Spirit Parade [Otome/Asian fantasy] [Commercial] Demo out!

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Camille
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Spirit Parade [Otome/Asian fantasy] [Commercial] Demo out!

#1 Post by Camille »

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Spirit Parade is a commercial otome game with Asian mythological themes currently in development by Lettuce Waltz, aka the trio of character artist Rins, background artist Akane, and writer/programmer Lore. The game will retail for $15 when it’s released, but pre-orders are open at a discounted price of $10. The game will have 3 routes/capturable characters and more than 20 different endings.

I'm Lore. XD Slowly phasing out that "Camille" nickname... Rins and I are friends irl and we thought it would be cool to work on something together, so here this is. What we'd like is feedback on the characters and UI in particular, but any sort of constructive comments would be very much appreciated. (or really even pep talk would be nice)

Demo downloads and pre-orders are both here!

STORY
The story centers on Nara (her name is changeable), a cynical 17-year-old girl who mostly shut herself off from the world after contracting spinal polio at a young age and becoming unable to walk. One night, a festival is going on in town. Instead of going with her family, Nara wanders off alone, not wanting to slow them down. As she goes through the various stalls, things become hazier and gradually Nara finds herself surrounded by people with ears, tails, and horns…then suddenly her clothes and wheelchair disappear! After a run-in with a rambunctious kitsune named Hayato and a scary-looking dragon officer of death named Shuye, Nara finds out that her soul has left her body and been transported to the Spirit World, where all the demons and spirits are celebrating a month-long festival. Until the end of this festival, she won’t be able to return home… Will Nara survive long enough in the Spirit World to go back in one piece? Will she be able to get over her bitterness borne from the past, or will she be engulfed in hatred and lose sight of what’s truly important?

CHARACTERS
You can see a labelled character line-up here, showing all of the main cast of the game. The characters are a mix of different Asian cultures and mythologies.

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NARA. (voiced by Jill Harris) A resourceful, bright girl who unfortunately has suffered from spinal polio from a young age. As a child, Nara was positive and amiable, so she made friends easily and had few problems. As her spinal polio developed, however, she became overly self-conscious and paranoid. She especially hates to be pitied. While she’s still kind at heart and wants to help and be useful to others, she does not expect the same in return from the world at large. Nara greatly distrusts other people and is suspicious of those who are kind to her. She operates on a one-strike policy, so once someone has wronged her she will antagonize them pretty much forever.

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HAYATO. (voiced by Mark Allen Jr.) He knew the heroine when they were kids, before her polio symptoms showed. Despite being a fox demon, Hayato frequently came to the human world out of curiosity. Being young by demon standards, Hayato is rather immature. He’s also used to fighting for attention from his large family. Hayato has trouble understanding that other people are different from him and is confused whenever others don’t want to do things his way. In this regard, he comes off as being very self-absorbed. It’s not that Hayato only cares about himself. He does want others to enjoy themselves and be comfortable in his presence, it’s just that he has trouble considering things from a different point of view. Hayato prefers spending time outdoors.

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SHUYE. (voiced by SungWon Cho) One of the Heibai Wuchang, Shuye assists the king of the underworld with spirits, making sure everyone is in their right place. In particular, he deals with reaping good souls. Being used to dealing with the dead—who are often unhappy with their current state—he has become very patient and stone-faced no matter what the circumstances. He is a man of routine and prefers to operate in a stable, ordered environment. As a result, he is not very good at dealing with changes or at improvising. He shies away from conflict and is often called gullible or too trusting. After living and working in the court of the dead for so long, Shuye is very knowledgeable about the court, but not very much about what lies outside it.

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HAIYUE. (voiced by Howard Wang) One of the Heibai Wuchang, Haiyue is Shuye’s partner and childhood friend. He is the one tasked with reaping evil souls. Unlike Shuye, Haiyue is flighty and hedonistic. He takes every excuse to skip out on work and spend time in the tea houses above ground, leaving Shuye to deal with the pile-up of work. Despite his sweet, princely smile, Haiyue spouts insulting phrases and has no qualms about manipulating people to dance in the palm of his hand. Though he’s constantly taking advantage of Shuye’s gentle nature, Haiyue is protective and somewhat possessive of his friend. He views the world as black and white, but considers himself as someone who deserves to enjoy it and lord over others. He’s particularly vain about his feathers.

