OST vs OST: Round 1, Week 3

[superaielman]

Final Fantasy 4- Red Wings theme. FF4's intro theme is extremely catchy and sets the mood for the intro to the game. Very cool track that plays in the final dungeon as well. Battle with the four fiends- EPIC boss music. The fiends get a lot of plot hype and while they aren't great fights, the music does set the tone for the struggle. '

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbQyqX9iu_M Red Wings theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGrTvlE_DO0 Battle with the four fiends

vs

Star Control 2: I don't think I've seen another game that so ably melded whimsy and cosmic drama. The game's soundtrack was good at reflecting both. I'm counting the remixes for the purposes of this contest since they were bundled with the shareware version of the game. Through the Angles of Space for the new, and Yehat Theme for old time's sake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XxxHNUPo7g through the angles of space

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMBxBS0tgwk Yehat theme

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Donkey Kong Country Returns

Palm Tree Groove - goes way too well with the awesome shadow stages
Fear Factory Returns (Music Madness Mix) - you're trapped in a factory, the music means it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eulfQLDbFNE Palm Tree Grove
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKaURxJ8GcI Fear factory returns

vs

Phantasy Star Online, Episode III
Idola the Strange Fruits - Still one of my favorite pieces of music after all these years. Those short pauses with nothing but a few piano notes really help set the beat and give you a chance to catch your breath before the next wave of musical awesomeness washes over you.
Tower of Caelum - Great melodic piece that instills you with a feeling that something big is coming and you need to get ready for it. It starts off slow and gradually picks up the pace. By the time it gets going, it's really catchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLymLj6kIXM Idola the strange fruits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6sI5SMKThA Tower of Caelum

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BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
Oriental Flower (Litchi's Theme) - A very catchy "East meets West" track that combines traditional Eastern instruments with heavy metal guitar. The combination works surprisingly well.
Motor Head (Iron Tager's Theme) - Just like Tager himself, this track starts off slow but is quite an impressive force once it gets going. It fits Tager perfectly and is a catchy piece of music to boot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaTUNsIBrUM Oriental flower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx8G5Zv9Qxk Motor Head

vs

Final Fantasy Tactics: FFT's composers knew to hit just the right note of tension for a dramatic battle. I guess they're not alone in that, but it's not often enough that people weave character and story motifs into other contexts for effect. It's just great at making any one scene feel more like part of a whole. Antipyretic and Battle On the Bridge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU7BJjrp2xg Antipyretic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_no4p6hhyDo Battle on the Bridge


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Shadow of the Colossus: Game knew when to keep quiet and when to cut the brake line before shoving you down a hill. Demise of the Ritual for the former circumstance and The Opened Way for official declaration of not fucking around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSrV5--cua8  The opened way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxnnJxfK9hk Demise of the ritual

vs

Chrono Trigger: One of the all time classic RPG's. The quiet tracks are great and so is the ending theme, but for this tournament I went with a couple of the moodier pieces. Magus's theme is of course known to everyone; and Black omen does a great job of capturing the impending sense of doom from the Ocean Palace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cZeMdFWpEI Magus's theme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb4YB0ia46w Black Omen


This will be open for a week.

Vote form:

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger

[superaielman]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2- Got to have nom solidarity. SC2 has some fantastic tracks though.
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics- I'm lukewarm to Blazblue music.
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger- Unsure. Both are excellent.

[Dunefar]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3 - Don't care.
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger

[Talaysen]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger
- Uh... maybe...

[DjinnAndTonic]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger - Only match where either soundtrack matters to me at all. And CT has a few great tracks. Notably though, they were a lot better in Chrono Cross.

Wow, this week inspires a whole lot of "blah"

[Fudozukushi]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger

E: Listened to additional provided tracks, votes did not change.

[dude789]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger Both are real good, I think CT has a bit more variety in the tracks though.

[Lance]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2
Listened to a couple more Star Control 2 tracks on YouTube. Was not impressed. EDIT: Alright, I've listened to the tracks that OK linked. Ehhh...it's a bit closer, but I think I'll stick with FF4.

Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3
Ah, Donkey Kong Country Returns. That game has some good tracks that hearken back to some nostalgic classics in the series, but unfortunately, it's going up against one of my all-time favorite OSTs. I just love the futuristic techno/electric/orchestral feel that the PSO3 soundtrack has. It's different, it's unique, and it's memorable.

BlazBlue CT vs Final Fantasy Tactics
BlazBlue CT, not CS. Anyway, I'll side with BlazBlue's heavy metal style. FFT's soundtrack is solid, but it just doesn't make my toes tap like BlazBlue does.

Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger
Shadow of the Colossus has a lot of great melodic tracks, but most of the music in that game is relegated to the background. Very few tracks actually stand out and make you notice them. It works great in-game, sure, but not so much in an OST vs. OST competition.


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Additional Phantasy Star Online 3 tracks to consider:
Nebula Plateau - Exhilarating adventure music.
Scenario - Courage - Heroic-sounding orchestral theme.
Morgue - Disconcerting dungeon music.
Code Deck - Just...catchy as all hell.

