
DRAWING RIGHT NOW, SO IF I DON'T UPLOAD NEW PAGES THIS WEEK I WILL SLIT MY WRISTS
So there was a riddle I was going to post after I got back from AC. If you remember, I demoed a card game there (to, I think, five people) which for the first time revealed the names of the gnoll bandits.
These names, and the characters designs, are actually a reference to characters from a popular series!
I want to see if anyone can figure out what it is. The first person to comment with WHAT they are a reference to and WHO they each are will win... I don't know, a character reference sheet or something.
Bone-ass clues
- It is a reference to a series of video games that appeared primarily on Sony systems (non-exclusive franchise).
- Each character is from a separate game, and the 'hero' of that game.
- The order of the cards corresponds to the order of the games in which the characters appear.
- I should have named Otis "Curtis" but it didn't occur to me at the time.
- they are all from major titles in the franchise, none come from spin-off titles of a different genre (ie, no mario karts, no super puzzle fighters, no kirby dream courses)
- the game order they are from is not 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, nor are they entirely contiguous.
- the series is a mainstream hit in all regions
And since someone asked me for clarification, yes, you can make multiple guesses.
Winner!
kevianaugust Has guessed correctly!
contest time: 422 hours (and I still didn't post the page >n<)
So there was a riddle I was going to post after I got back from AC. If you remember, I demoed a card game there (to, I think, five people) which for the first time revealed the names of the gnoll bandits.
These names, and the characters designs, are actually a reference to characters from a popular series!
I want to see if anyone can figure out what it is. The first person to comment with WHAT they are a reference to and WHO they each are will win... I don't know, a character reference sheet or something.
Bone-ass clues
- It is a reference to a series of video games that appeared primarily on Sony systems (non-exclusive franchise).
- Each character is from a separate game, and the 'hero' of that game.
- The order of the cards corresponds to the order of the games in which the characters appear.
- I should have named Otis "Curtis" but it didn't occur to me at the time.
- they are all from major titles in the franchise, none come from spin-off titles of a different genre (ie, no mario karts, no super puzzle fighters, no kirby dream courses)
- the game order they are from is not 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, nor are they entirely contiguous.
- the series is a mainstream hit in all regions
And since someone asked me for clarification, yes, you can make multiple guesses.
Winner!

contest time: 422 hours (and I still didn't post the page >n<)
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1000 x 609px
File Size 586.2 kB
VERY glad to see that you're still alive and intending to continue the comic!
Don't bite off more than you can chew, man. It seems like you have difficulties with the pressures of promises, so don't force yourself into a corner that makes it hell to work on the comic. Just take it a little bit at a time and enjoy yourself. It'll make for a more regular schedule and a more satisfying effort, overall.
Don't bite off more than you can chew, man. It seems like you have difficulties with the pressures of promises, so don't force yourself into a corner that makes it hell to work on the comic. Just take it a little bit at a time and enjoy yourself. It'll make for a more regular schedule and a more satisfying effort, overall.
Ok, first of all: English is not my mothertongue, so I don't know if "series of video games" correspond to "one titel with several sequels" or to "several games not related to each other".
If each character is from a different game, then Clerre is Lara Croft. The outfits match and the names sound similar (for me as a non-english person). According to Wikipedia, the first Tomb Raider on Playstation was 1996-11-15. Unfortunatelly I'm a Nintendo Fur, so I don't know any of the rest.
If each character is from a different game, then Clerre is Lara Croft. The outfits match and the names sound similar (for me as a non-english person). According to Wikipedia, the first Tomb Raider on Playstation was 1996-11-15. Unfortunatelly I'm a Nintendo Fur, so I don't know any of the rest.
I'm stabbing blindly at this one, because I never played the series that this makes me think of.
Rowdo is Solid Snake, from Metal Gear; he's in special ops, and that knife (And for some reason the clothes) leads me to that feeling, for some reason.
Though lacking a gun, Cole is Revolver Ocolet based simply on the clothing. (I'm so totally wrong here. The only reason I don't consider him Big Boss is because he's introduced in the same game as Solid Snake. After all, Big Boss took out his own mentor, and doesn't one always consider their betters a "Giant"?)
