MIDI Week Singles: "Main Theme" - Elevator Action (NES)

"Main Theme" from Elevator Action on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1983)

Composer: Yoshio Imamura

Album: No Official Release

Developer: Taito (Arcade), Micronics (NES)

I have very fond memories of that game.  Elevator Action was a game that I frequently borrowed from Dellaños waaaay back in the late '80s and early '90s.  It was a simple game that involved starting at the top of a building, stealing some Top Secret documents, then using elevators, stair cases and escalators to make your way down to the parking garage while being chased and shot at by enemies who looked a lot like the player, but with different clothes, and you know they were bad because they wore hats.

What I really like about this music, is that there isn't anything here that blatantly screams secret agent, or anything even remotely related to a Monty Norman Orchestra.  But it works, and it works well when combined with the graphics of the day (both from the NES and the Arcade cabinet).  There is just something about the melody, albeit a 7.5 second melody that repeats once before entering into a 9 second outro.  There is no discernible bass line, there is no drum line.  It is just this one tone coupled with the background sound effects as your character shoots and rides their way down to their ruby red sports car in typical 1980s fashion.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

First Impressions: One Strike (NS)

I picked up One Strike last night for a stupid low price of less than $1.00.  It was an impulse purchase because I was getting heavy Bushido Blade vibes, a fighting game that I loved when Dr. Potts introduced me to it maybe 20 years ago?

Simply put, Bushido Blade was a fighting game set in Japan where you choose a fighter, equip them with a weapon, and fight.  Visually it looked a bit like Tekken(but less floppy) with katanas and war hammers.  What made Bushido Blade significantly different than most fighting games is that you could easily kill you opponent with a single strike, but not in the way that you could die from a single combo (two I guess) in Killer Instinct.  The trailer for One Strike seemed to promise the same feeling of a fighting game where you could kill someone with a single strike, hence the title.

Ha!! Blocked!

The one big thing that I was a little worried about, primarily because I was not sure about how the game would control.  The graphics looked simple enough, but maybe QubicGames over compensated by making the controls needless complicated?  It turns out that the controls are pretty simple with the L/R buttons and triggers activating a dash, B is defend (for a limited time), and Y is Attack.  With one character, I did find out that they require two quick Y presses in order to attack, the first to ready the weapon, the second to strike, but perhaps it is because that it was supposed to be similar to a nodachi?  Of the six playable characters, I have only used two, but I am very intrigued to see how others fare, and whether or not one feels more over powered than the others.

Ha! Killed!

From what I can tell so far, unlike Bushido Blade, here your character decides what weapon you use so there is nothing in the way of customization.  At least not yet.  I do not know if later in the game you can choose a color setting for your character, since you do go up against yourself in a different color scheme, I suppose it is possible.

So, of the 10ish minutes that I played on the Easy difficulty setting, it definitely is a game that I am going to play often, and in short bursts, which is what I was hoping that it would be.  And I have only played one of four of the possible modes of play, so I know that there is still plenty left to explore.

If you happen to be looking for a nice and semi-short fighting game that is bare bones in all of the best ways possible, QubicGames' One Strike is a very satisfying way to go.  Until you die.

Ha-ork!!

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Their Blood Runs Hot as Fire

What It's Like Being A Bad Nintendo Fan

Yesterday while on my break, I was browsing the Nintendo Switch subreddit and came across a post about what Nintendo was going to be bringing to PAX Prime (or PAX West I guess).  So I clicked to open up the tweet, and my honest to Michael Bublé reaction was "Huh.  I absolutely care about none of these games."  For those who have chosen not to click, the games highlighted on the official Nintendo of America's Twitter account were (in this order), Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokémon Let's GO, and Super Mario Party.

There was also an ". . .and more" to be presented at Nintendo's booth, but since there was no official word on what those more games are, I see no point in speculating (cough-cough, 1080 Snowboarding, cough-cough).  But for me, none of the first party games mentioned interest me.  I have never been into Smash titles (the two or three times I have played them on Game Cube).  I did not really like whatever Mario Party game(s?) was on the N64 and as all of the other titles seem to be similar iterations of the same premise, I see no point in acquainting myself with Super Mario Party for Switch.  And while I still do play Pokémon GO quite a bit, I find myself not really interested in the premise and mechanics behind Pokémon Let's GO.

