We found Koto's stalker!/Shattered Time: Rewind/Part 15

[@ardrethshadow9338]

STR kind of drew from that structure. And considering the original script was initially thought to be lost for years (I literally found it a month ago and preserved it so it won't be lost again), I had no problems starting over from scratch, giving the story a complete overhaul. Each ending from the OG would now become its own loop (except for ending 5 kind of, but you'll see later), and we would have a more detailed story about MC and how he went from being kind of like the MC everyone head canons to what he is now. After Kotonoha's death, he goes through life continuously punishing himself, feeling like he doesn't deserve and happiness, redemption, or forgiveness. He becomes sad, bitter, and angry at the world. His new attitude (and I guess his new hairstyle) chases everyone away. Except for Mio and Natsuki. In other words, he HATES himself and he punishes himself by trying to go through life being miserable and seeing himself as a failure for not saving the woman he loved. There's still a part of his old self deep down, but he keeps his heart barricaded from letting anyone get close, out of fear of losing another important person to him. Natsuki broke down that barrier and, whether he'd admit it or not, she became someone very important to him. That's why he's there saying "I failed Kotonoha, I will not fail Natsuki." So at the start of the game when he's there saying Natsuki doesn't mean anything to him? That's partially him not remembering HER attempts at saving him, partially him kind of remembering those feelings and outright denying them, telling himself "she doesn't mean anything to you" because he's in full denial and wants to "atone" for Koto's death. Jugraal is kind of my answer to the Samael character in Amor Fati, who kind of appears out of nowhere in the later half of the game. With Jugraal, I wanted to build up to him, so he's basically showing up here and there as something to scare MC and keep him on his guard. MC doesn't know who this guy is, what he wants, but what he does know is this guy looks menacing and most likely doesn't have good intentions for him. So that was my way of having it so Jugraal doesn't come out of nowhere near the end of the game with no introduction. He's technically been there from the very start, but he only chooses that moment in loop 6 to act then and there.

[@welcometodokidokiliteratur3706]

Thank you for not spoiling who the stalker is in the thumbmail.

[@ardrethshadow9338]

Indeed. Certain people on youtube I won't name would most likely jump at that chance. Clickbait full of lies and deception.

[@ardrethshadow9338]

So "the stalker" is kind of a mix of stories I've heard and some experiences some female friends have shared. So you could say he is sort of a middle finger to those kinds of people. I won't name any names, but I will say some piece of trash literally hurt someone I cared about deeply. Who did Natsuki have to make the exchange for? That I can't tell you. I did think about having a short prequel where we basically get Shattered Time Natsuki edition where we see her journey, but then I figured it'd be too repetitive and people would probably be bored of it. We were, however, playing with the idea of showing how Amy approaches Natsuki the first time and how she gets her to do the ritual, all from Natsuki's POV of course. Yeah, you really don't want to have Jugraal as an ally. As for that topic, I'm aware of how loaded it can be. But specifically for this, though, I kind of took a page from Death Note and essentially MC becomes Light Yagami, the protagonist from that series, who starts out with good intentions only to become twisted and evil by the end. This is my take on that concept, however. And by now if it isn't obvious, this takes some cues from Amor Fati where essentially the same things sort of happen, but in a way where I hated the execution. And considering the OG Shattered Time was compared to it often, I took that as a personal challenge. I had never played that game at the time, seeing as the OG was inspired by Corpse Party and Makoto Mobius. After playing it and after being enraged (and after lying in my LP only because I knew the creator was going through a lot and didn't want to add to his stress), I took that comparison as a challenge. The OG Shattered Time was just a short story with like 7 endings (on of which, our former coder locked behind some stupid requirements despite the fact that was the ending I WANTED people to get since it's the TRUE ENDING), with a bit of time travel involved. Amor Fati, while having a bit of time travel, was more involved. It was a repeating loop with MC trying to save Sayori and making some truly horrible choices I won't go into but seriously made me sick... Especially with the way he treats Sayori and Monika. At the start, I was hoping for him to save Sayori and they end up together, but at some point, let's just say I want him to STAY AWAY from both Sayori and especially Monika. Anyway, it was structured as a longer, more detailed story where he repeated the same time period, bolstered out by the different plans he takes in each loop.

[@Dokizoth]

Yeah Amor Fati is....well something, and something not good. But yeah I like how you handled the Stalker, you made him hateable and the way you handled Juugral is good. He's like the devil on your shoulder, he even tells you stuff that sounds really suspicous but MC just cares about revenge right now, which I like. So keep cooking, and I look forward to seeing how this mod ends!

[@ardrethshadow9338]

​@@Dokizoth Yeah, "something not good" is putting it nicely. So back then when OG Shattered Time was jokingly called Amor Fati Natsuki edition, I wasn't sure of what to make of it. AFTER playing that mod, it felt like a partial slap in the face. Kind of? I guess you could say this mod was a combination of using that comparison and my anger toward AF for how it treated Monika (which by now, I'm sure my channel regulars know she is my favorite) and especially Sayori as motivation to show them what a real "AF Natsuki Edition" can be. Joichiro was initially split between two characters back when October Horizon's first draft was created before being fused together to have Mark... and then being split again when I decided Mark did not have the energy I wanted to portray. Joichiro is dangerous and can be cruel and calculating. Mark is more of a womanizing doofus. And yeah, pretty much. Again, sort of taking that Samael energy, but with my own spin on the concept. He pretty much pushes MC into betraying his morals. He starts off wanting to save Natsuki, but then he's out for cold revenge for Kotonoha.