Ok so first, I want to talk about a project that I’ve been working on for a long time during my teenage years. It’s very dear to my heart because it’s kind of thanks to this that I learned how to draw, write and make video games. It’s pretty edgy and filled with early 2000 cringy teenager stuff, but I still love it for what it is.
The first version of the project was supposed to be a comic of which I don’t have the drawings on me, those are at my parent’s place. I’ll probably make another article on it in the future.
The version I’m going to talk about here I’m branding “Shingo Hayasa version”, because it’s the version that started with the creation of the character of the same name.
Time period : started around 2008, I was about 15 years old.
7-Blue (Shingo Hayasa version) was a RPG Maker XP game project set in a futuristic space fantasy world.
The story :
In a stellar system called 7-Blue a civil war is set between the empire and the rebellion. At the head of the empire governs 7 great cardinals that came from the victory of a previous war between the neighboring system, Lonemphia and the then monarchic 7-Blue. The empire enslaves the people of the system and make them live in misery.
The story follows Shingo Hayasa a rebel that eventually meets with new friends. Together, they will try to defeat the great cardinals and restore peace among the system.
The Universe :
The stellar system is composed of a star, a blue nebula, an asteroid belt and 4 major planets :
1- Shivera :
The capital of the system. It’s a big planet composed of a vast city that covers the surface. The buildings are all sky scrapers, navigation is done via flying transportation. The bottom is a ruin that no one goes to anymore but holds many secrets. The main quarter of the empire is on this planet.
2- Vulcan :
A big industrial planet that got devastated during the war between 7-Blue and Lonemphia. The surface is composed of ruined buildings inhabited by poor people trying to survive. Some live in the very complex underground system. This is also where the rebellion quarter is. Deeper in the underground lays some ruins of an ancient civilization filled with monsters.
3- Forentia :
A planet covered in a desert. There are some military bases and small cities in some places. There also are a few laboratories in which the empire makes all sorts of experiments.
4- Lolendra :
A planet composed of a vast snowy mountain chain in the north and various other plains, forests and mountains all over. There are a lot of small villages as well as a big imperial city and various military bases.
The Characters :
Now, this is the big part. As with all my projects, I spend most of my time working on characters. So here they are.
1- Shingo Hayasa
The protagonist, an 18 years old wolfman bent on vengeance against the empire. He’s very stubborn and solitary but slowly learns to care for his friends.
Background : He lived in a small wolfmen village on the snowy mountains of planet Lolendra. After the masters of the village gave their allegiance to the monarchy of 7-Blue, the village was decimated by the empire during the war. Shingo’s whole family was killed, he was left for dead but was retrieved by a group of rebels that saved his life. Since this day, he swore to get revenge by joining the rebellion. As a result of his injuries, he has some cyborg parts in his body that also helps him in combat.
You can clearly see I tried to make him a kind of badass character that’s all about speed. He has some lightning powers, his twin blades got replaced by a retractable power blade. I removed his scarf to show his partially metallic face. If I ever redesign this character, I think I’ll go farther with the cyborg parts. Also little fun fact : my pseudonym is based on him (Shinlalala).
Objective : I wanted him to have some kind of character development being that he changes from solitary to very friendly over the course of the game. At some point I wanted him to have some kind of hidden “chosen one” ability, but ended up abandoning this idea as it would make him too much cliché, instead working on his relationships with all the heroes.
2- Kioku
A 16 years old looking mysterious girl who lost her memory and was kept captive by the empire on planet Forentia. She’s very calm and loyal to Shingo who saved her.
Background : She’s an android that resulted from an experiment by the empire to create a secret weapon. She has a powerful bomb hidden inside her that can be activated at any moment. Shingo was assigned a mission to retrieve her as a “special dangerous package”. After they came back to the resistance, he realized it was to get rid of her as she’s a threat to them. But Shingo took it upon himself to protect her and take all responsibilities if anything would happen. She was then allowed to live under Shingo’s close supervision.
She’s a classic calm female heroine. At first designing her with some kind of bodysuit and a long sword, she looked too much like a warrior. I finally gave her a more innocent girl look with a hoodie but keeping her weird haircut.
Objective : I made her some kind of innocent character with a sort of Damocles sword above her head. I wanted to make it so she eventually unlocks some kind of hidden power linked to the bomb that would change the whole story, making her an antagonist at some point.
3- Daëron Akelan
A 19 years old blind mentalist at the service of the resistance. He’s very intelligent but also full of himself.
Background : His parents were two Lonemphian ex soldiers. The father, Leonard was a mentalist. They decided to spend their life taking care of their children Daëron and Vince. At some point the boys started to develop their mentalist powers, which also helped Daëron feel the environment around him since he was blind. Leonard tried to prevent them from using those but couldn’t. He instead taught them to be careful and never show this to anyone. But with the civil war being declared, the empire decided to capture all the mentalists of the system as they could be a big threat. Leonard tried to protect his children but died in the process with his wife. Vince got taken away by the empire, Daëron flew and got retrieved by the resistance. He became part of it in an attempt to take back his brother from the empire. At some point during a mission, he got sent to planet Forentia on which he met with Shingo, Kioku and Shaft.
