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Difficulty in Blue Rose

Posted on May 1, 2012 by LTB

In most basic visual novels the difficulty is measured by how easy it is to reach a certain ending or not – to be able to foresee which choices bring you on the right path, and lets you avoid unhappy endings. Some are pretty straightforward, while others present you with a lot of vague and difficult options. It varies what people prefer – some like a challenge and the chance of something unexpected happening, while others would rather just read the story and bring up walkthroughs to make sure they’re heading in the right direction.

So what is the difficulty in Blue Rose like? At this point I’d have to say that it is probably… pretty easy. If you know what character’s story you’re after, then it should be pretty straightforward to get there. You can (usually) see where people are on the map before you go, and the conversational choices aren’t that challenging if you know what is going on.

Personally I don’t mind a challenge in visual novels, but I realise that in Blue Rose the focus has been elsewhere. The choices aren’t meaningless – rather than make it difficult for the player, they simply do just that, give the choice of where you wish to go, and how you want to see things unfold, and no version of the story is any more true than the others.

In that light I don’t think this title is going to really need in-depth walkthroughs when released, just guidelines at most. It is possible to run into a bad end without wanting to, but it shouldn’t take much more than one retry to get it right. One of the character routes also need to be unlocked first, which it will be after seeing just one of the other good endings.

I still hope some people also get to see the ‘bad’ endings, though – especially two of them I personally find to have quite some meaning as well, and I hope the readers will too if they come across them.

Some day in the future I’d like to make something more challenging, in a way that makes sense for the story. But for now I hope people will appreciate this approach as well, and enjoy the different possibilities of the story as they go along.

Blue Rose Characters – Erin

Posted on April 26, 2012 by LTB

Up next is Erin:

Erin is the lone girl with her own route in Blue Rose. She runs a small inn in the village together with her sister Mary.

Erin is a positive, welcoming character, who takes an interest in Lena right away. Her dream is to turn their small inn into a great restaurant – something quite unlikely in the tiny little mountain village where they live.

Easily impressed by Lena’s knightly background, Erin is a bit of a dreamer. She loves cooking and socialising with others, but stays somewhat isolated in spite of this.

Blue Rose Characters – Simon

Posted on March 5, 2012 by LTB

Next character introduction is for Simon:

Simon is a Templar of the Blue Rose, just like Lena. They have worked together for almost two years now, and Lena sees him as an important mentor to her.

Simon takes his position very seriously, and has a great sense of responsibility for those under his command. He is also very calm and collected, and usually has his temper under control. Usually.

Simon’s route was hard to write. So many things are going on under his calm exterior, and the other routes have him say and do things as a result of this, which could be hard to explain. That, and he usually has to draw the short end of the stick.

Don’t worry Simon, you’ll get your chance! Some day…

We’re not related! Honest!

Posted on February 23, 2012 by LTB

So today I was doing some work on the visual side of the map in Blue Rose, resulting in this test screen:

That’s when I realised, while looking at all the character icons together on that map, that three of the four male characters have almost the same hair colour. Well actually Aran has several colours in his hair (the guy in the top left), but you can’t really see it on his icon, and most of it is silver anyway. Then there is Gavin who is white-haired, and Simon with a very light blue.

Only poor Tobias breaks the combo with BLACK hair. (And Erin, but being a girl and all already makes her a bit unique in this bunch.)

Huh. I seriously never thought about this before, even after working on this game for so long now.

Blue Rose Characters – Gavin

Posted on February 21, 2012 by LTB

(I realised I had said earlier that I would now introduce Blue Rose characters, then never actually continued doing so…. oops? Anyway, here is finally introduction #2)

Next up in our character introductions is – Gavin! He was the first character I wrote a route for, so he might as well be the first of the main characters that I introduce as well:

Gavin is one of the first people that Lena is introduced to in the village. He can be a bit of an idiot, but I quite like his non-serious attitude. In spite of his tendency to piss off everyone around him, Gavin is also a pretty dependable type.

Like Lena, Gavin is a bit of a newcomer in this village, and therefore also somewhat of an outsider.

The inspiration for Gavin came very early on from a certain character in a certain movie/book. In the end his personality ended up completely different from that character though! They only share a very few superficial traits.

Blue Rose Characters – Lena

Posted on July 24, 2011 by LTB

Guess I can (very) slowly start to introduce the characters in Blue Rose.

