Hetalia: The Long Goodbye

http://thelonggoodbye.bitbonton.com/

You can look at everything in this game. It changes over time, and it changes if there is someone else tagging along.

Yeah, I pretty much decided to swallow up engineering the battles for myself. That said, a lot of things changed. The game plays more like a regular JRPG with one interesting Conflict Element. Though the bonus is, you get to play as Arthur for the entire first half of the game. :)

I think this song and album cover pretty much sums up the atmosphere of the game.

Side-Convos & Toris

I wonder if anyone here is familiar with the “private action” system in Star Ocean? Well, I can’t speak for anything past the second installment of the game, but in the first two, basically your party members disperse at each town and you can talk to them and interact with them. I decided to adopt something similar for my game – except they are only gathered at your Virginian estate and the dialogue changes pretty frequently (usually after each battle or major battle). Though I guess this doesn’t really come into play until later on because because for a chunk of the game, the only person lounging around your house is Arthur. Allies occupy a room in your house.

I wanted to be able to expand and have a lot of character interaction, but keep it largely optional because I know there are people who don’t really watch or know much about Hetalia. I also know this game as tons of talking as is, and I wouldn’t want to shove it down people’s throats. Lastly, most of these scenes either reveal trivia about the characters or they just have some random silly scenes. It’s nothing necessary or critical so I’d rather have it just some sort of option.

It’s nothing major to the plot that I’d force people to sit through.

I guess my approach to making this game is to have it very fleshed out, yet keep the flesh … optional. Hm, okay that was a poor metaphor. Basically, it is very free-roam. I post a lot of these silly scenes up, but people shouldn’t be too worried about sitting through all of them because the vast majority of them are entirely up to you whether or not you wanna read/watch it.

I guess it is one of the ways I try to be considerate towards players.

Toris:

Toris is the character for Lithuania, for the daft who didn’t read the character bios, before you jump up and bash at me, I stated in there that the country was not involved in the war, but the presence of the character was a nod to an war hero who came to the Americas to fight in the Revolution, Tadeusz Kościuszko. Strangely enough, the two characters that represent the two war heroes in the game match up pretty well with the historical figures in terms of demeanor! His national identity is a bit confusing as he has a history entrenched in Lithuania, Belarus and Poland. I think it might have been more accurate to use Poland for him, but in the anime, Toris and Alfred were already friends, so it was easier to build off of that.

This guy was a fucking badass. Here is a little quip about him:

Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko ([taˈdɛuʂ kɔɕˈt​͡ɕuʂkɔ]; February 4, 1746 – October 15, 1817) was a Polish–Lithuanian general and military leader during the Kościuszko Uprising. He is a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, the United States and Belarus. He led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia as Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Force (Najwyższy Naczelnik Siły Zbrojnej Narodowej).

Before commanding the 1794 Uprising, he fought in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army. In 1783, in recognition of his dedicated service, he was brevetted by the Continental Congress to the rank of brigadier general and became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

I feel a bit bothered that Spain is not really present in the game, but the problem is, Spain mostly fought against Britain naval anyways and threw money at America … so … Honorary mention and a diary entry, much?

Alfred:

My interpretation of Alfred is somewhat more historically based. A lot of fan works make him out to be a spoiled brat, but my version: Arthur did shower him with things from the get go, but he failed the first few times (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony) and nearly killed the kid. He came back for a period of time to help establish the colonies, but after awhile, left Alfred alone to take care of himself (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salutary_neglect). Alfred, like the American colonist at the time, lived within his own means and in the confines of his own property. I guess in combination of growing freakishly fast, he also grew up very lonely but not resentful. Though … all that isolation is probably why he is kind of “dense.”

~ See you on the other side of the moon, Space Rocker.

thank you kotorigaro ;_;

** Updated Alfred and Arthur’s character biographies on the website
** Laid the groundworks for the major cities
**Warning … long rambling ahead.

I always like to talk about something new with each blog update – so today I want to talk about adapting this and mixing in what source material I had, history and my own ideas. Why I am making this game, etc.

