Not one of Rikard's wips: Hikaru Shidou

[Rikard]

Yeah, she's one of my wips. In case you were misleaded by the thread name, it's because I like to lie to complete strangers. Keep that in mind when you talk to me.

For the people who are ignorant about her whereabouts: she's from an old anime/manga by CLAMP called Magic Knight Rayearth. I've always been a fan of the series, so here's my personal tribute to a character that is long forgotten.

You'll be getting a character which is somewhat in tune with my works; that is, KOF-styled sprites with KOF-type gameplay and CVS effects. I'm sorry, you won't be getting the better done, hi-res version with animesque sprites and kickass gameplay. I'm keeping that one for me. The :O Domain apologizes for this inconvenience and desires to offer cake instead.

Have some screenshots of what's done so far. You can also check out her walking animation as my avatar.



So far, most of the hit sprites, walking forward, part of her stance and of her crouching animations are done. Progress is slow (since I'm working on this character, a full game, and coding other characters on commissions, all of this while studying for my finals). In other circustances I would have let the WIP die, but I love this character too much to do that, so I'm working on her even if I'm taking my sweet time. Don't expect a release soon.

Now, good luck at figuring out how much of what I said is true and how much is not. Who knows, this whole thread could be a way to mislead you while I'm preparing something MUCH bigger. Or not.

[Jango]

As long as it's not a light show, I'm all for it

[GalFord]

Seriously?  If you're really making Hikaru Shidou, then you're bringing a character from one of my favourite books EVER to life.

Fuu Ho'ouji was always my favourite, but Hikaru rocks with Rayearth anyway.   I've always liked your creations, this one will be no exception (Unless you base it on that terrivle OVA! )

[Bastard Mami]

Umi was my favorite until they developed hikaru in part 2.

[tetsuo9999]

Progress?... ???

[Rikard]

I'll post when I get actual progress, which is the case.

So far I'm at 49 sprites. Out of the basic movement, she's missing a get up animation, running (back and forwards), walking back, jumping and air/crouch block. No attacks yet.
I also ripped enough voices off the anime to make a decent .snd. It was a pain in the ass since DRAMATIC MUSIC was always there to mess my noise filtering, but I managed to get something out of it. Of course, it's a japanese voice set, if any of you people want an english or foreign language you must provide me enogh samples. I might do an italian one just for kicks.

The fact that my finals will be starting in a few days will probably slow me down even more for a while.

Anyway, out of boredom, I wrote a small piece of text which may end up as her "backstory" in the readme. I don't know how much you may consider this funny (expecially since I was VERY bored when I wrote this), but I figured I might as well post it.

Spoiler (click to show)

Hikaru Shidou, the proud Magic Knight who saved the mystical world of Sephiro from annihilation not once but twice, was happily walking in Tokyo with her friends Umi and Fuu plus a mysterious shadowy figure with pink long hair that no one except Hikaru herself was apparently able to see, when all of a sudden there shined a shiny demon in the middle of their road, who challenged them to play the greatest song in the world. So they played the first thing that came in their heads, but since Hikaru is a terrible singer they failed, and were transported in a place where shitty fanfiction ruled the land and everyone fought for the amusement of 11 years old kids who did nothing but watch as their heroes clashed against each other repeatedly, without even making a effort to help them, and then wrote the results of those challenges on boards (yup, wooden boards) to increase their feeble egos, alongside with comments on how stupid and idiotic were the people who actually helped their heroes in the clash or how assholes were the ones who trained them. Of course, Hikaru being Hikaru, she wouldn't have let such injustice pass, and decided to set it right! Unfortunately, she became part of the clash herself, and now it's up to YOU to have her safely return to Earth!

(Please do not use this character in watch mode. You'll hurt her feelings, you know. And if you hurt her feelings, black haired men with big piles of armor will come at your home and threaten you with a big sword.)

Not to let you without anything to set your eyes on, here are some screens of her new animations.

[Thedge]

I suggest you to separate the pallete, i think right now hair-skirt strip, shirt-boots share the same pallete indexes, or not?

Great spriting, you can add a color to the sword, but thats just my opinion...

See you, good luck.

[Rikard]

She is already palette separated to a degree. The only things that aren't actually color separated are her sword hilt (red is from her uniform and rims are from the gold part of her armor) and armor/sword gems (which use her hair color, although I'm planning of making them use her eye color). All of her other colors can be palette changed without affecting something else. I'm not going to palette separate the boots from the armor and her shirt from the skirt strip because I am a lazy bastard.
You can already give her some fun pals for now, like these:



Also you can't give her a white skirt, but that's easily fixable.

[BurgerKing]

She looks excellent, as all of your works do. May i ask how you pull of your spriting style?

[Rikard]

I edit over obscure bases and hope people do not recognize them. 

[WooshaQ]

She looks amazing, I just hope you will spare us all the extra modes to choose before the fight, for some reason I really hate when people program them... simplicity in that matter but advanced gameplay (not cheap though) = good character!

[Rikard]

I am sorry to disappoint you sir, but there is an alternate mode planned for this character, although it's in the STUFF THAT IS VERY RIDICOLOUS AND PROBABLY WON'T GET THROUGH section of my Planned Stuff.txt.

Those who watched the anime and are familiar with fandom theories may know what that is about.

[MirageAtoli]

Will there be other CLAMP cameos?

[Haseo80]

yesh only now i started watching it and hikaru is by far mah favorite
go go rikard O:

have you got planned a rayearth super or something?

[Bastard Mami]

Wait until the second part, in which she changes from lol-honest girl to an actual deep character.

[Rikard]

Will there be other CLAMP cameos?

I'm planning to have the player choose between having her fight alone or alongside with Umi and Fuu as helpers. This will effectively change things in her gameplay so her movelist will be different to balance it out.

yesh only now i started watching it and hikaru is by far mah favorite
go go rikard O:

have you got planned a rayearth super or something?

No giant mech super pls. 

[Bastard Mami]

hikari striker then.

[Rikard]

hikari striker then.

GO POPPY

[Bastard Mami]

No giant mech super pls. 

So, no pretty rainbow fx super ? you will not gain a lot of popularity.

[Rikard]

Trust me, there are ways to turn a character into a light show without inserting giant mecha.