Additional BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger tracks to consider:
Blue Beating - Character select screen. Really gives you a feeling that shit's about to go down.
Bullet Dance - Noel's theme. Love those violins.
Gale - Bang's theme. Just like Litchi's theme, it's got a neat east-meets-west vibe to it. And it's pretty dang catchy to boot.
Marionette Purple - Carl's theme. It's jazzy and snazzy and fits his character well.

[OblivionKnight]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2 - FF4 has a decent enough soundtrack for its time.  It does a good job of displaying emotion and working the scenes well.  On the other hand, Star Control 2's music far, far better.  Better quality, and far, far more fitting.  Each of the different race themes is perfectly fitting, displaying each race's personality musically: "Welcome to Falayalaralfali" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdb0XPUXeG8feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLD0BCD03AD4A5278F) fits the Arilou's mysterious nature; "Safe Haven" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZbrUB4TYkY&feature=related) fits the Spathi's terrified, cowardly nature; "Now and Forever" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W_fzCW0L84&feature=related) is just about perfect for the dominating nature of the Kzer-Za; "Mortal Melee" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W_fzCW0L84&feature=related) captures the insanity and tense nature of a battle between spaceships; and so on.  The entire soundtrack is amazingly fitting, especially for a game that's heavily told through its writing vs. gameplay.  FF4 has some good tracks, but nowhere near this level of soundtrack cohesion.

Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3 - I'll be honest: I think both games are...somewhat ok on the fit and cohesion of the soundtrack.  Nothing amazingly outstanding, nothing amazingly awful.  PSO has better quality and feels less subdued than DKCR, which I think breaks the tie here.

Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics - Hate it, but objectively, the soundtrack is very fitting and enhances the game experience much better overall.

Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger - SotC has great music.  But...close.  I think the overall variety of CT's music is stronger.  SotC Colossi battles are great - and they're the focus of the game, so them having the focus of the music makes a lot of sense - but I feel CT has the better contrast.  It...probably is a minor difference, but I could go either way.  SotC's music is relegated mostly to background noise, but it's very fitting background noise, and the thing we're voting on is the fit of the soundtrack and how its cohesion is.  So it works.  But it's lacking in variety, which presents a cohesion of its own, which CT has in spades.  Great match.

[SnowFire]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2
Not as impressed by the other SC2 tracks after the linked 2.  (For all that angles of space is pretty good.)

Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3
Surewhynot.

Blazblue (CS?) vs Final Fantasy Tactics
I actually decided to give BlazBlue a try as my sole fighting game I ever purchased because of the music.  Unfortunately it seems this is a CT nom not a CS nom, as Condemnation Wings ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHEaHZl7hHc ) is a totally awesome track that sold me, but it's CS only.  Awakening the Chaos is also pretty awesome (Nu-13's theme).

Anyway, BB is still a pretty cool soundtrack, but FFT is great AND works really well in-game, so tough draw.

Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger

SotC just doesn't quite sell it, and CT is great.

Unlike last week where they were basically all great, this set gets a pyramid.

FFT
BlazBlue CS ~ Chrono Trigger
FF4 ~ PSO3?
SC2? ~ SotC?
DKCR

[Niu]

Star Control 2
Phantasy Star Online Episode 3
Final Fantasy Tactics
Chrono Trigger

[NotMiki]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3 Holy shit, where'd THAT come from?
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics -
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger

[Fenrir]

I'm trying to listen to a lot of tracks from the games I vote against (which can lead to vote switching) to remain fair.

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2: Not much love for FF4 music, I felt it was a downgrade from FF2/3.
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3: More flair.
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics: It is difficult to stay objective when FFT is involved. BUT I MUST.
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger: AAARGH. Hard choice, both are pretty legendary. SotC isn't really that good out of game, but I feel in game is more important. Also when in doubt, go with the better sound quality. I like those two (both taking one minute to get going, but I like gradually building climaxes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD-zaEBviVw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGoS5a9IUTk&list=PL5C027472FF7760E4&index=18&feature=plpp_video

[Sierra]

Despair-Filled Farewell is actually my favorite thing on the soundtrack (didn't make it one of the noms because of the "takes a minute to get going" aspect).

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2: I'm actually distinctly fond of FF4's music, but arrrgh, 60% of my noms in one pool. Fuck you too, Hatbot.
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3: DKC for pool scrub.
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics: ffffff
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger: FFFFFF

[Pyro]

Final Fantasy 4 vs Star Control 2
Donkey Kong Country Returns vs Phantasy Star Online Episode 3: PSOE3 tracks are very enjoyable, from what I've heard. DKCR is cool but not up my alley stylistically.
Blazblue CS vs Final Fantasy Tactics
Shadow of the Colossus vs Chrono Trigger: I am a huge SotC fan, but Chrono Trigger's music was really quite beautiful.

[superaielman]

This round closes monday. get your votes in now!

[superaielman]

FF4 7, SC2 4
PSO3 10, DKCR 1
FFT 9, Blazblue 3
CT 11, SotC 2

Thanks for voting, and DEATH TO HATBOT for CT vs SotC this early.