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Second on the list is VAL. Since all 4 Makers will be originating from the PC Continent as part of the story, it should be a given that what is essentially the king (or queen, in this case) of the PC video game market was going to be a Maker.

As a real life company, Valve is known for their iconic games, and even more iconic fanbase. In more recent years, they’ve somewhat fallen out of favor not because of things they’ve done wrong, but because of what they’re not doing. Most people argue that there has been a lack of innovation on their part. Rather than give us new things, they’d rather stick to the comfort zone of their successful footing on DOTA and CS:GO. While not known for much controversy, that whole fuss about gambling websites certainly put them in the spotlight. I personally think that albeit taking action way too late, they were able to resolve it efficiently. Despite maintaining a good standing in real life, with the way things went in the Neptunia universe, it would seem like her in-game counterpart has been failing to deliver what is expected of her.

Out of all my “original” characters, I struggled with VAL’s design the most, and as a result, she was the last character that I finished working on. After taking a look at the other three Makers, I felt that this new group was still somewhat bland. I tried giving her a small stature, and suddenly the character grew on me much better. Soooooo…. yeah, VAL is a loli solely for the sake of having a loli character.

In the end, this somewhat worked toward my advantage. Her innocent, yet scheming face and childlike appearance reminded me of Lola from Fairy Fencer F, another series from Idea Factory. Lola was a merchant of sorts, and while not really considered a scammer or con artist, she was able to consistently entice the party into buying whatever she had to offer. As for how this relates to Valve, well… you know how easy it is to fork over your cash during a Steam Sale. I was surprised by how well it aligned.

Now I had this general idea of what she would look like, but even with this perfect setup, I still couldn’t get it right. In the end, it was one simple change that would give me the idea I needed: her eyes. VAL having heterochromia isn’t a random design choice. The blue and orange coloring is very much deliberate, and has become key to showing off what kind of skills she would have in battle. (I really hope I don’t have to explain what the colors are a reference to.) If you’ve seen the Chapter 5 cutscene with her, you should know exactly what power this is.

At this point, we’ve got a snuggle-sized fighter who can slip in and out of the battlefield by combining her size, and her abilities together. Now we just need a suitable weapon. Going with the theme of keeping things simple, I decided that knives were the best option. Again, not a random decision as this is a reference to another Valve game. As for her skills, one of my friends has suggested making use of “Valve Time”, a term jokingly used to describe the company’s lack of punctuality, which Valve themselves have embraced. VAL’s role of dealing “Indirect Damage” shared with Vert and K-Sha would, in this case, be more accurately referred to as “Delayed Damage”. I’m still working on her skills, but you should expect to see the prominent use of portals, as well as the concept of stalling your damage.

Development progress is back to its usual pace. But that’s not saying much considering the bulk of changes I’m making. I haven’t posted an update about those since they’re a large number of minor changes rather than a small number of major ones.

I’ve also added a few more things to Blizza’s character profile so go check that out for some more info on her.