Cute Knight Kingdom

[hanako]

Yes, there is FINALLY a sequel to Cute Knight, and in the grand tradition of sequels it is Bigger and Prettier and takes things to a Whole New Dimension. (That's 2D, not 3D!)

Differences from the first game:
You can now walk around jRPG style and talk to characters (with helpful flags for new content) instead of being stuck on one screen.
No more prostitution or incest*. But there is same-sex romance. And different-sex romance. And different-species romance.
The concept of 'sin' in an RPG - where most people want to go around killing stuff - is explored in more detail.
All magical spells must now be learned from experience, so you have to go around and Collect Them All.
Potions are replaced by food and a cooking system to go with the crafting system, so there are a LOT of recipes to discover.
Multiple dungeons, each with a 'boss' encounter.
And, of course, improved graphics and sound, including a lot of hand-painted watercolors and hammered dulcimer.


Otherwise, the underlying game idea is the same. You're a girl with a mysterious past, running around from the ages of 18 to 21 taking classes and working at part-time jobs to raise your skills so that you can figure out what to do with the rest of your life. While occasionally fighting monsters, finding treasures, and solving other people's problems like a good little RPG Hero.

Screenshots and demo here: http://www.hanakogames.com/ckk.shtml

Windows-only for now; there may eventually be mac and linux versions but it's uncertain at the moment.

(* Not that there actually was in the first game, if you followed all the plotlines and understood what was really going on. But there were vague suggestions of it. And hey, if we can't get attention with vague suggestions, what is the world coming to?)

[Danakir]

From what I've played of it, it's a very decent game, however there's a few things I feel would have made it even better.

For one, being able to 'accelerate' the work phase through the press of a button, should you feel confident enough with the abilities of your character. :P Now, you may think that's totally the words of a Princess Maker fan... and you'd be right. But that's beside the point! I think you made a fine game and I think that would have truly enhanced it. As is, it's a bit tedious to look at it. :)

Which leads me to my second point, the lack of a sprite theater! That's so sad! And it does make what I pointed out just now even more of a pain.

Still, I'm really digging a lot of what you did with this game.

I'll probably be back with more comments as I play it. :P

[hanako]

sprite theater - you mean the cute animations for fail and success, yes? :) Because of the change to the jobs to make them more interactive, I thought it would be too distracting to have things like the animations or the descriptions of different things going wrong at work. Especially early in the game, when players are new to the whole thing and have low skills and therefore need to focus to succeed. But yeah, that does mean it's less interesting later on.

I have considered putting in a speed-up option and may do so for a future update. Not sure at the moment whether to work that into the GUI or just have it as a secret keyboard command. (There are already a number of secret keyboard commands! 'e' and 'c' will work during jobs, you can use space to talk when walking with the keyboard, '+' will cycle through buttons and enter will trigger them... I had a beta tester who really hates the mouse)

[Danakir]

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. I can see why you would think it could be distracting, but that might make for a nice option for those of us who are used to that type of game and don't need their hand held. :P

Though I'll admit, it did take me a bit more time than I expected to catch up to the fact you can use the Exertion and Concentration options more than once on the same day. ;)

And yes, that would make for a very useful key indeed. Might be a bit harder to implement than usual due to the way things work now, but perhaps the key could skip to the 'next day' so as soon as you see that green bar you can move on, instead of waiting for the little 'day/night' animation?

Oh yeah, and man, that evil spider eldritch abomination sure is tough xD

If you're curious, my first ending was the 'Wild' one. xD


Functional bathrooms are for chumps!

[hanako]

Demos and fullbuilds have been updated to include a "game speed" option. When this is set to fast, the walking speed is increased, and an option appears during jobs and classes to let you skip through the time cycle (if it's currently day, it'll jump to night and show you the result of that day, if it's night it'll jump to the next day.) This skip-ahead function can also be triggered by hitting the S key.

Hopefully this will help those of you who are impatient or who are trying to get the last few endings and getting tired!

Please let me know if you encounter any problems, or if your existing download link has expired and you need a fresh link to get the latest version.