Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2u0wbl2Q1Y&hd=1
Plants vs. Zombies actually has a pretty cool soundtrack, and there are a couple different pieces I could have posted here. Brainiac Maniac is also up there for me, and Zombies on Your Lawn is... interesting, in a yes-I-would-actually-post-this kind of way. Of what I've heard, I think Ultimate Battle is my favorite, though.
One thing you might notice immediately, if you're like me, is that this does not sound like a song that would be titled "Ultimate Battle"! And because I've never actually played Plants vs. Zombies, I cannot explain away that discrepancy. But whatever, let's not let that ruin our day. I end up liking this because it just sounds very... I dunno, clean and crisp or something. There's a lot of different elements going on at once, near the end of the piece at least, but it never sounds muddled or convoluted. I guess I'd say it sounds simple without actually being simple, which is a difficult thing to get right and something I appreciate.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
I feel like this would be better off it it dropped the parts where I think it's "trying" to be a battle song, but whatever! It definitely has some neat parts to it, it's not bad. 5.5.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dLX2Dfg7DU&hd=1
This strays pretty close to getting a bit too minimalistic or simple or whatever for me, but I think it keeps itself on the good side of that. This is the "world map" theme (world map in quotations because it's basically the whole "choose a destination and click kind of world map", like FFX or Persona 3) for Phase 2 of Ar tonelico II (at least on Cloche path, but I'm almost positive it's the same either way), despite not doing anything I find really exceptional, I think it's pretty solid. That whole "Is pretty solid because it takes no risks" thing? I'd say this is a pretty good example, IMO.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
It's okay. There's some interesting stuff happening here, but mostly it just sounds like decent platformer music. In fact I think it reminds me of Super Mario Sunshine's music in particular.
5/10, I could go to 5.5 but ehhh...
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u86nGCpnp5E&hd=1
Hey, it's been a while since I posted something from OGs! And Code: ATA is possibly the rockingest track from the game outside of Platinum Lucifer and Trombe, both of which I've already posted. And actually... right now I'm thinking I might take this over Trombe, but I'm not 100% sure about that. It could be the sleep deprivation talking. Platinum Lucifer always #1 though.
Remember when I gave Price of Freedom a lot of flak for having that incredibly out of place, jarring, unnecessary electric guitar? Well, here's a piece that also mixes gentle, chilled out portions with an electric guitar, only this one does it in a way that is known as, if you'll forgive my musical jargon, "good". I can't even rightly claim Code: ATA is better than Price of Freedom, but that particular aspect? Absolutely. It actually works for the piece here, making the mix of and transitions between the two styles far more interesting than either would be separately. And we can fact check that statement via the SRWOG OVA, and its significantly less rockin' version of Code: ATA. No comparison!
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
This started out with quite a bit of potential, and then proceeded to do everything in its power to not realize it. And it succeeded! 5.5.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qs9EiK_JJE&hd=1
I'm trying to think of what other Umineko song I'd compare this to. I'm not sure it has an easy comparison like say lastendconductor and dreamenddischarger, which I feel are fairly similar on a couple of levels, but maybe that's just me! Anyway, this is a pretty solid piece as well. Not necessarily one of my favorites from Umineko, but it's pretty neat. The piano is fairly solid, and apparently those "vocals" are Microsoft Sam or something. But I'm not positive on that, it's just what I've heard.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUv1QYWfoWk&hd=1
I think the other G-Darius song (Kimera II, if you don't recall) was the most polarized reception I ended up getting in terms of "What I thought" vs. "What everyone else (really just Kenri and CG7) thought." I also think Kenri told me it was the single most difficult thing he rated, but I don't know if that still holds. So on that cheerful note, here we go!
Now, I don't like Adam as much as I like Kimera II, but Kimera II left the bar kind of high, and I do like Adam, for many of the same reasons I like Kimera II, and also Neotokyo if you look a bit closely. Namely, "weird" sound effects! I don't think Adam goes anywhere near Kimera II's level on that front, but it's still probably very far out there when you consider everything in general. My favorite section is actually pretty "normal" though, at least I think so! That section is 0:58 - 1:42.
