MARREND'S PROFILE

The on-screen avatar is Aele, not Ryuna. Simple as that.

The good news: The new demo, complete up to the end of Chapter 2, is up!
The bad news: Save files are not backwards compatible with any previous version of the game. While there's nothing I can do to stop you from attempting to use old version save files, I would highly recommend that you start from scratch.

The good news: The entire playable roster becomes available in Chapter 2!
The bad news: The gameplay still boils down a combat engine (and a default one at that) with a story to tell. I want to change that in Chapter 3, but I want to see what people think about this version before worrying too much on that front.

Still chugging along with this game. I haven't started re-writing Chapter 2, but I've polished off Chapter 1 and am in the process of debugging/testing the event structure.

The current format of the game feels like it's concentrating too much on grinding for levels. Maybe that's just me over-playing the game? Maybe it's an actual issue that I need to address? I can't really tell anymore. I'll find out what kind of feedback I get when I re-release the Chapter 2 demo.

In other news, I've taken down the old Chapter 1 demo. Thanks to the 53 people who've downloaded it!

In preparation to make the game better in general, I decided to challenge myself, in the style of Liberty's DOING IT! series, to describe all the possible characters that could or do appear in the game without describing what he or she looks like or what he or she does.

Yasui Goho:
Lovable dim-wit with a heart of gold.
SIde note: Cliche as hell, but it works.

Umehara Joruri:
...?
Side note: Seriously, the only thing that I have is that she's a good friend of Goho. Not a good sign.

Chishu Katai:
Lazy slacker who avoids doing work at all costs.
Side note: Masako always has venom at the ready when confronting the guy. I know his lackadaisical attitude is a factor, but...

Mitsuya Masako:
Highly intelligent, exceptionally capable, and an intuition that's never been proven wrong. She is difficult to approach, as she speaks with such high intelligence. She could get over some of the facility's heads!
Side Note: Whenever I have Masako open her mouth, I wonder "Is this Masako?" I don't normally do that with other characters. This has to change!

Koruba Toshie:
Exuberant, spontaneous, and isn't afraid to say whatever it is that's on her mind. Her bluntness is bound to cause trouble.
Side note: Better developed, but there isn't much more to Toshie than this.

Nosaka Kojiro:
...?
Side Note: This is terrible. I have no personality for him whatsoever. He's a total blank-slate. A one-dimensional, throw-away character.

Miyazaki Massaki:
A rather timid fellow who worries about his sister's latest exploits.
Side Note: That's still a bit on the poor side. Wow, I thought I had better characters than this!

Miyazaki Nari:
Angry tough-girl who's never able to keep a boyfriend for very long.
Side note: Seriously, that's my direction for Nari. Arguably, she's better than her brother, somehow.

Ogyu Sataro:
Tough-as-nails, to-the-grindstone.
Side note: He's not a terribly important NPC, but still...

Shige Chojiro:
...?
Side note: He serves almost no purpose to the game as-is. I might end up just tossing him.

Yamamoto Mina:
A woman of great mystery. She obviously knows the whole truth behind the "dream" Matsumori High. She holds back that knowledge on the belief that the PC's are better off finding out for themselves.
Side note: The whole "Arbiter Code" that Mina mentions in pervious versions sounded like a lame excuse for Mina to withhold information. She's much better of with the belief that the PC's should find out the truth with as little help as possible.

Kamimoto Ichiro:
A dottering old man with a tendency to speak to inanimate objects.
Side note: That's Ichiro in a nutshell, all right. Then again, shopkeepers don't normally have personalities.

Kurokami Rasuna
Eccentrically curious about everything.
Side note: She probably won't even appear in this game. She might not even get a mention. If she is in this game, she'd be comic relief along with Toshie.

Genji Shirai:
Apathetic to the point of cynicism. His morals tend to go to the highest bidder.
Side note: He might not make a physical appearance in the game, but his name might be dropped.

Korn Vatma:
An individual whose definition of "playing around" involves torture.
Side note: He was never very well-defined outside of this. Probably just another name that may or may not be dropped in the course of this game.

This brings another problem. Locations. Forget about the problems inherent about physically making maps, and concentrate on what the possible locations are. If I can figure that out, I can figure out which is the best place for which girl. Then I can concentrate on the hard part of making the maps!

Obviously, I need a library. This serves as a mostly neutral location, as no girl has a particularly fond time at it. With the exception of Masako's research date. But let's not consider that quite yet. I want to look at generalities rather than specific moment in a girl's arc.

It seems to me that there should be some kind of park to visit. An outdoorsy area, if nothing else. Who would enjoy this the best? Toshie seems particularly active, but Joruri might be okay with it as well.

Isn't there always some kind of restaurant sequence? Nothing fancy, of course. So... Joruri's favorite date location? Possibly.

There's no graphics to support a good sakura (cherry blossom) tree with the default VX graphics. Sad, since this seems like a good fit for Joruri or even Masako.

So, I'm left with where Masako would like to go. Obviously, it can't be the library. It's got to be a place nobody would suspect an intellectual would like to go. The movies? Actually, that probably isn't a bad idea in general to have. We could have a sub-set of various movies to watch. We could have "Generic Action Thriller Part V" that Toshie would love to see. We could have "(Final) Fantasy Foolishness Version Omega" that Joruri would enjoy. We could have "Spy Thriller: The Ulkimate Sequel" that Masako is subtly interested in watching. I could even have everyone's favorite "Nakaishi Wars: First Contact".

So, I've gots the ideas. Now, it seems to me that the easiest way to implement this is Show Choice. You go up to a girl, and she'll be like "Wanna go somewhere Goho?" (Masako's line: "Is there a place that we could convene that would be a pleasurable experience?")

The initial choice would be:
Library
Park
Restaurant
Movie

Depending on the girl, the reaction would be different. Toshie, though, would probably always say, "Okay! Let's do this!" If one chooses Movie, the girl would ask what kind of movie "Goho" had in mind. Show Choice is our friend:
Generic Action Thriller Part V
(Final) Fantasy Foolishness Version Omega
Spy Thriller: The Ulkimate Sequel
Nakaishi Wars: First Contact

Again, the reaction would be different, but Toshie would probably always say, "Oh! I always liked that one!"

This is getting somewhere!