Line #6 Trivia/FugaMelodiesOfSteel


1	* AcclaimedFlop: According to a [[https://www.rpgsite.net/news/12138-fuga-melodies-of-steel-sales-fall-short-of-covering-development-costs Famitsu article]], ''Fuga'' was only able to recoup 30% of its ''development'' cost in the first three months of release, with that number barely budging over the next few months. It took a ''year and a half'' for the game to [[https://twitter.com/Fuga_CC2_en/status/1618458708870139905 sell 150,000 copies worldwide]]. This is a game that was able to get an 80% and above rating on average whenever it was reviewed. There are three major factors in this:
2	** The InvisibleAdvertising due to not having an official publisher while having no prior experience with self-publishing.
3	** The various stigmas due to it featuring furries which turned away those that did know about the game.
4	** The ''$40 USD'' price tag (on average) which turned away those that actually want to play the game. Using the game's [[https://steamdb.info/app/1357860/ SteamDB page]] as a reference, the price of the game in Japan is around 4180 yen, which is equivalent to slightly over $30 USD.
5	* ActingForTwo:
6	** Creator/YuichiIguchi voices both Britz and Doktor Blutwurst, who interact directly in Chapter 7.
7	** Sachi Kokuryu voices both Kyle and Lieutenant Muscat.
8	** Creator/YasuhiroMamiya voices both General Merlot and Colonel Pretzel.
9	** Characters who only have speaking roles or appearances in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O4nxcaJZ_w "How It All Began"]] manga share their voice actors with other characters from the game proper: Kenji Nomura (Shvein Hax) plays the village chief; Sachi Kokuryu plays his wife; Naomi Kusumi (Von Baum) plays Malt and Mei's grandfather; and Yui Kondo (Flam Kish) plays Hanna's mother Yona/Jonah. The Berman soldiers are also voiced by Tomohiro Tsuboi (who plays [[spoiler:Baion]]) and Yukihiro Nozuyama (who plays Jin) in this short, and possibly in the game itself.
10	* AuthorsSavingThrow:
11	** At launch, there was no way to reliably see which expedition will give you certain items needed for Taranis upgrades, forcing players to keep an off-site guide on hand to check what they need. Version 1.01 added an item list to each expedition, cutting back on the mental multi-tasking needed for management.
12	** One of the more vocal concerns was the game being locked to 30 [=FPS=] in an era where 60 or higher is the norm. The October 2021 update finally gets around to implementing 60 [=FPS=] mode, with the addition of being able to switch back to 30 frames through the in-game options menu.
13	** That same update also contains the option to rebind keyboard controls, which was another lacking feature people mentioned at launch.
14	** As of version 1.10, players are now given the option to activate "Turbo Mode" during route progression, allowing you to get to fights or intermission spots a lot faster than before. The only catch being that you can only activate it on NewGamePlus runs.
15	** The version 1.50 update allows players to activate "Turbo Mode" from the start of a new game, and gives it one extra level of speed for players to choose. You can also upgrade the Taranis during intervals and while bartering, allowing players to know what items they need to collect, a major improvement over what fans found to be one of the game's most tedious mechanics.
16	* ColbertBump: Despite the lack of advertising, many furry streamers did do their best to help get word of the game out, notably Creator/SeanChiplock who streamed the game in an effort to raise awareness for it. The game also gained a mild boost in popularity after being added to Xbox Game Pass.
17	* CreatorBacklash: Yoann [[https://twitter.com/YoannGueritot/status/1545044971685904384 has joked about this]] regarding an idea he had for the Japanese voice actors to speak French with German accents:
18	-->'''Yoann:''' I thought I was a genius. I wasn't. It was a terrible idea. Please never try this at home.
19	* CreatorsFavorite: The game's director Yoann loves Boron. So much so that he called out every streamer who sacrificed him in the tutorial on Twitter, and purposefully made him a GameBreaker just to spite [[Creator/HiroshiMatsuyama his boss]] for doing the same during every playtesting session. Wappa may also be his favorite among the girls; [[https://twitter.com/YoannGueritot/status/1641817659338571778 the tweet where he announced he would be leaving CyberConnect2]] has a hidden message saying "WAPPA BEST GIRL".
