2022: The Dawn of a New Vouivre (Monthly Musing, Dec 2021)

First things first, as promised, the time has come for me to clarify my decision to abolish Poké Monday. To be honest, I’m tired of the gimmick, now that I’ve stripped it down to once per month, making it a lesser counterpart of Serebii‘s Pokémon of the Week. I also cannot deny my declining interest in the Pokémon series as it stands, which has begotten a lack of motivation to do this every other half-month between Monthly Musings. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m entirely through with the concept. Considering how many of my Monthly Musings (especially this year) turned out half-baked, my mind hatched the idea to dedicate future cop-out months to an alternative: Aleatory Alliance. The idea is to generate a series of random numbers (using random.org, naturally) to make a team of six Pokémon for a randomly chosen metagame. No matter their synergy or how scuffed they turn out, take them or leave them, for their juxtaposition is inevitable.

With that settled, on to more general matters. I used to go by Vouivre Critique on more platforms than by any other nickname, but I hereby conclude that this moniker has long overstayed its welcome. Allow me to explain the basis in an anecdote: On Black Friday weekend, I purchased an Oculus Quest 2 that would arrive the following Thursday. I already had an Oculus account to link to it, for reasons relating to my profession, but the name of it contained part of my last name, a piece of information that I will not freely publicize on the Internet. With that in mind, I felt inclined to come up with a new one to maintain my anonymity while not being as lofty as my other usernames. As I pondered, the usual Vouivre Critique and my Switch username Myga Drive came together in Vouiv596. (The “Myga” part of my Switch username is short for Mygavolt, the French name of my favorite Pokémon, number 596 in the National Pokédex. As for the “Drive” part, it originated from Mega Drive, one of my favorite anime characters, yet it can also refer to how much I drive my car, the drives in my PC, or the drive I have when I put my mind to anything.) I propagated this succinct username to my Twitch, Twitter, KnowYourMeme, and Discord accounts, as well as the Gravatar account behind this very blog, prior to scheduling this post over five hours in advance. (However, I have no inclination to change any of my Google accounts or MyAnimeList username, as I like them the way they are.)

Considering the above changes, I’ve been contemplating using my Twitter account for more than just letting WordPress drop links to my blog posts. (Those don’t even get many clicks anyway.) The sort of shouting in the nether that my Thought Dumps tend to constitute are just what I envision as prime microblogging content. (For instance, I could talk about an anime I just started watching, e.g. “Komi Can’t Communicate feels like witnessing the trials and tribulations of another me.” Or a video game I just started playing, e.g. “Beat Saber fills the Guitar Hero-shaped void left by my last controller that kicked the bucket. Not only that, but it’s a better workout and offers a user experience like no other.” I could also try finding uses for memes that I never bothered sharing for whatever reason.) I mean, I have been advised something to the effect of putting my sense of humor to better use, as well as not worrying so much about what other people think.

That’s about it for this final Monthly Musing. I will continue blogging monthly as I do, just that all future posts will be spared the gimmicky subtitles that characterize my legacy blog posts. (The normal ones, obviously.)

A Blog Day for Dog Days (Monthly Musing, Nov 2021)

Foreword

This it not any of the WIPs I mentioned last month, but hear me out. This anime season, Fall 2021, I really only invested myself in two shows: (1) Komi Can’t Communicate, and (2) Jobless Reincarnation season two. Therefore, I decided to take this “drought season” (as I call it) to knock out some of the series currently on my backlog. The first was Tales of Zestiria the X, which I watched after beating the video game (as I mentioned last month). The second, Dog Days, hence this post. (I’m not sorry for the title.) Also on the initial list were Choyoyu (for Shinobu Sarutobi), Grimgar (because I like Log Horizon), and rewatching Blade Dance (as I also mentioned last month). It’s what I call a freshness sandwich: refreshers on the outside, similar series to what I like farther in, and something entirely fresh in the middle.

(…Well, that was the initial plan. I won’t rewatch Blade Dance until after I’ve finished reading the light novel, and I’ve nearly finished Volume 17/20 on that front, yet now that the Demon Slayer Spirit Train TV series has fully aired, I want to get a quick recap out of it before the Entertainment District Arc starts airing next season.)

Moving on

To this day, I regard the Mondaiji series as an all-time favorite and cannot fully comprehend how No Game No Life overshadowed it so easily. However, in my mind, it’s possible that a previous overshadowing prevented Dog Days from ever entering my radar. This series, further preceding the other two, shares the Mondaiji premise of a bored dude being transferred to another world and happening to be a star player for the underdog team (no pun intended), as well as a particular emphasis on beastkin (hence the title).

For those who don’t particularly favor beastkin, such as yours truly,* the first episode will likely not click per se. In the second, however, the resident tsundere (Éclair) gets stripped down to her blue-striped panties on camera. Makes me think: Had I bothered with episode 2 after trying out episode 1, I would have finished the anime about five years ago. That said, when it comes to saucy moments like the one in question, the first season takes them in strides with episode 9 as an additional outlier.
(*Please don’t make a counterexample of my representation of Nowi in this blog. It has little to do with her outward appearance; rather, the childish yet strong aspect of her character is what drew me to her.)

Then there’s the manga, a chronicle of side events between the lines of season 1: before the first episode, halfway through the season, and just before the finale. Every chapter except the prologue involves some kind of stripping, mainly centered around Biscotti (the aforementioned “underdog team”) and later involving Galette (their archrival). I didn’t read this manga until after watching the whole anime, but now that I have, I’m somewhat surprised it has no counterparts for the other two seasons.

Speaking of which the second season is when the dude invites his gal pals from the real world to the other world, further contributing to the Mondaiji resemblance by adding equivalents to Yō and Asuka in Nanami and Rebecca. (Well, in terms of their combat style. Personality-wise, swap Nanami with Cinque, and don’t sweat the small stuff.) Surely this must have come with the urge to go full ecchi, considering at least one girl is shown at least half-naked in each of the first ten episodes. (This reminds me of how an MAL critic once described the Mondaiji OVA: as a smorgasbord of the fanservice that the main series lacked. Not that I personally dislike either case; just giving a fair warning.)

Season three is comparable to To-LOVE-Ru Darkness, where things take a turn for the more serious as new characters are introduced. It also has an amusing ED where chibi versions of Cinque, Gaul (the secondary dude), and Valério (the perv) romp around the other characters’ bodies as if they were hills, until they arrive at the sleeping Millhiore (Black Rabbit equivalent), where they stop and stare expressionlessly.

Top 5 Characters

1. Noir Vinocacao – Leader of Génoise; apprentice demon slayer. Ironically, she is flat-chested and nearly emotionless, and her underwear is never black. Further contradicting her relative emotionlessness, she has the same Japanese voice actress as Plutia (Neptunia) and Raphiel (Gabriel Dropout).
2. Éclair Martinozzi – Tsundere captain of the Biscotti knights; wielder of two daggers; closer to Cinque than she’ll ever admit. Even beyond episode 2, her striped panties are always a treat.
3. Valério Calvados – Debuting halfway through season 2, this perverted demon lord is a key figure in the history of Flonyard (the other world) and winds up as a citizen of Pastillage. When his antics are kept in check by the punitive hero Adélaïde Grand Marnier, he researches the lore of the world, particularly the demons for which he is responsible. Simply put, as frivolous as he is at heart, he bears plenty of responsibility as the senior of most of Flonyard.
4. Nanami Takatsuki – Cinque’s tomboyish cousin and mentor, who has not once lost to him. In season 2, she becomes the hero of Galette and gains power over water and ice, as opposed to Leonmitchelli’s power over fire and lightning.
5. Ricotta Elmar – Known as the top researcher and inventor of Biscotti, despite her child-like appearance and demeanor. She creates gadgets to aid in mock battles and helps Cinque find his way home and back as a precedent for his gal pals. Also has a “de arimasu” verbal tic.

