Zero Escape Trilogy

Over the past few weeks, I've played through the entirety of the Zero Escape Trilogy.  This consists of 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (aka 999), Virtue's Last Reward, and Zero Time Dilemma.  These are visual novel/puzzle games originally released on the DS and 3DS.  While the first game, at least, made use of the double screens as a plot point, I'm not sure if the other two did.  Either way, I played all three on PC.  

The first two games are bundled as Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, while the latter is sold as Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma.  I got that first one in the Steam summer sale, for £9.51.  The normal price is £23.79.  I played for 49 hours in total, so it was 19p per hour of entertainment for me, and would have been around 49p per hour at full price.  I figure I might happily pay 99p or more for a book I can read in 2 hours, so about 50p per hour is worth it.  I bought Zero Time Dilemma at the normal price of £12.39 and so far I've played it for 21.4 hours, making it 58p per hour.  I feel like this was worth it, even though this game was the weakest of the series, because I couldn't not finish the trilogy.  Plus, even though I've finished the game, I do want to watch some scenes again with the knowledge I've gained from seeing the ending(s), so even if I don't do a full replay, my actual play time will be higher.

In 999, the basic premise is that you, Junpei, have been kidnapped by a maniac calling themselves Zero. Zero, for some reason, wants you to play a game to escape.  Yes, the creator of this series is a fan of the Saw movies, why do you ask?  

The game in question is the Nonary Game.  Basically, all of the players have a bracelet with a number from 1-9 on it.  The players must move through numbered doors, solve the puzzles behind them, and eventually make their way to (and through) the 9 door (Spoiler: Yes, I know it's a q.  I don't want to say anything untruthful in this post but I also don't want to give away the twist by typing a q.  I tried doing a superscript and making that one letter larger but it just doesn't work).  The twist is in the rules.  3-5 players must pass through the numbered doors - again, numbered up to 9, like the bracelets - and the digital root of the sum of their bracelets must be the number of the door.  A digital root - explained early in the game  - is what you get if you keep adding the digits of a number together until you reach a single digit.  For example, to get the digital root of 725, you add 7 + 2 + 5 to get 14, then add 1 + 4 to get 5, which is the digital root.  This gimmick forces different characters to pair up together throughout the game, often in configurations they would not prefer.  This is nice, it's interesting.  The only way to discover the secrets of all the characters is to make different decisions in different run throughs, to team up with different people under different circumstances.

This is actually the case, broadly speaking.  The dissertation I'm supposed to be working on is based on this premise.

While I compared the game to Saw earlier, the puzzle rooms aren't actually deadly.  The deadly part has to do with the doors.  Basically, those entering a door need to scan in, enter, then scan at a second machine inside the room.  If all those who scanned in don't scan out (out is the wrong word, but close enough), then anyone who entered through the door will die by having a bomb explode inside them.  The fear comes from, firstly, if Zero, who set up the game, is willing to do that then what else might they do?  And, secondly, the fear of not being able to exit through the 9 door, since it's subject to the same rules as the others. How will 9 people get through 1 door?

Gameplay is split into two segments.  There's the visual novel part, where you watch the characters interact and occasionally make a choice to direct the story, and the puzzle room part.  I really enjoyed the puzzles in this game.  I found they generally made sense with a bit of lateral thinking, rather than being built on moon logic.  I also found that, when I thought of something, the characters did too.  For example, if I found an item and thought "Oh!  I bet the solution involves combining this item with that item and attaching it to that thing!" then I would be able to attach this to that and put it on the thing.  I wouldn't have to click around until I found some arbitrary colour text that made the characters realise what the solution was and let me actually do it.  Plus, for me, the puzzles were generally at the right level to get the "huh? Ah!  Aha! Haha" sequence of emotions, which is very satisfying.  

'Solving' the game involves another puzzle, that of picking the golden route through the game.  This is also quite enjoyable.  The PC version has a flowchart screen where you can see which scenes a character has seen.  The flowchart even notes if you've triggered certain things which change which ending you see.  You can hop around to different places, rather than having to play through entire swatches of the game again.  I enjoyed this meta-puzzle as well.  Part of the fun of the game is that you gather information from lots of places, so you, the player, need to put it all together to figure out what's going and what your best options are.  This interface makes it really easy to see what you might have missed and go back and fill in the gaps.  Apparently that was missing from the original DS version.

Virtue's Last Reward has some recurring characters from 999, but takes place in a different location with a slightly different premise.  This time, the poison-injecting bracelets specify colours and whether a player is solo or part of a pair.  Once again, you have to go through doors, but this time the teams must combine their colours to match the colour of the chromatic doors.  Again, this mechanic forces the characters to team up in ways they otherwise wouldn't choose to, which is a great mechanic for creating narrative tension and letting you discover different things about different people.  Once again, the meta-puzzle is to figure out the entire plot by taking information from different routes, and, again, a flowchart screen is available to make that easier.  One difference from the first game is that, in VLR, each decision you make pushes you onto a different route.  In 999, a dialogue decision could change your ending, but this wouldn't actually push you onto a different route of the flowchart until later.  These decisions were marked with key symbols on the flowchart so you could tell if they were 'on' or 'off'.

This nonary game - run by Zero III - is a little more deadly than the first one.  The characters are repeatedly forced to play through The Prisoner's Dilemma, gaining or losing points until they either reach 0 - which is death - or until they have enough points to open and exit through the number 9 door.  If you're unfamiliar, the Prisoner's Dilemma is a classic example of the sort of game studied in Game Theory, that is, the mathematical study of strategic interaction between rational agents.  Basically, what decisions do perfectly rational beings make when forced into conflict?

In the Prisoner's Dilemma, the two agents are criminals who've been caught and are being held pending trial.  The prosecutors don't have enough evidence to convict both prisoners of their main crime.  Instead, they only have sufficient evidence to convict them both of a lesser crime, with a lesser sentence.  So, they offer each prisoner a deal.  The prisoner can give evidence against their collaborator, claiming the other prisoner was entirely to blame, in exchange for going free themselves (betray).  Alternatively, they can maintain their silence and take the sentence for the lesser crime (ally).  BUT, if they pick ally and the other prisoner chooses to betray, the first prisoner gets a much longer sentence while the betrayer goes free.  With some arbitrary numbers thrown in, you get the matrix of possibilities below.

Overall, the best result is if both ally.  The total number of years spent in prison is 2.  If one betrays, they go three and the other gets three years, which is better for the individual but worse for the pair.  The problem is that if B suspects that A will betray - or vice versa - then their best move is to betray in defence, and vice versa.  The best defence and the best outcome for the individual comes from choosing to betray, but, knowing that, no player would pick ally because they know the other player will betray.  So, both betray and spend more time in prison.  The best option for the individual leads to the worst outcome both overall and for the individual.

VLR uses this by having each team of three choose to ally or betray one another at regular intervals, in something called the AmbiDex game.  Because each team consists of two paired players and one solo player, there are still only two votes being cast.  The problem is that the Prisoner's Dilemma has a few assumptions that VLR violates.  Firstly, the assumption is that there will be no repercussions for betraying, apart from the risk of the longer prison sentence.  The betrayer won't gain a reputation, their collaborator won't later seek vengeance, etc.  That just isn't how human beings actually work.  We have a deep urge to correct those who behave anti-socially - by glaring, tutting, calling them out on twitter, etc - and that doesn't magically turn off, even if it makes the sums easier if it does.  This is not actually a flaw.  A character does explain the resemblance to the Prisoner's Dilemma without mentioning the violation of this assumption, but it's clear that the game makers themselves know it from how they have the characters respond to different decisions.  It's a feature, not a bug.

What is a flaw, in my eyes, is that...Well, firstly, because of the numbers given in the AmbiDex game, players need to play 2-3 times before they can open the exit door and leave.  If you choose betray in the first round, it becomes that much harder to win, because no one will trust you for the second.  So the optimum strategy should actually be to ally for the first round, not betray as in the classic Prisoner's Dilemma.  But, if you ally in the first round, then the best case scenario becomes playing at least two more rounds.  To get the points you need, you'll need your opponent to ally both times.  If that happens, then you'll have the points you need after the third round whatever you pick.  And since you need to play at least three rounds if you chose to ally in the first one, then you'll need your opponent to trust you until the third game, at least.  So you need to ally in the second, to make it easier for them to trust you and choose to ally in the third.  In short, the optimum strategy is to ally in the first two rounds.

There are more factors, which makes it a little bit more complicated than that.  Firstly, whether you can trust the people you're playing against.  Secondly, the cost of losing.  Thirdly, the cost of delaying your escape until the third round rather than the second.

I'm going to ignore that first one, because whether you can - or should - trust the other characters is a big part of the game overall.  As for the second point...well, the cost of losing is dying.  That can happen, at the earliest, after the second game.  That's an incentive both to betray - to protect yourself - and not to betray - because, all else being equal, most people would prefer not to kill total strangers.  If you trust that the person you're playing against is not a total psychopath - big if - then I think the best strategy is still to ally in the first round.  You'll be closer to death, but you won't die, and if the other person recognises that you'll need to trust them in future rounds and they would prefer that you live than that you die (like most reasonable people), then they'll pick ally.  And if they ally, since you also need them to trust you in future rounds (whether or not you care if they die) then your best option is also to ally.

As for the second point...the cost of escaping on the third round is delaying your escape by 3 hours (Spoiler: Yes, I know...).  But, the cost of escaping on the second round is that you leave at least some of the other players behind, since they couldn't possibly have enough points to get through the door at that point (not least because you betrayed some of them).  If you don't want to do that, it might be worth delaying your escape for three hours and one more chromatic door, not least because, again, the puzzle rooms themselves aren't deadly.  The characters do gain information about the other threats in the game after the first round, but that information shouldn't affect the first AmbiDex game.  The fear of what Zero III might do - considering you've already been kidnapped, anesthetised into unconsciousness, and threatened with death - might be a motivating factor to get out slightly earlier, but, again, at the cost of many other players.

What if you did want to kill other players?  Well, if you betray them in the first round, they'll choose betray in the second game as a defensive measure.  In this game, betraying means you don't lose any points, so, worst case scenario, they won't die.  Best case scenario, they'll gain some points and be safer in the next round.   Killing them this way just doesn't seem like an effective strategy to me.  If someone already betrayed them then you can kill them by getting them to choose ally while you choose betray, but that will require them to believe you're trustworthy.  Which will be easier if you chose ally in the first round.  But, killing someone this way means you won't get out yourself, since you won't have enough points if you allied in the first round.  You'll need someone to pick ally in at least one more round, which will be harder if they just watched you kill someone.  Alternatively, you could leave your target behind while you escape through the door.  To me, it seems like the most effective way of doing that would be to ally in the first two games, then betray in the third game and get through the door, leaving them behind.

