This is a guide about The Mystery of Caketropolis's endings, and all the hints and clues to their meaning that can be found in the game. Naturally this means that...


...so don't read it unless you have already played the game (including the Golden Ending and bonus content) and are looking for more information about it.

Not long ago - March 8th 2022, actually, going by the date of my Steam review - I finished playing The Mystery of Caketropolis myself, including the two main endings. I had some theories and observations about the game that I shared with a friend of mine (who has not played it but did not indicate an interest in doing so and agreed to be spoiled) on March 11th. I had considered making this guide at the time, but back then, it was just speculation.

Today, March 19th, I played the bonus content "Live in Stalagshire" and found out that all of my theories were vindicated! I was honestly not expecting it and am still kind of shocked.

Sadly, writing this guide NOW instead of publishing it beforehand is going to lessen the impact a lot for people reading it. But, the clues were all there, enough that I was able to spend hours listing all the points and bits of evidence I had, and even came back with more the next day. So I'm putting them all here to illustrate that, for an astute observer, the clues were there all along and the revelations of the bonus content should not be a surprise.

The theory (which has been confirmed by the author now) is this:

The Bad Ending is the canon ending. The Golden Ending never happened, and is just wishful thinking on the part of Rimentus.

Why? For a whole pile of reasons I'll go into in this guide, but essentially: The Bad Ending is well-written and ties everything together consistently. Characters act exactly as expected and all the evidence fits neatly together. The conclusions of the story make sense.

But the Golden Ending is rife with plot holes and contradictions - even more so with the bonus content of Live In Stalagshire. And yet, the base story is so well-written that it felt like this was deliberate. (Turns out, it was!)

For those who haven't played in a while and need a reminder, here's an abbreviated version of the game.

The game takes place across four days, which will be referred to as Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4. The intended - actually, enforced, unless you are spoiled - gameplay sequence is that you must play through the game once to get what I will call the "Bad Ending". In this ending, the dragons of Stalagshire are banished and everyone has a bad time.

During the Bad Ending you learn some information (the safe code) that lets you set a flag at the very beginning of Day 1 which makes the alternate route possible for the Golden Ending. In the Golden Ending, as is typical for a visual novel, everything turns out okay, sunshine and daisies, everyone lives happily ever after.

Day 1
Narration opens with the protagonist, Rimentus the dragon, talking about some event in the past. Something that happened to him. Something he wishes he could change. If only he could turn back time...

Rimentus - in the past - wakes up and is told to go to Caketropolis, the new bakery. It opens tomorrow. Day 1 serves to introduce most of the characters, most importantly including Cerio (the bakery owner), Avis (Rimentus's Shepherd), and Maggis (the head enforcer). And Rimentus himself, of course, who is subject to a karma point system depending on whether he is nice to people, steals cakes, licks chalkboards etc.

A big event happens on your way back from visiting Ol' Smokey (Insignium the Stalagmus Dragon). A group of farmers corner you and are about to shoot you (because Humans Are B*stards) when Maggis shows up to break it up. You go back home to sleep, and get some nice hand-drawn art of Avis reading to Rimentus.

Day 2
The story picks up. Caketropolis is on fire. Dragons are immediately blamed for it and forced off to the Dragon Containment Facility. Even when the dragons are known to be innocent, they are imprisoned anyway (because Humans Are B*stards). One even gets kept in solitary for an extra day for resisting the arrest (Because... you get the point.)

Avis springs you out. You go to Cerio's house, but he doesn't want to talk, for understandable reasons. Rimentus notices a broken fence next to Cerio's place and checks it out. Cue the light stealth sequence in the forest. There, you meet Verdori, who isn't pleased you're there (and really doesn't like being licked). Verdori tells you two important things:

1. Jungle Dragons (like Verdori) can't breathe fire. So he obviously didn't start it, even though he was near Caketropolis.
2. Verdori found a canister that fell off the back of a truck, and gives it to Rimentus to figure out what it is.

