I write this guide because I used to be a struggling player too at the beginning. I tried my best to persist in exploring the game and finally obtained happiness when I went further to the story's core. And this happiness is enormous enough to make me forgive the pain this game gave me in my first few rounds.
Because the story is so well written on different endings, I want to encourage players who may be stuck in the game or are losing the willpower to finish the game.

Everything you have suffered will be worth it once you figure out the game's endings.

My guide is aimed at players who struggled in the first few rounds or facing more problems, such as:
getting confused by the abundant contents,
unable to find a direction in the game,
getting frustrated by enormous quests, or confused about the
game mechanism or the structure of the content.

For example, I do not know what these quests are about. Why do I suddenly get a new quest in my journal book? Why do the choices become different from the choices in my last round of playing? Why at this time this person seems to like me less? With so many quests, which one is important and should be my focus? What are these quests for? Does my relationship with the characters affect my quest?

If you are players who haven't bought the game or just requires some tips to get started, Geschrieben's guide is very good and suitable for you. If you are just a little confused about the game, this person's guide is a nice way to help you get started for the game.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2986252837
Some of the reminders may be helpful for you, and others may not. So, just take the parts that help you and leave the rest.
I will mention the connection between different parts of the game, but I will talk about the story. And some tips that I think affect your experience in exploring the story have been hidden using the black box.

I know you may be confused about why I mentioned it since the type of the game is on the shop page clearly. The reason is that this game possesses many elements from other types of games, such as RPGs. And your perception of the main type of the game affects your expectations towards the game.

Treat this game as a visual novel with some love sim element. (‘with’ is very important)
If you aim at a loving sim game simply, this game’s abundant content and so many quests may confuse you. And you may find that the romance part of the game does not occupy the most important part of the game.
So my suggestion is to shift your focus from the love sim part to the visual novel part and enjoy the whole story about the different characters and the case.


This mechanism, similar to some RPGs, is not contained in the game simply but is also important for you to achieve the main purpose, saving Archie in any way.

This is the favorability system.
The choice you make when talking with characters affects this character’s impression of you, thus affecting whether this character reveals more information for you or even contributes to achieving your goal. (e.g., saving Archie)
If you have played RPGs that contain parts with teammates’ stories, you may find that this game looks familiar. This mechanism is used in Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout: New Vegas etc., more or less. I will talk about this in detail in the last part.

‘choice → favorability → personal quest → ending’

Reminder: This is my way, and it helps me to start to enjoy the game. But I am not sure if it is suitable for you.

This part is for players who have a hard time figuring out the relations between quests and the lines to the end.
The content of the game can be divided into four parts :

census, personal request, the case, player's romance/friendship plan.

I highly recommend finishing the achievements of this game. The achievements hint at possible endings, which are all well-written.
You can also use the achievements as a simple guide to explore the game from the easy part to the tricky part.

Census → know characters
Personal quest → know characters better and reveal some possible lines about the ending provided by them
The case →discover relationships between characters.


This task given by Mr Pages helps players to make acquaintance with most characters. This process can help you obtain some first impressions of characters in the game. And this task is a fast way for players to obtain money for purchasing clothes.
What is most important is that making censuses provides you a chance to improve your favorability with this character.

Whether you get 1 or 2 pounds for one character's census depends on how thorough the census is for this character. (you can only get 1 pound for some characters)
So, just like Geschrieben said in his/her guide, be noisy. Keep asking, and do not be afraid about privacy. Moreover, some characters' quests can only be unlocked if you further ask about the thing they mentioned.

Tip:
it is better to meet characters in the first week and make their census because census choice may not pop out in the second week when the investigation begins. You may not have the chance to improve favorability with them and trigger their personal quests.


These requests provided by characters help players know better about characters and explore possible ways to save Archie.
(Some characters' quests are linked to the ending lines, some are not)

Making censuses with the character provides you with a chance to improve favorability with this person, thus unlocking this character's personal quest.
Whether you obtain enough favorability with this character can be checked on the map page. If there is a choice 'See what you can do for...' , it means you have succeeded in triggering his/her personal quest. Of course, some quests are hidden and more difficult to trigger.


This is the difficult part of the game. The investigation of this game is based on your understanding of characters and relationships between different characters .
If you are unfamiliar with these two things, it is normal that you cannot find the real murderer. Just relax and take your time.

Suggestion:
If you feel that the investigation is very difficult, I suggest that you finish the census, explore the quest of each character first, build your impression of the characters and become familiar with the character relationships. When you have finished these and started the investigation for the case, you will find the case becomes much easier.

Tip:
1. Figuring out the culprit is not the only way to save Archie. Some characters' personal quests are linked to other ways to save Archie.
2. When you piece together the case, you can set some parts to be unknown, and it will also provide you with new things to ask characters.
3. You can piece together cases in different ways and trigger lots of questions before you meet characters. You can choose multiple choices about the case in one conversation. (specific number is influenced by the favorability with this character)
4. This is a lazy way, do not use it unless you really can't figure out how to piece together the case.
If the case is pieced together towards a direction that you can ask characters about something, hover over "Submit", and you will see that the option is not lit. If you try to click, a conclusion about 'questions about ...' pops up.
If the piece is not put together towards the direction you can ask something, hover over the "submit" and it will have a bright edge that enables you to click. But nothing pops up.


