Hail the snarktastic hero!

So I’m sure that you must be wondering what the big reveal is. Well…Phoenix is no longer just an idea. It’s a game in development! I know, this news is so exciting that you will never be able to sleep at night again. But not so fast! We’re not talking a polished, pretty game, nor one that’s going to be out anytime in the near future. Hell, It’s been a couple days since I started working on this and I’ve only managed to design half of the first town and a bit of the opening scene. The latter will probably not be finished anytime soon for lack of a good ship tileset, but the town is beginning to resemble a town, which is always a good sign.

So what program am I using to create this headache masterpiece of modern gaming? RPG Maker VX by Enterbrain.  Yeah, it’s not the best for creating video games, but it’s good for someone like me with practically no knowledge of coding. This isn’t my first attempt at making a game with one of the RPG Makers, but this is my first real attempt with VX. Some features of it annoy me, but others are much easier to work with than in previous RPG Makers. I figured that, to show you how the project is coming along, I’d include some of my favorite gems of dialogue from what I’ve created so far.

So here we have a very rudimentary form of our favorite town, Gaia. This is the birthplace of our lovably sarcastic hero, the lackadaisical Ivan Rokata, and his flirtatious friend, Damien Arun. You will notice in the following screenshots that Ivan and Damien converse with NPC’s and with one another in some of the dialogue. Once I finish designing the town, I am going to make it so a Damien sprite will follow Ivan’s sprite around the town, and therefore Damien’s bits of dialogue won’t seem so out-of-place. But I haven’t gotten that far, yet. I think I’ll worry about finishing the town first.

So here are some screenshots for your viewing pleasure. Also, Ivan loves to snark, as you will soon see. All hail the snarktastic hero! (I personally love him.)

Ivan, king of snark (Click for larger):

Ivan kindly remembers his mother.

Damien tells his mother that he's been a perfect angel. Ivan snarks.

Ivan finds something in his not-so-secret admirer's drawer. This is better left to the imagination.

Ivan breaks the fourth wall.

Poor Ivan never gets a break.

Damien (The jokester):

IVAN: Tact, my ass.

I can't decide whether it's funnier in- or out-of-context.

That is all for now, ladies and gents. Enjoy.

It’s ALIVE!!!

For the one or two of you that stumble upon this site per month, I have some exciting news. Well, it’s exciting news to me, anyway. Because I am special and easily excited like that.

First of all, The Phoenix Blog is not dead. In fact, you should expect it to get busier from here on out. In addition to information on characters, lore, and other such things, you should expect to see more personal blog-type updates (because I know that you sadists out there love to read those) and bits and pieces of a new project that I am working on. How big is this project? Quite. And no, it’s not that scanlation that I talked about in an earlier post. Unfortunately, that’s a little too time-consuming for me at the moment, and I have other things that I’d rather be working on.

Then what is this exciting project, you ask? Well, wait about 30-60 minutes more and you’ll probably find out. It relates to the apple of my eye, the wonderful nonexistent game known as Phoenix: Tears of Hope. Of course, by the time that the next visitor stumbles upon this random little site, I’m sure that I’ll have at least five more posts typed out over a period of a month or two. But regardless, it’s exciting stuff. Look forward to it.

Character 9 – Henna

Note: Characters are numbered in order of in-game appearance.

Full Name: Henna Rezala
Age: 14
Sex: Female
Height: 4′8″ (142 cm)
Weight: 100 lbs. (45.5 kg)
Hair: Light blond, braided
Eyes: Brown
Blood Type:B

Character Summary:

Henna is the final (main) playable character introduced in the game, but she joins the party before Mantis does.  She is the youngest princess of the small kingdom of Botia.  Rash and irresponsible, she is constantly getting herself into trouble and does not seem to care much.  After all, she has two older sisters who are more suitable to succeed the throne than she is.  Some in the kingdom see her as a nuisance, as she has actually sunk as low as thievery in order to garner attention.  Curiously enough, she is the only one of her three sisters to have inherited her parents’ earth magic.

As the people of Botia look up to the earth mage bloodline, Henna is shocked to hear that [Character X] is familiar with the earth mage’s son.  Therefore, when the group leaves Botia, Henna stows away on the ship and joins without giving the others a choice in the matter.  She claims that she is no longer welcome in Botia and that she wants to use her earth magic to fight for good.

In terms of character, she is rather childish and immature.  She often makes selfish decisions without considering others around her.  On the other hand, she is stubborn and is not frightened easily.  Once she warms up to them, she gets along well with others.  Aya becomes her closest friend, despite the fact that their personalities are opposites.  Henna is also cheerful and energetic, and she does not like gloomy situations.