Day 3
The big mystery of this day is figuring out the canister. You talk to Fleur, run an errand for her, and she tells you that it's empty but it could have held some kind of flammable liquid. She and Rimentus come up with a theory: Maggis caused the fire.

Problem: You go to tell Avis, only to find out that Maggis has been murdered. Cerio is the only witness - he was close enough that his shirt "was damp with her blood" - and he claims a dragon did it. Humans Are B*stards so the city collectively turns on you even though you obviously had nothing to do with it, and Rimentus runs off to Insignium's place.

Insignium tells you (among other things) that the canister is a pressurized canister like his own, which he uses for asthma medication, but his canisters are 20 times bigger. Most likely, the truck was taking empties somewhere - to a recycling center, like the one in the slums. So off you go to check it out.

You find a mysterious object there and take it, but the doors close and the place fills with gas, and you have to escape. When you do you black out and wake up on the beach with Avis. Sadly, the object that Rimentus found was crushed (dragons don't know their own strength), but it was a pair of spectacles.

But that's enough excitement for one day, so you go home.

Day 4
Maggis's murder has the city on edge. The mayor is giving a speech. Even though dragons will be affected by it they can't attend, because Humans Are B*stards.

So, you enlist Fleur's help to get in. Turns out they want ALL the dragons to wear shock collars. Rimentus points out this is grossly unfair - all the dragons are being punished due to the act of one (which hasn't even been proven to be a dragon at this point). Nobody's convinced and Cerio takes Rimentus and Fleur away to talk to them and give them some cake.

Rimentus notices that Cerio is missing his spectacles. Cerio tells the two of them to stop investigating, and leaves. Obviously, this is suspicious. So with the help of another dragon (Ethyriel)'s shepherd, you break into Cerio's house. All she can find are some insurance papers - Cerio won't actually lose anything from the destruction of Caketropolis. Only the dragons lose out.

Before you can do anything with this information, the jungle is set on fire, and Verdori comes out from it to fly to Rimentus's place. This is where the Bad Ending comes to a head: Cerio confesses to every accusation leveled against him. He says he has always hated dragons ever since they killed his parents. He knows Verdori will kill him, so he makes sure there are two deaths that get blamed on dragons: He stabs Avis and then Verdori tears him apart.

Both deaths are, indeed, blamed on the dragons, who are all banished from Stalagshire forever. Hell, they even blame the forest fire on dragons, even though a human started it, since Cerio did it "because of a dragon"; another reminder that Humans Are B*stards. The silver lining of this is that two dragons, Insignium and Fleur, agree to look after Rimentus together, since Rimentus has no idea how to survive in the wild as he's lived in Stalagshire all his life. Rimentus wishes that he could turn back time and that everything was just a terrible dream.

But then, you are dumped back on the title screen. But wait, "New Game" has been changed to "Turn Back Time". You get an achievement with the description "You solved the Mystery of Caketropolis. Or did you...?"

Clearly, the story's not over yet.

So, second playthrough begins. During the Bad Ending cutscene, you learn an important piece of information: The code to the safe in Rimentus's room, which is RAJAWYVERN. (Raja Wyvern being the type of dragon Rimentus is)

So when you start a new game using "Turn Back Time", nothing seems different. Until you go up to the room with the safe and try to enter the code. There's a trick to it where you have to use a mix of big and small letters in a very particular fashion, but if you mess it up enough the game gives you hints.

Opening the safe is the first paradox of the Golden Ending route. It requires information that you can only get from the end of the Bad Ending; essentially taking meta-information into the past. When Rimentus opens the safe, he (from the present time, indicated by his face portrait being on the dialogue box) comments that he has no idea how he opened it, and that he was just trying things at random. But firstly, it's a 10-character case sensitive password; that's 52^10 possible combinations, or roughly 145,000,000,000,000,000 possibilities. There is no way, not a chance in hell, that that could be found by Rimentus mucking about with the lock randomly. Especially when the code is something significant; how would he not notice the significance of the password being "Raja Wyvern"?