This got me thinking a bit.  I have not been excited for a Mario Brothers game since New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, and before that, the last Mario Bros. title that I enjoyed was Super Mario World.  There is something about 3D Mario games that just has not stuck with me.  Do I actually like Nintendo games?  Sure, there is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe but aside from that, I cannot remember the last time I bought a first party Nintendo game.  I was then overcome with a mild to moderate feeling of guilt, that while I love Nintendo products, maybe I don not like Nintendo games?  That was when I decided to look at Nintendo EAD and Nintendo EPD's list of games.

Nintendo EAD

Sure, I already mentioned the Mario Kart series, and the Legend of Zelda series, and New Super Mario Bros., but there does not appear to be much else.  I've never felt drawn to Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Nintendogs, although Pikmin does look somewhat intriguing, but unless there is a rerelease, that ship might have proverbially sailed long ago.

Nintendo EPD

Okay, yeah, The Legend of Zelda series again, and while I haven't played a Star Fox game since Star Fox 64, I still like the idea of the series.  I also love the idea of Nintendo Labo, but I recognize that I am not the target demographic and I do not know if we need cardboard peripherals around the house.  And, if I had not already been playing Metroid II: Return of Samus on my 3DS (and had my 3DS B button not decided to crap out on me), I probably would have picked up and tried out Metroid: Samus Returns.  The same goes for WarioWare Gold on the 3DS, but And that seems to be about it.  

Maybe, my lists may not be exhaustive and I would rather not just list games, which is something that I have already done.

I guess you could say that my preliminary conclusions is that I do enjoy Nintendo's products and platforms, but their first party games, I am interested in maybe 25%.  That is not a great percentage of interest, but I have not done an actual calculation to figure out what the real percentage is based on the developer, which might be something that I do at a later date, but for now I will continue to feel just a little bit guilty in my lackluster interest in the games that Nintendo is presenting during their trade show circuit.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

I Want My Money Back

MIDI Week Singles: "Title Theme" - Journey to Silius (NES)

"Title Theme" from Journey to Silius on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1990)

Composer: Naoki Kodaka

Album: No Official Release

Developer: Sunsoft

I guess the story about hour Journey to Silius started out is interesting enough (and short enough) to share here.  Apparently it started out as a movie tie-in for The Terminator but Sunsoft lost the licensing rights part way through development, and so Journey to Silius was born.  Unsure when Naoki Kodaka was brought on to write the music, I guess it is open to say how the music composed for this game might have changed had the movie rights been retained.

But what we have here is a Mega Man-esque title theme that is full of energy, catchy, and has a complex (at least to my ears) drum set up.  Even the gameplay is similar in its run-and-gunness that the title theme alone is able to capture.  A lot of the music that plays during each stage fits in well with the style of play well too, but I feel like it never reaches that same level of excitement that I felt when I first heard the title track.  Even a number of the metal/rock covers manage to recreate that feeling.

My only criticism of this song is at 0:43, when the song slows down for a bit, I want there to to be bass drum beats on the eighth notes with a snare hit on 3, until about 0:54 when the song picks back up again.  But that's just a minor criticism.

What I think my biggest takeaway from today's post, is that I apparently really enjoy Naoki Kodaka's music.  I guess I need to look into more games developed by Sunsoft.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

In the Horizon of the Sky

Return of the Clone Wars

I only started watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars a year or two after the last season (consisting of "The Lost Episodes" were released in March 2014).  In anticipation of the series returning after the announcement trailer last month, I decided that acquiring the entire animated series either before it became ridiculously expensive or discontinued (for whatever reason).  

After re-watching the S1E1 "Ambush," I recalled that the series didn't always air the episodes in chronological order.  So, knowing my penchant for experiencing stories in chronological order regardless of their original release date, I decided to look up what the actual chronology was, which was nice enough of Starwars.com to provide.  Something I am looking forward to are the advances in animation technology, how the voice actors portray their on screen characters, and if it is at all distracting when storylines jump seasons.  So far, from Season 2, to 1, to the film, to Season 3, I noticed a bit, but nothing so much that it took me out of the story.  And as I haven't looked over the entire list, it will be interesting to see how much the storylines jump between seasons, although it does look like the remainder of season 1 will be coming up soon.

