Board 8 > Lasa Ranks 100 Songs Nominated by NFUN

(+) Yeah! (+)

bumpos

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let's try

36. Ys VI - Ruins of Amnesia
Composed by Hayato Sonoda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK-ptN8LnH8

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Mr Lasastryke posted...

wow, this is from mycro's favorite soundtrack!! probably for good reason, if this song is any indication. i should listen to it! (i should also listen to the PSO1 soundtrack while i'm at it.)

good luck if you decide to do this! pso2 is literally multiple days length worth of music, possibly the longest vgm ost out there. so be prepared for a ride haha. took me months to get through it all

suggestion: if you want to skip to the stuff i'd expect you to like the most, go for vol5-6 specifically. 1-4 and 7-8 (and the stuff that's too new to be on an ost album yet) are all great imo too, but I feel like your taste lines up most with 5-6's vibe. the most simultaneously electronic and prog/fusion at once i'd say. both Kohri and HITSUGI are from vol 6 and are pretty indicative of 6's style. (In nfun's playlist that's linked in the video descriptions on those videos, those two volumes are entries 177-290 on the playlist) though tbh i dont know what i'm bothering with this recommendation because you'd probably like the majority of the ost. i just personally consider it to take a while to get from being "extremely cool soundtrack!" (my thoughts on vol 1-4) to "MY SINGLE FAVORITE VIDEO GAME SOUNDTRACK" (what i start feeling once i get to vol 5-and-later tho i think you'd like 7+ less than me)
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thanks for the suggestion! yeah it'll take awhile to get through the whole thing haha.

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11 days?? how did this not purge Holy shit

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blimp

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nt

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NFUN posted...

32. Soma Bringer - Run Through Flames ~ Largo Bridge
Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siiLILDf1LY

nice "cheesy" instrumentation (fake horn!) (cheesy instrumentation is a good thing in this case). i associate this sound with "european VGM" but i assume "yasunori mitsuda" is not european. there's probably tons of non-european VGM that sounds like this (the rhapsody: a musical adventure soundtrack - which this soung kinda reminds me of - is another example) so the "european VGM" thing is probably some weird thing i made up that makes no sense. also, i did not know this soma bringer game and assumed it was something from the '90s-early '00s but nope, it's a DS game from 2008! though maybe the DS's 64-bit format makes it sound like an N64 soundtrack so it somewhat sounds from that era anyway even though it's not? who knows. but yeah, good song. good instrumentation, nice melodies too.

oh, mitsuda also did the devil, which i apparently didn't love at first and then liked a lot better. maybe that means i'll like this even more later on? we'll see!

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NFUN posted...

33. Soma Bringer - Ring Tower
Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2IdCeYfdks

i liked this one a lot less than run through flames ~ largo bridge. it's another waltz but it doesn't sound like a "fusion waltz" like run through flames did (like zappa's a pound for a brown on the bus). this sounds more like a johann strauss II waltz, which is a style of music i'm much less into. the composition appealed a lot less to me too. still decent, though!

so yeah, i liked all three mitsuda tracks that were nominated but didn't love anything. however, i do want to check out the soma bringer and tsunami: atonement soundtracks someday to see if there's anything on there i DO love. i feel like the potential for this to happen is definitely there!

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no new writeup yet but i just wanted to say that yasunori mitsuda also (partially) composed the chrono trigger soundtrack, one of my favorite soundtracks?!? man, embarrassing reminder of how little attention i usually pay to the people behind my favorite VGM >_>

but yeah, i do like the chrono trigger OST better than the three mitsuda songs nfun nominated for this. same possibly goes for the chrono cross OST (which mitsuda also did), though i personally like that soundtrack less than the chrono trigger one...

