Correct, not randomized for the gambling for players who want to get all endings, they can still have some speed run ability. As you discovered, saving the game for rewinding progress is genuinely one of the most powerful things available for a player, I feel I should find a way to emphasize that fact more. Good to know about the killing Malice soft lock, I'll have a way to force the campfire activation before further dialogue. I tried a lot with all of dialogues and their possible versions to make a game that's engaging, humorous, and serious when it needs to be. There is a lot of intentional lore in this game as well, and often times there will be conflicts in the story line. This is because... not everyone is telling truth, at least, not all of it.
the thing about some people lying is actually cool, ive thought about making a game where people act like they do in real life instead of how they act in most video games. like a character could suggest you do something like go to a temple to find an object but there was actually nothing there cause they thought wrong. or like you said the story has conflicts because some people either lied or thought they knew the truth but it was actually wrong.
Absolutely, just as I try to make the humor semi-organic, I want to make dialogue organic as well. There should be a sense of realism in games if you want it to feel more realistic, and to do so, you require some sort of deception. The world doesn't always tell the truth so why should the games? I think pursuing that system in your upcoming games and other artforms in the future would be a great touch that's extremely underrated.