Schwer and Schwer Alike - English RKS Headquarters

SaSA Exclusive Art: Spiritia by JT

2012-01-24T23:48:00.001-05:00

As if his LP wasn’t enough, JT was nice enough to draw some great Spiritia art for us! …So yeah. Enjoy it~

Let's Play RKSF Trial 0.07a with JT

2012-01-22T00:56:00.001-05:00

Remember JT? Of course you do. Well, he's back with the new Freudenstachel demo. Are you ready to hear frustration at its finest with one of the best voices ever? Watch the video below!

Site and Social Adjustments: Part Deux

2012-01-19T07:23:00.001-05:00

I’ve been making more social networking adjustments to the site, because I seem to think that it’ll actually do something. Who knows? Maybe it will! I’m hopeful, anyways. If you haven’t noticed already, there are now social buttons under the resources section of the sidebar. That way, you can more easily access our Twitter feed, the new Facebook page, or our Google+ page. My hope is that we can really improve Schwer and Schwer Alike to make it the best site it can possibly be for one of the best game ever to grace the doujin market. To our loyal SaSA readers and followers, as well as Rosenkreuzstilette fans in general, please spread the word. Oh, also, now that the social networking stuff is in place, maybe we can start holding contests a lot more easily? Also, feel free to communicate more with us. If you find some RKS art you want to share or maybe just want to tell us how awful we’re doing at our jobs, by all means, use the tools provided to let us know. Get the word out. We’re all fans of RKS, and without you guys, this place would be in vain. We exist for you guys.
Thanks a lot, everyone, and look forward to more updates in the future!

More Icy Treasures from the Nile

2012-01-15T01:50:00.000-05:00

Don’t ask how I got this. I’ll leave those surprises for later. Until then, enjoy this little preview. Also, as a note, Strudel does not function properly at all. I’m not entirely sure what she’s supposed to do, but she’s pretty worthless as she is right now. Oh well~

Shameless Plug for the VA Club

2012-01-09T20:10:00.000-05:00

In response to a tweet by Kira Buckland, a great voice actress who is gracious enough to be a part of the RKS dub project, I’m going to be plugging the Voice Acting Club Forums. It appears to be a pretty active community with some pretty talented people behind it, and hopefully, we can find some more amazing people to help us get the RKS dub project pointed further in the right direction. So yeah, check them out, sign up, give some feedback, and have fun! Also, keep playing Katawa Shoujo. There will be a test at the end of the month on whether or not Lilly is the best character. (Hint: She is.)

Treasures of the NEW RKSF Web Trial

2012-01-08T17:36:00.001-05:00

Schwer reader and RKS fan Mhakk Como has been posting some interesting stuff on our SaSA Facebook group. A lot has changed in the newest web trial from the inside, so we can no longer access the other weapons due to exploiting the password system. However, Mhakk came up with a brilliant work-around. Using a replay from a previous demo build, we get to see Freudia try out some new weapons. The first one appears to be an updated version of Eis Lanze, and the second one looks like an icy version of Geister Wand. To be honest, that’s a little disappointing, but maybe there will be some special gimmick and not just a snowflake Schwer shield. The third one is a bit of an enigma. Supposedly, it’s what you get from Trauare, but we’re not really sure what it does. We’ll have to see what happens with that one. Finally, there didn’t seem to be any update on the weapon you get from Dolis. It’s still invisible, so we’re still left guessing. Still exciting, though!

The final release is just around the corner, and all our questions should be answered then!

Overcoming Prejudice

2012-01-04T01:23:00.016-05:00

Hiya, guys. Happy New Year!

Comic Market has come and gone, and, unfortunately, [erka:es] wasn't among this year's attendees. In other words, Freudenstachel isn't ready for release just yet. Personally, I'd rather take my time and do things right than rush through and do a half-assed job, so I have to respect WOMI's course of action even if it means keeping us waiting a while longer.

Since I'm sure at least a few of you have more free time on your hands than you'd like, I have just the thing to keep you entertained in the meantime. The freeware visual novel Katawa Shoujo has just been released to the public today. Those of you that know me well are aware that I've been looking forward to Katawa Shoujo for a long time now, so I'm glad to see that the title has finally been completed. Normally, I'd gush over what it's about right now, but this is one case where I think the work speaks for itself.

Congratulations to the guys at Four Leaf Studios. I'm sure RAITA would be proud of what you've been able to accomplish. I certainly am. Bravo, guys!

Please note that if you aren't over the age of 18, then Katawa Shoujo probably isn't something you'd be interested in.

Torrent:
Windows | Mac OS X | Linux x86

Direct Download:
Windows | Mac OS X | Linux x86

New Web Trial Soon?

2011-12-04T02:32:00.001-05:00

Hooray for new content! According to WOMI’s latest devblog update, a new web trial is currently going through testing. No one’s quite sure when we’ll be seeing a release, because it appears that he finds a new bug every time he tests it. (The while loop he posted is pretty funny.) Whatever the case, it’s something to be excited about, and we get a “new” Freudia picture to go with it! SaSA will keep you posted on this release, and we’ll be sure to give it a full review when it’s released.

RKS Tank Glitch

2011-12-03T12:46:00.001-05:00

Don’t know how I missed this one! Two years ago, YouTube user Deatrathias discovered a glitch involving pick-up items and energy tanks. It seems that if you access the sub-menu while collecting a health/weapon energy pick-up item, the game registers item usage within the sub-menu, which results in the use of an energy tank. If you don’t have one, then the game gives you negative energy tanks. I was unable to recreate this glitch in RKS version 1.06a and the RKSF web trial, which leads me to believe that the bug was fixed by disabling menu access (or perhaps controls entirely) upon item pick-up. Still, I thought this was an interesting little thing. Perhaps there are still a few other distinct bugs in the game?

Site and Social Adjustments

2011-11-28T13:52:00.001-05:00

We’ve made some changes. We’re still getting a little used to things, but in the end, it should be alright. The current blog layout isn’t permanent, mind you, and I’m still making adjustments here and there, so if you guys have any suggestions or comments, feel free to voice them below! Now, time to address a few things~

Sidebar Links

I will be adding more links in the sidebar directory as time goes on, but I need to make custom bars for some of them. I fully intend to re-link zaku6’s site, as well as WOMI’s and other various RKS artists, but it’s very clear that they need specialized “not-safe-for-work” buttons. With that, if there are any site recommendations you have, feel free to let me know. Also, I took away the counter, because we really didn’t need that.

Social Network Updates

I’m pleased to announce that I took all of 20 seconds to make social networking accounts for the blog! That way, you don’t have to deal with a bunch of non-RKS drivel in following my main accounts (assuming you’re just there for the RKS stuff). That said, in addition to our Facebook group, you can now find us on Twitter and Google+, where we’ll be posting all of our major updates and some other random things. It’ll be great! In addition, the G+ page seems to be a pretty nice place for discussion amongst team members for things like the fandub and translation updates, so there’s that! I like it.

Site Writers

This is probably a mistake, but whatever. I want more activity here, so I’m thinking of doing a weekly art update. RKS art is still being made, so I figure this would be a good place to show it off. With that, I need a writer who I can specifically dedicate to that. I mean, pictures like the one on the right are pretty cool and deserve to be shown off. (Click it for the artist’s Pixiv.) I haven’t heard from Viper in a while, and there is one other person that comes to mind, so if anyone’s interested, post below, as per usual.

That’s pretty much it. I hope you like the new changes, and hopefully there will be many more that you’ll like in the future!

“Hey, you’re messing everything up!”

2011-11-28T11:19:00.001-05:00

Greetings, all. If you’ve checked into Schwer and Schwer Alike and are noticing that everything looks different/like garbage, it’s because I’ve updated the Blogger software to the newer templates (finally). I’m screwing around with stuff, and I’ll need to probably make a new logo, as well as some new sidebar buttons. I promise this won’t be going on for very long, and in the end, we’ll all be better for it. In the meantime, while you’re waiting for this travesty of a website to fix itself, why not help yourself to some Darkseed 2?

New RKSF Title Page

2011-11-27T10:54:00.001-05:00

For those of you who keep up with WOMI’s updates and/or read the comment sections here (I swear, I should just make you Anons writers for this blog), you may have noticed the changes made to the RKSF product page. These changes are showing that we’re one step closer to a release of the Freudenstachel. Are you excited? I’m excited. We probably won’t be seeing a Comiket release, but I don’t think that really matters. All that counts is that Freudenstachel is on the horizon, and we’ll be making landfall soon enough.

By the way, the dub is still happening, as is the WOMI interview. There’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that we’re working on, so don’t think we’ve abandoned that ship. Also, Kiora’s doujinshi is still sitting in storage, and I really need to do something about that… I guess we’ll see what 2012 brings, other than the end of the world, of course.

ps the art style is great, haters gonna hate~

RKSF Update: Strudel Coil and Strudel Jet

2011-11-06T11:34:00.001-05:00

And there you go.

Rosenkreuzstilette AfterStory Sequel in the Works

2011-10-18T12:58:00.001-04:00

For those of you who follow us both on Twitter, you may have noticed that Kiora and I were talking a while back about further RKS-related doujinshi works. Eventually, Kiora sent me a link to a blog post containing the latest page in his AfterStory tale. For those of you not in the know, the original AfterStory… story has Zorne seeking revenge against RKS for the death of her father while Iris attempts redemption by allowing Spiritia to kill her. Freudia appears to be overcome by Zorne’s overwhelming power, and Iris asks Tia to end her life.

Here’s the first page of the sequel. As far as I can tell, Spiritia is a very forgiving lady and doesn’t comply with Iris’s request. However, who knows what sort of things may be going on behind the scenes with Freudia and Zorne, so here’s hoping that we’ll see some serious action in the future!

If you want to keep up with this stuff or just see what Kiora’s up to on a normal basis, then you should follow him on Twitter and on his blog. I’m sure we’ll be seeing further updates. You’ll probably see them faster than you would here, since I’m really bad at keeping up this blog and RKS news and all of that.

There’ve been some complications on my end, so I can’t say for sure when you’ll be seeing the next “WOMI’s Latest Update” translation post. As a matter of fact, if anyone can read and write Japanese, I could probably use your help with some things here at Schwer and Schwer Alike, so please post a comment or drop me a line. You’d be a huge help. Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

The Answer

2011-10-01T19:54:00.024-04:00

Friends, Imperials, countrymen: lend me your ears!

Transcript:

Hello, everyone. This is Leif Landevag, Project Coordinator for Darkside Translations. Most of you know me as TDOMMX - scriptwriter, programmer, graphics guru, and all-around jack-of-all-trades for Rosenkreuzstilette ~Blades of the Rose Cross~.

I have some very good news:

Those of you who have been following the Darkside Translations website (and I'm assuming that's maybe three of you), you probably know that, back in August, we hosted a series of panels on Neon Genesis Evangelion at Montreal Otakuthon. A little while before that, I got in touch with an aspiring young voice actress by the name of Amanda Lee. Long story short: I was really impressed with her English rendition of "Beautiful World" (for those of you who don't know, that's the ending theme to Rebuild of Evangelion), and she was honored that I wanted to use her performance as the ending theme to one of our panels.

The panels themselves were a huge success, and the songs we used were very well-received; I know that for a fact because a lot of people came up to the front of the room at the end asking us to upload them onto YouTube or onto our site, so we've done exactly that, if you haven't heard them before.

Anyway, a couple of weeks later, I got off of work early and remembered that TrickMasterMint was trying to produce an English dub of RKS with the help of Voice Acting Alliance. So, I decided to try and get in touch with Amanda to see if she'd be interested in taking part. At the same time, I remembered something I'd heard in an earlier podcast and decided to give it a shot. So, after sending out a couple of emails, I started translating the spoken dialogue for Spiritia Rosenberg and Freudia Neuwahl into English. When I was finished with that, I went to check my mail - and my jaw hit the floor when I realized I'd gotten a response. I listened to the two MP3s that were attached... and I nearly had a heart attack. Tristan MacAvery, the original voice of Neon Genesis Evangelion's Gendo Ikari, not only wanted to take part in the English dubbing, but he wanted to actively, in his own words, "pimp your game".

OH, YEAH!

Naturally, this was a huge confidence boost. And, over the next few weeks, I was able to get in touch with a good number of professional voice actors. And my luck kept snowballing. Long story short: Amanda said "yes", and a good number of the people I had contacted wanted to take part in the "Blades of the Rose Cross" Project. I've received a couple of amazing auditions, and I have many more on the way.

So, yes, it's official: Rosenkreuzstilette is being dubbed into English. But not just any dub. LadyMiaow's YouTube review of our original English release [in the video description] noted that we could teach professional outfits a thing or two about localization. And our English dub is going to do the same.

As of this recording, Amanda Lee, Tristan MacAvery, and Kira Buckland are officially part of our cast. The first clip I posted was taken from one of the MP3s Tristan had originally sent me, and the second was an excerpt of Kira's delightful audition for the part of Iris. As for the others: Patrick Seitz, the voice of Ragna the Bloodedge from BlazBlue and Count Vlad Tepes Dracula from Castlevania, has expressed interest in taking part. Cristina Vee, who a lot of you know as Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue, Nanoha Takamichi from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and Louise Leblanc de la Valliere from Familiar of Zero, will not only be taking part, but she'll be helping us with the casting and directing. Jennifer Alyx, the voice of Fate Testarossa Harlaown in Nanoha, will be acting alongside Cristina. I should note that none of the voice actors have been cast yet and we're still looking for five or six more voice actresses, so this is far from final.

Alright, enough with the buildup already. I'm sure all of you want to hear them in action right now, don't you? First, a couple of disclaimers, though:

1) These clips were taken from auditions, some of which were recorded without ever having heard the Japanese voices and with little or no direction.

2) I'm not an audiophile, but I'm a very quick study. I've applied a bit of filtering to try and compensate for the MP3 quality loss, and to try and recreate some of the special effects in the Japanese audio track, but I'm still no expert. So, if it ends up sounding like crap: sorry, I'm a newbie at this, so, uh, it's the best I can do.

Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy!

