In answer to ya question: Yes, and yes, if I get what you mean as “somethin’”. But, do you mean this “somethin’” only applies to one person? I’m confuzzled.
Herp derp.
Shifu’s okay, but I know the word from other materials, so I probs ain’t the best person ta ask.
Will this game cost? I have a big feelin’ it will. -stone broke- Ey, but I love ya writin’, big time. May go over this again after my trip to the hospital.
@Bagelthief You’re okay right?
I noticed that you let the player choose their names BEFORE their gender is specified.
@Bagelthief, that’s great to hear! The whole time when I was writing those parts I was kind of afraid nobody would see them xD. My question was kind of poorly worded, this something applies to all three, and there is a special case to trigger one from shifu as well.
I’m not sure about selling right now, since I was hoping to at least get a decent chunk done before even thinking about commercializing. Even if it does end up costing a few bucks, it should still be available for free in the forums for beta-ing. 
Thank you, hope you’re okay! ;v;
@RagEgnite, Chinese names are made by gluing words together, and save for a few words or sounds traditionally associated with one gender or the other, names are generally unisex. This is especially true for romanized names, since I can write a feminine name (怡嫣, for example, made of two words usually used in female names) and a masculine name (毅岩, made of two words usually used in male names) the same way (Yiyan). None of the names I used lean in either direction, and I didn’t think it would really impact gameplay.
You seemed to have misunderstood what I mean.
The player chooses ALL of their names BEFORE we know whether or not they’re a boy or a girl.
(EDIT: I didn’t look at your comment entirely. Derp.)
I love this game so much. I haven’t spent much time with Rou, but I love Yan and Shu. Also, the PC is such an adorable little kid.
@seryou
@2Ton
At least I think I am, but the reason I’m goin’ is ta find out whether or not I am, after all. Hehe~ Thanks for your concern.
Really lookin’ forward to what ya’ve got planned, hey! Don’t worry ‘bout anythin’ - you guys are great!
@Bagelthief @seryou I hope you both have luck and nothing goes wrong
Shu chooses his words carefully. “We cannot help the circumstances under which we are born, or the environment in which we are raised. Yan was raised in a strict environment, and his path was chosen for him long before he was born. I do not dispise him for that, but there are many who do.”
*Despise
First replay is awesome. And, because I’m a douche, I just read your idea with the Legendary Character passwords and gotta say, I’m intrigued. Can’t wait to see where this is going.
Time to go play again.
Edit: Game sorta cut-off just now, but a new Save/Load screen popped up, so that must mean you’re working on it at this exact moment.
One thing that I did notice was maybe a miss sync when it game to training with Yan. It says the season passes without event, but then the choices are more… in the moment, practice-esque. I may just be dyslexic and didn’t comprehend it as I read, but whatever.
Edit2:
In the end, the “banishment” doesn’t take more than a single day. To sooth your frustration for missing the festival, Shu offers to teach you to play the guqin instead. “I’m not nearly as good as Yan, but it’ll pass the time.”
@RagEgnite, it should be fine, right?
@KelaSaar, thank you! Sometimes I wonder if I make the kid think too much, but I’m glad you like him/her. 
@Bagelthief, best of wishes to you, and thank you!
@2Ton, thank you!
@Caddmuss, sorry for updating in the middle of your playthrough! Dx I didn’t think that one through. Thank you! Both issues have been fixed, the Yan thing was indeed a bug.
I’m glad you like it so far! I’m going to put some more thought into the reincarnation system, but it’s definitely still on the table.
Edit: Thank you again, that’ll be fixed and will be updated soon (so nobody gets thrown back to the beginning again OTL). I clearly have too much faith in my own skimming-spellchecking skills, so I’m running this through a proper spellcheck right now. xD
Another edit: My god, that was a lot of typos. I am actually blushing in embarrassment. Never again. Dx I’m going to update at :35, hopefully you see this by then?
Wanted to say I haven’t poked around the forums in FOREVER, but this looks very promising so far. I will give a more detailed response later, but I just wanted to offer my encouragement. I am enjoying my first playthrough so far (haven’t gotten very far though)
Tiny update. I spent yesterday drawing up a map instead of writing.
I chopped up some of the longer pages to keep away from scrolling, and hopefully the story still flows. Some of the pages are now a wee bit short for my liking, but it shouldn’t be too bad.
