It's exactly what the name says. This thread is spoiler-friendly, so feel free to discuss whatever you please about the game.
I'll give you a few spoiler-free answers.
I also wanna know if the choice of god in chapter 15 matters.
Yes, but maybe not in the ways you think. Picking Aphrodite does not make things hornier, although that is something we could add in 0.5.1.
About the P/Clement inconsistency, when you finish the game please tell me what you think about it. I'm curious.
Thank you for your input and kind words, it's extremely appreciated.
I completely forgot to reply to this, lmfao
Obviously after what happened I have more questions than answers, but...really, I just forgot that Jean explicitly said the letter was from Clement and was lying. I suppose I'm missing something, since as I learned from the survey there's a way to actually figure this out before the twist happens, so I'll need to replay
Relax... one thing I really dislike in VNs is stumbling upon bad endings because you didn't guess the correct dialogue options. We don't do that. Some events just play out differently.
This may sound funny but I tried "Io" and "Argos". Surprised there wasn't a passing mention at the very least.
Well okay I was doing that for giggles but still...
I've only just started playing the new update, but this choice had me Cackling outloud, and I lost my breath laughing, I should really give a proper review soon but this choice had to be caught
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being "slight dislike" and 5 being "active hate", how much did you dislike Kota (not Jean) getting involved?
I'm not 100% sure on how to put it into words, but if I had to put it on a scale, I would say 2 or 3. Not enough to ruin the character of course but it kinda bothers me. Thinking about it, I do like the scene in the garden where he's concerned with MC taking advantage of Asterion, and later trying to potentially coax Asterion's feelings out. That was good and touching. The later scene with MC and Kota I like less (especially since he's conveniently drunk off his ass.) I actually thought at first it was going to be about his own love, or the red dragon he's looking for, but it just turned into him ripping away MC's insecurity, as well as Kota's opinion on gay people in general (which I feel is even less necessary since this is a gay visual novel and he's tolerated Luke up to this point.)
Thanks for the reply! This is important info for us, and we're gonna watch out for how other people feel about Kota's involvement in this.
Making a gigantic build like this allowed us to make a very big build up, which I think was important to make this part of the story come together in a way that felt right, but that also meant we didn't have the kind of frequent, step-by-step player feedback that would let us fine tune every part of the story. I feel like this is maybe what happened here.
We'll most likely give it some time to catch more feedback and see how much we can improve these scenes, what parts in particular need more work — or if they require a rewrite.
This is probably not a very definitive answer. Still, thank you for the input. It's always very useful when people can articulate what specific parts aren't working as well as the rest.
I'd just like to add that for me, it made perfect sense. Not only is he a river god who has seen people in all their different states of humanity, he's also spending time around Luke and realizing hidden strength he once wrote off. A river is ever flowing, but Kota has chosen to take root for the time being and is changing from that. I think this is reflective of how he is interpreting rebellion. It's a little awkward, but there's a lot of experience, second only to Asterion.
I think having Kota of all people give permission to you to not necessarily pursue things, but to feel these things, is an important part of the power balance. You are going through something similar to Asterion by not allowing yourself to want. Of course, yours is discipline, whereas Asterion's is embedded, but that's why Kota acts as a sort of link connecting the two to their natural conclusion. I don't think any other character would have that effect, although Luke likely softened you up to hear something that's simultaneously more gentle and more powerful.
(Actually, Luke's comment about Mom and Pop shops is slightly damning. Because it showed you were still considering Asterion as beneath you and something to be handled instead of given full agency. But it's understandable why you're not ready yet. It's a perfectly reasonable response to all that power.)
From the few times I ran through it, I wasn’t able to find the kid, either; I replayed that specific section several times and I was never able to find him. The stuff with the hotel becomes more apparent later on, so don’t worry about it too much for now.
Going to the library and selecting non-fiction adds a book to your inventory, and you can change Oscar’s outfit at the tailor, but those are the only “minor” permanent changes I noticed— I’m sure there’re more if you keep looking!
Anyway, from what I can gather, it seems that three major things can change as a result of your actions in the Hinterlands (two of which you already brought up):
On that note, I tried a few different permutations of the Hinterlands, and I was only able to ever complete 2/3 of them (first route I ended up helping the tapir god and strengthened their relationship, and Pedro says they’ll bury the 12 on the road). There could be a way to get all three, though!
