[D] First Round #4 (White Whale of Heaven vs. Mythical Land Serpentina)

Listen to both songs and select the one you prefer.

Download Links:

Musashi: Samurai Legend - White Whale of Heaven
Zwei!! - Mythical Land Serpentina

Streaming:

White Whale of Heaven: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
Mythical Land Serpentina: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:

White Whale of Heaven is pretty cool. The main problem is that it sounds like it's meant to be background music; something I can see it doing pretty well in context, but which won't do it much good here. It was hard to concentrate on it for the duration of the track, due to it's nature.

In comparison, Zwei has much more of a melody to get caught up in, and something about it reminds me of some SNES games; FF6, Seikan Densetsu 3, and a Link to the Past come to mind, although I couldn't tell you why.

Ooh, strong pairing here. Both songs have pretty good melodies and very good atmospheres. Again, I'll hold off on voting for now and see which one sticks with me the most.

Strong pairing indeed. One of the best so far. Both are keepers. Mythical Land Serpentina just had a little something extra.

Both songs are okay, not brilliant, but okay. I gonna vote for White Whale of Heaven because this song has a slightly better instrumentation and the melody is pretty good, too.

White Whale of Heaven: I've never been a real big fan of the Musashi series. This one definitely creates a nice atmosphere, but it ultimately doesn't make any lasting impression on me.

Mythical Land of Serpentina: Easily my favorite song from easily my favorite Falcom Sound Team JDK soundtrack. Awesome melody, awesome atmosphere, and an incredibly addicting song overall. Definitely think the instrumentation here really helps set it apart from its competition.

Vote for "Mythical Land Serpentina!"

White Whale of Heaven is a really well put together ambient track. It just meshes very nicely. Yes, it's got that same bloopy synth half of VGAmbient tends to have, but it's still nice, nonetheless.

Mythical Land Serpentina is kinda pretty, as well. I don't know why it doesn't grab me like White Whale, though. It's no slouch, I just don't really care for it.

I don´t think I´ve ever voted for a Musashi track and I see no obligation to do that here, although this sounds like it could be one of the better ones. White Whale of Heaven is too ambient for my taste. Mythical Land Serpentina has some nice melody and is the more exciting track in this matchup.

Is White Whale of Heaven really a Hamauzu track? No German track name. No piano that dominates. Seriously! However, I like it so it get's my vote.

Whoa consider me a fan of "White Whale of Heaven". I haven't listened to this Musashi soundtrack, so I cant' compare it to other Hamauzu works, but let me just say that I'm stunned with this one. The beat-establishing percussion, the reverb, the downtempo synths...everything just functions so admirably in conjunction with one another. First time I've heard Hamauzu try something like this, and I really like it.

"Mythical Land Serpentina" is probably my favourite from the Zwei!! Original Soundtrack. It's got some wonderful melodies, lively instruments and some amazing progressions, and it's all topped off by the use of the splendorous main theme motif at 1:15. The Asian passage is really <3, too.

"White Whale of Heaven" - 9/10
"Mythical Land Serpentina" - 9.5/10

Musashi: Samurai Legend - White Whale of Heaven
The entire Musashi II OST is a squishy mess of blandness; but that must be what the producers wanted, as they hired the somnambulant team of Hamauze and Nakano to co-compose. To be fair, this is one of the stronger efforts from their collaboration, but even then it's only a shade or two above dull.

Zwei!! - Mythical Land Serpentina
It's an enthusiastic title indeed that has no less than two exclamation points in it. This tune mixes some basic ingredients into a brew that, while not terrific, is melodic and pleasing.

I vote for Serpentia; this it commands.

White whale of heaven-
Sounds like a mashup of both Anxious Heart and the DKC underwater theme, but missing the good melody of both. It's not bad by any means, but it's a bit too derivative for me to fall in love with it.


Mythical land serpentina-
Not afraid to have a melody that takes chances, and it ends up being awesome. I love it.

White Whale of heaven is a very pretty and atmospheric track but it doesn't transcend the ambience to become a really enjoyable piece of music. I like how it progresses though.

Serpentia has a great tune although it doesn't flow very well. However I do quite enjoy the atmosphere it creates even if it is slightly generic asian.

Serpentia it is I think.

I'm not surprised at all by how even the voting is, given these two tracks: They're both very good, and both very similar, atmospheric tracks with outstandingly warm sounds that don't really go anywhere.

My vote's for White Whale, which gets even more immersive upon close listening. It's been in the contest before under a different name, I believe. Probably "Map Theme," which is what it is.

Mythical Land Serpentina is a great example that showcases how a generic track can be awesome or terrible, as this manages to do both. The melody reaches Ito levels of mediocrity instantly until 1:14, where the quality is inverted to the point that I thought I was listening to two songs. Very inconsistent, but that one section could win it over if the other song doesn't match.

But goddamn White Whale of Heaven, wow, nice ambiance and some sweet sounding chord progressions, wow, I thought I was listening to Namiki for a second there. Instant favorite. I need to check out more of Hamauzu's stuff.

Originally Posted by Darkcomet72

The melody reaches Ito levels of mediocrity

Hey now no need for such foul name-calling!

White Whale just didn't really catch me, it was another case of forgetting I was even listening to a song only to realise it was almost over. Serpentina was pretty catchy though. Not mind-blowing or anything but I enjoyed it the whole way through. Vote for Serpentina I guess.

'Mythical Land Serpentina' - This song is the better of the two by virtue of its strong melodic thrust, which doesn't take away from its lush harmonic choices. Overall, a nice piece with a tasteful arrangement. Very catchy.

: Musashi: Samurai Legend - White Whale of Heaven
: Zwei!! - Mythical Land Serpentina

Okay so I hate Serpentina's drums THEY'RE LIKE A NAIL GUN EXCEPT SHOOTING INTO MY EAR CANAL MAKE IT STOP. Barring that, the first part of the track is okay but fairly forgettable, but then 1:14 comes and it's really not terrible at all.

White Whale of Heaven is pretty groovy. Did a double take when the pads dropped out at 2:11. That was pretty cool. 3:40 is more than enough to take the vote here with those weird as fuck vocals and beat change. Nice matchup.