[Edwyn]

An audio short story based upon the characters of the mass-author, mass-multimedia format series Kazahana Family Mass Battle. Think of it as Battle Royale only with an entire family as the participants. All 600 of them. And the battlefield being the entire island of Japan. With a large cast of unique and ultimately disposable characters.... Who is the one amongst them who will survive the odds, and claim the almighty family prize???

In this clip, we are introduced to the Kazahana family member known as Sol, who's apparently a little miffed that he and his sister were targeted during the battle and is now confronting Muga. Does he intend to join the battle, or is he here to blow Muga away? Listen on and find out!

Sol's Introduction - Medium Quality Version
Running Time: 6:50 minutes
Size: 6.26MB

Story and Script by: Rikun
Script Edits and Additions: Edwyn Tiong
Mixed by: Edwyn Tiong

Cast (in order of appearance):
Muga - Edwyn Tiong
Sol - Rikun

Soundtrack:
F.E.A.R. - Selected tracks from the game

Sound Effects:
Final Fantasy 8
Guilty Gear X
Half-Life
Max Payne 2
Star Wars - Phantom Menace game
Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic
Syberia
Miscellaneous stuff from online

The first and second clips I mixed for the Kazahana Family Mass Battle series are still available! While set in the same world, neither of them are a direct continuation of the other. The current clip above however, directly follows the events in the "Syuuhei's Phone Call" clip, so you might want to listen to that first. All three clips feature a recurring character. Muga. Voiced by me. Of course. XD:

Syuuhei's Phone Call - Medium Quality Version
Running Time: 4:04 minutes
Size: 3.73MB

471's Introduction - Medium Quality Version
Running Time: 6:21 minutes
Size: 5.81MB

Anyway, the cast comments!:
Rikun - You did very nicely as the earnest, forthright sort of guy with straightforward noble intentions. Good job with the voice, especially when you needed to do shouting! You need to watch out for when your volume peaks however, since the sound distorts and gets all staticy when you get too loud. Given that Sol is a character who declares his feelings by shouting them out loud, you need to be very careful indeed. I'd suggest lowering the volume of your recordings so you can get out your full emotions without worrying too much if your voice is bringing up that horrible static. After that, manually raise the amplitude to an acceptable level.

Edwyn - Yay! I got my old Muga voice back! Well.... Mostly. Sounds a little bit too cold now that I listen to it again. Poot. Well, there's always the next clip.

In any case, I hope you enjoy this little snippet of chaos that is the world of Kazahana!

[Fernie]

Ooh, I like, I like a lot! I'm not terribly familiar with all the Kazahana back story so I'm probably missing something but it was very entertaining nonetheless.
I found the mixing of this radio play very interesting as there was a significant use of stereo, don't hear that very often. It served it's purpose very well though I thought it sounds a bit unnatural when each voice is completely isolated from each other. Perhaps it would have been better to let a bit of Rikun's voice leak into the right speaker and vice versa. Don't get me wrong though, it was still very well done and I was very appreciative of it, almost creates a stage in the mind while listening. Along with appropriate sound effects and music, the timing of the lines, all just very good stuff.
Rikun - Very well done, very believable mid/older teenager voice. And the character's intentions felt genuine as well, I never questioned his motivations during the length of the production. Like Edwyn mentioned you should watch out for the microphone clipping while yelling, but otherwise it sounded good. Nice job with the writing as well.
Edywn - It starts off sounding a bit overconfident but when we reach that little monologue in the middle you develop and change the character enough that we actually get to the point where we care for Muga. Almost like a war veteran who's seen too much but continued on because he felt duty bound to do so. Great acting though perhaps the voice could have sounded a bit older, but I'm probably nit-picking and it might have ended up sounding silly otherwise.

I enjoyed it, enough to go searching for more Kazahana stuff.

Edit: Just took a listen to 471's Introduction. Holy s***, that was awesome. =D

[Edwyn]

Thanks for the super detailed review, Fernie! Much appreciated!

Yeah, I had more trouble with the stereo seperation than I thought I would. I wanted to have the characters far away on either channel to sound like they were talking from across a large expanse, but loud enough so that the audience could hear them perfectly. In the end, I don't think I entirely pulled it off: since they sound much too loud and clear (and speaking too "plainly") to be across the room from one another, but at the same time the stereo seperation is so absolute that they SHOULD be across the room from one another and.... Ah, let's just throw some reverb in there and hope that'll fix matters. @_@ I'm a bit of a lazy mixer sometimes. And I didn't even bother applying any kind of echo or reverb to the SFX which may have given them a bit of a "disconnected feel" than if the sounds were really there and happening on the scene at the same time. I'm also too lazy to fix it.

