Liberal Arts Major
Eh, I still don't really care for LocoRoco's music. 4.5.
Star Ocean: Til the End of Time - The Desolate Smell of Earth
This is okay, I suppose. 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=-zLctE2ZeL0&hd=1
So, I forget if I mentioned it (actually being serious this time) but I really seem to like a lot of Falcom/Sound Team JDK's music. That's mostly expressed itself in this topic through Ys, and that's not changing here. Genesis Beyond the Beginning is something I like most for its instrumentation, but the vocals are done very well here in being a part of the song, but not the main component, IMO. My favorite sections are the ones in which they're present, but that's mostly because I feel pretty much every part of the song peaks there.
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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=WEsY1Wljl0w&hd=1
After previous successes like Someone is Always Moving on the Surface and Thinker, I decided to look into Armored Core music myself! ...Most of it is... not... on that same level. At all. However, I came across a few tracks I definitely like a lot, and this is one of them.
Remember is kind of difficult for me to describe. It's a very frantic piece, not because the piece itself is frantic, but because it instills a feeling of franticness when I listen to it (your mileage may vary). The vocals, which chant something vaguely intelligible that may or may not be "amen" over and over, seem at once spiritual and distressed, which adds to that feeling. The whole song hits just about a perfect speed in my opinion, starting off fairly slowly but picking up in speed quickly, without ever going too fast. At about 2 minutes, though, there's a rather pointless intermission, which... I dunno, I can see why it's there, but I think I'd rather the song just faded out at that point. Still, it recovers by about 2:30 and returns to its previous level of quality.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIx6xrRNj7s&hd=1
This may be my favorite track from Magi Nation. It serves as the title screen theme and the standard battle theme for the first half or so of the game. That said, I have a hard time saying why I like it so much. I could say nostalgia, but even as a kid, before it got nostalgic, I found myself humming this all the time. I could completely understand someone not liking it, and I have a sneaking suspicion it will not be seen too favorably here, but I wanted to post it because it really is a track I like.
Rating: 7/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNSX6tn2vDo&hd=1
I really need to check the composer and vocalist for Re-CODA here, because it kind of reminds me of .hack//G.U. music, both the non-vocal and vocal sections, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were matches. But then, perhaps they aren't, I am wrong at these kinds of things at an embarrassing rate! Or, if I'm only right about one of them, that might be influencing my thoughts enough that I think the other is a match even though it's not. So who knows!
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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=JS8vCLXX5Pg&hd=1
The better Panzer Dragoon weird vocals song. I feel like this one is still going to be hit or miss, though. Hell, knowing my luck it's even more hit or miss, though it really, really doesn't seem like it should be. Sora Etc strikes a better balance of harsh vocals and lighter, airier ones... though I guess you could claim the latter are just PANZER DRAGON OPERA or something which might be a problem of its own. I still prefer the style of vocals that starts at 1:08, but I like the contrast and especially when the two work in unison. Sora Etc is a bit long, but it's apparently a credits theme, so I can forgive it there. Besides, this is the kind of song that could easily be like 7 and a half minutes long and just drag on and auuugh; just over 4 is fairly acceptable by comparison.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Liberal Arts Major
Remember is fairly good... to start with. When it's repeating "Amen" it's good, but the other vocal sections are less good, IMO. Really, I just like the beginning and then it just ultimately begins to break down for me. 5.5.
Magi Nation - Dream Creature
Your suspicion... is correct. Oh man, this makes me question if the GBC is even capable of good music, until I remember that no, it's just this because stuff like Tal Tal Heights exists. 2.5.
Panzer Dragoon Saga - Sora Mi Areru Ec Sancitu
I don't even remember the other Panzer Dragoon-*looks at spreadsheet* oh god this is definitely better. The initial vocals are far superior than what come in at 1:08, but those don't completely destroy this, though at times I don't think there was a lack of trying! 4.5.
