MROU-EX: FiNAL REMiX

MROU-EX: FiNAL REMiX, also just referred to as MROU-EX, was the rebranding of the MROU community's third discord server, Phoenix Revolution, into an MROU oriented server. It was the community's longest running server, lasting from late 2018 through late 2019.

Origins of MROU-EX
After it was decided upon by the community to end Phoenix: Reflected Cosmogony, talks about what the replacement RP should be begun. Some people were interested in the setting Spooki had created with the final arc of PHNX, while others were reminiscing how well MROU Heroes' RP worked out years prior. After plenty of discussion and polls, it was decided upon that the RP would become a reboot of MROU-EX, and with that, the server would also be revamped to fit inline with the RP change.

Origin of MROU-EX's Name + Icon
Since the RP was going to be a reboot of MROU Heroes, it was decided the name should be similar to that server's name. It was decided upon by a general consensus the server would be called MROU-EX. The subtitle "FiNAL REMiX" was added in reference to The World Ends With You: Final Remix. Unlike SF and MROU1, the name made no references to Sonic the Hedgehog titles, though a name that was proposed early on was "MROU DX," in reference to Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut.

The server's main icon was drawn by the same artist who designed and drew MROU1's icon, Kirb with Crocs. The new version expanded on the general design of the first, with a much more vibrant color palette, and overall retro-feeling aesthetic. The piece's aesthetic was somewhat inspired by the style of Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion's presentation.

The MROU-EX Community
MROU-EX's community was similar to that of Phoenix's, but it was generally much friendlier and less tense, as more time had passed since the end of MROU1. It began to become more accepted by the overall group to invite new friends to join in, though the idea of opening up and becoming fully public, or even going to the extent of being as open as MROU1 was, was incredibly debated and fairly frowned upon. MROU-EX's members mostly wanted the server to stay small and tight, as they feared inviting more people would potentially cause more chaos and drama like what happened to the end of MROU1. Even still, there were some new members to the community at this time, but primarily only close, trusted friends of members.

Likewise to Phoenix, MROU-EX boasted a widely talented, passionate, creative group of people. It also had an even more diverse variety of fandoms and interests, as the people grew older and found more new series to become interested in. Some popular ones at the time were Danganronpa, Ace Attorney, Splatoon, Persona, and more. It was by this point that for every fan of a series in the group, there was someone who actively disliked it, and vice versa.

The Public vs. Private Debate
One of the greatest debates of the community's history, which is prevalent even today, is the argument of if MROU's servers should be semi-private like MROU1, completely locked down like Phoenix, or completely public like SF. As the group shifted away from Phoenix, many started to question if they should allow new members or not. Both sides have a variety of arguments, all of which are fairly reasonable.

Those who were for MROU going public believe:


 * MROU was all about meeting new people and discovering new fandoms from the beginning, and sticking together in one small group isn't going to expose them to nearly as many new ideas and inspirations.
 * The added pressure of having to keep inline in front of new people would reduce tension and drama, because old members who typically bicker with one another won't want to make a scene in front of new members.
 * Many members' drive for RP that was beginning to dwindle after the failure of PHNX would be rejuvenated by having fresh, new people who aren't held back by their fear and biases of past MROU RP social conflicts.

However, those who were for MROU staying private argued:


 * The meaning of MROU as a whole has evolved beyond just being about RP, and was now about the group of people who had discovered eachother by chance and been together for years at this point; it wouldn't feel the same with new people.
 * Drama and tension would potentially get worse from adding new people, particularly in the case that toxic people join and start fights.
 * The drive for RP would be even more damaged with new members, because it would be stressful trying to pull off arcs involving canon, existing franchises if other fans of the series were to join the server and complain / critique their interpretation of it.

The one point that everyone was able to agree upon, pro-public or pro-private, was that there was potentially sensitive information present in the channels of the server because of how much more comfortable people had become sharing more about themselves. As a compromise, the old chat channels, as well as the old RP channels from Phoenix, would all be archived and hidden before anyone else joined. However, they have since been deleted and no longer exist.

