#also I been working hard on the VN script for this adaptation

[hypaalicious]

Reasons why I wrote Fated to Flame:

I love crafting stories & writing them

I love many YA plotlines but absolutely do not want to read about teens

Publishing really gonna see its reckoning with how they shifted the mainstream book market to be oversaturated with YA (along with other things I could take them to task on). Because where does that leave the adults who want to read fun stories but are too often recommended 6th grade reading level prose restricted to a teenager’s viewpoint in order to scratch that itch?

I wrote Jasmine’s story for those that may feel similar to me. Years ago, the New Adult genre was in its bag and introduced a stepping stone from teen lit into something more mature without launching straight into adult fiction like ultra high fantasy, crime thrillers, etc. But that’s been phased out. 😔 My book is only a drop in the bucket in attempting to revive it, but I’m forever grateful to RIZE for seeing my potential as a debut author.

I also learned a LOT about book writing, publishing, and what it means to be an author through this process. It’s humbling and enlightening; I might write future posts about my feelings on that as well cause you know, my Tumblr is basically a diary these days idk 😂

[recentanimenews]

Is STEINS;GATE ELITE Worth Risking the Timeline For?

  Growing up in Puerto Rico, learning English was something of a challenge for me when it inevitably reared its head; thanks to Pokémon Red, my reading skills improved dramatically thanks to an interest in video games and wanting to understand them as I played along. Fast forward many years after that fact, and I found myself deeply in love with visual novels and sound novels, playing titles like Higurashi and Umineko, those kinds of games (especially otome games!) becoming one of my favorite to play! Along that route, I first encountered STEINS;GATE. I've heard buzz building about the game, and then the release of the anime, which made me deeply interested in both playing and watching the series when I was able to get my hands on it. What I found was a deeply involved story of vibrant, unique characters, dramatic action, and a tense, smart Sci-Fi plot that revolved around time travel in a way that certainly tried to deal with the realistic consequences of choices and action. Ten years after its release, we’ve been presented with a new version: STEINS;GATE ELITE, a somewhat ambitious mixture of both the anime and visual novel adaptation!

    One of the first things I noticed about STEINS;GATE ELITE on the Switch was the fact that portability was a great benefit to the visual novel experience. Being able to take the game with me and play through the story over time at my leisure made it a far more relaxing time than having to portion out sections of my day to play the game uninterrupted; being able to pick up and play STEINS;GATE ELITE at any time really made the entire experience a lot more enjoyable and organic, making it fit my schedule more than anything else (although, in all honesty, I still ended up marathoning the game a lot). However, some of the new wrinkles presented in STEINS;GATE ELITE made this occasionally a bit awkward; still, if you have the choice, I highly recommend playing the game on the Switch in portable mode to experience the game on the go and when you can get the time. As a warning, I will say that while the game looks good in docked mode, it occasionally felt like the graphics were stretching or not quite meant to be transmitted from the Switch to a TV, meaning that it's best to play the Switch version in portable mode for both ease of use, and just for the best way to ‘view’ the game.

As I mentioned, there are a few wrinkles to this new version of STEINS;GATE that initially caught me off guard. The game is a mixture of the anime with the visual novel script, with Huke’s CGs replaced with scenes from the anime. This works pretty well overall, since the anime was a faithful adaptation that took few divergences, but it also means that the story plays out a little differently in terms of how scenes progress in the sense of time progression. Sometimes, reading through sections I’d already seen due to a bad ending, I noticed that the game isn’t really well equipped to deal with someone mashing through the dialogue at a faster pace than it is ready to go, causing character’s mouths to move when things aren’t being said, or almost as if the scene is playing on a certain timer that is somewhat independent from the text itself. This isn’t a huge deal or any sort of deal breaker, but it was a somewhat awkward situation when it did occur; depending on your speed of reading and how fast you want to get through the game, this issue may come up for you more or less than it did for me.  