For those of you who dove head-first into this wall of text and didn't notice the underlined heading: this is a transcript of the MP3 at the top of this post. The one in red and blue. Start over and pay attention if you want to hear the voice samples - I'm not gonna transcribe them for ya. That'd kinda defeat the point, y'know.

Well, what do we have here...?

2011-09-15T22:38:00.021-04:00

Hi, guys. TDOMMX here.

Things have been pretty interesting these past few weeks. How interesting? Well, I'd better not say just yet since four people have nearly gone into cardiac arrest (myself included) as a result of this series of developments...

In any event, I'll just leave this here. Curious to know what it means? If you live in the New York area, you'll find the answer with one of the vocal guests at Anime Syracuse Festival 2011 this weekend. The rest of you... well, we'll try and fill you in next week.

Update: As I mentioned in the comments 2 days ago, some very welcome surprises have come up that I'd like to work into our announcement. This will not be my usual wall-of-text deal, so please bear with us while we get things ready.

For those of you who can't stand the suspense: I apologize, I apologize again. As a token of forgiveness, please, take this psycho.

See you later.

Original Story Contest Idea Thing

2011-09-14T14:24:00.001-04:00

This is only a contest in name only. There’s no prizes beyond bragging rights, at least for now. I don’t really intend on including anything, but if this gets a decent response, I might compile everything into a printable .pdf or something. So yeah, here’s the deal. There are a lot of talented artists and authors out there, and the universe of Rosenkreuzstilette is pretty interesting with a lot of untold stories. So we, as the fans, should tell a story. Or something. This is just a quick thing to maybe re-spark some RKS interest until the super big awesome thing we’re working on happens.

You will be given three scenarios, and the task is to write a short story or draw a comic based on one of those scenarios. When you’re done, post it somewhere and link us, or submit it directly. That’s it! It doesn’t matter where your level of writing or drawing is. This is purely for fun. I will be participating as well simply as a means to help with my writing and seriously get started on some RKS work. Okay, here we go:

[Scenario 1]
Unlike the events of the original game, Schwer-Muta’s birthday is actually remembered. Everyone decides to throw her a party that she’ll never forget. This story is a comedy where everything goes right or everything goes horribly wrong.

[Scenario 2]
Based on the concept of Kiora’s doujinshi, Zorne, heartbroken at the loss of her adoptive father, severs her ties with her Magi friends in order to confront and defeat Spiritia, who she believes killed him. In a quest for revenge, she stands against everyone she knows for the sake of her fallen father. This story can be told from the perspective of any Magi, including Spiritia or Zorne, and can end with Zorne winning, losing, or neither.

[Scenario 3]
Despite her best efforts, Spiritia fails in her attempt to defeat Iris, who is able to convince the others that Tia’s ideals are simply a sign of weakness in the grand scheme of things. With Spiritia dead, the war against the Empire goes as planned, with the main eight bosses acting as generals on the Magi side. Various magic uses are brought forth in a call-to-arms to stand together as a magical army against the Church. Write a story about the happenings of one of those soldiers. The soldier will be an original character and can be male or female.

What do you think? I think this could be fun, so it’s worth a shot, right?

Womi and Womi Alike

2011-09-06T18:00:00.004-04:00

WOMI updates, SaSA... doesn't? A summary of things I missed over the last month:
- Eifer done, screenshot is of Opening Stage Eifer.
- Updated Schirach. Didn't go to C80.
- Skipped Pamela and finished twins.
- Finished Pamela.

And for the current update:
"Been working on the castle bosses, but I don't have a screenshot. Instead, you get the updated versions of the character portraits. Only managed to get one boss's graphics done, but September has quite a few holidays, so I should be able to get something done.
TIRED."

Posted by that-one-guy-that-never-actually-posts-but-does-all-the-tls-anyway.

Where’s the latest WOMI update?

2011-08-26T23:43:00.001-04:00

I haven’t forgotten about you guys. I’m working out some issues right now, but everything should be back on track soon. When I get stuff settled, I’ll be back to regularly scheduled updates concerning the game that isn’t coming out. Just as a little filler thing, I’ll go ahead and say this about RKS:F.

The game’s current release date is “when it’s done.” If it is completed close to a Comiket, it will be sold at a Comiket. If not, it’s probably going straight to stores.

There you have it. I’ll be back soon with further details. Thanks! *punches crappy internet card*

WOMI's Latest Update: Part 7

2011-08-07T17:47:00.000-04:00

A timely update!?

Took a while, but finally finished Schirach. She was too difficult in test-playing her, so I had to mess around with the algorithm a lot..
Got most of the graphics done, going to finish up everything after I get some people to test play things.
Working on Eifer now. Then Pamela, then the twins. The twin battle should be pretty good.
And while I want to go to comiket, I'm going to just ignore it for the time being and concentrate on finishing this up.

LOVE IS OVER.

WOMI’s Latest Update: Part 6

2011-07-31T22:34:00.001-04:00

All the black cross stages are done with new enemies, and he's working on Schirach.
He’s going to be showing character portraits since he doesn't want to spoil stuff.
Hopes he hasn't fallen out of practice drawing.
Won't be attending Comiket for obvious reasons.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

WOMI’s Latest Update: Part 5

2011-07-24T06:32:00.001-04:00

Meant to update this yesterday.

Working on stages first instead.
Twins and Schirach stages are pretty much done, so I'll be working on Pamela's and Eifer's for now.
Adding in new normal enemies as well.
I'd like to keep the stages and bosses a secret for now, so I'll refrain from posting screenshots of them. But now I don't know what I'll post for next week!

Our resident translator says: “Someone mailed in saying he was impressed with WOMI for not giving up, even though it's just a doujin work and really, he doesn't have the obligation to, unlike a certain company. WOMI said Isemiya is probably crying tears of blood right now (though he doesn't know since he hasn't heard from him).”

There you have it. Things are looking good!

WOMI’s Latest Update: Part 4

2011-07-17T06:24:00.001-04:00

I actually had the TL for this yesterday. Whoops!

Schwer's stuff is a secret.
Also, according to the test players Liebea's attack is way too easy and anyone should feel ashamed if they get hit by it. So I changed that around.
Finally finished Schwer, taking a small break right now.
Finally, pretty much done with the OP stage and the first 8 stages and bosses. I still have some graphics to make and some voices to ask around for, but it's in a playable state. Hooray.
I had hoped for this all to be done last month, but with all the new moves and changes, it took quite a while. I didn't really like how Zorne jumped around and made everything impossible to dodge in the trial, so I tried to tone that down as much as possible. We'll see in the next test play.
What's left is finishing the other half of the levels and programming the story stuff in. I hope to keep going strong until the end. I can finally start working on the black cross people now. Exciting.

Straight from WOMI’s mouth to you.

WOMI’s Latest Update: Part 3

2011-07-10T14:25:00.001-04:00

Part, the third!

Finished Zorne and Sichte, working on Schwer now.
They've changed quite a bit since the trial. Schite all around, and Zorne has some new moves.
When in desperation mode, the HURRY blocks will appear, mecha zorne will appear, and she'll be jumping all around the place. It's kind of pretty busy!
Couldn't work on it as much as I wanted the week before, but I think I can finish Schwer this week.
With that, the first 8 stages and bosses should be done, and then it can be test played (although I still need to work on some graphics).
Someone reported a bug where they get stuck hopping instead of jumping no matter what they do. Can't reproduce it, so I doesn't know how to fix it.

There you go.

WOMI’s Latest Update: Part 2

2011-07-08T16:27:00.001-04:00

Yeah, this was a thing.

Worked on Dolis. She was to the point of being undodgeable, but now she should be fine. Fought her all day today.
Working on Sichte now. Thinking about scrapping everything from the trial version and going a different route, who knows.
I've been posting up screenshots, but I don't want to ruin stuff for people with spoilers and stuff, so I'll try to refrain from posting some things (Schwer might be one of them!).

That’s about it. Enjoy.

RKS Facebook Group Updated

2011-06-24T07:15:00.001-04:00

I did that update group thing on Facebook for the RKS group. Only 77 members as of this writing? Silliness. Join up, everyone.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_141097580312

Word.

WOMI’s Latest Update: Part 1

2011-06-20T18:29:00.001-04:00

I’m tired of coming up with titles for these posts, so I’m just going to call them the “WOMI’s Latest Update” series. Here’s the latest update.

New Grolla screenshot. Subject to change.
The new Grolla is different from the one in the web trial.
Had a few people test play the game over the last week. Bosses were too easy (beaten on first run), so he's gone back and changed Luste and Trau.
Plans on doing Liebea's and Dolis's upgrades next.
At the moment Schwer's attack pattern might be undoable on a no-damage run, so he's saving it for last because of how difficult it will be to balance.
Can't say anything on release date in fear of jinxing himself.
He plans to have Dolis done and screenshots up by the weekend.
The new bosses will be done after the originals.

There you have it. Also, come on, Justin. The guy is working on this game by himself. Don’t bother him with extra work like fankits and hi-res images.

RKSF Update: PSMO Edition

2011-06-13T14:56:00.001-04:00

Alrighty, here’s some more info from the latest [erka:es] update, courtesy of our resident translator.

He finished tweaking (more like completely remaking) Luste's and Liebea's bosses this week.
Finished most if not all of their graphics as well.
Liebea's was in one of the trials, but her tower stage theme got sucked in with Trau's stage, so now she has a new one with all new movements.
Put up Pamela because of the request. But he doesn't have any movements or attacks or anything done for her yet, so you can expect a lot of changes of those pictures from now until the end.
He's fixing up Grolla now. He plans on taking out the slippery floor in the boss room because screw that.
Apparently they changed Freudenstachel to go back to max power after losing a life? Taking a while to balance that out with boss difficulty.
Mail form should point to the new address, so you can use that now. Don't expect any answers from Isemiya though.
Hissatsu mailed in laughing that Dolis was overpowered. Apparently Dolis's dodging during her attacks in the later half of her lifebar is too good, so he plans on changing that.
He'll work on her or Sichte afterwards.
He's going about randomly but Schwer will definitely be last, because her attack pattern will be the most complicated.
The next trial will probably come out after he's finished up the game, so it'll be a while.

We got a Pamela update thanks to ColonelRVH, so that’s pretty cool, and apparently WOMI has enough programming knowledge to turn this into a one-man show. Will we see a return to Isemiya? WHO KNOWS? Will we see a winter Comiket release? Almost without a doubt. Stay tuned!

Remember when Rockin' Android said they'd localize RKS?

2011-06-03T17:34:00.011-04:00

Well guess what? It's NOT going to happen. I have gotten in touch with Adam Milecki, an employee at Rockin' Android through e-mail to ask him questions about that interest of localizing Rosenkreuzstilette (among other things) that were sent to Enrique Galvez, and he has confirmed to me that Rockin' Android has no plans of localizing the Rosenkreuzstilette. The interviews you may have read about from a very old blog post here at Schwer and Schwer Alike clearly had some misconceptions and misunderstandings with such and such interviews that my have you (myself included) believing they would translate and publish the game to North American shores.

"Hello, ViperAcidZX, sorry for the delay. Unfortunately, any articles you've seen saying that we will be localizing Rosenkreuzstilette are erroneous. We have no plans to do so. Apparently there was some misunderstanding during that interview. Sorry to disappoint you."

So for those of you hoping that Rosenkreuzstilette would maybe get released on PlayStation 3 (and maybe even on Xbox 360 and PC via downloadable purchase through Steam), it's not going to happen unless someone else in the gaming industry has an interest of localizing the game, which will probably be never unless Capcom doesn't mind a direct Mega Man-clone circulating the gaming market. Although I certainly hope Rosenkreuzstilette's localization is not handled by the likes of SNK Playmore after their beautiful handiwork of localizing Studio SiestA's Trouble Witches NEO!. But hey, fans of the original PC game still have the updated English patch to look forward to.

With that, I bid you guys adieu...

Another Freudenstachel update!? Zounds!

2011-05-30T19:22:00.001-04:00

Here’s the word on the latest [erka:es] blog update. You know where it is. I don’t need to link.

WOMI’s working on it, slowly but surely. First 8 stages are done; Luste’s and Trauare’s are getting revamped with new enemies and stuff.
Stages should be done and ready to playtest somewhere in June.
Bosses will come later.
WOMI listed a new e-mail on the blog: erkaes_wm (at) hotmail.co.jp. He felt it was a bad idea to link people of all ages to his incredibly NWS website to contact him, so there’s an e-mail just for talking to WOMI about RKS stuff

That’s pretty much it! Progress is being made. Have at it.

Overdue update? I guess.

2011-05-26T13:44:00.001-04:00

About a week or so ago, there was an update to the [erka:es] blog about what’s going on with RKSF. I really didn’t real like updating for a small blog post, but nothing’s happened and I don’t feel like being lazy anymore/waiting for the next big batch of information updates, so here’s what the deal is/was, thanks to our resident translator:

First half of the bosses are done, and about 15 new normal enemies and traps have been made and are working in game.
Picture is of one of the enemies and a trap.
WOMI thinks he'll be able to finish all of the normal enemies in about a week (today), and then he'll work on mid-bosses and then the latter bosses.
First 8 bosses are done, but he wants to work on them, not satisfied, etc.
Because he's working on just RKSF stuff, his own site won't be updated, so everything will be posted on erka:es' website.

There you have it. They’re pressing forward. Let’s hope for the best!

No Ice This Summer! RKSF Delayed with No Release at C80

2011-05-09T18:10:00.001-04:00

Well, it’s the moment everyone’s been waiting for (and maybe secretly dreading). The latest update to the [erka:es] blog brings us news that a Freudenstachel release at Summer Comiket isn’t even possible. Here are the details according to our resident translator:

No changes, even the weekly updates are gone.
So WOMI's pretty much just going to just wait it out now.
He's continuing with his part of the game as much as he can, enemies and such.
Summer Comiket is an impossibility.
Even if WOMI wanted to go (because they've already applied for it), it's in Isemiya's name, so WOMI can't do anything.
[erka:es] is run by Isemiya, so if it happens to just up and disappear, then updates will be posted on WOMI's site. He also has backups of stuff, so that shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully.
He thanks people for sending e-mails, but he doesn't want to jinx anything, so he's just going to shut up about it getting completed and just work on what he can while he waits for Isemiya.
And if Isemiya doesn't come back, then RKSF will turn out according to what's in WOMI's head. Which can't be good.

