I truly apologize for the lack of updates. The game development is still going strong and is always coming along with new art, music, and writing every day. Thank you for your patience.
Today I want to begin a proper share of the new artwork for the main characters. We’ll start with Arashi, of course, since she is the main character, but I have already released up to four characters in the wild if you are really curious and can’t wait for the write-ups.
Arashi Kageyama is one of the first characters I developed for Shadowdawn, over ten years ago. It is quite interesting to me how much her concept has evolved, though some of the original elements have remained through this entire time (some story elements which I cannot say at this time due to spoilers). At the time I was so insistent on a traditional samurai outfit for her, though I was also being heavily influenced by the bombastic outfit designs and artwork of Langrisser by Satoshi Urushihara. This of course gave way to the more “leather armor look” she still uses today. As the original Shadowdawn project is set 4 years later, her original concept was that of a dual-wielding swordmaster and ronin, because that was the popular thing at the time (thanks to Rurouni Kenshin) and Ket was always a companion from the very beginning. Another major influence on her design and fighting mentality was the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi, which is still present in its own subtle ways from the current project up to her final evolution.
Due to the origin-like story of this project, Arashi is an apprentice and she has not quite picked up her ability to wield two swords. I gave her longer, wild hair to symbolize her youthfulness and undisciplined attitude which is one of her defining traits in this games. Also, she only uses a bokuto (a wooden sword) due to her apprenticeships. The choice for pink hair is a story-based one, which is the only reason I have retained it through these years, especially with the onslaught of characters with pink and rose-colored hair in the 2000s. I should note, in her very first color design, her hair shade was closer to purple (thanks to the Rose Prismacolor pencil).
