Hanako Games

Sequel wishlist

#1 by fanscale - Feb 14 2010

What features/changes do you want to see in the sequel?

More time

#2 by fanscale - Feb 14 2010

Make the game last till you are 25. Please.

#3 by biscuit - Feb 14 2010

Please let your character be able to keep a recipe book/crafting list of different item combinations that you discover.

#4 by Xian_Frost - Feb 14 2010

Longer play time, maybe an animal that follows you and helps with the main plot.

cal

#5 by Naiomi666 - Feb 15 2010

mine would be to give a storyline to cal. or have more ending that are effected by stats

#6 by biscuit - Feb 15 2010

What do you mean, 'affected by stats'? I thought there are a lot already? *curious*

#7 by emichan - Feb 15 2010

a sequel or an expansiON? i mean, a new game or changes to the existing game? because if it's a new game it would have new characters

#8 by biscuit - Feb 15 2010

I'll be honest, I was replying as if this were an expansion. For a sequel, I'd just wait and see what Hanako comes up with. I'm trusting like that.

#9 by fanscale - Feb 16 2010

Either sequel or redux version.
I think its good idea to make a fan wishlist, think of all the sequels that have bombed in the last decade.
I want to be surprised by new features, but I don't want the gameplay changed so much that I do not recognize it. Nicer graphics would be nice too and I'd be happy to pay a premium for that.
The game is definitely too short. I'd like to see more emphasis on stat building.

#10 by Dayphinye - Mar 2 2010

More time.
More dungeons
Maybe like a secret dungeon with lots of monsters with treasure chests where you have to pick the lock (thiefy type adventure)

#11 by Ayanni - Mar 5 2010

The same art style for the whole game
PLEASE

It looks ridiculous with art from 5+ different artists with completely different art styles.
Also it makes the game lack an identity or atmosphere of its own.


-More interesting dungeons, maybe with more actions than just walking (swimming, climbing stuff, puzzles, preferably randomly generated stuff that won't get tedious)
-Better looking character sprites that don't stare right into your soul all the time.
-A personality for the protagonist. Maybe changing sightly depending of her birth month,
-Make the protagonist able to run or walk faster, I don't care much about the world map, but in the dungeons it was so painfully boring to explore.
-More stats based endings intead of just event ones, CKK didn't have as many endings as the first and also too many of them were event based, which made it boring to just play to see what kind of ending would you get.
-Interesting characters, specially male ones. Dunno, most of the characters in CKK did have personalities but still they were really boring, specially the guys. Out of all the characters, I only though that the hunter girl, the astronomer and the isles prince were interesting.
-Recipe list, where you could record the recipes that some other character told you, or the ones that you already discovered.
-Make the endings not only be picture + wall of text. More dialog, maybe more than one picture, or some small scene in the actual game would make the ending feel better, right now it's just too much effort only to fill the gallery with pretty pictures
-Play until the character is 25 years old, maybe 23, with different stuff appearing every year, or every certain amount of months.
-Better fights. I don't care if it's in first person view, but just attack + magic plus missing everytime if combat skill is not good enough is so boring.


And some random, less important stuff that I'd personally like
-Fragmented endings, telling how the character did in different parts of her life, maybe showing hew family, that she liked adventuring even if she was mainly an ordinary housewife, or actually showing the messes that were caused by a normally good ending + high sin,
-Less princess-y stuff, too many marry the prince endings, and even the true origin one was "star princess", that's so overdone and reminds me too much of Princess Maker anyway
-More difficulty overall.
-Making the birth month more important. I played both CKD and CKK with Leaves girls because they get higher HP and fighting skills so it's easier for them to get money, plus its easier to win at the festivals since they have more time to train, no matter what ending do I want for them.
-More funny endings, like the Oops or Slacker in the first game. CKK's Snake Oil was such a waste of space in the gallery and also boring to get, I had high hopes for that one since it was structurally similar to Oops
-Also, the serious endings should remain serious, I don't want my baddass adventurer fighting "evil mushrooms" or my paladin rescuing kittens from trees, it kinda kills the mood.
-More original story overall, CKK was too much like Princess Maker 2 story wise, with the girl being a gift from heavens destined to return there.
-Higher maximum sin, but less sin received with every bad action. Also being able to reduce sin like in the first game, but way slower (no just "sin is now 0"), this would make it easier and more fun to play adventurer, and while becoming evil is still a danger, becoming really evil is actually difficult, making those endings actually a challenge to get instead of a failure compared to the good ones.
-"Evil" endings, mad scientist, wicked wizard, bandit, leader of a wicked cult... Even if the character is actually good at what she does, the game should generally discourage you from these ones though, specially in the final dialogues
-Some kind of score telling how well you did in the game overall, after the ending. Preferably not actual shown score, but dialogues.
-Hidden variables, talents that the character can have and develop but not directly as the main ones.

