Rate the Person's Video Game Composition Above You!

[ThePersonInFrontOfYou]

While I do have Dark Cloud, I never actually did Demon's Shaft. I just didn't have the attention span. So I've never heard this song. I like the percussion, but everything else is rather generic and formulaic, I must say. Though I like some of the parts more than others. And I've played Dark Cloud, so I know how repetitive it can get. And this playing through a 100 or sommat level dungeon? OH GOD! It's not the worst thing (I mean, Divine Beast Cave is much more repetitive), but I think that this seems a bit ill-matched in concept. It's a decent song, though, so I'll give it a slightly above average 6/10.

And where the hell is Wise Owl Forest? That's the best song! But they're all in a weird key on Youtube! It sounds awful in that key! Either that, or they're missing the percussion! If you can fine me a good quality version of the Wise Owl Forest that is in the right key, I'll love you forever.
All of them sound like this, when they should sound like THIS!

In the meantime, I'll give you this.

Mike's Theme (Brawl Version), Super Smash Bros Brawl by Ryoji Yoshitomi (I think). Original version from Wariowate: Touched!  

[The Lolwut Pear]

Had a very 1950s generic rock beat to it, don't get me wrong, I like 1950s rock, even more when a robot is singing it! What is interesting about 1950s in modern days, is having younger cousins that I periodically babysit, it has a tendency to pop up in a lot of children's television shows, so I couldn't help but think of that. But nonetheless, despite its almost equation-like 1950s, it's still a pretty good song, and I see it's in Brawl (which I have yet to play, Melee, FTW!), so I'm sure it would be fun to beat people up in as well. : P 7.5/10

Battle Theme from Xenosaga Episode I written by Yasunori Mitsuda
^ **NOTE: The victory fanfare is also played at the end if you're interested.  

[gabriel sama]

And here's my dramatic reappearance after my week of holidays.

Concerning the current song... it's definitely got a battle feel to it. But it feels more like tension, like two sides are on the verge of going to war with each other and the slightest weakness either side shows will basically result in an all-out war. And that little victory fanfare at the end makes it seem like the war's over but there's a looming shadow in the distance, like some unfinished business or a third party aiming to walk all over the two weakened sides. 9/10

This would have been the song I would have used on Halloween, but I kept putting it off and now we're almost at December. So I figure I'd show this so that I can get it out of the way, then move on to the actual song I want to share. You're free to rate this one if you want too.

On the Tight Rope from Tales of Symphonia. I know Motoi Sakuraba had a hand in some Tales games, but I don't know if he was responsible for this particular piece.  

[The Lolwut Pear]

I was quite a fan of the climatic crescendo into the meat of the song, as well as the explosive percussion, but I did find it to be repetitive, or having a brief melody, thus looping the song frequently. 7/10

Transcending Love (Ai wo Koete) from Genso Suikoden III written by Michiru Yamane  

[gabriel sama]

Finally gonna bring some life back in here.

... Jeez, Maji. You really picked a good one. The music reminds me of Ar Tonelico's chants, especially with the vocals. There's so much I want to say about the song, but I can't think of words that would do it justice. Just take my 10/10 and be done with it.

Bloody Tears from Castlevania 4. I dunno the composer who wrote this.  

[The Lolwut Pear]

Roy! Roy! You actually did something very cool here! The person in charge of writing the music to Genso Suikoden III was also involved with the Castlevania series! Although she was not involved in 4, she DID work on a large amount of other games in that series.

Although this song begins with a slow beginning consisting of an organ solo, it goes into a fabulous Actraiser-esque melody with a really catchy percussion line- something that all good SNES games are pros at. The beginning returns later in the piece, but this works to an advantage, adding suspense to bring out the main melody even more than it should be.

8.5/10- a fantastic piece that makes me want to play this game more, as it looks and sounds like Actraiser- a game I simply adore. However, I find that in this piece it returns to previous melodies already used before a lot, but other than that, a simply fantastique piece.

