Mai-HiME the RPG: Episode 6

Episode six turned out to be a particularly complex one to create; not only did Midori have to be transformed into a playable character, but every scene seemed to require some trick or another. Oddly enough, the section that required the most work was the seemingly simplistic ‘rocks falling in a cave’ event towards the end- it took me all evening to create the perfect falling rock animation and then dig out my old first year computing lab skills to get it looping correctly (even now, I’m not entirely satisfied with it, but that’s probably more to do with the limitations of RPG Maker than anything else).

Tate meets Shiho on the way to school.

Tate and Shiho enlist Mai, Mikoto and Takumi’s assistance for a wedding being held at the shrine over the weekend.

Jin (correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that was his name) puts Mai and the others to work.

Once the coast is clear, Midori decides to investigate the storeroom. I’m still having a few issues with timing for this scene, but they should be worked out by the final release.

As luck would have it, Mai comes along and locks Midori in.

Fortunately, Midori finds some reading material.

Mai, Mikoto and Shiho get to spend the night in a more comfortable setting.

In the men’s bedroom, Tate and Takumi have a frank discussion.

Mai finds Midori in the storeroom. I wasn’t fast enough to screencap them, but there are a couple of anime screencaps in this scene that show Midori accidentally ripping the seal off the door at the back.

Mai rushes over to put things right.

Both girls end up in a cave with the infamous falling rocks. For some reason the picture that is supposed to display here doesn’t show up, but that’s something else I’ll be tinkering with (in fact, said picture may not even be necessary).

An Orphan is encountered, and a new HiME is revealed.

As well as adding Midori, I’ve reworked Natsuki and Mikoto’s battle graphics; Natsuki has a smoother border and Mikoto has been resized to be in proportion to the others. Midori’s skills are Spear Throw, Spiral Dash and Tornado (the last two involve summoning Gakutenoh, or, as Bandai calls it, Gakuten O).

After the battle, who should turn up at school but Midori herself? In the final version, Midori will walk all the way over to the desk, but I was feeling too lazy to go through the episode again just to screencap the end.

Next episode: Nao.