作者写的额外内容的英文翻译搬运一下
#1 - 2023-4-27 19:01
Wspr (致力于在正确的时间做错误的事)
一位uboachan上的热心网友翻译的，打完看看还挺有意思。匿名版可能会被顶掉所以我就放这里吧 https://uboachan.net/og/res/3723.html
Since the official Tempura site is dead and only exists on the Internet Time Machine, I decided to translate the official dev's notes about the game, the development process, and some other things. I'm not really sure whether Uboa's the most fitting place for that kind of thing, but at least this board is more or less stable, and the posting is slow enough.
Original link: https://web.archive.org/web/2007 ... 10/SBDis_Top_01.htm
The main page
"Seraphic Blue"
This project hid a lot of intrigue. Each character had his own secrets, and the intertwining of their destinies and interactions with each other formed a complex story.
Now the story is over and the secrets have been revealed… but not all of them. And by those remaining secrets, I mean the so-called "behind-the-scenes" ones: notable episodes of game development and other "bonuses." I would call them "last testimonies", which, if not disclosed, would go with me to the grave and turn to dust along with my body.
-Disclose with Tales-
And now your humble eyewitness, alive and well at the moment, having failed to die, will reveal to you these once-hidden secrets, telling you something about them in the process.
Disclosure 01: Er, the belated angel of death
"Er"
She's probably well remembered by those who have played the game, and Er's character stands out not only because of her role in the story, but also because of her personality (as evidenced by her popularity). I planned from the start to make her a very "vivid", memorable character that would stay in the player's memory for a long time, and I have every reason to believe that the goal was reached.
By the way - I apologize for the slight deviation from the topic - I used the progressive iterative improvement method in developing the game:
1.You create a game from start to finish, that's how version 1.0 appears.
2.You play the completed (so far) game from beginning to the end.
3.If you find something you don't like during the playthrough, you fix it right away. If you like it - leave it as is.
Thus, at the end of the playthrough you have a version 2.0
4.Repeat the process several times.
This way I brought the game to version 5.2, which was the first release.
Now let me confess something… At the time the version 1.0 was completed, there was no such character as Er.
Back then, the final boss of the game was not her, but only Refuse Seraphic Blue as the embodiment of wishes of those striving for the world's destruction. Still, I felt that this kind of plot development turned out to be too boring and unconvincing, and that it lacked some kind of "zest". So, after thinking carefully, I decided to create the character of Er, and made a few significant changes to the game's story. In this light, Er could be called the "belated angel of the end of the world."
But hearing about it now, you're probably thinking, "If Er and Vene are inseparable, then what personality did Vene have back when Er didn't exist yet?"
Well, I'll tell you about that in the next disclosure…
Disclosure 2: A lifeless heroine, a fake angel, and an erased ending
"Vene Ansbach"
She's probably well remembered by those who have played the game, and Vene's character stands out not only because of her role in the story, but also because of her personality (as evidenced by her popularity). I planned from the start to make her a very "vivid", memorable character that would stay in the player's memory for a long time, and I have every reason to believe that the goal was reached.
That's right, those are the same words that were written about Er - because Vene and Er are inseparable. Er is Vene, and Vene is Er.
And yet there was a time when Er did not exist yet…
In those days Vene was an extremely orthodox heroine. Yes, she was still an angel who absorbed the souls of Lake, Evan and Ofa, yes, she too was haunted by doubts due to the influence of the Kursk family ideology - but in the end she was saving the world in a completely traditional and "healthy" way, and that was the game's conclusion.
That plot was just a conventional, boring story. Even though the intrigue and dilemmas concerning the Kursk family were of a great success, what about the heroine? Where are her emotions, her soul? Where are the manifestations of her personality and dedication? All this was simply not there, and in the end that heroine turned out to be shallow, superficial and simply not spelled out. A heroine "without life", a fake angel.
Well, then, I needed to breathe life into her. Give her an ardent heart, a soul, a personality.
As a result, "Seraphic Blue" changed. The story, which told of a battle for the life of the planet, eventually transformed into a dark, somber tale of an angel. Vene Ansbach got her heart, soul, and personality, and in the end she metamorphosed from a lifeless "main character dummy" to a full-fledged protagonist.
As a consequence, the ending of the old version of the game was invalidated and erased.
(by the way)
Looks like someone has spread a rumor that "Seraphic Blue" has another, secret ending, but it's not true. The thing is, when releasing the game, I forgot to delete the old ending data, which I kept as backup while working on the present ending. Other than that, those files don't have any purpose.
Perhaps by delving in the game's files, you will find an "invalid" ending that no longer has anything to do with "Seraphic Blue".
Disclosure 3: Destruction of fake images / Incarnation of the "dark heroine" deprived of freedom
The idea of a heroine who serves the world and devotes her whole self to this vocation is fundamentally questionable. When I see such an image elsewhere, I can't help thinking that I see a walking preacher or a masked propagandist.
In order to make Vene as "alive" as possible, I decided to break the established heroic image to the ground, that false image that only deceives people by not showing them how the character really feels. However, my plan was not just to deconstruct for deconstruction's sake. Rather, what led to the deconstruction were ideas that I thought were appropriate for erasing all the falsity from Vene's image.
- "Will it be a cheerful heroine?"
- "No, not at all."
- "Are her eyes burning with passion?"
- "No, they are dim."
- "Does she accept the world around her with joy and happiness?"
- "No, she rejects it with anger and sadness."
- "But she sincerely wants to save her world, doesn't she? I mean, she loves a world whose fate depends only on her, right?"
- "Of course not, what're you even talking about?"
- "How so? Isn't she a heroic character?"
- "Heroic? She's been robbed of the chance to live life as she wants to, and you expect her to be heroic? You had better look elsewhere for heroes."
In the world of the game Vene was deprived of the opportunity to live a normal life in the name of her mission, so my thought was: what lurks in the heart of someone with this kind of fate? With what eyes would they see the world around them?
So little by little the false "heroic" mask hiding Vene melted away, and her true cold personality revealed itself.
In the end, Vene became a truly unusual "dark heroine," the embodiment of an anti-hero with human emotions. An image that rose from the ashes of the destroyed "shallow traditional heroine" image. Such is the one who weaves the plot of "Seraphic Blue" - Vene Ansbach as you know her.
To be honest, while making all these changes, I felt a strong feedback to Vene's transformation. It was as if she was changing before my eyes from an unresponsive, "dead" heroine to a "living" anti-heroine of flesh and blood. And along with her, the story came alive too.
Disclosure 4: The Difficulties of Creating a Global Map / Heavenly Continent Fezzite
"World Map"
I think I first saw it in SFC's FF6 (the author is probably referring to Square's Final Fantasy 6; translator's note) - a semi-transparent thumbnail world map in the bottom right corner of the screen. This feature was so convenient and innovative that it has become the de facto standard for all subsequent RPGs.
By the way, are you familiar with such phrases as "Second World" and "Third World"? No, I'm not going to bring up a sore subject of developed and underdeveloped countries or mockery of Central and South America, Africa or Asia, but just referring to the terms from Final Fantasy 5. Those who have played it will probably remember that the world where the game's story begins is called the "First World", while the others are called the "Second World" and the "Third World" respectively. It was there, in the aforementioned Final Fantasy 5, that I first saw the expanding of the game's story as the global world map changes. I was very impressed by it then, and to this day I recognize this introduction as an important element of any RPG (also, it's a big disappointment if I play an RPG that doesn't have it implemented).
Two key concepts to the idea of the air continent of Fezzite were "global map" and "another world." Before I started developing the game, I thought about bringing something new to the "global map" system, and it occurred to me to create not one, but two world maps - in the bottom two corners of the screen, respectively. However, if there is going to be another world in the game, it makes sense that its global projection should be different, and hence the need to create a common map is unnecessary. Thus, I needed two worlds, a "main" one and "another", but which shared the same coordinates.
