#doujin circle reference haha

[chocolatechampaign]

c-clays fans be leaping for the real this time

[arimiaromage]

I'm back with more dgrayman doujin fangame updates! after last time where I found Kanda x Lavi fangame that got a physical edition, I decided to keep digging to find the other games the developer made while waiting for it to come in. well, I've found another!

(if these interest you, I'm going to tag all of these posts as "#dgm fangames")

I was able to find & order a disc for their first dgm fangame, Infinite Melody (also called unendliche Melodie). like before, this game was so old (from 2007!!!) and only in JP that I basically haven't been able to find anything on it. and when I got the disc in...

...it was a preorder bonus for the game that's just a strategy guide! a bit of a letdown haha, but still interesting nonetheless. (side note: the site I found it on had translated part of the kanji as "attack"- but if you add 本 to the end of it, it suddenly becomes... strategy guide!)

so I loaded it up and found a 16 page pdf by the creator that is a guide for how to play the game. and now I'll share it online for preservation/archival purposes.

A bit of a shoddy translation-

Hello, nice to meet you! My name is Rindo, the owner of moonlight cafe. Thank you very much for choosing the sound novel type adventure game "Infinite Melody" produced by our circle!!

They then go on to say that this is their first (?) work for dgm and that they've published several works before (other games?) so they're more familiar with that than making manga. From their experience this game isn't that hard but they wanted to make a strategy guide just incase for the people who didn't want to keep retrying. After that they talk a bit more about the game structure itself- it sounds like Kanda is the main love interest and there are 2 scenarios, one for Allen and one for Lavi. It also sounds like there's a CG gallery in the game.

So, a bit of explanations for those not used to visual novels- in Japan (especially in the 2000s) they were referred to as sound novels or adventure games rather than visual novels (nowadays you'll see them called adventure games). A love interest is a character that's romanceable for you, the player character. A route is a set of choices that leads you down a particular story, usually just meant to signify a specific character- so if you have a game with multiple love interests, then saying "the Kanda route" would mean you're talking about the storyline that happens when you romance Kanda (but "route" is not specific to just romance).

The next section is character bios! This game is set in modern times with Allen as some sort of apprentice working for a magazine company.

a brief translation summary-

Allen is a newbie reporter for the music magazine "Asian Music". He heard Kanda's songs over the radio years ago which got him interested, but this turned into disgust the more he learned about Kanda. That doesn't stop him from buying Kanda's new CDs, though. He lives alone in a very cheap apartment.

Lavi works for an entertainment production company (Rozenkuroitsu? Rosenkreuz?? (????)) and Kanda's manager & music arranger. He's supposed to only be his manager but Kanda insisted on him doing arrangements too. There's more here about Lenalee being the younger sister of the company's president and her and Kanda are childhood friends with Lavi.

(side note- the oval at the top of these says "character [number]" followed by their name, and Lavi's lastname is still listed as Bookman, even in modern times. just a funny little detail)

Kanda is a singer-songwriter who's very popular- his songs always reach the top of the ranking charts. Despite this, people fixate on his looks when mentioning him. He's currently under a lot of stress due to his increasing workload and his popularity. He's a bully who loves Perrier (the water??), quietness, and the sky.

top one- Bak Chan (yes, that's Bak!)

Bak is the editor-in-chief for "Asian Music" and Allen's boss. He's old friends with Komui Lee, the president of the studio Kanda and Lavi work at, but he refuses to ask for special interviews because pride (?).

bottom one- Lenalee Lee

Lenalee is the younger sister of Komui, the president of the studio Kanda and Lavi work at. She's also the one who writes the lyrics for Kanda's songs. Her, Lavi, and Kanda are all childhood friends.

next is a few screenshots of what the game looks like! lots of CGs, too bad we can't see any fully. (a CG is basically cutscene artwork)

the next section is a quick strategy on how to get the good ending for each route. it looks like this game has a different way of setting it up- usually a "route" is for a love interest, but in this game you're able to play as Allen or Lavi and date Kanda as either of them, so the "routes" are for Allen and Lavi (despite playing as them).

