Various Steam games

Back in May, I got the SpongeBob bundle (BfBB Rehydrated + soundtrack and Cosmic Shake + costumes) for less than $40. I only started seriously working towards completing BfBBR last month and fully completed it early this month (all that I had to look up was the shipwreck sock in Dutchman’s Graveyard), so it took me until Christmas Day to start Cosmic Shake. I just finished Jelly Glove World last night, currently saving most of the extras for the endgame, and I have to say that both of them are solid cartoon-themed 3D platformers.

Early in the winter sale (before Christmas), I got the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection (1-3 HD) for under $50. I considered getting Persona 5 Tactica but decided otherwise because of the review consensus that the game is too short for its price. Considering how much I liked Persona Q and Q2, it makes sense that I’ve been having fun with Etrian Odyssey HD. It’s a good Steam Deck game, and while it does have touchscreen controls, I prefer to use the right stick and buttons for cartography. As of today, I have progressed to B8F, which I’m guessing is not much. If nothing else, it’s certainly chill. For better or worse, its music and sounds are still very DS-like.

Late Christmas Day, my brother recommended Neon White. I have completed 5 of the missions so far with all Aces and miscellany. I prefer using my keyboard and mouse for this game, especially because the time I’ve put into Cosmic Shake with inverted camera axes makes it hard for me to play it on Steam Deck, what with the lack of X axis inversion. Still, it’s the most fun I’ve had with a game in a long time. It’s an intense, speed-oriented, first-person 3D platformer, yet there’s enough depth to it that puts the brain to the test.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Anime from Left Field: Set 1

Of all the things I blog about, anime is the primary thing I have been shying away from lately. Introducing a new answer to the “I can’t think of anything to blog about, but I also don’t want to double down on Aleatory Alliance” dilemma: Anime from Left Field. I’ll arbitrarily choose three to five series that have held my interest for at least one season and, for each of them, provide an overview ranging in length from a sentence or two to a quasi essay. That’s the whole description, so here comes this installment.

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

(Maoujou de Oyasumi)

A subversion of the ubiquitous “hero and demon lord” fantasy trope where a kidnapped princess finds ways through her cuteness, wit, and inhuman feats to steadily improve her living conditions so she can sleep her best sleep while painstakingly awaiting her hero. At first, I found the princess’s appearance uncanny, but I ultimately warmed up to the character in light of her actions and demeanor, and the demon castle residents support the lighthearted comedy aspect well. All in all, it is what I call “surprisingly good,” enough so for a solid 9/10 by my standards, primarily as a sort of lesson on the importance of sleep.

The Journey of Elaina

(Majo no Tabitabi)

The difference between self-confidence and egoism is having something to flaunt and keeping it in moderation. This is my dividing line between characters like Elaina and characters like Goldmary from Fire Emblem Engage.

The titular character, after going through rigorous training to become autonomous at a young age, travels her fantastical world in a bid to witness all its joys and sorrows. It’s mostly a thing of beauty with traces of mystery and light conflict, although episode 9 is straight-up nightmare fuel. At least they have a disclaimer at the beginning, but it only scratches the surface of the horrors that lie in wait. (Hints: creepy demon girl, bloody) 7/10 overall.

(Also worth noting that Elaina is voiced by Kaede Hondou, the voice of Maple from Bofuri)

The Strongest Sage with the Failed Crest

(Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja)

Most of this is stockpiled from last year (for uh…reasons), hence the “quasi essay” below while just about everything else is hastily compiled within an hour or two of this post’s “due date.”

Gaius the sage reincarnates a thousand years into the future as Matthias Hildesheimer, a mold-breaking existence in an era corrupted by unexpected demonic intervention. On one hand, it might seem like a good chunk of the conflicts are resolved too easily. On the other hand, two of the heroines stood out among the three whom Matthias befriended while living his best life. These heroines also happen to look like Hololive members: Watson Amelia and Hakos “Bae” Baelz.

Lurie Aventrot, the Amelia look-alike, swiftly becomes a classic example of a modest, yet the primary, love interest for a dense comrade. Sometimes she breaks her own mold because it’s a very “Matty-kun” thing to do. Best of all, her outfit, consisting of a pleated skirt with thigh-high black socks, is some of the best eye candy that the series has to offer. This doesn’t say much, admittedly, which leads me to a genuine if not frivolous gripe about the series: Little to no attention is drawn to the skirt, even with the presence of implied nudity and moments where Lurie leaps around in public places.

As for the Bae look-alike, her name is Iris, a darkness dragon with a human form that she finds difficult to use without causing minor inconveniences for her party. Not only is she leagues better than another Iris I know (hint: both Is are soft), but I would go as far as to consider her one of the top three characters of the year, primarily because she embodies everything I know and love about Shiori Izawa. This voice actress is the one behind two of my favorite characters of all time, Mega Drive and Saya Sasamiya, although I suspect that she is more accustomed to goofy voices such as those of Tanpopo Kuraishi from Witch Craft Works, Azuki from Nekopara, and Nanachi from Made in Abyss. As it happens, the voice of Iris is in line with the norm, but what distinguishes this particular character is her aloof neutral expression that somehow brings Saya to mind. Moreover, when I read 56 chapters of the manga after watching the anime, I came to relate to her inability to pay attention during information overload moments.

(The third heroine is Alma Lepsius. While middling by contrast, this tomboy makes a good third wheel for Matthias and Lurie, and she shows off some interesting forms of archery.)

The only thing left of note is that the final boss of the season, Zardias, has the Dio voice courtesy of Koyasu Takehito (whom I personally associate more with Roswaal from Re;Zero). So, I’ll summarize what I think of the series: It’s a kind of mindless fun akin to a Rube Goldberg machine—the process looks elaborate, but the conclusion makes it seem simple. Overall, 7/10.

The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer

(Hoshi no Samidare)

Presenting a tad more stockpiled content. About ten years ago, I was the type to actively seek “ecchi” manga (not that I can say I have entirely shrugged off this mentality), and this unusual title popped up on my radar. I actually wound up liking it for what it was, not just the few moments of indecent exposure, so it took me by pleasant surprise to find that it was finally being adapted. Too bad the result has severe tones of mediocrity that even I cannot deny. I mean, it’s one thing for them to shy away from Samidare’s panties and more from Hisame (the other Asahina), but the adaptation as a whole just looks and sounds so behind the times, it would have been better off ten years ago.

Yuuhi Amamiya, the “just like me fr” character, is somewhat ruined by sounding like Naoya Mukai from Girlfriend, Girlfriend (Kanojo mo Kanojo)* and being less curt in his response to being called out for his first “lucky perv” happening. His animal companion, Noi Crezant (or Neu Crescent, or whatever you want to call him), may be voiced by Kenjirou Tsuda, but it is the most scuffed role I have ever heard from him. (Granted, it gets less scuffed towards the end of the anime.) Also, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka has a rather unorthodox role. On the flip side, Samidare is voiced by Naomi Oozora, also known for her roles as Satania from Gabriel Dropout and Kiriha from Tsugumomo; can’t go wrong with a unique talent like that.
*But hey, at least it’s not the most that this voice has ruined a character. That distinction has been overtaken by Shinji Enomoto from the currently airing anime Liar Liar.

Despite its shortcomings, the animation proved worthwhile as a refresher for a story that I mostly glossed over while retaining only a few bits and pieces, and it was not devoid of pleasant surprises, whether adaptation-exclusive or unusually absent from my memory. Overall, a 6/10 adaptation of a 4/5 manga.

The Legendary Hero Is Dead

(Yuusha ga Shinda!)

Shion Bladedarts is the hero in question, and a pitfall trap made by a perverted farmer boy named Touka Scott was the cause of his death. This seemed to Touka like a “Peaceful living, here I come!” kind of event, but little did he know that a necromancer girl named Anri Haynesworth would give him the body of the hero, leading to a series of KonoSuba-esque events where he balances out acting in place of the hero (despite his much lesser power level) and seeking fetish fuel.

