Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #142

Hiya there! How are we all doing today? Things are getting warmer at long last and that chill that we couldn't seem to quite shake off is finally going away, leading to some nice and warm sunny days, which has been a lot of fun!

For today's dev log, I wanted to do another deep dive for a character--and felt like Claire might be the perfect fit for this, as I haven't really delved too deep into her stuff before, and there's a lot of mystery around her! I know she's not the most loved character, but I hope even those on the fence about her can appreciate some deeper insight, and will maybe even come around as a result, too!

I believe I've already made a post like this before, and even shared the same concept art--but feel like I can talk about more now due to a number of factors!

I will say that this dev log will assume you've played the latest Christmas demo that came out, as that had a quest featuring Claire. So if you don't want spoilers for that--I suggest you turn away before it's too late! And maybe give the new demo a shot if you haven't already, because it's a lot of fun, I promise. There's even a scenario featuring Ren, if that's your kind of jam!

So, without any further rambling, let's dig into things!

From the start of her conception, I always wanted Claire to be kind of the antithesis to what a lot of the other characters are like, to create a large contrast to the rest of the roster. Where other characters are mischievous and teasing to poor Matt, Claire is nice--perhaps to a fault--and will always go out of her way to ensure others are happy. Where other characters are largely sex-crazed, and will stop at nothing to drain poor Matt of all of his essence, Claire is quite normal in comparison, and outside of accidental slip-ups, she doesn't have her hands all over him.

If you wanted to sum her up in just a few words, she's practically the female version of Matt himself, always blundering her way into trouble and never quite meeting the success she's chasing after. The only difference is that she seems to be insanely strong, and carries around a store's worth of merchandise on her tiny shoulders whenever she's out on the road--either selling her wares, or gathering supplies. You have to wonder with strength like that if she's secretly the strongest person in Rhan, or if her strength somehow only relates to what she's carrying--and not her battle prowess!

Design-wise, everything I mentioned above bleeds into this, where she was set to be the antithesis of all of the buxom, cleavage-heavy women that seem to populate Rhan, so from the very outset, I had requested that she be a bit more modest in how she looks.

Her sprite was drawn by the super talented Deverish, who contributed quite a lot to Chapter Two over the years!

From here, you can see the general design philosophy for her was the same across all of the potential variants--keeping her with short, fluffy hair and ensuring what she wore was fairly modest and not too outrageous. And you can also see the end result was that I decided to mix and match the hair colour with the fluffier variant, to help her stand out a bit and not have too many characters with the same coloured hair. So, she's one of the few non-monster sorts to have an exotic shade of hair, which is something to be celebrated! You'll be able to spot that fluffy head in a crowd a mile away! And yet...somehow...she still manages to get lost all the time. That's an odd one, isn't it?

You'll also notice that the eyepatch was decided on from the off-set, along with that nasty looking set of scars across her eye. Though, the first time you see her, she actually doesn't have an eyepatch yet--and instead, you witness how that damaged eye came to be! And despite how clumsy she is, it surprisingly WASN'T a self-inflicted injury! Perhaps one of the few injuries that wasn't, though.

Which brings me to how you meet her--and how different her introduction is compared to a lot of the other humans who you just naturally bump into in the city as a result of your exploration. When the game first starts, there's almost an air of mystery about this klutzy shopkeeper. Any attempts to enter her store will be with a locked door,--and you can't help but wonder where on earth she is. Is she out on a business trip? Visiting family? Just...plain lost? Yeah, I think we all know it's that last one.

And so, until you pursue the quest linked to this dilemma, conveniently titled 'Missing Merchant'--the store, and its many goodies, will remain locked! You could potentially go the whole game without ever starting this quest, and keep her lost forever. You know--if you're heartless. But why would you want Claire to suffer like that?!

Claire's store, and the subsequent quest attached to is a good demonstration of how many things are linked and intertwined within Chapter Two--and that rarely is any one static. Triggering an event, or doing a sidequest--or even just meeting a new character--will often lead to new options opening up elsewhere and provide fun new ways for Matt to be assaulted! So be sure to experiment with different options when you get the chance, as you never know what you might trigger as a result of your curiosity! For example, Claire's store itself provides you with the ability to buy and sell a variety of things that might aid in future events or quests. I hear that you can even trigger a CG by selling a certain item!

Without spoiling too much more of Claire's quest--because you should really play that demo--her little story there is one of the rare times that Matt actually gets to play the hero, and be looked up to by someone, rather than just being looked down upon as a fun little boytoy. Right from the get-go, you can feel Claire's admiration towards Matthew for plucking her from the depths of despair and bringing her back to the city! So I feel like the affection that develops between the pair is almost natural, and isn't too forced.

