Crimson Rafflesia [Psych|Thriller|GxB/BxG] Demo - 26 Sep

[Coren]

Here's a mini CG update:


Little Polly and Larsen! Because prefects and dwarves and stuff

[Coren]

Okay, here are the results for the Soyasushi Fan Contest, as I have dawdled long enough and finally gotten enough votes to tally. I've gotten some really wonderful entries this time, and decided to open more consolation prize positions to accomodate more winners! (To see the full size of all images here, go to this link: http://corenb.deviantart.com/journal/So ... -419861969 )

Consolation Prize Winners
I decided to bump up the prizes for consolation prize winners, so now consolation prize winners will get a small cameo character each. There are three consolation prize winners in all, and in no proper order of merit, they are:

Firstly, "Fire Entry" by LumenIzampel!

Lumen is the only one who made a comic-styled entry, and I really like the emotions presented in it!

Second, "Hell Entry" by 3leavesclover!

I've always enjoyed your artwork, and the votes you got were well-deserved.

Third, "Silver Entry" by rainscarce

There sure are a lot of Shos in here for some reason. Anyway, I do like how shiny this one is. XD

Finally "Hina Entry" by Tsukishima


Congratulations! On to the next segment, which is...

Honourable Mention
These are the works which I really, really enjoyed personally, and believe deserve commendation.

I won't try to pull any dramatics here - pretty much, I'm commending two very special artworks which featured characters from RE: Prince of Nigeria and Ribbon of Green, especially due to the huge influx of Crimson Rafflesia (and especially Sho) artworks.

So first, there's "Ribbon Entry" by xadako!

I have no words for how beautiful this is. The thumbnail does absolutely no justice, of course, because you can barely see it. But I simply love the sequence-art design of it, and the emotions captured. I really love it. It deserves all the commendations and medals and stuff arghhh pretty

And of course, there's also "Cash Entry" by Nero279:

This is freaking wonderful. I love the background and the art, and the slightly Halloween theme of it since, well, the deadline was in October.

Congratulations, xadako and Nero! I'll PM you on your prizes.

And of course, the main dish:

1st, 2nd and 3rd Places
These are the ones which got the highest votes. And of course, I loved these entries myself. Without further ado, here they are:

In third place, there's azureXtwilight, who drew Solo, Hanyuan and Horai in "Grass Entry":

The only crossover art I got, it's pretty thematic and interesting!

In second place, there's khnachi who drew Sho and Kaison in "Duel Entry":

What can I say? The art is adorable, and I love the background. And of course, just when I was talking about the overwhelming number of Sho's...

In first place, there's Asachi, who drew Sho in "Chess Entry"!

Okay, this one got the overwhelming majority of votes. Like seriously. It's wonderful.

Congratulations, guys! In case you needed to be reminded of your prizes, they're on the old journal. I'll note you all to discuss prizes. Please fill in the character form below and send it in, for those who are going to add an OC into the game:

Name:
Nickname/Aliases, if any:
Reference image, if any:
Gender:
Age:
Birthday:
Blood Type:
Height:
Appearance:
Background:
Personality:
Role in story:
Related to any existing character(s)? If so, how?:
Main Goal/Aim?:
Affiliation: Wilshire? The NLF? Goldsteins/Chloe? Unaffiliated?
Misc.:


For all those who didn't win, don't fret. As thanks for joining, I'll give everyone a complimentary feature in my journal later on and a llama if you're on DeviantArt.

Thank you everyone for joining, and I look forward to hosting something like this again in the future. :'D Thank you for supporting Soyasushi Productions!

[azureXtwilight]

Hahaha, I can't believe I won something in my first contest! Thanks a lot for all the hard work you've put to make this, and I'll be *ahem* making my character profile with haste.

[tiya_nofurita]

Congratulations for all winners, they are all AWESOME! ^_^ Too bad I can't participate on the contest...

[Coren]

ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG I FORGOT ALL ABOUT TSUKISHIMA

Yes, I forgot one consolation prize winner - Tsukishima, who did "Hina Entry". :'D Sorry for the lack of a mention, and here is her wonderfully marvellous entry:

Will PM you on your prize!

[Coren]

Annnd finally Polly is done!

