Monday, March 28, 2011

New [erka:es] Update!

As noted in the comments for the previous entry, [erka:es] has made an update detailing their current progress on RKSF, as well as a surprise addition! They’re currently working on the last bosses of the upcoming sequel, in addition to handling various balance issues in the game. This is good news, considering the disaster that has befallen Japan as of late, so it’s good to know that Isemiya and WOMI are alright.

The other, more surprising part of this update is the apparent addition of RKSF’s alternate playable character, Kahl/Karl Palesch, Liebea’s imprisoned brother from the original game. According to the included pictures and screenshots, he plays pretty much exactly like Simon Belmont of the Castlevania series, keeping everything in line with the Castlevania motif the game already has. His sprite is really big and goofy-looking, though; it tries to show off his burly physique, but it just doesn’t fit. Regardless, that’s pretty cool, and I personally can’t wait to play that mode!

Anyways, post your comments below concerning this new, exciting, and amazing thing that has happened!

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15 comments:

  1. Playable male character in my Freudenstachel? NO WAI!
    I'm not gonna play this mode, and i hope it's all about 1st april ;)

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  2. Vg jnf fb zrna bs lbh gb trg bhe ubcrf hc yvxr gung. :(

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  3. Thanks for posting a new update. Would've done it myself, but you think I'd be better off as not being a blog writer.

    But yea, I have to agree w/ you on Karl's sprite. Of course they probably made it that way to show off his buffness. But it just doesn't work.

    One thing I have to state, only 9 units of health? Darn, [erka:es] really wants to make this alternative mode hard.

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  4. I just hope they come out with a RKS/RKSF fansite kit showing renders of the series' characters. Just one thing I wanted to happen, because the series really does need it.

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  5. For those of you don't speak Caesar Cipher shifted to N or didn't highlight Lettys text, it's a fake.


    An early April Fools joke WOMI uploaded because he couldn't complete it on time (how does THAT make sense he didn't complete it on time so he decided to upload it EARLY?).

    Yeah I'm probably a huge jerk for just flat out stating "It's a joke guys" but I don't think the rest of you should have to dig up the Caesar Cipher decoders out to realize it's a premature April Fools joke.

    It's a shame it isn't true, I was listening to Simon's theme when I saw this so I was so pumped.

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  6. Well, at least we know what Karl Palesch looks like(?).

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  7. April Fools or not, I still enjoyed Karl's design. Plus, the Castlevania play-style idea would have been a nice touch for RKSF, even though the nine-unit health bar would have probably made the game a little too difficult. But I don't have a problem with difficulty.

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  8. O... kay. Considering Karl is a military pencil-pusher and not a soldier, I wasn't expecting him to look so beefy. The only resemblance between him and Liebea is the hair (and the circlet - a family heirloom, maybe?).

    I wonder if he's voiced by AIGON as well? Or Jouji Nakata (that'd be pretty sweet).

    I have to ask: is this really an April Fool's joke? I know the Japanese love their pranks, but I find it a little hard to believe that they'd upload one 3 days early. Granted, Karl's bio hasn't been added to the Freudenstachel site, so this could go either way.

    ...I shouldn't be surprised that [erka:es] keeps slipping up with romanizing their characters' names (Trauere, Sichite, Sepperin, Sayfalth, Dolis, Rink, Lecht, Arwig, and now Kahl), but man... Well, at least they didn't call him the same name as the little girl in Aliens.

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  9. @TDO: I have been trying to figure out the post on the site, but I'm having a hard time interpreting the lines about Karl. As far as I can tell, the possibilities are either a) it actually is fake, or b) due to time constraints, the displayed character design (or sprite?) is a mockup and subject to change.

    Unrelated: I always thought the Rink/Lecht thing was intentional. Am I giving them too much credit?

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  10. @TDOMMX:

    Considering Karl is a military pencil-pusher and not a soldier, I wasn't expecting him to look so beefy. The only resemblance between him and Liebea is the hair (and the circlet - a family heirloom, maybe?).

    How in the world did you get "military pencil-pusher"? Our own translation says nothing more than "Karl's not a soldier." Karl is, without a doubt, a character whose only purpose is to give Liebea the motivation to fight Spiritia, nothing more. He has no occupation beyond "civilian." You're reading way further into this than you should.

    I have to ask: is this really an April Fool's joke? I know the Japanese love their pranks, but I find it a little hard to believe that they'd upload one 3 days early. Granted, Karl's bio hasn't been added to the Freudenstachel site, so this could go either way.

    Read latest blog entry.

    Dolis, Rink, Lecht, Arwig, and now Kahl

    Who are you to say that any of these names are wrong? They're names. They can be romanized as they are with no problem, and that includes "Arwig"; listening to German pronunciation guides, the "-ich" sounds the "-ig" ending makes can sound very similar to the Japanese ヒ/"hi" sound when spoken. And come on, Lecht and Rink are obviously intentional. It's like looking at characters named "Reft" and "Light" and saying that they're typos, when it just mild word play.