I will also note that I am pretty sure it begins looping after 1:57 in case you'd like to know that.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7vr2I7ipsY&hd=1
Hey guys, sorry about missing yesterday! I was very busy, what with all the not-posting-here that I was doing. It's understandable.
Today I have a track from Frozen Synapse! Frozen Synapse has really good music if you like the kind of music it has, which tends to be a mix of chilled out and techno. I like it, I think it's great BGM, except in the actual game, where you can barely hear it, which is a problem. Definitely need to fiddle with that in the settings next time I play.
I could go a couple different directions here! Concentrate has pulled ahead of the pack for me recently, but A Functioning God and a couple other tracks are also up there. Concentrate works for me for the same reason a couple other pieces that I've posted in this topic work for me, those other pieces being ones like Every Day and Dense Fog Today, which makes me think this one should be named Concentrate Someday to keep with the theme. Those two other pieces were not successful here! But Concentrate will be different because it has minimal vocal effects, which almost universally leads to comments like "I like those vocal effects"! Yeah! So feel free to just leave your 12/10s wherever and ignore the fact that this is 6 minutes long and doesn't loop ever so you have to listen to the whole thing, even if you hate atmospheric background music like this. Yeah! ...Yeah!
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
But Concentrate will be different because it has minimal vocal effects, which almost universally leads to comments like "I like those vocal effects"!
They are the best parts of this. Not the only good parts, and certainly not enough to justify the other parts where pretty much nothing much is happening, but... 5.0.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9LyxRMNL-E&hd=1
So, back to Castlevania, Out of Time is a short song, but I do like it a fair amount. It's another one that's probably rather high on my list of chiptunes, Castlevania probably has most of that list really, but then again, it's not a very extensive list! Anyway, this isn't something I like as much as say, Battle of the Holy or Iron Blue Intention, but it's solid. ...And I think I'll spare everyone from making a terrible pun right here and just end the write-up. You're welcome!
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
They really are, yes. I should have emphasized that I was being sincere about that in my writeup. <_<
Anyway.
Freedom Fighters - Isabella - Leader of the Resistance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmegCkd5LqI&hd=1
Moving away from... well, actually, this is sort of in a similar vein to Concentrate, so we're not moving away from it at all. Whoops. In any case, Isabella is a very neat song, one which I heard once and immediately decided I needed to post here. Makes me wonder if the rest of the game's soundtrack is of a similar quality! ...I should probably check that at some point! In fact, I should have checked it before posting this, but ehhhhh effort.
Not sure exactly what kind of mood this piece is going for, or even whether it's trying for a negative or positive emotion, but whatever it is, I like it. And the piano does a great job of driving home... whatever emotion they're going for! The faster paced section at about 3:20 is more hit or miss - in fact, my favorite parts of this piece are the beginning and end, the entire middle isn't quite as good in my opinion - but I do think it's kind of a nice change after 3 minutes of this. I'm not sure it's necessary - to me it seems like you could just end the piece at 3:20 and it wouldn't suffer for it - but it does help to justify the length.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
This is pretty good, some of the sound effects that get added in are a bit... questionable, but other than that. 5.5.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2kyr1S7Tfg&hd=1
So this was probably one of the more pleasant surprises for me during VGMC5. Love Song of a Certain Dragon is a pretty neat song, I like both the vocals as well as the different instruments and effects. I actually thought I'd have more to say, but then I realized it was actually going to be more stringing together of stock generic comments. Even worse, the same kinds of ones I've been using constantly lately! Like, "I don't exactly have a favorite part, I feel the whole thing is pretty solid throughout" but I guess if you really pressed me, I prefer the sections where you have most of the instruments and the vocals. ...Which I think is a bit surprising, usually I go the other way on that and prefer the parts where most of the instruments back off and the vocals continue, but not here!
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
Not sure how I feel about this. It's... okay, and almost reminds me more of like Tales music than Umineko music. I barely even notice the vocals, which could be good or bad, but I think here it's just... neutral. Yeah, I've got nothing to say here.