Indescribable Grief from Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria by Motoi Sakuraba

And yay, original music thread revived~.  

[gabriel sama]

Orly? That's pretty cool to know. I'll definitely need to listen to more GenSui and Castlevania and see if I can find any more works by her. 3nodding

As for your latest Sakuraba, sounds like a battle. Or maybe like you just discovered some big secret about some big religion in your world and they've just declared you traitors because you learned of it to keep you quiet and now you're on the run. The winds do a good job upping the suspense. 9/10

Fatal Duel from Guilty Gear XX, by Daisuke Ishiwatare  

[The Lolwut Pear]

I liked the cool rock beat to it, it reminded me a lot of Yuzo Koshiro, and his whole Ys thing. It had a powerful, catching percussion beat to it. However, at the same time, I noticed it used a lot of the riffs over, and there were "empty" parts in the piece I felt that I felt as though could have had more melody in it, rather than strumming the note.

However, it does capture the whole duel portrait quite well, but maybe just has some minor flaws that I couldn't help but notice. 7.8/10

Unavoidable Battle from Final Fantasy Tactics by Masaharu Iwata

^ I hope everyone else had as hard of a time with those Summoners in that battle as I did. emo Even more since I don't believe in grinding.

EDIT: **NOTE: The low strings are quite difficult to hear in this piece at the beginning for some reason, but do take note that there ARE low strings in this piece at the beginning, not just the violin playing one long note for a lengthy duration.  

[gabriel sama]

Hm... sounds like it's a fight you don't really want to fight but you have no choice but to take part in. The strings and winds sound good, but this isn't exactly something new we've seen in FF. Maybe at the time it was new. Who knows. Sounds like Square needs to find some new songs to write.

8.5/10

Hmm...

You know what, I'm going to take it up a notch. I've been in a bit of a slump lately with songs, so I'm gonna bring it back up with something I beat the other day. Pretty sure I haven't put this in either.

The Opened Way from Shadow of the Colossus, by Kō Ōtani.  

[The Lolwut Pear]

I still need to play this, everyone with a PS2 is all emotion_jawdrop about me not playing it. >_<

Anyway, the marriage between various sections in this piece is quite nice. The formulae was simple, yet effective: strings got the melody, brass has the bones and woodwinds dance every now and then. Although in the long run, I felt as though, although fantastic and shows what the PS2 is capable of doing, there wasn't much memorable about this certain piece. You still can't deny that nice quality, conclusive ending and climatic feeling from it, eh? 8/10

Clash of Two Virtues from Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon by Yuka Tsujiyoko [?]

EDIT: And I am LE TIRED of rating FF music. I'm not going to say in in FEF, as I may offend, but no more FF music for awhile while I try to regain my sanity S.V.P. sad  

[ThePersonInFrontOfYou]

Heh, I was actually gonna post some FF:CC music in here. It was gonna have bagpipes and base drums, and it was by Kumi Tanioka and not Nobuo Uematsu! Since when I posted CC music in the FEF thread, the reception.... kinda rubbed me the wrong way. I'm sure he didn't mean it, but that was the attitude that made people not give FF:CC a fair chance. As a huge avdocate of the first FF:CC and it's experimentation, I withdrew because I was afraid of giving off bad vibes in the smalltalk. And there IS a lot of FF music in that thread.

They didn't have the silly unspoken Nobuo taboo (Taboo Uematsu?) we had.

So naturally, the FE music goes in here! Wait...

I totally forgot about this song, actually. Poor Camus. Being pulled between all manner of crazy story stuff. And honestly, I found most of the music in Shadow Dragon to be a bit generic. I was especially peeved that they genericafied the Player Phase song, which is one of my favorite 8-bit tunes. This song, while it doesn't leave much of an impact on me, it a decent song that fits special battles. I like the bits of background synth. They sound like strikes to me. And I like those rising strings, too. Overall, while it doesn't really have much of a lasting impact on me, It's above average. 6/10 here.

