I (finally) finished my (first?) playthrough! I have a strong sense of the game’s structure, but I’m still curious to see how different choices are handled.
The choices I made...
I should have made more notes ahead of time, because I don’t recall much of my choices for Andreas’s stats. I think he was an orator (bell icon?) and logician (book icon?), and I think he had some knowledge of the church or the saints or something. He definitely went to Poland for his Act 2 background, and I think I selected an option that made him completely obsessed with books.
I felt like I didn’t handle the investigation in Act I very well. I didn’t investigate Lucky at all, nor did I commit much one way or the other to Ottilia’s situation. While I discovered the truth of the “damaged nun”, Ferenc’s situation felt more tenuous: I solved his cypher, and I also dug up the grave and illuminated the invisible ink. (Though I clearly misunderstood something about that minigame, because I spent like 45 minutes trying to get the candle to do anything. It seemed arbitrary whether it would illuminate text or not, and then once I almost burned through the page.) I figured the Mother Superior was the real culprit, but I pinned the blame on the prior. I had no guesses about the thread-puller at this point. At the interview, I confirmed that Lucky might have had motive, but I revealed everything I could about Ferenc and the guy found my recommendation that he was the murderer appropriate and useful.
I was a lot more careful in Act 2. I didn’t like Martin for the crime, though I did learn his secret. I had the adventure in the aqueduct and learned about the inn-wife’s motive, and while I figured she might very well be the killer, Guy was more unpleasant, was directly contributing to Tassing’s tax problems, and could just as easily have been the responsible party. While I tried to defuse the situation, I accused Guy of the murder.
I appreciated that Act 3 seemed to be narrowing your investigative scope while playing out over a longer period. My background this time was the book of the saints (would have chosen differently if I’d known what was happening), reading languages (came up a bunch; fantastic choice), snooping (gave a lot of choices contrary to the way I wanted to play; should have picked something else), and accounting (didn’t come up enough to justify this choice, imo). I was intrigued when several characters suggest that the breakdown of relations between Tassing and Kiersau were a direct result of monks being found responsible for the killings. I assume that finding townsfolk responsible will result in the same situation with the roles reversed. Unfortunately, I got sloppy and missed my opportunity to have someone help me with the Latin in the forbidden history book. On the mural, I picked “everyday life” based on the debris the farmers kept digging up (because I wanted to avoid ruffling feathers when I thought my choices on the later history might be more controversial), the noblewoman gifting the abbey (I wanted to recognize the real history), the burning of the mill and the library (again, presenting the history without taking a side—kind of chickened out compared to my plans at the start of the mural), and finally I chose to hide the truth and so that the saints can continue drawing in visitors.
I was struggling to make sense of the family tree in the ending; I would have liked to take my time and review the entire thing at my leisure. I think the Romani guy got burned at the stake?? Probably because I kept talking about heretical things with him. I couldn’t remember if it was actually his name, or if the names suggested this character was a descendant of the couple from Kiersau who moved into Ottilia’s house.
Really cool game, though. I tried to find plot discussions after I finished to see other players’ perspectives—couldn’t find much of value along those lines, but I did come across several recommendations to try NORCO if you enjoyed this. I was startled to discover today that I already own this, so I might do that sometime.