5/10
G-Darius - Adam
I also think Kenri told me it was the single most difficult thing he rated, but I don't know if that still holds.
I did say that, and I'm not sure if it's still true or not! I feel like the first topic was, in general, much "safer" than topic 2. However, nothing really jumps out at me as being harder to rate than Kimera II was, so let's say its position holds.
Unlike Kimera II, Adam definitely reads as actual music to me, so there's that. It starts off really bad but quickly becomes pretty decent, then just gets better until it starts looping. You are, in fact, completely correct about the best part of it, and in fact I feel like that one part really elevates the entire piece.
6/10
Castlevania - Out of Time
Interesting. A solid chiptune, but I don't think it ever really gets better than just "solid". Some parts are 6/10, some are 5/10, so I think I'll go with 5.5/10.
Dra+Koi - Love Song of a Certain Dragon
Yay, it's this song again. Despite how much I bitch about it, I actually do like this song and I'm pretty sure I voted for it multiple times in the VGMC5. It just did not deserve to get as far as it did, and especially while other, better vocals songs lost in R1 or R2, because the vocals here are really mediocre. Think I might prefer an instrumental version, or a version with just the background chanting.
5.5/10
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP9rJdxmuQU&hd=1
Near the top of the list of "games I want to play but don't own the required systems"... Also near the top of the list of "pretty cool main themes", at least if the topic about main themes that I snatched it from was any indication.
Between the drums, the trumpet (at least I think it's a trumpet), and the background vocals near the end of the song, it really captures a patriotic/military feel for me. And while I have no idea whatsoever why I came to like that in music, I did, so here we are, and it should not be a surprise to anyone by this point. That slower section at 44 seconds is neat too, though I don't like it as much as you might expect me to; I do think it's nice for breaking up the piece though, and it helps this work well as a main theme by giving it some balance.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
Eh... this is the kind of song I usually don't like, but this starts off pretty well. ...And then in the middle does a lot of stuff to make me regret praising it. Basically, it peaks at the start, and pretty much just drops off from there. It's a bit more complex than that, but as a general rule that's about it. 5.0.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWeLQGAtqIo&hd=1
*Looks up a bit*
Would definitely prefer an instrumental, I think.
Well, it's a different song, but hey, this is an instrumental! Let's see how it goes then.
Anyway, this doesn't really ever hit any truly exceptional levels for me anywhere, but it also never really drops to anything bad for me either. The closest it comes to that are the more "busy" sections, probably just because I feel they overpower the "quieter" effects that I like the most in the entire song. So, yeah, I'd characterize this as "good, but not amazing or anything."
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
I do think I like this better than the other one from Last Ranker that you posted, at least. It's not exceptional though, especially for a Shimomura piece.
6/10
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FlaXRtWGAw&hd=1
Are you glad to be back to piano pieces after a one day break from them? Because I am. I don't even think pianos are my favorite instrument, but you wouldn't know it by looking at my posts in this topic. Struggle Victory also marks my return to obscure Japanese games, so you may celebrate or despair at your discretion.
I obviously don't know the context here, but just based on the name, I think this works very well to symbolize a victory that required great hardships or personal sacrifice. It has a very bittersweet feel to it, which I just love. Of course, it's kind of hard NOT to get that sort of feeling with a piano and violin, but it's still something I really enjoy and Struggle Victory does it better than most. Overall just very solid all around, and nothing really jumps out at me as a major fault here.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
Eh... there was nothing special about this for me at all. 5.0
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6z4_JO4C90&hd=1
More Older Touhou (and so more confusion regarding that issue that always shows up with older Touhou)! This one basically has two phases for me, that section towards the beginning that recurs here and there that I don't like so much, and then everything else, which ranges from pretty good to great. Anyway, there's not too much more for me to say, by now it's pretty apparent that I like Touhou music, and so it shouldn't be a surprise that I like the older Touhou songs too!