In short, it seems pretty weak to me that some characters choose betray in the first round.  Ally seems like the best way for everyone to reach their goals, whether they're in conflict with the other characters or not.  Even if you assume one of the other players is a psychopath, you'd also have to assume they're an idiot to assume they'd pick betray in the first round.

That said...humans aren't rational actors.  They are not the mathematically precise agents from the models, who always have correct information and weight it properly.   They're mistaken about something, or they don't understand the odds, or whatever.  A few characters claim to have chosen betray because "it's obviously the best choice" which indicates they have only a superficial understanding of the Prisoner's Dilemma and that this situation is not the Prisoner's Dilemma, it's an iterative Prisoner's Dilemma.  Which, I guess, is probably realistic for most people.  Still, having some people betray early on seems like a superficial way to create drama, to me ,which weakens the concept of the entire game.

She's going to die, you sick bitch.

The other thing I disliked about this game is the character models.  Okay, the director has a thing for scantily clad, large-breasted woman.  Fine.  One character in the first game fits that description but, okay, she dances as a hobby, presumably she was abducted on her way to or from a belly-dancing class and didn't have a chance to change.  I can live with that.  It's a bit disturbing when, in one of the bad endings, a character's corpse is posed - by the artist, not the killer - to coquettishly show off her short skirt, and I kind of hate it, but the rest of the game is good enough that I can put up with it.  In this game though...well, one character is literally just wearing a thick necklace which is apparently glued to her nipples.  That's it, that's all she has to cover her breasts.  Another is wearing what appears to be a fur-lined bikini, clearly inspired by a teenage Pebbles Flintstone and ugh, really?  Can you just jerk off in your own time instead of subjecting the rest of us to this nonsense?

The other problem with this character model is that she defaults to smiling or doing a flirty little wink.  Neither expression is appropriate for the vast majority of the game.  The character will pull other faces - shock, sadness, etc - but will then revert back to smiling at the end of the line.  Which means when asking about, for example, how deadly the game is, or the amount of danger her closest friend (in the game) is in, she'll be doing a little smile to herself.  Like a complete sociopath.  Despite the fact that this is clearly not the impression the game-makers intended to give us in those scenes.

Again, can you just jerk off to fictional characters in your own time, instead of having them make flirty faces at the camera?

The third game, Zero Time Dilemma (ZTD from now on, because I cba to type that every time) does have another large-breasted, scantily clad character, but she's the most covered of all of the large-breasted scantily clad women so far, so that feels like a relief.

ZTD maintains several traditions from the previous two games - people being captured by a maniac calling themselves Zero and forced to solve puzzles - but also breaks a few of them.  The first one, which seems small, is that the scenes are acted out more.  The previous two games were both voice-acted, but the player chose when lines would advance.  In this game, the scenes just play.  Like I said, that seems small, but another thing this game changes is that you don't start with a puzzle.  It takes a while to get to the first puzzle room and, until then, your only choice is which series of scenes to watch next.  After about an hour, in which I'd needed to touch the gamepad only a handful of times, I turned to my fiancé and said "This game seems fun, I hope they let me play soon".  I suppose it was lucky that it continued playing when it was in the background, so I could work on my dissertation during the long scenes, but most people don't buy games based on being able to have them playing as background noise.  

This game did have more violence than the previous games and the puzzles were actually risky or deadly.  A lot of the gore is just off-camera or the injuries aren't actually shown on the character models, so you don't see much more than you did in the earlier games, there's just a lot more implied.  That's not really a flaw or a selling point, it just is what it is.

Another change, which I think does weaken the game, is that you can jump between different characters.  This means that, unlike in the second game, you don't need to try to figure out their motivations and what they're likely to pick, and they can't surprise you with their choices.  The rationale for this is explained at the end, and it does become more powerful, but that doesn't help in the first few hours when you're basically watching an interactive movie (which is less interactive than Bandersnatch or Kimmy vs the Reverend).

The puzzles were also weaker in this game while also being more frustrating.  Even when you have enough information to figure out a solution - or at least something you want to try - the characters are too dumb to let you until they've seen an arbitrary bit of colour text or until you click on exactly the right pixel.  And then there are moments like when the characters realise you need to take every key from a harpsichord and the game makes you click on every single key individually.  Oh my god.  They've got the idea, just have the characters grab all of them.  And then, when you need to put those keys back down elsewhere, you need to put them all down individually, while clicking on exactly the right pixel.  It's tedious.  Being able to read and click on the slot labelled 'G' instead of 'C' isn't part of the puzzle and it doesn't add anything.

There are still a few interesting puzzles.  My favourite was working out which symbols stood for the numbers 0-12, using only  a higher/lower game and some algebra.  I enjoyed working that out.  I also enjoyed the game based on the Monty Hall problem.  If you're unfamiliar with that, the Monty Hall problem comes from a gameshow, hosted by Monty Hall.  The player is presented with three doors.  Behind one is a car, while goats are behind the other two.  The player picks a door, say, door A.  Monty Hall then opens one of the two remaining doors to show a goat, and asks the player if they now want to stick to their original choice or switch to the remaining closed door.  It's a common mistake to think that your odds of choosing correctly have now gone from 1/3 to 1/2.  They haven't.  The question is posed to make you think about the statistics wrong and come to the wrong conclusion.  The actual answer is that you have 1/3 chance of winning the car if you stick with the door you have and 2/3 chance of winning the car if you switch to the last remaining door.  

How this works is; when you pick door A, B, or C, there is 1/3 a chance you've chosen the Car and 2/3 of a chance that you didn't, the Car is still behind one of the remaining doors.  There's is a 100% chance that there's a least one goat behind the other door.  So, you've picked door A, which has 1/3 chance of hiding a Car.  You've left doors B and C.  Behind doors B and C there is definitely at least one goat.  There is also a 1/3 chance that B hides the car and a 1/3 chance that C hides the car, adding up to a 2/3 chance that you picked the wrong door in the first place.  When Monty opens door B to show you a goat, what new information has he given you?  There's still a 1/3 chance the car is behind door A, and there is still a 2/3 chance the Car is behind doors B or C.  There was always a 100% chance that B or C hid a goat, and now you know where it is.  Which means the 2/3 chance of the car being behind door B or C is now all on door C.  

To put it another way, when you're at the point of choosing whether to switch doors, there are four potential scenarios you might be in:

• You pick the right door in the first place (1/3 of a chance).  Monty Hall opens WrongDoor1 to show you a goat (1/2 a chance of opening WrongDoor1 instead of 2).   There's a 1/6 chance you're in this scenario and should stick with the door you originally picked.
• You pick the right door in the first place (1/3 of a chance).  Monty Hall opens WrongDoor2 to show you a goat (1/2 a chance of opening WrongDoor2 instead of 1).   There's a 1/6 chance you're in this scenario and should stick with the door you originally picked.
• You chose WrongDoor1 (1/3 chance).  Monty Hall opens WrongDoor2 to show you a goat (100% chance, or 1/1).  Remember, Monthy Hall is not picking randomly.  He will never open the right door to show you a car.  There's a 1/3 chance you're in this scenario and will benefit by switching doors.
• You chose WrongDoor2 (1/3 chance) and Monty Hall opens WrongDoor1 (1/1 chance).  There's a 1/3 chance you're in this scenario and will benefit by switching doors.

In short, there is a 1/6 + 1/6 = 1/3 chance you picked the right door in the first place, and a 2/3 chance you didn't.  If you didn't, and Monty Hall removes one of the goat doors, you will win by switching.

ZTD has you play a version of this, but with more than 3 doors.  Increasing the number of doors makes the problem more intuitive, so it should be easier to guess that switching gives you better odds.  One interesting thing about this game - which I really liked - is that some right answers, including this one, are random.  So you might still lose even if you switch.  It only increases your odds of winning, it doesn't guarantee it.  There's are a few more puzzles with random solutions, like one where you need to test out 8 potential antidotes in one round of testing with only 3 people.  The right antidote will make your tongue numb.  I would have liked to work out the set-up for finding the answer myself, but the game doesn't let you.  It just gives you the set-up and results and has you pick the right answer.

Unlike the previous games, this one sometimes lets you type in your choices instead of just choosing them from a list.  This sounds good on paper, but it's just not implemented that well.  At one point, for example, a possible answer is some variation on "I don't know".  To be fair, the game-makers did make the effort to make various forms of "don't know" acceptable.   But, as a player, there's no indication that not knowing is an option.  You'd expect to input the answer in the form of a name.  I can't see putting in "don't know" except out of frustration or as a joke, and I certainly wouldn't expect it to work.  There are some hints for some of the boxes, but these can be read as a translation error or just badly written when the game makers were actually going for "exact words".  

Then there are passwords you don't even realise you've seen.  Now, this only happened to me once, but it meant that I had absolutely no idea how to continue or see any content I hadn't already watched until I looked at a guide and discovered that I had, in fact, already seen the answer.  This was annoying because, firstly, as far as I recall, the characters didn't actually say the password, which was a date, it just popped up on screen at the start of the screen.  Secondly, there's no reason to believe that the characters present actually knew what the date was.  They had been kidnapped, given anaesthesia to knock them out and induce amnesia countless times (literally countless, since they couldn't remember) and had no contact with the outside world.  Sure, one character says he's been counting the days, but, firstly, he couldn't have known if the day he'd started from was the right one and, secondly, it would be so easy to lose count in these circumstances.  In short, the precise date just didn't seem very important, despite being the exact information I needed to continue.  Also, because you don't need to touch the gamepad to advance the text, I wasn't even looking at the screen the first time it showed up.  So that was annoying.  Checking guides for this game is risky because they're hard to write without spoilers, and also lots of people like to just tell you the answer instead of telling you how to find the answer.  I don't want to be told what it is, I just want a hint.

So, this game just felt a bit weak compared to the previous ones.  While it did have some recurring characters, it didn't answer some questions - like what happened to specific people from 999 - and it did create something of a sequel hook, so perhaps there'll be a fourth installment.

A Mortician's Tale

A Mortician's Tale doesn't feel like a game.  It looks like a game but you have very, very few choices and you can't fail, so it plays more like a workplace training exercise.  Have you done those?  We used to do those in labs.  The 'game' tells you which piece of equipment to pick up and where to use it, and won't let you do it wrong, it'll just keep reminding you as you click around.  It will also explain what you're doing and why, in a way most games leave up to you to figure out.

There are screenshots from the game below, including a representation of a human body being prepared for burial.