There’s a tiny preview for Chapter 1. I’m not a fan of obstacle/map mini-puzzles, but this one’s there for a reason.
A note on saving: I made some changes to mygame.js, so whatever password you have from the last update is obsolete. Sorry! I’m trying to keep variable changes to a minimum, but this is a WIP after all. Dx
Edit: @chibz, thank you! I look forward to hearing your comments later. 
Also, here’s your ninja award for sneaking that post in just as I was typing mine.
A couple notes: I loved how dramatically the story/background could change based on who you chose to spend time with, and I love the characters so far. While this is not a story critique per se, I also appreciated how Yan and Rou invert stereotypical gender roles; Rou is the scarred battlemaster, while Yan is the absolutely gorgeous (if sour!) mage.
(I realize they don’t fit quite that neatly into those ‘roles’, but they are not only fascinating in their own right, but I like how gender parity is addressed.)
Some of the stats seem a bit arbitrary so far (perhaps to be expanded on as they become more relevant?) The ambitious/loyal seems like an odd juxtaposition, though I read how previously you are envisioning them as being supporting/paired stats, rather than oppositions. (I am VERY glad you chose not to make them opposed stat bars like the Choice of Dragon stats!)
Yin/Yang I can understand being opposed, but its relevance has yet to be expanded on.
There is a typo on the item descriptions page (if you didn’t already get that), and a little of information (if the item’s purpose or stats becomes more relevant later) would be helpful… though I am willing to wait until it becomes relevant. (For example: what does the Pendant of the Swallow Goddess actually DO for you? Or is this something that we as players and our person as a character must discover for ourselves?)
The choices so far are good, and I don’t feel railroaded down any particular path; I did a second playthrough with different goals/character mindset, and it seemed just as relevant.
Very well written so far. I look forward to more development so I can give more constructive feedback. I particularly look forward to expanding on some of the history, backgrounds, and characters revealed so far; it already feels like a wealth of implied/suggested material even before adding new characters or challenges!
@chibz, thank you for the kind words and in-depth critique!
I’m glad you like Rou’s and Yan’s setups. The gender thread going on right now made me second-guess some of my decisions when handling gender, but this was what I was most comfortable with in the end. I’m feeling pretty good about it so far. (It also helps that the genre as a whole is pretty accepting of female characters who can fight. They’re outnumbered and sometimes one-dimensional in canon works, but at least they’re there, and that’s a start.)
The stats are really just there to look pretty at this point. Throughout the intro I kept adding to them, but didn’t actually use them more than two or three times. This should change as the story progresses, as opportunities for raising stats decrease while requirements for certain options increase. I’m still trying to find a good balance, because I think stats should add options rather than limit them.
Ambition/loyalty worked like this in my head: If you had high ambition and low loyalty, you would work hard towards your goals, which are mostly self-serving. If you had high ambition and high loyalty, you would work just as hard, but your goals are now for the sake of something greater than yourself. In theory, the relationship between the stats should become more apparent as they change (and the little blurb of text changes with them), but there have been painfully few opportunities to develop so far. I’m hoping this changes as the story forces the player into some dilemmas, and the system becomes clearer by the second or third chapter (this seems slower than most games here, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take).
The deal of yin and yang will be explained when/if I put up the mythology page (which I really ought to do soon!), but should be explained in the story when it eventually becomes relevant. I’m also trying to write an in-story library that should explain the supernatural business in more detail, or at least let the character come across some educational scrolls from time to time. I now see how puzzling they can be, so I’ll explain them soon.
Thanks for the tip about descriptions! Since I knew what the items were for, I didn’t realize how weird it is for the player to carry an item they don’t how to use. I’ll add some indicators in the item descriptions that make them clearer. (Haha, the Pedant of the Swallow Goddess is a whole different bag of tricks >_>. I can see him now, nitpicking at every little thing he dislikes in Her name.)
Thank you! It’s a little difficult to gauge since I planned all the backstories already (I was the terrible roleplayer who always ended up metagaming), but my intent is to scatter characters’ background information in small pieces, and the player would need several playthroughs in drastically different directions before completely understanding what’s going on between the cast. Historical and mythological information will be worked into the story as soon as I find a logical place for them.
I’m glad you’re interested so far, and thank you again for the detailed feedback!