Knowing what I do about WOMI, I would actually love to see a special edition of RKS that features nothing but his ideas. It could only be the Modern Warfare 2 of the doujin world, the pinnacle of independent game, nay, of human creation. Just kidding. It would probably be terrible in the best way, and I’d still pay money for it. Alas, we’ll see how all of this turns out. Until then, have fun playing the original game over and over again. Maybe you can start practicing for the inevitable RKS Challenges I’ve got planned up~

Hugh Man's RKS Sprite Movie

2011-05-04T20:28:00.000-04:00

So this is done. I haven't watched it yet, but I can say this for sure: reception has not been kind. For those of you familiar with the likes of Retsupurae, there's a thread on the Something Awful forums created by a user named LesBeardly that, like Retsupurae, provides a voice-over highlighting many of the things wrong with the Let's Play community on YouTube. While LesBeardly didn't specifically point out the RKS fan video, someone else did, and the criticism over it has been... quite scathing, I should say.

Honestly, if you have an hour and a half to kill, give this a shot and post your criticism here. Like I said, I haven't watched it myself, so I don't know the scale of the positive or negative (though I can say that a preview screencap that says the Seyfarth have been "wiped out" is less than attractive to my Grolla-fanboy tastes), but I think it would be beneficial to Hugh Man and the RKS community as a whole if this is watched and critiqued. I think.

WOMI updates, SaSA writes about it.

2011-04-25T15:44:00.001-04:00

A new [erka:es] post! Isemiya’s given himself a deadline of the beginning of Golden Week. We’ll see what that brings!

According to Justin, WOMI’s also updated his own personal INCREDIBLE NOT WORK SAFE site with new information concerning the RKSF project. Nah, just kidding. It’s mostly people saying that dealing with the delay must suck with WOMI going “Yeah, it does.” That’s pretty much it.

I’ll be making a new and interesting update soon! You’ll see it shortly!

The curtain has… not done anything, actually!

2011-04-20T15:55:00.001-04:00

I’d like to say that the curtain has risen, but it hasn’t. Still, who knows what has yet to unfold? Unfortunately, WOMI doesn’t.

So apparently, over the weekend, WOMI went to Isemiya’s house. This resulted in nothing, because there was no answer. According to the post, this isn’t the first time this has happened, and WOMI claims that he should’ve seen this coming. There are a lot of words in the post, but it all boils down to one thing:

The future of Rosenkreuzstilette ~Freudenstachel~, and [erka:es] for that matter, is completely unknown.

What we’ve got so far are some images, one of which hints at a new weapon, another that shows an inspired enemy from Mega Man 2’s Wood Man stage. Aside from that, you get a sliver of hope that RKSF will actually see a release.

Well, until we get some further information, you have the Grollschwert novelization and the revamped English patch to look forward to. I’ll actually be taking the scripts we have and doing some rewriting later this week. I may also try to get in touch with WOMI myself to see if we can arrange a talk. It’ll be something, I guess.

Until next time, everyone! Hopefully…

You will probably not see RKSF at C80.

2011-04-16T08:37:00.002-04:00

At the rate things are going, this is entirely plausible. The latest [erka:es] update shows a timeline of what’s been going on with RKSF and what’s left to do before the game is finished. This is what’s left:

The Fortress Bosses (think Sepperin Castle and Iris Palace)
Variations of normal enemies (probably for the Fortresses)
Story Mode
Balance and debugging
Voices

So, literally, almost everything. The main levels are supposedly finished, and I assume that the rest of the RKS cast are accounted for (aside from the Dark Magi, which are probably part of the Fortress Bosses or perhaps like the Doc Robots). Beyond that, there’s no Story Mode in place, there’re barely any voices beyond what we’ve already heard in the demo, and the game hasn’t even reached the testing phase yet.

Apparently, Isemiya was supposed to have had the Fortress Bosses done by February 19th. At this point, he has pretty much gotten in touch with WOMI every Sunday to extend his own deadline for a week. It is now April, and his latest update is “I’ll have it done by the 17th!”. So now, WOMI just wants to go to his house to punch him. WOMI (along with the rest of us, I’m sure) is hoping that Isemiya still wants to even finish the game, so keep your fingers crossed!

Oh, and don’t bother e-mailing them about it. WOMI can’t seem to read any of the mail form stuff, and there’s a chance that Isemiya, for one reason or another, can’t (or won’t) either. It probably all goes to Isemiya, but because they’re not really in contact, WOMI can’t do anything about it.

Welp, we’ll see what happens, I guess!

Here are some words about magical girls.

2011-04-11T21:02:00.001-04:00

I got bored. Here are words.

----

As the chamber doors closed behind her, Spiritia stepped softly yet firmly through the deep snow, slowly approaching the lady in the white dress who stood silently at the distant cliff's edge, staring into a blue emptiness. The wind was strong, blowing sheets of snow almost completely horizontally. The icy woman's dress flowed somewhat violently, like the waves of a storm-ridden ocean. As Spiritia got closer and closer, the chill that ran down her spine was not from the frigid world around her. She stopped and looked upon her dear friend while she gathered words to speak and the courage to speak them.

"Fr-"

Before she could utter a full syllable, the princess of ice, her best friend Freudia, broke the silence, her back still turned.

"Tia," she spoke with a hint of happiness, "it overjoys me to see that you've changed your mind, for certainly, you've come for no other reason."

Spiritia's heart ached, but she remained steadfast in her decision.

"I'm sorry, Freu," she replied. "I can't let you do this."

Freudia bit her lip as her teary eyes stayed out of view. Her heart, too, ached with a pain that only comes from love and loss.

"Tia..." she nearly sobbed. "Surely you've not sided with those who hunt us."

"No, Freu." Spiritia shook her head. "I haven't sided with anyone. Both we and the Empire are wrong!"

Freudia's voice suddenly cracked from one of sadness to one of disbelief and frustration. She turned to face Spiritia, staring coldly into her eyes.

"How dare you place us on the same level as our persecutors!" she exclaimed. "Tia, what has become of you!?"

Spiritia, slightly taken aback by Freudia's sudden change in tone, responded in turn. "I should ask you the same, Freu! RKS would never start a war like this! You would never do something this heinous!"

Freudia began to walk towards her. Her footsteps sounded as though she walked on concrete; her feet never once sunk beneath the white. She moved atop the snow, like a god on water. Her eyes glowed a passionate blue. Her hands visibly trembled.

"You say we are the heinous ones!? Tia, do you not recall our own childhood!? We watched as Imperial soldiers destroyed our homes, our families, and for what!? Because we were born gifted!?" Freudia's voice grew angrier as she reminisced of the history she and Spiritia shared. "The Holy Empire is nothing more than a devilish hypocrisy that fears our kind. They began this holy crusade to end our existence years ago, and since the beginning, there has been no retribution! That ends today, Spiritia!"

Freudia raised her hands, manifesting gigantic sharp icicles from the air around her. "RKS shall stand above the Empire and rain upon them the justice our people wish to be served!" With a swift swing of her arms, the icicle spikes flew in Spiritia's direction, flying past her and crashing loudly into the ground behind her. This was but a taste of Freudia's righteous hate. Spiritia did not flinch.

"Freudia!" she cried out, her hand beginning to glow. "Justice cannot be served through fire! You're the one who taught me that! Are you saying that we should throw away our ideals for the sake of a stupid war!?"

Freudia turned away once more.

"The rules have changed, Tia," she said. "We have done nothing but uphold our end of the bargain since Father Rosenkreuz's sacrifice. Now, Liebea's brother is a prisoner-of-war. The Zeppelin family is in a panic. There are even rumors of Magi who've allied with the Empire! We stand here, on these grounds, victims of circumstances we did not bring upon ourselves." She turned back to Spiritia, an icicle summoned to her hand. "To hell with ideals! We must take a stand!"

"There has to be some other way, Freu!" Spiritia begged. "I'm sure of it!"

With tears forming in her frozen eyes, Freudia asked once more. "Tia, my sister..." she said. "You have been gone far too long. Please, Tia. I ask you again. Will you stand by us?" She extended her free hand. "Will you stand by me...?"

Spiritia, stricken with grief, shook her head one more time.

"No, Freu," she replied. "I won't let this go on. I'll show you myself that there's another way. I'm sorry..."

Freudia slowly lowered her hand. "You're a fool, Tia. ...I will make you understand." Suddenly, Freudia fired the icicle from her other hand directly at Spiritia. In an instant, Spiritia returned fire with a magical shot from her hand, shattering the icy spear on impact.

She looked to Freudia with horrified eyes, only to be met with an icy gaze. Two sisters, two best friends, stood on opposite sides of a battlefield, engaged in a duel neither wants to fight in a war for which neither asked. In those two shots, there were more words and more feelings than any other time that either could remember. Two women, firm in their beliefs, now stared their destinies straight on. Spiritia couldn't leave things as they were. She needed to defeat the one she loved more than anyone to prove that this war need not be fought, and Freudia was going to resist her every step, every shot, of the way.

The curtain had risen on a duel of fates. On that day, into the tundra, destiny would forever be etched.

Of Belmonts and Paleschs

2011-04-01T07:44:00.001-04:00

To those of you who couldn’t figure out the meaning of the rot13 cypher from the previous entry, here it is in all its legible glory:

“Unfortunately for everyone looking forward to Karl Mode (and those who can actually read Japanese), WOMI also stated in this update that they didn't have enough time to finish up their April Fool's joke for this year, so he went ahead and posted what they had. Karl Mode is not a real thing, so you can go ahead and remove that stuff from the RKS wiki, you jerks.”

Karl Palesch, Liebea’s brother mentioned in the first game, is not a playable character in Freudenstachel and was created for the sole purpose of this year’s April Fool’s joke. However, WOMI wrote that they didn’t have the time needed to complete the joke in its entirety, so what they had was posted for our viewing pleasure. What’s funny to me is that some people immediately pounced on the opportunity to announce a mode that very openly listed as fake in the [erka:es] blog, going as far as to update the wiki, listing Kahl/Karl as a playable character. This emphasizes the danger in having some people directly involved with the flow of information concerning the RKS series, something I’ve been very adamant amount since the wiki’s creation. Entries will get updated with whatever people feel is right or wrong, regardless of accuracy, and eventually, people take notice. This is not the way things should be handled.

Therefore, I have come up with a solution. Soon, we of Schwer and Schwer Alike will no longer support the RKS Wiki; we will instead create our very own on-site encyclopedia with all of the important and accurate information readily available to all readers of this site. It will not publicly editable; all information posted will be done from within the site, and any additions or requests will have to be run through site administration before it will be posted. This “RKSclopedia” will see its creation alongside the upcoming main website, of which the details will be announced at a later time.

This is the best possible scenario I can come up with, so please be aware of it. I don’t think I can actually *delete* the current RKS wiki, nor will I try to. The only thing I can request is that when the RKSclopedia is created, it should be considered the authority and the first option for RKS information, and I would like that to be known. We’ll worry about that when we actually get there, though.

In other news, I can’t wait to see what Hugh Man has in store for that RKS sprite-based movie, I still have a Kiora doujinshi to give away, and some other things are blah blah blah I’ll post later when I actually get it all together. Until then!

New [erka:es] Update!

2011-03-28T17:17:00.002-04:00

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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Hey, I’m revamping the blog soon.

2011-03-21T07:23:00.001-04:00

I’m using the outdated blogger design, and I want to make things look a little neater. With that, I’m looking to remove the background and banner in their current forms, instead going for some original RKS artwork. I’d like to start by giving this place a new and unique banner featuring our title character, Schwer-Muta Casasola Merkle, and I’d like you all to help me out! This isn’t a contest deal or anything; pretty much anyone who sends me a banner that looks like some effort went into it will have it used.

Anyone interested in helping out?

Go donate to Japan. Do it.

2011-03-19T19:33:00.000-04:00

Yeah, something really crazy happened over there, or something, and they need some MORNING RESCUE, so go find some Japan Red Cross outlet to donate to Japanese relief efforts. Isemiya and WOMI would be grateful, I’m sure.

★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - HELP JAPAN NOW ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★
►http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/11/tsunami-aid-and-relief-how-you-can-help/...
►INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS http://www.ifrc.org/en/
►SALVATION ARMY http://blog.salvationarmyusa.org/
►AMERICARES http://www.americares.org/newsroom/news/massive-earthquake-tsunami-devastates...
►SAVE THE CHILDREN https://secure.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6239465/k.544E/Chil...
►GLOBAL GIVING http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/japan-earthquake-tsunami-relief/
►INT MEDICAL CORPS http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1970
★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ - ★ – ★

Links taken from this amazing video about the current state of the hip-hop industry.

New Luste Teuber Official RKSF Art

2011-02-08T19:46:00.007-05:00

Well we're back, everyone. I know this got mentioned quite a bit in the comments of the previous post, but I feel as if this Luste concept art by WOMI really needs an honorable mention here on the blog in full detail. (After all, this is an Rosenkreuzstilette blog.)

You can view it here in the latest site update: NWS http://kurotama.sakura.ne.jp/diary/index.html NWS

One quick thing I'd like to add: I also stumbled onto WOMI's personal blog, and [erka:es] is still hard at work with ~Freudenstachel~. Hopefully Summer Comiket 2011 will be the date we see ~RKSF~ in it's entirety. I hope.

RKS Site Update? Projected C80 RKSF release? Gasp!

2011-01-03T19:16:00.002-05:00

The long-awaited update to [erka:es]’s site is finally here! And what an update this one is. What should I comment on first? Well, I guess I’ll handle things in order.

First things first, there’s an update patch for the original RKS that will bring the current version of the game up to 1.06b. This patch makes the following changes to the game:

Changed the Key Config in the Options menu. The game will no longer allow the same key to be used twice for the OK/CANCEL/START/PAUSE functions. Also, controls can no longer be bound to function keys or special keys.
Fixed a bug where if you collected an item right before it disappears, the game would freeze. (Did this ever happen to anyone?)
Fixed a bug in which non-correct passwords would work anyway.
Fixed a problem where the game FPS would skyrocket in the case of losing focus to another window.
Fixed a bug where moving the mouse to the top of the screen in full screen mode would crash the game.
And a bunch of other small changes.