Anyway, you get the Dragon Compass from inside of the safe. It's a necklace and as far as I can tell, having it in your inventory is how the game knows that you're on the Golden Ending route, as it doesn't do anything else.

This adds additional quests to your quest log for each day that guide you (as a compass does) to the Golden Ending. However, it's important to note: Every single one of these clues is written in the past tense. They are written about things that Rimentus already did, but thinks he could have done differently. Basically they're all in the form "When I was at (location), I forgot to (do thing that advances the Golden Ending)..." This is another hint that something's not right with the story of this route.

Day 1
This one is easy. You check the lookout next to Rimentus's den. You don't find much, certainly nothing tangible - just a scent you don't recognize. Someone's obviously been here.

Day 2
In the jungle on your way to Verdori, go out of your way for no reason to take a side path. Rimentus recognizes the scent here as the same one from the lookout.

Day 3
At the recycling plant, make a detour to a side room to find some boots with the same scent on them in the trash. However, you cannot take them, even though this is the first bit of physical evidence that Rimentus finds, and would be incredibly valuable evidence as a result. He simply says he doesn't want to touch them.

Day 4
When breaking into Cerio's house, if you did the above three things, you can go into the basement. It has a puzzle lock similar to the safe in Rimentus's den. In there, you find a bunch of pictures of a green dragon, probably Verdori. Rimentus makes a leap of logic to determine that Cerio has been being hunted by Verdori, and that Cerio is cracking under the mental strain.

Then the forest catches fire and you go back to Rimentus's den as normal, but...

Finale
You confront Verdori. Before Cerio or Avis get the chance to say anything, Rimentus lays out what he thinks has happened: Verdori has been hunting Cerio, Cerio was just trying to kill Verdori, Verdori giving Rimentus the canister was just false evidence, etc etc etc.

The clues you have gained from the extra stuff in this playthrough indicate that Verdori must have had a human accomplice, though Rimentus doesn't know who they are, but whoever it was was the real person who started the Caketropolis fire, tried to kill Rimentus in the warehouse, and so on.

Then you hold off Verdori in the game's only use of RPG Maker's battle system and it's more of a puzzle than anything else. But either way, Rimentus gets to be the hero.

The enforcers come, Verdori is stopped, Cerio gets help for his mental problems, Avis lives, the humans and dragons work together to put out the fire, everyone (except Maggis, who is still dead) lives happily ever after.

Except for one problem... okay, a lot of problems...

As mentioned before, the whole framing device of "If only I could turn back time", Rimentus's final comment of wishing it was all just a bad dream, plus all of the Golden Ending's hints being in the past tense of 'things Rimentus should have done in hindsight' clues you in that this is NOT how things actually went down. More specifically, all of the Golden Ending-specific stuff is all in Rimentus's head - it's just wishful thinking on his part.

And you can't blame him; he's a relatively young dragon who was betrayed by someone he thought was a good friend (Cerio), his best friend died next to him (Avis), and he was banished from his home to never return, on account of things he didn't even do, because Humans Are B*stards.

With this in mind, so many little things all start becoming very plain to see when you pay attention:

1. All of the clues in the Golden Ending point to Verdori having a human accomplice, but it's never stated who it is (until the Live In Stalagshire update; more on that later). In all cutscenes they are conveniently wearing a hooded jacket that covers their face. They are never found or identified and in the epilogue they supposedly run away. This is just Rimentus's wishful thinking, trying to come up with an explanation for how all the things done by a human were not done by Cerio.

2. Cerio (eventually) confesses to all the accusations during the Bad Ending, including a full and very clear admission that he hates dragons, and always has. By contrast, he is simply never given a chance to speak up in the Golden Ending. Even if you assume that the information from the Golden Ending is true (Verdori has been hunting him), he still is guilty of setting a jungle on fire and is still willing to murder Avis in cold blood just to screw the dragons over further!