I think Ambition/Loyalty are good pairs ive had countless experiences in life where it was Ambition vs. Loyalty, like for example I help alot of my friends with coding when I could be using more of my free time to only working on my projects.
Or if you work with a friend you may be compete for a job position or if your higher ranked and your friend slacks off you may have to cut them loose not to look incompetent.
@2Ton, yes, throwing your friends/colleagues under the bus to climb the ladder definitely sounds like a fun option. Though in this case, it would probably be betraying the Emperor and taking his throne. >D
@seryou Oh, Brutus & Cesar Scenarios
@seryou I’m just wondering, the whole magic thing, is that relating to chi or to the Taoist mythology thing? Typical “mages” in Chinese folklore are usually Taoist priests who summons rain and such by… Something to do with Gods and the five elements? Its pretty weird going through that route and and usually makes conventional martial arts useless in the settings they were presented in. How are you going to address that?
Another thing fairly common in these type of settings is the dichotomy between orthodox (usually native Chinese) and unorthodox (usually foreign) martial arts. Will this conflict be present in this story?
@2Ton, yes, I’m fond of them.
@hahaha01357, I’m choosing to associate chi with martial arts, because it’s generally present in the genre. For the magic (I’m still trying to find a better word than “magic,” it just feels wrong), I’m taking some parts of Taoist tradition without bring in the entire school, because a Taoist-mage and follower of the Taoist philosophy/religion are completely different, and using the word “Taoist” would easily mistake the two as one. I am working off the eight diagrams, which is similar. I did consider incorporating yin-yang, the five elements, as well as eight diagrams, but that gets complicated very quickly and I don’t like overloading. I’m simplifying it down to the eight diagrams, which conveniently fits with the yin-yang split. Gods, sprites, and the like I’m basing off Fengshen Yanyi and its (many) derivatives over the years.
Most mortals are incapable of magic, as it’s only taught by specific schools, requires a certain amount of fate (think of this as a level cap: a less fated person can light a candle at “max” skill, but a more talented person can summon a fireball), and is physically/mentally draining on the less experienced user (an MP bar, in a way. I’m not going to literally implement an MP bar, but the text will address that you’re feeling tired). Magic is still a rare resource, and most people will still resort to fighting with conventional martial arts or whatever they find in their backyards. This is implied a few times in the text (your first summoned wind disappears when you run out of breath, Shu can only heal “up to” a cut, Sheng’s floating lotuses must have cost him a pretty penny, few if any sorcerers alive that can create sentinels), but I’ll explain it more thoroughly when I create the library I mentioned above.
I do see how it makes martial arts optional to the user, though, and it was one of the things I agonized over when drafting the backdrop. While it’s not completely analogous, I kind of think of this as the guns-or-knives question present in other games. Why bring a knife to a fight if you can sharpshoot your opponent from afar? Some people just like using knives more. Some people are terrible aims. You react faster with a knife than a shotgun, and it’s safer close-range. Plus, I think magically enhanced swords are cool.
I admit, and you can probably tell, that I’m much better versed in mythology than in martial arts, but I do hope to address different schools of fighting eventually (I’ll probably have a few purely physical schools, as well as those that lace their moves with magic). It should include both the orthodox and unorthodox, but martial artists won’t throw a huge fuss over Orthodox vs. Unorthodox like they do in many stories. My reasoning is that this is a time of war, and saving your skin comes before the sense of righteousness. Actually, that would make an interesting conflict: allow some “evil cults” to fight alongside you, or turn them away and risk failure? To be honest, though, there’s already an Empire vs. Warlords problem, and a Gods vs. Demons thing is looming over the horizon, and I thought Orthodox vs. Unorthodox added to the mix would be too much.
Sorry, I’m wordier than usual today. >_> This is helping a lot with worldbuilding though, so please do keep the questions coming.
Ah, I see. Generally, in wuxia stories, qi and internal martial arts are kind of portrayed as having magical properties. For example, in numerous works, a person with a deep reserve of qi is shown to be able to cure illnesses and poisons by channeling his/her chi into the victim. In a more specific example, the “Yi Yang Finger” in the Condor Heroes trilogy is generally portrayed as being able to shoot a beam of concentrated chi at your opponent, achieving similar effects as, perhaps a bullet. I thought you might have approached it in a similar manner.