Tiki-Mochi and Nono-Nom-Nom

Yes, I know it’s a fail-title (if you understand it), but I couldn’t resist.

Literally all I’m posting today, partly in celebration of Fire Emblem 13 (Awakening), is my new sketch and associated wallpaper.

It’s of the two [first-generation] Manakete’s (Dragon-girls) present in said game, Tiki and Nono. Here you go:

As per usual, click to see full sized.

Tiki is all grown up from her original appearance in FE1 / 3 / 11, and by golly-gosh is she hot in her adult form:
Right, eh? Of course, I guess they needed a loli to keep up the tradition of Loli Manakete’s; so that’s where Nono fits in. Nono has generated some hilarious controversy among some old western fire emblem fans because she’s a pairable girl to generate children in the game. But I just roll my eyes at that~ heck I’ve seen much worse in anime. Anyway, I felt the urge to draw the ‘old and new’, as it were, together, so I did.

And here’s the wallpaper version:
Enjoy!

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What I seek is THUNDER!

Thanks for that, Legend of Legendary Heroes, it’s now a constant staple whenever I think of lightning and thunder magical attacks. Positively shocking, eh? <shot>

Well, anyway, today we just have a short post for the sake of an art dump again, because I know you love them really. 😛

And our subject is again, my fanboyish craze, the lovely Ilyana from Fire Emblem 9/10 (my customised version):
This is the first test of my new ultra-large sketchpad from xmas. Due to its size, the bottom part can’t fit on my scanner, so I had to do a double scan and stitch the two parts together. Since this isn’t exactly a great skill of mine, a skilled photoshopper could probably detect the seam; but oh well.

She is sporting a slightly revised version of the custom costume I made for her in this older sketch. Of course the main additions are in that the old version didn’t show past the top of her corset; so the remainder of that, with the skirt, spats, awesome stripey socks and boots were added. The sapphire on her cape looks much better in this version; an extra string was added to her v-neck, and the corset has become ribbed. Some minor colour changes too.

I think she ended up pretty sweet; especially in the fact that she is more actively using lightning than the old one. Oh, and of course, here’s a wallpaper version:
Includes me dicking around creating Lightning Bolts with photoshop; as you can see.

As always, click the images to see full sized.

My anime schedule hasn’t really changed from before. I have indeed proceeded to drop Brave 10 and Kill Me Baby!

Anyhow, thats all for today. Happy hunting, and cya soon.

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Detarame Sketches 2012 Calendar

Well, here’s a funny idea! A Calendar for 2012 including all of the cool colour sketches I made over the course of 2011.

It also includes 3 sketches that I have never uploaded here (exclusive content!) and of course, they’re all at their full original size in glossy colour, rather than resized or shopped for wallpaper usage. Of course, this entire little thing is for my own usage, but if, for whatever reason, you’re still strapped for a 2012 calendar and would like my artwork adorning your wall, then this thing is available for public purchase below.

It is almost entirely populated by Anime and Game females. Check out the ‘Artworks’ category or ‘Sketches’ Tag to your right for some idea as to what this entails. There’s some fanservice, as always, so the calendar would probably be rated PG-13 for minor nudity. Or something. You have been warned.

By and the by, I make a “vast” £1 from each one, so much like Aniventure I’m not exactly making a song or trying to fleece you. Of course, I realise that at this time of year, calendars start to become cheaper for stock clearance in any case, but oh well, sadly there’s not alot I can do about that. For a 20% discount until the 3rd February: CHERUBUK305
This applies not only to my calendars, but also Aniventure, and indeed anything up to the value of £200 from Lulu.

To visit the purchase page, CLICK HERE.

To view a preview version (all 12 months); click the small “Preview” link available in the above purchase page on Lulu’s website, or alternatively you can click here to view a local pdf copy. The local version is BIG (17mb) so prepare for your net browser to be raped.

This above preview PDF is actually the final version; so theoretically, if you have access to an A3 colour laser printer, 140 GSM gloss paper, and ringbinding ability, you could make your own version. I’m not going to stop you; heck, if you have that kind of hardware, all the power to ya! But if you do and you like it, please leave a comment or something so I know its worth doing this type of thing in the future.

Anyway, I last made myself a calendar for 2008. It was a cool little thing I made in Photoshop and MS Publisher with some of my favourite images from moe.imouto (now oreno.imouto.org). Of course, it made my poor old inkjet die on me. Good times. Naturally, since then I’ve never bothered due to resources, and this is still the case; I’m reluctant to abuse my laser’s toners due their obscene replacement costs; so I suddenly thought, ‘hey, I already have a relationship with Lulu, so why not get them to print me something instead!?’. Its the ‘well duh…’ moment of the year, since they’ve always offered calendar services. Sometimes I can be a bit dense, lol.