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Advanced
SOS - The Intro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yal4uge5fLk
SOS - Sinking Ship (The main game's theme)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5iTNtMGuVc
SOS - Survivors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p56Hk6qyXK8
SOS - The Boiler Room
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApRmiZpgpIA
SOS - The Rescuers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_eYR84d1mk
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"But friends, i ask you. What is a GameCobra? From where does it come? Who are it's people?" - A Random Day on World of Warcraft
Advanced
I'm a sucker for Violin/Pianos, but this has a smooth, slow tone that i dig.
Last Ranker - This Journey Without End 7/10
Didn't mind the fast pase of it. Just feels a bit generic until the violin comes in, which is sweet.
Oh,yes. considering my first taste of the PS2, Dynasty Warriors 3 was a remarkable game with a great soundtrack for what it was before the completely went sequel after sequel. Rock music for a beat'em up game never felt so sweet. especially for a war game:
DW3 - Yellow Turbans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StAacXFjJaQ
DW3 - Hu Lao Gate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR102LNiv74
DW3 - Guan Yu's Escape (Also known as Arena)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDMJGpJtQZg
DW3 - Sacred Ground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc7WAfjUle0
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"But friends, i ask you. What is a GameCobra? From where does it come? Who are it's people?" - A Random Day on World of Warcraft
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duKdpeB3c6M&hd=1
So, last time I thought I went "safe" on Ar tonelico II and it backfired badly (in a relative sense). Which shouldn't have happened, because it was still a good song, but I digress! So we'll go back to something slightly more risky while still remaining in the category of AT2 World Map Themes. Passageway is the World Map Theme in Phase 1, and while it is nowhere near The Second Tower (and I'd argue very few, if any, world map themes are) it's still pretty good. In a bit of a twist, the vocals are actually probably my least favorite part... for a decent amount of the piece. They're done fairly well during the section at 1:36 - 1:52 (coincidentally this is my favorite section of the song, but that's for a few reasons) but, outside there, I think they're pretty much the weakness in the song. Oh well, it happens sometimes.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NROWswbU2rE&hd=1
Welcome to Interesting Song Week, the week where I post songs that I'm not sure if I actually like, but find very interesting! (Note: not an actual week, though I think I have enough material to cover it.)
Arcanum is... interesting. It's a mix of a whole lot of competing instruments, effects, and vocals. The result is a wall of noise, but I have to think that's deliberate, in order to make it sound imposing, terrifying, and unapproachable, at which it is largely successful. After a while it drops the wall of noise aspect for faster paced chanting and minimal background music, which does nothing if not up the tension even more. It then pulls off a couple more changes like this, and transitions between them rather suddenly, in what I can only assume is done intentionally in order to catch you off guard. It's difficult to listen to, at least if you're listening to it for the purpose of enjoyment rather than to try to figure it out. But I've listened to it a lot in the past few days, specifically because I've been trying to figure it out. Maybe that's enough? It is during Interesting Song Week, at least! (Still not a real week!)
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_2Sso-JoO4&hd=1
So, Discolor, in my mind, has always been connected with dead angle. I guess it's because I consider them both pretty neat "background"/"relaxed" music or whatever. Now, I don't think I like Discolor as much as I like dead angle, but it's still great. It has a ton of effects I enjoy, and that's a good thing. It also maintains a pretty good pace all throughout, IMO. It might be a bit on the long side, but that's the only real thing I could say against it.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiYFeVhcIlc&hd=1
Been a while since I've posted a more chiptune-type thing, so here we go. Axelay has a fairly enjoyable soundtrack, but this is almost certainly my favorite track from it... though I don't think I've listened to the whole thing, but I've checked out enough of it to make a judgment call.
Anyway, I actually think this reminds me a little bit of a couple tracks from Fire Emblem 4, which is, as you probably already know, one of my favorite soundtracks. It's not as hectic or cluttered as the stage music from a lot of shooters, either, which I can appreciate - in fact, it starts out really mellow, and though it picks up speed, I still wouldn't really call this a fast song at any point.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
SOS - The Intro
My first thought is that this reminds me of something... but I can't think of it, and now that's going to bug me for a while now! Want to say it's CT or FF possibly Zelda (you know, just to cover all my bases) but I dunno. Anyway, this is okay I guess, but it doesn't do all that much IMO. I feel like, as the name indicates, it's "just" an intro and I would probably prefer it if it then continued on in some fashion or new direction! 4.5.