An honorable mention goes to Cinque for having the same Japanese voice as Ryuji Sakamoto from Persona 5, despite the stark contrast in their personalities.

Summary

Dog Days is ultimately what one might call an isekai with trial periods. It has a questionable title, albeit a terse one at least, because the only summer in it takes place during the second season and doesn’t hold any notable canicular heat. To further distinguish it from Mondaiji, it’s focused more on friendly rivalry than on rising up to the great unknown.

Overall rating: 8/10. This means that it left a lasting impression, namely in being about as similar to Mondaiji as I expected and having plenty of stripping moments to sweeten the deal, but is more so a guilty pleasure than a series I would openly recommend. Plus, the characters are not quite up to par, and the visuals are certainly not the cream of the crop.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Berseria and Zestiria (Monthly Musing, October 2021)

As a typical Nintendo kid, my interest in the Tales series began with Symphonia on the Nintendo GameCube. I don’t remember much about it, but it brought a unique form of enjoyment compared to the first-party Nintendo games I was used to. It also got me into the sequel on the Wii, Vesperia on Xbox 360, and Abyss on the 3DS. More recently, thanks to Steam sales last year, I got Berseria and Zestiria for $8 each, although I never got around to playing them until a few months ago when I started keeping a written backlog handy. My first instinct was to go in alphabetical order, not knowing the release dates of the games, so I started with Berseria. As I found out after completing the game, it is the prequel of Zestiria, making it a valid first choice regardless.

Tales of Berseria

Velvet Crowe starts off as a doting older sister until her brother Laphicet becomes a “necessary” sacrifice for Artorius, who used to be like an uncle to her. Then, to make a long story short, “Her smile and optimism: gone.” Next thing she knows, she becomes a bloodthirsty daemon known as a therion, desiring nothing short of revenge. Yet, thanks to her resourcefulness, she gains her fair share of companions along the way:

• Rokurou Rangetsu, a daemon similar to Velvet but a swordsman instead of a therion. His prime objective is to kill Shigure, the head of the Rangetsu clan, despite being the sixth son (hence his name). On the side, he “owes a debt” to Velvet for finding his decorative sword on the prison island Titania.
• “Malak number two,” whom Velvet names Laphicet after an incident reminiscent of her brother’s death. Although originally clueless about the world around him, his significance grows exponentially throughout the story.
• Eizen, the notorious Reaper malak of Aifread’s pirate crew. While ordinary malakhim turn prayers into blessings, he only has curses to offer, although being a millennium old comes with the benefit of wisdom. He and the crew seek the whereabouts of their captain, who had gone missing before they met Velvet.
• Magilou, a self-proclaimed “witch” with exorcist powers. …Well, she starts off powerless because her malak was taken from her before she met Velvet on the prison island. While usually the comic relief, she is wiser than she looks or acts.
• Eleanor Hume, a true exorcist who initially observes Velvet out of vigilance. She comes to realize the Artorius beyond the one she chose to serve, which turns her betrayal from mere conjecture to a resolute decision.

Controlling Velvet gives the feeling of chillin’ like a villain, her companions have a special sort of variety despite the party size being merely average, the gameplay is considerably fluid, the soundtrack is…mostly well done, and the graphics are decent. Not to mention the wide variety of mini-games, the best two being reminiscent of Crazy Taxi and Amazing Island. These qualities make it the best Tales game I’ve played, although I have a few gripes about it:

• The “endings” of the plains music are followed by awkward silences preceding each loop.
• Getting a Game Over (which I first did in the 1v1 against Eleanor) has a distinct lack of the series’ staple, “…and they were never heard from again.”
• Some of the sub-chats (38, 42, and 44 for example) have erroneous subtitles.
• The Phoenix side quest deserves to be post-game. That stinking normin is Level 100, while the final boss is only Level 65. So I ground to about Level 80 to complete the side quest, and the final boss was a pushover.

In terms of English voices, I like Velvet’s post-traumatic voice and how Rokurou sounds just like Lemres from Puyo Puyo. Going purely by characters, I like Eizen best and consider Velvet my favorite protagonist.

Tales of Zestiria

(Due to the usual sort of time constraints on my part, I had to edit this section after publishing it. Also, from here on out, brackets denote spoilers in white text.)

300 years after Velvet’s story, Sorey becomes the Shepherd, as did Artorius before him, and bands together with seraphim (malakhim equivalents) to purify the world. His seraphim are the Prime Lord Lailah (reminiscent of Vert from Megadimension onward) and the following sub-lords: Mikleo (his best friend), Edna (Eizen’s sister, who has to put up with his transformation into a dragon), and Dezel (an edgy dude with blind eyes and sharp teeth). Later on, [Zaveid, once a frenemy of Eizen, takes Dezel’s place once the latter dies.] This replacement seraphim is essentially the Zelos Wilder of Zestiria (i.e. a total womanizer), and interestingly his one-liners in battle become pickup lines when he uses his artes on female targets. (He doesn’t even discriminate against hellions (such as the Medusa-looking kind), which are similar to daemons.)

Sorey and Lailah also enlist the help of a Squire: originally the straitlaced Alisha Diphda but ultimately [the peppy merchant/assassin Rose.] The latter complements Sorey really well [by pitching in when a little charisma or dirty work is necessary].

Below are additional differences from Berseria: + pros, • changes, – cons.

+ More elaborate puzzles (including matchup-based preemptive attacks)
+ Intriguing Support Talents (Windstepping makes up for the lack of Geoboarding)
+ Talking to the Squire is a more satisfying way to progress through side quests than just consulting the map screen
+ Malevolence Crucibles challenge the player to use other characters
+ Less BGM loop butchering
+ Higher hidden/seraphic artes are fun

• Different cast: Edna is the best, but the others balance that out
• “Good” vs. “evil” instead of “evil” vs. “good” (like Log Horizon and Overlord)
• The differing battle controls take some getting used to

– Not as smooth 3D graphics
– No indication as to which inn visits result in cutscenes
– Significantly harder to grind out, and the final boss is too much stronger than the enemies of the final dungeon (Level 80 vice Level 65-69)
– Overwhelming Battle Actions
– No mini-games, Code Red Hunts, or clock-based activity
– Arguably not as good BGM overall

Lefay, the Shrine of the Water Trial, is probably the most annoying dungeon I’ve ever had the displeasure of suffering through. The goal is to use Mikleo’s stealth bubble to stay out of the view of all the eyes on the walls, and failure to do so results in being sent to the very beginning of the dungeon. It helps to have eye-shaped markings in the earlier rooms to indicate where not to step, as well as two checkpoints accessible through warping, but the travel time to the more difficult rooms still manages to be quite grueling. That said, at least the music is motivating enough to make it all tolerable.

