Elven Relations 2: Mermaid Liaisons!
When and where is it set?
It's set in the world of Elven Relations, a year or two after the events of the first game.
The Sequel Problem
One of the problems in writing a sequel to a multi-ending VN is the question of which ending do you carry on from? Some game series designate one of the first game's endings as the "true ending", but I didn't want to do that: none of the endings in ER1 is meant to be "truer" than the others. (Well, certainly out of the three girls' best endings, none is truer than any other. I'd be happy to say that Tohko's best ending is truer than her good ending.)
So I'm doing what seems to be the obvious plan, although it's a bit more work than some of the other options: the game allows you to carry on from any of the ER1 endings.
More specifically, ER2 will detect which ER1 endings have been reached on this machine, using Ren'Py's MultiPersistent technology (which I had the foresight to build into ER1 ), and allow you to continue from any of the ER1 endings that you've reached. If no ER1 data is detected, then it'll carry on from ER1 Ending 8.
But I played Elven Relations on a different computer!
There will also be a way to unlock the ability to start from any ER1 ending within ER2, though it probably won't be easy.
What's this about mermaids?
Mermaid Liaisons will have several characters who are mer, the race of sea-dwellers that were mentioned in passing in ER1. They're similar in appearance to the classical mermen and mermaids, and refer to themselves as such.
How many girls are there? Will there be a mermaid? Will there be an elf girl?
There will be four romanceable characters in the game: two mermaids, a human girl and an elf girl.
The elf girl and the mermaids are new characters for ER2, but the human girl is our beloved fire mage, Tohko Tanomazu
Who's the protagonist? Is it Takuya?
No, for assorted reasons I decided that I didn't want Takuya to be the protagonist of the sequel. Instead, the main character of Elven Relations 2: Mermaid Liaisons will be your good friend from the first game, Kei!
(Minor spoilers for Elven Relations 1 follow)
And if you continue from that ending, then Kei and Tohko will be together, and the challenge will be to maintain your relationship with that delightful, tempestuous girl
On the other hand, if you continue from any of the other ER1 endings, then Kei and Tohko won't be together, and she'll be a normal romanceable character.
But what if I continue from an ending where Takuya and Tohko were together?
Ah, yes. In that case, Tohko will still be around; if Kei tries to pursue her, then he'll be going behind his best friend Takuya's back.
There will be a little more main plot to the story than Elven Relations 1 had. But I'm aiming to preserve the feeling of light-hearted fantasy romance that people loved about Elven Relations.
Will there be combats like in ER1?
I'm not sure yet. If you feel strongly one way or the other, let me know.
When will the game be out?
Not for a few months yet, I'm afraid. It's currently at the "detailed plans" stage - I've got a lot of the main plot, character-specific plot and character details figured out, and am finishing up the plans before writing the scene-by-scene outline and then the script.
So I'm not expecting the game to be released before, say, April.
Will SunKitten be doing the art again?
Yes! In fact, it's partly due to her urging that I'm moving ahead with the game. She enjoys creating VN artwork and was asking me when the next game would be She's currently putting together character designs, but we know from When I Rule The World and Elven Relations that she can put together amazing art amazingly quickly, so I'm going to be the bottleneck
What's with the WIP thread? You don't normally do those, chrono!
Yeah... true... I think I just wanted somewhere to talk about ER2:ML without filling up the ER1 thread. I'm not expecting to post weekly updates or anything. I just wanted to have somewhere to make the announcement