So now, I am currently on S1E6 "Downfall of a Droid" after starting off with S2E16, S1E16, then the film The Clone Wars, which was the actual start of series.  Something that I have not really understood was the general dislike of The Clone Wars film, with a 5.9 on IMDb and 18% on Rotten Tomatoes.  Granted as a stand alone movie, it is still pretty rough in Tatooine's scenery, and some of the writing can be a little stiff and delivery is stilted, but it doesn't feel much different than some of the other episodes of the first season; or of a lot of first seasons for that matter.  While watching it snuggled between S1D16 and S3E1, the story being told fits in well.  It really does feel like what it was originally intended as, four episodes in a story arc that each have their own beginning middle and end.

Well, as S1E7 "Duel of the Clones" comes to a close as I finish up this article, I now have only 111 episodes left to watch in not quite the order they aired before this new series of The Clone Wars is released sometime next year.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

You Asked for the Latest Party

Game EXP: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (NS)

With the Castlevania series seemingly not going anywhere, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is about as perfect an answer as one would be hoping to receive.  That answer is in the vein of NES era Castlevania games, specifically Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.  Now it has been a while since B:CotM was released, but I have just been sitting on this article for just the right time to release it.  Okay, it was because I was not sure how to go about writing it.  You got me.

This seems eerily familiar. . .

The only real negative thing I can think of to say about Curse of the Moon is that the game is almost too eerily close to an NES Castlevania game for it not to be an NES era Castlevania game.  The colors are spot on.  The sprites are perfectly limited in their color palette, with the exception of a boss or two which are almost more reminiscent of an SNES color scheme.  The music sounds like it could have come out of an 8-bit cart, although it is much more crisp and I did not notice tones cutting out to make way for sound effects, but I could be wrong on that.  You have multiple sub-weapons that are powered by items gained through breaking lanterns and killing enemies.  There is even a score that seems half a hold out from the arcade era, and half to figure out when you have earned enough to gain an extra life.  It's 10,0000 I believe.  The point is (eh!?), is that CotM does a fantastic job in recreating that Castlevania flavor and tone that was present in the first three games that were released on the NES.

In a large castle being attacked by a zombie. . .I think I've done this before?

One other Castlevania bit is that there is little in the way of story.  You start out as the hunter Zangetsu, who kills demons and sensing a strong demonic power emanating from over that way, he goes out in search of his quarry.  Along the way he encounters other hunters who have been imprisoned by various demons and they join him on his quest.  That is about the gist of the whole story.  Like the first Castlevania game where Simon Belmont travels to Castlevania to kill Dracula.  Simple as that.  There were a couple of times when I couldn't remember if I was in fact after Dracula, probably brought on by the similarities in graphics and gameplay, but that never got in the way of my enjoyment.  I could talk a bit more about each of Zangetsu's companions, but I will leave that up to the player, if they want to look up that information on their own or be surprised the first time they play the game.

Always anxious about attacking large enemies with such a short reach.

One critique of the game itself, which I feel is not a negative thing to say, is that I was able to beat the game with only the lives that I earned while playing on my first playthrough.  Oh, I got hit plenty of times while playing on the Veteran difficulty setting (where enemies can knock you back a whole body length instead of only dealing damage) and I died I do not know how many times overall, but I was able to beat the game without ever coming across either a GAME OVER, or a Continue? screen.  Now I have played nearly every 2D Castlevania, with a few exceptions, and for all of the ones that have had multiple lives in the Castlevania I - III style, I have never been able to complete one on a single playthrough  (as opposed to in a single sitting).  I guess you could say that it felt like a Castlevania game created for a modern audience, using assets (albeit all completely new assets) created for a much older (30 something) audience who had grown up with the games.  It was designed to be challenging

What a horrible night to have a curse?

I feel like I could say a lot about Curse of the Moon, and then there are things that I am absolutely unable to talk about.  Like the "Curse of the Moon" mechanic that I just sort of stumbled upon while looking through the pause menu.  This curse, if you choose to select it, will take you back to replay any stage that you had previously played.  The major caveat here, is that when restart a previously played stage, you lose any and all progress you had up until that point.  Any extra health or armor you picked up, is now gone.  Any additional companions are no longer in your party.  The only reason I can see for this mechanic existing in the game is to replay a stage if you missed one of the permanent buffs (max health, armor, max magic, etc).  I did try using it once, but on a save file I had copied just in case it was what I was afraid of, and it was.  I was hoping that by going back to the first stage, that I would still have a character who could slide under certain barriers because there was one of those at the beginning of the game.  However, I found out that you really do just start out back with whatever you had when you first came upon that stage.  I even tried selecting the curse when I had another character, not just the main character selected to see if that made any difference.  It did not.  So as to what the main purpose is, I am not sure.

