[C][B]Oo---Random
Numbers (Alt name: "...My Own Personal Hell")---oO
[C][B]------------------------------------
[C] Welcome to the land of Vaerene, home of adventure! ...At least, ever
since the terrible Lady Gertrude took began searching for the coveted
Crystal of Life, a powerful artifact that can either give its wielder
immortality, an infinite source of power [as in like solar power], or if
corrupted by evil, unlimited power...
[C]Knowing that Lady Gertrude would surely use its power for evil, many
heroes from across the land have taken up arms to look for the Crystal
themselves! At the end of this race for the Crystal of Life, who will
come out on top?!
O-Create your own party of 7 or let Fate decide for you...
O-Advanced artificial intelligence brings the world and its characters
to life!
O-Dynamic battle system!
O-Travel through forests, deserts, and even under oceans!
O-Visual novel-like dialogue, with full-body sprites for each character!
O-Choose what your character says; whether it be on a list or a response
you create!
O-Read your party's ever-changing inner monologue!
O-And many more features to encounter on your quest to foil Lady
Gertrude!
[Kōseki's MegaEntertainmentSystem rear boxart]
[C] Prelude
Oo------------------------------------------------------------------------------oO
Kōseki is an RPG game, released sometime in 1995 for the
MegaEntertainmentSystem (Or MES) [A fake 32-bit console. Though you can
call it the SNES if you want to..] It featured, as advertised, a
character creator that allowed you to either make or randomize your own
party and main character, complete with personality types that the
game's AI would enforce. The MainCharacter would then meet the other
party members through a chosen-by-AI set of events. Most of the game was
completely randomized, even down to dialogue, major events, and what
areas you would go to. For example, you could potentially never go into
the desert the boxart said was in the game on your first playthrough. It
was a pretty interesting idea at the time and went on to become a
moderately popular series. Although, most people remember the game for
its AI. It had one of the best AI of any game on the MES, and really
made the game come to life. Although, they never really focused on the
AI too much in advertising as to not scare anyone off. ...Well, until
Kōseki 4 in 2003, but that's a whole other story...
Kōseki 1's use of randomization kept many people coming back to the
game, though some things aren't randomized, like how the areas are laid
out, specific major events, and Lady Gertrude and her 7 servants. The
player runs into each of them, but Lady Gertrude's most powerful
servant, a girl named Rui, eventually joins your party in a non-random
event midway through the game. She's essentially a bratty tsundere, so
she refuses to do anything when she's in your party besides following
the player around, of course. The player can make Rui join their side if
they're nice enough to her though. If done correctly, Rui will gradually
attack once in a battle, to three times, to having no limit when the
final dungeon (Lady Gertrude's Castle) comes, which is when Rui
officially turns on Lady Gertrude.
Oo--------------------------------------------------------------------------------oO
[C] Plot
"I don't get it... I've been here before--I've met this 'high and
mighty' hero before! ...Right? *sigh...* It feels like I'm going
crazy..."
Muse A [Player] has recently heard about a game series called Kōseki
around the internet, and upon realizing that they actually had a copy of
the game and the console to play it on for a while, decided to dust off
their old MES and try playing the first game in this series that, who
knows, maybe they'll like? They boot up the game, and across the span of
a few days [or a day if the Player plays it for hours]! Muse thought
that the game was fun, so they decided to order the other games in the
series Why not, Player had the systems for them, after all.
The Player just hoped that one character wouldn't show up again...Rui.
They thought that she was annoying, even after she turned good from the
Player treating her nicely to have her on their team. While waiting for
the packages to arrive, the Player decides to play Kōseki again for
kicks, though when they had to get Rui onto their team again, they
decided to be mean to her, though mostly to see what happened. As
expected, this time, the Player's team just treated her as a rival
kids-anime style. As for the Player's main character, AKA their
stand-in, they just made the same one as before. [Or a different one
that still at least somewhat acts like the last one]
Around getting to a town a few areas before the final dungeon though,
the Player could tell that something was..off. After entering the town,
The player finally noticed that their least favorite character Rui
seemed slightly less annoying and brat-like and more apprehensive, of
all emotions. The Player was keener to weird things happening mostly
because the game's humor seemed to get more outlandish around then, like
the local inn charging Player's party 1,000,000g, and the most heroic
character in the party carelessly sticking the bill on someone else at
the inn. In fact, every character had changed! Just and righteous
characters became less so, playful characters became insane, things like
that. The most notable change was that everyone hated Rui now, to the
point that even the nicest characters in the party were cold to her and
treated her...harshly, to say the least... Well, except the Player's
main character, who felt and did whatever the Player wanted them to. The
rest of the game played out like that - with most of the characters in
the game acting strange and such.
The Player might not know, but the cause for all this is that the game
cartridge began decaying due to old age and neglect. Resulting in the
odd characters, weird things like the price of the inn, and probably the
most interesting, the game's advanced AI essentially giving Rui
sentience by chance! ..Well, more like it gave a random persistent
character supercharged artificial intelligence. As she's one of the only
few characters that are persistent and not randomized, the game decided
to overcharge. Rui's AI logic, resulting in near-sentience. In fact, if
Rui was any more sentient, she'd be able to know she was inside of a
game, but that likely isn't going to happen.
Despite all of the weird things that happened on the second playthrough,
the Player finished the game normally. The Player guessed that maybe the
weird things in the second playthrough only happened because of the
game's AI, but to confirm their suspicions of off-ness, The Player went
onto the forum they found the game on and asked if things like that were
supposed to happen.