#12 by Yuki - Mar 10 2010

Ayanni:

The same art style for the whole game
PLEASEIt looks ridiculous with art from 5+ different artists with completely different art styles.

That would possibly make the game take longer to complete than necessary, plus the same artist isn't always available.

#13 by sdragon12064 - Mar 11 2010

Larger area to explorer, A few points to modify skills/stats/ say a dozen points where each point gives 1-x points to the stat or 1- (a slightly higher) y to the skill no sin for defending yourself if you tried to tame/ spook something and it attacks. A chance that if you succeed well on the tame check that the monster will join as a partner at least for a while. ability to learn healing spells, and slower loss of Dream, and more temples, perhaps with quests to reduce sin.

#14 by Ayanni - Mar 11 2010

Yuki:

Ayanni:

The same art style for the whole game
PLEASEIt looks ridiculous with art from 5+ different artists with completely different art styles.

That would possibly make the game take longer to complete than necessary, plus the same artist isn't always available.

Longer than necessary? I think it's necessary for any commercial game to be properly polished in every way.
The suddent art style changes in Hanako's games make them look really amateur and cheap, even if they're fun to play.

#15 by fanscale - Mar 12 2010

I think the art is great, it captures the feel of the game, it's just not very polished.

#16 by sayuri - Mar 12 2010

I thought the art was pretty consisatant in style for CKK myself, but I agree with you when it comes to Fatal Hearts. At least in this game the CGs were consistant with one another. One aspect I want to see added is more interaction with capturable characters. I get that Cute Knight isn't so much a text driven game but those moments were my favorite.

#17 by nobodyimportant - Mar 14 2010

i would like more marriage options, as thats probably the funnest part of the game for me. i also think it would be really cool if the endings could be a combination of both what your job was/ who you ended up with. like, you could end up with gordy and being a housewhife or gordy and being an adventurer or cal and being an adventurer (if that makes sense)

#18 by hanako - Mar 18 2010

People interested in an expansion should check the Secrets forum.

(Well, people interested in a sequel should check there eventually, but I'm not taking comments on that at the moment.)

#19 by Jendra - Mar 20 2010

I'd like the abiltity to load a saved game directly from the front screen instead of going through options. I'd also like more jobs such as the Busker from the original.

#20 by fanscale - Apr 29 2010

Could we have a protagonist editor, so you can customise how the main character looks. Sought of like create a sim.

#21 by hanako - Apr 29 2010

Could we have a protagonist editor, so you can customise how the main character looks. Sought of like create a sim.

Not in the Cute Knight series, that would go against the design - it's focused on a particular character, even if the character's backstory is usually a little bit mysterious. (Also, it would be impractical to try and make not just all the faces, but all the display images and ending images, change to meet the new design.)

However, there *is* a project in the works which will feature an editable main character. It's just not in the Cute Knight series. Stay tuned to the forums/newsletter for more info.

#22 by liz4187 - May 4 2010

The topic in the secrets forum is locked so I will put my wishlist for additional endings here...

Extreme good/extreme evil

Saint- similar to paladin and wanderer. Very low sin, good xp and finishing various quests.

Queen of Darkness - Very High sin as well as responding to a few questions with a bad answer or solution. Preferably sneakily managing to control the kingdom

Homewrecker- turning down every marriageable character

Kingdom Queen - having stats high enough in every category where the kingdom votes you as their queen (could still end with al)

Festival Queen - Win three different events in the festival

spy - high sin and mind, perhaps meeting another character and good contact with Alanna and Al

Hill woman - Do not take any classes (possibly no jobs), and spend most of the time outside building up xp

Resort owner - high charm, mind, money

#23 by RedSocialKnight - Jul 11 2010

I'd like to see the various ending themes incorporated into the gallery (I realize you can't use the text since that varies among individual games.)

#24 by Lira - Jul 20 2010

Something that I would like is a way to kind of shorten the game at times. Maybe enter a code to skip time.
I sometimes have the requirements for an ending and still have most of a year to go till she's 21. If you are trying for just one more ending, it can get a bit tedious if you then have to "waste" the time building and rebuilding up stats that are quite high enough already (My Illusionist had 600+ magic and artistry in the end!!!) while making sure you don't accidentally do something that might give you another ending. (My wannabe-paladin suddenly turned Wild because I spent too much time logging and mining. Oops!)

