This is my first (published) story-game, it's more like a prolouge/preview to my up-coming story game which will be called 'Farewell Lullaby'. Critiquing is gladly welcomed to help me improve Farewell Lullaby which will be a bigger project than this.

This will be split up into two parts, this is the first part here about our heroes past and what leads up to the main prolouge so it's pretty short. There are 2 outcomes to the first part, good luck.

The second part will get more into the fantasy aspect of 'Songs to Say Goodbye' as well as explain the title.

Here is the story:

May the King's reign be short and swift.

A man is wanted for his crimes against the kingdom, he lives off of what he can steal, he fights for his life with almost nothing to his name.

Almost nothing but a son.

The man has but his son as company, it is the last of his bloodline and he will protect him at any, and all costs. But what if it meant his own life?

You are this man, what will you chose, your son or yourself?

The medieval ages were a beautiful, bloody time. Filled with war and magic, beauty and horror, a contradiction in and of itself. Such complexity is usually only found in one thing, love. Love can be disguised as Lust, as tainted as the murky waters of the castle moats, or it can be Pure as the crystalline skies that we all share as our overhanging roof to our lush world.

You live in this time described as love, pure and dark. You are, in fact, part of the royal family in Dunill.

Indirectly anyway.

You are to be the prince's head guard and advisor, you have been trained for such position since birth. Your duty is to protect him, serve him, and correct him when he makes a mistake. Your wish, well, thats a little more complicated. Your wish is to love him.

But now he is engaged!

What choices will you make?

I suppose the choice is up to you~!

~Ace

"I was happy."

"The King murdered my wife."

"I don't remember anything after that..."
(Songs to Say Goodbye)

Hitari became Ari.

We went on the run...

Now I have to chose. Do I save my son or myself?

----

The second part of 'Songs to Say Goodbye'. Now in present times we follow our heroes story as he and the newly re-named Ari (Hitari) are on the run from the King's men. It's time for you to direct our choices and decide who dies.

"Nobody has to die~. That just makes it more fun~!" (Songs to Say Goodbye -Second Part-)

You could do something like making him go to a greek oracle or whatever and have them predict the multiple endings, sort of telling the readers in an off-handed way 'you could either get....' etc. etc. etc.

Now we have rape, torture, murder, sexism, AND cannibalism.

...

greeeeeeaaaaatttt... *sarcasm*

I mean, there are games targeted towards the female population and games targeted for the male population, but at the same time, either gender could play that game. There's no sign on the kaleidoscope game that says "NO GIRLS ALLOWED TO PLAY THIS GAME." and the same for harvest moon.

Using the Harvest Moon example, there is also the other series Rune Factory which is usually targeted more towards the male populace (as shown by the fact that theres really only 1 game in that series in which you have the option of playing as a female character, and you only get that option after you beat the main storyline in which you have to play the main storyline as the male character with the female character making very few appearances until the end -I believe that is the only one-). I have played both, I know male friends who have played both, I know female friends who have played both. The line between a feminine game and a masculine game gets kinda blended in these situations.

Also for the dating sims... Again, the line gets blended a lot of times. Mainly because of the wide variety, and not only does it get blurred between the innocent-and-erotic dating sims but also in the male-and-female dating sims. I'm seeing more and more dating sims where the player has the choice of being male or female (Roomates for example, never played it but this is just what I've hear). Supposedly, in Roomates you have the choice of being the male or female protagonist and even within the male protagonist storyline you can date one of the male interests and within the female protagonists storyline you can date one of the female interests, as well as dating the opposite gender in either storylines. Because of such, it begins to blur the lines again. Not only does it give the male players a chance to play as a male and date women/men interests, but it also gives the female players a chance to play as a male and date either women/men interests, and vice versa should they chose to play as the female protagonist. Due to that, more and more people are exploring the possibilities of opening it up to both genders in many different ways.

I did play Hamtaro (the ham-ham heartbreak one), I found it adorable, and, the person who played it with me (because I struggled with some of the puzzles and just because we both found it adorable and fun) was the opposite gender. Hence both genders playing the game together even if it was considered 'girly'.

Really, it all depends on how you look at games and what kinds of games you're attracted to.

Really that's not the worse I've heard.

The worse I've heard was from my friend, she's kind n' all don't get me wrong but...

We were talking about Chinese culture because my other friend was going to do a week-long class in China, and her response was:

"Where's that? Oh! Is that in Uganda?"

She has also graduated from highschool... A while ago...

"When you get lemons, make grape juice as an act of defiance." ~More Random People

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." ~ Audrey Hepburn

"If my writing comes to a halt, I head to the shops: I find them very inspirational. And if I get into real trouble with my plot, I go out for a pizza." ~Sophia Kinsella

"I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then." ~ Lewis Carroll