#besa

Valentine's Day event synopsis: "With Valentine's Day approaching, shops in Akihabara have begun engaging in a ruthless and malicious competition. Gather your friends and save Cat's Claw and Narumi from their crisis!" The combat side of the event also says: "As Valentine's Day approaches, the romantic atmosphere on the streets is growing stronger, but under the influence of such passionate desires, the shadows in Mementos are also becoming restless. Fight against the rampaging shadows, protect couples' desires to spend Valentine's Day together, and help everyone create beautiful holiday memories. During battle, utilizing the special mechanic "Cocoa Knights' Blessing" can help the leader better quell the twisted desires. Furthermore, Wonder's interactions with female allies during battle will create very unique "chemistry", so please look forward to it, Leader."

Pinky's Persona is Asterope/Sterope (it's spelled both ways, but hearing how she says it in-game should make it clear which one they're using). While the name can refer to several figures from Greek mythology, including an oceanid (water nymph), notably one is a member of the Pleiades like Merope (the figure) is - Pinky's combat specialties are "linked support" and "extra round"

New limited-time Bugs and Silky plushies in the claw machines

Joker and Lion Dance Rin's Core Activation Mindscape nodes will become available in this version

One engraving for the Starry Compass (Psy knife) will be added as well

Chizuko Nagao will be added as a playable character to Tycoon, and Sepia and Howler are getting card skins

On February 16th, all players will receive a free Spring Festival gift, which includes a 5-star weapon case with weapons available up to Summer Marian

Synopsis for the Spring Festival minigame where Wonder rolls dice to go around a board (as shown in the trailer): "Influenced by the complex desires of human society, Besa launched a brand new program project: a Monopoly reality game show set in a real city. He also referenced similar programs in human society, and examined human desires. Participants need to complete missions, battles, and events in the game to obtain more currency and ultimately win the game…"

The New Year red envelopes that you can send to other players will be coming back this year

A Trial of Thorns against the Nian Beast will run from February 16th - March 5th

For 1980 Meta Jewels, players can perform a 10-pull on a special New Year contract, which guarantees a random character from the set: Lion Dance Rin, Joker, and Seaside Tomoko. A player can only do this pull once.

A new Wonder outfit will be available for purchase. The outfit comes with a free Lunar New Year-themed decoration for Wonder's house, as well as a bonus that increases the amount of money earned when working part-time at "Chinese-related" shops

Wonder's Metaverse Spring Festival costume will also be returning from last year's event

A rerun banner will begin in this update, and last until March 5th. This banner has characters up to Blitz available

35. ALBANIA Besa - "Titan" 34th place

Decade ranking: 138/153 [Above Vasil, below Mia & Dion]

Besa, darling, this is some GARBAGE.

There you go. My instinctive pavlovian response every time I think about "TiTAN" (*sigh*) since its revamp. End of write-up, the rest is just filling in the dead space. Each time Albania announces a revamp that goes English, the NQ energy comes out.

Sometimes, it's a bit unfair to immediately dismiss a English FiK revamp. Not all of them were without merit, and most still offerend something of value because they were based off good songs.

"Zemrën n'dorë" for ex; was perfectly fine even if the fandom held it in contempt for being "generically Albanian". It was still fun? Besides, "generically Albanian" is like what - Karma or Duje? There are worse places to be, surely. Both still made the final, and were enjoyable in their own right.

If anything, I got a small chuckle out of both of Besa's FiK performances because they underlined Besa's penchant for extra outfits - In the first performance Besa strutted around in badly designed fantasy armour <3

"Every tear's gonna ricochet indeed."

which she then followed up with this Statue of Liberty waifu cosplay

Working her two best assets <3

Sadly, I don't think "Titan" can be ranked amongst the okay revamps of 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2022. It was a fall from the shajte. She took an average song with interesting elements and got rid of the interesting elements, which she then replaced with one of the WORST drop breaks I've ever heard in any song, ESC or not.

The second any of us heard "Titan" in full we knew it was dedge with near certainty, and that was precisely what happened. There were no miraculous turnarounds as with Bambie or surprise outsells as with Aiko and Megara. "Titan" remained uninspired and dull. Even when she was performing it in the semi all I could think about was how hopeless it was. None of the outfits Besa wore in Malmö were particularly inspired and the act was hopelessly stuck in 2017. It's been seven years since Artsvik. Time to move on from the "Hand Choreo into Wideshots" acts, mayhaps.

So, Besa was unremarkable fodder, what's the worry? Why this low a placement? Shouldn't she be ranked amongst the Vladanas and the Ukus?

Well, semi 2 happened to be quite good and even though "Titan" was without question the biggest dud within its line-up, but thanks to its drop and awful act it still managed to stand out as SHIT to me. Which might be worse than not standing out at all. It's one of the two for each one of us, so decide for yourself which one is worse. The fact that "Titan" can easily be forgotten about is its only saving grace, which is the true halllmark of its badness. Once you do pay it even a smidge of scrutiny (which requires considerably more concentration than I'm willing to throw at it), out come the exclamations of "THIS IS NOT IT, BESA."

So in the end, the results spoke for themselves. Besa should have been last place in Semi 2 and that would have been the verdict if she hadn't been the biggest name Albania had sent in years. Even with HER RECOGNITION AMONGST ALBANIANS, she still came second last, with 14 points, the same amount as Victor Vernikos last year, with only a smatting of points from the expat countries, a single point ahead of last place. it was as close a result to nilpoints that Albania could have realistically mustered under the current system, and I can't say it wasn't deserved.

BESA KOKËDHIMA, IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO RETIRE!!!

CAN YOU IMAGINE IF THE OLD FiK SYSTEM HAD STILL BEEN IN PLACE AND THE FIK WINNER HAD GONE INSTEAD?!

This Donkey Kong/Gaston hybrid <3 All he had was arms, a song and a dream. 😭 and I do mean that literally because the one thing Mal didn't have was performance talent. Throwing partitures around ♥ flexing ALL the time ♥ the adlibs, the shrieking, the "fucking hell" ♥ All while sounding like someone throttling a turkey ♥ How did this win a JURY VOTE ♥ Mal would have NQ'd too but it would have been FUNNY and ICONIQUE and MEMORABLE, all traits "Titan" did not have. 😭

HOORAY, we've already made it out of the ~Dislikes~. Yep, only *three* reds/oranges this year. Told you this year's entries were good. Time to rank some bores, mediocrities and mixed bags for the next few days, I guess.

THE RANKING

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