#maybe now Orin can try to power the reactor

[mountainofhistory]

"Orin check out what I found up on the surface!" Have you ever seen a 10ft tall Hell Raven just toss a corpse on the ground by the ankle? Now you have. She looks SO proud. "It was just in some room when I was flying by, look how fresh it is! There's some human holiday about giving presents goin' on, so here's yours from me!"

It should also be noted that she absolutely just stole a body from some poor soul's wake.

"You found a dead body in a room...? And you just took it here?"

"Okuu, that's amazing! I love you! That's a wonderful present! You must've been channeling a kasha for that one!" She's quite well aware of where this body must have come from. But if you expected her of all people to care, you've got the wrong youkai. Either way, she's leaping up into Okuu's arms for a tight hug. "You're the best, Okuu!"

[clarste]

While I’m in this FMW mood, I’d like to talk about FMW storytelling. IE: The three pillars of character, music, and spellcard. I will use Utsuho as an example.

When you first meet Utsuho in this game, it’s before she’s absorbed Yatagarasu. She is, in short, a joke. A harmless Team Rocket villain. Her attacks can barely hurt you, if they even manage to hit, and the animations bounce right off you with a comical “doink” sound effect. Her theme at this point is an energetic remix of Hellfire Mantle called “Skygazer.” Utsuho is an underground bird, gazing up at the sky in awe and wondering what it’s like to fly.

Here’s a youtube video of it.

When you next meet her, it’s at the climax of the Subterranean Animism storyline. You know the drill: Orin sent vengeful spirits to the surface to get them to investigate, where they could stop Utsuho without Mom/Satori catching on. It doesn’t quite work out as planned, but either way the heroes are here to stop Utsuho, who’s gone mad with power in Blazing Hell.

She’s brash and cocky, her newfound power having gone to her head. She’s still a little dumb, in that she thinks conquering the surface is something Satori would want her to do, and when “Mega Flare” doesn’t work, she merely amps up its power a thousand-fold with “Giga Flare.” She comes equipped with a special skill called “Yatagarasu’s Guidance” which increases her accuracy, finally making her a threat. Her theme is called “The Crow That Ate the Sun” and it’s a loud and cocky rock remix of Nuclear Fusion. “Bring it on, I’ll just turn up the heat.”

Video.

But... things go wrong. For plot reasons that are a little too complicated to summarize, Utsuho loses control of her powers. She breaks through to the surface, and incinerates an entire forest before the protagonists arrive to stop her. She no longer talks, and her face is hidden in shadows, while her spellcards get bigger and bigger seemingly without end. “Giga Flare” quickly gives way to “Peta Flare,” a million times hotter, and the camera does this neat trick where it starts zooming out to make her spells seem ridiculously huge, like what she’s been doing so far was just a joke. The trend continues with “Uncontainable Nuclear Reaction Dive.”

The music follows suit, with a tense orchestral remix of her theme which feels less triumphant and more monster movie. Godzilla.  She’s now an unstoppable force of nature, and all we can hope to do is survive and limit the damage. “The Sun Fallen to Earth.” Even Orin joins the heroes at this point, trying to stop her friend before she hurts herself. Even unconscious, Utsuho will not attack Orin.

Video.

But halfway through the battle, Orin and Satori manage to reach her with mindreading powers. They can talk to her, maybe talk her down. But Utsuho is weak, tired, and resigned. She’s been trying to hold back her power, to no avail. All she can think to do now is apologize. “i’m sorry, miss satori... all I ever wanted was to be useful to you... to help you get along better with koishi again... but i’m useless... i always screw everything up... and even now, at the very end, i’m just causing you more trouble... i’m sorry... i’m so sorry...”

The music changes to “From now on, we’ll...” 

It’s an emotional remix of both Lullaby of Deserted Hell and Hellfire Mantle. “From now on, we’ll...” is the last thing Orin said to Utsuho before she went quiet. The next spellcard is “Heaven and Hell Meltdown”, a giant explosion attack that hits the entire map. She will now attack Orin.

One last spellcard. Utsuho’s special skill changes from “Yatagarasu’s Guidance” to “Lifeforce Reactor”, as she’s burning up her own lifeforce as fuel now. Mechanically, this makes it so she can break the Power cap from 150% all the way up to 700% and gains Power as she takes damage. The more scientifically minded characters liken this to a star that’s run out of lighter elements to fuse and begun to collapse in on itself before going supernova. A dying star. “Subterranean Sun”. All that can be done is stop her before she destroys Gensokyo, and hope that she survives the process.

Utusho has a special defeat animation. Instead of just going “pichun” like most bosses, she glows brighter and brighter like she’s about to explode, before finally becoming a tiny flame that quietly extinguishes. A candle that’s gone out.

The final blow.

She survives, of course. Eirin’s there and the game’s not that dark. But while the story is perhaps just a melodramatic interpretation of Utsuho’s story in SA, the music and spellcards really sell it, imo.