Hello again and Happy New Year! I am definitely committed to making 2012, soon to be the official Year of the Dragon (my year!), the best ever for my game development career as possible, as well as releasing Shadowdawn at long last. Going back to the day job after a week vacation made me really feel out of place there, so that certainly helped confirm my convictions and renew my interest in my Kickstarter account and actually launch a funding run. People seem to be more comfortable just tossing ideas on that site nowadays for just about everything, so I don’t see why my game shouldn’t be up there already. Call it my introvert side, but I am shy even online, and I’m not one to post everywhere all the time no matter how much communities demand it unless I absolutely have to say something that hasn’t been said yet.
All that aside, let’s introduce Morsett Daikuri, one of the potential party members Arashi and Ket can pick up on their quest:
Morsett Daikuri
Morsett is actually a character I’ve had in this setting much longer than Arashi, with the prominent fox-girl Laura written only a year before. In his original concept, he was introduced as one of six people possessed by the fragments of the Shadow Soulfire in Euterra, along with his friend Galven Rubess. His personality and backstory weren’t developed for quite awhile despite being such a prominent antagonist, but it was known early on that he was originally a good person along with Galven until the Shadow Mark possession.
My first year at Purdue – many years ago now – I coded a Dragon Quest-styled RPG in ASCII art called (unfortunately) Extreme Destiny: Fractalis, that finally told the origins of these two characters and their homeworld Fractalis. That story became a basis for one of the main plotlines of Shadowdawn, and in turn heavily influences the plotline of Shadowdawn: Genesis.
Do I want to remake that old ASCII game someday? Sure, and I have a good idea how to in a great retro RPG fashion and improve the story told, but that’s not what I’m talking about today!
Morsett is a thief, pure and simple, with a mischeivous but somewhat clumsy side that causes nothing but troubles for his friends. However, he always takes responsibility for his actions and is completely loyal to those he does consider friends. His original concept always had the red scarf from his Shadow Mark days where he was in charge of an airship navy and a bit of a wanna-be ninja, so it was hard to part ways with it in the final design here. I decided to shorten his hair from then though, as he used to have a ponytail. The vest is a nod to Locke Cole of Final Fantasy VI, because I wanted to show his advancement into a more proficient rogue from the Fractalis stories where he was closer to a street rat and Locke is awesome. He gets a lot of his personality and expressions from Ken Masters of the Street Fighter universe, however, which is especially amusing considering his best friend for life, Galven, is heavily inspired by Ken’s rival and friend, Ryu.
“Daikuri”, his last name, is actually a long-standing family name I’ve used in my setting since the very beginning for various protagonists, most notably Lalen and Ralstad, but I chose the name based on my rudimentary understanding of Japanese as a kid. What I didn’t know at the time was what the name meant, and now that I do, I have to say “big chestnut” is not quite what I had in mind. I’m going to keep it for humor’s sake though, I’m sure it’ll lend itself to many jokes in the character interactions.
In closing, since Galven and Morsett’s bromance is out of the way, here is a much more accurate view of Morsett, who we will now refer to as Brosett forever more:
Brosett
See you next time, where we’ll introduce the next new character!
About Astrael
A long-time independent game developer that was lucky(?) enough to have grown up with the gaming industry. I am a programmer, a game designer, a concept and pixel artist, a music composer, and a novelist. This has been my dream for as long as I can remember, and I am determined to take advantage of every talent I hope I have to make it happen!
yes…yes…that pic freaks me out
o.o