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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.

Latest Blog

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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Posts

author=Gourd_Clae
author=Zyvin314
author=Ronove
@littlebro: you're on the right track.

@Zyvin314: if it's a rgss2 player crash, I don't know what to tell you. You say it crashes soon anyway, well, where does it crash if you ignore the book?
Well, anytime I try to open the menu or leave that room with the healing statue. When it crashes, it just says windows has encountered an error with the Game.exe and had to close it.

Kinda bummed, since the story got me hooked already.
This happens to me. Just constantly save if you're set on playing the game and be ready to open the game again. If Ronove doesn't find a solution.


I have that problem too Q-Q
Ronove
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And I have mentioned that I KNOW it's a problem. Very Q_Q indeed. Best thing you can do is tell me more about how you get the problem to happen on your end. And give me your computer specs as well. I've been trying to figure it out so any information more on it would be helpful in getting towards a solution.
OK, perhaps my brain has died, perhaps different systems of logic, and probably missing the obvious but...

I'm on the 4th floor of the Western Tower. I have put those switches into every possibility and hurtled round to see if the bars have opened or some flowers have appeared from somewhere. Nothing. Is it the order of throwing them as well as the combination?


Thanks
Ronove
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The hint says:
A bridesmaid comes from the right
A groomsman comes from the left
And the wife has her flowers.

There are two switches with a picture of flowers. Reset the switches, pull the switch to the right, then pull the switch to the left, and then pull the switch in the middle (underneath the portrait of the lady). That should do the trick. If you hear the sound of gates opening, that means the gate has been opened; no sound, gate's still closed (unless something screwed itself up, haha).
well im still on this game im in the 2nd tower where in i need to solve the constellation puzzle...im stuck i dunno how?..hmmm...tell me..pls ^_^ nywy nice game and im enjoying it...... two thumbs up...
Thanks for the hint - but my internet went down just after I posted, so I carried on throwing switches until finally something happened. I had no idea what I'd done right, so it's good to find out.

I think I'm nearly at the home straight as we've reached the ship, so I assume big bad boss will be appearing shortly. I'm intrigued by other posts' references to good ending and bad ending. I expect I'll soon find out what that's all about.

Thanks for all your hard work to create a great game.

Edit
Hmm... I ended up with what I worked out had to be the bad ending; went to your web site (great site by the way, wish I'd thought of going there earlier) to see if there was anything there about getting the good ending and saw that I had to fight the optional boss as part of Snowe's nightmare. Trouble is, I can't find how to initiate the nightmare. If I speak to Richard I get straight to the arrival of the final boss, and I've wandered around and spoken to everyone (I think) several times, been in and out of the tents, clicked on every bed I can find. What have I missed?
Ronove
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@Littlebro:
Did you find Astra's memory from the tower? It'd be the flower on her bed after Chapter 5. Watch that and then speak with her in the cave camps. She'll tell you to go bother her demon if you can't sleep. Talk to him and you get to start the optional dungeon. Which reminds me, I should put a quick guide on how to get that started.


And thank you for your comments! I really appreciate them! :)
I'm sorry but, as much as I liked this game in the beginning, I find it really awfully frustrating by moments. I appreciate the principle of having some challenge, but when my strategy is as optimized as can be and the only thing I can do is repeat the same procedure again and again praying for the random number generator not to one-hit-kill me from full-health-full-buff-full-debuff state after twenty turns of painstaking progress, I'm not having fun anymore.
It would appear I'm badly underlevelled (lvl 22 against The Dream), then again level progression was not fast enough for me to imagine that I was that far from the normal level, and I managed to beat The Slaughterer with just the right amount of challenge (and even went as high as ~8000 dmg against The Dream once). I overwrote my save after having delivered Astra, therefore I'm basically stuck, unless I redo the whole dream section. I think by now I have spent more time trying to beat the boss than going through this whole section, actually, but it also makes the idea of backtracking somewhat unappealing. I suppose if I can't beat it anytime soon I'll just quit the game. It pains me after more than 10 hours, but pleasure is really losing terrain to frustration. It already had with some earlier boss fights, and I really dislike grinding but I did put up with it just for the sake of seeing more of the game.