3. Maggis's murder. Just, everything about it. Cerio was close enough to Maggis to be covered in her blood, but couldn't identify the dragon? Remember, the dragons are color-coded for your convenience! Even just "green dragon" would have identified the culprit! Also, it is clearly stated that her "throat was slashed", which definitely doesn't sound like a dragon's work. And we know from the Bad Ending that Cerio has been carrying a knife on him, because he used it to kill Avis! And if Verdori was trying to hunt Cerio, and Cerio and Maggis were all alone, why would Verdori NOT kill Cerio? Are we really supposed to believe that Verdori had the person he'd been hunting for right in front of him, all alone, where one dead human already was, and he wouldn't take the opportunity? Maggis was the more dangerous one too - with her out of the way, what could Cerio possibly do to fight him off? There is absolutely no plausible way that a dragon was involved in any way, shape, or form. Not to mention that Maggis was murdered in the middle of the city, in broad daylight in the middle of the day. When Verdori flies over the city at the end of Day 4, it is extremely obvious. There is no possible way that no-one else would have seen Verdori if he had been there. Certainly not if he'd been in the middle of the intersection where the bloodstain is found.

4. "Oh, Cerio had mental issues, so everything was okay!" is basically the epitome of wishful thinking - in this case, Rimentus's. Also, I don't see the humans going "Okay sure Cerio started the fire, but he did it because of a dragon, so it's really all the dragons' fault!" in this ending like they do in the Bad Ending, even though nothing else about starting the fire changed.

5. Verdori gets exiled at the end because "Stalagshire is a progressive city". First off, Verdori doesn't - and never did - live in Stalagshire. He is a wild dragon. Why would he care about being exiled? Sure, the farmers/hunters can go after him now, but he never had those protections in the first place. Again, this also sounds like wishful thinking on Rimentus's part, not wanting any more bloodshed.

6. The canister that Verdori gives you is explained away as fake evidence to throw you off the track. Except, Verdori can't breathe fire, so that means there were still canisters of volatile fuel at Caketropolis. Even if the supposed accomplice set them off, the canister is not fake evidence at all.

7. And on that note - if Verdori was the cause of the fire, it still means "a dragon" caused the fire, and the murder! Which is what the townspeople thought the entire time, and used as justification to expel ALL the dragons! Simply identifying which dragon was responsible was NOT going to change their minds (because Humans Are B*stards). They don't care which dragon it was; they just want to be mad at dragons. This is VERY clear with how the attitude of NPCs changes over the course of the game - some NPCs who were okay with or ambivalent towards dragons become outright hostile by the end. Only the people who were initially friendly to them remain so.

It's also obvious in the Bad Ending; even though it would have been extremely obvious that Cerio had stabbed Avis (because a knife wound and a bloody knife would not look like a dragon's work), they still blame dragons for it. This is a city that is firmly established as looking for reasons to hate dragons. Most likely, what would actually happen is that the farmers and other townsfolk go "So, it was a dragon all along! We were right! Give them shock collars / kick them out!"

8. Most of the information found for the Golden Ending is intangible - a scent. When you finally find something tangible, Rimentus refuses to pick it up. The only tangible thing you get is the photograph collection, but Verdori admits to the accusations in this route only (because it never gets brought up at all in the Bad Ending route; if Cerio knows Verdori is after him, and Verdori is right in front of him, how come he still doesn't seem to recognize Verdori?).

9. Cerio clearly states in the Bad Ending that his parents were killed in a fire caused by dragons. Verdori is a jungle dragon. Jungle Dragons can't breathe fire. Verdori was NOT the dragon that killed his parents.