The fetish in question is thighs in knee socks, which he simulates using daikon radishes that he harvests as a farmer. In fact, most of this series is about fetishes, what with Kyle Osment being a nudist, Leland Tolman being obsessed with bones, and Diego Valentine being a battle maniac. If I had to say what my fetish was, it would be the involuntary exposure of undergarments (or a lack thereof), which the series has in spades.

Before this gets too out-of-hand (if it hasn’t already), it goes without saying that I should mention the heroines besides Anri, the happy-go-lucky cinnamon roll type who sometimes proves to be a handful even beyond making Touka more of a hero than he ever wanted to be. Yuna Yunis, the tomboyish childhood friend who plays hard-to-get, is basically the Noire of the series: of undeniable importance, but a low-hanging fruit in terms of picking favorites. Marguerite (or Margaret) Farom, originally Shion’s fiancée, falls for Touka as a result of heroism eclipsing the front he has to put up for her sake. While primarily the sheltered princess type, she takes after her father figure Isaac Gardner, and her main charm is being too good for Touka, especially during the Diego arc when she has to take the place of Yuna as the number-one tsukkomi to Touka’s boke.

Much like the sleepy princess, Anri is an uncanny-at-first sort of character to warm up to over time. If not a love interest, she can be considered a partner in crime, even willing to wear knee socks for Touka’s sake despite being told, “They look like sticks.” She and Marguerite are high-tier characters, although I have taken more of a liking to Dorothy, now knowing a truth about her in Chapter 83 of the manga. [She originally lived as a cat before dying and being revived as a human.] Speaking of the manga, I am 17 volumes in at the time of writing and can say for certain that it gets better beyond the first 6, from which the anime is adapted. I am tempted to rate it 4/5, whereas the adaptation is merely 6/10 (“had its moments”).

(EDIT: All done, albeit more than 1.5 hours late with most of the above overview.)

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Follow-Up, Engage!

(I am only moderately sorry for this title. More importantly, note that I have no DLC, and nothing except maybe Nel is going to convince me otherwise.)

Three months ago, the “-ish” I put in the title definitely holds up. I left off before Chapter 16/26 back then, which in itself might seem past halfway, but a final playtime of 260 hours (as opposed to just over 80) proves the opposite.

Still, my opinions from back then are largely unchanged (but how did I miss the opportunity to call Louis an abso-Louis-t unit?), except I don’t mind Hortensia as much now that I know she has the same English voice as Laphicet from Tales of Berseria. Speaking of voices, the only correct predictions I made last time are Lyn being voiced by Wendee Lee and Jade having the same voice as Kisara. I’ve also noticed since then that Merrin, Veyle, and Marni sound like Velvet Crowe (mostly pre-daemon), Marle from Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, and Uni from Neptunia (mostly when she whines) respectively.

In other news, I’ve caught wind that the voice of Chloé is the current voice of Minnie Mouse, and now I’ll never see her the same again. And now that I’ve looked up the voice actors, here are some other associations I find interesting:

• Boucheron with Daruk and Yunobo from The Legend of Zelda. The former somewhat makes sense when I recall the line, “Daruk’s Protection is now ready to roll!”, and I could certainly hear the latter while playing through Tears of the Kingdom.
• Fogado with Squares from PPT2. A surprise, to be sure.
• Seadall with Dohalim from Tales of Arise. I’m kind of ashamed of myself for not getting this one, considering Dohalim is my favorite Arise character (not that that says much).
• Yunaka is voiced by Laura Post. This is the most mind-blowing one of all, because she sounds little to nothing like any other Laura Post character I’ve heard: Arfoire from Neptunia, Primrose from Octopath Traveler, Catherine from Three Houses, Almeidrea from Tales of Arise…yeah, none of those. Granted, this might have something to do with how much I’ve denied the character.
• Celica is voiced by Erica Lindbeck. Maybe because I never really paid as much attention to the Emblems as to the corporeal characters, this came as a surprise to me.
• Roy with Artorius and Alphen from the Tales series. I would call this a duality, with one being dissimilar and the other being comparable.
• Eirika is voiced by Kira Buckland. I would not have guessed this, but sometimes I get Rulue vibes when I listen closely.
• Ike with Alfyn from Octopath Traveler. I get the similarities in the noises they make while swinging their weapons (Ike more so in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate), although I would have pegged Alfyn as the less mature one.
• Micaiah with Ash Ketchum from the Pokémon anime and Manuela from Three Houses. By names alone, one might consider this more surprising than Laura Post as Yunaka, and the reason I think otherwise might just be because of my tastes. Still, it takes a close second, which I trust I need not explain.

While on the subject of characters, here’s what I think of the ones from Chapter 16 and later.

• I suspected at first that Rosado was transgender based on his hair color and overall androgyny, but it turns out he’s a male whose gender is never questioned. Even though I would have preferred the alternative (for the sake of freshness), he’s still certainly among the better half of the characters.
• Goldmary, on the other hand, is one of the worst. It’s one thing for her to be another cleavage character (which, in a similar vein to Yunaka, has me calling her “Boobsmary”), but she’s so conceited that it gets on my nerves. “Humble soldier of Elusia,” my eye. (That is one of her quotes when she enters the Somniel Arena. Incidentally, one of Hortensia’s is what I can only interpret as an impression of Kirby’s taunt in Super Smash Bros. Melee.)
• All I have to say about Saphir is that she’s just like Flavia from Awakening, whereas Lindon is a better foil to her than Basilio was to Flavia (let alone Hanneman to Manuela in Three Houses). Lindon also has a sense of humor and an experimental brain going for him.
• I’ve always considered Mauvier the type who didn’t deserve to wind up on the villains’ side, and surely enough, he became the first turncoat among the Four Hounds. That aside, he is the strong and silent type due to a cold upbringing, although I feel like his English voice is not very compatible with that personality. (By his appearance alone, I would have expected him to sound like Odion in Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series.)
• Veyle, much like Marle who has the same voice, has a mild-mannered side and a naughty side, both of which I find about equally appealing overall. (I’m convinced that her harmful actions are the fault of Sombron and Zeworstgirl—I mean Zephia.) Moreover, even though she looks and sounds questionably youthful, her outfit has some serious leg exposure and even a visible inner underneath. (Not her Somniel outfit, though; one can tell when she sits at the south-side campfire that the underside of her casual skirt is obscured.)

Now, I’ll admit that I didn’t talk much about the other characters last time, but I did make a tier list partly to compensate for that.

(I don’t know why “The worst” decided to have a bigger font, but part of me likes it that way.)

Most of the picks here go in descending order from left to right, with bits of uncertainty in various places, although I cannot compare the Emblems to the other characters, considering how different they are.

Mid-June edit: I just noticed that Jean is absent from this list. I would put him between Amber and Anna.

One more thing to note about the characters: While units other than the protagonist do not marry each other as in similar installments (at best, a character’s epilogue will merely mention “someone” as their spouse, as in the case of Fogado for example), it seems that the Pact Ring can be given to any of them. With that in mind, I considered doing so to a female unit (namely Etie, Merrin, or maybe Veyle) as the female protagonist, but I ultimately decided otherwise because the prospect of being a straight male and playing as a queer female character just doesn’t feel right, the more I think about it. Thus, my final choice was Zelkov, considering my real-life preferences and how much I favor the character. (Regarding their A-rank support conversation, I have to say that when the female protagonist imitates Zelkov’s emphasis, it sounds like she’s acting out the role of a cartoon ghost.)

