[OOC] Reize's Development
Dec. 21st, 2011 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reize_seatlanThis is an entire explanation about Reize, as to what he was like before, his redesign and development, and my muses about him. He has been a concept in development since the end of 2004.
Well, I think that I can say that I had fallen for Reize to be one of my more interesting characters that I have had the chance to be attached to. I have played folks like Will from Illusion of Gaia, who is a part of the inspiration of creating Reize.
I have the habit of playing young characters, child assassins and what not. Don't know why. Maybe it's the shota aspect in me, maybe it's the fact that I like the plunky child characters or the type of character that it is easy for an adult to attach themselves to.
But no, for Reize, he is a Coming of Age character. I want to see him grow up. I want to play him older. However, I do not like starting him older because he has to have the foundation from his younger self. Older Reize, to me, is a sequel.
I have not gotten to that point yet.
During my time in The Eternal Fantasy, a Final Fantasy place that was too god damn stupid through politics. It was the first place I created Reize. Frankly, I am not too proud of how I played him now that I look back, but hey, it was his foundation. Reize was just a thief stealing stuff who took an attachment to the place's main character, Rathe. However, Reize had his own personal nemesis, Justin. Justin was a good friend of mine who I haven't kept in touch with(I'm sorry Justin, I'll AIM you this soon. You've been really cool). One of the most epic battles that I had with him was fighting Mortal Kombat movie style in some shrine where I kicked Rune Dust(prevents magic) into his eyes.
Some of the things that I wasn't proud of was through a collaboration of a friend of mine(who is dear to me still!) of him being her son. I liked the idea at first, until the whole catboy thing. To this day, one person still doesn't consider my character 'Reize' without him being a catboy. Meh. Another thing was when he was captured by a group similar to Shin-Ra called Darkwood. I am not sure what the hell possessed me to do so, but I made my mind-controlled version some MegaMan inspired person with an arm cannon. ...Yeah. I was smoking something, I think.
However, it established a solid basis for Reize:
1) He's a thief.
2) He has a bag full of small trinkets and tricks used to help him outwit folks.
3) He's a semi-hand-to-hand fighter, but he's definately far from monk level.
4) He's built for a more Final Fantasy environment
5) He has an unhealthy obsession with chocobos.
6) He causes a lot of trouble (even unintentionally)
So, it wasn't until that years later that a friend of mine at Videoland MUSH stated that he'd be working on a new Final Fantasy MU* that won't suck. I have had a distinct hatred of FF places because no matter what, they are all the same: take a bunch of the main cast, throw them into one odd world or rip apart pieces of their world into a single place and BAM, a MUSH. That's really creative, folks. No. Really. I suppose this is where my annoyances with Multiverse places come in, since it generally feels the same, although there are some notable different places. But alas, Multiverse--- I will actually continue my rant later.
As my friend mentioned about the Final Fantasy place in development, I redesigned Reize to be PURE human and to come from a family that were past heroes. I drew a bit of inspiration from Huckleberry Finn, who ran away from home. Not because his parents were abusive or crap like that, but he was bored and he wanted to go on an adventure. I am not sure what drew this idea, but I like to be different and obscure. I mused at the idea of Reize being a magician who casted spells through tarots. I had even made real life tarots to draw from during roleplay. Folks have done things similar to this through the dice, which was neat.
In essence, Reize was to be a thief/magician to where I had a fanart made of him.
Another foundation for Reize was his classification: A plunky hero-to-be. Something to get away from the angst-driven characters and be more of a funny, comical character who tends to get himself into some trouble.
Another thing was choosing a weapon for him. To remind folks, I try to be different. It is common for main characters to wield swords. .... I don't like being common at all. So, I went with boomerangs. However, he can still use his boomerangs as if it was a dagger for melee, so if he was trained to a sword? He'd have some experience. Kind of.
So the first place that I experimented with him at was at Shangrila(yeah, I'm there, got a problem? :|) and he's still there, but I haven't done much, but it did put some things in my mind.
Pairings. I always imagined Reize paired off with someone the same way that some heroes would be paired off with.
1) My RP with a Lain at Shangrila had drew the inspiration of Reize being paired off with a brainy, but seemingly cold and shy girl.
2) Initial conversation with someone who played Shinobu Maehara on YIM(who I never heard from EVER AGAIN) mused at the idea of playing someone like her that Reize could pluck off to go on an adventure with him. I actually mused over this idea in the same vein as Illusion of Gaia: Where Will got Kara out of the castle to adventure with him.
3) Princess-type: Self-explanatory. Heroes always gets the princesses, even if they are commoners.
