New Whiterockman Letty Doujinshi To Be Released at Reitaisai 9

At Reitaisai 9, Sumikaze Midi of Project LT will be releasing a new Whiterockman Letty doujinshi. As far as I can tell (and this is a pretty loose interpretation, so bear with me), it will be a prologue to the upcoming game. There's something about a possible reprint of the original doujinshi, but I'm not entirely certain of whether this is that reprint or if it will be provided at his booth as well. Again, loose reading. I just wanted to post this.

You can check out the sample set on his pixiv here.

Rockman Ciel, Hisaoman, and More!

Thanks to SaSA reader Axl007, Rockman Ciel caught my attention, and I must say I’m impressed but by no means surprised. Ciel was pretty great, after all, and making an entire project around her seems like something that needed to happen. Rockman Ciel seems to be an entire multimedia project that includes a Zero-based fan game in progress, a full art series on pixiv, a Web Radio series, and even a project concept art book with full character backgrounds and scenario history. It seems like a pretty ambitious and crazy project, and I hope to see it come to fruition. My hope is that it doesn’t suffer the same fact as Rockmen R, which swiftly received the C&D hammer from Capcom and is no longer available. We’ll see how that goes.

You may remember Hisaoman, the (arguably tasteless) Katawa Shoujo fan game with a Rockman touch. It turns out that this game was supposed to be released shortly after the release of the game early this year, though the forum thread stated “around this November (2011)”. There hasn’t been a lot of news concerning development, and it almost seems like the project may be on the backburner, as his latest post on Newgrounds seems to be more concerned with Ragnarok sprite animation. However, KS hasn’t been completely forgotten, as he released Katawa Shoujo: Symphony of the Feminists back in February, which features a Rockman-sprite Miki. The game itself is really silly and pretty fun, though the SotN PSX-inspired dialogue leaves a lot to be desired. Well, if anything comes up with this project, we’ll definitely mention it here. This is really turning into a Mega Man fan game blog, isn’t it?

I’ve been looking to change up the site layout a little bit by adding links to the sidebar and implementing pages, most notably with information about obtaining and working with Rosenkreuzstilette. Currently, I’ve added links to the Rockman-inspired various fan projects, as well as related blogs, including the re-addition of zaku6’s. I imagine I’ll be able to clean this up a lot by adding an overall “Link” page. I really want to revamp the sitenav and get everything as neat as possible. In addition, I will need some help from some of SaSA’s readers concerning my "RKSclopedia” project. I plan on moving the wiki entirely away from Wikia and setting it up on Google Sites, which looks a lot neater and will give us a lot more control to prevent future problems and speculations when Freudenstachel comes out. We’ll have a basic gathering of all character and scenario information for the site, and compiling and editing will be done as a group over Google Docs. Once that’s all said and done, we’ll get the ball rolling. The RKS Wikia isn’t going anywhere, obviously, and will undoubtedly be updated as the series goes on. That’s fine. I just want to have the most accurate and well-maintained wiki possible based here on SaSA. I figure that’s reasonable enough. I’ll try and get that WOMI interview done soon, when my friend who can help me with the translation stuff isn’t busy.

If you would like to help with this project, please inquire in the comments or e-mail us directly at grollschwert[at]gmail[dot]com. Let’s continue to improve Schwer and Schwer Alike as the best RKS resource on the net!

Project LT Launches Dedicated Twitter Account

Project LT, the Touhou-based Mega Man-style fan project starring Letty Whiterock, has launched an official Twitter account for updates on the project (it’s got a really cool avatar, too!). In addition, the official flash site has been updated with Cirnoman (pictured right), complete with Ride Armor. The picture to the right links to Sumikaze Midi’s pixiv page for the image, so be sure to check it out for the full version. Show your support by following them, as well as Project LT, on Twitter and by posting below. They’re reading this, after all!

I guess SaSA now has two big things it’s following, and we’ll be doing our best to keep you posted on both!

Project LT: Whiterockman Letty

So there are two really cool guys in the Japanese doujin scene named Sumikaze Midi and TEN. Why are they so cool, you ask? Because they are currently working on something amazing. Back at C78, Sumikaze created this a really cool-looking doujinshi called “Whiterockman Letty ~Dr. Okuu’s Ambition~” (you can see samples of it here), and TEN uploaded a promotional video for it on Nico, featuring a chiptune version of Letty’s theme and sample pages. All in all, it’s a pretty cool thing. Well, now, there’s a website with an unfinished flash animation featuring two characters: Whiterockman and Momijiman, who appear to be the Touhou equivalents of X and Zero, respectively. There are currently 7 open slots for Cirno, Hong Meiling, Hina Kagiyama, Parsee Mizuhashi, and Yuyuko Saigyouji, and no one has been given any information yet. Could this be an upcoming doujinshi series? Or perhaps, with TEN composing music tracks and posting them on his Twitter, could we be seeing the makings of a new Megaman-style platformer? A fun project, or the game that we’ve been waiting for to fill that MegaMari X-shaped hole in our doujin-loving hearts? It’s definitely worth keeping your eyes open for this one!

Follow Sumikaze and TEN on Twitter, and keep your eyes peeled for updates to the ProjectLT hashtag. This could be pretty amazing, and I’m not just saying that because I’m Letty Whiterock. Well, maybe I am a little bit.

Flash Game Fun: Mega Man, KS-Style

If you follow Mega Man fan game news, you’ve probably heard about Rokko-chan, the amazing full flash game MM tribute featuring the namesake moe Mega Buster girl. If you haven’t, give the game a shot. It’s quite good, has some neat challenges, and should appease you a little bit while you wait for Freudenstachel. However, there’s another fan game that may have slipped under your radar, and the only reason that *I* found it is because I have terrible ideas and like searching to see if other people have terrible ideas too.

So the answer to that quiz I promised you guys and never gave is that Lilly is indeed the best character in Katawa Shoujo, but maybe you disagree. Maybe you didn’t like Lilly very much. If so, then boy do I have the game for you! Meet Hisaoman, a Katawa Shoujo-style NES Mega Man clone, brought to us by Newgrounds user ShadowWhoWalks. The only objective in the game is to defeat Lilly, named Blind-tan in this game. You only have a single-shot Mega Buster (where you fire pills instead of bullets), and you can’t slide. The controls are simple (though the mechanics make the game a bit floaty), and overall, the game is very easy. However, it’s worth it to give it a shot and see how it ends when you win.

By the way, I’m not a fan of the X2 soundfont, but Flame Stag’s stage theme is always awesome.

Rosenkreuzstilette AfterStory Sequel in the Works

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!

Hugh Man's RKS Sprite Movie

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.

Hey, I’m revamping the blog soon.

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?

We Enter a Quiet Frontier, Yet Again...

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.

Time Extended Poster

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!

RKS Famicom Chiptune Music

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!

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.

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.

---

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!

---------------------



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.

---------------------



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.

---------------------



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.

---------------------



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?

---------------------



This is a screenshot. Fuck you.

---------------------



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!

---------------------



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!

---------------------



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.

---------------------



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.

---------------------



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.

---------------------

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.

It's contest time!

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.

English RKS Forum

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

Version 1.06a Update & Fan Spotlight

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!

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.

SASA Fanart Contest Reminder + News

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.

SASA Fanart Contest Extension

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.

Contest Update

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!