Schwer Blog Decor and Stuff

I've decided to combine the last two posts into this latest one. As you can see, I've been messing around with the decor of the place. Tell me what you think. Or not. It doesn't really matter.

As I reported early this morning, I found a deleted Wikipedia entry on RKS. It no longer exists, but Google, being the great search engine that it is, has a cached version of the entry available for viewing. I'm impressed. It appears to be the workings of an incredibly elaborate April Fool's Joke that fell short due to Wikipedia moderation. Much of the information is wrong (such as the game taking place in the year 2007), and a collection of fantastic profiles have been created for the RKS cast, which is a little more focused here. Interestingly enough, Axelle Blitzdonner is included amongst the Freudenstachel cast, something that makes me laugh a little on the inside. Give those pages a look. It's hilarious how much work went into the thing.

And then... there's this. I really can't figure out where half of this information comes from, and I hope that the release of the English patch and the opening of the upcoming Wiki will alleviate some of these errors.

In other news, Schwer blog reader PreddY has posted a speed run of Rosenkreuzstilette over at Speed Demos Archive. The link provided gives a full set of videos complete with audio commentary and a page chock full of information on the run. If speed runs are your thing, then give it a look. You may learn something, and it might just help you in future challenges. According to the page, Cremator, the winner of the Double-Cross RKS Challenge, is working on a Grolla run as well. Hopefully we'll see that soon. If any of you RKS players out there think you can do better, drop by the Speed Demos Archive forum and challenge PreddY with your own runs. I'm sure he'd love the competition. ;)

If you guys have any questions, comments, or news/info you'd like to submit to the blog, then e-mail us with the link over on the right. The account gets checked every day, so it won't be missed! We promise!

We're heading up in the world.

Schwer and Schwer Alike is now on the second page of results for "Rosenkreuzstilette" on Google, being beaten by some download pages, reviews, and forum posts about the game. As the center of the English RKS fan community, we'd like to be a little higher up in the rankings, especially beyond the places that offer the game for download, as we encourage the purchase of this fantastic doujin game.

So I encourage all of you to link to this place wherever RKS discussion is being held. In return, we will do our best to keep you all up-to-date with the latest news on Rosenkreuzstilette patches, mods, discussion, fanworks, and Freudenstachel updates. Without you guys, no one would be reading this thing, and we'd be some lonely magi.

Don't forget, the latest RKS Challenge ends next Monday, and we've already gotten two great entries! Keep them coming, and let's make this the best challenge yet!

RKS Challenge 008: UNBEKANNT

For today's challenge, we're doing something a little different. To win this one, it's going to take a different kind of skill. This will not be a simple time attack. This challenge, like Double-Cross, is in two parts and will require two things to be submitted. Hope you're ready!

Part One:

Enter any stage in Arcade Mode as either Spiritia or Grolla. This includes the Prologue, the 8 Bosses, Sepperin Castle, or Iris Palace. Play the level however you want and complete it... or don't! Save your replay.

Part Two:

Now, open up a text editor of your choice (Notepad, Microsoft Word, VIM, etc.). Write a story version of your replay. Make it epic. Make it humorous. Make it boring. Make it an informative essay. Make it a short story. Make it a haiku. Whatever you do, make it your own.

Submit them both, and the winner will be whoever submits the set that I like the most. Remember, writing skill is not a requirement. Your story can be made up with three-word sentences, and if it's the best one, it will win.

Submissions will be handled differently this time around. I know how secretive and easily embarrassed people can get when it comes to their own pen works, so rather than using the RKS Uploader, you will submit both the replay and story to grollschwert [at] gmail [dot] com. You will need to include your name and a title to your story.

Let's make this the best challenge yet!

