Touhou 13.5 [Hopeless Masquerade] Announced

Yeah, I’m slow in noticing this, but the new Touhou beat-em-up was announced a couple of days back by Tasofro (LINK HERE) with a couple of teaser shots and a blurb. Not one to miss out on regurgiating a small amount of information, I’m posting some random crap about it. To start with, here’s a shameless google translate of that blurb:

Fear of natural disaster that repeated natural disasters, no Koe,
They brought a pessimistic view of life in the human village.

Heavy air is swirling in the village.
However, it is not a feeling of hopelessness.
It was something close to a sense of stagnation future of human beings does not change no matter what you.

Is it not a “Yeah! ‘

I feel that I wonder who originated, such a voice that I can hear you.
Yeah, if does not change anything, I think what you may be doing?
Yeah, I’ve got to be Ikire more ephemeral.
The human heart of the village is released gradually, order went disturbed at the same time.

Those who see the situation from a different perspective that was there. Our home is a religion.
Religious thought trying to win the hearts and minds of the people disturbed.
Restore order and at the same time, because it is a good opportunity to collect their own faith.

Monks erected a temple in Gensokyo, Taoist aims to abandon the worldly immortality,
Aimed at rehabilitation and shaman.
These girls decided. That it is “my turn” what time like this.

Well, I think we can assume that some girls from the Human Village and the latest Touhou games will show up.

No doubt the internet will be full of roster speculation soon enough. I’m not going to cave to any of that, though. Here’s one the caps from that page as well (you can click to see it full-sized):
This is actually far more interesting to analyse. Here’s my observations:

• First of all: 3D backgrounds. About time! Though its in need of some anti-aliasing and theres something odd going on with that hill between the two trees on the right. Still, its a step in the right direction, however much I loved the strange photorealism of SWR.
• No Spellcards!? At least, none that can be seen. If so, this is quite a massive diversion from their past games. Instead, we have three gauges that I can spot. Theres a circular gauge around the portrait with red/blue/grey fillings. Theres the obvious classic mana bar going on at the bottom. And behind that are a set of three character relevant sprites (orbs for Reima, stars for Marisa). In the last case, Reimu’s orbs are coloured in, and Marisas stars are greyed out after Marisa is using what used to be one of her stardust broom smashes, so perhaps those stars are used for specials? This is of course pure speculation.
• New Character Sprite Style. Its nice to see that its still a bit deliberately pixellated, and at odds with the gorgeous attack effects. Despite this, the sprite detail is notably higher as well. And less chibi!
• Percentages? I’m assuming thats actually just the Rate or Limit or somesuch, but maybe its important.

Anyway, thats about it for today. Stay tuned.

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The Sisters Will See You Now

Heh… its been a heck of a while since I’ve actually made a fresh wallpaper that doesn’t use any of my own artwork, but what do we have here if not that? Check it out:

As per usual, click to see it full sized.

Yes indeed, its the Scarlet Sisters again. I was browsing danbooru to see if mochi.f had updated his artworks of late, and indeed as part of the selection found these two new grown up versions of Remi and Flan in their Chinadresses. Smokin’ hot if I may say so myself. And I figured, I had to make something with them, so I did.

I had to draw in a few extra bits, notably Flan’s leg and hat, and a bit of the wings for both vampire girls, and then extract/interspose them with this nice fisheye panorama of the Scarlet Devil Mansion Reception Hall.

Its then darkened overall, with posterisation added. Not typically a filter I use often, but it actually works very well here. I also extracted masks of their eyes and gave them a subtle red glow effect, as I expect them to have (scary!), and threw a few shadows around to aid with the atmosphere.

“The Sisters will See You Now” immediately then came to mind as a fun title. But will you survive the audience, son? Hehe…

Not alot else to say for today. Aniventure Shimaihen is proceeding smoothly and it might well be possible for me to release it before the end of the year if I can keep the pace up. The entire customised race section has been completed and is undergoing a litmus test, a new border was completed, and I also recently put together an interesting Superior Items & Loot Customisation ruleset.

Actually, speaking of Aniventure, there’s currently 20% off at Lulu until the 10th of August by entering the code ASTOUND20 at your checkout. So nows the time to pick stuff up!

Anyway, stay tuned 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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Mixed Nuts and Sundries

Err, yeah… It’s been a heck of awhile again, hasn’t it?

Still, I’m breaching no apologies this time, as there are no real excuses besides being generally exhausted and unable to handle blogging. As much as I like it, its a large chunk out of my leisure time and after my hours of civil service, the last thing I sometimes need is more typing on a computer!

But anyway, you’re not here to listen to my bitching. Today is a post of no special focus.

First of all, I would like to advertise the Humble Indy Bundle III, which is still open for the next two whole days! You may pay whatever you like for seven rather good games. What’s more, pay over about $7 and you’ll also get Humble Bundle II thrown in for free, bringing the total up to 12 games for less than the cost of a chinese takeaway. If that wasn’t enough, theres some free Minecraft membership thrown in, and you can choose to support charity with your donation. Personally, I thought it was well worth the cost of a full priced game, so thats what I donated (though all my dollars went to the developers).

For me, its highlights were VVVVVV, Cogs, Braid, and Revenge of the Titans. I’ve always enjoyed supporting Indie games in any case, since I’m a bit of a dabbler in game development myself.

Speaking of which, since I’ve had Enemy Within 0.8 playtested by some friends recently, I guess I’ll do some final polishing of it and then release. Part of me still wants more features in it, but at the moment its stability is ok, so its a good release candidate.

Over to some anime season thoughts: It turned out much as I anticipated. I’m most interested in Dantalian no Shoka and Bunny Drop; both of which have likable characters. Dantalian had a bit of a wobble briefly and is currently monster of the week, but its got alot going on subtly. Bunny Drop is just plain heartwarming and makes you feel good. Kurousagi and R-15 are stupid but entertaining. Kaminote somehow alienated me with its first episode, but I might try the next couple when I have time. Mayo Chiki and id@lmaster are also in my to watch list for braindead entertainment.

Lastly for today, a new wall adeptly matching the mixed-up-ness of this post.

It’s Fragmented Touhou Girls in Cheongsams (courtesy of mochi-f, one of my favourite touhou artists):

Anyway, thats about all for today. Tune in again soon.

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Way to break it, Flan-chan!

Just a really quick one today; for my new wallpaper.

This one is of everyone’s favourite lunatic vampire, Flandre Scarlet:

As always, click the scary little girl to see her full size.

This vector screamed “use me!” when I saw it this morning, so I did. I’m sure you can read it by yourself, but the text says ‘Eh? Onii-chan’s gone all red.”

I’m hopefully conveying that you are Flandre’s toy, for whatever reason, and she broke you twenty minutes ago and only just noticed the copious amounts of blood. Because, hey, that is probably exactly what would happen.

A life lesson: submitting to scary young overpowered vampires is far more dangerous for your health than trying to fight her and at least going down in a flaming ball of devastation. But then, if you’re just a regular joe, you might get played with anyway. Borrow a Marisa or at least a Patchy before entering the mansions basement. Don’t be afraid to run…away…very…quickly.

Anyway, this is a simple but highly effective composition. I fiddled with alot of blending and colouring for the most part. And of course, added the text for atmosphere settings. Yay.

So, thats all for now, stay tuned.

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