Des might be Solidus Snake; Between power armor and being a president and leader, I can see them easily being able to grant a bonus like their special ability indicates.
Moving to Clerre, I find myself seeing them as Raiden; after a defeat, they're sent out with a a much stronger suit to fight off those that defeated them the first time around.
And lastly, we come to Otis. I have no clue. Like.. absolutely no clue. I can only guess he's some one in the yet unreleased game based on my chronological order from above; I went with release dates, rather then game world time frame. I can only guess Big Boss again, purely because he's a younger Rowdo. Even if this goes against the proper order.
So, how wrong am I?
Rowdo is Solid Snake, from Metal Gear; he's in special ops, and that knife (And for some reason the clothes) leads me to that feeling, for some reason.
Though lacking a gun, Cole is Revolver Ocolet based simply on the clothing. (I'm so totally wrong here. The only reason I don't consider him Big Boss is because he's introduced in the same game as Solid Snake. After all, Big Boss took out his own mentor, and doesn't one always consider their betters a "Giant"?)
Des might be Solidus Snake; Between power armor and being a president and leader, I can see them easily being able to grant a bonus like their special ability indicates.
Moving to Clerre, I find myself seeing them as Raiden; after a defeat, they're sent out with a a much stronger suit to fight off those that defeated them the first time around.
And lastly, we come to Otis. I have no clue. Like.. absolutely no clue. I can only guess he's some one in the yet unreleased game based on my chronological order from above; I went with release dates, rather then game world time frame. I can only guess Big Boss again, purely because he's a younger Rowdo. Even if this goes against the proper order.
So, how wrong am I?
Whoo boy, this riddle has outsmarted my brain capacity; I just can't get it figured out/remember which game series you're looking for...
But at least I can write write that I've done research:
- Initially (and still) the name "Otis" & "Curtis" sounded the most familiar to me (and more than likely the "best" hints for this riddle). But my searches have only lead to "Need for Speed" & "Disgaea"
"Need for Speed" sounded initially quite fitting (even if I was aonly more familiar with Prostreet): The game series had appeared mainly on PC & Playstation 1 up until Playstation 2-era. Problem was that there were pretty much no visualized characters before "Hot Pursuit 2" or "Underground". And in the end the game series leans more towards PC at least in my living country which was dominated by PC when it comes to racing-scenerios. Plus I wasn't to able to find the female "hero", which one big deciding factors here more than likely when looking for the series.
"Disgaea" is another series I'm not too familiar with. But I searched mainly due "Kurtis". However, it was quickly deducted that this isn't the series either even for being heavily focused on Playstation-consoles. This was mainly because in most cases all characters appear in all games in a away or another. And most certainly (I believe) the names aren't dericed from "classes/jobs", which also appaear in all games. Plus, there hasn't been "Disgaea 5"-yet, since more than likely spin-offs and other games happeneing in shared universe aren't counted (like "Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome" & "Phantom Brave")
Yes, I took "Prinnies" into consideration too. But then I did remember that aside Prinny-Kurtis, other Prinnies are anonymous.
Of course, one of the most well known "Otis" is from the first "Dead Rising"-game. But once again, only 3-numbered titles so far when you count out "what-ifs" & "addons". And Otis already appear on the first game.
As for "Curtis", I keep constantly nagged about a location called "St. Curtis..."
- Alongside NfS-series, there was hinting from various sport-related-series, like "NBA JAM" & "Coolboarders". But once, the inconsistency of the appears order bothed this idea. Not to mention since the character appearance of the cards more than likely is based on medival/low-tech/non-electricity-fantasy in a away or another, that botced the idea again.
- Then I started to browse more through games with exact five entries. Off my head I could name "Breath of Fire", "Suikoden", "Star Ocean", "Monster Farm/Rancher", "Wild Arms". None of these games unfortunately don't have "the female hero" as the fourth one / on fourth instalment, as far as I can recall.
- "Tenchu" is yet another series where the main cast stays pretty same, even if Ayame is the "the hero" of the game on "Fatal Shadows". Once again the lack of "heroes" botched this guess.
- "Dragon Valor", while a singular title, resembled somewhat character appearance-wise when "Soul Path"-was chosen (but somehow "Azos Path" kept bugging me constantly...