This part is what the love sim is about. However, this part is not linked to the main quest (saving Archie) as closely as the other three parts (census, personal requests, the case)
Whether you become a friend/lover/bed partner does not affect you obtaining the necessary information for endings from this character or obtaining their personal quests. The last two things are only linked to your favorability with this character.

Tip: You do not have to be a friend/lover to get the characters' quest.

However, in the process you building a friendship/romantic relationship with these characters, you may obtain additional personal information about them and some of them may give you hints about endings.
(The information itself does not contribute to the ending. It just helps you understand the ending)
For example, some information about one character can be regarded as foreshadowing for one ending.

Besides, if you become friends with lots of characters, you can find relationships that form spontaneously in the rose festival. Also, you can read epilogue about your friends' future in the ending. You can also help match some characters more effectively.

This part is for players who wonder why my choice with some characters changed after I started a new round. It is also for players interested in improving favorability with characters quickly to obtain their personal quest.

But do not feel stressed about it. This game has high freedom. You can unlock some ending lines without finishing the related quest. And except for some extreme cases (usually, you won’t trigger this), the favorability does not affect that much in your game experience.


1. whether you can get this character’s personal quest

Just as I wrote in the personal quest part, improving favorability with this person helps you unlock this character’s personal quest.
Whether you obtain enough favorability with this character can be checked on the map page. If there is a choice ‘See what you can do for...’, you have succeeded in triggering his/her personal quest.
However, there exist some hidden quests of the person , which are linked to the ending of some lines. This part is waiting for your own to explore.

2. the information you can get

This part is linked to the case part of the game content. If your favorability with the character is high enough, then when the second week begins, you can choose more choices to ask about clues or things connected with the case. （there is a limit, 4 or 5 choices, I think）
As for the low favorability, then you may find that you can only ask 1 or 2 things about the case. Of course, it only requires you to spend more time talking with this guy.
By the way, if you become friends with merchants, you can succeed in choosing to pay less.

3. the choice you can choose with this character

Although your outfit can provide you with special options occasionally, it is not the only thing that affects the choice you can get when you talk with characters. Your favorability with the person also affects your choice that appears.
If you always choose a mean choice or choice this character recognizes as not friendly enough, then you will have a more chance of having unfriendly choices appear in your choice pool. And if the favorability of this character is low, you may only have neutral choices and unfriendly choices to choose.
But don’t worry. The neutral option is always in your choice pool, except your relationship with the character is too terrible.


Through my experiment, there are three things that affect the favorability of one character:

1. your clothes/background, 2. your choice in the conversation with this character, 3. your friendliness (I will explain this one).

The first two are obvious. The background and the description of clothes will hint to you on the direction of special choices it provides. Your choice during the communication with the character is also easy to understand. I will mainly talk about the last one.

Your own friendliness is based on the accumulation of your choice. For example, if you always make friendly choices when communicating with characters, then you will have a higher possibility of seeing friendly choices when you communicate with the next character.
Therefore, it is possible to be friends with many characters, meet them at the rose festival and read their epilogue at the end.
I mention this because this one can help players who aim to unlock achievements quickly.


1. Expression:

Check the expressions on the character during your first acquaintance with the character. If they smile less, it indicates that your favorability with them improves too slowly due to your choices. If they smile more, it indicates that you have obtained high favorability from this character. The character will ask you whether to be a friend/lover, or you will have a question about what relationship you want to have with them (the relationship selection mechanism).

2. Relationship selection mechanism:

The time when the relationship selection mechanism appears during the conversation and the choice it provides can also give you hints about the favorability of the character.
If you obtain high favorability with the character, the relationship selection mechanism will pop up, asking you what relationship you want to be with him/her, and there will be choices about friends or lovers etc. If you have obtained high favorability in your first meet, you can be friends with this character immediately at the end of the first conversation.

It is better if you explore it by yourself, but I also understand that some players may not have so much time to explore. So, I will present what I find to help some players to unlock achievements more quickly and enjoy the content.

Some specific characters you need to pay attention to in your first acquaintance:

Devils, the priest, Harjit, Barqujin

Devils: do not wear the badge and do not mention ministry when you talk about census (Virginia doesn't like this)
If your own favorability is not high enough, they will ask you to promise. Don't worry. This promise does not affect anything. (I am not very sure, but in my many rounds, it does not trigger anything)

The priest: the same. Wearing the flower brooch and saying, 'the census is your own idea', are preferable. Be careful not to offend him on some religious topic. In one ending line, you need to force him to talk about something.

You need to be careful because the priest, along with devils, will not provide you a further chance to improve your favorability with them. So, if you fail to achieve enough favorability from them, you will fail to trigger their personal quests.

Harjit: the same, show sympathy (but also do not be too exaggerate), better choose the choice provided by the flower brooch
(you can get him to talk to you about something at the end of the first meet if you obtain enough favorability from him which depends on your choices)
It is okay even if you do not obtain enough favorability with him in the first meeting. You can also improve favorability when you ask him to lead the way to locations.

Barqujin: I mention her because there is a shortcut in her and the octopus man's quest. If you show enough friendliness with her and listen to her instead of the octopus man, even if you trigger their separation later on, she will be back immediately when you continue their task. (you can even trigger an interesting thing: 3P )
If your favorability with her is not enough, you will have to spend some time helping find her for the octopus man. But, I found that finding her or not does not affect you to help the octopus man achieve his goal.

A quick way to improve favorability:

Flower brooch + academic gown
Just choose special friendly options provided by them every time in conversations.
(only one special ending line (one achievement) requires you to be careful about choices when you wear them)