With all that out in the open, it’s time I moved on to the obligatory anecdotal part of this post. Skirmishes still suck on Hard difficulty, and no amount of Advanced class leveling has improved any part of it. Even when the “Suggested” level reaches Advanced level 20, the power level of the enemy units does not stop rising until all their stats are capped. They always seem to be two steps ahead of my units in raw power, which I would say is at least one too many. Still, I managed to finish the game with all base classes leveled to 20, all advanced classes leveled to 20, and all special classes leveled to 40, plus 15 extra levels for Vander, 7 extra levels for Saber (which, as a reminder, is the name I gave the female protagonist), 6 extra levels for the royals (and accidentally Rosado), and 5 extra levels for everyone else. It was mostly a matter of picking and choosing which skirmishes and training to attempt; the Tempest Trials lost their luster as my units started gaining advanced levels, due to the lack of gold yield and overall being too overwhelming for what they’re worth. (In other words, it went from being perfectly possible to steamroll the opposition, to having slim-to-none odds that my deployed units would even survive the first round.) I don’t think I realized until I started scraping the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, that training gives extra experience and extra gold: +30 experience per unit and at least 2000 G. As a stickler for balance (with exceptions for certain notable characters), I say that it certainly beats Silver Corrupted, and although the best Gold Corrupted maps start off with a 2600 G yield (two drops of 1300 G), both yields rise to 3000 G (with the drops being 1500 G) after a certain late-game Chapter (which I don’t remember by number), giving training an undeserved edge over all forms of skirmishes. The one catch is that training is unique to three locations: Firene Castle, Brodia Castle, and Solm Palace. Brodia is by far the hardest one to manage; I can only remember clearing it once, no less with crucial help from Alcryst x Lyn and Seadall. Solm is daunting until I find it possible to take over the north side of the map, form walls with my bulkier units (which is especially effective at/near the “Suggested” level cap, when the enemies stop bringing spears and tomahawks), and chip away at their forces as necessary. As for Firene Castle, which I sometimes call “my beloved,” my approach is to head north first and clean up the rest as they filter in.

If training is not available, two of the easiest places to hunt for Gold Corrupted are the Sacred Tomb and the Crossroads of Fate. Always make sure before anything that there are two Gold Corrupted, because some Gold Corrupted skirmishes only have one; a bummer to say the least. I recommend bringing anti-fliers to the Sacred Tomb (because non-flying units are prone to bottleneck tactics) and Covert units to the Crossroads of Fate (to take advantage of the woods where the player units start off). I have also managed to prevail in the Plains of Swift Winds by dispatching 6-Mov units to the easternmost set of tiles and assembling everyone in the middle of the west side of the map, although this is not something I expect to do again in the foreseeable future. Tullah Desert is improbable but feasible, and while I can’t remember the last time I’ve conquered Bandits’ Hideout, it seems feasible with a less flexible spin on the Solm Palace strategy. Arena of the Gods seems promising due to its lower enemy unit count, but there’s also the matter of having the right allied units, which I feel like I never do. (Granted, I tend to deploy retainers, royals, Lindon and Saphir in pairs, as well as the triumvirate of Kagetsu and the thieves.) At any rate, the thing about training/skirmishes is that every 3 hours real-time, one of them disappears and is replaced. If there are 8 symbols on the map and at least 24 hours have passed, all of the symbols will be replaced. Good opportunity to do something else, eh?

Another thing to note is that I try to avoid poison whenever possible, whether by taking a unit with enough Defense to take 0 damage from daggers (usually Louis, sometimes Jade x Roy, sometimes a unit engaged with Ike,* sometimes certain units with stone pillars from Corrin’s Dragon Vein, and rarely dodge tanking with fog from the same source), by using arts to break the dagger users, or by using Engage Skills to avoid counterattacks.

*Note that a Dragon unit engaged with Ike takes 40% damage from attacks thanks to Laguz Friend, and when the base damage is 2, it rounds down to 0. This has come in clutch for Saber during Paralogue 15.

Speaking of unchanged things, training up Vander is still just as hard as it’s always been. The compact axe is his best bet for dealing “guaranteed” damage, but he would have to pick up the scraps for another unit, a telltale sign of unreliability. When he was a paladin, I gave him a tomahawk and a poleaxe for the off chance of dealing a “heavy” hit from afar or to an opposing cavalry unit. The latter eventually became a hurricane axe because of his surprisingly usable Magic stat, and the former became a hand axe when his Build grew to a satisfactory degree. When he reached level 20 as a paladin, I reclassed him to a griffin knight, which might have to do with how his Speed is not as shoddy as before. At the end of the day, though, he has been hard-carried by adjacent allies, chip damage, and/or enemy affinities.

Skirmishes and stuff aside, I should mention some of the maps that I found particularly annoying.

• Leif’s paralogue has the ballisticians with insane damage outputs, the pesky staff users in their back pocket, and the infinite stream of cavalry reinforcements from the east. To deal with all that, I leveled up considerably and brought a special set of units: Saber x Sigurd, Seadall, Hortensia x Byleth, Louis, Jade, Clanne, Framme, Jean, Ivy, Chloé, and Amber. (I don’t know if there was, let alone could be, a twelfth; this is all I remember.) Dancing was crucial in dealing with the ballisticians, the twins added much-needed magic offense to the team, and the generals were effective at fending off the cavalry. (Side note: Leif has special dialogue for when Ivy enters combat against him, presumably because she had his ring as the boss of Chapter 8.)
• Celica’s paralogue, doggone, nothing says “infinite stream of reinforcements” like those stinking high priests, and getting overwhelmed by even one of them is a recipe for getting screwed over by the Warp reinforcement high priests that mobilize the phantom wyrms to the front lines. To make matters worse, I have witnessed one of the Warp users attack with Elthunder and use Warp on a phantom wyrm on the same turn. No freaking joke. If not for that bit of Elthunder damage and the extra phantom wyrm attack, Saber would have survived, and I would not have had to resort to the already-level-20-at-the-time Sigurd accompanied by Hortensia x Byleth and whatever else I don’t remember. Seriously, that high priest had no special skills or anything; they straight-up cheated. As much as I’ve used the term out of spite towards being hit or crit with less than a 50% chance / missing with an 80-99% chance, this rubbish was genuine cheating.
• Chapter 25, guess what? It’s another source of annoyance by reinforcements. The particularly pesky ones are the ones that tail the player units to the boss. My first idea was to have Lapis and Jade stay back to dispatch them, but Lapis couldn’t last despite her exceptional Avo. Then, my Time Crystal charge count was practically exhausted, and it came down to a wild assortment of shaky hit rates and lucking out against the AI. In fending off the reinforcements, ultimately, I simply must accredit Timerra x Corrin and the Stone Pillars.
• Then there’s the final battle, which takes some getting used to. Be careful when to lift the barrier, because the same Player Phase when you do it is the only opportunity that you get to damage the boss before it creates a new barrier and summons enough reinforcements to occupy the whole militia. Healers must die, because they prioritize healing the boss if its HP is below maximum, and their healing is nothing to sneeze at. By the time I got used to this and just prioritized eliminating reinforcements instead of breaking the barrier, the reinforcements just wouldn’t stop coming in droves. Thus, after seeing the next stream of reinforcements, I just broke the barrier and went for a bum-rush that depleted two of the boss’s Revival Stones and about 2/3 HP, in no small part thanks to Goddess Dance. The entire battle took 4 freaking hours on a night that I should have instead spent clearing the Lightning Temple in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Moving on from grievances, I feel like sharing how the army ended up before I took on the 26th chapter. It’s all in the following spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ONhTVoZLrnnj8j4Ir3dgWH9X_9ykerTgAb2ibWDQiXo/edit?usp=sharing

(Note: I considered using books from the well to give Alcryst and Diamant each another Inherited Skill (Alacrity++ and Hold Out+++ respectively), but I have yet to follow through, and perhaps my stingy nature is responsible for that.)

I chose the final classes based on the following criteria:

• At least one of every class (notwithstanding different weapon types, e.g. axe and lance paladins)
• Each character with an exclusive advanced/special class sticks with it
• Each other character puts to use whichever proficiency is marked blue
  • Sword: Lapis, Kagetsu, Bunet
  • Lance: Chloé, Louis, Amber, Goldmary
  • Axe: Vander, Boucheron, Jade, Rosado, Saphir
  • Bow: Etie, Anna
  • Dagger: Yunaka, Zelkov, Merrin, Panette
  • Tome: Clanne, Citrinne
  • Staff: Pandreo, Lindon, Mauvier
  • Art: Framme, Jean
• One of every general (I like armored units)
• Another martial master (otherwise, not many Qi Adepts to go around)

In part, this involved having Kagetsu remain a swordmaster, Mauvier a royal knight, Boucheron a berserker, Saphir a warrior, Etie an axe-wielding bow knight (which I mistakenly reclassed to lance-wielding at one point; what a waste of 2500 G…), Louis and Jade generals, Merrin a sword-wielding wolf knight, Rosado a swordless wyvern knight, Citrinne a sage, Clanne a sword-wielding mage knight, Jean a martial master, Yunaka and Zelkov thieves. I couldn’t resist making Amber a hero because he keeps talking about being one, Goldmary had too much Defense as a hero to not be armored (and the position of lance-wielding general is already taken by Louis),* Chloé was the only lance specialist left over for the halberdier slot, Bunet is the only sword specialist who deserves armor, Framme is the only art specialist other than Jean (as much as her Strength sucks), Pandreo’s and Lindon’s class swap makes their specialties S-rank (as pointless as that is), and Anna is simply more of a sniper gal than a bow knight gal.