- Constantly ".Hack"-series gets nagging due dagger wielding Rowdo (ala. Kite). But then I get constantly reminded that BlackRose was already in the "first game" (great sword-glass, also a female). Not to mention that essentially there are "only 2 .Hack-games"; they just were split into four separate disks.
- If "Origins" would had been the first "Silent Hill"-game, this could fit quite well too. Once again however, Origin-excluded, all Silent Hill-games are more of the case of "The Room", I.E. not originally meant to SH-game, but got the name slapped to boost the sales (which I highly believe is the case of RE4 onwards too (aside of course the iriginally-shown "3.5"-early-version of the game (but then again, the theme itself was a radical departure in "Hallusination"-version anyways, so yeah (but granted I personally liked the atmosphere akin to Gamecube-RE-games and "Project Zero/Fatal Frame"...))).
- In "Resident Evil", Claire certainly could had filled Clerre's spot perfectly not only obviously due the name, but also because Claire was "the starting hero" of "Code Veronica". But once we're looking for "one-time-appearance"-characters in the series for each game. And at least in my view, the series ended before the "Spain Savior" (aka. so called RE4).
- Probably one of the longest series which had loads of Playstation-exclusives where there were female main-heroes is "Tales"-series of Namco. Another could be "Final Fantasy" too, but that series started long before Playstation (true, "Tales of Phantasia" was first released on SNES, but it was quite "soon" remastered / enhanced to Playstation (and FF-series could had been one "far too obvious series" to make riddle of (sure, Terra from FF6, but outlook and weapon choice-wise far mroe ambiquous...))).
- Some other random "passing through my mind"-titles were:
"Grandia" (Only three main-entries);
"Koudelka + Shadow Hearts" (if one was to include the whole world Sacnoth / Nautilus set their games into, then perhaps this could fir as an answer too);
"Digimon World" (minus card-games; 4th was more based on the "X-evolution / Zevoryuushon"-movie; the 5th-one, "Digimon World Re:Digitize", was released on 2012, far later than these characters from the "heart"-comic appeared);
"Tekken" (Jun & Asuka aren't necessarily "the heroes", plus wrong appearance order);
"Soul / -Calibur-series" of Namco;
"Armored Core" & "Ace Combat" (both are "Playstation-heavy"-games);
"Clock Tower" (in which, alongside with Haunting Grounds all protagonist are female and there's no five entries in series (even when excluding extented-versions));
"Ys"-series (with only handful Playstation-titles, so not counting);
Crash Bandicoot alongside Spyro with numerous other Naughty Dog & Insomniac-titles ("Playstation-primarily" was the thought...);
"Dragon Quest" (only few of titles were Playstation-only-titles);
"Twisted Metal" (there's no "the" and/or "Hero" in the games...);
There certainly were many other games (especially individual ones) that I thought of. But I believe this list suffices for now.
The most glaring hint for the series was "the fourth hero in series was female & fifth was a youngster with projectile weapon". Or something like I remember being talked a lot back then these games were originally released (similar to how "Dragon Quarter" was a drastic deviation of "BoF"-series)...
I may have been over thinking this whole riddle. But at least I've tried...
Yes more than I'm missing some details when listing these game series, so feel free to correct me.
The "popular series" is rather intepretable hint however: Does it reference of being a cult-hit or commercial-success? Is it popular worldwide or only in specific release-areas (PAL, NTSC, Japan, USA, etc.)?
But at least I can write write that I've done research:
- Initially (and still) the name "Otis" & "Curtis" sounded the most familiar to me (and more than likely the "best" hints for this riddle). But my searches have only lead to "Need for Speed" & "Disgaea"
"Need for Speed" sounded initially quite fitting (even if I was aonly more familiar with Prostreet): The game series had appeared mainly on PC & Playstation 1 up until Playstation 2-era. Problem was that there were pretty much no visualized characters before "Hot Pursuit 2" or "Underground". And in the end the game series leans more towards PC at least in my living country which was dominated by PC when it comes to racing-scenerios. Plus I wasn't to able to find the female "hero", which one big deciding factors here more than likely when looking for the series.
