UPDATE (11/10/12): Posting my last three comics for now, making a total of 5. For those interested, I'm going to be working hard to make some more comics, which I'll post once I get a website launched. As busy as I've been though, I'm hoping for an end of the year/beginning of next year launch, but it might be a bit later pending on how busy I stay and how much free time I get. Thanks to all you guys who have checked this out and to those who have helped with advice, you've all been awesome!

EDIT (10/15/12): Posting first two comics of my project. Let me know what you guys think of the concept and such. Thanks to Ceres for the amazing logo! =D







Oh geez, where to begin? I apologize in advance for a long post, I hope this in the right place, if not, please move it. This is an idea I've had floating around in my head for the past 2 years and I honestly hope there's nothing like it, at least in the direction I want to go with this idea. Haven't looked because I definitely don't like subconsciously ripping others off.


Anyways, my project!!! It's a big one for me. I'm wanting to create a web comic. The title of this comic would be called RPG Hero. In short, I'm making a comic that's going to serve as a parody of sorts with all the cliches that are commonplace in traditional RPGs. The format I'm planning on doing this would be a 4-koma, or a 4 panel comic, drawn in a chibi-like style. It will follow a somenani loose, yet generic story as it is serving as a parody. To give some examples, some of the cliches that I plan on parodying will include tropes such as: having the hero rescue a girl he's fallen for after they've known each other for a whole 5 minutes, having an annoyingly cute mascot, questioning why teenagers instead of competent soldiers must save the world, having the hero's hometown being blown up in the first 5 minutes, doing side quests instead of saving the world, just to name a few examples.

I do have tons of ideas of things I plan on parodying and as of now I've started working on the story, though at the moment it's far from complete. I have also started sketching character designs I plan on using, though far from perfect right now as they are just sketches. I figure, I'll post nani I have and give a little info on each character.

THE GOOD GUYS


Hero: Strife Leonhart
Class: Soldier
Weapon: Sword/Dagger
Race: Human
Sex: M
Age: 17
Hometown: Loho Village
Hair: Brown
Eye: Blue
Description: The main hero. He tends to question obvious RPG cliches, such as why he needs to save girls he just met. Nearly every NPC female will swoon over his good looks.
Extra: Name is a play on Cloud Strife and a loose play off of Squall's from Kingdom Hearts, hence the LEONhart. His outfit is modeled after Cloud's with a few exceptions. Scarf was added as having something sway behind the hero seems to occur in a lot of RPGs. Like most main characters, he wields a one-handed sword.

Lance Highwind
Class: Lancer/Dragoon
Weapon: Lance/Spear
Race: Human
Sex: M
Age: 17
Hometown: Loho Village
Hair: Red
Eye: Green
Description: Strife's childhood friend. A bit more serious about saving the world than nani Strife may be. He serves to be more attractive than Strife, however he has bad luck when it comes to women. At least he has the fangirls.
Extra: First off, the name Highwind is an obvious reference to Cid and Kain. The name Lance serves as a bit of a double meaning and ties along with his class. Lance, of course refers to him using a lance, however a lancer is also considered to be the number one sidekick only next to the hero himself, hence me making him a Dragoon. It also parallels Cecil and Kain from FFIV. The outfit itselfis based very loosely on Dart's from Legend of Dragoon. I was a little bit inspired by Garet from Golden Sun to give him red hair.

Luna Altear
Class: White Mage/Summoner
Weapon: Staff/Rod
Race: Human?
Sex: F
Age: 17
Hometown: Lancaster Castle
Hair: Pink
Eye: Blue
Description: The soft-spoken daughter of a king. Holds a special power within. Obvious love interest of Strife.
Extra: Basically, the typical soft-spoken mage you find in most games. Given robes as most healer female mages wear as such. Her outfit is based loosely on the White Mage from Final Fantasy 1. Guess you could say the pink hair is a reference to Leena in FFV, as she too was a soft-spoken princess.

