I'm hitting dead end so i'll just post everything i found about Du Ruo's image
Du Ruo's "weapon" is a Hill Censer/Boshanlu. First appearing in Western Han period. Like what the name describe, its lid will depict the mountains where the immortals live, you can pic 3 for a more detailed description.
Interestingly, only in the Han Dynasty that boshanlu are made of copper (which i think is the ones Du Ruo's is based on). In later periods they are usually ceramic. I only found few pics of boshanlu with a bird motif on top, sadly there is not much detail about these particular boshanlu:
Next, we have this mysterious woman behinds Du Ruo in the visual art. She has a very particular hairstyle cause she wears it down + the hair accesory sticking out. It's the same characteristics as early Western Han women's hairstyles, women in later periods mostly wore their hair up in buns or loop:
So these 2 details show that the new event is referring the Han Dynasty quite a bit, but it's not guarantee that all details in the event are. But that was what i was mostly focusing on searching since it's easier 😂
Du Ruo's accessories have this green tint making it looks like oxidized copper or silver w/ green tarnish (I think necklace is silver while the rest is copper)
Copper was also a common material during the Western Han period, most of the artifacts i found are either copper or jade. (You can check out the Palace Museum's collection or Xuzhou Museum, Hunan Museum)
Next is Du Ruo's blue shirt, this is a very big guessing on my part but it could be referencing the Han blue/Chinese blue pigment.
In pic 4, it's used to paint a Golden/Three-legged crow in a tomb mural (couldn't find much more detail unfortunately, it seems the tomb may be closed due to safety reasons)
BUT during the Han Dynasty, the blue color doesn't hold a significant meaning (Black & Red was the royal color) unlike the Qing Dynasty and the most prized blue in this period is Lapis Lazuli. It represents the Sky or the Heaven, and that matches with Du Ruo's "immortal" vibe
Plus some lapis lazuli sculptures have big piece of inclusions, making it have a blue to white gradient just like Du Ruo's shirt.
Some sites says lapis is used in Western Han period as well, as paint on mural or made into beads but i couldn't find an actual source for it. I did found artifacts that are painted with Han blue though.
And the biggest mysterious i can't figure out is the patterns on Du Ruo's jacket. I have looked at potentially every common patterns used in fabric (link 1, link 2) & in carvings (link 1, link 2, link 3 and a good video) during Han Dynasty, none of it looks similar.
Tbh it looks like a scanned artifact that has been made into a makeshift pattern rather than a real pattern.
From what i see, there's 2 kind of patterns. One is this square with V-shape details: Left & right sides can be seen in the 2 big pieces and in the smaller pic is what could be the pattern's middle part:
And the other pattern is this S shaped one that's overlapped with the above. It kinda looks like a cloud thunder pattern 云雷纹 (fig 1). It being cloud (representing the heaven) also matches with Du Ruo's immortal image.
So either it's a makeshift pattern from a real artifact or a pattern from another time period or maybe it's even supposed to be a hanzi character. I really want a clear look of it...
It could be small part of this kind of repeat tile pattern as well:
Lastly, this is a big speculation on my part but i wonder if Du Ruo's jacket actually belongs to someone else younger or has smaller frame than her ? Based on my limited knowledge about Hanfu, its arm length is too short to be a Shenyi-style robe or a Beizi jacket, but too long to be a Banbi. The bottom length is also too short to be a robe, but also too long to be just a jacket or a hanfu top.
Du Ruo's jacket is both shorter than her actual height & arm length. Plus it also has split sleeves, an unusual detail (no traditional Hanfu has it) i wonder if Du Ruo made that modification so she can fit in the jacket.
One of the artists from the op post. They have drawn a lot of promo artworks for PTN ever since Dreamy Bubble. Possibly it's them who drawn Eureka's crimebrand and maybe other asset too that i didn't notice.
9. BITE咬鸽鸽 (weibo.com/u/1707755147) or Twi@YAOwww0
The artist from example 2. She has posted only 1 promo but is also the artist behind many celebration arts of PTN, so it's worth mentioning.
Lastly, quite a few artists who got commissioned have their profile setting as "only show 6 months of content" so the artworks will disappear after certain time. Definitely SAVE THEM while you could.I'll make another thread for all PTN promo artworks i managed to find later.
First, this kind of promo is popular for lot of games on wb nowadays.
