1980s Revamp Update

Hello!

I’m happy to announce that the 1980s Revamp is complete! Over half of the cast of 1980s Mode has received a completely new appearance!

I was originally planning to release the Revamp on October 31st, but I’m so pleased with how it turned out that I’ve decided to release it right away!

In this blog post, I’m going to document absolutely every change that was made in the Revamp. The Revamp affected around 80 students, so it’s going to be a huge post with many images!

To begin reading the list of everything that was added/changed/fixed/improved as part of the Revamp, please scroll down past this dark and chilling illustration of Ryoba and Jokichi by tangsen-malum!

(Yeah, I know it’s a reference to a meme – but I still think it’s an amazing illustration!)

1980s Revamp

I’m just going to let you know in advance that this update focused primarily on the students in clubs. The others – like the Rainbow Girls/Boys and the rivals – didn’t change very significantly. However, this post aims to document every change that occurred in the 1980s Mode revamp, no matter how trivial, so I’ll be sharing renders of all characters, even the ones that didn’t change much.

Let’s start off with the first characters ever added to the game – the Rainbow Girls!

Most of these girls did not change significantly; the only one whose appearance is noticeably different is Yuna Hina, the blonde one. The others only received a few slight tweaks.

The same goes for the Rainbow Boys; they’re mostly the same as you remember them, although you’ll notice some slight texture/model improvements if you really scrutinize them closely.

Likewise, the rivals didn’t change tremendously; their hair models and stockings only received a few slight adjustments in order to get them closer to their official artwork.

It’s worth mentioning that all 1980s Mode rivals (except Ritsuko) now have hair physics! This really helps them feel a lot more lively.

Okay, now we’ve reached the first set of students who changed significantly – the Cooking Club. The boys’ haircuts have been replaced with “neat and tidy” haircuts – which is appropriate for people who are going to be working with food all day long – and the female beside Ui was given a similar hairstyle so that they could “match.”

You’ll notice that the entire club now shares similar hair colors; they all have varying shades of red in their hair. You might think this is a little corny – “Just because a group of people have similar interests, that doesn’t mean they all need to share the same hairstyle and hair color! That’s unrealistic!” Well, this is actually a very important topic to me. I’ll take the time to talk about it.

The original cast of 1980s Mode was BORING, and I think that one of the primary reasons for this was the lack of color schemes. Seriously, think about it. Consider the clubs of 202X Mode; often, every member in a club will share a similar appearance – like the Drama Club all having purple hair. It might be unrealistic, but it made the characters extremely memorable and very easy to identify.

The original cast of 1980s Mode lacked memorability and recognizability; most of them had very, very generic hairstyles and plain brown hair. Boring! So, even though it might seem cheesy or corny, I decided that the clubmembers of 1980s Mode should share similar color schemes in order to become more visually interesting groups of characters. You’ll see what I mean as we continue.

The next group to receive a revamp is the Drama Club. The boys’ hairstyles are meant to seem “fancy,” with more curves than other clubs’ hair models. The girls’ hairstyles were meant to make them seem glamorous (or “slayful” or whatever word you prefer).

You’ll notice that the boys all share a purple color scheme. The two girls are meant to represent extreme opposite ends of a spectrum – one is extremely light/saturated, and the other is extremely dark/desaturated.

You’ll also notice that they are all wearing a similar accessory. Although I originally identified it as a “cravat,” I’m told that this particular item is actually called a “jabot.” I think it looks very stylish, and helps the Drama Club collectively feel like they are richer and more “posh” than the rest of the school.

By the way, did you notice that just one of these boys has thicker eyebrows than the rest? He’s the only character in the 1980s Revamp to receive that treatment! It’s to make him a little more distinct from the other characters, and give him a little bit of extra personality/character!

There’s a gameplay mechanic tied to Himedere – when she changes her clothing, she removes her rings, which you can steal in order to frame your rival as a thief. Previously, Himedere’s 10 rings were duplicates of one another with different colors…but, as of now, they are all completely unique!

The idea with the Occult Club was to gather all of the existing hair models that portray disheveled/messy/unkempt hair, and dump them all into one club. They’re meant to look like they don’t even bother to comb their hair, because they’re such social outcasts that they’ve completely given up on their appearances.

To reflect the fact that they are all interested in dark things, they were all given dark hair, along with shadows over their faces. I’m very happy with how the girls turned out – very “Tomoko from Watamote,” don’t you think?

In terms of accessories, each one of them is wearing a little charm with a superstition attached to it. As believers in the occult, they’re all very superstitious, and genuinely believe that “If I carry this with me, I’ll be protected from evil spirits!”

Next up is the Art Club. This is is where we gathered all of the hair models that didn’t really share a theme. “Study-Kun A” and “Study-Kun B” have been moved to this club, along with a few other students who didn’t really fit in anywhere else.