And I need to play Shadow of the Colossus too. You should have seen me in the blast when Roy was talking about it. I was all LADFHLAKJDHFKHFAAKJWDFHAKWDHFAWEF ROOOOY! How big are they? Do they shake the ground where they walk? Do they have forests growing on their backs? I love big and atmospheric feeling things. Hopefully I'll get it for my birthday.

Spiz and Dribble- Warioware Inc: Mega Microgame$ by Ryoji Yoshitomi and/or Kyoko Miyamoto

For the record, when the song changes keys and rhythms, it is part of what happens in-game. Since when the difficulty or speed rises in game, Dribble and Spitz change radio channels.  

[gabriel sama]

This song... is pretty weird. Not gonna lie. Then again, most of the songs from WarioWare are pretty weird. I do like the random clicks in the song (the channel change) that result in it being sped up or a change in difficulty. It plays fairly chill, but the keys seem to be repetitive. Kinda like playing in a different chord. Or minor/major. I dunno. I'm not a musician so I don't know the technical term. 7.5/10

My next piece I only found recently by playing a game several people have recommended to me. Well, not really a game. More like a Visual Novel. Where you can date people with disabilities. I know it sounds weird (I mean, I thought it was weird, and I wasn't sure how I'd like the game), but... it's really well written. Heart-rending at times too. But it's not all sad-emotional. You got this one paranoid guy who lives across from you (think he's legally blind or something, but he's still capable of seeing sometimes) who spouts some of the greatest lines I have ever seen.

From the Visual Novel/eroge (the adult scenes can be turned off, though you miss a lot of character development and plot doing so), I give you Shadow of the Truth from Kawata Shoujo, written and composed by the guys at 4 Leaf Studios.

I honestly recommend picking this VN up to try. It's got some really deep stuff in there.  

[Belzayne]

All right the feeling I get from this song is...sadness. I scrolled down to the comments and that confirmed my feeling. The piano going on in the music around 40 seconds definitely adds to the sadness of this piece. And even before it just helps build upon the sadness that had been placed there before. Just by the background to the song as well in the video it shows the sadness that can go along with this scene. Although sad pieces aren't my specialty, I'm gonna give it an 9/10. The piano is nice, but for some reason I feel that it could have more.

Persona 3 Heartless Cry  

[gabriel sama]

First things first... you have the incorrect name. It's actually 'Heartful Cry', not Heartless Cry. Second, while this is an emotional piece, especially for when it plays in the Answer (Spoiler ->) Your group is divided because some people want to continue on with their lives while others want to change the past so that way their leader and best friend didn't have to die. To settle the dispute, they basically have a fight to the death, which you get a brief preview of it happening at the opening video of the Answer. The dog's whimpering when you're killing it really hurts ;A; (<- Spoiler), I feel like there could be so much more done for it. I get that it's a battle theme so it's going to repeat, but... it's just missing some very important instruments (or are they synths created by the SMT team? I'll never know) that will really draw out the feeling that you don't want to fight but at the same time you really have no choice but to do so.

Nevertheless, it's a good song. 8/10.

Innocence from Katawa Shoujo, by the 4 Leaf Studios crew.

Hnngh, y u so good at drawing feels, 4LS?  

[The Lolwut Pear]

-Looks to the left at the pictures in the suggestion column-

WHAT DO YOU PLAYYYYY?! xD

This piece reminded me of Cardcaptor Sakura BGM, for the softness to it. I was a particular fan of the strings, they were strong and present even in presence the melody, which adds emotion. One thing about it, was I wasn't sure where the melody was trying to go. There was a midway change in the piece with a xylophone (?) solo, which seemed a bit arbitrary for me. When the melody returned, it had a completely different melody from the original, which was also a bit odd.

Nonetheless, I really did like the strings and piano, it portrays emotional parts in any piece out there well. 7/10

Seagull Flies from Breath of Fire IV by Yoshino Aoki and Taro Iwashiro.