Akash: Path of the Five [Otome, fantasy, romance, humor]

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truantpixel
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Akash: Path of the Five [Otome, fantasy, romance, humor]

#1 Post by truantpixel »

Akash: Path of the Five is an otome set in a fantasy world. Players will assume the role of Aurora, a member of a magical race known as the “Al’wan,” or elementals. For nearly a millenia, the number of elemental girls born has dwindled, forcing them to interbreed with humans to save their race from extinction. As the first elemental girl the village of Akash has seen in over 200 years, all eyes are on Aurora while she prepares for her Coming of Age Ceremony. Tensions between her home village and a neighboring village of humans boil over, threatening an all-out war. Players will have the opportunity to cultivate a romance with one of her five classmates, navigate the conflict between the two races, and plan the greatest Coming of Age Ceremony the village of Akash has seen in two centuries.

Romanceable Characters:

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Rowan:

Rowan--earth elemental. He's always smiling and joking--the quickest way to his heart is a bad pun. He's not a very serious student; he'd rather be spending his time exercising. Best friends with Sirocco. Voiced by Chris Patton.

Sirocco ("Rocco")

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Sirocco--wind elemental. Prefers to be called "Rocco". Sirocco is the village playboy, always ready with a come-on or sleazy line. He gets away with being so obnoxious purely on the strength of his charm. Best friends with Rowan. Voiced by Andrew Love.

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Ignatius:

Ignatius--fire elemental. Ignatius is shy and introverted--he spends most of his time drawing. Sirocco and Rowan tease him constantly. Voiced by Brandon McInnis.

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Caspian:

Caspian--water elemental. Regal, aloof, and often arrogant, Caspian is a mystery to his classmates and even the village at large. He keeps to himself as he seems to think most are beneath him. Voiced by SungWon Cho.

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Lux:

Lux--light elemental. Aurora's best friend since childhood, his massive size belies a gentle spirit. He's kind and helpful to all he meets, and loves to read in his spare time. Voiced by Ray Chase.

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Daniel:

A human male who ends up caught in the cross-fire between the human and elemental villages. He's impulsive and brash but a romantic at heart. Voiced by Jason Wishnov.

Media:

Announcement Trailer:



Opening Scene Preview:



Second Scene Preview:


CGS:

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Screencaps:

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Akash: Path of the Five features:
- An original visual novel in the otome style.
- Multiple potential story paths with multiple endings.
- Over 150,000 lines, featuring fully-voiced dialogue.
- Fully customizable main character (MC) name.
- An all-star cast, including Morgan Berry, SungWon Cho, Andrew Love, Brandon McInnis, Chris Patton, Jason Wishnov, Ray Chase, and more.
- 3D backdrops with cinematic effects.
- Original soundtrack by Fat Bard.
- Over 70 beautifully illustrated CGs to collect
- NA and EU release planned.

Akash is fully funded and self published by Truant Pixel, LLC.

------
Progress:
At the moment VO is 100% complete (recorded, edited, mastered, added into the game), as is writing and editing for the game text. 100% of sprites are finished, and we are about 60% complete for the CGs. We are currently building the game and coding expressions and our composers Fat Bard are hard at work creating lovely music for us.

Questions for you:

1. Who, if anyone, are you most interested in pursuing? Why?
2. I'm noticing a trend with a lot of otome/VNs lately with MCs with minimal story details and no presence in the CGs whatsoever. Do you have any preference with an established MC (with a customizable name only) or one that is left entirely up to the player? Does it help or hurt your immersion? This won't be changing for Akash, but I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on this going forward.
3. How do you feel about having a voiced MC? We'll have the option to turn her voice off, but I'm curious to know how many folks prefer to substitute their own.
4. Would you consider purchasing this for the Switch?

Thank you so much for your consideration. I've been working on this for quite a long time, and it's an honor to be able to share it with you all now. :) I hope you all enjoy.
Last edited by truantpixel on Fri Aug 23, 2019 1:13 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Akash: Path of the Five [Otome, fantasy, romance, humor]

#2 Post by salamandra88art »

Beautiful characters :3

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NiKaWo
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Re: Akash: Path of the Five [Otome, fantasy, romance, humor]

#3 Post by NiKaWo »

!!!! Hi, I'm on the server actually! You may or may not guess who I am with the answer to my first question in short order lol.

