idyllsoftheabyssalforest

[idyllsoftheabyssalforest]

EO3 (partial) lineup - November-December 2022

Peak MAbo is collaborating with your best friend for a(n admittedly unfair) final project (for web development!!!! an elective!!!), saying you would post it, forgetting about it for a year, posting it on Artstation and forgetting about it again.

As always, AC drew the lineart, and I colored. Designs were more of a collaborative effort between the two of us!

Probably should have shared this when the HD collection came out... anyway it's here now!

Some design ramblings under the cut :0! There's a lot i wanna share especially given that we recently did a soft rewrite that departed from the guild system entirely ^^" and EO3's cast was actually one of the first that we had, surprisingly!

Micah is quite clearly alt gladiator 3, but in an entirely different profession. instead of going into the labyrinth, he works in what i imagine would be an analogue to the forge in Tharsis (aka helping people make things busted af). It probably works best for his character, since he was always a gizmo freak even in his first iteration! geomagnetic (or submagnetic, ugh) gizmo is AC's idea!

Micah's brother, Eva, is a very loose spin on zodiac 3, but with a wayyyy lighter colour palette. Admittedly, i did steal a little bit of the spiritmaster's coat from bravely default, but AC managed to spin it back to resembling the original coat that the class had. Eva works as an astronomer, hence the little telescope he always has on him.

Next up we have Eva's protégé, Miri (who was imported from AC's stories)! Theoretically, Miri would be a second zodiac, and, after watching some EO3 speedruns, would probably be really strong in the earlygame when working with Eva in an actual playthrough. AC's design heavily borrows from Patho II's Grace, hence the coat + dress combo.

Following Miri in this lineup would be Noa, her admittedly very lazy but clingy sibling. I think it's apparently here that we didn't have much time to filter what a believable design would be in an EO setting, given that Noa's clothes were translated directly from our designs of them in school attire. It's actually funny how for we diverged from their original portrait (buccaneer 3) to the point that she is literally unrecognizable. Truly a pipeline from good sea boy to j-horror twist character.

Last in the OC section would be Masaru, who recently found work for the Senatus. Admittedly he does have another example of "incongruent time period" clothing (the jacket), though it's a lot more reworkable than Noa. We also made his design a lot less poofy and rugged compared to the original, and I mixed the base and alt color palettes as well to make him less, well, glaringly red. Probably one of the funnier things is that his clothing palette made him blend in more with the likes of Kujura, but given that they work for the same place, it'll probably work out fine.

Now we go onto NPCs, and who better to start than with Flowdia! Admittedly, her art was one of the last ones that we did, hence why her design looks relatively plain (sorry lola). Probably one of the things I would like to add would be more ornate patterns, perhaps of butterflies to tie her closer to Gutrune!

Before we get to the Princess, we gotta get through her bodyguard first! >:0 I honestly don't like Kujura because I answered honestly in his first question, and he said that I was prideful, but AC likes him so he looks really good here. He isn't as rendered here as he is in his portrait, since he was also one of the last characters we made, and I didn't really get to notice that he doesn't have as much value contrast in his clothing as Masaru does. Probably something to think about next time I color him >:0

Next up we have Gutrune!! We decided to make her look more jellyfish-like, while still keeping it a bit uncanny and unsettling. We tried to give her a more traditionally Filipiniana look (mostly on the Maria Clara gown), but we haven't yet made a poncho design that mixes well with butterfly sleeves without looking cluttered. As such, she has a more nightdress-y look here. AC drew in a few tentacles, and I couldn't help but make them look squishy.

Last but not least is Olympia! We wanted to align her appearance more with her background, hence her altered design :0 Having rips of the artbook easily accesible online also helped us flesh out her hair in particular, since we didn't want to just transplant Gutrune's hairstyle onto her.

And that's all of them!!! I'm honestly hoping to draw more EO characters, though Seyfried's design scares me (honestly the reason why I couldn't make a Reversed Emperor comic).

