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Abstract Nonsense: 06/18/2017, 10:27 So, we're about to move on to the final part of the Xtend Episode with Natsuhiko's scenes, but before that, I think this is a good time to take a look at something different. At one point, thanks to Cyouni in the thread, I managed to extract the game's source files, finding all the music, graphics, voiceovers and sound effects, and while I didn't particularly go over the voiceovers or sound effects, I did find several interesting things in the music and graphics parts. First, the music archive has several tracks I don't recognize at all (though I did remember one of the nine), so let's go through them in order. If you know where some of these things I assume went unused actually did get used, please let me know. Extra Track 01 This sounds like a slower variant on ''Helper / Theme of Mashiro'' in the beginning. Now, I have no idea if these tracks are actually used and I somehow just don't remember hearing them or if they're actually legitimately unused, so really, this could be anything, but if I had to guess, I would say that this could have been intended to play during ''BOYS AND GIRLS'', Mashiro's epilogue scene. It would have fit in pretty well, I'd say. Extra Track 02 I might just be trying too hard to match these to tracks that definitely got used, but this one sounds like it could match up with ''Achiever / Theme of Ena'', and going with the previous one, could have been intended for playing during ''Unforgettable'', Ena's epilogue scene. Extra Track 03 - Anime Theme from INVOKE OK, this is the one I actually remember. This one plays back in Route Before, during the chapter ''INVOKE''. When the line ''As soon as Mashiro changed the channel, the opening theme to a children's anime began playing.'' shows up, this track plays. Extra Track 04 A tension theme of sorts. This I could imagine fitting in perfectly with a trailer of some sort. Extra Track 05 A very bombastic track. Sounds like it could be a lead-in for some sort of news report, but honestly, I'm just making wild-rear end guesses at this point. Extra Track 06 A mellow, laid back track. It sounds similar to ''Calm Days of Rokumei City'' to me. Extra Track 07 Another mellow track. I'm not sure how to place this one at all. Extra Track 08 - Theme of Psychic Girl Beyond*BEYOND This is one I just found out thanks to some luck in my research. I found a trailer for Root Double on Youtube, and this trailer also advertised the soundtrack CD and the Psychic Girl Beyond*BEYOND radio drama that came with the Limited Edition version of the original game that came out for the XBox 360, and when it's showing the Psychic Girl Beyond*BEYOND part, this plays. Also, if somebody speaks Japanese and could translate the Japanese bits in the track listing at VGMDB that I linked there, that would be great. I think these nine tracks (plus one short jingle I didn't upload) are represented by the ten Japanese-titled tracks on Disc 2. Extra Track 09 Finally, we have a piano track. This also doesn't sound like anything familiar to me, so this could have been anything. So, that's it for the music, now, on to the graphics.     Now, the thing with the graphics is that they're by and large one of three things. One, they're backgrounds. Two, they're sprites. Three, they're CGs. However, there's only a scant few graphics that are a combination of sprites and backgrounds, and I have no idea why. I recognize these scenes - the first three are from ''THE STRANGER'', when Miyoko confronts Natsuhiko about Salyu living in the Tenkawa household from now on. The last one is from ''SALYU - SEPTEMBER 16''.  This graphic is still in the game - you can also see this one in the trailer I posted up above. This is advertising the original release of Root Double for the XBox 360 back in 2012. No idea why this is still here.   This is just because I think it's interesting - the full graphics for Ukita's and Miyoko's LABO ID cards. One thing that jumps out at me is how many employees this place really has, judging by Ukita's staff ID number.     This is an example of something that is generally present in the graphics - there's a whole lot of redundancy. So here, in Ena's case, every single pose she has exists in clean form with glasses, in messed up form with glasses, in clean form without glasses, and in messed up form without glasses. I have to be honest, I didn't actually check this, but I'm pretty sure that the ''clean form without glasses'' and ''messed up form with glasses'' graphics never get used in game.      These five CGs of blood-splattered dead bodies all exist in the game files with this strange other color scheme as well. Was this some sort of censorship thing for Japan? I know there's a bit of a thing there with blood - which is why Danganronpa games have pink as the blood color, that got them a lower age rating - but this doesn't exist for the CGs that are shown at the normal end for Route After, like the dead Jun or Ukita. It might have been intended to signify some sort of emotional impact for the character seeing these scenes. Not sure.   In ''wait, they actually did that?'' news, did you notice at all that there were two different CGs for Ukita holding a gun? I don't even know if one of these didn't actually go unused, so it could have been nobody noticed because it actually didn't happen! Not even the CG gallery has the first of these two CGs.    Another interesting redundancy thing - absolutely every single sprite in the game exists in three different sizes for purposes of displaying distances characters have to each other and for displaying larger groups all at once.  Now, do you remember this type of sprite for Subject N? The one with her arms outstretched towards the main character? Well, there exists a variant for each one of those, and it sure is something...  ...just look at that! Man, I don't know why this didn't show up at any point, this looks awesome! I guess they figured it looked too fantasy-like.   A very strange redundancy here - every single sprite of Natsuhiko's has a version without glasses. I don't remember a single instance of Natsuhiko ever not wearing glasses.  Another interesting redundancy - every sprite that has to do with the protection suits exists six times, one for each rescue squad member, and one with a blank armband, probably for template purposes. So here we have Jun in her protection suit, pointing a gun at somebody.    These three characters are found at the end of the files. I can only assume they're from some other game and were put into the game for purposes of testing the engine before any art assets were ready yet. Either that or I've really missed something. And finally, I've saved the absolute best for last...  ...maliced Salyu. I can only assume that this didn't make the cut because the developers realized that a maliced Salyu would simply turn into an unstoppable wrecking machine, laying waste to everything that stands in her way, then rescuing Natsuhiko, Mashiro and Salyu by cleaving through the bulkhead with just the fire axe and defeating the entirety of Security Sector 6 with ease. Anyway, that's all the interesting stuff I found in the game files. Next time, we'll get into Natsuhiko's scenes for the Xtend Episode and finally finish this game.
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| ← # ? Jun 26, 2017 20:37 |
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