Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure vs Okamiden - I've never heard of Henry Hatsworth until now, but reading up about it, it sounds entertaining. And the music is pretty good. I really like the names of the songs too, as they seem to fit really well. Both songs for both games fit really well. Actually closer than I thought it would be. Since we're voting on how the OST works overall, I really do have to go with Hatsworth - while Okamiden may be higher quality overall, Hatsworth feels more fitting of the game (not that Okamiden's music isn't fitting! just less so), and feels like it interlinks a bit better. I mean, the NAME of the game sounds absolutely audacious...then you hear THIS song (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJzpLAOXMfY&feature=related) and it just...reinforces that. It's awesome. Or hell, this (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6nc77yI3qA&feature=related) boss battle theme...or this one (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trxtYRtXsE4&feature=related). My
GOD is it all just so
FITTING - they express the style of the game in the music perfectly. I want to be a gentleman now! Okamiden doesn't give me that feeling when I listen to the other music - it's just...decent and works for the game, but doesn't draw me in as much - it's more background music that's there to support the game, whereas Hatsworth's music feels like it is an integral part of the game's design, and not a secondary purpose.
Persona 4 vs Tales of Legendia - Uh...ok. So. Both games are pretty awesome. I'll disagree with Super (not like that's new) about the final battle theme being a weakness. I think it's more different than anything, and honestly, strikes me as brilliant. The theme of the game is "Reach Out to the Truth", and that song is a major motif of a majority of the soundtrack. Genesis (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ghYuPzvqE) is a great song that fully expresses this motif in the final battle beautifully. It is a bit longer than most people would be used to (seriously, almost 8 minutes before the loop!), especially considering the faster, shorter pieces used in the rest of the soundtrack. This is what makes it probably overall less preferred than Battle for Everyone's Souls from P3, or The Mist (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3gEKpGD4D4&feature=related), which plays for the first half of the final battle in P4. It's a jarring transition, although, honestly, I love it. Genesis could stand to be a bit shorter, but it does what it needs to. Listen to it starting around 5:20 - 5:40, then again at 6:10 - 7:45. French Horn of AWESOME for the last part, but that is epic and replays the game's motif perfectly. Now, could the first 5 minutes stand to be compressed? Absolutely. But overall, I think it's excellent, and the battle will last long enough you'll hear most of the song anyway >_>.
Now, off that tangent...the rest of the soundtrack keeps up the "Reach Out to the Truth" motif, and the vocals are...J-Pop, but I've never minded that. And to be honest, I think it fits well - J-Pop music and vocals for a J-Pop game! But there's plenty of non-J-Pop stuff - The Almighty (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGUGAHTPcak&feature=related), another great battle theme; Edge of Madness (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph0g7CArMHU&feature=related) is a great "mystery" song that spirals appropriately out of control; Secret Base (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ziJkEkDsRw&feature=related) is probably my favourite dungeon theme from the game (although The Game -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly35ACkU_MU&feature=related - and Long Way -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLx-TQsxPAU&feature=related - are pretty close); Dream Melody (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUP-hgUdF3k&feature=related) is amazing background situation music; and honestly, there's so much more I could post, but I think that's enough examples.
What ties it all together is the utilization - the music is actually used (unlike, say, Xenosaga) to express emotion and strengthen the impact of scenes in the game. Nothing is really over-used or under-used - it's balanced very well. Even the J-Pop. Really, when a game where J-Pop music and vocals sung in Engrish ("ALL THE HOMO MEN TO LOVE! WANK AWAY!") are commonplace makes it work with the theme of the game, that's impressive.
ToL on the other hand has similarly good music that, overall, is of better composition. ToL itself was an oddball game in the series, but the music was pretty awesome. I particularly love Sea of Rage (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpNYX6sXrG8&feature=related), the final battle theme, and The Man in Red (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSF_K4AgrrA), a special battle theme (that wasn't in the soundtrack ;_;) for battle themes. Sea of Rage does a great job of imparting an essence of finality into the final battle (although, then you realize there's another 30 hours of game left with the character quests >_>), and gives off an excellent impression of a raging tide seeking to consume. The Man in Red is just...imposing. It really sets the battle with Vaclav up as epic, a major climax of the game. You only hear it 2 times (once in the main game, once in the character quests), but it's impressive both times.