"Disgaea" is another series I'm not too familiar with. But I searched mainly due "Kurtis". However, it was quickly deducted that this isn't the series either even for being heavily focused on Playstation-consoles. This was mainly because in most cases all characters appear in all games in a away or another. And most certainly (I believe) the names aren't dericed from "classes/jobs", which also appaear in all games. Plus, there hasn't been "Disgaea 5"-yet, since more than likely spin-offs and other games happeneing in shared universe aren't counted (like "Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome" & "Phantom Brave")
Yes, I took "Prinnies" into consideration too. But then I did remember that aside Prinny-Kurtis, other Prinnies are anonymous.
Of course, one of the most well known "Otis" is from the first "Dead Rising"-game. But once again, only 3-numbered titles so far when you count out "what-ifs" & "addons". And Otis already appear on the first game.
As for "Curtis", I keep constantly nagged about a location called "St. Curtis..."
- Alongside NfS-series, there was hinting from various sport-related-series, like "NBA JAM" & "Coolboarders". But once, the inconsistency of the appears order bothed this idea. Not to mention since the character appearance of the cards more than likely is based on medival/low-tech/non-electricity-fantasy in a away or another, that botced the idea again.
- Then I started to browse more through games with exact five entries. Off my head I could name "Breath of Fire", "Suikoden", "Star Ocean", "Monster Farm/Rancher", "Wild Arms". None of these games unfortunately don't have "the female hero" as the fourth one / on fourth instalment, as far as I can recall.
- "Tenchu" is yet another series where the main cast stays pretty same, even if Ayame is the "the hero" of the game on "Fatal Shadows". Once again the lack of "heroes" botched this guess.
- "Dragon Valor", while a singular title, resembled somewhat character appearance-wise when "Soul Path"-was chosen (but somehow "Azos Path" kept bugging me constantly...
- Constantly ".Hack"-series gets nagging due dagger wielding Rowdo (ala. Kite). But then I get constantly reminded that BlackRose was already in the "first game" (great sword-glass, also a female). Not to mention that essentially there are "only 2 .Hack-games"; they just were split into four separate disks.
- If "Origins" would had been the first "Silent Hill"-game, this could fit quite well too. Once again however, Origin-excluded, all Silent Hill-games are more of the case of "The Room", I.E. not originally meant to SH-game, but got the name slapped to boost the sales (which I highly believe is the case of RE4 onwards too (aside of course the iriginally-shown "3.5"-early-version of the game (but then again, the theme itself was a radical departure in "Hallusination"-version anyways, so yeah (but granted I personally liked the atmosphere akin to Gamecube-RE-games and "Project Zero/Fatal Frame"...))).
- In "Resident Evil", Claire certainly could had filled Clerre's spot perfectly not only obviously due the name, but also because Claire was "the starting hero" of "Code Veronica". But once we're looking for "one-time-appearance"-characters in the series for each game. And at least in my view, the series ended before the "Spain Savior" (aka. so called RE4).
- Probably one of the longest series which had loads of Playstation-exclusives where there were female main-heroes is "Tales"-series of Namco. Another could be "Final Fantasy" too, but that series started long before Playstation (true, "Tales of Phantasia" was first released on SNES, but it was quite "soon" remastered / enhanced to Playstation (and FF-series could had been one "far too obvious series" to make riddle of (sure, Terra from FF6, but outlook and weapon choice-wise far mroe ambiquous...))).
- Some other random "passing through my mind"-titles were:
"Grandia" (Only three main-entries);
"Koudelka + Shadow Hearts" (if one was to include the whole world Sacnoth / Nautilus set their games into, then perhaps this could fir as an answer too);
"Digimon World" (minus card-games; 4th was more based on the "X-evolution / Zevoryuushon"-movie; the 5th-one, "Digimon World Re:Digitize", was released on 2012, far later than these characters from the "heart"-comic appeared);
"Tekken" (Jun & Asuka aren't necessarily "the heroes", plus wrong appearance order);
"Soul / -Calibur-series" of Namco;
"Armored Core" & "Ace Combat" (both are "Playstation-heavy"-games);
"Clock Tower" (in which, alongside with Haunting Grounds all protagonist are female and there's no five entries in series (even when excluding extented-versions));
"Ys"-series (with only handful Playstation-titles, so not counting);
Crash Bandicoot alongside Spyro with numerous other Naughty Dog & Insomniac-titles ("Playstation-primarily" was the thought...);
"Dragon Quest" (only few of titles were Playstation-only-titles);
"Twisted Metal" (there's no "the" and/or "Hero" in the games...);
There certainly were many other games (especially individual ones) that I thought of. But I believe this list suffices for now.
