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In a kingdom covered in snow, in a kingdom where the snow never melts and never goes away, there lives a prince who keeps watch over his kingdom and resolves to maintain peace. When the prince learns that his family’s history isn’t as spotless as he had been told, he endeavors to fix what his family had done wrong and to ensure the continual peace of his kingdom. This will lead the prince to battling the phantoms that prowl the lands, to saving a princess, and to realizing the secrets of his family and his kingdom.

The entire game takes place in Sabine Kingdom and the island that it rests on. The island is constantly shrouded in snow, but for some reason, no one ever feels cold. Plants continue to grow despite the snow, so there is no danger of a food shortage. There has never been a need to question this, so the residents of Sabine Kingdom are blissfully unaware.

Though of course, our prince--Snowe--is not blissfully unaware any longer. A dream leads him to combing through his parents' library and learning that something is amiss. What is our prince to do except try and fix what he had found? He can't just sit back and pretend like he hadn't read about a girl being locked in a tall tower where she may one day die from flames that threaten to burn her. No, he can't do that at all.


Please visit the Wordpress for more information! Before asking me for help with a puzzle or boss help, please read the guides! A lot of potential questions are answered already. If you find a question that is not answered, feel free to get in contact with me and I'll do my best to answer.

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Did you like SSP and wanted more? Do you like reading??

Because of reasons, I've finally uploaded the sequel web novel, Ephemeral Prince to itch.io as an EPUB and a PDF. So, if you wanted to ever read Ephemeral Prince on your phone and not connected to the internet, now you can!

I figured this warrented a blog post, so I hope those who liked the game and liked the sequel will enjoy Ephemeral Prince on the go.



Maybe one day I'll make a game again, but today is not that day! Enjoy some old ass writing because it's like 10 years old! (which means SSP is older ugh)

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Just finished it,

Got the Good ending... Although I initially grumbled about the difficulty of some of the battles, it was probably just about right as long as you kept yourself prepared!

Case in point, both the Dream and the final battle were very epic! I wish I could have videoed that last battle, as he was extra tough, but we pulled through a very long arduous battle. And that last scene was perfect! <3

Although...
I know I'm not supposed to (please forgive me!), but I edited my game once to finish it...
After beating the final boss, that same abort battle call was used (like with my previous battle with the Original King in the Western Tower); and when I finally got control of my character; I went to save in Menu. And NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (crash)
Removing the abort battle on 0% so it shows the exp screen, solved that crash for me. ...Though it doesn't have as quite as smooth and silky transition as abort battle does.

But after a second battle with the final boss, I got to see the ending this time ;D
Note:

I mention this just in case it helps somehow, although since most people don't have the issue it's probably a moot point.


Thanks Ronove! Not just for the save but for a beautiful game :D
Here's my review :

Music 4.5/5
The music was charming. In fact, as I write this I'm listening to the various Sabine town songs~ ... I think I might put these songs in a playlist and fall asleep them...

SFX 4/5
Nothing much to say... Most are common SFX, I believe. I do remember hearing those Chrono Trigger seagulls though! And those evil walls were pretty creepy in the dream castle...

Art and CG 4.9999/5
Oooo... Marvelous. There might have been a few pictures I was slightly iffy on. But, hey I am giving it a 4.9999!!! It was commercial art quality! More, moreeeee!!!

Mapping 4.7/5
It was *fun* to explore. Every nook and cranny held something to take a closer look at. Even though the game took place on a single island, it never felt too small.
Places like the tower, the dream, the town, the ship, the floating castle were of special note. The caves and the hedge felt more rpgmaker-ish to me, but it still gets an excellent.

Writing 4.5/5
95% of the writing sat perfectly with me. There were some instances later on though where I had to re-read lines, since they seemed awkward? Unfortunately, I didn't save those lines to double-check or report.

Characters 4.9/5
Oh... I want to see Snowe, Erio, Hiante... and of course Astra again... (What Relenia, you too?? Okay... ;D)
The detail put into the townspeople added a lot to this game. That care, is what hooked me after the portrait art drew me in. And in that final battle, when they pulled a classic everyone come together to help you; never felt so... right.
Even the shadow demon had real character... I wanted to learn his name >;D
Ahhh... you won this battle.

Story 4.75/5
You created a world that was worth the memory...