As caketo said, getting to the hotel becomes more apparent later on. As for finding the missing boy, you can't rescue/find him now but it's possible for P and Storm to set the groundwork to solve that mystery at a later (hopefully not much later!) date.
I can give a few details without saying anything truly spoiler-ish. In Build 0.6 Oscar will join the hotel's staff, and this happens to everyone regardless of whatever choices you made. You could say he's part of the main story.
As for P and "Nick" (as you called him)... Well, for most players only one of them will remain in the hotel. If at the end of the build you saw a scene of one of them going out of the hotel to have some alone time, that character will leave and get back to their regular life.
If you did not get that scene in your playthrough, you should be able to pick which one you want to join your team. But if you have the Leader background you should be able to get both of them in a single playthrough.
There's at least one big secret no one found so far, I'm just waiting for it to come up.
I'll only give a few spoiler-free answers.
There's more stuff to do in the hinterlands than what you described. There's also more things you can discover, even if you cannot act on them just yet.
There is not enough time to do them all. You have to choose your priorities.
We might add a few more little things to see in the Hinterlands in future versions. We had some ideas we couldn't put in because of time constraints. But that definitely won't come in with a time extension, as that section of the game was designed and balanced with that time frame in mind.
Well it comes to a point where it just says "living male relative" (after descendants, siblings, and nephews). If it turns out they're descended from Zeus that would be such a pain.
The skip button is being a donkey so it would be a while for me to check myself. Was "reverted to the old man" really the EXACT words?
It's not really a plot hole, it's just that we couldn't explore this thoroughly just yet. Hermes is the overseer, the deed as a physical object reverted to him. But he gave it to the old man, who requested it, and in turn he passed it on to the player character.
Given the revelation that Clement has been deceased for a few months, is there any indication in game as to who the old man who gives us the deed is?
There are enough clues to figure it out, but you'll have to play a lot of branches of the game.
On my first Playthrough i thought the oversser must be Zeus or Hermes. However --as Mathmatican-- MC i answered "Athena" being the overseer for roleplay purpose. In most Saga i read (so yes, i am biased) Athena has been very helpful for humanity; Jason and the Argonauts, Odysseus, Thesseus and she propably helped Daidalos to contruct the Labyrinth. My MC assumed that Athena must be plotting against all Olympus to set Humantiy free from the Gods, therefore she set up the trail that Zeus was going against the oath to Styx.
I was also thinking of getting him something to wear but what I had in mind was something with a hat. The way he hangs out in the sun.
hi hi, I'm still taking my sweet time enjoying the new chapters. Though, I found a small bug! I think it suppose to be Storm saying the line. (Android version)
A little bit. The only options that really affect your relationship with Asterion are whether you drink or not for stuff that you've done together, like feeling your heart race from holding someone's hand, or sleeping on someone's lap. Asterion will act a little differently in the following scene depending on how sexually active you say you are, but he isn't offended, and it doesn't have a lasting effect. The point of that scene is to treat it like a fun get together with friends and less about micromanaging Asterion's affection, I think it's better if you answer those questions honestly.
Why, yes, I am very happy with this outcome.
(God, Jesus Christ, I've been meaning to post something like this image ever since we started the game, fuck this feels so good.)
And yes, you can only pick one of the boys. It's either Themba, Wolf or Khenbish. But if you pick Arts as your background you can pick two (one with Jean, another one later by adding a decoration to the reception.)
...That said, if you pick Leader you'll be able to recruit two characters in Build 0.6, when otherwise you would only recruit one. So that's another neat bonus.
Ah, what a conundrum, eh?
can you afford to take that chance? well, second playthrough here I go, art boi this time
It's called "Foolish Child" from the album "Slaves of time" by Antoni Castells. You can listen to it here.
When you meet Argos for the second time he'll say different things depending on how the first encounter with him ended like. If memory serves me, it can end in 5 ways (sent Asterion to the valley, accepted the contract without questioning, questioned and got the wrong article, questioned and got the right article, used the Humanities/Leader perk to skip the puzzle). Only one of these will lead to that outcome...
...Sadly I can't remember which one is it, and I can't check now.
It was Art, refuse to call Asterion, immediately accept his contract lmao.
Gotta say, my dumbass character this run has led me to realize how different things can be since he never realized Argos was playing a role. He's being so obvious going on about Pandora's box and how the cruelest thing is to give Asterion hope and my character just thinks Argos is an idiot. I love it.
In...? How do I find him in such? I must know.