The most glaring hint for the series was "the fourth hero in series was female & fifth was a youngster with projectile weapon". Or something like I remember being talked a lot back then these games were originally released (similar to how "Dragon Quarter" was a drastic deviation of "BoF"-series)...
I may have been over thinking this whole riddle. But at least I've tried...
Yes more than I'm missing some details when listing these game series, so feel free to correct me.
The "popular series" is rather intepretable hint however: Does it reference of being a cult-hit or commercial-success? Is it popular worldwide or only in specific release-areas (PAL, NTSC, Japan, USA, etc.)?
Eh, it's rather just sating the curiousity of mine instead of "winning", mainly because there hadn't any guesses resembling the message I posted.
((On a side note, ironically enough with all the searching I've done so far past years in total, I've yet to find one specific game that pretty much is the grand-parent for a game called "Star Ixiom" (it's not Star Luster; different platform (8 & 5 1⁄4-inch-floppy-disks) and released many years yearlier)); just to proove I ain't all knowing or all-mighty. I'll find the game eventually however; I was able to find D2 of D-series in the end after a very long search)).
((On a side note, ironically enough with all the searching I've done so far past years in total, I've yet to find one specific game that pretty much is the grand-parent for a game called "Star Ixiom" (it's not Star Luster; different platform (8 & 5 1⁄4-inch-floppy-disks) and released many years yearlier)); just to proove I ain't all knowing or all-mighty. I'll find the game eventually however; I was able to find D2 of D-series in the end after a very long search)).
Oh my gosh! I can tell you have put a lot of work into this and you are actually really close. One of the franchises you guessed is the correct one! If you give it a little more thought I bet you could crack this case so let me eliminate half of your guesses as a special holiday present:
It is not NBA Jam or Coolboarders; I don't even play sports games and was unaware many of them had original casts and not real life sports stars.
It is not Suikoden, Wild Arms or Grandia
It is not Tenchu or Dragon Valour
It is not Project Zero or Fatal Frame
It is not Tekken or Soul Calibur; selecting a 'main protaginist' from a fighting game never seems right to me.
It is not Armoured Core or Ace Combat
It is not Spyro or Crash Bandicoot; even though some of those games have other playable characters in them it is Spyro and Crash whom are always the central figure.
It is not Dragon Quest; that is a primarily nintendo series (previously NES/SNES, lately DS)
And here is something else just because I saw you mention it a few times:
- they are all from major titles in the franchise, none come from spin-off titles of a different genre (ie, no mario karts, no super puzzle fighters, no kirby dream courses)
- the game order they are from is not 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, nor are they entirely contiguous.
- the series is a mainstream hit in all regions
and just a reminder: I won't accept it unless you say who each character is so even though you guessed the correct franchise in there somewhere that's not enough! I have to see that you 'get it'.
It is not NBA Jam or Coolboarders; I don't even play sports games and was unaware many of them had original casts and not real life sports stars.
It is not Suikoden, Wild Arms or Grandia
It is not Tenchu or Dragon Valour
It is not Project Zero or Fatal Frame
It is not Tekken or Soul Calibur; selecting a 'main protaginist' from a fighting game never seems right to me.
It is not Armoured Core or Ace Combat
It is not Spyro or Crash Bandicoot; even though some of those games have other playable characters in them it is Spyro and Crash whom are always the central figure.
It is not Dragon Quest; that is a primarily nintendo series (previously NES/SNES, lately DS)
And here is something else just because I saw you mention it a few times:
- they are all from major titles in the franchise, none come from spin-off titles of a different genre (ie, no mario karts, no super puzzle fighters, no kirby dream courses)
- the game order they are from is not 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, nor are they entirely contiguous.
- the series is a mainstream hit in all regions
and just a reminder: I won't accept it unless you say who each character is so even though you guessed the correct franchise in there somewhere that's not enough! I have to see that you 'get it'.
Well, there has been few assumptions stuck in my head, so I'm gonna write them here just for sake of "eh, why not".