Basically, you take the role of a mortician, that is, one who prepares the dead for burial or processes their cremation.  You pop in on her career for a day at a time, over a few months.  During that period her workplace changes a few times, allowing you to see different aspects of the funeral industry.  Each day begins by checking your emails, which will tell you who you're preparing and how - e.g., for an open casket, for cremation - and gives you a bit of gossip.  On most days, your mortician will also have another webpage up that you can read.  On one day, that other webpage lets you play Minesweeper, but with a twist.  The twist is that the numbers are replaced with symbols and which symbol corresponds to which number changes on each attempt.  I didn't find it at all difficult.  If you manage to click on an empty square and so reveal several at once, it's pretty easy to see which are the 1s, and then you can work out the 2s and 3s and so on from there.  That said, I'm really, really good at Minesweeper - I'm currently playing Minesweeper 3D because normal Minesweeper doesn't challenge me any more and no one will play me at Minesweeper Flags because I keep winning - so my experience isn't typical.  Still, it's not an essential part of the game (though it does give you an achievement).

The game then has you prepare the body.  This involves some combination of cleaning them, fitting caps under their eyelids and gluing the lids shut, sewing the mouth shut, replacing their blood with formaldehyde, and suctioning out their liquefied organs.  The game isn't exactly gory, and all of the above just involves clicking and dragging the mouse, but it is discomforting.  I can see it being weirdly cathartic if you're recently bereaved - though it could also be incredibly upsetting in those circumstances - and it did help me figure out what I want done when I die.  Incidentally, I'm currently completing a Master degree in bioarchaeology - skeletons - and I still find that corpses make me uncomfortable, even fictitious ones.  I'm okay with bones - I've handled medieval skeletons - but I don't like fleshy bits.

Having prepared the body, you attend the funeral or wake, where you can speak - or eavesdrop - on the guests and pay your final respects to the remains.  Having done so, you re-enter your workspace and the next day begins.  Your only choices within the game are who to speak to - with an achievement for speaking to every guest - and whether or not to prepare the body of someone who has committed suicide.  I went with yes, because we are all equal in death and because I don't think suicide is a personal moral failing.  It's sad, and we, as a society, should take steps to make sure it isn't necessary, but the individual hasn't, in my opinion, committed a sin (I'm using 'sin' to mean a bad, immoral thing, not literally in terms of what the Catholic church has decided is a sin.  I am Catholic, I'm just not very good at it).  I've also realised that I believe having your body treated respectfully after death is a human right, no matter what someone has done.  It's a bit like the way our legal system (British, for me) has decided that everyone deserves a lawyer to argue for them, no matter what they've done or how obvious their guilt appears.  Someone has to be on your side, no matter what.  Because, I don't know, maybe this is the one in a billion time when an innocent person is unlucky enough to look really guilty, or when there are circumstances that should change the normal sentence for their crime.  I don't know.  I can't make that decision, no one can, that's why we have a whole system to decide that sort of thing, with lots of people coming together to discuss it and examine it and find the truth.  The whole issue is above my - and most people's - paygrade, and so is deciding that someone has committed a sin by committing suicide.

With the steps for preparing the body are so thorough and grounded in realism, messing up would be very upsetting, so it makes sense that the game doesn't actually let you fail.  But, this hand-holding does make it less of a game, and that's one of the reasons that the Steam reviews are 'mixed'.  The short playtime compared to the price tag is the other major reason for negative reviews.  I completed the game, with all achievements, in 90 minutes.  The description says it normally takes an hour, so I assume that extra thirty minutes came from minesweeper and intentionally moving slowly because it felt like the respectful thing to do.  I got it on sale for £1.79 - which will be the price until the 24th of June 2021 - but the normal price is £7.19.  I'd say my enjoyment of those 90 minutes was closer to £1.79 than £7.19.  I had a good experience, but I probably would feel a bit ripped off if I'd payed £7.19 for it.

You can get a similar experience to playing this game by reading the book Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, aka Ask A Mortician.  This isn't surprising because both Caitlin Doughty and The Order of the Good Death, with which she is associated, are both acknowledged at the end of the game.  I think 'acknowledged' is the right word - instead of, for example, 'credited' - but I'm not 100% sure and would need to replay the game to check.  To be honest, the mortician's career progression and the decisions she makes - without your input - feels a lot like propaganda for the Order of the Good Death.  I can't say I like the propaganda aspect but, also, I do agree with their goals and their approach to the death industry, so it's hard to pinpoint exactly what's making me uncomfortable.  I think it has to do with the mortician being such a blank slate and being the player's avatar, but also making her own decisions and whims without us.  It feels as if the game is telling us "you agree with this, you want this" but not actually interacting with us or accepting any input from us.  Like we're being railroaded.  

I'm not sure what would fix the rail-roading aspect for me.  Maybe it's as simple as giving us more input.  Maybe let us make some decisions about how the mortician's career will go, and explain to us the pros and cons of each step.  There must be a reason the funeral industry is how it is, and why most morticians don't make the decisions the protagonist does.  Why is that?  Sure, some of it might be "because they're evil and only care about money", but I doubt that's all of it.  Maybe some of it is "because there just isn't enough land" or because "X is really expensive" or "the general public don't know enough to value this skill so people can't earn a living this way".  I'd like to have seen more of that explored.  As it is, it feels like some issues exist in the middle of the game, to force the mortician's workplace to change, but then those issues just suddenly disappear when it feels like, realistically, they should still be in play for her final career move.  If that makes sense.  I'm trying to avoid spoilers.  With spoilers, what I'm trying to say is: if the funeral industry is so bad that Rose is forced to sell her family-owned funeral home to a big corporation, how does the mortician afford to start her own 'wild' funeral home?  What did she do differently?  Why did the money struggles suddenly go away?

Overall, I had a good experience playing this game.  Like I said above, I might not feel that way if I'd paid four times as much for it, so I can't recommend buying it at full price.  Also, like I said, it feels more like well-made workplace training + propaganda than a game, which has garnered it some bad reviews.

I feel pressured to make a recommendation - yes, you should buy it or no, you should not - or to assign a rating, or state whether this game is good or bad, because that's how many sites invite us to review products.  But, I don't actually think that's what reviews are for.  I can't disagree with the bad reviews on steam, they are accurately describing aspects of the game.  I also agree with the good reviews.  This is what the game is, and now you have that information, you can make your own decision about whether it's worth buying.

A General Update

 Since the start of 2020, it's been my goal to reduce the number of games that I own but have never played.  To this end, I made a spreadsheet in May of 2020.  Back then, I owned 188 games, 54 (29%) of which I'd completed.  44 (23%) of them, I'd played a little bit of it, and 90 of them (48%) I'd never played.  By last October, I owned 225 games, and I'd completed 109 (48%) of them.  Today, I own 228 games, and I've completed 129 of them, or 56.58%, so that's an improvement.  I still have 62 (27.19%) I've never played.  Here's a nice graph!

I looked over my old posts on this (and added a tag to them), and I was surprised to learn that I'd originally planned to replay some of the games I'd not played in a while.  I don't think that's particularly important.  I also, at one point, tried to institute a rule that I needed to complete four games before allowing myself to purchase one more.  That rapidly went by the wayside.  I'd need to complete 46 games to catch up to how many I've purchased over the last year.  If I pretend I needed to complete 2 games to justify buying 1 up until now, the numbers work out and I'm all caught up.  But, from now on, I'll stick to completing 4 games before buying one more new game.

I added a new label for games - "Achievement Hunting/Replaying".  Some games, like, for instance, Monster Prom and Monster Camp can technically be 'completed' in about 20 minutes.  But, they're designed to be replayed, so actually 'completing' the game isn't getting to the end credits, but more about exploring the universe and seeing more of it.  Since my condition for 'completing' games is normally getting to the ending, I felt like I needed something else for when I was still actively playing a game even though I'd seen the ending.  Other games like Tales of Symphonia are in that same category.  I've completed the game, but you actually need to play it through at least five times to unlock every Title - a thing that helps your characters stats raise as they level up - which is what I'm in the process of doing.  I'm doing it slowly, because I just enjoy visiting that world and hanging out there, but I do still think of it as a game I'm actively playing.

Speaking of Tales of Symphonia, isn't Scott Menville's performance great?  He's the voice of Lloyd - and also the 'whatever' guy in Full House - and he just brings so much to the character.  Lloyd is one of my very favourite RPG characters and, tbh, the other characters in that category are often there because I played the game when I was very young and impressional, like Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy VIII and Yuri Hyuga from Shadow Hearts.  They're great characters, but if I'd played their games later or at a different time in my life, I might not like them as much as I do.  Lloyd, I love just for himself.  Though, I do need to point out that I was about 16 the first time I played Tales of Symphonia (on the gamecube!) and I was probably still at quite an impressionable age.

Anyway, since my last update, I have completed quite a few games.  I've written guides for several, so you know about those.  I played Stardew Valley and officially completed it last week, after four in-game years.  That was a journey.  The game's pretty addictive and I've got over 300 hours in it, which is a problem because I'm trying to complete a Master's degree.  I also finished Littlewood, which is very similar in that you're setting up a new town and can spend time farming, exploring local dungeons, and getting to know the townsfolk.  Littlewood is more focused on the adventuring than the farming, which makes sense.  Your character is a classic RPG hero, who has now saved the world and lost their memory.  Your best friends encourage you to set up a town, with you explicitly as mayor or whatever title you prefer.  I chose 'Regnant'.  I like being Regnant.  It means all the stuff I do for the town - like building houses and shops and making it all pretty - makes sense, and it's not just about Mayor Lewis slacking off and being too cheap to light or pave the town properly.  I also like that time is only a function of your energy.  That is, you do X amount of things, it's evening.  The day ends when you collapse from exhaustion or when you go to bed.  I liked this a lot better than Stardew Valley's frantic pace.  To be honest, I used a mod on Stardew to make the days a little bit longer, with hours equalling 12 seconds rather than 7.  I completed Littlewood in about 80 hours, so it's not quite as long or in-depth as Stardew Valley.

I also played The Crooked Man, a retro-style game that takes around 2-3 hours to play.  It's normally £2.09, but there's a sale on on Steam right now so it's £1.25.  I've had it for a while and, according to my spreadsheet, I paid £1.67 for it.

I can't actually remember when or why I bought this game, but I'm glad I finally got around to playing it this weekend.  It's creepy and atmospheric, basically a horror movie in game-form.  It's the good kind of horror, where it leaves you with a feeling of sadness that things had to be that way, and an understanding of what motivated the horror, which is always nice.  Plus, there's a really interesting mystery running through the game.