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mitsuda composed all of chrono trigger except, like, five songs that i've never heard anybody mention before. it's his baby

tsugunai and soma bringer are better though

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I have been informed that this is jazz fusion, and it rocks, so here we go i guess

37. Trails in the Sky Zanmai - Sophisticated Fight
Composed by Wataru Ishibashi, Arranged by Noriyuki Kamikura
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmandi2nKi4

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zwaa

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38. Xevious - Main Theme
Composed by Who Fucking Cares?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQiNNgccRcA

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q

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39. Varra - Fortnite II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIMdnGQyeek


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holy shit save

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ok, rather than just talk about the next song - recursive function from relflec beat groovin'!! - i'm going to zoom out a little here and look at the bigger picture. i went down a rabbit hole here - apparently reflec beat groovin'!! is part of a rhythm game franchise called bemani and gamefaqs informs me that bemani is associated with a number of other rhythm grame franchises (dance dance revolution, drummania, guitar freaks, pop'n music, jubeat, dancing stage, dance maniax) and beatmania has a subfranchise called beatmania IIDX and most of those franchises have like 86 games in them?? damn. (i assume "BEMANI" is shorthand for BEatMANia or something, right?) i was talking to mycro about bemani on discord a few years ago and he informed me that not all bemani-related music is amazing and that it depends on the composer. still, i'd now like to talk about some songs in these franchises i've somehow encountered before and i'll incorporate my recursive function writeup into this too!

the least 333sec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRAYSALtrqk

this appeared in the last VGMC as being from "GUITARFREAKS 5thMIX & drummania 4thMIX" - i guess the implication is that it appears on both of these soundtracks? anyway, great tune. the emphasis on (what sounds like an) acoustic piano kind of makes it sound like mouse on the keys to me - though wikipedia describes mouse on the keys as a post-rock band, their music mostly sounds like frantic neo jazz and so does this song (though mycro described this as "pretty solidly in the progressive rock genre" in his writeup). love the electric guitar too. mycro loved this song too! yay!

right brain salad surgery

this appeared a few times in past VGMCs. apparently, it appeared on both the guitar freaks v6: blazing!!!! and the drummania v6: blazing!!!! soundtracks. no link because i can't find one anymore on youtube :-( anyway, from what i remember, this was a great song. very fusiony with some prominent fretless bass. mycro told me on discord that it was composed by "96," which, according to haste's topic (i will refer to it more times later), is the alias of one daisuke kurosawa.

douwai kairou
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEhGUmXcG2Y

this is from gitadora overdrive and it appeared in the tournament of champions in the last VGMC. oh, this youtube video is kind of enough to mention the composer in the title ("dj totto"). i assume the least 333sec was also by dj totto as it sounds extremely similar to that one. this one sounds more fusiony, though, as there's a more prominent role for the electric guitar. another great tune, i like this a little better than least 333sec, even. i don't know if i like dj totto as much as 96, from what i've heard, but they're clearly no slouch either! mycro also loved this one, he ranked it #4 out of the ToC songs! he pointed out that it's partially in 5/8 (a time signature simple enough for me to follow!) and even though he loved it, he did critcize the guitar (i love the guitar in this so i can't agree with him on that one!).

blind justice ~torn souls, hurt faiths~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Y66A4jP-M

this is from beatmania IIDX 14: gold. it appeared in the last VGMC. this, uh... kinda sucks! it's not the worst song ever but man, it really does sound like someone was like "hey, let's throw a bunch of shit that annoys lasa all in one song." first of all, this somehow sounds baroque-ish, which is not a classical music genre i'm fond of (though i do like some of it). second of all, i don't like the sound of the church organ so the fact that there's a church organ sounding instrument in this is also bad. and jesus, all this combined with the vocals and the '90s dance beat makes it sound so cheesy. it reminds me of cotton eye joe by rednex. well, not all of these bemani tunes can be great, i guess. too bad!