April Foo's and Random News

Some people have been requesting a full explanation of my April Fool's joke, so here it is:

First of all, TDOMMX demands that I let everyone know that he was not involved, so yeah, he was not involved. This was all my own doing. To begin, the files that you guys downloaded were completely unmodded. They were copied straight out of my Rosenkreuzstilette folder and are, in fact, interchangeable with your existing files without consequence. I am told, however, by someone that the mod caused Liebea's stage to freeze on them. I'm not entirely sure how I accomplished that, but I won't ask questions. For those who didn't take a listen, "l_graphic.dat" is actually a music file. It is a renamed .wav version of the final Iris boss theme "Last Battle -Requiem for Myself-" by Unkolyn. The code listed, if you didn't notice, was a variation of the Konami Code, and not only did it not work, it was nearly impossible to enter within the time allotted. It was all an elaborate ploy, and I'm glad it worked out as well as it did. Apologies to anyone who grew frustrated by what you thought was your own failures. :3

Speaking of music, I've grown somewhat irritated by the misinformation of the music tags for the Rosenkreuzstilette GST released at Rockman Perfect Memories. Aside from the fact that the songs have an inconsistent bitrate amongst all the files, the tags are all wrong. The song titles and artists are in the readme.txt that comes with the game. The prologue stage theme is not "Eroffnungsstage ~ Der Anfang vom Ende" by [erka:es], it's "The Ground Which Can Shine" by Silver Chaos. Liebea's stage theme is not "Liebeas Stage ~ Rapunzel ist in tiefe Trauer" by [erka:es], it's "30" by AM3 (which has a description of how the song was supposed to resemble a mood of stress or strong consideration and was a test of the sound of acoustic guitars). The given titles don't even work when you consider that all the stages are renamed when you play as Grolla. In Spiritia's game mode, the prologue stage "Ready!" message says "Der Anfang vom Ende", but in Grolla's game mode, it says "Der einsame Krieg". The Japanese Rosenkreuzstilette Wiki, if you can navigate it, has each song listed in each character's profile (which two exceptions being Zorne's stage theme and Iris Fortress Stage 1, both currently of unknown origin; I haven't cross-referenced with the readme.txt songlist personally, though). Soon, we at Schwer and Schwer Alike will provide a full, easy-to-read listing of the actual track names and artists, something we hope will end the misconceptions once and for all.

On the 2ch news front, there were many guesses as to what [erka:es]'s April Fool's joke was going to be, one of the suggestions being Liebea Mode. I believe Visual Novel mode may have been mentioned as well, as it was in the original April Fool's Joke last year. Unfortunately, [erka:es] pretty much tossed a rod in the gears with their announcement. Among other notes of interest are a replay of a pea-shooter-only run of the Iris Machine boss fight. It's an impressive fight, especially the second part of the battle. Finally, one 2ch user discovered a news report about Germany getting their first nudist-only hotel. Here's the article:

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Germans get first nudist-only hotel
The first nudist-only hotel is set to open in Germany's Black Forest.

Guests will be required to leave their clothes at reception and must be naked at all times when on the premises – "or they will be required to leave".
"We hope to open as soon as possible," Silvia Probsthain, a member of staff at the planned Hotel Rosengarten.
"It will be the first comprehensively nudist hotel in Germany."
The rules state that all guests must put towels on chairs and loungers before using them, that there be no sexual harassment and that all sexual activity in "commonly accessible rooms" is strictly forbidden.
The hotel is being built in Freudenstadt, which translates into "Town of Joys". Freudenstadt's tourism director Michael Krause said: "I'm in two minds. It's always good if a new hotel is set up but I'd prefer a normal hotel concept."
Nude hiking is proving increasingly popular in Germany and two villages in the central Harz mountain range plan to mark special forest hiking routes for naked ramblers.
The practice is frowned on in neighbouring Switzerland, however, where authorities plan to fine such behaviour.
There are similar hotels catering for nudists in Scandinavia, Croatia and the south of France.

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Hotel Rosengarten. In the Black Forest/Schwarzwald. In Freudenstadt. Really. Finally finally, I just found this on the uploader.



Someone really likes Iris.

Question Mark Blocks

And to those of you wondering, play "l_graphic.dat" in a music player.