Sturge Ryder
Class: Knight
Weapon: 2-Handed Sword
Race: Human
Sex: M
Age: 20
Hometown: (still pending)
Hair: Black
Eye: Black
Description: He's the hardened war veteran. Lost his parents in the war, he's a tragic man. He must find how to trust and love others once again.
Extra: Basically, a parody of the trope stating that if you're in your 20s, you're already wise and tough beyond your years, and have had so much life experience, despite the fact that being in your 20s is still young in real life, hence why he is older than he appears. Not really a parody off of anyone directly. Given a mechanical left arm and scar across the left eye to make him look more worn for wear.

Kuno
Class: Geomancer/Time Mage
Weapon: Maracas
Race: Mochu
Sex: M
Age: 5
Hometown: Mochu Woods
Hair: White/Green
Eyes: Blue
Description: The annoying, cute mascot.
Extra: Basically, he's a mix of many things. The tail, I got the idea from Red XIII from FFVII. The ears are somenani inspired from the Cheagle in Tales of the Abyss. He's also a little inspired from Calumon from Digimon Season 3. He has wings, just as moogles do, and his maracas are a parody of Cait Sith's pointless use of a Megaphone in FFVII. Seeing as to how in some games critters have mysterious powers, I gave him the weirdest job classes I could think of, though I may change the name of it eventually to give it my own taste.

Le'Na
Class: Monk
Weapon: Fists/Gloves
Race: Shasta
Sex: F
Age: 19
Hometown: Sierra Mountains
Hair: Blonde
Eye: Brown
Description: Super tough chick with a heart of stone. The only one NOT in love with the hero. She comes from an all female tribe of monks.
Extra: Her name, as well as race, is my way of a parody off of the Viera in the Final Fantasy franchise. Her being a female monk powerhouse is a very loose reference to Tifa Lockhart as well as the tribes with the "Amazonian women". Her pants themselves are a direct parody of Yang's official FFIV artwork, where instead of having smiley faces on her pants, she has frowns.

Name: Meiko Elstar
Class: Black Mage
Weapon: Dagger/Rod
Race: Vendalian
Sex: F
Age: 8
Hometown: Vendalior (obligatory sky people)
Hair: Blue
Eye: Purple
Description: The token, hyper active loli that joins the party. Comes from a mythical city up in the clouds.
Extra: Basically a play on the token loli you will find in many RPGS, such as Krile, Relm, and Eiko in FF, Aht in Radiant Historia, Anise from TotA, among many others. Her blue hair is reference to Eiko Carol in FF9, as her pom-pom on her head is in reference to Moogles. She sports the more wizardly look as she is a black mage type and thus her pointy shoes were made in reference to that.

Quinton Valentine
Class: Assassin
Weapon: Gun
Race: Human
Sex: M
Age:18
Hometown: (still pending)
Hair: Black
Eye: Sunglasses/Red
Description: He is the obvious spy working for the enemy that will eventually turn over to the side of good. A bit of a psycho when it comes to fighting.
Extra: His last name is of course in reference to Vincent Valentine from FFVII, hence why I decided to give him a trenchcoat, long black hair, and a gun. I decided to add a hat and sunglasses, just to make him obviously stick out from the already rag-tag team, which is also why I tried to keep his design somenani simple. He has spurs on his shoes because, heck, why not?

THE BAD GUYS



MAIN VILLAIN: Genesis (Dorgann Leonhart)
Age: 44
Hometown: Loho Village
Description: Originally Strife's dad (spoiler!), left for war over ten years ago, then thought dead. Rose back up as Genesis, a powerful man in charge of the enemy army. Seeks to take power over the world. He really suffers from amnesia and he's not the true villain of the game, people will just think he is for most of the game.
EXTRA: His name Genesis is a direct parody of a translation of ExDeath's name in FFV, Exodus. Ha. Bible reference. I was mostly inspired to create his design based around Golbez in FFIV and ExDeath.