  Those changes aside, I have to say that STEINS;GATE ELITE is probably one of the best, if not the best, version of the game that you can get. Whether you’ve never played the game before, or you’re revisiting the game after some time away, this version presents you with one of the nicest, most complete overall packages. All of the content of the original game are here, with all of the endings and choices included; there’s nothing missing from the original game for the sake of making the anime scenes fit. Instead, you sometimes just get some still frames or repeated animations while characters talk. Perhaps the biggest direct change has to do with the D-Mails and other choices; instead of having to hunt them down yourself when they might be available, STEINS;GATE ELITE simply pops up a menu and gives you your options immediately upon reaching a certain branch. While the freedom to stumble around is part of a charm in a visual novel, it can also be a bit hard to figure out for some people, and I can see why this change benefits the game overall by streamlining the whole experience. And, in many ways, that’s what makes STEINS;GATE ELITE unique: the combination of various STEINS;GATE versions into a streamlined, unique final package of the main storyline.

Content wise, everything is here that you can expect to find in the original: the humor, the drama, tragedy, action, and shocking moments are all present. I don’t want to say anything more in case this is your first time through, but if you’ve seen the anime, you will end up seeing some things you didn’t see the first time around, making the game a real treat for you to better explore the STEINS;GATE world. And if you’ve only played the game, seeing the anime counterpart designs in motion next to the script with all of the returning voices is pretty interesting; just playing through STEINS;GATE ELITE makes me want to watch the anime all over again! One of the best aspects of the VN is the various endings you can get, both good and bad. Finding your way to the true ending is worth the overall reward of playing through the game, so do yourself a favor and grab STEINS;GATE ELITE if you’ve never had a chance to play it before. If you have played the game previously, this version might be something to debate buying, as there’s nothing really new or different other than the visuals, so unless you want to play through STEINS;GATE again with different visuals, there’s not really a lot here that you haven’t read or seen before.

Depending on which version you buy (I played the Switch version) you'll get some extra content outside of the game. The PS4 version of the game comes with Linear Bounded Phenogram, which follows small short stories of the main cast in various circumstances. The Switch version comes with 8-BIT ADV STEINS;GATE, a unique throwback to NES era adventure games, complete with 8-bit renditions of STEINS;GATE music and sound effects (including Rintaro’s laugh). I have to say that 8-BIT ADV STEINS;GATE is a somewhat charming, if a little frustrating, additional game. While the Linear Bounded Phenogram stories provide some extra background and peeks into character’s thoughts and actions, 8-BIT ADV is essentially just the main game reduced down into a few hours of simple adventure game play. Basically, don’t play 8-BIT ADV until you’ve played the main game, or you might find yourself spoiled! My frustration for this little side game comes from the fact that you can’t save at all; while the game doesn’t really have a lot of choices, it does actually have a few abilities to reach a game over state, and doing so starts you all the way back at the beginning… with no ability to pick up where you left off. It's a bit too faithful to the NES era of adventure games, that's for sure! As a fan of visual novels, one of the big joys is making save files to see what happens, but in 8-BIT ADV your choices are rewarded with… doing everything all over. The game itself isn’t very long, but even at 2 hours, that’s a lot of time that you can spend only to have to redo everything again. The graphics and music, plus the retro adventure gameplay, are pretty fun. If I had to choose personally, I’d probably opt for the Linear Bounded Phenogram extra content.

Whether you’re a new visual novel player, curious to try out the game after watching the anime, or an experienced visual novel fan who just loves reading their favorite stories over and over again, STEINS;GATE ELITE is a great game either way. I really enjoyed seeing the Future Gadget Lab group’s antics all over again, and as I finish off my first Dr. Pepper in a long time, I remember how much I enjoyed the game and the experience the first time around! And, at the end of the day, I think that’s the best review I can give it: STEINS;GATE is great, and this version maintains that greatness. So don’t wait for John Titor to take you along on their time travel adventures to get your hands on the game, go grab STEINS;GATE ELITE now! (Also, Kurisu is best girl! <3)

REVIEW ROUNDUP

+ Fantastic story and characters with a unique world that sucks you in

+ Voice acting and visuals are amazing and the mixture of anime visuals with the visual novel script makes the game fluid

+/- the mixture of anime and visual novel script, though, might turn off visual novel purists or people who read faster than the game expects

- There’s really not much ‘new’ here, and 8-BIT ADV is a cute distraction, but not much else; if you played STEINS;GATE before, you won’t find much new to do here

  Did you pick up STEINS;GATE ELITE? Are you a fan of the VN or anime? Let us know what you think of the game in the comments!