There's a new game plus mode, which includes a little bit of extra information in the final chapter.  Since there are five chapters - though the last two are very short - it seems like they could have either added some extra content into the first four or let you replay just the final chapter rather than the whole game.  On the other hand, as with most horror/mystery stories, it's quite interesting watching events now that you know more about what's going on.  Plus, the game is quite short (and there's a thorough step-by-step guide on Steam) so replaying it isn't exactly a hardship.  It turns out that there are three other games in this series - The Sand Man, The Boogie Man, and The Hanged Man - which are on my wishlist.  I didn't buy them because of the aforementioned finishing 4 games before I buy another 1 rule, but I definitely intend to someday, when I'm ready to play them there and then.

Two games I bought and completed recently were A Normal Lost Phone and Another Lost Phone.  They're part of a series - although the characters and storylines are unrelated - in which you find a lost phone and need to search through it to figure out who it used to belong to (presumably with the totally innocent goal of returning it to them).  As you read through their messages, you find passwords - for example, the password for the local public wifi - which unlocks more apps and content for you to read through.  They both took 60-90 minutes to complete, with all achievements.  There's little replay value - until such time as you've forgotten the details and can enjoy the discovery again - but I got them for 52p and 78p respectively, so I'm fine with that, it's still a bargain.  I bought them on Steam, and they were on sale because it's Pride month and the first story has LGBTQ themes.  They're also available as phone apps for, if I recall correctly, £2.49 each.  I think they'd make a lot more sense on a phone, the experience would be far more immersive.  In terms of gameplay, they both feel very similar to Digital: A Love Story and Analogue: A Hate Story.  Those two games also form a series, though, in that case, characters and storylines overlap, and the basic premise of those is that you're an astronaut who's found an abandoned vessel.  You need to tap into the ship's logs and read through them to figure out what happened, again finding passwords and unlocking new things as you go.  All four games feel kind of similar to Her Story.  That's a game where you have access to a police computer, and you're searching the archives for clips from video interviews, to understand an old case.  In Her Story, you don't get passwords, but you figure out new key words to search for, to bring up more clips with new and interesting details.

In the same sale, I bought Speed Dating for Ghosts.  That plays very much like a visual novel.  You get a choice of three rooms and cycle through meeting three ghosts.  You usually get two short conversations with them, unless you've pissed them off.  At the end of the speed-dating, you pick one to go out with, and get a longer scene about them.  After the date, you can come back and go out with one of the other two, again, assuming you didn't piss them off.  You don't need to play through the speed-dating again.  

I found it was actually quite hard not to get a date with the ghosts, if you avoided the obviously bad options.  In my first playthrough, I only failed with one ghost and that's because I turned him in for asking me to rob a bank with him.  Really though...yes, I get that ghosts are invisible, so it's much easier for them to rob banks.  BUT...why trade in stolen money when you could instead trade in information?  It's much more valuable.  That ghost was short-sighted.

I liked most of the ghosts, and I enjoyed the conversations.  There was usually an option that felt like a natural response I wanted to give, and at times, it really did feel like I was subtly picking up conversational cues and reading body language, even though the art style is very simplistically stylised.  I didn't like all the ghosts - I wasn't a big fan of the bank robber or the whiny punk girl.  Whiny punk girl was weirdly insistent on exactly what people had to do to be acceptable to her.  I'm pretty sure insisting everyone act a certain way or they are Wrong is the opposite of punk.  Still, even though I found her stupid, hypocritical, childish, and tiresome, she didn't detract from the experience.  You're not going to like everyone you meet at speed-dating.  Plus ghosts, as a group, are pretty unhappy people - since they have unfinished business - and unhappiness isn't always going to be interesting or palatable.  Sometimes, it's just going to be irritating.

I finally got around to playing The Novelist, which is another game I've owned for years.  In that, you experience nine 'chapters' in the life of a family staying at a holiday home.  You're the ghost haunting the holiday home, and your self-imposed role is to figure out what the mother, father, and son each want.  You can then whisper that decision in the father's ear, influencing him.  To complete each chapter, you need to discover exactly what one character wants and tell the father - the titular novelist - that they should get it.  If you take the time to find out multiple character's wishes, you can then choose a compromise, so another character gets part of what they wanted.  I've only played it through once - which took around 2 and a half hours - but I've read that the order in which you view the 'chapters' is random.  There are also multiple endings, depending upon how miserable or happy each character is at the end of the summer.  I chose to spread out the wishes evenly, so each character get exactly what they wanted three times, missed out three times, and compromised three times, which left everyone pretty happy.  I don't know exactly how many endings there are.  I usually rely on achievements or an in-game gallery to signal whether I've missed something or to tell me there's more to explore, but this game has neither.  I might replay it someday.

The gameplay is basically that of a walking simulator, though you, as a ghost, can also zoom into various light-fittings as a way to hide and to move around the house more quickly.  The game has two modes, Story or Stealth.  In Stealth mode, the family can see you and will become uncomfortable and unhappy if they see you too often, or so I've read.  I played it in story mode, because I am not very dextrous and walking sims are hard for me.  Plus, the game made me motion sick, so my two and a half hours were spread over a few days.  With games that make me sick, I can normally play for about 15 minutes at a time, at least at first.  Luckily, each chapter takes 15-20 minutes to complete. I struggled a bit on the first chapter.  I had to leave the room and take some deep breaths before playing the last two minutes.  But, over time, I get used to these games, and I was able to play the last three chapters in one sitting.

I have the same problem - motion sickness - with the Spyro the Dragon games.  I've owned the Reignited trilogy - the Steam port/remake of the original playstation games - for about a year, since they were released.  I was able to complete the first two - with many breaks - then took a long break during the third one.  The third one was rushed compared to the first two and is glitchier.  It also seems to be harder on my PC, which makes it hard to control at times, like during the Speedways or on the levels with snow.  Plus, both of my gamepads have started drifting, which makes some parts of the game impossible to play.  I've started slowly working my way through the game again, but it is a nightmare sometimes.  For example, this morning I was playing the Agent 9 level, which has a sniper challenge.  All you need to do is move your aiming circle horizontally across a shooting range, which has Rhynocs popping up from behind it.  With my controller, the left and right are a bit too sensitive, so I repeatedly scrolled past the Rhynoc I needed to hit (it was even worse if I tried using my keyboard).  That's using the d-pad, which isn't even subject to drift like the joystick thing is.  However, my d-pad has decided that, sometimes, when I press right I must really mean 'down', and that sends my aiming circle - or Spyro, when he's flying - veering off wildly.  I need to buy a new one, but one of my gamepads is only six months old.  There has to be a better solution than just buying a new one every six months.  The two gamepads do appear to have slightly different issues - one tends to get visibly stuck in a certain direction, while the other has phantom input when it isn't being touched - so I think opening them up and putting the actual stick bit from one together with the underlying spring thing from the other might fix it for a while.  Even if it works, I suspect that will only be a short-term solution.

My fiancé did offer to loan me his old PS3 controller - which he only uses for Rocket League - but I found Spyro didn't recognise it.  It's possible that that issue is fixable, with some fiddling around in the Steam settings but I cannot be arsed at the moment.  To get around the issues with the actual game running badly on my PC, my fiancé has agreed to let me finish off the last few achievements/skill points on his PC, which is newer and built for gaming.  So, at the moment, I'm just doing what I can and limping to the end.

There are quite a few other games I've been playing, but I either don't have anything to say about them or I want to write about them in their own posts.

The Quiet Man

This is an odd game.  Odd and unpopular.  The reviews for it on Steam are predominantly negative.  I knew that going in but I bought it anyway.  Why?  Well, firstly it intrigued me. Secondly, I felt a bit sorry for it.  And, thirdly, because it was on HumbleBundle, reduced from £11.99 to £2.99, and I knew I probably wouldn't want to spend more than £3 on it.  

So, the basic premise is that the main character is deaf and you, the player, are also deaf.  That's explain in the game's first disclaimer:

You play as a deaf character, Dane, and experience the world as the character does – with very little distinct audio and no subtitles: it’s up to you to make up your own interpretation of the story as your search for the masked man unfolds.

Other disclaimers clarify that subtitles will only appear at certain times, when dialogue is intended to be understood.  It's intriguing, and a similar gimmick was handled well by the Inside Number 9 episode Empty Orchestra.  The problem - and one reason for all the negative reviews - is that the player is not deaf in the same way the character is.  That is, you'd think that gimmick would mean you understand what the main character understands. The main character clearly understands and even communicates himself, via sign language, but we don't know what he's saying or what he's replying to.  We're not even given the chance to.  I know some British sign language and recognised the sign for "thank you", but nothing beyond that.  They're using American sign language, so British wouldn't be much help anyway, but the camera work isn't set up for you to understand even if you do know ASL.  It doesn't show their hands for the whole conversation.  Likewise, you can sometimes lip read and take a guess as to what the characters are saying, but the camera isn't always focused on the character's lips.  This feels like cheating.  They've artificially reduced our senses to create a sense of mystery, and it feels dishonest.  I think the game would have been a lot stronger if we'd understood what Dane had understood and the mystery had come from what he'd missed.

The actual gameplay is basically like watching a long movie that you can't understand, interspersed with occasional fight scenes.  Sometimes, at the end of a fight, you're responsible for moving Dane towards a doorway or something he needs to look at.  I'd say the game - which took me about 4 hours to play through once - is fully 50-75% cut scenes, maybe more.  I'm okay with that.  I mean, I enjoyed Her Story and that game is entirely about choosing which videoclips to watch.  There are three basic styles - filmed scenes, rendered scenes, and interactive scenes, where you can move it.  The switch between the three can be quite jarring but that might be because I turned all the graphics settings down as far as possible.  I do that because I bought this PC in 2013.  Even then, some of the fight scenes flickered so badly they made me feel a bit ill, and the terrible camera angles didn't help with that.  

Some reviews complain about the acting, but I quite liked it.  I'm not overly critical about acting though.  I do agree that John Anthony Wylliams - Taye - gave the best performance.  I've never seen anyone pointedly close a car door with that much emotion conveyed only via only body language.  It was impressive.

The fights themselves aren't difficult, and that's speaking as someone who doesn't play fighting games and didn't understand the controls.  In fairness to me, no one understood the controls.  The only explanation of what each button does is on the start menu, where little neon stick figures show you that X is a quick punch, Y is a hard kick, B is grab, and A is dodge.  You can also use the right shoulder button to run and, as I did not discover until the sixth chapter, the left shoulder button lets you enter focus mode.  I'm not entirely sure if this mode lasts for a single attack or if it affects all qualifying attacks once entered, I just kept hammering on it.  You know you have a focus mode available when the lens flare on the right hand side of the screen becomes dramatically bright, another thing that's not actually explained in-game.  I did actually quite like the lens flare, as an unobtrusive way of conveying information without breaking the realism, once I knew what it was.