Allen route

the creator listed some of the important choices in the game and gives a small idea of how to answer them to get the best ending. for players this would be a helpful guide, but for us it'll help us get an idea of what the game covers.

the first choice is set in Kanda's office where you choose a drink. Allen hates alcohol so that's a no-go, but if you remember from Kanda's bio he love Perrier.

the next choice is when Kanda asks Allen out on a date. despite wanting to go, it might be better to decline him so both of you can focus on work.

the next choice is where to take Kanda on his day off. it should be somewhere where Kanda doesn't have to use a microphone (as that's his day job) and somewhere where people won't be staring at him (as he's basically a celebrity).

the last choice is a bit hard for me to understand- the author said they left some of these vague, and this one is basically "Kanda asked me directly!!". maybe it's a love confession? once you reach this part, the creator says you can rest easy (and maybe bully him a bit).

Lavi route

Lavi is Kanda's manager so several of his choices are related to, well, managing Kanda.

his first choice listed is whether or not he should interrupt Kanda and Allen arguing in a room together. even if you might be in the way, Kanda might appreciate you being by his side.

his next choice is about going to Los Angeles (a vacation?). Kanda is Kanda and will be grumpy, but lying to him will make things even worse. (I'm not sure if this is Lavi trying to convince Kanda to go to LA for a vacation or Lavi going alone to LA and Kanda ends up going)

the next choice is Kanda insisting on going back home to Japan. work is important, but Kanda's health is even more important (especially as you're his manager). after persuading him, indulge in what he wants for a bit.

the last choice is.... where should Kanda sit on the plane?? if you made it this far then the creator says you can relax. they say Kanda may be stubborn but he's not a child- you don't have to always take care of him.

you can play either route in whatever order you want, but if you get the true ending in either route, you'll get bonuses! the creator really encourages you to play both routes.

this is a mini skit between Lavi and Allen with Kanda interjecting. It's basically Allen and Lavi arguing who Kanda likes more.

last but not least is a final credits page for the doujin circle.

...and what's that? a new website link? let's check it out!

surprisingly.... the website is still active!!

on the website there's this description for the game, which we already kind of understand from the character bios:

見習い雑誌記者アレンは、メディア嫌いで有名なミュージシャン“神田ユウ”の取材をすることになった。同じく、神田のマネージャーのラビは多忙を極める神田の、心労を解消させる方法を模索していた。取材当日、生理的に嫌いだと思っていた神田を前にアレンはとんでもない失言をしてしまう……。 　みたいなノリです。詳しくは体験版をお試しください。 　最初の選択肢でアレンルート（神アレ）とラビルート（ラビュ）に分かれます。

basically- Allen works as an apprentice reporter who is assigned to interview Kanda, a popular singer who hates reporters. Lavi is Kanda's manager who is trying to find a way to relieve Kanda's stress. on the day of the interview, Allen said something (improper/embarrassing/a slip of the tongue) even though he thought he hated Kanda.

even more surprisingly, there's still a trial file on the website?! I'm not brave enough to download this lzh file right now, but maybe soon once I get an isolated environment... if you press the Trial page and then the first line under the image, there's a lzh file (a type of zip file) you can download. please only do this with virus protection on your computer or in a virtual machine, don't download strange files with no protection!!

yep, that's about it. I'll be on the lookout for this game's physical release (that's not the guide book haha) and the developer's other games, but I hope this was interesting!

I apologize for the shoddy translations, if you'd like to translate the parts here feel free to add it as a reblog/comment. I've posted every single page from the PDF so there's nothing additional I have. if you have any more info on the developer/doujin circle feel free to add those as well.

or, maybe.... you're brave enough to try the trial version for yourself? 👀

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

hi there!! i think you go by infel now? you used to be heavily into sound horizon, yes? i am interested in it but do not know where people start haha!! as another zektbach fan, i was curious as to your recommendations. also, they do stage plays/musicals or something too right? and they have subgroups??? @___@ theres a lot going on there. is it something you'd recommend to another zekt fan? thank you for your time and have a nice evening/day~

Hello! Yes I go by Infel these days, and I still do love sound horizon, I listen to them almost daily. I think the whole concept behind the band in general is something zektbach fans would enjoy, since it’s also story music. Though while zekt mainly has its story in external books/drama CDs/websites/etc. SH mainly tells its story directly in the songs themselves, and the music will often contain narration on top of singing. In that sense, it’s a little easier to approach than zekt since the story is mostly contained right there in the music. Like zekt, it’s a bunch of self contained stories (each album is a story) with connections across them. Though the stories themselves are often much more open to interpretation than zekt so there’s a lot of theorizing that goes on.

