#if u use this document to ruin other’s love and enjoyment of the game i will not be pleased and i will not be silent. thank u

[izabellwit]

Metaphor: ReFantazio Timeline Project

An attempt at compiling assorted memorandum info & in-game dialogue to create a somewhat comprehensive timeline for the game. Feel free to use/add to the source as needed!

Please note: this is a collaborative project!!

If adding or seeking to change info, please mark the source & refrain from deleting other’s work.

This document is also still very much a WIP; I will clean it up and make it more organized as time goes on. Right now, I'm focusing on compiling information!

If you have, like me, also been compiling way too much information from random voicelines and flavor text, this document is absolutely open for your use and organization as well.

Let me know if you have any issues accessing the document, and I hope this project is of use to you!

[queenofeden]

okay so look, i wasn’t going to make a post about this because i genuinely didn’t think it was anything worth making a post about “publicly” but apparently some people disagree and i’m petty enough about this to not want there to be any confusion on where i stand.

i really enjoyed the new prologue update, and the changes made to the routes (minor ones, and i’ve only play tested nadia and julian so far to see them but they are there) to reflect them. i really enjoyed the last update they made to it as well. i always enjoyed the prologue, clearly it’s what got me into the game in the first place. i found it engaging and fun to play and i enjoyed the characters immediately off the bat. 

however that prologue was written a long time ago. 2016 if i remember correctly, and a lot about the game has changed since then. the prologue, even up to yesterday, was still full of what i would consider hanging plot threads and characterizations that simply no longer reflected or suited the game that we have today. a game which i love very much and still actively enjoy the direction of.

i really want to thank @raquellle-arcana for their post on the matter (linked here) because it was the first one i saw that reflected my same excitement amidst and field of far more negative feedback, but especially for this quote, 

“I love that they went back & changed it, like that to me, shows how much they still care, & that the creators genuinely want to improve & nurture their game”

this is what it comes down to for me. as a creative and a creator, i think it’s really important to be able to look at work u have made, work you’ve been proud of, and still acknowledge that it can be improved. this is not a published novel that lives in perpetuity, this is an interactive narrative game. as the narrative progresses and matures and expands, things that used to be priority no longer are and that is okay. looking back on where the characters and the story were based on the information given in the art book vs where they are now is fascinating to me, and i love seeing how the game has evolved and grown. i agree wholeheartedly that it does show a genuine love and care for the game on their part.

it shows that they want and continue to want the game to be relevant and enjoyable, that they want the “new” routes to have more substantial representation, that they wanted to integrate the new plot lines into the prologue in a way that made them make more sense as potential outcomes as opposed to “well they just had to make them different from the original 3″. i don’t know a single writer or artist or any creator that doesn’t look at their old works and wish that they could change things or, if they had known then what they know now, go back and adjust for it. the devs have the opportunity to do that, and i’m glad that they continue to take those opportunities to make their game, a living document if u will, the best version of itself that it can be.

(cut for length bc i continued to ramble and also potential spoilers for the new content)

i love that asra and mc’s relationship is well established now, i love that so much of the story and lore feels organically given and much more show and not tell. i love that asra’s characterization feels more consistent with how he is in his and other routes instead of the hinted but never actualized “ominous, dark, and vaguely spooky” angle (which don’t get me wrong, is a really valid and interesting version of asra that i do love to play with but tonally it just didn’t work with where he’s ended up now). 

i love that julian is no longer so bent on a revenge angle that is never concluded in his route bc it was no longer relevant. i love that his background and involvement is more well integrated. even so far as his acknowledgement of malak, not as his magical familiar obviously, but just in that he’s clearly important to julian specifically. the wanted posters were one of the things i loved best about the first prologue update, just that little bit of information felt like the sun parting the clouds so far as world building and i’m glad that kind of thing was expanded upon even further with him.

i love that nadia’s motivations are much clearer, and that her characterization is much more in line with her morals given in the text. truly, i felt that she read as so much more competent in this newest version, something i never doubted about her, but really seeing it so early made a huge difference to me. i’ve always been a nadia main and i have loved her from the moment i set eyes on her, but i i’m well aware that many people do not feel that way and never get to her route where many of the criticisms no longer hold water. i’m hoping that this is no longer the case. it makes me happy to see her relationship with lucio cleared up, that thirst to prove herself is made very apparent, but at the same time so is her genuine compassion and kindness. the explicit statement that the masquerade is no longer a celebration hinging specifically on the murder of julian makes SUCH a big difference. nadia states over and over in her route that that is not the kind of ruler she wants to be so it’s lovely to see that reflected. she is a woman searching for the truth, no matter what it is, something that the high priestess would be proud of i think. 

