Liberal Arts Major
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPUKwnYbCqY&fmt=18
The opening song for Tales of the Abyss, and one of my favorite opening songs. I believe it was my favorite for quite some time, but since then there's been some competition in the form of Ring A Bell, Sanctuary/Passion, Sinful Rose, and probably another one or two I'm not recalling immediately, so I'm no longer sure which one is my favorite.
In the English Version, the vocals are removed and replaced by, I believe an electric guitar, but I prefer the vocal version. There's also a number of variants of Karma played throughout the game, and most, if not all, of them are amazing. For the moment I'm not counting them with Karma though.
Side note: Amusingly I believe that link treats this as an Anime Opening, which I believe is still true since it's the same song either way. It's just that one didn't have any spoilers in it, so yeah.
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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=K5xdue7GFcc
Part of me thinks that the N64 might actually be my favorite console for VG music. It has this sort of half-synthetic sound to it (that's the best way I can describe it) that I really like. I dunno. The current gen is pretty good too.
Rainbow Road is one of my favorite MK64 levels, because it has very few obstacles, it's really long, and it's just... cool. I like it for a lot of the same reasons I like the Rainbow Cloud area in Pokemon Snap, I guess. And I think MK64 was the Mario Kart incarnation where, if you were clever, you could take a huge shortcut by jumping off Rainbow Road at a certain point, which I always enjoyed. In any case, this track fits Rainbow Road beautifully. It has a real mystical feeling, which is appropriate, and... I guess to me it always sort of sounded like "heading home" music, which is also appropriate because Rainbow Road is the last course in the game. Not my favorite track in the game, though it might have been if you had asked me a month or two ago. Definitely one of my favorites, though.
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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
Yes, at the very beginning.
It's also the one where you could get about a 6 second lap time on Wario Stadium with similar tactics.
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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=l_CWMEIrs2U
Wild Arms XF has some pretty good tracks. It's not one of my favorite OSTs, but that's not to say they're bad tunes. This one's the first to come to mind whenever I think of it. It plays when you fight Rupert, a total scumbag of a villain. He has a sword of yours that he can't use, but by golly you're going to get it back from the punk. How could you not with this triumphant piece playing?
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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=2oIUjaaB_S8&fmt=18
So, remember back during the Valkyrie Profile 2 bonus edition I was all "I wanted to use a different song here but it was too atmospheric and I'd need to explain too much?" Well, I had a change of heart on this and have wanted to get back to this. Now, while I still think those statements are absolutely true and it really isn't the same without the atmosphere, I also think the song is incredible enough to be okay even without all that.
But even still...
[Spoiler for Massive Spoilers for Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, do not enter unless you've beaten the game, click to show]
I mean this is a final dungeon theme! How awesome is that? I really can't overstate how much I loved the final dungeon in Valkyrie Profile 2. The Tower of Lezard Valeth is, at this point, I think my uncontested favorite dungeon, let alone just final, in all of gaming. I mean, when I make that kind of statement alarms instantly go off in my head that I'm going into hyperbole, but I think I'm right on this one at least.
I mean, Lezard, after having just owned everyone in his time travel plan has created his own world in a pocket dimension, and has formed a twisted version of Yggdrasil to support it - hence the chapter title "A Twisted World Tree," and he's also got Gungnir. So the team, joined by Brahms and even Hrist, go after him because without Gungnir, Asgard (and Midgard, and pretty much everyone else) is just entirely screwed. Hell, Lenneth from the first game even joins up by time traveling back after Lezard because she's realized Lezard has dealt her timeline some seriously critical blows.
The first block of the dungeon starts on what I took to be the ground, made of rock, and the Dungeon Theme is Climax Coming from the Abyss (see the Bonus Edition) and that's awesome, but eventually on leaving one of the rooms in the first block, you enter the second and it's just... amazing. You walk into what's basically a field of gold (if my memory serves correctly) - so utterly different from the scenery of the area you just came from, and the dungeon theme switches to this. It's just incredible. Like I was saying, you just have to play it, because I'm sure my description here is lame and not doing it any justice.
And this is just the second block, there's two more! It's just an amazing experience. And Lezard himself, hell, he may have become my favorite villain during all of this.
