itch.io

Thank you so much for giving this "strategy" tip, I wasn't good enough normally but I really wanted to play through that ending myself (and it was so worth it!)

I think that's the point :-)

LOVELY! Adored it, and for a high-concept game you didn't neglect the gameplay, the combat was still really fun and engaging :D Caught myself going "HA!" when I could still geddem.

Yes! Yes! All that!

And my native language (French) doesn't have a neutral grammatical gender, but then I learned some Dutch and German, as well as English with its "it" pronouns, which all made me really comfortable with the concept of separating actual gender, sex, and pronouns and grammatical gender. I know the use of it/its pronouns for a person, like you mentioned, is really touchy and loaded in English, but I jumped to claim it the minute I realised I was nonbinary (on top of also using they/them and she/her), because this feeling of being completely divorced from any gender at all, even grammatical. It gives me the same gender euphoria that Beth described above. Especially since it is impossible for me to get that in my native language.

In French, I can be a she the same way that Beth is a she (deliberate, conscious, that's our gender), or the same way that a table is a she. And in English, I can be a they the same way that a stranger with an unknown or irrelevant gender is a they, or I can be an it, the same way that a table is an it.

Genderrrrrrrrrrrrr

hi! chiming in a native french-speaker nonbinary girl! i'm afab, i've always been a girl and i love being a girl, but i thought nonbinaryness was awesome and i wished i was nonbinary, and one day i realised hey that's what nonbinary means, i don't have to be one or the other of anything. i can be both. i'm nonbinary, i'm a nongendered blob and i'm a girl. it's great. i realise it probably feels different if being a girl was something you have to fight for in the first place, so it might not work for you as it did for me, but still, just throwing that out, it's an option, you could try it out.

and one of the things that helped me with that was, yeah, this experience. my native language is one of the ones that does gender absolutely everything. the table is a girl. my armchair is a boy. but only in my language -- i know that in German the table is a guy, and in Hebrew the genders of cutlery are swapped around compared to the French ones. gender is made up! grammatical gender doesn't have shit to do with biology or even societal role actually! in German and Dutch the girl is neutral gender!

Immediately addictive in a great way! I'm really enjoying it, good idea to add classes and a random pool of upgrades to choose from, keeping it fresh and fun and exciting.

i don't have this kind of intelligence and i'm not very good but i still managed to get to 3rd floor on first try and a win on second try! (on the forgiving difficulty level) Don't be afraid to try again if you had fun, it's totally doable even for us dumbasses ^^

Love it, teehee!

Same issue here! I'm on Windows and the game UI stays centered and quite small, whether in stretched windowed or fullscreen mode.

Cute!

Holy shit!

I have a younger brother I haven't seen in a bit, and both really want to play this with him, and really don't.

Intriguing! I liked the puzzle of figuring who's who and what's what through passing references in the middle of personal drama, and I immediately got invested and want to know more about these events and characters!

Loved it! My only feedback would be some sort of way to lock some answers are correct (for instance, when one profile is fully figured out, it's entirely locked) so we know where to keep looking. I struggled for a bit for the last victim, thinking I was off-base, but I was actually right all along and had simply made a small mistake in a completely different profile.

Then again, there's just a small enough number of profiles that it was still manageable (and very satisfying!), so maybe not necessary on this scope... but I would love more of this!

Definitely great job with the information delivery, realistic misleading and the subtle hints. Amazing the things you can get from pure inference. I loved the "oohh!! wait I got it I know I know!!" moment I got on the last victim's identity. Also interesting take on the genre where we don't care much on the who-dun-it, but who the victim was and what happened to them.

Saw a tumblr post featuring the title graphic, immediately looked it up, played the demo, bought the full game on the spot. Just finished a first run and loved it.

Quickly pointing out a couple <i>tiny</i> mechanical issues I noticed in the windows version):

-There are a couple times where lines skip automatically, too fast to fully read them, usually shortly after a choice (so i'm guessing it's an issue in the code right after branched variations). In the ending where I got denied entry to the court, the lines about Florence seeing and ignoring me did this.

