That Confrontational Groove! /// Music Monday #103

So May is one of those somewhat rare months where it ends up getting three Music Mondays instead of just two. How cool is that, eh???

Our track today is none other than . . .

"Confrontation ~ Presto 2011" from Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Prosecutor's Path

Composed by Noriyuki Iwadare

If there is one thing that never ceases to amaze me when it comes to Ace Attorney games, it's their soundtracks. They've each got their own unique spin on the same musical style, even as it changes from an older chiptune sort of style to full-blown orchestral. There are so, so many memorable songs for every mood. You've got happy ones, wacky ones, ones that are surprisingly sad . . . and every OST has at least a few foot-tappers or head-boppers. This is one of those songs.

From the moment that organ (it is an organ, right?) starts to play an upbeat melody, you know this is one song that you can't sit completely still through. Combined with the constant percussion and the electric guitar riffs and everything in between, this is one powerhouse theme--especially considering that one loop doesn't even last one full minute. It does what it needs to do in a short amount of time, and it does it exceptionally well.

Someone pointed out in the comments that they nailed what the difference is between the soundtracks for the defense attorneys' games and the prosecutor's games. Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice both are on the defensive, protecting their clients from accusations and turning the tables around to find the truth. Miles Edgeworth, on the other hand, relentlessly pursues the truth and is therefore always on the attack. That's why this particular piece is such a punchy one.

As the title suggests, this plays when you're in the middle of a confrontation. However, these are not mere confrontations. You most often hear this when going toe-to-toe with criminals and murderers at critical points in the arguments and rebuttals segments of cases. Thus, this track is far from overused, so I always get excited and jam out when it comes on. It's just that good.

Man . . . this makes me want to a) share more Ace Attorney songs and b) write more posts where I dissect the games or just rave about them. (Though I really should post more in general. Let's be honest, I haven't been the greatest at that for a while now.)

Anyway, there you have it! Your thoughts on the track? Was I correct in saying that was an organ playing at the beginning? (I have no idea what it could be if it's not.) Does this make you want to groove, too???

Time for Action /// Music Monday #102

Well, it's everyone's favorite time of the week: Music Monday! (At least, I think it's everyone's favorite; if it's not, we need to chat.)

The song we're listening to today is . . .

"Stairs and Rooftops" from Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Composed by Lorne Balfe

I was recently raving about how good of a movie Fallout is, and how it surpassed Rogue Nation in my books. One way it does this is through its score. That's not to say that Rogue Nation's soundtrack wasn't good, but it's not as good of a soundtrack to listen to outside of the movie. It's not as memorable--at least, not consistently. Fallout, on the other hand, has an absolutely incredible score.

Lorne Balfe studied under Hans Zimmer and worked with him in a lot of projects, and I think that Zimmer's fingerprints have been left on Balfe's musical style. You can definitely hear the similarities in this piece. However, that's not a bad thing. On top of that, Lorne has also found his own identity, so he doesn't sound like a carbon copy of Hans.

Now, if you've seen Fallout, you should probably know the exact scene that this plays in by the track title alone. Just to give you an idea of what's happening if you haven't watched the movie, Ethan Hunt is chasing one of the villains, who's casually making his getaway. Hunt is pursuing him without knowing his exact location, so that means the hero is traversing--you got it--stairs and rooftops as he tries his hardest to catch up, while fleeing armed henchmen. It's one of the coolest chase sequences--then again, this movie had a lot of those.

I love how adaptive the music is to what's happening in the scene. For example, you know how there was a bit of choir closer to the beginning? Mission: Impossible movies rarely use choral parts, but Lorne included one in this case because for the duration of that part, Ethan Hunt is running through a church. When the music and the events onscreen work together like this, I think it makes both a lot more memorable.

Another part I love is the piano bits. Piano is an instrument that's rarely used during intense scenes. Lorne has done this before, in Assassin's Creed III. It makes for an incredible piece of music because heavy piano adds a new level of ominousness in action tracks. In this case, the piano is used for the antagonist's motif, and the fact that it's a mix of both lighter and darker notes just elevates the whole piece that much more. That on top of all the rest of the instrumentation and the way the track winds down to the conclusion of the chase makes "Stairs and Rooftops" one of my favorite songs from the Fallout OST.

