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[Koyomi Araragi]

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AGGIORNAMENTO #43

April 2024 Update​

Double KickstarterCreatore
5 aprile 2024
※日本語のアップデートは下の方にあります
Hello JRPG Fans!
Spring is finally here. Great weather, beautiful cherry blossoms, and some awesome JRPGs being released as well.

Campaign Updates​

Discord Roles
As mentioned in previous updates, we are working through any customer service requests that come in to pr@yukikaze.ltd and providing roles for mismatched survey responses or capitalization issues. You should be seeing more and more people with these roles and soon we'll be creating a specific channel for both backers and premium backers to communicate in.
Penny Blood: Hellbound Review
If you are new to Penny Blood: Hellbound and purchased it via Early Access, we would love to see your review! Good or bad, this helps other gamers read whether it's the right type of game for them or not. So far 100% of reviewers liked the game but there is still a long way to go and more content to add. As always, any feedback in the discord channel is helpful as well!
Discord Photo Contest Winners
Congratulations once again to the latest winner of last month’s Discord photo contest, The #EcstasyRush Challenge, @Yojimbo, who received a special #EcstaticEveryday Discord role and Icon as a prize!
Next Upcoming Discord Game
A ton of creative ideas were raised back in December when we asked Discord fans what kind of activities they’d like to see, which helped pave the way for our monthly photo contests. This month however, we’ll be switching things up with another request from the fans–a puzzle-based game to unlock some special art from the game! More information to come later on this month.

Development Updates​

ARMED FANTASIA

April is here! This month’s update is brought to you by Sekiya.
ARMED FANTASIA April 2024 Project News
Hello. I’m Sekiya, the director of Armed Fantasia. We’re past the Spring Equinox, and it’s still cold, but suddenly the cherry blossom trees nearby have started blooming, and now it feels almost hot. The temperature differences have been really crazy lately.
Speaking of crazy temperature differences, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was released. Since the Japanese subtitle is “Frozen Summer,” a senseless thought crossed my mind: “Since it’s set in summer, why don’t they just release it in summer?” I also thought that a movie where the Ghostbusters run around seems to fit New York better than Oklahoma.
If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?
In Londenium, you would call not the Ghostbusters, but the Order of the Sacred Key.
Therefore, in this month’s update, I’d like to reveal a little bit more about the Order of the Sacred Key, since it has very deep ties to the story and worldbuilding of Armed Fantasia.

Overview of the Order of the Sacred Key
In the ever-spreading wilderness of Londenium, all communities that were once called nations have disappeared. Instead, people huddle together in villages and do their best to live day by day while facing the threats of the harsh environment, the Anomalies disasters that frequent it, and the incurable disease known as wilderness syndrome.
In a world where lawlessness prevails and people can devolve into beasts at the drop of a hat, the Order of the Sacred Key exists as a governing body that strives to bring order, infrastructure, and daily security to the world.
The Order was supposedly established nearly 1000 years ago, and worships as its symbol the "and it worships as its symbol the Holy Maiden of the Blade who is said to have saved mankind from the threat of the "white darkness." Although the Order is technically a church, it contains next to no religious elements, and the people of Londenium don't particularly consider it an object of worship. The Order simply exists to teach people the skills and knowledge they need to survive in the wilderness.
As the words engraved on its emblem suggest, they believe humanity is the key to the future of mankind. Thus, they have not flinched from donning iron and shedding blood in order to raise the flag of their ideals, embodying love, courage, and hope as they remain focused on their practices.
Currently, the Order has become such an integral part of the people's lives that they would not be able to make a living without its help. This is why the Order is sometimes referred to as the "World Management Organization."
Structure of the Order of the Sacred Key
The Order dispatches necessary personnel from its home base, the Sacred Citadel, and maintains administration and security in districts that have been divided up based on existing settlements.
In some districts, the Order is fully in charge of all operations, while others have their own leaders who govern themselves with assistance from the church, such as one that contains an arena where spectators delight in watching bloody duels.
The former case is the norm for comparatively new settlements that were formed from groups of drifters, such as Lostave, Ingram's hometown.
The head of each district is named the "district sage" and receives special consideration from members of the Order.
The highest authority in the Order who leads the gurus is the “Pope”...but this seat has currently been vacant for a long time, and actual commands are instead issued by the “cardinals”.
Agnija Hagentaph, the leader of the Order staff and church knights, is in charge of the future development of Londenium. He is an "average person", but also a man of action with the ability to make decisions, and never shirks from leading the knights when the unexpected occurs.
The Order’s Roles: Anomalies Disaster Relief
The most important mission of the Order is to provide relief for Anomalies disasters. The Order maintains a large army of knights and dispatches combat-trained church knights to each district.
These church knights patrol the areas they're assigned to and take the initiative in protecting people in the event of a Anomalies appearance.
In addition, Pathfinder Guilds and ARM Shops sponsored by the Order and run by their employees have been set up in each district. These facilities support Pathfinders in a variety of ways, such as providing intel on kaiju and selling/providing ARMs to those who have been approved by the Order, and also paying out rewards to those who exterminate Anomalies.
The Order’s Roles: ARM R&D
As the years go by, Anomalies mate, adapt to their environments, and become more powerful. To counter these threats, the Order also aims to strengthen the ARMs used by church knights and Pathfinders.
The ARM development bureau of the church continually develops additional modules and new versions based on the battle data they collect in order to keep evolving ARMs and discovering more effective ways to exterminate Anomalies.
The Order’s Roles: Ruins Exploration and Management
As ruins from prehistoric civilization are scattered throughout Londenium, every now and then someone may unexpectedly come across over-technology that has been lost in modern times or dangerous ancient alchemy that is beyond human control.
One of the duties of Order employees is to discover these dangerous ruins in cooperation with Pathfinders. When particularly dangerous relics are found, the relevant sites are sealed off with a designated Order seal. Managing such things so that they do not fall into the hands of unknowing people is yet another important role of the Order.
In addition, the Order has proactively gathered talented experts from around the world to form a research team that researches technology obtained from the ruins and feeds it back into infrastructure and ARMs. The restoration and further development of civilization is always on their mind.