It's got some other great songs. One I'm particularly fond of in an "Oh God my brain" kind of way is Cradle of Time (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTcd8upeNxM&feature=related). Just...listen to it. It's like Giygas raping 12000 cats at once. It's...very much mood music in-game. Character themes are very strong, such as Merry Bandits (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=942nethBkIc&feature=related) for Moses, and...well, listen to the Bantam Bouncers Theme (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D39jUff_RCk&feature=related). And mood music...well, play the character quests, particularly Chloe's, and listen to some of them. Rainy Night (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCqftNz-WGo&feature=related) and Fireflies in Shadow (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRHOSdXG9eA&feature=related) are excellent, and really convey emotions. And dungeon themes don't suck either! Short Circuit (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTvPg89TIMI&feature=related) sounds...uh...exactly as its namesake! Seriously, listen to it the whole way through - it plays one of the game's musical motifs, with chaotic vocals, start-and-stop themes...seriously, it does the all stuff that normally kills a song all at once and pulls it off. Pretty awesome.
My only negative point to the ToL soundtrack is that sometimes the vocals don't fit as well as they could. I sometimes feel like they're just there because they used them once before and wanted to keep the theme going...which is fine at baseline! But Nihil Concerto (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fId01ehxU0g&feature=related) is a decent example of what I'm trying to say. I feel like the voices make it a bit worse. They're confusing...which can work well! I think they worked fine in Cradle of Time, but as a theme for Schwartze it just...feels a little out of place. The voices are used as a theme throughout the soundtrack, and they are generally used well, but here they detract a little from the great instrumentation in the background. It also doesn't help that the loop for theme (like in Nihil Concerto) is short and gives several moments of white space that jarring.
Ok...so...which one? Persona 4. ToL has overall higher quality and instrumentation. But since we're judging based on how the OST works overall, I don't think it's a huge contest. P4's OST flows exceptionally well and uses the theme of the game to enhance it. ToL does well, but some of the songs I feel don't play into the whole theme of the game as well as P4's does. Damn good match, and could go either way.
Saga Frontier vs
Wild ARMs 3 - A lot easier than the last two. I honestly don't think this is a contest. SaGa Frontier has fairly decent music, but the quality, quantity, and utilization of it pales massively against Wild ARMs 3. The tracks from SaGa Frontier with the best memorability are definitely the battle themes - I remember the most of them fairly well, and remember them fitting nicely. Some of the town themes (Sunset Town -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aumWblPK58M) are excellent. But I feel like the overall mood music is a lot weaker, and, due to the multiple character paths, sometimes disjointed. Wild ARMs 3 makes far, far better use of its score, and, of all the games in the series, does the best job of integrating a "western" theme into the entire game presentation. Pretty respectable, all things considered. Probably my second favourite soundtrack in the series (for all that it's my...least or 2nd least favourite of the games in the series!), but the one that gets the "broken, western wasteland, loss of hope, John Wayne" atmosphere just right. Now, if this were a Romancing SaGa game (like Minstrel Song), it would be a lot closer.
Fire Emblem 9 vs
Atelier Iris 2 - ...yeah, I really don't feel like a long detailed write-up here. FE9 is not a paragon of music for the series. FE10...would fare better, but I don't think any FE game would really trounce AI2 here. Particularly in quality, but also in utilization - a lot of the FE themes are kind of short and get repetitive quickly due to the nature of the game, or alternatively, you barely hear them (battle themes, particularly). Just don't see a contest here at all - AI2's superior overall quality helps the overall OST work better - you're expecting more out of it, and it delivers. FE9...it's purely there for background for the game, and definitely not a standout thing. I mean, hell, I don't remember any of the songs posted, or any other ones I looked up.