10. Ray (Avis's husband) suddenly forgives Rimentus and even gives him oversized food during the Golden Ending. Are we really supposed to believe that Ray, who absolutely despises dragons, suddenly has a change of heart because the dragons help put out a forest fire (that gets blamed on dragons in the Bad Ending, a sentiment he probably shares either way)?

I'm not done, I just have so many contradictions to note, they won't fit in one section.

11. How the heck did Cerio set the entire forest on fire by himself? (Also note, one of the scenes is of Verdori's den burning) Unless he had access to canisters full of volatile fuel, of course... In fact, Rimentus even comments that the sound of the explosion in forest is the same sound he heard when Caketropolis went up. And we know Cerio was responsible for the Jungle fire, because he confesses to it. Same method, same person.

12. In the Bad Ending, Verdori claims that he was going to tell Maggis about Cerio burning down Caketropolis - and Cerio then killed Maggis and blamed it on Verdori. Which is exactly what he does when he kills Avis so that it gets blamed on dragons. Same method, same person, again.

13. The RPG battle in the Golden Ending. We already know Verdori could kill Rimentus without breaking a sweat - just lick him twice when you're at his den for an instant death (and an achievement). Which makes sense, since Rimentus has never been outside of Stalagshire, and has no reason to know how to fight, whereas Verdori is a wild dragon and has been hunting his whole life. Being able to hold his own for so long against a dragon that we know can end him in an instant and come out if it with (relatively) minor injuries is, again, just Rimentus's imagination making him the hero.

14. In the Golden Ending's epilogue, it's stated that the fire threatened to burn down the city, AND that there was no way the humans could fight it on its own. Since nothing about the fire itself changes between routes, in the Bad Ending, the entirety of Stalagshire should burn to the ground, leaving nothing for the dragons to even be exiled from in the first place. But of course, if this is just Rimentus being told a story about how everyone got together to make peace...

15. Close to the end of the epilogue, it's stated that Maggis did have a burial ceremony, the day after she was murdered, but dragons weren't invited. Problem: At that time, there was a massive forest fire raging and threatening to engulf the town. For days, according to the narration. So when, exactly, did anyone have time for a funeral procession? Remember, the Mayor's announcement is the first thing that happens after Rimentus wakes up, and continues while you and Fleur break into Cerio's house. So unless the procession amounted to "You're dead, that's good, amen" and tossing her into a pit, there is no possible way that she was given a proper burial the day after she was murdered. This contradiction is special because unlike the others which are at odds with the Bad Ending, this is the Golden Ending contradicting itself.

This is a monumental amount of plot holes and many of them are very obvious but are, conveniently, never brought up by the characters (because this is just Rimentus imagining how things could have gone). But I never believed this was due to bad writing on the author's part, because the Bad Ending route has no such contradictions or plot holes. They are all in the Golden Ending route and there are so many that it felt deliberate - which it was.

There's some other points to make too:

First, the karma system. This works BOTH ways. No matter how good a dragon you are, in the Bad Ending, people still tar all dragons with the same brush and Rimentus still gets exiled, because Humans Are B*stards.

Conversely, in the Golden Ending, it doesn't matter how much of a jerk you've been, how many cakes you stole, how many people you insulted, how many times you told people you'd eat them, how many chalkboards you licked, or whatever. Everything is still forgiven and Rimentus gets to be the hero.

Also, it is impossible to do any of the Golden Ending stuff even by accident on a first playthrough because various flags are not set. After all, that's not how things actually went down. If you try, the game just tells you "Not inquisitive enough to enter".

There's also the change in the chalkboard message: On Day 1, it's "People don't inherently hate dragons. You will be judged by what you do." But by Day 3, Avis is ready to admit that Humans Are B*stards: "Always remember, Rimentus, that some people will always hate dragons. And that you are always judged by what you do, and who you are." This is the same in both routes but it is a subtle nod to the Realism vs. Idealism theme of the game.

And of course, there's the previously-mentioned required Time Paradox to get the Dragon Compass, and the "Turn Back Time" narrative.