Battles 4.3/5
Battles ranged from push-over, to clawing my eyes!!! ahhh....
The battle difficulty was well crafted, but you had to make sure you kept battling as you go, rather than avoid the encounters. Perhaps, I didn't play as smart as was intended; since for the most part I would ignore Vera's wisdom...
In most cases, I would rely on pushing status effects on the enemy, and keeping them helpless. Rarely would I use water, then lightning, or avoid breaking a status effect, and just continue to wail on them. I wasn't completely ignorant about it though...
The boss battles in particular were very tough. Although I was able to forge on, I imagine newcomers to RPGs would be utterly destroyed by such battles :O

Issues
Crashes at a few keypoints, are troubling... But, it seems that others do not have the same issue! So, I won't take off for this~

My Overall Rating...
4.6/5

It's an unusual game... it starts off slow, almost like a fairy tale.
But to my surprise, this game pushes a dark theme that eats away at the main character, and one cannot help but be curious to want to learn more ... and soon fall in love with the painstakingly crafted game.
A great tale in its own right.

Regrets :
More Astra! xD Why was she named a Princess though? And where did she come from? Who were her parents...? Did I miss it??

I was surprised there was no secret in the king and queen's room in the castle. I thought for sure something would happen there eventually...? Hmm...

I thought something more would happen with the stars after I discovered that Star Sacrifice skill... I only used it once to see what it would do in one of the final battles... >< Still... carrying around a bag of stars is pretty neat...

I cheated on the location of Snowe and Relenia's final weapons... I looked it up on your wordpress! I am kinda disappointed that I didn't try talking to those maidens early on... they had some interesting things to say...
The crashes I had at those two key points kind of broke up the pacing of the beautiful story... Still, I'm just honored to have played such a game!

Thank you for making this game! <3 <3
Can I mention the fact that I loved dying on boss battles in this game?

Little bug that is actually game-breaking that I'd like to report:
When you leave the Western Tower before completing it, and then come back, the OK stands before the door, and if you approach him from the right or from the left the game freezes because you'll be walking towards the wall.
Ronove
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@XCaliber: Wow, that is odd. But it doesn't account for all the other times the crash may have happened as it only happens with those two bosses (and people can get it to happen without the Abort battle). I will look into it, so thank you. And please, I don't appreciate someone opening my game when I had it closed. It's kind of rude, but I do thank you for trying to fix the issue. Next release, I am just going to disable the menu while you're after the final boss. It causes too many problems it seems!

Astra was just named Princess because that's what the King and Queen decided. Her parents might have been mentioned but it doesn't matter because they'd already died before everyone arrived to the island.

The Star Sacrifice--you already have the stars in your little pouch. All it does is knock Snowe out and he heals everyone. It doesn't affect the other stars in the sky.


Not entirely sure why your final score is a 4.6/10 (that's not even passing in terms of grades! ;O;), but thank you so much for the kind words! I hope I can figure everything out eventually, and I hope my next game doesn't suffer from bad crashing bugs.

@Heisenman: Dying at boss battles is fun though! Just don't throw the controller. That's not as fun.

Thanks for telling me about that bug! I shall write it down for things to fix when I do an updated version.
Not entirely sure why your final score is a 4.6/10 (that's not even passing in terms of grades! ;O;), but thank you so much for the kind words! I hope I can figure everything out eventually, and I hope my next game doesn't suffer from bad crashing bugs.
Whoops... it was 5 AM when I wrote that... I had dark circles under my eyes...
*edits*

4.6/5 ;D

editedit :
I just remembered something weird, that I probably should confirm;

When walking in the snow in the Forgotten Path, I think from the Western Tower side...
I remember noticing that the footprints were going crazy around Snowe. At first I thought maybe I was seeing things, or was being stalked by something in the story... But, then I realized... it must be one of the enemies I killed! They are defeated, but still wandering like a phantom...

(confirmed... it's on the first screen when you enter on the west side. If you kill the Phantom closest to the right side of the screen, he should become a playful footprint ghost...)
This game is absolutely fantastic.
Hello, loving the game so far! I just finished the Western Tower. The astrology puzzle was really confusing though; I thought I knew the Zodiac fairly well, but I kept thinking the "slaughterer" referred to Sagittarius since he's a hunter -- where did you get Capricorn from?

