OST vs OST: Round 1, Week 6

[superaielman]

Suikoden I
Peaceful People- Something about this tune just compliments the world of Suikoden. It feels like this song would actually be written and performed by someone from the Suikoden universe. It's a real upbeat tune, and the percussion really stands out. I, for one, have trouble not tapping a toe when listening to this song. The vibe comes across as one of great morale and unity, with people from all walks of life and every corner of the world, which is what Suikoden is all about.
Theme of Sadness ~ Guitar Version: I had to go with this one. I'm sure anyone who's played Suikoden knows when this song can be heard, and it really fits the mood as well as it could. Suikoden might be a story of morale and unity, but it's also one of conflict and war. In times of war, casualties are inevitable, and it hits you hardest when the ones closest to you are afflicted. This song embodies the very emotion of sadness and grief.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKo2d3_qqLQ Peaceful People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58gHcb5oVUU Theme of Sadness

Final Fantasy 6: The oddly named Terra's theme, not only is it really popular and strong piece but its also the iconic theme song for the game.  I was debating about the other song, and decided to go with Dancing Mad (vers. 4), just because it shows the range of the game's soundtrack in one song, being maddening and intense at the same time, and just a perfect fit for the character it plays for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7RPY-oiDAQ Terra's theme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jVcn6I452I Dancing Madly Part 4

----

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland
Yellow Zone - The normal battle theme.  Somewhat lighthearted, but also conveys the feeling of battle at the same time.  Also has unique instrumentation.
Red Zone - The strong enemy battle theme.  It's kind of a heavily modified version of Yellow Zone, designed to be much more chaotic and convey the feeling of an intense and dangerous battle.
(Incidentally, the fact that these are somewhat similar is very deliberate, as the world map and field themes do the same thing in a different way.  There are six field themes that are all a variation on the world map theme.  When going to these fields, the music smoothly changes into the field's theme without starting over or stopping at all.  It's a nice touch that really adds to the musical experience.  Most of the battle themes would have been great picks from the OST, but I felt these two conveyed the style much better.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0bp7qTxI7U Yellow Zone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enGYLkh7zbs Red Zone

vs

Fate / Stay Night
Emiya: Emiya plays whenever heroic doofus Shirou gets a bout of heroism in his head and decides to act on it.  Usually by doing all the heroic things of badass that a guy who can magically make swords can do.  And generally all that happens when he confronts something that is directly connected to his personal ideals and goals.
Mighty Wind: To my knowledge, this song only plays once in the game, having been added in with the PS2 port.  Said fight is the ultimate representation of both unrealized and fulfilled potential.  A piece about what could have been and what was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uvhmN5EJNI Emiya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji03z81ebyg Mighty Wind

---

Tales of the Abyss
Karma - Instrumental: Probably my favourite opening song.  It just...it's so high energy, syncs so well with the opening animation, and is a theme with the game, musically as well as story-wise.  I suggest listening to it, and watching the opening movie.  Although, I really don't like the vocal version much, but it's still decent (so happy they took it out of the English version).  Great song, good enough to fit just about any opening.   
Finish the Promise: Great final battle theme.  Really one of my favourites.  It's full of meaning and quite epic - excellent climax to an excellent game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTB3YA9rjlg Karma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk8MaVo5VpI&feature=related Finish the Promise

vs

Dark Souls: Dark Souls is a game of hopelessness and epic achievements.  The atmosphere of the levels gives that epic feel, and the biting and difficult combat gives way to hopelessness as you die again and again.  Music is reserved nearly solely for boss fights with only two levels having music and several important NPCs, and all tracks are named after what they are played for.  The two tracks I chose are boss themes, representing both that epicness and despair.  A third/trailing second choice was one of the only level themes, but without the actual level that loses some of its impact.
Ornstein and Smough: Ornstein and Smough is an incredibly epic battle track coupled with the most difficult and rewarding fight in the game.  Like the music that plays it is a relentlesss barrage that always keeps you on edge waiting and striking at opportune times.
Gwyn, Lord of Cinder: A somber piano piece, as you engage in combat with someone who has given more then their all to safeguard what they believe in.  It is not an epic fight in the means of some grand battle between two powerful egos.  It is the end of a hero who has fought so long he is nothing more than a rabid dog needing to be put down.  Though he once was what made everything feel safe, he is a now a danger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oieOpdwKDU Ornstein and Smough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH3mbB3H57g Gwyn, Lord of Cindr