Somehow, I managed to get nearly all of the fighting-based achievements, though I'm not even going to attempt to finish the game without getting hit.  Still, like I said, the fights are pretty easy.  For the first three - of six - chapters, I wasn't even sure you could lose a fight, though there were 2-3 I struggled with later on.  There's one in chapter six where you're up against an unreasonable amount of opponents that took me ages, until I looked up how to do focus attacks.  For me, the battles being very similar and very easy were a selling point, but, like I said, I don't like fighting games.  Fighting games for people who don't like fighting games probably isn't a very big market.

Another thing that isn't made clear is how and when the game saves.  It auto-saves at the end of every chapter - and a few other times - when it shows the screen below.  A quality of life improvement would be to have a message flash up saying "game saved".

Once you've played through the game once, you unlock 'Answered' mode, where the sound and subtitles are turned back on.  In one of the few bits of direct communication, the game explains that you can access this mode by choosing to play each chapter from the menu.  Now you can finally understand what everyone was saying during those mildly intriguing video sequences!  By playing through the whole game again!  I don't think this is, in itself, a bad trick.  I think it doesn't come off well because the deafness during your first playthrough feels cheap and artificial and because the game is just too long to play through the first time without understanding what's going on.  I stuck with it because I knew, from reading other reviews, that this mode existed, but I don't think the game itself tells you that anywhere until you reach that point.  From reading a few other reviews, I've learned that the "answered" mode wasn't initially included with the game and was added in a later patch, which seems bizarre to me.  Did they not intend to include it initially?  Did they not have the game finished in time and released it only half done?

The game does get a lot more fun on the second playthrough.  I ended up really enjoying the mystery, and it was pretty interesting seeing scenes in a new light and trying to work out what future scenes might mean with the new information I had.  Plus, there were some quite clever tricks that made it look like two different characters might actually be the same person or that what appeared to be two different people were actually one, which made for interesting twists.  While my first playthrough took place over a week, completing 0-2 chapters per day, I finished the bulk of the second playthrough in one go.  But...you should be enjoying the game that much one hour in, not five.  The game takes too much time to get good, and nothing in the game even indicates that it will get good until the end of the first playthrough.  Plus, the weakness of not being deaf in the same way as Dane shows up here as well.  Characters confidently talk as if he can't hear them, spilling their guts while saying "You can't even hear me say this".  But we know he does understand some things because he takes part in conversations.  At this point, I think we're supposed to assume that Dane can lipread, so if we see their lips on screen then he heard that bit of dialogue.  I'm not sure because there are a few scenes where someone is turned a bit away but he responds to what they've said.  Although, that said, sometimes his response doesn't actually require him to have heard them, just to know that they were speaking.  All of this would have been clearer if we'd just understood what he understood the first time round, so we'd know that any new information we get in the second playthrough is information that Dane didn't have.  

The other thing we need to talk about is that this game isn't a very good portrayal of a deaf character.  Firstly, lip-reading isn't as useful as the game makes it out to be, assuming that is how Dane has conversations.  It's not like it's simple and magical.  It's hard and unreliable.  That's why sign language is a thing.  On that note, if you're having a private, one-on-one conversation with a deaf person in sign language why would you also speak?  If you don't know sign language, you might think it's easy to speak and sign at the same time (sim com), but it isn't.  Apparently the dev team did very little consulting with deaf people, so it's not surprising they got things wrong.  The review I linked to in that last sentence was written by a deaf gamer and explores the issues more than I can.  The writer also touches on the unfortunate implications of linking gang signs to sign language, which I didn't know about.  Plus, the fact that your "reward" for playing through the game without being able to hear is to suddenly regain that ability which, yeah, that has some unfortunate implications, especially now that we understand the one scene where Dane expresses how upset he is at not being able to hear.  That might arguably be because he's been tormented over it rather than something intrinsic to being deaf, but that's a very subtle distinction.  So, perhaps a better way to handle the game would be to have two characters and show different bits from different points of view.  One character can still be deaf, so maybe he notices something in the room (because no one is communicating with him so he spends more time looking around) or, okay, once he's able to lip read something no one expected to be overheard.  And maybe other characters sometimes communicate with him by writing, and having something in writing turns out to be important.  But other stuff could just be about being in the right/wrong room or something.  Then, on the second playthrough, everything you originally saw as character A you now see as character B and vice versa, and that gives you the information you need to piece everything together.  I'm just spit balling, it's not an easy problem to solve.

I guess all in all...well, is it a good game?  Is it a bad game?  I enjoyed the process of playing it, but I don't actually disagree with any of the bad reviews.  I was able to enjoy it because, for me, I thought of the game as figuring out what the plot was, which other people wouldn't go in expecting if they just went off the information in the game or the description itself.  Plus, I knew most people hadn't enjoyed it, so my expectations were low in the first place.  I'd also only played £2.99 for it, and I think I'd have found it a lot harder to enjoy if it had cost me £11.99.  I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, but I can't say I didn't have fun.  

The game was very ambitious and it failed to live up to what it could have been.  I think that's what happens sometimes when you fund ambitious and risky projects, and because I want studios to fund more ambitious and risky projects - because some of them are amazing - I can't say I'm upset this game was made.  It had a lot of flaws, and examining those will, I hope, lead to better games in future. 

Princess Maker 2 Refine - All Social Rep and Housework Endings, and All Artistic Endings in One Playthrough

 This guide is aimed at the Steam edition of Princess Maker 2 Refine.  I have not tested it in any other editions.  I assume you are familiar with basic gameplay.

Edit: I accidentally published this post with "except Jester" the first time.  At first, I thought I couldn't get Jester.  I realised I could but forgot to change the title.

Ending Types

In this game, endings are triggered by specific stats and occur in this order of priority:

• Princess of Darkness will be taken over all other endings if your daughter qualifies.  This is easy to avoid as one requirement is Sin over 500, and we can just lower that by donating to the church.
• Sin endings have the next highest priority.  These require either: Morality 1-29 and Sin>250 OR Morality 0 and Sin>100.
• The third highest priority are the Art endings, which are triggered if Art is the highest of the five general skills (Decorum, Art, Speech, Cooking, CLN/LDR and Personal).
• After this, Ending type is determined first by Reputation levels and then by stats.

In this guide, we're aiming for the Social Rep, Housework, and Artistic endings, with as little reloading as possible.  

Social Rep Endings

The Social Rep Endings and their required stats (according to the Wiki) are shown in the table below.

	Queen by Marriage	Concubine	Countess	Millionaire's Wife	Merchant's Wife	Farmer's Wife	Divorcee	Mistress
Intelligence					500	100
Elegance			500	100
Glamour	Max 500	500	100	500			Max 150	150
Sensitivity					100	500
Social Rep	421+	380+	311-379	311-379	211-310	211-310	Highest	Highest
Important			Elegance > Glamour	Glamour> Elegance	Intelligence >Sensitivity	Sensitivity >Intelligence
Best Ending	Elegance 400+	Elegance 500+	Personality 80+	Elegance 250+		Stamina 200+		Elegance 200+

You should notice that all of these endings are paired.  You can move between the Queen-by-Marriage and Concubine endings by flipping your Glamour above or below 500.  Similarly, being a Countess or a Millionaire's wife is decided by whether Elegance or Glamour is higher while marrying a Merchant or Farmer is decided by Intelligence vs Sensitivity.  Being a Divorcee vs a Mistress is based on Glamour being above or below 150.  All of these stats can be changed rapidly using items and equipment.

We can also make changes to our statistics in one turn through the Demon Pendant.  You can buy three in any one playthrough and trading each one to a demon in the desert will raise both Elegance and Glamour by 100 points.  You can trade in all three in one go, raising both stats by 300 points.  

We can rapidly drop our Social Reputation in several ways.  Firstly, we can immediately lose 15 points by speaking to the Clown at the palace.  We can do this every month, and lose 30 or even 45 reputation points without having to replay too much of the game.  We can also have our daughter arrested if her stress and sin values are high enough, which will rapidly drop all of her reputations.  We'll need to do this for the Divorcee and Mistress endings.

Raising our Social reputation in the first place can be done by raising our Decorum, Speech, and Art skills and by winning either the Art Competition or the Dance Party at the Harvest Festival each year.  Winning the latter gives us Ladies Rings, and having those in our inventory gives us +25 Elegance each.  This gives us another way to quickly drop our Elegance stat, by selling those rings.  Winning the Art Festival gives us a Master Brush, which raises our Art skill by 50 points.  This is less useful, but is key to making your Art skill the highest at the end of the game and unlocking the Art endings instead of the Social endings.

Note that many of these are marriage endings, which means we must avoid triggering any other marriages which take precedence.  You can avoid talking to the Prince and you can turn the Dragon.  In my experience, it takes some work to build up Cube's affection enough, and the Father marriage ending requires quite specific stats.

Obtaining these endings will unlock the following Steam achievements:

• Queen-by-Marriage: From Princess to Queen
• Concubine: She Must be Mine!
• Countess: I am a Noble Woman
• Millionaire's Wife: Life of a Wealthy
• Merchant's Wife: Business Woman
• Farmer's Wife: Farmland Queen
• Divorcee: Mistaken Love
• Mistress: Land and Love

Artistic Endings

Artistic Endings require that you don't qualify for the Princess of Darkness or any Sinful Endings and that Art is your highest skill.  We can avoid the first two by removing all sin.  

There are four possible Art Endings:

• Painter: Intelligence must be below 300, and Art classes should have been taken more often than Dance classes.  Art must be over 80.  The best ending requires Sensitivity over 400.
• Dancer: Intelligence must be below 300, and Dance classes should have been taken more often than Art classes.  Art must be over 80.  The best ending requires high Stamina.
• Writer: Intelligence must be over 300.  The best ending requires Sensitivity over 300.
• Jester: Speech must be over 80, Art must be over 80 and the highest skill, Social Reputation must be over 370, and you must have the Royal Harp.  You get the Royal Harp by speaking to the Jester 14 times.

Obtaining these endings unlocks the following Steam Achievements:

• Painter: Beauty Behind the Art
• Dancer: Step by Step
• Writer: Story of my Life
• Jester: Life of the Party

The wiki describes a rumour that to be an Artist or a Dancer, you must have won either the Art Festival or the Dance Contest more often than the other, and states this is unconfirmed.  I've confirmed that this is false, at least for the Refine edition.  

Housework Ending

There's only one housework ending, and it only requires that your Housework reputation is higher than all the others.