The answer was found in the sky - a continent floating in the sky, Fezzite.
Creating a world map with two "layers," earthly and celestial, was a real challenge for me - and that's when the main concept of "Seraphic Blue" was born. So there can be no doubt that it was first and foremost a story about heavens.
I can proudly say that "Seraphic Blue" is currently the only RPG that involves two world maps at the same time, and I hope that the game's world made an impression on the players.
"Too much land"
Fezzite has too much land, despite it's being just a continent that was lifted into the air through the intervention of Gaia's Providence, just like an apple falling from a tree was made to freeze in mid-air.
In fact, there is an explanation for why there's such large amounts of empty territories on Fezzite, and I originally had some plans on them, but had to give them up during development.
I will tell you the details in the following disclosures.
Disclosure 5: Die to the fullest! / Stubborn foes and hot battles
I am aware of the high difficulty of my game, as well as the fact that this somewhat harms its popularity. However, high difficulty is an inherent policy of mine in game development, and even if it goes at the expense of popularity, so be it.
Speaking of enemies and combat systems, I am convinced that if the enemy's presented as a powerful one in the story, then he should be just as hard to beat in the battle. You also need to consider the development factor of the story: in Seraphic Blue, the enemies are constantly changing, so the increase in difficulty also plays a significant role here. You defeat one, another, a third, and then you get to the boss, overpowering him - and the plot takes a new step.
Actually, advancing the plot through battles is the key to success. This is the reason why I made the battles so hard - so that the players could feel the growing power of their opponents and the plot tension not only through the cutscenes and text, but also through desperate battles. This method of synchronizing narrative and combat is used for better engagement of the player in the game's story, and I wouldn't give up on it for anything.
Perhaps the following phrase will be more abstract than the explanation above, but it expresses my approach best:
"Know the power of the enemy blocking your path on your own skin! Feel the heat of the hellish battles just as you feel the heat of the raging events surrounding them! And die to the fullest!"
There, please. And I hope you've died enough times in battles to feel that heat to the full!
"死ぬがよい (Shinu ga yoi)"
If that phrase made your memory bell jingle, you remembered it right - it's the key phrase from the ported to PS2 bullet hell shoot'em up "Dodonpachi Daiyousei."
If you don't know what I'm talking about, please just keep reading.
I'm addicted to bullet hell scroll shooters at the moment - mostly the ones made by CAVE. On my home console I played "Daiohyo", "Mushihime-sama", "Espgaluda" and "Shikigami no Shiro", and in the arcade rooms I played "Garuda 2" and "Ketsui".
Being a fan of hardcore gameplay, the difficulty level of these games was very comfortable for me, and the abundance of bullet barrages filling almost the entire screen is pleasing to my eye. However, it also came to me at the time that the battles in "Seraphic Blue" were not as intense as they could have been. Alas, at the time of development I had not yet discovered the bullet hell genre, and now I just wish I had taken the "Seraphic Blue" battles to a slightly higher level of difficulty. Also, while watching the playthrough videos of the game I kept thinking that the enemies weren't that pushy.
I have no plans for the next game at this time, but if I had to work on its combat system, I would make the following changes:
Health fully restored at the end of battles.
Reduced cost to use skills.
Penalty attacks for framekilling*1 enemies.
If a player loses, instead of game-over, the game sends them to the last checkpoint
Bosses go on a rampage when their health is low
Enemy damage increased by 50%
I think this could make the battles more intense and interesting. What do you think?
"Framekill"
Rumor has it that some of the "Seraphic Blue" bosses are intentionally designed so that they can only be defeated by framekilling, but that's not true. All bosses can be defeated in a fair fight, which I've done many times during my tests. That's why I regret that I overlooked the possibility of frame-killing and didn't endow opponents with countermeasures against such tactics.
——————————————————————————–
*1 Framekill (ハメ殺し) is a fighting game term that means "pinning down" your opponent, adjusting your attacks to his windows of incapacitation, allowing you to defeat him without giving him a chance to do anything. In RPG, it means repeating such attacks that would not allow the opponent to use his powerful abilities (or would not allow him to attack at all).
Disclosure 6: Narrators of Heaven and Earth / Conductors of the Distant Blue Sky
"Conductors"
In games like Dragon Quest, the protagonist is completely controlled by the player, and in fact the player is given absolute freedom to follow the story as he pleases, based on information received from the king and townspeople. On the other hand, in games like Final Fantasy, where it's more like "the story leads the player", someone has to act as a guide moving the plot forward.
I suppose there's no need to tell you that "Seraphic Blue" is of the latter type, and since its story is a complex interplay with many characters involved, there are several conductors presented.
Lake
Lake is the central figure of the plot and its main conductor for a long time. The "central figure," however, is only a facade, as his main role changes over time.
At first he serves as a guide through the world of the Ground, preparing the player for an encounter with Georg, witnessing Vene's amnesia, and traveling with her all over the world, while being unaware of its true nature. Next, after learning the true state of affairs, he becomes the Main Body of Seraphic Blue - at the same time losing his status as a single protagonist. Vene joins him, at first in an equal position, and then overshadowing him. Now I wish I had made this transition a little more elaborated.
Vene
She is the protagonist of the game, but she does not act as a conductor during her amnesia. In the last chapter she not only becomes the whole entity of Seraphic Blue, but also the one who learns the story's underlayer (including Er's secret), and reflecting on this in her profound manner.
Considering that, by standard, the game's protagonist, on whom the player's attention is focused, usually "leads" the story from start to finish, it can be said that Vene's role transition is one of the main plot "twists" of "Seraphic Blue".
Disclosure 7: Narrators of Heaven and Earth / Conductors of the Distant Blue Sky (Part 2)
"Conductors"
Minerva
Because of her position as queen of Fezzite, Minerva knows a lot about many plot events, which allows her to be a versatile guide. In addition, she is a very active and energetic character, which also adds to that versatility. Of course, she appears quite late in the story (in episode 13, to be exact), but since by that time Lake takes the position of an "outsider" and therefore cannot play the role of story guide, Minerva takes over that role as someone who "knows Fezzite" and can guide the hero through it. In addition, she also deftly moves the plot at various points in the game right up to the very end.
(There are opinions that Minerva's character pales somewhat in comparison to the others, but I don't consider that a disadvantage. A character that stands out too much wouldn't be able to serve as a conductor in all situations).
Yangtze
The side of Lake, Vene and Minerva is the main axis of the story, but it is still not enough to depict events from all sides. It is for this purpose that I have prepared a plot involving Yangtze, which begins when Lake is reunited with Vene, and when all the mysteries surrounding him are revealed. The plot of Yangtze's side gives the story more diversity.
Benedicta and Catherine
True, they are the Prophetesses guiding the course of Gaia's Rebirth, but they play no explicit role in the entire plot. Their main function is to reveal the story of the game by telling important things and taking important actions in key places, while being the main masterminds with knowledge about "everything and everybody".
In other words, the development of the story needs two functions: the first is the story itself, which "swings" little by little and begins to move, and the second is the conductor, which controls guides the story, giving it a "vector". We can put it this way: Lake, Vene, Minerva and Yangtze are the "yang" guides, while Benedicta and Caterina are the "yin" guides.
"Yin and yang"
The "yin and yang" concept mentioned above is, in my opinion, of high importance, and I will try to talk more about it next time. I'm sure one of the reasons for the success of this story was precisely because the two sides of guides, "yin and yang," played their roles as they should.
"Another Guide."
In fact, I had planned to introduce another guide character in "Seraphic Blue" in addition to the Vene and Yangtze sides.
I'll talk about that next time.
Disclosure 8: The Untold Story / Another Guide (not released)
The next set contains kind of bonus information, not included in the main article.