The only real “theme” here is that everyone is a different color and brightly saturated – almost like the Rainbow students! It feels like an appropriate theme for a group of characters who are all meant to be artistic.

In terms of a common club accessory, they’re all wearing a cloth on their body in various ways. The two Study-kuns have scarves, the remaining boy has a bandana, one girl wears a cloth on her arm, and the other girl wears cloth in her hair.

The leader of the Light Music Club decided that each member of her band should share a common visual aesthetic so that they would be more memorable and recognizable. The aesthetic she choice was “twintails” – and so, each member of the club has pigtails of varying length!

Their color scheme runs from green to blue to cyan – there’s a lot of variation, but they still feel like they all “belong in a set” with one another, don’t you think? Some of these hair models are my favorite out of the entire 1980s Revamp.

For club accessories, they all have little pins in their hair that represent their musical specialties. The vocalist has a microphone pin in her hair, the guitarist has a guitar pick pin in her hair, the drummer has a pair of drumsticks in her hair, etc. Cute, right?

The Martial Arts Club is where all of the characters with spiky hair were gathered. I believe that my exact words were something like, “Everyone in this club should look the protagonist of a shonen anime!”

Because the game did not possess any pre-existing “short, spiky” hairstyles for female characters, two “tomboy” hairstyles were created for the girls in the club. I’m really happy with how they turned out!

In terms of accessories, they’re all wearing wrapping on their hands to protect their knuckles during training. I think it really helps them look tough!

For certain clubs, it’s easy to pick an aesthetic; “Occult Club? Give them dark and messy hair!” But what kind of hair are you supposed to give a bunch of Photographers?

There isn’t really a hair color or hairstyle that screams “This character is a Photographer!” so, this club was used as a “dumping ground” for two types of hairstyles that shared a similar shape.

For a club accessory, they wear cameras around their necks. However, they hold additional cameras in their hands when they’re in “Sleuth” mode. If that is considered weird and janky, it may be changed.

Some of the hair models created for 1980s Mode were bowl cuts. It’s a hairstyle that has traditionally been associated with nerdy or dorky characters, so all of the bowl cut hair models were distributed to the Science Club.

To make them look even more nerdy, most of them were given big, thick, “coke bottle” glasses. Some of them have tape on their glasses, implying that their glasses broke at some point in the past. The leader wears glasses with octagonal rims to make him a little more special.

One of the boys doesn’t wear glasses, and there’s a reason for that – unlike the other students in this club, that boy doesn’t actually love science; he only wants to become a scientist because he thinks it’ll make him rich. Because he’s not as much of a nerd as his clubmates, he wasn’t given glasses.

Each one of them is wearing a pin on their chest that represents their favorite chemical. Fun fact: The pin on Ryoba’s chest is the chemical symbol for hemoglobin, which is found in blood. That’s a pretty appropriate chemical for a serial killer, right?

Every member of the Sports Club received short, spiky blonde hair, because it felt like an appropriate hairstyle for a set of characters who are meant to feel a bit more like “jocks” than the rest of the cast.

I really like the “slicked back” look that most of the Sports Club members use. It gives me the impression that their hair is flowing backwards because they’re running or swimming at extremely high speeds!

Once again, there were no “short, spikey” hair models for female students, so two new “tomboy” hair models were made for the girls in this club. They’re some of my favorite hairstyles from this entire update!

As for their club accessory, they’re all wearing a Saikou-brand portable cassette tape player. The idea is that they all frequently go on long jogs and jam out to their favorite music while running. I like it!

The Gardening Club members were given loose and wavy hair to make them feel more free-spirited. The goal was to make them feel “Bohemian,” if you’re familiar with that term. They all have brown or green hair, because those are the colors of the earth. And each one of them has at least one braid!

As for their club accessories…well, the most appropriate choice was obvious: They’re all wearing flowers in their hair. The leader has a bunch of four-leaf clovers in his hair. As for Ryoba, she’s wearing a spider lily, which represents “death, farewell, and the afterlife.” Appropriate for a serial killer, isn’t it?

Finally, we arrive at the last club – the Newspaper Club. This was another “There aren’t any hairstyles that are associated with this topic…” situation, so, once again, this club was used as a “Dumping Ground” for the spare hair models that had not yet been assigned to anyone else.

One of these boys looks like he’s wearing a “bowl cut version” of the other boy’s hair, so they both got put into the same club together. And these are the only two girls in school with “bun” hairstyles, so they also got put into the same club together. That’s about it!

As for their club accessory, they’re all wearing lanyards that identify them as a journalist, or a “member of the press,” if you prefer. I think it looks much better than those goofy fedora hats with a “Press” card sticking out of it.