And I'd also like to be able to somehow reread my endings, not just view the gallery - not sure if that's possible. But it would be nice to be able to compare if you get the same ending more than once to see how much difference a higher charm or lower sin or whatever really made.

#25 by hanako - Jul 20 2010

Something that I would like is a way to kind of shorten the game at times. Maybe enter a code to skip time.

This can already be done via codes (in the non-portal game version).

I am thinking about having a non-cheating option to end the game sooner in the potential sequel. Making the game play for LONGER would still require cheating, but if you'd gotten your stats where you wanted and were ready to stop, it might be okay to just choose to stop.

And I'd also like to be able to somehow reread my endings, not just view the gallery - not sure if that's possible. But it would be nice to be able to compare if you get the same ending more than once to see how much difference a higher charm or lower sin or whatever really made.

That's why there's a button to save the ending text and character stats when you finish! (again, in the non-portal version.)

#26 by k24601 - Sep 6 2010

I disagree with some people about various things and if I were the creators I'd be very offended by what they are saying, I think some things stated are more than a little rude....

While Cute Knight and Cute Knight Kingdom are similar in some ways to Princess Maker, there's more than enough differences for them to be recognized as "original" games. And reminding one of Princess Maker in itself in my book is not a bad thing at all. Besides, Princess Maker is a child raising series but Cute Knight and Cute Knight Kingdom are what I'd call "fantasy life sims" NOT child raising games.
Yes, that means one big difference right there by itself.

And the "angel" in the game is more like an alien or actually she(?) IS an alien...which was pretty hilarious the first time I saw it.

Princess Maker is Princess Maker.
Cute Knight and Cute Knight Kingdom
are Cute Knight and Cute Knight Kingdom.

If you don't like it when a game makes you think of Princess Maker then just don't play games that remind you of Princess Maker!

Because there are going to be games like that.

If you are wanting for a game to be nothing like Princess Maker, then you should try to make one yourself _and_ play other games...or hope somebody makes games that don't make you think of Princess Maker at all.

Evil endings : Princess Maker had/has this too. Some of the endings in both Cute Knight and Cute Knight Kingdom are what I'd consider kinda "evil" endings like the thief related endings....It's funny to complain about how something is too much like Princess Maker than turn around and say you want more "evil" endings. Thieving is generally considered an "evil" or at least a very bad thing to in such games.
(And often in real life!)
So don't they count as evil endings?

I think there should be "silly" endings and then "serious" endings for things like Paladin....that way everyone is happy. That's probably what I'll do if I ever stop being lazy about it and get certain dream projects done.
I just wish I was better at art. Ugh. And I wish I had coding memorized rather than needing to look at stuff right in front of my face while I work.

More difficulty? Games can be hard enough, I don't like the idea of making the next one "more difficult".

I actually....usually...am not a big fan of "pretty pink princess" stuff....so it's funny that I love these kind of games so much. I'd like to see more "Queen" endings rather than different princess endings for a change. Like "Queen of The Realm" or "Queen of Merfolk" , ect.
I am certainly going to have both of a mix of possible princess and queen endings if I ever get around to finishing my own projects...or...at least in one game there would be a mix of princess and queen endings. Maybe not in ALL the games....that would probably get old, fast. But in at least one game. Hahaha.

Also, my idea of an ideal fantasy kingdom is different from the creators of Princess Maker, Cute Knight, and Cute Knight Deluxe.....I think dresses can be beautiful but again...I'm usually not a big fan of them...especially in games since everyone has them as mandatory wear rather than optional wear.

My girls shall have pants and shorts!
Historical accuracy be darned!
(they will be fantasy games after all...hahaha)

Not that there won't be any dresses at all but if I do include dresses I probably will save them only for special endings and events ....like you can't go to certain events unless you're wearing a dress. Or maybe some special "missions" that require you to wear a dress. (this will certainly happen for the "raising a boy" series though...hehehehe)

Again...fragmented endings were/are in Princess Maker series.
If one really doesn't want to be reminded of PM then why keep suggesting things for the sequel that will just remind you of PM?!

I agree that in these games there should be a book or something the character gets that lists recipes and such, that way we won't have to be looking for walkthroughs to get told of this...we could just look it up in-game!

