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[Leaty]

I seem to recall seeing a video of a KS beta before the final game was released (in 2009 or 2010,) which explicitly wasn't the Act 1 demo; all of the backgrounds were different, Lilly's sprite was one of its older iterations, and the scene where she first encountered Hisao was completely different (Niji was definitely there, and I believe she was playing the piano.) Was this a real thing, or was it something a fan put together?

Also, if it was real, what went into the decision to remove the musical aspect of Lilly's character?

[Silentcook]

You MIGHT have seen a Grid1 video. Grid1 was something like the proto-Act 1, which got massively overhauled because it was a Frankenstein job of joining scenes by the expedient of throwing them together with sufficient force. Backgrounds were different, sprites were by a different artist, several scenes were different or weren't there or got removed later.

There was no Niji though and Lilly played the cello instead, so I'm afraid I can't be much more help here.

[Steinherz]

You MIGHT have seen a Grid1 video. Grid1 was something like the proto-Act 1, which got massively overhauled because it was a Frankenstein job of joining scenes by the expedient of throwing them together with sufficient force. Backgrounds were different, sprites were by a different artist, several scenes were different or weren't there or got removed later.

There was no Niji though and Lilly played the cello instead, so I'm afraid I can't be much more help here.

Wasn't Grid1 the one that had the *cough* infamous Higurashi no Naku Koro ni-inspired Hanako route? Or was that something else?
I know this only because TVTropes mentions this on the Trivia page. Shit's frightening.

[Guest Poster]

Grid1 was the version with the old-style characters and monochrome backgrounds. It's pretty easy to tell it apart from the rest.

[Aura]

You MIGHT have seen a Grid1 video. Grid1 was something like the proto-Act 1, which got massively overhauled because it was a Frankenstein job of joining scenes by the expedient of throwing them together with sufficient force. Backgrounds were different, sprites were by a different artist, several scenes were different or weren't there or got removed later.

There was no Niji though and Lilly played the cello instead, so I'm afraid I can't be much more help here.

Wasn't Grid1 the one that had the *cough* infamous Higurashi no Naku Koro ni-inspired Hanako route? Or was that something else?
I know this only because TVTropes mentions this on the Trivia page. Shit's frightening.

It didn't cover much of the story, so no. It was just a prototype.

Lilly's music hobby was removed because it added very little to her character except more Mary Sue-ness, which Suriko desperately tried to get rid off.

[TheHivemind]

You MIGHT have seen a Grid1 video. Grid1 was something like the proto-Act 1, which got massively overhauled because it was a Frankenstein job of joining scenes by the expedient of throwing them together with sufficient force. Backgrounds were different, sprites were by a different artist, several scenes were different or weren't there or got removed later.

There was no Niji though and Lilly played the cello instead, so I'm afraid I can't be much more help here.

Wasn't Grid1 the one that had the *cough* infamous Higurashi no Naku Koro ni-inspired Hanako route? Or was that something else?
I know this only because TVTropes mentions this on the Trivia page. Shit's frightening.

It didn't cover much of the story, so no. It was just a prototype.

Lilly's music hobby was removed because it added very little to her character except more Mary Sue-ness, which Suriko desperately tried to get rid off.

Remember when Lilly was a Tai Chi master?

Good times.

[LorSquirrel]

Remember when Lilly was a Tai Chi master?

Good times.

What? I... When... How was that one even conceived?

[Kon22]

First, thank you for the game. It's a really nice game. That's an understatement, but I'm sure I don't need to say anything more. You had enough of that.

I have two questions that I believe no one asked yet.

First, did any of the devs played the whole game? Like, the last build, the final product. No just to check if everything was alright, but to just play it. I'm guessing that after creating the routes and finishing making the game, you didn't actually want to play it at all. Five years is a really long time. Though I might be wrong, and maybe you wanted to "enjoy" the final product, the culmination of all that work. So, that. Did you guys played the final version of the game? The paths you didn't write, at least?

And the other thing. I'm curious about the extra image you get after completing the gallery. The art in that image is clearly not as polished as the one in the game. Or maybe the pic is just like that. So, is there any story about this? Was it just a random pic you had there and decided to put it as an extra, or was it drawn for that purpose?

Anyway, that's all. My english is not the best, but I think It's pretty understandable.

[Bad Apple]

First, did any of the devs played the whole game? Like, the last build, the final product. No just to check if everything was alright, but to just play it. I'm guessing that after creating the routes and finishing making the game, you didn't actually want to play it at all. Five years is a really long time. Though I might be wrong, and maybe you wanted to "enjoy" the final product, the culmination of all that work. So, that. Did you guys played the final version of the game? The paths you didn't write, at least?

In this interview, Hivemind confirms that he did eventually play his own route for fun. Whether other devs did the same or not lies beyond my jurisdiction.

[Aura]

First, thank you for the game. It's a really nice game. That's an understatement, but I'm sure I don't need to say anything more. You had enough of that.

I have two questions that I believe no one asked yet.

First, did any of the devs played the whole game? Like, the last build, the final product. No just to check if everything was alright, but to just play it. I'm guessing that after creating the routes and finishing making the game, you didn't actually want to play it at all. Five years is a really long time. Though I might be wrong, and maybe you wanted to "enjoy" the final product, the culmination of all that work. So, that. Did you guys played the final version of the game? The paths you didn't write, at least?

And the other thing. I'm curious about the extra image you get after completing the gallery. The art in that image is clearly not as polished as the one in the game. Or maybe the pic is just like that. So, is there any story about this? Was it just a random pic you had there and decided to put it as an extra, or was it drawn for that purpose?

Anyway, that's all. My english is not the best, but I think It's pretty understandable.

Without actually asking anyone, I feel pretty comfortable saying that nobody has played the whole thing after release. Why would we? I've probably read it several dozens of times all in all during development and the final version went through testing where it was repeatedly read by lots of people. Even many of the non-writer devs have read it extensively. I don't really feel like reading it just for funsies.

The final gallery pic is a little bit from column A, a little bit of column B. It was drawn specifically for it, but it was a pretty rough job right before release, and climatic's style is not really the glossy moe thing the rest of the game's art is to begin with.

[Silentcook]

Play the whole published product, no. But I did play the whole finished game several too many WAY too many times over before release, plus a few extra chunks in the interest of releases that haven't even happened yet, so the distinction is pretty thin.

[Aura]

Yeah. The point of the question as I understood it was whether we read KS for fun, which I really don't think anyone from 4LS would do (waiting to be proven wrong)

[Kon22]

Thanks for answering. And yeah, that's what I meant, if you played the game for "fun". I was expecting that kind of answer, though. I just wasn't sure how much did each of you played of the finished game while testing, if you read the whole game, or just your own routes, or what. It's pretty understandable. Books, or VNs for that matter, aren't that "replayable". Also, you were the creators of this, and you can't possibly see the game the same way fans can.

Also, thanks for answering the pic thingy too.

[Kon22]

I have another question.

Do each of you guys have a favorite route? Or favorite girl, for that matter? Someone probably asked it already, but I'm curious.

[Silentcook]

Someone asked me specifically before, at least. Emi.