It might be worth noting that the club leader – Shinako Bunzai – has the highest number of “unique traits” out of any student. Glasses + Scarf + Armband + Lanyard + Rolled Up Socks. Wow! She’s absolutely covered in different objects…

The female delinquents didn’t change very much, but they did receive some slight improvements to their hair models and hair textures. Additionally, the artwork on their face masks was re-drawn. These are very small details, but they’re definitely improvements.

Hey, look! It’s Student-chan and Student-kun! Haven’t seen them in a while. They’re here to show off a pair of scarves that have been added to the game in the 1980s Revamp. Why? There’s a reason for it:

Some of the students in 1980s Mode will offer you an “I’m cold, bring me a scarf!” Task. After you complete the Task, a scarf appears on the student’s character model.

Previously, that scarf model was re-purposed from elsewhere in the game. But, now, it’s a completely original scarf model.

Also, the scarf will now be a different color for every student. That’s a lot more visually appealing than seeing a flock of students all wearing the same-colored scarf!

When using the “Matchmaking” elimination method, the player must instruct a suitor to change his appearance so that he embodies all of the physical traits that his crush is most attracted to. Two of the hairstyle options are “Slicked Back” and “Ponytail.”

Previously, whenever a suitor changed his hairstyle, he would use hair models that were created for Kyuji, Osana’s suitor. This looked extremely goofy for many characters, whose hair length and hair color did not match Kyuji’s hair even remotely.

The solution? “Slicked Back” and “Ponytail” hairstyle variations were created for all 1980s Mode rivals. That’s a lot of hair models!! Like, seriously, that’s a lot!! Each one of these 10 boys has three hair models in total: default, slick, and ponytail. That’s 30 hairstyles in total!!

I’d like to take this moment to extend my compliments towards the team of modelers who created all of the assets for the 1980s Revamp. Every model that was produced is of excellent quality, and every modeler did an absolutely fantastic job!

Oh, yeah! There’s one other change to mention. Togo Atatsuma – the younger brother of the Yakuza that the player can meet in town – now wears a large, gaudy gold necklace to school. This should help the player to identify him more easily.

(Oh, by the way…the “Y” on the necklace doesn’t stand for “Yakuza” – it’s the symbol for “Yen,” the currency used in Japan. It represents the fact that Togo wants to follow in his brother’s footsteps and become a rich career criminal one day.)

A few late adjustments might be made over the next few days/weeks. For example, I’m considering the idea of giving the 1980s Mode characters poses in their portraits. After putting so much effort into their appearances, it makes sense to depict them all as having unique personalities.

I’m also considering the idea of tweaking some of their default facial expressions. A character who currently looks like a grump might suddenly get a much more friendly face in the future; we’ll just have to wait and see!

Also, there’s a possibility that some students’ profiles may contradict their new appearances, or that some students’ new appearances may inspire me to re-write or tweak their profiles. That’s another type of change that might be coming in the near future.

Phew!! I think that covers everything! Updating the appearances of 80 students was a long and arduous process, but now it is finally complete! I’m extremely satisfied with how everything turned out – and, once again, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to the modelers who made it possible!

In addition to the massive 1980s Mode Revamp, a handful of miscellaneous improvements / fixes were also made to the game in the latest update. Scroll down to learn about each of them:

Improvements

• In Custom Mode, if the player chooses “Explosion” as the canon elimination method of a rival but doesn’t enable the Yakuza, it would be impossible to eliminate that rival. From now on, the game will detect this, and force the Yakuza to be enabled under those circumstances.
• Nemesis’ socks no longer have a red stripe on them, since that’s not how they look in her official illustration.
• Added a new Schoolday track to 202X Mode! There are now 13 “Schoolday” tracks in total!
• Updated the hair model of Tsuruzo, the 202X Drama Club leader.
• Slightly re-arranged Musume and Kokoro’s likes and dislikes.

Fixes

• When Social Butterflies witness murder, they try to run to “the most populated location in school” – which, in some rare circumstances, is a stairway. This could result in a student floating in the air above a stairway. This bug should no longer occur. (But, it’s hard for me to confirm that for certain because of how rare the circumstances are…)
• After performing a suspicious action for a 1980s Mode task (such as rummaging through the student council desk for a confiscated magazine) the player would be suspicious for up to 5 seconds after the action had ended. This was a bug, and has been fixed.
• If the player let a mind-broken Horuda come to school, stood behind her, and aimed their camera at her, the protagonist would clip through the school’s walls and teleport outside of the school environment. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player got an occult robe splattered with blood and then dropped it, it would still be recognized as bloody by other characters. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player completed a rival’s Task and then tried to tell them to go to the matchmaking area, the option would not be available. This bug has been fixed.
• If a member of the Drama Club was decapitated, their rose accessory would float in midair beside their decapitated head. This bug has been fixed.
• If certain students were decapitated, the texture on their decapitated head would not match their texture when alive. This bug has been fixed.
• In all male portraits, the male students were too short. They have been raised up a bit to be equal in height with female students.
• The color of Miyuji’s earring was not accurate. This has been corrected.

