Midsummer Night's Choice - Need Help With Prenzie Endings!

SPOILERS FOR A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S CHOICE ENDINGS AND ACHIEVEMENTS AHEAD!
So A Midsummer Night’s Choice is my favourite game - I played the prologue over and over, bought it as soon as it came out, and have played the full game a lot since then. I got an excellent ending on my first full playthrough - Prenzie and my character were allowed to live happily ever after back at court with no more than a few token protests from the Duke - and since I generally make the same decisions each time I play, I’ve had the same ending for every subsequent playthrough.
I love that ending, but I heard that you can actually go into exile with Prenzie and I’ve been trying to figure out how to make that happen. I’ve managed to get to the point where the Duke threatens to exile Prenzie - as far as I can work out, it seems to be tied to the “Father’s Mood” stat - but whenever I choose the option to abdicate and join Prenzie in exile, the Duke backs out and lets him stay (also quite an awesome ending, but not what I was going for). The other options I’m given are to accept Father’s sentence of exile - which I obviously don’t want to do - or to try to change his mind using magic.
Does anyone know how to get the Duke to go through with your exile with Prenzie? I’ve played through several times trying to work out what it might be related to, but I haven’t been able to figure it out. I wondered if any of my stats might actually be too high, but I’m not sure which one(s) or how to lower it (/them). Is it persuasion- or bluffing-related, like Wit, Charm, or maybe Artistry? Is it more of a battle of wills, with something like Nobility or Courage? Does the “Father’s Mood” stat need to be even more towards the “Furious” end? Is it something else entirely?
I think I’ve gone as far as I can with it on my own. I’m terrified of doing something wrong and somehow getting Prenzie exiled but not myself! I already unlocked “Looked On” by accident after thinking that letting the Maroon Knight get knocked unconscious would affect Father’s Mood and forgetting it unlocked an achievement, and I felt so guilty that I went and threw myself in front of the dart on my next playthrough to unlock “I Stand For Sacrifice” to make up for it.
If anyone knows which stats need to be high or low enough and how to get the right amount, I’d really, really appreciate it.
Thanks!

As you suspected, the Duke has to be angry enough, but your nobility has to be low enough so that he doesn’t back down.

In addition, you can’t end up in a situation where you are forced to live with the fae, which can happen depending on what you eat.

So in short, high furious, low nobility, watch what you eat.

I hope that helps!

Thank you! I’ll try and get my Nobility low enough - that always seemed to be one of my highest stats, especially as I found it more difficult to work out how to increase/decrease it than most of the other stats for some reason. I’ll get to work - I’m interested to see how I’ll be able to interact with the shepherds. Whenever I tried to “blend in” and complain about the Duke before, I sounded so completely out of touch that they thought it must be an act…
I forgot about the fairy food thing when I first posted, but now you mention it, I had wondered if that was a factor - I remember the first time the Duke tried to exile Prenzie I had eaten fairy food, and I made sure to avoid it next time around.
Thanks again for your help!

No problem! Nobility is a funny stat; it partly measures how well you succeed at various challenges. When you succeed at things, it goes up; when you fail, Merriment goes up.

If any other questions come up, I’m happy to answer them!

I prowled through the code, and a lot of those bad endings are actually really great, but basically impossible to get at even when I’m trying and know exactly the thresholds. It’s frustrating.

The funny thing is that the “let’s play” of Midsummer done on rpg.net last month actually reached one of the very rarest of the tragic endings–if Steam Achievements is anything to go by, fewer than 1% of players reached it–and it’s my favorite ending.

I agree: I could have made a few of those a touch easier to reach! May be something to think about when I send this latest batch of typos to fix.

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Thanks for the tips on Nobility! I’m playing through again - I had a few restarts, but I’ve reached the shepherd village (I’ve just reunited with Prenzie and the Maroon Knight) and I seem to be doing better than before, although my Nobility has still increased a bit.
One thing I was wondering - when Prenzie and the Maroon Knight are arguing, is there a way to succeed with the “shout “NOOO!” and throw myself between them” option? I picked it a couple of times on previous playthroughs because I was curious as to what would happen, but I always ended up just getting caught in the crossfire and annoying them both.

I’ve done it! Love the ending - staying at court with Father is probably still my favourite ending, as I love having an unambiguously happy ending where as much as possible is resolved and as many people as possible are happy, but defying him and making my own way in the world with Prenzie is rather heartwarming. And my character got to meet Prenzie’s aunt (and I was thrilled to discover yet another Shakespeare reference).
Now, of course, I have a burning desire to play through again at least three more times to read the descriptions for the other activities you can choose right at the end…
Thank you so much for the advice!

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Hi there. I’ve recently played the game and managed to reach the ending where I go to exile with Prenzie (great!). I have one question - Fairy Queen wins, Father sends Prenzie into exile, I say I’m going with him, but the Fairy Queen says I ate fairy food so I have to stay with her in her kingdom - why does Prenzie go into exile (without me), when he can stay with me in the fairy kingdom, since the Father no longer decides about the kingdom, so technically the banishment should not be valid. I thought the Fairy Queen would allow Prenzie to stay with me in her kingdom. She doesn’t have to listen to Father’s opinions.
Is there some reason for this? Or did I do something wrong and there is a way to make the fairy kingdom our exile place with Prenzie?

Also, when Father sentences Prenzie to exile and I try to change his mind through magic, and fail, why does Prenzie leave without me when I could still join him in the exile? Just a thought.
Thanks in advance for your answer!

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Reading it again, I think my thinking was that the Faerie Queene doesn’t particularly care about picking a fight with the Duke over this matter of a fool’s exile. Prenzie doesn’t mean anything to her. So she allows the Duke to dispose of his servant as he wishes even though she won the war.

As far as why you don’t join Prenzie in exile, the main character is convinced, I suppose, by Prenzie’s words that the duchy needs the MC. If I had to do it over again, it would be cool to have another choice here where the player gets to decide if they are indeed convinced by that!

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Thank you for your answer :slightly_smiling_face:
Prenzie is an outstanding RO, by far my most favourite, so thanks for inventing him :slightly_smiling_face:

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My total pleasure! I love Prenzie too! If you liked Midsummer, I hope you’ll check out Tally Ho! Triple the fun. Well, triple the word count. Not sure about triple the fun.

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I’ve already read that you wrote that too, and that there are some good romance options (that’s what I’m currently looking for), so I will :smiley: I have several urgent deadlines awaiting, so nothing better than procrastinate on COGs :smile:

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