In PTN's case, this is how a standard promo post format look like:
•Has 3 standard tags:
Red: PTN's official tag/supergroup
Orange: Designated PTN fan content tag
Yellow: Current event's tag
•Blue: Actual quote from character depicted
•Purple: Promo giveaway lottery prize. Usually a link for it is attached but artist#2 forgot here lol. For normal case it's usually 328 rmb but on special occasions like server opening or new year, it's 648r. I've seen other games commonly giveaway 128r or 198r as well.
•Green: All promo posts will be posted on the same day or in the same short period (1-3 days). Usually on the day the event starts ingame & after maintenance.
The artwork will focus on the newly released S-rank or A-rank sinner. Or both in rare occasion, it's often either a detailed half body or full body piece.
Often the artists they commissioned are pretty successful/popular on weibo (30k+ follows):
-
Here is another example: This is from the server opening promo, hence the 648r giveaway. The tags are not always in the same order and the official tag/supergroup maybe omitted from the post but is still attached under the artist name like so:
Post links:
1.https://weibo.com/3169953027/4971299408973049
2.https://weibo.com/1928127752/4971302693375602
3.https://weibo.com/1707755147/4801269598782068
Next, I'll mention a few artists that often get commisioned for PTN:
1.霜霸坨 (http://weibo.com/u/6631105141) or Twitter@shuangbatian
From what i gather, she got commissioned then become a fanartist later and often post non-promo fanarts. You may have seen her art around.
2. 台古 (http://weibo.com/u/1960459591) or Twitter@TaiguCafe
Most likely a contractor artist for PTN, not only she has done a lot of promo arts but you have seen her art ingame as well: Garofano's crimebrand, Mantis' CG, Chapter 13's visual art,...
She mostly got commissioned for PTN's special occasions. I'm a long time fan so let's me gush a bit, she's also a big contributor for Onmyoji, to think she started as a OG Ootengu fan back in 2016
Heart of Eternity event started. Only Vanilla get a promo art this time
■ Vanilla by 滚动带
https://weibo.com/5116266420/4988331638920822
______
☀️1 Febuary 2024☀️
Ode to Sun event started. Yao and Du Ruo get promo arts.
■ Du Ruo by 黑蛇错
https://weibo.com/3916364567/4996670671293888
PTN Official post: https://twitter.com/PathtoNowhereEN/status/1786591581279027582
■ Yao by -霜蓝-
https://weibo.com/1767664363/4996675359738468
PTN En post: https://twitter.com/PathtoNowhereEN/status/1786953976342335859
*This artwork is actually part of an elaborate 24h Yao fanart project on weibo, so i wasn't sure if it's part of AISNO's promo or both. The official tweet doesn't confirm nor deny it (They have posted fanarts from fanartists/non-comissioned artists before). But it's still an amazing piece & you should check out all the artists participate in the project through this artwork's link.
■ Yao 24h artwork project piece #1 by 霜霸坨
https://weibo.com/6631105141/4996685145314591
PTN EN post: https://twitter.com/PathtoNowhereEN/status/1786229196421005650
_______
🐈⬛️5 March 2024🐾
Ditty Nightsong event started. Only Angell has a promo art this time 🐾
■ Angell by 沾花惹草木
https://weibo.com/5538396801/5008627949896639
_______
🐍2 April 2024🍎
Perfect Vote event started, but there's no promo artwork this time for any sinner.
_______
🦋30 April 2024🕸
Jojo Stone Ocean collab event 「Freedom Ocean」 started, Jolyne and the gang get several promo artworks this time
■ Jolyne by 洗洗球洗球球
https://weibo.com/1842794275/5027380424607166
■ Jolyne by 湍行特急
https://weibo.com/2145779997/5028919092184808
■ Jolyne by 十61yard
https://weibo.com/2322854635/5028921588844946
■ Jolyne by _熟了的鱼_
https://weibo.com/5019056832/5028924154973527
■ Jolyne, F.F and Weather Forecast by 侅扉
https://weibo.com/1958321893/5028926650584384
_______
🌊27 June 2024✨️
Into The Blue event started but there's no promo artworks for any sinner this time
_______
👾25 July 2024🦠
Glitchwave Nihil event started. Since this is the 2nd anni event, we get 8 promo artworks this time
■ 000 by 夜电皮卡丘
https://weibo.com/1857456253/5060092023541653
■ 000 by 侅扉
https://weibo.com/1958321893/5060088704532495
■ 000 by _五拾二
https://weibo.com/5668053056/5060096872419602
Also on xitter:
https://x.com/t5252ver/status/1816732160679977439
■ 000 by JULYJAZIA
https://weibo.com/5639737040/5060089614700430
■ 000 by 脂脂水腥-v-
https://weibo.com/1204398337/5060086942663895
■ Moore by 苍辰-
https://weibo.com/2464646462/5060094515481170
■ Moore by 沾花惹草木
https://weibo.com/5538396801/5060093303062803
■ Moore by 金拱门我的疯狂星期五呢
https://weibo.com/3675874861/5060099552842768
_______
🏜29 August 2024👢
No Gang's Land event started, but there's no promo artwork this time for any sinner.