Suina folk are my top favorite... when they aren't involved in squick.
Did you mean in the drinking game? Sheesh I miss things in a crowd.
I just happened to pick "speedrunner" when that was my last achievement for that section. Upon seeing what the area entails I was like "of course it's on the joke route".
Also I'd been thinking a while that P and Storm are like a fun-house mirror of our heroes.
Hi! Thank you for your kind and thoughtful words!
The game will get updated, yes. We are about halfway/two thirds of the way through the story right now so there's still a good amount of story to cover.
We did think of adding another NSFW scene to the game with this build, but there was so much content already that we thought it more prudent to save it for later. Another point relating to this one is that, as of today, only Luke is in a position character-wise to be having NSFW scenes, so that also limits our range. Later down the road we'll get back to this topic when it fits the characters and their story arcs.
Thank you for taking the time to send us your thoughts.
Glad you enjoyed the game Roben!
First of all, yes, the story is still not done. We're about 2/3 of the way through with the main story, and we can always add side content like R&D projects, exploration rewards, daily agenda side quests and guest scenes. We're taking a break at the moment because the latest build took a lot from us.
As for NSFW content, yes there will be more. I think the one Luke scene that is in the game is a little intense (we're planning on giving his whole intro a bit of a revamp since it kinda clashes with the game a little too hard and we've seen people streaming on SFW mode horrified, worried that any second now they'd get their video demonetized) but we plan on having more between the characters that can be paired up, especially now that the Mc and Asterion are a couple.
You can't remove the charm from him. There is one thing you can do in the Hinterlands that enables you to see through his charm, so if you could see a bit of his true form (fading in and out) you already did it.
Your making me wonder whether trying to find all secrets of this game or decompiling it and reading the renpy files takes the most effort. I really don't wanna try decompiling though, sorta ruins my own enjoyment? Same reason I don't wanna read whatever story inspired this one to spoil myself. Guess Ima have to wait for the wiki for some secrets. :)
I get the feeling you really enjoy hinting at stuff & watching people whirr around like blind ants looking for crumbs :P
I get the feeling you really enjoy hinting at stuff & watching people whirr around like blind ants looking for crumbs :P
I'll say that the whole thing was designed with people coming together and exchanging information in mind. Not all of the "secrets" are mechanical things you can unlock, many of them are just little details that come together to reveal things. Sometimes you really just have to play detective, and try to be more astute than P himself was. So I'd say that decompiling the game won't necessarily show you all the fun things.
(It would show you just how many little variations we add all over the place to account for details though.)
I'll also say that we thought that having a Wiki would be good to make this process less chaotic and more accessible. Maybe people who crack what's going on will go there and throw their interpretations.
It was and wasn't, which was great. I love how she's slowly getting more comfortable with you since she's really only there on Asterion's behalf.
Yes! I'm surprised this is the only post I've seen to mention it, but when I got the narrator talking to us directly, I was shook for a second - had to back up a few lines to read closer when I realized what it was! I assume it's from putting in the right name to Jean's phone, a lot of text is different from that point on because the player is usually on their second playthrough.
I really really enjoyed it because this person being the narrator (well I suppose it's maybe 'these three') makes a lot of awesome sense. And it being three of them can really explain the shifting tone that the narrator sometimes has. In previous builds, I had the idea the narrator was a character, but gave up on it. Having this almost blink-and-you'll-miss-it little twist was a huge source of delight for me!
I think it's both entering the name and figuring out what's going on with Argos, but with how many playthroughs I've done trying different options I can't remember. It may be just entering the name.
Also it's unclear from your post, but if you haven't done the ruthless route yet I'd highly suggest checking it out. It's not what it seems and quite good.
Thanks for the insight! You're right, I haven't yet, but with the truth of Argos coming out, I actually plan on doing it now! I tried the ruthless route previously before it was finished/had endings, and I just didn't want to see any more of it. Now that I know it's not all grim (even if it's not going to be sunshine and rainbows) and that it honestly does have important insights to learn, I'll do a run of it soon.
Whelp. I'm back after the ruthless route. I'm glad the point of view shifted for the second chapter cuz it was still pretty rough. Still, you are correct I was wrong in assuming the Narrator was/were the 3 Fates! Made a big assumption there on the 'my sisters' line, this is definitely more interesting and personal. Makes even more sense now why the narrator talks to us as she does here, why she would find humor contrasting Athena's deeds back then with what she put together now, and how it all flies in her face. Cool stuff!
