So I spent most of my time last week summarizing the premise of TitS and completely forgot to mention that I don’t exactly have any series I’m following this Fall Season. I’m looking through the series and will most likely have something to follow before the end of the season so just know that I’m not completely out of it yet, because I really don’t want to be and catch something entertaining but at a quick glance, I can’t find anything on the surface level that piques my interest. I’ll keep anyone reading updated on that end.
Not like I have any less to talk about in the music section though. We continue with our new spotlight with one of the primary motifs of the Trails in the Sky trilogy, the Whereabouts of Light or Whereabouts of the Stars depending on where you look. It’s a theme that is very commonly used in the game and a lot of its tunes can be heard within other themes as well but most people will remember it as the harmonica tune that Joshua plays at the very beginning of the game. The tune will continue to surface between this and it’s continuation in SC.
Late on this one because I wanted to get the right image for the new music spotlight for the few months. Much like how I was able to finally close the book on the Souls series with Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3, they were not the only games to enter my fold during the early portions this year that made 2017 quite the magical time for me in terms of videogames. To fill that void that the Souls series left me, Trails in the Sky, the first entry in the Trails subseries and the 6th game overall in the Legend of Heroes series by Falcom was something of a popular pick nowadays in the JRPG corner. Originally released in 2004, it resurfaced on Steam during 2014 and gained a cult following for its stellar music, lovable characters, and an interesting plot that spans over 7 more games to come. While it’s combat is nothing to write home about, the chapters highly formulaic, and some cliches thrown in there, Trails in the Sky was quite simply magical when it all came together and a big chunk of that is thanks to its stellar soundtrack that helped build the mood in all of its key scenes. This week is just the opening theme so while that plays, allow me to try and summarize how the series begins.
The writing and exposition is a plentiful in the series and is something of a entry barrier with all the reading one has to go through. Excess of reading however is hardly a barrier at all for someone who loves dialogue and world building in the game so I went through with it just fine but the start of the series has a lot of smaller things happening so let me just guide you along these next few weeks with small summaries of where these tunes played and when they had the most impact. To keep things simple, Trails in the Sky (which will now be abbreviated as Tits) features the adventure of the adopted siblings of Estelle and Joshua Bright. The latter of whom was brought into the family by Estelle’s father, Cassius. Cassius is part of the Bracers, an occupation that in regular terms resembles a mix between community servicemen, bounty hunters, and a load of other occupations an RPG character would do in their spare time. As the two kids grow up with each other, they work towards becoming a great Bracer like their father and as they are fully inducted into the Bracer Guild, Cassius leaves for some important work and boards the airship to his destination. The duo and their instructor, Senior Bracer Scheherazade fill in for the duties Cassius was supposed to do and everything is fine and dandy until news report that the airship Cassius has boarded is listed as missing. Thus begins the main quest line in the game.
Despite all the shit I had to say to MVCI, I will say that the rumors weren’t kidding when they said the budgets mostly went into the DLC characters instead of the actual game and roster. From the looks of it, Monster Hunter, Sigma, and Black Panther looks fucking MILES above what the original cast look like. Does it mean I’ll forgive the game at all? Probably not but being the sort of guy who always appreciates armored characters like Ultron, I’ll probably give it a few more glances and flail around with my friends.
End of the road for the DS3 music spotlight now that the series has run its course. What’s that? Why no tracks from the Ashes of Ariandel and Ringed City? Well simply because I didn’t find too many of their themes all that appealing. I will mention that Halflight Spear of the Church’s theme is fantastic but that wouldn’t sit well with me to NOT end in a number that isn’t 0 or 5. So you can listen to that on your own. This week’s theme returns the series’ final moments to the last moments of the first game. The Soul of Cinder sits alone in the dilapidated end of the world in the distorted Kiln of the First Flame underneath the weirdass sun. His fight is quite the love-letter to fans as it is the accumulation of all the souls that linked the fire in ages past, meaning that we’re fighting ourselves who beat the first game, and in part, the second game. By this, a total of four different playstyles can be fought against, the regular swordsman, the spear and miracle build, the pure sorcery build, and the dex min-maxing curved sword and pyromancy build. That wasn’t all of course, the big man comes out after the first healthbar is depleted and Gwyn’s soul returns with his original moveset and a couple of other additions. The 3 piano notes probably made a lot of people excited during this.
It’s always an experience to pick up a series half-way through the season and have a slightly different viewing experience compared to the others. I’m bringing this up specifically because I feel like I would have disliked Gamers! if I had been watching it weekly every week since the start than being able to binge watch it more than half-way and only catch the last 3 episodes. While I knew about the series’ through a lot of the references it made that surfaced on twitter during my twitter art raids, I never really bothered to watch it until recently. It was probably because it was around that time that Hajimete no Gal was boring me to tears first. For what Gamers! turned out to be, I can at the least say that it was more enjoyable than what Hajimete no Gal was though.
Only a single Summer series remains to be talked about and I’ll be working on that in the remainder of the week. You might be thinking that I’m forgetting another series and I’m not, Hajimete no Gal doesn’t really require a whole post to talk about how boring and cookie-cutter it is. The only thing going for it is probably how it started going anime original pretty early in the series and that didn’t really work out in the long run, at least for me. I wasn’t really going to put the time to just talk about the seasonal fodder shows like that so I won’t. To be fair, Gamers! isn’t all that groundbreaking either but at least it had some funny moments for me to enjoy, but that probably has to do with a factor that I’ll discuss when we get to that point.
Anyways, this week’s Dark Souls 3 music spotlight happens to be one of my favorites. The Twin Princes of Lothric are the last remaining “Lords” to be collected and forcibly returned to their throne in Firelink Shrine. In our journey, we notice that each Lord of Cinder had a specific NPC involved in their own quest to return the lords to their thrones. Anri and Horace to Aldrich, Siegward to Yhorm, and Hawkwood to the Abyss Watchers. Different lords from past ages and now, we as the Ashen Champion arose to bring this age’s supposed Lord, Prince Lothric back to his throne. While a very rudimentary boss as far as presentations and gimmicks go, I couldn’t help but love this fight. Maybe it really was the music but something about these two fighting together hit me really hard. I also enjoy what Lothric does while piggybacking Lorian, stuff like buffing up their charge attack and the likes. It’s interesting to note that Lorian immediately dies if Lothric is slain as well, cementing that their connection is what keeps each other alive.
The chapter on the classroom of heroes comes to a close as they prepare for a fun and grueling excursion to the woods. I’ve droned on and off about how the S2 ending off right before the most exciting portion of the manga serialization began but I still have to give credit where credit is due with how far this adaptation came. Let’s not waste too much time since this is a look at the series as a second season, and not so much as its own show.
Lair of the Idle 