Lackey 1 (The Competent One)
Name: Cuberoll
Race: Youki
Hair: White
Eye: Red
Age: 22
Hometown: Nataku Village
Description: He's an adept magic user. He is the REAL bad guy of the game. He's only using Genesis to achieve his goals while serving under the guise as his loyal henchman. Wants to use the 8 mcguffins (which I'll address later) to revive a 1,000 year old demon that's been put to sleep, Thanatos, to control the world into creating a perfect utopia for himself.
Extra: This guy is actually a design I've had in my head for ages, so he's not really based off of anything. He's basically like Dementio in Super Paper Mario, though a bit more serious.

Lackey 2 (The snarky, sexy female)
Name: Striplon
Race: Shasta
Hair: Blonde
Eye: Blue
Age: 24
Hometown: Sierra Mountains
Description: Where Cuberoll is the magic, she's the brawn. She's obsessed with power and is always wanting to fight stronger enemies to grow stronger herself. She joined Genesis with that presumption in mind after she abandoned her home village in search of more power. She likes to make sarcastic remarks to the heroes and belittle them, but will eventually sympathize with the heroes in the end.
Extra: Thought she would serve as the generic, I used to know this person back when she was good, and now we have to fight her mentality. Like all good female henchmen, she has to dress less conservatively and serves as somenani of a foil to her more serious partners.

Lackey 3 (The incompetent, comic relief)
Name: Shin
Hair:Red
Eye: Yellow
Race: Dwarf
Age: 42
Hometown: Gorbin Mines
Description: Simply a dwarf. He's very intelligent, though his ideas and inventions usually tend to backfire in a comedic fashion. He has the ability to summon creatures to work at his disposal.
Extra: The comic relief henchman usually tend to be short and ugly, thus I made Shin as a dwarf. He serves as the intelligence to the group, he's smart, but never thorough and he can't fight on the front lines. Think along the lines of Ozzy from Chrono Trigger, though more technological.

------Also, the three henchmen's names are a pun. Like how Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger incorporate puns, I decided to as well. Their names are all parts of a cut of meat off of a cow---------------


-------The McGuffins------
Basically, these are nani the bad guys are out to get in order to take control of the world. In my parody, I decided to play off of the crystals in the Final Fantasy universe, but make it a bit more silly. The bad guys are out to collect the sacred Chrysanthemums. Yep, flowers. 4 of these are only initially known unto the world: The fire, water, wind, and earth ones. Later, the light, the dark, the poison, and the electric chrysanthemums will also be known, making 8 in total. The female white mage, Luna, initially has the power of the light chrysanthemum imbued within her, thus giving her powers beyond anyone else.


-And thus like all good comics, it needs a backstory. This is still a huge work in progress, but I believe it's good enough to start building on.

--------------------------------------------------BACK STORY-----------------------------------------------
12 years ago, explorers from a kingdom came upon an ancient text upon their expedition. The text spoke of an ancient power held within the power of 4 sacred flowers, chrysanthemums. Excited about the find, the explorers deliver the news to their king. The king becomes very intrigued and sets his guard to start hunting out these sacred flowers. After a year of searching, they guard return with a red chrysanthemum, said to imbue the power of fire. Immediately upon inspection and use, the king sees how mighty of a power it represents. Becoming greedy upon wanting to find the rest to see the power for itself, the King invades the neighboring country in hopes of finding more of these flowers. Soon, a terrible war breaks, both sides seem to be even. As months pass, a man by the name of Genesis talks with the king, asking why he does not use the power of the chrysanthemum in war. The king clings to it tightly claiming he will not let anyone have it, but Genesis reassures him that using it will lead to finding the other chrysanthemums that much faster. The king hesitantly obliges and in the matter of a few months, the army conquers the neighboring country and begin to immediately scout out the land in hopes of finding another chrysanthemum. The king praises Genesis for his well thought out decision and promotes him to captain of the army. However, Genesis, still in hold of the chrysanthemum claims that the king's greed is too much and that he, himself would make a much better leader. Genesis lets on that he knows more about the ancient text than the king is aware of and commits murder on the king, establishing himself as the new king. Much controversy and war arises in the years to come as Genesis takes charge, however, he takes full advantage of the power of the chrysanthemum to ensure his forced reign upon the kingdom. As Genesis continues to study the ancient text, he comes across a passage that states how a hero will rise up from the ashes and destroy those who abuse the power of the chrysanthemum, so he sends out his forces to decimate the town where the hero will rise from in hopes that his position will remain secure.


