Let's Play RKSF Trial 0.07a with JT

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!

 

Treasures of the NEW RKSF Web Trial

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!

New Web Trial Soon?

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 Site Update? Projected C80 RKSF release? Gasp!

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!

A Blades of the Rose Cross Update

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!

New RKS Patch Fixes Game Breaker

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.

RKS Freudenstachel Demo Patch

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

RKS Freudenstachel Demo is up!

GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.
GO GET IT. GO GET IT RIGHT NOW.

Edit 2: Alternate download link since the main site is overloaded.

Freudenstachel C76 Demo Gameplay

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]

English Trial Revision

According to the Darkside Translations front page, the RKS English Trial has been issued a new release. It's significantly smaller than the initial release, which is a nice plus. The download links are available over on the right, so if you didn't get it the first time around, grab it now. Or something.

Rosenkreuzstilette Grollschwert - C72 Trial Version

TDOMMX decided to mess around with the trial disc and discovered this amazing little jewel. There was a version of RKSG with an alternate opening and a variety of differences. He gets full credit for discovering this and providing me with a copy. We will be showcasing the other differences in the demo in a later post.

Alternate Trial Download Link

It appears that some of you are having trouble downloading the trial version from the site, so here's an alternate upload link on Megaupload.

Download available here.

Sorry this took so long, I was kinda lazy about it. But I do listen! I promise! I'll also put these download links on the sidebar for now. So yeah, enjoy.

Rosenkreuzstilette English Trial Version

Thanks for waiting, your patience will be rewarded. As promised, here it is: The English trial version of Rosenkreuzstilette! This demo showcases some of the various changes we've made to the game in the localization process, be they graphic error repairs, minor typos fixes, or subtle changes. You can use this demo to give everything a looksie, as it will give you a general idea of what to expect for the final release.

In addition, the installer also includes an option to preview the script of the full version of the game in English! You'll get the Prologue and all 8 bosses in English for Spiritia Mode, which is a pretty sweet deal. Give it a try, and tell us what you think.

And here's the link to the official announcement on Darkside Translations.

By the way, full English version will be released no later than July 1st. I have another little RKS-related project I'm working on, and I'm hoping to include it with the final installer. More information later. Well, have fun!