LogFAQs > #898550541

In The Flame
Cosmic Hero
Apollo Justice ~ A New Chapter of Trials! 2016

Castle of Illusions oscillates between kinda interesting and rote RPG music. I think the strange chime-like synth that's prominent in 0:26 is a cool effect. The next minute or so is neat! The melody that starts around 1:25 is not. But then it goes back to the chimes! But then it introduces a fairly horrendous-sounding electric guitar patch. And on it goes.

I'm not here for Darren Korb's vocals, though I think he does a serviceable job here. Honestly this is something I might have rolled my eyes at, maybe. But I really dig it. Some of Darren Korb's vocal compositions really hit the mark with me for reasons I'm not sure of-- Setting Sail, Coming Home, The Spine, this. I catch myself humming along to them more than any others on their respective soundtracks (though I haven't given Pyre's a proper listen). 1:45 might be really lame to some but to me it's great-- a real high point. I think the only part that really bugs me is the major chord at the end.

I think Ari Pulkkinen does a pretty good job scoring the really arcade-y Housemarque games, but I don't find the music quite as compelling out of context. Cosmic Hero is the same-- I think I'd have a lot of fun playing Nex Machina to this, but just listening to it straight doesn't really feel the same.

Sometimes I wonder why this Touhou track in particular became the every-year joke. There were, uh, six? Touhou tracks that first year. Why couldn't it have been, like, Border of Life? Or Wind God Girl? Though maybe I would have been just as sick of those by now. (My personal favourite at the time was Necrofantasia but I can kinda understand why that wasn't the one carried year-to-year.) Anyway Reach for the Moon is a decent Touhou track and I'm totally sick of hearing it in VGMC.

CUTYPUMP is dumb. And, I mean, it's trying to be! And it succeeds with flying colours. But that just means it succeeded at being dumb. Anyway this lacks a lot of what I think is interesting in Ar tonelico hymmnos in favour of pursuing its aesthetic.

I actually rather like Apollo's theme-- probably more than any other defense attorney's theme. SoJ's take might be the best of them.