Goal Stats

In light of all of this, and considering I want to see the best version of each ending, the stats we're aiming for by the end of the game are as follows:

Statistic	Aim
Stamina	Minimum 200.
Intelligence	Between 350-400 until August of the final year. We can quickly raise this to 500 using a month of Science classes and books, or we can drop it below 300 by working at the Bar.
Elegance	Maximum 99 "naturally", plus 25 for each Ladies Ring in our inventory.   This means that, if we win the Dance Festival 6 times, we need to see an Elegance stat of less than (6*25)+99 = 249.
Glamour	Between 100-149. Glamour will be raised by its initial value on every birthday.  I chose an October birthday, which means Glamour rises by 42 every year.  This means that, in practice, I want to see a value between 59-107 before the final month.  I want it close to the lower value so I can drop it fast.
Sensitivity	As close to 500 as possible.  We need to be able to overtake it with Intelligence.  Because we can raise Intelligence quite a bit with books and Science classes, we have some leeway here.
Social Rep	Minimum 421. We don't want this value much higher as that just makes it harder to lower it. Bear in mind that we can win either the Dance Party or the Art Festival in the last turn, which will increase the Social Rep by 40 or 30 respectively. This means we want the value to be as close to 391 as possible before the last festival, without dropping below this value. I haven't listed Personality and Speech separately because we need those maxed to raise the Social Rep anyway.
Other Reputations	As low as possible.  The lowest reputation must be more than 50 points below the Social Reputation.   Remember that you can drop the Magical or Fighter Reps (whichever is higher) by 15 points by refusing a random challenge. You can trigger random challenges by entering and exiting the town.
Art	100+, so we can paint a winning painting and win the Art contest when we need to. However, this stat should remain below another skill.   I recommend keeping cooking slightly above Art, since we can raise cooking by visiting the fairies at the Lake or the Woodland. Raising cooking will raise the Housework Rep, but if we win the Dance Party every year, the Social Rep will remain higher.
Sin	Maximum of 99. We can lower this by donating to the Church. Don't lower this too soon, as it appears to increase the likelihood your daughter will be arrested if we combine it with high stress and attacking villagers.  We want to be arrested for some endings.  If we avoid doing attacking villagers and lower sin before the end of the game, there's no risk to keeping it high.

I've included a step-by-step guide for how I achieved these stats below.  You could choose to ignore that and just use the information above.  Alternatively, you could do your own playthrough and then consult the sections below for how to reach each ending.  I would suggest aiming to win the Combat Tournament in your first two years and then working on the stats listed above.  Try to end the game with a painting scored over 100, at least one Royal Sword, and 3 Demon Pendants.  Your Social Rep should be your highest, at only slightly over 421.  There's no benefit to having it any higher, and we need to be able to lower it for some endings.

I would suggest raising Intelligence last.  Some endings require Intelligence below 300 while others require it above 500, and you can easily gain over 100 in a single month once your Science classes are at a high enough level.

I chose October 22nd as her birthday for two reasons.  Firstly, that means we end the game right after a Festival, which is useful for changing her Reputations at the last minute.  Secondly, this gives her Hades/Pluto as her Patron God.  He gives her decent Magic skills, and a big Charisma boost on her last birthday.  He raises her Sensitivity by 100 after defeating the War God, which is helpful because that stat can be difficult to raise.  Uranus - January 20th to February 18th - is also an option.  That would give you a few months after the last Harvest festival to mess with your stats.  Uranus also raises Sensitivity after defeating the War God.  However, the Charisma boost is lower, as are her combat stats.  You do start off with high Speech though.

I chose the AB blood type, which raises Sensitivity by 2 points per month.  Any could have worked, really.

Step by Step Guide

Note that the date in the first column is what shows in the top right corner when you're setting up for the month.

While playing, I saved every month in the slot below where I'd saved last month, starting over at the beginning after I'd used 10 slots.  This let me 'rewind' up to 9 months if necessary.  It's handy, but you don't need to do that.  You will need to make 5 specific saves in the last year, in February, July, August, September, and October of 1218.  Those months are marked in the table for that year.

Maps for errantry and instructions on where to find the bandits are in my last post.

1210	Start of Month	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Notes
Oct-22	Switch to a Hearty Diet.   Buy a Winter Dress.   Speak to the Gatekeeper at the Palace.			Farm Work	We're building up strength and stamina right now. We need to win the Combat Tournament at least once because the Royal Sword is useful for dropping our Social Reputation at the end of the game. Plus, combat is the easiest way to earn money early on and set us up to take expensive classes later. We don't need to worry about our Combat reputations surpassing Social because we can drop them whenever we want by refusing fights.
Oct-31	Pocket Money.	Farm Work	Farm Work	Time Off (0g)
Nov-30		Farm Work	Farm Work	Time Off (0g)
Dec-31st		Farm Work	Farm Work	Time Off (0g)

In 1211, we're continuing to build up our combat skills in the hopes of winning the Combat Tournament in 1212. This will set us up with enough money to support our social and artistic endeavours later, and give us a Royal Sword which will boost our Glamour and which we can sell for a quick 30 point drop at the end of the game. If you are challenged to a random fight at any point, always refuse it. We want to keep our Fighter and Magical Reputations as low as possible, and each fight we refuse will drop whichever is higher by 15.

 

1211	Start of Month	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Notes
Jan-31	Buy a Summer Dress.	Farm Work	Farm Work	Time Off (0g)	At the Desert, you'll need to attempt to hide/run from every encounter.   If you're unlucky, your daughter might survive long enough to run away.   Camp to recover in that case. Open the first two chests, which contain a Dragon Fang and some cash. You'll need to pay a 200g toll to reach the Dragon Fang.
Feb-28	Pocket money.	Farm Work	Errantry: North Mountain	Errantry: Woodland	Open all the Chests in the North Mountain and the Woodland. Try to hide or run from every battle. You can equip your new sword by camping and choosing to change equipment. You might be able to defeat the Woodland enemies with two magic attacks if you have to but remember to camp to replenish your MP afterwards.
Mar-31	Buy Demon Pendant. Sell Ice Shard and Ancient Milk.	Farm Work	Farm Work	Time Off (0g)	The Demon Trader arrives the first time your gold is over 1000. We're going to buy a total of 3 Demon Pendants from him, so we can quickly raise our Elegance and Glamour by 300 points at the end of the game. Do NOT return the Demon Pendants to the cave in the desert until the end of the game.
Apr-30		Farm Work	Farm Work	Errantry: Lake	Open all the chests while continuing to avoid all encounters. Camp on the island with the Rafflesia (big red flower) to meet the fairies and reduce stress. This will raise your Cooking skill.  We want that to happen, because we want Cooking to stay above Art.
May-31	Switch to normal diet. Sell Fairy Nectar.	Study Magic	Study Magic	Study Magic	When studying magic, your magic attack can go up by 1 or 0 per day, so the total gain is luck based. If your magic attack doesn't go up by at least 25 this month, reset.
Jun-30		Farm Work	Farm Work	Time Off (0g)
Jul-31		Errantry: Desert	Study Magic	Study Magic	Camp outside of the cave in the Desert and choose to trade Faith for Intelligence. Do NOT enter the cave. This will trigger the exchange of your Demon Pendant, and we're saving that. If Lucifon rips you off and you get less than 40 Intelligence, reset. Lucifon will offer the chance to trade if your Faith is over 20, and will take 1-20 Faith from you. If this exchange drops your Faith below 20, reset. After that, open the last two chests and then stand near the exit and try to mug a merchant. We need the money. Don't attack any other villagers.
Aug-31	Sell the Dragon Fang.	Study Theology	Study Theology	Errantry: Desert	Trade faith for Intelligence. Your Intelligence should be at least 130. Mine was 142. If you didn't manage to mug a merchant last time, try it now. After receiving your stipend and selling off any teacups, try to end September with over 2600g.
Sep-30	Buy the meat dish from the restaurant for a boost to Constitution.	Enter the combat tournament. Don't expect to win, but try to get as far as you can for the money. With luck you can get through two rounds and win a total of 360g.			The Demon Trader will show up, since your gold is now over 2000. Buy a second Demon Pendant. Buy a doll for her birthday for the stress reduction.
Oct-31		Study Magic	Study Magic	Study Magic	You'll probably run out of money partway through the third one. That's okay, we just need to schedule a full month so Fey will show up. Your Magic Skill should hit 100. Fey will raise your Magic Attack.
Nov-30		Study Magic	Study Magic	Study Magic	You can't pay for these classes. That's okay, we don't actually need to take them because we can't get any further stat raises. We just want Fey to come back and increase our magic again.
Dec-31		Farm Work	Farm Work	Time Off (0g)	Fey will come back again, since we've been studying so much. My Magic Attack was now 144.

1212 is about continuing to build up our Combat skills and money.  We're also going to work on our Decorum so we can impress the King while our Fighter Rep is at its highest.

 

1212	Start of Month	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Notes
Jan-31	Pocket money.	Work at   Church	Work at Church	Errantry: Woodland.	Defeat the first bandit.
Feb-28	Equip your new armour. Pocket money.	Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Errantry: Desert	Trade Faith for Intelligence, then kill skeletons outside of the cave for gold. Try to end the month with 1500g, after selling any items you've won and the birthday doll.
Mar-31	Pocket money.	Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Vacation: Mountains
Apr-30		Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Errantry: Lake	Defeat the second bandit. Camp with the cooking fairies. Afterwards, walk into the water and try to win a few black scales from the Fetchfish and a Mermaid Tear from the Fishmen. If you get more than one Mermaid's Tear, sell it.
May-31	Sell off any items won from battle except for black scales. We're keeping the black scales for now because they raise your defence by 3.	Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Once you're in anything but the very beginner Kung Fu class, your defence can randomly raise by up to 1 per day. This means, like with Magic Attack, your total raise will be luck-based. That's why I'm listing where your defence should be, so you if you're really unlucky you can reset. I've tried to be reasonable about this so you don't have to reload too much. Your defence should be over 30 after this.
Jun-30	Pocket money.	Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Your defence should be over 45 after this.
Jul-31	Pocket money.	Study Fencing	Study Fencing	Vacation: Ocean	Defeat the Dojo breaker. The enemy is random, so if you're unlucky enough to get one that's too difficult, reload. At the ocean, trade-in your mermaid's tear. Having and trading in a mermaid's tear isn't essential, but I did and this guide was written with the assumption that you've gained 50 Charisma and 20 Sensitivity points here. It's not a big deal if you haven't. You'll just need to spend less time lowering both of those stats later.
Aug-31		Study Fencing	Study Fencing	Errantry: North Mountain	Defeat the final bandit, then try to win ice shards from the ice balls. This is just for money.  I didn't actually win any.
Sep-30		Win the Combat Tournament.			Buy a teacup for her birthday. The Demon Trader will show up again, now your gold is over 5000. Buy the third Demon Pendant.
Oct-31	Equip the royal sword. Buy and wear a cotton dress. Speak to the Palace Gatekeeper. He cares about Elegance, which is why we dressed to boost it.	Study Manners	Study Manners	Study Manners	Now we're building up decoum so we can speak to everyone at the palace.
Nov-30	Pocket money. Speak to the Gatekeeper.   This should max out our connection with him.	Study Manners	Study Manners	Study Manners
Dec-31	Pocket money. Speak to the Imperial Guard Knight at the Palace.   He also cares about Elegance.	Study Manners	Study Manners	Vacation: Mountains

In 1213, we're working on building up our stats to talk to everyone at the Palace and starting to work on our ending stats.  I don't know if having high connections at the Palace is important, but we need to raise most of these stats anyway and it's something to do in the mid-game.