Overall, B:CotM did a fantastic job recreating the feeling of playing a very tightly conceived and executed game in the vein of Castlevania.  And for only $9.99 US (presently, and on the Nintendo Switch, other prices may vary depending on platform and any possibly sales), it's a fairly decent price for a well crafted game that doesn't bank everything on nostalgia.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Waiting to Take You Away

MIDI Week Singles: "Town" - Thimbleweed Park (NS)

"Town" from Thimbleweed Park on the Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux (2017)

Composer: Steve Kirk

Album: Thimbleweed Park Soundtrack

Developer: Terrible Toybox

Earlier this week, I have re-jumped back full force into Thimbleweed Park.  And with that, comes minutes upon minutes of having one of my characters standing out in the middle of a carless street looking through my inventory wondering what the hell I am supposed to do with this can of Poopsi.  And with that standing around next to the broken payphone on A Street, comes the music of the town of Thimbleweed.

What I find personally interesting about this song is that I get a combination of Twin Peaks and Torchlight vibes from everything from the opening chords, to the way that the guitar and piano intermingle throughout the song.  It is very much a song appropriate for both a film noire atmosphere, and a point-and-click video game that takes place firmly rooted in the late 1980's; yes I was alive and have conscious memories of 1987.

And while "Town" may not be the most melodically interesting song on the soundtrack, I feel like it is the song that sets the atmosphere for the rest of the game.  It puts you in the mindset to not only solve a murder, but to break into the minds of the citizens of Thimbleweed Park and wonder how some of them have functioned for as long as they have.  And that is why I love this song.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

You Reached for the Secret too Soon

Book Review: Star Wars: Ahsoka

Disclaimer:  I did not actually read Star Wars: Ahsoka, I had acquired the audio book version a while back and over the course of a couple of months listened to it a few chapters at a time.  

As is the case with most things Star Wars related, I am out of touch with both the Expanded Universe (aka Legends) and the official Star Wars / Disney canon, so do not go expecting an in depth analysis of E.K. Johnston's treatment of the Star Wars universe in relation to timelines, canon character motivations, and the like.  

My only critique on timelines and whatnot, is that Jason P. Wojtowicz's depiction of Ahsoka Tano for the cover seems to have used her likeness and age from her character in Star Wars: Rebels rather than from Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series.  This bit of a visual disconnect bothered me only a little bit since the novel is supposed to take place only a year after Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which in turn .  I guess I kind of understand the possible reasoning behind having a more adult Ahsoka on the cover, but it still did not really jive with me.

Non-Star Wars universe related, it became noticeable early on in the book that this was a young adult novel, something I suspected, but did not bother to look up, or particularly care about.  I do not know if it is a style that E.K. Johnston writes in, not having read anything by them, but there were a few times when I cringed at how often the dialogue would end with "Ahoska said," or "Miara said," or "Kaeden said," all within the same conversation.  Sure it is good to know, especially when a book is being read by a single person who is talking, but the frequency with which "said" was thrown around during conversations seemed like it could have been written better.  This is of course coming from someone who isn't a particularly great writer and falls into a lot more writing errors than I would possibly care to admit.

As was the case with the other canon book that I have read, Ahsoka felt like the reader/listener was at least somewhat versed in the Star Wars universe, with few descriptions of specifics such as types of droids (maybe simply mentioning that it was an R2 unit is not enough if you have not seen a Star Wars film)

I think that wraps it up for issues I had with Star Wars: Ahsoka.

Now on to what I really enjoyed about the story.

I admit that the two main reasons why I even started this book was because it focused on Ahsoka Tano's time shortly after (a year apparently) she left the Jedi Order.  And because the voice of Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars animated series, Ashley Eckstein, was reading the book.  I probably would have eventually bought the book for the first reason, but because of the second, I opted for the audio book version that was available through Amazon's Audible book service.

