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There is something wonderful about an old internet meme suddenly appearing out of nowhere.
That kind of thing feels like a uniquely indie-game form of expression.
This time, I spoke with Mumei & Mumei, the creator of Redemptions Ocean, a game that allows its players to soak in precisely that kind of nostalgia.
In this interview series, Visiting Your Origins, I quietly step into the nostalgic formative landscapes of indie-game creators.
Today, let us venture into a world where emotional humidity and surreal comedy coexist.
Introducing Mumei & Mumei
Our guest this time: Mumei & Mumei
—First of all, please introduce yourself!
Hello, everyone! I’m Mumei & Mumei!
I am currently in my fourth year of university, spending my days working on my research and trying to earn the last few credits I need.
Using SRPG Studio, a game engine developed by SapphireSoft, I am creating a strategy RPG called Redemptions Ocean.
I am planning to release it on Steam and DLsite, and this will be the first original game I have ever published!
—Game development is a battle against your own concentration. Are you the kind of person who boosts yourself with energy drinks, or can you keep going entirely on all-natural brain chemicals?
I’m actually not very good with things like energy drinks or coffee…
I basically get all my work done using nothing but natural brain chemicals.
However, when I get stuck or start feeling tired of development, I go and play at an arcade.
I also sometimes work while listening to a movie or show I like on Amazon Prime, almost as though it were a radio program playing in the background.
—How would you describe Redemptions Ocean in a single sentence?
It is “a Fire Emblem-like strategy RPG with almost none of the elements of a medieval military chronicle.”
The Fire Emblem series, the famous TearRing Saga and Berwick Saga, and many other FE-like games created with SRPG Studio focus on subjects such as wars between nations or defeating an evil dragon.
However, my game contains extremely few depictions of warfare between nations.
The war is briefly discussed at the very beginning, and after that, the subject is essentially never brought up again.
There are also no evil dragons or demon kings.
Instead, the game mainly depicts:
“The relationship between the protagonist, the heroine, and one more important character”
and
“A battle against an unknown threat descending upon a peaceful world.”
Unforgettable Games
—Please tell us about three games you will never forget, along with the memories and emotions that have stayed with you!
…………Let me say this first.
The Fire Emblem series will not appear here. 😇
My favorite FE game is Engage, by the way.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
This is the third game in the Xenoblade Chronicles series and the concluding entry in the series.
I can still remember playing it whenever I could spare the time while I was in my final year of high school, standing at a major crossroads in my life.
Its story is extremely difficult to understand, and there are also scenes that I feel were not depicted thoroughly enough.
However, what fascinated me even more was the unique relationship between the protagonist, Noah, and the heroine, Mio—a relationship that transcended both romance and ordinary companionship.
The sweet, painful, and tragic developments that relationship brought about in the latter half of the game left a powerful impression on me.
The protagonist and heroine of my own game were created with a great deal of respect for the character writing found throughout the Xenoblade series.
It is a game that has been carved deeply into my life.
Project X Zone 2: Brave New World
Technically speaking, this is also a strategy RPG.
It was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2015 and brings together characters from four companies: Capcom, Sega, Bandai Namco, and, to some extent, Nintendo.
They join forces to fight Ouma, an evil organization plotting to create a new world.
The chaotic exchanges between its cast of highly distinctive characters, the joke scenes that suddenly attack immediately after a serious moment, and the completely unrestricted style that allows for parody, satire, retro references, and practically anything else had an enormous impact on me.
Before playing it, Super Smash Bros. had been my basic idea of what a crossover game was supposed to be.
Its wild, carefree, and completely chaotic story—created by characters whose conversations never become tiresome no matter how many times you hear them—still has a very solid core beneath all the madness.
I think it deserves to be called one of the greatest hidden gems on the Nintendo 3DS.
The reason the story sections in my game are so long is entirely this game’s fault!
(Laughs)
Dragon Ball Super Divers
This is an arcade card game found in game centers.
At this point, we are not even talking about a home-console game anymore, but it is still an extremely important title to me.
It was a particularly significant reference for the game systems in Redemptions Ocean.
People who have played my game may already have noticed this, but the three battle types assigned to the units—
“Rush (R)”
“Impact (I)”
and
“Boost (B)”
—all originated from this game… lol.
I have also been playing this game continuously since its predecessor, the Dragon Ball Heroes series.
In 2025, after various things happened, I even competed in the East Japan Championship in the division without an age restriction.
In terms of real-life memories, it may be fair to say that this game surpasses every other title I have mentioned.
Techniques of Prompts
—The mob characters are astonishingly cute, and their designs even communicate their personalities, such as whether they are energetic or tsundere.