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  11. Letty, you might be right. It's been a long time since I last handled anything involving the RKS mythos directly (I've read lots of other stories, including many truly memorable ones, since then), so my memory about some of the characters is a bit fuzzy.

    We know for a fact that, as a result of Rosenkreuz's sacrifice, all Magi are now subordinates of the Holy Empire. To what capacity, we don't yet know. Though I forget the source, I recall reading that Karl is/was a member of the Intelligence Division of RKS (similar to Maverick Hunter Base in Megaman X). This is probably someone passing speculation off as fact, so I'll retract what I said about him being a pencil-pusher; this image probably got lodged in my brain after seeing the behind-the-scenes workings in Maverick Hunter X: The Day of Sigma.

    Of course, my point that Karl has a much more impressive physique than we expected still stands.

    The timing with which [erka:es] announced the failure of their April Fools' joke is kind of disappointing (I'd have waited until the day-of before throwing in the towel), but yeah, it's unfortunately a prank. I guess that means that this character design is non-canon. Still, I have a nagging suspicion that the "Liebea loves her nii-sama!" crowd is going to have a field day with it.

    I'm inclined to agree with you regarding Rink and Lecht possibly being an intentional swap. Honestly, the name "Rink" just really bugs me; Japan's marked tendency to mistakenly swap L's and R's is enough to cast doubt on whether this wordplay was really intentional. I had intended to poll the fanbase about what to do about it (if anything) once Freudenstachel is released - as I've said before, I wouldn't even think of changing any names unless I had a well-founded reason to do so.

    Given the context, Dolis, Arwig, and Kahl seem very likely to be misromanizations of Doris, Arwich, and Karl, respectively, in the same way that Teletha is an obvious misromanization of Theresa. Recall that RKS takes place in a faux-German setting and that all surnames given thus far have been existing German surnames (and, quite likely, deliberate references). To be fair, I would have agreed with "Kahl" if it was the character's family name, but as a given name, it just doesn't make sense (I'd instantly switch all instances of Karl to Kahl if this wasn't the case). Also, Doris and Karl are actual German first names, whereas Dolis and Kahl are not.

    I can't agree with Arwig being a legitimate romanization any more than I can agree with "Rigter Belmont" or "Johann Sebastian Bag"; as far as I can tell, WOMI has been romanizing the names himself, and he has made typos on more than a few occasions, even with characters he personally designed. Could you provide a few examples of German names that are spelled with a 'G' but pronounced with an 'H'?

    I feel I should mention that I have no issues whatsoever with Schirach's family name; both Fühler and Führer are accurate romanizations of the name, and both are recognizable in modern German (the latter for obvious reasons). "Warmind" is accurate as well (the name is used in both Denmark and Germany), though I'm sure pretty much every "Let's Play"-er will mispronounce it (it's pronounced "varmint") in the same way that they misprounced the names of both the Count and Iris.

    ...I guess no one noticed what I did in the last sentence of my previous post...

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  12. @TDOMMX:

    "Though I forget the source, I recall reading that Karl is/was a member of the Intelligence Division of RKS (similar to Maverick Hunter Base in Megaman X)."

    This is listed on the Japanese wiki as well, but it could mean literally anything from "strategist" to "reconnaissance" to "a pretty smart guy."

    "Of course, my point that Karl has a much more impressive physique than we expected still stands."

    Because this is an April Fool's joke, it's safe to assume that this is not canon. At all. So let's not worry about these things.

    "I'm inclined to agree with you regarding Rink and Lecht possibly being an intentional swap. Honestly, the name "Rink" just really bugs me; Japan's marked tendency to mistakenly swap L's and R's is enough to cast doubt on whether this wordplay was really intentional."

    At the very least, Isemiya is learning English, and while his grammar leaves something to be desired, he understands foreign L's and R's well enough. There should be no doubt on the names' intent.

    "Given the context, Dolis, Arwig, and Kahl seem very likely to be misromanizations of Doris, Arwich, and Karl, respectively, in the same way that Teletha is an obvious misromanization of Theresa."

    Dolis is a valid name of German descent, and 36 people in the United States alone have that name.
    German names/words can end in "-ig" and are pronounced as an "-ich" that has more in tune with the "hi" sound in Japanese. See bottom of linked page.
    Kahl is also a valid German name, apparently meaning "bald." Whether it's used first or last doesn't matter.

    Again, as they are names, I am heavily inclined to say that I, nor anyone else, am in any place to say what is right or wrong in this instance. You always bring up "Teletha" too, and I'm always inclined to say that it doesn't actually matter.

    "I can't agree with Arwig being a legitimate romanization any more than I can agree with 'Rigter Belmont' or 'Johann Sebastian Bag'."

    J.S.Bach's last name would never be romanized to "Bag", because the "ch" follows an "a", giving it a soft "k"-like sound. Therefore, it would be always be Bach, no matter the circumstance.