Seraphic Blue -Disclose with Tales EX-
Disclosure EX 1: Alas, you are wrong / Expectations and hard work
You should definitely recognize the character in the image - after all, he is the only comedic type in the game. When setting up his difficulty, I kept in mind that such a character shouldn't be too strong to stand up to the game's key bosses, but I still tried to make him not too weak either. He didn't give me much trouble during my game tests, and neither did the whole Meat Maniacs showdown that followed. Sure, in earlier versions of "Seraphic Blue", which didn't yet have automatic replenishment implemented, the battles with them were a lot harder, but in recent versions they're easy as never.
What was my surprise when, reading player reviews, I found out that this part of the game was remembered by many as being really hard. I couldn't understand how a bunch of comedic opponents could make a serious problem for anyone, while some of the other bosses that I thought were really problematic didn't cause any difficulties for anyone.
I was very impressed by existence of such a big difference between the players' and the developer's perception, the difference that sometimes was a cause of unexpected "hard work".
"Branching dungeons"
Branching dungeons usually consist of one main passage and its offshoots. At the end of each one the player must complete a quest in order to proceed through the main passage, therefore, after completing all the quests, such dungeon, respectively, becomes very fast to pass.
The iron rule of such dungeons is to return to the hub for resupplying upon completion of each quest.
In past versions of the game there was a Tree of Memories at the entrance to the ROBIN's secret factory, but since that was a branching dungeon, I decided to remove the Tree as unnecessary. As a result, many players recklessly rushed into battle with Fyodor and Heidi without saving beforehand, and of course those players were soon finding themselves on the game over screen.
I wasn't expecting that to happen, because as an experienced RPG player, I was never rushing into suicidal battles without saving the game beforehand, and so I assumed that others would do the same. So I apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced by my overconfidence. From now on I will try to be more down-to-earth in my expectations.
Disclosure EX 2: Suspicious Sixth / Gaia's Cancers Sprites
"Intimidating Forms"
Gaia's Cancers are the main plot enemies of "Seraphic Blue".
Their designs turned out to be really impressive and terrifying thanks to the amazing skills of the sprite artist. Since I was the client, I should have formed orders for the artist to draw the sprites, but as one of the conditions I gave him almost complete freedom to design the Cancers, describing only vague images in my head. Then the artist's improvisation came into play, and upon completion I accepted the sprites almost immediately.
The following list contains those vague images. Alas, I have been unable to find any records from those days, so here I have to rely only on my own memory.
Irmgard - first of all, she should look strong;
Ortrud - something to do with the sea (because of Juwess' location);
Dietlinda - the epitome of abomination (because of Envy's Chaos location);
Sarah - since she arose from the fusion of mutant children, the signs of that fusion must be visible;
Barbara - something powerful and muscular;
Gertraud - an overbearing and tyrannical form that suits Georg;
Wilhelmine - a beautiful and fragile image, suited to the original Vene;
Magdalena - something associated with plants;
Roswite - something to do with decay;
Athanasia - a powerful image befitting the final Gaia Cancer;
Esmeralda - a weird form, quite different from the other grotesque images (it took our brains a little time to boil over before the final image was formed);
Justine - something mechanical due to the Laboratory location;
Ende - something corrupted, the embodiment of Ende's madness;
Disastia - the strongest creature that ever existed;
What do you think? Did they succeed in impressing you? If you close your eyes and imagine them, will you remember their deadly attacks? The BGM playing during the battle? The events before and after? For example, if you think back to the old Dragon Quest, those who played it will probably remember the battles with Sido and Zoma when they see their sprites somewhere. So if the battles with the Cancers also stick in your memory, that's the best reward for me.
"Suspicious Sixth."
I didn't include this information in the main article, and that's why. There seems to be a rumor online that something resembling a human penis can be seen in Gertraud: Georg's sprite.
Well, to tell the truth, if you look closely, the sprite does show some kind of "protrusion". But when I ordered the sprite I didn't mention any "masculinity" features, and the artist didn't say anything about it either, also it didn't occur to me when I saw the finished sprite to associate it with anything like that.
Whatever it was, it doesn't matter. I'm not crazy enough to go looking for the artist and beat the truth out of him now, and even if there really is a penis in there, so what? It's more important to accept these things with a calm mind and not get nervous. Let's be a little more mature.
This concludes my explanation.
"A curious fact: the battle with Wilhelmine"
Some of you may have already noticed, but I'd still like to point out this little detail: at the beginning of the battle, the eyes of the Wilhelmine/Vene sprite are closed and then gradually open before the battle begins.
If you're curious, you can check it out for yourself.
Disclosure EX 3: A New Encounter Two Years Later / Live Streams and Video Playthroughs of "Seraphic Blue"
"Live Streams and Video Playthroughs"
Just recently I found out that if you put the right URL into a media player, you can watch video walkthroughs of games. It's amazing what advanced times we live in…
Next, I learned from some sources that there are "live streams" of "Seraphic Blue" being performed. This information immediately caught my attention as a developer, and after finding the right URL, I entered it into the media player.
It was my game, and naturally, I was testing it by myself - as well as asking others to test it and reading their reviews. In short, I was sure that my "Seraphic Blue" experience was complete. However, watching others play it was a whole new experience for me that I couldn't have even imagined. In that moment, two years after the completion of development, it was as if I had reacquainted myself with the game.
With that experience, I saw my creation from a different perspective. Monotonous dungeons. The enemies are either too strong, or too weak. The events are too long. Too many dialogues. Weak staging. This was my point of view as a creator.
Viewers of the stream, however, had different opinions. Some praised the battles and combat system, calling them smart and interesting. Others spoke warmly of the cutscenes and story. Some gloated when the player was attacked by the battlefield Element. Others seemed to tease, "Go ahead and get your party wiped!", while others were surprised that the streamer managed to get Ether equipment drop on the first encounter.
The gameplay, which seemed to have bored me long ago, took on new colors as I watched another person play. That was certainly the first time I evaluated Seraphic Blue not only as a developer, but also as an outsider. And that was undoubtedly the best reward I could get.
Two years had passed since my work on the game had been completed, and I see the intervention of fate in the fact that I had gained this new experience just when I was beginning to forget about it. I lacked words to express my gratitude for such a gift, but now I have realized how I can do it - I dedicate this article to all the viewers of that "live" video playthrough, as well as to NoName-san, who was its initiator.
"Memorable Scenes"
The following are my most memorable scenes from that live stream (starting with chapter two).
The total annihilation of the team by Heidi's "Mercury Freeze";
A series of party wipes in the battle against the Drift Warrior Machine;
Accidental death against two elite Black Lions;
A defeat in a battle against Ende, when the player lacked TP for the final Meteor Strike;
Game over by Benedicta's Tears's "Heartbreak";
Framekilling the "LAJ MK2";
Esmeralda's framekill;
Dysastia: Joshua's framekill;
Absolute loss in battle with Leona;
Fair victory over Disastia: Kane;
Artemis Form drop from the very first encounter with The Chaos Incarnate;
Too long chain of cutscenes starting from Disastia's Hill one to Disastia: Joshua's battle (about 80 minutes);
Very long ending (about 80 minutes - and that's not including the final battle!);
Well, it was certainly fun to watch the player's team losing, but as a developer it was painful for me to see the bosses are getting framekilled. Now I wish I had implemented some kind of powerful "punishment attacks" for framekilling.
"Fate"
The game was completed on the night of Sunday, June 25, 2006. I remember that moment exactly.
Two nights later, the machine I was watching the live stream on got a corrupted sector on its HDD and "died."
I have always believed that our life is just a stream of absolute chaos where events come and go without any meaning, but at that moment I felt a certain predestination: I happened to stumble upon the "Seraphic Blue" video playthrough, and my machine, even being on the brink of death, managed to "survive" till the stream was finished.
Fortunately, I managed to recover the data (even though it took me the whole next 24 hours), but due to my carelessness I lost the entire video walkthrough log of the day. So I would like to express my gratitude to 737-san for sharing this log with me.
