RPGM Henteria Chronicles Ch. 3 : The Peacekeepers [Update 18] [N_taii]

[Matoga]

anyone got the new proof of life pictures?

Why not

PoL230:

PoL231:

PoL232:

PoL233:


//Sidenote: i still don't like that Haylen has feelings for Leto and i'll pray to every Deity that i can find that in HC4 we'll go back to having a real mother and/or a real sister. I know that this is for the revenge ending where Leto will inevitably create a Harem of every girl that ever wronged him, but i still hate it with every fiber of my being.//

 

[Miss Y]

I hope that i am VERY wrong about this, but i can't help but feel like we're much closer to the end of the story than most of us realises it.

I definitely think this is a direct result of the way that updates are being split between Rose/Cyanna, Lily, and Haylen. It gives kind of an illusion on both ends, that we've been following the story for almost two years now so the game currently feels a lot longer than it actually is... and that with the undetermined amount of development time remaining, another full year from now might feel like a long time and a ton of content, but would only amount to four more updates of main story progress which isn't really as much as you'd think when you look at how much things changed over the course of 12 updates in Chapter 2.

//Sidenote: i still don't like that Haylen has feelings for Leto and i'll pray to every Deity that i can find that in HC4 we'll go back to having a real mother and/or a real sister. I know that this is for the revenge ending where Leto will inevitably create a Harem of every girl that ever wronged him, but i still hate it with every fiber of my being.//

There's no doubt in my mind that this is probably a minority opinion... but while I don't particularly mind this portrayal of Haylen, I feel like I would much prefer the opposite to be true, of Leto being the one to struggle with some confused feelings that he refuses to acknowledge or examine. There are only so many tricks you can pull with such a pure-hearted and thoroughly sexless protagonist, that part of me can't help yearning to see him display a bit more sexual friction instead of being so effortlessly, flawlessly chaste.

 

[Matoga]

I definitely think this is a direct result of the way that updates are being split between Rose/Cyanna, Lily, and Haylen. It gives kind of an illusion on both ends, that we've been following the story for almost two years now so the game currently feels a lot longer than it actually is... and that with the undetermined amount of development time remaining, another full year from now might feel like a long time and a ton of content, but would only amount to four more updates of main story progress which isn't really as much as you'd think when you look at how much things changed over the course of 12 updates in Chapter 2.

I know for a fact that Update8 was released in August of last year cause that's the Update where Rose and Cyanna had sex for the first time and that was the last Update N_Taii released before he moved to Japan in September, and i'm saying this because if Update8 was released a year ago and we're at Update14...well, Update15 is probably coming out this week so let's be generous, if we're at Update15 and Update8 was released a year ago, then that means that in the course of 12 months we only got 7 Updates, which would mean that if N_Taii's schedule stays the same, which it probably will, then a year from now we're gonna be sitting at around Update22, maybe Update23 if we're lucky, which might sound a lot on paper, especially if you compare it to HC2, but let's just count for a second.

This is totally subjective and don't take it as anything else than my opinion, but I would say that as of Update14, now that Lily and Haylen are caught up to each other, i would say that both of them needs 3 more quests AT LEAST, before we can move onto the endings, and since nowadays every sidequest gets it's own Update, that would mean that including Haylen's Update15, there needs to be 6 more Updates that are dedicated to sidequests only, then you add the 4 endings, each with it's own Updates, and suddenly you're at Update24 and that's with the main story not moving an INCH. That's why i think that either the story is gonna be shorter then we actually think, OR we're still gonna be talking about the next Update of this same game 2 years from now, which just feels so unreal that i'm inclined to believe that the game is gonna be shorter then we think.

 

[mafuyuchan001]

Sigh....another month till rose show up again ((((

 

[Ahihihihahaha]

Ai có thể cho tui save Update 14 được không

 

[Oriandu]

Sigh....another month till rose show up again ((((

Three months, actually. We've got at least another week until the next update releases to paying supporters, which means that there's probably another 6-8 weeks until the next update which is intended to focus on the main story releases. So that's likely to be two months for supporters and add another month to that for the public release.

