The One About Helena's Voiceover

Just like I promised, this blog entry is all about the new RNPC in V3.4, Helena. This time round, Runner managed to get a gorgeous French singer to do the voiceovers. Check out Helena's voiceovers:



This has simply got to be Runner's best work ever! The flavored text and singing bits were really good. After listening to the clips, I turned to him and declared,"RUNNER! THAT WAS A MASTERPIECE!!!!! YOUR BEST WORK EVERRRR!!!! I WANNA HAVE YOUR BABIES!!!!!"

I then proceeded to force the rest of Team GE to give him a standing ovation and a round of applause. The next thing I'm gonna do is to force them to use some of the clips as their SMS ringtones. You guys can do the same by downloading the files over here.

Well, what can I say?

There's magic in the air~

The One About Selva's Voiceover

It's been a ghost town at the office and in Shenton Way (business district) these few days with just about everyone clearing their leave for the festive season.

Personally, I find that this is the best period to come to work. For once, there are minimal disruptions as I am trying to concentrate to finish up my work.

No more screams of "Hrin!! Sign this please!"

or... "Hrin! Can we have a meeting to discuss XXX matter now?"

or... "Hrin! Urgent urgent! Quick help resolve this!"

...You get the picture.

Gosh I even managed to squeeze in time to blog! Like right now! I'll be off to Taiwan for the New Year countdown tomorrow till the following week, so this will be my last blog entry for the year. Happy New Year in advance everyone!

Anyway, not to digress any further, re-visiting one of my previous blog entries about the voiceovers for the 3 new RNPCs in V3.0 The Zeia, the final voiceovers are finally in! But waaaay before that was finalized, Runner had originally sent me a voiceover audition done by Carly (the jazz singer who did Calyce voiceover) for Ania and Selva. This audition was done without any script or any knowledge of the characters' backgrounds. It was merely based on perceptions of Selva and Ania's names and looks:



After listening to it, I told Runner,"I think Ania is a very good fit for Carly. But Selva is all wrong. Can we find someone else for Selva instead?"

"I do have a few other candidates in mind, but it's going to cost you a lot more though," he replied.

"That's fine. It's just that Selva is a one of the most highly anticipated RNPCs and she really needs to have a good voiceover," I insisted. (Oh alright, I had my own personal agenda too, since Selva was my all-time-favorite RNPC and I do have an incredibly soft spot for her.)

A week later.

Runner tells me,"Hey I'm going to go with Carly for Selva's voiceover. You have to trust me. She re-did it and this time it is much better."

"NYUUUUUUU!!!! But she's so Ania, how can she be a Selva?" I sulked.

"This time, I asked her to do one of Anne Rice's vampires. You know? Like cold and detached and all," he explained.

"You mean like Akasha? Queen of the Damned? Bit Akasha is so... so... ANIA!!! Not Selva!" I wailed in despair.

"No, no not like Akasha, more like... you know? Generic vampires?"

"You mean like Lestat?"

"Well something like that, but not really either..."

"Then what talking you?! Let me hear it!" I demanded. NPNT. No (audition) Piece, No talk.

"I didn't record it down. We did it over the phone. But hey! Trust me! You will like it, I promise you!" he persists.

I sulked and growled. But at that time, I was simply too overwhelmingly busy preparing for the launch of Giovanni and the launch of V3.0 The Zeia - there were some things I needed to let go off for the greater good of the bigger picture. And this was one of them.

Another week later.

Runner comes to me with some mp3 files,"Here you are. Listen to it and tell me what you think."

A large part of me didn't really want to listen to it, since I didn't want to risk being disappointed. But ah well... just get the disappointment over and done with.

Much to my surprise, it actually turned out not too bad!



Either that, or maybe I was expecting the absolute worst and it didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would be. I'm too personally involved with Selva, so it's hard for me to make a rational judgement.

More importantly, what do you think of Selva's voiceover?

The One About Nar and Ania's Voiceovers

Good news! We just finished with script translation for V3.0 The Zeia and we're all good to go with implementation of V3.0 into the test server. We have one last patch arriving next week, tentatively on 8 Jan'09, which unleashes the Reboldoeux Culverts (Sewers) and Sword Mania Event.

Reboldoeux Culverts will later be the doorway to the hidden civilization, otherwise known as The Zeia. So this last content release couldn't be any more appropriate as a conclusion to V2.9 Secrets of the Underground expansion. Getting into the Zeia won't be all too easy either. Like Chaos Requiem, there will be a certain obstacle to getting into that map. Only the Chancellor will be able to activate that quest to commence. This time round, however, the obstacle won't be as simple as a big ass boss to fight.

Since Zeia is ruled by a woman, and a woman's best friends are jewels... that's a hint to what the requirements may be for entering Zeia.

