Part 16: Afterwords
AfterwordsAfterword.txt posted:
It's hard to give it your all.
It's painful to face yourself.
It's scary to expose yourself to others.
And yet, we still wish for somebody to find us.
Amidst these days of being tangled up in my self-consciousness,
Love Live and Sijaring have kept me alive.
I dedicate this game to my friend who called the 4th episode of the 2nd season "The day Nico Yazawa died".
Please go easy on me.
I would like to thank the development team, as well as you, the player.
Bless you, Nico Yazawa.
Now then, let us meet again, sometime, somewhere.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
<References, taken respectfully, or perhaps, a source of plagiarism>
Sanae-chan has been captured! (さなえチャンは囚われてしまった！)
UNDERTALE
A Certain's Clown Story (とある道化師のはなし)
Crystal Sugar and Machine Gun (氷砂糖とマシンガン)
Birdcage's Universe (鳥籠の宇宙)
Goodbye Eden (さよならエデン)
The wikipedia article for Schrodinger's cat
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
RudyTudySubs posted:
Hello there, after that beautiful and concise afterword, I'm here to ramble, it's Rudy talking.
Thank you so much for playing all the way to the end, and another big thanks to the circle that actually did all the work I piggybacked on.
Though originally I thought it'd be as simple as just modifying the scenario files that display the story text, a lot of stuff was also in images and sometimes even hardcoded text, so modifying those was annoying but I felt it was necessary. Also, enemy text used to only show up in the 2 line dialogue bubbles but after fiddling with the code for a while I managed to make it dynamic depending on how long the actual lines were.
Playing through floor 11 always makes me sad, truly Nico Yazawa's story is not one without strife, she went through a lot. Although the game is centered on Nico, it does feel like it's actually about Honoka and how she affected those around her with her actions and inactions, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say she actually saved Nico's life, in one way or another.
Although considering the Death card, perhaps it's more like she killed her and brought her back?
Then Honoka and µ's came into her life and turned everything around, but she was already too deep into her lies, and to her family, she always had been the super idol Nico-chan. It's hard to put it into words, but it's beautiful how her friends still accepted her after everything.
The final "fight" is a truly amazing climax, and it really captures that feeling from fighting Asriel Dreemurr for the first time, and of course the music helps a lot with that. Speaking of, the official soundtrack contains a mix of SAVE the World and Mahoutsukai Hajimemashita! So you should definitely buy it.
All in all, it was a good project to work on but I'm also glad it's over, yet I'm already feeling nostalgic for it, how curious.
If you're somehow still reading this but would like to read more, head on over to https://rudytudysubs.herokuapp.com/nicoyume/notes and use the code [REDACTED, GO PLAY IT YOURSELF NERD] when it prompts you for more info about how the game works and stuff.
Until next time.
With the power of post-production, now the dev’s succinct and poetic afterword can be mangled by TWO rambly unproofread afterwords.
MAKE SOME NOOOOOISE WOOOO
Jokes aside, I genuinely thought that this would be like, a month long project.
I mean, it was, but like, there was a year hiatus in there as I got busy with IRL shit.
Hell, if I took like 5 more days on this I would have been too distracted by the new Splatoon season to finish this. Isn’t productivity fucked up?
I did less work than either of the two people above me, but I too have thoughts on this game.
It’s good. I cried. I cried a lot. I cried so much that I get emotional when I hear the original Mahoutsukai Hajimemashita now.
Oh, I didn’t get a chance to ramble about tarot cards but they reflect Nico’s whole arc rather nicely I think:
An initial The Sun upright to represent success and enthusiasm,
The Stars Reversed to indicate a loss of energy and hope,
And Death Reversed to represent a currently-blocked change.
Perhaps a change from Nico Yazawa the liar, to Nico Yazawa the member of µ's?
Speaking of lies, when I said I hadn’t watched Love Live when I first played, that wasn’t telling the whole truth.
I STILL haven’t watched Love Live baby I’ve been pulling the wool over your eyes
Blind leading the mofucking blind lesgooooooo
…I delayed watching the BDs for a full year exclusively to make this joke.
Anyway now that the LP’s over I’m probably never doing a SSLP again this shit’s too much work, except that’s what I said to other needless hassles I’m still doing so I guess I’ll see you in a month or w/e.
Oh, spoiler policy’s pretty much lifted so if anyone who’s actually a LL superfan wants to come expand on thematic elements or call me a hack for misreads go for it; I think they all fucked off in the year hiatus though.
I mean, it’s not SUPER surprising, we’re on the… what is it now? FOURTH idol group? Liella, I think. µ's broke up in 2016, it’s like still being a G-Dragon stan in 2016.
Oh god, am I old? That reference is ANCIENT.
I think you’re allowed one (1) Ko-fi plug, so other than that…
Stay safe, and I hope we both eat well. I’m gonna go watch Love Live finally.
Until then.
Hm? The TL code? I’d hate to reduce the number of people playing the game for themselves, but if you’ll keep Nico Nico Nii in your heart fourever, I guess I could give a hint.