_______
🍃26 September 2024📮
Verdant Promises event started, but there's no promo artwork this time for any sinner.
_______
🌊24 October 2024🪸
Eternal Nightmare V: Echoless Dive event started, but there's no promo artwork this time for any sinner.
_______
💧28 November 2024🌨
Main story Chapter 14: Undercurrents started, only Jelena has 4 promo artworks this time.
■ Jelena by 和子君
https://weibo.com/2264501470/5105387919115413
■ Jelena by 台古
https://weibo.com/1960459591/5105745620112964
Also on xitter: https://x.com/TaiguCafe/status/1862080857647038623
■ Jelena by -憝-
https://weibo.com/3169953027/5105752862100029
■ Jelena by 小陆苗力鸭
https://weibo.com/5646132031/5105761057771281
_______
🦋26 December 2024🕸
Jojo Stone Ocean part 2 collab event 「Heaven's Fallen Down」 started, we got a comic strip with everyone and 2 Jotaro focus promo artworks
■ Jotaro and Jolyne by 卢瑟破忒头
https://weibo.com/5237112140/5115892200899303
Xitter: https://x.com/DaiYi_Art/status/1876923241056321860
■ Jotaro by 提弦
https://weibo.com/5252945588/5115529955901984
A promo for Pricilla's new skin but i guess is also a late valentine celebration.
■ Pricilla by 千夜QYS3
https://weibo.com/3635354593/4870207603213235
_______
🎲23rd Feb 2023🎲
Dragon & Isle of sky event started. So Etti & Levy got promo arts. The official PTN side account actually did a rare thing by sharing all the arts' HD watermarkless version & credited the artists in the reply:
https://weibo.com/7734009605/4877078577811533
■ Etti by -渡五趣-
https://weibo.com/2359219542/4872387751054757
■ Etti by Kuuus
https://weibo.com/2134581835/4872381631824335
■ Etti by -憝-
https://weibo.com/3169953027/4872384022318887
■ Etti by 黑芝麻糊
https://weibo.com/1859690752/4872386958329992
Also on xitter: https://twitter.com/3a9_a/status/1708605057229537325
Rustfire chapters 10-11 update. So Raven & Corso got promo arts. Fox also got one for his skin. May have missed 1-2 promo for Raven here + 1 more for Corso. Starting from this point on, there are less promo arts compare to before.
■ Raven by -憝-
https://weibo.com/3169953027/4885066632921386
■ Raven by 七渡天天想幸运
https://weibo.com/2530252930/4885073880421307
■ Raven by Sin_node
https://weibo.com/6040555860/4885068067375779
■ Corso by yayaziiii
https://weibo.com/5029954047/4885069586504410
■ Corso by 霜霸坨
Artist changed profile settings, so now you can view it on weibo:
It's also posted on their pinned post: https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4959055968210312
■ Zoya & 99 by 虎虎虎三
Couldn't find wb archive but they also posted it on xitter: https://twitter.com/biuuu07/status/1585609976252633089
■ Zoya & 99 by 北极婧
Couldn't find wb archive but they also posted it on lofter: https://mengxiaheqing.lofter.com/post/1cf68955_2b6676be1
■ Bai Yi, Che & K.K by -山田啊酱-狼欒
Artist changed profile settings, so now you can view it on weibo:
https://weibo.com/2189203964/4801254587107529
They also posted it on lofter: https://yamadakakeru.lofter.com/post/1d31df43_2b68c29a5
_______
🏜 25 Aug 2022 🏜
Raging Sands event started in CN PTN. So Stargazer & Kawa-kawa got to have promo arts. I could only find mostly Stargazer's
■ Stargazer by 伊灵一号机
https://weibo.com/6018246416/4806319586414396
■ Stargazer by 凱汀ZERO
https://weibo.com/5290099242/4806317309167212
■ Stargazer by 黑芝麻糊
https://weibo.com/1859690752/4806320047262791
Also on xitter: https://twitter.com/3a9_a/status/1623116355678638085
■ Stargazer & Kawa-kawa by -山田啊酱-狼欒
Artist changed profile settings, so now you can view it on weibo:
https://weibo.com/2189203964/4806322812619633
They also posted it on lofter: https://yamadakakeru.lofter.com/post/1d31df43_2b6a2d8a5
_______
🥮12 Sept 2022🥮
Mid-Autumn festival celebration. A few different characters got promo art, i may missed a few more but i couldn't find them.
