The Garden Society: Kykuit

[PyTom]

The story itself was meant to be as open as possible. Though if you get the two hardest endings, it's much more complete... And if anyone gets Ending 0 by sheer fluke or tampering - that person will know why. Oh wait- did I mention Ending 0 in the README? Whoops... I guess not... ;D

Great... now I need to figure out how to tamper. I personally don't know the wire format of a savegame file. So good luck to the hex editor crowd.

What is the total list of endings? I've reached 2, 3, and 7, so far... I've been busy IRL, so haven't been playing much.

Seriously though, I would suggest that authors of large games with difficult endings consider releasing a walkthrough after a few months, since it seems a shame to have written endings and not have interested people seeing them.

Ditto easter eggs... especially for people like me who are really really dense about that sort of thing.

[Megaman Z]

while walkthrus are useful, I usually prefer NOT to be led by the hand to get somewhere unless i've just about given up hope.

I'll just wait for another game to get my mind off of how many times I've gotten ending six already... (at time of posting, it was three times.)

[mikey]

*notices*

That's not entirely without point to say the truth.

My god, I sound like Hiroka!!!

Sorry eclipse, next post WILL be on topic.

*oops, erased my reply...* It's times like these that you just KNOW you need some sleep *calmly walks away* See you tomorrow.

ORIGINAL POST (recovered from IE history):

mikey>> "B"-cuz you gave such a thorough review, I'll give you one answer: yes.

Ah, heavens are gracious, now... just need to click the right choices... One thing, I was aiming for a specific path and loaded the first saved choice to continue, and well, the game crashed on me twice when I selected one of the options. I don't mean to scare though, because it didn't happen again, just on that one windows session (I restarted and things went fine).

Because, I'll just warn everyone now - flexibility is key when it comes to my games... You guys will have to bend when my next one comes out... ^___^ Hee hee~!

Well, I believe we'll be in the same boat then... but that's a long way to go for me, (late) summer is still far away.

Seriously though, I would suggest that authors of large games with difficult endings consider releasing a walkthrough after a few months, since it seems a shame to have written endings and not have interested people seeing them.

That's not entirely without point to say the truth. Sometimes I am exceptionally unaware of the simplest things It would be good to have a true walkthrough instead of just hints like TT or AP have, but at the same time, it's like you'd throw all the subtle hints we (incl. you) have put into the games, so it's like ruining the efforts. Still, if someone were to release a thorough walkthrough, there would be nothing we could do about it. It's a tough question.

[Megaman Z]

mikey>>I can easily put together not-so-subtle hints for both getting to part II of your game as well as getting to the (true) ending.

also, as far as your crashing incident, I don't bother saving unless it's a really long game.

[Kikered]

Review time!

Graphics - Very good! The characters were nicely detailed and attractive. What I particularly enjoyed the most was the variety of expressions displayed by the characters during conversations.

Sound - The music for the game was very enjoyable. The songs seemed to fall within two categories for me: mellow ("daisy1" and "ache") and pensive ("june_trad"), which seem to suit the game very well. "heartache" also fit the mood of the flashback scenes, but some of the later parts of the song sounded more... soothing instead of tragic. But then again, perhaps we weren't supposed to be in that segment long enough for the music to shift.

Story - Overall, GSK had a nice story. It seemed to be a bit on the lighter side, leaning more towards the search for friends than something deeply romantic. If only the nerdier types got to be friends with girls like that in real life too...

There were a couple of things that I found curious:

Firstly, it seemed kind of odd how quickly Arthur transitioned from stuttering and wanting to run away from the girls to being able to carry conversations with them comfortably. Is shyness a part of his personality, or was it only an initial timidness from being in a new situation?

And secondly, I'm wondering what caused his rise to and fall from fame in his flashbacks. Perhaps it is explained in the elusive Ending 0 or 8?

Overall - Good work! There were some noticeable typos throughout the game, probably due to the rush to meet the deadline. However, they didn't detract any from the overall experience. Congratulations upon completing your second game!

[darkknight]

Okay my review...take a deep breath...stretch...yawn....