--

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Dance of Gold: I could've gone with Dracula's Castle instead, but I feel this song in particular conveys the atmosphere of not only the eeriness, but the elegance and enormity of the castle as well. The fact that it's one of the first tracks you here in the game only draws you into the game even more, as if, the moment you hear that song, you just know you've begun on a quest to complete a truly grand and spectacular game.
Crystal Teardrops: The second pick was sickeningly difficult to make. I was completely torn between a boss battle track and this one. However, sticking to the theme of the eeriness of Dracula's castle, this track provides an entirely different atmosphere from Dance of Gold. Slow, watery, almost melancholic, the song is shadowed by a nice bass line throughout the entire song, but it's only when the keyboard kicks in that the shivers come from the realization of how far into Dracula's castle you've made it. Heard in the cryptic cellar of the castle, it's a simultaneously melodic, yet haunting tune. Perfect for the game.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7eMrGvG4uo Dance of Gold
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWwJEQt90qk Crystal Teardrops

vs

Wild Arms
Castle of Flames - Helps to establish a sense of tragedy and mystery for the castle in its final moments after being ambushed by the demons.  Helps to reinforce the feeling a a few survivors clinging to life as they try to ascertain whats going on, and then builds up appropriate tension for the final stand.
Lamenting and a Promise - Sets a great tone for when Jack and Elmina barely Escape, with a somewhat bittersweet feeling they let their hopes build up, and then the song perfectly injects tension when it turns out to be futile and he has to leave her behind against his will.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8L7hqOgB2E Castle of Flames
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1enQCa2qDuI Lamenting and a promise

Voting form:

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1

[Dunefar]

Voting form:

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6 - I've seen Suikoden 1's music get some hype, but honestly I'd put it well below Suikoden 2. Suikoden 2's music can almost hang with FF6's music. Ergo, Suikoden 1 gets smashed.
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night - Don't care.
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild Arms 1 - Tough draw.

[superaielman]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6- S2 would put up a better fight. S1's is solid but is matched up against one of the greats, in terms of usage and quality.
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night- Oooh, abstain. This'll be fun.
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls- I would not have thought to nom TotA; forgot how much I enjoyed it's music.
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1- SotN's up there for favorite OST of all time. Castlevania does music right, and this game more than most in the series.

Other fun TotA tracks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN8u_U59DZs- Guilt, duty and- Great world map theme. Military and cheerful; reminds me of an OB track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hL3rgkGAtc  Crimson Pride. This is hands down the best Tales OST in the series. This track's just a ton of fun.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6: It's not too often I agree wholeheartedly with all of Dune's comments on a match.
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls: Maybe later. TotA is a sea of meh punctuated by one or two awesome tracks, such as Meaning of Birth. This actually definitely beats some games, though.
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1: While I sometimes find the greater SotN music hype mystifiying, it's certainly solid enough. WA1 has glimmers of what made later Naruke soundtracks great (I'm particularly fond of Adelhyde's theme and Zed's boss theme, and of course Into the Wilderness), it's overall kinda average.

[Fudozukushi]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1

More Dark Souls to enjoy
Ash Lake:  This one is far better when combined with actual visuals of the level but, alas!  The deep tones compliment the sheer ancient feel of the Ash Lake.
Great Gray Wolf Sif: Another sad, somber tune for the end of a heroic companion.
Gwynevere, Princess of Sunlight: After the trials to simply make it so far, dying time and time again, your meeting is with the Princess is accompanied by this bountiful tune as the sunlight filters down around the room.