Ehhhhhh, you're taking someone that is very obviously traumatized right now and heaping more problems on top of it. Deliberately causing a panic attack with your ordering him to come join you to eat is really shitty and kinda evil in my mind. And you're taking the one good thing Asterion had, the hotel, and turning it into its own form or torture with how closely you interact with him in all the commanding, ruthless ways.
If there wasn't a narrator and we didn't hear into Asterion's thoughts, it's easier to dull the empathy and just play the mustache-twirling villain MC to see the content. But that's exactly the point the VN is making in the normal route, that you're doing basic human empathy to Asterion and he thinks you hang the moon because of it.
I don't disagree that it tells a fascinating tragedy if you go down it, and it shows a lot of things that couldn't be told if the master of the hotel was good, but it was still really rough and I'd say evil, personally.
Oh, what i mean to say is that it's not "about" being evil. It happens, yes, but most of the route is learning Nikos background and motivations, along with aspects of the labyrinth and the divine beings. Plus, i was expecting MC to be relishing more in Asterion suffering, yet it felt to me like MC just didn't care about him or anyone. Then again, this opinion is due to a contrast with expectations, which are subjective.
Thanks I managed to 100% achievements the game finally :), I admit it didnt even cross my mind to do that.
Congrats! As far as I know you're the first to get there.
By the way, did you try clicking on the button below the achievement percentage once it's over 85%? Just checking if it does look like a button to people.
(Also the reward is a little half-assed, pun intended, but we'll try to expand this feature on the future.)
not the guy you replied to, but I didn't press the button when I got over 85%. Mostly because I wasn't looking for anything in the first place - I think it could be made more clear, if your intention is to have buttons that are enabled on certain achievement thresholds.
I dont really know how I triggered it tbh, but you get My Little Bletchley Park from Argos dropping a notebook during an encounter in the valley, then having your R&D team decrypt it. I got this on my second caring master run-through, along with the thing with Luke sending you memes and Argos messaging Asterion under his real name acting a missionary (also don't really know how I triggered those two, maybe these sub-events are RNG?) Wish I could be more help :(
The first two are not in the game yet, we're saving them for later. Aphrodite and Hephaestus abstained from voting.
Is the achivement "The tale of Argos and Io" and "Cthonic Regalia" have requirement? It seems they just accomplish within the main story.
Yes, some achievements are obtained as part of the game's normal story progression. This way the achievements screen serves as an easy way to check how far someone got in the game in their most advanced playthrough.
What is the star on Asterion head means?
I'll leave that to interpretation! :)
Yeeeeeeaaahhh that's something we failed to touch on, that's on me! The idea we had is that the lead ring only looks and feels like lead, in truth it's made of some magical material unique to the realm. So no worries, the MC won't get lead poisoning.
...We should probably fix this in the story though, h-haha.
FYI we're adding a little line addressing this in Build 0.5.1, we finally got off our asses for that one. Thank you.
Thank you so much. I've found the new dialogue meanwhile I started again with another background.
I'm going through my many screenshots and this is my favorite out of context screen. Oscar just met his not-dad but he is not going to stand for this shit hurting his boy.
Hey theodwulf, glad you're enjoying the game!
Don't worry, there's still a third of the main story to go, and it will have lots of tender moments between the player character and Asterion. We just like to wrap up every build in a satisfactory way, like it's the ending of a tv episode (or season in this case, since we took so fucking long with the update). The next builds will give the player more time, of course, but the game is designed with replayability in mind. You can't really do every side quest and get every character in one go.
Yup! It's a lovely detail, fading in and out of the background when P and/or Storm are feeling lost but too absorbed in their own struggles to see it, yet when their resolve has come back up, it fades away again. A phenomenal bit of dramatic irony, we as the readers know how the hotel works and that the more they try to find it, the more they can't.
I was thinking the flower smell was from a flower shop using a certain god for a mascot but I guess Hades makes sense. It seems we speak a lot clearer than he would've though.
Regarding point 4, I don't think the rotting flowers smell is supposed to be Hades. I do think it's one of the other gods influencing Hermes into madness, though, since the MC pushes back the smell with with his power in the realm, a power which is supposed to be sovereign over other gods except the Overseer (sort of). If Hermes is the only god allowed in, possessing him or intentionally driving him to madness can give you influence in the hotel to enact your plots. I also think it's not just the general god madness that seems to come from diminishing worshippers (source: the Tapir God if you get him his pelt back, and the 'old man' who we already know is another god and very far gone), but I'm not sold on who the flowers are yet. It's important to note that while Hermes, Hades, and Hestia are most certainly on Asterion's side, any of the other gods could've shifted either in or out of his favor after all of this time. I wouldn't put this past Aphrodite if she got swayed against Asterion for some reason.
