Kero Blaster/Pink Hour

This is a sub-page of Kero Blaster.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

On April 11, 2014, a month before Kero Blaster was released, a promotional demo/short game called Pink Hour was released. It stars Cat & Frog Inc.'s office lady Comomo on a journey to retrieve a lost document from a short platforming stage. Despite being a pre-release demo, it would receive updates, mostly to resolve issues people had with the original release, and to tease Pink Heaven.

Demo Lockouts

Aside from the obvious lack of Kero Blaster maps, it has other restrictions:

• The player only has one weapon, a pink energy blast that deals 2 damage, which overwrites the Level 1 & 2 Peashooter.
  • Even when obtaining other weapons via hacking, the player cannot switch weapons except when obtaining one as an item. In fact, no weapon icons appear on the UI at all.
• Enemies do not drop money, and the coin counter is removed in all versions after 1.0.1.0.
• Scripts for things like the shop are not present in the global event file explain.pxeve, so even if the player manages to trigger a shop event they cannot progress through the menu.

Unused Music

The title screen theme from pre-development reset, as heard in the old trailer, can be found in version 1.0.1.0 at ph_title.ptcop. This was probably meant to be used on the title screen, as proven by the fact that later versions remix the track and do play it, whereas the original 1.0.1.0 release has a bizarrely silent title screen.

It's worth noting that this is the only track in all of Kero Blaster, Pink Hour, or Pink Heaven to use a .ptvoice waveform as an instrument, specifically the unusually rich-sounding chime instrument. Every other track only uses the Organya waves that come with pxtone, which are .wav files, and other .ptnoise files.

1.0.1.0	1.0.6.3 and later

Unused Maps

Found in the files of version 1.4.3.0 are a few maps relating to Pink Heaven.

00assets.pxpack

An expansive room using the Pink Heaven tileset. It is filled with nothing but clouds.

00debug.pxpack

00debug.pxeve
*[IN] <muSt <chgN[wd1;phAdam_weed] <chgN[phAdam;-] <chgN[Tsu;phTsubasa] <fcsV[1]<fadI<exit *[CallBoss] <lkFU[1]<rmvN[-]<plAc[comojump]<exit <lkFU[2]<rmvN[-] <chgN[Zubo1;phZubo] <curN[phAdam] <swtN[-;10] <dl3s<swtN[-; 1]<exit <dl3s<swtN[-;11] <dl2s<swtN[Tsu;10] <dl2s<swtN[-;12]<rmvN[Tsu] <dl60<swtN[-;13] <exit *[Test1] <exit *[phAdam] おわり！！<exit

Original	Translation
おわり！！	The End!!

A room for testing Pink Heaven assets. In the center of the room is an event trigger that runs CallBoss, which is cut off at multiple points by exit commands which must be commented out in order to run the whole event. Also, if the script is modified so that the player will be able to move afterwards, when you defeat the boss, almost all of the characters in its dialogue don't display properly.

00steam_back.pxpack

A duplicate of the first room of normal mode in Pink Heaven, but with tiles cut off of the top and bottom at the beginning and end of the map. According to its filename, it was used for the background of Pink Heaven on Steam.

Unused Graphics

fuFixPtcle.png

Unused	Used

The graphics for the default Pea Shooter bullet were modified to suit Comomo, but in the end, Comomo got her own larger bullets.

mptGB11.png

Lava tiles. Not a surprise, considering that the tileset seems to be based off the Hinterland Fort tileset (where there are also unused lava tiles), but what is strange is that the tiles were modified, having pixels randomly added and erased.

mptIron.png

Placeholder tiles. The collision for these tiles still exists in the final Kero Blaster tileset, but not the graphics.

fuGB11.png

Found in fuGB11.png from 1.0.7.3 onwards are graphics for HeavyProc, as seen below.

logo.png

Unused sprites that appear to be for a playable difficulty selection, similar to the "START" and "CONTINUE" options used on the title screen. In the final game, the difficulty selection is a separate screen. The most interesting of these is the sprite that reads "HEAVEN", as it implies that Pink Hour and Pink Heaven were planned to be part of the same package. Much higher quality Japanese sprites supporting this idea would eventually be added to Pink Heaven, but still wound up unused.