Anyway, sorry if I sound bitter, I guess I'm just not the best target for this kind of unforgiving gameplay (you can probably tell I'm not too fond of most Shin Megami Tensei !). I seem to be the only one to have become this frustrated, so it is more probable that the problem comes from me. Don't let my comment get you down - but perhaps do include a switchable easy mode in a future version, or something like that, just to avoid getting eternally stuck.

Other than that, it is a very lovely and endearing game, and I had a great time with most of it. I loved the parts where the atmosphere evoked a slightly eerie and dissonant fairytale, with beautiful scenes and subtle contrasts of childish happiness and cruelty everywhere - and was a bit less convinced whenever the tone became a tad more standard-fantasyish and straightforward, for instance in some dialogues with the bad guys. I'm not sure how to clarify this remark and render it more constructive, but lots and lots of things fit perfectly in the bittersweet atmosphere (starting with the smallest details like the scarecrows or the whole lumps of clay business), while others were slightly off-key, such as the villains coming off as more fantasy-evil than fairytale-evil in their dialogues, if you get my (admittedly vague) meaning.

But the charming setting and sheer likeability of the main cast, as well as some poetic or emotional scenes, largely made up for it all. And even the gameplay was much better than a whole lot of standard RPGs, and I would have liked it without most of my current reservations if not for the really unfair combos.
Ronove
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@Hasvers: Do you want to give me your save so I can bump up your levels? I feel really bad that you got that underleveled. :( Did you dodge enemies a lot and the like? Was I not giving enough EXP for your playthrough? But yes, if you can upload me your save file, I can totally fix your levels so you can at least get to the ending! Do you think I should also add a warning after getting Astra from the dream so other people don't run into that? (Honestly, I can't fathom why I didn't if I hadn't).

I think I get your meaning and I think where people notice the quirks with the dialogue is because I did the stupid thing of NOT writing down my dialogue in a word document to go over it to fix things like that. When I started this game I didn't mean for it to go beyond anything really ambitious, so I made the mistake of just keeping all the words in the game editor. That is really HARD to go over and edit (and there are a ton of things I wish I had done differently, but I made it this far), so I'll take whatever comments may be about it now and just put more cohesiveness to any other games I make.

Though honestly, I didn't strive to make it fairytale like aside from the Once Upon a time at the beginning. The game still fulfills my end-goal for it and if people think that I lost something after a certain point, there's not much I can say for it. I'm sad that some feel that I lost the fairytale things, but like I said: learning experience. Clearly I hit on something a lot of people like and lost it, but honestly, when I began the game, I meant for it to be the fantasy-rpg that you know of just with my own spin on it. I think if I create any more games, I'll definitely strive better to keep up what people liked so much about Star Stealing Prince. Any sequels I make after this one if I work up the nerve to would be more on the fantasy-rpg side anyway, so I'm unsure if I should do it because I don't want people to not like it because I didn't continue the fairytale aesthetic.

(And really, if you guys wanted full on fairy tales, I would have to kill Snowe because the moral is: don't do stupid things to put your kingdom in jeopardy, but that's a whole 'nother discussion that I don't want to get into at the moment.)

Anyway. Long winded post: give me your save file if you want to see the ending so I can bump up your levels. I feel really bad that you got stuck. :(
I liked this game. It comes with its share of issues and I thought some bits related to the storytelling could be improved, but it had a lot of heart and the characters were pretty likeable.

So, having a pretty small idea of what Astra's outfit is and no idea what the heck Relenia is supposed to be wearing, I drew fanart!



Thanks for the fun game.
Ronove
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Awww! Thank you Karsuman! That's so sweet. *hugs* Time to go display it on my website! <3 <3 <3
Be glad they are clothed, especially after I read the final release blog! =p
If I could pick up one thing from Hasvers' post; I think he/she has a point about some of the random combo spells thrown at you, and not just in boss fights either. Some of the ordinary encounters can only be described as brutal. I think I've died more times from that in this game than in any other I can think of. I've persevered because of the many good qualities of the game, but my heart sinks at the thought of what I'll have to go through to finish. Fortunately I'm a bit over-leveled because of inefficient exploring which meant that I had to keep backtracking, so I'm hoping that it'll be do-able.
To the people having trouble: some things that I found really helped when I played the game (on my own, with a little help from Ronove; so she may suggest something different) -- don't be afraid to spend your MP and use your really good spells! Sandstorm was one I used a lot, as well as Flamma and Cyclone. Defs give Snowe the Green Ribbon once you get it - it helps a lot! You will never win if you spam attack - normal encounters will murder you horribly if you do this. You will need to use your skills, elemental weaknesses and status effects to do well. Also, never underestimate the power of accessories that prevent incapacitating statuses -- Relenia and Snowe are good to equip those to, as they have your HP and state healing skills.