■ Iron by 台古
https://weibo.com/1960459591/4812949689993773
Also on xitter: twitter.com/TaiguCafe/status/1648180267503452162
■ Hamel by 七渡天天想幸运
https://weibo.com/2530252930/4812957811219182
■ NOX by KANoSEiii
Sadly the artist doesn't repost a HD version for this anywhere else
■ Langley by 和子君
Weibo: https://weibo.com/2264501470/M5r39iyzp
Artist reposted it on xitter: twitter.com/KarenSt28688282/status/1619148198089723906
_______
🫧29 Sept 2022🫧
Dreamy Bubble event started. So Serpent & Mess got promo arts, along with Eirene's new skin. I may have missed 1-2 arts for either Serpent & Mess here.
■ Serpent by 艺能人小藻
https://weibo.com/5092504453/4819125505104232
■ Serpent by __也先
https://weibo.com/5321242892/4819118206747771
■ Serpent by -憝-
https://weibo.com/3169953027/4819481836131736
■Serpent by _熟了的鱼_
https://weibo.com/5019056832/4819121717383885
■ Serpent by 霜霸坨
Artist changed profile settings, so now you can view it on weibo:
https://weibo.com/6631105141/4819360084399106
Also on xitter: twitter.com/shuangbatian/status/1587303676321837059
■ Mess by 阿凯路过了
https://weibo.com/7025356248/4819125266548534
■ Roulecca by 千凉凉凉子
https://weibo.com/3629771674/4819485062858409
_______
Since Xitter threadbanned me for making a long thread & makes my old threads unreadable, I'll just move my business here 🙄
This is supposed to be tied up with another thread i made: "How to spot a promo artwork on weibo"
**This is not all of them but only the artworks i managed to find, it's at least 70-80% of it.I'll post them from the chronological order of when the artworks were posted. Please check the ✨️magic link for artists' links and HQ artworks download link.
✨️Link✨️ https://min.togetter.com/i1b3fgW
_______
Click for part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6
_______
🆕️8th April 2022🆕️
There was a promo for PTN's first beta test. Some artworks actually are shared on the official PTN CN site, under the 'Fanfiction' section, some aren't. (As of January 2024, the cn site has been revamped and the 'Fanfiction' section was removed & replaced with a 'Gallery'. EDIT 2: I have compiled what was on there and put them in a LINK)
-
■ Hecate by ORIllKRI
Original link: https://weibo.com/5533191890/4756303865715260
■ Bai Yi by NAZGUL
https://weibo.com/6469086647/4756073347810478
■ Luvia Ray by 栗原澈
https://weibo.com/5440488716/4756042603565365
■ Hella by 早睡惑特不落十/早睡的蛙
https://weibo.com/5641741302/4756041945056236
■ 99 by 旳--
https://weibo.com/2645822660/4756075272999864
Also on xitter: twitter.com/Diesel2b/status/151245312941742080
Due to the artists' profile settings, I only able to find a giveaway archive for Zoya's post but i assume the Ariel artwork is from the same promotion based on how it's included on the site.
■ Zoya by 我想改大手qwq/不是糖精
Artist changed their profile settings and i found the weibo post: https://weibo.com/5562811763/4756067332917846
■ Ariel by 不是芹菜是菜芹
_______
⚜️11-13 Aug 2022⚜️
CN's official opening, it was a huge promo ran for 3 days with plenty of artworks & big giveaways.