Anyhow, cya in the new year. I might <SHOCKHORROR!> actually put up a preview this season; but given the work one of those takes, it might be reduced in size or something. No promises, of course.

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And here we go again…

I think I’m beyond excuses… another month, another post. I imagine its going to stay this way for the near-future since I seem to have so little time to give to blogging at the moment.

For one, I’ve been distracted by Xenoblade Chronicles of late. Damn good game. Add to that the fact that I have a new epic Space Opera campaign for Aniventure to be planning for, now titled Homura no Tengoku (Flame of Heaven) which I’m rather excited about. So yeah, I’m consumed by stuff to do already.

However, I will definately attempt to push out an Anime Preview as per usual, so don’t worry about that.

Oh, and as a side note, I’ve finally started typing up the supplement for Aniventure. This was previously titled ‘Magic & Mayhem’ or something dross like that but its gained a new title for now of “Aniventure Shimaihen” (lit. Companion Volume) since that is really what its going to be, with a bestiary of fantastic Japanese mythical beasts, a crapton of new powers, rules, archetypes, a new race and mutation system and more besides. Given the amount of content here, I don’t think you need to hold your breath in waiting for it. Its very much at the early stages still.

Additionally, I’m quite happy with the current beta of The Enemy Within, its polished enough and relatively bug-less, something that rarely happens, so I find it quite likely I’ll actually meet my crazy New Years goal of getting a 0.8 version of it out this year, even if its not as comprehensive as I would have hoped. But comprehensive can be shot for what I care, because a bug-free version is a hard thing to get done.

Right, so I’ve nattered about alot of positive progress in things other than blogging, so, as you know, that means I have to proceed to dump some artwork needlessly. 😀

Today, I’m giving an unholy trinity of lovely ladies, two of which are also in widescreen wallpaper size for your desktop enjoyment.

As always, click on them to get full sized! Lets begin!

Yep, its an Ilyana, whom I’m ever obsessed and fanboyish about, sporting a customised outfit with a propensity for excessive bolt symbols. I like to think my Dungeon Crawl version of her looks a bit like this. She mostly retains her standard colour scheme from Fire Emblem, mind you.

Interestingly, this was a sketch I originally did the outline draft for ages ago, but I was really unhappy with it, as I could tell I’d done something wrong but couldn’t place my finger on it. Anyway, it laid dormant until I came back to it just yesterday, where I promptly understood exactly how to fix it in a sudden revelation. Moved her head around, readjusted the arms, made the cape more billowy, and actually went on and coloured it.

I have to say she has larger eyes than usual for me. I typically attempt to veer away from the extreme end of anime eyes, and keep a semi-realistic shape. Still, for some reason, it works for her, so I kept it. She also somehow manages to make teal look like a fashionable colour. 😀

But, considering it was pretty much a disaster previously, a page I tried to ignore on my pad, the fact that I saved it moderately well is something I’m pretty chuffed about.

Anyhow, lets keep it up…
You may kiss her hand. Hurry up, don’t breach ettiquette! This is the Duchess-Apparent of Draskalmourie, the delectable Susie Drayke. Also probably known as Scourge of the Frozen North to certain members of my party in my long running Dungeons & Dragons. She has spent nearly all of the campaign chasing Darien Silverscale, the Prince of Silesia, until quite recently. Her obsessive antics have always been a pet favourite of mine, though for the characters, one of my PC’s whom is also interested in him also suffers tremendously, especially when they accidently went into an alternate timeline where the two Drakahn were married.

As a Drayke, she has a set of red eyes and a green tail, though since this is a head & shoulders, her tail is not visible here (check out other Drakahn if you like). Drakahn noble houses are very strict on their colourations, as veering away from the colours suggest the child is actually a bastard. Sapphire or Red eyes are prestigious, as they suggest a greater connection to their divine dragon ancestors; with the Great Sapphire Dragon God Rahlyah and the Golden Demi-Dragon God Dyia respectively. There are also other demigod dragons: Revynne, Arawne, and Zephyris, and all the noble houses can trace lineage and colours back to one of the five somehow.

I think thats enough Drakahn sociology. As for the actual sketch, this is one of my favourites. It was a new experiment in doing a haughty kind of pose and also the first time I’ve attempted a paper-fan. In case you were wondering, she is wearing a court dress, so her skirts, if it were to be present on the picture, would be the huge kind! 😀

Here’s the final one (which is not wallpaper sized, sorry):
Heh, its Carlie, making a re-appearance at last. I originally put up a sketch of her as one of my very first posts on the blog back in the dark ages of 2008, and gave her an update in this post in 2009. As noted in both those posts, Carlie is from Seiken Densetsu III, which I actually haven’t played in a while now, but remains one of my all time favourite SNES games.