Anyway, is it possible to get the chest in the Forgotten Paths? You know, the one across the collapsing tile... My first instinct was to go back in the hole and try to attach the rope to the other end, but that didn't work. :/
Ronove
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@Xcaliber: Haha, the footsteps aren't SUPPOSED to do that (and it will also do it in the Sabine Forest), but it has an eerie effect so I stopped trying to figure out how to fix it. Once it was fixed, then it wasn't, and I was like, FINE, be little creepy footsteps.

@Prexus: Aww, thank you!

@argh: No, it's not possible to get that chest. Even if you do manage to get to it by some wizardry, there's nothing in it and the scarecrow laughs at you!

As for where I got Capricorn as the Slaughterer: it comes from an Arabic star named Dabih (which means lucky star of "the slaughterer" (or I guess it means butcher too)) which is located in Beta Capricorni which is located in the constellation of Capricorn. Which is why Astra hints at looking at other culture's astrology because Sagittarius doesn't make the puzzle work.
Hm. On what I assume is the final chapter. I seem to have done pretty well with the sidequests; the only ultimate weapon I'm missing is Snowe's, and the only memory I missed was also his.

How do you get the ribbons, though? The library helper seems to imply they're in the castle library, but I don't have any idea how to get the key...
Ronove
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She didn't imply you find it in the library. She said she forgot it in the castle. Keep looking; it's there (hint: down the stairs from the magic hall). The red ribbon was found on the floating island and if you didn't get it there, you can't reclaim it. Sorry. As for Snowe's final weapon, you can consult the wordpress. His memory is found in front of a snowman outside one of the side entrances to the castle.
Ah, thank you! I see now. I don't think I ever saw that room during the prologue.

By the way, do the Maiden Gems do anything? The maidens tell you to hang onto them, but so far I haven't seen any use for them...

By the way, a minor bug: In the castle during the final chapter, the music triggers are a bit odd. Entering certain rooms (usually the front halls) restarts the music.

Also, the clearing with the snowman in the Forgotten Paths remains blue and snowing even after the Western Tower is completed.

Edit: Woah, the Green Ribbon gives half MP cost on top of everything else? Incredible! o_O
Ronove
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Yeah I know that about the music restarting--there's a reason that it does that and not much I can do to change it. I'll see if I can fix that when I get enough patience to poke it again.

And about the snow still falling near that snowman, perhaps he likes the snow, okay?! But in reality, that was unintentional but I kind of like it now.
I'm encountering the same chapter two can't-pick-up-the-book-or-open-the-menu crashing bug that others have mentioned. By avoiding the book and not opening the menu, I managed to make it to the first room with the candles overhead that have to be lit by the lever (after a lot of crashing - first from picking up the book, then trying the menu in a few rooms), but then got stun-combo'd to death by a pair of ghosts in the aforementioned room, and crashed upon dying. I was really enjoying the game and I'd like to finish it, but I think I'm going to have to hold off until there's a solution to the problem - since I can't open the menu to save, every time I find a new way to crash as I advance up the tower, or die (and crash after I die anyway), I'm forced to start again from the point just before Snowe gets roflstomped by the bird-thing, and it's a bit frustrating after the fifth or sixth time. ): Hope it gets fixed so I can continue playing eventually.

I should also note that I don't have another computer to try this on, really - my younger sister and I share a laptop, but it's pretty crappy, and she's got it with her at our mother's house this week anyway.

EDIT: !!! 8D I'm not sure how much this will help you (Ronove), but I managed to solve my some of my crash problems. Since downloading SSP... early yesterday, I think (or maybe it was sunday), I've installed the VX RTP. So, in a last ditch effort since I had nothing better to do at the time, I downloaded the w/o RTP version and moved over my save file and tried it in that folder - and I was able to pick up the book, AND I was able to open my menu! 8) I hope that helps anyone who's experiencing the same crashes, and I hope it brings you closer to pinning down the cause of some of the crashes (I still crash upon dying - and I did experience another crash, but it and the death crash are minor compared to my previous problems).
Ronove
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Glad it's (somewhat) working for you Aruelia! I really wish I knew why it did that. @_@ I think what I'll do is try to take out the script that makes the items pop up. While aesthetically it'll make me ;_;, I think that'll save problems from happening like with the book in that room. Don't know what it IS about that book. Clearly, it doesn't want to be picked up.