Edna has an exceptional English voice, as well as probably the best line in the series: “Being big is for losers. Big losers.” Speaking of voices, I find it interesting that Sorey, Rose, and Symonne have the same English voices as Hubert (FE3H), Haumea (Fire Force), and Amitie (Puyo Puyo) respectively. The last of these, which I realized in the final battle against Symonne, made it difficult for me to take the character seriously.

(And even though I prefer English dubs of video games, seeing the name Marina Inoue paired with Turtlez in the credits always baffles me. Like, I can’t imagine how someone I’ve always known and loved as the voice of Yozora (Haganai) and Kili (Unlimited Fafnir) could voice a character with a similar vibe to Team Rocket’s Meowth. (Then again, I’m no stranger to her versatility, what with Kana Minami being such an outlier.))

Tales of Zestiria the X (anime)

Like the Neptunia anime, it’s clearly inspired by the video game, yet its canon is different enough to qualify as more than a mere adaptation. For one thing, it’s laced with elements from Tales of Berseria, namely: a re-telling of Velvet’s escape from Titania (in episodes 5 and 6), an embellishment of lore from her legacy as the former Lord of Calamity, a surprise appearance by Grimoirh, and a vision in which Velvet tells Sorey why she thinks birds fly. (Velvet is also shown in the OPs, although this is just a tease at best.)

The prologue, Age of Chaos, simply adds a bit of backstory to Alisha. Season 1 ends after the first battle between Hyland and Rolance, while season 2 covers the rest. Further details are listed below.

• The anime cuts no corners when it comes to travel. Horses and carriages are involved, along with the issues and necessities in using them (e.g. nights are elapsed, requiring those involved to set up camp).
• (Rayfalke Spiritcrest) [Sorey and co., with the help of Zaveid, actually manage to reason with Eizen on their first encounter. Mikleo, meanwhile, goes off on his own to obtain his bow.]
• Rose’s identity [as the leader of the Scattered Bones] is discovered sooner, and Rose plays a more overt role in the midpoint skirmish.
• Speaking of which, the skirmish ends differently. [Sorey, instead of barely getting bailed out by Rose, is challenged to clear out a horde of hellions summoned by Heldalf.]
• The problem at Pendrago, instead of [a corrupt Cardinal], is [a rotting dragon corpse].
• Sorey’s first dragon purification happens [at Ladylake instead of Glaivend Basin].
• Rose and Alisha are on roughly equal footing as Squires, at about the midpoint between where they stand in the video game. [(Rose is not as significant, but Alisha can armatize.)]
• Lunarre’s morality [somehow changes for the better (surprising even himself), while the video game portrays him as a villain through and through.]
• Symonne [willingly becomes a dragon instead of simply being defeated and left alone.]
• Dezel [“dies” sooner in the video game.]
• In the final battle: [Maotelus manifests himself sooner and actually gets a few lines in, Sorey manages to perform a full armatization with all four seraphim, and Heldalf’s defeat does not involve any sacrifices.]
• The epilogue [involves more than just Mikleo. Alisha becomes queen, Lailah finds another Shepherd, Edna and Zaveid occasionally visit Eizen, and Rose has a nice midriff resumes business as a merchant.]
• Maltran never outs herself as [a hellion. Whether she is or not, remains a mystery.]

The most interesting aspect of the anime is that the previews in the last minute of every non-finale are presented in the style of party chats, making them seem like part of the games.

Afterword

Here’s my ranking of the Tales games I’ve played so far: Berseria > Vesperia > Zestiria > Symphonia > Abyss > Symphonia 2. Out of 10, I would rate them 9, 8, 8, 8, 7, and 6.

And, of course, I gotta throw in a playable character tier list with that.

S: Edna (Z), Rita (V), Tear (A), Eizen (B), Presea (S)
A: Jade (A), Velvet (B), Colette (S), Raven (V), Rose, Zaveid, Dezel (Z), Zelos (S)
B: Raine (S), Rokurou (B), Regal (S), Yuri, Repede (V), Lloyd (S), Magilou (B), Mikleo (Z), Guy (A), Lailah (Z)
C: Estelle (V), Laphicet (B), Genis (S), Sorey (Z), Eleanor (B), Natalia (A), Sheena (S), Judith (V)
D: Karol (V), Alisha (Z), Marta (S2), Luke, Anise (A), Emil (S2)

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Loaded Month 6 (Monthly Musing, Sep 2021)

On one hand, it’s been only two months since my last Loaded Month. On the other hand, I genuinely can’t think of a specific topic that I’m not saving for a later date. Therefore, I’ll just make this a simple progress report.

• I finished up Tales of Zestiria about halfway through the month, and I’m almost done with the X (the anime), which may or may not be the final push in inspiring a review of Berseria and Zestiria.
• Cinq du Soleil: Nouveau, my latest creative writing WIP, is about 2/3 through 1-3 out of 1-7. Hopefully I can finish strong by the end of the year?
• Last month, I mentioned wanting to do an All Badges speedrun of Phoenotopia: Awakening sooner than later. In retrospect, considering the Phoeno-versary to which I originally wanted to commemorate the run has already passed, I’m thinking there’s no rush. Maybe I can save it until the anniversary of the PABCAB trailer? Maybe some time later? Preferably no later than the anniversary of PABCABX.
• On a whim, I started reading Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance (the light novel), fixing to give that series the same treatment as Juuou Mujin no Fafnir. Currently, I’m up to Volume 9/20, Chapter 4/7, i.e. not even halfway done. I somehow don’t remember when I started, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s about a month’s worth of progress.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Happy Phoeno-Year! (Monthly Musing, Aug 2021)

Late this month, the original Phoenotopia (the browser game) turned seven years old, and the Switch release of Awakening turned one year old. The week before, Awakening was featured in RTA in Japan Summer 2021, specifically an any% race between the top two runners: Nore and Waon. (Click here to view the Reddit post.) Regarding the latter, even though I moderate the speedrun.com leaderboard, I have limited free time (as I admittedly tend to claim ad nauseam), so I usually only check the beginning, end, and duration of the submitted video to make sure that it’s authentic. Therefore, I watched as much of the race as I could when it was streamed on Twitch (i.e. roughly 6:40-8 AM EDT on Thursday; I watched until 7 and caught glimpses after 7:30, due to my weekday commuting routine), and I dug through the VoD for the rest. It made me realize two things: (1) Skill-wise, I cannot hold a candle to runners like this. (2) The routing and strategies in PABCAB have more room for improvement than I thought.

Side note about PABCAB: I already blogged about it, but to anyone unaware, it’s a video tutorial series about obtaining all badges in one file (and it involves time-saving techniques, hence the acronym meaning Phoenotopia: Awakening – Briskly Collecting All Badges). And now, since I learned just last night how to add video chapters on YouTube, the installments have proper timestamps that that appear on the seeking bar. Moving on, when I put out resources like this, it’s partly in hopes of helping others run the category in question, but alas. At the time of writing, no such hope has come to fruition, whether in regards to PABCAB or PHST (Phoenotopia 100% Speedrun Tutorial, the Flash precursor to PABCAB). (i.e. I have no competition in Flash 100%, and no one has stepped up to become the first All Badges runner of Awakening.) Considering this, and because of the aforementioned any% race and anniversary, I figure that it’d be best to take matters into my own hands. Obviously, the main difficulty lies in finding 9-10 hours of free time, especially while living with my parents and having a full-time job. But at least it’s merely a difficulty, not an impossibility.