The obvious choice for the first one is:

Lena – the protagonist.

The last visual novel I wrote (which spanned more than 5 minutes) was Angelic Orbs. The protagonist in that story was Kevin, a boy from the country who… well, was kinda helpless. Kevin was not the bravest of men, and certainly no warrior, often resulting in him having to improvise during the more dangerous situations in the story.

Lena is something different – apart from being a girl, she is also a Templar of the Blue Rose, a high order of elite knights in the kingdom of Tanves. She believes in being able to hold one’s own and in fighting for what is right. Which means she can kick some serious butt if it comes down to it.

She is also the only important character in the story without any in-game sprites. That doesn’t mean you won’t get to see her in cg’s though.

Although Lena believes in being strong, she soon realises that in reality she has hardly ever made an independent choice in her life. She also comes to the realisation that these choices will end up having great consequences for everything around her.

One of the key points I had in mind when starting out on Blue Rose, was that I wanted a protagonist with a clear, strong personality. She would have a name, a face and an important role in what happens. She is not just the protagonist, but the centre of the story – and the reader will go through the events together with her, aiding her in her choices.

Hopefully you will enjoy this journey when it’s finally done – and that you’ll be able to care for Lena, even in spite of her faults.

Give me endless mode!

Posted on June 16, 2011 by LTB

One thing that really saddens me when playing Atelier Rorona, is that the time restraints really limit what you can do. There are so many possibilities in that game, but you have to replay the same parts over and become awesome at time management to do them, and then you still have to settle for certain goals that you want to pull through.

This gives the game a great challenge, but at some point it gets too frustrating. What I really wish Rorona had, was an unlockable endless mode. A sort of sandbox that you could play through after finishing the game, trying out the harder dungeons and searching for those recipes you never really had time to get before, levelling characters and just plain experimenting with all the cool features.

Then when you get tired of that and want a challenge, you can start over and chase down that elusive ending you always wanted.

I feel like playing the game a little more casually, exploring all the possibilities. Just starting the game over from scratch and race through it again is a bit… meh.

Why must you torment me so, Rorona!?

Munch munch

Posted on February 15, 2011 by LTB

“Oh, was this yours?”

I really need to practice more. Anyway, have a random sketch.

Erin’s transformation sequence(?)

Posted on February 12, 2011 by LTB

Usually I would never show off crappy art like this publicly before I fix it, but I thought I’d tell a little about how I work on the art for Blue Rose (and most other things, really).

Some days a w.i.p drawing just looks awesome while you’re working on it, but then when it’s done, you look at it and think ’OMG what was I doing!?’

Ewww (especially when mirrored).

At times I get lucky and I only need to clean up the lineart a bit and make sure the head has the right shape (one of my sloppy areas). And then there are times when proportions are thrown out the window and they look like that example up there…

Poor Erin.

Actually I could redraw the whole thing and that might be easier, but I’m too lazy. So instead I try to patch up the lineart I have, although the amount of work ends up pretty much the same!

Hours later…

Yay, much better!

After this, I can finally go on to drawing her different expressions and send her off to my colourist… until next time I open the file and realise ‘aww I should have fixed this and that too!!’ <_<;;

Usually I would never show off crappy art like this publicly before I fix it, but I thought I’d tell a little about how I work on the art for Blue Rose (and most other things, really).

Some days a w.i.p drawing just looks awesome while you’re working on it, but then when it’s done, you look at it and think ’OMG what was I doing!?’

(Erin pose2, before fixes)

Ewww (especially when mirrored).

At times I get lucky and I only need to clean up the lineart a bit and make sure the head has the right shape (one of my sloppy areas). And then there are times when they look like that example up there…

Poor Erin.

Actually I could redraw the whole thing and that might be easier, but I’m too lazy. So instead I try to patch up the lineart I have, although the amount of work ends up pretty much the same!

Hours later…

(Fixed Erin sprite)

Yay, much better!

Bang! You’re dead!

Posted on February 4, 2011 by LTB

I’m not entirely sure why, but somehow I’ve turned into quite a figma maniac. I just can’t resist them…

I’ve never really been into action figures as I like the quality of static figures more. But these just appeal to me somehow. (And they often choose characters that I really like).

Come on, me! Stop checking up on new figma releases already so you won’t get tempted!