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This is a wonderful book that makes U'Duasha much less of an afterthought, I've been running through it for a few weeks now with a group and it's been great. We're having great fun so far being bravos in Pasarhantu meddling with the coliseum and Anrakhis. There's enough prompts and characters etc. here to actually get a faction meta-game going here, which I think Blades desperately needs in order to be engaging and U'duasha sorely lacked before.

My only minor criticism would probably be the map itself is not particularly useful for doing things like visibly carving up turf, and is actually smaller than the OG map. In an ideal world I'd have wanted map with as much detail and scale as Duskwall has, but obviously that kind of cartography is rare and it's easier to just abstract it, and I totally get why it's not there. I certainly don't have the skills to do it myself, heheh

Really? Huh. Learn something new every day.

I would just point out that you seem to have it so that bark makes rope instead of vegetation. I'm guessing that's unintended.

Just seconding what's been said, this is amazingly done and beautiful, but the lack of customizability for the names is a sadly a deal-breaker in the only use-case I'd actually have for it outside of a curiosity - TTRPGs. 

The cheat screen has this bug in F&H2 whenever you attempt to give yourself an item.

Doesn't work. On startup just says Failed to load: mods/commonLibs/_common/compatibility.js

I like the idea of Athena's influence somehow being the cause, it would explain why the two characters of the different routes feel so at odds. Though I would contend essentially all of the things you put forward as signs of imperfection: None of those are imperfections, they're just character traits, and ones that don't cause the MC any real direct and personal stress. And I would point at that as far as I can tell there is no middle ground or friendship route at the moment - From my attempts at playing through it there's no recovering Asterion's trust once he's sent out so the point of him sending him out innocently is moot given that he then goes full Athenian Archon.

But yes, I think reflection is the issue as well. He doesn't have the opportunity to ever express doubts and fears, which makes it seem like he simply doesn't have them. My mind immediately jumps to all of the decisions where he does have the opportunity to go down the Ruthless route, where the choices are presented almost completely neutrally - If you choose a good option, it is not presented as if the MC had a choice there, it's presented as if the MC was always going to act that way, and never had second thoughts. 

Honestly, the gold-and-leaden arm-rings thing grates me here as well, because at that point it isn't a choice for the MC. It's fine that it isn't a choice, but it's clear what it tells the player about the MC: He's so saintly he's not even going to put forward any real argument against wearing something that can and quite probably might sever his arm at some point. The contract as put forward only requires Asterion to be bludgeoned over the head before he can say "I want to go out into the valley" and then be dragged into the valley and the MC either dies of shock and bloodless or is an amputee. I wouldn't have agreed to this contract, personally, at all. For someone who clearly has the malevolence of otherworldly entities following him around I actually think it's strikingly foolish of Asterion to suggest in those words - It begs to have the gods punish him directly for his hubris by setting up a torture he designed.

I like the meat of the writing of the MC a lot when you take basically any scene he's in individually. It's the portrayal of his morals and ethics overall that strike me as a bit off. I feel like the main game's protagonist is a hyper-idealized individual, who's far too competent and not particularly human. In truth, if anyone was going to secretly turn out to be a god, my money might've been on the MC if not for the clear characterization telling us otherwise, and the contract.

Even in the Ruthless route this gets turned on its head in the worst way rather than the MC actually being base in some way. His reasons for going off the deep end are specifically because of delusions of moral superiority. Even as a monster, he is evidently not capable of doing what he thinks is the wrong thing. That feels particularly alien to me. 

There's a lot of talk about him putting aside negative thoughts or impulses for the sake of Asterion in the main route, but what I find odd is that he simply doesn't have those thoughts expressed at any point. And like someone said prior, when he's put into difficult situations he responds with not just the patience of a saint, but the competence of a trained psychologist, in most if not all circumstances, such that he never actually feels like he has to deal with Asterion's clear trauma in the way that someone normal probably would. There's no accidentally triggering him, or just even being around him when he's triggered. He shows sadness, but not anywhere near the shaky, aversive, shut-down he does in the ruthless route for instance, and sidestepping that sort of thing completely isn't something someone easily does.