author=argh

I'd say that he likely developed that line himself in his ignorance, maybe to make himself feel better.

Okay. It's just a bit contrived that it's exactly the same as a saying in our world, is all.

Oh, definitely. It's 100% contrived. XD Usually the "hero" of the story is the person who doesn't know what's happening, and we learn from playing as the ignorant character. But in this, Whitty knows the world and we have to use Seymour as the somewhat relate-able person. So his concepts and ideas--even his contrived saying at the end--are things that we can understand but don't make sense to anyone in that universe. Something that's a useful saying to us is just the ramblings of an ignorant person in that world, and Whitty's quick to point that out for him. XD Justifications aside, hopefully it didn't ruin the sequence. :)

Interesting stuff about the cut content. I kept expecting photography to be a Chekhov's gun but it never came up again. I do agree that the ending makes more sense thematically as a reward for beating the optional superboss, but yeah, it's a bit much. (Personally, though, I found Sandhoff far more difficult since she's the only one with the "defensive" skills, which requires more strategy to deal with. With Boasting, you can just irritate and aggress and you're done, like with everyone else.) You have to do an incredible amount of level grinding to even engage him at all. The leveling aspect was largely unnecessary, I found - I spent most of the game at a very low level, because you can coast with good skills (and you can get bows without fighting). And of course, you don't actually need a high level for the final battle - is it even possible to lose that?

(And is there a level cap? I kind of wonder if it's possible for a sufficiently dedicated person to autowin the final battle...)

You're right about Photography almost being a Chekhov's Gun. The instance she finds the portrait has her pondering her strengths in photography for half a second. It's not a strong Gun, but there was originally going to be a Photography Lock there. In the end, her career as a photographer is more world building than a narrative aid. Some could chalk that up to bad writing; and they'd be right. XD A better story would have made the finale hinge on that somehow, I think.

The game's built so that you don't have to match the opponents level-to-level, so that's a good thing. There's a bit of built-in designs meant so that the game can feel rewarding and not impossible within the time constraints of the contest. I didn't want there to be more grinding than there was learning. That said, the level difference may feel unnecessary, but it's important for the narrative. If I put you up against the AI of the enemy and told you they were stronger than you, you could prove me wrong every time. There has to be a reason why the professor, for example, is better at discourse than Mrs. Prattle, and that gets displayed mechanically by the inherent impact levels have. By being twelve levels higher than someone, you are automatically better at discourse than them. That's also why the professor is LV.40 by himself, but gains 60 levels when using The Mouth; that difference in level means nothing for the battle itself, but it means everything for the nature of the machine.

And yeah, Sandhoff's defensive skills make her harder. It's why I gave them to her, since, in a way, she's the penultimate boss. In the new version Boasting has every skill, just like the professor does, but there was no point in fine-tuning him as an optional character for the time restraints. XD Likewise, Seymour stops following your level (in the update) at LV.28, and Boasting will stop fighting you at LV.40. With no one else to fight, you max your level at 40.

That means you can win the first fight against the professor (and some people have), but the story doesn't change. The professor asks politely if Whitty will pretend that he just won for the sake of the story. XD

(And a random aside - after Seymour was called "anti-social" I was actually half-expecting for that to be intentional and for it to turn out that he was the evil mastermind behind everything. XD That would be kind of cliche, though.)

I'll definitely change the term there. No reason to give people the wrong ideas about Seymour... although I do worry sometimes. :P

I really appreciate all of this input! You've given me some good ideas for what I can do to make the update better. :) Thank you.

Wow, glad you enjoyed it! There are quite a few grammar issues in there, I think. I'm still picking through it, but hopefully it's not too jarring.

author=argh
I'm baffled as to where Seymour learned the phrase "sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me" when that's patently false in his world.

Whitty didn't know the phrase and assumed he made it up... probably also assuming he's a bit of a crazy person. XD I'd say that he likely developed that line himself in his ignorance, maybe to make himself feel better. It's another aspect of how little he really knows.

Disappointingly, I never maxed photography, and I appear to be missing one wine. I never reached a high enough level to fight Mr. Boasting either. (I didn't see much point in level grinding in general, honestly.) These little secrets are so tantalizing.

I didn't have enough time in the contest to flesh out the Key Topic: Photography. My update will have it, but for the contest it was unnecessary to prioritize. Also, the ending that you saw with Mr. Boasting was originally only going to unlock if you were able to beat him sometime before finishing, but not only did that ask a bit too much from the player at the time, but the ending is "fuller" with him in it.

I was wondering if it's theoretically possible to win against Mrs. Prattle in the opening? I presume not, but I managed to only barely lose, as opposed to that other doomed encounter.

I've tried and tried, but the only way for you to really win is if her AI hits a lot of unlikely choices in a row. There is, however, a set of dialogue in case you do win, but it's rare anyone will ever see it.

I'm also a bit confused by the ending:

Show

So Mr. Boasting has his own Last Word? Are there multiple ones? Where did he get it? Why did he put one on Mew? Is he Mr. Seymour or something and faked his death? Is this supposed to be a hook for a future game, or something that can be figured out from this one?

And, have you heard of The Logomancer by any chance? It's a similar premise, though it takes a more typical fantasy-RPG approach to things.

Someone mentioned it in the Contest forums saying that games that use talking were showing up all over the place. XD I'll have to check the game out. Looks good. Luckily for me it doesn't look like my method of discourse compares to The Logomancer's method of argumentation.

Awesome, thanks, Nhubi! I'll do that. I may sell it at some later date (not entirely likely), but if I do I can just as easily switch it back to Commercial.

And looking forward to hearing what you think, Kylaila!