Whenever I found myself having too much trouble in a dungeon, I would skip most of the encounters, and then pick a room near a goddess statue and grind until the encounters were easier. If I was still having trouble, I'd experiment with spells. I had the most trouble with enemies in the caves near Homebound (what with the constant states and double attacks and agghhh) and I was a pretty good level, so I experimented with different elements and states to see what helped. Seriously, the cyclone skill and Rock Bludgeon are great, as they confuse enemies, and that can kill one of their turns! Again, Sandstorm is wonderful against physical attackers because of blind (The Old was cake after I figured out how to blind him; not with Sandstorm, though -- I can't remember what it was I used for that), and Frozen Strike is also great.

So yeah -- if you're having trouble, experiment! I only ever got stuck at The Old and the boss of the Sepulcher, and that's because I was a teeny bit under leveled - everything else I managed to kill on my first try after experimenting for a bit! I'm not a real extreme gamer, either, so don't think I'm just being all "LOL THIS IS EASY AND YOU JUST SUCK LOL~" (like I used to get stuck in Final Fantasy games when I was younger okay)

(PS Cura and Aeris Cura are your friends.)
Phew! Done it; that final boss is hard - took me just over an hour, but did it, so that's what counts.

I think I will play this through again some time. I don't often keep games for a second go, but this one merits it and I'm determined to find that missing snowman. Got the ultimate weapons (more by chance than by design) but that elusive snowman...

Thanks Ronove for a great game, even if I did have a moan about the combo spells - yeah Emmy, you're right about not being able just to spam, but I wasn't, I was really trying to do all the things you outlined and still got hammered by them on so many occasions.

I hope that once you've had a chance to breath, we'll be seeing another game from you.
Ronove
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Thank you littlebro! Emmy pretty much hit the nail on the head in her explanation because as she explained it was pretty much my thought process when building the difficulty for SSP and the like. Clearly I think I may still have some things to learn to ease people into that. I think I shall take your comments about combo spells (though they weren't combos per se, I get what you mean) and give it some thought for any future projects of mine.

Thanks so much again everyone, I appreciate all the comments. :)

Random little fun topic: my friend who's hosting this for me had to switch where he was hosting it at, as the amount of downloads for it (here and linked from my own wordpress and rpgmakervx.net) was sending his original hosting at like 81% usage. I hope all of you that have downloaded the game found some amount of enjoyment in it. :)
Haha you know what, I regret venting off my frustration here already, because with your Snowe avatar and you being really as kind and nice as he is, now I feel like I've thrown harsh words at him - and I have no idea how Erio manages to do this without feeling really bad. Okay I'll backtrack a bit a finish this game properly, because it's pretty darn impossible not to like it :p

To correct a bit my earlier statements, the point about the writing isn't exactly about the game being a fairytale or not, it's more about a subtle balance between mystery+eeriness and more straightforward challenge and adversity being tipped a bit too far in the latter direction at times, while the most charming aspects of the game (and what you obviously write best) reside in its mystery, cuteness and dissonance. As soon as the menace is well identified, circumscribed, and does an angry speech, it feels a bit less poetic - although it doesn't really detract from the overall atmosphere of the game, it's just at times. I'll finish this game and come back to you on this, but I think it's alreay closer to my meaning.
Well, I leveled for two full hours (you should really give more exp with those monsters) but I finally got him. Then I saved. Then I beat "The End". Then I got on the boat. Then I opened the menu to save, and the game crashed. Twice. Admit it, secretly you don't want me to see the end of this game :p I will though, I definitely will.

It's the first time that the menu crashing bug has happened to me twice in the same situation, so maybe there's something with that map (each time I waited a bit before trying to open the menu).
Ronove
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Well the crashing has nothing to do with me--my game just doesn't like you. It doesn't crash for me. The thing with the crashing is that where it happens varies widely from person to person. So while you have trouble in this room, someone had trouble in a room you did not. So just don't save when you're on the boat; that's the ending anyway, so you shouldn't need to (maybe I should disable it altogether).