Music of the Week #451

Eating up time

I can’t pin point what exactly what I’ve been doing the past week for me to not have posted some of the game-related stuff I was writing but here we are. I’ll try to get it out before the week is done with since there’s not much else to do but I did hit a writing block so while I’m two written-up pieces ahead, the third one might take some time.

This week’s theme plays during one particular scene in the Roer chapters where a major side character, Claire Ridvelt gives Rean some info on the recent happenings his class has been dealing with. Claire’s role as one of the Class’s supporters gets expanded marginally as the games go on and her focus isn’t all too important. But since this is Cold Steel, her role is mostly there to be the unromanceable older girl to be inevitably attracted to Rean anyway, only adding to the character void problem that Rean’s existence provides as Claire’s character interaction only extends to Millium who I haven’t really talked about. I’m not sure when I’ll get to her but her development problem isn’t as bad as just being literally Neptune from Neptunia.

Music of the Week #450

Chugging along

The games post ended up being written a lot quicker than I thought so I’ll be putting that up in a couple of days once I tweak it some more. Aside from that, it’s been a pretty uneventful weeks of just working out and watching Space Brothers.

This week’s tune is something I could tear into given its title but Cold Steel 1-2 do one thing that I can’t fault it for, and that’s having dynamic main menu screens that change depending on where you are in the game. Despite the mediocre graphics for a PS3 game (originally vita) I do enjoy seeing the characters doing something as simple as riding a train and even changing costumes depending on your setting than just plain old title screens. I’ll complain more about Class VII another time but you can enjoy this theme without associating it too much with them and just focus on how Falcom can make nice main menu screens.

Music of the Week #449

All the free time in the world

I’ve started some preliminary writing for the larger writing projects now that I have a lot more free time on my hands. Hopefully while those get written up, I can channel more ire and valid complaining towards Cold Steel.

Speaking of which, Atrocious Raid is one of the first tracks one hears upon starting CS 1 where a Zero no Kiseki intro sequence plays showcasing an event four to five chapters into the game as the opening segment. It’s not quite as nuanced and made full of meaning in Zero since storming the fort as a four-party group is a plot point that’s played straight in Ao while the same cannot be said in Cold Steel despite two characters being omitted in this particular sequence. The impact feels a lot less important when it really completely solidifies that yes, your group of heroes is a bunch of schoolkids about to save a military installation from being taken over. Despite that, it’s a decent theme.

Music of the Week #448

Almost there

While I’m still far off from finishing some game spotlights, my commitments before summer are almost finished so hopefully I’ll be able to make regular progress with them more frequently.

This week’s theme is Garrelia Fortress, a rather important landmark that is present in both Cold Steel and Zero. As the literal wall that separates Crossbell and Erebonian territory, it becomes quite tense place to be from both sides as both parties from the two subseries either visit it or see it up close. The fate of Garrelia Fortress and what happens there becomes a major plot point in Ao no Kiseki and it’s one of my favorite chapters in Crossbell. What happens on the Erebonian side is a lot less exciting, which is honestly a trend comparing events from Crossbell to Erebonia. If nothing else, the fact that we get to experience two separate sides of a situation involving a huge fortress with guns is one of those key selling points one plays the Trails series for.