---------------------------------------------AND MY PLOT SO FAR------------------------------------------------
-2 heroes set off from the village destroyed by Genesis's men. As the village has been destroyed, Genesis believes them dead.
-Heroes seek shelter from a nearby castle town. Hero meets with a W.Mage girl who is suddenly kidnapped for ransom.
-Heroes go to save her, realizing she's the daughter of the king. For some reason, the king's army sucks at rescuing her themselves.
-As the heroes go to rescue her, the girl unleashes a power even unknown to her, thus helping her escape from the kidnapper as the heroes beat him down.
-When returning to the king, the girl explains to her father about her powers. He explains that she is actually adopted and was told by an oracle years ago when her powers were realized, she should seek out the hidden sacred shrine deep within the nearby woods to help find answers. She is given an item to help her find the shrine.
-2 heroes go with her as the king entrusts them as bodyguards. Within, they find a hidden village full of cute creatures. The sanctuary is guarded by them and said to house an ancient secret.
-The elder of the cute creature tribe place sends one of his own to guide the heroes to and through the shrine. There they find out about the power of the chrysanthemums and talk of a "girl of legend".
-It is revealed one of Genesis's men followed the group since they entered the forest as rumors of the girl using her power has spread. He plans on taking the girl.
-Her power unleashes, making the villain a little weary and he backs off for now, claiming he'll come for her once all the chrysanthemums are gathered.
-Upon return to the cute creature village, it is found completely decimated and burnt to the ground.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that's the gist of everything. Of course I have a bare bone plot, but I plan on fleshing it out with jokes I've come up with upon expanding on the generic story. I really apologize for such a long post, but this is a project I am truly interested in and I would totally love some feedback, criticism, the likes. Let me know nani you think should be improved or nani you like about this concept. I would love to turn this idea into a webcomic! Heck, if anyone is even interested, let me know if anyone would like to collab too. I honestly suck at coming up with made up names and drawing up city backgrounds! =D



For those who read all this, thank you! And for those who reply, I love you. =) I'll probably try to get some colored art of my characters up as well as part of a world map eventually if anyone is interested in this.

---

Last edited by dullahan1 on Sat Nov 10, 2012 11:37 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Sounds cool.

Sturge (character with exposed 6-pack even though it leaves your tummy just begging to be stabbed, check) and Quinton look a bit too old imo. Although you said with Sturge you were playing off the trope, but... that still leaves Quinton. I think it's mostly his chin xP

The heads look kinda big to me for Sturge, Lance, and Luna...

I feel like Genesis' waist should be moved up (like, his chest should be shorter and his legs longer)


You just have concepts here, so it's really waiting for you to actually do it, but... best of luck actually getting it done! Just something I think you need to look out for: not to become a generic parody yourself. If all you do is go, "Hey look, the hero is going to go to crazy lengths to save some random girl he just met! How plot-convenient! ;D The fate of the world rests with a random rag-tag bunch of teenagers, despite there being a massive professional army! How silly! ;D" etc etc, people already know RPGs do all that silly stuff (case in point: TVTropes). Basically, you need to give your comic something 'more' so it isn't just a bunch of empty cliches. Even if you're doing it on purpose to parody the genre, it still leaves it feeling... empty.

Also, if you want to see another well-done (imo) comical parody of generic fantasy, I recommend Cucumber Quest (which was made by the same person who did the "Zak Gramarye is a Jerk" comics!)