just looked up the mycro writeup and... he called it an "amazing track" O_O he compared it to bach, so good to know that my "baroque" comment wasn't super crazy (i wrote the above paragraph before reading the writeup). he also said that he liked church organ. i'm pretty suprised that mycro was raving so much about a tune where the drums are so stiff but hey, i'm glad he gets so much enjoyment out of this. but yeah, it's not for me. oh yeah, mycro mentioned that this was composed by one tomosuke, so i'm glad i know whose stuff to avoid when looking for new VGM in the future >_>

dark legacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zKVLq7Ub0s

this is from beatmania IIDX 21: spada. this appeared in the tournament of champions of the last VGMC. i'm not crazy about the frantic beat but this is still good! mycro loved it and he mentioned it was composed by naoyuki sato. this tune is nowhere nearly as good as the more fusiony stuff by 96 and dj totto but i still like it. haste also talked about this song in his topic and he gets into the technical stuff so go check out his writeup!

despair of elferia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNmTgi43zuo

this is from beatmania IIDX 22: pendual. this appeared in the tournament of champions of the last VGMC. great song. love the melodies and for once the frantic beat ADDS to the intensity of the beautiful composition, rather than distracting from it. i don't really like the '90s trance aesthetic that's prominent at times but that's my only (minor) complaint about this. mycro also loved this (he ranked it #7 in his ToC rankings) so we pretty much agree on this one. oh, this was also composed by naoyuki sato? i'm a lot more interested in him now. this is way better than dark legacy! also, this is another one that haste talked about!

midnight lady
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHVJrubwwsQ

this is from beatmania IIDX 25: cannon ballers. this appeared in the last VGMC. A E S T H E T I C S ...no but really this sounds so much like vaporwave, it's crazy. i wouldn't be surprised if macross 82-99 composed this but apparently

hymn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nkSUn1aU34

this is from pop 'n music usagi to neko to shounen no yume. this appeared in the last VGMC. well, no need for me to go over this one again, as i've already talked about it in post #20. ...but wait, why was i acting like i'd never heard it before?! it was in several matches in VGMC14! is my music memory that bad? apparently! well, listening to it again, i do like it a lot and i think it's better than just ok (as i said in the writeup) but the frantic beat still bothers me. this was composed by one "zutt"? well, based on this, i'd say he's not as good as all the other mentioned composers (aside from tomosuke) but he's good enough to make me want to hear more stuff that he's done. mycro loved this song!

shining wizard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLlFv47lwGk&feature=emb_title

this is from jubeat knit. this appeared in VGMCs 7 and 8 and this is another song that was composed by daisuke kurosawa (i stole all of this information from haste btw). makes sense that this is a kurosawa song as, like right brain salad surgery, this is also very fusiony. great instrumentation (the metal flourishes almost make this sound like a planet x tune) and good melodies. i like RBSS a little better (from what i remember, anyway) but this is also awesome. again, go check out haste's writeup!

scars of fauna

this is from jubeat saucer fulfill. this appeared in the last VGMC. another song that seems to have been removed from youtube (going by the VGMC link, at least). i can still check out the mycro writeup, though... he loved it and mentioned that this is yet another naoyuki sato composition. so this is probably very good!

chloe

this is from jubeat prop. this appeared in the last VGMC. yet ANOTHER song that was removed from youtube - seems like they went really hard after the "jubeat" brand of bemani songs for some reason. shame because this was mycro's second favorite song in the contest!! (well, at least we can still listen to dungeon - geofront 4...) according to mycro's douwa kairou writeup, this is another dj totto composition so i'm assuming i would really like this too!

ok, now we finally get to...

NFUN posted...

34. REFLECT BEAT groovin'!! - Recursive Function
Composed by OSTER PROJECT
https://youtu.be/GNQkmhK7CQg

first of all, what game is "reflect beat groovin'!!"? i mean, gamefaqs lists 4 reflec beat games but none of them are called "groovin'" (the original, limelight, + and colette). anyway, this is great! together with shining wizard, this is definitely the most distinctly fusion sounding song out of all of these, both in terms of the instrumentation and the composition (ahh those lush chords), and you should know by now how much i like fusion. "OSTER PROJECT" is a name i haven't encountered yet - too bad none of their stuff made it into the last VGMC!

kanata no rafflesia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT-fjE66WNY

i don't get what game this song is from either - apparently, it's from "the reflesia of eternity," which is another reflec beat game gamefaqs doesn't list? eh, maybe i should just give up trying to make sense of bemani lore - this is clearly too complex for someone who knows nothing about this stuff, like me. anyway, this appeared in the last VGMC. great song, it sounds like a "generic anime song" with a beat that's distinct but not super frantic. mycro really liked this too. he didn't mention who composed it but the image in the youtube video says "DJ TOTTO." if it is them, this sounds nothing like the other stuff by them i discussed but i love it nonetheless!