----

Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[keinart]

New language and bugs being obliterated

ENGLISH

The first big news is Russian translation confirmed. The demo will release with it (it's already translated!) and the main game will most likely come too with it although later than the main game.

Then, remember that entry about bugs I did a while ago? Now it's time to payback about what's done and more: clicking functionality for units has not only been fixed but improved, there's new hotkeys added too with a new system about how to move units through the map or select options of the menu that is REALLY NICE and fast.

You will be able to play with your controller too which needed to include a new system to the order of how the different commands are introduced but all that is done.

Improved visibility of units movement (and removed the enemies ones), fixed and improved one bazillion AI issues, the special attack functionality has been completed, new screens for all the menus like pause, game over, winning, turn counter, and its connection with the VN. Now you can even save in the middle of battle and leave if needed which is really important and I kinda forgot about it huh...

The localization functionality has also been finished fully for the battle system, but I still have to translate it and proofread it. Since we have the game in four languages it is a bit hard to get it all well done so Japanese and Russian may take a bit longer (won't delay it release for it though).

Meaning that the battle system is practically fully finished. I'll try to use this week for a final testing and then release first builds. I'm afraid that no matter how much I try to clean it and improve it there's always more and more bugs though. Welcome to game dev.

But that's not all!

I've been improving and fixing also all the issues with with the VN programming. Mainly focusing on how it works together with the battle system. Jumping from one to another and other million things. Here's a quick list:

Title menu now has some... secrets. Only for the main game, you will see it when it comes out.

Added a crossfade functionality so during cool scenes the music adapts to the context crossfading between different versions of the same song. This translates as really cool transitions that you won't even notice.

When the narrator speaks the color of the text changes. This is a really small thing but it improves so much the reading actually.

New functionalities for different fonts and formatting for different languages and displays. Quite important actually even if it looks minor. You may also input your own text ingame... where or how? Who knows!

Finished the saving functionalities. Auto-save, saving during battle as I mentioned before, 99 normal slots for those of you who want to save every 20 seconds, and it shows what was the last save data you used.

Added all the functionalities for the settings menu: screen display, skip text, language, to stop the skip text when selection comes or not, transparency of the windows, auto-read speed and text speed, volume bars for master sound, sound, and bgm. Also an option for reset it all (except language) and a cool menu to show all the controls of the game that adapts depending if you are using keyboard or controller. Missing anything? Let me know.

Added all the Diary menus functionalities. It will add entries as you play the game and it includes all the info of Cinque memories as she remembers them or make new ones.

Added an extras menu called Museum with all its functionalities: you will see all the CGs you unlock as you play, replay certain scenes, play the music of the game, and a dev room of sorts.

And all of this adding hotkeys and controller functionalities too so you can play from your bed while eating doritos. The only correct way to play visual novels.

That's a lot of stuff right? That's not all! Scripting is now at 39 out of 50 scenes done, the english translation of the introductory chapters is finished (editing in process) and Japanese translation of it is around 30% done while Russian is 10% more or less.

Thanks to everyone for waiting but trying to get the best out there. I have hellish work week this time around again but there's not much left. Until next update!

ESPAÑOL

Las noticias más importantes de la semana es la traducción al ruso confirmada. La demo saldrá con dicha traducción de base (que ya está hecho) y el juego principal también aunque probablemente con cierto retraso.

¿Os acordáis además de aquella entrada que hice sobre bugs del juego hace un tiempo? Ahora toca el turno de ir tachando cosas de la lista e incluso cosas que se salen de ella.

Para empezar todos los problemas al seleccionar unidades están solucionados y mejorados, incluyendo también nuevas teclas para acceder a ellos y mover unidades por el mapa mejor que nunca y más rápido.