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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=NUdaU3x0F_I&hd=1
I think I've come a pretty long way in terms of my opinions regarding Disgaea music since the beginning of this topic series. Sparkle To Become A Star, Disgaea 2's ending theme, was a song I always liked, but I don't think I'd have said it was my favorite Disgaea song (at least out of 1 and 2) back then. However, I think I would say that now. I don't think that would come as a surprise to anyone who listens to it now, but it's something I find a bit interesting personally. It might go on a bit long, but eh, it's good enough otherwise that I'm okay with that.
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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=Ma5BpLXQ318&hd=1
BlazBlue's opening theme (on the console version, to my understanding at least), and more of my inclination towards vocals showing. And... there's not much more I can think to say here. There's some stuff and effects that if I were not awful at this I could comment on a little, but I am bad at this. I do think it goes a bit longer than it needs to, but again, I can be a bit more forgiving towards this since I do like the song.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aibb_T0eqK8&hd=1
Here is one of the few tracks that I remember and like quite a bit from Suikoden 3. This plays when on the army maps. Since it moves fairly fast, the shortness of the track is well justified in game. I actually do not mind it being so short either, because I honestly am not sure what I would want added to it. It sounds nice for what it is.
Rating: 6/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKBUGV1j-dI&hd=1
This is probably my second favorite fight theme in Command Mission after Epsilon-1st Movement. Most of my love comes for the first portion. The second, I feel, is not as strong, but it is also not insulting or anything. The title is flat out weird though. This does play against Ninetails, but Ninetails is an optional boss that is supposed to be the most difficult enemy in the game, so I am not sure why it is implying you absolutely will win. Oh those wacky names.
Rating: 6/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM6DClLQaow&hd=1
Probably the only song of any real consequence from this game, aside from the one I already posted a while ago. This is the "major boss" theme, which means it doesn't play nearly enough, but it's enjoyable whenever it does. It's also not a piece you'd assume I'd like, mostly because it's an obnoxious mess of electric guitars and basically nothing else. But I think it goes so far in that direction that it stops being irritating and becomes a simple fact of existence. Some parts are better than others, though; for example, 0:39 through 1:16 is better than all other parts. That sounds like a large part of the song, but on the other hand it's not large enough.
Deep Night is also pretty appropriate for when it plays, which isn't to say that the context makes it better, but simply that the piece itself captures the essence of a chaotic struggle for one's life, with both sides throwing out absolutely everything they have. ...I want to say it keeps playing during attacks, too, but don't quote me on that. If it doesn't, it should.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Liberal Arts Major
I don't mind the shortness of this either. Because that makes it end faster. 4.5.
Mega Man X: Command Mission - Certain Victory! Ninetails
Eh. 4.5.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor - Deep Night
Eh. 4.0.
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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=MI2SreUaT20&hd=1
Probably my favorite not-tied-to-a-specific-boss-or-group battle theme in Xenosaga III. The Battle Of Your Soul plays in most E.S. boss battles, as well as some of the more major character boss fights, IIRC (If I really thought about it, I could probably match all the different themes to all the different fights, but I'm not doing that right now). It's just kind of overshadowed in my mind, because Xenosaga III has so many good songs, and battle themes in particular.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuah2aE6a60&hd=1
Jeanne-Leanne is my favorite track from Jeanne d'Arc, no doubt. This is second place, but it is fairly close to a few other battle themes. Keep in mind that this is a strategy RPG that has no transition into battle scenes, hence why a calmer piece like this manages to still work. I like the first portion and think it sort of did not need the final parts, but oh well.
Rating: 6.5/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RPbxVl6z5I&hd=1
Blatantly stealing from SupraDarky this time. I can't help it, this is a good song and I would never have heard it otherwise. It certainly isn't the kind of music I'd associate with Pac-Man, but then I've never played any of the more modern (read: thoroughly unappealing) Pac-Man games. Maybe they all have good music? I dunno.
