Kohn on Celts

Well, surprise of surprises, Kohn's final chapter isn't about Germany. Yet.

Instead,the chapter called, in part, "Toward the Great Awakening" has been about Wales and Ireland. Kohn's treatment of the growth of nationalism in these countries has been similar to his approach to Germany and Prussia.

Of course, by this point in The Idea of Nationalism the important historical trends and figures of the eighteenth century are well tread. As a result, Kohn is able to skim through the context of important events. This allows him to keep his discussions streamlined and is quite appreciated.

However, Kohn does drop names without giving them context. As far as I can tell, "Grattan" is used several times but Kohn never refers to him as Henry Grattan. 

That Kohn is able to freely drop names like this suggests that The Idea of Nationalism was written for a specialist audience. Yet, Kohn's smooth but dense prose is much more welcoming than a textbook's.

Given the breadth of his coverage so far, at the very least Kohn covers a wide range of emerging nations.

Mobs of monsters have a purpose

Thankfully Torrent Peak isn't as unassailable as it seemed at first blush. A little guide from Gamefaqs went far in pointing me in the right direction.

Now that the tower's opened up somewhat, it's clearer why there are so many monsters in the first floor's main room. This tower's main puzzle is its water wheel. A wheel that only turns while you  are pulling on the water release switch.

So you need to line up the few pegs that are on this wheel with where you need to go.

Such a thing can be time consuming. And, as terrible about hijacking jumps or knocking you into the water as the enemies in that first main room are, they do provide a pretty steady supply of dripping flesh. So as frustrating as trying to run past these creatures can be, they do serve a purpose.

Yet, other than that single, horrible room, this tower's actually kind of dull. There's a lot of climbing, but nothing really interesting aside from the water wheel. Finally, though, finding another Large Bone let me upgrade the Military Scythe, so now, it's likely to be easy as well as dull.

A welcome surprise

Dragon Quest IX has up and surprised me.

Chasing after Batzorig, the son of Butsureg's chief, doesn't immediately result in a boss battle. Instead, you're lead to his mother's grave. There, her spirit reveals that you need to get her son some Bodura Grass so that he can reveal the enchantress Sarantsatsral's true form.

So the boss here, if there will be such a thing, is lined up to be Sarantsatsral herself.

Upon first encountering her, it was clear that she was not what she seemed. But my guess then was that she was a fellow Celestrian; that she was an angel like your main character. That's still my guess, but evidence is mounting against that being the case. Her sapping the confidence and courage from Batsureg's chief and his son alike is particularly un-angelic.

At any rate, this much narrative in the middle of the hunt for a fygg is a welcome change to the game. All of the other fyggs were usually delivered by accident or after a battle with whatever had eaten the fygg in question. Also, more often than not a dungeon is placed between you and the one who had dined on the divine fruit.

That the process for getting this fygg varies the formula is very welcome. Perhaps as much for what it is as for its being entirely unexpected.

Welcome to Torrent Peak

I think by now hating water-based dungeons is a forgone conclusion. It's been over a decade since Ocarina of Time's first stalled playthroughs around the globe, after all. The water dungeons in Pandora's Tower are, unfortunately, just as frustrating.

However. In Ocarina of Time, the Water Temple is a pain to work through because of all the keys and locked doors. You need to keep track of where things are, too (much more so than in any other dungeon in that game). In Pandora's Tower keys aren't the problem.

No. In Pandora's Tower the problem is the game's camera system.

Instead of following Aeron in a third person perspective, the game uses a fixed point of view. Sometimes this point of view shifts for different rooms and areas. But, it is always fixed. And there's no way to switch into a first person view to see what's around you.

Combine this restrictive camera scheme with narrow pathways surrounded by water in which you instantly lose a block of health and are sent back to the last doorway you passed through.

Then, for good measure, add in monsters that don't just leap out of the water and onto the walkways before attacking but literally launch themselves at you. Oh, and make sure you're generous with those monsters - let's say toss in two for every stretch of walkway in the main room.

That's Torrent Peak, the next tower, in a nutshell.

Granted, the Lifeforce Band and the Military Scythe do make a deadly combination in this tower. Plus, thanks to the levels gained from all of those fights, I have the room to equip armour along with those two items. So Aeron is a formidable force right now.