Disclosure EX 4: What Data Hides / Traces of the Gone
"Unused Data"
A bit of a pompous title, but it contains just some ideas I wanted to implement, but had to give up in the end.
"Han"
Yangtze's teacher.
Since I had planned for him to barely appear in the game, his only appearance is Yangtze's flashback after the crash in the South Crimson Forest (episode 28).
"Meryl and Miri"
Nixon's ex-wife, Meryl, and their daughter, Miri.
I had originally planned to include a scene with them in the final cutscene, but later abandoned the idea due to the high cost of creating pixel sprites, so only references to them remained. In the game's setting, Meryl remarried a trustful family man, and they lived a normal life in the town, which is not mentioned in the story.
"The Sphere Points"
Toward the end of the game, in Laurentia you can get many different powerful Spheres, which I originally planned to place all over the world: on the edge of the peninsula, in a forest on a small island, or in places where only a certain character could go alone. According to the story, the power of Gaia was to be concentrated in such places, creating the Sphere. They were so-called "The Sphere Points", and near the end of the game the player would have to wander around the world trying to find them. But then I realized that such searches would only bore players, and also make the gameplay too much like "Dragon Quest", which should not happen in a game like "Seraphic Blue".
I've often seen criticism about the overly vast empty territories on Ground and Fezzite confusing players. The fact is that all these extra territories are remnants of the idea of The Sphere Points.
Well, there's not much room left for text. However, there's still plenty of unused data to tell about - so until next time.
Disclosure EX 5: What Data Hides / The Old is the Foundation for the Present
"Execution"
In episode 29, there is an event in the Fezzite Garden showing an euthanasia process of a defective child, and the whole process used to be called "Execution". But since this term is not mentioned anywhere else in the game, I decided to discard it.
"Border Break."
There used to be a technology mentioned in the game called "Border Break", which was used to create holes in the Sky Border, but I later found it unnecessary and removed it.
"Fina Infini"
In Gaia Theory, the ever-moving stream of finite souls used to be called "Fina Infini", which was derived from "finite" and "infinite", but I also deemed this name unnecessary and removed it.
"People of the Planet."
Refers to the inhabitants of Mendoza, whom I originally planned to make a tribe of Laurentian worshipping natives with a strong ethnic bent and wearing ethnic outfits, but I ended up remaking them into a society of conservationists due to the high cost of creating pixel sprites.
"Pale Wilted Luleo"
To the east of the southern continent of Fezzite there's a big chunk of unsettled land, and in the forest in the heart of the mountains there used to be a poor village called Pale Wilted Luleo (淡き枯衰のルレオ). That's where the Kursk family lived until their false suicide.
Originally the storyline in episode 41 had the player to go to Luleo to find out the true identities of the Kursk family, but later on I realized that I hadn't written the storyline as well as I thought, and the whole idea of this village was too half-baked to keep it in the game, so I gave it up as well.
Of course, there's still some unused material in the game that I consider as unfortunate, but I did remove most of it for the sake of completing the project, and overall I think I gave the game the best shape I could.
Disclosure EX 6: Similarity of Images / Faces Already Seen Somewhere
"About Models and Characters"
Once again, the title of this article is a bit pompous, but there's nothing to worry about - here I'll just talk about the models that my characters are based on, or that I was inspired by when creating them.
"Er and Suigintou"
One day while watching the anime "Rozen Maiden Traumend," I saw a character named Suigintou who acted almost exactly like Er. In my imagination, Er had a maniacal smile, sadistic behavior, and a habit of looking down on everyone with her cold gaze, and somehow Suigintou fit that image perfectly.
At the time I created Er's image, there was no model of inspiration for her, and I was convinced that she was a unique character born without any outer influence, and there were no other characters like her. And then suddenly I see that Suigintou fits her character perfectly.
This coincidence surprised me enormously.
Well, I guess it's just the way it is - no matter how hard you try to create a unique character, sooner or later you'll find someone who looks just like her.
"Hausen"
He has a pretty obvious source of inspiration, and those of you who've got a good intuition probably already know who I mean. He has a huge body, strong as steel, non-talkative, an unwavering distrustfulness, a menacing aura, and an endless loyalty to his mistress. He, "The Savior of Fezzite," defending his mistress Minerva like a stone wall.
His model was the "Terminator" from the movie Terminator 2, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The scene where Hausen orders Minerva to "Stay back!" during the battle on "Black Lion 8" is a tribute to the famous scene from the movie where the Terminator orders John Connor "Go!" at the smelter. Some of you may have noticed that, too.
"Fruitless Plagiarism Disputes"
Lately, I've been saddened by the tendency to brand characters who resemble other characters even slightly as "rip-offs" and accuse the creators of plagiarism. In fact, many people are inspired by someone else when creating their characters. And even if you create your own and claim it's totally unique, a good look around you'll find plenty like it.
I believe there are a certain number of character "templates" that are being used all over the world. In other words, it's as if there are a certain amount of "dolls" that each creator dresses up in the "clothes" of his own ideas.
Seen from this perspective, when two "dolls" with virtually identical "clothes" appear, the creator should expect to be accused of plagiarism. However, when the creator is only blamed for the fact that his "doll" is similar to the other, without regard to the "clothing" of that doll and only gibbering "Plagiarism! Plagiarism!" - it seems pretty unpleasant, and - especially when directed at you - spoils all the fun of one's own creation, leaving the creator to sit with a sullen face and wonder what he can do to quiet these impenetrable idiots.
Disclosure EX 7: Similarity of Images / Faces Already Seen Somewhere (Part 2)
"Vene"
She is as prominent a character as Er, but there are differences between them, and her source of inspiration is also different. When addressing Ende and other foes, she uses the "omae" pronoun, which is rarely heard from female characters.
The inspiration for Vene was Aya from the PS game "Parasite Eve". Whereas most of the female characters in it used the "anata" pronoun, Aya always addressed her enemies with "omae".
The freshness and efficacy of her character deeply impressed me and burned into my memory an image of a strong woman who had nothing to do with the vacuous feminism that prevails among the masses. Therefore, the image of Aya played a significant role in the creation of Vene's character.
Another image is Ereheim from Xenogears.
Initially I didn't intend to make Vene look like her, but in the process she started to look more and more like Ereheim, and I, not wanting to change her concept, said to myself "Well, so be it" and accepted it.
"Yangtze and Doris"
During my work on them, a vague question kept popping into my head, "Those two… No, it can't be déjà vu. I've definitely seen them somewhere before."
Have you heard of a game called "クルクート幻想風花" ("Kurkut: Flower Wind of Illusion")? I played it once during development to relax a bit, and suddenly the answer to my question came to me because the main characters in the game looked almost exactly like Yangtze and Doris: a girl with a strong magical gift, looking too childish despite her age, and her protector, a strong warrior with a ponytail of red hair. I felt the similarities were too strong, but I couldn't change the characters anymore, so here too I resorted to the "see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing" approach.
"Xenogears"
For those of you who know about "Xenogears" firsthand, I don't think I need to explain the impact it had on me. I consider "Xenogears" and "Chrono Trigger" the two best games in terms of storytelling, and they still are - even with the PlayStation 2 and its new releases, I still don't think any game has yet surpassed them in that regard.
I also have no complaints about "Xenogears DISC2", which for some reason is considered "problematic". Even though it consists of cutscenes, it didn't bother me one bit because the story was still interesting and engaging. Moreover, if the second disc had been made "playable," that whole part of the story would have become extremely "unrealistic.
I appreciate "Xenogears" very much for the risky "narrative" approach to the adventure game, which was certainly reflected in "Seraphic Blue".
The original Vene is extremely reminiscent of the original Erenheim, and the backstory of Er is very similar to the backstory of Id, which is why the appearance of similarities between Vene and Erenheim was inevitable.