</spoiler>
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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=eM5nOBgpDsQ
Yes, we're doing Mario music again. I'm sick right now and I really didn't have anything planned for today so I just went with the first thing I thought of. "sorry"
Bowser's Road is something of an odd case because it has two contrasting elements. There's the more ominous, louder, "foreground" elements, and then the steady drum beat in the background. Mario is absolutely tiny compared to the Bowser levels, which are not only huge but also total death traps... I like to think of the drum beat as representing Mario progress through the level and the foreground elements representing Bowser's presence even before you come face to face with him. It works surprisingly well, because those elements kick in and out, while the drum beat persists throughout the entire piece.
Road to Bowser - Super Mario Galaxy 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swfVw7Xprpk
A lot of the remixes I've posted so far in this topic have just sort of been tacked on at the end because I decided I needed remixes for all Tuesdays for some reason. But I'm going to try really hard not to do that anymore. In this case, I definitely like the remix better, even if it ditches all the BS symbolism that I just bored everyone with (my college English classes at work!). Why do I like it better? One reason: the vocals. I mentioned this for my last SMG2 song so I won't go into that again, but they serve a slightly different purpose here. By only showing up every now and then rather than constantly throughout the piece, they really drive home the incredible power Bowser is wielding. Bowser had been in a downward spiral for years before the Galaxy series pulled him out of it, so by god he deserves a theme this threatening.
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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
Advanced
Super Mario Galaxy - Bowser's Galaxy Reactor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85CPQD6hpgU
This song is incredible and I even prefer it over the Road to Bowser themes. It also plays at a really cool point in a certain post-game galaxy in the 2nd game.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys." -Andrew Ryan, Bioshock
New Moderator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eFI0UFfAJE
Hey look another game I've never played! =D
I think a friend gave me this track a while ago to listen to. In any case, it's really cool. I'd love to get around to playing the X games so I can hear more of their soundtracks. I'm assuming by the title that it plays when X fights Zero or vice versa, but hey, it could have a TOTALLY different meaning! >_> <_<
Actually, this makes me curious now if the same guys who did the X music did the Command Mission X music, because it doesn't feel that similar to me. Go figure.
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Advanced
nope.
and yes you need to play the X games you silly thing
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys." -Andrew Ryan, Bioshock
New Moderator
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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=6g5ftR9_u9Y&fmt=18
And rounding out my Top 3 favorite battle themes in Disgaea 2 (and for that matter the series as far as I've played as well.) I place Disgaea Rhapsody and Song of the Gods over this, most of the time, but this is still a great song, it's just unlucky that it shares a game with songs like that. I can't even really pick out a favorite part of the song, because I pretty much like all of it fairly evenly.
[Spoiler for Disgaea 2, click to show]I kind of wish Fake Zenon didn't just seemingly arbitrarily morph into a different form that pretty much made no sense, should have just had him fight in his humanoid form, but hey, I love the battlefield and you get this song, so it's all okay.
</spoiler>
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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=LUXhSvvxmN0
Also known as "Midna's Desperate Hour". Twilight Princess' soundtrack didn't really wow most people, but there are a handful of songs that are definitely excellent. This is one of the most notable ones for sure. It's an absolutely beautiful, tragic piano piece that fits the part of the game it plays during perfectly. (It also helps that Midna is the greatest Zelda character of all time and everything related to Midna is pretty much awesome by association.)
...sigh, I'm really sorry to have to do this again so soon, but I'm still sick, and it's late, and I... really just want to finish this writeup and go to sleep, so we're entering spoiler territory again.
[Spoiler for Twilight Princess, click to show]So, right, this track plays after Midna has been attacked and nearly killed by Zant. Not only that, but you've been modelocked into your wolf form. So you're desperately rushing to Zelda with Midna on your back because she gave you a vague hint of "Link... hurry to Zelda" or some such, I can't quite remember, and this
</spoiler>
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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
New Moderator
Persona 3 - The Battle For Everyone's Souls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdMhTL5bZrs&fmt=18
Best Persona 3 battle theme, which says a lot because it's filled to the brim with amazing ones. I'm a fan of the vocals myself.
Tales of the Abyss - Karma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPUKwnYbCqY&fmt=18
Man I love Karma. Such a great opening.
Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories - Demon's Trill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g5ftR9_u9Y&fmt=18
[Spoiler for Disgaea 2, click to show]So true, that random form made me groan. They had Seraph Lamington in his humanoid form and he was still a pain to fight, so why not do that with Fake Zenon? But you're right, the battlefield's cool and Demon's Trill is good. =)
</spoiler>
Midna's Lament - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUXhSvvxmN0
The only time I heard this was in Brawl, but I don't think it was a remix. I liked that version in any case.
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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=P4M01H04txI
I was planning on posting this in a while, but I guess I'll do it now since xp got to Karma. This is one of the remixes he mentioned, and my personal favorite of the lot.
This is another 'you have to be there to understand it' piece. It gets a lot of its power from the battle you're in and the following scene. Even without that, however, it really makes me emotional. It's got a... beautiful tragic tone, if that makes any sense. One of the most powerfully emotional battle themes I've heard to this point.
As a side note, I was listening to this piece (since I enjoyed it a lot) when playing a DnD session, and in that session, a previous character of mine (hard to explain why this came about) did a heroic sacrifice. I probably would have teared up without this piece, but with it, I was bawling. And yes I know I am a total dork, no need to tell me. >_> (For Epyon's benefit, since he's the only one who played in that DnD game, I'm referring to Faris.)
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Liberal Arts Major
Eh... it's got like 5-6 really great ones. While that is certainly very impressive, it's definitely matched by a number of other games. And Xenosaga III by itself could honestly probably double that number. >_>
I'm also giving Persona 3 The Answer in this, otherwise that's down to like 3-4.
Also, I almost did Meaning of Birth instead of Karma, and actually had intended to until I stopped and thought "Well, Meaning of Birth is really more of a variant of Karma, so I should probably do Karma." And then the debate for me became, "Do I then put Meaning of Birth and a slew of other songs down as variants, similar to the whole Hikari/Simple and Clean thing." I went with "No" because I wanted to leave doing Meaning of Birth open for a later time.
So much for 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=qbYRfe1DbTw&fmt=18
As I was saying with Corridor of Time, CT Overworld Themes are amazing. This one, the 600 AD Overworld, is right up there with Corridor of Time for me, but I do place it in second to that. My favorite part is the section that starts at about 25 seconds and lasts until about 95 seconds. ...And just like with Corridor of Time, I find myself almost entirely able to comment on it. I mean even by my standards. It's just a great song. >_>
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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=6EvE_KBM7w0
That > All Chrono Trigger music except for maybe...
Chrono Trigger - Chrono and Marle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SYC58gO1cU
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
Editor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUjW9ZrJM3E
How long has it been since I did a Sonic song? *checks* Oh, like 17 days. Good, I can justify doing another one, then.
Marble Zone is far and away my least favorite zone in Sonic 1. Like, it's not even remotely close. Especially because it's terrible and then it's like the longest zone in the game, too. I pretty much hate everything about it except the music. The music doesn't save the zone, at all, but it... it tries pretty hard, I guess.
It's perfectly suited to the area in the game where it plays: that is, you're exploring a series of underground caves full of death traps. Generally when analyzing music for this topic, I ask myself: what one image stands out in my mind when I listen to this? In this case, the image I get is of somebody exploring a cave, a light from their hard hat illuminating the path in front of them and casting shadows on the walls. Pretty appropriate. How often does the image I get match the part of the game where the music actually plays? ...Not as often as you might think.
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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
New Moderator
'whoops'
House of Cards - Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKe8k8P2FNw
I actually own this game but haven't gotten to playing it because it has over 9000 missables. I know nothing about the plot, characters, battle system, or soundtrack. This is the only piece I've heard from it and it was a total accident to hear. I was watching a Pokemon battle on Youtube and this was the background music; I asked what game it was from and he said Baten Kaitos.
In any case, I really like this one. It's pretty, but also has an... almost eerie tone to it in the background. Sort of a combination of lovely and creepy. My first guess would be that it's a dungeon theme, but I have no real way of knowing. If it's not spoilers, perhaps Kenri can enlighten me on this.
