Emi: The Lost Girl

[TheHivemind]

Hmm, hmm.

A topic like this one sort of cries out for the writer himself to step in and make some sort of defense/explanation of why Emi was such a (let us be blunt, yes, blunt is good) nonentity in the Act 1 demo. Because she was, really, not that much of a star. Come on, look at how it ends! They have some food and then Hisao wanders off, basically. No big CG to cap things off, no fireworks, no nothin'.

Well now, isn't that a failing on the writer's part? I mean, this was for the Big Demo, and it was the chance for all of us to show as much as we could about the girls in order to build a following. More than that, it's the end of the first act, which should probably end with a bang, yeah?

Except Emi doesn't, and she doesn't for a couple of reasons that I figure ought to be understood:

First of all, Emi had no stake in the festival. She wasn't in charge of anything, and her club of choice (the track team, which is a team and not a club anyway) had nothing big going on. Sure, I guess she could have been involved in something for her classroom, but it wouldn't have anything to do with her in particular, really. I didn't want to give too much away about Emi as a character, so for all intents and purposes she had to be the 'normal' one here. Cheerful, a bit of a more aggressive interest in Hisao's health than the other girls, and a passion for running. Some of the comments I've read here have actually caught me a bit off guard in the way that people commenting on things I wasn't thinking about at the time will occasionally do--I was afraid; terribly so, that Emi was actually in worse shape than some of you have said.

But on the other hand, it was just the first act. And Emi didn't have much in the first act (not to mention most of the scenes with her were written by one of the other path writers, usually the writer of whichever girl happened to show up in Emi's scenes. This might sound like a cop-out to some, but I actually view it as more of a failure on my part to be more involved with the act one business. I fiddled with the scenes she's in, but only a few of them were wholly written by me. The festival was all me, so its lackadaisical ending is all me, which is really what most of the commentary on the path has had a problem with. So please, please understand that whatever you found lacking or didn't like about Emi's character was probably my doing). The plain truth is I didn't have much of an investment in the first act, being more concerned with what happens after the festival rather than all that introductory business. It sounds lousy to say "I know she wasn't much of an interesting character in the first act, but give it time and I promise she'll get better, honest!" but that's exactly what I'm saying. Emi gets better the more Hisao hangs out with her, which is generally how these things work, at least in my own head.

The end of the festival scene is something I regret and have in the past thought about going in and changing, if only to alleviate the sheer anticlimax of the end of the act. But it's not something I think will really be all that necessary come the full release, because there will be other things that will make the festival seem trivial by comparison.

The sex, for example, will be hilarious. Or excellent. Or both.

Hope this explains some things without raising too many other questions. If you have any questions, ask away. I'll answer them as clearly or opaquely as I can manage. This is your chance to finally call me out on ruining what would have been your favorite character! Don't let it slip by, lest my own short attention span forget that this topic exists!

EDIT: And yes, you could also try to just yell at me over IRC, but I don't get on very often and even when I do I am basically distracted most of the time. This is the best option for actually getting a reply.

[Pimmy]

I remember once someone saying that perhaps Emi was least popular because "pseudo-lolis" have gone out of fashion, being replaced by actual little kids. If it was someone here, sorry for not remembering you!

But I've already said my opinions, and I do indeed like Emi! Actually, since art wasn't the topic, I think my true least-favorite part of her and her route is the sprites and CGs. I'm always resisting the urge to get out the red brush tool in photoshop and scribble all over them like an english teacher on a bad day.

[TheHivemind]

I remember once someone saying that perhaps Emi was least popular because "pseudo-lolis" have gone out of fashion, being replaced by actual little kids. If it was someone here, sorry for not remembering you!

The whole pseudo-loli thing has always been a bother to me, if only because I've written Emi as (I hope) far more mature than such characters usually behave, all calling people onee-chan or whatever the fuck and sucking more cock than a... thing that sucks lots of cocks.

It has always been my hope that Emi's sprites and such wound up looking slightly less pseudo-loli-ish than most examples generally do, and at one point (though I'm pretty sure I removed it for being a little too silly) had Hisao commenting that her breasts were actually present and of a decent size. I don't recall exactly why he felt the need to mention it, but it's one of those things that have been constantly on my mind, mostly because I don't much care for the pseudo-loli type anyway. It is my hope that Emi at most only vaguely resembles any of the stereotypes, though we all know that it crept in the moment Emi became energetic and cheerful, which was more or less from day one.

[Pimmy]

I remember once someone saying that perhaps Emi was least popular because "pseudo-lolis" have gone out of fashion, being replaced by actual little kids. If it was someone here, sorry for not remembering you!

The whole pseudo-loli thing has always been a bother to me, if only because I've written Emi as (I hope) far more mature than such characters usually behave, all calling people onee-chan or whatever the fuck and sucking more cock than a... thing that sucks lots of cocks.

It has always been my hope that Emi's sprites and such wound up looking slightly less pseudo-loli-ish than most examples generally do, and at one point (though I'm pretty sure I removed it for being a little too silly) had Hisao commenting that her breasts were actually present and of a decent size. I don't recall exactly why he felt the need to mention it, but it's one of those things that have been constantly on my mind, mostly because I don't much care for the pseudo-loli type anyway. It is my hope that Emi at most only vaguely resembles any of the stereotypes, though we all know that it crept in the moment Emi became energetic and cheerful, which was more or less from day one.

