LogFAQs > #947260318

The 9.0 barrier is not yet.

50) Ar tonelico III - EXEC_REBIRTHIA=PROTOCOL/.
Series ranking: 5 of 6
https://youtu.be/0pxH6qjSZJQ
Composer: KOKIA, , arr. by Masumi Itou
Other credits: KOKIA (singer)
Score: 8.9/10 (Excellent)
VGMC History: VGMC 7 (Lost R5 to Potential for Anything)
Favorite Part: 1:58 - 2:57

I cant believe this ended up fifth out of six! An emotional/folk-dance combination? Im down! Its all about pure sounds at the start. Raindrop piano and bells! Singer rides on top of it nice and slow...vibrato is just right (not too much of it) on those long notes. In fact, this whole track is very, very slow going. Very little seems to happen, but what does happen is breathtaking! Main melody starts at 1:21 (wow, what a long opening), with folky drums (I like the guitars strict involvement with the drums here)! And it immediately starts building the guitar sounds perfect, and the string orchestra really makes it build I really like the moment where the soloists finish (the crescendo makes a big difference!) and the backups join in at 2:03. The chords the choir sings are YUMMY as they ascend one count, one step at a time, and that high note is just fantasti (the vi7 chord at the end at 2:16!) It repeats four times and somehow just gets better every time!!! Gotta love the chamber choir + soloist going back and forth The bagpipes at 2:57 make a nice (and unexpected) climactic section!! Love its note choices that keep it sounding folky. It ends similar to how it started...boy, is that string section pretty.

Hey, we're officially 3/4 of the way through! (assuming this finishes before VGMC XV)

49) Final Fantasy X - Someday the Dream will End
Series ranking: 1 of 7
https://youtu.be/AABvUTUTdcw
Composer: Nobuo Uematsu, arr. by Masashi Hamauzu
Score: 8.9/10 (Excellent)
VGMC History: VGMC 1 (Lost R2), VGMC 2 (Lost R3), VGMC 3 (Lost R4), VGMC 5 (Lost R3), VGMC 6 (Lost R1), VGMC 8 (Lost R2), VGMC 9 (Lost R5 to Kurokami Midareshi Shura)
Favorite Part: The chords of the piano and string sections

And thats the end of it for Final Fantasy ;_;. Im happy this track was so persistent, and it finally did it! This is absolutely one of my favorite Final Fantasy emotional themes in existence. It has such a beautiful open, pure sound while still sounding sad. The opening oboe line is so sweet. Piano chords are great. The flute and piano gliss combine suddenly, atthen suspended cymbal(? Actually that may be wrong) and low strings (wonderful CHORDS ) climax to an outburst of emotion on a nice nat-VI7 chord. Wow. More like a brief modulation, actually, but I often like looking at modulations in terms of the home key. I Iove the final melodic bit there (cool chromatic movement in there), which then gets repeated by the sweet piano in half-time and slightly altered. I Love that radio static...! Makes it sound hazier. =p Piano is struck pretty hard at times I guess Hamauzu wanted some percussive effect (not a whole lot of percussion in this), which at first I wasnt sure how I felt about that, but when I think about it, its for contrast between sections. You got the really open sounding, longing parts, then you got the more upbeat sections. The low strings continue to provide fullness, yet not taking away from the open/pure sound (perfect fifths and such), while the piano adds a thicker texture in the opposing sections. The horn melody sounds really open, as well, in a way thats hard to describe. Harmonies are tonally ambiguous, too, because it rarely plays the tonic (kind of like Chloe which was listed recently). though the melody makes the key obvious. I especially like whenever the bass changes to the nat-VI. Anyway, the unique harmonies really bolsters the emotion. It would be kind of plodding otherwise.


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