On the plus side depending on the results of a possible patreon poll there's a chance that the next update will be held back a week so N_taii can put in new freeroams which will include main characters so Rose might be getting a cameo soon.

 

[BBC King]

Proof of Life #232: An itch that won't go away

Hello, hello, hello everynyan! How are you doing in this fine morning/afternoon/evening? As the temperature outside stays between 35-40 degrees celsius, I often catch myself thanking whatever god's responsible for the invention of air conditioning.

In Henteria, there seems to be no seasons, and the temperature hovers between hot and cold so the characters have an excuse to justify whatever they're wearing at the moment. That's especially true for Haylen, which we can partially see in the screenshot above frantically trying to scratch a presistent itch. It was probably caused by some new type of mosquito, who knows?

I've done some good progress last week, and I'm getting to the last leg of the update already. This one will be the most complicated and technical part to develop, so it'll take a little while to get it done, but the update will definitely be shorter than the ones before, which also means it'll be finished sooner too.

For this one, the emphasis will be put on smaller sexual events and less on "big scenes". More than a few times in this update I've wondered if a scene was long enough to be put in the reminiscence room, but it also didn't make much sense to make it any longer and might have seemed like I was dragging things out. All in all, there should be 2 big scenes, 1-2 smaller scenes, and a bunch of events all throughout (+ an extra scene).

Depending on how long it takes for me to finish everything, I've also been pondering taking some extra time to add a few freeroams with a bunch of characters besides Haylen (some NPCs, some main characters, etc...) before releasing the update. I'll probably do a poll about it, we'll see.

That's it for today! I'll see you next Monday for another PoL ; )

Thank you for sticking by, and have a wonderful week!

N_Taii

 

[BBC King]

Proof of Life #233: Some more bonding

Heya people from earth and beyond, how's it going in this fine morning/afternoon/evening? Personally, I'm doing pretty well, and I hope that you are too~ Anyway, here's more HC3 news!

I've had a good week of development, although I didn't progress as much as I'd hoped. This is mainly due to the fact that some irl stuff came up again at the beginning of the week, then the scene(s) I was developing required more custom stuff than I expected, meaning that I spent quite a long time writing detailed descriptions and looking up references to send to the artists. The good thing is that, as I keep commissioning stuff, I often have ready-made stuff to use as reference, like "I'd like you to make this position, but with these characters instead", so it's quicker. By tomorrow, I should be about done with the extra scene, which leaves a small and a bigger scene to make before I'm finished with the main content for Update 15.

As I mentioned like two weeks earlier, the idea for this update is to build up some sexual and romantic tension between Leto and Haylen, as you can see above. I have to say it, but Haylen isn't actually nude on Leto's lap. I mean, she is in the screenshot, but the actual sprite has her wearing clothes, and the unclothed one is more of an imaginary "what if" sprite to illustrate the dialogue spoken during the scene. It'll hopefully be clearer once you play it.

Now, onto some more Haylen-Jazon action!

That's it for this PoL! I'll see you again next Monday for another PoL ; )

As always, thank you for reading, and have a wonderful week!

N_Taii

 

[BBC King]

Proof of Life #234: Getting there

Heya you beautiful people out there, how is it going in this fine morning/afternoon/evening? I'm sure it's now going a lot better thanks to this PoL. It has to. There's no other way. Monday Pols are the ultimate mood makers, everyone knows that.

So, it's as the title said, I'm getting there. I'm currently making the last scene, which required a load of explaining stuff to artists left and right because I kept coming up with new ideas, so it got delayed a little. I'm exploring a new dynamic between Haylen and Jazon to use during their more intimate moments, and it requires some really specific animations to work as I imagined it.

