NARRATIVE TEXT:

Name: Hermes (aka Norville Gataki)
Age: 19

Weapon: Mechanical Legs, God-form Shift

Series: Brutal God Project

“Damnit, amscray will ya? The mail can't be late again!”


Character Bio:

Born without legs, and thus requiring ever more advanced mechanical substitutes every few years, Norville isn't interested in being an extraordinary individual; all he wants is to carve out a cosy, quiet existence for himself, wherein he works hard as a mail courier, parties even harder as a raver, and the most exciting aspect of his existence is being in a relationship with semi-famous Twitch House artist Jackson Remis. Life has other plans for Norville, however, as following the sudden resurrection of Cronus, leader of the first generation of Titans, the many deities from Greece's history awake from a millennia long slumber. Possessing several cybernetically enhanced humans or autonomous machines, their aim of stopping not only Cronus, but the new age of chaos and malice he heralds. However, they also have to deal with their personalities and identities merging and fusing with the hosts they chose- as Norville finds out when the spirit of Hermes, messenger of the gods, merges with consciousness. Thrust into the role of a hero and forced to navigate his now dual identity, Norville/Hermes certainly has his work cut out for him.


Level: Atsáli Aéras Skyway

Located high above the city of Athens, this interconnected mish mash of sci-fi streets and structures plays host to the most cutting edge forms of entertainment and hospitality that the city offers. Want to eat the finest food in the area in an entirely transparent restaurant that overlooks the Acropolis? Perhaps you'd like to try out one of the several Live Simulation Interactive Games that populate the skyway's various arcades? And of course, if you're looking to engage with the culture and history of the city, may we recommend the state of the art Amphitheatre that plays host to stunning shows and performances that utilizes technology to truly enhance the experience? All this and more make the Skyway the single most frequented part of Athens by tourists, a veritable heaven of machinery and convenience. Unfortunately, this does make it a frequent target of schemes from ne'er do wells- including an ongoing cyber attack enacted by the notorious Noble Crime Family, which is forcing the many robots, cyborgs, and androids that staff the skyway's near endless facilities to run amok.


Boss: Beethoven Noble

Though relations between Humans and Machines are peaceful in the modern age, there were times where co-existence between the two were fraught with conflict (largely due to the biases and distrust of the former in the latter). Relations were particularly strained during the emergence of early Humanoids, in part thanks to the actions of Beethoven Noble, a former patriarch of the Noble Crime Family infamous for engineering a virus that would cause anyone or anything with mechanical- or mechanically enhanced- brains to turn homicidally violent, and transmit the virus to other machines via radio waves. Many outbreaks were kicked off by Beethoven, always in the name of capital and greed, though he was eventually apprehended by authorities and decommissioned for his crimes. Unfortunately, through means nobody can understand, he keeps finding ways to come back via new bodies, picking up right were he left off- sometimes, even to the Noble Family's detriment. Unable to use his abilities to directly affect the player characters, Beethoven will opt to instead use them to force various machines into constructs or small waves to attack whilst he hangs back; every defence has its cracks, however, and when you reach him, you may find that he's not the most physically imposing opponent.

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IN-CHARACTER TRACK COMMENTARY FROM GONKAKA:

(Fumie lets out a long groan, resting her head in her hands; the other band members chuckle good naturedly)

Denji Koshiro: You really struggled with this one, didn't you?

Fumie Saso: Like you wouldn't believe! I couldn't even decide what style to embrace in the beginning- 'do I do something in line with the synthpop work we've done on the Brutal God Project games, or do I do a jungle track?' was a question that haunted me for an entire week as I tried out sketches in both styles. It's been a long time since a song fought me as hard as this one did!

Shinji Namiki: And yet the end result sounds very carefully crafted and considered.

Fumie Saso: You think so? I feel like I went a bit too freeform with many of the melodies.

Denji Koshiro: We're all our own worst critic, Fumie; from what I understand, fans really like this one. Especially the drumming.

Fumie Saso: I do still think that holds up, yes. It's very full on and hectic, especially in that final section- probably because of the stress I was under trying to wrangle this piece into shape!

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DECON'S TRACK COMMENTARY:

It's been a very hard week, and at least part of that was down to how badly this song fought me throughout almost the entire composition process; I legitimately struggled to get ideas to fall into places for this harder then I have other works in a good long while, and it really began to drain me. I got there in the end, and I'm really pleased with the end result all things considered; it's the most high energy track on the score so far in terms of tempo and melodic variation.

At least a part of the problem was settling on what direction to actually go in; my first instinct was to go in a sort of drum & bass-y direction, before I thought "actually, something very 80s/90s synthy would work- and matches the 'sound' of the series the stage is based on in my head". Something akin to Bank System (Quickman's Stage) from Mega Man Network Transmission, or Tresspass (Under Highway) from the arcade version of Bloody Roar 1. Ultimately, the latter idea won out, though there's still a jungle-y breakdown roughly in the middle as a remnant of that original idea. For reasons I can't quite explain, one of the high hat rhythms from the Angkor Vat stage from the arcade version of Tekken 1 crept into my head- the one that comes in around 7 seconds in- and carried through the several drafts this song went through. The name is also a sort of shout out to another Hideki Naganuma track- Sky 2 High (done under his skankfunk alias)- because Eh, It Came to Mind and I Liked It.