-Despite the warning about deleting a previous save, i... can't save at all? Not too much of a problem thanks to the short length though.

-Would appreciate an option to read the log, or to scroll back previous messages (esp bc of the skipped lines).

-Is this made in Ren'Py? If so I know it should be possible to do the above and also to quickly skip previously-seen dialogue, which is always appreciated for replayable IF VNs with variations!

That aside: love the game, love the visual style, love the writing style, love the lore, love the hotness and queerness of everything attained without encountering any actually sexual content, loooove the huuugely Felt metaphor and symbolism. My jaw dropped and my heart jumped at the first drink scene.💜🖤🤍💚 This is a small brilliant gem and I'm so happy and off to replay and try to find all the other endings. Thank you so much for making this!!!

Emmet's break-up reason and talk destroyed me good, though tbf I come with pre-packaged weakness to daddy issues stories. I did really like how his route is about respecting him as a person and romantic interest and not just an adorable puppy, too! He's not one of the ones I'm passionate and obsessed about, but I really enjoyed every single route's W5 big moment.

True, there's also a lot of bittersweetness, that moment got me good too (esp since that was the first route I played and the first version of the final dance I got)! But playing as a similarly queer princess, in this case aroace, gives the relationship a huge sense of shared relief and mutual understanding and then the ending I got was just perfect marriage and happy complicity and laughing over the fact that we're known for being the perfect couple totally in love with each other. Absolutely adored getting such validation of a queerplatonic relationship as a happy end 💚💚

I wanna say it's because, as the PC points out in narration, we didn't get any material proof that it had anything to do with her, but... neither do we about her attempt on us, yeah xD

Yeah! I don't remember if the fail trigger was a stat check or a bad answer, but if you're not convincing enough she's disappointed and insulted and does the same thing as the "tried as war criminals" response.

Oh yeah no that was just how I played those runs (as a very selfish, immoral and unethical PC), I've managed to get the good Revaire endings in other runs dw ;)

he's always there, lurking in a corner, unnoticed...

I love the Ana marriage ending and am curious to know if there are big variations in how the MC settles in Skalt 👀I'm assuming there's the option to become a warrior if you're fit for it, but my Sheltered Princess was Not (despite raising her self-defense and courage a lot!) and she ended up becoming a teacher! Anyone got different results?

Also, because she was very graceful, there was a gorgeous line about her dancing by the campfire, and that image is imprinted into my thoughts forever, it's so sweet. Shy frail reserved self-conscious little Arland princess, now dancing freely and wildly, short skirt and bare legs and feet on the packed ground, in the changing light of a huge campfire, under the stars and the adoring gaze of her warrior wife... 🥺😭❤️ I'm so proud of her!!!

Back to report it absolutely doesn't mean he stops hating us and it was extremely funny and mutually miserable :D Though, that was my "watch it all burn down" run anyway, I wonder if there's a possibility for a better Blain marriage ending... Understandable and hilarious if nope, there is only the one miserable one :D

Yeah I found the method! (and it was so fun!) (and got me killed one time)

I think that is indeed The Gisette Blackmail, considering how the Blain blackmail also pops up in a specific conversation and not as an option during negotiations. I'm now wondering if the (very obvious and non-critical) Lyon secret from W1 can pop up somewhere... That's the only one I can think of that I didn't see have a follow-up somewhere.

Oops, I forgot to mention in this thread, SPOILERS for the Revaire plot, weeks 6 & 7 and ending possibilities!

Selling out yes, it's the option to ally with them or to go for peace that doesn't show up unless you've spoken with her!

IIRC the options you can get are:

- Choose to side with the royals (shows up even if you've promised to help Sayra, you can trick and betray her!)

