Meanings and Questions

I suggest to not read this article until you have played the game, for major spoilers are revealed.

I wanted to write this section as remembrance of the idea for the story and to tell the meanings behind the names I used for the game, and also the inspirations that made possible to create this story.

The idea for this story began many years ago. When I discovered erhu for real, I felt it was something fresh and new. I wasn't enjoying my personal life back in time, and I wished there was a way to escape. Different things then influenced the idea of finding a strange musical instrument and the idea of the portal. I remember watching Death Note, and the way the protagonist finds the notebook was interesting. He was tired of life, “everyday is a photocopy of the day before”, and then he randomly finds the notebook. This is kinda similar to how Amatore finds the erhu case in the city. The idea about playing music and images and a portal appeared is inspired by Futurama and the holophonor. I just love it.

Originally, the characters of Kan and Vu weren't very well developed. These two were developed more for the game. In the original story, I thought all the time in the Tanuki folk tale from japanese myths. An old monk finds a teapot and when heating the tea, it transforms into a tanuki, a magical raccoon. So this was the original idea of the team of old man and animal. For the game, I changed the character of tanuki for a fox, mostly because fox was an animal in the game engine default art, and also because I felt I already used the tanuki character in other game and I was going to repeat. Also, fox is nice because it's an important animal for japanese folk tales, as seen in Kitsune.

Back in time, I also didn't think in most of the drama that appears in the game, nor their jobs and such. In the original story, the man finds the erhu, creates a portal to a fantastic city, and in there he meets a woman, they fall in love and then he stays there. His city is inspired in european cities, and her city is inspired in asian cities.

Even if erhu is a chinese instrument, for this time, I wanted to use japanese themed things, and that's why the names are from japanese inspiration. It shouldn't matter, for in the game, the name of the instrument is not mentioned, and the asian city is intended to be fictional, just the same as the victorian looking city.

Aika is a japanese female name that means Love Song. The word Monogatari means Tale in japanese. So, Aika Monogatari can be translated as the Tale of the Love Song. Aika having this meaning is also nice considering it is the title of the main theme.

Amatore is very obvious that it comes from italian and it is related with Love or Lover. By the time I was thinking in what name to put to the main character, I was playing Assassin's Creed Ezio Trilogy. I liked the name Auditore so I thought in finding a name similar to it and if possible related with love.

Suki is a japanese female name that means Beloved or Loved One. Very obvious why I decided to use this name.

About the names Kan and Vu, I didn't really think much about them. I just thought I wanted short names. I think Kan is inspired in the surname Khan from the mongols, and Vu is based in a french magazine, because when I was thinking in these names, I was checking history of photography stuff.

The names of the cities, Castelencia and Shimumara, are also inspired in some real names, but mixed. The name Castelencia is a mix from spanish language, for castellano is a more official way to refer to spanish language, and also related to the word “castle” I think, and -encia is a suffix that some spanish cities use to end, like Valencia. Shimumara is inspired in the character Shimura from the game Ghost of Tsushima, specially because he has a castle, and then I just played with the word to make it a bit longer.

Also as curiosity, in the past, the names of the main characters, Amatore and Suki, were something like Amael and Yukika. The reasons I didn't maintain these names is because the first one reminds me to Ismael, hebrew origin name, and I don't feel it matches very good. I still wanted a name starting with A because my nickname is Anamura and I wanted to relate this character to me, so when I found Amatore, that was perfect. And for the second one, I like it but I changed to Suki purely because the meaning, and it fits well because both are a bit similar.

I also want to say some words about the development of the cities. I know that the cities are too big and they offer almost nothing. The side places in each city are pretty much empty of activities, but I wanted to do it like this to give the feeling of big city and nature, and try to create very big maps. The idea of having city noises in Castelencia, was to make this city really annoying. I want the player to feel the city as an annoying place that is better to just escape, and using the idea of earphones to remove the noises and listen to the music arose. There are almost no animals in Castelencia, only in one small map about nature. I thought in adding some extra activities in the side places of the cities like farms, factories and such, but then I thought this would be pointless and distracting from the main story, so I ended doing nothing in there, only adding some boat vehicles in the waterfalls.

I am aware the game is very short and maybe I could have developed more the relation of the characters. I know that a random old man asking a young girl to have tea in his house feels weird, and I also know that a random man appearing and then he meets with the woman and they fall in love so soon is not very realistic, specially considering that it feels that the action in the game happens in just a few days, and the first staying of Amatore in Shimumara for just a few hours. In my mind, I think this story could be very nice as manga or anime, where the characters could be more developed. After all, the main reason I didn't develop the characters more in the game is because I wanted this game to be short and direct to the points, and not overcomplicate too much. The purpose of the game is to represent this story, and that it has erhu music.

I think I explained everything. I hope you enjoyed the game and the reading!