*…and now, as much as I am loath to admit it, she is second only to Louis in terms of physical bulk. She might even rival him if you take into account that significantly higher Speed stat. (Alfred with Gentility is also a strong contender.)

Now, an explanation of Emblem choices:

• Saber x Corrin has access to any Dragon Vein effect and 1 extra range on Torrential Roar. (I’ve found more use for the former, wanting to keep Saber on the down-low since I gave her the Emblem.)
• Alfred x Eirika gets a 50% damage increase on the Ephraim hit of Twin Strike. And, as mentioned, Gentility supplements his already considerable bulk, just as Golden Lotus does against physical attacks in particular.
• Alcryst x Leif gets Avo+20 when Adaptable kicks in, as well as a chance to gain 1000 G when defeating an enemy with Quadruple Hit.
• Diamant x Byleth grants Str+4 with Instruct and Goddess Dance. (In the final battle, the former actually came in clutch for Jean to ensure a kill on one of the wolf knights.) Also, Divine Pulse is deserved compensation for Diamant’s low accuracy.
• Timerra x Lucina, when using All for One, gets chain attacks from all units within 3 spaces (instead of 2).
• Hortensia x Celica can warp up to 15 spaces (instead of 10) when using Warp Ragnarok.
• Zelkov x Lyn has a range of 20 (instead of 10) with Astra Storm.
• Veyle x Marth is simply because she was the last one to hold the ring before her recruitment. She recovers HP with the attack performed via Divine Speed, and her Lodestar Rush consists of 9 attacks (instead of 7). Also, while engaged, she is surprisingly cute.
• Jade x Roy gains an extra 5 max HP while Rise Above is active.
• Chloé gets no added effects from Micaiah as a Backup unit; I just had her equip that Emblem when she was a lance flier instead of a griffin knight, so giving it back to her was just for old times’ sake.
• Jean x Sigurd has a 20% chance to break each target when using Override. (Believe it or not, this has happened against the final boss.)
• Rosado x Ike gains an extra Res+5 when using Great Aether. I figured that this effect was the most compatible with Rosado of all my Flying units, the one with the lowest raw Resistance. (Also, Reposition is a particularly useful skill, especially for a Flying unit.)
• Louis has Mia S, which comes with the skill Shove, as the unit with the highest Build in the army. Very scarcely do I use it over Swap, although the last time I did was actually during the final battle.
• Since the royals have Dex-dependent skills for their exclusive classes, the Emblem Rings of those remaining all boost Dexterity to some degree.
• Etie has Sharena S for Fortify Def, which suits her as a glass cannon who tends to take up the rear.
• Yunaka has Seliph S for Battlewise, seeing as critical hits are her bread and butter. (The same can be said of Panette, but Yunaka is overall better at getting kills.)
• Anna has Anna S because it’s funny. Yes, that’s it.
• Amber has Deirdre S for Renewal, which pairs well with Brave Assist (as I have seen firsthand while Goldmary had the ring during her time as a hero).
• Kagetsu has Alfonse S for Spur Atk, which admittedly worked better when he was a better dodge tank (with Armorslayer+1 x Dawn), but still helps ranged attackers who may or may not benefit from his chain attacks. (Breaking an axe wielder or doing chip damage to a bow wielder would be best-case scenarios to create such an opportunity.)
• Bunet has Fae S for a Luck boost, which makes “Seconds?” more likely to activate.
• Lindon has Olwen S for Dire Thunder, which pairs well with Weapon Insight. A critical hit with Thunder, now that’s what I call thundercooked.

As for the weapon choices, most of them serve to accommodate the Build stats of their respective characters. I won’t bother explaining the engravings, because most of them are byproducts of “seemed like a good idea at the time” decisions. (Side note: Why is Mini Bow+5 the best way for an archer/sniper/Alcryst to hit an adjacent foe? It’s so sad.)

I would also like to add that the best part of warriors is that they are the one kind of Backup unit that can wield a longbow, allowing them to chain attack from 3 tiles away without the help of Backup x Lucina All for One. (Imagine if their level 5 skill had anything to do with chain attacking. I personally shudder to do so.)

Lastly, I have come up with some pet terms to describe phenomena within the game.

• Chloé Crit: A critical hit with a single-digit percent chance, usually with 90-100% accuracy. Also commonly pulled off by Hortensia and Merrin.
• Laura Crit: A low-accuracy hit and single-digit percent critical hit in one. In one of my Solm Palace training sessions, Jade pulled off two in a row with a Steel Greataxe (68% hit + 5% crit), which left me delirious. (Named after Laura from Radiant Dawn, with whom I once pulled off a 69% hit + 1% crit.)
• Crit Machine: Amber with a Killer Lance + Fates engraving. This was more of a pre-advanced thing, as nowadays his hit rates are unusually iffy.
• Crit Queen: Panette with a Killer Axe, especially when Blood Fury kicks in. The Blazing engraving (which I previously let Anna use when she was an Axe Fighter / Warrior) has helped to amp up the percentage, but circumstances have me doubting whether it has changed my luck.
• X Slayer: An allied unit that can defeat a particular kind of enemy unit in one fell swoop. (e.g., Citrinne and Ivy are General Slayers because of their insane magical prowess, although the latter is reliant on Nova. Pandreo is the Great Knight Slayer because his combination of Magic and Speed is just right. Fogado and Clanne are Wyvern Slayers because of their high Speed and magical weapons: radiant bow and Excalibur (the latter boosted by Nino S). Etie used to be the Griffin Slayer with her silver bow, that is until she got powercrept.)

Afterword

Even though I have beaten the game, there is still much that I have yet to do: Tempest Trial level 50 for all 6 maps, max-level donations, max-level support, playing gacha (ugh) for the remaining Emblem Rings, improving a personal database that I dare not share just yet because of its incompleteness, and that’s just to name a few. At the same time, I also have a heaping backlog with little if any room for the extra content in this game, so all of the above is indefinitely on hold. It’s been fun, but also, cheerio.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Life After Death (the TobyMac album)

(To be perfectly honest, I’ve been hardcore procrastinating at this over the past two months (which should be no surprise if you know me well enough), hence my needing a moment last month and being a bit late even now. But, well, here it is at last.)

For starters, I’d say I’m no more than 50% musically inclined. I played the clarinet in elementary school, played Guitar Hero for 8-10 years, and have regularly listened to MP3 players while driving or being driven since high school. I’ve never taken any music theory classes or anything like that, so composing on my own is out of the question. (I have, however, dabbled into curricular poetry and been complimented on my singing.) Back in the day, albums did not matter to me; I only ever cared about singles and sometimes artists, and I think Guitar Hero has been the biggest influence on that mentality. Thus, the only albums I had purchased prior to Life After Death are OSTs of the video games Bravely Default, Phoenotopia: Awakening, and Beat Saber. (I’ve also had albums bundled with video games: the Persona 4 Arena soundtrack, the orchestra CD that came with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Telephantasm with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock; however, I don’t regularly listen to songs from any of them but the former.)

