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1. Yes when you start the game, there are some choices that are permanent. Even if you reload a save, the choice will be automatically inputed and you can't undo it no matter how far you go back. This is because of the persistent file in your saves. It records your current progress and every choice you choose.

2. If you want to restart/redo the game you have to (grabbed this advice from the discord):

Press "Win + R" on your keyboard to open the Run window.

Type "%APPDATA%\RenPy" into the box and press Enter.

Find the folder named "emptybox" and delete the entire folder.

Reinstall the game, and you should be able to start fresh!

This will delete your existing save data, so make sure you're okay with losing your current progress before doing this!

3. Yes you can be locked out of the game at some point in your playthrough if you choose a certain choice. If you'd like a loose guide, there is a guide in the Empty Box discord if you think that will help!

4. When you get to the true ending, there's not a method of collecting all cg's and endings, because once you select the LI that you want the game only gives you the cgs of that LI when you beat the game. I've seen people make multiple windows accounts to get all the the cgs, but it's not possible to collect all of them on a single windows account.

Hope this helps!

You have to pick the first option in the book reading event to get him to talk about the book he was reading. If you haven't gotten it yet and he quizzes you early, just keep going through the loops and take note of things he says he likes or things he does/observes, you'll get the interaction eventually.  Mine was Pride and Prejudice for example.

All of my questions and answers were in Chinese, so I used my phone with Google Translate and everything matched the translation. I think the only set of answers that might be difficult to understand is what's L's wish. Good luck!

Just wanted to report back now that I've finished the game and say the game ran smoothly without any incidents on Steam Deck! I really did enjoy the game (Rinso the most) and playing on my Steam Deck helped make it a comfortable experience. Here's some tips if anyone wants to play on Steam Deck, it works without issue: 

If anyone has questions I'm in the Empty Box discord too (@chocobreadroll)

*Note for Naming MC using Steam Deck (spoilering to be safe but it's just a command suggestion): since steam deck users can't change their "user" name in a sense, I suggest adding this to your Steam Launch command with your name before getting to far in the first playthrough:

WINEUSER=YourName USER=YourName USERNAME=YourName %command%

1. After downloading the Windows version of the game, extract it to My Files.  Click inside the game folder, Right-Click on EmptyBox.exe, Select Add to Steam.

2. Either in Game Mode or Desktop Mode, open the Steam library, find the game, click on properties (gear icon), go to Compatibility, and select Proton Experimental. If this isn't selected the game won't run, I choose Experimental by default but you can try the other versions.

3. Any windows that may pop up during the game are treated as new pop up windows inside the game. You don't have to exit the game to get back to the game itself, you just need to press the STEAM button and scroll down the game menus options with the d-pad to find the game selection. It should be at the bottom titled "Empty Box". Clicking it, you can play as normal. 

Meta Additions: In order to view meta content, you need to access your compdata where the game's information is being synced with wherever you've extracted the Empty Box game. 

Example: /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/[GAME_ID]/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Desktop/

*Note: If you can't find the game's compdata, make sure it's the most recent game you've played and sort the folders by Most Recent.

I have also seen people say they wanted to try to do multiple true end runs with their version of L. I haven't tested it yet but I copied, pasted, and compressed the extracted Empty Box folder by putting it on my main hard drive. If my theory is correct, without playing the whole game again, you simply need to: 

1. Compress the game right before you start looping with Saken (aka before saves are disabled).

2. In a location different from where you extracted the original game folder, decompress it there. (Ex. For me, I had the game in my sd card, so I would decompress that version on my main hard drive)

3. Go in the folder just like you did when you first download and Right-Click on "EmptyBox.exe" and press Add to Steam again. This makes a fresh addition to your Steam library, I have tested it, it will duplicate the game in your unfavorited game list in your library. Just scroll down until you find the duplicate.

4. Again since this is just a theory, I'll need to check for myself. Use Proton Experimental again and start the game. The purpose is to make a separate compdata library of the game. 

5. Run the game and see if the saves are different. 

Theory Summary: If someone wants to check this lmk! When you add a duplicate game executable to Steam, the system assigns it a brand-new, unique 10-digit App ID and builds an entirely separate Proton Prefix (compatdata folder) for it. This process essentially creates an isolated virtual C: drive for each individual shortcut you add to your library. Because the visual novel writes its persistent choice tracking and save data directly into this sandboxed virtual environment, the duplicate instances cannot see or read each other's files. This should allow you to run separate playthroughs on the same Steam Deck.

Thank you for the tip! I'll definitely keep an eye out.

Thank you so much! So far it has been a smooth experience running on my steam deck. I will keep you updated! ✨️

Happy launch day everyone! I was so excited that I bought it immediately on today and I also plan to buy it again when it launches on Steam to support!

I am currently playing the Windows version on my Steam Deck using Proton Experimental until it comes out on Steam. If anyone can answer it, I have a technical question regarding the gameplay experience before I get too deep in the game. Are there any external file changes, desktop pop-ups, changes to the desktop, or text documents generated outside the game window that I need to look at for the story? Especially if it's in real time that prevent game progress unless you interact with them. 

Because the Steam Deck's Game Mode hides the desktop environment, I want to make sure I don't miss any meta-elements or hidden file interactions if there are any while playing. If there are I can just switch to Desktop Mode to continue playing, thanks!