Totally confused about ending selection

[SmashManiac]

Hello! First time player here. I just finished completing all the leads I could find and filling up the Book of Fates, and I'm rather confused about what I'm supposed to do now.

First, it's not clear to me what burning the book is supposed to do. I noticed the option by complete luck while moving my mouse cursor around the screen late in my playthrough, and I don't think the game ever explains what the consequences of this choice are. Did I miss/forgot anything on this regard, or is this intended?

Second, when I ask Quince about said book, I do not understand what he means when he says that I didn't use the Book of Fates enough for him to explain something. I thought the requirement was to fill all of its pages, but it's clearly not the case or insufficient. Do I have to pick an ending first?

Third, when I read the recent patch notes, I thought that the whole point of the new ending structure was so that selecting an ending does not prevent checking out the other endings without being forced to start a new game, as this inconvenience is unnecessary to fully experience and enjoy the dilemma. However, while researching the above questions on these forums, I read a recent post from one the devs strongly implying that at least one ending does block access to some other ending. Which is correct? For reference, I'm already 30+ hours in and kinda burned out by the lack of quality-of-life features beyond the speed-up clock and instant text display, so I really want to avoid restarting a new game or resorting to cheap out-of-game tricks if possible.

Finally, I'm seeing talks here about some "final ending" or "exeunt all" ending, and that it may open up some additional gameplay content. I'm not exactly sure what this is referring to (which is fine because I hate spoilers), but I certainly do not want to miss out on gameplay content simply because I picked an ending that seemed more interesting at first glance otherwise. Is there anything I should do or avoid to make sure I do not lock myself from this content, given the previous point?

Thanks a lot!

P.S.: I originally backed this project on Kickstarter, and the end result has gone way beyond my expectations. Congrats devs!

[SmashManiac]

Alright, well I couldn't wait anymore for a reply, so I basically answered my own questions.

Turns out the reason why I was so confused was because the point of no return is not when you select "Revisit Fate" or "Destroy Book", as I assumed from previous in-game warnings, but afterwards when you get presented with a dialog box that states that proceeding will be the "true fate of Elsinore" or something like that, and it's that very dialog box that explains what that point of no return really implies. This is especially confusing for the "Revisit Fate" case as you need to select a choice, then watch a cutscene, then confirm your choice in a dialog box before seeing the actual point of no return dialog box with the missing explanation immediately afterwards asking to pick said choice for the third time in a row.

As for my questions:

1. Selecting "Destroy Book" explains the choice, as described above.
2. Quince's explanation about the book appears to automatically triggers on Friday morning (counter-intuitively) once his condition is met. Without spoiling anything, all I'll say is that it's past a point of no return, and that it's debatable whether you want that condition to be met in the first place.
3. Some endings are indeed mutually exclusive. Specifically, "Sacrifice Choice for Revenge" and "Exeunt All" appear to lock all other endings. I understand and appreciate the artistic choice, but from a player perspective it's kind of problematic to be forced into erasing all save data and speedrunning the game just to access some extra content. An Undertale-style corrupted fate probably would have been a better compromise in my opinion.
4. The extra gameplay content is only available once Quince's book explanation event triggers. Again, it's debatable whether that's something you want. For those that care like me, the trick is to not burn the book until said event triggers. Note that the option to burn the book only becomes locked once Quince's following challenge is fully completed.

Once again, thank you very much to the devs for this amazing experience!

[Plushyesque]

Thanks for revisiting and updating your post; you saved me from x minutes of deliberating! You're right, it's very confusing.

[SmashManiac]

Awesome! Glad I could help!

[VinTJ]

this game is in lack of guides / help. I just started re-playing the game since they updated how endings work months ago. Thankful I stumbled upon this discussion. Additional question though: I do remember the Exeunt All Ending (and the challenge, unlocking that as a dialogue option / lead) being there. Question is, what exactly are his conditions? for Quince to approach Ophelia and reveal it as a lead?


is it after a certain amount of loops? is it filling the pages of the book? is it simply after a certain amount of time has passed AFTER we have the book, regardless of how many pages are filled?

also you could use spoiler tags since you didn't want to spoil anything but I'm trying to replay the game here and I'm confused lol



edit: well obviously, as you've said, don't burn the book until the event where Quince Approaches Ophelia triggers, but I'm curious as to whether I have to do something until then (like filling all the book pages) or just fast-forward time indefinitely.

Edit 2

nevermind I got it. The option comes when you've commited to at least 4 fates and back out on it 4 times, clicking "return to Elsinore" after 4 ending cutscenes played, not just the curtain calls. That solves that, atleast.