Currently, I've made a lot of progress on the EO4 game, and I'm excited to draw up the three N-turned-PCs + Xiuan >:'0!!! I don't think I can ever get as cool as Morika tho. If you've come this far and aren't into EO, please check out their blog!! Their art is stunning and has come a really long way :")

#etrian odyssey #idylls of the abyssal forest #eo3 #catalina #noa minjin #miri minjin #micah abdelghani #eva abdelghani #masaru murakami #olympia #gutrune #flowdia #kujura

[idyllsoftheabyssalforest]

“The Abyssal King rises to the surface, laying waste to the festival in his search for the Deep One that has hidden itself among the people.

When he finally finds her, long buried memories (or a distressing lack thereof) arise.”

Admittedly, this was written in a fugue state several years ago. I’ve been getting back into EO since the past week to help cope with my thesis, and my friend recently reminded me of this short thing. Rewrote it a few days ago, and now it’s a bit more spiffy.

#past idylls (safekeeping) #etrian odyssey iii #the manuscripts! #wishbone said that i should at least bring this on here for the record #seyfried #gutrune #pls remind me too on what else i should bring here! ToT

[idyllsoftheabyssalforest]

Happy EO3 Anniversary!

We initially planned on revamping our character lineup, something that my wife @anoldwishbone had wanted to do for some time. However, given our busy schedules, we ended up going with a tarot motif for both Gutrune and Seyfried, eventually only having enough time for Gutrune.

pre-production (concept, sketch), production (lines), and post-production (color correction, frame) done by @anoldwishbone (super thank you for the carry!)

pre-production (planning, concept), production (colors) done by @martilyongabo

#etrian odyssey #etrian odyssey iii #eoiii #eo3 #gutrune #princess gutrune #idylls of the abyssal forest #saving the filipiniana design for the lineup specifically #kind of a neat parallel to the reversed emperor short story featuring seyfried #pls hire us #wishbone pls do not edit credits #EDIT: ok i won't touch your credits #instead i'll do it here #marty deserves more credit #marty rights

[idyllsoftheabyssalforest]

high tide, low tide (12.18.2023) [5 hours (man i took long ToT)]

#from main #forgot about this blog i’m sorry ToT #etrian odyssey #gutrune #seyfried #please listen to compass!

[idyllsoftheabyssalforest]

Celetere Clinic Overview

The next in the timeline would be EO4's Celetere, formed in Tharsis! Admittedly, I don't really feel like writing their bios and attacking their game images just yet, since this is the story that I'm working on currently. Instead, please enjoy this little uhh... decompression? post-mortem? self-debriefing? it's under the cut as usual since I hate to be a bother, though I do warn that it's very rambley and probably doesn't make sense. <:') Hope it's entertaining though!

While EO4 is the first EO game I ever completed (~first week of November), I think I'm still trying to make sense of it and the plot divergences that I wanted to implement since I kind of rushed through it. Probably not the feeling I'd wanna have when finishing succeeding EOs <:")

It was also probably because EO4 is the game whose story I was most unfamiliar with. I don't know what was up with 15-year old Marty (since a lot of these characters have existed from then), but for some reason the conflict of EO4 didn't click with him. Either that or he was so enraptured with EO1-3's plot twists and then EO5's character creator that EO4 kinda fell by the wayside. Bubu Marty.

(as an aside, I'm glad that I'm old enough to be able to distinguish the nuances in both the characters and the story <:"))

One of the things that made me a bit sad was the lack of documentation too on EO4's actual written text. I did manage to find some decompiled text, but it didn't really have later game events in Maze 5 (particularly the "town square" events that seem to change if you have KG or WF in your party, as well as similar changes in Maze 5 proper). It's a little bit of a shame since I do really like WF and KG, and I adored the event where the Sentinel defended the Imperial soldier from the Vessels' anger.

A part of me wants to bring up WW too, though I fear that I might spoil something if I talk too much. But something funny that happened to my wife and I (I was sharing screenshots and short videos to her since we live apart) was that we had a whole debriefing session after the fight with him. A dialogue choice has never made me wish so hard that I could go back and change it to something else (referring to "extend hand" choice).

but yeah! even though I rushed through the lategame, there were still a lot of serendipitous moments that I hope that I will be able to illustrate as time goes on :0. thank you for listening (or reading rather) my ramble, and hope that the weather is fair to you today.

