OK, I pulled out the game code so I could give you some more specific advice. Try playing as a softer, gentler Ari, and surrendering to the soldiers at the start - if you play your cards right you'll have a good heart-to-heart, and that'll really help out long term. (It's also possible to not surrender to the soldiers and still make it work, but it requires some very deliberate choice-making and is a bit trickier).
You'll know pretty quick if he's into it, because the conversation about how he's into Raeann can go in a direction that it sounds like you haven't seen before.
Màrius is always going to fall for Raeann - it's an inevitable part of who he is. To win him over, Ari has to be a reliable, steady friend to him even while he's going after Raeann.
Some advice:
The game has an alignment system and, generally, a caring, softer Ari is going to have better odds winning Màrius over.
There are some key opportunities quite early in the game (before you meet Reckon) for Ari to show that he understands and values Màrius. Màrius won't forget this, even if he does go after Raeann.
If you make it onto the boat and Ari has a conversation with Màrius, being really open about his feelings, and Màrius rejects him, then he's committed to the Raeann relationship and you won't get another opportunity.
The Major's romance is a bit tricksy - it's very easy to trigger by accident, but not easy to do on purpose. A few tips:
- She'll only find Ari appealing if he's been making very strategic and pragmatic decisions throughout the game; aggressively or very kind Aris don't have a chance.
- She doesn't particularly want/need Ari to pay her much attention; she might even be put off if he's too attentive.
Let us know how you go, but be prepared - it's a complicated relationship!
The builds currently uploaded are actually Ren'py's Windows/Linux combination packages, I just didn't want to mark them as Linux-compatible since I hadn't tested them myself. You can grab the demo and see if it works!
v1.01 has just been uploaded - fixes a bug that caused the endgame to crash if Ari gets too lonely (it tries to give you an achievement that doesn't exist). I'm sure that's a metaphor for something.
Thanks for reporting. Ren'py has been having some issues lately with antivirus programs reporting false positives. I've replaced the .zip with one that should be fine.
Thanks so much for leaving this comment, I've been thinking about it all morning. It's the first comment I've seen on the naming of Arzan + his family and I'm really glad someone noticed and that it meant a lot to them!!
Can you email ub4q.if@gmail.com with some more details (were you using the itch app or in-browser, what happened when you tried to run the app)? I'll look into it.
This isn't the sort of story to give you all the pieces, but between multiple replays + the making of book you have a pretty good set of tools. Beyond that I can only suggest swapping notes with other players!
Sounds like you've seen an ending for all five chapters. The blacked out pages in Apollinariya's chapter are inaccessible + the wheat field is the end of Cevahir's chapter. There are a lot of endings for Arzan's chapter but two main ones, and quite a few for Al's but it sounds like you reached one of them.
There's no big thing that happens once you've completed every chapter; you'll have to decide for yourself when you're ready to stop playing.