Early Pink Heaven Graphics

mptPIHheaven.png

Unused (Pink Hour 1.0.6.3 - 1.0.7.3)	Used (Pink Heaven)

The tiles used for the teaser cutscene are more gray than what would eventually be used in Pink Heaven.

fuPiHsora2.png

Unused (Pink Hour 1.0.7.3)	Used (Pink Heaven)

Found in version 1.0.7.3 only are the original graphics for the Big Worm from pre-development reset. For Pink Heaven, the developers opted to remaster this enemy's sprites.

Differences between Pink Hour 1.0.1.0 & Kero Blaster 1.0.6.3

Sound

• Pausing the game and upgrading a weapon do not play a sound effect. In fact, gradeup.ptnoise is not even in the files at all.
• kb_room_a.ptcop is unused and present, slightly unfinished, in the original 1.0.1.0 release. Compared to the version used in Kero Blaster, the guitar trill heard in the beginning uses a different instrument, and the mixing is a little bit off.

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)

Graphics

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)

• In store.png, an early design for Mizutani can be found. This early design has him wearing a tank top, and he seems to be barefoot, whereas the used design has a snazzy business suit and wears shoes. The early design for his reversed Trayne Station appearance uses a slightly darker skin tone and face compared to the final version. Why there are graphics here at all is unknown, as both Pink Hour and Kero Blaster use sprites from fuFixNPC.png in the shop menus. Despite this graphics location not being used, it was overwritten with the final design for Kero Blaster.

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)

• In fuFixNPC.png. Yes, Comomo was originally the person running the drug store! Although the desk sprite was already overwritten at this point, the shop menu sprite still has Comomo's likeness. This idea was likely scrapped for not making sense chronologically; how would Comomo be running the shop while at the same time trying to dispose of Nanao's pet? Notably, the character filling in for her, Tsubasa-kun, is obviously a recolor of Comomo's sprite, aside from his mouth. He even still uses Comomo's dialogue sound in the final game.

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)

• In fuFixChar.png. Nanao's red speech balloon has more faded colors than in the final gane.

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)

• The shot fired by the small Negativus Legatia enemy is blue and red, as opposed to light blue and pink like in the final game.

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)

• Pink Hour uses an earlier English font that dates back to before development reset, as seen in screenshots from that era. This general text style is also shared with the control buttons on the mobile versions even in the final game. The final game actually did not change the punctuation symbols and numbers to match, explaining why they look somewhat out of place in-game.

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)

• In logo.png, it can be discovered that the Negativus Legatia on the title screen were originally white, probably so that they would stand out from the original title screen, which was nearly pitch black as seen in the trailer. In the end, Pixel decided to cut the hassle and gave the title screen more color, removing the need for this recolor. Interestingly, a similar recolor did eventually end up appearing in the Zangyou version of Stage 6.

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)

• Also in logo.png is this miniature early design for the Japanese Kero Blaster logo. This design has Hero's disembodied head in place of the "bu" katakana, which is not the most readable place to put it. Pixel realized this near the end of development, so he relocated Hero to a more sensible letter: the "ro", which was easily translated to the "O" for the final English logo.

Text

To do: Look at the Japanese text and see if there are any differences there.

words.txt

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)
Straight	Repeater

• At this point, the English name was a literal translation of the Japanese name. The localizers must've thought that it did not sound much like a weapon name, so it was changed by the release version.

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)
Tip of the Iceberg	Hekichi Plateau

• This is the exact opposite situation: the early English name is nothing like the original Japanese name. In the end, this punny stage name was dropped.

Gameplay

• The player has no limit to the amount of coins they can have. In the final game, the player has a hard cap of 14511 coins.

Pink Hour 1.0.1.0	Final (Kero Blaster)

• The Kuro Blaster upgrades had their prices seriously inflated for the final version; in Pink Hour, Level 2 and 3 are 20 and 100 coins respectively, while the final version raises the price to 9999 coins, not that the player can buy the Kuro Blaster upgrades anyway.

Pink Blaster

Multiple room and event file names feature the abbreviation PB at the beginning. This very likely stands for an early name that was changed at the last minute, possibly "Pink Blaster".

Oddities

HeavyProc

The precise location of HeavyProc.