Changing gears, I’ve been at least somewhat fascinated by TobyMac since I started hearing “Made to Love” on the radio in the mid-2000s (about when I started entering my teens and becoming American), at which time it was the closest thing to Christian rap I had ever heard. (Not to say I’m all that into rap, just putting it out there.) For the record, I did not know that he had been part of DC Talk, despite having heard their songs “In the Light” and “What If I Stumble” (the former of which I naïvely thought was by FFH because of its similarity to “Open Up the Sky”). Between then and the release of Life After Death, I became particularly fond of “Beyond Me”, “Feel It”, and “Move (Keep Walkin’)” as anthems of humility, faith, and persistence respectively.

And now we arrive at the present. On K-Love Radio, I recently started hearing “Promised Land”, “Help Is On the Way (Maybe Midnight)”, “The Goodness”, and “Cornerstone”. Between liking what I was hearing (especially “The Goodness”) and the recommendation of DJs Skip & Amy to listen to all of Life After Death, it fell on my heart to make the investment. This album is heavily influenced by the untimely death of the artist’s 21-year-old son, so while it has its upbeat moments, it naturally takes some emotional turns. Also note that “21 Years”, “Help Is On the Way (Maybe Midnight)”, and “The Goodness” come with music video copies on Apple Music.

With all that in mind, I dedicate this blog post to a track-by-track breakdown followed by a final verdict.

“Help Is On the Way (Maybe Midnight)”

In the music video, TobyMac chases after a boy who, based on the “21 Years” music video, surely must be his late son, scrambling waywardly through an urban city at night. A trio of Diverse City members dressed like cultists are also involved. After the second chorus, TobyMac is seen performing with the Diverse City members in a tent where the boy winds up at the end.

The song itself bears somewhat of a resemblance to “Move (Keep Walkin’)” but is more upbeat and not as funky. (Between the two, I prefer the latter overall.) The imagery of “rolling up His sleeves again” serves as a reminder that God is at work in every moment, even if His craft is out of line with the expectations and desires of man.

“The Goodness” feat. Blessing Offor

“A saint is not someone who is good, but someone who recognizes the goodness of God.” I don’t know how direct this quote is, but it is the theme of this song. It might just be my favorite song of the album between its inexplicable catchiness and its uplifting message.

The co-artist is a legally blind Nigerian-American who once competed in The Voice and has produced soulful hits of his own: “Brighter Days” and “Believe”. True to his name, he is a blessing, no less from humble beginnings. Also, he evidently agrees with the “rolling up His sleeves” imagery, considering his part in the second verse.

In the music video, the two artists perform their duet around Blessing’s piano, while a gathered-around crowd pops in and out to worship with them during the first chorus and from the second chorus to coda. This scene is occasionally accompanied by brief cuts of an off-camera individual applying a liberal amount of paint in many colors to various unattended objects, including letters of the words “THE GOODNESS”.

“Deeper” feat. Tauren Wells

This is what I call a song with atmosphere. While the lyrics suggest that the title refers more to a relationship, the instrumentation gives off the vibe of being underwater as in the common alternative. As atmospheric as it is, it’s not as upbeat as the previous two tracks, outing itself as a shift from party time to real talk, not unlike a sermon following hymns. One way it can be interpreted is as the offer of a doting father to provide more for his prodigal son.

The co-artist, mentioned as “T. Wells” before the second verse, hosted last year’s K-Love Fan Awards with Matthew West and is “Known” (Get it?) for his fair share of hits including “Hills and Valleys”, “Until Grace (feat. Rascal Flatts)”, “Fake It (feat. Aaron Cole)”, and more recently “Joy in the Morning”. (He is also featured in the outro of “Feel It”, which is absent from the radio edit.)

“Show Up Choose Love” feat. Jon Reddick

“Whatcha got, Mr. Reddick?” Well, for starters, he has the Christian song of 2022, “God Turn It Around”, not to mention a newer song in “I Believe It (The Life of Jesus)”. His verse kicks off what can be considered a rallying cry (or perhaps a call to arms) for those wavering in finding their purpose. “Sometimes the next right thing is all you can do,” as conveyed in the outro, amid the duality of having “come a long way” and having “a long way to go.”

Following the second chorus is what I can only assume to be a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote: “You know we should leave everyone better than we found them!” That’s part of what it means to “choose love”, putting aside one’s own desires for the sake of others, that it may help them understand the God we believe in.

“Promised Land (Collab OG)” feat. Sheryl Crow

With my apologies, I don’t know the next three featured artists well enough to provide any details on them.

Life can feel like a grind, so much so that it gets hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. One might even struggle with doubts that they’re on the right track in their daily life. In truth, this life is just the prelude, and greater wonders await in the future that we cannot see, as the Lord has promised.

“Everything About You” feat. Marlee

This, I opine, is when the album takes the emotional turn. While the closest friend I have lost was a house cat who lived for almost 17 years, this song makes me imagine how much worse circumstances could be. However, even though I prefer to avoid emotional music whenever possible, this is the second-most emotional song I can handle, behind “Blessings” by Laura Story. All in all, not my kind of song, but nice to know it exists.

“Life On It” feat. Sarah Reeves

“You can sit there moping all day, or you can pray to God for the vigor to get back up on your feet.” This isn’t really a quote, just the kind of pep talk that I imagine would inspire a song like this. The rapping in the first verse is the highlight of this song, whereas I’m not a fan of how heavily auto-tuned the chorus is. At least the instrumentation somewhat makes up for my gripe.

“Faithfully”

If you ever think you can’t get out of a depressed state, just look at this as a retrospective of being in the pits two songs ago and rising up over the course of the next song. Even if it feels like something is missing, the Lord is not. He sees His children in the midst of their struggles, and He looks on them with love, no matter the circumstances.

“Cornerstone” feat. Zach Williams

More upbeat than the previous track but still laced with troubles, this song serves as a reminder that there is no better way to live life than living out the truths that God plants on our hearts, however subtly. The album version differs from the radio version in that it opens up with studio talk instead of an introductory instance of the verse riff.

The co-artist is a former hardcore rock-and-roller who was “Redeemed” (by Big Daddy Weave) from alcohol addiction and called to put his talents to alternative use, namely in hits such as “Chainbreaker”, “Fear Is a Liar”, “There Was Jesus (feat. Dolly Parton)”, and “Heart of God”. However, to be blunt, I would say that his part in this song feels rather lacking in variety compared to his solo work. The last time he sings, “On Christ the solid rock I’m standing,” notably the “On” part of it, I feel like the kind of singing he does at that point is repeated a few too many times afterwards. (Perhaps the last chorus of “Heaven Help Me” has an influence on this opinion.)

Not to downplay the song at large; it’s a rather catchy tune with a combination of artists that I would never have pieced together in my head.

“Found” feat. Terrian & Wande

Terrian, at the time of writing actually misspelled “Terrain” in Apple Music, is notable for being a member of Diverse City, although I’m not familiar with her solo work, let alone that (or anything, really) of Wande.

This song can be considered an elaboration upon the line of “Amazing Grace”: “I once was lost, but now I’m found.” TobyMac and Wande contribute slow rap to it, while Terrian is the one with the melodies. It’s also not far off from “Faithfully,” although it’s more of an emotional tune with not as much action taken on the part of the first-person subject in the lyrics.

“Fire’s Burnin'” feat. Cory Asbury

Of all the songs I hadn’t heard before listening to this album, this one has to be my favorite. It uses a fresh type of imagery: a moth to flame, with God being the flame to which his disciples are helplessly drawn like moths. Also, my video game brain associates the instrumentation with the Eggman levels in Sonic Adventure 2.

The co-artist is the main one behind “Reckless Love”, “The Father’s House”, and “Egypt”. Another unexpected feature, not to mention one whose melody blends well, almost too well.

“Space” feat. Kevin Max, Michael Tait & DC Talk

Not only is this basically a modern DC Talk song, but it’s another song with atmosphere, carrying the vibe of outer space while the subject of the lyrics is the degree of difference between God and man. I remember once in Sunday school being taught that the cross is what bridges the gap, although that alone is not enough for us to return to God; part two of the teaching is an ABC method for one to Admit they are a sinner, Believe that Christ died for them, and Choose…something; that’s the part I don’t remember. The point is, all we can really do here on the earth (after the confession and belief) is stand in faith, overcome the trials of the enemy, and lead lives that help others experience the glory of God. Even if some things are not right, “Love keeps no record of wrongs,” as stated in the outro and 1 Corinthians 13:5.