- Of course you must side with Gisette (if you're on her romance route)

- Of course you must side with Jarrod (if you're on his romance route OR politically marrying him, which might be a bug? I have had both Gisette & Jarrod options show up at the same time)

- Refuse to take part in this at all (Gisette does not take that very well)

- Choose to side with the rebels (if you've promised to help Sayra; this can involve tricking Gisette with fake information, which is super cool and an achievement IIRC)

- There must be an option that pleases everyone (if you've convinced Sayra to try for peace; this involves trying to convince Gisette to go for peace too)

(I've not seen a special option for Clarmont, but I only played his route once and said I'd stay out of it iirc.) (... And then betrayed him to Gisette out of curiosity. It was horrible. :) )

All of these only require knowing about the Rebels' existence from the secrets chain, but it's possible to have that without having Sayra's relationship high enough to get her conversations.

Whoaaah! That's a plot for a fanfic eh? 8D

Phew, thanks for the explanation re: Paint The Map Red achievement, I ruined everything for everyone and didn't get it and thought things could get even worse.

LMAO

"Negotiation Preparation", right? I have it, so it's not fully bugged out

I usually play ethical/genuinely Good Person with high manip (love the Widow for that!), but the last couple times I completed a playthrough while romancing Gisette I didn't get the Rebels secret, once just bc i wasn't nice enough to Sayra to get her trust and once because I went fully unethical, took the bribe at the trial, etc (I FELT HORRIBLE ABOUT IT but my MC did not care at all)

Gisettttttte <3

Yaaaay for Morgan!

Yaay! I'm good to put that up to you (or another round of community voting lmao), but after playing a game as "Lady Lian of Jiyel" I'm really liking it for a female name too :))
(And if the character's gender isn't firmly settled yet, I'd love absolutely any option :D)

SHE'S SO GOOD! I really need to make a new playthrough where I manage to romance AND get her to kill me (my last couple runs I wasn't nice enough to actually get enough of the Revaire storyline to even have the option lmao)

Honestly my favourite girl & relationship is Avalie 😭 (and I adore Cordelia & Penelope too) But I went for Ria first and that was so sweet, and then Gisette surprised me with how lovely and romantic and delicate she was, and for some reason I only actually completed Ana's route very late and she bowled me over. She's SO good... I think Ana x my nerdy and sweet Sheltered Princess is one of my favourite relationships I've played out, having her fall in love with all of Skalt was so wonderful!

Ooohhh love Moira!!!

Ooo I like Shinya too!

My absolute favourite route and marriage is Lisle.💚It's so joyful and sweet.

Another huge fave is Zarad, who was my top dude until I tried Lisle's route (last, very disinterested and expecting nothing from him... haha how the turntables). Corval is my favourite kingdom in general, I think, I love Zarad's conversations with all my PCs, love the Corval PC and her storyline, love the Princess's storyline tied to Corval...

I like Nerissa if the character is openly villainous/sinister!

Agree with everything in this thread, but also bc I thought taming and romancing him would let me be able to be a horrible evil queen of Revaire perfectly self-aware and actually in charge...

Same, that's really motivating me to try "clean" runs again with backgrounds I play less :D I really love the Jiyel protag but I tend to make her reserved and blunt so she's so hard to get successes for! Congrats and thanks for the encouraging bragging :D

Feels like the endings should provide something (if not More Achievements)... Perhaps getting the perfect ending for a kingdom, or a particular action, could give a boost to that background?

E.g. Jiyel-Arland golden age would give boosts to the Scholar and the Princess... I was going to say additional boosts related to their respective kingdom (so Int for the Scholar and Etiquette for the Princess), but it would be really cute to get a boost for the other country's, since you managed to make them get along?? So it would get Int for the Princess?

Or perhaps simply boosts to Approval from the concerned countries?

Setting up the trade agreements or getting all the perfect gifts could get Merchants approval, etc.

Yeah, agree, having a competent and widely beloved protag who is acing everything and then not getting Dual Thorns feels weird even though saving yourself is technically more impressive 😅