Most everyone said no, and also that it was probably the result of an
old or damaged cartridge. Although..seeing as to how no-one on the forum
had ever encountered a still-playable damaged Kōseki 1 cartridge before,
they encouraged The Player to play through the game again and to try
posting whatever happened. The Player considered it,and perhaps out of
some kind of morbid curiosity, Player decided to play through Kōseki
again to see what would happen. This time, the game didn't even give the
player a chance to make a character, and instead, glitch-ily jumped over
to where Rui was after automatically making a storyline. The place it
teleported to was her bedroom in Lady Gertrude's castle, though since
the game didn't have anything for Rui's room, it made an on-the-fly
bedroom with recolored bricks, furniture assets, and whatever else fit a
bedroom. It looked fine, but the AI wouldn't be able to hold up for
long...
Now, the game ended and a whole new kind of adventure began.
(The player's character will be introduced shortly after, as some kind
of soul master for Rui - something that the game randomly thought up of
because it couldn't load an actual party this time and somehow had to
give The Player control over Rui. [I was thinking MainCharacter 3 would
be a blank-slate, meaning that they have no personality and little to
emotions. And, that they'd somehow non-verbally communicate exactly what
they want to say using the game's dialogue choices.
...Obviously, though, you can be whoever you want :-P)
[C][B] Side-note
[C]Uu------------------------------uU
[C] The RP can start anywhere (From the 1st playthrough to the last),
but I was hoping it'd start at the first one, even with all the other
stuff I wrote. And of course, if you have an OC to play on this, lots of
things in the plot/story'll probably change 'cos of personalities and
everything. ..Not that anything was set in stone, anyway - I'm moreso a
free-form RPer, anyway. Just think of this plot as groundwork, I guess!
Speaking of, hope you like it - I know I didn't really go over what
*exactly* makes this a horror thing or whatever, but hopefully it's
clear that the horror part is the game glitching out with someone very
much so sentient stuck inside of it. Oh! And the game could also be on
some kind of PSX/PS2 console, as it's supposed to have been re-released.
In which case, the CD would be scratched.
[C] Partner's characters - The player, Kōseki MainCharacter 1(or 2) for
playthrough 1 and 2 respectively. Also, Kōseki MainCharacter 3, or the
blank-slate (No emotions, etc) character for playthrough 3. And also,
any other characters you want to play, like Lady Gertrude or members of
the Player's party.
[C] Semi-ending: Upon reaching a practically fatal game glitch that
essentially leaves Rui in an empty void, someone on the forum that The
Player was posting to suggested a way to potentially bring Rui into the
real world through a ritual - an alternative to just abandoning the game
or destroying it. The player is skeptical at first but decides to try it
anyway under the guise that it won't work. Of course, it works. The
journey to the real world would leave Rui in a coma-like state for a few
hours to a day, so what The Player does with the unconscious witch
duelist is up to them...(Preferably, they'd put her in a bed or
something 'till she wakes up.) [I'd say what's supposed to happen next,
but that wouldn't be fun, now would it? :-P Just know that this whole
thing's pretty much the intro to a new part in the story that (depending
on your character, anyway) isn't as much a horror thing. ...Or it could
end there - your choice.]
[C] Uu------------------------------uU
[C][B] LAST THING...
If you're wondering, and since we're probably going to use them
eventually, here are Lady Gertrude's other servants besides Rui...
(ordered by power, obviously...) During the fight through Lady
Gertrude's lair, The Player can recruit everyone here once they are
defeated instead of killing them, though that can be easy to extremely
hard depending on the character. You can have items to make it easier
(the biggest thing would be having Rui in your party), but the whole
recruitment thing is random at its core.
7 - Ezikiel, a confident, proud black-haired hothead and an assassin
with two broadswords. (Very Hard - Medium with Rui)
Oo---------
6 - Mazuko - a tough bully-type girl and a brawler that fights with her
fists. (Hard - Easy with Rui)
Oo---------
5 - Skylar - an actually nice young girl who seems too innocent to be
working with Lady Gertrude, but it seems like Lady Gertrude taking
advantage of that is why Skylar is with her. Skylar is far more powerful
than she seems, but not even Lady Gertrude can figure out why...
Skylar's class is Outlaw (which means she uses dual-wield guns) (Easy,
bordering Very Easy with or without Rui)
Oo--------
4 - Gomer - a big, burly man with a square jaw and a blacksmith outfit,
Gomer is very brutish and rarely speaks, so his demeanor definitely fits
his appearance... Gomer's class is Hammersmith, meaning he wields a
massive war hammer. (Extremely Hard, bordering on almost impossible.
Still Very Hard with Rui.)
Oo--------
3 - Europa - a seemingly nice woman, though since she serves under Lady
Gertrude, isn't actually that nice and turns meaner and angrier under
stress. Europa's class is a sorceress. (Extremely Hard - Hard with Rui)
Oo-------
2 - Christopher - a pretty annoying romantic-type that Player meets a
few times prior to the final fight, just like Rui. He's also Rui's
sister, and as such, has some of the characteristics that Rui has, like
blonde hair. Chris' class is being an archer. (Extremely Hard - Medium
with Rui)
Oo-------
1 - The most powerful of Lady Gertrude's servants is... ...Rui, as you
already know. (Labeled as almost impossible if you aren't nice to her
and she leaves your party, resulting in having to fight her in Lady
Gertrude's castle.)
---------------------------------ooO
Inspired by really messed-up ArtBreeder images (or just AI-created
images), horror games, nightmares, creepypastas, and some 4th
wall-breaking VN.... (Er, not really where the visual novel thing from
the start came from).