#I still hc'd she comes from Drakengard or a border region lol

[randomnameless]

Artbook stuff : more dev notes, this time about Nina, the mages and the knights of the rose!

Nina is introduced before Kitra, but I suppose Kitra was designed first as the "tiny girl with huge hammer" trope or "romanticism", so Nina followed.

I don't have a lot of thoughts about Nina since I always bench her quite fast, but fwiw, it's really nice to see how her ponytail sways with her movements, VW really put a lot of care in their animated sprites, and I can't help but compare with modern IPs who love their shitty 3D and I'm like... yeah.

Sprite work is VW's bread and butter, and it shows!

Yahna... Well, fwiw, in my first run I wasn't fond of her because I was introduced to her during the Alcina map and, well :/

AU where she had body armor - but the art looked meh so she removed some clothes. FWIW, in her progression she always wears more clothes, like she starts with nothing, then wears a dress, and in the artbook's cover her dress looks like stripperific than this one, which is, uh, a progression?

She betrays her ages at times in cutscenes (the stone tablets subquest!) and in rapport convos, which is fun to think about (basically her Hodrick and Joseph's supports) but the Alcina parallels in her Alain rapport convo... ugh.

Utility wise, much like in FE, Warp is busted, and her Gravity spell manages to control the map so..., I've never benched her at all lol.

Auch is a more traditional mage, when Yahna's class is actually more support oriented, in my actual run he stole Reimann's staff and equiped the accessory to counter at melee range, it's not a super sound strategic team, but damn that's fun.

His "wants to please my mother" thing only appeared in his rapport convos, and he was working for Zenoira so... bar the memes, I wonder what is basically his story, where they Cornian mages who jumped wagon with the Zenoiran invaders, or what?

He still makes the Mordon map winnable, so he's nice (and actually the second magic user we get!)

Selvie's actually quite tall in with the character heights revealed, and VW really outdid themselves with her various poses and crouching she does to cast magic (and the Selvie Kick (tm) ). I don't have a lot to say about her character (nerd with a kind heart when she talks about anything else than her research trope) but as the only named shaman unit...

She can't attack at all, but her debuffs are basically making a team survive or kill enemies, or not so yep, much like Yahna, she was never benched lol.

The Knights of the Rose's Team Mom, Miriam!

Acts as the leader of the group (or their caretaker), she indeed has a serious personality, watching over the members of their group and, when she joins, Virginia - even if, serious or not, she's also perfectly willing to participate in Virginia's suicide charge to take revenge for their fallen comrades.

IDK much about some "cuteness" but I'd say she has her own insecurities, complaining to Frau (not Kitra!) that seeing her and Virginia fight, she feels like she'll never be as good as them, or having the pressure to live up to her father's expectations. For a character who doesn't have a lot of lines and is part of a group, Miriam's fine as character, not specially a fave, but fine nontheless.

Fran! (@pandp-author fave!)

Dev notes are centered on her maiden ceremony, where we can see her stand without riding her griffin!

But indeed, mobility is her class's greatest advantage compared to other flying units, and in a game like UO with real-time elements mobility is really key to cheese maps!

Fran is also the only griffin rider in game with, uh, a modified bust size so she doesn't jiggle like the other ones, which is always a bonus point. Character wise, Fran is someone who worries about her comrades (hell in her ending, she gives up a leading position to remain with her friends on the battlefield?) but is also the one who's the proudest to be part of the Knights of the Rose : she's not a squire anymore who needs to be protected, she's a knight who can protect now.

Kitra here!

She got a Supreme forehead to give a "lively impression", but she first and foremost was designed with a hammer to join when Mordon wouldn't be available (if Alain picked the "kill him" choice?). Yeah, Google Trad failed here, there's no convo about "intimacy" with Mordon lol, but more like she's his apprentice and later learns how to repairstuff (to become a stonemason herself?).

She's "carefree" and brash, prone to get into trouble but her "dexterity" is both shown in how she repairs bridges and, in her Sharon rapport, smashes chicken to make them cross a river (without killing them, idk how this works).

Hammer people are really fun units, I prefer Mordon based on design alone, but Kitra's character - both as a member of the Knights of the Rose and outside of her group of friends - is fine enough, much like her fellow knights, with a small emphasis on being a sort of comic relief.