[VySaika]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6 - Yeaaaaaaaaah. S1's music is decent. But it's up against a powerhouse.
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night - EDIT: Yeah, feeling Totori's soundtrack a bit more. Good stuff on both sides, though.
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls - Not really a fan of either. Abstain.
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1 - SotN's music is not bad. <3 WA1s though. One of the first games I actually paid attention to the music in.

[Fenrir]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6

Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night: Haven't played either, will probably not vote.

Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls: Both from Sakuraba! I find TotA's too generic, Dark Souls' is more like Shadow of the Colossus' and I like it for that.
Bell Gargoyle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aklhHOLzPec
Iron Golem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jqdwkt3gDU&feature=related
In game use of the worst track in the game with a simple trick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ef-h4ktOuZI#! (1:40 on)

Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1: It's not like I want to actually antivote every WA OST every time I vote here, I just don't care about it that much and the competition is high. From Castlevania I love:
Rainbow Cemetary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zstTGMnIDLc&feature=related
Festival of Servants: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzIs4bEwFBo&list=PL9C2427AFB919D8C2&index=16&feature=plpp_video
Obviously, the classic Dance of Illusion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMqxveujf0I&feature=related

[Random Consonant]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1

[Fudozukushi]

Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night - Hmm. Anyone want to toss some extra songs in for these two?

Some more f/sn stuff.

Promised Sword of Victory
All Evils of the World
Light and Darkness

Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls - Not really a fan of either. Abstain.

My post and Fenrir's for more glorious Dark Souls.

[Talaysen]

More Atelier Totori tracks.  There are a lot here, so if you want to just get to the best ones, I suggest the second set.

Following the Footsteps
Following the Footsteps - The Forest
Following the Footsteps - The Plains
Following the Footsteps - The Ruins
Following the Footsteps - The Wilderness
Following the Footsteps - The Caves
Following the Footsteps - The Island
- The world map music and most of the field musics.  They all use the same base theme from Following the Footsteps, but modify it to fit better with the field type.  When changing fields, the music immediately swaps to the corresponding track without stopping or starting over.  It's a really cool effect that works wonderfully in a game like Atelier Totori, and I can only hope they do this more often in future games.  It may not work in a traditional RPG, but in an exploration based game such as this, it's amazing.

The Waves Call My Name - The village of Alanya's theme.  It's a quiet and peaceful fishing village, and I find this works perfectly for it.
A Storekeeper in a Small Village - As the title suggests, music for Alanya's stores.
Atelier Totori - The music for... Atelier Totori.  That is, Totori's atelier.  Need to have happy music while creating bombs to destroy your enemies with afterall.
GO GO TOTORI - Boss music against dragons (I forget if it was used for anything else).  Gives off that feeling of a difficult battle, but also uplifting at the same time.
Ophiuchus - Boss music against the elementals.  It's pretty weird, but that might be why I like it.
Try - Plot boss music.  And the optional superboss (because it is just an incredibly beefed up version of a plot boss).

Let's Head Out - This is the Arland town music from Atelier Rorona, but it's played in Arland when you go there in Atelier Totori as well.
Atelier Rorona - Same as above, except this is played in... Atelier Rorona.  That is, Rorona's atelier.

[dude789]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6 Suikoden 1 had some good stuff, but some of the stuff that Uematsu did with the SNES technology that was available was amazing.
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls Ugh, two Sakuraba tracks. That being said, I have to give Dark Souls credit for finding a type of music that Sakuraba does well.
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1 SotN's soundtrack is alright (I love Dance of Pales), but I find it to be a bit overrated as a whole. WA1 doesn't have the consistency of WA3, but there's still some great stuff in there.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6 - If this surprises anyone...
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night - FSN really works because of how it syncs its music to its story beats. Out of game, it doesn't shine as much, but I don't particularly like Totori.
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls - Meaning of Birth alone runs Dark Souls into the ground. Tear's Hymns and a few of the plot songs are just icing.
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1 - Really tough draw for WAo. I love WA music, but CV standards are hard to beat.