SOS - Sinking Ship (The main game's theme)
Part 2 of my (likely to be ongoing) quest to figure out what this soundtrack reminds me of. ...I don't expect to succeed! This has some neat parts to it, but I think I preferred Intro to this, it's a bit close though. I think Intro more or less stayed more steady in terms of what I thought of it-and actually I'm going to reverse course on this mid write-up and give this the slight edge. The point I actually was making still holds, I feel this jumps more between high and low points, but I think this comes out to its relative benefit, whereas I did not think that originally! 5.0.
SOS - Survivors
Part 3 Status Update: I'm leaning more towards the CT/FF side now rather than Zelda. Anyway, I think this is my favorite of the three so far. It's close though. I don't think its best parts match the best parts from Sinking Ship, but I also don't think it has any real weaknesses. 5.0.
SOS - The Boiler Room
...And now the beginning here reminds me of LttP's Intro (or whatever that song is called during the storm in the "prologue"). I'm right back where I started! Anyway, the trend where I'm liking each song more than the previous one holds... I think. It's getting even closer now. I really like some things this does. There are some parts I think are a bit unnecessarily long, but... Hmm, it really is close. 5.0.
SOS - The Rescuers
Part Final !! ...I'm just totally lost on what I think this reminds me of now. ...And nothing of value was lost. Unfortunately, I don't think I like this more than Boiler Room or Survivor, but that's okay! 4.5.
DW3 - Yellow Turbans
Haha! Didn't expect this going in. (I'm not sure what I was expecting, don't ask me! I don't know why I have expectations for things I've never heard before!) Anyway, I like this, it has some pretty neat things going on. The electric guitar gets a bit close to being a bit too overpowering at times, but I'm the last person who could ever "complain" about that, and I don't think it ever completely crosses that line. 5.5.
DW3 - Hu Lao Gate
For the first second, I was a little worried, but once the rest of the instruments came in, I was back on board with this. Don't think I like it quite as much as the last one, but it's fairly close. Especially since the parts of this that I like the most, I like more than anything in the last song. What's with all these close calls lately? 5.5.
DW3 - Guan Yu's Escape (Also known as Arena)
This is another very neat song! I think this is my favorite so far! It does a lot of things I really enjoy. There's the guitar and that sound effect I can't describe at all, but I really do like it! And also that part in the beginning is very neat, at first I wasn't sure what to think of it, but now I like it quite a bit! 6.0.
DW3 - Sacred Ground
Another neat one! I especially like that intro, almost to the point where I kind of wish the whole song was like that without the electric guitar and everything else coming in, but I like electric guitars a lot usually, so this isn't really a problem! It probably just keeps it from being in contention for my favorite of these last nine, but not by too much. 6.0.
Gekkou no Carnevale - Arcanum
Well now. This is... interesting... I guess. So I suppose you're... succeeding... so far? Unfortunately, that success doesn't really carry over to the song itself. I mean... I guess I'd agree with you that it's interesting, but that's about as far as I'll go. 3.5.
Axelay - Colony (2nd BGM)
Much better. That said, given what I'm basing it on, that's not a terribly difficult thing to accomplish! All joking aside, Colony is all right. It does things I like, and that's good. But it never really gets past "The Wall" (Oh yeah, going back to my older vague stock terms! Didn't see that coming, did you?) 5.5.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCqHmJsDrxI&hd=1
So here's another song I find pretty neat, if only because I think it's just extremely solid. Another example of the whole, "No weaknesses" thing, and it's typically pretty strong at all times to go with that. Again, that's a very nice combination to have, IMO. Still, no particular section really hits amazing for me, so that kind of limits my thoughts on it. Still, it's a very good song, if you ask me. All kind of things here that I really like. ...And rather than try and fail miserably at trying to explain it all, I'll just leave it at that! I will say that the vocals that come in around the middle might actually be my least favorite part! But even that's a bit hollow, because they're not bad, it's just "not as good" in my view.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?