“21 Years”

Based on how this is one of the three songs with a music video, no less the one that I have not yet heard on the radio, I imagine this is supposed to be the track that drives home the whole point of the album. It starts off like a Soundgarden song (“Black Hole Sun” in particular comes to mind) but is otherwise the sort of chill tune to be expected of the artist. In terms of emotional weight, it lies between “Found” and “Promised Land”.

In the music video, TobyMac paces around in the middle of a cold, wet, and rainy day while contemplating the difference between what could have been and what has come to pass. It makes the “Oh” shouts before the last chorus feel more poignant. Written on a tree stump is “JOHN 14:6”, which features one of the quintessential declarations of Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The video ends with the quote, “…and while he was still a long way off, the father saw his son and ran to him.”

“I’m Sorry (a lament)”

In a similar vein to “You Love Me Anyway” by Sidewalk Prophets, this song holds humanity accountable for the uncountable ways it has deviated from godliness. TobyMac mentions the major ones in the verses, adds to the second and third choruses by praying to the Lord to “Wake us up”, and recites Matthew 5:3-11. While mostly mellow in tone, it basically explodes from the third chorus until the outro.

“Rest” feat. Terrian & GabeReal

Ironic how a song like this follows a song with such a boisterous third chorus, although the decision is somewhat justified by the opening line, “I woke up to this.” GabeReal, previously featured in “Eye of the Storm” by Ryan Stevenson, has his moment in the outro of the song (after the chorus that Terrian sings).

The importance of rest is explained in Genesis 2:2-3 and reiterated as the Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20:8, both listed below.

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”

Thus, there is no shame in taking a moment to cool down, unwind, recharge, or whatever you want to call it.

Afterword

This album was definitely worth the purchase. There is nothing like Christian music for planting the truth of God in one’s heart, and this album delivers with an undeniable flow. As hard as it is to rank the songs, the ranking is naturally part of my final verdict.

Fire’s Burnin’ > The Goodness > Help Is On the Way > Show Up Choose Love > Life On It > I’m Sorry > Space > Deeper > Rest > Promised Land > 21 Years > Cornerstone > Faithfully > Found > Everything About You

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

Halfway-ish through Fire Emblem: Engage

Although this game came out last month, I didn’t bother getting it until at least two weeks after its release. My disinterest in it came primarily from thinking that I had dedicated enough time to Three Houses and that the new installment would be no better, but I caved to a few factors:

• I felt like I was getting addicted to Pokémon Violet, hunting for shinies and spices, when I reached a point of feeling down on my luck. (In particular, I blame Flittle and Glimmet.)
• I became acquainted with the popularity of Yunaka, yet her appearance and “Hiya papaya” shtick are thoroughly unappealing to me, so I wanted to find out for myself whether there was more to the phenomenon.
• The female protagonist, despite stirring up controversy with her vivid color scheme, has a skirt and thighs that heavily contribute to her being the best modern protagonist in my opinion. (By contrast, I’m not nearly as fond of the male protagonist.)
• Honestly, I owe it to representing Nowi so much as part of my internet persona.

And so here I recount my notable experiences with the first fifteen chapters of the game. I named the protagonist Saber because her red and blue color scheme brought Beat Saber to the most creative recesses of my mind. This partly ties into why I stuck with the female protagonist despite being male in real life: I would have named the male protagonist Beat, but I’ve already given that name to the Grafaiai that I used in Pokémon Violet. (…for a different reason, granted, but that’s beside the point.) In that vein, I named Saber’s pet Beck after Jaroslav Beck, the primary composer of Beat Saber. (It can also be interpreted as being at the beck and call of the protagonist.) As for the difficulty, I chose Hard “Classic,” using the latter term loosely because of my tendency to abuse the “Retry” menu option and the ability to reset the game, specifically to keep my units alive. (All I can say to justify it at this point is that it hits different.)

From what I can tell, Engage is essentially a cross between Fates and Three Houses, finding the middle ground between both games (for better and worse), laced with bits and pieces from all throughout the series at large. Now that I’ve gotten my “in a nutshell” statement out of the way, it’s time for me to do the same with what I consider the most annoying aspect so far. Based on how difficult it is to train Vander (the Frederick/Gunter equivalent of the game), I figured it would be best to level each base-class unit up to 20 before using a Master Seal (and save any Second Seals for when a unit reaches Advanced level 20 or Special level 40), but then there’s such a stark contrast between base units and advanced units that it takes 3-5 of the former just to deal with one of the latter, on average. This dilemma is especially evident in the power creep after Chapter 11, where hindsight holds that it pays to grind in abundance before Chapter 10, particularly with Kagetsu starting off at Advanced level 1. It also helps to not go through Chapters 12 and 13 too hastily, as they consist of silly gimmicks and more oddly high-leveled retainers (Pandreo, Bunet, Merrin, and Panette). Instead, now that I’ve unwittingly dug myself this hole, still about half my units are stuck at base level 17 (at the time of writing), and I’ve had no choice since they were “stuck” at base level 15 but to resort to Tempest Trial level 20, a three-map time sink that gets less fruitful the more the “Suggested” level of the average skirmish/training rises. (Chapter 16 is the point of the game that I call the “Advanced-pocalypse,” where literally nothing on the World Map has a “Suggested” level any less than Advanced level 1. Granted, Lyn’s paralogue claims to be Base level 19, but the last time I checked the map, I saw one base level 20 unit accompanied by a crowd of advanced levels 2 and 4 units, so I’m not buying that.) This and the routinely Somniel activities are the primary contributors to my 80+ hours of game time, I suspect. (Another insufferable aspect is being strapped for gold, which has once urged me to sell prizes from Wyvern Rides, and not having enough Master Seals to go around.)

(Note: The royalty + retainer pair recruit trios and the Somniel activities are the aspects I find the most comparable to Fates and Three Houses respectively.)

With all that ranting out of the way, I feel inclined to share two particularly stressful happenings that I have experienced in the main story.

• Chapter 11: This is the (first?) chapter where the Draconic Time Crystal (Divine Pulse equivalent) is stolen from the protagonist’s possession, so “Every decision counts” indeed. A cavalier at the home stretch wound up with the Leif Emblem, fixing to jeopardize the rear guard and having a nonzero chance to crit Chloé and Saber, the only two units who could work towards averting the crisis. (The crit chances were single digits, but from my experience with the Fire Emblem series as a whole, I dare not put anything past any opposing units.)
• Chapter 13: I bum-rushed the bosses too hard, not realizing that I was out of Time Crystal charges, and wound up having to make some risky plays. Jade landed a Tomahawk hit with ~47% accuracy, Clanne had to get at least one Chain Attack from Saber or Panette, and most of all, Amber had to get up-close and personal with the Brave Axe user. He had an 80-ish hit rate and a ~27% crit rate with his Killer Lance, while the opponent had a ~57% hit rate and easily 2HKOed. Amber needed a crit and got one, but he also got hit, meaning that he had to dodge twice during the Enemy Phase to survive. Miraculously, he did.

Now, since I’ve already touched upon Yunaka and the protagonist, it’s time to get more detailed about the notable characters of the game. Starting with Yunaka, the best way I can describe her personality is like Akira Kogomi from Lucky Star. Between that and her ostentatious appearance (which makes me tend to call her Boobaka), I’ve made it a point to deny the character, but what I can’t deny is her prowess on Avo +30 tiles. (Terrain Avo bonuses are doubled for Covert units like thieves, and her exclusive skill boosts her crit rate on such tiles.) Honestly, though, the crit bonus is the only aspect of her I prefer over Zelkov, the cooler thief character with a penchant for *emphasis* and an easier time avoiding attacks during Enemy Phases. (It’s also worth noting that thieves like those two are good for opening doors and chests.)

(Boucheron is what I would call the polar opposite of Yunaka: likable as a character (specifically the resident himbo), but his prowess as a unit leaves a lot to be desired.)