---

Yeah, they are still in the concept stage. I tend to rush my drawings at times when working on concept so the proportions tend to be off. I like to use them more as a base when I get down to drawing the real stuff.

I'll probably work on Quinton's design a bit more too, I was afraid he looked a little old so I'll try to tone that down some. And I honestly admit that I have trouble with proportions at times when I rush too fast, so I figured slowing it down and making my characters chibi would best benefit that problem greatly. Just have to adapt to making smaller heads!

I appreciate the advice from a story standpoint too. I'm purposely trying to at least set up a thought up story that can be self contained in its own world. The way I'm wanting to approach the parodies is to not really state the obvious or such, but let the story progress in its own accord and pick at the humor from there. I guess in a way, I could say it'd be more of an homage. It's honestly kind of hard to explain without giving some set examples.

Like for instance, the way I was planning on approaching Sturge's age is that after he tells the heroes of his background, he asks the bartender for a drink. The bartender checks his ID, says he's too young to drink, and it surprises the characters as they thought he was much older. Basically I guess you can say I'm wanting to approach the parody from a situational standpoint as opposed to a downright direct one as I feel the latter will get too stale and I can keep the former contained within the story at the same time and it helps it flow a lot better and keeps it more entertaining.

I may sketch up some drafts of some ideas if you'd be interested if would help you see where I'm coming from. I appreciate your criticism though and I'll take it to heart. After all, I want to make sure this project looks real nice before I set it off. Thank you very much for taking your time to look at this.


Also, Cucumber Quest is amazing. Been following it since the site opened. Love it.

---

Post the first comic on /v/, if they like it you'll get a good initial audience.
And thinking/knowing someone is waiting for the next comic will usually give you the incentive to make another.
Then again 4komas are at their heart anime/manga themed, so you might hit a barrier while trying to appease to the gamer that isn't an anime fan.
(Or maybe you're going more for the JRPG?)


Also, aren't females in RPGs usually half naked? Your chibi females look a bit too clothed to be an accurate spoof.
Here's another thing, in any given RPG you have that ONE guy on your team who's super old and experienced and not a prodigy like the main characters are. All your heroes seem to be 20 or under, throw some drunk ass 40 year old in there and you'll be with a majority of RPG's. (Cid/Barret from FF7, Frog from Chrono Trigger, Korgan from Baldur's Gate 2, etc.)


Remember, you're making a spoof/parody, the point of it is to BE corny and make all the right references.
(Like me!)

---

I was actually initially planning on making a few comics first and posting them up on here to get some feedback and advice before I go and make them public. I figure if I can get some criticism that can help me to cultivate and improve my ideas and such, it will go so much better.

I'm honestly aiming for more of a jRPG parody myself as I'm way more familiar with the genre than I am with wRPGs. I've purposely want to stick with the 4-Koma format as I feel that, not only would they be easier and faster to do, but it's easier to use the self-contained jokes that I have planned as opposed to putting it on a regular page, using the joke, and still having a couple of left over panels to cover story line and thus making the end of the page feeling awkward at times. Honestly, it was going to be my initial approach to how I was going to do the comic, but the more I got into this and found about 4-Koma, the more I realized it was more suited to what I want to do. If I hit a barrier, so be it, I'll work hard to overcome it!

As for fanservice... I'll consider that notion. I'm not TOO keen on fanservicey stuff myself. As for the old guy, figuring that one as I'm still in the concept stages. Just trying to be wary of not making too big of a cast and having to throw some characters out on the sidelines.

And trust me, from the get go, I planned on making this as corny and cheesy as possible. I enjoy corny humor as well as sarcastic satire (big fan of that) and situational humor, so the stuff I've been coming up with stem from that.

Thanks for the critique and whatnot too DoMaya. I really appreciate it.