Pregnant 13-year-old with a dress sporting the virgin mary. Yep.
Also: Did Nini kill P's grandfather? She's definitely the "wannabe witch" who used his feathers to perform spells against the tapir. When is another question entirely, though. And would that have harmed P or Storm if skinned Jesus didn't let them know beforehand? She had a very ominous moment saying she was still hungry when looking at P that I just took for candy the first time around. I'm much less sure this time.
>:(
I will consult the manager of this realm later to find out, Minnow. You watery, slippery beast.
(I should double check if the contract in the underground labyrinth breaks depending on whether you can find out about Nikos or not. I thought it was a Luke vs. Kota thing but that may have been coincidence. I will drive while listening to the MiHo soundtrack and reflect.)
it's so full of love but also heartbreaking. i can only hope asterion's future is discussed because things like the rusty knife you can find in the valley ("Perhaps, centuries from now, Asterion will find it and be reminded of your time together.") really make me wanna cry... like asterion said, i don't wanna imagine his future without the MC
There will be more, yes. We're about 60% of the way through the game, we haven't seen the end of Asterion and the Master's story.
i think it's sorta both? there was a physical event with a sudden gust of wind and asterion writhing around and the MC reacts thinking asterion almost had some kind of seizure. i think there's also a metaphorical (well, maybe "mythological" is the more accurate word) part too that has to do with the semi-sacred shenanigans that just happened prior: kindling the hearth, wrestling with him, his star birthmark appearing. definitely check out this thread on the birthmark if you're curious! my take is that doing all the stuff underground rekindled the ancient divinity in asterion's soul (robert talks about this if you spend enough time with him) and that's what causes the scene. probably fitting that the sensation he feels is described as "expanding outward, like a star about to burst", although i don't know what to make of the ring of fire imagery
( Apologies for the late reply) I see, I haven't went far into Roberts convo route but i am planning too ( no wonder i was missing the info lol ) and thank you for pointing me to the thread as well as replying friend. :)
Um desenho que eu tava fazendo do Kota, eu tava com medo de postar porque eu achei meio estranho, mas meu namorado disse que era pra eu postar ele falo " Amor, posta ai quando você acabar posta no Twitter, ai eu falei " Será Amor? " Ai influenciado por ele postei
Fun fact: Khenbish is part of an ancient and powerful pact. Two years ago when nanoff and I started discussing the project his condition for joining was for us to have a boar character precisely how he likes them. So let's just say nanoff put his all into Khenbish, and we had to go all out as well.
I have a great many thoughts about this, but here are two:
1. Nanoff has amazing taste. That should be obvious but it bears repeating.
2. All pacts need a furry musclechub with some skin showing somewhere in the mix. I mean, what? Who said that? Uh...
Glad you enjoyed the game TractorBoy!
1) Don't know how much progress you made on Asterion's optional project, but if you want scenes with the player character explaining modern technology to Asterion, that might scratch your itch if you feel like giving the game a replay (or keep it in mind for future builds). We're only scratching the surface of cute stuff the MC and Asterion can do together in 0.5, so rest assured we'll be adding a lot of these in the next story builds.
As for 2), we actually planned to add a sauna project to the hotel, but it didn't make the cut. R&D was kind of neglected in general for 0.5, hopefully we can add some more to an 0.5.2 patch once we're back from break.
The depend on how you tackle the first two argos encounters (chapters 3 and 11), that's all I'll say
Hint: You and every member of your staff excluding Wolf have met the overseer already :)
Whatever, this is the spoilers section anyway. Plus, it should be obvious if you read chapter 18. It's Hermes.
The tablets are RNG but, on one of the early days where you can start getting them from the valley, you can 'roll' a different tablet if you hit the back button a few lines. Once you get a tablet, it will permanently be unlocked in the main menu's files section, even if you rewind the conversation to roll again. You can just keep doing that until you get the achievement to pop, then go to the menu to read them.
😊
This seems to stop working once you have your Office. I believe the random seed for determining what you find in the valley seems to be set before or as you click "Confirm Plan", which you cannot then use the back button to move past.