MROU-EX Roleplay
MROU-EX's RP was very similar in structure and style to that of MROU Heroes' roleplay. It had the same basic premise and method of joining, where your character would be invited to join a rookie group in MROU's New Boston location. In terms of activity, however, it was fairly low compared to other RPs, as less people performed their own arcs and events. By this point in the community's history, many veterans from SF and MROU1 were growing weak in terms of motivation and a drive to RP. Because of this, it was much more slow and less active than MROU1.

MROU Heroes vs. EX Differences
Though MROU-EX is a reboot / remake of MROU1's general plot and setting, many story elements are heavily altered due to the different people and characters participating. Not only this, but the main story arcs that Brett performed were completely different from that of MROU1's. Some major differences are...


 * Different people were involved in the development of different settings (i.e. Sani was not present to introduce and develop New Shibuya like he had in MROU1, so Brett did so instead)
 * Many story and character arcs from MROU1 did not return (some were reworked and revamped, though this was very rare.)
 * Some locations had alterations to their aesthetic and structural design
 * Many characters present in MROU1 were no longer present in EX
 * Characters who were present in MROU1 were heavily altered from their original stories and designs, which some people consider AUs now

Transition from MROU-EX to Realms of Ifrit
Sometime during MROU-EX, it was becoming more and more apparent that people were losing their drive to roleplay, as MROU-EX got stale fairly fast, and dropped rapidly in activity. Compared to SF and MROU1's activity levels, where there would be several people online and roleplaying pretty frequently daily, members of MROU-EX were only going on to the RP once every day or so. Some things were done to try and help with this RP fatigue, such as allowing more people to be invited to join the server, but none of it really worked out much. As a solution, Brett would propose a temporary, small new RP for everyone to join, with a totally new setting and mainline story to try and promote activity and increase motivation again. The decision was controversial, as some feared MROU-EX would end up being abandoned in favor of this new RP, but Brett and several others were confident this would only be temporary. This new roleplay would be dubbed Realms of Ifrit, also referred to as RoI by some, and would end up being the last unique RP to exist and thrive in the community.

The Downfall of MROU-EX
As some had feared, MROU-EX did end up being abandoned for Realms of Ifrit. Though there was an attempt to keep this from happening, people just became more fully invested in RoI, and as a result, had forgotten about or stopped working on their MROU-EX arcs and characters. Because Realms of Ifrit was in another server, talk channels were eventually added to that one, and activity in MROU-EX began to dwindle, until it was officially abandoned with the end of RoI's RP later on, and the start of MROU Resurrection.

Trivia / Fun Facts
Some other interesting tidbits of interesting regarding MROU-EX...


 * MROU-EX is the only server where most people refer to it by its full name and not an abbreviation or nickname. Technically speaking, the "FiNAL REMiX" part was only a placeholder for other subtitles that would replace it as a joke throughout the server's life.
 * The PHNX/MROU-EX server is the longest existing single discord server in the MROU community, as it hosted two roleplays instead of everyone moving to a new server when PHNX ended.
 * Several spinoff RPs, or attempts at new RPs by MROU members to rejuvenate lost motivation and drive to RP popped up during this time. Noteworthy ones include SF 2, an attempt at an MROU-EX styled reboot of SF; KSRP, a much more detailed and strict RP that would have had a small handful of participants; and DreamLink (DRMLNK), an attempt at capturing the freedom and charm of MROU1 in a different setting where there would be even less limits on user creativity. None of these lasted more than a couple of days, however.
 * MROU-EX wouldn't be the only time an attempt at rebooting MROU1 would occur, as the current RP, MROURes, is also an attempt at reimagining the concept of MROU1's plot and setting, now with a bigger emphasis on new members.
 * Many noteworthy veterans ended up leaving the community at this time, or going heavily inactive.