So it happened. Our first legit Nintendo Direct that isn't centered around a single title was announced this morning. Surprising everyone however was the fact that it is a Partner Showcase rather than a true general Direct. This means we aren't going to be seeing any first-party Nintendo games during this presentation, and that is really strange.
With my having played nothing but back to back platformers this past month, I needed something a bit more slower paced and methodical. Enter Lunar 2, second game in the Lunar Remastered Collection released earlier this year.
I've only played through this game one, waaaay back in 2001.
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| Art by Ghostlykuma |
( Read the super long version here: https://advriksdomain.blogspot.com/2025/07/profile-rik-wolf-recording-from.html )
Name: Laik the Wolf
Pronouns: He/Him
Sexuality: Straight
Species: Grey Wolf
Height: 3'4"
Birthplace: Azure Lake Zone
Residence: Central City
Occupation: Cross-World Mercenary / Angler
Catchphrase: "Bonkers!"
Motto: "Take it now or never, don't risk living a life full of 'What Ifs'."
Favorite Food: Pizza
Attire: Black fingerless gloves. Black sneakers.
Abilities: Homing Attack, Boost, Spindash, Wing Chun Kung-Fu, Redacted, Super Form
Weapons: Bo Staff (Classic/Modern), Sawed-off Wispon (Modern)
Gear: Skiddle-Brand Skateboard(Classic), S3G/\-Brand Extreme Gear (Modern), City Escapee Roadster (Modern), Waida Fishing Pole
Personality:
Chill and laid back, with a emotional stability that can weather
setbacks well.He does however have tendency to make decisions at the
drop of a hat, particularly when things are chaotic. Doesn't have the
best of luck when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex, but still
takes his chances regardless of steady string of failures.
The Story So Far:
Laik grew up in Azure Lake as an orphan. Cared for by the residents of
Blueburgh. Witnessed Sonic the Hedgehog giving a television interview
following the destruction of the Death Egg and was inspired to learn how
to fight so he could help protect Mobius as well.
Eventually he was
recruited by Knuckles for the Resistance Force, where he not only
helped rescued Sonic who had been imprisoned for a year, but also helped
to end the war by bringing down the Egg Empire. Ended up doing some
cross-world hopping as a result of the Phantom Ruby and learned things
about himself that no one should ever know.
Misc:
Theme Song: 'Now or Never' by Tony Harnell & The Lovekillers
Super Form:
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| Artwork by Ghostlykuma |
Theme: 'Never Look Away' - Magnus Karlsson (Featuring Tony Harnell)
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| Artwork by Osmoru |
Main Fur Color: Grey-Brown #887B68
Secondary/Muzzle Color: Silvery-White #F8F8F8
Eye Color: Brick Red #C0403B
Eye Mask Color: Pale Brown #BEAC93
So I've been posting a lot lately about my revised Sonic the Hedgehog original character, 'Laik the Wolf', an offshoot of my fursona, Advrik Drahcir and all-around video game avatar. What do I mean by the last bit? Well, I'll tell you... In just a bit.
I want to preface this whole thing with the fact that I've been alive for longer than Sonic has existed. I grew up experiencing all of the highs and lows of the franchise. I have legit home videos of my playing through the original trilogy, doing voice-overs and creating my own narratives for what was going on in the games, circa 1995-1996.
The last time I was legit this interested in Sonic the Hedgehog was 2004, post-release of Sonic Heroes. After that, the character and franchise just kind of faded into the background for me. If I wanted anything at all to do with the character, it was through re-releases or new products involving the Classic era version of the character.
But me being the type of person who can’t have little minute character developments, I had to have a wild change of heart one day when I (digitally) picked up the first few issues of the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog series. I instantly, somehow, fell back in love with not just the character as a whole, but the entire franchise; I suddenly wanted to experience everything I had missed over the last 21 years.
Everything.
That meant creating an OC in order to help feel more immersed with the fandom, so I got to work. Dredging up old screenshots from 2017 of the wolf character I had created for Sonic Forces. This was prior to my return to the Furry fandom as well, so I simply made a blue-furred, blue-eyed wolf with white sub-fur. No real thought or anything was put into it other than it being my representative in a very mediocre game.