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
I played Baten Kaitos once, like 5 years ago, and this was before I cared about music in video games. >_> Checking the YouTube comments though, pretty sure it is a dungeon theme. Said dungeon is apparently "the acid-trippiest place in the game", according to one YouTuber. <_<
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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=iEjqqUTz-us
The Saturos Battle Theme occupies a space in my mind that is synonymous with the entire concept of a battle theme. That is, when I think "battle theme", I think "Saturos Battle Theme", automatically, as if this was the only battle theme that had ever existed and could ever exist. That is an impressive level of mental association for a piece that plays, as far as I know, once, in one game, for one fight. At risk of later regretting having said this, the fight itself isn't even particularly notable.
A lot of people don't like the "wall of noise" that is present in a lot of Sakuraba's music - and if you need a definition of "wall of noise", just click on that YouTube link again and listen to this over and over until you either figure it out yourself or forget what you were doing - and while I do like it a lot of the time, I can usually see the argument for disliking it. Less so, here. The entire point of the Saturos Battle Theme is that it's frenzied and powerful - and it works perfectly for a fight against an opponent that has been, up til this moment, invincible.
(Oh, and with that, we're finally, FINALLY, almost done with all the music that I already mentioned in one topic or another. I think Tragic Resolution is the only one I have left.)
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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
New Moderator
...Well then!
Fierce Fight (PSP Remix) - Riviera: The Promised Land
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxVQBGEheC0&playnext_from=TL&videos=V5hy-D6kyEY
I actually posted this earlier in the topic for Kenri, but it wasn't an official music-for-the-day post, so I'm doing it now.
Riviera has a handful of good battle themes, though some of them sadly don't get played more than once. This one shows up for higher level mook fights and I love it. It's energetic and catchy, just what I'd hope for fights like that.
Mind you, I only played the PSP remake. The original was the GBA version, so here, I'll post that too.
Fierce Fight - Riviera: The Promised Land
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgtqXpxAsFM&feature=related
So yeah, props to Riviera for this theme.
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Liberal Arts Major
Singing Mountain is awesome, but there's still a number of songs I'd place ahead of it. Plus, it took until CT:DS for it to play in-game, IIRC.
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Chrono Trigger - Chrono and Marle
Not as big a fan of this one. I mean, it's Chrono Trigger, and so ends up still being good, but compared with the rest of the soundtrack I mean.
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Marble Zone - Sonic the Hedgehog
Yeah, it's a good song, and lolz there was nothing wrong with that zone. >_>
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Saturos Battle Theme - Golden Sun
A good battle theme, but I don't know if it makes Top 3 for me in Golden Sun/TLA.
plays, as far as I know, once, in one game, for one fight
Plays in at least one of the TLA Optional Battles (Star Magician, I think)
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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
Also, as a side note, while I could have had a .hack//Mutation Bonus Edition, those (and Outbreak whenever that happens) are on hold until after Quarantine at the least after that whole getting spoiled thing back during Infection.
Persona 4 - Heaven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=463Us587Z9o&fmt=18
I actually wouldn't have gone with Heaven here, but then Secret Base showed up and it became almost necessary. Honestly, I don't think anything in Persona 4 Dungeon Themes comes close to this song. It makes the normal battles almost intolerable because it interrupts this song and that's not cool. I guess my favorite part starts at about 50 seconds or so.
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Xenogears - The One who is Torn Apart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD25_StvAT0&fmt=18
This theme needed to play more in Xenogears, because it's awesome, and pretty much every scene with it was awesome. I mostly associate it with one scene in particular, which to anyone who has played Xenogears, is likely fairly obvious.
[Spoiler for Xenogears, click to show]That being, of course, the scene where they drop the Yggdrasil on Id, thinking they've finally got him, and he lets them know just how silly thinking that was.
</spoiler>
I just like the, I dunno, feeling the song conveys, I don't really have a favorite part to it or anything, although if pressed I'd probably say "the beginning."
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
That zone was made up entirely of waiting, lava, spikes, crushers, and spiked crushers. And then, despite that, it wasn't even hard, it was just sort of annoying. What an awful zone. <_<
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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=4Q4cuVrwWx4
"I jumped through all the shades of gray / No rainbows where my winds blow / My hands still hold the right to blame / The high road..."