When writing prompts for these characters, what kinds of techniques do you use? Please tell us whatever you can without revealing any trade secrets!
First, I specify the art style.
After that, I write the prompt by giving the character as many “classic attributes” or “attributes I personally enjoy” as I can think of for that particular unit class.
For example, for this female assassin, I used a prompt divided into categories like this:
Please draw a full-body character illustration.
Overview
- Female
- Short red bob haircut
- Gothic-style dress
- Black Gothic Lolita eyepatch
- Numerous bottles of poison and knives attached to the dress
- A large, deadly knife held in one hand
Atmosphere
- Cool and composed
Pose
- A pose in which she is turning around to look toward the viewer
That is basically how I approached it.
I imagined the character’s fundamental traits myself.
Experience from Fan Work
—Did you have any experience making games before this project? What kinds of games did you create?
Alternatively, if this is your first game, please tell us what inspired you to begin making it!
I actually created a fan game using RPG Maker MV when I was in high school.
During my second year of high school, I played a particular freeware game that made me strongly want to try creating something myself.
My parents gave me a secondhand Let’s Note laptop as a birthday present, and I bought RPG Maker MV using my own allowance.
However, looking back on it now, the game completely ignored copyright.
It directly used music and images from commercial games, and the original story gave existing characters arbitrary new personalities that caused some truly terrible character derailment.
I now realize that it was absolutely not something I could ever have released publicly…
Old School Niconico Video
—The direction of the jokes, the overall tone, and the presentation reminded me of hand-drawn Touhou videos and VOICEROID skits from Niconico Video around ten years ago.
Were you familiar with those kinds of videos? Judging by your age, I imagine you would still have been in elementary school at the time…
I did not use Niconico Video at all when I was in elementary school.
However, when I was in high school, I played the legendary chaotic freeware game Niconico RPG.
That game dragged me deep into the swamp of becoming an old-school Niconico addict.
Let’s Go! Onmyouji, Ku◯miso Technique, Marisa Stole the Precious Thing, Keyboard Crasher, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, School Days, Lucky Star, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Gachimuchi Pants Wrestling, Colonel Muska, Cheetahmen II, Rozen Maiden…
The number of works and pieces of internet culture I discovered through that game is immeasurable.
After playing it, I began searching for every old, retro Niconico video I could find.
I watched them and watched them and watched them.
And that is how I became the person I am today.
Ran Ran Ruu★!!
(ﾟ∀ﾟ)o彡゜Eirin! Eirin!
Nice Boat.
Is it an echo?
No, it’s kefir.
Humid Character Wrinting From Xenoblade
—The dialogue and circumstances of the characters frequently convey the feeling of “searching for a future while suspended in limbo after a dream has already come true—or after it has become impossible to achieve.”
This can be seen in characters such as that perfect person and that particular home-security specialist.
The characterization possesses a strangely heavy emotional humidity. Were there any particular aspects where you thought, “This is something I absolutely wanted to get right”?
Perhaps this is not something I should be saying when I have not even entered the workforce yet, but…
I do not think there are very many people who are currently living for some enormous purpose.
Almost everything probably begins with a major objective.
However, once that objective has been achieved—or becomes impossible to achieve—a person can enter a state of “stagnation.”
They remain in the same place.
They cannot move anywhere.
They simply stand there alone.
And the people around them do not offer a lifeline or even turn around to look at somebody who no longer knows which road to take.
Sometimes, even having trusted family members and friends is not enough to escape that situation.
This is a story about people who have fallen into that kind of stagnation and begin moving toward whatever comes “next” through encounters with new companions and unexpected incidents.
I suppose I wanted to focus on the idea of “what comes after a life whose clock has stopped.”
Maybe.
I honestly was not thinking about it that deeply… lol.
The word “redemption” carries the meaning of atonement.
Atonement means sacrificing yourself for the sake of something else.
And perhaps that act itself indicates that a person has begun moving again after a period of stagnation.
Some of this slightly humid character writing was also inspired by Tetsuya Takahashi, the general director of the Xenoblade series.
Message to Readers
—Finally, please give a message to our readers!!
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Kaburanai for creating an article about my original game, even though neither I nor the game are anything particularly amazing.
I would also like to thank Katsushika Rokusai for introducing us, as well as everyone reading this interview.
Thank you so, so much!!!
Redemptions Ocean may become the first and last original game project I ever create.
I will continue finding whatever small amounts of free time I can and devote them to developing and polishing the game, so that it can become something capable of meeting everyone’s expectations!
I think it will still take a reasonable amount of time before the game is finished.
I would be very happy if you could continue watching over the project warmly and supporting it.
Well then, go and try the demo if you feel like it!!!
And if it’s boring, feel free to send me a complaint!!
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