After the scene is done and tested, I'll have to restest everything and add the freeroams, but I'm pretty sure I'll be done with everything this week if I don't die (we got a bump in the mega-earthquake risk this week here in Japan). This update took longer than expected, as with everything I ever do gamedev-wise, but I'll stick to my word and upload a poll very soon to ask you guys if you want 1)a release as soon as the update is done with 2-3 new Haylen-related freeroams or, 2)me taking an extra week to add more freeroams with other characters, main ones, side ones, NPCs, randoms, I'll see what fits more (accessible to Grunt(5$) tier and above), so look forward to that ; )

That's it for this PoL! I'll see you soon with the poll, and maybe next Monday with another PoL post (if I have anything worthwile to say).

Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful week!

N_Taii

 

[Komdot]

real mother

it's the only thing I'm looking forward to in the next game, I miss that discomfort in my stomach, today there are so many characters that I don't give a fuck.

 

[Ion.TemUS]

Why do I get Asmongold vibes from his speech?

 

[Ion.TemUS]

There's no doubt in my mind that this is probably a minority opinion... but while I don't particularly mind this portrayal of Haylen, I feel like I would much prefer the opposite to be true, of Leto being the one to struggle with some confused feelings that he refuses to acknowledge or examine. There are only so many tricks you can pull with such a pure-hearted and thoroughly sexless protagonist, that part of me can't help yearning to see him display a bit more sexual friction instead of being so effortlessly, flawlessly chaste.

Yea definitely. But I honestly prefer it to be neither.
Im not into either, so my opinion should hold little weight, but I like the angle of "you are taking away the attention and affection of someone I love (not sexually or romantically) and corrupting and changing them in a way that I do not like" more than the "my mother and me are into each other".

 

[Oriandu]

Thankfully Leto is not presented as a sexless protagonist. What he's presented as is a bit of an emotional turnip. The Leto we've seen is dating a princess and therefore is not able to express his romantic intentions with her to the extent either of them would have preferred. He was raised by a nun after the trauma of losing his whole family, between how he responds to lewd behaviour and Cyanna's own initial discomfort with her own coerced antics and even before that the antics of the sloots under her command paint a childhood in which they did not receive adequate sexual education. Leto isn't sexless he's just a naive kid who is under the impression that his girlfriend was putting off sex until marriage or until she was in a position where she wouldn't be judged for being with a commoner, he's your standard socially awkard kid who simply hasn't had sex yet.

Personally I don't want there to be any sort of romance between Haylen and Leto. Especially since she's already willingly getting railed by Jazon. If N_Taii is trying to increase the tension then to me the best bet would to be to simply focus on how close their emotional bond is, push it up to the brink of platonic but don't push any further. And if there is to be some sort of romantic attachment it should be completely one sided and Haylen shouldn't notice it.

 

[Miss Y]

Thankfully Leto is not presented as a sexless protagonist. What he's presented as is a bit of an emotional turnip. The Leto we've seen is dating a princess and therefore is not able to express his romantic intentions with her to the extent either of them would have preferred. He was raised by a nun after the trauma of losing his whole family, between how he responds to lewd behaviour and Cyanna's own initial discomfort with her own coerced antics and even before that the antics of the sloots under her command paint a childhood in which they did not receive adequate sexual education. Leto isn't sexless he's just a naive kid who is under the impression that his girlfriend was putting off sex until marriage or until she was in a position where she wouldn't be judged for being with a commoner, he's your standard socially awkard kid who simply hasn't had sex yet.

In hindsight, "sexless" might have been the wrong word to describe it... Maybe "sexually passive" would be a better label? Him being in a relationship with Rose doesn't really counter that because their relationship is framed in such a chaste and wholesome light, where he seems perfectly content with just kissing and holding hands until Rose decides that the time is right. Unless I am forgetting something from earlier updates, he never gives any indication of wanting to do anything more than that because Rose is always the one who jokingly brings up that subject on her own and then explains why they have to wait, more to convince herself than to placate Leto because he is firmly following her lead and never gets swept up in the moment where she needs to remind him. If anything, it makes it seem like she is the only one who is feeling impatient to cross that line and needs to repeatedly talk herself out of it.