Still, falling in the water and re-spawning a the last doorway you passed through is frustrating as all get out. All the more so when you're in the middle of fighting those crowding creatures and have to work your way back to where you were knowing that the beasts are waiting for you.

Boss anticipation

So after Dragon Quest IX's hip hop priest (the cleric in Batsureg (a.k.a. Yurts-ville)) comes grinding.

On my way to meet up with the son of the town's chief, I got into a few battles and noticed something amiss. I couldn't follow my own strength standard of being able to beat a group of three enemies or more in one round (using three physical attacks and one attack-all spell). So the Bad Cave was visited for its metal slimes and everyone managed to gain a level.

One gained level isn't the result of a particularly large amount of grinding, but I'm eager to get moving into the game. There's the promise of the next boss fight being different from the rest, after all. Why?

Because in an effort to boost the chief's son's confidence, you're to give him the final strike.

Now, this could mean nothing more than that the battle is like any other save that when it ends you see the chief-to-be make the kill. Or, it could mean that the son will somehow be integrated into the battle.

I'm not exactly holding my breath in anticipation, but the possibility of a boss battle where stakes and methods are varied is as welcome as the actual appearance of such a battle at this point. Such a thing would make the battles all the more dynamic, and that dynamism has been missing of late in this game.

Closing the curtain on The Frogs (spoilers below)

The Frogs concludes with quite a twist.

Early in the play, Dionysus states clearly that he is going to Hades to free Euripides. But in the end it is Aeschylus whom the god brings back to advise Athens and guide her choral games.

After the contests between Euripides and Aeschylus, why Dionysus made the choice he did is clear.

For starters, this sequence takes up most of the play. It also includes the literal weighing in a scale of each's poetic wit. As you might guess, the play maintains its comedic strain throughout this poetic competition. Aeschylus' demonstrating that many of Euripides' prologues can be concluded with the sentence "Lost his bottle of oil," also damns the deity's initial pick.

The shifting of Dionysus' choice from Euripides to Aeschylus also reflects Aristophanes' own conservative philosophy. Presented with an older, more august Aeschylus it should be obvious that the younger, shallower Euripides won't be going back to the land of the living with Dionysus. Yet, because of his constant waffling and his stated interest in Euripides, Dionysus' final choice still came as a surprise to me.

If you have interest in (ancient Greek) drama, definitely do give The Frogs a read.

Although, even at the end of the play, I'm not so sure about its title. Why was it called The Frogs if a group of them have only a small role near the beginning of the play? Because it's about rescuing a dramatist and poet (someone intricately tied with public presentations) are those frogs supposed to be identified with the audience and vice versa?

Weapon Shop de Omasse is open for business

Weapon Shop de Omasse is a rhythm game and so much more.

Unlike other Nintendo-exclusive rhythm games (ie: Rhythm Heaven), Weapon Shop de Omasse's more of a complete experience. Instead of having disconnected rhythm-based mini-games, Weapon Shop de Omasse happens to be a shop simulator that features a rhythm mini-game.

Specifically, Weapon Shop de Omasse is a game that puts you into the role of a blacksmith's apprentice living and working in an RPG. So, instead of being the one who does the adventuring and is at the fore of the action, you see the classic "defeat-the-evil-lord" plot play out from the perspective of a weapon shop.

The game's rhythm element comes in when you work to forge the weapons that you rent out. Aside from that, though, you need to manage your inventory, judge your customers' abilities and needs and give them the appropriate weapon, and work to become a deluxe weapon shop before the evil lord makes his grand entrance.

All of these aspects of the game revolve around your customers. Surprisingly, even early in the game these people are all rather distinct. Even if they're mostly just named "NPC," they all have at least some personality. The way that your interactions with them are presented adds quite a bit to this as well, giving the impression that Weapon Shop de Omasse is filmed in front of a live studio audience.

Out of all the rhythm games I've played to date, Weapon Shop de Omasse is my favourite. However, the premise, the shop management, and the characters are more to thank for this praise than the actual rhythm sections of the game. Truth be told, five customers into the game, these sections have yet to be longer than thirty seconds.

If all of the above sounds good to you, though (and you have a 3DS), head on over to the eShop. As of this writing, Weapon Shop de Omasse is going for $7.99.