Advanced Reviews for the full version of Diamond In The Rough:
"I must say, Spaztique, you have taken [the Walfas engine] and pushed it to limits unforseen by making probably the grandest Walfasimation... ever, I'm pretty sure. If I wasn't crying at how twistedly sad it got, I was crying at how friggin epic the battle scenes were. Regardless of cause, tears were shed. Hats off to you for eliciting such a reaction with something so normally-funny as create.swf." -Ambassador-Pinapple
"At first I was like 'Nah, it's just going to be just a normal story about a stupid [overpowered character] that will die.' And oh boy... was i wrong...." -GreenJakeNG
"Ah, this sorrow of mine is so deep, I feel like my heart has been torn into two... No really, that's how I'm feeling." -Kigurou-Enkou
"A roller coaster ride of supernatural proportions. Just when you think you've reached your emotional limit, Spaztique pushes the bar even further." -westtxtapper
"This movie makes my soul hurt." -mobiusonedt
"Diamond In The Rough seems like a funny [tale of a poorly written fish-out-of-water character] video at first, but it can tearjerk you like getting a baseball in the face." -Abbster266
"The tragic tale of Colonel Diamondback is unlike any other [video made using the Walfas engine] before it." -Wilhiemthe2nd
*Unintelligible sobbing* -KeineCat
Synopsis: Brolli Diamondback is going to be killed by a celestial being in a brutal fight in three months. In the meantime, his friends have been kept up by a strange noise, and all they know is that bad luck follows whoever hears it. Brolli, thinking he can warn everyone else about what it is, eventually stumbles onto it, only to find it is coming from an interdimensional demon by the name of Yukari Yakumo. Yukari offers Brolli the chance to gain powers beyond his imagination in the Illusionary Realm of Gensokyo, where all of the world's fantastic creatures, from fairies to vampires to ghosts to gods, reside. Brolli jumps at the chance, gains his powers, and soon becomes the most powerful being in Gensokyo, but how long will it take before the rest of its residents begin to fear him?
Diamond In The Rough started as an experiment to get a fellow motion comic maker, ColonelDiamondback, to improve his writing skills: I wanted to make a series that pointed out everything wrong with his series by making a dark Watchmen-esque plot out of all of his plotholes, but the continuity and scope was so large that it turned into a feature-length video.
If you watched the 43-hour marathon on the stream, the series this is based on, Touhou Project, is where that "foreign language of in-jokes" (as Kaci Beeler described it) came from. The story is self-contained, and I want to see if a normal crowd can "get into the setting" as easily as fans of the series.
The Videos
Primer: A list of videos that led up to the production of Diamond In The Rough, then supplementary stories Post-DitR's production that compliment the story by ColonelDiamondback himself. (WARNING: These are steeped in continuity porn and are not self-contained.)
Release Trailer: After the first test screening of what I had. The response was quite positive.
Episode 1: Brolli Diamondback will die in three months, but who exactly is Brolli Diamondback and where did he end up?
Episode 2: Brolli may be in Gensokyo, but it's too dangerous for him to leave. Is he smart enough to learn about Gensokyo before going on his dangerous trek?
Episode 3: Brolli is now stranded smack dab in the middle of Gensokyo without any weapons. Who can help him in such a predicament and how?
Episode 4: Brolli has enlisted the aid of the eccentric witch Marisa Kirisame, but is her "help" really going to get Brolli his powers/keep him alive?
Episode 5: Brolli is on the verge of gaining his powers, but it seems they threaten the very balance of life itself. That, and he's getting fed up with Gensokyo...
Episode 6: Brolli has his powers and Gensokyo is now his playground. What could possibly go wrong?
Episode 7 - Coming September 30: Brolli now knows that overusing his powers will get him killed. How can he walk the tightrope of using his powers and overusing them?