First of all, BEAUTIFUL art (especially those CGs, WOW) and the story sounds awesome!!!

On to the questions!

1. Who, if anyone, are you most interested in pursuing? Why? -
LUX!!!!!!!!! Aka, cute childhood friend who seems sweet and protective and lovely. You probably don't recognize my avatar, but he's Nicholl from Lads in Distress who is ALSO a sweet and wonderful magic-controlling boy who's childhood best friends with the MC. Clearly I have a type, and that type is people who have a history with the MC and are also exceedingly loyal and kind and want the MC to be happy, even if it's not with them.

2. I'm noticing a trend with a lot of otome/VNs lately with MCs with minimal story details and no presence in the CGs whatsoever. Do you have any preference with an established MC (with a customizable name only) or one that is left entirely up to the player? Does it help or hurt your immersion? This won't be changing for Akash, but I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on this going forward. -
First of all, I like when they have an established appearance (or customizable like QC) much more than I like the weird generic/empty faced sprites that seem popular in some games, the minimal presence in CGs is ok, I guess, but I like it better when the MC is in at least some of them. Customizable names are really nice, but not required tbh. As for customizable personality vs established... Well, if it genuinely lets you shape the MCs personality (through dialogue and the like) and the story *adapts* to it/remembers and changes how characters perceive you then I LOVE it. I know that's hard to do in a VN though, so my second choice (and it's a SUPER CLOSE second) that I still really like is the MC having a core set personality that you can expand a bit, but leaves her as her own character rather then masquerading as a self insert. What I really DO NOT like/can't stand is MCs who are passive and personality-less/shells with weak traits like naive, shy, and only reactive with no ability to be proactive at all. I know those MC types in particular are popular amongst mobile otomes to try and leave them open for interpretation to let the players pretend and self insert themselves as this pretty and sweet and 'perfect' character and I really cannot stand them at all. They feel more like plot devices than characters and it's unbearable. I need the MC to, one way or another, through me shaping her or as her hard-coded characterization, be a real participant in the story and help drive it along. As long as your MC does that and continues to develop throughout the story then I'll be happy, even if I don't have a ton of control over her development myself. Sorry, this got long and ranty. I have a lot of feelings about this subject, the MC is one of the most important aspects of a game to me, everything else (writing/art/story/LIs) could be amazing, but if the MC is weak then I won't play it. Many a game I've played has been abandoned by demos end do to absolutely useless MCs.

3. How do you feel about having a voiced MC? We'll have the option to turn her voice off, but I'm curious to know how many folks prefer to substitute their own. -
I honestly don't really care for voices in my VNs for any characters. I think it's a neat option to have and I know a lot of people enjoy it, but I find it distracting (especially when it's in English) and if it's really different from what I was expecting it can really throw me off. Plus I read super fast and it sounds weird when it keeps cutting off in the middle of speech and starting on the next line. Don't get me wrong, your VAs for the LIs and Aurora and everyone else sound amazing and they're actually pretty on par with what I imagined the characters to sound like, but it's just not really my thing.

4. Would you consider purchasing this for the Switch? -
I don't have a switch, but if you don't release it for the vita then I'll buy a switch instead as either way I was going to be getting a new console for this game lol.


Wow, sorry, this got really long. Hopefully it was helpful?

Anyway, I'll be watching and cheering you guys on!
Last edited by NiKaWo on Sat Jul 28, 2018 9:51 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Akash: Path of the Five [Otome, fantasy, romance, humor]

#4 Post by PSaricas »

1. Who, if anyone, are you most interested in pursuing? Why?
2. I'm noticing a trend with a lot of otome/VNs lately with MCs with minimal story details and no presence in the CGs whatsoever. Do you have any preference with an established MC (with a customizable name only) or one that is left entirely up to the player? Does it help or hurt your immersion? This won't be changing for Akash, but I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on this going forward.
3. How do you feel about having a voiced MC? We'll have the option to turn her voice off, but I'm curious to know how many folks prefer to substitute their own.
4. Would you consider purchasing this for the Switch?