Oh, did the crashing happen when you picked up the book even if you just loaded your save file? Because if so, damn: that throws a wrench into a theory I had.
author=Ronove
Glad it's (somewhat) working for you Aruelia! I really wish I knew why it did that. @_@ I think what I'll do is try to take out the script that makes the items pop up. While aesthetically it'll make me ;_;, I think that'll save problems from happening like with the book in that room. Don't know what it IS about that book. Clearly, it doesn't want to be picked up.

Oh, did the crashing happen when you picked up the book even if you just loaded your save file? Because if so, damn: that throws a wrench into a theory I had.

I'm not sure if it would happen every time - I forgot to test it. One time was deterrent enough to not pick that book up again until I switched game versions. xD It wasn't just that particular room I menu-crashed in too, I wandered out into several others nearby and menu-crashed there too. Didn't get a chance to test the whole tower though. I'd test these things for you, but I tossed out the w/ gswhatever.dll version and I no longer have a save file for that area.

Love the statues in the guardian shrine, btw.
I lol'd at the Aurelia one whining about her name being weird, and I totally geeked out Cassandra insisting that nobody believes Cassandras. xD I almost majored in Classical Archaeology, so Greek and Roman myth are two of my nerd interests.
How long does this game take to beat?
Ronove
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NicoB: usually about 10 hours; give or take depending on your play-style.

Aurelia: XD I figured you'd like those statues (given your username)! haha. But yeah, that's totally okay if you don't have it anymore. But if it does happen again and you're in a place that you can easily test that, please do! I've found that the menu usually crashes like if you open it right after a battle or right after transferring to a new room. If it just happens if you've been idle for a few seconds, then that means, again, another wrench thrown into my theory, haha.

I think I should make a script that allows you to open up the save menu from just pressing a button so just in case, people can still save if they fear their menu will crash the game. OTL
author=Ronove
NicoB: usually about 10 hours; give or take depending on your play-style.

Aurelia: XD I figured you'd like those statues (given your username)! haha. But yeah, that's totally okay if you don't have it anymore. But if it does happen again and you're in a place that you can easily test that, please do! I've found that the menu usually crashes like if you open it right after a battle or right after transferring to a new room. If it just happens if you've been idle for a few seconds, then that means, again, another wrench thrown into my theory, haha.

I think I should make a script that allows you to open up the save menu from just pressing a button so just in case, people can still save if they fear their menu will crash the game. OTL


I crash sometimes when I hit the menu button right after saving (to close the menu) and until recently I crashed after every game over screen, but I've died a couple times fighting the Chimera and not crashed after the game over screen.
Speaking of the Chimera, uuuugh, it appears that I ended up with the badass version (I went and looked at the boss guide the first time I died, saw the switch puzzle, and realized that I didn't solve it that way). But the switches are 'stuck', so I can't redo them the way they're done in the guide. Crap. xD
Ronove
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@Aurelia: Are you SURE they're stuck? I have it set the switches reset themselves if you got it wrong. Unless you got some right and those are stuck... then try just continuing the puzzle from there. If it still doesn't work, you can send me your save file and I can fix that for you (and add something for myself to fix in the game itself).

Though, fun fact: Volrath fought the really hard version and won. Not sure HOW he did it, but it is possible after dying a few times and then having every thing planned down to the second, haha.

Edit: Just tested it: if you got some switches in the right order, those are stuck. And even if you hit the wrong switch next, it won't undo all your progress. You can just continue with the puzzle.
author=Ronove
@Aurelia: Are you SURE they're stuck? I have it set the switches reset themselves if you got it wrong. Unless you got some right and those are stuck... then try just continuing the puzzle from there. If it still doesn't work, you can send me your save file and I can fix that for you (and add something for myself to fix in the game itself).

Though, fun fact: Volrath fought the really hard version and won. Not sure HOW he did it, but it is possible after dying a few times and then having every thing planned down to the second, haha.


I will check them again, just a moment. I did get the outside ones right...
... ... They -all- say that they are stuck. I'd show you the pattern I did them in, but I'm not sure how to do spoiler tags here. I suppose I should send you my save file - how would you prefer I do that? xD
Ronove
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Did you press the switch at the bottom if they are all stuck (that one completes the puzzle and if you did it right, you should hear some flash sound effect and it says "something happened... but you don't know what" or some variation of that)? But yes, if you're really sure you didn't do it right by accident, please send me your save file so I can double check to make sure nothing stupid happened!