Anyway, I figured it was about time to give her a nice update into the twenty-elevensies. I think I’ve improved just a little bit since her last incarnation, though at the time I no doubt thought it was teh sh*t and all that. Since she’s an elvish high priestess, I didn’t spare any effort on the weave bits, which took quite awhile. Embellished leather armour is actually hard to do, I think. Also spent ages getting her curls to look nice (like Jeanette’s) but I’m glad of the effort. Not sure about the rod thing; this was originally meant to be a flail (as Carlie uses) but I couldn’t get it to work and it still looks a bit dodgy, but I had got to point where I didn’t want to redraw her hand again, so she had to be grasping something. Oh well, still like the piece in general.

I guess, at some point, I need to also give the Romancing SaGa girls a new rendition! (actually I already did a Sara from SD3, but I can’t find her to scan her in… so that’ll have to wait)

That’s the end of this post for… WAIT! Nearly forgot! HAVE AN ALICE!!

Yessiree, Detarame recently broke 225K. I entirely missed 200K, hence the arbitrary selection of 225, but whatever. Thankyou for visiting me and being excited about the random crap I generate, and I apologise for my consistant lack of postingage, but what can you do, eh? It was fitting for Alice to be here, I think, since Marisa celebrated 100K quite awhile back.

Anyway, that is really it. Stay Tuned!

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Dragon Age: Origins

Well, I’m certainly behind again, and here’s the culprit. I finally got around to picking up a copy of Dragon Age: Origins. I always wanted to grab it since I’ve long loved the Neverwinter Nights games and Bioware’s awesome RPGs in general; but I was a bit wary about immediately getting it since I wasn’t sure that my lower end Radeon could actually manage to cope, so I waited for a reduced price.

Fortunately for me, it could. Admittedly, I’m forced to use low detail, but its not much of a issue, since I still get to use 1280 x 800 and high quality textures with minimal lag, so it looks decent. The only problem I actually had was all eyes were a creepy black when I first booted. This is apparently an issue with cards that don’t have good quality pixel shaders. However, with some searching, I found a handy mod that changes them to a flat texture. This means nearly everyone has brown eyes in the game, but I can cope with that (it’s better than black orbs of death!).

In any case, I spent a short while as Teres Cousland, a Human Noble Rogue, but then decided I had made some very poor choices for skills and talents, so I decided to re-start again and check out the Mage Origin.

This led to me using Ilyana Amell:

Astute Fire Emblem fans might recognise her. I’ll readily admit to being an Ilyana fanboy; and when I saw this potential hairstyle (part of the extra hairstyles mod I also picked up before playing…) during character creation, I was pretty much sealed in playing as her.

The above is from the initial intro for the Mage Origin; you’re an apprentice of the Circle Tower whom is about to go in for your Harrowing. Mages in this setting are those whom have a deeper connection to the Fade, the realm of spirits and where people go when they dream. However, in possessing this ability, you also become like a beacon to the daemons that live on the other side. So the Harrowing is a test for you to prove you’re stronger than the daemons that would try to possess you (they always want an excuse to leak into the material plane, and mages offer a convienient express train if they cannot resist!). Mages whom become possessed or liase with daemons might become abominations or blood mages. These are hunted furiously by the Templars. Anyway I’ll stop plot exposition now as it’ll end up being spoiler city for those who haven’t played the game.

You, of course, are destined for more than simple magehood. You are recruited by Duncan, the leader of Grey Wardens of Ferelden (that beardy chap in the middle); as a new Blight is upon the land.

You end up fighting at the Battle of Ostagar (which is very impressively cinematic, it feels as exciting as being in battle of Helms Deep from the LotR films), and then being set on a quest to find allies to stop the Blight (which is not a plague per se, its actually an invasion of Darkspawn led by an Archdemon, in case you were guessing).

Grey Wardens are the only people whom can actually kill an Archdemon, because they drink the blood of the Darkspawn and gain a small modicum of their strength. Many die in the process of inbibing the tainted blood, but survival gives you ability to sense the taint in all things and find weaknesses where there are none.

And to do this, you also find several NPC companions, like the Ex-Templar Alistair, above. Keeping the party happy is one of the more interesting underlying mechanics of the game, carried over and enhanced from Neverwinter Nights 2: quite alot of the choices you make and conversations you have with people in the game affect what the party think of you. If they hate you too much they’ll probably end up leaving for good; but if they like you, they become stronger fighters. Several of the companions are also romance options too if you like them enough and you get to know them through and through.

To add further to this process, many of the quests have hard moral choices for you. For example, a child mage possessed by a demon appears in one scenario. He was innocent and possessed somewhat by accident. There is probably nothing you can do, but can you really bring yourself to do the humane thing and kill the poor kid? (especially with his screaming mother around…) Or do you try your hardest to save the brat, even if it requires resorting to forbidden magic that might kill or damn you in return?