4) Dragon-girl: Mmmm. <3 Anyway, it'd be amusing for Reize to be paired with a female dragon who can manifest into a humanoid form. I think one of the most amusing storylines that came to my mind was inspired by Summon Night 4. The main character finds an egg and raises the dragon(or Reize can save the young dragon from poachers) and he pretty much takes care of her. For the longest time, he'll think it's a boy(partly he's a friend of girls which I will explain later) and will not believe ANYONE (until she finally goes 'screw it' and transforms into a humanoid).
5) Childhood friends. It's another common pairing with heroes.
6) A fairy guide or spiritual guide: Hopefully that's not annoying as Navi from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. :|
I can imagine Reize having arguments with many of his pairings. :D
Although, the next subject, I'll paste because I already wrote it all out before.
I remember why I chose the whole cooties thing. It was fairly common in many RPGs for the main characters to fall for the princesses, or perhaps their best friends. Of course, some are ridiculous more than others (FFIV, anyone?) Then there are cases where the main character is oblivious to the interest, which I thought was cool. But when they made the female blatant with it and the main character _STILL_ oblivious, I thought that was stupid.
This is where I considered the cooties thing. I liked the idea of Reize as an RPG main character in a sense and Gate is an experiment with playing him for Crystal Kingdom coming up. Anyway, one thing was how he'd deal with girls in a more unique way. Reize comes from a small, waterback village, so I figure they would have some strange stories. Considering Reize's unique attitude, well, I figured the cooties things would be amusing. Never before have I seen an RPG hero freak out at girls other than Guy. The idea came before Guy Cecil of Tales of the Abyss, but I -REALLY- liked how Guy was handled, so I went along with the idea of Reize becoming afraid of girls because of cooties.
No one knows what cooties is. Some say it's a bug, some say that it's a sickness. I ran with that mysterious idea of being some sort of disease that someone can get. It's amusing that way since itself is a mystery.
Though I imagine Reize will eventually fall for a princess or bestfriend (or dragon girl), the thought of Reize freaking out over being kissed would be amusing from an RPG standpoint and so on.
As a plunky hero, Reize can be optimistic and sometimes dense, or more curious than he should be. But I had experimented with him at another place to see how he'd turn out: Fantasy Legends. He worked out better than I imagined in a real Final Fantasy setting.
There is one idea that I worked with as far as Reize's magic goes: It was through a pact with spirits, akin to summoning. I guess I was still trying to go with the motif in the picture at the time that I had done. So his tarots were like summons. I did the same thing for GateMUSH, but it kept me from being Final Fantasy, so I had to be from a default original setting. Meh. I couldn't do much if I wanted to make my own plot.
Fandom gets in the way at times. My obsession had been .hack//G.U. because of the whole terror of AIDA. It's like a possessing virus that literally mutates a person. I had the envisioning of Reize's magic working that way, being some parasite that would take over him.
Another influence comes from Legend of Heroes VI, mostly for the fact of a manipulator behind Reize's mutation: His teacher. There was a prominent character in Legend of Heroes who was a very unassuming guy who knew more than he should. He was a leader of an organization that is rather cult-like. His name is Weismann. I had mused over Reize having a teacher with a history that he buried in order to buy himself some time and then used Reize as a convenient tool to open pandora's box with the magic he gave Reize. Whether or not I'll still use the idea, I am not sure.
Admittedly, it deterred from why I created him in the first place, but I can't help it with my fandom sometimes. I wouldn't mind attempting to execute these ideas one day.
It's funny, considering. I liked the idea of a person from the fantasy ages appearing in a modern world to see how he'd handle it. Gate was a good place for that... initially. However, it's a little more difficult for me to get the aspect of keeping low key enough to pretend that I'm in a school ICly. ..So school interaction is difficult itself, otherwise, it would had been amusing for Reize to try to blend in.
You know what? I mused over that. I toyed around with the idea of him eventually being knighted or becoming a prince(hence the being with the princess part) or continuing his adventures. I don't imagine him settling down in one place though.
My recent times in FFMUSH and chats with my friends has given me a new establishment of what his new basis are.
However, it established a solid basis for Reize:
1) He's more of a ranger/rogue in terms of skills. He was trained to hunt in a small village and tends to rely on his resources.
2) He has a bag full of small trinkets and tricks used to help him outwit folks.
3) He's a semi-hand-to-hand fighter, specializing in kicks rather than hands. However, he's definately far from monk level.
4) He's built for a more JRPG environments that isn't melodramatic(FF has crossed that line for me to become sick of it).
5) He has an penchant for getting lost a lot.
6) Trouble comes /HIS/ way no matter what.
7) Reize has the knack for using magical objects without any knowledge of it.
8) His pendant is an overall theme for Young Reize that starts him on his journey. With that, his pendant is the source of his ability to use magic.
