I am sorry, but I did not know my ways of handling the endings were "obtuse".
late edit: I originally thought "obtuse" here was an outright insult. But I recently saw that word used elsewhere as "not enough hints provided" (still not a compliment, I know), which sounds closer to what the game's endings actually are, so I will interpret the word this way instead - possibly wrong, but better than an insult, right?
If you mean how the ending branching is skewed towards certain few results, that's indeed something I did poorly, but really I didn't notice/consider "obtuse" on release.
I included the guide because I didn't put in-game clues for the endings and game-overs, and I'm a kind of player who often uses a walkthrough of a game as soon as reaching (one of) its ending(s).
- I agree that TFs could've been put into the gameplay more properly, like allowing to walk around in the TF'd state and during epilogues, but it would take me more efforts including writing more complicated event branches and fixing bugs. And I didn't think that's really worth it.
- The point of the intro is to tell the player that there is a trial to become a hero and the protagonist must go through it. I admit it was too long for its sole purpose and I knew it when I added an option to skip it.
- The stat-growth system is there mainly to encourage players to focus on either swordplay or magic. Since a half of the endings are determined by the protagonist's sword/magic choice, I wanted them to be clearly either a swordsman or a wizard, not something in-between. Also, increased stats can show which path the protagonist is currently taking and how far they are into it.
- Elsewhere I've received another complaint about the end-boss being unwinnable, so perhaps at least I should have made an excuse for this design...
- ...Even when I already sort-of have one. There is "no way to win" maybe because, the opponent is powerful enough to turn a human into a boss monster loyal to him, and the said human has only the starting gears, basic skills and no companion except monsters they can summon, and is just about to finish their tutorial dungeon.
- Still, something should have happened when his buffs are removed.