    Richter's name would also never be romanized to "Rigter," because "-ig" is a suffix. "Ch" appears in the medial position of the name, and gives a similar sound of the Japanese "hi".

    [erka:es] is perfectly in the right in their romanizations of these names. I would even venture to say that Sepperin is fine as well, given that the "s" at the front of a word is pronounced as a "z", and the "ri" near the end is pronounced, like in Japanese, somewhere between "ri" and "li." I can understand the change we made, if only to help people pronounce the name properly, but just because it "makes more sense" doesn't necessarily make it right.

    "...I guess no one noticed what I did in the last sentence of my previous post..."

    Most likely because no one knows what you're talking about.

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  13. I take back my objections about Arwig and Kahl now that I've seen the research you've done. I like Doris over Dolis (though not by much), but I'm not about to make a change solely based on my personal preference; again, I'd have to ask around about this one.

    Does this mean the revised version of the RKS script will be using Kahl instead of Karl? Probably. I'd like to get some input from the fanbase on this one before I open up the scripts.

    The reason I keep bringing up 「テレサ」 / "'Teletha'" is because it's one of the names that's easily proven to be a mistake (the character herself, an American girl, asks to be called "Tessa", which is the pet form of Theresa). It's the same as having an American character nicknamed "Dave", but a translator decides to romanize his given name as "Debid" instead of "David" (I just use the Teletha example since I prefer Full Metal Panic over Blood+).

    I realize it sounds arrogant to claim that you know better than the creator(s) of a given franchise, but I don't think it's out-of-line to call them on it when an obvious mistake has been made. For instance, you don't honestly expect me to believe Capcom named Megaman's rival after a fish, do you? Especially in cases where the meaning is lampshaded (ie: the treble and bass clefs), I'd assert that the spelling and pronunciation does matter.

    A few other examples:

    "Angel Tales": The official English name for 「天使のしっぽ」 (Tenshi no Shippo) disregards the intended pun in the show's title. The correct name would be "Angel Tails" since shippo literally means "tail" (incidentally, the majority of the cast is comprised of reincarnated pets).

    Alucard: Hellsing lampshades that the lead character is Vlad Tepes Dracula himself. "Arucard", the name shown in the R1 DVDs, is neither a valid romanization of the katakana (「アーカード」 / "Arkard") nor a veiled reference to the character's true identity. However you look at it, "Arucard" has no basis whatsoever, not even as a misromanization.

    Galaxy Angel: Major characters are named after edibles in a variety of languages. 「ミルフィーユ」 is Millefeuille, a French "thousand-leaves" pastry ("Milfeulle" is an obvious mistake to anyone who speaks French - remember that I live in Quebec). Similarly, 「フランボワーズ」 is Framboise, the French word for "raspberry" (again, "Franboise" misses the reference and violates French and English spelling conventions).

    Haru / Hal: This varies depending on the context. When the character is a Causacian male, the name is clearly intended to be Hal (Metal Gear Solid, Rave Master). When the character is Japanese, Haru is the only logical choice - even more so when a pun on "spring" is made.

    Like I said before, I don't agree with making arbitrary changes of any kind. I insisted on the Sepperin / Zeppelin change not because of the pronunciation, but because of the intended reference (if I were only concerned about the proper pronunciation, "Michael" would have been changed to "Mikhail").

    In case I haven't told you before, some people have made a point of mangling my real name to shoehorn it into an insulting wordplay for over a decade. This is one of the reasons why I'm rather insistent when it comes to names.

    ...Nevermind about the lost joke. I was referring to a young character actually named "Call", but now that I think about it, I don't think that was from the James Cameron's Alien films... My foot tastes kinda funny now.

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  14. Angel Tales

    It's a double-meaning. The original title means "Angel's Tails", and the English title shows that it tells the "Tales" of Goro's Guardian "Angels". This is not a mistake. This is a choice.

    Hellsing

    The character is specifically named "Arucard." The character said so himself, because, for whatever reason, he thought "Alucard" was used too often, so he opted for an alternate version of the name. This is a specific name choice by the original Japanese creator, not a "romanization mistake" by the English distributors.

    Galaxy Angel

    Milfeulle's name is derived from the Mille-Feuille; a direct romanization is not a necessity. The same applies for Ranpha's last name. It is made clear that every female character in GA has a named derived from a pastry or some sort of edible thing. Again, these are name choices, not mistakes.

    Metal Gear Solid

    Did you get the Hal ending in MGS1? It's clear that Otacon's name is a reference to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Snake tells Otacon that his real name is David, and they laugh at "Hal and Dave." You can shoehorn "spring" in there if you want, but it's not the intention and therefore not referring to it.

    Sepperin/Zeppelin

    The reference is there, yes, but does that mean the name has to be exactly the same? "Sepperin" read in German sounds exactly the same as "Zeppelin," so maybe the intention is to be referential without being 100% blatant about it. You don't know the intentions behind [erka:es]'s decision for these name choices, and to claim that these are mistakes, through and through, is premature.

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  15. Mint, please check your email.

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