What did you think of the song? Did you have a favorite part? Have you seen Fallout yet, and if not, why haven't you???

Monthly HapPENings: April

Okay, so it's May already. Let's all try not to panic. It's fine, it's cool, it's not like a third of the year is now over . . . except it actually is. F'real though, WHY IS IT MAY ALREADY???

Now to remember what kind of interesting life stuff happened. Oh wait, it's coming back to me. It's . . . nothing! Because we can't do anything these days!

. . . That's not entirely true. Interesting stuff did happen, and we can do some stuff. I just feel like I've had a lot less to say in this section for the past year. Here's to hoping that can change soon!

So what happened? My middle sister, my mom, one of my grandmas, and my "adopted" grandma all had a birthday, which meant there was a lot of celebrating going on. I also had a job interview that seems super promising, which I am ecstatic about. I've wanted to get a new job for a while now, but there's never been any opportunities that have jumped out at me. Maybe the reason for that was so that I could get this one. I'll definitely keep you all posted!

Oh yeah, my youngest two sisters and I also randomly decided to go out for supper one evening, and that was fun. You start to miss the simple pleasure of eating out now and then. We had two waitresses since one was in training, and we shared a lot of laughs. It was a very good time with delicious food.

Bookish HapPENings

I will finish a book this month. I will finish a book this month. I will finish a book this month. I will finish a book this month. I will, I will, I WILL!

(This is me psyching myself up to actually finish a book so that this section stops being boring.)

HapPENings on the Screen

Okay, so I've seen only one of the Mission: Impossible movies before this, and that was Rogue Nation. Its sequel, Fallout, not only builds off of it, but it does everything even better somehow. From the plot to the action sequences to the score, this film improves every moment while never forgetting the humanity in the characters in the midst of the crazy secret agent plot. I was blown away by it and am honestly already wanting to rewatch it. I haven't watch the first four movies in the series, but I can already say that they're worth seeing just to get to the latest two, especially this one.

I finished S2 of Psycho-Pass not long ago, and what an ending it was! It was different from how I thought it was going to go down, but that doesn't make it any less good. I did feel some parts of the last episode were a bit rushed; I wouldn't say it affected my overall opinion, though. I really don't know why people thought this season was worse than the first. To me, it was just as good, but in a different way. I'm curious how the movie is going to wrap things up with these characters, since S3 has entirely new ones.

I had added Noblesse to my queue on Crunchyroll quite some time ago, and now I'm finally getting around to it. Based off of a Webtoon, it's about a man named Rai who wields the power of the Noblesse and awakens after a 820 year slumber in the modern age. His servant Frankenstein enrolls him in a high school to hide him from his enemies, but soon they come knocking on his door. It's pretty good so far, but I wouldn't say it's great. Not yet, anyway. Also didn't help that I didn't realize you're supposed to watch a prologue episode that released four years before the main show, so I ended up watching EP1 and was confused about some stuff. I'll have to see where the show goes and report back as to whether it gets better or not!

Gaming HapPENings

I recently got this game called Shotgun Farmers after watching Markiplier play it and thinking it looked like a good time. I will say, it's surprisingly addictive. The gameplay is fairly simple: two teams of farmers duke it out, and their vegetable themed guns grow plants that give you more ammo or new guns if you miss a shot. There's a few different modes that get cycled through when you're playing online, and it's quite fun. I'm also not too shabby at it, which doesn't hurt. In one game, I even got six kills in a row, an achievement that only 11% of players have gotten. That makes me feel pretty confident in my skills as a fighting farmer.

So Preston and I decided to try out Zookeeper Simulator the other day, in which one person is a zookeeper trying to complete several tasks and the other person is an animal trying to kill them. You can have multiple animals, but not multiple zookeepers, which can get interesting. This game is . . . something else, I tell ya. It's got some very whacky physics and is broken as heck, but it is so, so hilarious. When I played with both Preston and Megan a couple of weeks ago, we were laughing pretty much the entire time. It was amazing, even if the game is not.