Pros:
-Most of all I like the people that are in the background..It adds more of a realistic touch to the game.
-Second The characters are very well drawn and have very well planned out personalities.
-lastly The game actually flows well..what I mean by that is that in most games after a question the next text has nothing to do with the question asked and the text does not look like something a person would say.
Cons:
-Although the only way to fix this would be to draw your own background...The characters dont look like they belong in the same world as the background buildings.. like i said though you really cant fix that.
-Next In my opinion...all of the characters faces look like they belong on females...
-Oh and there are some parts of the story that just seems like the main characters rambles...it maybe trying to depict a lose of thought but after so many games with that in it, it begins to be predictable and sightly boring (only in my opinion).

After playing the game I recieved the ending of 4...

(This is only my opinion...you can despute it if you want and you can tell me i am wrong...but just keep in mind that it is my opinion and that will not change)

This game is the best game so far..well for the month...Very well made.

[rioka]

Megaman Z>> Yup, that's all the endings. I don't count Ending 0 since the likelihood of someone actually seeing it is slim to none.

PyTom>> You got ending 7?! :whistles: You go PyTom!
I'll consider releasing a walkthrough for those who have hit a brick wall.

mikey, re next game>> Really? ...Interesting...

Kikered>> sound: lol I was counting on people to read fast and not get too far into each of the soundtrack, actually... ^^

curious:

I would say your second guess coupled with the baggage of the past = how he is. Though I would decribe it more as timidity/nerves than just being timid. And yes, it is definitely explained in ending 8 although you can guess what was the cause without seeing it...

typos: Really? I ran it through Word and then went over it again and caught some things it missed. I'll check again anyways.

re darkknight>> flow of game: Yeah, I know how you feel! Those are very irritating.

cons: The realistic backgrounds and the drawn images is a style, imo. Some people may like it and some would not. Honestly, I didn't think much of it when I first saw the combination as well but in the end, it's just seeing things in a different eye.

lol Yeah. My drawings has influence from CLAMP, and hence heavy on the pretty side - male or female. But seriously, all of the characters? Even the guys tailing Vivian? The only thing I can say if that you're probably used to more realistic type drawings. So, what would you say about this drawing: http://www.mangatutorials.com/tut/hair/straighttail.jpg
Feminine or not? This is just out of curiosity. My sister also thinks I make them too bishie. lol Actually, she says it worse than that but you know - siblings

[darkknight]

The face is that of a male but the overall look is japan so ummm...yeah...

[mikey]

Oh YES!!! Finally!!! After so much time, so many tries and tears I finally got Ending 8. I can die happily now...

The only endings I haven't gotten are 7 and 0. But it's hard to find motivation for that now that there is ******* ********.

[rioka]

Congratulations mikey!

[kara24601]

Arg , when I tried to sit with one of the other girls towards the end , I still ended up sitting with Vivian! Not that I'm really complaining , but I don't get why being nice to everyone and expressing that you like art in both forms gets you Vivian even if you haven't really spent much time with her or anybody else for that matter! Hmm.
I guess I should find the read me and check it out more throughly (sp.?) ....
Great graphics and interesting plot though.
I really love the additional / part of the main focus being on surroundings and art.

[rioka]

Your choices throughout the whole game influences what ending you get not just the last choice of who you want to sit next to. Have you tried not being nice to everyone? That may the problem. And actually, this: "expressing that you like art in both forms gets you Vivian" is not true. ^_^

Vivian is around. She normally "passes" by you. GS is a small group and just think about small towns and gossip... ;D

If you want to get someone else, I suggest you start from the beginning or at least before the 1st choice. Like I said earlier, who you sit with in the end is not determined by the last choice.

Maybe I shoud make that walkthrough after all... :\

[kara24601]

LOL , I thought it might be something like that but it's not the way I would make the choices play out ...I'll try to keep that in mind in my next play.

[rioka]

If I made the ending based all on the last choice, it'd be too easy, don't you think?

[Megaman Z]

If I made the ending based all on the last choice, it'd be too easy, don't you think?

duh.

(haven't played this much lately [as in last six hours...])