Ahora puedes jugar con un mando también lo que conllevaba añadir un nuevo sistema respecto al orden en el que puedes introducir las acciones.

Se ha mejorado la visibilidad del movimiento de las unidades (y se ha quitado las de los enemigos que eran un poco spoiler), arreglado y mejorado problemas con la IA, la funcionalidad del ataque especial está completada al fin, nuevas pantallas para todos los menús de combate como la pausa, el fin de la partida, ganar, la transición entre turnos, y toda la conexión con la parte de la NV. Ahora puedes también guardar en mitad de un combate si quieres que es algo bastante importante y me había olvidado eh...

La funcionalidad de localización está implementada también dentro del sistema de combate, pero tengo que hacer las traducciones y su edición. Esto puede llevar un tiempo ya que tenemos tantos idiomas por lo que japonés y ruso igual se retrasan un poco pero no debería afectar al resto.

Todo esto significa que el sistema de combate está acabado del todo casi. Esta semana la utilizaré para hacer algo más de testeo y limpiarlo antes de sacar las primeras versiones. Siempre temo que da igual cuánto trabajo siempre quedan más bugs y trabajo pero bueno. Es lo que tiene.

¡Pero ahí no se acaba la cosa!

He estado mejorando también toda clase de cosas con la programación de la novela visual. Principalmente respecto a cómo funcionan los dos sistemas juntos, el de novela visual y el combate. Saltar entre uno y otro entre otras cosas. Aquí hay una lista rápida:

El menú principal trae ciertos... secretos. Solo en el juego principal, ya lo veréis cuando llegue el momento.

Añadida una funcionalidad de crossfade de la banda sonora. Básicamente hace transiciones mucho más suaves entre canciones en ciertas escenas dando el efecto de que las canciones se adaptan al texto sin que ni te des cuenta.

Cuando el narrador habla el color de su texto se adapta. Esto es una chorradita pero mejora mucho la lectura en realidad. Ahora ando probando colores...

Nuevas funcionalidades respecto a las fuentes y el formato de los diferentes idiomas. Bastante importante por muy menor que parezca. Ahora puedes incluso introducir tu propio texto en el juego... ¿aunque cuándo y cómo se usa eso? Quién sabe.

Todas las funcionalidades de guardar la partida acabadas. Auto-guardado, guardar durante batallas como he mencionado antes, 99 casillas para grabar para esos que quieren grabar cada 20 segundos, y también muestra la última casilla en la que guardaste.

Añadidas todas las funcionalidades del menú de configuración: tipo de pantalla, saltar texto, idiomas, parar el salto de texto tras decisiones, cambiar la transparencia de la ventana, la velocidad de la lectura automática y la del texto, barras de volumen principales, de sonido y de música. Incluso una opción para resetear todas esas opciones (excepto por idioma) y un menú molón para mostrar todos los controles del juego que se adapta a si estás usando teclado o un mando. ¿Falta algo? Házmelo saber que todavía estamos a tiempo.

Añadido todas las funcionalidades del Diario. Este menú añade entradas nuevas mientras juegas incluyendo todas las memorias de Cinque tal como las recuerde o añade nuevas.

Añadido un menú de extras llamado el Museo que te permite ver las diferentes ilustraciones únicas del juego, ver de nuevo algunas escenas importantes, escuchas música, y una pequeña sala del desarrollador con otros detalles.

Y todo esto funciona con sus respectivos accesos rápidos y con un mando también para que puedas jugar desde la cama mientras te hinchas a doritos. La única forma correcta de jugar a novelas visuales.

¿Son muchas cosas no? ¡Pues sigue sin ser todo!

El scripting ya va en 39 de 50 escenas, la traducción al inglés de los capítulos de introducción están acabados (ahora se están editando) y la traducción de los mismos al japonés está al 30% mientras que el ruso al 10% más o menos.

Muchas gracias a todos por vuestra paciencia, estoy intentando sacar el producto lo más depurado posible. Esta semana vuelvo a tener una cantidad de trabajo abrumadora pero ya no queda mucho. Hasta la próxima.