This is to assume "if" the series and references in question were from Final Fantasy-series:
- "Rowdo" right off the bat contains numerous referencials from "dances" (Water Rondo) to Ronsos and so on. But consider him being the first on the list, more than likely the weapon of choice and outlook is similiar to "Edge Geraldine"
- "Cole" more than likely would be a reference to "Locke Cole" name-wise. But otherwise outlook-wise I cannot link to him anyone. Weapon choice more obviously would be "Cloud Strife".
- I honestly couldn't think of anything fitting to "Des"...
- Clerre name-wise is very similiar to "Celes Chere".
- Otis / Curtis is even more problematic. Weapon of choice-wise he could be "Irvine Kinneas". But name-wise I'm only able to find "Curtis" from "Final Fantasy Legend 3", which in actuality is "Sa ・Ga 3"...
And that is as far as I've been able link these characters so far.
Just some of the deduction, if not to help others with suessing, then at least otherwise showing work going behind these guesses.
A small nickpick regarding to Final Fantasy though: Up until the 7th-major title, there was no officially published Final Fantasy-game in PAL/European-region. But it's true that after FF7, the series has been picked up quite well.
Yes, even us Finns were avare of the series. But SquareSoft (alongside various other Japanese-companies (sans especially Sega)) back then just negleted Europe for the most part...
This is to assume "if" the series and references in question were from Final Fantasy-series:
- "Rowdo" right off the bat contains numerous referencials from "dances" (Water Rondo) to Ronsos and so on. But consider him being the first on the list, more than likely the weapon of choice and outlook is similiar to "Edge Geraldine"
- "Cole" more than likely would be a reference to "Locke Cole" name-wise. But otherwise outlook-wise I cannot link to him anyone. Weapon choice more obviously would be "Cloud Strife".
- I honestly couldn't think of anything fitting to "Des"...
- Clerre name-wise is very similiar to "Celes Chere".
- Otis / Curtis is even more problematic. Weapon of choice-wise he could be "Irvine Kinneas". But name-wise I'm only able to find "Curtis" from "Final Fantasy Legend 3", which in actuality is "Sa ・Ga 3"...
And that is as far as I've been able link these characters so far.
Just some of the deduction, if not to help others with suessing, then at least otherwise showing work going behind these guesses.
A small nickpick regarding to Final Fantasy though: Up until the 7th-major title, there was no officially published Final Fantasy-game in PAL/European-region. But it's true that after FF7, the series has been picked up quite well.
Yes, even us Finns were avare of the series. But SquareSoft (alongside various other Japanese-companies (sans especially Sega)) back then just negleted Europe for the most part...
To be frank, I'm mainly just going with info via various outlets instead of actual self-gained-gameplay-knowledge.
And pretty much only Final Fantasy-games I was occasionally able to play back then were 7 & 8.
And before this "time period", the RPG-rules learning games for me were Shining In The Darkness (which I was finally able to beat only few years ago) and Fighting Fantasy-book-series (up until the #5 while having only beaten 3rd & 5th).
So yeah, I always have been "2-generations"-behind when it comes to video-games; somehow I just have been still able to "follow" these games, mainly thanks to various outlets having the information handy.
And pretty much only Final Fantasy-games I was occasionally able to play back then were 7 & 8.
And before this "time period", the RPG-rules learning games for me were Shining In The Darkness (which I was finally able to beat only few years ago) and Fighting Fantasy-book-series (up until the #5 while having only beaten 3rd & 5th).
So yeah, I always have been "2-generations"-behind when it comes to video-games; somehow I just have been still able to "follow" these games, mainly thanks to various outlets having the information handy.
Rowdo : Edward Geraldine from Final Fantasy IV (take on the word Edwardo)
Cole : Locke Cole from Final Fantasy VI (last name)
Des : Tidus from Final Fantasy X (Des = Dus)
Clerre : Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII (Real name is Claire)
Otis : Noctis from Final Fantasy XV (This is a guess here)
Cole : Locke Cole from Final Fantasy VI (last name)
Des : Tidus from Final Fantasy X (Des = Dus)
Clerre : Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII (Real name is Claire)
Otis : Noctis from Final Fantasy XV (This is a guess here)
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