Rachel sprite collection (Patreon)

This is part of a series of sprite collection posts that ran during the month of April. Which showed off all the characters outfits, designs, etc. Except for Rachel and Heather during that month. As Rachel received a big redesign out of the characters, it should come as being completely new, first to be seen! ^^

Rachel is known around the academy for being an odd girl, who doesn't have any friends due to her shy, timid nature. Mainly spending much of her time alone to herself, studying and enjoying her animal plushies, merch and filling her time with cooking instead. She also seems to have a little issue with farting randomly when nervous, which doesn't help her in any case.

When designing Rachel, at the very start. I have to go way back to the origins, which for the final design we see today didn't quite see the light of day until now. But over nearly a year ago, there was a six part comic for MA before it was even considered a real thought to become a visual novel or game in general. (I consider the comic not canon at all, as it was poorly done and to be blunt. It was meant 100% for sexual purposes with no real character building, world building, etc.)

Moving on, before the comic even began. I was trying to get a good idea for how Rachel should look visually. There was three designs for 3d models, one with short hair that was seen in the comic but not transferred to the game. One that later was seen in the game until her sprite that followed it closely took over and lastly, one that didn't see the light of day. Which would've had her more petite and seen with braided hair.

While her old design that was in the game for quite some time now was good in it's own right. I had a growing feeling that it could really make use of some updating, but with that came the risks behind it. "How will fans react?" I asked myself, while trying to go over much thought and take in some early concerns to gauge how things could go.

Needless to say, I thought back to this old never seen before idea design and thought. Why not at least get some visual concept of this, but first. Let's see if it's even a major concern with fans and with some time, we're now here today.

Moving on to personality, written wise. I knew from the start that Rachel's character was always going to be the shy natured, timid sort of girl. She loves animals and would have a love for cooking. Now funny enough, it wasn't until very recently during the reboot when we finally saw her really show off or go into more depth with cooking. As before the reboot and in the comic, there's not much aside from her intro that just mentions. "I can make you a meal for lunch sometime."

Given her shy nature, it was hard to figure out mainly how she would be seen for interactions. Without giving anything away for the future, I knew she needed some sort of support buddy in a sense. Not always, but someone who also felt a need for something. Which brought Juliet and Rachel together from Brandon, as Juliet had an issue of not being able to really have friends because of her social status. While Rachel had the issue of not having friends because of her personality holding her back. Which felt like the perfect match up for seeing these two work together in a sense.

(Oddly enough a early concept idea was to have Miki become friends with her, which we see interaction between them. But I wouldn't say they're good friends, just that Miki tends to know a lot of students and bumps into them at times. :P )

Lastly, Rachel's clothing choices in style are meant to be seen as cute, girly and innocent. Of course with a love of animals, it makes perfect sense that she sports underwear that has animal prints mainly and enjoys some cute animal themed clothing in general.