Disclosure EX 8: Sounds Given to the World / All This Along with Music (unreleased)
Tempura (2006-2012)
Since the official Tempura site is dead and only exists on the Internet Time Machine, I decided to translate the official dev's notes about the game, the development process, and some other things. I'm not really sure whether Uboa's the most fitting place for that kind of thing, but at least this board is more or less stable, and the posting is slow enough.
Original link: https://web.archive.org/web/2007 ... 10/SBDis_Top_01.htm
The main page
"Seraphic Blue"
This project hid a lot of intrigue. Each character had his own secrets, and the intertwining of their destinies and interactions with each other formed a complex story.
Now the story is over and the secrets have been revealed… but not all of them. And by those remaining secrets, I mean the so-called "behind-the-scenes" ones: notable episodes of game development and other "bonuses." I would call them "last testimonies", which, if not disclosed, would go with me to the grave and turn to dust along with my body.
-Disclose with Tales-
And now your humble eyewitness, alive and well at the moment, having failed to die, will reveal to you these once-hidden secrets, telling you something about them in the process.
Disclosure 01: Er, the belated angel of death
"Er"
She's probably well remembered by those who have played the game, and Er's character stands out not only because of her role in the story, but also because of her personality (as evidenced by her popularity). I planned from the start to make her a very "vivid", memorable character that would stay in the player's memory for a long time, and I have every reason to believe that the goal was reached.
By the way - I apologize for the slight deviation from the topic - I used the progressive iterative improvement method in developing the game:
1.You create a game from start to finish, that's how version 1.0 appears.
2.You play the completed (so far) game from beginning to the end.
3.If you find something you don't like during the playthrough, you fix it right away. If you like it - leave it as is.
Thus, at the end of the playthrough you have a version 2.0
4.Repeat the process several times.
This way I brought the game to version 5.2, which was the first release.
Now let me confess something… At the time the version 1.0 was completed, there was no such character as Er.
Back then, the final boss of the game was not her, but only Refuse Seraphic Blue as the embodiment of wishes of those striving for the world's destruction. Still, I felt that this kind of plot development turned out to be too boring and unconvincing, and that it lacked some kind of "zest". So, after thinking carefully, I decided to create the character of Er, and made a few significant changes to the game's story. In this light, Er could be called the "belated angel of the end of the world."
But hearing about it now, you're probably thinking, "If Er and Vene are inseparable, then what personality did Vene have back when Er didn't exist yet?"
Well, I'll tell you about that in the next disclosure…
Disclosure 2: A lifeless heroine, a fake angel, and an erased ending
"Vene Ansbach"
She's probably well remembered by those who have played the game, and Vene's character stands out not only because of her role in the story, but also because of her personality (as evidenced by her popularity). I planned from the start to make her a very "vivid", memorable character that would stay in the player's memory for a long time, and I have every reason to believe that the goal was reached.
That's right, those are the same words that were written about Er - because Vene and Er are inseparable. Er is Vene, and Vene is Er.
And yet there was a time when Er did not exist yet…
In those days Vene was an extremely orthodox heroine. Yes, she was still an angel who absorbed the souls of Lake, Evan and Ofa, yes, she too was haunted by doubts due to the influence of the Kursk family ideology - but in the end she was saving the world in a completely traditional and "healthy" way, and that was the game's conclusion.
That plot was just a conventional, boring story. Even though the intrigue and dilemmas concerning the Kursk family were of a great success, what about the heroine? Where are her emotions, her soul? Where are the manifestations of her personality and dedication? All this was simply not there, and in the end that heroine turned out to be shallow, superficial and simply not spelled out. A heroine "without life", a fake angel.
Well, then, I needed to breathe life into her. Give her an ardent heart, a soul, a personality.
As a result, "Seraphic Blue" changed. The story, which told of a battle for the life of the planet, eventually transformed into a dark, somber tale of an angel. Vene Ansbach got her heart, soul, and personality, and in the end she metamorphosed from a lifeless "main character dummy" to a full-fledged protagonist.
As a consequence, the ending of the old version of the game was invalidated and erased.
(by the way)
Looks like someone has spread a rumor that "Seraphic Blue" has another, secret ending, but it's not true. The thing is, when releasing the game, I forgot to delete the old ending data, which I kept as backup while working on the present ending. Other than that, those files don't have any purpose.
Perhaps by delving in the game's files, you will find an "invalid" ending that no longer has anything to do with "Seraphic Blue".
Disclosure 3: Destruction of fake images / Incarnation of the "dark heroine" deprived of freedom
The idea of a heroine who serves the world and devotes her whole self to this vocation is fundamentally questionable. When I see such an image elsewhere, I can't help thinking that I see a walking preacher or a masked propagandist.
In order to make Vene as "alive" as possible, I decided to break the established heroic image to the ground, that false image that only deceives people by not showing them how the character really feels. However, my plan was not just to deconstruct for deconstruction's sake. Rather, what led to the deconstruction were ideas that I thought were appropriate for erasing all the falsity from Vene's image.
- "Will it be a cheerful heroine?"
- "No, not at all."
- "Are her eyes burning with passion?"
- "No, they are dim."
- "Does she accept the world around her with joy and happiness?"
- "No, she rejects it with anger and sadness."
- "But she sincerely wants to save her world, doesn't she? I mean, she loves a world whose fate depends only on her, right?"
- "Of course not, what're you even talking about?"
- "How so? Isn't she a heroic character?"
- "Heroic? She's been robbed of the chance to live life as she wants to, and you expect her to be heroic? You had better look elsewhere for heroes."
In the world of the game Vene was deprived of the opportunity to live a normal life in the name of her mission, so my thought was: what lurks in the heart of someone with this kind of fate? With what eyes would they see the world around them?
So little by little the false "heroic" mask hiding Vene melted away, and her true cold personality revealed itself.
In the end, Vene became a truly unusual "dark heroine," the embodiment of an anti-hero with human emotions. An image that rose from the ashes of the destroyed "shallow traditional heroine" image. Such is the one who weaves the plot of "Seraphic Blue" - Vene Ansbach as you know her.
To be honest, while making all these changes, I felt a strong feedback to Vene's transformation. It was as if she was changing before my eyes from an unresponsive, "dead" heroine to a "living" anti-heroine of flesh and blood. And along with her, the story came alive too.
Disclosure 4: The Difficulties of Creating a Global Map / Heavenly Continent Fezzite
"World Map"
I think I first saw it in SFC's FF6 (the author is probably referring to Square's Final Fantasy 6; translator's note) - a semi-transparent thumbnail world map in the bottom right corner of the screen. This feature was so convenient and innovative that it has become the de facto standard for all subsequent RPGs.
By the way, are you familiar with such phrases as "Second World" and "Third World"? No, I'm not going to bring up a sore subject of developed and underdeveloped countries or mockery of Central and South America, Africa or Asia, but just referring to the terms from Final Fantasy 5. Those who have played it will probably remember that the world where the game's story begins is called the "First World", while the others are called the "Second World" and the "Third World" respectively. It was there, in the aforementioned Final Fantasy 5, that I first saw the expanding of the game's story as the global world map changes. I was very impressed by it then, and to this day I recognize this introduction as an important element of any RPG (also, it's a big disappointment if I play an RPG that doesn't have it implemented).
Two key concepts to the idea of the air continent of Fezzite were "global map" and "another world." Before I started developing the game, I thought about bringing something new to the "global map" system, and it occurred to me to create not one, but two world maps - in the bottom two corners of the screen, respectively. However, if there is going to be another world in the game, it makes sense that its global projection should be different, and hence the need to create a common map is unnecessary. Thus, I needed two worlds, a "main" one and "another", but which shared the same coordinates.
The answer was found in the sky - a continent floating in the sky, Fezzite.