I've also been playing a translated version of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Prosecutor's Path, and it's been a blast so far. A very worthy sequel to the first Investigations title, with some interesting cases. Then again, I expected nothing less from an Ace Attorney game. I'm waiting to see when the overarching plot is going to reveal itself, because from what has been shown so far, it's going to be amazing. Again, this is a staple when it comes to the Ace Attorney series. Have I ever mentioned how much I love these games?

Writerly HapPENings

Believe it or not, I have been doing a bit of writing recently. At my current work, in which we support individuals with mental and physical disabilities, we've been sending out a monthly newsletter to the people who can't come into work right now. I offered to write a serial story for it, which I started in April. It's called The Hunt for the Greatest Treasure, a story about a brother and sister (both adults) who end up stranded in the middle of nowhere when they go for a road trip. Fleeing people with unknown intentions, they wind up at a cabin where they find a map proclaiming it leads to a fantastic treasure. They grow closer along the way and end up realizing that their relationship is the greatest treasure.

The biggest challenge of this so far has been writing a story in a simpler language, which means I'm avoiding more complex words and expressions, while still keeping it adult. I haven't written much yet, but the first part seems to have gotten positive feedback, which is good. But if I wind up landing the new job, I'm going to have to pump out the rest of the story in the next two weeks. Wish me luck!

And that was my April! How did yours go? Anything noteworthy happen? What've you been reading/watching/playing/writing recently?

Another Springy Melody /// Music Monday #101

Hey, look at your calendar. Trust me, just go find the nearest one and look at it. (If you stand up to look for one instead of checking it out on your computer or phone, I'm going to be so embarrassed for you.) What day is it today? If you said May 3rd, you're correct! Now look at how many weeks there are in May. Do you see what I'm getting at? If not . . .

May is a very special month because there are going to be three Music Monday posts instead of just two!

Our song today is . . .

"Breezy Mushrise Park" from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Composed by Yoko Shimomura

I know I already did one spring sort of song back in March, but it's finally feeling like spring where I live, so I figured, "Eh, why not?" Also Yoko Shimomura. She is one of the best game composers of all time, and one of my personal favorites. Love her work, and I won't tolerate any slander toward her!

Have I ever talked about how much I love the Mario & Luigi series? Because I love it--like, a LOT. It has some of the best RPGs in existence with some of the best humor and music. I've thoroughly enjoyed each game that I've played, and I recommend them to anyone I can. It's really such a shame that the developers, a company called AlphaDream, had to file for bankruptcy. I would've loved to see another entry. The series would be great on the Switch.

When it comes down to OSTs, they all excel. It's hard to pick which game has my favorite score. I'm thinking it might be Dream Team, though. This track in particular was one that made me fall very much in love with the soundtrack. It's hard to describe exactly what feelings it conveys. There's definitely a chipper happiness to it, but the instrumentation does so much more than that. It's really hard to explain. Maybe it's just the nostalgia I'm feeling.

Whatever the case, I think it has a certain springy sort of vibe to it. I honestly don't know how songs can sound like specific seasons and locations, but they can. I wonder if it's just the instrument choice? Like, you'll hear a few instruments frequently in winter locales, or desert worlds, or a multitude of other places. So is it just hearing those specific instruments that causes your brain to associate them with a season or whatever? What would happen if the associations didn't exist? Could a song used for a desert level in a video game suddenly make you think of exploring a sunken pirate ship? Right now, I'm not entirely sure, but that's because of the associations that have been established in my mind. It's weird to think of not having them.

Wow, that was a ramble. But that's the nice things about these posts, right? They allow me to not only share good music, but also whatever thoughts come to mind when I listen to said music. I think it makes for a decent variety of content on Music Monday.

So that's that! What did you think of the song? What impressions did it give you? Do you have any thoughts to add to my ramblings?