You can obviously assume that he does want more because it's just the natural progression of a relationship, but that's what I am trying to point out with his character — that you rarely get to see him express any tangible sense of desire and then resist it. I can only think of a scant few instances where we get to see his sex drive come up at all:
1.) He wakes up with a boner at one point, where Lily makes a joke about it and Cyanna gets embarrassed.
2.) I'm pretty sure he watches the dancers for a bit at the Duke's party, which is a good start but not really enough on its own.
3.) He has the two NTR nightmares, which I can't really count because I feel like we are supposed to take that as some external force from the "artifact" in the prologue attempting to influence him, like Möre was doing to Noah in Chapter 2.

In pretty much every other situation I can recall with characters other than Rose, he just defaults to getting flustered and immediately looking away with no lingering impact. He never dwells on anything he sees or has it affect any of his relationships, like how there was an entire update showing Rose's reaction to Cyanna kissing him but he barely gives it a second thought once the crisis was over. And when it comes to Rose, he is quite literally the perfect gentleman even in the solitude of his own imagination. There are no moments of weakness where you get to see how much he is sacrificing in order to stay loyal to the woman that he loves. That he still has needs, and is actively suppressing them out of his devotion to her.

There's nothing inherently wrong with writing a character that way; I just wish there was more sexual tension with Leto specifically because I think that makes the NTR more interesting.

 

[Oriandu]

I think part of the problem, and I know I'm harping on this because I've brought it up before, is how much we have to infer from him due to his largely mute presentation. Because we don't hear his response to the sex acts he encounters we're left to make assumptions based on whatever emoticon N_Taii chooses to use.

I take his lack of forwardness when it comes to sexual activity as due to a lack of exposure to it as a kid. His parents died too early in his life for their affection towards one another to have influenced him and he was literally raised by a nun in a church and the only reason Cyanna is more comfortable with sex than Leto is because of a certain rapist pressing on her. I take his abnormal patience with not having sex with Rose as respect, from his extremely limited perspective of the events that happen around him he has no reason to believe that she's getting stuffed daily by the duke, and to avoid scandal he keeps things chaste since he's a secret boyfriend after all. Because Leto doesn't communicate directly with the audience we never see what he actually thinks, which means his responses will always be limited in what they can show us. He's a step up from Noa, who was a step up from Casio, but he's still pretty bland overall due in no small part to his muteness.

Personally my worry about Leto's sheltered nature is that N_Taii is going to replicate an event from HC1 and 2. At the end of both games deus ex machina is employed to bring about the defeat of the villains, which includes magically bestowed sexual prowess in one and hyperbolic time chamber fuck training in two for the bad endings. I'm not worried about an overall lack of sexual tension and I can overlook his constant befuddled response to sex happening in public, but it's going to be really hard to take him seriously on the revenge endings if he's going to start domming women who by that point are going to be way more experienced than him, so I'm worried that the ending is going to be unearned... again.

 

[sophpa]

If he dies - he dies.

 

[NTRprofessionalconsumer]

Been following this game for a while. Big fan but I agree that something seems to be missing from the netorare displayed when Leto interacts with the main girls. It feels like a surface-level NTR compared to something like Scars of Summer or other netorare games.

People in this thread have brought up some good points. Leto is very kind and sweet but he doesn't really have any sexual desires, or really any desires at all around these girls. He's surrounded by smoking hot women and doesn't express disappointment or frustration when Rose gets taken away from him. He's incredibly passive when a big part of NTR is humiliation. Leto is always presented as a good guy, but not a pathetic guy. None of the antagonists really care about him at all, when they should be making subtle digs and attempts to reduce his image. At the end of the day, Rose/Cyanna/Lily/Haylen should start feeling disappointed, disgusted or disinterested in their relationship with Leto.

