Another route done (5/7! .... technically only 4 but I watched my friend play Suzu's route in its entirety.... I might skip out on writing a post on Suzu entirely for a few reasons...) and this time is my beloved Kai Mutsumi!
This route might just be my favourite so far. Spoilers ahead, obviously.
Was a mention on my last blog post not enough?! No?! Well I'm gonna be honest- this game is plaguing my mind like fucking crazy!!!! Me and my friends (Luka and Weez. Shout out) finished DR:A the other day and I just can't get over how much I enjoyed it. It's even more exciting considering that we still have the prologue to do for DR:A and that there's an entire second game too (SDRA2).
This is going to be a spoiler-free post because I really desperately want more people to experience this fangan, it's really fantastic. What if Danganronpa was good?
By the way, if you do genuinely want to give this game a chance, do NOT look up anything especially not about the characters(I'M SERIOUS). The download link for the game is here! Click me! (This download takes you to the itch.io page for the translated build for ch2-6, but there is a link for ch1 on the page)
If you're more of a playthrough watcher, you can watch WeebyNewz's playthrough here.
Honestly? This game doesn't deviate very far from the likes of DR1 but it somehow takes the concepts presented in the game and take them further and execute things way better lol.
Here's some important background to know about this game:
Our protag is Yuki Maeda, the Ultimate Lucky Student, who was accepted into Hope's Peak Academy after being chosen in the student lottery. Sounds familiar so far! He's nervous about his first day and takes his first steps into the academy, meeting the colourful cast that are his classmates for the next few years.
The talents in this game are pretty standard and there's nothing super crazy. Okay maybe the Ultimate Sniper is a little crazy but I feel like it's more accurate to describe her as a markswoman since her talent is moreso being able to aim accurately and not just limited to rifles.
Wow!! I'm 20 years old now!!! Time really flies.. I just turned 19 a year ago.. but that's how time works... lol. This is going to be a shorter blog post but I wanted to celebrate hitting 20 because it's a nice big number!!!!!
I celebrated my 20th birthday yesterday and I had a really good time! I celebrated with my family and we had some nice dinner (my mum ordered a lot of filipino food for us all... maybe a little too much). I got a lot of birthday wishes so thank you once again.. I'm thankful for everyone in my life and I'm happy if I can be part of theirs too.
Special boyfriend shout out section but seriously Kee is the best.. I've been not doing too stellar because my house kinda has a bed bug problem >_>) ......... Nightmare. I do not wish bed bugs upon anyone... it sucks... I think it's improving, but I'll have to see... Sniffle.. But yea Kee has been keeping me stable despite the troubles and I'm so thankful. I love him so much. He is awesome and the best partner ever.
(I'm.... a father...?!)
Next and last section: Danganronpa Another...?! ~Another Despair Academy~ ?! Is the year 2018?! Just kidding.. I just used to be way more into Danganronpa and I even did roleplays on Discord in 2018-19.
Anyway, yeah.. If you follow me on Twitter(I'm Sorry) then you definitely know that I've been playing a Danganronpa fangame with my 2 friends and frankly it's so much better than I anticipated and I'm seriously loving it. I highly recommend the game even if the fan translations can be lacking in places- they're manageable enough that you can still definitely understand the story. I'm very grateful that it's even translated in the first place. (Though.. most free time events are untranslated.. It's easy to get through them if you use machine translation, though. Actually, we got softlocked during a trial last night because the hangman's gambit is still in Korean... We ended up watching a playthrough and then skipped to the start of Chapter 5... lol)
Danganronpa Another is a Korean DR fangame that started releasing in 2013, so it's over a decade old...! And honestly? It holds up really great. Despite being made in RPGMaker, it actually works well and the trial sections are well made replications of Danganronpa's mechanics. The characters are surprisingly very fun and I really love most of them.
Holy shit.. the 4th trial destroyed me... Oomf told me it was peak but you know what? I stayed up last night thinking about them... I can't even take a peek at fanart or fics or dev commentary because there's gonna be 5 million spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn it all!!!!!!!!! I would draw so much fanart of this damn game if I wasn't busy!!!!! That's why I will work hard to finish my remaining art trades... I'm a piggy chasing the DRA carrot.
(Also... We assigned characters between the 3 of us to voice while we play. Do you want to know how many characters I've lost? I've lost 6 of my characters. Actually, of the original 5 I was assigned, I only have 1 character left. I got traded more characters in later chapters to compensate for the uneven numbers... I got traded 2 characters that die in the chapters I received them. A little cruel.)
My favourites? I have a lot of favourites now... It's actually a little embarassing how many of them I love... but I think my top favourite has to be Rei Mekaru, the Ultimate Professor. She's a cool beauty with a harsh tongue... and a megane to boot! Made just for me!!
Don't you think Mekaru kind of resembles Nina...? I think they do... It's actually kind of scary how similar they are... Bespectacled geniuses who seem to have only criticism for their peers but secretly have a softer side?! What the hell?!
I'm assuming Mekaru is about 16 or 17(?? give or take), while Nina is 30 years old. Mekaru is 2cm taller than Nina. That would really piss her off.. If they ever met, it would be a catastrophic diva catfight... I think they're both too arrogant to get along... maybe only after a lot of fighting.