Mind you, the tablets are the most numerous collection, the transcripts should only have 6 to find in the valley (Poseidon and Athena are being saved for later builds, 2 gods totally abstained (IIRC devs implied they won't get a transcript because of this), and you get 5 guaranteed transcripts from Argos it seems) and that feels reasonable to not have this easy reroll scumming to get.
Yeah. I hard-coded it on that one instance (if you push Argos to talk about the kilns) to always give you a tablet you don't have, so getting the achievement would be less annoying.
Imagine being forced to grind on a fucking visual novel of all things.
Keep in mind he's following a certain someone's plan. That person is not particularly worried about his physical safety or health, and in fact she would argue he deserved the punishment if he really wanted redemption.
Ooh, I gotcha. He prayed for guidance and got the knowledge of Poseidon's gift, and in turn, had our gracious narrator pit his resolve, huh? Thanks!
Up until now I thought that the narrator was Nemesis since her reveal during the Ruthless Route, but now that you mention it, it might be possible that there are multiple narrators, since there are times when they refer to themselves as a collective rather than a person. It would also line up with what Argos says about the Labyrinth having "multiple voices", though that might be completely unrelated phenomena.
Even so, I'm still inclined to believe that it's Nemesis who watches us during the whole story. There's some very explicit dialogue outside of the Ruthless Route that hints to her being the narrator (Ch. 17, after forgiving Nikos: "Oh, [name], what a fine art you make of this brand of justice! This ceremony of yours has been nothing less than the finest of hymns to our ears. Stay this course, and we may yet award you a fine pair of wings to match your fine-weighing scale."). The way she uses "we" is more likely a reference to her sisters.
oh neat, I'd love to research her to get a better understanding of Nemesis for future reference. I never did ruthless so i was thinking more of the scene on chapter 18 giving a few jabs to athena. I like the idea that there could be multiple narrators that represent each path. Though I'm not sure what kind of person Nemesis yet. Argos mentions the multiple minds like the multiple thoughts a human. Could it elude to Pandora's box? I'm really just throwing ideas against a wall lol
We do have a concept for a Pacific Islander character! It will, however, take a while for us to implement him, he'll only become available later in the game and there are other priorities we need to deal with before getting to him.
That's my bad! It's inconsistent/unclear and that's a mistake.
The ending of the Ruthless route and the Hinterlands were written months after each other and by different hands so a few details and explanations weren't coordinated perfectly. We might go back to fix this eventually.
I do have a few rules for how the charms work in this situation, though. As a rule of thumb, if you've spent a good amount of time with a mythical when he wasn't wearing a charm you can see their true shape even when they're wearing a charm. Keeping in mind that charms only affect perception, it's basically that your brain gets so used to their real shape that it overcomes the illusion. Still, if you strain your eyes and make an effort you can still see their human form, kind of like tricking yourself into seeing an optical illusion in a different way.
So... P can notice on his own that Storm's charm is malfunctioning, it just takes a bit of effort. It's easier for him to just ask Storm to check it. That's the explanation for the inconsistencies you noticed.
We didn't touch on it as well as I wanted to but P's feathers make him capable of seeing through most charms, period. It's hard for any but the best charms to trick over a hundred supernatural eyes simultaneously. This also means that any mythical that P meets whose charm tricks him is packing some serious power.
Another detail is that, yes, the fact P made Storm's charm means that P can always see Storm's true shape, but that goes both ways. Storm can always see P's real shape as well.
Ah, that makes a lot of sense!! The bits about the charm's workings are probably some of the most interesting parts of the worldbuilding imo, so I really like that you expanded on them here. But oh god, that thing with P... every new little bit of information that we get about Zezé just makes me more terrified of him. I'm really looking forward to see what happens with the whole missing children storyline, on one side because the scene in the shed is one of the best ones in the entire game, on the other because I'm just dying to know what the hell's going on. Hinterlands in general has me starving for more.
omg wait
I moved house and have a crazy job and haven't had time to finish the update yet and am JUST NOW DISCOVERING that I was (maybe? idek) right about the P = Panoptes guess last update!?!
…okay fine I know it was obvious just let me have this
funny how the master on many occasions, smelled asterion. But i can't remember if asterion did the same, but the dots are connecting funny enough.
I think Asterion does, the only one that I really remember is when comforting emaciated Asterion during his breakdown he takes in your scent.