Right now, the story just feels like he's friends with them. It's like when a friend who's a girl starts hooking up with a guy. There's no desire on your side so you don't really care at all.

I think for the next game, we should have text for the main character or make him a radically different personality. Instead of the main character being a nice guy, they should be the perfect guy. Actually let him have sex at the beginning, or start relationships and romance with the girls. Imagine how much better the netorare would be if the main character slowly starts getting lower-quality sex from Rose until she can't even be bothered to do much more than a handjob. Now that's netorare.

 

[Oriandu]

Been following this game for a while. Big fan but I agree that something seems to be missing from the netorare displayed when Leto interacts with the main girls. It feels like a surface-level NTR compared to something like Scars of Summer or other netorare games.

People in this thread have brought up some good points. Leto is very kind and sweet but he doesn't really have any sexual desires, or really any desires at all around these girls. He's surrounded by smoking hot women and doesn't express disappointment or frustration when Rose gets taken away from him. He's incredibly passive when a big part of NTR is humiliation. Leto is always presented as a good guy, but not a pathetic guy. None of the antagonists really care about him at all, when they should be making subtle digs and attempts to reduce his image. At the end of the day, Rose/Cyanna/Lily/Haylen should start feeling disappointed, disgusted or disinterested in their relationship with Leto.

Right now, the story just feels like he's friends with them. It's like when a friend who's a girl starts hooking up with a guy. There's no desire on your side so you don't really care at all.

I think for the next game, we should have text for the main character or make him a radically different personality. Instead of the main character being a nice guy, they should be the perfect guy. Actually let him have sex at the beginning, or start relationships and romance with the girls. Imagine how much better the netorare would be if the main character slowly starts getting lower-quality sex from Rose until she can't even be bothered to do much more than a handjob. Now that's netorare.

If we're being fair... Leto is friends with them. Haylen and Cyanna are his adopted family so from his perspective his relationship with them should be unshakably platonic, and Lily is his best friend so that relationship should be and has been presented as platonic. With Rose I do believe he should be more active, not necessarily having sex with her but but at the very least more romantic. As for him not having sexual desires, that's not true. We know he's attracted to Rose, we know he wants to be more intimate with her but due to her circumstances prior to the story they're keeping things secret.

I think another key problem is, unfortunately, how he compares to the female cast. They're all developing and he isn't. Rose is almost a willing participant in her relations with the duke which means sooner rather than later she'll start prioritizing him over Leto. Cyanna is almost at a breaking point in how she is treated by Ulrod, which means sooner rather than later she's probably going to start letting him dictate more of her life because she's too weak willed to stand up for herself. Lily and Haylen aren't as far along, but that should change with Haylen soon. Leto hasn't really advanced as a character in quite some time, he's still just a mid level grunt with the city guard with no exposure to the conspiracy that's taking over behind the scenes. Personally I think that needs to change, he either needs to start catching onto the strange behaviour of the women in his life or he needs to start unraveling the conspiracy. We haven't answered an ending alignment question in quite a while and the main plot hasn't advanced much even in Rose and Cyanna's content in a while. Leto would feel less pathetic if he was actually doing something that mattered.

 

[NTRprofessionalconsumer]

If we're being fair... Leto is friends with them. Haylen and Cyanna are his adopted family so from his perspective his relationship with them should be unshakably platonic, and Lily is his best friend so that relationship should be and has been presented as platonic. With Rose I do believe he should be more active, not necessarily having sex with her but but at the very least more romantic. As for him not having sexual desires, that's not true. We know he's attracted to Rose, we know he wants to be more intimate with her but due to her circumstances prior to the story they're keeping things secret.