I like the pictures plus so-called "wall of text" but I like the idea of being able to get more pictures and dialogue. How would this be "less effort" though than getting the main picture and story? *confused*

I like event based endings but stat based endings...I don't know...wouldn't that make certain endings harder to get? And would it be easier or harder to cheat when trying to get stat-based endings?



I think the sprites, character personality (or supposed lack thereof), ect. was and is just fine. While it would be interesting to see different sprites (by a different artist) I consider making sprites in general...and especially making good looking sprites...an art form in/of itself. The sprites aren't that bad.

The character does have personality...certain things in the game along with the various endings = showing you a little bit of her personality.

For example, her relationship with her parents and what's-his-name...that boy that is mean to her at first but then starts to like her when she goes adventuring. And whenever you chat with the npcs, even though the game usually doesn't give you a chance to choose to be mean to somebody or flirt....sometimes it does...stuff like that goes into "personality" too.

Maybe what's really meant here is perhaps she has a little of a "one-sided" personality rather than a complete lack of one.

In that case I'd agree.

If you choose to do "sinful" or bad things, then obviously you have a bad/evil personality.

If you spend most of the time spooking or taming animals and doing good deeds, then you have a good personality.

I never felt that she was too slow when walking and I liked the dungeons just the way they were but I agree that adding things like swimming and climbing would be cool.

I also never feel like hanako games have more than one artist. I don't see how Cute Knight or Cute Knight Kingdom's any different (even if they really did have more than one artist it doesn't feel like it to me)

I like the idea of a "Festival Queen" ending.

I know this would mean more work and more art, but I thought some of the "monsters" in the game were just sooo cute! I hate it when I have to fight cute enemies in order to raise exp so I'm very happy about the taming system although I wish it would've worked on skeleton warriors as well. Hahaha.
I wished that I could've kept them - animals like the fox) - as pets. Other than avoiding the raising of sin, it'd be nice if you could "tame" wild animals and keep them. Like at least one of a couple choices or one of each species (even though I'm sure that'd be a lot of work) It'd be nice to see endings that changed slightly depending on if you had any pets along with the usual "if you got married and had kids or not" stuff. I also wish that you could've had the choice to tame the ice hippo rather than be forced to either just kill it or flee. It'd also be nice if I could "recruit" skeleton warriors or have at least one join me in a quest/for the whole game.

I'd like to see more/better recipes and crafts in a sequel.
This game had some nice stuff resulting from combining certain items...but I'd like to see even more...I love fruits like oranges, cherries....I love it when a game lets my character "make" things like the cooking and crafting system does. There were things I would've like to have worked when I tried them...like spices plus meat would equal some kinda spiced meat food item. I know there's some recipes with the spices but they usually require more than just two items.

A non-cheat for stopping the game early once you got your stats and relationships/whatever sorted the way you wanted? Nice!

Less girly-girls, less Pink, less dresses, more pants, please no Pink or Green hair! Of course, I don't expect you to cater personally to me...but just to put it out there...my fave colors are Black, Red, Blue, Purple, and Gold. Please consider one of those colors (especially Black hair) for one of your games playable character(s). I also have a thing for Orange hair when it comes to made up characters. Orange hair can be so pretty!

Oh, and...like I complained about before in the sin guide thread...I'm not a big fan of "sin" systems in the first place. But I've already been assured that there's most likely not going to be a sin system in the next project. Just a reminder.

Sorry my post ended being so long.

#27 by readerofasaph - Feb 22 2011

along the lines of what people have said:

- recipe books / crafting books to store recipes etc would be REALLY appreciated, as it's really annoying having to make a list in Notepad of recipes as I go
- being able to load the game from the main screen would be great.


More general comments:
- I think the Cute Knight games I've played thus far have tended to be a little weak on setting/style. This may be partly due to the use of multiple art styles, as someone said early; but I've actually wondered whether it isn't also partly because the inspiration for the Cute Knight milieu seems to be mainly 'generic Western pre-industrial/fantasy setting'. I'd actually quite like to see a Cute Knight sequel that deliberately drew on a more specific sort of setting for inspiration - i.e. for its dialogue and character names and artwork w/r/t/ clothes, architecture. general worldbuilding.

- Perhaps - more emotionally engaging characters? Ironically I think Gordy was the most emotionally compelling character in the whole game, although I also really liked Helena. Admittedly it can be harder to build characterisation in stat-raisers (compared with say visual novels or RPGs) but I still think that given that the individual characters are solidly constructed for the most part, it should be doable giving them more meaningful interactions. Possibly working in some minor visual novel elements might help, too - e.g. the part where Helena wants to know if Al wants to paint her because she's beautiful or because she's strong. I thought that was effective in terms of developing characterisation.