[Niu]

Final Fantasy 6
Atelier Totori
Dark Souls
Castlevania Symphony of The Night

[Talaysen]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1

[SnowFire]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6
Suiko I has some good tracks, and FF6 has some meh tracks, but still a fairly conclusive vote.

Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night
The "Following the Footsteps" set sounds very neat.  I approve.  Most of the other tracks Tal posted are quite good as well.  Didn't like Red Zone all that much, though.  FSN generally didn't inspire me.

Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls
I suppose it probably fits the game, but the Dark Souls music is all rather "dusty haunted cathedral."  TotA mixes it up more and has some really awesome tracks.

Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1
WA1 is interesting but still not a consistent soundtrack.  Memorably it's got At the End of the Wilderness, and, um.  Sure, Lamenting and a promise is pretty good.  The rest is on-theme but forgetable.  SotN has a zillion pieces that are all potential favorites for everyone.

Lost Paintings - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYwS6481oQk  Inverse 'underground' music.
Dracula's Castle - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh1qqLbuBww  Entrance.  Sort of became a minor theme for Alucard later.
The Tragic Prince - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHpMdgM0Sb4  Clock Tower.  Obligatory mention, really.

Rough ranking:

Symphony of the Night
Tales of the Abyss ~ Atelier Totori? ~ Final Fantasy 6
Suikoden
Dark Souls?
Fate / Stay night? ~ Wild Arms

[OblivionKnight]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6 - Tempted to vote Suikoden 1 so I don't agree with Dune or NEB here.  Nonetheless...this is one where I think both work, both fit equally, but the overall quality and variety and synthesis of instrumentation favours FF6 massively. 

Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night - I know nothing really about these two, so in-game context is fairly minimal.  That said, Totori feels more fitting.

Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls - Wow.  Uh...Dark Souls fits really, really well.  Probably moreso than TotA here, honestly.  Dark Souls is the same style, but...damned if it isn't perfect.  Having said that...I think variety of fit works here.  TotA balances it's styles better and does more than, as Snowy-poo put it, "dusky haunted cathedral", so I'll vote for it here - but man, it's not like that style is BAD or anything.  It just provides less external validity than TotA, and I'll be happy to see either advance.

Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1 - ...again, I have a lot of love for WA1 (it does the "western" theme the second best of the series, after WA3), but SotN's music SCREAMS "Dracula!" so well.

[Nephrite]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6 - I'm fine being the lone dissenter here. If this included remixes then it might go the other way. I dunno.
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1

[Lance]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6
I could probably count on one hand the number of Suikoden tracks I recognize. It's just not a soundtrack that stuck with me.

Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night
Not too fond of Atelier Totori's style. A couple lighthearted and carefree tracks are okay, but not an entire soundtrack. Fate/Stay Night is right up my alley. It has electric guitar and is therefore awesome.

Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls
More variety.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night vs Wild ARMs 1
Mmmm, SOTN music. That's going to be a tough one to beat. Wild Arms 1 just isn't up to the task.

[superaielman]

Closing this tomorrow, get your votes in now.

[Nitori]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1

[Sierra]

Suikoden I vs Final Fantasy 6: The Suikoden series has never impressed me with its music. It's not bad but it's very just there. Which isn't exactly enough against some of Uematsu's best.
Atelier Totori vs Fate/Stay Night: I guess.
Tales of the Abyss vs Dark Souls: I actually like a lot of TotA's music, but Dark Souls is just stellar work. Wouldn't have called it as a Sakuraba soundtrack from just listening. I mean, I can see it now that I know, but it's easy to forget he can do stuff like this when you take his synths away given how often he focuses on the latter.
Castlevania Symphony of The Night vs Wild ARMs 1: Pretty solidly of the opinion that Naruke didn't get great until WA3.

[superaielman]

FF6 16, Suiko1 1
F/S Night 6, Totori 5
Tales of the Abyss 8, Dark souls 7 (Hatbot)
SotN 14, WA1 3

Week 8 will go up in a few.