And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Freudenstachel news! The actual projected release date for RKSF is summer of this year, so we’re looking at a Comiket 80 release, folks! They posted up two e-mails from English speakers about the development status of the game, and they’ve assured us all that they’re working on it, and the planned release date is this year. Will we see another delay? Only time will tell! I doubt it, though.

This is especially because we have some new treats: screenshots! The title screen has changed, and we now have caps of an underwater area and a forest level. As many of you may know, the Wood Zone was originally in the beta but was taken out before the final release of RKS2; the only accessible beta stage is the Hidden Palace Zone, which was reused in Tia & Freu as the resting place of the Chaos Smaragde. Anyway, the water area is probably Trauare’s stage, and the wooded area is most likely Luste’s. In the original RKS, you basically destroy Luste’s little sky palace place a la Storm Eagle, and in the April Fool’s screenshots, Hero of Justice Luste was encountered in a forest level. We’ll just have to wait and find out!

The RKSF web demo is slated to receive the bug fixes from the 1.06b patch. Instead of releasing a patch, they will be releasing a brand-new trial version. I wonder what secrets this one has in store for us?

That’s essentially it. Go check out the screenshots. I encourage traffic to their site, so please go there and stop putting literally everything that ever happens on the wiki. Thanks!

Happy New Year, everyone!

2011-01-01T08:26:00.001-05:00

What the title says.

A boy has the right to dream.

2010-12-13T15:58:00.003-05:00

Greetings, everybody. It’s Letty again (it’s about time, really), and I’m here to give you guys an update concerning what’s been happening the world of Rosenkreuzstilette and Schwer and Schwer Alike. It’s been a while, and I owe everyone an apology for that. I promise to be a little more attentive to this thing, mostly since I’m starting to have a reason to care again. There’s much to be done in the coming days, and it’s about time we get started on it!

I’m going to begin with the first thing that everyone’s dying to know about: the status of Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel. And that status is… I don’t know. The Comiket 79 catalog is out now, and [erka:es], in true IseWOMI fashion, is absent from the line-up, meaning that the game clearly will not be released at this winter’s Comic Market. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all we know. There hasn’t been any significant update to the [erka:es] website since the end of last August, and not a single update either on this month or November. Back in September, there was a response to an e-mail from one “Danielu Yoshikoto” that, as far as I can tell, translates to “RKS:F is still being worked on, and we hope we’ll be done with it soon.” That’s pretty much the last thing we’ve heard about Freudenstachel. Is it done? Is it close to being done? Did they start over? We don’t know, and until they say something else, we won’t. Patience is a virtue, as they say, so we’ll have to show some virtue for this one.

Speaking of, I’m finally in a position to start up that interview I’d been wanting to hold, so hopefully within the week, I’ll get in contact with [erka:es] so I can ask them personally about the Freudenstachel status and some of the intricacies of the original game. I found myself browsing the Wiki again recently, and I really don’t know where some of that information comes from. I’ve pretty much reserved myself to not worry about it until I get better information anyway, but until then, everything there, unless pretty obvious, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Now, on to greater things. Ravy Comics continues to be straight-up atrocious, but I’ve got to hand it to the guy for figuring out some of what he has in the world of “hacking” RKS (though I can’t say I approve of all of it) and for supporting [erka:es] in his own way. That said, one of his little guides includes a way of putting the English script into RKS version 1.06a, since the current patch isn’t compatible with it. If you want to do that workaround by simply copying the scenario.dat file over, you’re more than welcome to, but there’s a reason we haven’t updated the English patch for compatibility, and no, it’s not because TDOMMX has a new job (or because he can't update his own site due to an evil Digimon that took over his computer). It’s actually because we’re doing it over. There was a lot of bad blood between TDO and myself by the end of the project, mostly due to his problems with the Grolla script, and as a result, things didn’t turn out the way we hoped. Because of this, we’ve decided to revamp the entire translation for both Spiritia and Grolla for one final, completed work. I can’t imagine that Spiritia’s script will be too much different, but we’ll see. Here’s the details of the revamp:

The scripts will be rewritten using the current script, the translations we already have from Tanin and Akira, and finally, a new translation done by Ryusui of Watercrown Productions (you may know him from his re-translation of Capcom's Breath of Fire II). Exciting, I know! I will personally handle all of the rewriting with full roundtable discussions over the new script revision (if you’re interested in participating in this, feel free to send us a line about it). Once that’s done, we’ll work on changing the necessary .dat files, as well as hacking the .exe, to bring the script to the new version. But that’s not all! We hope to get some of the original image files for the game, so we can do some more-complete image editing. It’ll make everything feel a little more perfect to us, and in turn, it’ll be better for you all. What’s the ETA on this, you ask? We’ll let you know when we find out.

The art contest is still being worked on. I feel really bad about not having been able to do anything about it before, as a number of circumstances in and outside of my life screwed that up, but it is still on the horizon. The contest will begin anew after we complete the first physical English release of the game. That way, we’ll actually have a prize to send out. Of course, Kiora’s Rosenkreuzstilette AfterStory doujinshi is still out there to be won, and there WILL be a new item up for grabs in the contest. What is that item, you ask? Let’s just say that some people like playing dress-up. That’s all the clue you get!

Grolla novelization is still happening, but first, I’m working on a re-Let’s Play of Rosenkreuzstilette. “Letty!” you may be saying. “That game has been LP’d, like, a million times! Why can’t you be original?” Well, truth be told, I made the very first Let's Play for the game, and I’m absolutely ashamed of it. I want to redeem myself and create something worthy of the game while adding in some tidbits of information and little bonuses that you may or may not find anywhere else. It’s fun, right? Right. So I’m working on that first.

That’s really all I can think to say for now. Please support [erka:es] by purchasing their game if you haven’t already. Heck, e-mail us a picture or copy of your receipt from DLSite (important info taken out, of course), and I might even give you something, even if it’s a little mention here or in a video. Any and all Freudenstachel updates can be found here, as usual, and we’ll keep you up to speed the best we can. Thanks for reading! If I forgot anything, I’ll append it later.

~Freudenstachel~ delayed yet again?

2010-08-07T21:21:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone. I really hate to say this, but it appears some terrible news has just spread regarding the full release of ~Freudenstachel~. According to Isemiya's long-awated blog update (translated), it appears as if RKSF has been delayed once again. How long? Well, I'm not exactly sure how long they plan to delay it this time, but it will probably be up to December 2010 (Winter Comiket 79) or even worse: August 2011 (Summer Comiket 80).

...I'm speechless.

(NOTE: If I'm wrong, please correct me.)

The things my posting cannot cut are next to none.

2010-08-02T13:41:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone. It's your old pal Letty, here with a much-needed update to Schwer and Schwer Alike about some things that have been going on and need to be addressed. I apologize for my long absence, and while I won't be around as prevalently as I was, I'll be here more often to say and do what needs to be done and face Grollschwert consequences.

First of all, I haven't forgotten about the art contest. It didn't work out as I had planned, so instead of the original resolution, everyone who participated will be receiving a special gift courtesy of Schwer and Schwer Alike with a special prize being awarded to the "winner" as chosen by our glorious panel of judges. I hope this is an outcome that will benefit everyone.

Second, it seems there have been some issues involving our English RKS Wiki, mostly in the realm of argumentative debate (see past comments), so in order to ease tensions and get some accurate information, I will be making an attempt to interview [erka:es] some time in the future, asking them questions about the story of RKS, behind-the-scenes stuff, and the future of RKS Forever... err, Freudenstachel. This will help greatly improve the accuracy of the original RKS script and help us better understand the world of RKS.

Finally, because I'm trying to get back into honing my own writing skills, I will be authoring a fan novelization of Rosenkreuzstilette -Grollschwert-. It is not to be considered canon, of course, and will feature a re-telling of Grolla's journey to both battle the forces of the Holy Empire and stop Iris from beginning her reign of terror. The novelization will most likely be done in light novel format, complete with a small collection of illustrations. It is a project I am very much looking forward to working on, and it should be completed at some point before the holiday season.

That's all for this update. I'll be back at a later time to address some other things. If you have any questions for [erka:es], please include them in the comments, and I will do my best to compile the best ones. I want everything involving our RKS community to get better, and hopefully, this will be the first start. Thanks.

End-of-June News

2010-06-27T21:07:00.006-04:00

Hello there Schwer and Schwer Alike readers, it's Justin, here with some things to say about recent events about the Rosenkreuzstilette series.

Besides that little preview of Trauare's sprite during development shown in the previous post, there has not been any official updates from [erka:es] regarding RKS in general since November last year. One good thing is that the full release of ~Freudenstachel~ is just a few months away. I predict it will come around August 15th, 2010 the latest, so it's great to know the wait for the first official sequel to RKS is almost over, unless it get pushed ahead (which we hope doesn't happen, since Freudenstachel has gone through three long years in development, and two playable demos).

The RKS Wiki, in my personal view, is currently looking well, aside from a lack of a logo and suitable color scheme, but the well-written content on the wiki is what makes up for it. It's one of the most well-written wikis that I've ever seen (how everything is written, not how accurate to RKS the information is, and I'd like to thank everyone for your great contributions, and for making the Wiki great. And there are also a few noteworthy things that have been posted on Grolla's Dungeon that are somewhat worth checking out. (And since we're on the topic of the Dungeon, I'd love to remove all the cruddy advertisements, but I don't have any spare change to by the "credits" needed to do so.)

Now let's talk about deviantART for a second, just to get it out of the way. Now I'll agree with Viper and say that it is true, there haven't been much on DA to change the somewhat bad reputation of artwork done by the English, but it is slowly (and I mean slowly) increasing thanks to the removal of artwork that should have never seen the lights of day (anything anti-RKS or Super C$ap "fanart"). In fact, not too long ago, I posted two things we could do to get RKS more well-known on deviantART. The first method being the commissioning of multiple artists already on dA with great talent, and the second is the upload of RKS artwork (both official and unofficial) by the original Japanese authors themselves on deviantART. It may seem difficult, but those are the only two methods I can think of.

Well, I'll catch you all later.

Trauare's ~Freudenstachel~ Sneak Peak

2010-06-03T16:30:00.004-04:00

With thanks to SuperJustinBros. for taking some time looking into mof-mof, WOMI's NSFW homepage (and I do mean not safe for work or school), we have a first glimpse of Trauare Wrede's in-game sprite from Rosenkreuzstilette ~Freudenstachel~ and how it's made.

So for those who look down at MS Paint as an inferior art program for Windows PC: Who says MS Paint sucks now?

We Enter a Quiet Frontier, Yet Again...

2010-06-02T16:37:00.006-04:00

Hello everyone, ViperAcidZX here just to let out some drifting thoughts that's been going on his head for a while on this blog post.

Well it's been over a month since Letty has anytime to drop by at Schwer and Schwer Alike while dealing with his own personal issues. So far we have yet to hear any news coming from him or anyone else in this blog regarding his situation. So with that, all I can say to that is please keep Letty in your thoughts and prayers. God willing he needs all the support he can get from the rest of us... Another thing I'd like to add is that we're a long ways away from the eventual release of Rosenkreuzstilette ~Freudenstachel~ at summer Comiket. Either that, or more unfortunate events towards [erka:es] that will cause them to miss out on summer Comiket, and many fans will be forced to wait even longer until winter.

Now as for the deviantArt section of the Rosenkreuzstilette's English fanbase: I really hate to say this, but through Letty's point of view, I'm not seeing any improvements that's going to change deviantArt's already terrible reputation of "bad" Rosenkreuzstilette fan-art (i.e. steohen2's terrible attempt of making Trauare Wrede). Finding any that's particularly any good is just as Letty said in a previous blog post, "digging through the rough". An example of any recent fan-art of Rosenkreuzstilette that I would consider to be good is this rather cute artwork of Freudia Neuwahl by Yami-Mizore. Have a look.

I get the feeling that deviantArt is never going to have its share of quality fan-art for Rosenkreuzstilette, such as this artwork of Patchouli Knowledge from the Touhou Project, anytime soon. Probably not in decades. And I'd like to blame on past events committed against the Rosenkreuzstilette fandom (both English and Japanese) and [erka:es]. I, unfortunately, am going through some artist problems myself; the lack of motivation steaming from my frustration of my already sucky artistic talents as it is has prevented me from picking the pencil and trying to do something.

Speaking of Touhou, I'd like to introduce the readers, Touhou fans and 4koma fans of Schwer and Schwer Alike to something that will keep them busy for a while until Letty's return. I enjoy this this 4koma series very much. To all Schwer and Schwer Alike readers: I would to introduce to you all to colonel_aki's Touhou ~ Life of Maid.

For those who don't know about this 4koma series, Touhou ~ Life of Maid is a 4koma series that centers the daily lives of the Scarlet Devil Mansion residence (Remilia and Flandre Scarlet, Patchouli Knowledge, Sakuya Izayoi, Hong Meiling) with other characters from the Touhou series. I consider this to be "the Lucky Star of Touhou 4komas"; colonel_aki combines a cute art-style with very witty humor that's guaranteed to bring a smile on the reader's face. A lot of the humor comes from the fannon-related stuff that the Touhou series is known for, such as Yuyuko being a glutton and Patchouli being an otaku. But when colonel_aki makes Patchouli into an otaku, there no words to describe it.

There's also some suggestive humor in this 4koma series (such as PAD jokes and Sakuya's insecurities of her lack of bust size, because Sakuya is actually flat or small-chested in the Touhou series) and some references to video games and anime that you'd expect to see from Lucky Star made in Touhou ~ Life of Maid. And the beauty of it all is that there is no actual dialogue, but the readers can grasp what's going on in the 4komas that even English readers will have a laugh of what's going on. This is a 4koma that I highly recommend for 4koma fans and Touhou fans to check out.