Matt also interacts quite differently with Claire compared to how he might do with the other ladies. Given she isn't the flirty/teasing type, Matt feels a lot more relaxed around her, and isn't constantly getting flustered. In fact, he can often be quite bold around her and make HER become flustered! So while he isn't exactly about to start pinning her down and dominating her like a typical maledom game--maybe you'll find his interactions with her to be a breath of fresh air compared to the other women.

Which brings me to her h-scenes! Since she isn't the dominant sort, with the help of Deverish, we devised h-scenes for her that make sense for her character personally, while also still somehow overpowering poor Matt. That is to say...any intimate moments with him will be accidental in nature, but still bring him to the brink with relative ease. I guess she just doesn't know about those magic hands of hers, huh?

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, too--but it did take a couple of passes to get h-scenes that felt 'right' for her. As two h-scenes were created full, but in the end I felt they were either too mean-spirited, or just outright forced in a strange way. One involved her gripping to Matt's pants while she was in tears, and I just didn't feel right about how it ended up looking, so shelved it. And the other was the pair somehow getting caught up in an elaborate dungeon trap and intertwined. They just didn't fit the clumsy tone I wanted from her, and didn't belong in a femdom game at all. Maybe I can still include the scenes as a bonus or something after Chapter Two is finished--but for now, the replacement scenes we had made for her fit a lot better. One of which you can experience in the DEMO, so be sure to try it!

In regards to the shop system--there's actually a lot of depth here beyond a simple place that you can spend/earn gold back from items. The prices for things that she both buys and sells are managed by a formula that factors in her affection for you! So the more she likes you, the less she'll charge you for things, and the more gold she'll give you for items you sell! Meaning you may want to hold off on doing so until you've gotten to know her a little better. But--you might not want to wait too long, as buying and selling will also add to how much she trusts you as a customer...and after you reach a certain threshold between goods bought and sold, she may ask you for a very important favour! I wonder what it could be~?

In regards to Claire's backstory, she doesn't like to talk about her life too much--but from brief exchanges, it can be assumed she came to the city with dreams of making it big, only to be left with a store that's accrued mountains of debt, and that she's just barely struggling to keep afloat. I suppose being away from her store for days on end certainly didn't help with that... And as a result of this building debt, from rent and loans from shady places, there's perhaps a slightly darker side to Claire's life that she tries her best to keep hidden from other people for fear of being judged. Especially from Matthew. Some people have claimed to have seen Claire talking with Anna over certain matters...so who can say what sort of stuff she's gotten herself into?

Her voice was also something I had a lot of fun searching for when I was doing the initial round of casting. As I didn't want her to sound too cheery or spirited--as we had plenty of characters like that already. I wanted a voice that perfectly encapsulated her panicky, near neurotic nature--while also lending to the friendly nature she had, without going overboard on any one aspect. And I feel like her VA Autumn Knox completely knocked it out of the park in that regard, giving her a nice, warm voice but also able to escalate it into full-blown panic when needed! I just love how she delivers the more panicked muttering--and couldn't imagine her with any other voice now! (As a fun note, Autumn Knox also voices another character too who most people probably haven't seen, and that character is like the complete opposite of Claire, so it's interesting to hear the complete contrast from friendly to horrible.)

All in all, Claire isn't necessarily important to the larger storyline of Chapter Two, and is a 100% optional character that you're never forced to pursue or see--but I really like what she adds to the overall experience, and feel she's a breath of fresh air from all of the relentless teasing. Perhaps, when you feel like just taking a chill in-game day, you can visit Claire's store and say hi! I'm sure she'd really appreciate it! (Just don't leave her in the forest forever, or I'll be sad. Remember, the game tracks all of your choices--and if I find out people are trying to carry their save over without Claire, I'll...I'll...! I dunno. I haven't figured out what I'll do yet. But it will probably involve crying.)

I hope you enjoyed this lengthier dive into Claire as a character! Like with Sister June's, it was a lot of fun to write--and I even think I broke the 2k word mark with this one again, whoo! As always, if there's any characters you'd love a deeper delve into, please let me know, and I'll see what I can manage when I believe I have the time!

What do you think about Claire personally? Love her? Hate her? Sheer indifference towards her? It's always fun to know!

Also, for anyone curious--development on the next alpha build is coming along really well! I recently tackled quite a lengthy h-scene for it, and am doing my best to ensure that this particular build is one of the biggest that there's been in a while, balancing between a lot of new main story content AND lots of optional h-scene stuff, so fans of both will have plenty to dig their teeth into! As always, I appreciate your patience and hope I won't disappoint!

Until next time~