To elaborate upon improvements to PABCAB routing/strats, I should first mention that I learned from Discord a faster means of doing Ouroboros Skip, the biggest sequence break in the game, at least three months ago. And, needless to say, I recorded a video tutorial of the faster means in question.

Then, earlier this month, I tried out the most important route change I had in mind: purchasing the Concentrate technique during the Zero Trial. This is primarily inspired by how much of a cakewalk it is to get Katash 1 to dash into one of the corners and stunlock him with the faster charged attacks. It makes the Rin routing a little weird, but the Megalith Station treasure containing 125 Rin (which completely eluded me until the any% race) and the Tailoring Tracy’s in Atai Town (visited just after the Birdy farm) make up for that.

I also figured out to reduce the number of cooked Nutri-Meals by 12 (i.e. to 27 instead of 39) to accommodate the many fish fillets obtained during the farm for Fishing Pro, slightly facilitating progress towards Recycler Pro. In testing the two significant changes above, and just general rehearsal, I figured out some minor changes along the way. All of them are listed beneath a dedicated header in the current All Badges route.

Long story short, I’m hoping to find a 10-hour time frame preceded by sufficient preparation to finally become a genuine Awakening speedrunner. (I want some basis to my incessant claims, sooner than later.) Yes, even though the game has been out for a year and no outsider could imagine playing it this much, I still adore it to this degree. (In fact, so far, it’s the only game for which I bothered to write a Steam review.)

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Loaded Month 5 (Monthly Musing, July 2021)

Last Monthly Musing, I devised too broad a subject and gave myself too little time to construct a full-fledged musing on the subject. I’m inclined to think that this is nothing new, and Loaded Months were made for times like these when the final week of the month is at hand and specific topics elude me, but for some reason this incident has left a particularly bitter taste. …Oh well, all I can think to do is shake it off and keep up my usual slow and steady approach to blogging.

That said, I figured that perhaps I should add headers to Loaded Month posts like this, making for less redundancy and easier organization for myself and whatever audience I may have.

Smash Ultimate: Fighter Pass 2 prediction

MinMin, Sephiroth, Steve/Alex/Zombie/Enderman, Pyra+Mythra, Kazuya.

What do these five fighters have in common? They’re all humanoid.

In the first Fighter Pass, Banjo and Kazooie were collectively the only non-human fighter (whereas Joker, Hero, Terry, and Byleth* are as human as can be), so I’m expecting DLC fighter 2-6 to also be non-human.

*…Well, I’m not so sure about Byleth.

Therefore, as unfamiliar as I am with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, I envision that they are the most likely candidates to fill the very last slot. Another likely possibility is a Pokémon from one of the unrepresented generations: 3, 5, or 8. (I’m thinking maybe Absol, Excadrill, or Falinks respectively.)

My heart of hearts wanted a Neptunia character like Blanc or IF, but I prefer to be realistic, keeping my expectations low to minimize disappointment.

Tales games on Steam

Perhaps my little talk about voice acting made it evident, even though I haven’t stated it outright, that I have some sort of interest in the Tales series. As is typical of a Nintendo kid, I started with Symphonia on the GameCube and its sequel on the Wii, and then this and that led to Vesperia on the Xbox 360 and the 3DS port of Abyss. Of those four, I would say Vesperia > Symphonia > Abyss > Symphonia 2. They’re all decent in their own right, but Abyss shows its age in its simplicity, while Symphonia 2 has the plotline of an amateur fanfiction.

With that in mind, I got Berseria and Zestiria during Steam sales, and when I completed the Steam release of Phoenotopia: Awakening and Adventure Mode of Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, I jumped to Berseria. (This also partly stemmed from watching the animated adaptation of Abyss.)

Berseria: Main story finished

This became my new favorite Tales game, although I can’t exactly pinpoint why. It’s a revenge story, similar to the Blue Lions route of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, centered around a female protagonist whom I want to call an improved Ratatosk. It also features Benjamin Diskin as a voice actor, like Puyo Puyo Tetris and FE3H. But most importantly, there’s just something about the fluidity of the gameplay that proves its worth as the currently most recent entry in the series.

That said, I do have my fair share of gripes about it. One: The Phoenix side quest deserves to be post-game. That stinking normin is Level 100, while the final boss is only Level 65. So I ground to about Level 80 to complete the side quest, and the final boss was a pushover.

Two: What’s with the plains area music and its “endings” followed by awkward silences preceding each loop? Despite the recency of the game, such a rookie composition mistake somehow exists in its otherwise decent soundtrack. (I mean, if nothing else, the Innominat dungeon music is hype.)

Three: Some of the sub-chats have erroneous subtitles. Below are a few examples.

• 38: That Exorcist…
  • “How do you think Videl would have taken this?” subtitled “How do you think for those who have taken this?”
  • “One of you can surely squeeze out a prayer or two, yeah?” subtitled “One of you can surely squeeze out private too, yeah∙∙∙” (This is suggestive in context, as Magilou is addressing Laphicet, Eizen, and Bienfu.)
• 42: Laphicet Feels Something Wrong – “At least… that’s what she projects.” subtitled “At least… that’s a cheap project.”
• 44: Believe in Her – “That’s just who she is.” subtitled “That’s so true she is.”

This is my conclusion after having played for almost 77 hours.

Zestiria: Taking my first steps

I was concerned when I found out that Zestiria was released before Berseria, but then shortly afterwards I learned that Berseria is a prequel, justifying the order upon which I decided. However, Zestiria predates the polish that was added to Berseria, namely in graphics and intuitiveness of controls. Not to say that it’s without its own benefits, primarily with Edna contesting Rita Mordio as my favorite Tales character.

I cannot contain my hype for the Steam Deck

Speaking of Steam games, reservations for the upcoming new handheld console dropped halfway through the month, and I pounced as quickly as I could with a mobile phone and all the traffic from other reservations. I reserved the most high-end model, considering about half my Steam library takes up at least 170 GB. Turns out I won’t be getting mine until early next year, but I’m still ultra-excited for it.

I’ve never bothered getting a laptop beyond the clunking MacBook Pro from 2012; I was considering it one of these Black Fridays, and I was on the brink of reserving an OLED Switch, but then this happened. Now, why would I purchase a high-end laptop and a new Switch, when I can get a combination of the two? I would love to be able to grind out games like Megadimension Neptunia VII (which made me consider replaying it on the Switch), Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (which I got on Steam despite having the first one on the Switch), and Tales of Berseria while on the go.

The World Ends with You, and Square Enix has not ended

I was introduced to the original DS game the year it came out, as I recall, and it was nothing short of revolutionary. It featured a multitasking battle system, whereby the touch screen controlled Neku (the protagonist) and the D-pad/buttons operated his partner, along with an exquisitely inspirational plotline.

“Give up on yourself, and you give up on the world.”

Joshua

It has been about fourteen years since the game was first released, with mostly only remakes to show for it. Last anime season, Spring 2021, held an animated adaptation with bits and pieces omitted from the plot, plus some low-quality CG. It was…an adequate refresher, I suppose. And I’m glad Sanae Hanekoma got the voice he did.

Then, earlier this week, a sequel subtitled NEO arrived to the Switch. I played through the first three in-game days, and I have to say: It has the nostalgic charm expected of a long-awaited sequel, but the cast seems tailored towards a younger audience, and there’s just no console like the DS for this series’ gameplay.

