12/03/2024 Art page progress and way more

Hello people from the internet! Sorry for the lack of updates for... one month I guess???? Wow time sure goes fast huh? Well, I'm here now to talk about some new stuff, so get ready!!!!!

Art page progress:

I already started working on the art page, for quite a while now actually. Most of the layout of the page is done, being heavily based on Kirby 64, the only thing that I need to understand is how to show the images propely. It's kinda hard to explain without any visual example, but the best way to show my drawings is using modal images(hey, it's the me from the future, which could very well be right now, 10/04/24. What me from the past said is wrong actually.I'm dealing with a lightbox. I didn't knew that at the time so I'm here to correct myself. Thank you for your cooperation). I managed to make it work with one image, but the problem is that I'm having some problem with displaing multiple modal images and since I had some stuff outside of the website to deal with, I still haven't finished working on that. Hopefully I'll figure it out how to make it work sooner than later, but I'm sure I'll be motivated to do so when finishing writing this.
While working on the art page, I decided to also try putting some background music in some of the pages. I think it's working well, the only problem being some weird problems I encoutered with google chrome, such as having to figure out how to make the music autoplay. I won't implement them at the moment, one reason being that there is like two pages with music now and the other one is that I think it's better to add them after the "art page update".
In other words, I have some things in the works, and I'll do my best to continue working on them now! Hope you're looking foward to it!!!

^ This is a screen shot of the main part of the art page! The font used was made by tabmok99 on deviantart, being a recreation of the rpg maker 2000 font to work as a TrueType font. They did a awesome work!

Now that I'm thinking about it while writing this, I'll add links to the "about" of the fonts that I'm using on Sillyfes. Like a "credits" section of the things I'm suing from the internet and that actually have, y'know, any credit instead of a random gif from, like, a decade ago.

RPG Maker XP:

Talking about rpg maker, I have some pretty good news! In case you didn't knew there was a "rpg maker festival" on steam around february, which basically meant some rpg maker related stuff were on sale. What got my full interest was this: RPG Maker XP was was 100% off. Yes. One version of RPG Maker was free for a little period of time. And a friend of mine and I got it!
I want to make some games using it since some of my favorite games were made with rpg maker, and while the software is know for being easy to use, I'm gonna see what I can change with stuff like "menus" and the battle mechanics and such. Oh yeah, I want to make a rpg maker focused on the battles because I like turn-based combat. I don't have much to share of the project now, but I'll share more of it when it has more meat on it's bones.

Madou Monogatari 2 PC-98 english fan translation!!:

I talked about the first Madou Monogatari for the PC-98 in my last blog post, so imagine my surprise seeing that sequel also got translated! I still need to finish the first one, but seeing how we're being able to experience "the weirdest" entry of the Madou franchise!
Both of those fan-translation were done by @YuviApp(hacking) and @SnowyAria(translation), so remember to thank them for their hard work and show them some love!

Puyo Puyo 7 fan-translation for the Wii version:

Since this is basically related to the last topic, I wanted to talk about the Puyo Puyo 7 (Wii) fan-translation.I've know this one for quite some time but I couldn't get it to work, but after some months I decided to do it again and it work! Yippie!!
I haven't finished it yet, but I'm sure I'm pretty close to the end since I've spent a lot of time going through the story mode, but what I can say is: the translation is really good!!! It genually feels like a really official translation done by sega. You should definetly try this one out, specially because the script has been revised to be more accurated to the original one, which is really cool!! Again, thank you so much for everybody involved to bring us this translation. Remember to share your love to them as well!
My favorite part must certainly be fighting the literal prince of hell at Area 51, no doubt LoL.

Octomania:

While listening to some videos about lost media, I remembered of a weird game I've played when I was a kid. I don't remember how young I was at the time, but my guess is that I was at least ten years old, I was looking for games to play in the uloader my old Wii had at the time, and I ended up choosing a random game. From what I remember, the game had this pink coloration on the menus and stuff and it was a puzzle game where you moved the pieces by shaking the wii remote and the nunchuck. I didn't understood the mechanics due to not knowing english at the time, so I just shook the controllers frantically until I won and decide to change the game to something else.
I decided to go look for this game on the internet since I didn't remembered it's name and I wasn't sure how it even looked and since the whole "pink aesthectics" could've been just a poor memory of mine. I eventually found a game called "Octomania", which seemed familiar, but I wanted to be sure so I watched a video on it and.... that was actually it! The mechanics show in the video where exatcly how I remembered, and even though the "pink aesthectic" wasn't in sight, the main character looked super familiar, probably because I've played as her. The last thing I wanted to do is, well, play the game!! Now that I understand english and undertand puzzle games way better, I wanted to experience the game and see what it has in store.
After putting it in my current wii, by total legal means (*wink* *wink*), I was presented by a wonderful surprise: Compile Hearts worked on this game!!! In case you don't really know what I'm talking about, I'll try to explain why this surprised me. Basically the first four mainline Puyo Puyo games (as well the Madou Monogatari games and their spin-offs) were made by Compile. Due to a imense debt, Compile decided to sell the Puyo Puyo rights to Sega, with the agreement that they would still develop games for the series until 2002 (this has been agrred upon in '98, btw), with the plan being: Make enough money to get out of debt and repurchase the rights to the series. In the end Compile didn't managed to earn enough until the deadline, and ended up going bankrupt in 2003. The thing is, Compile Hearts is, as the name suggests, the succesor to Compile, with also having it's key staff. And the cherry on top, is that Octomania was supervised by Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, who was no one othar thaan the president of Compile (A lot of people credit him as the Puyo Puyo creator, but I think that's a little unfair since it has been stated that was based on a concept made by Kazunari Yonemitsu). Anyway, sorry for lore dump you this, but basically, apparently the sucessor of the company that created one of my favorites franchises has also made this random puzzle game I played as a kid. What a small world.
After the opening and changing the controls in the options menu (I love the Wii, but I didn't want to deal with motion controls in a puzzle game), I played the "arcade", sicne I thought that was the story mode, but since there is also an "original" option, which I asume you can play with other character other than the protagonist (According to this IGN video anyway). I decided to play the "Octo Rookie" first, which is just 4 stages, mostly to adapt with it's gameplay, but I did try "Octo Fighter" (normal mode) right after it. The story is pretty simple. Kari, an apprentice magician, wants to summon takoyaki, but she accidently summons octopi. Angelique, a guardian spirit, scolds Kari and orders her to seek for Exaltus, the Prince of the Demons (that sounds familiar, huh...?), to get rid of the Octopi.
I'll try my best to explain how the gameplay works. Instead of a vertical rectangle, like in a lot of puzzle games, the arena is a big square. Octopi and grills will appear on the arena from time to time (Not sure what causes them to appear, so I think it's random?), with the only way to get rid of them being: grouping a determined number of the same colored octopi in the corresponding grill. After "grilling" the octopi, some puffs of smoke will appear in their place, and placing more octopi of the same color next to this smoke will add more to the combo, thus lauching more "garbage" to your adversary. You can put garbage next to the smoke, but that won't add to the combo. While grilling octopi and screwing with your adversary, you will probably notice there is a bar right next to your arena. You'll probably ask yourself "What the hell is this thing???". Well I've read the in-game instructions before playing, so I sorta already knew it. The "bar" is a gauge, which you fill by doing combos (if I remember correctly) and filling it all the way will spaw a crystal on your arena. Grilling this crystal along with the octopi will unleash a "special skill", being different from each character (I think, I haven't unlocked everyone). For example, Kari's skill is changing every octopi's color to the ones you grilled the crystal with, making easier to combo the adversary into oblivion. Oh yeah there is a "color preference" to each character as well, which in short, it just means that every character can create more grabage with a specific octopi color, but I doubt there will be many opportunities to work around that, so I would say to not bother with that in case things are going south. AH, I almost forgot, the player controls a square pointer to move the octopi, and you can only move them by rotating this square.
Hopefully that wasn't cofusing, it's just kinda hard to explain things like that without actually showing it in real time, but I think you can figure it out by watching the few videos about the game.
I've played Octomania last month, but I have to say I kinda liked it. It's not perfect and honestly I think it can be kinda hard, but it has it's own charm. Kind of a shame this game didn't got any sequels or something. Not that I think it's necessary, but I would like to see what they could do with the already existing mechanics, but I suppose it didn't sell very well for that to happen...

JiruJiru India Travelogue:

Sooooo, after writing a messy wall of text about Octomania (and completly making a lot of people bored), I will just make a recommendation for y'all.
In the beggining of march, read-nekojiru announced their full english translation of "JiruJiru India Travelogue"!!!. I've been captivated by Nekojiru's works since I discovered them last year, so seeing this announcement made me really happy, and I *might* have read it in a single day.
This manga consists of Nekojiru and her husband's experience in India. It's hard to explain my own opnion, but I think it's really interesting to see their way to see their world. Also, the way India is show in the manga is really special I think. A lot of places portrayed in media normally show only the good and clean stuff, but Nekojiru doesn't shy away in including the "bad stuff" with the "good stuff". I'm sure that anyone who is reading this might live somewhere that isn't sunshine and rainbows, but I'm also sure you might find some enjoyment in them, and I think this is a sentiment that Nekojiru clearly shows in this work.
Maybe I'm just rambling nonsense, but that's the best way I can explain what I felt reading it.
Just a warning thought, JiruJiru India Travelogue presents a few scenes with gore. Aside from one, I don't think they're that graphic, but better safe than sorry.

The conclusion:

This is the end of this blog page! Again, I'll do my best to finish the art page and add it in the next major update!! Hopefully I won't delay it for one more month LoL.
Anyway, until next time!