Lemma Soft Forums

Hi All,

My name is Shawn, and I'm one member of the two-person team at Erotome, a small, start-up studio focused on making otome games. While we have larger projects in the works, I started a little pet project intended for parody purposes (presumably within the bounds of Fair Use). I haven't had time to work on it much for several months, between writing for our intended-for-purchase games and my own job, but I wanted to share what was finished of the game and see what people thought about it so far.



For those who haven't played Resident Evil 4 (please do so immediately), the story is this: You play as secret agent, Leon S. Kennedy, a oft-cited video game hottie tasked with rescuing the president's daughter, Ashley Graham, from a mysterious Spanish cult. As Leon, you are an Ultimate Badass who faces down hulking monstrosities with a cool demeanor and snappy one-liners.

But there's an untold story in RE4, specifically from Ashley's side. How did she feel about being kidnapped and subsequently rescued by a quintessential bishie? That's where RE4: Otome Edition comes in. The game is narrated from Ashley's perspective as she remembers those harrowing days, recounting the events as she perceived them. Seeing how Ashley is treated as a "damsel in distress" by the game, I wanted to give her a sense of autonomy within the game world, showcasing that she has thoughts and feelings and worries and desires and mental problems, just like the rest of us.

Now, I love RE4. I've played it an unreasonable number of times. Consequently, I wanted this game to be an accurate representation of what happens in the game, only contriving new scenarios that are not explicitly covered by the game itself. Everything else is essentially a normal playthrough from Ashley's perspective.

Because this is first and foremost a parody, I've tried to write in a light-hearted way. The game is intended to be highly referential and self-aware, both of its source material and its larger genre. I've used official art to create "in-game sprites" and generally rely on walkthrough videos to create backgrounds. It has a "cheesy," "B" look to it, which I hope works for the kind of game that it is.

My questions for you kind participants: What issues did you encounter? What is your opinion of the writing? Do you find the humor enjoyable, and if so, what parts? Is the parody compelling or obnoxious to you? Would you like to see the game more fully developed? Is it ultimately something you would like to play in full, even if you haven't played RE4? And any other thoughts you might want to share.

You can download the ZIP file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BydVlb ... sp=sharing

Known Issues:
- The player may crash when you try to exit. You may have to force it to close.
- Save/Load should work during a play session, but I don't know if it works should you close the program.
- Don't even bother with Game Log. It doesn't work yet.
- Some music is placeholder and/or the volume increases sharply before fading away.
- Some later parts of the demo do not have backgrounds included yet.
- The demo will end abruptly after the El Gigante fight.

One important note: When you have a choice to "Go Left" or "Go Right," you should choose to "Go Left" (the right path is not as complete as the left).

Pro Tip: You can fast forward through text by pressing the Space Bar.

Thank you, all, for your time. I look forward to your responses!

I saw the name and was like "Oh my gosh what?!" and then I saw the picture and I was like "yass." I'm happy it's a parody too!

Seriously though, downloading the ZIP right now! (Google Drive downloads always take forever for me I don't know why)
I can't wait to play even if it's just a demo haha! RE 4 was the first one I played, so of course I'm going to completely love this idea.

JJupiterJump wrote:I saw the name and was like "Oh my gosh what?!" and then I saw the picture and I was like "yass." I'm happy it's a parody too!

Seriously though, downloading the ZIP right now! (Google Drive downloads always take forever for me I don't know why)
I can't wait to play even if it's just a demo haha! RE 4 was the first one I played, so of course I'm going to completely love this idea.

Awesome, thank you! I'm sure you'll notice little nods to the original game. I look forward to your feedback!