Types of Order Employees
To facilitate the administration in each district, the Order maintains a large number of employees, including clerks and technicians, who support people's lives with their respective skills.
In addition, there are different ranks and types of church knights with differing missions who represent the Order's military presence. The "Knight Commander" leads the church knights. Alicia's father once held this position, but has since retired. "Standard knights" are the most common, and are dispatched to various districts under commands to carry out specific duties. After passing a promotion examination, a standard knight can become an "elite knight" and earn the right to act alone and command a platoon, enabling them to carry out their duties in a more spontaneous manner. "Special duty knights" wear red surcoats and are assigned special missions removed from the general chain of command.
A male Order employee, characterized by his long robes. In addition to managing facilities related to the Order, he uses his expertise to protect the Order knights on the homefront during operations.
A female elite knight. They have a wide range of knowledge and leadership skills as unit leaders. It’s difficult to become an elite knight unless you’re skilled at using a particular type of ARM.
A special duty male knight. Since they rarely participate in operational activities with ordinary Order knights, the nature of their work is shrouded in mystery.
That concludes this month’s update.
Next month’s update will be released during Japan’s Golden Week holiday.

PENNY BLOOD
◆2024.04.06
Penny Blood Project Diary
Good evening, everyone.
One month has passed since the March update, and it has been a very eventful month for me. Unfortunately, most of those events were very sad. In March, we lost several well-respected creators and artists, beginning with Akira Toriyama and Mutsumi Inomata, two of the world's leading creative standard-bearers who represent Japan. We also said farewell to Minori Terada, the talented voice actor who played Muska in Castle in the Sky, and TARAKO, who charmed families around the nation by playing the main character of the Chibi Maruko-chan TV show.

I was greatly influenced by them from an early age. I always looked up to them, and they assisted me in my drive to want to become a creator myself in the future. There are also many other members involved in the Penny Blood project who have had their sensibilities stimulated by these figures, so I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere condolences. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the many accomplishments they have left behind.
I hope you will understand that I have specifically chosen to use this space to express my feelings instead of my SNS account in order to convey my feelings to people who love creative works not only in Japan but also around the world.
Regarding the progress of the Penny Blood project, I would like to talk about Penny Blood: Hellbound again this month. The game has evolved from closed beta to early access, and more and more content is being added to the game. Recently, the production side of the game has also been undergoing a lot of polishing, and I’ve been supervising storyboards among other things.
The storyboards are really interesting, so I suddenly got an idea. “Hey, we should feature these in the updates!” But then I realized, “Oh, there’s one particular scene in the ending that spoils a lot,” and sort of wrestled with myself. I’ll try to pick out what’s okay to show you all and feature it in the next update, so please hold on for a bit. Also, as a continuation of last week, we’ll be revealing the rest of the trihedral figures for the Hellhounders along with the Ivory Warlock, one of the bosses they face.
…That concludes this month’s update.
See you all next month!

Matsuzo Machida

Message from Hirota-san
Good evening, everyone.
A bright, cheerful spring has already arrived in the town where I live, and some days feel like it’s already summer, which makes me wish I could experience a bit more of the change from season to season. As an example, I just went outside in light clothes, but today I feel cold. The temperature difference is really extreme, so please take care of yourselves.
Now for Penny Blood: Hellbound sound update. In March, we completed our second voice recording session. All the voice talent’s performances went far beyond the expectations of myself as well as the development team’s, and there were several lines that were so well done that it became quite hard for us to choose an “OK” take. On top of that, some of the VAs even decided to do a few more takes on top of those, which were all also amazing in their own ways. Overall, it was a truly exquisite recording session.
Witnessing the moments when characters are brought to life is a truly mystical experience filled with surprises. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the voice talent agency for their amazing casting and to the voice talent who read through the material, dove into their roles, and did thorough preparation for the performance.
After the session, I made various adjustments to the voice recordings in order to prepare them for implementation.
When the VAs speak, sometimes sounds such as "pa" or "chi" create lip noise, and their throats can also make sounds that sound a bit like "koh" when they pronounce things in certain ways. These are all minute noises that are created naturally due to the way the human body works, and it's the engineer's job to check for these sorts of noises throughout the performances. If necessary, they'll edit the files and erase the noises, or ask the VAs to do another take if it's impossible to remove the noises.
The VAs all do their best to make sure these noises don't appear, but as long as the noises don't get in the way of the acting, or when they actually end up contributing to the human or monster-like atmosphere that we're going for, I accept the files as-is.
I check the file IDs one by one to make sure they're correct, cut out any unnecessary blank spaces, then unify the overall volume and quality. Finally, I consult with the planner and add special effects that are necessary for specific characters until the files are finally polished like jewels and ready for implementation.
Once the files are all in the right spots, as designated by when the characters are supposed to say certain lines, I deliver the files and implementation is completed. After that, a final stage of adjustment is done on the overall balance of music, sound effects, and voice tracks, and then the voice work is complete. The road to 'completion' in this part of the job is a very long and harrowing journey.
I hope you’ll enjoy the lively voices of all the characters once our work is done!