Music of the Week #598

Time to get busy.

My time’s about to be even sparser than it already was for the next two months so just a heads up. I don’t really think I have too much to watch this season nor have I really put in time for a new game despite having a decent amount in the backlog. I’ve mostly been continuing my 2nd Elden Ring playthrough after I finally got a hold of my footing again. My interest in playing Dragon’s Dogma is incrementally increasing so I’m willing to bet that’ll be what I get to after I advance far enough into my FTH run in Elden Ring, we’ll see.

This feature was showcased a number of times in the pre-release stages of Super Paper Mario’s life but it’s a feature that maybe pops up once per chapter during the more open-ended segments before you enter a structure for the later chapters of a stage. While not as important of a feature as it is grand, I still do appreciate the times it does happen and when you have other characters to make use of.

Music of the Week #597

Rev up that new season.

Nagatoro is over but one other series I did keep up with has one more week left. Will I talk about them in their own post? Probably not. What I can talk about this time is that I was recommended a manga series that I wouldn’t mind seeing adapted in the near future with so many series getting adapted these days.

Flipside will be a theme that you’ll be hearing a lot since it’s the Toad Town and Rogueport of the game. I don’t hate Flipside but I definitely remember a lot less of its NPCs compared to the other two hubs. The theme itself isn’t bad but it really isn’t too catchy in comparison. The constant elevator rides definitely don’t help it either but one thing I do like is exploring its ruins to place the Pure Hearts across the city to unlock new chapter doors. While it may not be “organic” like finding the right pipe that leads into the next zone, I do like having all of the said zones lined up so neatly at the tower.

Music of the Week #596

Another week half gone.

Think Springs got one or two more weeks left before new shows start airing. A cursory glance shows that I got nothing to watch, guess it’s time to up my game time because I’ve just been playing my 2nd run of Elden Ring.

Count Bleck’s crew and his machinations that drive the game’s plot is easily one of the strong points of SPM’s overall strength in its narrative. Even his crew become an interesting bunch since they’re essentially the new X-Nauts in being the villain party. Instead of just Lord Crump, we have 3, technically 4, lackeys for us to keep in mind seeing going forward in each chapter end interlude that clues us in on their involvement for the chapter to come.

Music of the Week #595

March rolls on by

Not looking forward to losing an hour of sleep this weekend. The winter season is also nearing completion and I vaguely recall looking at the spring anime line-up without finding too many things to watch.

While it’s not catchy as the two main themes that came before it, I think the titular theme for Super Paper Mario showcases its whimsical nature that fits its aesthetic beyond our recognizable characters. The artstyle for SPM isn’t something too many people find charming because so many of the NPCs look weird. Despite Thousand Year Door making some obvious paper mechanics, SPM kind of changes the aesthetic to be more like that to mixed effectiveness. It’s very “blocky”. I’m not necessarily saying the theme conveys blockiness somehow but it’s very reminiscent of Flipside, the game’s hub world.

Music of the Week #594

It’s March already

Nioh 2’s write-up was comparatively short to how much I had to slog through its item management so I’m left with an odd void in my schedule where I’m unsure of which game to proceed with next. I COULD go through all of Mass Effect again but it’s a series I’ve already played extensively. Maybe it’s finally time for Dragon’s Dogma I also did buy Fairy Fencer for cheap and heard it was the only game Compile Heart has ever shitted out that was worth anything.

We finally move on to the beginning of the end for the Paper Mario franchise as we know it. Super Paper Mario is a divisive title that dropped the RPG elements and became a platformer with a questionably half-baked gimmick on top of it. It didn’t occur to me how big a shift this was to me at the time of release because I was just excited for another Paper Mario game. I see the whole perspective a bit better now but that doesn’t take away from Super Paper Mario’s strength in its characters and story, while some of its other aspects aren’t that great. There’s decidedly less memorable music for one so let’s cover the ones that did manage to stick with me across the decade. Champion of Destruction is a rendition of Count Bleck’s theme, a character we’ll be getting to know as the game forges on.