■ Zoya, Anne & Iron by 七渡天天想幸运
https://weibo.com/2530252930/4801242339475920
■ Zoya, Anne & Iron by 目民子
https://weibo.com/2217970355/4801736545665348
Also on xitter: twitter.com/sleep3841/status/1585602563059027968
■ Chelsea by 宾宾克斯
https://weibo.com/1936432782/4802081368311201
■ Eirene by AriaYin
https://weibo.com/1772887484/4801724533968968
Also on xitter: https://twitter.com/_ariayin/status/1585868875781898241
■ NOX by Krusier
https://weibo.com/1843172482/4801734612879090
Also on xitter: https://twitter.com/KrusierWeasley/status/1585982246456070151
■ Summer by AjiRui
https://weibo.com/1062453247/4802069254379947
■ 99 by 小真SHIN
https://weibo.com/2984930932/4801732099447432
■ 99 by RiiKOO-M
https://weibo.com/5262324763/4802066897442741
■ Luvia Ray & Ariel by 鱼yu-x
https://weibo.com/6361102364/4801370210698631
■ Hecate & Hella by 千夜QYS3
https://weibo.com/3635354593/4802072304423364
■ Hecate by 山川咩子
https://weibo.com/3856109551/4801374757324830
Also on xitter: https://twitter.com/YOKO_OWO_/status/1585600703854411776
■ Bai Yi, Eirene, Chelsea & Chameleon by BITE咬鸽鸽
https://weibo.com/1707755147/4801269598782068
Also on xitter: twitter.com/YAOwww0/status/1585588921488244736
■ Bai Yi, Eirene, Chelsea & Chameleon by 当雨作金泽
https://weibo.com/2017504782/4801255488364669
Also on xitter: https://twitter.com/shigurefusawa/status/1585598915054776321
■ Chelsea & Eirene by 阿稳同学yolanda
https://weibo.com/5016403232/4802077463938426
■ Eirene & Chelsea by _五拾二
https://weibo.com/5668053056/4801744208658954
Also on the official site & xitter: twitter.com/U20yHKtvlZROWvq/status/1585620047753465858
■ Chameleon by 杂粮面包棍
https://weibo.com/1302523562/4802078688417613
Also on xitter: https://twitter.com/faviliash/status/1585828712200781824
I want to get some data from the game and ran into 2 problems:
1. The base game data is not actually in the device's Android/data/com.___ folder, the data there are only updates & patches. With the power of g00gle, I found out the base data is located at system/data/app/com.____ and all the data are inside the apk there (You need a rooted device or an emulator to be able to find it).
You only need to change the file name from .apk to .zip to extract.
2. The dialogue sprites from the game used sprite slicing or sprite dicing to compress the sprites' data and one of the extraction tools i used is not equipped for it.
I didn't want to spend an eternity manually putting these sprites back by hands so i had to find another way. So knowing that in the engine, the diced texture will get put together back correctly, i throw the data i extracted with one of the tools into unity and it works:
(The tool used above mostly for previews, easily searching stuff & quick export while this latter one is for faster extraction & data it extracted can be opened back in unity by default.
I just input all the available packages into the program in case there's any missing file issue & then extract all of them together, took forever but it means i can add it as a project back into the engine, just remove all the images except these sprites' data so it can load faster)
Then i managed to render the sprites out using Unity Recorder extension. The original size of the sprite is actually only 1200*1000 based on this review but i decided to render it in 5120*2880 with the extension, so then i can resize the sprites smaller if i wanted to & it'd always look clean & sharp. With 5k render, you get a 2k resolution sprite:
But i did got stuck on the exporting the render part for really long because i didn't realized that the re-imported data had engine scripts that prevent the extension from working.
So when importing, you have to locate the scripts folder (it could be named slightly different but it still has 'scripts' in it) and delete it:
My unity recorder settings (circles are important options that you should set the same):
My Main camera settings, size 6.2 seems to work for all kind of sprites from human to monsters:
*Remember to choose Solid Color then change the Background's alpha to 0 to get transparent output.
*Switch to Orthographic projection so you don't have to worry about view distortion and the assets' depth/Z values.
In the Scene window i also switch to 2D view and uncheck the skybox so it's easier to see:
Lately i just used a script i extorted from some robot for rendering since the Recorder extension is so laggy cause it reloads the whole project just to render. Just create a new C# script inside the project, paste it in and save, the export option should be here:
*To export, you have to select the asset first, otherwise it wouldn't work.
*You can change the render resolution or file type to whatever you want in the script.
Pair it with a keyboard macro to relief yourself from the boring repeat motions and exporting hundred sprites is not a problem anymore.