I have to assume that the intent of Haunted Halloween was to be creepy or mysterious, but I don't really get anything like that out of it. If I had to say it sounded like something, I'd say... it sounds like the sound the act of thinking would make if the act of thinking made a sound. (This took me a while to figure out.) When I first heard it, I thought it started a lot stronger than it ended, but I've sort of come around regarding that. I do feel like it ends rather abruptly, though; presumably it's supposed to loop, but I feel like a loop would be a rather abrupt change too, so I'm not sure what they were going for there.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8qAGDOE5es&hd=1
This boss theme sounds pretty good when played in game. However, the OST version is a bit strange. It has vocals in it that either are not in the game or I somehow completely missed when playing. Honestly, the vocals do not really add anything and I think I preferred it without them. Since they are not around much, though, it at least is not hard to overlook them.
Rating: 6.5/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3rnyqI7dFc&hd=1
The significantly less good version of Stickerbush Symphony. couldn't get the song or even its name right, xd brawl gonna get 145-(-45)'d by melee. let's all get that out of our systems right now. I used to not like this version of this song very much because I compared it to the better version, but it's really pretty good on its own merits, and it goes for a completely different feel than the original Stickerbush Symphony (hint: this version is not ambient, and that's an intentional design choice, not a screw up).
This might sound odd, but I feel like Bramble Blast captures a sense of adventure -- especially in the section from 0:36 to 0:59. It's a much more... active song than Stickerbush Symphony in that sense, though I don't mean that in the sense I'd usually mean when I describe a song as active, but rather that it specifically aims for a certain feeling. I guess proactive would be a better word choice. The original, in being ambient, was much more of a "make of it what you will" type song... at least that's how I see it. Anyway, point is, this song deserves some more credit even if it's definitely not as good as the original.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Liberal Arts Major
This is okay, I guess. 5.0.
Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness - Haunted Halloween
I guess this is okay too. 5.0.
Shadow Hearts - Midboss 1 ~ China Ogre
Less than okay. 4.0
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Bramble Blast
Bramble Blast, however, is legitimately great. 7.5.
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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=kqjm6QZOeUs&hd=1
So, from my very limited exposure to Umineko music, I think it turns out that I like the zts songs (like dreamenddischarger and lastendconductor) the most. resurrectedreplayer isn't near their level, but I still enjoy it. There's some downtime, and like a lot of Umineko songs, this probably goes on too long (but I think there's a loop, but I'm not 100% sure because I'm bad at this.) My favorite section is the one that starts up around 2:03. I wish the whole song was like that, but alas, it is not.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
New Moderator
[Spoiler for Riviera: The Promised Land, click to show]Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA) - Decisive Battle with Hector
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8wRre1A358&hd=1
Here is the original. It sounds all right, but while it has a good melody, it really seems to be missing something. I suppose my bias against the GBA versions of Riviera's tracks continues to show for this one.
Rating: 5.5/10
Riviera: The Promised Land (PSP) - Decisive Battle with Hector
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id_Lz86-EJA&hd=1
Now that is more like it. This is the only competition in my mind for Fierce Fight when it comes to best battle themes in Riviera. It has the same parts I like from the GBA version but with far better sound quality and instruments. An absolute improvement for me.
Rating: 6.5/10 [/spoiler]
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Liberal Arts Major
That GBA sound quality. Rarely good! I think. I'm sure there's examples against this (actually I'm pretty sure there are, though I guess I could argue that they'd be better if they weren't on the GBA, but whatever.) 4.5.
Riviera: The Promised Land (PSP) - Decisive Battle with Hector
...I retract my statement. In so far as the PSP certainly is not much of a help here. If it's actually a help at all. 4.0.
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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=HGO5mSyUnGs&hd=1
I'm pretty sure this song has been on my radar for a while, and yet... I've never gone to it. I can only imagine why, since it's pretty good, IMO. It actually reminds me of a lot of different conflicting styles from other games all at once. Like parts of it reminds me of Disgaea 2 and others remind me of other games that are pretty far away from Disgaea 2. And that's both kind of weird, and yet also neat to me.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
New Moderator
[Spoiler for Xenosaga, click to show]Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - Battle vs. Dmitri
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbqVWlNFu4Y&hd=1
Here is another track that never made it to the official soundtrack. I have seen it be referred to as many different titles, but this is the one that was used in the link I got, so there we go. Dmitri was one of, if not my, favorite bosses in the trilogy, and fortunately enough, he got good music to go with the battle. The first part is a good, fast build up to the vocals, which are, as usual, most likely my favorite part. They are more effective due to the first part though, so I would not want that removed.
