Sniper with a heart

So now that I’ve finished that rant, let’s move on to something that is a little more pertinent to the whole Chief being a visual novel developer instead of a ranting emo machine! Today we are going to talk about one of my personal favorite characters and potentially one of yours. Today we are going to talk about someone who is not only a veteran of Katajion’s Dream, but of Anton’s Vacation and Rising Angels! That’s right, she’s someone you might actually know, Trilani Ranger Yoi Mono. For this part, anything in parenthesis is specific to Anton’s Vacation.

 

 

Name: Yoi “Azaia” Mono

Age: 17 (23)

Gender: Female

Species: Half-Elf

Birthday: November 15 (Earth Standard System)

Bloodtype: AB [Bruger’s virus, K-model]

Sexual Preference: Lesbian

Bio: The daughter of a Katajion Director and granddaughter of the Trilani Rangers’ patriarch, many thought that she would have a life of ease. However, her father was assassinated in office while she was only three. She was then sent to live with her mother as an elven ranger trainee. Many in the community resented Minako Mono’s husband, leading to her exile from the world of Troplain. The council also wished to banish the young Yoi, but the Patriarch refused, saying she had commit no offense and would permit the girl to continue training as a ranger and the eventual heiress of the Trilani Rangers.

Yoi grew up with very few friends, suffering the scorn of being a half-elf in a pure blood society. Nonetheless, she tried her best to make friends, often coming off as hyperactive and talkative to conceal her loneliness. In an effort to help his granddaughter out and get her away from the racism, a deal was brokered between the Katajion Directorship to permit Yoi to attend the Space Academy, making her the first Trilani ranger to also attempt to be a combat pilot.

(After her academy days, Yoi was assigned to a squadron with former friends Lenna Edeck and Sol Hackett. Unbeknownst to them, Yoi was on an assignment for the Trilani Rangers. Her mission was to assassinate Commander Anton Rogers. After her mission failed due to shifting mission objectives, Yoi accepted a mercenary job as Commander Roger’s bodyguard. Yoi served with him during the Chaos at Morterous, aiding Dr. Bruger with her virus attempts and undermining Rogers. During the Signing of the Peace Treaty, Yoi was cohered into turning against Anton and preventing the signing of the treaty after a fellow ranger was taken hostage by former Director Nickasomo Zealeuos. Yoi continues to serve Anton, though many question if she can still be trusted.)

 

Chief’s notes: Yoi is a reoccurring villain in pretty much everything she’s ever been in, despite her best efforts to be on the side of good and justice. She’s manipulative and crafty, but she gets rerouted easily. When I was first developing her character, I started out with a slightly modified Rikku for FF10. Yoi was a very minor character who was there for an energetic comic relief character for Lenna. That didn’t stick. Yoi was a very dynamic character who kept ending up in places I never intended her to be.

One thing that has always ate at me while writing Yoi is her energetic, bubbly personality. It always seemed to suit her so well, but something just felt wrong. It was like petting a cat the wrong way. It is still fuzzy, but you know your hand was just seconds from being shredded by claws. Her happiness felt legitimate, but at the same time, I could see her using her own nature as a shield from her feelings. Yoi would be sad, hurt, and emotionally ripped apart in a scene, but she’d just keep acting like everything was fine. The more I wrote her, the more it dawned on me that I didn’t understand a thing about the character I had created. It took me several rewrites and books before I finally saw the true Yoi, a mature girl hurt by years of solitude, forced to hide behind a mask so long that she couldn’t figure out which was her true self.

One thing that is rather special about Yoi is that she’s the first character I’ve ever drawn. I used to draw her so much! Since I’ve dropped out of art, she doesn’t get drawn nearly as much. One thing people might notice is the difference in her hair from Rising Angels and Katajion’s Dream to Anton’s Vacation. To me, it seemed fitting as she uncovered more and more of her true self and found her place in the universe. I personally liked the short, spiky style more, but I know a lot of fans loved her long, wavy hair more. Too bad, it is staying short for Rising Angels!

Yoi in Rising Angels is going to be fun. She’s just managed to escape the world where she’s the lowest of scum and finally has a chance to pursue a little fun and adventure. Out of all the cadets, Yoi is the one who actively pursues Faye with a persistent resolve. Yoi sticks with Faye during all of the routes, loyal to her new friend. Watch out, though. Yoi isn’t known for knowing when to give up or keeping in boundaries. Yoi’s route will be unlocked at the end of Lenna’s Act 2 after a tragic event happens in Faye’s life.

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I’m going to be offline for a while. I’ve got some more character bios that are setup on an automated system though, so expect to see some more updates this week.

Remember, supporting IDHAS is what all the cool kids do!

Today’s vid of the post is one that is rather special to me right now. I’ve never had quite such a fitting song.

And here we go again!

Welcome to the NEW AND IMPROVED version of From Chief’s Desk, the awesome blog posting where I, Chief K. Tsuku, talk about the mystery and magic that happens behind the scenes or just try to get you all up to speed on the series. Maybe I’ll even rant and rave a little! For today I’m going to talk a little bit about a topic that is rapidly become one of my most hated, the lineage of the Foxes of Luck series, aka the Katajion crap.

