Zumi

Hi all! It's been well over a month since our last dev post and nearly two months since our last proper dev blog in regards to the dev game already??? i swear, time is an illusion and we're all being played for fools by the system. where the HECK did it all go Speaking of time though, Jan's got his hands full, so I'm taking over for this month's post to give you all a bit of an update on what's been going on with development! I'm sure you're all plenty curious since it's been a while since our last substantial update, so let's dive into it shall we? First off, screenshots! Some of these were shown on twitter, but I've included them in the case you missed them. Some are entire reworks, some are simple updates, some are... something else. On top of area updates, Jan's actually been working on some QOL updates in regards to cutscenes! An excerpt from one of Jan's Patreon posts: "Looking at the pages of events I wanted to work on, the amount of text... was kind of insane. I've cut down on text quite a bit, and I've made things snappier and more involved. Speaking of trimming text, I've also been working on a QOL I think a lot of people will enjoy. Starting from 13.5+, you'll be able to skip entire segments on repeat playthroughs. These segments are usually ones that have a pause from the player's story and give insight elsewhere. It's neat that you can play as Melia in the library and all, but the purpose of this section is to give exposition and push the story forward. But on repeat playthroughs, you've already seen this! You can just skip it. This goes for Lavender's "escape" segment and the Diamond and Pearl segments (And more!). And for those who don't particularly care for the action segments in Marianette's mansion, I'm planning on having those be skippable as well, just maybe not through the same way. Please note that if there are relationship gain/losses in these segments, you will lose out on them. Additionally, this is a QOL that will only affect new save files, as the condition of multiple playthroughs is decided during the intro." Next up are some extra previews of the new CG's I've been working on for the game! Two were previewed in the previous dev blog Jan posted and I've personally previewed two on twitter myself (they are included in here if you missed them!) so here's another small handful of previews. Now as some of you guys probably already are aware of I may be a little unhinged for doing this, but this is only a small handful of them-- the total will amount to roughly 30 new CG's to be used in-game, for both old and new parts of the story. If you want to see all of them, consider starting a new file to see them all in their proper context! or go through the game's graphics folder i guess once .5's out. but what's the fun in that? Next up, in the case people missed it, fan-favourite minor NPC's Piano lady and Truck guy finally got their official art as enough money was raised for charity back in December in order for them to get theirs! The images were posted on twitter & tumblr, but hadn't been posted on the dev blog yet, so here you go. As per usual, all related artwork can be found back in the official art thread if you want to find it back. Finally, we've got some music previews! Plural, because there's two. Both were composed by yours truly! No full loops this time around, just a few snippets- but enjoy them nonetheless :) Won't be telling where exactly they'll be used, but I'm sure you can figure it out from context clues! Maybe. That's all for now! We've still got some work left, but things are slowly but surely coming together. It's shaping up to be pretty exciting, and I hope people are still just as excited about the update as we are! We're also extremely ready to just be done with v13 and .5 as a whole and move on to v14, but we're not gonna rush anything or diminish quality just because we want it to be over and done with, so once again we're asking for everyone's patience for a little while longer. this update is CHUNKY, but it's worth it. thank u guys for bearing with us until next time! o7

Hello everyone, and a happy new year from everyone on the Rejuvenation team! We hope that 2023 will be a splendid year for everyone! 2022 was a wild ride for many of us, wasn't it? Lots of progress on the game-- introducing a couple of new characters, finally addressing some issues with the game on all fronts (technical, visual AND balance-wise), we've got a bunch of new team members who have been pulling some great weight over time, new music, new visuals, new quests, you name it! And while we weren't able to bring out V13.5 in 2022 like we initially hoped, sometimes life just gets in the way or things end up being more work than initially expected. And you know what? That's okay! Sure, things take longer for them to be done, but I do want to reiterate that this update is slated to be the last update that brings major overhauls to older areas to become their finalized versions. It takes time to create quality content, and as we only want to put the best experience for you guys on the table I hope people will remain supportive of the team this year too as we try to polish 13.5 to perfection! As a gift for everyone's support in the past year and to ring in the new year with a bang, Jan & I figured we could give some art as a gift! So here we go; some "new" character artwork. Specifically the interceptor forms for the protagonists, which is something people have been asking for quite a while. Please take a look at their official designs! Aevis (Bravery) Aevia (Tranquility) Axel (Chaos) Ariana (Happiness) Alain (Wrath) Aero (Strength) Ana (Mercy) The artwork for the interceptor forms have been a long time coming, and truth to be told I've already had them done for like uhhhhhhhh..................... literally almost a year now. hence why new was between quotation marks. they're from late january LOL..... It never quite felt like the right time to reveal them though, at least until Jan came up with the idea to show them off as a new year's gift. That being said, that's all there really is to show! As is with just about any other character art; icons, wallpapers and links to the full resolution versions of the artwork can be found in the official art thread! I hope everyone has a wonderful year and I look forward to sharing our work with all of you in 2023 as well! o7

