#I find that rather than using leitmotifs to carry the mood and story as before

[todd-machine]

Smaller Soul on YouTube put together a very cool video on the impact of RWBY’s score and use of leitmotifs. Worth a watch.

[the-great-ace-attorney-chkn]

The Best Characters In The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 Note: This is specifically for the PC version and the reviewer has beaten both versions of the game. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles features two games that have 5 playable cases each, for a total of 10 cases that can easily add up to over 60 hours of playtime. Due to this being a spin-off, this is a great place for new players to the Ace Attorney series to start, as no prior knowledge of the other games is needed. On the contrary, as someone who has played every Ace Attorney game released in the US up to this point, I can safely say that any card-carrying Ace Attorney fan should add this to their collection. The main director of the series, Shu Takumi, makes a magnificent return with these two installments to the series. So, veterans of the series can expect the writing to be more like the original trilogy of games and not like Dual Destinies or Spirit of Justice, which were both directed by Takeshi Yamazaki. And while both of those games were decent in their own right, this one is a game made with passion and it shows in every aspect. And if you are a fan of visual novels in general, this game is an absolute must-play. The main draw of this game is the plot and the cases the player must solve to absolve their clients of crimes that they did not commit. The story itself focuses on both Japan and Britain at the height of the 19th century, as well as the relations between both countries. The player will find themselves in the shoes of a Japanese University Student that wishes to accompany his best friend on a study trip to Great Britain. Which, over the course of the hour play-time, spirals into a plot far larger than most Ace Attorney games before. Unlike other games in the series, it feels like there are no filler cases. Cases are either referenced again in some form, deeply impact the story, or leave the player with more questions about the story than answers. The biggest problem for some people is the pacing, which can feel slow at times. This is especially felt in the first game, but thankfully the pacing issues all but vanish by the second game. The game builds up to a great finale that feels well-earned and solves every question the player has in a satisfying way. Just like every Ace Attorney before it, the games are full of wacky and eccentric characters that are both memorable for their gimmicks and the secrets they hide. The main cast in particular really shines. The protagonist, Ryosuke Naruhodo, is the weakest part of the main cast, in my opinion, but he gets to grow over the course of the game in a satisfying manner, similar to Phoenix in the main series. Herlock Sholmes will be in most cases and is a less serious take on Sherlock Holmes. The man is genuinely funny and might make the player laugh out loud during certain points. His roommate, Iris Wilson, is a child genius. Judicial Assistant Susato Mikotoba is elegant, refined, and courageous. She is not afraid to speak up in court and will sometimes even counter what the Prosecution has to say. And this is just the main cast. The visual style of the games is more akin to Dual Destinies or, to be more accurate, the Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright crossover game rather than the pixelated sprites that the original trilogy uses. While there can sometimes be a goofy animation here or there, they are great overall at depicting the craziness happening around the player. The soundtrack was composed by Yasumasa Kitagawa and he did a fantastic job. As is usual in the Ace Attorney franchise, almost every song that plays during the trial sections of the game are phenomenal and can truly raise the tension or make the player feel like they are on the verge of grasping the truth. For those that know what Leitmotif is, this game does an excellent job at incorporating it into the soundtrack. Overall, the soundtrack sets the mood for whatever is happening and is well thought out. The difficulty in these games comes from the cases themselves. Some are easy, while some have logical gaps that might not make sense to players. The first game is pretty easy to grasp and is easy to follow, but should still get you to ponder heavily about the cases. The second game has a higher difficulty and had me a series veteran stumped for dozens of minutes at a time during certain points. However, I feel like if a player is willing to invest the time and really comb through every last detail of a case, the conclusions would come eventually. This can be turned on at will and is a helpful tool if you want to play quickly and are stuck, or keep it on the whole time and breeze through the game purely for the story. Either way, the use of this feature is entirely up to the player, so anyone can feel free to ignore this should they choose to do so. The gameplay of the Ace Attorney series can be split into two segments: Investigations and Trials. Investigations are where the player moves around and talks to potential witnesses, gathers evidence, and learn more about the case at hand. Trials are where the series truly shines. In trials, the player must defend their client in a battle of wits and logic. In this game, many witnesses will be called to the stand at the same time and give their testimony as to what they saw on the day of the crime. During the testimony, the cross-examination begins. Pursuing should occur when a witness on the stand reacts oddly to what a different witness has stated. Both Investigating and Trials have a new feature in them that makes both far more interesting. Sometimes, Herlock Sholmes will aid your investigation with his great deductions. And while he can cut to the heart of the matter instantly, the logic he uses to get there may be flawed. Meanwhile, in trials, there is a brand new jury system. There will be times when all 6 jury members lean towards Guilty, and during this time, a Summation Examination will begin. After finally making its way overseas, this game is sure to make an impression on new players and older fans alike. Featuring a soundtrack that rivals and maybe even surpasses the older games, memorable characters, a far more connected plotline than the series has ever seen before, and new gameplay mechanics that spice up the formula a bit, I can safely say that these two games have become my favorite in the series. With the only issue being slow pacing in the first game, this game collection receives a score of 9. Monster Sanctuary Review for the Nintendo Switch. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Contact us: [email protected]. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. Thursday, August 4, Is Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Worth Playing in ? Lunatics Role In Upgrader. Game Reviews. Mirror Layers — Review. 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[twilight-adamo]