Some setting up & rendering tips:
*There is actually barely-visible halo around the exported transparent renders & it'll have the background's color hence why i set it as black, so i'd advise against choosing any bright/light color as bg.
*Make sure the sprites' Scale is always at 1 1 1 (it should be by default)
*I always reset the sprites' Position values after import it into Scene, so it always stay at 0. I only adjust the Main Camera's transform values when needed and not the sprites', because you either adjust one camera for all sprites or adjust x100 sprites for just 1 camera.
*You can hide the sprites you have imported into Scene by unchecking Sprite Renderer. I keep track of what i have exported this way: Import one sprite -> render it -> hide it, repeat with other sprites in the same folder, then check the imported sprites list to see if i had missed anything.
*You can layer sprites on top of each other and sort its layer in Sprite Renderer's Additional settings. You can rename or add new layer by choosing Add Sorting Layer...
*The extract program may fucked up and you got missing sprite assets in folders like mine did, at that point i just do as follow:
1. Load everything back in the first program, search for diced -> right click to get the specific package containing it.
2. Re-extract said package with Ripper.
3. In unity, right click in the sprite folder -> Show in explorer and copy paste the extracted data above to this folder. The engine should reload and import those new assets in.
Lastly, a disclaimer: I only share this knowledge for people to use it for their personal & non-profit fun.
Do not be a shit and be the reason the game data got encrypted in the future.
Iron's nameplate is all scratched up because of her metal hand, suggesting her metal arm hold it while Iron wrote, so she's right-handed ?
Every other sinner has their own numeral code, ex: MBCC-S-028 (Zoya) but Nox is so dangerous, she got her own category: MBCC-S-NOX
Labyrinth's printed text, i wonder if she write it like those draw bot render their drawing lol
99's arms are badly corrupted and strapped to her body, the nameplate is also clip on the strap. Plus 99 had lived as a test subject for a long time, if you look at Hella's handwriting it's not really "fluent" so i don't think 99 can even write. It suggests the handwriting belongs to someone else, a MBCC employee, like Nightingale maybe ?
Sumire's bondage...I think that's her actual handwriting but did she asked to be bondage like that for the mugshot lol ??
This is a shaming corner for Kelvin, Ariel and Serpent. Both Kelvin and Ariel spells their names wrong (plates say "Kelin" and "Airel") and Serpent just has terrible handwriting, legit i can't read it haha.
(I also realized Kelvin's name is a reference to her mania power not just a masculine name: Ice power hence the name of unit for freezing temperature, Kelvin scale)
Mysteries corner:
Wolverine's code is MBCC-S-076 but his jacket right above has the number 267 (in the old asset it's 267-LS). So is it an not up-to-date or he stole/got the jacket from someone else ?
Summer's jacket has a line of numbers: 5.66・391 or 5.66・3gi
I wonder if it's a reference to something hmm
Lastly, you can't forget Zoya's "hidden" middle finger lol
How i made Sinners' Alphabet and the Devs' Clever Typographic Design
1.How i made Sinners' Alphabet
From looking & writing out the characters based on ingame references, i found that they share many form similarities with the modern latin alphabet letters. So with that thought, i did a google search and found the Phoenician Alphabet (oldest origin of the current modern latin alphabet) and Etruscan Alphabet (which indirectly developed from Phoenician Alphabet)
It's too much work to put the whole alphabet ref in there so i only include letter A, B, and C. But the Identification included every characters that the alphabet borrowed.
The ref images are really small so i don't want to upscale or they'll look like a blurry mess, click here for full zoom.
There are some inconsistencies between how the letters are normally and in cursive form (especially the name's capital letter):
Out of all 26 letters, W was the most troublesome for me to figure out. The only 2 characters with W in their names both have bad handwriting. So can only made a guess that it could be this letter: Φ since it's pretty much the 1 out 2 characters left that haven't been borrowed. Then i searched for clues in other game assets and got a breakthrough with it (I also discovered the game used to use normal english alphabet):
But lately i wondered if the actual borrowed character is this letter: ʘ, which is very similar to Φ in form:
Click here if you want to see the end result of the Alphabet chart.
2. The Devs' Clever Typographic Design
As mentioned in the previous part, a lot of game assets used to have normal english letters. Here are a few more examples:
Old promo pictures of some sinners and their english/romanized nameplates.