In the top left corner of 01PHstartE (the first area on easy mode), an otherwise unused object known as HeavyProc can be found. HeavyProc was created to test the computer's performance while running Kero Blaster with a large amount of NPCs.

Hidden Barricade

In-Game	Foreground Removed

There is a construction barricade stuck in the ceiling of the starting room in both Normal and Hard mode, and at the same coordinates.

Version Differences

Version 1.0.6.3

1.0.1.0	1.0.6.3 and later

• The title screen got a complete overhaul:
  • The room now takes place at night, and the logo sparkles.
  • The previously unused ph_title.ptcop now plays here.
  • There are two groups of three flower pots in the background. The middle pots have white flowers added upon beating Normal mode, while the rest gain blue flowers upon beating Hard Mode.
• A Hard Mode was added. Or rather, a "normal" mode was added, with a new stage, and the original stage was moved to Hard Mode.
  • When failing to get the Document in Hard Mode, a new bad ending can be seen, where Nanao overwhelms Comomo with more paperwork. Luckily, during the credits, Sasuke and Hero chip in to help with the workload.
  • When successfully obtaining the Document, the teleporter will take the player to the Cat & Frog teleporter room, where Mizutani congratulates the player. After the ominous quote, "All shall be revealed on the other side", he then teleports Comomo to the future location of Pink Heaven.

1.0.1.0	1.0.6.3

• The Kero Blaster advertisement on the UI was updated to reflect the fact that the game was released by then.
• The coin counter was removed from the UI, as can be seen below.

Map Differences

1.0.1.0	1.0.6.3 and later

In previous versions, the tumbleweeds used the barbwire-like graphics from White Laboratories. This was replaced by its Hinterland Fort design starting with 1.0.6.3.

1.0.1.0	1.0.6.3 and later

• Decorative books and boxes were added to Nanao's office building, both during the ending cutscene and during the credits.

Version 1.0.7.3

• A scene of Comomo looking to buy Kero Blaster from the convenience store was added after beating normal mode.

• In previous versions, the UI appeared during cutscenes, unlike in Kero Blaster. This was changed to a design similar to that of Kero Blaster.

1.0.6.3	1.0.7.3

• The player is now able to click on the ad to visit the Kero Blaster page on an online store, depending on which platform they're playing on.
• The Hard mode ending credits now play regardless of whether or not the bad ending is achieved. As a result, there are some inconsistencies: Sasuke and Hero always help Comomo with her extra work, even when she was never given any, while in the Pink Heaven teaser, Comomo coming out of the teleporter makes less sense. Additionally, the credits music now fades out before the teleporter scene.

1.0.6.3	1.0.7.3 and later

• The "START" and "CONTINUE" text are now translated to Japanese when that is the selected language. For whatever reason, they were in English before this update.

Map Differences

1.0.1.0 - 1.0.6.3	1.0.7.3 and later

• The blue fish area in Hard Mode now has many more fish.

1.0.1.0 - 1.0.6.3	1.0.7.3 and later

• The weeds in the water areas of both Normal and Hard Mode were replaced with reeds from Greenery Zone, and there are more of them, especially outside of the water.
• Another urchin was added to the urchin room in Hard Mode.

1.0.1.0 - 1.0.6.3	1.0.7.3 and later

• Spikes were added to the tire room in Hard Mode.

• Green bats were also added to the same room.

1.0.1.0 - 1.0.6.3	1.0.7.3 and later

• The boss arenas are no longer almost identical between Normal and Hard mode. The Normal mode room now has two snail enemies instead of just one, while Hard mode replaces them both with Metalbushis, making the fight somewhat harder.

1.0.1.0 - 1.0.6.3	1.0.7.3 and later

• This single spike was changed from orange to gray.

Version 1.4.3.0

• This version is built off of Pink Heaven. It retains all of its graphical and sound assets, and Gentleness replaces the Jetpack if it is hacked into the game.
• The player is now able to skip the intro cutscene after viewing it for the first time.

1.0.7.3	1.4.3.0

• The Kero Blaster ad no longer animates, and the "click" button has been replaced with an arrow.

1.0.6.3 - 1.0.7.3	1.4.3.0

The foreground tileset of the Pink Heaven teaser now uses the final graphics from Pink Heaven.