We are back at it once again with another Penny Blood update. The team has been putting out consistent updates for what is billed as the Shadow Hearts spiritual successor. In this update, we get the usual project diary we get in all the updates. We also get a message from Hirota-san as well. So, let’s get into it.

Project Diary

Kicking off this Penny Blood update is the project diary from the team. This is what they had to say:

Good evening, everyone.

One month has passed since the March update, and it has been a very eventful month for me. Unfortunately, most of those events were very sad. In March, we lost several well-respected creators and artists, beginning with Akira Toriyama and Mutsumi Inomata, two of the world’s leading creative standard-bearers who represent Japan. We also said farewell to Minori Terada, the talented voice actor who played Muska in Castle in the Sky, and TARAKO, who charmed families around the nation by playing the main character of the Chibi Maruko-chan TV show.

I was greatly influenced by them from an early age. I always looked up to them, and they assisted me in my drive to want to become a creator myself in the future. There are also many other members involved in the Penny Blood project who have had their sensibilities stimulated by these figures. So I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere condolences. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the many accomplishments they have left behind. I hope you will understand that I have specifically chosen to use this space to express my feelings instead of my SNS account in order to convey my feelings to people who love creative works not only in Japan but also around the world.

More From the Project Diary

They continued with the project diary by saying:

Regarding the progress of the Penny Blood project, I would like to talk about Penny Blood: Hellbound again this month.  The game has evolved from closed beta to early access. More and more content is consistently being added to the game. Recently, the production side of the game has also been undergoing a lot of polishing, and I’ve been supervising storyboards among other things.

The storyboards are really interesting, so I suddenly got an idea. “Hey, we should feature these in the updates!” But then I realized, “Oh, there’s one particular scene in the ending that spoils a lot,” and sort of wrestled with myself. I’ll try to pick out what’s okay to show you all and feature it in the next update, so please hold on for a bit. Also, as a continuation of last week, we’ll be revealing the rest of the trihedral figures for the Hellhounders along with the Ivory Warlock, one of the bosses they face. That concludes this month’s update.

See you all next month!

Matsuzo Machida

Message From Hirota-san

In this Penny Blood update, we get another message from Hirota-san. This is what that message was:

Good evening, everyone.

A bright, cheerful spring has already arrived in the town where I live, and some days feel like it’s already summer, which makes me wish I could experience a bit more of the change from season to season. As an example, I just went outside in light clothes, but today I feel cold. The temperature difference is extreme, so please take care of yourselves.

Now for Penny Blood: Hellbound sound update. In March, we completed our second voice recording session. All the voice talent’s performances went far beyond my expectations of myself as well as the development team’s. Several lines were so well done that it became quite hard for us to choose an “OK” take. On top of that, some of the VAs even decided to do a few more takes on top of those, which were all also amazing in their own ways. Overall, it was a truly exquisite recording session.

Witnessing the moments when characters are brought to life is a truly mystical experience filled with surprises. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the voice talent agency for their amazing casting. Also to the voice talent who read through the material, dove into their roles, and did thorough preparation for the performance. After the session, I made various adjustments to the voice recordings to prepare them for implementation.

More From Hirota-san

Hirota-san continued talking about Penny Blood voice actors and saying this:

When the VAs speak, sometimes sounds such as “pa” or “chi” create lip noise, and their throats can also make sounds that sound a bit like “koh” when they pronounce things in certain ways. These are all minute noises that are created naturally due to the way the human body works. It’s the engineer’s job to check for these sorts of noises throughout the performances. If necessary, they’ll edit the files and erase the noises, or ask the VAs to do another take if it’s impossible to remove the noises. The VAs all do their best to make sure these noises don’t appear. But as long as the noises don’t get in the way of the acting, or when they actually end up contributing to the human or monster-like atmosphere that we’re going for, I accept the files as-is.

I check the file IDs one by one to make sure they’re correct,. Then I cut out any unnecessary blank spaces, then unify the overall volume and quality. Finally, I consult with the planner and add special effects that are necessary for specific characters until the files are finally polished like jewels and ready for implementation. Once the files are all in the right spots, as designated by when the characters are supposed to say certain lines, I deliver the files and implementation is completed. After that, a final stage of adjustment is done on the overall balance of music, sound effects, and voice tracks, and then the voice work is complete. The road to ‘completion’ in this part of the job is a very long and harrowing journey.

I hope you’ll enjoy the lively voices of all the characters once our work is done!

Wrap-Up

It has been nice to see the consistency of the Penny Blood updates.  As someone who enjoyed the Shadow Hearts series a lot, I am anxious to see this game release. I know it is some time away from that, but the updates help. The recent updates seem to focus heavily on Hellbound, which I understand. They are putting it out into early access to help raise more money. But I would like to see a return focus to the main game soon. It would be nice to see some type of early game footage in future updates. Just so the community can get hyped back up. And who doesn’t want to see more clips of stuff from the game, right? Stay tuned for more updates from me about Penny Blood in the future.

The post Penny Blood April 2024 Update appeared first on Lords of Gaming.