Creating a world map with two "layers," earthly and celestial, was a real challenge for me - and that's when the main concept of "Seraphic Blue" was born. So there can be no doubt that it was first and foremost a story about heavens.
I can proudly say that "Seraphic Blue" is currently the only RPG that involves two world maps at the same time, and I hope that the game's world made an impression on the players.
"Too much land"
Fezzite has too much land, despite it's being just a continent that was lifted into the air through the intervention of Gaia's Providence, just like an apple falling from a tree was made to freeze in mid-air.
In fact, there is an explanation for why there's such large amounts of empty territories on Fezzite, and I originally had some plans on them, but had to give them up during development.
I will tell you the details in the following disclosures.
Disclosure 5: Die to the fullest! / Stubborn foes and hot battles
I am aware of the high difficulty of my game, as well as the fact that this somewhat harms its popularity. However, high difficulty is an inherent policy of mine in game development, and even if it goes at the expense of popularity, so be it.
Speaking of enemies and combat systems, I am convinced that if the enemy's presented as a powerful one in the story, then he should be just as hard to beat in the battle. You also need to consider the development factor of the story: in Seraphic Blue, the enemies are constantly changing, so the increase in difficulty also plays a significant role here. You defeat one, another, a third, and then you get to the boss, overpowering him - and the plot takes a new step.
Actually, advancing the plot through battles is the key to success. This is the reason why I made the battles so hard - so that the players could feel the growing power of their opponents and the plot tension not only through the cutscenes and text, but also through desperate battles. This method of synchronizing narrative and combat is used for better engagement of the player in the game's story, and I wouldn't give up on it for anything.
Perhaps the following phrase will be more abstract than the explanation above, but it expresses my approach best:
"Know the power of the enemy blocking your path on your own skin! Feel the heat of the hellish battles just as you feel the heat of the raging events surrounding them! And die to the fullest!"
There, please. And I hope you've died enough times in battles to feel that heat to the full!
"死ぬがよい (Shinu ga yoi)"
If that phrase made your memory bell jingle, you remembered it right - it's the key phrase from the ported to PS2 bullet hell shoot'em up "Dodonpachi Daiyousei."
If you don't know what I'm talking about, please just keep reading.
I'm addicted to bullet hell scroll shooters at the moment - mostly the ones made by CAVE. On my home console I played "Daiohyo", "Mushihime-sama", "Espgaluda" and "Shikigami no Shiro", and in the arcade rooms I played "Garuda 2" and "Ketsui".
Being a fan of hardcore gameplay, the difficulty level of these games was very comfortable for me, and the abundance of bullet barrages filling almost the entire screen is pleasing to my eye. However, it also came to me at the time that the battles in "Seraphic Blue" were not as intense as they could have been. Alas, at the time of development I had not yet discovered the bullet hell genre, and now I just wish I had taken the "Seraphic Blue" battles to a slightly higher level of difficulty. Also, while watching the playthrough videos of the game I kept thinking that the enemies weren't that pushy.
I have no plans for the next game at this time, but if I had to work on its combat system, I would make the following changes:
Health fully restored at the end of battles.
Reduced cost to use skills.
Penalty attacks for framekilling*1 enemies.
If a player loses, instead of game-over, the game sends them to the last checkpoint
Bosses go on a rampage when their health is low
Enemy damage increased by 50%
I think this could make the battles more intense and interesting. What do you think?
"Framekill"
Rumor has it that some of the "Seraphic Blue" bosses are intentionally designed so that they can only be defeated by framekilling, but that's not true. All bosses can be defeated in a fair fight, which I've done many times during my tests. That's why I regret that I overlooked the possibility of frame-killing and didn't endow opponents with countermeasures against such tactics.
——————————————————————————–
*1 Framekill (ハメ殺し) is a fighting game term that means "pinning down" your opponent, adjusting your attacks to his windows of incapacitation, allowing you to defeat him without giving him a chance to do anything. In RPG, it means repeating such attacks that would not allow the opponent to use his powerful abilities (or would not allow him to attack at all).
Disclosure 6: Narrators of Heaven and Earth / Conductors of the Distant Blue Sky
"Conductors"
In games like Dragon Quest, the protagonist is completely controlled by the player, and in fact the player is given absolute freedom to follow the story as he pleases, based on information received from the king and townspeople. On the other hand, in games like Final Fantasy, where it's more like "the story leads the player", someone has to act as a guide moving the plot forward.
I suppose there's no need to tell you that "Seraphic Blue" is of the latter type, and since its story is a complex interplay with many characters involved, there are several conductors presented.
Lake
Lake is the central figure of the plot and its main conductor for a long time. The "central figure," however, is only a facade, as his main role changes over time.
At first he serves as a guide through the world of the Ground, preparing the player for an encounter with Georg, witnessing Vene's amnesia, and traveling with her all over the world, while being unaware of its true nature. Next, after learning the true state of affairs, he becomes the Main Body of Seraphic Blue - at the same time losing his status as a single protagonist. Vene joins him, at first in an equal position, and then overshadowing him. Now I wish I had made this transition a little more elaborated.
Vene
She is the protagonist of the game, but she does not act as a conductor during her amnesia. In the last chapter she not only becomes the whole entity of Seraphic Blue, but also the one who learns the story's underlayer (including Er's secret), and reflecting on this in her profound manner.
Considering that, by standard, the game's protagonist, on whom the player's attention is focused, usually "leads" the story from start to finish, it can be said that Vene's role transition is one of the main plot "twists" of "Seraphic Blue".
Disclosure 7: Narrators of Heaven and Earth / Conductors of the Distant Blue Sky (Part 2)
"Conductors"
Minerva
Because of her position as queen of Fezzite, Minerva knows a lot about many plot events, which allows her to be a versatile guide. In addition, she is a very active and energetic character, which also adds to that versatility. Of course, she appears quite late in the story (in episode 13, to be exact), but since by that time Lake takes the position of an "outsider" and therefore cannot play the role of story guide, Minerva takes over that role as someone who "knows Fezzite" and can guide the hero through it. In addition, she also deftly moves the plot at various points in the game right up to the very end.
(There are opinions that Minerva's character pales somewhat in comparison to the others, but I don't consider that a disadvantage. A character that stands out too much wouldn't be able to serve as a conductor in all situations).
Yangtze
The side of Lake, Vene and Minerva is the main axis of the story, but it is still not enough to depict events from all sides. It is for this purpose that I have prepared a plot involving Yangtze, which begins when Lake is reunited with Vene, and when all the mysteries surrounding him are revealed. The plot of Yangtze's side gives the story more diversity.
Benedicta and Catherine
True, they are the Prophetesses guiding the course of Gaia's Rebirth, but they play no explicit role in the entire plot. Their main function is to reveal the story of the game by telling important things and taking important actions in key places, while being the main masterminds with knowledge about "everything and everybody".
In other words, the development of the story needs two functions: the first is the story itself, which "swings" little by little and begins to move, and the second is the conductor, which controls guides the story, giving it a "vector". We can put it this way: Lake, Vene, Minerva and Yangtze are the "yang" guides, while Benedicta and Caterina are the "yin" guides.
"Yin and yang"
The "yin and yang" concept mentioned above is, in my opinion, of high importance, and I will try to talk more about it next time. I'm sure one of the reasons for the success of this story was precisely because the two sides of guides, "yin and yang," played their roles as they should.
"Another Guide."
In fact, I had planned to introduce another guide character in "Seraphic Blue" in addition to the Vene and Yangtze sides.
I'll talk about that next time.
Disclosure 8: The Untold Story / Another Guide (not released)
The next set contains kind of bonus information, not included in the main article.
Seraphic Blue -Disclose with Tales EX-
Disclosure EX 1: Alas, you are wrong / Expectations and hard work
You should definitely recognize the character in the image - after all, he is the only comedic type in the game. When setting up his difficulty, I kept in mind that such a character shouldn't be too strong to stand up to the game's key bosses, but I still tried to make him not too weak either. He didn't give me much trouble during my game tests, and neither did the whole Meat Maniacs showdown that followed. Sure, in earlier versions of "Seraphic Blue", which didn't yet have automatic replenishment implemented, the battles with them were a lot harder, but in recent versions they're easy as never.