Funny enough the sister scene to the laundry one has Asterion joking about kissing your feet.
many positions, especially hugs, speak of how asterion's nose is basically on top of you so I don't doubt that it will happen, and about what disappears in a certain question I like to imagine that it is perverted
You know the several times when the player character engages in taking in the scent of the big moo, it's in regard to sunlight, hard work and the sweet scent of the sea. But I wonder what does our dear friend smell when he takes us in. And if it might be slightly different depending on your background.
"Yeah that needs to be changed"
The real tradgedy in the ruthless ending is the fact that all the guests had to deal with the wi-fi password because they never got a chance to add screens to the hotel's translation lmao
After a whole bunch of playthroughs and experimentation, I'm finally taking the time to write something.
First of all, congratulations on the update! I had a great time with it and I eagerly await for the next one. Been playing since the first build and I figured it was high time I gave praise.
Your writing, characters and worlbuilding all offer a great and interesting experience. The gameplay/management elements only enhance it. I'm impressed at how well you manage to weave in and intertwine myths together in general.
The Nikos twist was cleverly executed and, in conjuction with his role in the ruthless route, he easily became one of my favourite characters.
Speaking of the ruthless route, it certainly offers a different perspective making us appreciate the good route all the more. It also isn't torture porn and focuses on telling more than that. There's a lot of interesting stuff in there, and a great further exploration of Nikos' character.
I must admit that I felt a bit ashamed for not figuring out who Jean was before the reveal. Even with my limited knowledge of Greek mythology, a lot of hints (some of them obvious) led up to it. I knew something was up with him, possibly something divine, but I didn't try to push my reasoning and research further. Lesson learned! This update did a good of pushing me to dig more into the game's secrets.
Great job with the Hinterlands as well! There's a lot to investigate and speculate on in there. You also did a stellar job with the dynamic between Pedro and Oscar. I ended up loving those two.
I must commend you on the humour too, this update got quite a few laugh out of me (yes, even the "A frenchman!" option despite being french myself). I finally gave a try to the speedrunner route and it's a quality shitpost.
Last but not least, on the topic of Asterion, I must say I am thoroughly smitten. I'm greatly enjoying the developing relationship between him and the Master. It's very heartwarming to see him coming into his own and gaining his confidence back. The old labyrinth scene was certainly one of the highlights.
I have a whole lot of theories but I'll direct them to the appropriate thread(s) later or I'd be here for days.
On a side note, following the update and after delaying it since forever, I finally read the original quest by going through the old archived threads. I'll avoid bringing up any potential spoilers from it of course, but it was a fun ride, and it was very interesting to see the initial creative process and the ways in which the VN and quest differ.
Anyway, congratulations once again! I was already hooked before but I am even more now.
Bonus: I came across this:
I never actually played D&D but here's what i think by looking up the class names
Asterion - Paladin
Luke - Ranger (Wolf as an animal companion)
Kota - Monk
Robert - Warlock
Argos - Rogue
P - Wizard
Storm - Bard
Very happy to hear your thoughts!
I'm glad the response to Oscar and Pedro's content has been so positive, we were kind of concerned that people would react negatively to most of the characters not being romantic interests for the player and lose interest in them, but fortunately that doesn't seem to be the case.
Pairing up characters with set personalities and stronger characterization than the MC lets us do more interesting things with their romance, so I hope you guys look forward to more of that!
Is there a particular moment you're referring to? There are a handful of times, from what I can remember, that Asterion muses he's turning to stone, but it's always as a metaphor for his apprehension, not a literal transformation :)
Remember that one of the great things about this VN is the poetic language. Most of the time, to my knowledge Asterion wishes to turn to stone or become stone. Usually in response to additional trauma or emotional turmoil . To me, the weathering of that sculpture in the front is a metaphor for how our dear friend has been treated, abandoned, abused and neglected.
They are the only 3 achievements that I have not yet obtained, How do you get this? I don't know where to take storm.
First dead than taking those achievements, I understand the fantastic writing and that we will discover more about asterion and many secrets but I am one of those who feels bad for accidentally attacking a skyrim villager and they will imagine how it would be to damage asterion
I've seen that some speak other languages in the thread, isn't it against the rules or something? I hate google translator because it changes a lot of what I want to say
To get that first achievement, you have to do at least seven of the following things throughout the Hinterlands Ch 3:
As for the other two, it all really depends on how important completionism is to you :)
I'm definitely not going to be getting those.