To make it just like an RPG, I'll be starting him off at the very beginning of the story: No experience, no magic, etc.
That's my musing.
Well, I think that I can say that I had fallen for Reize to be one of my more interesting characters that I have had the chance to be attached to. I have played folks like Will from Illusion of Gaia, who is a part of the inspiration of creating Reize.
I have the habit of playing young characters, child assassins and what not. Don't know why. Maybe it's the shota aspect in me, maybe it's the fact that I like the plunky child characters or the type of character that it is easy for an adult to attach themselves to.
But no, for Reize, he is a Coming of Age character. I want to see him grow up. I want to play him older. However, I do not like starting him older because he has to have the foundation from his younger self. Older Reize, to me, is a sequel.
I have not gotten to that point yet.
During my time in The Eternal Fantasy, a Final Fantasy place that was too god damn stupid through politics. It was the first place I created Reize. Frankly, I am not too proud of how I played him now that I look back, but hey, it was his foundation. Reize was just a thief stealing stuff who took an attachment to the place's main character, Rathe. However, Reize had his own personal nemesis, Justin. Justin was a good friend of mine who I haven't kept in touch with(I'm sorry Justin, I'll AIM you this soon. You've been really cool). One of the most epic battles that I had with him was fighting Mortal Kombat movie style in some shrine where I kicked Rune Dust(prevents magic) into his eyes.
Some of the things that I wasn't proud of was through a collaboration of a friend of mine(who is dear to me still!) of him being her son. I liked the idea at first, until the whole catboy thing. To this day, one person still doesn't consider my character 'Reize' without him being a catboy. Meh. Another thing was when he was captured by a group similar to Shin-Ra called Darkwood. I am not sure what the hell possessed me to do so, but I made my mind-controlled version some MegaMan inspired person with an arm cannon. ...Yeah. I was smoking something, I think.
However, it established a solid basis for Reize:
1) He's a thief.
2) He has a bag full of small trinkets and tricks used to help him outwit folks.
3) He's a semi-hand-to-hand fighter, but he's definately far from monk level.
4) He's built for a more Final Fantasy environment
5) He has an unhealthy obsession with chocobos.
6) He causes a lot of trouble (even unintentionally)
So, it wasn't until that years later that a friend of mine at Videoland MUSH stated that he'd be working on a new Final Fantasy MU* that won't suck. I have had a distinct hatred of FF places because no matter what, they are all the same: take a bunch of the main cast, throw them into one odd world or rip apart pieces of their world into a single place and BAM, a MUSH. That's really creative, folks. No. Really. I suppose this is where my annoyances with Multiverse places come in, since it generally feels the same, although there are some notable different places. But alas, Multiverse--- I will actually continue my rant later.
As my friend mentioned about the Final Fantasy place in development, I redesigned Reize to be PURE human and to come from a family that were past heroes. I drew a bit of inspiration from Huckleberry Finn, who ran away from home. Not because his parents were abusive or crap like that, but he was bored and he wanted to go on an adventure. I am not sure what drew this idea, but I like to be different and obscure. I mused at the idea of Reize being a magician who casted spells through tarots. I had even made real life tarots to draw from during roleplay. Folks have done things similar to this through the dice, which was neat.
In essence, Reize was to be a thief/magician to where I had a fanart made of him.
Another foundation for Reize was his classification: A plunky hero-to-be. Something to get away from the angst-driven characters and be more of a funny, comical character who tends to get himself into some trouble.
Another thing was choosing a weapon for him. To remind folks, I try to be different. It is common for main characters to wield swords. .... I don't like being common at all. So, I went with boomerangs. However, he can still use his boomerangs as if it was a dagger for melee, so if he was trained to a sword? He'd have some experience. Kind of.
So the first place that I experimented with him at was at Shangrila(yeah, I'm there, got a problem? :|) and he's still there, but I haven't done much, but it did put some things in my mind.
Pairings. I always imagined Reize paired off with someone the same way that some heroes would be paired off with.
1) My RP with a Lain at Shangrila had drew the inspiration of Reize being paired off with a brainy, but seemingly cold and shy girl.
2) Initial conversation with someone who played Shinobu Maehara on YIM(who I never heard from EVER AGAIN) mused at the idea of playing someone like her that Reize could pluck off to go on an adventure with him. I actually mused over this idea in the same vein as Illusion of Gaia: Where Will got Kara out of the castle to adventure with him.
3) Princess-type: Self-explanatory. Heroes always gets the princesses, even if they are commoners.