i could go through and itemize everything that i loved about what they’ve done, but we would be here for 12 hours and nobody wants to read a post that long, i know. to mobile users, i’m already sorry lmao.

but listen, much as i am excited about the new stuff and the updated stuff, i do understand being disappointed at things that have been taken out. i do, i really do. i also loved feeling julian up, but on the whole i also acknowledge that scene as deeply fanservice-y. that’s not a problem by any means, but it’s also something that i think shows the devs and their growth as writers to potentially be able to look back on that and say, “this was fun and we liked it but it doesn’t actually serve the story in an appropriate way anymore”. that takes a lot of maturity, and i think that maturity is reflected by the state of the prologue now. it feels much less at times like a “silly, horny otome game” and more like a proper visual novel with a lot of meat to it. and there’s still plenty of room for the fun horny stuff. it’s littered throughout the routes and not at all absent in the prologue, just, i think, integrated in a far more natural, gracious way.

i felt, on the whole, at least so far as my MC’s personal characterization, that in the old prologue i was much more wont to pick paid scenes bc i had bought them and i wanted to see them over whether they actually made sense narratively in my version of the story, or whether my apprentice would actually do them. i didn’t feel that conflict anymore, anything i wanted to do, i felt i was able to do and with a level of choice i was comfortable with. not only did the canon characters feel more “in character” now, but i would argue that MC feels more like a real character far more quickly than they used to.

i’m sorry to the people who feel disappointed by the new updates, or that in some way the game has been “ruined” for u. your opinions are yours, and your decisions with what to do next are your prerogative. media consumption and how someone interacts with it is a deeply personal thing. i only wanted to speak my mind and make this post if only because these attitudes were all i was seeing, and i was suddenly inundated by the negative reaction and it was upsetting to me. it made me angry. i’m still a little angry, and i could certainly cite and quote a bunch of the nonsense i’ve seen spouted off in just the last few hours alone but honestly, i’m too tired for it and i’m liable to get catty and petty.

what it comes down to is this, the new update made me excited about the game again, it made me want to replay everything with fresh eyes, it made me want to dig my fingers into the lore again, it made me want to talk and play and enjoy canon for what it is after being very much more consumed with aus lately. i want to openly thank NH and @thearcanagame for continuing to make a game that is fun to play, a story that is engaging and keeps me on my toes, and for sharing something that they’re clearly proud of and want to continue to be proud of. that level of responsibility and dedication to their work is inspiring to me as a creator and as a fan, and it makes me proud to be even a tangential part of the whole of it. i hope that over the months and years, the game continues to update and improve and build upon itself, even if for whatever reason i’m no longer around to see it.

[esthermeronobaro]

Once upon a time there was a bike messenger

This article was first published in the March 2011 issue of Cycling Utah.

Trapped behind a stormy sea of cubicle walls, fluorescent light bearing down on our hearts like a treacherous wave as the flickering computer screen reaches for our souls with its monstrous tentacles, most of us weekend warriors spend our nineto-fives daydreaming of land. Not the bicycle messenger. While we drown at our desks, these pirates of the workforce break through the tempest, blowing past the foreboding herds of sea monsters into a light breeze and streaming sunlight, returning as heroes to ports full of busty women and booze. 

Well, that’s how I’ve always imagined the life of a bicycle messenger versus a desk jockey. It turns out that realistically, the adventure requires a little more brains and brawn than expected (and no booze or broads). 

Jason Copier, owner of Legal Messengers, Inc., started as a bike messenger back in ’97, hired by the previous owner and founder of LMI, Pete Caffal, a bike messenger himself from Seattle. The romanticism behind the occupation is one of the factors that led Copier to pursue the job: 

“Maybe it was ‘cause I saw ‘Quicksilver’ as a kid, I don’t know…I was a bike geek, and it was a way to dork out on bikes, work on my bike, ride it around all day, deliver packages. Why not? It’s rad.” 