In the old uncap artwork for dog boy (left) you can see the "Loose Dog" and "NO PARKING" signs to his right and "MINOS" on the trash dump, the current ingame artwork have none of them.
Full pictures comparison of Zoya's outfit (old vs new). The sign says: "-Syndicate- WEST DISTRICT" (the newer version misses an i in the word syndicate).
A few more i found, including 2 ingame screenshots (Wolverine used to named Glutton, haha)
So what could be the reason for the massive change ?
My guess is: Chinese government's game regulations
Since 2019, the CCP has been impose a lot of strict regulations (to the point of ridiculous) on online games, which you may already heard. One of which is: "To only have Chinese in the game, no English"
Source (it's a translation of the regulations): http://nikopartners.com/game-regulations-in-china-everything-you-need-to-know/?lang=en…
Other regulations also include: Games with borrowed settings from other countries and don't promote the chinese culture will be discouraged/disapproved. For example: 2 other games i play are Onmyoji and Arknights have been mentioned by names when the gov officials announced these regulations, as a way to warn/discourage others from following their examples.
In newer regulations, they also include a restrict on effeminate men, smoking/drinking/tattoo, etc (Source: https://nichegamer.com/new-chinese-game-regulations-ban-effeminate-men-panty-shots-and-more-japanese-anime-games-declared-negative-and-dangerous/…)
So using those ancient letters is a very clever way to bypass the regulations and shows that PTN's world still use English.
But that doesn't mean all English words disappear in the game, they still show up as graffiti/decorative pieces or obscured cleverly in some way or another to not show the full english word:
Dolly's artwork: The word "NOPE" on the door and the graffiti on the trash can are partly covered.
The alley nears Keylan Square has ton of graffiti, i can read the one on the right says Syndicate.
Ignis's jacket: The word "Overcooking" is partly obscured and "fuckin raw" is written as fxckin raw.
The word "KNOCK" on K.K. 's belt, you wouldn't see it from afar.
Cinnabar's uncap art: The word "CAUTION" the tape either split or hidden in shadow, looking at afar you won't notice.
The shadow and the bottle hide parts of the words "Purple passion" in Demolia's uncap art from afar.
The word "Hero" on Summer's desk have been covered with a sticker.
Conclusion: Showing full English word = regulation violated, either use the special letters or hide a part of the word or make it hard to recognize from afar.
Despite her official name is Stargazer, on her sinner nameplate it says Astrologer which is the same thing but i wonder why the change lol
Through her Interrogation, we learn her real name is Anarkia. There's actually the same artwork of her holding the nameplate with her real name (i wonder how many time did they change her name..)
The name Anarkia is literally how you pronounce Anarchy (From googling, it's apparently how they actually write it in danish)
But there is also this greek goddess of Fate with a name that has similar spelling: Ananke. Fate is also a theme of Stargazer too, i wonder if Anarkia is somehow a reference to her
Random fun fact: But currently the devs forgot to change the placeholder description for her 4th Interrogation lol:
So this came up while i was talking with Bee-san and deciphering Fox's book cover. By dedicated stamp, they meant his crimebrand and they think it's a religious reference.
Mr. Fox's crimebrand artwork and description:
Well, this is just my own theory but i think it's a figurative expression rather than it being religious: Depending on the lawyer's words/speaking, a criminal can get away with their sin (Heaven) or pay for their crime (Hell) and vice versa in case of an innocent person. Especially with the description: "You shall be my judge" implying you can either see him (a lawyer) as a good guy or a bad guy.
It's canon that Fox is very cunning and charismatic ingame along with his power of manipulating words, he really could show you heaven or hell
The other day, twit@Bee_080's post about Mr. Fox's book cover made me curious. I did noticed right away that those characters are cuneiform and not old latin/etruscan like in the alphabet chart i posted ( i did came across them when i research old alphabet).
Cuneiform is a ancient middle eastern writing system, many languages from that time use it. But based on the form of these characters, i managed to narrow it down to Akkadian signs around Neo-Assyrian period. Interesting fact is that the Epic of Gilgamesh is originally written in cuneiform.
Then i found a pretty good compiled list of all deciphered signs: http://home.zcu.cz/~ksaskova/Sign_List.html…
Along with its wiki unicode list: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Unicode/Cuneiform
*The signs list is sorted based on the first 1-2 signs, the rest is mostly compounds which mean you can skim read it pretty fast if you already know those first signs.