That's all I've got for today! Wishing you well if you managed to read to down here! (Also that Kai Mutsumi post is still rotting in my drafts.)
In probably 2019 or 2018, I watched a PV on YouTube which used 3D models under a pixelated filter in a short animated sequence. It had really beautiful bold colours and I had never really seen anything quite like it. It was actually a concept film for some Japanese mobile game I didn't know or care for, but nevertheless I really enjoyed what I watched but I made the stupid mistake of not saving it or adding it to a playlist so I completely lost the video due to it being in Japanese and not knowing what it was for.
Jump to January 2020 (note: before lockdown), I was thinking about the video again and desperately wanted to see it again. I tried so hard to find it, but to no avail. I even went onto r/tipofmytongue to try see if anyone knew what it was, but no one even replied to my post :,( ...
(Pictured: the actual reddit post I made lol)
Anyway, since I couldn't find anything, I had to go on with life and keep the PV at the back of my mind. Another year passed and it was now the end of 2021 and I was thinking about the video again. Now, I don't actually remember the exact way I found the game, maybe I went through a bunch of Japanese gacha games and went from there? But either way, I found out it was the concept film for Tales of Crestoria.
I was so happy to finally see the video again and immediately saved it to my computer and made note of it so I wouldn't lose it again. But now something else was itching at me because I swore I recognized the main character from elsewhere.
I recognized him from a Discord emote I had seen many times in a server I used to be very active in as someone would use it everytime a new person joined. I was active in it for the majority of 2020 during lockdown (if you know you know) buuuut that's besides the point. I scrolled back up into general of the server to find the exact emote and you know what? Wanna guess who it was?
It was Kanata!!! Staring at me!!!!!!!
I had been looking for this video for almost 2 years at this point and the answer was RIGHT THERE in front of me the entire time!!!!!
See, the reason why this particularly struck me was because I thought it was a character from Idol Time Pripara, Shogo Yumekawa. For the longest time, I thought it was Shogo and I had actually been meaning to check if it actually was. I just never did for some reason and I'm annoyed that I never did LOL.
Okay quick detour: I really love this song. Pripara (as well as the entire Pretty series) has some really good tracks and this was one that I was obsessed with for an amount of time. Listen if you'd like, I think it's a kinda cheesy idol song but no lie it's so catchy..
The protag of Idol Time Pripara, Yui, does a cover of this song with her group, MY☆DREAM, too and I like both versions, but I lean toward the original because when they say "Prism Galaxy" in the MY☆DREAM ver it makes me laugh.
Anyway, back to the whole Tales of Crestoria thing. I couldn't help but laugh at how close I was to the answer of something that I so desperately wanted to see for almost 2 years. To this day, I think of the whole ordeal quite fondly because it was too good of a coincidence. Not only that, but the video continues to inspire me and I really want to make something like it myself someday.
I've mentioned this previously on this blog, but I've wanted to venture into 3D for a long time. At the beginning of the year, I tried my hand at making a 3D model of my OC, Dolly, but it was kind of a failure because I was overly ambitious and I also really hate UV unwrapping. Anyway, I'm going to try again but following a simpler tutorial and keeping things far simpler but after I finish my art trades. I have a few lined up to do and I'm really excited... I've already gotten some back and I love love love the art of my OCs that I've gotten so far.
I feel a little silly because I'm a TOTAL beginner to 3D stuff so obviously this is a longterm goal, but I have a vivid mental image of an Aquamarine short animated video in a similar style to the Tales of Crestoria PV that I want to make one day. I will study and learn and create!! The only way to get to where I want to be is if I work towards it...
I'm looping back to my OCs because they're kind of my favourite thing right now. I was really amused by how many people wanted to draw Nina for the art trades.
Of the 5 people I'm trading with, 3 of them wanted to draw Nina (one of them drew her with Alba, though). The other 2 want to draw Dolly and Lou respectively. (I'M REALLY EXCITED TO SEE.) I also ran a mini (design) popularity poll on my private and the votes stacked up like so:
I'm happy that people like my OCs and that Nina in particular seems to be the favourite. I'll do another vote in the future when more people are familiarized with my characters hehehe.. Next month is June which means art fight prep :V (I actually never finished those wips from my last post.. oopsie daisy)
For now, I'm chipping away at my art trades. I already have 1 finished and I'm almost finished with the 2nd one...! I'm hoping to finish these by next month.
I'll get more people to know Aquamarine like they do Roid....!!! It just takes a lot more work because I have to make all the Aquamarine stuff myself and I'm a lazy butt!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope I can show more Aquamarine things in the future. I was reminded of how much I wanted to make something 3D because of the Tales of Crestoria PV and I really want to bring that to life someday.
Next blog post will probably be my Kai Jack Jeanne route post that's been rotting in my drafts for like 2 months now... but thank you for reading if you've gotten down here. Have a nice week~ Actually...... It's my birthday next week... I'm turning 20... Maybe my birthday blog post will come first.... You'll find out soon.