It’s slightly disappointing but understandable. The game’s already huge, which also may be a reason for
a smaller feedback. I wish you good luck, and if you ever need a bigger group of private beta testers (and my input was actually helpful) don’t hesitate to ask. 
Is it possible to update it with more save slots too? I’m uh… Asking for a friend here. 
Joking aside, that might be really helpful for future testing, considering the various branching in game.
I soooo agree with that. Even I, as a person who only plays one “route”, like to explore some branches even if it’s only to reload later. Having only 3 save slots is good for a 20-40k demo… A 500k wip though… eeh…
The real question is … is Billy more then he seems? I feel as if there’s more to Billy than meets the eye 
Apologies for the late reply, but I’ve been away from my computer.
Totally understandable and very valid criticism. The twins’ introduction gave me a lot of headaches while I was writing it because I was battling this same very point. How should I do it? Should I add a “What do you see?” kind of choice? Should I make it that you always meet either Alain or Ysabella? Should I remove them entirely from the scene and just have a random patron offer a drink to your MC?
Ultimately, I decided on the system that I have now. Is it perfect? No. But am I willing to sacrifice other elements for it to be perfect? I am not.
I’m, personally, not a fan of picking either the gender of a character or, in this case, the order of introduction in which you meet a character. It always takes me out of the game, always makes me break immersion. So it’s something that I told myself I wouldn’t do in The Rose.
I’ 'm aware this is purely a personal preference. But, as the author, it also happens to be the most important personal preference. Another thing I’m not a fan of, while playing, is random events. So, thank you so much for the suggestion, but I will not be using the 50/50 chance percent solution.
At the end of the day, it’s but a small scene. You meet both twins regardless, and whoever you run into the tavern doesn’t affect much beside the initial re-meeting in the square. If it locked the player out of any route, then, of course, I wouldn’t have taken this approach. But it doesn’t. It just determines which twin offers you a drink.
So, again, thank you for your input but I won’t change the system that’s currently in place.
Hmm, I’m not sure what friendship scene you’re speaking of specifically, but it’s certainly not meant to happen. If you have a good relationship with Alessa, you should be able to call her a friend. Unless you threaten her or something. I’ll have to take a look at the code.
Oh, yes, absolutely! I’ll edit the other post so I don’t forget 
Thank you for volunteering! I’m still unsure how I’ll handle the private beta, but I’ll definitely need some small group of testers in the future.
You’ve given valuable feedback in the past. If, when the time comes, you’re still up for it, I’d be more than happy to have you a part of that group
Or maybe Bertrand is the name of a very popular bard who wooed mothers across the land 
Now I wish that was the true explanation, and for someone to mention it in game. That would be hilarious
I found this game on tumblr a few weeks ago, and now that I’ve played it a couple of times I feel more qualified to give some feedback. Apologies if any of this has been mentioned before (also, forgive me if I sound fussy)
To start off, I think I may have encountered a bug… although it could be from the plugin you are using for the saves. Basically, if you go to the stats page and check any of the tabs (such as Appearance or Relationships), return to the game and immediately save, the slot will be corrupted so that every time you load it will go back to said tab, making it impossible for you to return to the game. I have no idea what could possibly have caused this…
One thing that I noticed is that depending on how much of a Loner or Team Player you are, different choices become visible at certain points, which I find very interesting. The problem I found with it though is that, for me at least, it was very difficult to stay on one side without crossing to the other. My suggestion is that, the first choice that determines these personality traits (“prefer to work alone/prefer to work with others”) should give a bigger percentage boost than normal. Since this choice is very clear cut, I feel like it wouldn’t be too much of a problem to have that first choice determine the MC’s personality in that regard.
I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but every time the MC’s weapon is mentioned, the first letter is always capitalised. (I played only with the sword though.)
Big spoiler blur for this one! On that part at the Inn that locks you in/out of a romance, I feel like the two choices I got for Hadrian weren’t very clear (brushing your hand against his vs. not doing that.) The first time I played, I accidentally locked him out of a romance because I was playing a little too hard to get, and I didn’t realise that the choice I made would end up completely locking me out. Didn’t mean to hurt the poor boy’s feelings like that, pff. The choices I got with Alessa seemed a lot more clear to me, maybe because there were more, idk. I appreciated having the choice to let her down nicely as well (I say this having played as a male MC both times.)
Anyway, I believe that’s everything I found! I hope this was somewhat helpful, and I’m looking forward to seeing the full game once you release it! 