4) Dragon-girl: Mmmm. <3 Anyway, it'd be amusing for Reize to be paired with a female dragon who can manifest into a humanoid form. I think one of the most amusing storylines that came to my mind was inspired by Summon Night 4. The main character finds an egg and raises the dragon(or Reize can save the young dragon from poachers) and he pretty much takes care of her. For the longest time, he'll think it's a boy(partly he's a friend of girls which I will explain later) and will not believe ANYONE (until she finally goes 'screw it' and transforms into a humanoid).
5) Childhood friends. It's another common pairing with heroes.
6) A fairy guide or spiritual guide: Hopefully that's not annoying as Navi from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. :|
I can imagine Reize having arguments with many of his pairings. :D
Although, the next subject, I'll paste because I already wrote it all out before.
I remember why I chose the whole cooties thing. It was fairly common in many RPGs for the main characters to fall for the princesses, or perhaps their best friends. Of course, some are ridiculous more than others (FFIV, anyone?) Then there are cases where the main character is oblivious to the interest, which I thought was cool. But when they made the female blatant with it and the main character _STILL_ oblivious, I thought that was stupid.
This is where I considered the cooties thing. I liked the idea of Reize as an RPG main character in a sense and Gate is an experiment with playing him for Crystal Kingdom coming up. Anyway, one thing was how he'd deal with girls in a more unique way. Reize comes from a small, waterback village, so I figure they would have some strange stories. Considering Reize's unique attitude, well, I figured the cooties things would be amusing. Never before have I seen an RPG hero freak out at girls other than Guy. The idea came before Guy Cecil of Tales of the Abyss, but I -REALLY- liked how Guy was handled, so I went along with the idea of Reize becoming afraid of girls because of cooties.
No one knows what cooties is. Some say it's a bug, some say that it's a sickness. I ran with that mysterious idea of being some sort of disease that someone can get. It's amusing that way since itself is a mystery.
Though I imagine Reize will eventually fall for a princess or bestfriend (or dragon girl), the thought of Reize freaking out over being kissed would be amusing from an RPG standpoint and so on.
As a plunky hero, Reize can be optimistic and sometimes dense, or more curious than he should be. But I had experimented with him at another place to see how he'd turn out: Fantasy Legends. He worked out better than I imagined in a real Final Fantasy setting.
There is one idea that I worked with as far as Reize's magic goes: It was through a pact with spirits, akin to summoning. I guess I was still trying to go with the motif in the picture at the time that I had done. So his tarots were like summons. I did the same thing for GateMUSH, but it kept me from being Final Fantasy, so I had to be from a default original setting. Meh. I couldn't do much if I wanted to make my own plot.
Fandom gets in the way at times. My obsession had been .hack//G.U. because of the whole terror of AIDA. It's like a possessing virus that literally mutates a person. I had the envisioning of Reize's magic working that way, being some parasite that would take over him.
Another influence comes from Legend of Heroes VI, mostly for the fact of a manipulator behind Reize's mutation: His teacher. There was a prominent character in Legend of Heroes who was a very unassuming guy who knew more than he should. He was a leader of an organization that is rather cult-like. His name is Weismann. I had mused over Reize having a teacher with a history that he buried in order to buy himself some time and then used Reize as a convenient tool to open pandora's box with the magic he gave Reize. Whether or not I'll still use the idea, I am not sure.
Admittedly, it deterred from why I created him in the first place, but I can't help it with my fandom sometimes. I wouldn't mind attempting to execute these ideas one day.
It's funny, considering. I liked the idea of a person from the fantasy ages appearing in a modern world to see how he'd handle it. Gate was a good place for that... initially. However, it's a little more difficult for me to get the aspect of keeping low key enough to pretend that I'm in a school ICly. ..So school interaction is difficult itself, otherwise, it would had been amusing for Reize to try to blend in.
You know what? I mused over that. I toyed around with the idea of him eventually being knighted or becoming a prince(hence the being with the princess part) or continuing his adventures. I don't imagine him settling down in one place though.
My recent times in FFMUSH and chats with my friends has given me a new establishment of what his new basis are.
However, it established a solid basis for Reize:
1) He's more of a ranger/rogue in terms of skills. He was trained to hunt in a small village and tends to rely on his resources.
2) He has a bag full of small trinkets and tricks used to help him outwit folks.
3) He's a semi-hand-to-hand fighter, specializing in kicks rather than hands. However, he's definately far from monk level.
4) He's built for a more JRPG environments that isn't melodramatic(FF has crossed that line for me to become sick of it).
5) He has an penchant for getting lost a lot.
6) Trouble comes /HIS/ way no matter what.
7) Reize has the knack for using magical objects without any knowledge of it.
8) His pendant is an overall theme for Young Reize that starts him on his journey. With that, his pendant is the source of his ability to use magic.
To make it just like an RPG, I'll be starting him off at the very beginning of the story: No experience, no magic, etc.
That's my musing.