Speaking of mature-looking characters who are totally not my type, Ivy is like the second coming of Camilla, being strikingly similar but thankfully more low-key. The only other thing I have to say about her is that her line, “Have a nice flight,” sounds similar to Iris Heart from the Neptunia series.

That brings me to voice resemblance suspicions. I’m 99% sure that Clanne sounds like Pit from Kid Icarus and that Lyn is voiced by Wendee Lee (because she sounds just like non-HDD Blanc), but everything below is guesswork from a guy who refuses to look up the voice actors until after finishing the game.

• Etie sounds like Mythra from Xenoblade 2. Also, I consider her an A-tier character for her orange hair and her uniqueness as a female. (Speaking of uniqueness, Seadall also breaks the mold as a male dancer, or so I find on account of Olivia (Awakening) and Azura (Fates).)
• Citrinne’s line, “I claim this victory,” reminds me of Erica Mendez.
• I have a sneaking suspicion that Céline sounds like Flayn from Three Houses.
• Jade sounds like Kisara from Tales of Arise, although she’s more comparable to Samus Aran as a character. (Long blonde ponytail, tall and slender, wears armor in battle)
• Lapis, my favorite character and possibly the actual cutest character in the whole series, has some Erica Lindbeck vibes, particularly in her victory lines.
• The wildest guess of all, since Louis (honestly one of the absolute units in the game) resembles Azama (Fates) in Kellam’s (Awakening) armor, could he be voiced by Matt Mercer?

Back to the topic of sex appeal, Chloé is certainly not lacking on that front, but somehow I like her style enough to not mind as much as in the case of Yunaka and Ivy. (Part of it might be a resemblance to Therese Alexandrite from Rising of the Shield Hero, and perhaps also the oddity of the foods that she likes.) Hortensia, on the other hand, ain’t it. (She and Alfred are whom I would call two of the most annoying characters in the game. And speaking of annoying, Zephia is like Aversa (Awakening) but somehow worse.)

I think that’s about it for now. It’s been a long and grindy road, even what I imagine is not very far into the game, but somehow I’m engaged enough (not sorry) to consider it a worthwhile time sink.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

More on Virtual Reality

It hasn’t quite been a year since I first got into Beat Saber, but I have other plans for the rest of the year, so consider this an early anniversary update. Since May, just a fair bit has changed, as it’s common for rhythm gaming skill to only increase logarithmically (loga-rhythmically, if you will), as I can attest to in my experience with Guitar Hero and this game. (Speaking of Guitar Hero, Legends of Rock (the third installment) is now fifteen years old. How time flies, eh?)

In terms of Beat Saber at large, the game now has two new Extras in honor of their fourth anniversary: $100 Bills (Camellia’s “215$-Step” Remix) and Escape Remix. (And now that the grand total is 8 instead of 6, each of my Setlist Shuffles consists of two Extras instead of just one.) It also has newer One-Saber maps for Into the Dream, LUDICROUS+, Firestarter, Magic, Ghost, and Cycle Hit (all with Normal, Expert, and Expert+ difficulties), giving Volumes 4-5 and the Camellia pack their first taste of One-Saber representation. To give a rough idea of how these maps are in terms of difficulty, here is where I stand.

• 215$-Step: Recent SS on Expert, not passed on Expert+
• Escape Remix: FCs on Expert (Faster) and Expert+
• One-Saber maps
  • Into the Dream: SS on Expert+
  • LUDICROUS+: FC on Expert+
  • Firestarter: FC on Expert+ (before the above)
  • Magic: FC on Expert+
  • Ghost: Passed on Expert, not Expert+
  • Cycle Hit: SS on Expert+

(Also worth noting about 215$-Step in particular is that it’s the one reason I’ve ever felt inclined to disable the background visual effects; even with “No Flickering” (the Expert default), it has some flashbang moments that my eyes find unprecedentedly hard to deal with.)

Speaking of SS, I now have that rank on every Expert map except Ghost, with Crystallized and 215$-Step being my latest. I have also passed almost every Expert+ map, with the only exceptions being Camellia songs: Spin Eternally, Final-Boss-Chan, 215$-Step, EXiT, Ghost, and Light it up. ($1.78 was a real doozy, somehow easier to FC on Expert than to pass on Expert+.) Additionally, three of the One-Saber maps listed above (Into the Dream, Ghost, and Cycle Hit) are now the only ones that I have not FC’d at max difficulty (making for a grand total of 25/28), with my latest FCs on that front being One Hope, Angel Voices, I Need You, and Rum n’ Bass. (I scooped up Origins before Firestarter.)

On that note, after having gained more personal room space, I’ve started to take the circular maps more seriously. Now I have FCs of all of them at max difficulty except for Rum n’ Bass 90° (since I only recently got 360° in my latest Setlist Shuffle), Origins, and Pop/Stars. (In other words, that’s 16/19 for 90° and 17/19 for 360°.) Origins is totally within my grasp and contains a clever bit of mapping: When the vocalists say, “Feel it all around,” a slew of obstacles encourages the player to do a quarter (in 90°) or half (in 360°) turn. (Oddly, though, the Expert+ map has fewer notes than the Expert map (which is basically a replica of the regular Expert map), and 360° has one more note than 90°.) As for the other two, I find Pop/Stars harder than Rum n’ Bass despite the latter having more notes, although that might just be because I prefer Rum n’ Bass as a song. (Preference might also be a contributing factor to why I’ve not yet FC’d the One-Saber map of Into the Dream.)

Back on the subject of Expert maps, I managed to FC WHAT THE CAT!? like I’ve been going for, but I surprisingly got Cycle Hit first.

I say “surprisingly” because I think its five-minute duration daunted me at first, but ultimately its few hard parts are not as troubling as those of WHAT THE CAT!? or Spin Eternally, the original two I had in mind. (On the latter front, I have grown rusty and can hardly get a combo through the first half of the song, not to mention I’m incredibly inconsistent at the multitasking part.)

Regarding WHAT THE CAT!? in particular, the second drop remained a real scoundrel to the end, but I learned a little trick to hitting the trapezoids in the second half: to focus on my dominant (right) hand and leave my recessive (left) hand on autopilot. (Yes, it works whether there are three blues or three reds.) That was after I figured out the transition out of the trapezoids, so the run on which I tried it was the deciding run, no outro chokes or anything. Now my Expert grand total is 38/45.

On Expert+, I finally got Give a Little Love, but nothing else I mentioned last time. (My closest Legend run held a Chorus 3 choke, but now just getting past the first verse is a pain.) Didn’t stop me, however, from increasing my count with songs that I realized were easier than my other previous goals: Magic, I Wanna Be a Machine, Escape Remix, and (just yesterday) I Need You in that order. Now my grand total is 13/45.

That brings me to my current goals besides those already mentioned.

• Final-Boss-Chan, Expert. I have had two outro chokes so far: one due to a total brain fart after the first guitar-to-synth tradeoff (my left arm just failed to move when it had to), and the other due to tunnel vision at the end of the last guitar fill. Long story short, I totally have this in me; it’s just a matter of not beefing it.
• Expert+ maps
  • Turn Me On. I freaking choked the outro. This was after figuring out the funny sixteenths, specifically by loosely treating them as doubles, although doing so has affected my prowess in other alternation-prolific songs such as Legend and Commercial Pumping. At this point, I can’t pin down the multitasking part, but I’m sure it’ll be smooth sailing from when I do.
  • Escape. It’s not hard. It’s just…awkward. Awkward enough, in fact, for me to leave it on the back burner in favor of the others. Note that I have gotten to the second chorus at least twice, however.
  • Commercial Pumping. One day, I played out of my mind and got -1 on the last freaking sideways cut. I’m ill convinced that I will ever replicate that run, let alone break 700k again, at least until I’ve jumped some of the other hurdles.
  • Full Charge. I have two -1s: one at the hard part in the middle, and one dumb one in the second drop. Part of me wants to get this one over with, because the less I feel obligated to play the only song in the game I dislike, the better.
  • Immortal. Twice in a row, I have had max combos of 525 notes from the start of the song, and go figure that my first run of that nature got me a PB of 666k. I want to break this cursed PB someday, but somehow I’ve lost the mojo that I had at the time.
  • Unlimited Power. My best run so far got a choke in the first cycle of the second chorus. Now I’m somehow incapable of even getting past the intro.
  • Balearic Pumping. I have broken 500k with a -5, but it would be in my best interest to FC Escape first.
• Higher-speed maps with outro chokes: Angel Voices, Into the Dream (Faster), One Hope (Super Fast)

Speaking of higher-speed maps, I believe they are what remains of the FC totals to provide.

