Metropolitan Blues - Released

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Kikered
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Metropolitan Blues - Released

#1 Post by Kikered »

Well, it's done! The game can be acquired from the Ren'Ai Archives. Hopefully, I didn't forget anything important...

It was a pleasure working with Taleweaver, Rio, and PyTom on the project, and we hope you'll enjoy it!
Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.

Chuck
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#2 Post by Chuck »

This is one of the best games I've played in a long time. It even made my eyes a tad watery T_T. anyways, awsome game and I shall look forward to others n_n


Edit: Ending 7 XD
~Chuck

Blue Lemma
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#3 Post by Blue Lemma »

Way to go, guys! 8) I'm going to play it tomorrow when I'm not so tired. See, Taleweaver, you did fine without me :wink: We're all lucky to have such capable people in the community here *clap clap*

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Taleweaver
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#4 Post by Taleweaver »

I'd much rather have did fine WITH you, BL. But that's how game projects probably work.
Scriptwriter and producer of Metropolitan Blues
Creator of The Loyal Kinsman
Scriptwriter and director of Daemonophilia
Scriptwriter and director of The Dreaming
Scriptwriter of Zenith Chronicles
Scriptwriter and director of The Thirteenth Year
Scriptwriter and director of Romance is Dead
Scriptwriter and producer of Adrift
More about me in my blog
"Adrift - Like Ever17, but without the Deus Ex Machina" - HigurashiKira

Blue Lemma
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#5 Post by Blue Lemma »

Just finished playing it, and I think I got all the endings. TokyOmake, yay! :lol: Great game! Taleweaver knows what I think about the story already, but congratulations to Rio and Kikered for the excellent art and programming. PyTom gets some props, too, for Ren'Py of course :wink: My only criticism is the decision to go with the black and white outline style for the backgrounds. It seems to be getting used a lot lately ^^ When I was working on compiling MB, I was using color pictures with a blue tint. Maybe I'm used to it that way, so seeing a different style strikes me as not quite right. That's just the price I pay for dropping the Metropolitan Ball on this one, though :oops:

Hmm, I haven't found the 17+ omake yet.... *hack* *search* :lol:

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Taleweaver
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#6 Post by Taleweaver »

Hmm, I haven't found the 17+ omake yet....
If you have all eight endings, replay ending 8, BL. You can only access bonus material via ending 8, and the amount of bonus material depends on how many endings you have unlocked.
Scriptwriter and producer of Metropolitan Blues
Creator of The Loyal Kinsman
Scriptwriter and director of Daemonophilia
Scriptwriter and director of The Dreaming
Scriptwriter of Zenith Chronicles
Scriptwriter and director of The Thirteenth Year
Scriptwriter and director of Romance is Dead
Scriptwriter and producer of Adrift
More about me in my blog
"Adrift - Like Ever17, but without the Deus Ex Machina" - HigurashiKira

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#7 Post by Megaman Z »

figures... first time, I get banished.

I hope that next time won't be so bad...

(good game, though. kinda depressing, but otherwise good.)

[edit: 2 endings down, I-don't-know-how-many more to go]
~Kitsune Zeta

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Taleweaver
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#8 Post by Taleweaver »

It gets less depressing the more you find out about the plot. Oh, and by the way, if you were banished during your first run, you might have missed the True Ending by one single choice ^_^
Scriptwriter and producer of Metropolitan Blues
Creator of The Loyal Kinsman
Scriptwriter and director of Daemonophilia
Scriptwriter and director of The Dreaming
Scriptwriter of Zenith Chronicles
Scriptwriter and director of The Thirteenth Year
Scriptwriter and director of Romance is Dead
Scriptwriter and producer of Adrift
More about me in my blog
"Adrift - Like Ever17, but without the Deus Ex Machina" - HigurashiKira

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#9 Post by Megaman Z »

great... this is starting to turn into "Sandbox of God" all over again*...

I think I should've seen the banishment coming a long ways off, though...


4 endings claimed. two good, one neutral, one bad, and no true one yet.

*Sandbox of god is a "puzzle" game made with GM5. basically, you had to use a set of "Godly Powers" to create a special sequence of events. what you did in one era affected all the later eras, and you played them chronologically. one choice wrong prevents you from getting a "1" rank. Ironically, I got the "worst" rank of all on my first run: "10", which is required in at least ONE round to get the archives in the game
~Kitsune Zeta

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Taleweaver
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#10 Post by Taleweaver »

Keep trying, everybody! I will release a (relatively spoiler-free) explanation of how to achieve the True Ending next weekend. A cookie for everybody who figured it out himself until then!

By the way, renaigames.com still lists MetBlues as "in production". How about an update? :)
Scriptwriter and producer of Metropolitan Blues
Creator of The Loyal Kinsman
Scriptwriter and director of Daemonophilia
Scriptwriter and director of The Dreaming
Scriptwriter of Zenith Chronicles
Scriptwriter and director of The Thirteenth Year
Scriptwriter and director of Romance is Dead
Scriptwriter and producer of Adrift
More about me in my blog
"Adrift - Like Ever17, but without the Deus Ex Machina" - HigurashiKira

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mikey
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#11 Post by mikey »

Congratulations everyone on your first project! My impressions? All here.