#etrian odyssey #eo4 #trevor goldschmidt #su spil #kat minjin #adri littrow #SUCCESS THEY ALL HAVE SURNAMES #idylls of the abyssal forest #celetere

[idyllsoftheabyssalforest]

since i'm gonna wipe my old save, might as well take a picture of them :0

i'm surprised at how far i got with just four party members (up to mid-Stratum 3). you can also see that I was playing around with subs for a bit (half-based on recommendations, half-based on the character themselves). while they weren't super optimal, they were still really fun to play with, with each of them having their moments throughout gameplay.

hopefully the next run with Miranda will be fun too :00! A part of me is considering including Wealh as a hoplite for uh, plot reasons (plot being timeloop), but we'll still see hehehe.

#past idylls (safekeeping) #etrian odyssey #noa minjin #masaru murakami #micah #eva

[idyllsoftheabyssalforest]

Squad C (Cassini) Overview

I'm still a little shy in sharing things in a more explicit and candid manner, but I plan on starting EO3 soon so might as well start talking about EOCs before it piles up ToT

Starting off with the first in our timeline, we have Squad C (affectionately named Cassini by Alma) in Aslarga (EMD)! The third batch in a larger group of research aides, they're in charge of doing field research, while Squads A and B venture first into mystery dungeons themselves.

Putting this under a cut cuz it does get long!

"Petrina, better known as Petri, hails from an eastern archipelago kingdom, sent on a whim by her family to assist research efforts of the Yggdrasil trees. Exceedingly proud of her capabilities (and having the strength to show for it), she enjoys pushing herself, joining other squads to test out new equipment and prosthesis."

One of the most fun characters to play, to be honest! EMD is my first experience using a dedicated tank, and I never expected to have such fun with it. The 3D model helps a lot, I think. Seeing her turn and raise her sword is just way too cute. Admittedly her character is a work-in-progress, but I've noticed that she does what she wishes most of the time.

(Now that I think of it, I think EMD having active and dynamic representations of our characters helps a lot too and is just so ToT it makes me cry... I wanna have little them's in real life)

"A prosthetist from Tharsis, called to aid in the exploration efforts in Aslarga. Because his practice primarily deals with rehabilitation, Seth has to adjust himself to different responsibilities, such as immediate response and further treatment. Apart from this, he would often find himself catching to and worrying about the rest of his squad."

Obligatory frazzled medic insert. The guy always finds himself wondering whether or not he should heal his teammates, but they say they're fine. I don't always get to pilot him that often, but I suppose it's rather in-character given that he's the one who tries to look out for everyone, much to his own detriment.

The few times I did pilot him, he would run headfirst into traps or enemies, only to be saved by Alma later on. One funny moment was when I accidentally made him eat a sleeping pill in the third boss. (foreshadowing maybe. those are the wrong pills, Seth)

"An heiress whose family has strong ties to the Lagaardian research society. Much of Alma's work involves the cursory elemental explosion, earning her a reputation in her old schools. For a researcher, her senses are very sharp, making her a good fit for her group's assigned task."

One of the characters I pilot most often. Alma's portrait ingame totally doesn't reflect how she is as a person, and that's partially why I'm hiding this under a cut.

She tends to hang around in the front with Petri, and so is able to sling spells while Petri draws monsters to herself. They're a very fun combo honestly.

"A quiet young woman travelling from a reclusive clifftop village. Chikako has a knack for knowing when and where trouble is brewing, and so has the tendency to be drawn to such places; hence, how she got to Aslarga in the first place."

Admittedly my favourite of the four mains in Squad C concept-wise. While she is the youngest of them (21 vs late 20s-30), she manages to keep her wits about her throughout the treks through the mystery dungeons.

I noticed that she has the tendency to linger at the back, which means that she has more time to chill and observe their surroundings.

So far, I've met two NPCs that wished to join the group, a dancer and a landy. The writing of these characters is honestly so charming, I'm surprised.

#etrian odyssey #etrian odyssey mystery dungeon #emd #squad c (idylls) #idylls of the abyssal forest #petri #seth spil #alma fraunhoffer #chika minjin #an improvement: half of them have surnames #etrian ocs