VouichecWeegee MAL in Detail

I probably should have started this years ago, but since I don’t have the confidence or competence to write proper reviews (despite the name of this blog), I’m making a spreadsheet of anime and characters sorted in descending order of how I rank them overall. Each anime will have a rating, a summary, and some thoughts, while each character will have an origin and voice actor instead of a rating. In other words, a more detailed (and streamlined) MyAnimeList, hence the name. Have some previews.

My intention is to make a big step towards making sense of my preferences through simple expression that cannot fill orthodox review character limits. It’ll be a long-term goal, but maybe I’ll publicize it faster than the next thing I’m about to cover.

Cinq du Soleil: Nouveau status update

Planning ever continues, but progress is rather slow. I have a 10-page Prologue, and I’ve written more than another 10 pages on only one of the five protagonists. Accordingly, I drew inspiration from the Mondaiji light novel by splitting the chapters into parts, like how volumes are split into chapters. In terms of the first chapter, this would allow me to dedicate one part to building the environment, one part to each protagonist, and a seventh part to the titular troupe formed by the protagonists. So at least I have that going for me, but man, writer’s block plagues me here too. (I’ll start publicizing the work when I finish Chapter 1.)

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Voices (Monthly Musing, June 2021)

This topic is a bit impromptu because I’ve spent most of the month writing Cinq du Soleil: Nouveau and hacking away at my video game backlog (primarily Tales of Berseria and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle), although it does hold significance in my long-term goal of making sense of my preferences. Voices can make or break a character, sometimes even affecting the overall quality of a medium.

I’ll start with some characters on the “break” side: Noire (EN) before 4GO, Peashy as a whole, Flora Klemm (JP), Go’s Pokédex (JP), and Kamoana (EN). Some of them (namely Peashy, Flora, and Kamoana) are young, thereby at least having some excuse for their grating voices, and I’m not about to like Noire regardless of her voice, but…whose bright idea was it to give the most talkative Pokédex the most annoying voice? (Team Rocket’s Pokédex, by contrast, is the best of its kind despite understandably not being used much.)

I guess I should clarify that I tend to play video games with English voices and watch anime with Japanese voices. Each side has its ups and downs, and the latter preference is based on the newest and particularly obscure series, so the former preference is simply my mother tongue.

Now for the “make” side. I can’t remember exactly how I started taking an interest in voice actors, but perhaps it was some combination of abridged series, Brawl Taunts, and Kevin Chamberlin who used to be in the cast of Stupid Mario Brothers. (Y’know, the live action parody series with Star Wars elements.) Regardless, the kinds of voices that I tend to prefer are relatable, goofy, wild, or somewhere in between. Examples in some of the first few anime series I actively pursued (which I watched with English voices at the time) are Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh, Konata Izumi from Lucky Star, and Ritsu Tainaka from K-On.

The real fun behind voice actors is that they form bridges between pairs of characters ranging from separated at birth to polar opposites. For instance, it’s plain to see the resemblance between Ratatosk from Tales of Symphonia 2 and Lelouch from Code Geass, both voiced in English by Johnny Yong Bosch, whereas Jon St. John of Duke Nukem fame took on a whole different personality as Big the Cat. This goes to show that voice actors can be identified by their specialty and diversity.

Matt Chapman of Homestar Runner fame is the epitome of voice diversity. The airheaded titular character, the pragmatic Bubs, the eccentric Coach Z, the gluttonous King of Town, the mysterious Homsar, the contrasting Brothers Strong, the adorable Cheat, and more are all voiced by him alone.

But how about something more in line with the other examples I’ve brought up? Possibly my current favorite English voice actor, Benjamin Diskin, I first noticed as the voice of the headstrong Caspar from Fire Emblem: Three Houses and the reserved Sig from the Puyo Puyo series. Further research also pointed me to the vain Lorenz and the chill Lemres respectively from the same two series. On the flip side, there’s Rokurou Rangetsu from Tales of Berseria, who is recognizably cut from the same cloth as Lemres. (Well, unless it comes to fighting.)

That brings me to the specialty aspect, for which I’ll bounce to the Japanese side with Marina Inoue. She tends to voice mature women like Yozora Mikazuki from Haganai, Kili Surtr Muspelheim from Unlimited Fafnir, and Sonia from Pokémon. (Kana Minami from Minami-ke is a notable exception, namely the airheaded troublemaker type.)

As I have formerly blogged, the resemblance between Yozora and Kili played no small part in my adoration for the latter character and, in turn, how I feel about Unlimited Fafnir as a whole. The same applies to Mega Drive (the SeHa Girl) and Saya Sasamiya (both voiced by Shiori Izawa) regarding Gakusen Toshi Asterisk. Yet, in these two cases and many others, it’s not easy to connect the dots without research. Below are a few exceptions:

• Ratatosk sounding like Lelouch (as mentioned before)
• Rokurou sounding like Lemres
• (JP henceforth) Shiroyasha (Mondaiji) and Beatrice (Re:Zero) sounding like Kuroko Shirai (To Aru), voiced by Satomi Arai
• Kiriha (Tsugumomo) sounding like Satania (Gabriel Dropout), voiced by Naomi Ohzora
• Tamaki Kotatsu (Fire Force) sounding like Futaba Sakura (Persona 5), voiced by Aoi Yuuki
• In turn, Kumoko (So I’m a Spider, So What?) and Azusa (slime witch) sounding like Tamaki Kotatsu
• Marii Buratei (Joshiraku) sounding like Natsumi Koshigaya (Non Non Biyori), voiced by Ayane Sakura
• Retto Enjou (HxEros) sounding like Arata Kasuga (Trinity Seven), voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka
• Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss) sounding like Roswaal Mathers (Re:Zero), voiced by Takehito Koyasu
• Sanae Hanekoma (The World Ends with You) and the narrator of Cells at Work: Black sounding like Joker (Fire Force), voiced by Kenjirou Tsuda

And now I’ve hit another moment of being close to midnight and not knowing how to wrap things up. Re:Zero and Fire Force are anime that I find have good voicework as a whole. No time to explain or clarify, so I’ll just put that out there.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Broadening My Horizons (Monthly Musing, May 2021)

Last month, I bombed some impromptu anime talk with my brother, completed Bravely Default II, and got into Joshiraku through the following dance:

The last occurrence made me wonder: “How did this anime fly under my radar?” It’s a comedic slice of life with moments of girls getting stripped, encompassing multiple elements that I fancy. And the ED, the source of the dance in question, is more than I hoped it would be: not only involving a chibi style like the Mondaiji ED, but also accompanied by a theme song similar to Maware! Setsugetsuka (from Unbreakable Machine Doll). I just…can’t comprehend how I knew nothing about this gem until just this year.

Then I figured I would…well, broaden my horizons. I keep a list of anime to watch—categorizing each as priority, on the radar, or up for consideration—that way I don’t have to flood MyAnimeList with “Plan to Watch” entries that aren’t easy to trackably organize by priority (and some of which might just end up getting wiped off without a trace). Following Joshiraku, I set my sights on Hamefura: My Next Life as a Villainess! All Routes Lead to Doom! This came from prioritizing series with upcoming continuations (e.g. next seasons) in chronological order of continuation air dates, and I figured that the anime in question would be a nice change of pace from what I normally watch. Even though it’s an isekai, a genre that has been done to death at this point (believe me; my favorite anime is an isekai, and even I can’t help but admit that), it’s centered around a female-oriented dating simulator, something that would not pique my interest per se. Yet, based on my experience from having watched Ping Pong the Animation, I tend to throw out a hypothesis that doubles as a mantra: “Anime can make anything interesting.” Surely enough, I was not disappointed. The protagonist, whose best friend introduced her to the dating sim in question, is reincarnated in the game world as the villainess, Catarina Claes, whom she knows as the most unfortunate character. As such, she does everything in her power to steer Catarina away from her misfortunes, primarily by getting along with the rest of the cast. Simply put, it’s a light-hearted story laced with drama, and I particularly like when the five variants of childhood Catarina gather in the protagonist’s head to determine her next course of action.

