I learned something today: that M2, the folks who have become so well-known for their excellent modernisations of classic retro games (particularly shooters) are also responsible for the excellent E-Mote animation system used in, among other things, Sayori's Nekopara and Love³ visual novels. (This also explains why it put in a surprise appearance in the Sega Ages Herzog Zwei release on Switch a while back.)
I'm not sure how I never knew this before, given that there's a press release on their site that dates back to 2013. But the credits of Nekopara vol. 4, which I finished off this evening, are the first time I remember seeing them directly credited for the engine — and yes, it's the same M2; their logo was right there in the credits.
If you're unfamiliar with E-Mote, it's a Live2D-esque engine that allows 2D art to be manipulated in a "3D-like" style. This allows for smooth animation of otherwise static artwork, allowing for transitions between gestures, movement beyond simply sliding the image around, and generally much more expressive characters without needing to switch to fully polygonal models. Sayori from Neko Works is the undisputed master of this engine, since the animation and movement in both the aforementioned Nekopara and Love³ is some of the most impressively natural I've ever seen in a visual novel, but a few other devs have made use of it, too — I've seen it used in visual novels from Qureate, for example, and M2 even used it themselves in the tutorial screens for Herzog Zwei, as noted above.
This may not be big news to you (or news at all — it's entirely possible that I simply just missed it over the years!) but it's something that makes me happy for reasons I can't quite pin down. I think it's the feeling of "coming together" that it represents; M2 make modern ports of retro games that I love, but they're also responsible for one of the most significant pieces of tech in modern visual novels — which I also love. How many other devs out there can boast quite such a diverse portfolio?
Discover more from I'm Not Doctor Who
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