As Dreams Are Made On: The Mixtape - Liner Notes

Hello everyone! I am currently in the process of gathering my thoughts on Brave New World and trying to get the next installment of These Our Actors (which will focus on Rosalie) just right, in addition to trying to find my thread on Out of the Blue and other non-Twilight projects. This has been complicated by the fact that I’ve been fighting a couple rather nasty nose and throat bugs of late, and so this weekend I’m doing my best to relax and recover.

In the meantime, I thought I’d start offering up my notes on the Spotify playlist I posted a while ago and why I chose the songs I did. For anyone who didn’t see the link, here it is:

https://open.spotify.com/user/12153099402/playlist/5IYjYDbcM6qvQ2hgGnOCGF?si=orkjWU50SjKm7xbPSF_r5w

Since many of my choices do relate directly to specific plot points, there are potential spoilers ahead, so I’m putting this behind a cut. I won’t get through every song in this post, but I’ll add additional notes in subsequent posts as time allows.

As I think I mentioned before, I find playlists to be a very useful tool in my writing. It’s possible to spend too much time tinkering with playlists, of course, so I try not to do it in place of writing or outlining - this is just something I work on when I’m occupied with non-writing tasks that allow for a certain amount of downtime. Each song tends to relate to a plot point or an emotion I’m trying to evoke in a certain part of the story, and the sequence generally follows my outline of the plot, though I’ll sometimes put the playlist on shuffle if I’m feeling stuck and want to try and shake things up, and I sometimes end up adding, removing, or resorting various songs as my understanding of the plot evolves. Since As Dreams Are Made On is done, the current version of the mixtape - all 49 songs - is now pretty much in its final form, but when I’m working on a story, the associated playlist is very much a living document and subject to change.

Music has always been a hugely important part of my life, thanks in large part to my mother, who was an influence on much of my creative output. I tend to think of myself as a visual and verbal person first and foremost, but music has the power to set my mood, to reawaken old memories, to align my thoughts, and to soothe my emotional turmoil. My personal tastes are fairly eclectic - my mother favored country, and I’m still fond of the genre, but I also listen to a lot of pop, classical pieces, musical theatre, folk music, movie scores, and so on. Spotify has been kind of a godsend when it comes to building playlists, though there are unfortunately a few pieces which should be on the mixtape but aren’t simply because they’re unavailable on Spotify. I’ll try to make a note of those missing pieces in the appropriate sections.

Right, well, without further ado, let’s get to the songs.

Pieces and Pieces - The Rough and Tumble This song’s sort of a thesis statement for the whole story, in a way. The refrain, in particular, speaks to me of where I was going: Nothing is lost when it’s been found again / Everything’s found where it was lost. Cass/Bella (or CB, as I refer to her, when I’m not simply calling her Bella) has seemingly lost a great deal, but she comes to gain a great deal as well, and to recover things she thought lost to her forever. The line “I will make you mine again, pieces by pieces” also speaks to me of the story’s dramatic climax, where the nature of CB’s relationship with Alice becomes clearer.

Where Is My Mind? - Pixies Here’s where we’re getting into the actual sequence of events. This one might be a little bit of a cliché, but it reflects CB’s confusion when she wakes in the world of Twilight. It’s also just generally one of my favorite songs.

Turning Page - Sleeping At Last This is the first of many pieces pulled directly from the soundtrack of the Twilight films, and the first song that centers a character other than CB, as it reflects Alice getting hit by the mating bond full-force. It’s a lovely piece, but I think there’s an undercurrent of anxiety and some slightly ominous elements that suit Alice’s mood well. Love at first sight sounds like a pleasant prospect, but it’s also a frightening one, and neither Alice nor CB would have chosen it, given the chance to choose.

Iowa (Traveling, Pt. 3) - Dar Williams Another of my favorite songs. I listened to a lot of Dar Williams in college, and listen to her fairly often still, but I keep coming back to this one in particular. As a lifelong New Englander, famed for what my great-grandmother called ‘the Yankee reserve’ (which means we don’t tend to wear our emotions on our sleeves and generally we keep to ourselves), these lyrics in particular speak to me:

But way back where I come from We never mean to bother We don’t like to make our passions other people’s concern And we walk in the world of safe people And at night we walk into our houses and burn

So, to me, this song speaks of CB’s struggle with her own emotions as her life in Forks begins and she grapples with the mating bond and all it implies. And it also speaks to her background as a lifelong Bostonian, who doesn’t like to be a bother but nevertheless finds herself in a whole new social context and a position where she needs to reach out to others to survive.

Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs This is Rosalie’s introduction to the story. I don’t really know why, it just seems to suit her, somehow.

Bela Lugosi’s Dead - CHVRCHES It may be physically impossible for me to write about vampires WITHOUT using this song. I just felt like I had to fit it in somewhere, and the first meeting with the rest of the Cullens (sans Carlisle and Esme, of course) seemed like a good spot.

Looking for a Place to Shine - Deidre Thornell Hear the Bells - Naomi Scott I’ll be honest, I don’t have a lot of compelling reasons for these two. They just seemed to fit the sort of transitional period between the first meeting with the Cullens and Leah’s introduction a little later on.

Red Eyes and Tears - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Leah’s introduction to the story. Again, it just seemed to suit her.

New For You - Reeve Carney We’re back to Alice with this one. It sort of reflects her own emotional turmoil in dealing with the mating bond and having to accept that CB doesn’t necessarily reciprocate all her feelings just yet.

Fearless - Taylor Swift Well, this one actually comes up in the story, so you can pretty much guess where it fits in. Again, though, it’s one of my favorite songs, and speaks to the joy that I think love should carry with it, and the idea that love should drive us forward and make us better. It’s been a serious contender for the first dance at my hypothetical wedding for a long time (though “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri may be beating it out now).

The Mercy of the Fallen - Dar Williams More Dar Williams! This one...I don’t know. Somehow, it speaks to me of love and acceptance, of individuals who are all burdened and broken in their own ways reaching out and comforting one another. And that, in turn, makes me think of CB’s first visit to the Cullen house: her first real conversation with Rosalie, her introduction to Carlisle and Esme, all of that. This is where she really starts to build bridges, I think, and where she and some of the others begin to open up to one another.

Bella’s Lullaby - Carter Burwell, Dan Redfeld and Elizabeth Hedman This is of course one of my favorite pieces from the Twilight movie score, and includes a leitmotif that comes up more than once in both the films and in my playlist. I couldn’t find the original version from the score itself on Spotify, but this cover works. Of course Edward plays it on the piano at this point in the story, reading it out of CB’s thoughts, and I think she adopts it in a sense as a sort of personal theme. Every time I listen to it, it makes me think of soaring pine trees and crisp, cold air, and I find the melody very soothing.

Missing Piece: Star by Star - Cassandra Lease and Melissa Carubia Someday I’m actually going to get together with the friend who helped me with the arrangement on this one and record it. It probably won’t go up on Spotify, but I’ll likely post it somewhere. This is the song I wrote for my mother’s memorial service; the lyrics are of course reprinted in the story in their entirety. This is probably one of the most personal elements of the story, the point where I really started to spill my guts across the page. I obviously backed off a little from my own life once I introduced Callie to the story, but there’s still a lot of my soul buried in the text; sometimes, I think, too much.

Bella’s Lullaby (Extended Mix) - The Twilight Orchestra I’m not really sure why this shares the name Bella’s Lullaby when it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the shorter piece, but whatever. This is just a lovely piece that sets the mood for Alice and CB on the rooftop and the events that follow.

Possibility - Lykke Li Similarly, this is more of a ‘setting the mood’ song. I don’t think the lyrics quite fit, in their entirety, but this basically represents CB awakening to the possibility of forming a real attachment to Alice, despite her qualms.

Shake It Off - Taylor Swift Another (highly anachronistic) Taylor Swift song that shows up in the story itself. I can be an extremely basic white girl at times.

Bad Reputation - Avril Lavigne The Joan Jett version isn’t on Spotify! I don’t know what to tell you! This cover’s pretty good, though. Another Leah song, and something I imagine might be playing in the dive where CB introduces Leah to fried pickles.

Nothing to Lose - Minusworld My friend Melissa’s band! Get their EP, Giant Blazing Sword, wherever you buy digital music! Listen to them on Spotify and Bandcamp! Anyway, I think this is the track playing during Leah and CB’s encounter with the scary assholes in the alley, and when Emmett and the others get their big damn hero moment.

In Place Of Someone You Love - Carter Burwell, Dan Redfeld and Elizabeth Hedman We’re skipping ahead a bit here. This piece comes after the shopping scene and CB’s attempt to analyze Rosalie’s abilities, when she’s in the dream of the burning house, trying to save her memories.

The Forgotten - Green Day This piece represents CB’s emotions after she wakes from her brief coma, as she struggles with losing her memories and burning away parts of the world she left behind.

Black Is The Colour - Cara Dillon And this piece represents CB’s acceptance of her feelings toward Alice, her confession of love despite her reservations. It took me a while to find a cover I liked, as I very much wanted to use a version that had a woman singing about another woman, for obvious reasons.

Okay, I think that’s pretty much all I can handle for now. More to come soon!