Nah, this is just how Dashingdon interacts with the plugin itself–it seems to be server latency, more than an actual bug. The plugin works fine if you treat it carefully–you just need to get used to ‘tiptoeing’ around the plugin’s weak points. It’s also not exclusive to this one demo. You can recreate this bug on any demo that has the save plugin enabled. 
My findings are: Firstly - If you save, then immediately jump into the stat page before making a *choice to get to the next page in the story; Secondly - Save immediately after leaving the stat page; Thirdly - Save on the stat page itself…
If these conditions are met–even accidentally–you have pretty high odds of corrupting your save up to that point, forcing a need to restart, or loading a save from an earlier point in your session that isn’t corrupted. You can get away with it sometimes with the first two conditions, but the third always breaks the game. As long as you keep an eye out for these conditions while making save points, you should be able to keep reading without too many issues. 
Hm, with how many times this is brought up around the forum, a post similar to mine should probably be a canned response.
Hello, Vickers! Thank you, first of all, for taking the time to leave some feedback!
As @LadyUmbreon89 mentioned, the save plugin bug is both well documented and entirely out of my control. The save feature isn’t used in published games, so we WIP players just got used to its… buggy existence I’m sorry if it frustrated you!
Oh, you make a good point. I can easily raise the stat increase for that first, very straight forward choice. I think I have it at +%10 so maybe +%20? Or is that too much of a jump… 
I don’t want to “lock” the players in such an early stage, but to have it constantly flip up and down can also bring narrative issues, no doubt. Because I do like to use the Loner/Team player stat a lot.
Yeah, that was because naive, past-me had no idea how to use code and didn’t know you can use this command !$ to make a variable capitalized. So I wrote them all capitalized
I’ve actually fixed the issue, just haven’t updated the files yet. But thank you for bringing it to my attention anyway!
The reason Hadrian and Alessa’s scenes are different it’s because their romances differ depending on the MC’s gender. If you are playing with a male MC, then Alessa starts the game with a crush on you. So there is the chance to turn her down, gently or not.
With a female MC, Hadrian is the one who is hopelessly crushing. So a female MC has the chance to turn him down too.
At the initial state, the romances develop at separate paces. For a male MC to romance Hadrian, you have to be the one to pursue him. While with Alessa, you can be passive because she pursues you. And the reverse is true for a female MC. Hadrian actively pursues you, while you have to be the one to take initiative with Alessa.
Thinking about how Alessa was “you’re both hopeless” - my (male) MC is very shy, and well, Hadrian is Hadrian. So that going on must be so frustrating and somewhat endearing to Alessa.
I honestly feel bad for her, but oh well.
My MC being clueless, the way he turned her down was so sad too, since he was like “thank you, friend”. Getting friendzoned from the get go. Still, I’m happy the option was there.
Now that it’s been mentioned, I do agree that this choice could be slightly more clear. I’m not sure I realized that would lock you out the first time I saw it either.
Maybe instead of it being,
It could be:
I understand the dynamic is a bit different when pursuing Alessa or Hadrian as the same sex, but it’s also important that the player knows what effect their choice will have on a romance before making it.
You’re right. I’ll definitely re-word that choice!
Thanks both of you for clearing that up regarding the save bug. I figured it was something like that, but I wasn’t sure…
I think I have it at +%10 so maybe +%20? Or is that too much of a jump…
Now at +%10 it’ll increase the desired trait to 55%, so I’m assuming a +%20 increase will bring it up to a 60%. If that sounds like too much for the beginning of the game, maybe a 15% increase will be enough
In any case, the player will still have plenty of chances to turn the tide if they want… but I feel that most people usually end up sticking to one archetype of character for the entire game.
I say that because in one of my runs I choose “prefer to work alone” at the beginning, and yet due to my choices, when I got to that one path just before the Devil’s Bridge the choices I got implied that my character liked working with others, which felt like kind of a contradiction. (I hope I’m making sense here aa)
Also, the small change @eXwhYZee mentioned would make the choice a lot more clear in my opinion! I think that’s the line that had me confused before xD
Well, anyway, thank you for taking my ramblings into consideration! 
This golden rose is a gem.
Always enjoy this one, the writing is also something special to me. Read plenty of books, but you sure can paint a scene in my mind, be it people, landscape or emotions, @Anathema. 
The Harbor is done! 
