Rosenkreuzstilette Article 3: I should just change the name of my comic to Ravy-Kreuz Stilette


Rosenkreuzstilette	RKS 2: The search for more references.	Rosenkreuzstilette 3: Musical chairs.	Rosenkreuzstilette 4: I ain't tired of it yet.	Rosenkreuzstilette 5: A Fraking Good Time.

Musical Chairs.

First of all you will need a LEGITIMATELY PURCHASED COPY of Rosenkreuzstilette. This only works on copies bought from legit resellers such as DLSite.com.

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(Okay I tell a lie. Just between you and me it works on pirated copies as well. I'm just trying to get the programmers some cash for their hard work.)

Next you will need the Rosenkreuzstilette Data Archive Decoder.

Third you will need to grab up Audacity for the editing and encoding.

Now go to your Rosenkreuzstilette folder on your hard drive and copy it elsewhere. You don't want to screw up your original. Trust me, you will be screwing with it.

Using the RKSDAD to turn the bgm.dat file into a folder chocked full of all the music in the game. Now read closely. I am going to say this on the next line in all caps:

DELETE THE bgm.dat FILE!

Let me repeat that:

DELETE THE bgm.dat FILE!

Your eyes are not deceiving you. I said delete it. You don't need any more. The game will run fine without it. As long as the bgm folder is there. Also, if you don't get rid of the .dat file all the work you do won't turn up in the game.

(Or, if you just can't bring yourself to do that, just rename the .dat file.)

(I've been wondering why the .dat files are even there. Why aren't they compiled into the .exe? Are the .dat files generated by the program that erka:es used to make Rosenkreuzstilette? Are they a security device to keep people like me from being able to easily rip the graphics and turn them into comic strips?)

Go into the new bgm folder and you will see two different types of files: OGG and INI.

This time I don't recommend deleting all the INI files. What the INI does (from what I can figure) is pretty much tell the game at what point in the song to loop from. I recommend that you delete an individual INI on a per song basis.

Let's choose a song to change. How about the one titled 'decision?' I'm picking this song so I can go into a long boring technical explanation behind one of the reasons why I said to use Audacity. When you see the waveform of 'decision' you should notice that it is longer than eight total seconds.

(The actual song itself is about six seconds, for some reason there's a huge chunk of silence at the end.) However when playing RKS the whole song doesn't play. Only about five to five-and-a-half seconds is played. The rest is cut off. I have been having a bear of a time trying to find a song to fit in there. I can't even get Megaman X4 stage start edited correctly.)

(Okay, I'm done picking on this song. So let's pick on another.)

After choosing the replacement song. (Doesn't matter what, you can use 'Panties in the Glove Box' for all I care.) I usually open the new song up in another instance of Audacity, Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, go to the Rosenkreuzstilette song, Ctrl-A, delete, and finally Ctrl-V. At about this point in time is when I make the necessary edits and volume fixes.

When you're ready, you need to export the file as an OGG Vorbis. It has to be in OGG format. I tried MP3 and it didn't work. Audacity will ask if you want to overwrite the original file, say yes. Turn on the game and your new sound should play.

There's still trial and error going on. Remember those INI files? This is where they can create havoc. If you picked a new song that is shorter than the amount of time it takes you play a stage, the song will start over. The INI file make the song restart from the middle. If I was smart enough, (and had any patience at all) I could decode the numbers in the INI. But, I just stick to what I know. I edit the song so they are much longer or loop correctly.

By the way, using the RKSDADqwertyuiop you can edit the graphics.

Rosenkreuzstilette 2:

Duchess Neuwahl: Freu-ever.

For the last couple of years now a lot of us fans have been bitching about the constant delays in Rosenkreuzstilette 2. Instead of continuing with what I started way back in the first article, why not take in some appreciation of a back to back look at the two demos?

With the first demo we get quite the bare bones game. Not much in the way of thrills. The same sound and music. Same bad guys with touch ups to their designs. However we get a real good look at the direction Isemiya and Womi want to go in.

New hero. Freudia's move set is identical to Spiritia's, but her game is much harder. You have a limited supply of you own weapon. Freu's weapon is altered by the bosses she defeats. Think Zero. Many people compare Grolla to Zero, duh hard to miss. But look at the way Freu's and Zero's weapons are enhanced by beating bosses.

That lends itself to much more intricate gameplay. Can we please get more weapon refills dropped?

Two things I found annoying: Freudia's incessant need to say "Freudenstachel" almost every time she jumps. Her jumps tend not to be as far as you think they'd be.

What I'm liking the most is the stage design. Not being so heavily reliant on Megaman. While elements show up, there's a unique touch. Winds blowing you around in Liebea's stage, blood rain and bloody floors in Grolla's, to the use of those infernal disappearing bricks in Zorne's.