Referring back to the impromptu anime talk, I was advised to watch Mob Psycho 100. Not that I had never tried it before; I knew from the time it got popular that it was cut from the same cloth as One-Punch Man, so I watched the first episode but pinned Reigen Arataka as the kind of guy to claim credit for all the nothing he did (like Linebeck from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass), thereby shunning any motivation to continue. Yet, even though this was only the second time my brother advised me to give it another chance, it was enough for me to decide, “Okay, fine.” And, surely enough, just a rewatch of the first episode had me like, “What was I thinking?” Maybe I was under the impression that Mob was being treated like dirt by one who profits so much off him? But now, perhaps due to gaining wisdom by aging, I understand that the relationship is more symbiotic than that; Mob is just a student and wants to improve beyond the powers he has, so even though his monetary pay is far lower than one would expect, the advice of a confident adult like Reigen more than makes up for it. As such, I was able to enjoy the anime properly from start to finish. (And boy did I enjoy it; it’s essentially a mind-over-matter version of One-Punch Man, leaning more towards shounen than parody.)

My brother also dropped the name Demon Slayer, so I decided to try that on a whim. I got into it with zero expectations, as is my natural tendency, and it ended up becoming my fourth-favorite anime in place of Re:Zero. (The rest of my top five (in descending order) consists of Mondaiji, One-Punch Man, Bofuri, and Hibike! Euphonium.) While I don’t consider myself a fan of media on the brutality level of Demon Slayer, what drew me in was the prospect of a tragic hero making misfit friends over the course of his uphill climb in restoring the humanity of his sister. (There’s also a certain degree of thrill in the brutality, which is essentially how Re:Zero made my top five.) The misfit friends in question, Zenitsu Agatsuma and Inosuke Hashibira, I consider the main sources of appeal. Zenitsu is a wimp and a flirt under normal circumstances, yet he becomes a true warrior when he falls asleep. Inosuke, on the other hand, is the headstrong type and the epitome of feral. (It was hard to pick a favorite between the two, but I went with Zenitsu.)

(Forgive me for rushing henceforth; I’m down to the last hour.)

Then I went back to prioritizing upcoming continuations, namely by getting around to watching The Devil Is a Part-Timer after letting it rot as “On-Hold” on MAL for years (in a few words, it was amusing, and Suzuno Kamazuki ended up being my favorite character as the most level-headed of the ladies) and getting into Made in Abyss after seeing a whole lot of Nanachi retweets from a Twitter user I follow. Made in Abyss is much like its own setting: bright and gleeful on the surface, but it gets darker as it progresses. (At its worst, it goes beyond the caliber of Demon Slayer.) I like Riko, the protagonist, because of her bespectacled face and courageous heart despite all the adversity she faces while chasing her dream.

Lastly, I dedicated the latter half of this month to watching Assassination Classroom at the recommendation of two Internet users: (1) my “Phoenotopia buddy” as it were, and (2) the Nanachi fan on Twitter. Going by the title alone, I was under the impression that the students were going to assassinate each other (like a Danganronpa sort of deal*), but it’s not nearly as dark as that. Rather, a supernatural octopus-like creature is the primary target of assassination, and he does all in his power to train the students to become worthy of claiming his life. My preferred character here is Nagisa Shiota because, despite being raised as too feminine for his own liking, his X factor is always a treat. (For the record, I don’t mean X as in the chromosome.)

*I haven’t actually experienced Danganronpa, nor do I intend to any time soon. As much as I enjoyed the Zero Escape series, I feel like its more cartoony counterpart is too nightmarish for my liking.

P.S.: The “list of anime to watch” I mentioned earlier is available as a backlog here, and my MAL profile and list are always publicly viewable.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Bravely Default II (Monthly Musing, April 2021)

I got into the Bravely series when I obtained a rental copy of the first installment (Bravely Default proper) about a season after I started blogging, i.e. late 2014. I first mentioned the game (in blog form) on September 27 that year, made a top three list of jobs about a half-month after, and talked a lot about the series just last year, but now I intend to write a full-fledged review about the latest entry: Bravely Default II. Before that, however, I must declare from experience that it is not necessary to play the first Bravely Default, let alone Bravely Second, to fully enjoy Bravely Default II.

(Henceforth, I will refer to the first Bravely Default as BDFF (FF meaning Flying Fairy, the subtitle), Bravely Second as BSEL (EL meaning End Layer), and Bravely Default II as BD2.)

Now, first off, allow me to compile the important parts of Loaded Months 2 and 4, the two prior posts in which I talked about this installment.

[T]he main quartet has a similar feel to that of the first Bravely Default, yet the characters [are] original otherwise, especially with the added presence of accents. Apart from the continued use of series-defining aspects (such as crystals, asterisks, jobs, and Brave/Default), it seems a whole lot more fresh than Bravely Second [hence my earlier declaration], and I suspect that Octopath Traveler was a step in that direction—what with the picturesque scenery, the turn order changes, the one-liners during battle, [redacted due to falsehood] the updated pause menu, and the particle effects of disappearing monsters. […] I’m glad Revo is back for another round of composition, [but] I find the lack of pause menu music strange, considering the first two games had pause menu music (and that of the first game was surprisingly catchy). […] I prefer subtlety in overworld themes, and [those] of [BD2 are] the epitome of subtle: [unified themes] for day and night, muffled in the latter case. […] Poison helps.

Loaded Month 2

I decided to get Xenoblade Chronicles 2 early [February 2021] and immersed myself in Bravely Default II the day it came out. [BD2 is] everything I hoped for, particularly after experiencing the Final Demo (in which I (painstakingly) managed to defeat [Asterisk boss 5] within the time allotted). […] Obviously, it will be difficult to balance these two RPG sequels, but…challenge accepted.

Loaded Month 4

The result of the balancing? I finished BD2 (Level 99 party, Legendary job levels, all endings) in 125:11:51 in-game time on the 7th, and XC2 (Level 80+ party with all manner of miscellany) in 158:53:36 IGT on the 22nd. (It helped to have a digital copy of the former and a physical copy of the latter.)

In Loaded Month 4, I also mentioned having made a Job Compendium, and now it’s completely finished! So, if spoilers are no concern, feel free to have a gander.

To clarify the point about Revo (from Sound Horizon / Linked Horizon of Attack on Titan fame), I’ve always considered his compositions the number one aspect of the Bravely series (which makes it a bit of a shame that the tracks exclusive to BSEL have a different composer: Ryo from Supercell) and honestly overall my favorite video game music of all time. I have frequently mentioned being particularly fond of “That Person’s Name Is” from BDFF, and I kept doubting that BD2 would hold anything quite like it, but beating the game made me realize that liking JRPG music is akin to liking JRPGs per se: It’s a slow and steady process, possibly expedited in a poignant moment. I’ll cover the specifics later, as I’m trying to hold back on spoilers until later in this review, so I’ll leave it at this for now: The BD2 soundtrack is what I would call a true successor to the BDFF soundtrack, comparable to a vector with the same direction and a greater magnitude.

