There are multiple endings depending on who you talk to, when you talk to them, where you go, and when you decide to go somewhere. I’m curious if you got the true ending, which is the only ending that is named. Thus, the endings can range from dark to wholesome depending on the chain of events that happen.
I’ve never seen arrow keys in the game. It was made in RPG Maker MZ. The ability to walk and generate text was also pre-programmed into the engine itself. Didn’t know how to change it, but it worked fine for me.
I’ll admit, the game can be considered bare-bones due to the lack of items you can interact with. I was lazy there and only allowed important items or NPCs to be interacted with. And the game can be repetitive with its music and having to start a new game or reload after every ending. Thus, the game can feel long and short at the same time.
It doesn’t help that there is no indication of what ending you get when you get an ending other than the true ending. I left that ambiguous for the player to encourage exploration and replayability. Also, I was once again lazy and didn’t feel like counting how many endings there were in each place. Besides, I wanted to surprise the player with various cutscenes.
You can skip dialogue by holding down the spacebar, Z key, or Enter key, and you can speed up the character by holding down the Shift key when moving.
This game could have been better experienced as a regular visual novel without the walking involved, as it would have made branching paths and triggering moments more clear to the player. Thus, for future narrative walking sims I make through RPG Maker, I’ll make the game more linear in its story and only present two options to the player to make things less confusing and complicated overall.
However, I’m happy with the game I made and in allowing player agency, which was the goal, as well as bringing the story to life in various ways for replayability.