Something else that I was not initially expecting was the level of production put into this audio book.  Throughout the entire book, there was background ambient music and sound effects, but never so loud that it was either distracting or drowned out Ashley Eckstein's narration.  The music seemed to be pulled from both the prequels and the original trilogy, which offered a nice aural bridge between the two franchises; I cannot tell if any of the music was either from Star Wars: Rebels or Star Wars: The Clone Wars though.  I do not think this level of production was because Ahsoka is a young adult novel, but more because it was a Star Wars book as licensed by Disney.  

The story itself, I felt, fit very well within the established universe, and the characterization of Ahsoka was well handled by Johnston; additionally being narrated by Ashley Eckstein probably helped with the believability of the character as well.  And like all good Star Wars stories, this one too had a few storylines going that followed both our protagonist, a shadowy antagonist, and the oppressing Empire.  Planets and moons once again are treated as if there was only one settlement and traveling via hyperdrive only takes a few hours.

There were a few characters, the Fardi's in particular that I felt I was supposed to know who they were upon being mentioned, which might mean that I need to rewatch The Clone Wars animated series (oh poor me).  For the most part though, it was a well told story in the Star Wars universe.

Would I recommend Star Wars: Ahsoka?  Sure, especially if you happen to be a fan of The Clone Wars animated series, otherwise you might be wondering why the audience should care about this Ahsoka Tano person.  E.K. Johnston told this story well enough that I would be very interested to see how they could write another story in the Star Wars universe that was not specifically written as a young adult novel, even if it did not focus on Ahsoka; but it would be pretty awesome if it did.

And that concludes my book report on Star Wars: Ahsoka by E.K. Johnston.  Published by Disney / Lucasfilm Press in 2016.  Thank you.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Main - Summer" - Gemfire (NES)

"Main - Summer" from Gemfire on the Nintendo Entertainment System* (1991)

Composer: Yoshiyuki Ito, Masumi Ito

Album: No Official Album Release**

Developer: Koei

So a couple of housekeeping bits before I get to the music.  

*Gemfire was released on a lot of systems.  Some systems I hadn't even heard of like the Sharp X68000 and the FM Towns, before writing this article.  And of course it was released on other known systems like MS-DOS, SNES, Sega Mega Drive, and Sega Genesis.  Not having the time to attempt to listen to all of the variations of "Main - Summer" I decided to simply list the NES as the primary system.

**Secondly, apparently there were no credits revealing who the composer or sound programmer was for Gemfire, but the "KOEI Original BGM Collection Vol.7 Sangokushi III / Super Royal Blood" lists both Yoshiyuki Ito and Masumi Ito as composers for the SNES version of the game.  This is also where I got the title for the song as a lot of other places have it labeled as "Strategy in Summer" which does sound a bit more of an official title than "Main - Summer," but I decided to stick with what was listed on the soundtrack.

Now, on with the music.

A lot of the music in the NES version of Gemfire was quite catchy, but it wasn't until "Main - Summer" came up that I really began to pay attention.  And then I played it again because I had felt like I was listening to multiple songs followed by a reprise.  Only at the 1:35 mark does the song repeat, which is somewhat impressive for 1991 NES.  

Each of the three sections of the song too are all interesting in their own right.  There is the first and most distinct melody happening around the 0:09 mark, which shouldn't be a surprise that it is also my favorite part of the song.  The next section which begins around 0:36 which to me sounds like an extended transition to the third section at about 1:05.  For whatever reason this third section reminds me a lot of music from The Secret of Mana and wouldn't sound at all out of place in an 8-bit version of that game.  As for how the song captures the essence of summer in a tactics game, I cannot say for sure.  Maybe if the song was able to radiate more heat?  It does work on its own however.

So maybe the inclusion of  "Main - Summer" in the MIDI Week Singles is in part because of its catchiness, and a bit of nostalgia.  Also watching videos of the game in all of its tactic-ness really makes me want to get back into Tactics Ogre, because I never finished that game.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
In the Moment of Visceral Haze

Monthly Update: August 2018

I feel like I can sum up July in six words.  

Battle Chasers: Nightwar.  

Fortnite.

Dead Space.