I'm especially proud of the use of the single, uncut piece of music from the F.E.A.R. intro for Muga's monologue and Sol's exploding rage. That worked surprisingly well into the piece. Almost as if it had been made for it. @_@ Or at least, made for the monologue, which I wrote with that piece of music in mind. I have to admit, the reason for Muga's sudden character shift from cold arrogant bastard to wartorn veteran was entirely my attempt at injecting more random stuff into Rikun's script. XD As for Muga's portrayed age based on my voice, he seems to get older or younger based upon the time of day I decide to do his voice. O.o From his portrait on Lifepoint1 though, he doesn't look a day over 50, or even 40 so I'm not entirely sure if I've conveyed that or if I was going for an "grizzled old man" kinda thing.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed this clippy. It was interesting to mix together! And more people should get into Kazahana. It's a great little community creating project, indeed.

EDIT: Glad you enjoyed 471 as well. That was decidedly fun to mix because it was so thoroughly evil. Teehee.

[Rikun]

Wow.

I'm speechless.

This is an awesome mixjob Edwyn! I can't believe how badass it turned out to be! Your choice of music was fantastic, and I loved the little flashback snippets you inserted in when Sol charges in on Muga, only to miss.

I really enjoyed writing the screenplay for this, and I have to thank Edwyn for editing my script. Such an awesome project, and I do hope that everyone enjoys this RP!

[pyromaster]

Wow, Very well done Edwyn! This scene was very professionally mixed, and voiced!

Muga - Edwyn Tiong: I thought you did an amazing job with voicing Muga. I'm not familiar with the actual game, nor the character. But it's very clear that you had some excellent voicing talent for this character. I really like how you have this evil, yet very wise and frank personality portrayed in your voice. So good job with the acting, and I really envy the deep voice ^_^

Sol - Rikun: Again, not I'm not familiar with the original, but I really liked your take on the character. Your voice was very teenage warrior like, and the acting was very realistic. Great rendetion for Sol ^_^

All in all, this was fabulous! I Really enjoyed the mixing in the clip, you selected some great BGMs and SFXs that worked out really well with the scene. I also love how you used two different channels for both the characters, it really added a good thrill to it.

[Jason Axelrod]

Amazing job with the mixing as well as Muga, Edwyn. Being a LiFe.1 fan myself I love all the work contributed to the Kazahana collaboration, and this was no exception. Someone awhile back mentioned the flashback... honestly that was a real highlight for me (I always find specific things to swoon over). But even moreso, was one line of yours that chilled the spine bigtime and really swept me in... the line about it being the beginning of the battle.

Rikun, I'm sorry to say I haven't heard too much from you yet, but then again I am still pretty new here. I haven't read Sol's description yet but as is I think you did great! Confused youth weighed with responsibility... or that's how I took it

Amazing job!

[Edwyn]

Rikun: I'm very glad you thought I did justice to your script, and the flashback "slow-mo" scene in the middle there! That was a fun little insert. And yes, more people should listen!

pyromaster: Thank you very much for your kind words! Glad you enjoyed all the various aspects of the clip!

Axel: Ahhhhh.... You'd be "Axel" on the Lifepoint1 boards as well right? Heyas! I'm glad you liked the flashback, it just fit with that piece of music I head in mind so very, very well. Spooky, even. O.o

[fairuza]

Wow, this clip or should I say clips really blew me away!!
Great job with the awesome performances Edwyn and Rikun.^^ Very Believable and mindblowing performances. I'm not really familiar with the movie myself but I thought that everything seemed to flow smoothly, I'm really impressed with the mixng Ed!

Brilliant job!^^ Keep it up.

[Azure]

Wow the thing that struck me was how it carried on ^^ excellent mixing =3
Muga - Edwyn Tiong - Wow dude, you were freaking creepy! Superb stuff,

Sol - Rikun- I really felt for Sol here, he sounded so desperate so sad.

Wow this is really impressive stuff, superb mixing Edwyn, atmospheric and very creepy. I really want to check out the rest of the series now!

[Edwyn]

fairuza: Thank you very much! And it's not actually from a movie or a game.... Although the original idea WAS from a movie and it is SORTA a game.... But anyway it's like a round-the-robin fanfiction type thing: people write/mix/flash a bit of the story, and it then gets passed unto someone else. Only it's not quite that neat, since half a dozen projects may be happening at once and trying to maintain some kind of canon is akin to a nightmare. O.o But it's fun to participate in a way! Check out the website for details!

Azure: "How it carried on"....? Did you mean.... It was in fact long and boring and you were tired of listening to it by the end that you thought it was the WORSE radioplay you had EVER heard??? OH! HOW COULD YOU??? *runs away sobbing*

*runs back* But I'm glad you enjoyed it enough to consider catching up with the rest of the series even though IT BORED YOU SO! OH! *runs away sobbing again* XP~~~~~~