Author’s Notes on this Character:

Henna is an interesting character to work with because she is the only one that really acts like a child, despite the fact that some of the others are not much older than her.  One of the themes throughout the story is how certain characters seem to have lost their childhoods at very early ages, but Henna stands as the sole exception to this idea.  Throughout the story, she becomes more mature and eventually abandons her childish ways.  She undergoes one of the most noticeable character developments in the story.

Character 8 – Ares

Note: Characters are numbered in order of in-game appearance.

Full Name: Ares Mitsaru
Age: 21
Sex: Male
Height: 6′2″ (188 cm)
Weight: 170 lbs. (77 kg)
Hair: Blue
Eyes: Hazel
Blood Type: O

Character Summary:

Similarly to Mantis, Ares does not join the party until a short time after he is first encountered in the game.  He sports a muscular build and favors physical power over magical strength.  He was accepted by the water phoenix at age 14 but never managed to refine his powers, as he he never had adequate instruction.  Despite this, his cousin Otessa accepts him as a fellow water apprentice and allows him to join his ruthless organization based on the principle that changing old laws leads to the destruction of a stable society.  Ares may be brainwashed by the propaganda of the organization, but his true reason for joining rests in the fact that he comes from the impoverished town of Miraga, which is still struggling to rebuild itself after a natural disaster.  He needs the money he is paid by the organization in order to help support his lower class family.

When the group is forcefully disbanded, Ares is left without a source of income but not without a plan.  He travels to Shar, where he pretends to be the water mage on a trip around the world.  He asks for donations to help with his travels, but his plan is quickly foiled by Ivan and the others, who are familiar with the true water mage.  To make matters worse, a group of dark magi had heard his claim, and they make an attempt on his life.  He is saved by the party, and joins for two reasons: to make up for claiming to be the water mage, and because he hopes to meet the famous water mage in person.  The water mage is, after all, revered in his hometown.

Ares has a positive, upbeat personality.  He has a history of being a bit of a skirt chaser, but this habit seems to disappear rather quickly for reasons unknown.  At heart, he is a fun guy with a big heart who is able to smile in the face of adversity.  He gets along with everyone fairly well, but he can be a bit dense at times.  He also has a hard time expressing himself clearly and is quick to give up on his own dreams, no matter how strongly he feels about them.

Author’s Notes on this Character:

Ares is another one of my favorite characters.  I think he kind of grew on me as I began to develop his character and background story more.  He isn’t very skilled with magic and makes stupid mistakes, but he takes it all very lightly and with a cheerful laugh.  He is also very fun to work with throughout the story – for instance, in one story arc, he falls in love with someone but keeps missing out on very important details because he is naturally dense.  I had to write out the script for this part ahead of time because Ares is just hilarious.

Character 7 – Aya

Note: Characters are numbered in order of in-game appearance.

Full Name: Aya Rotin
Age: 15
Sex: Female
Height: 5′3″ (160 cm)
Weight: 115 lbs. (52.3 kg)
Hair: Dark red, in a ponytail
Eyes: Blue
Blood Type:O

Character Summary:

Aya joins near the beginning of the second story arc.  She comes from the island of Winderis, an independent land with its own culture and beliefs.  Due to the traditional beliefs of the people, women in Winderis suffer from minimal rights and are considered to be solely homemakers.  This is unfortunate for young Aya, the daughter of Governor Sho Rotin.  When she was only an infant, her mother became extremely sick and passed away.  Though the matter was simply pushed aside by the village elders, Aya believes that her mother was poisoned because she was a poet who was very verbal about the unforgiving regulations set upon the townspeople.  Even fifteen years later, Aya bears bitter resentment against the authorities for her mother’s death and vows that she will change what her mother could not.

Aya has practiced swordsmanship in secret with her father since her mother’s death.  She is a young samurai, nimble and skilled with a katana.  Her father is also aware that she has an aptitude for wind magic, but he is unable to bring her to the temple in the mountains because the townsfolk keep an ever-watchful eye on the governor and his daughter.  Allowing a woman to learn wind magic would be unacceptable in Winderis’s culture, and it would certainly result in their assassination by the local clan designated to take care of troublemakers.  Neither the father nor the daughter take any action until [Character X] arrives on the island.  With his/her help, Aya is able to go to the temple to receive her magical powers.  Also, because of this character’s strong influence, the clan is disbanded and the townsfolk decide to abandon tradition and become more open to change.  As thanks for this remarkable transformation, the governor sends Aya off with [Character X].  He also knows that Aya has an important destiny in store for her, and he hopes that she will be able to improve her wind magic and help restore the world.