20	* CrossDressingVoices: Female actresses Sachi Kokuryu, Creator/MiyuTomita and Tomomi Mizuma voice the male Kyle, Socks and Hack respectively.
21	* CutSong:
22	** Well, more like Cut Song Layers. There was supposed to be two tracks that would overlay the intermission theme "Our Steelclad Home" whenever you use the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omtcWnUzClo kitchen]] or the [[https://youtu.be/_ahGekHljS4 workshop]]. For unknown reasons, they go unused.
23	** For a more straightforward example, two piano pieces were also cut from the game, but can be found in the game's files, [[https://youtu.be/GD2kua2kDmc A non-specific one]], and [[https://youtu.be/BhQ8EF_FCic an arrangement of the game's ending theme "Memories of Earth and Sky".]]
24	* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: Though the game is available to purchase in Russian territories, [[https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/eb572fc44c8bbc85e81298818e797db3dce496df as mentioned in this article]], any plans for a Russian translation were put on hold due to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the economic sanctions resulting from it (although a Russian translation did eventually come in time).
25	* DummiedOut: A [[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rLIPkvZRBf9OVk3_azFIgzxAg3ueFiHw/view text dump]] has revealed certain removed elements of the game:
26	** The kids would've had dialogue for when they reach their Hero Modes in battle, and they each have lines of dialogue in the game's files seemingly reacting to an disturbing vision of some kind.
27	** Failing recipes in the Taranis' messroom would have resulted in them being given new names as a result. For example, failing to cook raclette would've renamed it to "Tolerable Gratin", a failed mixed salad would've become a "Veggie Mixture", and failing to make jam pawbuns would result in you simply getting "Ordinary Pawbuns".
28	** The laundry room of this Taranis would have at one point been upgradable.
29	* InvisibleAdvertising: [=CyberConnect2=] tried their best to avert this, learning from their mistakes with ''Tail Concerto'' and ''Solatorobo'', but because they lacked an official publisher to help distribute the game, they couldn't go any further than beyond their own social media accounts. Basically, if you weren't already following [=CyberConnect2=] or its employees, you would have no idea ''Fuga'' even existed. To make matters worse, Yoann confirmed he sent out review codes to many reviewers both big and small, but never heard back from most of them, and none of the major gaming news sites like [=IGN=] or Gamespot has bothered to review the game (at least in the US), further hurting its reach.
30	* InspirationForTheWork: Yoann Gueritot has [[https://www.siliconera.com/interview-fuga-melodies-of-steels-director-discusses-its-innocent-heroes/ cited]] Creator/StudioGhibli films such as ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'' and ''Anime/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' as key inspirations for ''Fuga''.
31	* MilestoneCelebration: Booting the game up reveals that this game is considered to be part of [=CyberConnect2=]'s 25th Anniversary.
32	* ModelDissonance: None of the vehicles have a backside rendered to them, which helps with performance as [[TwoAndAHalfD you can only see one side]] to the Taranis and enemy tanks anyways.
33	-->'''Yoann:''' [[https://twitter.com/yoann_cc2/status/1550843172623765509?s=61&t=-K17nc4QqfSjuf0Jwso_2g Essential rule of game development: Never make what you don't show!]]
34	* MultipleLanguagesSameVoiceActor: All characters are voiced by the same actors for both the Japanese and French dubs, with the exception of the narrator (Akane Tokunaga in Japanese, Creator/AdelineChetail in French).
35	* NoDubForYou: While the game was released with support for seven languages at launch (Japanese, English, French, Spanish, Italian, and both Traditional and Simplified Chinese), only Japanese and French have corresponding voice over tracks. In fact, the only actor that's different between the two dubs is the narrator, who is voiced in the French dub by Creator/AdelineChetail.