---

I consider myself a Connoisseur of webcomics and I've seen a lot rise and fall.
I look forward to seeing yours someday,

---

Updated the first post with my first two comics. Critique is very welcome, please let me know what you guys think! Thanks to Ceres for the amazing logo!

---

It would be funny if you put some famous hairstyles (from RPGs of course) in the crowd's hair (like having Cloud's signature hairstyle or some other ones.)
You should have fun with making the backgrounds, not just have it as something to fill the white-space in.
Maybe like making a parody of Mog's running about, or just stupid little things that give the reader a reason not to just read it from text box to text box.

---

Honestly, I'm planning on keeping it a self contained universe. It's a parody of RPGs, but I don't really want to do cameos as it'll take away from the universe I want to create. I plan on having background events going on in future comics, however I don't want to do it too often as it may become redundant. I do want to keep the humor and the like somewhat fresh so it'll be a bit more enjoyable to read. Thank you so much for checking them out! That makes me happy. =)

---

Alright, probably my last post on this topic for a while. Just wanted to post the last three comics I've done. I'm planning on putting these plus the other two I've already done initially on my site once I get to creating one!





My initial plan is to make 10 more comics before I want to launch, and I admit, I have been very very busy outside of these. I'm hoping I can launch by the end of this year/beginning of next year, but I'll have to see how it goes, but I have been hard at work on these too when I do get a chance for some free time. I'm really hoping these will be good enough for people to enjoy. I'm still nit picky about my art here and there, but I honestly think the comics are turning out quite well myself. Again guys, thanks so much for checking this stuff out and giving me advice and everything, you guys are awesome. =)

---

Those are some big heads! I like the logo.

Silly Strife. This is a JRPG, which means even the most menial task (such as walking your dog) will become a gigantic, world-saving endeavor. Of course you need armor for it!


One small criticism: In #4, it feels kinda confusing for me how Strife and Lance swap positions every other other frame.

Lookin' good, though!

---

Nice stuff, cant wait for it to possibly turn into an actual game. :)

First of all, I like it. The way it taps against the glass which is the 4th wall but not breaking it, seems like a good style to set these kind of parodies.

The thing you need to ask yourself though: what makes my comics unique? why would someone watch this instead of another rpg parody? (not sure how many are out there though)
When you got this sorted out all it takes is effort and some marketing skills.

Effort: little details in the background? we see them, we love them. Clever thought out conversations in a cohesive storyline? we love them. Really obvious jokes? can be fun but most likely it won't make the comics succesful. Keep working hard on them and it will pay off. A lot of popular web-comics today started out small and ended up... well popular.

For the marketing aspect: Getting some endorsements from other popular web-comics really help. Mostly they will sympathise with your starting situation and will likely give you a boost. Be very careful not to send it around anywhere though. /v/ can be dangerous if you post at the wrong time.

For what it's worth, I'll look forward to seeing more of these comics. They're fun and when the styling / design is completed it will probably look great!

---

Oh, I'm going to be poking at the 4th wall so much at times, I will not be surprised if it ends up sore. =)

I do already have a plot developed up to a certain point, so going off that and adding fun conversations to keep it cohesive is something that I do enjoy doing, as I hope it shows. Hopefully I can find the right balance with keeping the plot going without dragging out conversations.

I really appreciate the criticism and help too! I can never get enough.


As for working on this project, I've still been hard at work on it, it's just been REAL slow due to real life. Elementary teaching, getting sick, busy with other prior commitments, and the such. With a lot of the latter out of the way, I'm working real hard to pick up the pace on this now. I'm pushing my want to be launch date back several months until I can get where I want with this and to where I'm satisfied. I'd hate to have a low quality comic because of rushing, I'd rather it be well thought out and show the effort and take longer instead of having a rushed, sloppy mess (Like Sonic 06 =)) I really hope once I get stuff taken care of, you guys will come check it out. This is a fun project that I'm doing, of course for me, but at the same time, I really enjoy entertaining other people and I hope that'll show when this comic gets underway.

---