Ladies and gentlemen, the music of Basil Poledouris.
For those who don't know (but can probably deduce from the still image in the above video), this piece of music is the opening theme of the original Conan the Barbarian movie. It's sort of a guilty pleasure film of mine, but ninety percent of the reason I watch it is for the awesome soundtrack. Incidentally, the composer of this piece, Basil Poledouris also did the soundtracks for movies such as The Hunt for Red October, Quigley Down Under, and the first and third Robocop movies. So why did I choose to open this post with such an epic-sounding piece of music? It's because I've been on something of an epic video game quest off and on during parts of this month.
My main video game right now is Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream (which I have talked a little about during previous Monthly Update posts). At or near the start of this month, it was announced that they'd be adding a free character to the game with the Season 5 update in October, but in order to unlock this character players need to collect four of these special items called memory fragments. Unfortunately, the only way to collect these memory fragments is to take part in these special events known as Extreme Boss Raids (EX Raids for short). Basically, these raids are multiplayer battles against enhanced versions of powerful boss monsters seen in the SAO anime and light novels. To get an idea of what I'm talking about, below is a link showing a battle against the latest of these EX Boss monsters.
I know, the video that the above link is to is kind of long. I just wanted something that showed what these EX Raids are like. This video at least has some fairly decent narration. Anyway, the raid against Sword Golem Catastrophe was just one of two EX Raids done this month. The other was against a monster known as the Skull Reaper Tempest, which is an enhanced version of the Skull Reaper, a monster that I'm sure is familiar to those who have at least watched the first season of the SAO anime.
I got the memory fragment from the Skull Reaper Tempest event on my very first attempt to beat it. I had actually beaten the Skull Reaper Tempest a few times before when they first did the event some time around the end of last year, so I had a decent strategy lined up. As for the Sword Golem Catastrophe, I lost on my first attempt against it but still got the memory fragment from the event. The nice thing about this whole memory fragment quest is that you don't necessarily have to defeat the EX Bosses to get the fragments. Sure, actually defeating the boss guarantees acquisition of the fragment, but if you lose there's still a chance that you'll get it if you survived long enough to get the boss's HP down to a certain point.
I went back and challenged the Sword Golem Catastrophe a few more times though, mainly because I also really wanted to get the evil-looking bishop's hat that it drops (as seen in the linked video). It took I think six victories before that dang hat finally dropped, and that's six victories out of like ten plus battles. I wound up losing more times than I won, though I think a good chunk of those defeats were because those battles didn't have a full set of twenty actual players. But more than a few of those defeats were because I failed to dodge on time or when I zigged when I should've zagged.
Anyway, these EX Raids are certainly difficult to beat, but not impossible. You mainly just need a good strategy for each one that fits your play style and a character with the right equipment. And you're not going to win every time, which is probably why they made it so that the memory fragments can be obtained without having to actually defeat the boss. On the subject of the memory fragment quest though, I now have two more EX Raids to tackle. The third EX Raid event should take place early next month, and the fourth and final one is supposed to happen some time in September.
On a somewhat similar topic, I decided last week to try and get the Nintendo Switch 2. I have been kind of reluctant to get that system because of how expensive it is, especially since I recently had to spent more than seven thousand bucks on a new car. Despite the high price though, I decided I should probably go ahead and get the Switch 2 anyway for the following reasons.
- The system is bound to only get more expensive thanks to Trump's idiotic tariffs, so it's probably best to try and get it now while it's still relatively cheap.
- I'll need to get a Switch 2 eventually anyway because I'm sure the next wave of main Pokémon games will probably be exclusive to the Switch 2.
- Some of the controls for my Switch 2 just aren't as responsive as they used to be, which is a fact that I was painfully reminded of during my attempts to defeat the Sword Golem Catastrophe.
- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet perform way better on the Switch 2 from what I've seen and read online.
The last two reasons are my main reasons for trying to get the Switch 2. Now I keep saying that I'm trying to get the Switch 2, and the reason is because I haven't actually been able to purchase it yet. I haven't been able to find the system in any stores near me, and unfortunately my attempt to get it on Amazon wasn't any better. All I was able to do was ask for an invitation from Amazon to purchase the Switch 2 from the site, so I'm basically on a waiting list. Now I'm in no great rush to get the Switch 2, but I am a little concerned that I won't be able to buy it until after the price for it starts to go up.
I also want to get the Switch 2 because of the upcoming Pokémon Legends Z-A game. While Z-A is compatible with the regular Switch and the Switch Lite, I get the feeling that if I were to just get the regular version for my Switch Lite, it'd just suffer from the same performance issues that Scarlet and Violet have had with the system. Now I've been pretty tolerable with some of the issues I've had with playing Violet, mainly because I've never encountered any game-breaking glitches, but with Z-A I want to have the best experience possible playing it, especially since it seems so revolutionary for a Pokémon game. I've been even more excited to play Z-A ever since they revealed the new Mega Evolution for Dragonite, even though I have some mixed feelings about that form.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that Dragonite has finally gotten some kind of upgrade (though I was hoping more for a regional variant). It's just that the design for Mega Dragonite feels kind of lazy to me. All they did was stick a giant pair of wings on its head and gave it a tail orb. Of course I get that they made this design for the purposes of better connecting Dragonite to its pre-evolution of Dragonair. Apparently there are fans who have complained about how Dragonite looks so radically different from its previous forms. I myself never really cared about it though, or really never even thought about it at all actually.
In other news, I rewatched Revolutionary Girl Utena earlier this month. There's something about that anime that seems to...reenergize me, for lack of a better word. Watching Utena again led me to reposting a fanfic on AO3 that I had originally never planned to repost. The story is a crossover I did between Revolutionary Girl Utena and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's called Stardust Revolution. It's hardly the best story I've ever written, and not surprisingly it hasn't gotten a lot of response on AO3, but it is a project that I'm still kind of fond of.
I have given some thought to writing another Utena fanfic though, one that wouldn't be a crossover of any kind. Yet while I have had one or two ideas for a possible story, I have not been able to get anything off the ground. I'm still dealing with the writer's block I've been grappling with since April. I just don't know what the hell is wrong with me. Maybe I'm just overthinking the problem or something.
That pretty much covers everything for this month's post. Until the day we meet again.
