Music of the Week #270

So close

A week break will soon become a month break in a few days but that means these are technically the busiest times for me. It would feel that way if I didn’t work ahead and get most of my work done so there’s not much else to be said. I’ve been taking a break from fighting games and been playing some DotA and some San Andreas again while I try to find my copy of Sleeping Dogs since I’ve been meaning to play for that for a while and I definitely some change of pace. Perhaps I should do the unthinkable and actually play the games I bought during the Summer Steam Sale.

Anyways, let’s get through this week’s theme while I write up more stuff for people that’s not Jojo. I’ll run out of those small-segments in due time but I still have a hefty amount to talk about since some series, believe or not, are technically “new” content on this site I haven’t addressed before and that’s always fun.

This week’s theme is the other newcomer from the PS3 port of EXE: Late, Byakuya. As far as story goes, Byakuya doesn’t really say much but acts as the bodyguard and “little brother” to another character, a girl named Tsukuyomi. Tsukuyomi is the real focus on the story mode as she and Byakuya, students from another school with their distinct uniforms head out into the night for Tsukuyomi to investigate something of her interest. A good amount of the characters note on how Tsukuyomi cannot fight but is a vessel for an abnormally prolific EXS known as Sephiroth and for some reason, she is unable to utilize it. In her stead, Byakuya fights the duo’s battles with a strange set of “knives” that float behind him.  He is noted to be freakishly powerful and even Merkava makes mention of something inhuman in him and how they’re similar from just investigating his “stomach”. By the end of the arcade mode story, after beating Hilda out of the Altar of Light and Dark and preventing the mass of EXS from surging, Tsukuyomi more or less reveals after the fight that her journey was mostly to find some answers to her condition and explains that her abilities became null after betraying a friend. She reveals a scar that signified the event and apologizes for bringing Byakuya with her through the night and reveals that they’re not really siblings. Tsukuyomi tells Byakuya to do as he wishes but Byakuya decides to continue helping her as his plot apparently has something to do with his admiration towards his real sister who is presumably dead.

In game, Byakuya is pretty damn annoying to fight against since his EXS abilities known as Dark Spikes, Chelicerae. 8 floating knife-like extensions that build up the image of him being some sort of arachnid and since they’re not really attached to him nor held by his hand, they work off a different hurtbox values and essentially gives him even more range to fight back with. His moveset is however extremely limited but doesn’t bar him from being a completely annoyance to fight since nearly all of his moves hit multiple times and his normals are excellent. His go-to combo starter is his multi-hit special that mostly sets up for other parts of his kit. Alone, it has three rekkas that can be repeated and the first two reps are usually made for combo extensions and filler while the third is exclusively used for combo enders. Byakuya has his pseudo-projectile which solidifies his entire theme of being a creepy spider since he can set up web-traps that appear on the screen. He can place them and follow up with said attacks and this can be done inbetween his previous special that make up a core part of his combo game. Getting hit by these webs also steal a block of GrD so it’s extra annoying. His last special is his ground-web ability that has him dash toward the enemy and reappear on the other side and he sets up an unblockable trap beneath their feet and is mostly used to catch people off-guard while the super versions is used to extend combos. He’s an absolute pain in the ass to deal with and his Force Function is essentially a fake-web that also doubles as a standing, ranged overhead.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4- Diamond is Unbreakable Episode 35- Return to Order

I’m genuinely surprised and you can probably guess why. I’ve been on a tirade on how the visual quality has been dropping since months ago but this episode didn’t have as many hiccups as I would have thought. But of course, it’s still way too early as the exciting moments have only just begun as the final battle of Part 4 kicks off.

I only hope that the rest of the episodes to send off this part look as great as this since the action hasn’t even started yet. Here’s hoping for consistency in the future.

Rewatchables Part 1- A Balanced Scale

So for the past 2 seasons, I’ve seemingly watched nothing but Jojo and to make matters even more apparent, I didn’t even really review anything a season before Jojo aired either. No doubt, not too many anime series in general these days really pique my interest especially with the amount of work I have but why even keep this site afloat when I only bother watching Jojo and posting music? I asked myself the very same question and wondered what exactly I could talk about here when I don’t have too much time thinking about the minuscule amounts of series I watch in general.

Then it hit me that I never really gave one of those Top 10 series I love and all kinds of lists and lists of my favorite X-series. Truth be told, I still don’t have a concrete list of what I absolutely love. But what I do have is a particular collection of series that I like to rewatch, and given how much new anime comes out every 3 months, there’s an undeniable merit to the ones that get on my folder. I got my external hard-drive around a year or two ago and a good chunk of it is my backup drive but another significant portion is my anime folder. Keep in mind, these series are “mostly” fairly recent and I haven’t tracked down the older series yet.

So let’s just embark on what exactly constitutes as a literal example of a series that I bothered to remember and watch again.

Music of the Week #269

Break Time

I’ve gotten myself a few extra days off so I’ll be finally able to get some non-Jojo stuff up and probably something else related to that up after this. I’ve been wracking my head if it’s a decent enough length to warrant the post but I’m guessing anything that isn’t Music of Jojo related would be alright at this point. Aside from dealing with my boredom through writing, it has once again dawned on me on how much fighting games can entertain you for only so long and now I’m just craving an RPG on the side. Maybe I should replay something or get back into breeding my Pokemon again.