1. I want to do all the routes really, the first scene really illustrates the charecters very well and makes them all sound interesting but I would say I would start with Lux or Rowan. Lux is a sweetheart and a cutie and Rowan is also adorable :3.
2. To be honest what interested me the most in this visual novel is the fact that the MC has a personality. Being able to personalise her a bit is nice but the MC with the non-existent personality I am completly over with and I can barely play any otomes now because I just want someone with some personality. I prefer the MC to be in the Cg's but maybe not all of them. The thing that hurts my emersion is when a charecter does something horrible to the mc and she has barely any reaction it unnerves me. I like being able to customise the name, but its not a dealbreaker. These days the deal breaker is the lack of personality. I really liked the options you gave in the second video :). Not all actions have to have lasting consequences. The only thing i would recommend is making sure that there is enough variety in the routes\story that a replay won't feel too 'samey'.
3. I liked the voice MC. If I feel like not having it its nice to be able to turn off but her having a voice is nice for when I dont feel like reading.
4. Yes. If you make it for the switch I will buy it for the switch I would much prefer it. I personally want more otomes for the switch because I like playing games on the go. There are very few available right not and the MC's are very much the typical no personality otome MC's. This game being available on the switch would be a huge preference for me. I really want to play it so I will get it for the ps4 even if you never release it for the switch. But The switch is ideal for me.

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Re: Akash: Path of the Five [Otome, fantasy, romance, humor]

#5 Post by JBShields »

Ack! Why aren't more people giving feedback? This work looks amazing!

First off: beautiful art, CGs, and Voice Acting.

My only negative is that darn sound effect as words go across the screen. Is anyone else bothered by it, or is it just me. I hate distractions when I read. Voice Acting is okay, because it's specifically what I'm reading.

1. Who, if anyone, are you most interested in pursuing? Why?
All, we can say all, right? I'm partial to Wind because it's my favorite element, but they're all good.

2. I'm noticing a trend with a lot of otome/VNs lately with MCs with minimal story details and no presence in the CGs whatsoever. Do you have any preference with an established MC (with a customizable name only) or one that is left entirely up to the player? Does it help or hurt your immersion? This won't be changing for Akash, but I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on this going forward.
I think it's mostly Japanese VN otome games that are vague in the MC. I love Otome as a genre (although surprisingly my VN w.i.p isn't one) anyways, I LIKE established characters instead of a weak shell. But that's just me. I think VNs that have a weak MC are trying to emulate the J-VNs.

3. How do you feel about having a voiced MC? We'll have the option to turn her voice off, but I'm curious to know how many folks prefer to substitute their own.
I have no problem with a fully voiced MC. It goes with the above. And if the reader wants to immerse themselves, then the MC voice off is fine.

4. Would you consider purchasing this for the Switch?
If Nintendo Switch accepts your project PLEASE tell us. I'm curious if Switch can be a future market for OELVNs. It'd be something fresh.

Best wishes on your project!

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Re: Akash: Path of the Five [Otome, fantasy, romance, humor]

#6 Post by truantpixel »

Thank you all so much for your feedback and support <3! It's interesting to see where people fall along the spectrum as far as MC personalities and voices and so on. So far just from our informal sort of polling Rocco and Lux are far and away the most popular, although Ignatius seems to have gotten a pretty large boost from what people have seen in our video so far.

I'm deeply interested in this MC issue because I've been seeing a lot of otome these days (on Tumblr mostly) that are very OC-friendly and people seem to be going nuts for it, but I'm not certain if that's only with a particular crowd. I personally prefer to have an at least somewhat fleshed-out MC to inhabit if there's no character creation--I feel you miss out on a lot of fun CGs and things like that otherwise, but if people prefer to do more of the legwork in their fantasies on the whole I'm not going to stop them. I'll just have to keep an eye on things as I get my next project (for waaaaay later lol) together.

I will definitely let you guys know what future Switch plans are, if any!

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