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well, seems like this bemani stuff is really my jam! it's clear to me by now that there's many different composers contributing music to these soundtracks but i liked almost all of these songs anyway (i'm making the safe assumptions that i like the songs youtube deleted too)! someday, i would like to do a thorough listenthrough of these soundtracks, but the incredible amount of games in this franchise is pretty intimidating...

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yeah I've only gone through Nekomata and the reflec beats. One month I'm going to go insane and listen through everything in chronological order

I would... not recommend you do that. At all. The bemani songs that Board 8 likes are definitely not representative of bemani as a whole. For every Nekomata/TOTTO world music song you get a Roughsketch, and for every jazz fusion song you get a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWZEVu4-SUw

Asking for recommendations would be a much safer bet, or just looking through the disco of artists you find you tend to like. In addition to the ones you've listed as like, I'd also add Osamu Kubota and maybe Zektbach to the list... even though you've disliked songs either have made (Rhapsody and Blind Justice).

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guess I should put my money where my mouth is and

40. beatmania IIDX 12 - Mind the Gap
Composed by Osamu Kubota
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khMw5hu06lU

41. beatmania IIDX 16 - Turii ~ Panta Rhei
Composed by Zektbach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQtgifnqxhM

also i'll cheat and

42. jubeat saucer fulfill - Scars of FAUNA
Composed by Nekomata Master
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyNh7KnsTN0


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NFUN posted...

yeah I've only gone through Nekomata and the reflec beats. One month I'm going to go insane and listen through everything in chronological order

I would... not recommend you do that. At all. The bemani songs that Board 8 likes are definitely not representative of bemani as a whole. For every Nekomata/TOTTO world music song you get a Roughsketch, and for every jazz fusion song you get a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWZEVu4-SUw

Asking for recommendations would be a much safer bet, or just looking through the disco of artists you find you tend to like. In addition to the ones you've listed as like, I'd also add Osamu Kubota and maybe Zektbach to the list... even though you've disliked songs either have made (Rhapsody and Blind Justice).

haha, i actually kinda liked that song for the first minute or so - after that it got pretty obnoxious - but yeah, it's obviously not fusion lol. that's actually the main reason why i wanted to (re)listen to a bunch of bemani songs, to see how much of it sounds like fusion. i always thought a lot of it did but it turns out there weren't that many of those songs in this particular sampling. thanks for the warning/recommendations.

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guitarfreaks & drummania is actually a single game despite the name. there's a guitar cabinet and a drum cabinet, but they're linked together and can play in tandem. in recent years they rolled the series name over to gitadora (gita - guitar and dora - drums).
a good resource for composer stuff on bemani songs and games is https://remywiki.com pretty completely comprehensive

i love oster project!! she's more widely known for doing vocaloid songs but her bemani works are some of my favorites of hers..may be looking into getting something of hers into vgmc this year

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ah, thanks for the info.

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bump post coast to coast
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e
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new year, new me
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syeah
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and now for something completely different

43. Phantasy Star Online 2 - DYREINA
Composed by Mitsuharu Fukuyama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE6E8tC8CmI
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I've been waiting so long
to get where I'm going
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The love of men is a frigid thing, a mountain stream three steps away from the ice. Oh Stormfather... we are his. It is but a thousand days and the Everstorm comes
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ok, time for another detour. i'm now going to go through all of the phantasy star online 2 songs that raetsel gave a low rating in her (now purged) topic and see how they compare to the PSO2 song nfun nominated. i will eventually listen to the whole soundtrack, but i thought this would be a fun way to get an idea of what it is like. so here we go!