Anyways, while I figure that stuff out let’s get into our music showcase.

This week’s theme is Nanase’s theme, a relative newcomer to the Under Night cast where she was added in to the console release of EXE: Late. Nanase is a second-year middle schooler who came under attack from a Void where Hyde came and saved her. However, this was after she was bitten and she blamed Hyde for “defilingher body”, a quote that is as understandably misleading as much as it is uttered by her in front of others. Nanase’s powers manifested through this event and her EXS of Vengeance came in the form of wind manipulation, where she became able to call forth a large blade and some fashionable wings on her shoes. She soon made a name for herself in the In-birth world, the Windmill, but she’s more known for stalking our main man Hyde in an attempt to exact her vengeance. Her story mode is as anime-cliche filled the entire series gets as Nanase hunts down Hyde and runs into a lot of the female cast that easily mistake her accusations which of course amounts to a misunderstanding and it being cleared up by the end.

Nanase’s emphasis on wind has her naturally be a relatively speedy character but most of her power comes from her aerial moves. While her normals are decent enough, a large variety of her combos come from aerial links and command normals that lift herself and her enemies in the air for longer and then slam them down after she’s done. Her projectile is also only available as an air command and sets up for some decent wake-up pressure. Her ground specials are well rounded: She has a solid reversal and her Charging special has 3 follow ups that mostly serve as a means to break the enemies guard or utilize it as combo filler. However, not too many of them are safe and Nanase’s biggest weakpoint is that she has little means of breaking into a well-rounded defense and she’s better off contesting others and getting counter hits to start up her combos. However, her speed and agile abilities in the air, supplemented by her command jump/increased air-time Force Function mostly keeps her in your face waiting to bait out a stray hit. Because once she opens you up, it tends to hurt.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4- Diamond is Unbreakable Episode 34- Beginning of the End

To my exact fears, the panel I so wanted to see animated turned out to be a disappointment. Not a complete disappointment because the act itself is cool as all hell but it just looked wonky as hell. The entire scene with Kira talking to the girl after blowing up her boyfriend looked so off but just the context of that scene enough didn’t completely make me hate it since it’s a damn cool scene anyway. Whereas I didn’t really need to review Part 3’s adaptation all that much, Part 4’s review might just be more than praises being thrown out.

But to be fair, this is what modern day Bluray releases are for so maybe there’s something better coming along.

Music of the Week #268

Almost

Currently in the middle of overworking myself so I can relax for the weekend. Not much else to say other than balancing out work and practicing fighting games but I will mention I’m working on something for the site on the side. That’s right, something that isn’t a music post or a Jojo post in months, huzzah. Look forward to that since “that” is also something I plan on working on right now so I’ll see you again soon.

This week’s theme is the first Vs. theme featured in the series and its between Gordeau and Chaos, two close friends by story regards. Since I already talked about both, I decided to talk about the other Guest Character that I wasn’t able to feature, Akatsuki. Akatsuki, like Eltnum, comes from a completely different game-series, in his case, another doujin fighter by the name of Akatsuki Blitzkampf. I can’t even begin to tell you it’s entire story but Akatsuki is a cyborg soldier who served in the Imperial army but was lost during a turning point in the war. Akatsuki, believed to be dead, returns 50 years after the war to continue his work and dealing with some related stuff since the war is obviously over. One fun note, this is the game where you can play as a fucking Tank that takes nearly all of the screen, it’s fucking nuts. Anyway, Akatsuki in UNiB sort of goes through the same story-wise. He arrives in Japan during the Hollow Night and finds himself fighting through a bunch of people and then deciding to leave, that’s quite literally it. His moveset is heavily derived, like Eltnum, from his origin game and his “EXS” is his mechanical abilities called the Blitz Motor that infuses his punches and kicks with electricity. For a good chunk of his gaming scene life, Akatsuki sat at the ass-end of the tier lists because of his power mobility and unorthodox combo routes. He had issues moving around, which is critical in UNiB given the range of some character’s moves but even so, his damage was pretty decent if he could actually ever get his hands on you. Come UNi[st] and Akatsuki’s movement still remains poor but his extra options in opening people up like the lightning infused can-opener he is now rocketed him up to top tier.

But that’s practically unrelated to this week’s theme so, oh well.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4- Diamond is Unbreakable Episode 33- Cheap Paper Tricks

As suspected, it seems that we’ll be continuing through the Cheap Trick arc for one more episode. Coupled with that, it seems that we’ll be moving straight along Hayato’s little mini-arc, that directly leads us to the final arc, in the back. This episode once again showcased extremely noticeable dips in quality such as Rohan flailing around to get Cheap Trick off of him and Terunosuke’s attempts to ward off Josuke after Yuuya frees the latter. Here’s hoping for the final arcs to look decent, especially my favorite panel spread in the entire part.

I’ll be sure to keep my hopes mediated though.