Atario wrote:Question for the writers: Of the various fanfics that have been written about KS, do you consider any of them to be of a quality equal to or better than your own work on the game? If so, which?
The most activity we've had in the fanfic forums was either posting our own stuff as a way to blow off steam during the project's creation, or commenting on stuff that other 4ls members wrote. That said, I will occasionally glance through a topic or two on days where I get bored. There's some okay stuff there, but I haven't really felt the need to comment on anything.
What's 'ArtPlus™ Criticism Deflection Technology'? I've always thought such a thing would be really cool. It appears on the last page of the KS Game Manual PDF.
Post-Yamaku, what happens? After The Dream is a mosaic that follows everyone to the (sometimes) bitter end. Main Index (Complete)—Shizune/Lilly/Emi/Hanako/Rin/Misha + Miki + Natsume
Secondary Arcs: Rika/Mutou/Akira • Hideaki | Others (WIP): Straw—A Dream of Suzu • Sakura—The Kenji Saga. "Much has been lost, and there is much left to lose." — Tim Powers, The Drawing of the Dark (1979)
Exactly what it sounds like. We licensed it from the leading innovators in criticism deflection industry.
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
I obviously am disqualified from considering Rin's route here, but of the other four, Shizune's is my favourite.
22 writes really good sentences and most of the time, the best dialogue out of any of us. A reader can delve deeper into Shizune's route than the others, which I personally like too. Now if only the side characters' character designs were less clowny.
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
On the subject of Shizune's route, how do the devs feel about the idea that Hideaki has a female or nonbinary gender identity?
By which I mean, just as it's easy for a reader to interpret Kenji as being in denial about his sexuality, it's pretty easy to read Hideaki as being a trans girl or nonbinary person who is either in deep denial about their gender identity or who is aware of it, but feigns ignorance about it as a defense mechanism. Do his writers feel this is a valid interpretation, or is that completely off the mark?
I'm of the school of thought that it's not really my place to tell what interpretations are valid and what are not. Any interpretations that don't factually clash with the work as it is could be considered plausible, and the discussion is about how it affects the reading of the work.
I'll just remark that there's approximately equal amounts of evidence in the novel script for your theory and, say, Hideaki being forced to dress up like a clown as a punishment by his father because he underachieved in a chemistry exam. Or being a lizard alien from outer space. It's been a while since I read it, but I don't think it would make any difference for the story either way?
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
I gotta say, he doesn't really need to be labelled as anything based on he likes to dress effeminately. Hell, I'm always the first one to suggest crossdressing when someone says 'fancy dress'. Has nothing to do with my gender, I just do it for shits and giggles.