[Initializing development blog update...] H-Hey, what's Amanda doing here?! ....*ahem*! Hi one and all! I'm back with another art update! This time it specifically about five characters that finally got art, or received a glow-up in some shape or form. You've already seen one just now! Indeed, while it's not any standalone art, the intro screen with Amanda has gotten a makeover. The graphics are overall more polished and her talksprites have been updated to match! It's one of the bits of art that felt severely outdated compared to all the other individual character artwork shown in the game. As a little comparison for those who haven't started a new file in a long time, this is what the screens generally look like in the current build of the game. yes i know, she does look a little like geara in the new art, doesn't she. welp. that's just what she looks like without the hat!! i had to base it on her artwork with the hat. it is what it is. i think it's also pretty obvious that the third image with me crashing against the screen also won't be in the game so don't even worry about it. Moving on, a character that's been long overdue for getting her own artwork has finally received said artwork! Please take a look at the art for Novae, one of the most prominent recurring sidequest characters in the game! As I mentioned on twitter where I first previewed her artwork, I really have no excuse for me forgetting about doing this. She's a very beloved sidequest character and it's high time that she got the love she deserves from our side as well, so she's finally gotten some official art to make up for it. Next up is another character that's been teased/previewed before, Mr. Luck! This is a character that up until the upcoming update has had a very minor role as he's currently only really there for people to swap between difficulties, and therefore never had a truly fleshed out design. As we're removing intense and instead adding passwords however, the experience is easier to tweak and making it easier or harder for yourself is now done through other means than through Luck. But it's a shame to just ditch his character outright since he has story relevance (remember that flashback from Gardevoir? ), so we've got other plans for him now! Plans that I cannot detail for the time being, sure, but plans that were enough of a reason for him to finally get a proper design as he'll be playing a slightly larger role than before. Perhaps those plans will be detailed at a later point? Who knows! Oh well. Let's see if you'll get lucky enough to hear about it sooner than later. For now, enjoy his full character artwork! Oh, and have his concept art that I drew while I was working on his redesign as well. Figured it'd be fun to show off the full thing considering it's what I used to tease the character anyways! Finally, there's two more characters that have not had full artwork of them yet despite them being relevant to the main story. Honestly, I have no clue why I even skipped over them to begin with. Maybe it's because they're not particularly the most popular characters considering their role in the story? Idk!!! Regardless, to close this post off, have a look at the finalized designs for Spacea and Tiempa! Concept art is courtesy of @Cerise, as shown below! They're the one who did the rough designs of the two, with me polishing the designs to the finalized versions you see above. ...And there's yet still more to come, of course! But alas, some stuff is sometimes better saved for later. I cannot give an estimate as of when the next post on my end will be, but you shall definitely hear from me again for I got PLANS. IMPORTANT PLANS. YUH. Anyways, as is per tradition to close off an art post, hereby the announcement once again that all artwork alongside a link to the full resolution versions can be found back on the official art thread along with new icons and wallpapers! You know the drill. For the time being, I'll be on my merry way again. See y'all later! o7