36	* OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt: Though they never outright say it, it's no secret that [=CyberConnect2=] had to use whatever earnings they got from their much bigger, licensed anime-backed projects in order to fund ''Fuga'', as Bandai Namco made it clear that they have no interest in continuing the ''VideoGame/LittleTailBronx'' series themselves. As [[https://twitter.com/Yoann_CC2/status/1503700558208978949 the creative director himself]] put it:
37	-->'''Yoann:''' For those who wonder, the only reason we can make ''Fuga'' sequels and donate its sales to charity despite ''Fuga'' making no money is because we have no publisher with common sense to tell us we’re crazy.
38	** As argued by Creator/SeanChiplock in [[https://twitter.com/sonicmega/status/1593356677524267008?s=20&t=Vf6k3bU2vmp2peZxMs26Ag a Twitter thread]], despite ''Fuga'' being an AcclaimedFlop, the developers have still chosen to spend additional time and money to make frequent post-launch improvements to it.
39	* RefittedForSequel: According to Yoann, [[spoiler:the Vanargand's design came from [[https://twitter.com/Yoann_CC2/status/1423022229839769601 an unused Titano-Machina design]] from ''VideoGame/SolatoroboRedTheHunter'' that the devs thought was too good to let go to waste.]]
40	* RoleReprise: [[spoiler: 11 years after ''VideoGame/SolatoroboRedTheHunter'''s release, Tomohiro Tsuboi returns to voice Baion for the ending.]]
41	* RegionalBonus: Unintentional example. The Steam and Epic versions of the game are sold in Asian regions at an incredibly affordable price of US$15 for the standard edition and US$25 for the deluxe edition, before taxes. The pricing at Latin-American Steam stores ([[OfferVoidInNebraska aside from Brazil]]) is also much lower compared to the United States and Europe, with the price in Argentina being equivalent to $10 USD.
42	* ScheduleSlip: An unfortunate result due to [=CyberConnect2=]'s inexperience when it came to self-publishing titles. ''Fuga'' was pushed back from its original 2019 release date to 2020, then got pushed back again to July 29th, 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic along with [=CyberConnect2=] being dissatisfied with the state of the game. And even with its release date solidified, it was struck with this ''again'' with the pre-orders. Hiroshi said they would be up by July 15th but they wouldn't be up until the weekend after, and only for Nintendo and Xbox users. And then the game got released... only for the US release of the Switch Deluxe Edition and the worldwide [=PlayStation=] release to be delayed ''yet again'' to August, the latter of which due to a pricing mishap that resulted in the game costing between 60 to ''90 USD''.
43	* ScrewedByTheLawyers: Do not expect any costume packs based on ''Tail Concerto'' or ''Solatorobo'', as Bandai Namco still has ownership and a say when it comes to those properties. [[spoiler:It's also why the game (or its spin-off, "Comedies of Steel") can't reference Lares, Baion, or Red directly by name, since it would come into conflict with Bandai Namco's partial ownership as well.]] Strangely, this does '''not''' apply to locations or terminologies, as Bandai Namco never cracked down on the development team's free usage of phrases like "Titano-Machina" or "Caninu" and "Felineko".
44	* SequelGap: ''Solatorobo'' was released in 2010, with ''Fuga'' releasing in 2021.
45	* ThrowItIn:
46	** The Secret Garden was something Matsuyama was [[https://www.famitsu.com/serial/fuga/202205/31263019.html insistent]] on implementing. This is despite the fact that at that point in development, the project was 50 million yen over-budget and went past their projected development time by six months.
47	--->'''[[https://twitter.com/Yoann_CC2/status/1552655117916127233 Yoann]]:''' One day he broke into a meeting and said "Guys, the game's almost perfect as it is but the Taranis still lacks something vital: [[SeriousBusiness A PLACE TO POOP]]". Then we added the potty duck.
48	** Britz wasn't initially part of the line up, but [[https://twitter.com/Yoann_CC2/status/1543233030419910656 Yoann wanted a "Friend or Foe" cast member]] in order to spice the game up a bit, citing [[Franchise/PowerRangers Tommy Oliver]].