What was my surprise when, reading player reviews, I found out that this part of the game was remembered by many as being really hard. I couldn't understand how a bunch of comedic opponents could make a serious problem for anyone, while some of the other bosses that I thought were really problematic didn't cause any difficulties for anyone.
I was very impressed by existence of such a big difference between the players' and the developer's perception, the difference that sometimes was a cause of unexpected "hard work".
"Branching dungeons"
Branching dungeons usually consist of one main passage and its offshoots. At the end of each one the player must complete a quest in order to proceed through the main passage, therefore, after completing all the quests, such dungeon, respectively, becomes very fast to pass.
The iron rule of such dungeons is to return to the hub for resupplying upon completion of each quest.
In past versions of the game there was a Tree of Memories at the entrance to the ROBIN's secret factory, but since that was a branching dungeon, I decided to remove the Tree as unnecessary. As a result, many players recklessly rushed into battle with Fyodor and Heidi without saving beforehand, and of course those players were soon finding themselves on the game over screen.
I wasn't expecting that to happen, because as an experienced RPG player, I was never rushing into suicidal battles without saving the game beforehand, and so I assumed that others would do the same. So I apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced by my overconfidence. From now on I will try to be more down-to-earth in my expectations.
Disclosure EX 2: Suspicious Sixth / Gaia's Cancers Sprites
"Intimidating Forms"
Gaia's Cancers are the main plot enemies of "Seraphic Blue".
Their designs turned out to be really impressive and terrifying thanks to the amazing skills of the sprite artist. Since I was the client, I should have formed orders for the artist to draw the sprites, but as one of the conditions I gave him almost complete freedom to design the Cancers, describing only vague images in my head. Then the artist's improvisation came into play, and upon completion I accepted the sprites almost immediately.
The following list contains those vague images. Alas, I have been unable to find any records from those days, so here I have to rely only on my own memory.
Irmgard - first of all, she should look strong;
Ortrud - something to do with the sea (because of Juwess' location);
Dietlinda - the epitome of abomination (because of Envy's Chaos location);
Sarah - since she arose from the fusion of mutant children, the signs of that fusion must be visible;
Barbara - something powerful and muscular;
Gertraud - an overbearing and tyrannical form that suits Georg;
Wilhelmine - a beautiful and fragile image, suited to the original Vene;
Magdalena - something associated with plants;
Roswite - something to do with decay;
Athanasia - a powerful image befitting the final Gaia Cancer;
Esmeralda - a weird form, quite different from the other grotesque images (it took our brains a little time to boil over before the final image was formed);
Justine - something mechanical due to the Laboratory location;
Ende - something corrupted, the embodiment of Ende's madness;
Disastia - the strongest creature that ever existed;
What do you think? Did they succeed in impressing you? If you close your eyes and imagine them, will you remember their deadly attacks? The BGM playing during the battle? The events before and after? For example, if you think back to the old Dragon Quest, those who played it will probably remember the battles with Sido and Zoma when they see their sprites somewhere. So if the battles with the Cancers also stick in your memory, that's the best reward for me.
"Suspicious Sixth."
I didn't include this information in the main article, and that's why. There seems to be a rumor online that something resembling a human penis can be seen in Gertraud: Georg's sprite.
Well, to tell the truth, if you look closely, the sprite does show some kind of "protrusion". But when I ordered the sprite I didn't mention any "masculinity" features, and the artist didn't say anything about it either, also it didn't occur to me when I saw the finished sprite to associate it with anything like that.
Whatever it was, it doesn't matter. I'm not crazy enough to go looking for the artist and beat the truth out of him now, and even if there really is a penis in there, so what? It's more important to accept these things with a calm mind and not get nervous. Let's be a little more mature.
This concludes my explanation.
"A curious fact: the battle with Wilhelmine"
Some of you may have already noticed, but I'd still like to point out this little detail: at the beginning of the battle, the eyes of the Wilhelmine/Vene sprite are closed and then gradually open before the battle begins.
If you're curious, you can check it out for yourself.
Disclosure EX 3: A New Encounter Two Years Later / Live Streams and Video Playthroughs of "Seraphic Blue"
"Live Streams and Video Playthroughs"
Just recently I found out that if you put the right URL into a media player, you can watch video walkthroughs of games. It's amazing what advanced times we live in…
Next, I learned from some sources that there are "live streams" of "Seraphic Blue" being performed. This information immediately caught my attention as a developer, and after finding the right URL, I entered it into the media player.
It was my game, and naturally, I was testing it by myself - as well as asking others to test it and reading their reviews. In short, I was sure that my "Seraphic Blue" experience was complete. However, watching others play it was a whole new experience for me that I couldn't have even imagined. In that moment, two years after the completion of development, it was as if I had reacquainted myself with the game.
With that experience, I saw my creation from a different perspective. Monotonous dungeons. The enemies are either too strong, or too weak. The events are too long. Too many dialogues. Weak staging. This was my point of view as a creator.
Viewers of the stream, however, had different opinions. Some praised the battles and combat system, calling them smart and interesting. Others spoke warmly of the cutscenes and story. Some gloated when the player was attacked by the battlefield Element. Others seemed to tease, "Go ahead and get your party wiped!", while others were surprised that the streamer managed to get Ether equipment drop on the first encounter.
The gameplay, which seemed to have bored me long ago, took on new colors as I watched another person play. That was certainly the first time I evaluated Seraphic Blue not only as a developer, but also as an outsider. And that was undoubtedly the best reward I could get.
Two years had passed since my work on the game had been completed, and I see the intervention of fate in the fact that I had gained this new experience just when I was beginning to forget about it. I lacked words to express my gratitude for such a gift, but now I have realized how I can do it - I dedicate this article to all the viewers of that "live" video playthrough, as well as to NoName-san, who was its initiator.
"Memorable Scenes"
The following are my most memorable scenes from that live stream (starting with chapter two).
The total annihilation of the team by Heidi's "Mercury Freeze";
A series of party wipes in the battle against the Drift Warrior Machine;
Accidental death against two elite Black Lions;
A defeat in a battle against Ende, when the player lacked TP for the final Meteor Strike;
Game over by Benedicta's Tears's "Heartbreak";
Framekilling the "LAJ MK2";
Esmeralda's framekill;
Dysastia: Joshua's framekill;
Absolute loss in battle with Leona;
Fair victory over Disastia: Kane;
Artemis Form drop from the very first encounter with The Chaos Incarnate;
Too long chain of cutscenes starting from Disastia's Hill one to Disastia: Joshua's battle (about 80 minutes);
Very long ending (about 80 minutes - and that's not including the final battle!);
Well, it was certainly fun to watch the player's team losing, but as a developer it was painful for me to see the bosses are getting framekilled. Now I wish I had implemented some kind of powerful "punishment attacks" for framekilling.
"Fate"
The game was completed on the night of Sunday, June 25, 2006. I remember that moment exactly.
Two nights later, the machine I was watching the live stream on got a corrupted sector on its HDD and "died."
I have always believed that our life is just a stream of absolute chaos where events come and go without any meaning, but at that moment I felt a certain predestination: I happened to stumble upon the "Seraphic Blue" video playthrough, and my machine, even being on the brink of death, managed to "survive" till the stream was finished.
Fortunately, I managed to recover the data (even though it took me the whole next 24 hours), but due to my carelessness I lost the entire video walkthrough log of the day. So I would like to express my gratitude to 737-san for sharing this log with me.
Disclosure EX 4: What Data Hides / Traces of the Gone
"Unused Data"
A bit of a pompous title, but it contains just some ideas I wanted to implement, but had to give up in the end.
