Apology project: Medieval mystery

[Taleweaver]

@Nobody: Yup, bug. I went a little copy/paste crazy >.<

@Mr.E:

Dietrich is trying to protect the honor of Lady Margarete and doesn't want the rape to become known. That's why he's willing to kill - and besides, after the death of Sir Walther, he is already a murderer. He can't possibly make things worse now.

By the way, there are two ways to the True Ending, one with telling Lord Johann your suspicions right after the murder and one without. But both end in the same way.

Thanks everybody for your warm words. You might see more of Gunther in the distant future...

[F.I.A]

One more interesting detective game indeed. But dang, what is with the detective trend lately?

At first I thought it was Havard who is responsible, but after I kept getting killed for telling Dietrich the truth, it becomes obvious.

How many endings are there? I am able to get 5 endings, that is Stableboy(1), Dead(3), Dungeon(4), Page(5), Squire(6). Not sure how to get ending 2 or if there is a ending 7.

A little short, but I enjoy the reading pretty much.

[Taleweaver]

The ending 2 is actually the "Dead" ending you found. The ending you're looking for is Ending 4.

Ending 4 can be always achieved if you don't run into endings 1, 2 or 3 - you just have to suspect the right wrong person.

[monele]

Finally!
Ok, I just decided I'd try it again, with the hint you have me ^^;...

And even then, I managed to lose again at first XD... I'm still not sure exactly *which* choice is the winner but I think it's asking Dietrich about who knew Walther.
Anyway, something's still unclear to me : how does Gunther guess that there was a family matter with Walther and that the Lord was in debt of him...?
I've skipped a lot, so maybe I forgot some explanation...

Anyway, great ending, with a little twist I didn't really see coming ^^... and... despite someone's death... it's rather "happy" .

That was a really cool game, albeit very difficult to me. I don't know if I wish it was easier though... because it all fits together... It's just that I just *couldn't* have won without help ^^;... *torn*

[Taleweaver]

If you're able to name the true murderer, Gunther has found out one of two things: Either that Margarethe and Dietrich were very close, or that Dietrich considers all of Berwartstein his family. He also knows that Lord Johann was very quick to give Walther everything he wanted for the journey, so of course he suspects that Johann was his debt. Sir Walther's first visit was mentioned numerous times before, so that's the only possible motive, and Gunther either concludes it was because of something that happened to Lady Margarete (and Dietrich did it out of loyalty for her) or something about himself (and Dietrich did it to protect the Berwartstein "family"). He has no idea that the truth lies exactly inbetween...

[monele]

I see ^^. I do recognize many bits of what I learned, so yes, it makes sense. Aaah, it's just bad to have played it so much time after the first time ^^;...

[F.I.A]

The ending 2 is actually the "Dead" ending you found. The ending you're looking for is Ending 4.

Ending 4 can be always achieved if you don't run into endings 1, 2 or 3 - you just have to suspect the right wrong person.

Ack, to think I have miscounted. Thanks for the correction.

I shall look forward for your next work.

[anon]

NameError: name 'dissolv' is not defined

While executing game script on line 1765 of C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\Gtz T. Heinrich\Desktop\renpy-6.1.1\kinsman/game/script.rpy.

[Taleweaver]

Oooh, thanks

Corrected script.rpyc file here! Just rename it from .txt to .rpyc

[Ignosco]

I managed to get to the final choice the first time, where I could have made the right accusation but incorrectly chose Sir Burkhard and was amazed after reloading that the murderer was Dietrich. After seeing the ending, there were a lot of subtle clues (eg his mention of judgement etc when Gunther first sees Dietrich after the murder) which I only noticed retrospectively - I didn't get the dead ending until reading about it afterwards on the forums, but that's probably the biggest clue, when the player 'confides' in Dietrich and ends up dead. The scenario is very well established, and the medieval views of class and morality came across strongly; coupled with a intriguing story it makes an excellent detective VN. I really enjoyed playing this . Gunther's age, although necessitated by the story, didn't really come across; it never really felt like he was twelve, I guess partly because a character of that age probably wouldn't have been able to solve the mystery.

I wonder the subjects of the portraits would think, if they were told they would end up starring in a detective game.

Congratulations .

[Taleweaver]

Regarding Gunther's age: In the Middle Ages, childhood ended at the age of six, whether you were a nobleman or a commoner. A boy would start working at his father's farm, or starting to help him with his crafts, or become a page if his father was a knight. Commoners usually married their children as soon as possible (i.e. as soon as the daughters were able to bear children), normally between the age of 12 and 14, and the average marriage age among the nobility wasn't much higher. People rarely lived beyond the age of forty, as any serious disease normally meant death.

At the age of twelve, most boys were
- already used to working hard for half of their lives
- aware that if they didn't adhere to their duties, there would be punishment
- aware of their position in the world, and what it demanded of them
- physically strong enough to work in most trades - mining, for example, was a job where boys before their teenage growth spurt were highly valued because of their mobility in small quarters

Gunther is quite a bit brighter than most people of his age - even brighter than most people of his era. But then again, most protagonists in mystery novels are, so I'm not ashamed I gave him that trait.

[Hime]

I finally played this game with all the endings (I think), and I really liked it. In the end, I realized how many clues there had been hidden and how it all suddenly made sense. I think the story was really well thought and the characters were all really nice too. There was also enough introductionary text before the mystery really got spinning, so making conclusions was easier. I really liked the music and graphics too, they fit the medieval setting really well. So, bravo!

There were some minor bugs though. For example, in the first scene where Sir Walther is shown, some of the dialogue seems to be Dietrich's, even though he is saying lines such as "My name is Burkhard von Daun"... ^^;

[Taleweaver]

Eek. Still didn't get that all sorted out? Dang. I'll work it over once I have the time.

[farvardin]

I've just finished this great game!

- I liked the graphics, music and mood very much (I'm quite found of medieval Germany)
- The reference to the "dollars" is much out of place and out of time! (Or was it happenning at the Disney's castle ?)
- I wished I got a native linux / mac os x version instead of using a windows emulator to play it. The linux launcher was not working for such an "old" game http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Linux_Launcher
- Probably I don't read fast, but it took me more than 1 hour to play and finish it. (so it's more than the 30 mins playtime announced on http://www.renai.us/game/loyalkinsman.shtml )
- I'm happy I didn't read the introduction text on the previous link, because it spoils much of the surprise I think.

- I think the difficulty is very well managed, I had to replay some parts a few time to find the solution, but it was not annoying at all.
- This story is not very happy, but the mystery is thrilling and well managed. The text is very well written. The first part was quite long, but a good introduction.
- I liked how Gunther invented absurds stories when he hadn't sufficent proofs at the end.

[Jake]

- The reference to the "dollars" is much out of place and out of time! (Or was it happenning at the Disney's castle ?)

It's not so out of place, from what I recall, and it's not so far out of time. The name 'dollar' originated in the late middle ages in Bavaria as "thaler", IIRC.

And I seem to recall there are anachronistic references to dollars in MacBeth, so it's not without precedent. :3