What issues did you encounter?
The game randomly closed for me a few times- the window would stop responding then it would suddenly close without me doing anything. It happened once when I switched windows, and then came back to the game, and once when I was skipping, stopped, and then tried to continue skipping. Hopefully that's somewhat helpful haha

What is your opinion of the writing? Do you find the humor enjoyable, and if so, what parts? Is the parody compelling or obnoxious to you?
I love that you took the light-hearted approach. If you had taken a more serious appraoch I think then it might of come off as obnoxious, but in this case I just saw it as cute, and funny! I definitely like the humor, ManFocus is the best power I have ever seen.
I also appreciated how close it was to RE 4, and I think it included enough for anyone who hasn't played RE 4 to understand at least what's going on. Although I think it might be hard in some parts like when she was describing the spine hell worm, if I didn't know what it looked like I'd be confused (but maybe you'll have BG for it so) or the injection near the beginning (it was sort of unexplained, but then Ashley compared herself to Gigor)

Would you like to see the game more fully developed?
Yes! Yes!

Is it ultimately something you would like to play in full, even if you haven't played RE4?
I've played RE 4 so I can't really answer it- but I do want to play it in full!

And any other thoughts you might want to share.
I don't know if you intend to have choices that can really effect the gameplay outside of any canon choices, but it's now my life dream to romance wizinja. He's totally playing hard to get. I would also say Saddle, but I was partially scarred by that I found a mistake when Leon was fighting Gigor "Exploiting this moment of weakness, as all beautiful men are won't to do..." unless I just don't understand the line. I also noticed two commas placed at one point, but I didn't remember to write down what line it was in! It was during the Gigor fight, before the line above though.

Hey JJupiterJump,

Thanks for playing through it! I'm glad that you found it funny and faithful to the source material. Creating some of those pictures of the men was an exercise in resolve, ha. But Ashley's young, hormonal, and needs (wants?) to explore her options, ha.

My intent was to follow the game straight, which inevitably requires that choices are largely inconsequential (or like in the case of meeting El Gigante, Leon never seems to do what Ashley wants.) Naturally, certain men could never be romances, just because of how the canon is. However, Wizinja might still be a viable secret romance. I'll definitely think about that. Maybe he's just shy...

Thanks for bringing those crashes and typos to my attention. That "won't" is supposed to be "wont", i.e., "all beautiful men typically exploit this moment of weakness." Even though I work as a professional editor, sometimes little things still slip through, so it's always nice to have another set of eyes.

Were there any sections that you thought were less funny than others, or weirdly paced, or just awkward-sounding? I'd like to ensure a generally consistent level of quality and tone.

Erotome_Shawn wrote:Were there any sections that you thought were less funny than others, or weirdly paced, or just awkward-sounding? I'd like to ensure a generally consistent level of quality and tone.

I thought that it was consistent really, some jokes were funnier than others (I've already mentioned the ones I loved) but that's to be expected. It didn't get boring at any part for me, so I say it's great. The only awkward sounding sentence was the one I mentioned.

A few weird things I did notice though:
When Ashley is just about to be rescued by Leon, and the BG is the picture of the door(knob) I first saw it as a pot on the floor (I know), and when Leon came in it made it look like he was laying on the floor- I only realized I was seeing it wrong on the second playthrough. It's not substantial, but I still thought about it. The blurred CG/BG images were weird to look at too- but since they're screenshots of the game it's to be expected haha. Lastly would be the faces of Ashley, most of them look good, but one is saturated more than the others- if it's not fixable (since I don't know if playing with the saturation would make it look like the others) it's fairly easy to get over so don't put too much thought into it.

Erotome_Shawn wrote:Naturally, certain men could never be romances, just because of how the canon is. However, Wizinja might still be a viable secret romance. I'll definitely think about that. Maybe he's just shy...

My heart will forever yearn for wizinja but I understand he has other wizard ninja things to do.

Thanks for those extra details, JJupiterJump. I don't personally like that doorknob background, and considering how you saw it, I'm even more inclined to do something different with it. I also have Ashley's faces saved in Photoshop, so I'll definitely look into matching their saturation. On a side note, I wish there was more art of her, ha. I've had to get creative with official art and I think I've exhausted her possible faces.

Don't give up hope on wizinja. Not all boys are beyond persuasion, like Leon, ha!

To all you lurkers: If you've given the demo a try, I'd love to have your input!

My apologies for the double-post and thread revival, but I was curious to see if anyone else had played the demo and had any feedback for the project. Thanks!