For this blog post I will mention some of the plans I have for Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose. Because of the scope of the entire saga, it’ll take me a while to finish the story for the entire saga. However, I have some plans for the entire saga, as well as some of its entries, which I will detail here.
A word of warning here. Following this paragraph will be spoilers for the entire saga. So if you do not want to see spoilers, please turn back now (or just don’t click on the post itself).
Innocence Sekeers: The Black Rose
First, my plans for the entire saga itself. Some of the entries within the saga are more closely linked with each other than with the other entries; these represent the entries which detail a particular storyline of the saga (e.g. the Dark Angel subseries follows one particular storyline; namely, that involving the Dark Angel). At the moment, I have three different storylines spanning different entries: the Dark Angel storyline (1989-2008), the Gakran storyline (1992-2009) and the Treproa storyline (2003-2008). I’m also considering linking Mimori Flower Club to April Light as well.
While I’ve been thinking up possible storylines, one of the things which came into my mind were battles. Because of the scope of the saga and its setting, large-scale military conflicts will form an important part of the story. In fact, I’ve decided where the final battle of the entire saga will take place, and it will be suitably epic. The battle, which will take place in Barcelona, will feature the combined military might of nearly every nation in the galaxy fighting against the saga villain’s massive demonic army, navy and air force. This is a culmination of a combined effort by the nations to take back the vast amounts of territory in Europe, North Africa and West Asia which the villain had taken over. Now that most of the territory has gone back into the hands of the Allies, they prepare to launch a final assault on the villain’s stronghold in Barcelona.
The battle will feature hundreds if not thousands of ships, including dozens of aircraft carriers, around a thousand fighter jets roaming the skies, several airborne aircraft carriers supplied by Likkra and Namari (by far the most advanced nations in terms of technology), armies numbering in the hundreds of thousands launching a ground assault on the city, and even the assistance of the spaceships LSNS Huang Long and NSNS Amaterasu. All of this is supplemented by magical knowledge and technology brought in by Earth’s governments in response to the events in Akari of the Light and April Light. Once the line has been breached, the heroes of the final entry of the saga will sneak into the city, and into the palace where the villain is residing, in an effort to defeat him once and for all.
Innocence Seekers: Akari of the Light
At the moment, I’m programming the battle system test, which I will upload once it is complete. In the mean time, I’ve completed half of the story, and plan to move on to Chapter 3 very soon. One thing I realised, though, is that some of the changes I’ve made along the way may end up resulting in too many plot points being resolved in too little time. It was actually late that I’ve decided to give every girl a witch with which they can form a contract (in the interests of implementing this mechanic in the battle system), with the effect that only three of the eight witches by blood have formed contracts at the halfway point. Not only do I have five to go, I also have to put in not one, but two battles against Gakran as well. An option is to extend Chapter 3 (which I’ve planned to last around as long as Chapter 1, around 200 kilobytes of raw UTF-8 text) and/or Chapter 4. Another option is to add an additional chapter.
For the game itself, I’ve decided to add four more playable characters. However, these characters can only be obtained after the player has finished the main story, and will most likely join at level 100 once the player has fulfilled certain conditions. I will list these characters below:
- Sumire Shiba (紫葉 すみれ)
- Himawari Higasa (日傘 ひまわり)
- Yuri Shirakawa (白川 ゆり)
- Kaede Yuzuhara (柚原 楓)
I’ve mentioned Sumire, Himawari and Yuri before (they’re members of the Mimori Flower Club, of which Sakura is also a member). However, I haven’t mentioned Kaede at all, and it was relatively late that I decided to actually write her in (as opposed to keeping her in my plans in my head). Kaede is one of Akari’s classmates, who considers herself a rival of Akari and Hiyori. She’s very competitive, and constantly desires to get first place. Despite this, she has a good relationship with Akari and her friends. Like Akari, Kaede is a magical girl; however, she’s not as strong as the others, and is left behind to defend Yaezora while Akari and her friends head to Japan in Chapter 3.
Innocence Seekers: April Light
At the moment, I’m working out the flower motifs of each of the girls. I’ve already decided Uzuki’s and Himawari’s flower motifs (for Uzuki, its Deutzia crenata, known in Japanese as 卯の花 u no hana, and Himawari’s is, of course, the same as that of the other Himawari, the sunflower). For Benio, I’m thinking something red, while I’m not sure about Wakaba.
I haven’t decided how many chapters the story comprises, but I plan to make a story based on “World Orbs”. Adopted from Magical Kurumi-chan, the World Orbs are supposed to be the very essence of life in a world (whether that be a planet, galaxy, or even the universe). Each planet has four or five World Orbs, and there are galactic World Orbs as well. Regardless of the “world” the World Orbs govern, they’re supposed to be well-hidden and difficult to obtain or destroy. In my plans, the plot involves someone taking the World Orbs of an uninhabited planet to wreak havoc across the galaxy.
And that’s all I’ll write for now.
P.S. I wish a happy birthday to Chika Takami of Love Live! Sunshine!!. Honoka’s birthday is coming up in two days, so…