In terms of character, Aya is rather calm and collected.  However, she is always initially distrustful of others and it takes her awhile to adjust to changes.  She never really has a hard time getting along with anyone, but she is at the same time rather ruthless in her personal judgments of others.  She can act like a child at times, but for the most part, she is mature and level-headed.

Author’s notes on this Character:

Aya is one of my favorite characters.  She usually seems rather cold and apathetic, but at times, her childish side shines through and she becomes overly excited or overly emotional about things.  She is the only female main character with a normally “cold” personality.  The culture that she comes from is fun to write about, and I like her background story and how it has affected her personality.

Character 6 – Mantis

Note: Characters are numbered in order of in-game appearance.

Also Note: [Character X] can mean one of two things.  It either means <insert character here>, or it means that the character is a spoiler.

Full Name: Mantis Sei Dirgan
Age: 20
Sex: Male
Height: 5′11″ (180 cm)
Weight: 144 lbs. (65.5 kg)
Hair: Dark brown, long
Eyes: Brown
Blood Type:A

Character Summary:

Mantis is encountered relatively early in the game (about the middle of the first arc), but he does not join the party until much later (after [Character 7], [Character 8], and [Character 9]).  He is skilled with rapiers and light swords and comes from a faraway place called Enles.  Because his hometown is in fact a self-governed nation under the jurisdiction of the fire phoenix, the people there have learned to distrust outsiders, especially those with powers granted by the water phoenix.  Since his father is a very important person, Mantis is put through an extensive amount of training in order to become a powerful warrior.  His chance to prove himself comes at the annual “Champion of Zanoa” tournament held on the main continent.  He reveals that he must win or his father will view him as a disgrace to all of Enles.  Unfortunately, [Character X] of Ivan’s party defeats him in the tournament, as the prize money is needed for an urgent matter.

The next time Mantis is encountered is in Enles, where he is somehow in a coma.  His father is distraught, worried that he will fade away to nothing.  He is rescued from the coma by [Character X], and it is later revealed that he was put under a curse when he discovered a hatching plot that would result in Enles being handed over to evil men.  After everything has been resolved, he becomes a permanent part of the party as thanks for the salvation of his hometown.  He also hopes to become stronger in order to be accepted by his father, and he wishes to help protect other places against the growing influence of [Spoiler!...Ok, well, "evil" works here too.] .

Mantis is similar to Ivan in some respects, but completely different in others.  He is a bit on the quiet side and has a competitive nature that drives him to test his skills against other swordsmen, even those of greater ability.  His sword style is one that was devised in order to combat the former fighting style of the water mage bloodline.  He gets along well with Ivan and considers him a friendly rival.  He is trustworthy and earnest, and he can be counted on to get things done.  He also possesses fire magic, and he seems to have feelings for Alexandria.

Author’s Notes about this Character:

There’s not much to be said about him that wasn’t included in the character description.  He’s fun to work with because he provides a much-needed, unbiased voice of reason to the mix when it seems like everyone else is falling apart at the seams.  I also like this type of character…the noble young warrior who seeks to become stronger.  I think I watch a little too much anime. ^^;

Character 5 – Craig

Note: Characters are numbered in order of in-game appearance.

Full Name: Craig Sarishin
Age: ??
Sex: Male
Height: 6′ (183 cm)
Weight: 150 lbs. (68.2 kg)
Hair: Black, untidy
Eyes: Gray
Blood Type: AB

Character Summary:

Craig is your typical silent-type character.  He first meets the party at the Gale Temple and joins merely because he is intrigued by their vain hopes of defeating the water mage.  This is not his only motive: he knows what will happen once Ivan’s quest is over, and he plans to use this window of opportunity in order to achieve his own hidden goals.

He rarely ever opens his mouth to talk; but when he does, a witty, critical remark is usually the result.  He is distrusted by most as he refuses to reveal his goals and ambitions and claims to just follow along because things “seem fun”.  He is not one to rush into things or act without thinking.  In fact, he is actually rather intelligent beneath his cold exterior.

Lastly, Craig is a powerful apprentice with the power to manipulate the wind.  He is also skilled in a rare type of magic capable of speeding up, slowing down, stopping, and even reversing time.  Why and how he learned how to use this magic is unknown, but it is the reason why Ivan allows him to come along on the quest despite the fact that he seems untrustworthy at best.

Craig’s intentions and back story become more clear as the story reaches the end of its first arc (there are three “books” in total), but I won’t touch on that yet.