This is really a rough draft, much rougher than the demo to the first game. There's potential there.

(Whilst digging through the graphics, I found these unused backgrounds, maybe there was supposed to be an opening stage?)

Now we have the second demo. OUTSTANDING! I think it is better than the first game. Isemiya and Womi are really going all out. They're pouring tons of creativity into this.

Mostly. Let's get that out of the way. We get an opening stage, but Eifer's attack is so similar to Freudia's in the first game. We have that Megaman feeling in Sichte's stage with elements of Elecman and Crashman. As if Megaman and Castlevania weren't enough, now we get Ghosts and Goblins. Those disappearing blocks have a tendency to push you to the side causing you to fall. Seems are still everywhere.

It's still a bit rough, but progress is evident.

Let's talk good. Freudia is much quieter. All new stage music. Jumping is as it should be. Little things like the hands on the clock move. Difficulty is much greater than the first game, you keep doing the stages and battles you start to figure out the patterns. Just takes me a little longer this time around.

We get an all new opening story.

Wow, no wondering why it's taking so long to get out the whole game.

The interesting bit I noted playing both demos back to back as I did for this review, I think that the programmers are designing the second half of each stage first, then doing the first half. The second part of Zorne's and Grolla's stages are pretty much same in both demos, but the first parts are almost completely different.

(Note I said "almost" and "pretty much.")
Walking on blood is not like walking on water or ice. In most games I jump to get walking at full speed, not here. It still takes an extra second to get moving.

Another interesting note is that portions of Liebea's stage was shifted over to Sichte's.

Even the game over screen.

Speaking of Sichte's stage, here's a little hint when having to deal with erec_zako:

Overall Rosenkreuzstilette 2 is looking awesome. Based on the second demo alone I give it an 8. Better than the first. But we have to wait and see the whole game before passing any real judgement.

By the way, does the phrase "vapor ware" mean anything to you?


Rosenkreuzstilette	RKS 2: The search for more references.	Rosenkreuzstilette 3: Musical chairs.	Rosenkreuzstilette 4: I ain't tired of it yet.	Rosenkreuzstilette 5: A Fraking Good Time.

Hatred in the name of RKS.

For some reason RKS has generated a tremendous amount of hatred. Am I talking about people who played the game and don't like it? No. People who haven't played the game and don't like it? No. Church groups? Nope. Atheists? Nada. It is fans of RKS poisoning the internet with comments on forums and blogs.

Who are these fans? They are people that have appointed themselves the elite. Their words are the only opinions allowed. Their art is the only consideration. Their fanfics are the only just and true. They are the elite fans, or as I like the call them: the Magnificent Fans. (MFers for short.)

What are the MFers talking about? Pirates uploading the game to free download sites? No. People hacking the game and filling it full of viruses? Nope. People having taken credit for making the game? Nada.

The first thing that sets off these Magnificent Fans is fan art that they didn't create in the first place. They wouldn't call it crap, but they call it crap. They go to sites that host art and trash all that is not in the same exact style used in RKS. Completely ignorant of the fact that RKS uses several animation styles. Apparently the MFers never read any comic books. Often fan art is published in mainstream books. I flipped through an old issue of Sonic the Hedgehog. A page dedicated to people as young as ten able to draw really well, and those who don't draw so good. You see, the professionals at Archie appreciate their fans and the time and effort it takes to do fan art. And the bravery it takes to send off one's work to get reviewed that may never even get looked at in the first place. Posting on the internet is even braver. There are people who sole purpose is to take a dump on those who are not to the Magnificent Fans standards.

While on this subject, if you happen to have the Saturn Version Of Megaman 8, there is a fan art section. By the way, most of the robot masters Capcom chose are from fan art.

Now away from fan art and into the next item that sends the MFers into wild fits. They get out the venom-fuel flame cannons for this. What is it? Fanfics. You read that right. Fanfics. The Mfers hate fanfics they don't write themselves. Some of the stuff that is said goes beyond the pale. Rosie O'Donnell would tell these people to chill out. If you decide to give say Luste an older brother, you're a retard. (Their word.) You'd be lucky to get called just that.

You know all those Star Wars and Star Trek books? All fanfics. They are officially sanctioned, but that doesn't mean even Bill Shatner follows the exact characterizing of CPT Kirk.