Hello! It's been a while! A few months have passed since the last update, but we got some Spicy New Art Previews(TM) for everyone in store. Battle backgrounds, battle sprites, vs sprite updates, oh my! We've got it all... and more! Remember that popularity poll back in 2020? I've got something to show off in regards to that as well. Spoiler tagged just in case, as there are spoilers for V13 in this post! Disclaimer that everything shown here is still subject to change (except for the last thing I'll be showing) as we continue development, but without further ado, let's start with the first thing; battle backgrounds. Backgrounds Three of new variations of battle backgrounds being added are for beaches, Grand Dream City and... Zeight? Oh boy. Wonder when that's gonna be used The backgrounds were made by yours truly! Beach Grand Dream City Zeight Battle sprites Our lovely new artist Dallas has been working hard on making and updating some more of the battle sprites for some of the NPCs, as some have gotten a makeover! Say goodbye to the Hardcore Trainer's and the Battle girl's old sprites, for your new ones have arrived! Old sprites are on the left and the new ones are on the right. VS Sprite updates I've also been working on updating some of the VS portraits as some had some crust on them from being outdated compared to the rest. I won't be giving a full on explanation for each of them this time, so it might just be best to see the results for yourself. The updates include Zetta, Kieran, Erin and more! Can you spot the differences? Oh, and speaking of Erin... I mentioned the popularity poll, right? Well, back in 2020 Erin placed third in the poll, meaning she would receive some special bonus artwork alongside Aelita (1st place) and Venam (4th place, getting the prize instead of Melia who placed 2nd as she was slated to be getting artwork for V13 to begin with and has already been featured in official art a ton). And after like 209381029381 years of being too busy to work on this, I've finally gotten around to working on the art that she'd be receiving! Please take a look! As per usual with any official art I make, the artwork has been uploaded to the official art thread as well as having a sta.sh links to two different wallpaper versions (with 1440p being the full resolution version). The only one left to make bonus art for is Venam! Maybe I'll have it done in time for 13.5's release? Who knows, entirely depends on whether I get around to doing that on time. Otherwise it'll be somewhere between 13.5's and V14's release! We Shall See(TM) That being said, that's all for now. Hope y'all got a kick out of these and enjoy all the new work! There's more to come, but some of it will remain a ~*~*~*Little Secret*~*~*~ until 13.5's release, so hold onto your horses until then. Our dev team is working hard to get everything working again and slowly but surely everything's starting to come together, but we ask for a little bit more of your patience for the remaining time! Thank you again for enjoying the game and see y'all on the flipside!!! o7

also known as "zumi has discovered the flip canvas button in clip studio paint" As I previewed in the previous dev post, I've been going back and editing all the character artwork! A while ago I've noticed that qualitatively the old artwork really does not match up with the more recent art. This is both because the more recent artwork wasn't made in a rush and is simultaneously also made after I've gained more skill in drawing. Out of curiosity (and also after seeing some flipped art in youtube thumbnails) I decided to check to see how the art looked when flipped and found out a huge majority of the artwork suffers from what I like to call mirror syndrome, meaning, the moment when the canvas is flipped the face decides to skew itself in 23409823 different directions. I wanted to scream. No way in hell i was gonna let that remain that way, so being the reasonable and completely sane person that I am (that's a lie) (i'm not sane) (reasonable is debatable) i thought it was a SPLENDID idea to go and edit the 120+ pieces of art I've made (including some stuff that hasn't been shown off) to be better! because i'm normal like that. eyup. That being said though, I'm not going to showcase all of the changes because this post would literally take me another whole ass day to write, so instead I invite you to look at the new versions in the official art thread! I've also updated the art post to include new versions of all the icons, and have also made completely new wallpapers of the updated character art to go along with that are generally darker in terms of colors and don't blast your eyes out when changing back to your desktop at 2 am if you're like me!! They're also infinitely easier to set up!!!!!!!! And won't get outdated with every map update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's pretty great and they look super nice in practice. go check them out! Before I leave people to their devices though, I did tease a certain character getting artwork on discord and twitter, didn't I? Well, no need to wait with baited breath anymore, for here he is; The new appearance of Adam Might as you first see him in Grand Dream City! Adam's always meant to be kind of a showoff during the time you spend in GDC, but his old appearance really did not do it justice. Jan himself explained that the reason for Adam's somewhat weird appearance in GDC was because of his own perceived lack of skill with spriting at the time, so we ended up deciding that it was time for a redesign. He kept the open blouse and sunglasses, but pretty much everything else has changed. There's a couple of throwbacks to his Blacksteeple/Terajuma outfit worked into his new outfit, though! His sprites have also been updated to match the new appearance and will be included in the upcoming update, 13.5. But wait, there's more! If you take a look at some of Jan's older posts, you'll maybe have noticed that Ariana's sprite has been updated, and maybe have suspected her design got an update. And it's true! That's exactly what happened! Her design has been revised for both her first and second appearance, and her artwork has been changed to match. Her design didn't change too much from her old one, but it does have more detail than the old one as the previous one was a bit too plain in comparison to most other protag designs. That's all for now though! Again, I invite people to look through the new art as I've spent quite a bit of time on making sure the art looks better. The art will also be updated in-game! For now, thank you for your time! i'll stop hogging the dev blog for now i promise. i've been posting too much sdkjsdklfjsdlkfhsdgskdjslfdlskdj o7