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MIKIO. (voiced by River Kanoff) The older brother of Hayato, Asuka, and Sakuya. He was born from an earlier litter, so they should be showing him deference as the eldest still in the household… However, rather than being a dependable older brother, Mikio is a NEET and a drunkard, always loafing around the house and relying on Asuka and Sakuya to take care of him since he refuses to get a job. He says wise things from time to time, but spoils them by following up with a plea for money or more wine. It seems that he was not always like this, but his siblings can hardly remember a time when he was not a drain on resources. Mikio is good-humored and intelligent, but only when sober (which is hardly ever).

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DIAOCHAN. (voiced by Natalie Van Sistine) Renowned as a great beauty in the Spirit World, Diaochan is one of the magistrates in the underworld. However, she has seniority over the other magistrates because of her vast information network and smooth social skills. It is nearly impossible to go against Diaochan personally or politically because of the amount of blackmail material she has accrued over the years. She is a childhood friend of Shuye and Haiyue’s and they all still get along, but the other two are careful never to get on her bad side. To Diaochan, beauty is very important. She can often be found fawning over female workers of the underworld and tends to spoil them while acting harshly towards men.

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SAKUYA (left, voiced by Amanda Gonzalez) and ASUKA (right, voiced by Sarah Williams) are Hayato’s twin sisters who were born from the same litter as him. (Dream CV: Matsuoka Yuki) Despite their child-like looks, they are much wiser and more mature than he is. They insist on Hayato showing them deference as his older (by a few seconds) sisters and he has no choice but to listen, given how scary they are. He refers to both of them as “aneki”. Sakuya and Asuka are in charge of the family’s finances. Their family being quite large, this is something of an organizational nightmare, so the two of them have developed into rather stingy people. It’s often said that they resemble yakuza loan sharks more than delicate young ladies… Be prepared to pay a lot of interest if you dare borrow from them!

While they both have similar tastes and sensibilities, Sakuya is more outgoing while Asuka is more reserved. (Sakuya insists that her twin is not shy, only doesn’t like talking to people whom she considers beneath her) Asuka usually whispers insults to Sakuya, who then transmits them to the intended recipient.

MORE

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Our production diary (aka Tumblr) is the most up-to-date. I also tweet about the game periodically on my Twitter. If you like Rins or Akane's art, you should follow them on dA! Rins is Rinslettuce and Akane is Akanekari.

Thanks so much for reading!
Last edited by Camille on Sun Oct 04, 2015 10:39 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#2 Post by Morhighan »

Wow! This looks like a really interesting project!
As a sufferer of a chronic, debilitating illness, I'm really looking forward to relating to the protagonist.

My only issue so far is...
Sakuya and Asuka are from the same litter as "him" who?

Other than that, the art and story look fabulous! :D

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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#3 Post by Camille »

Morhighan wrote:My only issue so far is...
Sakuya and Asuka are from the same litter as "him" who?
Hayato! I probably should have put his name later in the sentence so it would be more clear, haha, sorry about that. And thanks for commenting!

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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#4 Post by sonorousgem »

Wow, this looks really impressive. Definitely on the professional level! ^.^
Sorry but I have no complaints! Good luck on completion!

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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#5 Post by Googaboga »

Haha, I'm really excited for this. When I saw the thread title I was like 'Yeah, okay' and then I saw who posted the thread and I was all 'Oh man, this is gonna be coooool'. And it is X3.

From what I can see of the GUI, it seems really lovely. The characters all seem fantastic too and super good looking :wink:.
[Though it'd be neat if one of the more inhuman creatures was an important character. I like that one screen shot with the crab, slime thing, and bull guy XD]
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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#6 Post by ColaCat »

This looks so good! I can't wait to try the demo! :D

Oh, and if you need a proofreader, let me know. I'm more than happy to help!
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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#7 Post by Mad Harlequin »

I'm quite interested in this. I have a disability, so I'm always glad when people show eagerness to explore that element of human experience in their work.

The characters are so bright and colorful---perfect for an otherworldly sort of adventure such as this one. :)
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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#8 Post by Erikka »

I'm very interested about this project!))
The art is really beautiful and the story seems interesting! There's written "The game will have 3 routes/capturable characters". Please, tell me that HAIYUE is one of them??! Please please please! :mrgreen: )) He sounds so interesting and looks the most handsome out of all the bachelors!