The people that do the fanwork based on RKS are accused of distorting the game. That someone might happen across one of these fanfics is a complete idiot and not know what Google is. I do know and tried it out. Hilarity ensued. A couple of the people that were falsely accused of stealing RKS through their fanfics actually placed higher, A LOT higher, than the MFers forums. Now the Magnificent Fans will say "See, this proves it, we must seek out and destroy these retards (once again, I am quoting them) because they are ruining RKS!" You guys are smart, you tells us so all the time, and of course a smart person will listen when someone who wasn't sick the day the computer class talked about Google tells you about it.

One of the methodologies (I spelled that right one the first try) that Google uses to rank pages is what term or terms is used and what page is clicked on. So when the MFers trash a site, people actually look it up, and go there. What is written all over these sites? Why Rosenkreuzstilette . Also Google ranks sites by what common search terms appear on the page. These sites that are trashed are chocked full of the phrase Rosenkreuzstilette . Funny things is, go to the haters sites and Rosenkreuzstilette rarely appears. So now you know another reason why I call them Magnificent Fans.

Now, I posit the theory that it is the MFers ruining RKS. Taking me for example, if I had seen some of this crap written by fans of other fans, I would have given up and never would have found out how to legally buy the game. I never would have found out how to hack the music.

We are all fans of RKS. We all have our on little ways of showing it. Some like drawing, some write, and some point of every little pixel that is a reference to another game. I am not asking we hold hands and sing "Kumbaya." I merely ask that we respect each other.

Hell, the guys that riffed "Artemis's Lover" respected the work and the guy who wrote it.

So, what's that all about?

There were a couple of incidents that prompted all of that.

To start, when I first found and Googled RKS I came across sites that seemed to be genuinely interesting in getting the word and most importantly the facts out about this rather obscure Japanese video game. Telling us about good stuff wasn't good enough. Pointing us to what these sites thought was good or vastly improving fan work became secondary, in fact it became noexistant.

We got treated to to a constant barrage of how much the authors hated one site or another. I'm thinking the entire time:"Is there nothing positive in the world of RKS? Why are you going to places you hate so much? On top of that telling us about it? And linking to it? All that does is encourage people to go there and check it out for themselves."

Oh wait, we don't have to go to the sites being trashed, the trashers are taking graphics off of the sites they are trashing and posting them on their sites. And then accusing these other people of stealing.

This goes on for months, I could of sworn at one time the site actually did have the phrase "RKS." If you scroll back far enough.

So now we have incident number one. Some guy thought there was a similarity in RKS to his favourite cartoon show: Count Duckula. I thought it was silly, not really worth noting. More precisely worth ignoring, and deleting.

How wrong I was. We get treated to a long, rambling, incoherent, babble fest of venom spewing over some guy just showing his fandom of a game he likes. To sum up, Count Duckula was pretty much accused of stealing the whole damn game and everybody else's fanworks.

So I do my research, which was made easy because links to Count Duckula were provided. I followed them. You see, I didn't know a thing about this fan, I didn't even really care about him. I'd see him post once in while, like 99% of everybody else, I never clicked on the links he'd put in his name. Until now.

I quickly discovered that everything Count Duckula had been accused of was based in lies and hypocrisies. I went to his sites, and found that he had indeed credited every source he had ever used. Even the other fans' material. That's where the hypocrisy comes in. The guy trashing Count Duckula has repeatedly taken graphics from the game, and other fans' work and posted it on his site.

I was already to go then with my response, But Count Duckula decide to be friends with the people trashing him. I held back, thinking that the whole while that it was a mistake for him to do so. I have been down the suck up road before, it's a dead end.

I was right.

In the ensuing months nothing changed. Other fans were being trashed and pushed away from the game. We were treated to a constant stream of catty remarks about Count Duckula.

Then another blow up happened. Some over eager fan thought there was a similarity to Friday the 13th: The Series. You know, Count Duckula had absolutely nothing to do with it. Yet the cauldron was pulled out, filled with venom, heated to skin peeling, and he was dipped into it.

I have had enough. I followed my own advice about not going to places I don't like. I no longer liked these so-called "fan" sites. So: "ahn-nyong-hee ga-se-yo." (I think that's correct.)

I then wrote all that above, and never looked back. I do not regret what I said, I stand by what I said. No apologies. I just wish I said it earlier.

Any wonder I never participated in "Reference Hunting?"

You're still here? Here's a little note: did you notice what I didn't do? Give real names or link to anything. The exact opposite of what the magnificent fans and the other trashers do. While there is absolutely nothing to fear about anybody getting any hits what-so-ever from my site, still, every link counts. And I'm not even going to promote them by using real names.

I also made sparing use of the phrase Rosenkreuzstilette as much as possible. It has been dragged through the mud enough. I tried very hard to aim my mud balls at the proper targets.

My language was harsh, but calculated to be many steps below what was said about "Count Duckula."