49	* {{Tuckerization}}: Malt and his friends' home village of Petit Mona is indirectly named after the real-life village of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monthureux-sur-Saône Monthureux-sur-Saône]] in northeastern France, [[https://twitter.com/Yoann_CC2/status/1547219297860067329 where game director Yoann Gueritot and his little sister spent their childhood summers with their grandparents.]] More specifically, "Monthureux" is derived from the Latin word ''monasteriolum'', which translates to "'''petit mona'''stère" ("little monastery") in French. %%Did some research, the aerial picture he posted is indeed one of Monthureux-sur-Saône and not Monthureux-le-Sec
50	* TroubledProduction: [=CyberConnect2=] has been releasing development articles on Famitsu, showing how hard it was to get ''Fuga'' out the door especially as an indie developer/publisher. With the amount of things they implied went wrong, it's a miracle the game didn't turn out to be one huge dumpster fire at launch.
51	** For the first year of development, they laid down the plan and budget for the game. And then [=CyberConnect2=] realized [[ThisIsGoingToSuck they had two planners, one artist, and zero programmers on board]] (everyone else was either working on ''VideoGame/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaibaTheHinokamiChronicles'' or ''VideoGame/DragonBallZKakarot''). They had a hard time getting external help with ''Fuga'' as well.
52	** Somehow, [=CyberConnect2=] ''forgot'' to contact each of the console publishers (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo) for their respective console's development kits to port ''Fuga'' to. '''''[[EpicFail At the end of the game's development cycle.]]'''''
53	** During the price set portion of publishing, the team confused wholesale price for retail price, resulting in the game's price being out of sync just about everywhere. It's what resulted in the game's [=PlayStation=] launch getting delayed as they had to pull and refund all copies in order to fix the issue.
54	* UrbanLegendOfZelda:
55	** It's commonly believed that one condition for the GoldenEnding is to [[spoiler:see all of Britz's level 2 Link Events before he leaves after Chapter 10.]] While it is true that you need to [[spoiler:raise his affinity with the other characters enough to get the scene where the others see the photo in his pendant]], this is possible without [[spoiler:seeing all of the Link Events in question or even getting his affinity with every other character to level 2 in the first place-- you just need to ensure he's had at least five Link Events with the other kids. There are even some players out there who managed to save him entirely by accident.]]
56	** Another common believe is that you need to take only the hardest routes to in addition to raising Britz's link with all the children to level 2 before Chapter 10. This turned out to be a misunderstanding and that the only constant to getting the good ending is that the player must see five link events with every other character before getting to Chapter 10.
57	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
58	** Before ''Fuga'' was announced, [=CyberConnect2=] initially planned for ''Strelka Stories'' to be the third game of the ''Little Tail Bronx'' series, which would've focused on space-exploration [[spoiler:and bridge the gap between a post-WorldWarThree society and ''Tail Concerto'']], while taking even more cues from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' and ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', but their inability to get a publisher on board to fund the game along side the company working on ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' and the ''VideoGame/NarutoUltimateNinjaStorm'' series lead to its silent cancellation. Matsuyama hasn't completely given up on the idea, and would consider restarting development later down the road.
59	** In earlier pre-release material from back when the game was originally announced, the [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6LN_AiVoAM8R59?format=jpg&name=large Berman Empire's symbol was going to be]] [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6LN_BXVgAcQrDu?format=jpg&name=900x900 a bone-shaped Iron Cross-like symbol]]. [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6LN_BxVUAMqxy5?format=jpg&name=900x900 It was changed to a stylized]] [[https://twitter.com/Fuga_CC2/status/1419863304919425027 three-headed dog design]] in the final build. The original symbol however still appears on General Hax's uniform.