Copier took over the office around 2000 and started dispatching, buying the company from Caffal in order to keep it local. LMI specializes in same-day deliveries, especially useful for the speedy and safe shipment of court documents that require signatures and cannot be sent over email (in case you were wondering how relevant a message delivery service might be in this day and age). 

In addition to the usual four bike messengers on shift every day, LMI also has a car fleet and a few drivers to deliver outside the bicycle boundaries and around the state, though about 80 percent of their deliveries are in the Salt Lake downtown area. Boasting a low turnover rate for cyclists, Copier claims his messengers are the most experienced in the industry, his newest employee coming on three years of employment. 

Of course, you can’t be in the business of bicycles without getting involved in some healthy competition. Is this town big enough for two courier companies? It sure is: Salt City Couriers has been in business for 13 years now under Adam Madetzke, who also started as a bike messenger in ’97 while finishing up his degree at the U. After his boss sold out to another company, Madetzke decided to start his own, parking his car and bike downtown and doing deliveries as they came up until it slowly caught on. Similar to LMI, Salt City is an on-demand delivery service, mainly catering to law firms, but dealing with all kinds of companies and organizations from Salt Lake and the surrounding area. Though the two courier companies have some variations in the way they do business, there is one common thread: every single one of them is a cycling enthusiast. 

“You’ve gotta love bikes, you’ve gotta want to ride them every day through shitty weather,” says Copier. 

However, just because you’ve got a poster of Lance Armstrong on the ceiling above your bed, own a chain whip and enjoy riding up Emigration every Sunday doesn’t mean you should quit your day job just yet. “We get a lot of guys that come in here that love the idea of being a bike messenger, but when they realize what it takes, the glory wears off a little…We’re doing a lot of important filings and taking care of very important things for people, so not only do they have to know how to ride and be efficient downtown, they have to have some smarts and know what they’re doing and do the job right,” says Madetzke. Copier agrees, “It’s not all about biking, it’s not all about being a racer, it’s really using your head quite a bit, being efficient, being professional.” 

Being a messenger isn’t all rimbows and lollicogs. Kevin Hall, a delivery cyclist for the downtown Jimmy John’s, wakes up in the morning, eats a healthy breakfast, checks the weather before choosing his outfit and bicycle, grabs his Velo City Bag and rides to work. Aside from battling the elements, traffic and any complications that may arise, Hall is in a constant race against time. These guys and gals have to know the Salty streets better than anybody, as for many of their incomes depend on the amount of deliveries they complete, making speed and efficiency important. “Ninety-seven percent of the time, you can make it all the way to a delivery without stopping because there’s a hidden route where traffic doesn’t go,” says Hall. 

“I definitely know the city well … being a messenger, you’re a lot closer to it.”

Though Hall gets paid an hourly rate while he’s clocked in, as do the messenger’s employed under Madetzke, the faster he gets a delivery done, the faster he’ll return to be sent out again in hopes of accumulating as many tips as possible during his shift. For the messengers at LMI, time is even more essential as they are paid on commission, a common practice in the industry. With the reasonable cost of living in Salt Lake, a messenger’s wage is decent, says Copier. As a competitor in the Cycle World Messenger Championships, Copier has spent time with messengers from all around the world, explaining that in New York City, messengers were living five to a bedroom in order to make ends meet. “It’s a little more respected here, in those bigger cities you’re asked to use the freight elevator, you’re basically a crack head with a bike,” he says. “Here it’s more the athlete training, fun-job angle that people see it as, which we are―we all race mountain bikes, race road, it’s a fun job.” 

Part of the fun is riding through Salt Lake’s bipolar weather patterns, unlike those of us fair-weather cyclists, a bicycle messenger can’t hop on a bus or get in a cab if there are sheets of rain coming down or the temperature drops below freezing, riding a bike is their job. Madetzke tries to make this aspect of the occupation a little more pleasant by giving his messengers time-and-a-half pay on bad-weather days. However, he didn’t need the extra motivation when he was a messenger. “I used to just treat it as another experience and have fun with it. If you act like it’s going to be miserable, you’re going to hate it all day, but if you’re out there thinking you’re gonna get fresh tracks, then it’s not that bad,” he says. 

