#Symphony of War

[sorypsoid]

Playing my little turn based strategy game just long enough to get soft locked by my own lack of skill two thirds of the way through the storyline at which point I see a new turn based strategy game on sale and buy it to begin playing my little turn based strategy game just long enough t

[calvincell]

Playing the demo for Unicorn Overlord & as I figured, Vanillaware still don’t miss! Yes I’m one of the 15 people who enjoyed Dragon’s Crown. Despite enjoying Fire Emblem & its ilk, my personal favorite type of tactical strategy RPGs are the ones where the units are little battalions of individual characters with customizable formations rather than the more ubiquitous style solo/duo units you get with Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics.

The very good indie game Symphony of War is the only similar tactical RPG that I’ve played recently though there might be others that just never passed my radar. As such, getting a beautifully executed tactics game from one of my favorite developers of all time is an absolute treat & I’m triply excited thanks to the fantastic & hefty demo.

Sadly I still need to finish the last 1/3rd of 13 Sentinels. 13 Sentinels is brilliant in every way but I’ve left it incomplete in my backlog for what might be a year & change now & I’m dreading that I might have to start over with a new game file since I might have absolutely lost my bearings in regards to both the story & gameplay by this point.

My only real gripe with Unicorn Overlord so far is that I wish more devs would pick a setting outside of Western/European High Fantasy for these tactical RPGs & RPGs in general to be completely honest. It’s one of the reasons I appreciate Advance Wars more than Fire Emblem despite growing up playing both. Just once I’d love to see a tactical strategy RPG game like this set in a cyberpunk dystopia or a retrofuture superhero setting or a prehistoric stone age fantasy world or within the afterlife cosmology of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Anything other than swords, knights, lords, castles etc. Vanillaware in particular would kill it with their evocative work in Muramasa & 13 Sentinels.

[heroineimages]

Girl-love in Symphony of War!

Got twenty-odd hours into Dancing Dragon Games’ Symphony of War: the Nephilim Saga, and I’m relieved to report that there are wlw romance options!

I was starting to worry I’d named the heroine ‘Sappho’ for nothing.

And not only did Sappho land a girlfriend, she landed Diana, the giant, muscle-bound, warhammer-swinging paladin who first identified Sappho as the ‘chosen-one.’ On top of being the kingdom’s mightiest paladin, Diana is also a working single-mom who hates that war and prophecy force her to leave her young son Alex in the care of her sister all the time. Now I look forward to the war ending and Diana telling Alex that he not only has his mom back, but he has two moms now!

(Anyway, I still intend to do a longer write-up for this game, but I thought this was cool and wanted to share.)

[7outerelements]

Really enjoying this Fire Emblem knock-off. I hired a grandma who wants to purge the world of nonbelievers, surrounded her with buff women carrying hammers, and watched as they alternated between giving each other max-heal high-fives and driving the servants of hell deep into the earth like so many sinful nails.

[sonsofks]

Sumérgete en la Épica: Symphony of War Presenta el DLC Legends en su Lanzamiento el 28 de Agosto de 2023

¡La Emoción Está de Regreso! El DLC Legends de Symphony of War Trae Nuevas Aventuras a Partir del 28 de Agosto de 2023 – ¡Prepárense para sumergirse en un mundo lleno de emocionantes y divertidas batallas estratégicas! Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga, el RPG de tácticas de escuadra con estética pixel desarrollado por Dancing Dragon Games y publicado por Freedom Games, explora territorio…

[thedaniknox]

Starting Symphony of War! Been needing some tactics type game in my life.

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔑𝔬𝔰𝔣𝔢𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔲 (յգշշ) 𝔇𝔦𝔯. 𝔉. 𝔚. 𝔐𝔲𝔯𝔫𝔞𝔲

[thehauntedrocket]

Vintage 8-Track - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back OST (1980)

John Williams / London Symphony Orchestra

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

i love haircuts. i cant stop petting the back of my skull

[not-groped-by-an-angel]

I still haven't fucking finished s2 of good omens but I have some Big Thoughts about something that happened in the first episode regarding Aziraphale and the Shostakovich symphony he picks up.

To start, I love Shostakovich. I think he is one of the most powerful, moving, artistic composers we have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. He is well known for political tensions and commentary, especially since he was operating under a repressive regime that took it upon themselves to determine what he could and could not produce.

Prior to writing Symphony No. 5 in D (our good friend Aziraphale's pick), Shostakovich had all stage performances of his work banned by Stalin for an opera that was sympathetic to someone who had committed crimes under the pressures of the bourgeois society.

Under the threat of arrest and exile to labor camps, Shostakovich was determined to write music that would fall within Stalin's expectations without his true thoughts being silenced. He laid the groundwork of the piece, saying, "The theme of my Fifth Symphony is the making of a man. I saw him, with all his experience, at the center of the work, which is lyrical from beginning to end. In the finale the tragically tense impulses of the earlier movements are resolved in optimism and joy of living." This was technically, what Stalin wanted. Technically, it fell in line. Technically, it could be used as propaganda.

But here's the thing. Shostakovich is a god damned genius. There are many interpretations and arguments over the exact meaning of his work but the general consensus seems to be that this work was making a mockery of Stalin, a hollow show of someone who was supposed to have found this freedom in his own happiness but is in reality only being forced to go along. There are entire theses dedicated to examining the artistry this symphony is brimming with that allows this to come across, but suffice it to say that Shostakovich had not given up his voice.

Here comes Aziraphale, spending most of his life under the thumb of a strict, heartless governing body that expected conformity and nothing less. Aziraphale, who has rebelled quietly for centuries, who faced his higher ups with forced smiles and polite nods that allowed him to slide under the radar and do what he knew was right.

So, end of season 1, he's caught. Called out by the oppressors, threatened, reminded to conform, conform, conform even as they abandon him. Aziraphale is digging this little niche for himself to find the joy that could come with perhaps, maybe, not being held under such stringent guidelines as long as he keeps his head down, and here comes bare-ass Gabriel, dragging with him right back into the mud.

It's important to note here there are two warring opinions about the performance of the very end of the symphony. One pushes and pushes, ending in something that could be, while frantic, truly joyous. However, some artists' interpretation pulls back, the same notes but menacing and monotonous. Did our hero truly find the light? Or did he fall, once again, under the boots of those who seek to control him?

It sets a tone for the rest of the season. These paths are just as readily available to Aziraphale as well, but both of them have consequences. Both have loss. What is the appropriate balance of loss and life?

TL;DR, yes, I have taken the 14 seconds Aziraphale goes "oh goodie shostakovich" and extrapolated a whole ass narrative about war and duality and subterfuge.

Go listen to Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 by none other than Dmitri Dmitryevich Shostakovich for a good and/or bad time.

[sapphic-storm69]

Shoutout to that one wolfwren fic on AO3 that’s single-handedly keeping me obsessed with SW

[romancemedia]

Anime Romances + Confessions

[miroana]

Roque au Fabii | the Poet of Deimos

[thedaniknox]

New schedule, subject to change since I'm starting a new job this week.

[q-starhalo]

Love getting that gut punch everytime I open your blog and see "it's just a stupid egg!"

The demons always come back... They aaalways come back......

I will always adore that quote, it broke me so much but it's sooooooo gooooooddd aughhhh <333