Just Dualstall Thoughts

Exa Pico karaoke tracks for you to sing!

I’m not one of the early-comers who waited for AT2, so it wasn’t the culmination of all that to me. Instead, my first thought was that it wasn’t as good as Harmonics Eolia, but that wasn’t its fault. Eolia was a tough act to follow, with those soaring first few lines and representing the first taste of a new world. Harmonics Tilia is also a lot flashier. Frelia’s soft start is very different.

Plenty of Exa Pico songs have been love at first listen for me, but Harmonics Frelia I fell in love with slowly. At some point it seemed to flow irresistibly, with the line about the wide, wide sea. I can’t help but prefer the translations that put those words at the end of the line rather than more literally at the beginning. It feels satisfying, like a rhyme. I also like the old direct Hymmnos translation “lonely people gain hope.”

This is one of the songs that represents AT2′s themes of loneliness and connection, along with Reisha’s Lullaby, EXEC_VIENA, Hartes ciel, METHOD_METAFALICA... I’m probably forgetting at least one, it’s everywhere. Just about everyone in AT2 is lonely, and seeing them find connection organically is really satisfying. That and the hard times feel a lot like the world we live in these days. Harmonics Frelia is perhaps the closest to representing AT2′s specific message about connecting with people who are different. Although it’s not particularly explicit in any of the lyrics, the “feelings contained in this song” describe deliberate steps more than lucky soulmates: “Taking each other's hands (walking at the same pace)/following each other's steps (crafting the same rhythm),” “If I wanted to know so much about you/I wonder what I should learn.” That surely means hope for lonely people. It means connection is everywhere.

I learned this song (more or less) from MyraSlokov’s lyrics video, which is illustrated with official art of Luca and Cloche holding each other, so I always pictured them singing it, and that “deliberate steps” quality, the level of self-dissolution -- “we become a single view of the universe,”  “melt the souls into each other,”  “I will happily turn into you for eternity!” -- and the lines playing on the names for the Maidens make that a fitting reading. It also says that “If we all wish for and craft feelings of happiness,” we can create Metafalica, but that works just as well on the level of the game as a whole.

I did not run out of things to say, I disappeared because I was going to a con for the first time in a looong time (literally since the year AT1 came out in the US) and really wanted a costume to fish for AT fans with and, as you may or may not know, those are a ton of work. Still a bunch of stuff missing but I think I made it to a wearable state. My most wanted choice is Shurelia’s armor but I thought her regular outfit would be too boring if I didn’t have time to do all the little thingies justice. I figured Luca would be comparatively quick and easy and I already had the perfect wig. I realize that’s one of the last AT characters you’d expect to hear that about. I bought it for Lucina/Masked Marth from Fire Emblem and gave it a two-layer cut designed to be put up. They also have similar names and the same English voice actor. Quite a coincidence.