Hello, folks! Chief here with another rousing update from the development front. My chair is broken and my cat is sleeping on the keyboard, so this has been a tough update to write. I’m a rather tall person and sitting in the midget chair is nothing but pain. I tried to get a new chair, but they didn’t have the one I wanted in stock… Sorry, you all didn’t come here to listen to me rant about Fuzz and my broken kneecaps. Let’s talk about Rising Angels!

-One of the biggest problems facing me writing the outline for Akurel’s route was getting around the glaring problem of her being Zuri’s former best friend and crush. Having Natalie, Zuri’s current best friend/crush, leave poor Zuri and go out with her best friend just seemed too hard on the poor draemon. She doesn’t have many friends and only two crushes, so the route was looking to be a pretty bleak one. As much as I love sad stories, we already have Faye to lead the parade for stories that will sooner or later end in sadness. Thankfully, that hard work and brainpower that everyone has come to expect from a veteran writer as I paid off and we were able to make a less depressing story. …okay, it wasn’t me. It was Geckos, which leads me to my next transition…

-I’d like to take a moment and welcome Geckos to our team as a background artist. Geckos is a long-time friend of the studio and an incredibly talented artist. You can check out some of her work here!

-Sprites for the main characters are all done! Sprites for the minor characters are beginning! Progress!

-I promised a character corner, so let’s talk… Kika!

Name: Kika Starr
Age: 23
Gender: F
Rank: Lieutenant
Nationality: Katajion
Bio: The navigator for the KSS Nimross. The daughter of a famous politician, Kika has always had whatever she wanted. When she lost her family in a terrorist attack, her only servant sent off to the far side of the universe, and her only friends gone, Kika found herself alone in a universe that didn’t respect her anymore. Kika questions if she can survive in this new universe, clinging to her former status and encouragement from her allies like a life preserver. Out of all the crew, the “princess” is the only person who can rival Natalie in battle tactics and technical knowledge.

Chief’s Notes: Kika Starr… Out of all the characters in Fates, Kika is the oldest of the fictional Katajion characters (concept wise). Her original development started back in the ancient days of 2004. Yes, back in those ancient days when we still used rocks for currency and dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Kika might actually be the first non-RP character to have been developed, I’d have to dig even deeper into my records to see who beats her out. Either way, she’s the oldest out of the Fates’s cast.

Though she’s ancient, Kika Starr hasn’t really changed much since her original concept. Physical build has changed since those days before time, but Kika has always been the princess. Her smugness has been the building block of her character. It’s strange, really. Most people says she’s an incredibly tsundere character, but her traits were designed before I knew what that term meant.

The princess type is a pretty cliche stereotype and Kika’s original role back then was small. I haven’t wrote too many princesses, Ahri from Pyrite Heart and Kika.

Side tangent: Even though they come from the same stereotype, Ahri and Kika ended up very different. Though it pains her to do so, Kika knows when she has to play as a team. She knows who her minions are, but she also makes sure she knows things about them. Though she’d never admit it, Kika cares a lot about her minions and does what she can to help and support them. The other major difference was why they do what they do. Ahri did what she did because she is focused on making herself happy. She wants to keep proving to herself that she is the best, even if nobody else is paying attention. Kika is almost the pure opposite. If there isn’t an audience to validate her, it isn’t worth trying. Kika will go above and beyond to thrill the crowd and show off her brainpower. If there isn’t someone to appreciate her, she slips into lethargy and depression. That’s why Kika always makes a big deal about having her minions around to awe. Behind that tsundere-ness is some pretty heavy co-dependency. Anyway, back to the history lesson.

Like Faye, Kika disappeared from the limelight for a long time. Unlike Faye, who lost her role to Sora before the revamp, Kika didn’t lose her role to anyone. No tsundere princess who wanted to take over the universe stole her crown. During the days of Anton, she simply dropped off the face of the world. It wasn’t Kika’s time or place. She could have infiltrated the story, but… I pretty much forgot about her. I’ve had thousands of characters in this universe and minor characters who never achieved story influence often disappeared. Kika was just another one who had her moment in a few little stories and then faded into obscurity.

When Rising Angels came around, Kika made her return to the scene. Why she made her return, I honestly can’t tell you. I have no idea how she managed to slip onto the roster. She wasn’t part of the original cast, I remember that. The original Red Rose cast didn’t include Kika, Blade, Termin, or Alana. They were included because I wanted to round the squad to an even dozen. The other three were originals, but Kika… Perhaps it was fate. Either way, Kika darted back to the scene, originally with blue pigtails, then with dyed pink drills. Her tsundere meter was cranked to 11 and she was pretty overbearing. I swore she wasn’t coming back to my cast again.

I was pretty adamant that she was unlikable and that she didn’t have a place in Reborn. I wasn’t ready to bet on her forcefulness getting a second chance. However, Kika got that chance thanks to being a favorite of the sprite artist, Nuge. Do I regret giving Kika her third chance at proving to the world that it would soon be hers? Nope. What I think was holding Kika back from evolving into more than Queen Starr was every story had her still attached to her prestige. Reborn was the first time where she had to depend on being Kika, not President Starr’s daughter. In the expansion of Reborn, I got to see more of that side. Even though she loves being the best and being beloved by everyone, even Kika still has dreams and sadness.

It’s something I’m really looking forward to exploring more in Fates. I doubt Kika will ever mellow out or lose that superiority complex, but I see more mental furniture filling in the space behind the wall. Seeing her learn to survive in a world with nothing more than her own strength is enjoyable and it is a lesson that Natalie can learn a little bit from as well. Kika’s route is going to focus more on discovering the truth about yourself when the world is falling around you; I think it is going to be fun. Not as fun though as when we take the water-phobic Kika and go on an undersea exploration to find clues!

I’ve got to bring this to an end. I’ve lost feeling in my knees and Fuzz still hasn’t moved from blocking the backspace key. Development is moving at a good pace and I’m confident for the future! Until next week, Chief out!