Although script work on Himatsu‘s route is not entirely done yet, this week I’ve decided to tackle Rei‘s route and made some very good progress on it. I’m planning to have the first part of it, the actual investigation, done by tomorrow. Unlike Keiichi‘s and Himatsu‘s routes, in which you will have to interview the four members or Raptor Pack Productions, as well as the two mystery witnesses, Rei‘s route barely features any character interaction and focuses primarily on background investigation.
There are the occasional interactions with Shinketsu, who is present in the main hall as well, but for the most part, the two of them work separately. In other words, we’re taking a deep dive into their minds here, which is quite fun to write.
The main hall investigation consists of three background images that can be examined in detail, so as you can imagine, there is a lot of stuff for Rei to share her thoughts on. Afterwards, there will then be an “analysis segment” in which you will have to match the fingerprint samples discovered at the scene with those of the people involved in the case. I’m still in the process of pinning down the gameplay presentation for this, so I unfortunately cannot go into any detail about it yet, but that’s the basic structure for her route.
Now, speaking of presentation, I’m also still trying to figure out what Rei‘s textbox should look like. Each character has their own color theme that will be reflected in the GUI. Himatsu‘s textbox will be blue, for instance, as I previewed on Twitter last week, while Shinketsu‘s is going to be red. The problem with Rei now is that, due to her forensic uniform, her main color is also blue.
I’ve played around with a few ideas and, if you’re a patron, you can actually check them out over here and take part in a poll that will help us decide which variant to go with. The poll will only last until the end of this month, so be sure to cast your vote before then!
Now, in regards to visual assets, thankfully, Rei‘s route won’t require many new sprite variations, due to the aforementioned lack of character interaction. Backgrounds and CGs are all in place as well, so I will only need to draw a couple images for DPA entries.
Really, Rei‘s route is mostly about the writing and the same goes for Shinketsu‘s as well, although I will elaborate a little more on his next time. Until then, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, as always, take care :3