Now we come to the bonus scenes from the Live In Stalagshire update, which only play into this idea more - the first two reinforce it, and the third outright confirms it.

From Within takes place some unspecified amount of time after the Golden Ending. Almost every notable thing in this scene is a contradiction. the sequence of events is as follows:

The unidentified accomplice from the Golden Ending is seen in the jungle, talking to himself. He repeats that "his traces must not be found" and "she had to die", referring of course to Maggis.

He states that he had to "get the enforcers to shut down the lookout". The only person with authority to do that would be Mayor Kendral, giving away his identity early. His stated reason for doing this is that Rimentus had been seen snooping around there, and that "dragons can recognize scents with terrifying accuracy". But if Rimentus has already caught Kendral's scent, how does this help? Closing the lookout doesn't make Rimentus forget the scent, as we see during the Golden Ending.

Then, we see a flashback to the Caketropolis fire, where Maggis asks an Enforcer where the mayor is, and the enforcer states Kendral was "in the Bazaar doing a Meet and Greet". Note, this also contradicts the Golden Ending where the accomplice, somehow, is at the Caketropolis fire, to knock into Cerio and steal his glasses. Kendral can't be in two places at once. Especially when one of those places is full of witnesses talking to him!

Then, the Mayor says that "Maggis knew something wasn't right about the sudden exception to the law" regarding Rimentus being allowed to walk free - an exception she explicitly says she has never heard of during Day 1 on both routes. He then goes on to say that, as an ex-Sheperd, Maggis would have opposed the shock collar legislation - that she wouldn't have been able to do anything about, since the Mayor has authority over the Enforcers.

Finally, the Mayor arrives at the clearing outside of Verdori's lair. Which, by the way, looks no worse for wear despite having burned to the ground during the Golden Ending. The only big change is that the entrance to the lair has been collapsed.

Verdori says that if he is seen, "your people" will shoot him. Not as though the Enforcers have ever done much to patrol the jungle at any point in the game, though. After all, that's the whole reason the accomplice went to the jungle to meet with Verdori. Then he goes on to remind Kendral that he's lost everything.

Verdori asks for a reason why he shouldn't just kill Kendral, who essentially says that Verdori needs him to get revenge on the dragons of Stalagshire. (Even though the Enforcers, and by extension Kendral, are the ones who exiled him. And even though Cerio is supposedly the one Verdori is after. And even though Verdori's beef with Stalagshire was its expansion into the forest by humans...)

Kendral re-iterates "how quick people are willing to turn against dragons one day, and then support them the next" (you know, that thing that makes the Golden Ending so unbelievable in the first place), and states that he could turn the people (that Verdori hates) against the dragons again.

Kendral states Verdori is needed to help with Insignium. Specifically, to find a dragon bigger than Insignium and persuade them to help. Verdori refuses and re-states that he only wants "that little runt's head" (presumably Rimentus).

You can then talk to Verdori for more. "About his health" gives an ambiguous line stating that Verdori "left the city ten or so years ago". Does this mean Verdori once lived in the city? It does explain what the augments on Verdori's back are, at least, something never mentioned in either base game route. But if it means that 10 years have elapsed since the Golden Ending, that would mean that Verdori was getting help from a doctor of some kind inside of the city up until he was exiled.

"Talk about revenge" has Kendral state that they only need to take down the 'alpha', namely Insignium, to make the rest 'scatter', letting Verdori do as he wishes. Given that Insignium was a recluse for years, it seems unlikely that the other dragons would simply give up if Insignium was taken down somehow; they don't follow him that closely.

"Talk about the den" reveals that Kendral is the one who completely destroyed Verdori's den, because Rimentus told everyone where Verdori lived, so Kendral had to do something to ensure Verdori wouldn't come back, but he can have Insignium's place. Verdori points out a contradiction: the plan relies on expelling all dragons from the city, which would include Verdori. Kendral just gives a vague "exceptions can be made, trust me on this".