• Expert, Faster: Crab Rave, Curtains, Escape Remix, LUDICROUS+, Spooky Beat (Grand total: 26/45)
• Expert, Super Fast: Breezer (Grand total: 2/45)

So that about covers it for Beat Saber, but the post at large is not over. (Let’s face it: As much as I enjoy the game, it’s not all there is to VR.)

Megadimension Neptunia VIIR

My appreciation for the Neptunia series is uh…fairly evident, to be sure, so of course this remaster would be another of my go-tos when talking about VR games. I was originally going to save this kind of talk for my next Neptunia post, but since that won’t be happening until next year at best (partly because I don’t have the Senran Kagura “crossover”), I figured I would at least give an overview based on my playthrough ranging from April to May. (It is also worth noting that this game came out before Shooter and RPG.)

In terms of gameplay, I expected to be able to explore dungeons and fight battles from the perspective of the characters, or at least for some of the cutscenes to be adapted into VR events, but the reality is more primitive than any of that. Everything genuinely VR-related, save for an introductory cutscene, occurs in the Player Room: an environment separate from the main game, which is simply a refresher of VII with different mechanics and Noire’s English voice redone by Erica Mendez (as opposed to Erin Fitzgerald, who voiced the character before 4GO). Not to mention, interactions in VR are limited to head movements.

Below is the step-by-step procedure that I would use for a Quest 2 stationary setup.

1. Initiate Quest Link and SteamVR. (Unfortunately, Quest Link does not support hand tracking, so the controllers are required.)
2. In the SteamVR Home, use the right menu button to make sure the background stays in SteamVR while the Quest Link menu is open. If not, restart SteamVR; if so, launch VIIR.
3. While VIIR is “Up Next,” open the Quest Link menu and minimize all windows.
4. View Desktop Monitor 1, or whichever monitor contains the application.
5. Push the monitor view at least three meters away to reduce headache. (A distance in meters briefly shows up near the controller when the view is grabbed with the lower trigger.)
6. When a VR event occurs, make it a point to reset the app view (using the three dots at the right edge of the Quest Link menu) before pressing A to start. Use the SteamVR background and/or Player Room music as a cue to bring the Quest Link menu back up.

To bring it all down, I would return to the title screen from in-game, exit SteamVR, quit the application, and then disable Quest Link. If in doubt, I also have a few troubleshooting steps.

• If the headset view freezes, that means Quest Link wet the bed. Use the right menu button to quit Quest Link; if this option is not available, restart the headset instead.
• In the event of a “disconnection” while hard-wired (which I’ve experienced a bothersome number of times), just re-enable Quest Link and wait for everything to load. Then, repeat Steps 3-5 (and 6 as needed).
• I once had an issue where the Quest Link “Enable” prompt refused to pop up when expected, and I suspect it was because I had a Windows update queued up, because restarting to install the update resolved it.
  • Or perhaps it was because I had a Visual Studio Code window open. I learned from getting into Vacation Simulator more recently that Quest Link has something against VS Code, but I can’t imagine what.
• If the Oculus app doesn’t go down with the X or Alt+F4, pull up the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and bring down anything Oculus-related that does not have a black icon beside it. Then, “bring down” OVRServer_x64.exe to restore the Oculus app. (I haven’t had this problem in months, but who knows?)

(I would prefer to just play the non-VR parts of the game on my PC monitor, but two key factors inhibit me: the inability to play audio from the computer (as opposed to the headset), and the headset’s sleep mode. I could just launch the game in non-VR mode, but only if I’m confident that no VR cutscenes will occur.)

Even aside from the above issues, I have had the game crash at least twice and even softlock in one of Noire’s VR cutscenes. (Of course it had to be Noire.) She said a line and just…stayed silent in her idle animation. I had no choice but to restart the game.

In terms of different mechanics, the overworld QoL improvements are appreciated: autosave, no map encounters whatsoever, being able to break literally any obstacle from the get-go, sprinting in dungeons, after-battle healing (which actually I have mixed feelings about because it ruins the survivalist vibe of the Zero Dimension), unconditional experience for all party members (which VII is one of the few series entries to limit to begin with), and the party leader being followed throughout the dungeon by other members (e.g. Neptune being followed by Uzume and Nepgear in the Zero Dimension). The combat system seems to be a cross between those of VII and Superdimension, therefore actually not half bad.

However, having to pay Credits instead of just leveling up to acquire new skills is the one thing that peeves me above all else, given how stingy I am as a result of my upbringing. I decided therefore to actively avoid the trifle for my first playthrough, and even though it made encounters difficult to solo with Neptune, it was a reasonable boycott in my book. Second on the list is the quest that requires a Neptune trading card, which generally involves playing gacha with the CPU Chips. (Ugh, I never thought I’d have to use that term in the context of Neptunia, let alone at all, but here we are now.) “Don’t you dare buy them just for the cards!” But what else am I supposed to do to complete this quest?

As for the refresher aspect, it feels like I have a better understanding of the story, particularly from noticing all the foreshadowing that I had previously overlooked. Also, the VR cutscenes taught me to not focus so much on the subtitles, improving my immersion in non-VR cutscenes.

Ultimately, VIIR is not worth getting a VR headset for, as reiterated by critics and fans alike, but it is worthwhile for a fan of the series who already has a VR headset, especially if they have not yet experienced VII at all. (That is to say that it would be ideal to play VIIR first in that case.)

Vanishing Realms

This is the only VR game I have that specifically requires a minimum play area space: 2 meters by 1.5 meters. So, I figured this month while I knew I had the room space that I had to at least give it a try. It was daunting at first, as in I almost chickened out in the axe-filled corridor, but resolving myself with the reminder, “I came here to play,” turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made in quite a while. Beneath its foreboding surface lies what I would best describe as a bare-bones (literally in a sense, given pretty much all of the enemies are skeletons) rendition of what The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was meant to be when it was first released. (To think that was more than ten years ago…)

Squaring off against the undead in close combat with swords and/or shields is one thing, but my two favorite activities are:

1. Climbing along ropes and chains by grabbing at one point, moving the controller away from the direction of intended displacement, and repeating as many times as needed
2. Dueling ranged attackers by taking cover, popping out to attack with the bow, and so on

I haven’t quite completed the game yet, but it seems short enough (2.7 hours for more than half progress) that I would rather just savor what remains for now.

Other picks

• The Lab: SteamVR freeware by Valve featuring basic VR mini-games for those learning the ropes.
• Moss: A 3D platformer where you play as the reader and driving force of the story (specifically as if interacting with a pop-up book) while leading a mouse named Quill on a grand adventure. It took me 2.7 hours to beat this game, albeit with 22/38 achievements.
• Golf It!: One way to play mini-golf in VR. Not the best form of putting practice for genuine tee time, but it’s fun to play with family and friends. I have played on every course, but I only have 7/41 achievements with 5.3 hours of play time. Also, Walkabout is a possible alternative that I have yet to experience for myself.
• Vacation Simulator: 30% fun, 50% relaxing, 20% puzzling. The one goal is to “make memories” in three locations: the beach, the forest, and the mountains. Keep in mind that the elements are merely audio, visual, and somewhat tactile. I have put 6.4 hours into the game for about 50% completion (not even including the “Back to Job” expansion) and 7/26 achievements.
• Skyrim VR: If I could just overcome my motion sickness, then this would probably be the most satisfying VR game to play. It is the one game that I have bothered to modify, specifically using Kithara’s Steam Guide as recommended by my elder brother, although I still have yet to clear the tutorial.

That’s all I have for the time being, but I doubt it will be the last time I talk about VR.

À la prochaine! (Until next time!)

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!)

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!)