60	** The game was also going to have a lot more {{Roguelike}} elements as well, which can be seen through things like the alternate pathways, the different expeditions, as well as the option to restart from your last intermission upon dying, but all of it had to be scaled down into a more traditional RPG due to lack of proper resources. Interestingly, pre-release reports about ''Fuga'' (such as [[https://www.gematsu.com/2019/07/fuga-subtitled-melodies-of-steel-delayed-to-early-2020 this one]] from Gematsu) described that a GameOver would force the player to return to the beginning of the game with all their experience. In the game proper, the opposite happens-- you only reset back to the last intermission, and instead ''lose'' all experience gained after it.
61	** According to [[https://twitter.com/shimipan/status/1421647902938591234 character designer Yusuke Tokitsu's Twitter]], Jin was originally designed as a Dachshund before being changed to a basset hound later in development. He was also intended to have a more [[https://twitter.com/shimipan/status/1437397556955254786 feminine appearance]] at one point, and another early idea was for him to be a [[https://twitter.com/shimipan/status/1440249853871747081 boiler engineer]] instead of a mechanic.
62	** Digging through the games files reveals a lot of rough, DummiedOut animations such as proper sprinting motions (the final game simply reuses the character's walk animations and speeds them up), [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/864912077776224287/873792798313295872/maltmarch.gif cinematic]] [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/864912077776224287/873795891490848819/hannamarch.gif movements]] that would suggest that using the Soul Cannon would be rendered with in-game models rather than in a motion comic style, and [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/864912077776224287/873970066729873478/taranis2.gif a Taranis animation]] that implies that it would've had a SuperMode [[MacrossMissileMassacre involving a lot of missiles]].
63	** Earlier builds of the game show that there was going to be [[https://twitter.com/cc2information/status/1242890459598422016 a morale system]] to manage that probably would have influenced the "Fear" and "Depressed" statuses that the children would be inflicted with (in the final game, they were susceptible to it if the Taranis' health was below 50%), as well as [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/622264942439039036/875044011126190080/Fuga-Melodies-of-Steel-Event.png tarot cards]] that would've influenced both morale and stats.
64	** Some artwork revealed by the game's lead artist shows scenario arts featuring scenes that are either heavily altered or not referenced anywhere in the final game, such as [[https://twitter.com/shimipan/status/1440733679832088589 Malt being more direct with enlisting Jin's help]], [[https://twitter.com/shimipan/status/1439688275933859843 Kyle commanding his weapons in rage with a injured Hanna near him]], to Sheena being a DeathSeeker [[https://twitter.com/shimipan/status/1435490371169972236 with Hanna saving]] [[https://twitter.com/shimipan/status/1435491144394174465?s=20 her from the Soul Cannon]] [[https://twitter.com/shimipan/status/1435491607399124998 at the last minute]].
65	** Initially, there was no plans to turn "The Adventures of Sucre" into a full ShowWithinAShow. It became a full unlockable comic [[https://twitter.com/Yoann_CC2/status/1549756022545297411 when Hiroshi looked over the script for Socks and Hack's Link Event]] and decided that it should be accessible to the player in some way.
66	** According to [[https://www.4gamer.net/games/575/G057551/20221113001/ this article]] on the localization of the game, the original plan for the game's two choral songs was for them to only be spoken in French and sung by a Japanese choir, but this failed due to the choir having issues with proper pronunciation. Thus, the original French versions of the songs were outsourced to a proper youth choir in France ([[http://www.chorale-lille.fr/ Attention Chorale de Jeunes]] in Lille), before being translated into Japanese for the original choir (from the Fukuoka School of Music and Dance).
67	* WordOfSaintPaul: According to character designer Yusuke Tokitsu, [[https://twitter.com/shimipan/status/1437020492813139968 Sheena's mother is named Edna.]]
68	* WorkingTitle: Judging from the PC executable, when [=CC2=] first conceived the game, they gave it a very generic codename of ''[=Tank=]''.
69	* WriterRevolt: As mentioned above, Yoann's decision behing making Boron PurposelyOverpowered was [[https://twitter.com/yoann_cc2/status/1543957818377658370?s=21&t=c55T2PfOEI7Xv8NwGRJObg to get back at the company CEO]] for repeatedly killing him during playtesting.

Context Trivia / FugaMelodiesOfSteel