And for what it's worth, having a good old fashioned turned based JRPG and and two 3rd person shooter are a good combination of play style and mind sets.  Also the fact that Fortnite was free (without the $9.99 Battle Pass) makes it doubly awesome considering that I have presently put around 35 hours into Fortnite. Then taking the 15 hours I have put into Battle Chasers, and having played through the first Dead Space (for the third time), and playing through Dead Space 2 (for the second time) has pretty much been my video game playing for the month.

I did play a couple rounds of Paladins when that came out, and I will probably write about that game in the coming weeks.  I also played a bit of Dawn of the Breakers, which seemed like an over the top anime inspired mobile phone game that I have since deleted from my account.

And I should definitely mention Octopath Traveler seeing as how I did buy it, but have yet to play it.  I know it's a game that will eat up a lot of my time and I want to treat it like Final Fantasy VI considering those are what the visual design of the game reminds of.  But I do not want to be playing two turn based JRPGs at the same time.  I mean I might be able to enjoy both games at the same time, but there really is no reason to.  So I'm going to pull a 1990 move and swap with Beardsnbourbon so he can play it and I will finally take a stab at Super Mario Odyssey.

Not a lot happened on the movie front aside from seeing Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which wasn't a bad movie, but during a scene where a character wakes up after being tranquilized and is threatened with imminent death from an encroaching lava flow was played out as a comedy bit, I knew the tone for the rest of the movie was going to be similar.  And I was okay with that, because they were fairly consistent throughout the entire movie.  Which is fine.  It's not how I would have originally wanted the movie to be, but I can accept that because I came out of the movie entertained.

And speaking of entertaining movies, Conklederp and I now have tickets for a screening of Back to the Future at Oregon Museum of Science & Industry with a lecture beforehand by astrophysicist Ethan Siegel (who apparently is a favorite of Portland?).  We saw Fargo a couple of months back which included a 30 minutes lecture that looked at the detective film, film noir, and "film blanc" genres.  We were apparently impressed enough that we're now going back.  Plus tickets ended up costing only $8 each with connivence online ordering fee.

Hmmm.

You know, I think I am going to call it.  Gaming wise, I see August being as similar as June.  We might have a D&D game thrown in there, but since both Conklederp and I can only make two out of four possible weekends, there is a decent chance.  And if not, maybe we can scoop some people up for another round of Mansions of Madness.  Because who doesn't like being swallowed by a house and deposited into the ether of some cosmic eldrich horror?



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Turn Around

MIDI Week Singles: "Loftbuckler" - Battle Chasers: Nightwar (NS)

"Loftbuckler" from Battle Chasers: Nightwar on the Nintendo Switch, PC, macOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, & Linux (2017)

Composer: Clark Powell

Album: Battle Chasers: Nightwar Original Soundtrack

Label: THQ Nordic

Developer: Airship Syndicate

I've been slowly working my way through Battle Chasers: Nightwar these last few months, and I feel only a little bad not having featured any of Clark Powell's music, but today I correct that by calling upon "Loftbuckler."  

Now, I wouldn't be surprised if you could manage playing the entirety of Battle Chasers without ever coming upon this song, not because it's a super exclusive song that only becomes available after you've beaten the rare and randomly generated giant eldrich space opossum, but because this song is played when your group is ambushed (although ambushed might be too strong a word) by bandits in an airship.  And it's not like you don't see the airship coming, you do, but it is pretty easy to be distracted by on-screen shinies or be cornered like Pac-Man with nary a Power Pellet in sight.

Now, about this song.  I'm a sucker for a good sea chanty, and this comes across sort of like a sea chanty battle hymn.  Then it goes from sea battle chanty to the heavy drum B section before returning to what I at first thought was a loop, but at around 1:00, there is a guitar bit that sounds reminiscent of something Matt Uelman would have written for Diablo.  And despite how much trouble I am given during these fights (I think I have a 50% survival rate currently), I really like this ditty.  It is fun spirited, which is perfect considering the difficulty of these battles.  But again, I'm a sucker for a good piratey-type song.  And "Loftbuckler" is a great name for this song, even though I have no idea what it means.  It's just got this pirate/bandity tone to it.

The biggest thing that surprised me about this song was how short it was.  The airship battles usually run me at least 10 minutes and I would not have been able to tell you that this song had repeated nearly seven times by that point.  Perhaps that's just one of the touchstones for a great fight song that you are likely (or unlikely if you're awake and fast enough) to hear during the game.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Long Looong Maaaaaaaaan