With the Zeia, comes 2 new Zeian RNPCs, Nar and Ania. Both of them are Royal Guards of the Queen Hamann. An interesting point to note is that Emilia's father, Dr Lorenzo was last seen in The Zeia before his mysterious disappearance and he was somehow involved in a huge explosion many years ago which had concealed Zeia from the rest of the world. Nar has some secret dark past, which you will slowly uncover as you do his quest. Ania, on the other hand, is embittered due to her family being killed in the explosion that happened years ago.

Enjoy a preview of their voiceovers!

Ania Voiceovers

Nar Voiceovers

The One About V2.6.3 Vincente Rio

Oh my... I can't believe we are just 2 weeks away from the launch of V2.6 The Requiem! Still so much to do and the premium item mall is still in a pretty messy state... But one step at a time.

Just a heads up - we won't be opening up the V2.6 Chaos Requiem maps immediately on the first day of launch, since we are planning to do a gradual content release over the next 3 months. Likely Chaos Requiem will be released in late July/early August. It's pretty tough at this point in time for the majority to tackle that map since the advised level is Lvl 118~130! It might be a good idea to continue where you last left off in regard to the training of your expert characters...

When V2.6 releases on 3 July 2008, Thursday (almost confirmed but better to be safe than sorry so i am still gonna use the term 'tentative'), we are planning to have a special Vincente Rio event: All gamers who manage to level Vincente Rio to Level 100 within a month will receive a Vincente Rio exclusive costume! Currently awaiting IMC approval for it, but it is should be good to go since they had a similar event in kGE as well.

Vincente Rio is a little closer to my heart since my buddy, Runner (GE Comic Creator), was the voice actor for Vincente. Which made my time at the sound studio particularly entertaining since I was his producer. Before we went down to the sound studio, we discussed a few ideas for the type of voice Vincente would be, especially since he is the very first bard type class in GE. Some sessions went like...

"Hey Hrin! I have this awesome idea! Vincente will form a band with Gracielo in his 2 minutes to midnight costume and they could be like Iron Maiden!"

"What?! Heavy Metal? ...next idea?"

"What's wrong with Iron Maiden?! blah blah blah"

"Ooo... you know what? Let's make him like one of those boy band types! He looks like the boy band type, don't you think?"

"BOYBAND?! NO WAY! Vincente's cooler than that! We can't subject him to a life of boyband-hood!"

And so back and forth we went thinking about the various genre of singers and what voice would be best suited for Vincente. We finally compromised on something that amused us both - a laidback Mexican singer with his guitar.

At the sound studio...

Setting Up

Producer's Console Setup

Runner's a pretty good voice actor, so it didn't take very long to do the voiceovers. There was only one word that his inner Mexican had "issues" with. That word was "Domination"

"Domination" he would say.

I burst out laughing,"That sounds Italian! Not Mexican!"

"DomiNAtion" he tries again.

"Oh hi, God father. You sound like the mafia boss now."

"DOmiNation" he makes yet another attempt.

"Are you thinking of Domino's Pizza or something? How comes you keep sounding so Italian!?"

Domination gone wrong...

Finally, we decide the change the word from Domination to "That's all that is", which was actually an NG that poor Runner spouted out in exasperation whilst sulking from his failed attempts to expel the Italian from his Domination.

After we got all the voiceover clips we needed, then came the editing of each sound clip in order to fit them into the 1-3 secs time length of the original voiceover:

Editing the soundtracks with the help of sound editors

And voila! Here's the finished product of dear ol' Vincente Rio:

Speedy Gonzales, anyone?

The One About Barbie World

Since we are on the topic of summoners, the ever-so-popular Catherine and Viki will be getting some new costumes in V2.4 as well!

Here's lil' Viki's new look:

























And here's Catherine's new wardrobe:
























There's something disturbingly wrong about Catherine's outfits. I mean... c'mon - look at it! It's blasphemy! Catherine is a doll, Frankenstein-ed into life by Dr Torsche! She's supposed to have this gothic, creepy, chucky-from-childplay aura.

But now... She has sold out to the Barbie Doll entourage!

Oh what has this cruel world come to...?

"I'm a barbie girl in a barbie world. Life is plastic... its fantazzztic!"
- Reclusion Family (Aqua's No. 1 Fan)

The One About Viki

Someone was asking for a preview of what Viki sounds like. Here's what he sounds like when he summons turry dog, ararat, hill giant, tachyon and treasure golem:



For some strange reason... I'm reminded of those Pokemon cartoons where Ash and gang summon their pokemon.

Go Pikachu Go!

The One About Sexyback

We've just finished recording the voiceovers for V2.4 and we had some really good voice actors this round!

I am totally mesmerized by one of the new male RNPC's voices, Edward Jameson.

Now here's a guy that does what Justin Timberlake does best.

Yeah. He brings sexy back.

Big time.

Here's a sneak preview of what Edward Jameson looks and sounds like:



Some interesting background to Edward Jameson is that he is an immigrant from Brestia, and 2nd Lieutenant from the Brestia Special Army.

