITH MY WIFE
Sophie Howl vibes ( ꈍᴗꈍ) the story is so cute, and the worldbuilding is great!
This is really interesting! Tbh I really like the setting where elves didn't just live in mansion haha. I can't wait for future updates!
If I have some gripes, it's just that it can be pretty hard to see black letter with dark purple background and otherwise. I have to squint before I can find the start game button in the starting page... The layout is really beautiful though!
Thank you so much! And I do have some UI updates to improve the default theme’s readability that will go live with the next big update! (Though aside from the colors and a few tweaks, I can’t take credit for how nice the UI is–I used this template by Vahnya!)
omg this is soooo good ??? the mc's siblings and in-laws are soooo endearing, and i love the ro's !!! i also really love the magic tower, it's so interesting, and i love the elf lore !!! definitely looking forward to more of this !!!!!
Oh my, just finished playing and it was amazing! I love where the story is going and I can't wait for updates! <3
After planning on playing through this current demo I finally got to it today and was absolutely not disappointed.
the story setting is fascinating in a world aware but cautious of magic, the mc is AMAZINGLY customized and suited for countless different needs and types, each character adds another realm to the story, and the interactions are incredibly varied.
all in all, I'll be patiently and happily waiting for further updates
Super love this demo!!! It has a lot of potential and I'm excited to see how it goes :)
[Bug notice]
Thank you for the bug report! Should all be fixed, but let me know if anything like this pops up again!
Do u have a patreon?
I don’t, but thanks for asking! If you’re looking for bonus stories, there are some interactive ones here and some snippets on my blog.
Love it and it was sooo good with how engaging and immersive it is. Also, piss off, former fiancé. As for MC and the geckos, too cute. It’s giving Rapunzel and Pascal lol. Anyway, I’m gonna thaw your heart, Hawk!
Enjoyed the story very much. And the characters, especially the siblings and their partners! It would be nice if the MC and Hawk could show a bit more personality. Like, we've chosen all their traits but it's just not showing. But I understand this is still a work in progress. Can't wait to see what happens next! 💙
Not sure if this was asked but.... (maybe spoiler)
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is there no way to wear the gift from Hawk? I tried so many variations to be able to wear it but every time mother kept taking it away.
There’s no way to wear it at the wedding, but you may have another opportunity to wear it later in the story!
Thank you and good to know ^^ Can't wait to read more
Ohh, I like it!
Genuinely one of the better games I have played. Only one small bug I've noticed, if you have multiple sets of pronouns(like he/they) it will print both sometimes. Example being "Oh, I remember him, them." It's happened multiple times throughout the game
Thanks for letting me know about the pronoun bug! I think all the problem passages have been fixed now, but if you still run into it after a refresh, please let me know where it pops up!
this is by far the most invested I’ve ever been in a itch game! It’s really the one I love the most, maybe because I can play my MC so close to my actual personality. (And by that I mean talking as little as possible and being generally introverted.) I took the survey, can’t wait for the next update. Keep up the great work!
Hey, I just want to ask. Will the final version of the game be paid for ?
Sorry for my english, it is not my first language
PS: I really love the DEMO
I’m glad you’re enjoying it, and no need to apologize for your English! I’m planning on the final version of the game being free to play! :)
Thank you because I really enjoy the game and I don't really have money actually
Love your writting, I was totally immersed ! 👍
LITERALLY AMAZING. Thank you for making this game I cannot WAIT for the next update. Everything clearly has so much care and detail put into it, and as a trans person the extra moments added if the MC is trans literally made me cry. I feel so seen and it feels so good to be able to play a game like this.
Shea and Hawk are fascinating and genuinely likeable and I'm hungry for more of their storylines!! so excited
I've only just started playing the demo. I dunno if this is a bug? I selected MC is attracted to men, but Hawk is female?Nevermind loli've been lurking on itch.io and playing IFs and VNs for years now, but the absolute NEED to comment on this IF made me create an account. absolutely enamoured by Hawk, i am so excited to see where this goes!!!
That means a ton, thank you so much! I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far! <3 Depending on how busy real life keeps me, I’m hoping to have the next small-ish update posted sometime in the spring (northern hemisphere time)!
How do you explore your gender in game and how quick is it? i want a trans character but it's going to be so painful to start as a dude.
If you want your MC to start the game already knowing they’re trans, you can do that! Their siblings and ROs will address them correctly from the start. If they start out questioning or having not thought about it before, it will be a longer process.
Binged this last night and I adore it so far! I love the amount of customization and altho it's frustrating my optimization brain I do appreciate the hidden stats 😭 keeps me from checking every option
The way Hawk and Shea are so lovable (the moment between a trans!MC and Shea was so damn cute)
What a great new years gift! I really love the premise of thid game and thid was quite an update. Thank you so much!
I love this story, and the update was amazing! Look forward to future updates! 😊
Welp, I'm absolutely smitten by my spouse. Obsessed with this game, in love with Hawk, and also adoring the geckos! Loving this story, thanks so much for sharing it with us and keep up the great work!
just replayed this game, had to restart, but i enjoyed it so much. the writing is so lovely and i cannot wait for future updates to learn more about the world and characters <3
I read a fair amount of IF and have recently been checking a lot of demos I've had saved for a while, and this is the only one where I immediately wanted to reread the demo as soon as I finished it. I found it very well written with an interesting premise and setting; I particularly liked the way that the transness of the characters is actually addressed within the story, which is not something I've seen much of (or at least not handled so well). Definitely following and hyped to read more as soon as it's posted.
Thank you so much, that means a lot! I definitely wanted to spend a little extra time on MCs who are trans or still questioning their gender both because it’s something I appreciate as a trans person and because it ties into the larger themes of the story. So it was a win-win! I’m hoping to have the next demo update posted before the end of the year–just needs a little more editing and bug testing!
I've had Hawk for about 6 minutes but if anything ever happened to them, I would kill everyone in this comment section and then myself.
AHHHH I LOVE IT SO MUCHHHHG
So interesting so far! I'm so curious about what this story will bring. Cannot wait for future updates!
oh I love this. I LOVE this! Hawk rules so much, he’s so much cooler and nicer than I… expected, I guess? He’s also hilarious, I love his brass responses, they kill me every time. He’s so heckin nice. I’m really hyped for this, I can’t wait to get to know hawk more
Very good game! I enjoyed it a lot and can't wait to see what comes next. The worldbuilding is pretty interesting and the atmosphere throughout the demo is fantastic.
One thing I really like is the option to (apparently) make up with the mother. Most of these stories tend to just have this type of character as an antagonist, so seeing the possibility of repairing the relationship is rather unique.
Oooh very good ! I can't wait to see more.
I need mooreee!!! This is really good.