This character was written by one of my best friends. I wanted him to be the big brain of the group. On his first design he had a bow as weapon, but decided to change it to a rifle. As he’s blind, he uses his mentalist abilities to aim. His powers also makes him able to do various kind of “magic attacks”.
Objective : My friend, when he wrote his background and a few dialogues, made him kind of obnoxious but still innocently lovable, which I like in this character. I wanted to make it so he eventually find his brother that became a member of the elite force of the empire. Making him question his allegiance to the heroes. I don’t remember what my friend wanted him to become though.
4- Shaft
An 18 years old man of an unknown race that follows Daëron out of respect. He can be short tempered and violent but he’s loyal to his friends.
Background : He was a human slave who became an experiment of the empire. They tried to make a human stronger than steel. He was discarded as he was considered a failure. His lifespan was greatly shortened as a side effect. While he was lost and alone in the desert of Forentia he got confronted by Daëron who eventually saved him by offering him refuge and water. He decided to follow him to repay his debt.
This character was partly written and designed by another one of my best friends. I wanted him to kind of be the muscle mountain protector archetype. His design almost never changed, he has dark gray skin, white eyes, a hat, steel shoes and a massive hammer that’s making mini explosions on impact.
Objective : At some point I wanted to make it tragic that he dies because his lifespan have been shortened. His character was very simple and one sided though.
5- Secondary characters
Hikaryuu : A character I wanted to make into the main cast, but never had a real good story for. I wanted to make her some kind of girlfriend for Shingo. I wanted to explore some intimate relationships that goes above the classic innocent platonic love interest we saw too much in J-RPGs at the time. But she was so secondary that I never dug too deep to make her story interesting.
Seraphim : Basically, that’s the Sephiroth of the game. He’s the hidden bad guy. The android “brother” of Kioku with the same bomb inside him that he eventually transformed into some kind of immense power he wants to use to destroy the whole universe. Not a good character to be honest. I thought about removing him from the story.
Vince : The brother of Daëron. At first I wanted him to be a minor antagonist, but eventually I thought about making him the main antagonist since Seraphim seemed too cliché. The idea was that he was linked to Kioku’s and Shaft’s experiments and implemented the power that resulted into him, making him immensely strong. I don’t have drawings of him on my computer, but he basically looks like Daëron without glasses and with a lab coat.
The scenario so far :
Since this is an abandoned project, I can tell you what happens during the game. This is so far how things go :
Prologue :
Shingo, a resistant, is sent on Forentia on a mission to retrieve a “dangerous package”. It happens that this “package” is an amnesiac girl named Kioku. While they escape the military base, they are being chased by some soldiers.
Meanwhile, Shaft is seen wondering about in the desert searching for water. Daëron, another resistant on a mission of surveillance, stumble upon him and save him. While they try to talk, Shingo and Kioku arrives at the bar they are in asking for help. Daëron who knows Shingo decides to help them and escort them to the resistance base in his car, effectively escaping the soldiers. They talk during the travel, introducing Kioku. Shaft refuses to elaborate on his past.
They arrive at the local base of the planet. Here, Kioku is brought to the medical team. Shingo learns about Kioku being an android and that she’s a threat because of the bomb hidden inside her. Shingo convince the resistance to let her live under his surveillance and to take full responsibilities if anything happens. The local general, André, accepts as he knows Shingo. He’s the one who trained him to combat after they saved him.
Shingo is then sent on various missions across the system with Kioku. Daëron decides to follow him as he’s intrigued by Kioku. Shaft follows Daëron because he wants to repay his debt.
After that, various events are supposed to happen, but I never fully wrote the scenario. I already said earlier what I wanted to do with the story. So it would probably go in a very standard J-RPG route.
The Gameplay :
At some point the game was supposed to be a tactical RPG using a script I found online for RPG Maker XP. But it was so complicated I eventually reverted back to an ATB style turn based RPG.
This was the first time I tried myself at pixel art animation that was more than just walking sprites on 2 frames. I was a huge Guilty Gear fan at the time, took a little bit of inspiration from it for my pixel art.
The game had a kind of smith system for the weapons of the characters since I wanted them to have unique ones. This system allowed you to improve the level of the weapons with experience points and attach some items to it. Kind of like materias in Final Fantasy VII.
Extra :
Of course the game was never finished, all of the screenshots you see are from the last build. It’s not playable as it’s just separate unfinished maps I made from time to time when inspiration did hit me in my teenager brain. The tilesets weren’t made by me, I found them online on the official webpages of RPG Maker I think. I made the main characters pixel art though.
As for inspiration, you can see I was a huge fan of Tales of Symphonia at the time, this was our favorite game with my two best friends who worked on this project with me. Also took huge inspiration from Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX. And Guilty Gear as I loved how freaking badass and edgy it was, perfect for a teenager in the 2000’s haha. I think I can add Baten Kaitos and Golden Sun too.
Anyway, I hope this first article was enjoyable to read. As I said, it’s a very important project in my heart because it holds so much of my teenage years creativity. I’ll probably never finish it, but I might add onto it if I ever find some more material. I know I have a ton of paper documents for it in my parent’s house. As well as the very first version of the project which was a comic I started when I was around 13-14 years old.
That’s all, thanks for reading !
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