Custom Mode Update

• All of the new hair models that were created for male and female characters as part of the 1980s Mode Revamp are now available in Custom Mode!
• A new Stocking type (rolled-up socks) is now available for female characters in Custom Mode!
• 10 new eye shapes are now available for female characters in Custom Mode!
• 4 new accessories are now available for female characters in Custom Mode!
• 4 new accessories are now available for male characters in Custom Mode!

Additional Trivia

If you’ve made it this far into the blog post, you must really care about the game! I’ll reward you with some trivia about some of the club accessories that were added to the game in the 1980s Revamp.

Occult Club

• Leader – In Japan, salt is considered a symbol of purification, and something that wards away evil spirits and bad luck. The Leader of the Occult Club wears a pouch of salt around his neck to provide him with easy access to salt whenever he needs to perform a “Morishio” ritual – the practice of piling salt into a small dish and placing it by the door of a building to purify the premise and ward off evil spirits. This would be helpful to him since he’s trying to communicate with his deceased mother, but doesn’t want to invite unwanted and potentially dangerous energy into his home.
• Male 1 – In Japanese culture, there exists a good luck charm called an “Omamori.” These charms are a small pouch-like charm made of fabric. They have a phrase or word embroidered on the front of it, which the Omamori is suppose to manifest. This guy’s Omamori is pretty broad; it says “守り” spoken as “Mori,” which translates to “Defense.”
• Male 2 – In Japanese culture, there exists a weathering doll called a “Teru Teru Bozu.” These dolls are pretty ghostly-looking, consisting of a white cloth with a face drawn onto it, and a string around the “neck.” They’re said to bring about good weather and stop it from raining. It’s also said that if you turn one of these upside down, it brings about bad stormy weather!
• Female 1 – Many cultures throughout the world believe that gemstones and crystals hold spiritual and medicinal powers. Each type of gemstone is believed to have special properties or uses, such as assisting with meditation, chakra, reincarnation, luck, fortune, calming moods, protection against harm, etc. This girl has a hair pendant with different gemstones and crystals. She claims to be a spirit medium and a psychic, so it feels like an appropriate accessory for her.
• Female 2 – This girl is wearing a “dreamcatcher,” a Native American object traditionally made from a hoop with a woven web, often decorated with beads and feathers. It is believed to protect sleepers from bad dreams by allowing good dreams to pass through the web and flow down the feathers, while bad dreams are caught and dissolved by the morning light. This girl is under the impression that if she removes the dreamcatcher from her head, she will “set free” all of the bad dreams it has caught, and she will have only bad dreams for the rest of her life – so, she wears it at all times.
• Ryoba – Ryoba isn’t as superstitious as the rest of the club, so she went with something basic – a “lucky rabbit’s foot.” It’s feels fitting that her accessory would come from something that is dead.

Art Club

• Long-time fans of the game are aware of what I’ve said in the past about Study-kun A and Study-kun B. As a nod to their unique relationship, they both share the same type of club accessory.

Science Club

• Leader – The leader of the science club idolizes famous scientists and inventors. He aspires to be like them, so his pin displays the chemical formula for Einsteinium, which was named after the most famous scientist of all time, Albert Einstein.
• Male 1 – This boy didn’t join the science club because he’s interested in it; he simply wants to have a high paying job in order to support his future wife and children. It would have been very appropriate for his pin to display the chemical formula for gold, but gold doesn’t have a chemical formula; it’s an element, not a chemical! So, instead, his pin displays Chloroauric Acid, which contains gold. Another piece of trivia about this character is that he holds very conservative, traditional values. By today’s standards his values would likely be considered “toxic,” so it’s quite fitting that his pin is displaying the chemical formula for an acid.
• Male 2 – This boy was born with an incurable illness, and he is pursuing science in the hopes that he can one day discover a cure for his own disease. His pin displays the chemical formula for Quercetin, which is a drug that has been proven to protect against cancers and heart disease.
• Female 1 – This girl loves animals, takes care of strays, and wants to become a vet. Her pin displays the chemical formula for Nepetalactone, which is a compound that attracts cats. It’s often used in catnip, which is what makes cats attracted to the smell of it!
• Female 2 – This girl is the daughter of a rich jeweler, and plans to study gemology and become an expert in geosciences. As such, it felt appropriate to have her pin display the chemical formula of diamond.

What’s Next?

Now that the 1980s Mode Revamp is finally complete, I can turn my attention to something I’m very, very excited for – the Halloween Update. It’s something that I’ve been planning to add to the game since October of 2015! All of the animations, music, sound effects are ready, and now all that remains is a bit of programming. I really hope you’re going to enjoy it!

Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!