First two episodes of this new season are on iPlayer now. First episode was pretty weak. Not gonna bother talking about that one. Did laugh at how much glee the Doctor has with scaring babies. Anyway, second episode was WAY better!  

Well, I mean, it’s a Ys game; of course the music is killer.

I believe I'm coming up to the end of a certain game, so I should probably make a short post about this game first. I tried to find a more horizontal image, but they omit the Kangaroo character for some reason. This Australia erasure will not stand on my watch! He's way more prominent then blue-hair girl as well! Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a 2D side scrolling action RPG developed by Natsume Atari that released on all modern platforms in 2022. It served as a small game to tide people waiting for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, which came out recently. It also serves as a prequel to that game. The game follows CJ, a poor treasure hunter who unwillingly becomes crippingly addicted to stamp collecting when she visits New Neveah. New Neveah's acting mayor, Isha (Blue haired girl), is trying to rebuild the town after a devestating earthquake hit it. Isha's trying to get travelling adventurers to help rebuild the town with a stamp incentive. These stamps are meant to provide benefits to the adveturers, but CJ's life quickly becomes consumed entirely by collecting these stamps, which means she travels through very dangerous places gathering materials for New Neveah.
Various events has CJ meet Garoo, a Kangaroo Beastyn (Animal people with the same awareness and intelligence as humans) mercenary with a humongous, girthy, tool in his pouch, and he's roped into being CJ's bodyguard. He's not exactly pleased with it... Yeah, OK. The game's not really about stamp addiciton, but it is a recurring joke with CJ doing anything for a stamp, and Garoo griping about it. Reminds me of Banjo-Tooie, actually. The plot is fine, but it is carried by the characters. They have great chemistry, and even greater designs. I like fantasy settings that really lean into the fantasy aspect to have weird and wonderful characters. The characters in this game all show up in Hundred Heroes, so naturally, this game has more then a few hints to some of the main plot threads that Hundred Heroes has. The gameplay revolves around exploring various areas to complete a bunch of quests for the town of New Neveah. It does get quite a bit repetitive, as you traverse the same area multiple times to progress the plot. I can totally see people bouncing off of this gameplay loop, mind.
Combat is pretty standard, with the key defining feature being the ability to swap CJ out with other characters at most any time. CJ is nimble, while Garoo has better range, and hits like a truck. If you swap characters right after you hit an enemy, the other character will swap in and deliver a strong attack. As well as this, each character can get various extra abilities to help find new areas. The visuals are fine, but with this being a bit of a side project, it doesn't look anywhere near as nice as Hundred Heroes. Which, to be fair, is kind of harsh. Because Hundred Heroes is a gorgeous game. The soundtrack is also servicable, not really noteworthy, but not offensive, at least. I enjoyed this game, it won't be to everyone's taste, but at least you don't need to play this to get the plot of Huindred Heroes.  

Got a good view of the Northern Lights tonight.

I can't be certain, but generally, it's not a good sign when it's in my vocabulary. EDIT: Oh damn, "Norse Wind" is really good! You weren't kidding!