This Mabari War Dog also becomes a party member. I thought this was a pretty amusing screenshot with the dead Hurlock at the dogs feet (and he looks so happy!). I have to say, the dog has some terribly funny scenes too, as his ‘dialogue’ of appropriate barks, whines and yaps gives him quite exceptional personification.

As you might imagine, the game is pretty over the top gory in some cases. Melee fighters have several ‘overkill’ animations when you drop an enemy (dual wielders behead the target, heavy weapon users spin the foe and then reverse sheathe their weapon in the enemy, and so on). There are also honest to goodness sex scenes for the cumilation of the romances (none of that fade to black nonsense like in Neverwinter Nights 2 here, no siree!), though those are fairly tame, I’m told, by default. I wouldn’t actually know since I didn’t play before adding a bevy of the most popular mods (including a sex scene ‘upgrade’, LOL, which does make things mildly zesty).

Again, during the Brecilican Forest section, you have a choice whether to aid the Dalish Elves or the Werewolves.

Experienced players of this game might notice that in my playthrough, I customised Alistair and Leiliana to be dual-wield and Sten to be sword and board. I myself specialise in Lightning (I had to, really, given it’s Ilyana I’m based on), with a side on party support and the various Glyphs since Glyph of Repulsion is amazing in this game, and thats not even counting the potential paralysis explosion combo.

To again explain slightly: there’s a couple handfuls of combos you can manage with spells. You can, for example, spew magical grease and then set it on fire with a fireball to make a blazing inferno of death. You can shatter people who are frozen by cold spells. Combining Force spells can be quite horrible, and so on. I guess this is to compensate for the mages inability to get overkills.

Hilariously, Wynne (centre) has also been given a youth potion in the tweak mods I installed. Since it made me laugh so much, I decided to keep it, even if it is out of character (she is supposed to be in her 60’s), since its funny to have her complain about her health and be a ‘lecturing old lady’ type with a strangely youthful appearance.

Anyway, I think that’s enough of that. If you’d like to know more about the game, you can read the Dragon Age Wiki. If you’re interested in Mods for the game, you can get those from The Dragon Age Nexus.

I’m currently preparing a preview of the next anime season, which should be up some time soon, so if you’re waiting for that, please be patient, thankyou!

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Exploding Bunnies and Delicious Literature

“One day, someone stuffed lit firecrackers into the mouth of the classes pet bunny. The bunny died horrendously.”

Well, thats not a line you read every day. O_o’

What kind of elementary students would actually do that? Or was I just an immense goody two-shoes in primary school?

Then again, this same novel, Bungaku Shoujo, has a female protagonist that eats literature.  She forces her Kouhai to write short stories. And then scoffs them as snacks. No really.

Notice the teeth marks on the book pages.
It is delicious literature you must eat it.

Certainly one of the most strange light novel translations I’ve read recently.

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In other news, I’ve been working on a new version of an ancient patch I made for Fire Emblem 4 in the distant past. So most of todays spare time has been spent hacking away. Evidently I’m having a FE resurgeance at the moment.

This patch is called ‘The Geneologists Nightmare’ and the main purpose of it now (as it was before) was swapping the characters bloodlines and classes around, so that the player of this version of FE4 loses the two normally broken ultimate weapons the player is given, the Holsety tome and the Balmung, but instead gets to use two of the ultimate weapons normally locked to the CPU, the Torhammer and the Swanchika.

More importantly, its goal was to do so in a way that not only required a five minute hack, but in a way which completely changes the game experience. Alot of planning was required to ensure everything worked not only smoothly, but well. That is to say, as many old pairings that used to be possible or canon should still be possible and good, the levels and enemies should proceed glitch free with slightly increased difficulty, and the player should have to think about the game in a fresh light.

Also, the patch is meant to try and fix a personal tick I have with the game. That being strange inheritance issues. Like Aideen having Lester with blue hair when her husband has green hair (she was cheating?!?). Or Fin saying ‘You look just like your mother‘ to Rana when Rana looks very little like her mother.

I’ve been having some issues with colour palettes at the moment, and may have to change or alter some portraits still, but I’ll present some early alpha version screencaps for you to stare at:

I just thought it would be funny to have Sharlow as the castles primary defender. No wonder he had an epic fail.

Alec Oifaye now has a split personality. One part cheeky knight, one part master strategist.

Actually, my name is Corpul, but since you insist on calling yourself Aira, we’ll call it even.

Crazy Ethlin Strike!

Ardan finally has Pursuit, just like he always wanted!

Azel loves fiery wenches swords, dont’cha know?

Anyway, I was also planning on adding another Spot the Difference post eventually, (probably tommorow or thursday) since the K-ON one is ludicrously popular. It’ll be more amusing things from recent animes than all concentrated, however, most likely. See you then.

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