152 | in which I finish both the Kalevala and my replay of Star Stealing Prince

[straightforwardly]

► Finished my replay of Star Stealing Prince! A few things I noticed/wanted to comment on this time around:

• I can’t remember if I’d noticed this before or not, but Erio actually gets one of those happy music tags over his head after he finishes threatening Snowe and Snowe leaves in chapter four. That was kind of weirdly adorable.


• I think my favorite puzzle in the game might be the one where you give the maiden statues their names back. I followed the walkthrough for most of this playthrough in the interest of efficiency (which also means that I actually managed to talk to all the snowmen for the first time ever), and I think I did check back on the walkthrough for some of the trickier puzzles on my second playthrough, but the maiden puzzle is one that I always sit down and solve. It’s a lot of fun, and I like getting to know all of their quirks and drama.


• Okay, I’d completely forgotten about how worried the Numismatist gets over Snowe when she meets Astra & co. in Edgar and Lina’s castle in chapter five and he’s not there with him. It’s adorable.


• When the party met the Original King, there was an interesting callback to that Snowe line I quoted in my last entry (where he talks about how he’s inherited his parent’s kingdom, and so, everything they did). The Original King’s line (a direct quote, this time): “You all inherited what they did! You allowed them to act and allowed them to steal from me. I’m not going to let that pass—I’ll kill every one of you.”


• Ahhh, I always find it so sad when the guards, magic helpers, and library helpers start turning to clay. Especially when you’re talking to that one that hopes that she’ll stay together long enough to see their new home. ;_;


• I really do love the last dungeon in the good ending route of the game. ♥ It’s just… a lot of fun for me? I think it’s because I like using Erio— he has such an interesting skillset. It’s always fun to send demons and curses and black holes at my enemies.


• I can’t remember if I ever reacted this way before, but… dream!Astra’s eyes kind of creeped me out, this time around. She just doesn’t look right with blue eyes.

Oh— and I finally actually played through the bad ending this time around. I already had a basic understanding of what happens in it, so no surprises there. But I did… kind of find the execution not all that effective? Idk, I usually love a good bad ending in a game, and this game in particular tends to make me have feelings all over the place, so it was strange to feel… essentially nothing about what happened there.

► I also finished reading the Kalevala the other day! I don’t have too much to say, though: Ilmarinen, how could you, I had hopes of you being a decent person. ;_; (In regards to Louhi’s other daughter.)

Also, while I’m on that note, Louhi’s first daughter’s fate horrified me. I don’t think anything else in the Kalevala got such a visceral reaction from me as that did. Holy shit, Kullervo, what is wrong with you????

Also, Louhi’s response to their Sampo-stealing was pretty justified, imo. Well, not the sun and moon stuff— that was going a bit too far— but the initial chase after them.

I really liked the chapter on the bear ritual, though I’m not sure if I’d had understood everything were it not for Stand Still Stay Silent’s explanation of it. ♥

Now that I'm finished, I'm considering (re)reading some of the Norse sagas I still have from college— I remember liking Njal's Saga a lot, though I don't remember much about what happened— but idk yet. I could also read the Arabian Nights, since that's been sitting on my bookshelf for a while... We'll see.

Comments

[yuuago]

"Holy shit, Kullervo, what is wrong with you????"

THAT IS WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW. Holy shit, that guy is... something else.

[straightforwardly]

Right??? Like, I honestly thought he was going to be sympathetic at first, considering the whole "people who raised him trying to kill him multiple times as a kid and also killed his whole family (or so he thought)" thing, but then he went and did... everything that he did. ._.