You can read this 4koma series at colonel_aki's pixiv page (which he also has other artworks that's worth checking out, such as his Lucky Star fan-art and you can see where his inspiration comes from), or this collection dedicated to Touhou ~ Life of Maid here at Danbooru. Be warned though, Danbooru has NSFW ads for h-games and perverted merchandises from the J-List. You have been warned. While I'm on the subject of Touhou ~ Life of Maid, KamiNekoYu of YouTube has created an animated version of the 4koma series, granted they're not in chronological order of the 4komas.

Well this is ViperAcidZX crawling back into his hole, counting down the days until Sin and Punishment: Star Successor arrives to the United States...

P.S. If anyone at deviantArt was offended by my earlier comments, I do not intend to offend anybody (except for steohen2 and his "Trauare") and I apologize for it. But if you insist in pointing your rage at someone, please directed it towards me. Thank you.

Fairy Tales Can Come True

2010-05-01T15:15:00.034-04:00

Given the rather bumpy turn of events these past few days, I'm glad to see that the week has ended on a high note.

While Mint is sorting things out on his end, here's something for you to enjoy in the meantime. I'm very pleased to report that the full English localization of ef - a fairy tale of the two has finally been released. This is all thanks to the tireless efforts of No Name Losers, a group which Akira and I have had the pleasure of working with in the past. ef is a very touching story, and I'm proud that an English version has finally seen the light of day.

You can read the full details here. It's a free standalone release, so no purchase is necessary. If you're still on the fence:

Murphy's Law Confirmed Once More

2010-04-25T11:34:00.006-04:00

Hello everyone.

I see that many of the Schwer and Schwer Alike regulars aren't pleased about the contest's deadline being extended indefinitely. I'd like to make an official statement about this development on Mint's behalf since he has no way of doing so himself at the moment. I should note that the comment I made to the previous post was written before I knew what had happened, and I'm sorry to say that my speculation couldn't have been further off the mark.

Without going into too much detail, Mint has been hit with some serious financial and social problems - so much that it's actually impossible for him to update this blog himself or do anything related to the contest, the v1.06 patch, or even the everyday necessities that so many of us take for granted. I wish I could elaborate and give you all a better grasp of the situation, but this is a tough time for Mint and I feel I should at least try to respect his privacy. Considering the amount of unjustified drama that has visited this site in the past, we don't want to start something by letting our MVP go AWOL; Mint never intended for any of this to happen, and he very much wants to make this up to everyone once his life is under control. How, exactly, we have no way of knowing just yet.

I'd like to ask for your patience as Mint gets back on his feet. If I were a religious sort, I'd probably ask for you to keep him in your thoughts and prayers. In any event, I'll be updating the blog in his stead as the situation changes; let's just hope that "no news" actually does mean "good news" this time.

Good luck, partner. No matter what happens, don't ever give up.

Deadline Extended Indefinitely

2010-04-19T16:30:00.002-04:00

Hey, everybody! It's your old pal Letty! Some crazy things happened, and now my access to the internet is somewhat limited. As a result, I have not been able to do much of anything in regards to this contest or anything else. I will return when things are back to normal, but until then, the contest deadline has been extended indefinitely until further notice. Sorry for the inconvenience. You'll be seeing me again when my life is less hectic and a little more... energized.

Exciting New Contest News!

2010-04-10T22:42:00.000-04:00

Alright, so here's the deal. E-mails have been sent, messages have been received, and now we're good to go on the grand finale! Time for my big announcement!

In addition to Kiora's Rosenkreuzstilette Unofficial Afterstory doujinshi, the grand prize winner of this contest will also receive a special, personalized physical English copy of Rosenkreuzstilette ~The Blades of the Rose Cross~! That's right! What's more is that WOMI sent me a special [erka:es] logo specifically for the game case, so you'll be receiving a one-of-a-kind Schwer and Schwer Alike exclusive! Isn't that exciting!? I hope you think so!

The fan contest ends in about 5 days, so if you want this awesome piece of work, snap to it! I'm not sure when we'll be announcing winners, but I'll be keeping everyone posted. Good luck!

Time Extended Poster

2010-04-06T14:40:00.001-04:00

As Justin pointed out in the previous comments, Kiora made a new poster for the time extension on the fan contest. As usual, spread the word!

Time Extended

2010-03-31T19:21:00.000-04:00

Yea, I'm going to extend this deadline by two weeks, meaning that all entries for the contest are due on April 15, 2010. Real life as well as a little procrastination have prevented me from getting a few things done on the contest front, but I am happy to announce that our good friend Kiora will be a judge for your entries! That said, if I can get the last bit of this done, a huge surprise will be in store for the winner! So get to it, everyone! I'll compile the entries I do have soon and will report back with an amount both here and via my Twitter account. We'll see what happens!

RKS Famicom Chiptune Music

2010-03-28T16:51:00.003-04:00

Just added this to KreuzChannel. Give it a listen. It's pretty sweet. It's also quiet as hell, because Windows Live Movie Maker sucks. Further info on the tracks can be found in the YouTube video description.

Also, we may be looking at an extension on the deadline for the fan contest. I'll get back to you on that.

Official Contest Poster!

2010-03-03T05:07:00.002-05:00

With a little less than a month left, the deadline for the contest is approaching fast! I haven't actually received any entries yet, so I'll just assume everyone is hard at work on their contributions! Well, our good friend Kiora has provided us with this excellent poster! I encourage all of you to use it to help spread the word of this contest, and let's make this a success!

Remember, everyone. This is not an art contest. This is a fan contest. You can submit anything from stories to pictures to sculptures to cosplay photos. Whatever you do to show your fandom is fair game, and everyone is eligible! Show us your heart!

I've still got to iron out a few things with prizes and judging, but that should be handled by the time the deadline rolls around and definitely by the time the winner announcements are made. Stay tuned for that, and once again, let's show [erka:es] the might and glory of the RKS fan community!

Ravy Comics hates me and probably you as well.

2010-02-26T15:23:00.001-05:00

http://www.ravycomics.com/Fanfics/RosenkreuzStilette3.htm

Ahh, Ravy Comics. Joe Pullin seems like a pretty cool guy. I mean, he links to us (and RKS on DLsite!) and likes RKS, so he's always welcome around here to talk about things and post and read and whatever! I'm pretty sure he's even posted in our comments section, though I don't recall seeing his name. Probably under some anonymous tag, which is fine, I think.

That said, he's calling me out. Nah, he didn't mention lil' ol' Letty Whiterock by name, but you can click that link up there and see for yourself. It doesn't take an Iris with a Death-Note-God-Complex to see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Anyways, I figure I'll publicly address the points from his latest episode of Ranty Comics/Ravy-kreuzstilette/SaSA Sucks and Letty Sucks and Here's Why.

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First of all, Mr. Pullin, TDOMMX and I have to hand it to you for figuring out how to get past the .dat file requirement. It makes perfect sense, but it's something neither of us really thought about it, for obvious reasons. Let me go ahead and address two things from your entry, though.

"I've been wondering why the .dat files are even there. Why aren't they compiled into the .exe? Are the .dat files generated by the program that erka:es used to make RKS? Are they a security device to keep people like me from being able to easily rip the graphics and turn them into comic strips?"

Do you wonder this about everything that has .dat files? In many cases, .dat files are nothing more than containers the game reads from; in this case, they contain graphic files, music files, etc. Rather than kept in accessible folders, they're compiled into files that require some sort of decompiler to extract. There are a number of reasons for this, and I can think of at least one: the readme.txt files included in both RKS and RKSF contain links to the websites of the musicians whose works are included in the games, artists such as AM3, Vampire Revolution, and you-fulca (Wingless Seraph). Have you noticed that some of the tracks are not included on their websites and that they actually have albums? If the songs were not in some way attained through monetary compensation, they were probably licensed, and to respect the artists' wishes, they are protected from being given out freely. Of course, the creation and release of the RKSDAD breaks these conventions, but not much can be done about that at this point, right? In fact, that's one of the reasons why TDOMMX was initially opposed to releasing it.

"However when playing RKS the whole song doesn't play. Only about five to five-and-a-half seconds is played. The rest is cut off. I have been having a bear of a time trying to find a song to fit in there. I can't even get Megaman X4 stage start edited correctly."

Maybe you're just doing it wrong.

Of course, that's not why we're here. After all, if you were just talking about that, you'd get a mention, maybe, but you certainly wouldn't get a long-winded article! I like you, but I don't think I like you that much! I kid, I kid. Anyways, scrolling down on your professionally-formatted entry, I discovered a section entitled "Hatred by RKS." Initially, I believed this to be an incredible new Zorne-based fragrance in the long line of Rosenkreuzstilette high-class perfumes, but it seems I was mistaken. Oh no, this was the beginning of an epic tale of treachery and tragedy, not unlike the great Greek and Roman classics of yore. Let us jump deep into this rabbit hole and play the Alice Game, the Most Dangerous Game, the one you just lost. I will leave the lot of you to read the entry itself and gather what you will from it.

Letty Whiterock, the creator of this fine establishment, is an MFer. That's right. I'm a Magnificent Fan. At least, that's what Joe Pullin, creator of the magnificent Ravy Comics, thinks. The Magnificent Fans are those who take solace in the misfortune of others by scouring the internet for terrible Rosenkreuzstilette pictures and fanfiction, bringing them to the light, holding them high above for the world to gaze upon, and then dropping them from said height to watch them shatter like a beautiful, priceless vase stolen from deep within one of the most illustrious art museums this world has to offer. I don't know which one that is, but it exists, and I'm sure the priceless vases within are astounding. We then dance around the broken remains of the work, letting forth our tribal cries, before offering them to Iris Sepperin herself, the all-powerful successor of the mighty sun god.

Letty Whiterock is also a critic, a reviewer of works. Whether I am a constructive critic is left to your opinions, but I am a critic nonetheless. As such, one of the things that I do is rate and review things; in your supplied instance, I reviewed a number of images found on both pixiv and DeviantArt. This is apparently me going to sites and trashing art that doesn't follow RKS styling. Shall we revisit the DeviantArt entry, the one that people seem to have the most issues with? Let's do just that! New commentary time!

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In the pixiv showcase, I actually gave praise to a SuperJustin work, in case anyone missed it. That said, this picture sucks. Sorry, it's just crappy. The proportions are awkward, the lines are jagged and squiggly, making the entire picture look like it's about to cry, and the shading is nonsensical. Now, why would I say such terrible things about this piece? Because NO ONE ELSE WILL. Go look at the comments. Go look at MOST DeviantArt comments. Nothing but praise, very little negative criticism. No one improves on praise alone. That's the way of the world.

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This picture suffers from the same problems as the Justin picture above. While the styling is fine, the proportions are off, it's terribly colored, and that face is just atrocious. Again, Trumi apologized for the flaws after the fact and changed the initial description, taking out the "Grolla's an inquisitor!" part. Take a look at Trumi's main page, and look at his latest picture of Fran from Final Fantasy XII. That's pretty good, actually! You know what that is? That's a sign of improvement. Did my criticism have anything to do with that? Probably not. However, if it did, beautiful. That's why I do this, and I would expect people to do the same of anything I do. I just happen to take a tough love approach.

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PROPORTIONS. PRO. POR. TIONS. If you want to turn someone into a Jigglypuff or a Pikachu or a Kirby, go for it. If you do, though, at least pay attention to your own work, and don't give Zorne a left arm that looks like a rake. Also, that bomb is going to fall out of her hand. Just saying. I do not hate this artist, and I do not hate this concept. That does not change the fact that this picture is bad.

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I liked this one. Most of her work has a level of amateur charm and cuteness to it, especially things like this Schwer, which, as Justin pointed out and YukoHana admitted, has a messed-up looking hood. This is trash-talking?

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This is a screenshot. Fuck you.

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This, like YukoHanna's, has a level of amateur charm that comes off as cute in a way, and it's a comic with a joke that I actually found funny, probably because I read "bloody" in a British way, and it tickled me. It's up there with this, from which I used Grolla's face as an avatar for a while. The art is not grand, but it works, because it's a comic. They are not supposed to be Michaelangelo's works. Comics are made to entertain, and this succeeded for me!

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This picture is flat-out gone, and I didn't really hate on it outside of saying it was fairly mediocre. It was average at best, but my biggest issue was the fact that the characters were not listed as "girls from RKS" but as "Richard Refraktia's sisters." That's not who they are. That's never who they were. There was a huge problem with canon/fanon crossover, something I will be addressing later!

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Most of the people he draws have a specialness about them, and sometimes, that specialness is that the look like they've stretched and/or squished between a car and a bookshelf. I liked Grolla's sword but disliked her portrayed frailty. Grolla's a badass, and I feel she should always be portrayed as one.

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I don't know who this is. This isn't Trauare. This is not RKS art. This shouldn't even be here. Don't label it Trauare. It's not Trauare.

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Proportions are good (though her head is a big; whatever, she's an anime character)! Detail and shading are excellent! Grolla is both hot and badass! I praised this. A lot. No trash-talking here.

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There is nothing wrong with fan art. I happen to draw terrible fan art sometimes myself! However, if you put a picture into the ether and want absolutely no criticism and have no desire to improve as an artist, then don't bother putting your work up for the world to see. One of the aspects of being an artist is perfecting your form, and criticism must be accepted and applied if you hope to achieve some level of experience and progress. A lot of artists on pixiv and DeviantArt didn't just pick up a pen and start animating Touhou flash videos. They practiced, they improved, and they made something happen. Many took criticism from teachers and peers and applied it to better their works. And it shows. Yeah, there will be haters who simply bash your work for no reason, regardless of what it is or your desire to improve. One of the things that both Kiora and myself got on Justin about was that his work lacked heart and it seemed as though he had no desire to improve. Well, looking at his more recent pieces, it appears that he has taken this to heart and is actually improving in a lot of ways. Good for him! That's what being an artist is about. Prepare to get shot down a lot. Use those as stepping stones to move forwards.

But we are not finished yet! There is so much more to your entry, Mr. Joe Pullin, creator of the award-winning, published Ravy Comics! Let me copy-paste this little portion of your thesis paper on why RKS fans are causing global warming, ruining the global economy, and persecuting a religious people for slaying our Lord and Savior.

