NARRATIVE TEXT:

Name: Gabriel “Gabe” Shooter

Age: 32

Weapon: Dual Desert Eagles, Martial Arts

Series: Heaven's Order

“Never cared for the nickname 'The Immortal Hell Killer'; I much prefer 'Oh Crap, It's- SPLORCH'.”

Character Bio:

An agent belonging to Team D of a secret organisation that investigates and quells supernatural crisis', Gabriel Shooter- but please, call him Gabe- is a near mythic figure amongst those within that world, be they born of Earth, Heaven, or Hell. Oh sure, he may look like an overly cocksure moron with spiky blonde hair, swaggering about in a cheap suit and wielding cheaper guns- because he is- but he has an advantage that absolutely nobody else does; he cannot be killed. No matter how fatal the injury, his wounds will heal themselves not long after and he'll get right back up- not even being completely gibbed can put him down for very long. Gabe leverages this with his adequate gunplay, decent martial arts, and a theatrical and grandiose personality to both physically and psychologically tear down anything he is tasked with pacifying, from the common insane cultist to the most noble of Forsaken or Celestial beings. Make no mistake, mind; for all his posturing, he truly believes in the concept of justice and making the all domains safe places to live, trying his hardest to ensure that as few people have to go through the heartache that brought him to where he is as possible.

***

Name: Howard Fielding

Age: 38

Weapon: Bare Knuckle Fighting, Eldritch Link

Series: Fielding Investigation Unit

“May the Devil have mercy; I certainly won't.”

Character Bio:

Once upon a time, there was a young boy; this young boy, born and bread for battle, was subject to alterations of his genetic code that fused his consciousness with that of a hive-mind being known only as The Eldest. It was thanks to the extraordinary powers this link granted him and a truly rigorous training regimen that this young boy grew up to become a member of the Golden Seraph Corps.- a stateless militarised entity called upon by the governments of our world and those beyond to help settle particularly tumultuous supernatural disputes. Those same governments soon grew wary and untrustworthy of this soldier, however, and quickly set about framing him for several acts of terrorism and treason that he did not commit, forcing him to go off the grid and try to carve a new life for himself- that of a private investigator operating in the Northern California who deals only with non-supernatural cases (though of course, his past- and the worlds of angels and devils alike- continue to catch up and interfere with this new life, no matter how hard he tries to outrun them). That man is Howard Fielding, and boy, what he wouldn't give for half an hour of peace and quiet and a couple of packs of cigarettes.

Level: Midtown Manhattan

Broadway, Times Square, The Chrysler Building and so much more- the beating heart of the Big Apple, and home to everything you think of when you think of New York City. It is also home to the East Coast HQ of the Order of Heaven, located somewhere beneath the Rockefeller Center and kept secret from the wider public. This presents a problem when, on what would have otherwise been a picturesque December evening, a powerful legion of Hell's mightiest and cruellest knights have stormed the streets with one goal in mind; breaching the Order of Heaven's headquarters and destroying it from the inside out- and taking out as much of the staff as possible. The fighting has spilled out into the streets, rendering Manhattan a warzone where blazing fire and sheets of snow are as perilous as the denizens of hell that prowl the streets.

Boss: The 23rd Fallen, Haborym

Haborym- also known as Aim- is one of several Dukes at the helm of Hell's oldest military force, known as The Fallen. He is by far and away one of the most vicious of his inner circle, feared by many for his apparently unending appetite for destruction- particularly by way of Hellfire. Make no mistake, mind you; his mind is far sharper then his hotheaded nature would lead you to believe, and he is privy to a great deal of knowledge that even his fellow Fallen know nothing of. He volunteered to lead the charge on Midtown knowing full well that it would draw Gabe out in the warzone (and thus, he could finally seek answers to the one question he doesn't have an answer to; the nature of Gabe's immortality). He hadn't counted on Howard, the man whom was assigned the blame for one of his more severe war crimes, but it's no problem; it's just one more loose end to raze to the ground. A jack-of-all-stats, Haborym balances speed, strength, physical and projectile attacks in equal measure, serving as an early example of the trials players will have to overcome going ahead.

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IN-CHARACTER TRACK COMMENTARY FROM GONKAKA:

Shinji Namiki: When you think of New York City, you think of Jazz and Bombast; you think of larger then life things. In a different project, I might've gone for a purely swing jazz piece to match the atmosphere, but the dire situation of the level- the clashing of a manic snowstorm and hellfire as demons and soldiers battle in the streets- necessitated a harsh edge alongside the horn lines and funky guitars you do hear. I can only hope to have matched the same strong start that Fumie achieved with Under Armageddon's Sky- I was particularly trying to match that same sort of energy with that first major build-up and the breakbeat section that follows.

Fumie Saso: Awww, thank you!

Shinji Namiki: I do wish I'd have changed up the synth used for the chords a little more at one point, but it's a minor regret in the grand scheme of things. Oh, yes, on that note; I do not apologise for putting that “Get down, horny” vocal sample before a trumpet melody. I thought that was very funny.

Denji Koshiro: I didn't.

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DECON'S TRACK COMMENTARY:

Keeping up with the theme of ideas for tracks being tricky to figure out, I initially considered giving a sort of ethereal house type number along the lines of TECHNOuchi's Galaxy 2 Galaxy for New York's track, but quickly found myself hitting a brick wall; the only element to survive from that iteration are the main chord lines you hear throughout the track, though they were key shifted when working on this one. I hit something of a breakthrough when the core bassline- which, surprising as it might sound, was actually inspired by Shape Da Future by Hideki Naganuma (as was that breakbeat breakdown following the intro)- came to mind, and helped lay the foundation for the new direction of the track- a sort of electronica-rock-jazz fusion joint- but as mentioned in Kingslayer Anthem's upload, I began running into serious problems with the sampling feature in M2K; several discs would cause the program to crash whilst in the sampling mode, others would cause it to crash after I was back in the program proper and tried editing the samples I'd just taken (and it's an issue that carried over into re-burns of the same discs; it's like the iTunes playlists comprising of those chunks of my library were cursed or some shit). This caused an untold amount of fiddling about and delayed the process immensely, but eventually the track came together. I'm mostly pleased with the end result; there's a few more things I wish I could've done with it sample wise, but that bassline is very strong- especially when it's accentuated by guitar lines and I do feel the song fits the vibe of the level (Midtown Manhatten on a snowy night, overrun by demons unleashing literal hellfire everywhere, creating a dual Fire/Ice theme).

The real life news sample over the intro is arguably a little bit immersion breaking- I don't think it'd be very likely for a game company to OK that sort of sampling- but I ran with it for Mood. Speaking of samples, here's the rundown of what the song includes:

- the break/scratch/SFX loop from Super Monkey Ball's Intro Music

- the synth stab from 2 Unlimited's No Limit

- the Acid Bass from Scanty Sandwich's Because of You

- a snippet of audio from this news coverage of the New York/New Jersey December 1996 Blizzard