The tapir god is genuinely my favourite character to voice. There's such a worn, manic insanity to him that really feels complete and realized... whereas Nini is just distressing and monstrous.
for the rutheless route you have to keep sending asterion to the valley, once there all 4 endings can be obtained within the choices on the route.
as for speaking other languages, there is no such rules that i've ever heard of. some might just prefer to speak in the native languages of the developers, which isn't english.
It's actually the opposite. For now we're doing some work on the staff's stories. We have a good production-based reason for it, it's because when we have more hangout scenes in the game it'll change the typical in-game day's pacing and we'd rather have that now so we can hit the right proportion between side content and Asterion's story.
There's also another reason, and it's simply that doing work on the side stories is very liberating creatively. It's giving us some fresh eyes that'll help when we tackle the next main story chapters.
I'm really interested in seeing what direction you'll go with if you develop a Wolf route. How would one even progress a story with a nonhuman mind? Maybe something more about the Labyrinth and its environment through the sharper senses of a natural predator? Or maybe something about taming the Valley?
... It'd be interesting if the Hotel started being a refuge for endangered species would it not? Then it'd be an unusual explanation/and hopeful for sightings of all those species that are thought to be extinct.
Ha, you've really set the mind aflame with a great story like this. Keep up the good work.
Yeah, when we upload the next update (0.5.2) we'll make that clearer.
You know it sure is funny that it ends so well that people don't get the memo. I feel kind of proud of that, in a roundabout way.
I am really happy someone brought it up because argos is so inelegant and knew from the start that you mc loved asterian. Yes, Astrian had every right to be upset from how he was treated in the past, but when Argos just pours everything and sorta made him fully see how much the mc done for the bull. Going so far to be angry that despite to love and praise you give Asterian. He stayed overly humble, like Argos angrly telling him to love yourself because there are people who generally love him fully.
Pretty sure the game does not conclusively explain what it is yet. The most we have at this time is theories on the birthmark. All pretty much agree on its great significance though.
Just a heads up: thanks to the forum setup we have right here, it's easy to look up topics on like this. There's a search function in itch.io that can pull up mentions of a term and such. Give it a whirl!
doing achievements and my MC called "Hinterlands ant hills" speed run stopped at this exact line during the skips, I feel attacked
I viewed the situation as something liberating. The song is sad, but very empowering, from he moment asterion rising up and challenging the master to a wrestle. The collar part confused me a lot, and the only idea that comes to mind is asterion himself finally believing he is free. How calm he felt after the ordeal and tired. I feel like we might get more info later on, but for one of my favorite scenes, I am glad to see others really feel the raw energy the whole thing played out
I have a theory on the scar around his neck.. I mean, he died of BEHEADING and the achievement we get is the story with Theseus who did it. So I'm guessing that what we did kind of was a parallel for his "fight" with Theseus, only, he broke the recursion spiral by fighting back and so the scar that exemplifies his passive "cowardice" in allowing the beheading vanished. (And maybe paved the way to annulling some contractual stuff later.. )
Or it has something to do with the other story, where he "cuts the thread" for that immortal guy whose name I can't remember.. Tithonus? and apparently takes on his shackles instead. Maybe those shackles are the "band" on his throat like a collar. It's a bit weird that Asterion himself seems very unconcerned with what happened and it really feels like a biased narrative viewpoint again.
Thanks! Most of it is because I got stupidly lucky with the hints and tiles I pillaged in the valley, but yeah, I do tend to remember all kinds of usually inane details in games and books and it actually really helps in this game. Finally my talent is relevant! xDD
Edit: Though, it could still be wrong and most of it is conjecture, though not without context clues.
The basic gist is that you have a limited amount of time to explore the Hinterlands. Ideally you should approach it as a detective story — follow your intuition, look for clues, piece them together, pick your priorities, etc. There are some "quests" you can accomplish in the Hinterlands, but at least your first playthrough should be as unspoiled as possible. I think that's what most players would find the most enjoyable overall.
That said, I know this format can be very anxiety-inducing for some. Other just might not like the Hinterlands too much, or not mesh with its style. Because of this nanoff wrote a very brief walkthrough. Feel free to use it if you want to. Likewise, feel free to ask more specific questions here, as I'm sure there'll be others very willing to discuss things with you.
However, even with the walkthrough you'll still have to pick what you want to focus on, what you think is most important. There isn't enough time in-game to do everything.
Have fun!