On that note, I have a few further follow-up points to make, as much as I withheld in the Loaded Month snippets:

• Unlike prior Bravely games, BD2 writing contains European English spellings, yet strangely few uses of the Oxford comma.
• I gotta question the decision to make Seth’s name customizable, an unprecedented decision in the Bravely series. That said, for my full-game playthrough, I decided to name him Stefan in honor of the Robbie Rotten actor who sang “You Are a Pirate” (because I knew from the first demo that Seth’s entire gimmick is being pirate-like, plus Seth and Stefan are quite similar names).
• BD2 has additional unique mechanics in equipment weight and countering: the former adding a layer of strategy to loadout management, and the latter allowing opponents to immediately respond to player actions (e.g. with a free attack to counter physical damage or +1 BP in response to an opposing Default).
• Like just about any JRPG, BD2 has its fair share of sex appeal; for instance, Adelle’s freelancer outfit has full midriff exposure, a similar level of thigh exposure to Ibuki from Street Fighter, and a visible drawstring to keep her pants up, which drives the imagination wild.
• On that note, I liked in the Final Demo that when you obtain an Asterisk from a boss character, that character’s outfit gets replaced by common clothes.* (Although, considering Orpheus’s tank top and Anihal’s white dress, I was hoping that all the common clothes would be scantier, but really only those two and Shirley’s were.)
  *unless the character’s death comes first

Turning up the heat a bit, the most memorable aspect of BSEL is its occasions of breaking the fourth wall, one of which relates to the use of its bad ending as a plot point towards its true ending. BDFF also has a bad ending, but unlike that of BSEL, it has no bearing on the true ending (and I honestly didn’t even know about it until I got into watching speedruns of the game). The divergence points for these endings are respectively in the prologue and in the endgame. BD2 has four endings total: one bad ending chronologically like that of BSEL but as significant as* that of BDFF, two bad endings the other way around (although “endgame” in each context means something different), and the obligatory true ending. I should also mention that the true ending of BD2 involves some BSEL-like plot advancements by unconventional means, namely saving the game and using the Brave command.
*really even less significant than, but that substitution would ruin the rest of the sentence

---

…Okay, the spoiler-relenting gloves are off, and now it’s time for death by bullet points relating to my experience with Normal difficulty. (But I’ll at least indicate the chapters to which the points pertain.)

• (0) Interesting that Elvis starts out at level 3 and Adelle at level 5. I’m so used to RPG levels being in favor of the protagonist if anything, and I make it a point to keep all party members alive every battle so that nothing goes awry. I mean, I still do so in BD2 despite this discrepancy, and a certain speciality has potential to worsen the discrepancy. (Hint: It involves the first “optional” Asterisk.)
• (1) Mr. 0 Bernard was, in my experience, the first real frustration of the game. I first approached him with a level 17 party, each member of which I had stick with one job until reaching level 12 in it (designating Stefan as the tank, Gloria as the healer, Elvis as a magic attacker / backup healer, and Adelle as a physical attacker), only to find myself in a war of attrition that I could not win (primarily due to Steal Breath, which he uses to counter Martial Arts like those of Adelle at the time). Accordingly, all I did was level up once and manage to inflict poison (which I thought impossible until after retrying), and somehow it worked out. It was either this battle or the one against Shirley that got me really liking the “Battle with Those We Must Face” track (which I would say is my personal favorite).
  I should also add that Godspeed Strike is freaking broken, not only dealing obscene damage on the initial hit, but shortly afterwards dealing the exact same damage again. (Not to mention it can be stacked as many times as desired.)
• Speaking of Shirley, in a similar vein to BSEL’s Chompcraft, BD2 also has a minigame: Bind and Divide (B ‘n’ D for short). It involves challenging NPCs to a card game similar in premise to Othello the board game. I haven’t done much with it beyond the necessary steps to the Gambler Asterisk and winning against all C-rank NPCs, but it had to be mentioned.
• (2) Regarding Folie, the abuser of the earth crystal:
  • No character fits the “Battle with Villains” track better than her.
  • I find it clever that she counters Black Magic with Chiaro and White Magic with Scuro.
  • Sometimes I think she would be one of the cutest characters if she weren’t so demented.
• (3) Glenn was also a pain, but only because I fought him as early as I could. His most dastardly tools are his charm-inflicting Philtre and his Big Contagion Bomb of obscene damage output. The deciding factor in my strategy was giving my most MP-dependent party member (probably Gloria) the contagion-immune accessory.
• Going back to the subject of cuteness, Martha is the most attractive Bravely character to date. Her dragoon outfit is skin-tight with a silver-scaled booty, her hair is long and brown, and she has a strong yet kind-hearted personality.
• (4) Chapter 4 is the Neptunia-esque “go back through all the regions and resolve their conflicts” arc of the story, as well as the debut of “The Ceaselessly Resounding Rhythm of Battle” (which arguably is not as good as “The Bells of Battle Ring Out Again”). I approached the regions in chronological order of when they are first visited, but then I learned the hard way that the best order is Wiswald, Halcyonia, and Savalon. Reason being that Halcyonia has waves of enemies, Wiswald has an entire dungeon, and Savalon has…amogus nothing but the boss. This “best order” also ranks the bosses in ascending order of difficulty; Vigintio is no problem because he’s undead and tends to hurt himself, whereas Marla was the second real frustration of my playthrough.
• Elaborating upon Marla, she had such an easy time getting up to 3 BP (because, if I remember correctly, she counters magical attacks with +1 BP and dodges physical attacks with relative ease) and, at low HP, decimating the party with Become the Lightning (to boost her offensive power), Dream within a Dream (to deal obscene damage), Shroud (to deal further damage), and Recurring Nightmare (to get a free action per KO, normally either another Recurring Nightmare or a Default). Part of the problem, I found, was having Stefan and Adelle both armed with Miscellany (Examine is essential to any first playthrough, and the damage output of Body Slam is nothing to sneeze at), so I just gave Stefan Taming instead, and it really worked out (mainly considering my tendency to collect monsters in spades when I have a Beastmaster in the party).
• “A Ship Soaring the Skies of Conquest” is my favorite dungeon theme of the Bravely series.
• Not long thereafter came the third real frustration of my playthrough: the last third of Adam’s HP. It came by rather quickly, but by that point he just wouldn’t freaking die. (And thus did “The Hellblade Conqueror” become an anthem of trauma.) His offensive presence was so overwhelming, that between Deal with the Devil and Heavencloud Blade (the latter of which is disappointingly not a real Hellblade ability), it was a matter of seeing how far the party could bend without breaking. Ultimately, I have to say: Specials were my saving grace, and his 10k HP resort in Deathstorm helped to render him defenseless to a last spurt.
• After having listened to all five overworld themes, I would rank them like this: Halcyonia > Rimedhal > Holograd > Savalon > Wiswald
• (5) Edna’s battle theme (“The One Who Soars in the Darkness of Having Longed, Leapt, and Soddenly Fallen”) contains a mother-loving “Wicked Flight” reference. (But Revo isn’t the only one to refer back to BDFF music; the Ba’al theme of BSEL also contains evident inspiration from Airy’s theme songs.)
• (6) Upon reaching the Isle of Nothingness, my party was in the 60-70 range of levels, and those last three treasure chests (containing “nasty surprise[s]”, naturally) were too much to handle on account of the obscene damage outputs of Mass Attack and Volcanic Fang. (The worst part about the former is that it doubles as a counter against restorative magic.) So, I decided to start grinding, particularly in the northwest sector of the Holograd region using Insect Nectar and eventually the level 8 Bravebearer passive ability Obliterate (which fortunately applies to every round of a continuous battle) until level 80 (a level of my arbitrary choosing that might be higher than necessary), at which point I migrated to the Fount of Knowledge and considered alternatives to Insect Nectar—mostly Plant Food, sometimes Devil’s Delight, and occasionally Soul Food. (JP Up + JP Up and Up (Freelancer lv. 9 and 12), More Money (Gambler lv. 4), and the Golden Egg helped to maximize encounter yields.)
• Come level 99 with Mastered job levels, I rolled with Shieldmaster + Salve-Maker Stefan, Spiritmaster + White Mage Gloria, Red Mage + Oracle Elvis, and Bravebearer + Thief Adelle.
  • Stefan: I thought it would be interesting to have a dual-shield wall with a means of fixed damage, similar to the Pokémon Blissey, with Status-Conscious making Compounding side effects more likely. If I ever find him using a Shieldmaster ability, odds are it will be Defender of the People.
  • Gloria: The combination of There in Spirit and Spirited Defence makes for a robust healer with indispensable utility, although she’s usually the first to die to an onslaught of physical attacks.
  • Elvis: Chainspell is too good to pass up (two good, if you will), and I thought it would be cool to have In One’s Element to pair with that. Oracles have awful statistics, so it’s natural that I’d want Sub-Job Speciality 1 (Spiritmaster lv. 8) on the Red Mage side. Also, the combination has a versatile elemental coverage in Stone, Aero, and Triple. (To complement it further, Gloria has Holy, and Adelle is a prime target for Elemental Supplement.)
  • Adelle: Did I mention that Godspeed Strike is freaking broken? Bravebearers are tied for the highest of every statistic except Critical Chance, so naturally they take the absolute best advantage of the ability. (Close runners-up are Phantom and Dragoon, which fall just short in Physical Attack and Critical Chance, in the latter of which Dragoon is tied for second-worst.) True Grit also helps.
• Based on this loadout, I confronted the Legendary trials in the following order: Martha + Helio + Domenic, Galahad + Gladys + Glenn, Selene + Dag + Roddy + Lily, Orpheus + Anihal + Bernard + Shirley, Emma + Lonsdale + Sloan, Castor + Folie + Vigintio, and Horten + Marla + Adam. Honestly, the most irritating part was Castor’s Brave sequence of Vent Fury + three Indiscriminate Rage attacks which would easily fell Gloria.
• Like “Serpent Eating the Ground” (my second-favorite BDFF track), the final boss theme of BD2 also contains bits and pieces of tunes before it, this time notably including some of the Asterisk boss themes.