So Shadow Complex is one of my favorite games, probably because it drew inspiration from and/or blatantly ripped off classics like Symphony of the Night and Super Metroid. And, like SotN, at the end of the game you're treated to a very, very cheesy song. As such, you might consider this spoilers, but really, the game's story is so stupid that I can't believe an actual writer was involved in its conception. How very embarrassed he must be.
How dumb is the game's story? To put it in perspective, this song presents a far better story than the game it plays in. Is the song supposed to be about the game? I dunno! You could sort of make the argument that it is, but the song itself deals with complex themes including, but not limited to: sacrificing personal happiness in pursuit of doing good deeds; that trying to be a paragon of perfect virtue is infeasible; that heroism can leave you alone and isolated from the rest of the world; that morality is not black and white in real life, and that "good guys" sometimes do bad things, and "bad guys" have good intentions, if you can even say "good guys" and "bad guys" exist at all outside of fiction; and the pain of knowing that, when you resolve to save everyone, you by extension fail every time you don't save someone, and you will invariably fail a lot more than you will succeed. The biggest moral quandary
When I first played through the game, and again in the first paragraph here, I stated that this song is cheesy. It's really not. It's only cheesy in the context of the game; in actuality it's very introspective and thoughtful. It's almost a shame it's wasted on a game with a story as godawful as Shadow Complex's.
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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
New Moderator
Boss Battle 3 - Legend of Dragoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hueiNU7P20M
This was the theme that played for more of the serious fights in Legend of Dragoon. I really like this one and the first, which was posted earlier in the topic. The second's okay, but not something I really think much about. It's just kind of there.
While the first one was energetic and giving an amped up feeling for the combat to come, this one's more tense and somewhat nerve pulling. It's appropriate for the bosses it gets put with; one that comes to mind immediately is the ghosts on a haunted ship. Before you groan at that cliche, it's actually done fairly well in this game. You learn some truths there that set the plot further in motion and the ghosts look fairly creepy... from what I recall and for what it means on the flipping Playstation.
Anyhow, yeah. Legend of Dragoon, the game I need to finish. Badly. I stopped on disc four for no good reason because it's AWESOME. =(
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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=-SSg4qUTcQo
You might wanna turn off annotations or play the video in the background, they're slightly spoilery. Well, not really, but enough for me to put up a warning.
I'm really just getting this out of the way to get it out of the way. From here on out, it's new content! Well, as new as any content can be in a topic where I reuse the same games over and over.
Tragic Resolution is my favorite track in Tales of Vesperia, and if you couldn't tell, I like that game's soundtrack a lot. It's really rare, even outside of Tales of Vesperia and into video games as a whole, for any piece to come up and force me to stop playing the game just to listen to it. Tragic Resolution pulled that off. Repeatedly. Even on subsequent playthroughs. Enough that it sort of became a problem. I might need to put the game on mute when I do my speedrun of it. <_<
While the title of this piece has the word "Tragic" in it (regardless of which translation you're using, it seems), I never really thought of this as having many "sad" qualities to it. I can see what they're going for, but I think "Somber Resolution" or some such would have fit better. From what I can recall, it generally plays during scenes where a character decides to do something about a bad situation. It's almost a positive, if solemn, piece.
While I pretty much love the entire thing, if pressed I'd tell you my favorite part is the first 14 seconds. That's the part of it I remember, and no matter how fast I'm going through a given scene, when Tragic Resolution starts playing I always stop and listen to at least that first part.
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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
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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=u2n5uCXr0gw&fmt=18
I think this is probably my favorite for "Most Underrated/Overlooked FF Boss Theme, definitely out of the FF7-FF9 group, at least. Not to say it's my favorite overall boss theme out of that group (but then again, maybe it is if we keep to those three games, but I couldn't say for sure.) But I'm always hearing about J-E-N-O-V-A, and One Winged Angel, The Extreme, and Dark Messenger, but almost never Premonition. Now, you could say, "Well, yeah, but 3 of those 4 are final boss themes" but still.
I believe the first time this plays is at the end of Disc 1, and I'm also quite sure it plays a few more times afterwords, but I couldn't say how many more times. Not enough, in any event.
As for the song itself, I like the intro, which pretty much builds-up for when the song starts going, but my favorite part of the song is starting at 80 seconds until 150 seconds, with special mention to about 111 seconds to the end of that.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?