"The Mfers hate fanfics they don't write themselves. Some of the stuff that is said goes beyond the pale. Rosie O'Donnell would tell these people to chill out. If you decide to give say Luste an older brother, you're a retard. (Their word.) You'd be lucky to get called just that."

Allow me to express my own opinions on fanfiction. These opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Magnificent Fans Guild of the Great Church of the Holy Empire L.L.C. and should be considered merely as the inane ramblings of a winter mastermind.

"Fanfiction should be plausible. Situations and relationships should have some basis in truth, and original characters should be introduced in a way that is entirely feasible and does not interfere with canon.

Ex. Do not write a fanfic about Edward Elric's sister. Edward Elric does not and never had a sister. The creation of a sister character completely destroys the entire concept that Fullmetal Alchemist revolves around: brotherhood. You can, however, write a fanfic about Edward Elric's limited interaction with a new female state alchemist who looks up to him in a brotherly way but otherwise has absolutely no effect on his life and journey or the original story."

That said, we go back to Bubbleplash's artwork of Lecht and Rink, referred to as "Richard Refraktia's sisters." Misinformation spread by the Super Justin creation led to the inference that Justin created the characters made by their respective authors, which led to an issue of fanon leaking into canon. One of our own writers is only slightly guilty of this as well; in his case, however, he clearly marked his work as "fanon," and it was still considered truth. Believe it or not, Justin has been the leader of the entire casual RKS fandom through his contributions on DeviantArt, and he has pulled a number of people in. These are the people who are not going to spend their time on Google researching RKS; we didn't even have a wiki at the time this truly started, so there was no central point for accurate RKS information (and as far as I can tell, there still isn't). I don't care if someone, be it you or Justin or some random 2ch user, wants to give Sichte and Grolla a daughter with a robot arm for a leg. Just make it clear that it has nothing to do with the original story. This is not a difficult concept to grasp.

This is the huge problem I have with the world of Touhou. Fanon becomes canon, and as a result, nothing makes sense. Alice Margatroid is often portrayed as weak or crazy, when in truth, she's neither. Game dialogue shows she's just a cocky jerk. However, fan interpretations have put actual characterization in the backseat, and as a result, everything you know is wrong. Right is up, short is hard, ef is not a tale of memories.

"Funny things is, go to the haters sites and Rosenkreuz Stilette rarely appears. So now you know another reason why I call them Magnificent Fans."

On Google, Schwer and Schwer Alike is the fourth main result for "rosenkreuzstilette". The first is the Hongfire thread providing the torrent. Second is the RKS Wiki. Third is some random fanfiction. The Schwer blog managed to beat out the Hardcore Gaming 101 and TVTropes articles! In addition, my Let's Play of RKS, the very first LP of the game, a blind playthrough done within days of the game's release, in among the first page of results and one of the first two video results! So don't you tell me that Letty Whiterock the Magnificent Hater Fan is ruining RKS. In fact, you might be saying "Letty, this wasn't about you! This was about some other people!" Let me know of the other people who consider themselves RKS fans and "trash-talked" both fanmade artwork and stories.

You know who's ruining RKS? Michael Sepperin. That said, you gave me a good laugh today, Mr. Joe Pullin, awe-inspiring creator of the greatest, man-made icon in human history, Ravy Comics. Hell, you gave me a reason to update too.

ps - For the 1.06a TL patch, we're looking for some feedback and constructive criticism of our own for a final script. Report here for details.

More Wiki Madness

2010-02-02T12:30:00.000-05:00

Some things have come to my attention, and perhaps it is my fault for not really making any notice of it, but the RKS Wiki is under fire once again. This time, I won't be fussing at anyone in particular!

This is from the interview in the back of the RKS doujin that zaku6 made:

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Zakuro: Oh, by the way, there's a wiki that the foreigners made, too. Can't help but worry that they'll post content the creators don't want up or just write down crazy things. Like, they wrote something about Iris and Light from Death Note having the same aim (becoming the god of a new world).

Hissatsu: Whaaaaat. Is it really alright to put up stuff like that on a wiki?

Zakuro: They might be using their wiki as more of a place to put up personal thoughts on the game. I'd at least like them to draw a line between official and unofficial information... Really, if you're going to do something, do it right. That's what I think.

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I don't remember when I gave the okay to post things like entire sprite rips or zaku6's doujin, but I certainly do remember telling everyone who contributes to it to only put up verifiable, factual information. Well, you didn't, and this is what a portion of the Japanese RKS fanbase thinks of us. Great job, guys!

Please remedy this for future reference. I still don't know how exactly the wiki works, but most of the images and information need to be taken down. Period. The way things are now reflects very poorly on us, and with certain people going around putting up terrible information and other people posting entire graphic rips, we now have to run damage control.

zaku6 is absolutely right: If you're going to do something, do it right.

It's contest time!

2010-01-24T18:36:00.001-05:00

It's the moment you've all been waiting for! It's Schwer and Schwer Alike's Rosenkreuzstilette Fan Contest! Now, many of the Schwer readers are a very talented bunch, some in art, some in gaming skills, some in writing. Because of this, it's hard to really come up with a proper contest that doesn't alienate anyone. As a result, I have come up with a solution that will give anyone and everyone a chance at the prize.

Contest:
This competition is for true Rosenkreuzstilette fans. You love it. You play it. You draw it. Maybe you live it. So what's the challenge? Show your fandom. Use your creativity and your talents to create a masterpiece that shows the judges (me) that you are the biggest RKS fan and deserve the prize. Remember: Anyone can draw a picture. Anyone can make a website. Anyone can save a replay. However, a true fan will create something grand, something beyond that. The tools are out there, and heart and passion are what count. Go for it.

Prize:
There are two prizes being offered for the winner, though I need to send some e-mails to make sure the second prize is okay. First is Kiora's Unofficial Rosenkreuzstilette AfterStory release at Comiket 77. I received two copies, and I have put the better-looking copy aside for this contest. I'm always keeping you guys in mind! I will announce the second prize when I get the okay.

Rules and Regulations:
- If you win, you will need to provide your name and address so I can send you the prize. If you do not feel comfortable providing these, then, unless there is an alternative, you can't get anything, even if you win.
- This needs to be your work. Chances are I won't be able to run checks to confirm whether something is truly yours or not, but this contest is all in good fun, and I would hope no one is petty enough to cheat.
- Have fun with this. I'm not out to create something that will stress people out or stir up bad relations. This is meant to be a fun contest by a fan for the fans.

Additional Notes:
- Time, effort, and dedication are the keys here. Remember that expenses do not necessarily correlate to scale and result.
- If you have no interest in the contest and just want to show off your fandom, you can do that too! Be sure to note that in your submission.

Deadline:
All entries must be received by April 1st, 2010. That gives you guys over two months to create your best display of RKS fandom. Whatever you do, make it awesome. To submit your work, send it to our e-mail at grollschwert@gmail.com.

At the end of the contest, I will compile every single entry for a site page or post and send a link to [erka:es] to show them that they have created something amazing and that we appreciate their hard work and ideas. It made Schwer and Schwer Alike possible, it brought us as a fandom together, through good times and bad, and it will let them know that RKS Freudenstachel's release is anticipated worldwide. I imagine that all game developers want to see the fruits of their labor appreciated, so let's make it happen. Everyone, spread the word! Let's make this the best showing of our fandom yet.

Contest Coming Soon!

2010-01-20T15:56:00.001-05:00

Click to enlarge! Contest details coming soon.

Note: As it turns out, this doujin is actually "Tearis," it seems, so you can happily get a preview by downloading what we have translated over on the right.

A Request

2010-01-18T20:38:00.000-05:00

Schwer readers:

This blog is in desperate need of an overhaul in its appearance, and I was wondering if anyone could help me out with that. I don't want to use one of Blogger's default templates nor do I really want to just use some random Blogger theme. I also want to move away from using official pictures like I am now. The problem is that I am very unlearned in CSS, and I'm only starting to understand a few things about layouts.

If anyone can provide me with a new theme, I would be greatly appreciative. Please and thank you!

English RKS Forum

2010-01-12T22:22:00.000-05:00

So Justin made a forum for the RKS fanbase. That's pretty cool, I guess!

A Special Surprise in Store!

2010-01-11T20:47:00.000-05:00

Very soon, I will be announcing a brand-new contest on Schwer and Schwer Alike with an actual prize! What is it, you may be asking? Well, I'll tell you!

The prize for this contest will be a copy of Kiora's C77 release, Rosenkreuzstilette UnOfficial AfterStory! Oh yes indeed! So, stay tuned!

Version 1.06a Update & Fan Spotlight

2009-12-29T04:39:00.007-05:00

Hi there, everyone. I hope you've been enjoying the holidays.

I've posted an update at the Darkside Translations website to let everyone know the status of the latest Rosenkreuzstilette patch, Version 1.06a. At the same time, I've decided to give props to a handful of players who made their own works based on our localization (whether they've acknowledged our part in it or not).

You can read the full post here.

It's a little early, but Happy New Year, ladies and gents.

SaSA Fanart Contest: OVER!

2009-12-19T08:17:00.002-05:00

It's Saturday, and you know what that mean? It means that the Schwer And Schwer Alike Fanart Contest is over! No more contest submission will be taken at this time. I will give the judges links to all of the contestants submissions and begin judging. I would like to thank everyone who participated (unlike certain people I know of who thinks that every contest should have a prize in stake). Each judge will post their picks of the winners for Talent, Humor, and Honorable Mention in a later blog post if they chose to do so.

Flame Empress Armor

2009-12-16T22:02:00.002-05:00

Oh, Zorne. What won't you do?

SASA Fanart Contest Reminder + News

2009-12-14T15:54:00.003-05:00

One our contestants, Superjustinbros., has decided to drop out of the contest and now is officially a judge for the contest along with Mint and myself. I've talked this over with Mint yesterday at deviantArt and he said it was okay. So within my authority I've granted him right of judge for the contest.

Also, the deadline is THIS SATURDAY. I don't like to tell people to hurry it up with their submission for the contest, but if you want to enter the contest, then you better get it done and note me your submission before Saturday.

That is all.

Amethyst Reviews: Rosenkreuzstilette ~Blades of the Rose Cross~

2009-11-23T20:57:00.027-05:00

ローゼンクロイツスティレッテ
Rosenkreuzstilette ~Blades of the Rose Cross~

Release date: December 31, 2007.
Publisher(s): [erka:es]
Developer(s): [erka:es]
Platform: Windows PC
Genre: 2D > Action > Platform > Doujin soft
Mode(s): Single player
Content: Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Language

In an sea of endless Mega Man games as far as the eye can, everywhere you look there's another Mega Man lurking in the shadows. So shouldn't it be time the series has meet its end already? ... Heck no. Besides, Mega Man rules. And it if weren't for him, we wouldn't have this little gem from [erka:es], Rosenkreuzstilette ~Blades of the Rose Cross~ for the PC.

So the basic promise of the story goes something like this: thousands of years, Magi, human beings born with the gift of magic roamed the earth. However, these born with such a gift where treated to a life of persecution, hatred, and being feared from the Holy Empire and the Orthodox Church. One great Magus and his eight disciples fought a great war against the Holy Empire and the Orthodox Church. In the end, that great Magus sacrificed his very life, but in the end, he succeeded in ending the persecution of Magi when Empire accepted them into their fighting force. Thus creating the RKS, Rosenkreuzstilette: the Blades of the Rose Cross.

Decades later, our heroine, Spiritia Rosenberg along with her fairy friend, Lilli, returns home after her six months of training and they are on their way to meet up with Count Michael Zeppelin's daughter, Iris Zeppelin. Upon their arrival and some idle chit-chat, Iris gets abducted by a dragon and makes off with her with Lilli in pursuit. Though it was not too soon when an attack out in the distance had begun. Spiritia and Lilli rejoined after the forest where fairies lived was set ablaze, and the culprit behind the forest burning was none other than Spiritia's childhood friend, Freudia Neuwahl. Freudia, and most of Spiritia's fellow Magi in the RKS have started a war against the Holy Empire and the Orthodox Church into creating a new world for Magi. Spiritia, like the girl scout that she is, refused to take part of the war. She was branded as traitor to the organization and now must put an end to this madness.

Rosenkreuzstilette, if you haven't guessed by now, is a Mega Man-clone based on the Mega Man games on the NES. So if you have played any of the Mega Man games on the NES before, you should know what the basic gist of the gameplay should be. But for the sake of convenience, I'll explain it to you anyway. In Rosenkreuzstilette, you must go through several stages and defeat the boss waiting at the end while taking enemies, dodging traps, and picking up power ups along the way. After defeating that boss, you get a new weapon. With that weapon, you could use it on a boss who could be weak against it, hence the rock-paper-scissors element of the Mega Man games. But when I say this is a Mega Man-clone, this is a Mega Man-clone. Right down to the old-school 2D gameplay, the menu screens, the difficult and challenging gameplay, and even the password system, Rosenkreuzstilette is perhaps one of the only Mega Man doujin softs out there that stays true to the original pedigree.

The visuals of the game are beautiful. The Castlevania- and Touhou-style setting and themes is a nice change of pace from the usual futuristic theme of the Mega Man franchise. The backgrounds and the beautiful settings has to be one of the visuals strongest points. Character, enemy sprites, visual effects, and the characters themselves are also wonderfully done. Rosenkreuzstilette also has a wide variety of stages; from graveyards, to sky palaces, and a factory filled with death traps, this is one visually pleasing game. Especially for those who loves old-school 2D games.

Audio for this also incredible. A rock-solid cast of Japanese voice actors coupled a great soundtrack of music ranging from haunting orchestral styles of music that of the Castlevania series to energetic music similar to Mega Man, you are bound to find a favorite piece of music somewhere in this game. Rosenkreuzstilette also has one of the most solid storytelling you'll find in any Mega Man game; a plot filled with betrayal, tested friendships and an unforgettable cast of characters, Rosenkreuzstilette has easily one of best storylines in a Mega Man-clone to date. The game, however, is Japanese. So for those can't read Japanese wouldn't understand a thing they're saying. But don't worry, there is an English-translation patch for the game made by the good people of Schwer and Schwer Alike and Darkside Translations and a Chinese-translation patch available.