Of course, your level of enjoyment is going to depend completely on whether you dressed smart. Copier, Hall and Madetzke all agreed that once a messenger’s feet get wet, the day is ruined. During the cold seasons, Hall wears an under armor base and layers over that according to the temperature: a face mask if it’s below 15 degrees Fahrenheit, goggles if it’s snowing a lot, etc. In the summer heat, he strips down as much as he can, working around the required Jimmy John’s jersey. 

As bicycle enthusiasts, many messengers also have a variety of bikes to choose from according to the weather and their mood. Hall rides his fixie with knobby tires when the snow starts to pack, a road bike during rain or light snow, and skinny-tired fixie on dry days. The sound of rain and sight of snow has me snuggling deeper under the covers in the morning, but it doesn’t slow down Hall one bit. Surprisingly, both him and Copier claim wind as the worst element to ride in. “People never tip better for windy days … you get there and your hair’s all blown and they’re just like, ‘oh, that was fast.’ If it’s super rainy and you show up drippy, they’re like, ‘you must be having a hard day out there.’ It’s more noticeable, but wind is probably the worst to ride in,” says Hall. 

The weather doesn’t make it any easier for the dispatcher sitting in the toasty warm/air conditioned office, either. In fact, the dispatching job sounds as stressful as the messenger’s, but without the physical release and requiring even more organizing and efficiency. 

“It’s like a big chess game: you have to work with what you have, with where people are in the area and as things come in, adjust to that and rework the schedule of runs,” says Madetzke just as he gets a call from one of his car delivery drivers who is stuck in the snow. 

“You have to coordinate things daily and sometimes by minutes as things change and rushes come up.” In reality, the bicycle messenger probably spends more time going up and down elevators than getting from Point A to Point B, which is why, when they’re prepared, weather isn’t that big a deal. Getting there safely, however, is … Well, for some of them. “A lot of the other messengers think I’m a little reckless I think ‘cause I’ll fly through lights and go on the wrong side of the road just to keep myself moving instead of having to stop. I don’t know if they think that’s bad on how messengers will look to drivers, but so far I haven’t hit anybody or been hit,” says Hall. 

Jimmy John’s requires their cyclists to wear helmets and has made it a possible job-terminating offense to receive a ticket for riding on the sidewalk, but if you’ve ever ordered a sandwich from these guys, you know they’re “freakishly fast.” Though Salt City and LMI don’t require helmets, Copier and Madetzke both frown on their messengers breaking any traffic laws on the clock. “We have really strict policies about obeying the laws. If you get a ticket on the sidewalk, you’re out several deliveries for the day out of your pocket, you’ve wasted your time, it goes on your record,” says Copier. “Our clients are very understanding; we do not push the limits. Realistically, a bike messenger’s faster because of parking reasons, not because we’re breaking laws.” Madetzke adds, “That’s the last thing that I want to see, somebody come in to be a bike messenger, love the job, and get seriously hurt.” 

There are other details of the job that most wouldn’t think to associate with a bicycle messenger. Not only must they deal with angry drivers, but angry clients as well. “There’s nothing the messenger can do except show up when you call us and ride our bike to where you want us to go,” says Copier. Don’t shoot the messenger! There’s also the matter of logistics, for example: Jimmy John’s delivers fountain drinks, which are nearly impossible to carry without spilling inside a bag. Hall mounted a drink holder on his handlebars, but riding one-handed is sometimes necessary when carrying two or more drinks. 

You thought you hated flats, how much more annoying would they be if they lost you a chunk of money every time you got one? Knowing basic bicycle maintenance and being quick to fix problems is another important part of being a messenger. Now that the romance has subsided, let’s take this adventure back to the basics: human, bicycle, package. 

Whether it’s a seven million dollar settlement check, a love note, bread and wine, frozen body parts or just a boring old court document, it’s all a package at the end of the day, says Copier. “We keep it dry, we keep it secure, we get it there on time, someone signs for it and it’s done.” 

As the light fades on our fair city of Salt, the bicycle messenger rides into the sunset and disappears, happily ever after. For all your bicycle delivery needs, check out legalmessengerinc. com or saltcitycouriers.com. If what you crave is a sandwich brought to you faster than the speed of light, give the downtown Jimmy John's a call at 801-542-7827—just don't forget those drinks are a pain, and no matter the weather, give the guy a good tip!