Let me remind you, however, this game is not a remake. The comic/show mostly takes place during World War 2, you cunts. I'm so goddamn fed up with y'all asking me this or accusing me of this time after time.

When I first started the project, one of my biggest concerns was with how people would react to my version of Alfred – which is generally a pretty hapless and lonely little kid/guy who literally lived like a mountain man after the events of the “tutorial section” of this game. He pretty much had no one after Arthur left besides the animals he lived with. I guess that is why he is kind of daft, even though he’s actually pretty knowledgeable about random things.

I guess another problem is: Could I blend this unconfident and hapless kid in with the comic/anime’s portrayal of him? Which is this loud mouth idiot who just wants to be a hero, etc. just 'cause. I hope I am doing okay. I know a lot of people like to think of Alfred as a loud mouth rebel, though I came into this game with some pretty solid thoughts of my own. I guess another thing is that Arthur is, by no means, a villain. He’s an antagonist, but he is not an evildoer. I suppose in some ways, the two of them were just dragged into a war neither of them really wanted by the people around them and the events. Even if Arthur acts like an abusive dick from time-to-time … okay, a lot of the time. He just has a temper problem. In some ways, the game is pretty sympathetic towards Arthur, even though he really is a complete jackass, outwardly.



If you are wondering, the musket that Alfred receives from Arthur in the game is the same one depicted here in one of the rare American Revolution strips. Except I gave it a history and a name! The Windsong. I guess I just pick up on a lot of vague and tiny things in the comic and just flesh it out in detail.



I think one of the most enjoyable aspects of this game is trying to blend in history, what tidbits the anime gave me to work with and my own personal interpretation and ideas. If you are wondering, this musket is the same nameless one we see in the anime inside Alfred’s storage. I am kind of glad the anime was kind of vague about all of this! It gave me a lot more room to work with. I hate things likes “Original Characters” or whatever; I just like being as true to the source material as I can. I think , unlike a lot of fangames, I got off lucky because the original show is a comedy so the characters weren't ... that deep and fleshed out. This gave me a lot of room for interpretation, etc. without violating the source material.

I was very close to scrapping the project when I was planning it out late December when I realized I was insane enough to attempt The American Revolution: The JRPG with Homosexual Bishounens. A lot of my friends called me retarded and ridiculous – well, dahaha, if you know me that, is nothing new. Some others teased me about making an anime fangame, it was probably a joke, but it kind of stung because I was very much enamored by this idea. It just snowballed out of control and here I am now!
I’m posting this on multiple sites, and RMN has heard this spiel before, so you can skip it.


Photo of the area I lived in.

I guess I wanted to work on a project like this long before I even knew what “Hetalia” was, so that is why I get a bit upset when people poke fun at me for making this. As a child, I lived in a farming community in the Central Valley of California. There was this field of gold sunflowers in the summertime that I always fantasized about running away from home to. A few years later, I ended up living there, but it was plowed over and turned into drab housing projects that soon became foreclosed homes. Haha … what a twist of fate.


Some photos of the area before most of it was torn down.

Originally, I wanted to do some sort of environmentalist project, but after the initial draft, it came out looking like a Hayao Miyazaki film. I thought this wouldn’t do at all … So then I played my favorite Real Time Strategy game called Age of Empires III and I was utterly mystified by the setting: Colonial America (and Revolutionary America in the expansion). I really wanted to make a game capturing the essence of it. I didn’t know how … because it covered quite a time span. I thought maybe I could create some characters and make it multi-generational, but that was a daunting project. One day, a relative of mines recommended me to a show called Hetalia and I watched it nervously, since I am an avid gamer but not so much an anime viewer – when I saw the America and England character, a light bulb came over my head: Eureka! Haha, and thus came about …

The Long Goodbye – a story about the American Revolution, but also a somber outlook on how things change with time and age, how dreams are always what they seem to be and how sometimes the pursuit of happiness can yield unfortunate results …

So while this game is centered around history, in many regards, it is still based around a "moral to the story," I s'pose.