Gameplay as mentioned earlier is derived from the NES Mega Man games while elements from later games in the series is apparent in Rosenkreuzstilette such as charging up weapons, sliding, switching between weapons on the fly, its all there. One thing that Rosenkreuzstilette does differently from the original Mega Man games is the Desperation Mode. Whenever a boss is half-way towards defeat, they will up the ante and perform different attacks from what they did before. This gives the boss battles in the game an extra edge when it comes to the challenging aspect of game and it helps makes the battles much more interesting.

Rosenkreuzstilette isn't just an homage to Capcom's fabled Blue Bomber; Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, Castlevania, other various video and computer games series, and even a few anime series is paid homage in Rosenkreuzstilette as well. You can chose to play the game in Story Mode if you want to play through the game's storyline, or skip it altogether in Arcade Mode. And like other doujin soft out there, you can save snapshots and replays of the game and share them amongst friends.

Now for the downside. For starters, this is a Mega Man game, and if you've played Mega Man before, then you've already played Rosenkreuzstilette without even knowing about it. Not to say this totally a bad thing, but Mega Man has certainly been around much longer than Spiritia Rosenberg has. This is also, as mentioned before, a hard game. So to those who are complete novices to the NES Mega Man games (or any of the traditional Mega Man games for that matter), you might get frustrated dying over and over again.

But don't fret gamers, Rosenkreuzstilette is nowhere near the likes of, let's say, Twilight Frontier's MegaMari - Marisa's Ambition. Another cause of concern is the game's system requirement. You will (might) need a decent computer to run this game at its best. Otherwise, you might suffer through long load times and/or slowdown. Trust me, I've tried playing this on the computers at my school, which aren't that good of PCs, and it could happen to you.

Despite some minor flaws, Rosenkreuzstilette is an excellent game for Mega Man fans. This also goes to show that Rosenkreuzstilette is more than a Mega Man-clone; its a wonderful trip to memory lane.

Rosenkreuzstilette gets a 9 out of 10.

RKS 1.06a - Replay Speed Increase

2009-11-18T15:44:00.002-05:00

They really weren't kidding when they said they increased the speed on the fast-forward.

A Blades of the Rose Cross Update

2009-11-13T12:13:00.012-05:00

Hello, everyone.

As many of you already know, [erka:es] released Version 1.06a of Rosenkreuzstilette, which corrects a variety of bugs and allows the game to run on Vista and Windows 7. The staff of Darkside Translations and Schwer and Schwer Alike intend to release an update to our localization to incorporate these bugfixes into the English executable.

We'd like to take the opportunity to address any issues with our original release that we previously overlooked or ignored. To that end, if you have any suggestions or comments about our release, we ask you to send them our way, either by posting them as a comment to this blog update or by emailing us. We've received next to no constructive feedback on the quality of our localization, so we're wondering which aspects of our work need improvement.

As of this writing, there are three issues we intend to address:

1) The Start Menu shortcut to the RKS Online Manual currently points to the project page and not the English translation of the manual. The updated release will include a shortcut pointing to the proper URL.

2) Two Germans strings in our initial release were deliberately left untranslated. Namely, we left the "Die Zeit vergeht schnell..." ("My, how time flies...") in the Replay Mode fast-forward screen and the "Waffenenergie" ("Weapon Energy") on the Status subscreen as they originally were.

Because of its layout, it would be impossible to add an English translation to the Replay Mode text -- we'd have to remove the all-important timer or replace the German text with its English equivalent. From the outset of this project, we had no intention of removing any of the German text, so this line will remain unchanged.

As for the Status screen, we weren't able to come up with a translation layout that we felt looked good with both a full and empty inventory, so we decided to scratch adding the English translation altogether. If you check our proof-of-concept screenshots in the comments sections of an earlier blog post, you might find a shot of one of our attempts. In any event, we intend to experiment with the layout some more and see if we can come up with an attractive way of integrating an English translation.

3) As Kilgamayan pointed out in his Let's Play videos, we chose to translate the English name for Zeppelin Stage III as "Xanatos". This was my own idea. I didn't want to repeat "Thanatos" twice on the same screen, so I decided to use a variant of the name to convey the same reference (like using Kerberos instead of Cerberus). Other alternatives for the name included "Death" and "The Grim Reaper", both of which undermine the "subtlety" of the Castlevania shout-out.

In retrospect, the order in which the names appeared should have been reversed. "Thanatos" is the official nickname of the stage's boss, whereas "Xanatos" is just a variant. We intend to reverse the names in the updated release.

That said, please let us know what you think of our work. If you didn't like how we worded a line, didn't like the fonts we used, or thought that a graphic should have been nudged just one tiny pixel over, point it out and we'll give the matter some thought. We can't fix anything if we don't know it's broken, so fill us in!

Oh, and those of you who recognized Xanatos as the last name of Jonathan Frakes' character in Gargoyles: good job!

RKS Freudenstachel Delayed... Again!

2009-11-12T17:56:00.002-05:00

Billion pointed out in the comments of the last post that Freudenstachel will not be released at Winter Comiket as originally planned and is slated for release next year. I guess we'll be seeing it at C78 next summer. Welp!

New RKS Patch Fixes Game Breaker

2009-11-12T10:20:00.005-05:00

I apologize for the negligence I've been showing to this blog and RKS as a whole. I've been busy with a bunch of other unrelated things, but with this patch release, I can hopefully get back on track.

This is actually part of the reason I haven't done anything RKS-related lately. A huge bug was discovered that caused the game to completely fail to load and cause strange graphical errors within Windows, thanks to certain graphic driver updates. Whenever I would execute the game, my monitor would start blinking, and after a moment, my Nvidia drivers would inform me that it just recovered from a crash. This appears to have happened to someone else as well, as they sent [erka:es] a report on it that was shown in their last blog update. Well, it would appear that the new patch fixes this problem, making it possible for people like me to once again play this stellar game.

Unfortunately, there's a new issue. I haven't been able to test this completely yet, but the original RKS's 1.05c->1.06a patch does not work on the rks_e.exe file within the English "Rosenkreuzstilette ~Blades of the Rose Cross~" folder, and I don't know if the English patch will work on a 1.06a version of the game. Due to these developments, we will get to working on an update patch or something for the English version, which may very well require an entirely new installer. Luckily, there are no hitches with the current version of the Freudenstachel web trial, so that works out okay.

I'll be providing further updates by Saturday on what's going on, so stay tuned!

Edit:
Also, I got this in the mail today. (I ordered a free sample thing back in August, and it JUST showed up.) I have to cut off the ad part, but I think it's pretty sweet for a (bumper) sticker.

Comment Moderation is Back On

2009-11-08T17:40:00.001-05:00

I'm starting to get spam comments, mostly for PRESCRIPTION DRUGS or HOT WOMEN XXX, so I've turned comment moderation back on. Sorry, everyone. :(

Time Attack Results

2009-11-04T10:15:00.002-05:00

Final Times:

1st Place - Tanin - 04'47'69
2nd Place - Killing_Doll - 04'21"45

I am sorry to report that two other contenders, Cremator and ViperAcidZX, have been disqualified. Both Cremator and ViperAcidZX went to other stages during the course of gameplay, adding time to their replay outside the challenge guidelines. Tanin tried to pull a clever trick by running the timer on the password screen, but I deducted the time spent on there, because really, come on.

It would seem that the specifications were not as precise as I could have made them, and the challenge was ripe for exploiting. The next one will not be so... open.

Congrats to Tanin for winning, and thanks to everyone who participated!

Challenge Stuff

2009-10-30T22:24:00.002-04:00

The results for the "Time Attack" challenge will be posted soon. I've been kinda busy! Soon!

SASA Fanart Contest Extension

2009-10-29T20:56:00.005-04:00

For those are feeling that December 1st may not enough time to complete your submission for the Schwer and Schwer Alike's Fanart Contest, I've decided to make an extension to the deadline.

The new deadline will be December 12th, 2009, which is on a Saturday. The update to the deadline has be made to the rules and entry information.

RKS Challenge 009: Time Attack

2009-10-16T03:34:00.007-04:00

And here comes the triumphant return of the RKS Challenge series! I'll try my best to make this bi-weekly, so it'll give us something to do. That said, let's get on with the show.

This one is a Freudenstachel Web Trial Demo challenge, so load that one up, and make sure it's updated to v0.04a or whatever the latest one is. Your objective is to beat the prologue stage and Sichte's stage under specified conditions within a certain time range.

Prologue Stage Conditions:
- You may only slide when it is necessary to progress in the stage.
- Any damage taken will add five (5) seconds to your overall time.
- Every time Eifer uses her vine attack, three (3) seconds will be added to your overall time.

Sichte Stage Conditions:
- You may not fire any weapons during the course of the stage.
- When fighting Sichte, only one shot at a time may be fired (no holding the shot button).
- Any damage taken during the stage will add two (2) seconds to your overall time.
- Any damage taken during the boss fight will subtract seven (7) seconds from your overall time.

The goal is to get as close to eight minutes (8:00) as possible without going over.

To submit your replays, please e-mail them to us at grollschwert [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "RKS009: Time Attack". You may only submit one replay, and all replays must be received by one week from today. Good luck!

Kampfer is the worst show.

2009-10-13T11:36:00.006-04:00

I got a kick out of this.

Total Rosenkreuzstilette [erka:es] THE BEST Sales: 14

2009-10-12T18:48:00.002-04:00

Why?

Freudenstachel Secrets

2009-10-03T02:52:00.012-04:00

As ViperAcidZX pointed out in the last post's comments section, the password system has not been updated for Freudenstachel's demo, so old passwords will still work.

Discoveries:
- Dolis Warmind provides a new weapon that probably acts similarly to Remilia Scarlet's weapon for Alice, Bloody Curse, in MegaMari: Marisa no Yabou. It is an aerial projectile attack, but its flight path is currently unknown. Because it has no sprite, the attack is currently invisible.
- Dolis's weapon has no effect on any of the bosses.
- Use of any blank weapon will deplete all weapon energy from every weapon you have except for Freudenstachel and Weissteufel.
- Freudenzwinger completely devastates the Astaroth mid-boss in Grolla's stage.
- So far, there is no evidence of a substitute for Eins or Zwei.
- The image portraits for the blank weapons are slightly different from the ones with names. Most notably is that Freudia's image is improved from the blank prototypes.
- Story Mode passwords still work, and it even labels replays accordingly, but there's no dialogue to be had.
- Entering the Iris Palace password will still take you there, though everything will be blank. However, you will still hear the Iris Capsule, and if you wait, you will enter an empty Golden Palace stage.

If we find anything else, you'll hear it here first.

Freudenstachel Replay Time Glitch

2009-10-02T11:02:00.002-04:00

I was messing around with the Freudenstachel demo today, and I found something rather interesting. Check out this replay to see what I mean. (Note: Watch the timer.) This is probably doable in the original as well, but I'm using a Freudenstachel replay, so hey. PS - You'll need 0.04a, which I'm sure most everyone has.

Contest Update

2009-09-30T01:48:00.003-04:00

According to a response made on 2ch, it would appear that the Japanese RKS community is also working on entries to AmethystViper's Schwer and Schwer Alike RKS Fanart Contest. That's exciting to know, and that means we'll be getting even more art entries. Let's keep this up, and make RKS popularity grow! Thank you to everyone participating!

Schwer and Schwer Alike's RKS Fanart contest

2009-09-26T07:53:00.021-04:00

I, ViperAcidZX, will be holding a fanart contest across deviantArt and Schwer & Schwer Alike to help spread the awareness of Rosenkreuzstilette. There will be two categories to chose from: Talent and Humor.

The Talent category of the contest will a test of your artistic talents. You will draw any character/s of your choice from the Rosenkreuzstilette series and make the best use of your artistic mediums to make these character come to life. Here's an example of Talent: [link]

The Humor category of the contest is not as serious as the Talent category, since in this category you will try and put these characters into some sort of comical situation, but try to make your art decent at best. Here's an example of Humor: [link]

Should there be any entries that has not made it into either Talent nor Humor, an Honorable Mention will be held for these who came the closest in either categories.

Now for the rules of the contest, so pay attention! Ahem!

~Contest Rules~
- Rosenkreuzstilette characters ONLY! Below is the list of eligible characters of your choice. There is quite a handful of characters to chose from, so pick one, or two, or any number of characters of your choosing and get to making art!

- NO Yuri nor Yaoi. This includes Shojo-Ai, Shonen-Ai, GL, and BL. No I'm against homosexually. But I don't to end up offending anyone for any Spiritia-and-Freudia action that might come up.

- NO tracing, baseart, or the like is allowed! Please don't be a dork and trace on someone else's work or use a "baseart" to make your submission. That also goes for art thieves, too who try to steal people's work and claim it was their own.

- Keep the submission PG-13 or lower. If anyone sends a submission containing terrible use of language, graphic violence, or nudity WILL be disqualified from the contest!

- One entry per category only. You can take part of the Talent AND Humor categories of the contest, but you can not send no more than one entry for each category. Everyone deserves a chance to to win, you know.

As long as you abide by these rules, go nuts! Once you posted your submission on deviantArt for the contest, sent a link to it at my deviantArt via Note with the subject: "RKS Fanart Contest Submission - [category]".
- http://amethystviper.deviantart.com/

You can also sent them to me at either my Gmail (viperacidzx AT gmail DOT com) or Yahoo accounts (viperacid72 AT yahoo DOT com).

Now the contest will have three judges, Letty Whiterock, Superjustinbros. and myself. We will pick our own choice on who wins on Talent and Humor, as well as Honorable Mention, if any. So there's sixr possible winners and three worthy mentions. The new deadline is December 19th, 2009, which is on a Saturday.

UPDATE: There is no prize in stake. I'm sorry if you're only in this for a prize, but there isn't. I'm broke and I don't have credit card, so I'm doing this like MasakoX's and Vegeta3986's Naruto: The Abridged Series fanart contest.

UPDATE 2: Superjustinbros. has been appointed judge within my authority..

That all is and I hope many will participate.