---

Spoilers end here. Long story short: BD2 lives up to its predecessor while not being as attached to it as BSEL. And just like BDFF, it’s an 8/10 game with a 10/10 soundtrack.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Story Update: Planting Another Seed (Monthly Musing, March 2021)

When I’m reminded of the manga series Gabriel Dropout, as I was early in the month, it makes me wonder: Why is Satania the fan favorite? Where’s the love for Raphiel? I mean, each character in the main quartet has her fair share of charms, but I personally find Raphiel the most appealing because she’s a big girl, yet not the flaunty type of big, and she is proficient at smiling to conceal her negative emotions (e.g. indignation, emotional pain) and uphold her reputation as one of the top angels in her class. (Also, I identify as a Christian, so I’m a bit biased towards the angels.) Piecing together her lesser popularity with how much the Haganai fanbase hates Yozora (another favorite character of mine), I suspect that such characters are viewed as naught more than bullies. Me, I consider each a necessary evil at worst, if only out of sympathy for the character in question and/or out of spite towards the characters they normally mess with. (In the case of Haganai, my character rankings lie on a spectrum with “cool” on one end and “whiny” on the other. Starting from the “whiny” end, my order of heroines is Maria, Sena, Kobato, Yukimura, Rika, and Yozora. Specific aspects of Yozora that I like are her black hair, no-nonsense attitude, and inner modesty.)

Where did all this come from? Well, on this train of thought, I felt the urge to use creative writing as a means to express my appreciation for the character type in question. I did mention having come up with a new story idea at some point (and heck, I came up with another one since then), but I ultimately discarded both in favor of sticking to the premise of Cinq du Soleil. That said, the current Cinq du Soleil has no room for such a character until too late in the story for my liking, and considering how long it’s been since I started out and how much more media I’ve consumed since then (Remember when Trinity Seven aired?), I sometimes look back and can’t help but regard it the way I regard the 3D series of Pokémon games: as an experimental work. Not that I intend to discard it any time soon, but I want something less along the lines of Trinity Seven: with as even a gender ratio as possible, less plot armor, fewer Deus ex Machina moments, and less blatant inspiration from Japanese media (namely in character nomenclature and arbitrary use of katakana, but not so much on the front of perverted elements). More importantly, I suspect that the story has too many happenings to explain logically except after the fact (if at all) and that most of the characters therein are self-insert and/or lacking in personality.

Based on the above, and to finally disambiguate the title of this blog post, I hereby publicly announce that whenever I resume writing stories as a pastime, I will prioritize an upcoming side story named Cinq du Soleil: Nouveau. (I was tempted at first to discard the “experimental work” (but not the D&D spinoff thereof) and reveal all my planning ahead as a sort of grand finale, but I decided based on the existence of Cells at Work: Black that such measures would not be necessary.) I intend to make this side story a “filtered” version of the original, maintaining most of the lore with a few bits and pieces while addressing the concerns I mentioned earlier. For example:

• The titular troupe (replacement term for “party”) still has a Sumire and an Aka, but their surnames are Ohzora and Mitsurugi respectively. The other members are named Guy Dupont, Ella Armstrong, and Magnus Armstrong. Ella is Magnus’s sister and will be the character to embody the Yozora/Raphiel archetype (leaning more towards Yozora). And hey, now they’re actually “Cinq” without any exceptions.
• As for the Lunar Brigade, Midori Hanamura is unchanged, Ao’s last name is now Yukihiro, Dealer has a new secret name, and the other two members are Lyman Thorpe and Eugène Dupont. The latter is Guy’s brother and similar to Oda Koroi.
• Lastly on the character front, the Chief Elementals of Water, Earth, Flora, and Spirit have new names (and the former two have different genders): Sho, Theresa, Allison, and Spencer.
• As inspired by So I’m a Spider, So What?, I’m considering making educational environments integral to the world of Solluna (and, by consequence, the protagonists), that way I can be more upfront about the mechanics that I previously tended to formulate as I went. This, I feel, will be a key step towards making the story as logical as it can be: putting more “why” and “how” into all the “what.”
• Speaking of doing things as I go, I suspect that my writing style differs from chapter to chapter, considering that my pace has been logarithmic, so I’m hoping that I’ve lived and learned enough by now to show improved consistency.

For the time being, this is all I have to report. Look forward to the follow-up.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)