...This got kinda long so I'll put the rest under a cut

It’s not so much subgroups as it is the members change across albums… Revo is the creator behind it so he’s the only consistent member. Perhaps you’re thinking of Linked Horizon? Which refers to his other work, such as his collaboration with Yuki Kajiura or his soundtrack for Bravely Default.

There are the main story albums (Horizons) of which there are 8 (though the eight horizon itself was skipped and the 9th was released first, yes seriously… and the first story album had a “renewal” album) as well as singles which are short stories too. It started out as a doujin circle, so the first few albums are all self-published (so they’re really expensive if you can even manage to find a copy, but you can just listen to them online). Starting with the 4th horizon and it’s prelude single, they got official releases. They have two types of concerts, story concerts which follow a single horizon, and territorial expansion concerts which are a mix of stuff. And due to its nature as story music, they’re practically musicals, everyone dresses up as the characters to sing and act out what’s going on, they’re really fun to watch! Doujin-era stuff is still relevant too, and they even still sing those songs and a few times they’ve been combined with newer songs.

As for where to start, I think anywhere from the first official releases to anything pre-Nein would be best? It will give you a better idea of SH’s range than starting from doujin era (though I think that’s a fine place to start too if you’d like, it’s just it’s mostly one singer back then, so later on might give you a better idea of what it’s like as a whole) The only reason I advise against starting with Nein or Ema ni Negai wo is because they have more callbacks to older albums than most as well as an expectation you’re familiar with SH particular brand of convolutedness. Which is really funny because Revo was talking about wanting to appeal to a wider audience, then immediately makes an album reliant on knowledge of past horizons including doujin-era stuff lol (They're really good! You just might want to get familiar with the earlier stuff first so you can fully enjoy them.)

I personally started with Seisen no Iberia, one of the singles that has great songs, a self-contained story and gives you a taste what it’s like. I got so interested from there that I went and bought most of the available albums at once and listened to them during a long car ride, and was hooked ever since. I think it’s a good place to start, and from there you can check out the main story albums and other singles! Doujin stuff is really good too. Uhh I’ll give a brief explanation of the 4th-7th horizons, perhaps you can choose what most interests you? They aren’t direct sequels or anything so which you’ll like best is a matter of personal taste. The 4th horizon, Elysion is my favorite, because I tend to like darker stories and ominous atmospheres.

4th horizon- Elysion: This one has a rather creepy atmosphere imo and is told like a storybook. It focuses on a young sickly girl and her father. Themes of twisted love and paradise. There was some interview I can’t find atm that recommended it for fans of dark souls and as a huge soulsborne fan yeah I agree it kinda has that atmosphere. It’s also the most open to interpretation I feel

5th horizon- Roman: This has themes of life and death, and follows a man between life and death who sends out his pair of dolls in search for stories. Michele Malebranche, probably the most famous character from the doujin era plays a role in the story but it’s not necessary to know her too well to appreciate this horizon but it’s all the more fun if you do

6th horizon- Moria: Told like a Greek myth, it follows the tragedy of a pair of twins. Fate is a major theme here. This probably has the most straightforward story?

7th horizon- Märchen: This one takes inspiration from various fairytales as an undead man helps the girls from each story take revenge on those who wronged them. If you start here, you should probably listen to the single “Ido e Itaru Mori e Itaru Ido” (IdoIdo for short) first since it serves as a prologue and gives you some backstory.

Translations are mostly here: https://sh-whitecrow.com/translation/ or here: https://ejtranslations.wordpress.com/category/concept-albums/sound-horizon/

The most recent release is a prologue choose your own adventure type bluray its translations are here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VpsWSmcibx-sGS6mXXkEadX_imLOlG0Cx_DG8cn5jIU/edit

And the LE version came with omikuji (each of which references past albums): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CXZOlkDsAzSyxRUyrbWvnczlpQu4Tc12/view

Wikipedia works just fine for viewing the discography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Horizon

And for a few examples: (From seisen no ibera, Revo is the guy dressed a as demon here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcOIpA5dF3I

Hiiro no hana is a doujin-era song, El no Tenbin is a personal favorite from Elysion:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl4K_EXg8vY

The beginning of the Moira story concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft0BqZ2sBzA