deus esca ~ yggdrasil shining on the earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xa-6SZGjtk

agree with raetsel on this one - she gave this a low rating entirely because it's super short, not because she thought the music was bad. i also think it's essentially a jingle rather than a "song," if you will. that being said, for a jingle, this is really good!

esca falz mother ~ superiority
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds7TPScowlY

huh, am i the only one who... kinda likes this? raetsel gave it 25.10 points and nfun said it "sucked." i enjoy the epic feel of this! raetsel called it boring and complained about the pulsing beat (fair point). and i recognize that, for the most part, it's just a short loop that's repeated over and over again. but all that being said, i still think it's above average.

false credo ~ earthguide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJuY1_Dzs3w

can't agree with raetsel on this one - she thought this was "adequate" while i think it's amazing! this is an extremely fusion-ish song, so is exactly the kind of thing i adore. ok, it does have a church organ-sounding instrument, which i'm usually not a fan of. but since it's not the focus of the track, i'll forgive it. in fact, i think the church organ complements the other sounds quite nicely!

also, i'm too lazy to go back and check but this DOES loop at some point, right? raetsel called it a "seven minute barrage of adequateness" but i feel like it's more like 3:45 minutes (of awesomeness)!

tears of the moon ~ artemis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shxkuHn98tI

...ok, i agree with raetsel that this is not good. a few complaints i have:

• i'm generally not a fan of this "let's do a classical piece with an electric band (and sometimes vocals)" kind of music. at times, it can be good - bob james has done some great stuff in this subgenre - but usually, i just end up thinking "this has a bunch of unnecessary additions and i'd rather just listen to the original version."
• beethoven is not a composer i particularly like (hot take) and i don't even like the original moonlight sonata much.

so yeah, this isn't really my thing.

eclipse for esca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKg-Gragbhc

another one i dislike but for different reasons than raetsel. this is another one she disliked for its short length, while i just don't like this kind of cheesy scary movie music. like, if this were two minutes longer, i would probably still dislike it.

metamorphosis to esca falz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU0dMT2rsMc

well, i don't think this is bad but i'm not fond of it either. it's a bit too quirky and dissonant for me to really love. i prefer the fusion sound of false credo ~ earthguide to this more modern classical-ish sounding tune. seems like a song mycro would be super into but i think it's just ok.

superluminal ~ danger ~ esca falz mother
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EOfqIkeZSg

this is one of those "super frantic beat" songs that i often don't enjoy. i do like this and it's definitely one of the better tunes i've heard as far as that kind of music goes, but this is one where i feel like the short length is detrimental. raetsel said that this COULD have been a really great song if it were longer and i totally agree with that sentiment.

the perfection ~ phaleg (midnight)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KspafBdklS4

i liked this way more than raetsel did. another one that's very fusion-ish but it does lose points for also being another "super frantic beat" song. with better drumming, this would be perfect (no pun intended) to me. but as it is, it's merely "good."

superliminal ~ chase ~ esca falz mother (phase2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK6jPJmYmE0

...uh yeah, insert the previous writeup here? i'm struggling to think of something original to say. raetsel ranked this right after the perfection ~ phaleg (midnight), which makes sense, given how similar they are!

i guess i could mention that i'd give this song bonus points for prominently featuring the electric guitar (raetsel also mentioned this aspect!).

sacredness ~ adam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEhFmVMt66s

agree with raetsel that this isn't good. another song that features the church organ but unlike false credo ~ earthguide, this DOES really focus on the instrument so i can't really get into this. composition-wise, some parts of this are quite good. but yeah, this just isn't a type of music i enjoy.

alright, that's it for songs from raetsel's topic (she gave sacredness ~ adam a 49.99 and the next PSO2 song got a 50.00). let's get to nfun's nom now:

NFUN posted...