Starting with some random thoughts - I loved the character images (especially the hair... *gulp*). The BGs were lower in quality, but that also got lost in the mood quite quickly. The one typewriter BG - was that left unprocessed on purpose? Hmmm... It's also a great accomplishment from Kikered to assemble this pretty quickly after all the troubles the project has gone through. Thanks! TJM has done a great sound score, the music was fitting for the mood (well, when is slow piano NOT fitting?), still Tokyo could IMO handle a more industrial soundtrack ^_^. A minor design note is also that the choices are maybe too transparent. At least I went through the game effortlessly, and got all the expected endings (incl. omake) feeling perhaps in too much control. This may be subjective though.

Overall, I enjoyed the more philosophical (than ren'ai) nature of the game and its thoughts about solitude and people getting hurt. The spiritual backstory conveying those thoughts was too ghostly for my blood, nevertheless thanks for thinking about those who aren't into too much of the supernatural by including a logical point and for me the strongest element of the game - the erotic parts. They were beautiful and the game could have gone much further with them if it were for me.

I guess most people will remember MB's mood and loneliness. And while I will too, it didn't impact me as much as it may other people. I do have my own worries, but the ren'ai department carries none of them (but it does a great job of getting rid of them ^_^). I have not experienced solitude for the past (can't even remember) years. There have been several people telling me I'll be disappointed, that the first love never lasts, that there are phases one must go through... and the one and only woman I ever loved is still there, by my side and supports me as much as I support and love her.

So if I say I did like the story... I hope you understand if I disagree on several points regarding the philosophy of loneliness and love. Still, I don't think it should matter to you. If it's only to make me realize once again just how happy I am... it served its purpose well. Once again, congratulations to the team.

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rioka
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#12 Post by rioka »

Taleweaver wrote:By the way, renaigames.com still lists MetBlues as "in production". How about an update? :)
Yeah, I meant to update that but this weekend has a chock-full of events (graduation party, birthday party, 4th of july, fireworks, Foxtaile art (I'll get some to you tonight if I have to stay up to do it) not to mention I'm going to be moving renaigames and mangatutorials around (you'll see notices about that sometime this week, btw)... and yeah, I'm busy. <.<'

Anyways, gotta run! But before I do:
Endings: Neutral, Banished, Normal Relationship, and still looking for true ending... >.<'

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Taleweaver
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#13 Post by Taleweaver »

@mikey: thanks for the in-depth comments. I intentionally made the choices in MetBlues transparent so that if you gave the setup at least some thought, you wouldn't have too many problems finding the True Ending. (Foxtaile will be very different in that respect.) I was truly thinking about making the plot much more erotic in nature at first, especially when the story was still mainly about Her and not about our mostly nameless protagonist. I originally intended to include a male rival to show how She would react to other men, but as the protagonist started to develop a personality of his own during the creation, I skipped that part and decided to make this a solo for him. I had to be careful, though, as I wanted a game that as many people as possible could legally play (the philosophical parts had grown before that decision, too). The explicit omake part is how much of the game would have looked had I gone with the first idea.

@eclipse: YEEHAA!
Scriptwriter and producer of Metropolitan Blues
Creator of The Loyal Kinsman
Scriptwriter and director of Daemonophilia
Scriptwriter and director of The Dreaming
Scriptwriter of Zenith Chronicles
Scriptwriter and director of The Thirteenth Year
Scriptwriter and director of Romance is Dead
Scriptwriter and producer of Adrift
More about me in my blog
"Adrift - Like Ever17, but without the Deus Ex Machina" - HigurashiKira

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mikey
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#14 Post by mikey »

You know my opinion about Kana, but the one thing about it that I truly liked were the sex scenes (especially Yumi). I don't think I played another game where it was made better. And kana was a long time ago for me, followed by more or less un-ren'ai erotic moments in newer releases. So when playing MB, I was once again reminded that it CAN be done well and perhaps that was the reason I mentioned it. It's really a shame to waste such a powerful thing simply by making it a logical consequence of a date. This said, I would really like to see a game where hentai is handled the way it should be done. I can of course understand that MB was targetted at a wider audience, but I just wanted to encourage you if you ever decide to go for the more sensual VN, I'm first on the waiting list.

And about the typewriter? The typewriter BG is a photograph, not processed by filters. (I kind of didn't get an answer on this thing)

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Taleweaver
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#15 Post by Taleweaver »

Oh yes - I forgot to answer that one :)

As the typewriter is the one thing that truly connects the protagonist, Her and the Real World, I intentionally wanted it to seem more real than the rest of the game. Originally, I even wanted the BG pic to be processed and only the typewriter as a b/w image on the line-art table. Kikered sort of misunderstood that request, but when I saw the final result, I was so happy with it that I decided to keep it.
Scriptwriter and producer of Metropolitan Blues
Creator of The Loyal Kinsman
Scriptwriter and director of Daemonophilia
Scriptwriter and director of The Dreaming
Scriptwriter of Zenith Chronicles
Scriptwriter and director of The Thirteenth Year
Scriptwriter and director of Romance is Dead
Scriptwriter and producer of Adrift
More about me in my blog
"Adrift - Like Ever17, but without the Deus Ex Machina" - HigurashiKira

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