Thank you. We’re overdue a typo-fixing update; I’ll push one shortly.
Re: Argoz…
If you’ve kept him alive and he was antagonistic due to your chapter one choices, he’ll notice you keep sparing his life and your next (and, unless plans change, final) encounter with him will be much friendlier by default.
Is there any way to prevent the Mamoth from escaping? I tried killing it, keeping it dormant and taming it but no option worked? If it’s freeing can indeed be prevented then how high do my stats have to be?
I was under the assumption that Argoz’s death was inevitable and couldn’t be prevented
@devil Very appropriate username.
Argoz can be saved/spared every time he’s encountered, I plan for keeping him alive up to Chapter 10 to be an Achievement (though saving him won’t be automatic or easy).
Assuming my code isn’t bugged, I assume you’ve gone for either a Seneschal with boosted Resolve or an Equerry with boosted Cunning? Those builds may struggle to save Argoz in chapter 1 (assuming they free the prisoners; if you don’t free the prisoners you can save him by simply choosing to prioritize his safety early on) and may pick up some penalties on earlier tests that make it harder to ‘win’ the behemoth encounter on any route in Chapter 6, which I may need to tweak when I get the ‘difficulty testing’ stage of playtesting. Turning on stat checks from the menus may help you (assuming you’re not already using them) if you’re not sure what options are testing what skill(s).
Lol the user name does check out doesn’t it, well I’m indeed playing as an equerry with boosted cunning, I just so happen to have brutality and finesse as my two weaknesses, what’s the stat check for saving Argoz in chapter 6?
On a Chorus or Masquerade route, he can be saved with Silver Tongue, Decree, Brutaliy or Finesse. On a Circle route it’s Brutality and Finesse only. For all routes the difficulty is high (>60) which may explain your struggle (even if you’ve trained one of your middling skills); I’ll probably decrease the difficulty slightly and/or add more skill options.
It’s been a while since I updated this thread but I have been very, very busy. The game is nearly complete; all ten chapters are drafted though the final two are still in edits. Those final two are collectively ~200,000 words due to some frankly excessive branching…
I expect the full game to enter beta testing sometime in July, though I can’t confirm any dates. Watch this space.
Until then, however, please enjoy chapters 7 and 8. Earlier chapters have mostly been only lightly edited (typos fixed, lines tweaked, Argoz is easier for to save in chapter one for Cunning/Resolve builds specifically) but there are some larger changes to Chapter 5 and the character formerly known as Talos has been rewritten (and has a new name and gender).
Specifically:
Another option to recruit Kruach has been added in Chapter 5 and Chapter 8. Recruiting him in Chapter 3 requires a very specific choice I expect few people, even the small but dedicated Kruach fanbase, took. There’s also a lot more places he can die, especially in Chapter 8. He is now a RO.
Chapter 5 has a new branch where you can get to know Caryatid. She’s a RO, though she’s a particularly slow burn. No smooches until Chapter 8 currently, though this may change before release.
There’s a bit more romance content for all ROs - except Kruach - with more to come. I believe everyone but Kruach can be kissed (or close enough, in the Margrave’s case) by the end of Chapter 8. Kruachmancers, your time will come in Chapter 9. If he’s still alive…
would u please add cheat mode? for people who wants to enjoy only the story
Umm so who are the ROs again? It’s kind of a bummer that Shrike is the only female RO, cause there are so many interesting female characters in the story.
@Karl_Marx Cheat mode won’t be available in the final release I’m afraid. I haven’t fine-tuned the difficulty yet (this will be done during beta testing) but you are likely to fail some stat checks, especially if you’re playing a more moral character who doesn’t devour souls or take shortcuts. This is somewhat by design, but I hope to get a lot of feedback on the difficulty during beta testing.
It’s not the same as a full cheat mode, but there is an option to turn on both stat checks and checkpointing which does make the game a lot easier.
@Tyrant_Evil ROs: The Archivist (he/him), Raum (they/them), Shrike (she/her), Caryatid (she/her), the Margrave (he/him) and Kruach (he/him). The lattermost three are much harder to romance and their romances are less front-loaded.
Harder, ehhh challenge accepted 
I like the fail-forward mechanics, but I also like that there are options to overcome obstacles that you can succeed at while pissing allies off, which may or may not be more important than success (EGusing brute force to get to the spy at the archive, which upsets the archivist). Combine the two and often there’s incentive to intentionally pick the option where you “fail” just because that still moves another needle.
I went through mostly blind and while not my first choice for an RO I’m loving the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern kinda vibe growing between me and archie after revealing i fell from heaven for the same reason as him
Might it be possible to ask for a hint on how one recruits him in chapter 3 please?
In Kruach’s words: “Drekavac was standing next to the body,” he adds, remembering a critical detail. “Blame them for this and my sword is yours. My forces. Such as they are. All of it.”
This has become one of my favorite wips on the site. I binged all 8 chapters in one day. This was probably the first time I had fun playing a humorous character in an if, I was pleased with how funny they got to be~
@Shadowling Thank you! The Stern/Mocking divide is one I had some fun with on both ends.
We should be entering beta testing in a week or two. Until then, I’m hard at work squashing bugs, fixing typos and adding more NPC reactivity/romance content before it goes to the beta readers.
The update was so good! I’m really excited for the full game.
This time around I managed not to destroy the prison/city accidentally-on-purpose. (I let it loose last time…) Instead I wound up keeping it asleep, then reloading to change my faction so I didn’t have to kill Argoz either.
Really enjoyed The Battlefield! (And Kruach swearing himself to me. Which I will be normal about right up until the moment I can smooch him.)
I just felt really cool being able to stoically reject the influence. RIP to everyone else, but I’m different. 
I had spared them after the first meeting and brought them directly to the embassy, but I never encountered them in Ch7. (I accepted the invitation for diplomacy, so I think they’re supposed to be there, but they weren’t.)
The way the code looks to me, I think the issue might be in:
*if (killed_angel = true) or (freed_angel = false)
*set zoph_present false
Since they were never imprisoned, they were never freed, and so they did not appear.
@R1220 That does indeed look like a pretty big mistake on my part, I’ve updated the code accordingly. It’s a big enough error that I’ll push a live update right now. Massive thank you for your code-diving service (and the compliments).
Code now reads:
*if (killed_angel = true)
*set zoph_present false
*if (imprisoned_angel = true) and (freed_angel = false)
*set zoph_present false
If you’re reading this you probably already know, but the game is officially entering beta testing! I don’t want to give a date for when the game will officially launch, as after beta testing it will be in copyediting.
The WIP will be coming down soon. For everyone who read it and shared a compliment, constructive criticism, typo or helped me to fix a bug or other error, I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Writing can be a lonely endeavour and sometimes it’s hard to know if people are interested in your work. If you commented here, you genuinely helped me to get this project over the line.
I hope the last two chapters are to your liking and I’ll see you all in hell!
Congrats!