Polly Irene is Larsen's "friend", a fellow prefect from the same school who loves abusing her power and privilege. Since Lars' friends can't seem to convince him not to stray from the group during lunch break, it's Polly's turn to intervene.

[Coren]

Another CG update!

Well hello thar

[Rinima]

Urrrgg!
I can feel my art kink been hit like the angry fist of god! (good thing, only happens on awesome art)
...
Well, that made no sense.

[Coren]

Haha thanks! I don't think I'm that good though, but I'll just keep chugging on, heh.

[pickle131]

That new CG *A*

[Haze]

Ok, finished the demo recently and asdhjk I loved it.

I actually downloaded it a while ago, but when I saw that the OP song got nominated for best original song on VNs now(who posted here asking for nominations a while back), I thought "Ok, I need to go play this game. I've waited long enough!"

Is the game really coming out this month(that's what it said at the end of the demo...)? If it's not, that's ok. I'll wait patiently.

Alright, time to answer the questions!

1. What do you think of the game so far?

I think it's pretty good so far. At first, I saw the part with the maid at the beginning and though "Ok, the guy's going to die, blah blah blah. Sounds a little boring."

But then the part with Sho being the maid came out of NOWHERE for me(although I probably should have seen it coming...)

You know that Beethoven joke you had during that part? If it wasn't for the circumstances, it would have been kinda cheesy, but since you had it during that part, it was just hilarious. I burst out laughing, and I was still laughing about it for a while. I even told the joke to some of my friends! XD

One thing I have to say about the game is that at first, it didn't have a lot of choices. There was a lot of reading, and then the occasional choice. This is perfectly fine, but when there were a lot of choices later, it seemed kind of...unbalanced, compared to the very few choices there were before.

2. Who are generally your favourite characters, and why?

Well, I really like Sho(like a lot of people, I'm sure ). Even though she's the bad guy, I can't stop rooting for her.

I don't really like Coil, though. He seems to be the kind of guy only interested in his own agenda, the type to manipulate to get people to agree with his cause.

This presents all sorts of gray-and-gray morality situations- is the Resistance really good? Are they really going to make the world a better place, or do they just want control? All the lines seem to be blurred, which is a good thing here- it creates a bit of mystery on who is really the good guys. Of course, this could just be me being a cynic.XD

Anyway, you asked which characters I like. I like Layner. Dialogue with him seems to be pretty hilarious. He gives a little levity to the game, which is nice.

I've got a feeling he's got some sort of hidden agenda too, though. That whole thing about seeing that Kaison needs the water probably means he's quite observant and/or he's acting a little dumber than he actually is. Plus, he looks quite evil in the CG you recently put up...

These are just guesses, of course.

3. What are some questions you want answered the most in the full game?

What does Chloe want with Sho, exactly? That's the main one. If you ask me, she didn't get enough appearances for me to determine what she wants.

I'm really curious about whether Kaison will kill Sho. I want Sho to live, but I like Kaison too, though not as much as Sho.

This game has multiple endings, right? Then, maybe I can determine this outcome myself.

As mentioned above, I'm also curious about Coil.

Is he really doing this to make the world a better place, or does he have another motive?

Who lit the fire at the beginning?

4. What do you predict are answers to these questions?

Chances are, Sho killed someone close to Chloe before the events of the story, and she wants revenge.

Or maybe they were at the same orphanage, and Chloe knows what kind of person Sho is?

Hmmm...I don't know. I really don't. If Kaison kills Sho, there'll probably be this whole "you've killed her, now you're just like her" thing. But if Sho kills Kaison, well, then that'll be that. Another day, another kill- except this guy's kinda like her rival. Perhaps Sho will kill him, but grieve about it because he was a worthy opponent- if he was a worthy opponent. I'm not sure..

Not sure about Coil. Chances are he personally knows Faraday, was left out to dry, and now wants revenge. Or Faraday did something to him in the past. Maybe both.

Probably Kaison lit the fire, but he forgot about it.

5. Which characters do you find the most curious or interesting? (Can overlap with #1)

I find Faraday to be pretty interesting. I mean, come on.

You've hired a crazy girl to do stuff for you. Why? She's probably pretty good at her job, but still.