I'm regularly clearing out her inventory for a few reasons.  Firstly, there is a limit to how many items you can carry, and I don't want that to cause problems at the end of the game.  For example, if we need to buy piles of books to raise Intelligence, I want to have the space to do that.  Secondly, some items can raise your stats just by being in your inventory, and I want to be sure I'm looking at her "natural" stats without those influences.

 

1213	Start of Month	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Notes
Jan-31	Speak to the Imperial Guard Knight.	Study Manners	Study Fencing	Study Fencing
Feb-28	Pocket money. Speak to the Imperial Guard Knight. This should max out your connection with him.	Study Fencing	Study Fencing	Study Dance
Mar-31	Pocket money. Switch back to your Katana to raise your combat stats and thus your Fighter Rep. Speak to the King.  He cares about your Fighter Rep.	Errantry: Desert	Study Dance	Study Dance	Trade Faith for Glamour then stand outside the cave and kill stuff for money. If you don't have at least 20 faith left, reset.
Apr-30	Pocket money. Speak to the King.	Study Dance	Study Dance	Study Dance
May-31	Pocket money. Speak to the King.	Study Dance	Errantry: Desert	Vacation: Ocean	Trade Faith for Stamina then stand outside the cave and kill stuff for money. If you didn't have at least 20 left, you won't get to trade for anything, she'll just take the drink.
Jun-30	Speak to the King	Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Defence should be over 70.
Jul-31	Lecture to reduce stress. Speak to the King.	Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Vacation: Ocean	Defence should be over 80.
Aug-31	Speak to the King	Study Kung-Fu	Study Kung-Fu	Errantry: Mountain	Defeat the War God
Sep-30	Equip the War God's sword to increase your combat stats and Fighter Rep. Speak to the King.	Win the Dance Contest.			Buy a book for her birthday.
Oct-31	Pocket money. Speak to the King	Housework	Housework	Housework	Personal is another stat that can raise by 0-1 each day. After this month, it should be between 17-20.
Nov-30	Pocket money. Sell your Katana, birthday gifts, and any items won in battle, including black scales. We're done with fighting now. You should KEEP: All dresses, the War God's Sword, King's Sword, Lady's Ring, 3x Demon Pendants, and Mythril armour. Speak to the King.	Housework	Housework	Vacation: Mountain	Personal should be 30+.
Dec-31	Speak to the King. Your connection with the King should be maxed out.	Housework	Housework	Housework	Personal should be 47+.

In 1214, we continue working on our connections and building up our Personal and Speech skills.  We're also going to max out our Art skill and paint a winning picture, for those times when we need to win the Art contest at the end of the game.  Winning the Art contest is easier than winning the Dance Contest, especially after we reduce her connections for some of the endings.  Winning the contest gives us a Master Brush which grants +50 to our Art Skill.  We'll need that for the Art endings.

1214	Start of Month	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Notes
Jan-31	Lecture. Speak to the General. He cares about Glamour.	Study   Painting	Study Painting	Vacation:   Mountain
Feb-28	Speak to General.	Housework	Housework	Housework	Personal should be 60-65.
Mar-31	Pocket money. Speak to the Minister. He cares about Intelligence.	Housework	Housework	Vacation: Mountain	Personal should be 70-75.
Apr-30	Speak to the Minister	Housework	Housework	Housework	Personal should be 85-90
May-31	Lecture to reduce stress. Speak to the Minister.	Study Painting	Study Painting	Vacation: Ocean	You'll be offered the chance to make a painting. Refuse - your Art Skill isn't high enough for it to win the contest yet.
Jun-30	Speak to the Minister	Housework	Housework	Housework	Personal should reach 100.
Jul-31	Lecture to reduce stress. Speak to the Minister.	Study Painting	Study Painting	Vacation: Ocean
Aug-31	Speak to the Minister	Study Painting	Study Painting	Study Theology	Make a painting when asked.   Your Art skill needs to be at least 95 for a winning painting. Mine was at 104, but remember there's a random factor depending on much Art skill the dancing fairies gave you.
Sep-30	Pocket money.   Speak to the Queen. She values Personal(ity).	Win the Dance Party.			Buy any present you like.
Oct-31	Speak to the Queen.	Work at   Bar	Work at Bar	Vacation: Mountain	Speech is another stat with random raises of 0-1 per day. Speech should be between 12-15.
Nov-30	Pocket money. Speak to the Queen.	Work at Bar	Work at Bar	Time off with Pocket Money	Speech should be 20+
Dec-31	Speak to the Queen.	Work at Bar	Work at Bar	Time off (0g)	Speech should be between 30-35.

1215 is about maxing out our Speech.  This is both to get the best versions of endings and to speak to the Clown and earn connections with the Mistress.  We then raise our Faith and Morality.  

1215	Start of Month	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Notes
Jan-31	Pocket money. Speak to Queen.	Work at   Bar	Work at Bar	Time off with Pocket Money	Speech should be between 40-45.
Feb-28	Speak to Queen.	Work at Bar	Work at Bar	Time off (0g)	Speech should be 55+
Mar-31	Pocket money. Speak to Queen.	Work at Bar	Work at Bar	Time off with Pocket Money	Speech should be 65+
Apr-30	Speak to Queen.	Work at Bar	Work at Bar	Time off (0g)	Speech should be 75+
May-31	Pocket money. Speak to Queen.	Work at Bar	Work at Bar	Vacation: Ocean	Speech should be 85+
Jun-30	Lecture to reduce stress. Speak to Queen.	Study Theology	Study Theology	Vacation: Ocean	I chose to study rather than work this week because she was delinquent. When delinquent she can slack off at work, reducing in less stat gains, but she won't do that at school.
Jul-31	Speak to Queen.	Work at Bar	Work at Bar	Vacation: Ocean	Speech should be 95+
Aug-31	Pocket money. Speak to Queen.	Work at Bar	Work at Church	Time off (0g)	Speech should hit 100. Now we want to raise Faith and Morality so we can avoid bad endings and gain reputation with the Bishop.
Sep-30	Speak to Queen	Win the Dance Party.
Oct-31	Speak to Queen.	Work at Church	Work at Church	Work at Church
Nov-30	Pocket money. Speak to Queen.	Work at Church	Work at Church	Work at Church
Dec-31	Pocket money. Speak to Queen. This should max out her connections.	Work at Church	Work at Church	Vacation: Mountain

In 1216, we're converting Glamour into Sensitivity.  Babysitting lowers the former and raises the latter by 1 per day.  Remember, we want to end with a "natural" Glamour stat of 59-107.  By "natural", I mean not counting any dresses or inventory items that raise it.  If you're wearing a Leather Dress, for example, your Glamour stat will be 50 points higher.

If/when Sensitivity starts creeping over 500, we can instead lower Glamour by working as a Plasterer.  Plastering raises Stamina instead of Sensitivity, and it doesn't matter how high Stamina gets.

1216	Start of Month	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Notes
Jan-31	Speak to Bishop. He values Faith.	Work as a   Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter
Feb-28	Pocket money. Speak to Bishop.	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Time off with Pocket Money
Mar-31	Speak to Bishop.	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter
Apr-30	Pocket money. Speak to Bishop.	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Vacation: Mountain
May-31	Pocket money. Speak to Bishop.	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Vacation: Ocean
Jun-30	Pocket money. Speak to Bishop.	Work as a Babysitter	Vacation: Ocean	Vacation: Ocean
Jul-31	Speak to Mistress. She values Speech.	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Vacation: Ocean
Aug-31	Speak to Mistress.	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Time off (0g)
Sep-30	Speak to Mistress.	Win the Dance Party.			Your choice of birthday gift doesn't matter. Avoid the doll, since your stress will go up by 40 points when you sell it.
Oct-31	Speak to Mistress.	Work as a   Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter
Nov-30	Pocket money. Speak to Mistress.	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Time off with Pocket Money
Dec-31	Speak to Mistress	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter

1217 is entirely about lowering Glamour.  We can raise Glamour by 400 points in one month, with items and the Demon Pendants, but lowering it is much harder.  That's why we're aiming to keep it low and then raise it rather than leaving it high.  It needs to be close to 59 without dropping below that.  If your Glamour is going to drop below a natural 59, switch to time off or Farm Work instead of Babysitting or Plastering.

1217	Start of Month	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Notes
Jan-31	Pocket money. Speak to Mistress.	Work as a   Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Time off with Pocket Money
Feb-28	Pocket money. Speak to Mistress.	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Babysitter	Time off with Pocket Money
Mar-31	Speak to Mistress.	Work as a Babysitter	Work as a Plasterer	Work as a Plasterer
Apr-30	Pocket money. Speak to Mistress.	Work as a Plasterer	Work as a Plasterer	Time off with Pocket Money
May-31	Speak to Mistress.	Work as a Plasterer	Work as a Plasterer	Vacation: Ocean
Jun-30	Speak to Mistress. Your connections with her should be maxed out.	Work as a Plasterer	Work as a Plasterer	Vacation: Ocean	Your total Connection stat should be at 1000.
Jul-31	The Clown will raise your Sensitivity by 15 and lower your Social Rep by the same amount if you speak to him. This can be useful, since we want our Social Rep to be only slightly over 421 by the end of the game. Remember that we'll gain 40 Social Rep by winning the Dance Contest in the last turn. All of that means you should speak to the Clown if and only if your Social Rep is currently 396 or above. That means the lowest it can drop to is 381, and the 40 from the Dance Party will bring that up to 421.	Work as a Plasterer	Work as a Plasterer	Vacation: Ocean	My Social Rep was sufficiently high that I spoke to the Clown every month for the rest of this year.
Aug-31	Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+	Work as a Plasterer	Work as a Plasterer	Study Dance	The Dance class will bring your Glamour up a tiny bit before the contest. Glamour should be between 65-70. At this point, you've done 8 Painting Classes and 8 Dance Classes.   This means you'll just need one class to flip between the Artist or Dancer endings.
Sep-30	Pocket money. Buy and equip the Silk Armour. Buy the Leather Dress. Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Win the Dance Party. You'll need to be wearing the Leather Dress for the Glamour boost.			Buy any birthday gift except a doll.
Oct-31	Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Work as a   Plasterer	Work as a Plasterer	Work as a Plasterer
Nov-30	Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Work as a Plasterer	Work as a Plasterer	Time off with Pocket Money
Dec-31	Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Work as a Plasterer	Study Science	Study Science	At this point, I accidentally lowered her Glamour too far. I had it at 55, which meant working at the Cabaret later to raise it over 59. You could skip working as a Plasterer here and also skip working at the Cabaret later. Just replace it with time off or Farm Work instead.

