November 1 Update (Patreon)

FYI, today's post contains minor spoilers about Four Liars. Specifically, the thing that happens at the end of 0.1.0. This isn't a story-destroying spoiler, more of a foundational piece of the game similar to the real protagonist of TLS. I wouldn't talk about this if I didn't think the spoiler was basically harmless, but you can make that decision for yourself.

If you prefer to avoid 100% of spoilers, you will want to skip this one. If you want some insight into the creative process, a peek at new assets, and input on a weird problem, read on!

As context, and to space out the spoilers a little bit, first I'm going to mention that Final Fantasy Resonance came out recently. Big Square Enix game, throwback to series nostalgia, more could be said about it, but this isn't the place. Technically spoilers for that as well, I guess.

What's relevant is that there is a character who starts off as a light mage and can transform into a dark mage. This is superficially similar to the situation with Mina in FL, and if that wasn't enough, the FF character is named... Fina. -_- Technically the build of FL came out prior to FFR releasing, but is anyone going to believe that? I think the similarity will be too odd to ignore.

Here's the original concept art for Mina... though not all of Mina's concept art:

Mina begins as an absurdly naive girl in the prologue, and here are her completed expressions (actually she has more):

But at the end of her chapter, we find out that this is a false personality she created in order to infiltrate the light mages, which she discards in order to return to her true self. This is where I have more new art for you, because this is some of the progress I haven't posted due to spoilers:

This is not the conclusion of Mina's arc, and I'm headed toward something considerably more complex (which I won't spoil here). Now, I don't have time to play a long RPG like FFR in the near future, but I am reasonably confident based on the writing team that Fina's arc and Mina's arc will not be very similar overall.

That said, the superficial similarities are frustrating. Aside from the names, they go through personality shifts, switch from healing to offensive magic, and even have pink/red color schemes. This is all 100% coincidental, but I admit the similarities are eerie.

I'm not going to change the story of Four Liars based on this, but I'm seriously wondering if I should change her name. Fina and Mina are just too close for comfort. People can sound off here if they want, but this is definitely the direction I'm moving.

On a personal note, I'm frustrated that, when FL comes out down the road, some people will almost certainly think that Mina is a riff on Fina. T-T Completely unrelated, I promise! Annikath can confirm the designs well before FFR came out! Hopefully I will be able to make FL a quality-enough game that people will view this as just an amusing weird coincidence.