- I'd kind of like a little more direction from the game as well, either in terms of being more punishing (?regular food intake - and the money to by food - being an essential to staving off the 'beggar' ending?) or in terms of having more plot-related carrots to chase after. I find the whole experience a little too open-ended and self-directed at the moment.

- not necessary but would be nice: the small touches of realism that life sims are sometimes able to work in - e.g. the protagonist's actual clothes being able to influence whether she can get a job

#28 by readerofasaph - Feb 22 2011

oh, and by 'specific sort of setting' for the games - I mean, if we could do a Victoriana or Regency or East Asian Cute Knight, I'd be all for it, but even if a specific decision was made, say, to draw directly on Renaissance Italy or medieval England at least in terms of architecture and naming choices, I think I'd feel more engagement with the setting than at its current setting, which tends to come across as 'fantasy setting not-otherwise-specified.'

#29 by hanako - Feb 22 2011

along the lines of what people have said

A lot of the things you mention here, you might find in the current Magical Diary project. It has a firmer setting (I know exactly where it takes place and how that affects the plot, as well as a lot of details of world and backstory that haven't come out to the players yet), a more directed experience (because you're being pushed through a school year, with regular tests and standards to maintain) and a much stronger visual novel influence, with characters who take action throughout the story.

No crafting, though, it's specifically left out. And, of course, it's modern-day.

At this point I'm uncertain whether Cute Knight Empire will happen at all. But... I'm very rarely certain of that sort of thing until I'm actually working on a game, and sometimes not even then, so...

#30 by readerofasaph - Feb 24 2011

/nod/ I will probably check out Magical Diary at some stage, once the games budget has recovered from the blowout it will no doubt receive when the Sims Medieval comes out! (heaven forbid that the Layton/Ace Attorney crossover come out anytime soon, since its release will no doubt precipitate a sudden urgent need to acquire a 3DS).

I do like lots of things about CKK (for starters there's just nothing else in its league in the life sim market - in some ways Spirited Heart is much more the sort of game-style I like but it kinda doesn't hold a candle to CKK in terms of complexity and design, and I think CKK actually has a slight edge in terms of dialogue)

I'm well aware that some of the wishes I was expressing may not always jive with what you were looking to achieve with the series! I do definitely think there needs to be more inherent tension in any possible sequel either in terms of possibility-of-failure or in terms of plot-related conflict - but then I'm just one of those people who doesn't think games are any fun unless cortisol-release is /waaay/ up. -_- /neurotic by nature/

#31 by kylone - May 2 2011

Possibly the most significant thing missing is a sense of pacing. As a player a character grow like this, I'd live to have a more episodic feel, as if you were watching snippets of a series.

There a whole bunch of ways to do this, but one I like is more variety of events related to jobs taken. The idea being that even is skill-based ending, you feel like the heroine is charging forward to her destiny. (Or excelling at her work.) There are brief moments here and there, but I'd think you could help build the experience more.

Another thing would be a kind of self assessment. In a way, it would be in-game help leading to specific endings, but its also a way for the player to indicate to the game the path they're following. I guess that the character should be reflected as changes to the world around them. (More than a couple of pieces of dialog, anyways)

Since she's the main character, of course the world revolves around her! ;P


And to think, this "Let's Play" article got me interested in the first place. I guess I liked the sense of humor there.

#32 by seink - Aug 19 2011

Ayanni:

Yuki:

Ayanni:

The same art style for the whole game
PLEASEIt looks ridiculous with art from 5+ different artists with completely different art styles.

That would possibly make the game take longer to complete than necessary, plus the same artist isn't always available.

Longer than necessary? I think it's necessary for any commercial game to be properly polished in every way.
The suddent art style changes in Hanako's games make them look really amateur and cheap, even if they're fun to play.

That's the only reason I didn't buy it :p (painfully true, since I like the game mechanics)
I sign right below you. Art is really important, it gives life to the game and calls more players to buy it. If the game has lots of different art styles, it breaks the game reality. Then again I'm sure that all game companies learn from their past mistakes and drive to improve in their next titles, prove of that are games like magical diary where the art got a true upgrade(nice job! this one I bought! hehe ^^)

#33 by Ariel Schnee - Dec 11 2011

I'd like to see more of the Homewrecker ending, and the cheating little minx that Sorami is in it... I like cheating girls.^_^