I found the first 2 signs: ka 𒅗 and a 𒀀. Combined the transliteration and i got kaa. Then i searched on this dictionary: http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/nepsd-frame.html…
And got this definition: http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/epsd/e2775.html…
(There's also this newer dictionary but it keeps crashing when i try to search for signs lol http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/epsd2/searching/index.html)
*Transliteration means to convert the signs to latin letters for easier translation
As you can see in the above pic: the sign for "fox" use 𒈜𒀀 not 𒅗𒀀. BUT 𒈜 and 𒅗 share can the same transliteration of ka. To differentiate, people put a number next to it. So 𒅗 is ka/ka1 and 𒈜 is ka5.
At first i thought if the devs really meant to write fox then they made a mistake because both signs happen to share the same transliteration. And there's also many ways to transliteration sign afaik. The word fox specifically use ka5-a though.
But then i found out 𒅗 is a logogram for the action "to speak" & the body part "mouth". With Mr. Fox's whole character being a lawyer (someone who need to speak eloquently) and his mania power is "words manipulating". It makes me rethink if they chose the sign on purpose to make a clever pun and not a mistake.
Continue with deciphering, the 3rd sign turned out to be 𒍪 which means "to know" according to the dictionary: http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/epsd/e6563.html…
Its pronunciation seems to be du or dû. It's also part of many signs of words that mean "wise, knowing"
Fortunately enough, all of these "wise" words have the same pronunciation of mūdû, which matches 𒀀𒌋𒍪. But it makes me wonder if this is another writing mistake Anyway if i somehow correct from just googling then the signs on Mr. Fox's book cover means: Fox Wise --
If the most obscured sign is the last sign for the book's name, then it could be 𒈩 ? The sign either mean "hero" or "young man". So the book cover would be "Fox Wise Hero/Young man" and it'd make sense in a fable tale kinda way hm
Definition links:
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%92%88%A9… http://oracc.iaas.upenn.edu/epsd2/cbd/sux/o0034186.html
*Notes:
- The dictionaries i found are all based on transliteration and translation but as i've said, one sign can be translated in many different ways so it's like finding needle in hay stacks when you can't search with cuneiform OTL.
- The ePSD dictionary i used is case sensitive for the search algorithm, the reason seems to be because of how they transliteration the signs:
- A shoutout to tumblr user sisterofiris. Their post about how to transliteration sum up everything so clear and easy to understand for people who know nothing like me: https://sisterofiris.tumblr.com/post/180525254009/how-to-read-and-write-cuneiform-in…
036's full name is Hruodland Arouet. Thank you for your service o7
Check this chart to see how i translated it: https://tumblr.com/reireidotwit/path-to-nowhere-alphabet-chart/xb3i2brzveh8
His name Hroudland is the medieval latin spelling of the name Roland. It's based on a real knight in French history. His last name, Arouet, i believe is from François-Marie Arouet, another French historial figure:
Which makes him a Frenchie, but a brave and cool one.
And this was my attempt to try translate Roland's tombstone fully. No idea why it's Fra&swork Agaizt Catalysm instead of Framework Against Cataclysm, it could be a placeholder since the actual full name of FAC is Framework Against Catastrophe (pic 3)
The number next to FAC is his full soldier code, his code 036 comes from the last 3 digits. Which tell us there were/are more than 900 million FAC soldiers.
NF is abbreviation of Nightfall, which means it's currently year 112 after the Nightfall event in the game based on Roland's death date (pic 4).
I also made a font out of this. The font only have the letters, some punctuation but no numbers since i used a free account to make it. (Just use Arial font for the numbers). You can use it as ref for your sinner OC/PTN fanart or whatever:
Link (Just click "ダウンロード開始" or the file name, no download key or password require):
https://53.gigafile.nu/0216-ba6106e93279b59e96944faaa46741f87
*Note: The uppercase letters are slightly larger than the lowercase, except for the letter O and W, It's 2 different versions because i couldn't decide which to choose so i include both (Uppercase <- -> Lowercase)
The font is based on 3 ancient alphabets: Phoenician alphabet, Etruscan alphabet and Old Latin alphabet. I based the font letters pretty close to the actual unicode version of them rather than the handwriting of the sinners ingame.
Check this post for more details about it: https://www.tumblr.com/reireidotwit/701610028527992832/how-i-made-sinners-alphabet-and-the-devs-clever