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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#9 Post by AntiquedFae »

Another chronically disabled person showing my enthusiasm for the MC being disabled! I'm always very happy to see protagonists who are a little outside of the box. I'm almost as excited about the Asian Spirit World theme; I do love Eastern mythology.

Just one question: it won't end with Nara being magically cured of her polio and then going back to being a regular happy girl simply because it is gone, will it? I'm very much hoping for something more complex, and I'm pretty sure I can trust you guys to not pull something like that. Just typical media portrayal of disabilities making me paranoid. >_>

I'm sure it will be amazing and I can count on you all to make a wonderful game with a fantastic story!
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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#10 Post by Mad Harlequin »

AntiquedFae wrote:Just one question: it won't end with Nara being magically cured of her polio and then going back to being a regular happy girl simply because it is gone, will it? I'm very much hoping for something more complex, and I'm pretty sure I can trust you guys to not pull something like that.
I second this.
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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#11 Post by Camille »

Thanks everyone for your comments! ;w; We're glad that you're looking forward to the game~~
AntiquedFae wrote:Just one question: it won't end with Nara being magically cured of her polio and then going back to being a regular happy girl simply because it is gone, will it? I'm very much hoping for something more complex, and I'm pretty sure I can trust you guys to not pull something like that. Just typical media portrayal of disabilities making me paranoid. >_>
In the Spirit World, Nara is able to walk (albeit weakly and working on getting up her physical strength is part of the story) because, as you find out pretty early on, her soul was pulled from her body so it's not her physical body she's currently in. However, Nara has had to live with her disability and the social stigma that came with it for the past 10 years of her life—very formative years. So no, just the fact that she is "cured" doesn't suddenly change her personality or make all of her previous experiences like they never happened.

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Issues of privilege and Nara's agency are pretty central to the story and character development arcs, too. We didn't want her disability to just be a gimmick that could easily be cured or ignored—it's an important part of who she is as a character (though not her defining trait, either) and one of the factors that contributed to why she is who she is. Also, in endings where she chooses to go back to the Human World, she will still have polio upon her return. If Nara chooses to stay in the Spirit World, she won't have polio anymore, but she'll never be able to go home again, either. It's not an easy choice by any means and hopefully the story/writing reflects that.

I hope that assuages your fears! ;-; If you still have concerns after the demo is released, please let us know. We want so much to be respectful with our character portrayals.
Erikka wrote:There's written "The game will have 3 routes/capturable characters". Please, tell me that HAIYUE is one of them??! Please please please! :mrgreen: )) He sounds so interesting and looks the most handsome out of all the bachelors!
That is a secret for now, but hopefully it will become pretty clear who the third guy is after the demo is released. Thank you for your enthusiasm! <3
Googaboga wrote:[Though it'd be neat if one of the more inhuman creatures was an important character. I like that one screen shot with the crab, slime thing, and bull guy XD]
I can't say that they're important characters (at least not right now), but they will be recurring characters for sure! We got somewhat attached to them, haha.

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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#12 Post by Mad Harlequin »

Camille wrote:Issues of privilege and Nara's agency are pretty central to the story and character development arcs, too. We didn't want her disability to just be a gimmick that could easily be cured or ignored—it's an important part of who she is as a character (though not her defining trait, either) and one of the factors that contributed to why she is who she is. Also, in endings where she chooses to go back to the Human World, she will still have polio upon her return. If Nara chooses to stay in the Spirit World, she won't have polio anymore, but she'll never be able to go home again, either. It's not an easy choice by any means and hopefully the story/writing reflects that.

I hope that assuages your fears! ;-; If you still have concerns after the demo is released, please let us know. We want so much to be respectful with our character portrayals.
Thank you for the information! I like the sound of what you've got planned, as it neither romanticizes nor caricatures Nara's history. I will certainly leave feedback when the demo arrives!
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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#13 Post by Amiralo »

Love Mikio. If only he was the third "romanceable" character...... *sighs and waits impatiently for the demo*.
By the way, If you do finish it, how much will you sell it for?
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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#14 Post by Camille »

Amiralo wrote:By the way, If you do finish it, how much will you sell it for?
As it says in the first post, "The game will retail for $15 when it’s released, but pre-orders will be open earlier at a discounted price of $10." We're planning to release the game within the next 1-2 months if all goes well.

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Re: Spirit Parade [Otome] [Asian fantasy] [Commercial]

#15 Post by buxton1990 »

Really looking forward to this. I Love the art style can't wait for the demo :D

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