Trying to leave advances the dialogue. where Verdori asks for Kendral's motive. Kendral's excuse is that dragons can switch sides just as easily as humans, and that Insignium "could turn Stalagshire into ruins if he wished it", and that Kendral is afraid Insignium would enslave the people of Stalagshire. Even though Insignium founded Stalagshire the way it is and went into hiding on purpose explicitly to avoid that. Plus, unlike with humans, who absolutely do change their views on dragons quickly (because Humans Are B*stards), the dragons' views do not change over the course of the game. They're just trying to live in peace in Stalagshire and mind their own business. The only dragon outright hostile towards humans at any point is Verdori, who is mad that the jungle is being cut down to make room for more houses, but he's never not like that.

He claims to be the one who got Fleur to poison Insignium, which contradicts the whole Fleur/Insignium subplot. Not to mention that if Fleur is the mayor's accomplice, why would she help Rimentus at all? Especially in the Golden Ending where her help is the only thing that stops Verdori from killing Rimentus?

For yet another contradiction, Verdori says "Your guns and tasers are not gonna stop him either. Stalagmus dragons have the toughest of hides."

This contradicts the Bad Ending where it is explicitly stated that even Insignium cannot stand up to all the guns of the angry people of Stalagshire. Which in turn contradicts the mayor's assertion that Insignium could turn the town into ruins on a whim.

Then the scene ends on foreshadowing: "Insignium must die."



Essentially, From Within is a bunch of moustache-twirling and monologuing to paint Mayor Kendral and Verdori as The Bad Guys. Which makes sense when it's all just Rimentus's wishful thinking. Remember, Rimentus already made one false conclusion by blaming Maggis (before she was murdered by Cerio), so now his imagination has turned to someone else instead, namely the Mayor.

On top of all this, the mayor could have easily just had the dragons kicked out of the city on Day 4. There's absolutely no reason for him to have gone the more convoluted route of requiring them to wear shock collars if his goal was to get rid of them all. If his goal really was to get rid of the dragons, and Maggis really was his biggest obstacle - once she was gone, and he had near-total support of the populace, what was stopping him?

One last thing. How could it be remotely possible that Rimentus, in his entire life, has never gotten close enough to the mayor to recognize his scent? During the course of the game, yes, you can never talk to him directly, but are we really supposed to believe that at no point before the game, Rimentus got close enough to the mayor to smell him?

Then there's "Live In Stalagshire". This is mostly a light-hearted scene to tell us some more about half-dragons, and features Faul the half-dragon as the playable protagonist in this one. The DCF is now the Dragon Concert Facility, and you can walk around it and talk to people. This takes place an unspecified amount of time after the Golden Ending.

The Mayor announces that the symphonic orchestra that was planned had to cancel, and they called in a replacement. A rock band. It bombs (the reporter lady even says that the performance "ruined the Festival"), though supposedly Fleur was in charge of the replacement band - even though she admits she'd never heard their music before.

Also, for some reason, Rimentus gets up on the stage and plays the keyboard for a bit (pressing one key over and over, something so easy he can do it with no practice). This only makes sense with the narrative framing that this is all in Rimentus's imagnation.



There's not a lot to go on here, it's just a silly scene with a shirtless half-dragon rocking out. However, there are a couple of things to note relevant to this guide:

1, A minor but notable thing that ties into the last bonus scene is that Fleur and Insignium are arguing, and Fleur keeps calling him "Grumpo". When Insignium asks why she keeps calling him that, Fleur does not answer.
2. Why, exactly, is the Mayor - supposedly the Big Evil Bad Guy with a flimsy excuse for hating dragons - going to such lengths to organize a concert in the first place for the combined dragon and human population? Who knows, maybe the cancellation was deliberate and this whole thing was a setup to increase animosity towards dragons with a disastrous performance that has a half-dragon as the fall guy. There's nothing that makes that more than speculation, however.