31. Phantasy Star Online 2 - Ice-covered Love ~ Kohri
Composed by Hidekuni Horita
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8

The thing with all of those Esca Falz Mother songs is that they're different segments of a dynamic song that play during different cues. They're really cool used as 10 second clips in the game, but don't work so well as individual tracks, and I've been too lazy to edit them together into somehow cohesive. The Chase portions are the main songs

Mr Lasastryke posted...

also, i'm too lazy to go back and check but this DOES loop at some point, right? raetsel called it a "seven minute barrage of adequateness" but i feel like it's more like 3:45 minutes (of awesomeness)!

No song in the PSO2 albums (so all of the ones I've uploaded to youtube) has a loop over the entire song. Some sections can be looped, and a lot of the tracks are dynamic with individual segments that are melded together which makes the concept a little weird, but this is at least uniquely structured over the full thing

Kohri for VGMC 15
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NFUN posted...

No song in the PSO2 albums (so all of the ones I've uploaded to youtube) has a loop over the entire song. Some sections can be looped, and a lot of the tracks are dynamic with individual segments that are melded together which makes the concept a little weird, but this is at least uniquely structured over the full thing

oh ok. interesting.

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oh whoops, i did the wrong nfun-nominated PSO2 song; i'd already talked about ice-covered love ~ kohri in post #98 >_> i guess my music memory really IS terrible. (funny how i made that comment about "status quo drumming" in both writeups, though.)

anyway, here's the song i MEANT to talk about in that post:

NFUN posted...

if kohri is good may as well throw in hitsugi too

35. Phantasy Star Online 2 - HITSUGI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M31yY3XqNcs

yeah, this does sound a lot like kohri. this is hands down the best PSO2 song i've heard so far! another extremely fusion-ish song with beautiful lush chords. out of the PSO2 songs i've heard now, my top 3 would be: 1) hitsugi, 2) esca falz mother ~ superiority, 3) ice-covered love ~ kohri.

too bad the entire PSO2 soundtrack is not as good as this tune (as i've now found out) but it's clear that there's a lot to love on it!

oh btw, why isn't there a composer listed for this song? is it unknown or did you forget?

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Mr Lasastryke posted...

oh btw, why isn't there a composer listed for this song? is it unknown or did you forget?

i forgot. it's Horita again
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ah ok.

also, i screwed up again; i meant to say my #2 PSO2 song is false credo ~ earthguide, NOT esca falz mother ~ superiority... i like superiority but it's not top 3 good lol. i guess i got the titles mixed up because i mentioned them both in my (second) writeup for ice-covered love ~ kohri.

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ok, one more digression before i get to the next one. haste did two more bemani songs in his topic so i want to talk about them too:

dornwald ~junge~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpZ6jwPP8iA

windy fairy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApancI5dOA4

haste ranked these very close together, which makes sense, as they're pretty similar and they're both by dj totto. don't have much else to say - especially since haste already went in-depth on them. plus mycro did writeups for both of them (they were both in VGMC13) so now there's really very little for me to add lol. (mycro loved both but unlike haste, he ranked dornward ~junge~ higher than windy fairy.) i think they're both great songs but inferior to douwa kairou.

one thing i do wonder - is the "long held piano note at the end" a very frequent rhythm game trope or something? not only does it appear in these two tracks, it was also in the vocaloid track nfun ranked #999 in his topic!

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Chuck_Tingle posted...

36. Ys VI - Ruins of Amnesia
Composed by Hayato Sonoda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK-ptN8LnH8

great song. love the melodies and the folktronica aesthetic. my favorite part might be (roughly) 1:49-2:07. ahh so good.

the ruined city kishgal from this game was in the last VGMC, which happens to be one of my favorite songs out of that contest. mycro also loved it and pointed out that it was composed by watari ishibashi. oh hey, i recognize that name! he also composed aiming for the future from trails in the sky sc (another falcom game), which i discussed in post #19! that's another great song! man, he rules. but uh yeah, this can't compare to the ruined city kishgal but that's ok. still an awesome tune.

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Stood against the odds
Here at last, a bright new future
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q
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r
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44. Auto Modellista - Opaque Air
Composed by Tetsuya Shibata
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kF2LVNhn0o
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chomp
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coming soon: me talking about video game music

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"soon"

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bump

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