Keisuke Placeholder Sprite Poll (Public) (Patreon)

(This is the public poll; patrons should instead vote in the Patron-only poll to have their vote weighed more).

Hello! As requested by Espeon, the next re:Dreamer update is going to put Britney's route on the back-burner; instead, it will introduce Keisuke, Zach’s best friend and next-door neighbor growing up.So far in the story, Zach has described his childhood friend as:

"Though he's in a different dorm, we've known each other since we were just babies and he was my next door neighbor and best friend growing up. He can be trusted to keep this a secret. He can be a bit of an moron, and he started to get really into the "party life" in the last few years of high school, but he's always had my back in tough spots."

To further add to this, his growing spot in re:Dreamer's design document says:

Keisuke is Zach’s childhood friend and neighbor. They had been in the same classes every year up until middle school and grew up together, frequently hanging out just to have company.

One of their key interactions as kids was the larger Keisuke acting as a ward against the bullies who loved to pick on a pipsqueak like Zach. Despite being the same age, Zach always viewed Keisuke as a sort of informal “cool big brother” figure (the Japanese word "aniki" captures the essence of that). He remains grateful for Keisuke constantly being there to stand up for him (while slightly understanding that this prevented Zach from growing a real backbone) but he feels like he’s never been able to properly express his gratitude and worries that Keisuke felt obligated to protect him.

As Zach and Keisuke entered middle school, they started to drift apart. Keisuke simply ended up busy with after-school athletics and fell into the social circle of the popular kids that Zach never felt welcome in. Zach was unhappy about spending less and less time with his friend, but he views himself as having already gotten so much from Keisuke and doesn’t want to be a burden by asking for anything more.

Though at the same university, Zach took a year off school while Keisuke didn’t, which means he is a sophomore and doesn't live in one of the freshman-only dorms. He is instead living in the nearby athletic dorms. If Zach wants to get there unseen, he would need to sneak between twisting buildings to visit, but if stealth isn’t a concern, it’s a short jaunt from Zach’s dorm to Keisuke’s.

Keisuke generally views college as a place to dick around, pick up chicks, party, and just have fun for a few years before "real life" begins. His grades were never the best, but his athletic talents earned him a swimming scholarship. He’s pursuing a bachelor’s degree in sports marketing/entertainment/finances, though he spends more time at Lewis & Clark University’s athletic facilities (like their Olympic-size indoor swimming pool and state-of-the-art gym) than he does studying.

To give an idea of what I imagined Keisuke looking like, I was after a relatively attractive and somewhat muscular college student with a bit of a tan, a swimmer’s body, and a swim trunk outfit variation.

I actually managed to find a close approximation, but unfortunately the source game is relatively new and only has a CG rip, not a sprite rip (and I'm not going to spend the hours needed to pirate, decrypt, and rip the sprites a modern Key visual novel just for placeholders). If you're curious, you can see the character I wanted to use here on VNDB.

So after 2 hours of sprite searching  I’ve narrowed the pool down to 3 potential placeholders; however, each one has strengths and weaknesses, which is why I’m doing a community poll on the placeholder.

Below are the finalists, as well as the pros and cons of each. You can click their names to open their VNDB pages.

Kousaka Yui

• +5 poses with 4 outfits (uniform, casual, nude, speedos)
• -Low-rez sprites (240x480)
• -Each pose only has one expression

Yamada Garfunkel Yoshio 

• +For a male side character, this guy has a lot of expressions (42 in total!) 
• +The sprites are in good resolution with 2 zoom levels (3/4 height and waist-up)
• +He’s actually a bit of a pretty boy, which is a trait I want for the character
• -It’s only this one outfit (white dress shirt with black slacks)

Natsuki Kazuto 

• +4 outfits (uniform, swim trunks, nude, casual) with 18 expressions each
• +His sprites are just the right size to work in the game without any extra scaling 
• -He’s quite bland in appearance

Please think over your choice before voting! While we now have an artist to draw sprites for us, Keisuke's placeholder sprites will be around for quite a while until his design is solidified and the artist draws it!