1218 is about raising Intelligence to 500 and tweaking our stats.  We also need to create a few saves which we'll use to reach various endings.

The months in which you should save are marked below.  Save before doing anything else, except in August when you should pay off all your Sin first.

1218	Start of Month	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Notes
Jan-31	Pocket money. Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Study Science	Study Science	Time off with Pocket Money	The amount by which each Science class raises your Intelligence varies. It's always more than 0 per day, and it will be more at higher class levels.
Feb-28	SAVE. You'll need this save for the Jester Endings. Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Study Science	Study Science	Study Science	I stopped speaking to the Clown after this month because my Social Rep was at 387.
Mar-31	Pocket money. Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Study Science	Study Science	Study Science
Apr-30	Pocket money. Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Study Science	Study Science	Study Science
May-31	Pocket money. Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Study Theology	Study Theology	Vacation: Ocean	Intelligence should be between 350-400 after this month.  Aim to have it at 387 or below. I switched to Theology because Science can raise your Intelligence by 40-60 per time at high levels, and that was a bigger boost than I needed.
Jun-30	Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Work at the Cabaret	Work at Church	Free Time (0g)	The Cabaret work is because I'd accidentally lowered her Glamour too much at the end of last year.
Jul-31	SAVE. You will need this save for the Farmer's Wife, Merchant's Wife, Mistress, Divorcee Artist, and Dancer Endings. Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Study Science	Study Science	Free Time (0g)	This should bring your Intelligence to around 500.  Don't worry if it's less. If Intelligence is too far below Sensitivity, consider doing three classes instead.
Aug-31	Pay off all Sin. SAVE. You will need this save for the Writer Ending. Buy the Silk Dress. Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Errantry: Desert	Work at Church	Work at Church	Hand in all 3 Demon Pendants in exchange for Circe's Charm. You'll need to enter the cave three times. Avoid battles to avoid building up Sin. The church work is to get some Morality back and burn off any Sin she'd gained in the Desert.
Sep-30	SAVE. You will need this save to reach the Millionaire's Wife, Countess, and Housewife Endings. Pocket money. Put on the Leather Dress and the Silk Armour. Speak to the Clown if your Social Rep is 396+.	Win the Dance Contest in the Leather Dress
Oct-31	SAVE. You will need this save to reach the Concubine and Queen-by-Marriage Endings.

From this point, you can use those saves to reach all of the Social, Housework, and Artistic Endings.  Instructions for each are below.

Endings from October 1218 

These were my stats on October 1218.  Notice that she is getting +50 Glamour from the Leather Dress and another +50 from the Silk Armour.  The War God's sword is boosting her combat stats and reputations, but they're low enough not to worry about.  For each of the endings below, begin by loading this file.

Concubine

• We need Glamour to be above 500. 
• Wear the Silk Armour and the Leather Dress.
• End the game.

Queen-by-Marriage

• We need to drop her Glamour below 500.  
• We can do this by removing either the Silk Armour or the Leather Dress.  I chose to swap the Leather Dress for the Silk Dress, just for fun.
• End the game.

Endings from September 1218 

These were my stats as of September 1218.  She's missing the Glamour boost she'll get on her birthday, the Elegance she'll get from her birthday present, and the 40 Social Rep she'd gain from winning the Dance Party.

Millionaire's Wife

• We need to lower her Social Rep below 380.  
• We can do this by resting instead of attending the Harvest Festival and then speaking to the Clown.
• If you need a bigger loss, you could win the Combat Tournament and then sell your two Royal Swords, for a total loss of 60.
• Buy anything except a Teacup for her birthday.
• We need Glamour to be above Elegance.
• Wear the Silk Armour and Leather Dress.
• Sell Ladies Rings if you need to.
• End the game.

Countess

• As above, we need to lower her Social Rep below 380.
• We can do this by resting instead of attending the Harvest Festival and then speaking to the Clown.
• If you need a bigger loss, you could win the Combat Tournament and then sell your two Royal Swords, for a total loss of 60.
• Buy a Teacup for her birthday.
• Lower her Glamour below her Elegance.  
• I just swapped the Leather Dress for the Silk Dress.
• You can buy more teacups if you need to.
• End the game.

Housewife

• We need to make Housework the highest reputation.
• Win the Cooking Festival.
• Do whatever you want with the egg, it doesn't matter at this point.
• Speak to the Clown.
• Sell your Royal Sword.
• If all of that isn't enough, you could go back to August and spend the month visiting the cooking fairies to increase your cooking skill and your Housework reputation that way.
• End the game.

Endings from July 1218 - The Low Rep Save

These were my stats as of July 1218.  For the final four Social Rep endings, we need to drop her Social reputation to somewhere between 171-209 while still keeping it as her highest rep.  The only way to do that is to drop all of them, and the only way to do that is to get arrested.

• Buy 5 dolls then sell them back.  This will raise her stress to 200.
• Schedule Errantry three times.  Don't move from the entrance, just attack any humans you see.  You'll need to attack at least 10 of them.  After that, you can just exit through the entrance to make the month end faster.
• After being arrested, all of your Reputations will have dropped.  
• My Social Rep was left at 193, which is exactly right. 
• If yours is a little high, you could sell your Royal Sword to drop it buy 30, or speak to the Clown to lower it by 15.
• If it's a little low, you'll need to raise your Art skill with the dancing fairies.  Just make sure Art doesn't become your highest skill.
• Pay off all the sin and then spend September reducing her stress.  
• I gave her free time with pocket money three times.  She bought a load of dresses as well, but we could afford it.
• You could visit the art fairies in the Woodlands or the Lake to lower stress.  Just make sure they don't make Art her highest skill.  If you want a slightly easier time for the Merchant's Wife ending, visit the fairies once and take two weeks worth of Science classes.
• Alternatively, you could just choose to buy another 5 dolls and keep them in your inventory.
• Save in September of 1218.  This is the save you'll be loading for the next four endings.

Farmer's Wife

• The first thing we need to do is bring your Social Rep back up over 211.  
• Make sure you're wearing your Silk Armour for the Glamour boost.  Win the Dance Party wearing the Leather Dress.  There's a random factor involved, so you might need to reload.
• If you're really unlucky, you can try winning the Art Festival instead, which will boost your Social Rep by 30.  Remember to sell the Brush you win.
• Buy a book of Poetry for her birthday.
• We need Sensitivity to be greater than Intelligence.
• Buy Poetry books if you need a boost.
• End the game.

Merchant's Wife

• The first thing we need to do is bring your Social Rep back up over 211.  
• Make sure you're wearing your Silk Armour for the Glamour boost.  Win the Dance Party wearing the Leather Dress.  There's a random factor involved, so you might need to reload.
• Buy a book for her birthday.  
• We need Intelligence to be greater than Sensitivity.
• Buy more books.
• End the game.

Mistress

• We need to keep our Social Rep below 211.
• Skip the Harvest Festival by resting.
• Raise your Glamour over 150.
• Wear the Silk Armour and Leather Dress.
• End the game.

Divorcee

• We need to keep our Social Rep below 211.
• Skip the Harvest Festival by resting.
• Keep your Glamour below 150.
• Remove the Silk Armour and Leather Dress.
• End the game.

Artistic Endings

Writer

• Load your August 1218 save.
• We need to raise her intelligence over 500 for the best ending.
• Study Science three times.  Buy books to raise her intelligence further, if necessary.
• Win the Art Contest.  The Master Brush should make Art her highest skill.
• Buy whatever you want for her birthday.
• End the Game.

Artist

• Load your July 1218 save.
• We need to drop her Intelligence below 300, and make sure she's taken more Painting than Dance classes.  
• This is why I took exactly eight of each class earlier in the game.
• Work at the Bar three times.
• Use pocket money and dolls to reduce stress to 0.
• Work at the Bar twice and study Art once.
• This dropped her Intelligence to 299.  Because the amount gained from Science classes is luck based, yours might be higher.  If so, you'll need to go back to June and do more bar work.
• Win the Art Festival.  We need the Master Brush to make Art her highest skill.
• Buy anything but a book for her birthday.
• End the game.

Dancer

• Load your July 1218 save.
• We need to drop her Intelligence below 300, and make sure she's taken more Dance than Painting classes.  
• This is why I took exactly eight of each class earlier in the game.
• Work at the Bar three times.
• Use pocket money and dolls to reduce stress to 0.
• Work at the Bar twice and study Dance once.
• This dropped her Intelligence to 299.  Because the amount gained from Science classes is luck based, yours might be higher.  If so, you'll need to go back to June and do more bar work.
• Win the Art Festival.  We need the Master Brush to make Art her highest skill.
• Buy anything but a book for her birthday.
• End the game.

Jester

• Load your February 1218 save.
• We need the Royal Harp.
• At this point, the Jester had come to visit me once, which means we had spoken 7 times.  We need to speak 7 more times so he'll hand over the Royal Harp.  The 7th time can't be at the end of September because he won't visit until the next month, and our game ends before then.
• We need to keep our Social Rep over 421.
• Speaking to the Jester will lower it by 15, so we'll lose a total of 105 points.  We'll get 50 from the Royal Harp, since it raises our Art Skill by that amount, and we can gain another 80 from winning the Art Festival and keeping the Master Brush in our inventory, so we don't need to worry about that.
• We need Art to be the highest skill.
• The Royal Harp and Master Brush will do that.  
• So, all we need to do is speak to the Jester every month and win the Art contest.
• Since we haven't paid off our sin on this file, I chose to fill in the time by working at the church, with occasional time off to reduce stress.
• End the game.

Note; if I'd planned ahead better, I'd have spoken to the Jester a few times in the first year, when lowering my Social Reputation didn't matter because I didn't really have one yet.  That would give us a bit more leeway at the end and we wouldn't have to go back as far.  It would also mean having higher Sensitivity, so we'd need to do more babysitting to bring it back down, or just buy more books when we need Intelligence to surpass it.