Musical Chairs.
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First of all you will need a LEGITIMATELY PURCHASED COPY of Rosenkreuzstilette. This only works on copies bought from legit resellers such as DLSite.com. .... ... .... (Okay I tell a lie. Just between you and me it works on pirated copies as well. I'm just trying to get the programmers some cash for their hard work.)
Next you will need the Rosenkreuzstilette Data Archive Decoder.
Third you will need to grab up Audacity for the editing and encoding.
Now go to your Rosenkreuzstilette folder on your hard drive and copy it elsewhere. You don't want to screw up your original. Trust me, you will be screwing with it.
Using the RKSDAD to turn the bgm.dat file into a folder chocked full of all the music in the game. Now read closely. I am going to say this on the next line in all caps:
DELETE THE bgm.dat FILE! Let me repeat that: DELETE THE bgm.dat FILE!
Your eyes are not deceiving you. I said delete it. You don't need any more. The game will run fine without it. As long as the bgm folder is there. Also, if you don't get rid of the .dat file all the work you do won't turn up in the game.
(I've been wondering why the .dat files are even there. Why aren't they compiled into the .exe? Are the .dat files generated by the program that erka:es used to make Rosenkreuzstilette? Are they a security device to keep people like me from being able to easily rip the graphics and turn them into comic strips?)
Go into the new bgm folder and you will see two different types of files: OGG and INI.
This time I don't recommend deleting all the INI files. What the INI does (from what I can figure) is pretty much tell the game at what point in the song to loop from. I recommend that you delete an individual INI on a per song basis. Let's choose a song to change. How about the one titled 'decision?' I'm picking this song so I can go into a long boring technical explanation behind one of the reasons why I said to use Audacity. When you see the waveform of 'decision' you should notice that it is longer than eight total seconds.
(The actual song itself is about six seconds, for some reason there's a huge chunk of silence at the end.) However when playing RKS the whole song doesn't play. Only about five to five-and-a-half seconds is played. The rest is cut off. I have been having a bear of a time trying to find a song to fit in there. I can't even get Megaman X4 stage start edited correctly.) ( Okay, I'm done picking on this song. So let's pick on another.)After choosing the replacement song. (Doesn't matter what, you can use 'Panties in the Glove Box' for all I care.) I usually open the new song up in another instance of Audacity, Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, go to the Rosenkreuzstilette song, Ctrl-A, delete, and finally Ctrl-V. At about this point in time is when I make the necessary edits and volume fixes.
When you're ready, you need to export the file as an OGG Vorbis. It has to be in OGG format. I tried MP3 and it didn't work. Audacity will ask if you want to overwrite the original file, say yes. Turn on the game and your new sound should play.
There's still trial and error going on. Remember those INI files? This is where they can create havoc. If you picked a new song that is shorter than the amount of time it takes you play a stage, the song will start over. The INI file make the song restart from the middle. If I was smart enough, (and had any patience at all) I could decode the numbers in the INI. But, I just stick to what I know. I edit the song so they are much longer or loop correctly.
By the way, using the RKSDADqwertyuiop you can edit the graphics.
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Rosenkreuzstilette 2:
Duchess Neuwahl: Freu-ever.
| For the last couple of years now a lot of us fans
have been bitching about the constant delays in Rosenkreuzstilette
2. Instead of continuing with what I started way back in the first
article, why not take in some appreciation of a back to back look at the
two demos? With the first demo we get quite the bare bones game. Not much in the way of thrills. The same sound and music. Same bad guys with touch ups to their designs. However we get a real good look at the direction Isemiya and Womi want to go in. New hero. Freudia's move set is identical to Spiritia's, but her game is much harder. You have a limited supply of you own weapon. Freu's weapon is altered by the bosses she defeats. Think Zero. Many people compare Grolla to Zero, duh hard to miss. But look at the way Freu's and Zero's weapons are enhanced by beating bosses. That lends itself to much more intricate gameplay. Can we please get more weapon refills dropped? Two things I found annoying: Freudia's incessant need to say "Freudenstachel" almost every time she jumps. Her jumps tend not to be as far as you think they'd be. What I'm liking the most is the stage design. Not being so heavily reliant on Megaman. While elements show up, there's a unique touch. Winds blowing you around in Liebea's stage, blood rain and bloody floors in Grolla's, to the use of those infernal disappearing bricks in Zorne's. This is really a rough draft, much rougher than the demo to the first game. There's potential there.  (Whilst digging through the graphics, I found these unused backgrounds, maybe there was supposed to be an opening stage?) Now we have the second demo. OUTSTANDING! I think it is better than the first game. Isemiya and Womi are really going all out. They're pouring tons of creativity into this. Mostly. Let's get that out of the way. We get an opening stage, but Eifer's attack is so similar to Freudia's in the first game. We have that Megaman feeling in Sichte's stage with elements of Elecman and Crashman. As if Megaman and Castlevania weren't enough, now we get Ghosts and Goblins. Those disappearing blocks have a tendency to push you to the side causing you to fall. Seems are still everywhere.  It's still a bit rough, but progress is evident. Let's talk good. Freudia is much quieter. All new stage music. Jumping is as it should be. Little things like the hands on the clock move. Difficulty is much greater than the first game, you keep doing the stages and battles you start to figure out the patterns. Just takes me a little longer this time around. We get an all new opening story.  Wow, no wondering why it's taking so long to get out the whole game. The interesting bit I noted playing both demos back to back as I did for this review, I think that the programmers are designing the second half of each stage first, then doing the first half. The second part of Zorne's and Grolla's stages are pretty much same in both demos, but the first parts are almost completely different. 
 
 
 
 (Note I said "almost" and "pretty much.") Walking on blood is not like walking on water or ice. In most games I jump to get walking at full speed, not here. It still takes an extra second to get moving. Another interesting note is that portions of Liebea's stage was shifted over to Sichte's. 
 Even the game over screen. 
 Speaking of Sichte's stage, here's a little hint when having to deal with erec_zako:  Overall Rosenkreuzstilette 2 is looking awesome. Based on the second demo alone I give it an 8. Better than the first. But we have to wait and see the whole game before passing any real judgement. By the way, does the phrase "vapor ware" mean anything to you? |
