Some LIs can be convinced to switch sides, but Alpheon is not one of them--he is the most restrictive of the LIs, and that is by design.
If you want to have a successful romance with Alpheon, going back to the conversation with the Prodigal One and initiating theLoD ending is the only way to do so (Alpheon locks you out of theM ending and will effectively mind-control you into not romancing him in theDH ending). As I said, this is by design, as Alpheon truly loathes what he has to do in theDH ending, and MC ignores his wishes and forces him to act. That's what prompts his 'rebellion' in the caves--he gets a taste of his future.
(The short story 'The day I decided to cry' deals with his feelings on the matter, although the protagonist there is implied to have romanced Malec instead. In a successfulDH ending, Alpheon spirals into suicide ideation.)
There is a paid guidebook DLC available on itchio and Steam with a guide to choices, branches, achievements and romances!
Hello! Thank you for the kind words, I'm happy you liked Shadow Bonds ✨
It doesn't sound like you would enjoy the full game, unfortunately. All five love interests are arguably good people, and while the main character can do some very questionable stuff, it's all framed through the pragmatic lens of 'for the greater good'.
(And three LIsdo run away in the bloodier ending 😅)
Hello! This sounds like a rare bug that happens in that map section. Because it depends on several choices made in the previous chapters, I have not been able to pin it down.
Loading an earlier savefile and changing the order of the scenes in that section seems to help, but what wouldtruly help is getting the bugged savefile to me, so I can pinpoint (and fix) the issue.
Would it be something you're comfortable doing? :)
Hello! No need to apologize, this is the way the community board is meant to be used 😊
And thank you so much for the kind words ✨ I'm really happy to hear you're enjoying the game!
Buying a copy of the game on itchio does not grant a Steam key (and vice versa). Perhaps I should clarify it somewhere on the page!
Hello! And thank you for the kind words✨
And Iamhorrible! 😆I wasa mess when writing the bad endings, I'm glad they are having the intended effect.
Lyris and Lady Medea (and Keldran, too!) are cameos from backers of the Kickstarter campaign!
You can meet Keldran in the games byGalen Games. I wrote him in Academy Carols!
Lady Medea's resemblance to the Envoy is coincidental, but since they're both noblewomen, a connection could make sense!
As for Lyris, she is an Envoy, but not one of the Four Winds. Most Envoys are tied to the land they govern, although there are exceptions (like Shirocco, who likes to travel). Alira is the sister of the original Lyris, who stayedby her side once she became an Envoy, and mysteriously disappeared.
Hope this answered some questions!
HELLO OMG HI you have no idea how exhilarating it feels to read someone be so passionate about the game! 😭✨
I have been working on it for three years and it pretty much consumed me and I'M NOT ALONE? 😭😭
Your analysis is honestly everything I could have hoped for and MORE—I did leave some things intentionally vague to let players come to their own conclusions AND WHEN SOMEONE DOES? Happy dance✨✨
(Small tangent of my own but it's also why I scrapped a big chunk of what was planned for the lorebook [and the reason it's not finished yet], because it would have been very 'this is how it is because I say so' but that isn'tthe vibe.)
And once again I amso grateful that Ascanio managed to make it as a love interest, the game would have been... another game completely, I think, without them 😭now I'm scared to think about it.
Also, apologies for the brevity of my comment—I am shy!! 😭
I might know what's causing this! Here's the fix that works for the Steam version—it's a bit involved:
The easiest way to find it is to click on your Windows icon, type %appdata% and open the file folder with the same name. It will open the Roaming sub-folder; click on AppData, then LocalLow. There should be a RascalDevworks folder there!
Let me know if it works!