With 115k words total, we say goodbye to the blue shores of Tarragona and continue on with our journey. Steps clear and determined aimed for the maps that were stolen right under your very nose. This is the biggest chapter by far and I am very pleased with how it turned out.
Lots of people to meet, places to explore, information to learn and, of course, terrible decisions to be made. 
This milestone took longer than I had planned because I severely miscalculated just how long some branches would take me - and just how big some could grow. The Gates are next, and I’m very excited to jump right into them. Or over them? Through them.
I’d just like to share a fanart that Lesly-oh made recently (Tumblr | Instagram) of her MC, Jóhanna, and Alessa.
Have a great rest of the week! 
Well, now I’m picturing some person walking up to the city gates and then jumping and smacking into the wall.
I imagine the Knight Captain wouldn’t be very inclined to let them in the city.
Makes me so excited!
This is hands down one of my top3 WIPs on the site.
Never underestimate the scope of branches 
I’m pretty late to the party, but darn is it worth it. The setting is really fascinating, especially how the MC’s world view (and other characters’) informs us about the world and its history, rather than a dry exposition dump one expects. The writing’s pretty engrossing too, with characters being very likable and the prose capturing the needed essence and tone with most every scene I’ve read, but I’m gonna stop here in case I start gushing 
I have so many questions about the setting but I’ll just ask one (I’ll lurk in the tumblr for the others haha). Is a reversed cross still considered St. Peter’s/The Pope’s cross in this world? Asking for a friend
Subjectively, I felt there were relatively few friend/bro scenes with Hadrian (playing as male straight MC) prior to getting into the inn at Tarragona. Is this because of my MC choice or does actively romancing Alessa lock us out of some friend scenes with Hadrian? The relationship stat telling me that we were brothers in arms at the end of the night at the inn felt like I hadn’t earned that yet. Hope I didn’t sound rude - this is pretty minor to me, as the cathedral scenes were really good at cementing your friendship with him.
Not sure about your stance on reporting missing quotation marks, commas, and other symbol grammar but I think I’ve found one here
Overall, a top tier game!
Thank you for your words! 
I’m very glad you enjoy both the world and the characters within it. I try to slowly ease the reader into the lore and rules of The Rose’s world. Since it’s close enough with our own, I feel like no one is completely lost when starting out, but the more you play and speak with other people. The more you explore and experience, you should gain a deeper understanding of what exactly is going on. What rules this society follows, what you can expect going forward.
I’m aware I’m also intentionally hiding some things from the readers, but feedback like yours eases my worries that it might not be appreciated.
This is often the way I like to be introduced into a new setting, so it’s what I’m trying to do with my game.
It is. I’ll actually rewrite a certain description, now that you’ve mentioned it…
You’re completely right. It was actually something that has been brought to my attention before. How, in the early chapters, you have the chance to either spend time with Hadrian or Alessa. I did it this way for two reasons: One, replayability, and two, to keep the scenes from dragging too long. Keep them flowing and naturally moving forward.
I neglected, however, to think that since they are both love interests, it’s only natural someone pursuing Hadrian or Alessa would pick always the same person to spend time with. A mistake on my part, but you live and learn. 
Interactive fiction can be so tricky in these type of things, and while I think I know how to handle it better now, when I was starting out I really didn’t have a clue
I’m afraid it’s too late now to change those early chapters - as I’d have to do an overhaul of too many scenes and I really want to keep moving forward - but as you’ve seen from chapter 3 onwards, you will have the opportunity to spend more time with both of your companions. Together and apart. So hopefully, the friendships you can develop with them will also grow naturally.
I will be raising Hadrian’s stat percentage not to reach the “brother in arms” so easily. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!
Thank you for these! I have a ton of typos to fix for the polished version, so any help is very much appreciated 
I honestly thought the pope had sent a pet witch and her crew to terrorize the Iberian peninsula 
(As a catholic man myself, I usually typecast the current pope into all pope roles so the image of sweet ol’ Pope Francis scheming like a sith lord did make me chuckle)
I’m one of those people who like history but I hate the religious bigotry like people killing someone because they have a different religion or the witch hunts that they think that everything will be right if they just kill someone but tell me I’m a sinner in the story because I love history and I want to keep it preserved it was from an old bygone era like Rome or nord’s or old manuscripts so that’s why I have 75 points in Sinner so suck it blind man I’m going on to that Devil’s Bridge and sleeping on it give shit I die because ignorant people if I can study all its History then it’s worth it
