Hello hello again! Okay, first off, wow. This was legitimately something that I’d never thought I’d be doing. Whenever I make anything, games included, I have a tendency to release it, then leave it alone because I usually can't look back at my old work without physically wanting to crawl into a hole.

However, life works in unexpected ways, and as you can see, I’m back. This time, with an epilogue!!

So, hooray for a new release!

Like I said before though, this was completely unplanned. Although there were some things that I felt were incomplete and wanted to address further, I was originally content to leave RTL as it was. There were multiple reasons for that. First off, I felt like the story had run its course, and I didn't want to invoke Sequelitis by stretching it out more than it had to. Also, I felt pretty worn out by the time the game was done, and I wasn't sure if I had it in me to add onto what I already made.

But, like I said, life tends to work out in unexpected ways, so here I am.

Before I continue though, I just wanted to give a shoutout to @sutouvi, who’s basically the reason why this epilogue even exists. Sutouvi, I’m not sure if you’re reading this, but if you are, thank you so much for everything!! This is the first time anyone’s ever created fanart/memes for something that I made, and I really feel like I’ve crossed a checkpoint in my life as a creator. It’s such an incredible honor to see that someone would make works off of something that I created, and when I was developing the epilogue, I would look back on your art as motivation! It’s so adorable and so well drawn, and I love seeing how you expand RTL’s universe in your own way! If you choose to keep making anything, I’d love to see it!

Also, not sure if I mentioned this before, but whenever I release something, it always strikes me as frightening that I’m basically exposing a part of myself to the world. To billions of people. At times, it almost feels like I’m yelling into a void of nothingness, hoping that my voice reaches someone. It absolutely astounds to me that someone has reached back, and I will be eternally grateful for that.

Also, I have a vndb page now!! It’s cannot believe that my work is officially on the database, and I especially cannot believe that I have a creator page now! Wow! (By the way, I’m not sure if this was created some time ago, so if it has and I just didn't notice, sorry!)

Alright, now that we’re done with the sentimental stuff, I have a few things I’d like to address. Please be aware that there will be spoilers:

Patch notes

• This is something I didn’t realize before, but I forgot to add certain a CG to the gallery! Specifically, it’s the one that displays when you and Arthur have a heart-to-heart after his banquet. I’m kind of glad this one didn't make it to the gallery, because it turns out I forgot to shade the carpet there, so it was technically incomplete. It’s been fixed now!
• The return button in the save and loading page has now been moved lower. I never realized how high it was before.
• The game has now been updated to be around 64000 words! Funny this happened, because it was originally meant to be at around 64000-65000 words. Like I mentioned in my original release notes, I had to cut out lots of stuff for the sake of readability, but now I’ve actually hit that goal. Huh.

Reflections

I had a few goals in mind for this epilogue. One was, of course, to tie up some plot points that I didn't really address in the game’s ending.

However, I also wanted to experiment with increasing the number of player choices in-game. You’ll notice that there are a few more options in the epilogue compared to the main story, despite it being about the length of a chapter. This is partially because the epilogue’s subject matter is a lot more gray, and I didn't feel like any one answer was particularly correct. However, doing this was also good practice for my future games, which, like I mentioned before, would be slightly less self-insertable should I actually write player dialog. Giving more autonomy will hopefully balance that out, because at the end of the day, one of my biggest goals is to allow you to see yourself with my characters, and I’m hoping this helps achieve that.

On the subject of the game’s writing, I wanted the epilogue to be more intimate. Not exactly in the child-unfriendly sense (because that would age-restrict my game), but more so in the sense of emotional intimacy. I wanted you and Arthur to grow as a couple while the two of you tackle some heavy issues that Arthur’s been hiding, and I wanted to highlight the sense of familiarity and comfort that marriage can bring. I’ve also added a few references to the main story’s events as a quick callback.

By the way, I forgot to say this in my previous reflections, but there are a few lines in the game that reference Le Morte d’Arthur, which is another seminal work in the King Arthur mythos. Feel free to check it out here!

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1251/1251-h/1251-h.htm

Well, I think that’s all I have to say about the game! It’s still incredibly wild to me that RTL is complete now, and more. Of course, it’s always possible that I come back to this for another update, but for now, I think I can genuinely say that I’m quite happy with what I’ve done, and I hope you’ll be happy with it too. If you’ve read this far, thank you so, so much. I love you to the moon and back, and Arthur loves you infinitely, boundlessly, and completely. Now go out there and stick it to Thomas Mallory by rewriting the legend even better than he can.