It’s a pretty strange concept to begin with – but somehow I made it pretty personal in my own way, which is why I try to inject as much “life” into it as possible. People make RPGs for a lot of reasons – sometimes for the game play mechanics, sometimes for some strange story idea, but for me – I always start off a game with a setting because making RPGs for me is like sharing a little world and adventure inside of my head with all of you. :) I have no intention of gaining e-Fame, making the next EPIC RPG, etc. It is also a way for me to relive childhood nostalgia!

Oh, I also like inventing and making stuff. A lot of the time, my ideas are kind of weird and dumb, but I am pretty nuts about it and see it through. So don’t worry about this game!

So, anyway, I entered this project with a very strong idea of what I wanted to do – before really knowing the characters, the fandom or Hetalia very well. So far, I’ve had a lot of good feedback, and I am really glad because I am not very familiar with the show at all asides from comics pertaining to the characters in the show. I use a lot of imagery that isn’t very familiar or particular to Alfred in the comic/anime, such as golden fields, etc. I guess I try to give this game a nature and rustic feel. The overall feel and atmosphere in this game is far removed from the series it was based off on, too. Most of the clips I’ve uploaded are pretty funny and silly, though there are many depressing parts in the game. I would wager the game is definitely far more sad than it is happy, even with the silly humor.

The next update I am going to make will show off the historical aspect of the game and it will take place after the 7 Years War. I also hope to finally showcase a fully developed diary system!


i'm goddamn tired

Anyways, enough of my rambling—I felt like I needed to explain why I wake up at 3 AM in the morning to work on this game. I’m insanely busy in real life because I have a triple major going on, an on-n-off job, thesis, internship, etc. but I just love this project so much, no matter what, I always try to make time for it. I never have a spare minute, though. Even when I am waiting in line, I grab my index cards and start scribbling out new ideas, plans, etc. I guess that is how I am pushing this game out.



Fuck yeah. Hahahahahaha. Now back to my coffee and the construction of Philadelphia in 2D …
This is the last cute update you will see from this game, because from here on – shit is going to get ugly fast. :>

The two songs that pretty much "made" the atmosphere for this entire game. Give it a spin.
1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9RZFZquvZM
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh-I3jG7UUE

See you on the other side of the moon, space Rocker.
~ YummyDrumsticks/MigratoryEagle

This is the 1 Month anniversary for working on this project. Just a short clip - sorry for being annoying and updating so often. Though if I don't hold myself to deadlines and obligations, I'll just fall into procrasination hell.

So here it is ... the "World Map" (it's a world map to me because I am a Yank).

Also, I added Lithuania and Germany on the main website and updated all of the character profiles. Enjoy.

If you are curious about the weapon Alfred has, "The Windsong," I guess I wrote about it with the intent of it being the same gun we see in his storage.

Some of you probably already noticed, but the final cast is there! Unfortunately, Canada/Holland/Spain won't have portraits. They aren't very pivotal to the game, even though Canada should have been a combatant in both wars. I guess we cut him out - ha!

Anyhow, currently laying the ground works to make Philadelphia. I am almost adding final touches to the world map. I'll have a video up tonight demonstrating it. :D

also the site has been updated and changed around.

(9:25:32 AM) Yummy Drumsticks: i just came across a stunning realization.
(9:25:44 AM) Yummy Drumsticks: america finally achieved his dream of being a hero.
(9:25:46 AM) Yummy Drumsticks: a jrpg hero.
(9:25:49 AM) Flare: XD
(9:25:57 AM) Yummy Drumsticks: but most jrpg heroes are whiny teenaged boys from farming areas that get destroyed.
(9:26:03 AM) Yummy Drumsticks: that's not a big achievement
(9:26:08 AM) Yummy Drumsticks: but he fits the bill perfectly!!!
(9:29:22 AM) Flare: Haha
(9:30:57 AM) Yummy Drumsticks: its a beautiful coincidence.
(9:31:15 AM) Yummy Drumsticks: there is no way the lobsterbacks could win ..... we had
(9:31:18 AM) Yummy Drumsticks: save points on our side.