Music of the Week #438

Still ways off

I got the Babylon post up on time but I’ll still be incredibly occupied until after the second week of March so we’ll still be a bit before we get to the stuff I want to talk about. Wouldn’t you know, the season is almost over too and I have no idea what’s coming up to cover.

This week’s tune plays during the examination interludes between school trips administered by the alcholic homeroom teacher, Sara Valestein. Despite my previous gripes about the members of Class VII, Sara herself doesn’t have any glaring flaws outside of few characteristics that are essentially locked behind future games. So little of her is actually known and the points of significance she does get are always between her and some faceless Jaeger mooks you end up fighting and while some of her backstory does end up being unraveled, her attachment to the class’ development and her own, once again, is tied to Rean. You could make a case for Fie too but Fie’s hardly a character either.

Fate Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia Episode 18: Finally

Things are finally exciting.

Took a while for the exciting stuff to finally start and now is the time for when the despair meter reaches the end of its gauge as Quetz’s attack, while massive, doesn’t do enough to stop Tiamat’s advance. I recall describing Babylon pulling off that end of the world feeling really well. The lahmus weren’t enough but now we’re going to see a ton of noble phantasms aren’t going to be enough either.

Music of the Week #437

Busy Busy

So between now and next month will probably be me at my busiest but I finally got down what else I wanted to write about between the seasonal posts. Last time I mentioned some games but now I have a certain sub-set of games I want to talk about and I really want to get to them as soon as I can but I unfortunately am going to have an incredibly occupied weekend and then some more. I’m actually really looking forward to tackling these.

To compound my contained hopefulness, this one theme from Cold Steel plays during the one time it rains during the school season and Rean goes around with a umbrella being a tool again. This is the first time attention is given to one of the NPCs, namely, Rosine. Instead of the girls in the main party, Rosine of all girls is the one that Rean escorts around the campus with the umbrella which always stuck out to me why she got special treatment. Wouldn’t you know it, the secret NG+ content reveals a lot more truths going forward. Aside from that, who doesn’t like atmospheric rain?

Fate Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia Episode 16&17: Mother of Life, Sea of CG

These breaks aren’t really helping the pacing.

Seeing as how I’m writing up Episode 16 a day away from Episode 17, time to bundle up since not much is really happening. I’ll stress again how Lahmus definitely felt more otherworldly and threatening in-game for the aforementioned reasons because type advantages made them pretty beefy and they removed buffs, what assholes.

Ushi’s fight as well felt at least a bit more alarming because they fired off Hassou Tobi every single turn but at least I feel like they got the set-up for the finale down right.

Music of the Week #436

Bit behind on things

Not going to lie, despite me hyping up all these terrible things happening in Babylon, it isn’t hitting me as strongly as the game did. Or maybe because I expected a much more distorted voice. Maybe it’s because the Lahmus in game were annoying little shits who didn’t have any class advantages to work with and their annoying buff removal made them much more of a threat in large numbers. Either way, my opinions are slightly shifting for Babylon and now everything rides on how hype they can make the finale.

This week’s theme is Strain, a tune that plays when the class is dealing with logistics, usually when they’re being assisted by another larger group such as the RMP or the host of their field study missions. No big complaints since I haven’t had the time to collect the rest of my thoughts. My big complaints are usually aimed down the characters since I have acknowledged that the world building and NPCs have remained in good quality.

Music of the Week #435

Another break

So Babylon apparently needed another break/recap so we don’t have much to talk about this week. Feels really weird having a break week despite coming out of a previous break around a month back but if this means making the lamhus look a bit better then I have little complaints, but I doubt that’s really the case.

This week’s theme brings about some respite as it is Bareahard, the first major city visited in the school trips that is also the home to the best character in Cold Steel, Jusis Albarea. I’ve made it no secret that I see most of the Cold Steel classmembers as bland and acting more like friends to Rean than being friends with everyone else in the class. Because of that latter part, development is locked behind Bonding Events but certain characters, like Jusis, develop no matter what and it saves them from being boring cardboard cutouts. Jusis hails from the House of Albarea, one of the four great noble houses in Erebonia whose personal conflict stems from his illegitimate birth and his struggles to live up to his calling as nobility. Unlike Alisa and her troubles with her mother, Jusis’ goals and character are a hell of a lot more tangible and understandable since his goal is a way of life and tied to his personality instead of just arbitrarily exuding any sort of business sense and tech savvy. Every part of Jusis’ chapters are heavily involved with the plot, inexorably drawing Jusis into the bigger picture as well with the exploits of his father and brother. In fact, I’d say Jusis’ plotline enough to make him a main protagonist if Rean wasn’t a million times more super special in his circumstances.