And. He is the fiance of Selva! (If you have no idea who she is, check out my blog avatar.)

He lost a huge portion of his memory due to some traumatic events that happened to him (Do the quests in V2.4 to find out!) and all he remembers is that he has a fiance and a younger brother.

Discuss this here.

The One About The Monster Blender

I was writing an article for Playworks Magazine October issue about the wonders of Diego and his usefulness in Colony wars. It's a little sad that not many people realize the incredible potential of Diego. 3 Diegos can solo take down a colony within 10-15 minutes due to rotating blades' fast attack speed. This 10-15 minute timeframe has certain conditions though:

1) 3 Diegos must be equipped with 2 Great Rotating Rings each
2) Switch to 'Hack & Slash' stance after you have built your maximum number of Great Rotating Blades' and attack the colony - to maximize the number of hits to the colony.

The amazing thing is that you don't even need to train him to Level 100 since any damage to the colony only results in 1 HP decrease - all you need is to train him such that he gets 'Great Rotating Blades' skill.


Looking at those fineeee rotating blades reminded me of a blender I bought recently. Well, more like a Monster Blender, really, due to its traumatic background...

* * *

Lunch hour.

Had rushed down to Bugis Junction to buy a birthday present for my colleague, Ducky, since I had been too busy over the last few nights to go shopping.

Ducky is our copywriter for storylines for Granado Espada's background history & NPC backgrounds as well as the brains behind the GE Comics series. So after some careful thought, I felt that a pen would be most appropriate for him. After all, the pen is mightier than the sword and all that yada yada.

After I bought him this lovely black Parker Pen set with his name engraved in gold on it, I happened to pass through the household section and Braun's latest portable new blender caught my eye. As I was looking at it, the salesman comes up to me and beams,"Hello Miss! Would you like me to test it out for you?"

I shrugged casually,"Sure. Why not?"

He enthusiastically takes it out of the box and plugs it into the power socket, telling me excitedly about all the various items that it could blend. I was starting to wonder if he was going to tell me that it could blend an iPod. "

... and it has two speeds as well. High speed and low speed!" he says to me as he demonstrates by pressing two different buttons.

"Oh ok... which button is low speed and which one is high speed?" I ask him.

"Hmm... I'm not sure. Let me see..." he replies as he puts his hand under the blades of the blender to try to feel the wind currents it produces.

It all happened so quickly. Or maybe the shock of it blocked out the exact memory of it.

Somehow or other, the blade dislodges itself slightly and blends the palm of his hand! Blood splurts all over the place!

"GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" I find myself shrieking in absolute horror. I feel absolutely faint. The sight of blood always makes me queasy and pale in the face.

"Can you please test out the blender for this lady here?" Mr Courageous Salesman says his last parting words to Salesgirl standing nearby, as he is being ushered away to E.R to get his hand stitched up.

ZOMG... Mr Courageous Salesman is so brave! So dedicated to his job! So professional! Even when his palm has been semi-blended... the blending show must still go on...

I do hope I can reach that standard of professionalism one day - if that day should ever come when I am vomiting blood on my deathbed, I will turn to KingKongJon (Level 100 boss) and say to him,"KingKongJon... please tell the Granado Espada community not to grief for me... Tell them that life in Cite De Reboldoeux must go on... Tell them to continue training levels to get to veteran! Then only will I die in peace..."

So anyway Salesgirl looks at the blood stained blender and then looks at him with this look in her eyes that says,"Are you crazy? There is no way in hell I'm going to operate on that demon-possessed monster blender!"

Nevertheless, she feels obliged to do something about the blood-stained blender. She carefully unplugs Monster Blender and cleans the blood off the the handles of the blender.

"Erm... you missed a spot..." I meekly tell her as I point to the bloody blades of Demon Blender.

She glares at me and I guiltily look down and shuffle my feet.

I had wanted to try to lighten up the gloomy, tense atmosphere by cracking a joke like,"Out damn spot! Out I say!" and mimic Lady Macbeth. But from her response, she probably wasn't the type who tried to humorize awful situations. And well... if she hadn't read Shakespeare's 'Macbeth', she prolly wouldn't appreciate my cold joke either. So I had better not go down that road man... She might set the Demon Blender on me or something.

"So do you want to buy the blender or what?" she snaps.

Sigh. Of course I will. I feel so overwhelmed with guilt about the incident. A good friend of mine always used to say that the God Of Drama favors me. For some strange reason, drama always seems to follow me wherever I go - sometimes good drama, sometimes bad drama. I think I have reached the phase of bad drama, though. I have used up all the good drama charges over the past couple of weeks. Mental note to self to lay low for the next few days and keep myself and everyone else associated with me far away from sharp objects and road-crossing incidents etc.

"Yeah... I will buy it," I say defeatedly.

Pause. Contemplative silence. I need to say something important to her.

I look sheepishly at her as I say...

".... Erm.. Could you get me a new blender?"