~Eligible Characters~
Spritia Rosenberg by WOMI
Freudia Neuwahl by WOMI
Zorne Zeppelin by WOMI
Trauare Wrede by WOMI
Luste Teuber by WOMI
Grolla Seyfarth by WOMI
Sichte Meister by WOMI
Liebea Palesch by WOMI
Schwer-Muta Casasola Merkle by WOMI
Lilli by WOMI
Zeppy by WOMI
Talos by WOMI
Raimund Seyfarth by WOMI
Count Michael Zeppelin by WOMI
Iris Zeppelin by WOMI

Dolis Warmind by ひっさつくん
Strudel by Shizuku
Pamela Arwing by alphes
Eifer Skute by zaku6
Schirach Fühler by ダディ
Lecht & Rink Refraktia by REDMOON

Anger Spikes and Wiki Nonsense

2009-09-15T19:40:00.006-04:00

Alright, I haven't been checking the RKS Wiki change logs as much as I used to, but I really feel like I shouldn't have to. I figured that the many of you who follow RKS and are part of the RKS fandom know better than to fill in baseless, stupid information into some of the various articles. Some are a little better than others, but the entire point was to prevent misinformation and not be fucking retarded about it all.

First of all, I have to ONCE AGAIN call you out, SuperJustinBros. I really don't want to have to waste my time dealing with your crap, but once again, I don't have much of a choice. Your Super Justin Wiki (or whatever the hell it is) advertises [erka:es]'s characters as part of your "Super Justin franchise." I'm completely sick of you claiming these characters to be yours in any way, and I'm tired of you stealing everyone else's shit to make it your own. I actually addressed this very thing with you when I discovered that you wanted to use Axelle Blitzdonner, her likeness, and anything associated with her. Rather than respecting me, you basically told me to fuck off by claiming that Axelle's supposed brother Wrenchi, which is pretty stupid as it is, was, and I quote, "'planted deep' into the series, so taking him out would be like blowing the circuits to a house." You took a character of my design and creation and decided that she was yours to work with, so you gave her a brother with a dumb name and an even dumber design. You didn't approach me about this. You just took it upon yourself to make it happen. And I'm not alone here. You've taken every single one of [erka:es]'s characters and made them your own by giving them "siblings" and then planting them into your "franchise." According to your Wiki, Iris Sepperin's first appearance is on a game called "Super Justin PC." No, she is not. I don't care if that's the case within your own little world where Rosenkreuzstilette and its creators don't exist and you're some arrogant prodigy with the creativity and skills to invent these characters and games, but in the real world, you're an uncreative abortion of an artist with absolutely no respect for those who do have the creative minds to come up with such things and have put forth the time and effort to make something out of their ideas. Instead, you are helping spread misinformation about the Rosenkreuzstilette series, and I am not going to tolerate that.

Case in point, in this art request post by AlchemyOtaku17, you did absolutely NOTHING to let this person know what the hell Rosenkreuzstilette actually is, leaving him to claim to his various art viewers that Rosenkreuzstilette is "some lolicon game." I had to come in and basically pick up your slack, something I shouldn't have to do, so it doesn't make the series look like some pedophilia hentai game to the people who have never seen or heard of it. I shouldn't be having these problems. These shouldn't be problems at all. However, they are, and it's all thanks in part to you. And I'm fucking tired of it.

I don't know who you think you are, but you, not your art, are an affront to the entire artistic community. When the Japanese RKS community derails their own game discussion to laugh at your artistic nonsense, that's one thing. When Kiora actually e-mailed me, asking for my help to get you to start improving and stop flooding pixiv with your incredibly terrible pictures because he, as an actual artist, could see that you have absolutely no intention of improving on a level that actually matters, that's another. You're also pretty lucky that most of the Japanese can't read English very well, because I can only imagine what would come of them finding out that you're essentially stealing [erka:es]'s intellectual property for your own amusement. How do you think [erka:es] themselves would feel about you doing this? I whole-heartedly suggest that you take a step out of your little Super Justin box and realize that the world does not revolve around you and that it's about time you start taking real artistic criticism to heart. Get the hell away from DeviantArt for a while, because those people are not going to help you. They will claim your art is great, no matter what you do, and it will simply spiral into a circlejerk of idiocy, and in the end, you insult actual artists who are original, do care about the overall quality of their work, and actually put forth the effort to make it acceptable. Bad art exists, of this there is no doubt, but you continue to think that your art is somehow excusable and that harsh criticism does not apply to you just because you go "yeah, it's bad, but whatever." Make an effort to do something with yourself and start taking your art seriously on all levels. Don't just work to improve the quality of the aesthetics. Work to improve your creativity, and make something that is actually your own. Do anything else, because as it stands, you're doing absolutely nothing for the RKS community, and if you have no intention of bettering yourself for your own sake and making it so the rest of us aren't embarrassed to be associated with you, then we don't fucking want you.

Now, on to the wiki nonsense. Justin, this goes for you too. I'm not sure who all is doing it, but people are uploading information to the wiki that is either wrong or just plain stupid. Things like claiming that Iris Sepperin is a former member of RKS are on the minor side of things. (She was not ever a member of RKS, because Count Sepperin made it a point to hide her powers from everyone, including the other members of the Order. She was never a member herself.) That's not a big deal. Claiming that certain characters may be references to other anime characters because they share similar archetypes is pretty bad. Just because Luste likes tomato juice doesn't mean that she's like any other character in the entire anime realm that like tomato juice (this is just an example), so please, unless something is a VERY clear reference, don't assume. But when things like "Schirach slightly resembles a bat" comes up, I have to speak and tell the lot of you to stop putting utterly nonsensical, completely baseless, entirely moronic claims and information in the Wiki. There is absolutely no reason for it, and as the only reference guide for "accurate" RKS information in English, there is absolutely no place for it. Please don't do this anymore, and if any of you see it, please do something to handle it or report it to me. I have been very impressed with some of the things within the Wiki, and I ask that you guys keep it up, because it's awesome. However, things like that simply don't belong, so I ask you all to not do it. Thanks a million.

Well, that's enough of that.

Terrible Art Revue Part Deux

2009-09-13T19:26:00.004-04:00

I spent most of last night looking up pictures for some of my other fandoms. Some of them were undeniably awesome. Some were unspeakably terrifying. And some were... Violinist of Hameln, I guess? But by and large, most of the art was pretty good!

Until, that is, I decided to search for RosenkreuzStilette. Now, don't get me wrong. I love the fans. You guys are pretty cool, on the whole. But there is some not good artwork out there. Letty has, of course, already pointed this out, but I would be remiss if I didn't do a little commenting of my own. Let's go on with part two of the bad fanart roundup, shall we? Now 50% shorter and with 60% more Freudia.

Disregarding the fact that I would have been perfectly content not knowing such a thing as the Furry Doll Maker even existed, this image is just plain unflattering. Freudia has the skin of a Simpson, the eyes of Sonic, and the hands of a Disney character. And for some reason, she's incredibly sassy about the whole thing. Now, I realize this is the fault of the Furry Doll Maker and not JigglyPuffGirl, but that doesn't make the sight any less frightening. I feel like lightning should strike and horses should whinny uncontrollably every time I type "Furry Doll Maker".

This is supposedly a picture of Schirach Fühler. I tried standing like this once. I dislocated my hips and had to go into the ER. And then I noticed that there was in fact a seam in the picture itself. As though part of it came out undesirable, so Black Shaddow Walker just decided "eh, nobody'll notice" and cut it. Perhaps the stock picture of bricks didn't line up correctly under that ridiculous blur filter. I like the Carmen Sandiego coat, though. It really sheds some light on the true motivation of the Black Cross Organization: They just want to sing a cappella with the RosenkreuzStilette. It's admirable, really. Unfortunately, there's just not much room in all-male groups for female voices. Still, I say do it, Rockapella!

I'm sorry, Justin. I promised myself I wouldn't pick on you, but I couldn't let this one go without comment. (If you don't have a deviantART account, here's a direct link to the picture, since I don't believe you'll be able to see it otherwise.) In this picture, either the laws of gravity don't exist, or Zorne and Trau have been using an awful lot of hair spray. You can do so much with the way hair hangs! Zorne's would likely be lying flat, and Trau's could be dangling in front of Zorne's face in some sort of enticing manner. It's funny that only a few minor modifications would make this picture so much better to me. It still wouldn't be great, but it would be better than it is now. Keep it in mind the next time you give this a shot. I'm glad you've stopped running the Emboss filter over all your pictures, at least.

Oh my god what is this I can't even. Every time I think I've seen everything wrong with it, I notice something else and I just laugh even harder. Unless you work in a boob factory, this is bordering on not safe for work. I really hope this was intentional on the part of the artist, but I sincerely doubt it.

Since I like leaving things on a good note, have this. It's the best piece of RKS fanart I've ever seen, and in fact one of the most beautiful fanarts I've seen in general. Admittedly her chest looks a bit odd, but do you fault the tiger for his stripes? No, because the tiger wouldn't be able to understand you and he would end up eating your face off. So what I'm saying is that Freudia's boobs are tigers. I think. The point is that you should give the artist some props.

There it is: Part two of the terrible art revue. Significantly shorter than the last one, I realize, but Letty's the one who knows where to find all the bad stuff. If you happen to find your art here and you were genuinely offended by the things I had to say, I apologize! But maybe next time, consider drawing better.

A Quiet Frontier

2009-09-13T17:24:00.005-04:00

Nothing new in the world of RKS that I can see. There's some new art showing up on pixiv and DeviantArt, I guess. The pixiv art is pretty good; most of the DeviantArt stuff just makes me angry. I really don't want to start ranting about it, so I won't, but for the love of all that is holy, stop doing this. I barely see art on DA from people who are actually fans of the game. 90% of it consists of SuperJustin art trades, and it's really irritating, especially when the characters are portrayed so inaccurately. (While I have to say that there's something quite endearing about that Schwer, THAT'S NOT SCHWER.) It's genuinely rage-inducing.

So I'll be in Atlanta this weekend for Anime Weekend Atlanta half-advertising This Is Not An Anime Podcast!, so if any of the Schwer readers happen to be going as well, we can meet up and yell at people for not cosplaying as RKS characters, unless there is an RKS cosplayer, to which I will hug them, male or female.

That's pretty much it thus far. Unless something big happens prior to Freudenstachel's release, it's pretty much up to you guys to provide content. And I'm open for anything.

Rosenkreuzstilette Chinese Language Patch is done!

2009-09-05T18:50:00.003-04:00

I received word from leozx telling me that the Chinese language patch is complete. They weren't able to get a website up, but more information is available here. I guess you could head over that way and show your support!

RKS Freudenstachel Demo Patch

2009-09-03T16:01:00.001-04:00

Apparently, there's a patch update thing for the demo. It probably fixes the bugs and what-not, so go check it out.

More New Information

2009-09-02T19:11:00.001-04:00

"My money's on UNBEKANNT having a seperate number. That'd be hilarious."

Not so much, Dragnfly. Not so much.

New Information

2009-09-01T15:18:00.003-04:00

Here's a neat little tidbit of information.

Unlike we assumed in the wiki, Dolis is actually RKS013, not RKS010. This begs the question, "Who are RKS010-012?" We know that Schirach used to be a member of RKS, but that still leaves Pamela, Eifer, and the Refraktia twins, who are not listed as being members of the organization. Are these characters going to be assigned numbers, or are there MORE members of The Order of the Rose Cross that we don't know about? Interesting, to say the least!

Reviewer (and Writers!) Wanted

2009-08-31T12:53:00.002-04:00

If anyone's up for it, could someone write up a review of the Web Trial of RKS Freudenstachel? Thanks.

Actually, I wouldn't mind having another writer for the RKS blog. Any takers?

RKS Freudenstachel Demo is up!

2009-08-30T13:05:00.003-04:00

zaku6's Doujinshi Now Available at Melonbooks

2009-08-28T01:15:00.003-04:00

You're probably tired of hearing about it, but since this thing still continues to allude us, I'm posting about it anyway. It's RKS news, after all, and it's not like there's anything else to talk about until the 31st. Anyways, Melonbooks is now selling Fukurou no Youni Himawari. I don't think these guys do international shipping either, but I think there are courier services that work with them, so... uhh... Yeah. Just throwing this out there.

zaku6's Doujinshi Now Available at Comic Toranoana

2009-08-23T09:08:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure when this went up, but zaku6's RKS H-doujinshi is available for purchase on Toranoana's website. Unfortunately for most of you and definitely me, the store does no do international shipping, and I don't know of any couriers I can get it through. In addition, the doujinshi is completely absent from the internet with a single fake posted on Winny, so this is literally nigh impossible for me to get a hold of. If any of you Schwer readers happen to know of a service that we can get this through, please let us know. Thanks a bunch!

Edit: Oh yeah, two of the preview pictures are Tia x Freu and a random picture of Trauare. Remember, the link is NWS.

More Let's Play from ReisenMell

2009-08-20T16:56:00.001-04:00

ReisenMell is at it again with even more storyline bastardizations!

The amount of work that goes into these videos is impressive, really. I have to hand it to her. So yeah, check it out if you feel like it!

Freudenstachel C76 Demo Gameplay

2009-08-18T00:22:00.005-04:00

To any and all curious, here's a video of the C76 demo in action. Thanks to the Anonymous commenter in the last entry for bring this to my attention. There's another video up there, but this one appears to be by Daddy, the one who brought the C76 demo bugs to [erka:es]'s attention, so I'm willing to trust this one over any other.

I really like Freu's new voice.

Edit: HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO COOL OH MY GOD I AM SO EXCITED [/fanboy]

Freudenstachel C76 Demo Patch

2009-08-17T06:08:00.003-04:00

For those of you who happen to have the C76 demo for whatever reason, a patch has been made available on the RKS Freudenstachel Download Page. It fixes the various bugs that were found by a few of the testers. Only a matter of time before the downloadable trial is released!

Note: Please keep in mind that this only affects the C76 demo, not the C75 demo.

Let's Play RKS with Johnny Truant

2009-08-16T03:09:00.002-04:00

Schwer reader Johnny Truant, the guy who brought you sexy Grolla and sexy Freudia, has provided KreuzChannel with his first Let's Play video. Check it out, and then head on over and give him some feedback. I assure you. It's hilarious.