Music of the Week #439

Still a couple ways off

Just another week or two before I’ll be free from my bigger deadlines and get to write something other than these weekly updates and FGO posts. Speaking of which, I didn’t even know there was going to be another break in episodes but I shouldn’t be surprised with how many there were now. Azur Lane’s final episodes are also in the pipeline in a couple weeks which I almost forgot about too. I ain’t holding my breath but at least they decided to animated some of the light-hearted 4komas instead of more original stuff like this.

Oh boy, this track. There’s a point to be made about the quality of a given element, be it character, music, and everything in between about what’s worse between being bad or forgettable. Is it better to be offended at something’s terribleness or just forget about an aspect of a game entirely because they were just that unremarkable? This little debacle comes up to the question of Gaius, who almost assuredly falls into the latter category of being the most boring character introduced in the Cold Steel plotlines. Gaius Worzel is an ethnic Nord who comes from the eponymous Nord Highlands all the way to the northeastern border of the empire that shares a border with the Calvard Republic. Gaius’ origin story of how he was given a recommendation to attend the academy by Mueller Vander’s uncle add to the gravity of his skill but that’s where most of it ends. Alongside Elliot, Gaius is the typical nice guy who doesn’t do anything else of importance or have any interesting character traits or interactions aside from the highly joked around “the wind” lines because he literally doesn’t say much else other than that. I’m not sure if I’m willing to do an OST coverage for Cold Steel 3 and onwards but he doesn’t become interesting in those games either, which is especially hilarious given the plot development. In Cold Steel 1 at least, the Nord was just a big excuse for you to just ride your horse around and take in all the PSP-tier graphics and scenery. CS2 thankfully realized that riding everywhere was a huge waste of time and added quick travel.