However, both of these two scenes are just a build-up to The Nonexistant Future, where the big reveal takes place.

It even spells it out, literally: in the previous two episodes, the episode name is shown in the top-right. For The Nonexistant Future, it starts as ???????, but then it cycles between "EHERT SI", "ON UERT", "DIENGN". With some unscrambling of these anagrams, you get, quite clearly, "THERE IS NO TRUE ENDING". The "True Ending" was a lie, all along. Confirmed from the developer himself.

We see Fleur, having just put Rimentus to bed... but in a cave somewhere, and not a very nice one at that. We soon learn they only arrived at it that night.

Fleur tries to talk to Insignium, but he refuses to respond. Fleur says she could "tell him a bedtime story too," indicating she just did the same for Rimentus. After some other one-way dialogue, Insignium finally speaks.

The Big Reveal happens. He accuses Fleur of "poisoning Rim's mind with your lies".

Fleur reveals it has been four months since they were exiled. Rim has been depressed, and she's had to look after him while Insignium tries to find them a place to live.






Insignium points out that if she convinces him Avis is still alive, Rimentus will want to see her. Fleur mutters that she'll "think of something". Insignium notes that Rim will hate her when he finds out.

Ultimately, Insignium says he will reconquer his old tribe. Fleur asks "What if they have guns?" (further contradicting Verdori's assertion that guns and tasers won't stop Insignium). They run out together into the night.

Rimentus is awake, and was listening. Now he doesn't know what really happened and what didn't. He even begins to question the things that happened in both timelines, like Avis reading him bedtime stories, and questions things we know are false, like Fleur and Insignium actually being his parents. It is, unquestionably, the Worst Ending. But it's also the canon one. THERE IS NO TRUE ENDING, after all. The entire Golden Ending route is a fabrication.



Additionally, one thing connects LiS and TNEF, where Fleur stops calling Insignium "Siggy" and starts calling him "Grumpo" instead. This has no evident reason during LiS, other than Insignium being, well, grumpy. But at the big reveal in "The Nonexistant Future", it's a reflection of how things are changing for Rimentus back in the present day - where Insignium is getting grumpier, and there is tension between Insignium and Fleur because of Fleur stringing Rimentus along with her stories, and Insignium being aware of it.

And one possibility - though this one is only speculation - to tie TNEF to From Within is this: Fleur comes up with the story about the Mayor wanting to have Insignium killed as an explanation to Rimentus about why they aren't living in Stalagshire any more.

And finally, there's a notable tie-in with the Golden Ending. Even in that ending, Ethyriel leaves the city for fairly flimsy reasons. But with the framing of "This is just what Fleur is telling him", it makes sense: Fleur needed to come up with an excuse for why Rimentus couldn't see Ethyriel any more. Just like she'd eventually have to come up with an explanation for why Rimentus couldn't see Avis.

In the end, The Mystery of Caketropolis turns out to be a story about escapism and running from the past. About a motherly figure (Fleur) lying to a child figure (Rimentus) about bad things that happened to them to try and make them feel better. And the inevitable trauma that comes when the truth comes to light.

And of course, the true moral: Humans Are B*stards.



Thank you, Afiq Suradi, for writing this story, making this game, and subverting the common expectations of visual novels. And for doing it in such a clever and creative way - and for making it explicit in the end rather than leaving it as an exercise to the player. And also for making a story with a non-human protagonist as those are rare and it's nice to see one done so well.



If I made any mistakes, I apologize; this is rebuilt from the conversation I had with my friend, which in turn was done a few days after I finished the game, so I may have made minor errors about the order in which major events happened. I did do another quick Bad Ending run-through to refresh my memory on a few things (and found more contradictions that I added), then went through the Golden Ending's epilogue and the Bonus scenes (finding even more contradictions that I added) but there still might be small mistakes. Feel free to correct me in the comments.