Rating: 8/10 [/spoiler]
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je2bMfmXWk8&hd=1
A song I discovered during VGMC6 noms, and liked enough to nominate myself. It didn't get in, unfortunately. This particular song may be another beneficiary of me just liking the SNES soundchip, though I do think it's interesting even beyond that. The intro is sufficiently mysterious sounding, before it goes in a more ambient direction, which I think works out pretty well for it. It's a very slow song, though, which doesn't necessarily work in its favor; thankfully, for me at least, it changes things up enough and is interesting enough to start with that I don't really mind.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Liberal Arts Major
Yeah, this is a good song. The title is also a spoiler which is why I didn't post it like a year ago or more. 8.0.
Nosferatu - Ending
More like the intro is sufficiently high-pitched as to come to the edge of causing me discomfort, but thankfully I'm able to count on the later parts of the song to drown this out mostly. Anyway, that's pretty much the most notable thing I have to say about this! 4.5.
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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=LHNJBoq9EcM&hd=1
I've always found this piece hilarious. It's an extremely high energy battle theme (at least to begin with) that's pretty cool, IMO. So, you'd think it'd show up in some important battle, or be recurring or something, right? Nope. Celestial Troupe plays in a single "boss" fight (and I only call it a boss fight because there's some dialogue beforehand, and it ends up with a unique battle theme), which has no real plot significance and is pretty much a glorified random encounter. While I prefer the high energy guitar sections like in the beginning, the parts of Celestial Troupe where it slows down are pretty good too. I almost forgot they existed at all, because again, this song and its use in the game overshadow every other part of it to me. Just hilarious IMO.
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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=HLrYWz42ZsQ&hd=1
Another song that didn't quite get into the VGMC6. I didn't nominate it, and now sort of wish I had, because it's quite good. It's energetic and I really like the melody; it also has nice percussion for a song from an SNES game. It's also another one of those songs that I feel like I could hit with the "can't pick something to do and stick with it" complaint, except that... I'm not going to. Because it kind of works. I think I prefer the piano-ish segments (see: 0:20) to everything else, if only slightly, but not sure those those could carry the piece by themselves.
...Unfortunately(?) I know absolutely nothing about Sailor Moon, so I can't comment on anything about it regarding that.
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2z9cG9Lc7g&hd=1
I have always known this track as Reunion, but evidently it is also called A Chance Meeting. In any case, I enjoy it. A lot of people would probably complain it is repetitive and never goes anywhere, but I actually do not mind it in this case because I really like the parts that are repeated. You know how sometimes I complain about a track having a portion I love but it does not come up that often? Consider this an example of having my request granted to an extreme. It also makes me think of a snowy area, though I may be alone on that one.
Rating: 6.5/10
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMLJmsHMtrw&hd=1
So, as I've been saying lately, but bears repeating because it's just as true every time, is that I tend to like songs from Falcom Sound Team JDK. The Strongest Foe isn't my favorite track from Oath in Felghana, that'd be Sealed Time, but The Strongest Foe is still a pretty cool piece, IMO. It plays for the final boss fight, which was quite an embarrassment to watch me play at first but this song helped out a bit. Fast-paced, high energy, guitars? Really, I don't think it's any surprise I like this! There's a bit of a questionable, IMO, section around the 3 minute mark but I think that has a lot to do with playing into my expectations and then subverting them. Where it feels like a loop is coming, and then it doesn't loop, which causes it to sound a bit weird to me, but I think that's more of a personal issue than anything. Though I would say I like the first half more than the second in general.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?