I actually don't mind the stereotype myself, (Better than a tsundere or something ) and even favor them out of character casts sometimes, but yeah I can see where it would bug people, and it definitely comes off as generic. I think it's great that she has energy, well she naturally would anyway, considering her hobby! But it's good to hear you're making Emi her own person. My first impression of Emi was "I feel like I've met a girl like this! I'd want her to be my friend." I'll hold out to see how well the "cheerful" type can be played out without being to archetypal!o
...flat chests are nice too. /opinions

Though I'm curious, who was in charge of the rooftop lunch? It seems to have an equal amount of Emi and Rin participating, and also gave a good idea of both characters.

[TheHivemind]

I actually don't mind the stereotype myself, (Better than a tsundere or something ) and even favor them out of character casts sometimes, but yeah I can see where it would bug people, and it definitely comes off as generic. I think it's great that she has energy, well she naturally would anyway, considering her hobby! But it's good to hear you're making Emi her own person. My first impression of Emi was "I feel like I've met a girl like this! I'd want her to be my friend." I'll hold out to see how well the "cheerful" type can be played out without being to archetypal!o
...flat chests are nice too. /opinions

Though I'm curious, who was in charge of the rooftop lunch? It seems to have an equal amount of Emi and Rin participating, and also gave a good idea of both characters.

This is actually embarrassing to admit, but I don't remember. It was either Aura or myself, or perhaps one wrote and the other edited the dialog to make it more sensible? Or was it an old bit that we tweaked for the Act I overhaul? Act I was such a hodgepodge I can't actually say with certainty who did it, though I suspect it was probably more Aura than myself. That's always a good assumption to make with the Act I stuff when it comes to Rin, anyway.

And flat chests may be all well and good, but they have a distressing tendency to become the only thing you remember about the character, at least in some cases. Emi already has the genki girl stereotype, she didn't need to be full-blown flat chest as well, the poor thing.

[Elroy]

Funny you mention that, I believe Emi is the only girl (that I can remember) whose chest was commented on by Hisao. It was funny to me, because Lilly and Shizune's are, well, ahem, a little more noteworthy. The loli thing doesn't really come to mind when I think of (or even look at) Emi, though. She's already had enough distinct character attributes that aren't loli or childlike, so to even classify her as "pseudo-loli" would be reaching, to me. She seems to be more of a teenage girl/young woman, just in a short, (for lack of a better word) youthful, body. She reminds me of a lot of girls I've known in real life, but with more character and depth, if you can believe that

[Deimos]

...flat chests are nice too. /opinions

A wise female friend once told me long ago that the size of the breasts does not matter, only the size of the hand that tries to touch them.


I just wanted to say here that Emi has one of the most important themes of the game. She is not struggling against her disability or barely coping with or compensating it through something but I cannot help to feel that she sees the good in her disability and enjoys what she can. She might have no legs but at least she can run unlike Shizune who will never hear, Lilly who will never see, Rin who will never have arms, Hanako who will never look normal.
She is lucky and I think she understands that and Hisao could use that attitude.

And I do not think you should change anything. An anticlimax is a literary device that is as important as a normal climax and as they say: variatio delectat.

[Notguest]

P.S. MORE FOOD ALLEGORIES GOGO

They're more like extended metaphors. And very annoying too.

[GMKGoat]

The sex, for example, will be hilarious. Or excellent. Or both.

We await with bated breath to see this promise come to fruition.

[Pimmy]

Man, back in the day Lina Inverse's chest was called flat

Amusing enough answer, Hivemind!

A wise female friend once told me long ago that the size of the breasts does not matter, only the size of the hand that tries to touch them.

I am not sure what kind of knowledge can even be taken from this. I will continue the food metaphors and just compare it in my head to that Burger King commercial with the tiny hands.

[techk8]

I swear to God there's a picture of Kyon saying "A true breast lover loves breasts of all sizes. His favorite breasts are the ones that are his lover's."

[ever17]

Hivemind TYVM for replying, you made a good point about how Emi had no real stake in the festival, so it makes sense that her scene wouldn't be as big as the others. But just like you said, if the rest of her route goes somewhere awesome, then it will hardly matter.

[Warwick]

I'm just pleasantly surprised that Hivemind came and presented a thought-out, coherent, and level-headed response. Past experience interacting with devs usually resulted in curt brush-offs or trolling, so in a way, thanks, Hivemind. You brought Emi a few points higher in my book.

[TheHivemind]

Hivemind TYVM for replying, you made a good point about how Emi had no real stake in the festival, so it makes sense that her scene wouldn't be as big as the others. But just like you said, if the rest of her route goes somewhere awesome, then it will hardly matter.

Opinions are currently divided on whether or not it is awesome. I myself have my own doubts (and this is after scrapping the whole path at least twice and overhauling it once), but after a certain period of time it will come down to sending the final revisions off and forcing m'self to live with them. Authors always claim that their work is never done, and I always figured that was them being pretentious fucks, but I have to sheepishly admit it's true.

I'm just pleasantly surprised that Hivemind came and presented a thought-out, coherent, and level-headed response. Past experience interacting with devs usually resulted in curt brush-offs or trolling, so in a way, thanks, Hivemind. You brought Emi a few points higher in my book.

Emi's had a bit of a rough go, development wise, so it would be pretty fucking silly for me to have not given this sort of question a thought, especially when it is precisely the sort of comment about Emi's path that shows up most often in the feedback thread. I'm confident that this thread won't put them to rest either, but at least some of you dudes have what is, I hope, a better understanding of the reasons behind it all.

It also helps that I've been incommunicado for like a month and a half, so it's impossible to build up the proper levels of bile that come from spending too much time reading the forums all in one day. I'm out of practice.

[HeMeido]

Opinions are currently divided on whether or not it is awesome. I myself have my own doubts (and this is after scrapping the whole path at least twice and overhauling it once)

I hate you a little bit. Although I guess it's fine as long as KS doesn't turn into the cripple porn version of Superman Returns.