I would want to know more about him.

As I mentioned twice already, Coil. Don't think I need to reiterate.

Sho. Just out of curiosity, have you integrated parts of the Macdonald triad into her personality? If you don't know what that is, I've provided a link, but here's a short explanation: it's 3 traits that are associated with sociopathy, the traits being fire setting, cruelty to animals, and bed wetting(after a certain age). When at least 2 traits are present, the chances of committing violent acts later in life increases. I wouldn't doubt that she has fire setting and animal cruelty down... But yeah! Just curious.

I want to know a bit more about Kaison.

How does he do the whole fire thing? Based on what Layner said, are there other people with similar powers. Are such powers common, or becoming more common as years go by?
I'm also curious about the circumstances surrounding his memory loss- he fell from a building. Did someone push him? Did he jump? The whole thing is a bit curious...
Another thing: how do both he and Sho know the "Stop, don't despair" chant thing? My guess is that they went to the same orphanage, but I don't know...

6. What do you generally think of the story so far?

I think it's great! The demo was very, very long, way longer than I expected. Every time there was a fade-to-black type scene, I thought "Ok, demo's over now" but it wasn't. That was really great. I actually though the demo would end right before the "Stop. Don't despair. Be happy. Smile" part came on the screen.

The story makes me very curious about the world it's set it, and the circumstances of the characters. It also doesn't leave many loose threads hanging around, which is good.

7. What particular scene(s) did you like in the demo?

As mentioned before, I liked the scene in the beginning.

Out of nowhere, Sho comes, kills people, and says a slightly bad joke. That was just great.

The scene with the bodyguard(Richard, I think?).

I liked the choice. To kill or not to kill- that is the question. I killed him, by the way. I thought I would get a CG, showing a bloody Richard in all it's glory- but nope. Oh well. Will that be in the completed game?

I thought the thing with Wuthering Heights, and the scenes based off that, was interesting, too. I don't know much about Wuthering Heights because I read it, and then I got to the part where Catherine says "I don't love Edgar, but I'm going to marry him! For money and high social standing! Then, by doing that, I can help Heathcliff since he has a low social standing!" and then Heathcliff only hears that last part and thinks Catherine doesn't love him. I got disgusted with the book, and I couldn't read it any more. Maybe I'll pick it up again, though, to see if it ties into your story. I've also read a book based on Wuthering Heights, but that's not the real thing.

I liked how you had a call back to the chili and ketchup part. Layner, you idiot. XD

8. ... Pairings/Ships, do you have any?

Kaison and Shirley, of course, but that's probably offical so I guess it doesn't really count.

9. TAKE A RANDOM SCREENSHOT!

Ok!

(Actually, I guess this isn't really random- I saw the questions before I played, and when I got to this part, I thought "I'll should make this my screenshot!")

So yeah. I guess that's it. I wish you luck completing the rest of this game!

Oh, and if I need to put a spoiler tag on anything above, let me know.

[Coren]

Hey thanks for the comments! Unfortunately, the game won't be out this month. I can't really give an estimate, but it'll take quite some time since I pretty much overestimated my own abilities to work on a game on crippling insomnia. I can't really give an estimated date until I fully recover, so it'll probably take a while.

[pickle131]

Don't even worry about it! Making sure to take care of yourself is the most important thing. Hopefully you'll feel better soon!

[Rinima]

Take care!
Hope you get better soon~

[Coren]

Thanks for the thoughts, and I will! (:

I thought the thing with Wuthering Heights, and the scenes based off that, was interesting, too. I don't know much about Wuthering Heights because I read it, and then I got to the part where Catherine says "I don't love Edgar, but I'm going to marry him! For money and high social standing! Then, by doing that, I can help Heathcliff since he has a low social standing!" and then Heathcliff only hears that last part and thinks Catherine doesn't love him. I got disgusted with the book, and I couldn't read it any more. Maybe I'll pick it up again, though, to see if it ties into your story. I've also read a book based on Wuthering Heights, but that's not the real thing.

.... Don't expect it to tie in too much, heh. It wasn't supposed to be much of a metaphor for the main plot, but it has some relevance, subplot-wise.