I think another key problem is, unfortunately, how he compares to the female cast. They're all developing and he isn't. Rose is almost a willing participant in her relations with the duke which means sooner rather than later she'll start prioritizing him over Leto. Cyanna is almost at a breaking point in how she is treated by Ulrod, which means sooner rather than later she's probably going to start letting him dictate more of her life because she's too weak willed to stand up for herself. Lily and Haylen aren't as far along, but that should change with Haylen soon. Leto hasn't really advanced as a character in quite some time, he's still just a mid level grunt with the city guard with no exposure to the conspiracy that's taking over behind the scenes. Personally I think that needs to change, he either needs to start catching onto the strange behaviour of the women in his life or he needs to start unraveling the conspiracy. We haven't answered an ending alignment question in quite a while and the main plot hasn't advanced much even in Rose and Cyanna's content in a while. Leto would feel less pathetic if he was actually doing something that mattered.

You bring up good points. I think for me, ideally, Leto would have a reason to view Ulrod/The Duke and the other two as enemies, not just as random people. He has no vested interest in them growing closer with his friend, his adopted family and his girlfriend. He just does not care.

I want Leto to start disliking the Duke. Start despising Jazon. I want him to butt heads with Ulrod and Nezar. Have our main character start fighting back for the people in his life. I know it's NTR, so it ends badly for Leto, but it should end badly after days and weeks and months of him trying his best to sway those close to him. Only to fail in the end.

Imagine if he unearths the conspiracy and tries to get Rose on board... Only failing to convince her in the end after several quests. What if he needs Cyanna to back him up in an attempt to sneak into the Duke's manor? Only for her to betray or backstab him because she doesn't 'believe' his motives.

We need Leto to feel emotion and we need Leto to be burnt by the corruption of these girls. Right now it really does just feel like life is going on. Perhaps it's a side effect of the development taking so long. But I still think we need more harshness/pain/suffering for Leto, and for Leto to actually feel it. Not just ignore it/not see it happen.

 

[Ion.TemUS]

I think you all make good points.

If we are talking about possible end game scenarios - and I think it is really great to talk about that especially now, because now N_taii probably already has a plan for the end but hasnt finalized it yet since its still a bit far off - then I think we need to go at this from a different angle.

I see any possible "positive" ending for Leto actually not being a "revenge" ending but more of a "moral victory" ending. The way we have set up Leto so far, with all of his virtues, his incredible ability to stay cool-headed in most situations, his incorruptibility and his knightliness he is definitely a hero archetype. As a hero it would not make sense for him to take "revenge" by "domming" the women who are far more experienced then him. I think the main catalyst of his "revenge/redemption" would have to work through world-events. Such as him being able to defeat or arrest antagonists like The Duke and Ulrod for their scheming and crimes, defeating them in combat and leadership abilities. Building alliances and employing help (maybe also from outside the realm) to stabilize the region and topple the people scheming to take power.

His victory would probably be of a somewhat pyrrhic nature, albeit not classically pyrrhic. He would free the realm and free the girls. His ability to be noble of character would have to win out over the girls desires and corruption and his ability to show them real love would have to overcome pure carnal desire. He would have to be forgiving to the "betrayal" the girls - or rather the specific girl he ends up choosing - has committed, he would have to have the ability to look beyond what the other girls (which he does possibly not end up with, assuming there is no surprise harem ending) have done and not reduce them to their actions, not judge them for their prior corruption. That would also open the door for individual endings for each of the girls that he does not end up with, such as the possibility of a Cyanna or Haylen to still end up with someone or having been corrupted a certain way and continuing sexual behavior in the ending without it being a "bad ending". Would feel organic too. The girls HAVE changed, but the kingdom is safe and Leto gets his gril and they worked stuff out. It would be a moral high-ground ending. Tho idk how many people will like that. Maybe you all can tell me what you think about it.

I think the only OTHER thing I can imagine being a "revenge" ending where Leto actually resolves the issues AND sticks it to the girls is that he does NOT forgive them and finds another love interest. But that love interest would have to be set up some time soon between now and the end as a constant character that helps and interacts with Leto and is somebody the audience can start to like in character and find desirable on a physical level.