Music of the Week #572

The weathers gone cold, I missed this.

I actually managed to get some writing done and will hopefully get them out before the week ends. Crazy to think Summer just went by in a flash like that. My favorite season in the year is Fall but that signals the coming end to the year and it’s been a big one for me. But what I’m mostly hoping for is to have something to watch for it.

This week’s theme is the very down-low tune of the Pirate’s Grotto, the dungeon for Keelhaul Key. While things get spooky deeper into the cave, it’s actually pretty relaxing if not for all the booby traps and cannons placed everywhere to bar your way. The tune is also mixing a bit of that ambiance when you’re hearing the constant waving and crashing of water that’s ever present in the stage. A big mix-up from Lavalava Island from 64 as this ones entirely themed around water and features the final paper transformation technique in the game, and understandably, the least used one in the form of a paper boat.

Music of the Week #571

The seasons coming to an end.

I am incredibly proud of myself as I saw how the season was coming to an end and I was able to not watch a single episode of Kanojo Okarishimasu and finally be freed from that horrendous rabbit hole of literally nothing happening. How in the world it got a 3rd season is beyond me. How the hell do people like this? I finally finished Stone Ocean Part 2 as well and I’m in the middle of writing up my thoughts.

As much as I love Chapter 5 of Thousand Year Door, it does have a bit of an annoying back-track streak. Is it anywhere near as bad as the Twilight Trail to the Creepy Steeple? Thankfully not. As you leave the shanty-town the crew builds to keep themselves safe, you get one screen of peace before getting into a single screen of avoiding Piranha Plants and Fuzzies before a light platforming section before you finally arrive at the bridge and a formation of rocks that hide the entrance to the chapter dungeon. Saving Bobbery and finding his beverage only takes around 2 round trips, and aside from the platforming segment being a damper on a quick sprint to grab a coconut or something, the paths aren’t that narrow either.

Music of the Week #570

Man, it’s already another week.

September is half-way gone and I’ve been busy that I haven’t been able to finish the back-half of Stone Ocean part 2. On the Jojo train though, All Star Battle R is out and I hear the netcode remains pretty much the same from before. More important to me however is the voice-work being squarely less enthusiastic than before, which disappoints me.

This week’s tune preludes the start of a chapter I actually really like. Keelhaul Key, much like the Paper Mario 64’s fifth chapter, is about a treasure hunt on a tropical island. The main difference being that of circumstance as your shipwrecked and are forced to find the treasure and a way back to Rogueport while in Paper 64, you were just on a leisurely jungle adventure in an island ruled by the Yoshi.

Music of the Week #569

Oh hey, something to talk about.

Stone Ocean’s 2nd batch of episodes dropped last week and I’ve made my way through half of the episodes. I’ll give more detailed thoughts on the episodes later but I feel like most of my complaints will be similar to the rest of the internet’s, the Netflix acquisition and batch releases are significantly worse in a viewing experience than weekly. At the very least, I think the quality has improved in a visual standpoint.

So after complaining about backtracking for like 2-3 weeks, we move on to a less stressful portion of the game back with Bowser where we join him for a bit of swimming. While the Mario’s musical repertoire for underwater themes isn’t as fondly remembered as say, Donkey Kong’s, I did always like the water theme and it’s renditions.