Since I’d already developed and fully fleshed out my fursona in the form of my namesake, I thought, “heck, why not just adapt his look into a Sonic model and be done with it?” Well, that didn’t turn as exactly as I envisioned it, and I was and still am very grateful to the artist who helped to do so. I was never going to feel content with how off-model he looked when compared to official characters.
So that was when I sought out some outside help and, miraculously, stumbled across the user ‘Ghostlykuma’ on Bluesky advertising their open commissions. I shot them a quick note with some questions, and to my absolute delight, they agreed to help break down and then recompile Advrik into the form you see today!
With Whisper as a template, we first did away with the rich brown hair color, instead making his entire body colored in a greyish-brown, harking back to the fact that his progenitor was a grey wolf, so I wanted the color to be somewhere in there. He was given a thick lock of hair, kind of resembling Whisper, but at the same time not. The tuft of silvery fur—akin to Shadow—that also colored his mouth/muzzle(the heck is that called on a Sonic character anyway?) was retained from his previous Modern rendition and carried backwards to his Classic era version as well for more consistency. Finally, the fur that masks his face was colored slightly brighter than his primary fur color.
Because I wanted him to be a legit Sonic character, I had to separate his origins from the anthro he was originally based on, but I still wanted to maintain one sliver of that identity in his name. Advrik is already a highly corrupted and condensed version of a short phrase that only I know the origin of, so I thought it was only right to further that movement by ripping the last three letters of his name out and giving it to my shiny new Sonic the Hedgehog OC.
July 10th Update: I have since decided to disconnect Advrik from this OC entirely by renaming him to Laik (Like the body of water).
Okay. So, going back to the beginning, where I mentioned that he was not just a Sonic OC, but a general video game character overall. In his story, because I incorporated the fact that he was the Rookie character in Sonic Forces, I changed some key aspects of the ending by having it so he had been sucked into the last portal the Phantom Ruby produced, sending him spiraling through a wormhole and witnessing multiple worlds, far removed from Mobius. Even landing in our New York City at one point and learning that he’s just a fan character in that/our universe. Eventually, he stumbled into the Mushroom Kingdom, where he was ultimately shown the way back home.
I did that with Laik because I wanted to be able to write more than just simple Sonic fan-fiction when I’m not hammering away at Last Tail or Secret of Memoria. This idea had been inspired by the upcoming racing game, Sonic Cross-World Racing where it is bringing not only other Sega franchises into the mix, but properties like Spongebob and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well.
Having been writing stories in my own worlds for so long, that creative muscle can get stretch very thin and sometimes I just need a break from it all. A break to play around in a familiar world, not just from Sonic, but other properties as well, all the while my little Sonic-inspired dude is running around having fun.
Don’t get me wrong, A LOT of thought and research has gone into little ol’ Laik and I am happy to have him. He's there with Brigid as far as my favorite creations go.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to outline further just how I’m going to give him a world-crossing ability, the limitations it’ll carry and who I’m going to ship him with.
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| Art by Ghostlykuma |
Super, Modern and Classic era!
I had originally taken Advrik to an artist to have his design adapted to a Sonic-styled character, and while the results were fantastic and the art super high quality, my decision just adapt the design into another style really left me with a feeling of, I dunno, a sense of detachment? Like it was painfully obvious this was another design's coat painted over a Sonic model.
So I went back to the drawing board. Threw together a new color scheme. During this time, I stumbled across a really awesome Sonic-styled artist on Bluesky. I hit them up on their vGen account and pitched the idea, and to my delight they agreed to help with redesigning the little guy.
My delight upon seeing him come together was staggering! I cannot wait to start commissioning other artists to draw him now.
This came and went super fast so I never got the chance to post about it, but holy crap, what a game! I have been on a beat-em up kick for months now and somehow had never even come close to picking this one up. The soundtrack alone floored me and was worth the price of admission.