Today’s topic comes from the notorious trend that I’ve been noticing out of the reviewers and a recent interview with Vns Now. One thing I heard again, and again, and again, and again for the release of Anton’s Vacation was the info dump I had to force upon the audience. It hurt, I know, but I tried to fool myself to think that it was well done and that it wouldn’t bother everyone. Silly me! I might as well have been setting babies on fire for the positive reaction I got. Why, I asked myself. Would they rather have been completely in the dark about what happened earlier in the series? I’m not going to fool myself and think that they all have read the previous books and are well-versed in the antics of Anton Rogers and team. I’ll just quickly bring them up to speed in episode one and then run with it from there. Then it hit me! Everyone was under the impression that Anton’s Vacation was the first of the series, not the final chapter. Oh crap, I realized today. I never made that clear.

Folks, the chronological order of the Generation Two of Foxes of Luck goes as follows.
New World
Tanamon’s War Trilogy
Blueslend Revolution
Rising Angels
Katajion’s Dream
Morterous Theorem
Luck and Chance
Anton’s Vacation

I’m sorry to those whom I might have misled that because AV was the first (released) visual novel of the series that it was the starting point. It wasn’t. Honestly, it is the final chapter, and more of a wrap-up than the usual drama of the series. Looking back, I should have understood that as the only person who knows the series, this was going to happen. Time to change that! Let’s go down the list and see what you missed when you jumped into Anton’s Vacation.

[SPOILERS]

New World:
Highlights- Anton Rogers is involved in a car crash in the early 2000s that puts him into a coma. Per a deal with the local university, his body is used in a cryonics experiment. He is awoken in 2590s to a universe at war.
Anton meets Commander of the Wings Komi Tsuku, Asst. Director Sora Doichu, and Agent Syl Logivechk leading to his first interaction with the Directorship. Anton flees the Directorship after behind-the-scenes talks between the other directors plan on assassinating him.
After negotiations with the Board of Directors, Anton assumes his title of Supreme Commander, though purely in name only.
Why you can’t read it? The only copies were lost during a car crash [IRONY] that destroyed the hard drive and paper copies.

Tanamon’s War:
Highlights- Komi, Sora, Adm. Trigin, Anton, Syl, and a small task force are sent to bring the planet of Trinin into the Directorship. The diplomacy team are ambushed and cut off from rest of the universe. After joining up with the local rebellion, the diplomacy team helps them overthrow the government… and then are betrayed again.
Through technological superiority, tactics, and determination, the team is able to call for backup and subdues the planet.
Why you can’t read it? Never finished other than the outlines and a few pages of script.

Blueslend Revolution:
Highlights- Anton, Syl, and a SF officer called Arnold Reks are send to serve as observers during a revolution on a planet of magic users.
Anton discovers corruption throughout the ranks and is put on a narrow ledge between serving the directorship and protecting its people.
Why you can’t read it? All but two pages were lost in the car crash.

Rising Angels:
Highlights- Lenna and Yoi attend the Katajion Space Academy, which is their first introduction to the series.
RA doesn’t really interact with the rest of the series other than setting up some of the cast of Katjion’s Dream.
Why you can’t read it? It’s still being written right now.

Katajion’s Dream:
Highlights- The first grouping of Anton, Lenna, Name, Yoi, and Syl. Lenna is tasked with helping Anton, who is investigating more corruption in the Directorship. Name is met at the academy and answers the call for recruits, despite her disliked of all parties involved.
Dir. Zealeuos is revealed to be a traitor and kills Lenna during the final confrontation.
Name realizes that nothing she does will ever lead her to her dreams of universe domination and flees.
Anton and Yoi start dating at the end of the book, despite her numerous attempts to kill him throughout the book.
Why can’t you read it? You can, but I haven’t rereleased the version. I’m thinking of doing a chapter by chapter release of it soon. See below,

Morterous Theorem:
Highlights- The story goes into what happened to modern society on Earth and how the universe developed into the way it is today.
Name rejoins the team after being found on Morterous and helps capture Dr. Erika Bruger.
Yoi and Anton break up after both of them conclude that their relationship isn’t going anywhere.
Why you can’t read it? This was the first FoL visual novel. However, before it was released, the only copy of it was deleted by someone I lent my computer to use.

Luck and Chance:
Highlights- Anton is put in charge of the Phoenix Investigation Squad. Before he can assume complete control, the P.I.S is bombed and Anton is kidnapped. Syl, Name, and Yoi go after him.
Anton manages to save himself, though the rest of his team makes it possible. It is discovered that he was kidnapped to prevent the signing of the treaty and ending the war between the Raltin Empire and Katajion Directorship.
Why you can’t read it? Never finished.

Looking back, I think releasing the final piece without the rest of them was not the smartest move in the world. Now I’ve got to decide on how I am going to resolve this issue. The first idea is to just dump the series and go along my merry way with something new and exciting. As tempting as that is, I’ve done that too many times over the years. So, I was thinking that we should start going back through the key parts of the series and releasing them once more to my fans. Starting this upcoming Friday and for every Friday afterward, I will be releasing a chapter of the Foxes of Luck series.

Well, that is all for this week’s episode. Stay tuned next Friday for our first chapter and next Sunday for our next behind-the-scenes showing. This is Chief K. Tsuku signing out!

But before that, here’s the video o’ the post! Well, not so much a video as something you need to listen to.
Greatest thing you will hear today

Annoyance

I don’t often talk about things, but a recent blog called “The Truth about Renpy” has sparked my attention. I have written a counter-argument (if you can call the original an argument). I don’t often step out into the rest of the internet, but when someone does some heavy slandering like that of good people, myself included, I got to step up… and have some fun tearing the argument apart. My counter, “The Truth about The Truth about Renpy” is meant to be read alongside the original. I rarely leave my ivory tower, Jack. You should consider it a privilege.

I know I’ve posted this before as the video of the post, but it just feels so fitting.