"Han"
Yangtze's teacher.
Since I had planned for him to barely appear in the game, his only appearance is Yangtze's flashback after the crash in the South Crimson Forest (episode 28).
"Meryl and Miri"
Nixon's ex-wife, Meryl, and their daughter, Miri.
I had originally planned to include a scene with them in the final cutscene, but later abandoned the idea due to the high cost of creating pixel sprites, so only references to them remained. In the game's setting, Meryl remarried a trustful family man, and they lived a normal life in the town, which is not mentioned in the story.
"The Sphere Points"
Toward the end of the game, in Laurentia you can get many different powerful Spheres, which I originally planned to place all over the world: on the edge of the peninsula, in a forest on a small island, or in places where only a certain character could go alone. According to the story, the power of Gaia was to be concentrated in such places, creating the Sphere. They were so-called "The Sphere Points", and near the end of the game the player would have to wander around the world trying to find them. But then I realized that such searches would only bore players, and also make the gameplay too much like "Dragon Quest", which should not happen in a game like "Seraphic Blue".
I've often seen criticism about the overly vast empty territories on Ground and Fezzite confusing players. The fact is that all these extra territories are remnants of the idea of The Sphere Points.
Well, there's not much room left for text. However, there's still plenty of unused data to tell about - so until next time.
Disclosure EX 5: What Data Hides / The Old is the Foundation for the Present
"Execution"
In episode 29, there is an event in the Fezzite Garden showing an euthanasia process of a defective child, and the whole process used to be called "Execution". But since this term is not mentioned anywhere else in the game, I decided to discard it.
"Border Break."
There used to be a technology mentioned in the game called "Border Break", which was used to create holes in the Sky Border, but I later found it unnecessary and removed it.
"Fina Infini"
In Gaia Theory, the ever-moving stream of finite souls used to be called "Fina Infini", which was derived from "finite" and "infinite", but I also deemed this name unnecessary and removed it.
"People of the Planet."
Refers to the inhabitants of Mendoza, whom I originally planned to make a tribe of Laurentian worshipping natives with a strong ethnic bent and wearing ethnic outfits, but I ended up remaking them into a society of conservationists due to the high cost of creating pixel sprites.
"Pale Wilted Luleo"
To the east of the southern continent of Fezzite there's a big chunk of unsettled land, and in the forest in the heart of the mountains there used to be a poor village called Pale Wilted Luleo (淡き枯衰のルレオ). That's where the Kursk family lived until their false suicide.
Originally the storyline in episode 41 had the player to go to Luleo to find out the true identities of the Kursk family, but later on I realized that I hadn't written the storyline as well as I thought, and the whole idea of this village was too half-baked to keep it in the game, so I gave it up as well.
Of course, there's still some unused material in the game that I consider as unfortunate, but I did remove most of it for the sake of completing the project, and overall I think I gave the game the best shape I could.
Disclosure EX 6: Similarity of Images / Faces Already Seen Somewhere
"About Models and Characters"
Once again, the title of this article is a bit pompous, but there's nothing to worry about - here I'll just talk about the models that my characters are based on, or that I was inspired by when creating them.
"Er and Suigintou"
One day while watching the anime "Rozen Maiden Traumend," I saw a character named Suigintou who acted almost exactly like Er. In my imagination, Er had a maniacal smile, sadistic behavior, and a habit of looking down on everyone with her cold gaze, and somehow Suigintou fit that image perfectly.
At the time I created Er's image, there was no model of inspiration for her, and I was convinced that she was a unique character born without any outer influence, and there were no other characters like her. And then suddenly I see that Suigintou fits her character perfectly.
This coincidence surprised me enormously.
Well, I guess it's just the way it is - no matter how hard you try to create a unique character, sooner or later you'll find someone who looks just like her.
"Hausen"
He has a pretty obvious source of inspiration, and those of you who've got a good intuition probably already know who I mean. He has a huge body, strong as steel, non-talkative, an unwavering distrustfulness, a menacing aura, and an endless loyalty to his mistress. He, "The Savior of Fezzite," defending his mistress Minerva like a stone wall.
His model was the "Terminator" from the movie Terminator 2, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The scene where Hausen orders Minerva to "Stay back!" during the battle on "Black Lion 8" is a tribute to the famous scene from the movie where the Terminator orders John Connor "Go!" at the smelter. Some of you may have noticed that, too.
"Fruitless Plagiarism Disputes"
Lately, I've been saddened by the tendency to brand characters who resemble other characters even slightly as "rip-offs" and accuse the creators of plagiarism. In fact, many people are inspired by someone else when creating their characters. And even if you create your own and claim it's totally unique, a good look around you'll find plenty like it.
I believe there are a certain number of character "templates" that are being used all over the world. In other words, it's as if there are a certain amount of "dolls" that each creator dresses up in the "clothes" of his own ideas.
Seen from this perspective, when two "dolls" with virtually identical "clothes" appear, the creator should expect to be accused of plagiarism. However, when the creator is only blamed for the fact that his "doll" is similar to the other, without regard to the "clothing" of that doll and only gibbering "Plagiarism! Plagiarism!" - it seems pretty unpleasant, and - especially when directed at you - spoils all the fun of one's own creation, leaving the creator to sit with a sullen face and wonder what he can do to quiet these impenetrable idiots.
Disclosure EX 7: Similarity of Images / Faces Already Seen Somewhere (Part 2)
"Vene"
She is as prominent a character as Er, but there are differences between them, and her source of inspiration is also different. When addressing Ende and other foes, she uses the "omae" pronoun, which is rarely heard from female characters.
The inspiration for Vene was Aya from the PS game "Parasite Eve". Whereas most of the female characters in it used the "anata" pronoun, Aya always addressed her enemies with "omae".
The freshness and efficacy of her character deeply impressed me and burned into my memory an image of a strong woman who had nothing to do with the vacuous feminism that prevails among the masses. Therefore, the image of Aya played a significant role in the creation of Vene's character.
Another image is Ereheim from Xenogears.
Initially I didn't intend to make Vene look like her, but in the process she started to look more and more like Ereheim, and I, not wanting to change her concept, said to myself "Well, so be it" and accepted it.
"Yangtze and Doris"
During my work on them, a vague question kept popping into my head, "Those two… No, it can't be déjà vu. I've definitely seen them somewhere before."
Have you heard of a game called "クルクート幻想風花" ("Kurkut: Flower Wind of Illusion")? I played it once during development to relax a bit, and suddenly the answer to my question came to me because the main characters in the game looked almost exactly like Yangtze and Doris: a girl with a strong magical gift, looking too childish despite her age, and her protector, a strong warrior with a ponytail of red hair. I felt the similarities were too strong, but I couldn't change the characters anymore, so here too I resorted to the "see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing" approach.
"Xenogears"
For those of you who know about "Xenogears" firsthand, I don't think I need to explain the impact it had on me. I consider "Xenogears" and "Chrono Trigger" the two best games in terms of storytelling, and they still are - even with the PlayStation 2 and its new releases, I still don't think any game has yet surpassed them in that regard.
I also have no complaints about "Xenogears DISC2", which for some reason is considered "problematic". Even though it consists of cutscenes, it didn't bother me one bit because the story was still interesting and engaging. Moreover, if the second disc had been made "playable," that whole part of the story would have become extremely "unrealistic.
I appreciate "Xenogears" very much for the risky "narrative" approach to the adventure game, which was certainly reflected in "Seraphic Blue".
The original Vene is extremely reminiscent of the original Erenheim, and the backstory of Er is very similar to the backstory of Id, which is why the appearance of similarities between Vene and Erenheim was inevitable.
Disclosure EX 8: Sounds Given to the World / All This Along with Music (unreleased)
Tempura (2006-2012)
#2 - 2023-4-27 23:20
untitled
Seraphic Blue