After seeing how many votes the poll regarding Corpse Party D2: The Dragon Mask has gotten on the Fanon Wikia (49 as of right now), I felt like it might be a good idea to explain a few things about that game concept. I can't help but think that people might be voting blindly without knowing much about what they're voting for. I haven't exactly said much about how the concept has changed since I first mentioned it in Jun Arai's trivia entry on the Fanon Wikia and hinted at it in previous Tumblr posts.
The Cancelled Dragon Mask
Around the time Depths of Despair was in its early demos (before Demo v5, I believe) I came up with a number of ideas of where I could go next in the CPD2 universe. Some of those ideas combined and split until they formed Fatal Operation and Zero Hope. Around that time there was also a thread on the Heavenly Host forums for an upcoming fangame contest, and while I wanted to participate I knew that Depths of Despair wouldn't be allowed in the contest because it would give me an unfair advantage. The contest never materialized, but a vague CPD2 Mayu-related idea I created for the contest remained.
In this early idea, I kept things small to fit within the requirements of the contest. There were only five characters: Mayu, Morishige, Jun Arai, Ishiko Yanagi, and the ghost of Tatsumi Suzumoto. The working title was something generic like "Darkness Within" and involved Mayu finding out that she's decended from a spree killer that haunts the Twinface Theatre that her troupe was rehearsing at. There was also some time-travel stuff and a lot of Mayu being possessed and killing her friends.
After the contest was effectively cancelled and the restrictions were no longer important, I realized how silly that idea was and scrapped Tatsumi Suzumoto from the story, replacing her role with the Dragon Mask that she wore in the earlier concepts (Tatsumi is one reading of a name that means "dragon"). It was around this time that I wrote the extra chapter for Depths of Despair that introduced Jun Arai, I believe. However, even replacing Tatsumi with a semi-intelligent evil mask didn't really save the story, since the rest of it was still very derivative of the original Corpse Party, with a closed space and preventable deaths and everything.
After Fatal Operation started moving forward, I ended up focusing on that project instead of The Dragon Mask. After realizing that I didn't really want to try to salvage the existing outline, I cancelled the project.
What The Dragon Mask would look like Un-Cancelled
A number of things have changed since I got the first ideas for The Dragon Mask, and if I worked on the game now it'd be significantly different from the Mayu-centric "Corpse Party, but in a Theatre" story it once was. In particular, playing BloodDrive and Danganronpa influenced the creation of a new vague outline that I could work from if I wanted to re-start the project.
One of the biggest changes is the central character: instead of Mayu Suzumoto, the story would focus on Aiko Niwa. Like the other central characters of the CPD2 games, there was a tragic event in CPD2 Aiko's life that has changed her and continues to affect her, though unlike the previous games the player won't know what that event is right away. The story focuses on Aiko's mission to retrieve a dangerous artifact called the Dragon Mask and deliver it to the Wiccan Institute for containment or destruction.
While Aiko is the main protagonist in the new outline, many of the characters that were going to be in the old draft remain. Mayu, Morishige, Jun, and newcomer Kirie Ishida are all major characters that Aiko interacts with to help locate the Mask. Kuon, Hinoe, Ayumi, and a spoilery canon character also make appearances in the new outline. There are also two other original characters that appear, but one only appears in the backstory and both involve spoilers for the story plan.
Another major change in the story is that it no longer takes place in a "closed space" or haunted sealed-off area. Instead, it takes place entirely in the "real world". The theatre from the original draft still makes an appearance, but it is the equivalent of a setting cameo rather than the central location.
The game itself would be presented as a Visual Novel, with only two or three important choices in the current outline. Unlike previous CPD2 games, I've strongly considered locking the "best" ending until at least one of the normal endings has been seen. I plan this because the "best" ending as it is outlined focuses only on Aiko's character arc, leaving the other major characters to fade into the background after a certain point, which is not a good idea for a first ending. Aside from those endings, there's a plan for at least one bad ending.
I feel like I should explain more, but this has rambled on for long enough and I don't want to accidentally spoil my plans, just in case I do decide to un-cancel The Dragon Mask. I hope this clears up any misconceptions about The Dragon Mask that may be floating around.
