Way Walkers University is an Adventure Game, written by J. Leigh and hosted by Choice of Games' user submitted label Hosted Games.
It is set in an alternate after Earth. In this new world filled with varying magics and races the player will take on the role of a young exemplary talent, a person who is gifted with powers and is able to become a full Way Walker: a talent who dedicates themselves to one of twelve different paths available. However, before the player can become a hardened battle-mage or a deft-handed assassin, they must refine their skills at Tar'citadel, the holy city of Ice and Light. The gem of the city is the University, where the main setting takes place, a place filled with prospective students and troubles of all kind; Including a powerful mage which grips the whole city in fear and hatred.
The first game is available here
. The second game is here. The first game is also available on Kindle. The series has a main website and Facebook page. There are forum threads for the first game, the second game, and the upcoming third installment. The games are also available on iOS and Android.
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The series as a whole
Both existing games have examples of the following:
- Amazing Technicolor Population: The Muilan have pale, purplish skin, while the Annarites can range from dark red to black.
- Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: The Lu'Shun. Anyone who looks at them perceives a person of their own race, just with blue eyes and hair. If they have their photograph taken, they appear as a blur of light.
- Beast Man: The Ki'ra are an entire race of these.
- But Not Too Evil: What you have to be if you follow the RED path; raising the score too high usually leads to a Non-Standard Game Over. Of particular note is Jun's boss battle in the second game, which only happens with a RED above 70.
- Shelly and possibly Jun can join the effort in the sequel.
- Draconic Humanoid: In their humanoid form, the Tazu retain the scaled skin, slitted pupils, and forked tongues of their dragon forms.
- Elemental Powers: Energy Manipulators can can draw elemental energy into themselves and alter the energy and matter around them.
- An Ice Person: Semryu is a Nontraditional Talent that can bypass that step entirely and freeze water in the air.
- Fantastic Racism: Most everyone is afraid of or racist against Clan. Also, Master Cael hates Exemplaries so much that it carries through to his teaching.
- Fantastic Slur: "Vampire" is considered a derogatory term for Clan.
- Intangibility: The Muilan can go into an incorporeal state for brief periods and phase through physical objects.
- Luck Stat / Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Essentially what Montage is. If your Montage score is decent, it can potentially compensate for some of your weaker stats.
- Magic Knight: The player character is definitely this if they're a battle mage in dueling club.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: The Precognition talent is described as doing this.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The Tazu. An In-Universe difference even — there are normal dragons and then there are the larger, Shapeshifting Tazu capable of cognitive speech.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Clan. They're born into it, they're not immortal, they're not killed by sunlight (only weakened), and they can eat regular food. They do need to feed on blood, they have increased strength, heal at a faster rate, and age very slowly.
- Dhampyr: Halflings can occur between Born Clan and humans on rare occasions.
- Super-Empowering: Changelings are made when one is bitten, drained, and given certain rites to become Clan. They are sterile and retain the age they were at the time of the change (until the last few years of their life), but they "burn out" after about two hundred years.
- Psychic Powers: Some students in Tar'Citadel specialize in one of these. Exemplary Talents can be proficient in multiple.
- The Empath: They can sense emotions, motivations, and/or auras.
- The Tazu Nation Protagonist has Psychometry, combining this with Retrocognition/Postcognition. They get after-images and emotions when touching crystals.
- I See Dead People: Mediums.
- Mind over Matter
- Seers: Those with the Precognitive talent.
- Telepathy: The telepaths, of course.
- Teleportation
- The Empath: They can sense emotions, motivations, and/or auras.
- Pure Energy: The Energy Manipulators.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Annarites, though saying all of them are evil is a bit of an overstatement.
- Relationship Values: Not visible on the stats page, but the coding keeps track of two to three of these: your rapport with Jun, your rapport with Sem, and your rapport with your Love Interest, if you pursue onenote . Even if you get them above or below a certain point, they aren't necessarily set there—being friends with Jun and having it drop too low makes them be done with you, for example.
- Rule of Three: Everywhere. There are three Tiers of students at Tar'citadel, which has three towers. Each tier has a dean, meaning there are three deans. You get three strikes with a teacher before being sent to a dean, and three strikes with a dean before being sent to the Headmaster. If you're sent to the Headmaster three times, you're expelled.
- Sadist Teacher: Master Cael. He's prejudiced against Exemplaries, uses any excuse he can to fail them, and deliberately gives them harder assignments or tests.
- Said Bookism: Contains quite a few. Most notably:"I'm sorry," Jun apologizes.
- Spirit Advisor: The Life Guides.
- Starbucks Skin Scale: The Tazu Nation Protagonist is described as having skin the shade of coffee beans.
- Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: All the time. As the author states: Exemplary or no, the protagonist is a fourteen-year-old student just entering training. Some things are just beyond their level. There are very narrow margins of error that can sometimes scrape you a win via Unskilled, but Strong, but most of the time you won't be performing mind-blowing feats.
- Trying to resist a teacher's mind-probe? Unless you're a Telepath with maxed Rosin, they'll shred through your novice mental defenses. Even if you are, you can't lie to them, just muddy things up enough that they can't get definitive answers. You can't even muster up that against the Headmaster, who always sees through any lies you tell him.
- You will never defeat the dragon wraith and survive, as one of the most powerful demons in the Pit can swat a newly trained teenager like a fly. The best you can do is free Illyan and have her handle it, or go for a Mutual Kill.
- If you freed Illyan in the first game, everyone (save your friends) is more suspicious of you in the second. It doesn't matter that it was in the interest of survival, you still freed a criminal during a terrorist attack.
- The (thankfully optional) fight with Clay or Sem will almost always result in you getting your ass kicked, because he's been dueling for years and in Sem's case, is a powerful Ice Mage on top of that.
- Killing Jun results in you being arrested and scheduled for trial. Sem's was at least a clear case of self-defense, but you kill Jun so brutally (as you must have high Red to trigger the boss fight) that it shoots holes in your testimony.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Tazu can shift between a humanoid form and a draconic form.
- Wizarding School: The university is definitely one.
Way Walkers: University
The first game has examples of the following:
- Animal Eye Spy: It's mentioned that the Nor'wah Protagonist could do this, eventually losing themselves to a bestial state of mind the more they did it.
- Back from the Dead: It's possible for the Protagonist to be resurrected if they die during the course of the game. It'll weaken your stats but give you some interesting insights on future events.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The dragon wraith is almost guaranteed to one-shot the PC, since no newly-trained fourteen-year-old has a chance against one of the most powerful demons in the world.
- Disc-One Final Boss: If you go with Sem to visit Illyan, then the dragon wraith will serve as the final boss battle...for a certain definition of battle. Averted in all other "endings", though.
- Kangaroo Court: It's heavily implied that this is being done to Illyan.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The beginning of the game has a short introduction flashback providing backstory for the Protagonist as a child and how they discovered that they were an Exemplary Talent. It then continues with the 14 year old Protagonist in the present trying to impress two panels of judges.
- Mirror Monster: It's mentioned that the Lubreean Protagonist could see lights, shadows and eerie specters inside of mirrors that no one else could see.
- Skippable Boss: If you go with Sem and the Headmaster to visit Illyan, your group will eventually be attacked by a dragon wraith. If you try to fight it directly, then you will die, at best distracting or taking it with you in the process. There is one work-around, though: if you choose to free Illyan from her restraints, she will kill the wraith. However, this requires that you be strong enough to get the restraints off, which may vary depending on previous choices.
- What You Are in the Dark: If you apply for the student newspaper, then you may discover a certain student's secret: namely, that Genoa Martel is having a forbidden affair with a Second-Tier student. Nobody knows you know. You can choose to expose this to gain a spot in the press, or you can quietly destroy the evidence you collected at the risk of not being allowed on.
Way Walkers: University 2
The second game has examples of the following:
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: If you go with Jun to their appointment with Lady Xeni, she can send you into Jun's mind to try and deal with their evil past self.
- Cutting Off the Branches: The PC, Jun, and Sem all canonically survive this game—any route that ends with one of them dead or moved away cannot be transferred. Related to this, the PC is canonically on good terms with Sem, as not being so results in one of them dying.
- Dances and Balls: The Winter Ball.
- Dance of Romance: The MC can participate in one with their date.
- Despair Event Horizon: In one of the 'bad ends' of the second game, where Illyan is sentenced and executed. This causes Sem's behavior to change drastically, leading to him dropping out of Tar'citadel completely.
- Enemy Within: Jun's evil past self that they've been struggling with since they were younger.
- I Think You Broke Him: In the second game, the MC or Jun does this to Cael accidentally
- Handicapped Badass: The MC can be this if you specialize in Rosin, Kubesh, or Rhean and died in the first game, especially if you manage to defeat Clay or kill Sem/Jun.
- Railroading: If you want to transfer into the third game, you have to be friends with Sem or at least help his investigation. The author's actually addressed this, stating she wanted to keep the 'enemies with Sem' branch in, but couldn't because it was making the game so long she couldn't keep charging at a low price. She had to make a choice, and since the fanbase adored Sem, his friendship branch got to stay.
- Relationship Upgrade: The MC can start dating Sem or one of their friends from their club.