Author’s Notes about this Character:

There’s really not much more that can be said about Craig.  He makes an interesting plot element (kekeke), and I usually use him for wry humor in the script.  He is level headed and is therefore able to see matters from all sides, but as a result, he is extremely critical and likes to point out harsh realities and character flaws.  Unlike Damien and Alex, who joke with everyone but tend to heckle Ivan the most, Craig does not care who he is scrutinizing.  If he has something that he needs to say, he says it…and usually nothing more.  I like him.  He’s funny.~_^

Randomness – My New Project

So I was surfing the Internet one day, looking for a scanlation of one of my favorite manga series (A scanlation is a translation of manga scans, by the way… “scan” + “translation” = “scanlation”) and found that there no translations after a certain volume!  *GASP!*  So, this has become my new project.  I’m going to translate six volumes of Japanese goodness into readable English.  It’s all part of my plot to teach myself Japanese.  It’s going to take forever, though…oh well.  I really want to read it, and as a college student, I don’t have the patience or the money to wait for the American releases to come out.  We’ll see how this goes.  I’ll post my progress here periodically, but my scanlations will be available for download on a different website.

Oh, and the manga?  Basara (or Legend of Basara, depending on whether you’re familiar with the manga or the anime series that was cut short.)

Character 4 – Alex

Note: Characters are numbered in order of in-game appearance.

Full Name: Alexandria Maria Pyris
Age: 20
Sex: Female
Height: 5′6″ (168 cm)
Weight: 125 lbs. (56.8 kg)
Hair: Reddish-brown, kept in a ponytail
Eyes: Brown
Blood Type:B

Character Summary:

Alex, like Marinas, winds up in Gaia on Ivan’s birthday, but she has an important reason for being there.  She hails from Volcanus, a town far to the east, and has come to Gaia in order to find medicine for her sick brother.  Tomboyish and cheerful, she instantly takes a liking to Ivan when she meets him and feels indebted to him for showing her where to get what she needs to save her brother’s life.  She carries a bow and a quiver full of arrows on her back and is a talented marksman.  She also introduces herself and proves her might as the daughter of the fire mage on the ship from Gaia to the mainland, as she helps protect the ship alongside Ivan and Damien.

Despite her cheerful nature, Alexandria harbors a deep resentment for water magi.  This is due to an event in her childhood where the water mage travelled to Volcanus just to issue a challenge to Alex’s father, the fire mage.  Beside the water mage was his daughter, a pathetic girl who lacked even the ability to smile because of the torment that the water mage had put her through as a child.  Upon witnessing this man’s cruelty toward his daughter and his overwhelming defeat of the fire mage, Alex instantly developed a profound hatred for the water mage and all of the people in some way related to him.  However, this prejudice plays an important role in helping Ivan understand the true nature of humans and, furthermore, the nature of the quest that he is on.

In conjunction with her cheerful and peppy nature, Alex is also a bit mischevous.  Similar to Damien, she enjoys heckling others, especially Ivan because he is “fun”.  She also has a detailed knowledge of most things related to magi and the elements due to her upbringing as the fire mage’s heir.  Like Ivan, she is stubborn and will not admit defeat easily.  Of course, this also means that she has a difficult time accepting new things or admitting that others are right.  She is fiery and quick to anger, but she is in fact a very logical person who treasures her family and friends above all else…even if she won’t admit it!

Alex finally joins Ivan as a solid party member when the group leaves Volcanus.  She has promised her father that she will keep an eye on Ivan in order to make sure that his quest results in a better world and to make sure that Ivan improves his swordsmanship along the way.

Author’s Notes about this Character:

There’s not much that I have left to say about Alex.  I think she kind of speaks for herself.  She is the mandatory “cheerful” character in the story, although she has a twist.  She is extremely biased about water magi, and this results in huge problems later on (but I won’t go into that yet!).  Let’s just say that she causes a lot of drama from time to time.  She’s fun, though.  Kind of reminds me of Aika from Skies of Arcadia.

New Laptop = Win

Happy Birthday to me!  I finally got something that I’ve wanted for years and years and years…a laptop!  I originally wanted to get a laptop instead of a desktop, but at the time, they weren’t worth the money that you had to pay for them.  I picked up this baby today for about $750 (was supposed to be $600, but with NJ sales tax and the 1-yr warranty…) and I’m loving it so far.  That’s right, no more sitting in an uncomfortable wooden desk chair in front of the desktop and trying to concentrate on whatever I’m supposed to be writing.  This is so much nicer! ^_^

My decision to get one today was actually rather last minute.  I was working on revising my book and was just thinking about how much nicer it would be if I could go outside and work on it instead of sitting in my room for hours.  Plus, who can deny the versatility that laptops offer for a writer?  I wish I had this a few weeks ago, when I took a 5-hour ride up to the Syracuse area to visit family.  But that’s over and done with, and now I’m a happy camper.  Life is good.  Well, occasionally!

Well, time to transfer all of my docs from my desktop to this computer.  Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?