E07 Materia Junkie/Manifest Destiny/Final Fantasy Warriors of Light/Battle 2

Select your most favorite Track!

Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: 083 - Voices of the Lifestream - Materia Junkie
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: 118 - Chrono Symphonic - Manifest Destiny
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: 170 - OCRemix - Final Fantasy Warriors of Light
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: 242 - The Last Testament ~ 'Romancing SaGa' - Battle 2

083 - Voices of the Lifestream - Materia Junkie
An interesting track, with a well-defined direction, but it's not really my cup of tea, though 3:02+ was pretty good.

118 - Chrono Symphonic - Manifest Destiny
This is the third Schala's Theme arrange. Feels like a nice breeze and but vanishes pretty fast too.

170 - OCRemix - Final Fantasy Warriors of Light
A metal ballad of some sort. It wouldn't be a ballad if it wasn't slow, but yeah I felt it stretched time out more than it should.

242 - The Last Testament ~ 'Romancing SaGa' - Battle 2
An acoustic upbeat track, the kind of which that hasn't appeared so far. Has a pleasant spanish feeling.

I liked the grittiness of "Materia Junkie". Could have done with some more activity in the background, but this is basically there to ratchet up the style of the original with an eerier take, then change things up at 2:13 into a surprising rock/reggae fusion piece. The synth organ felt pretty cheesy. Liking the track, but it's missing a certain density to put this over the top.

"Manifest Destiny" ended up way too quiet on account of the MP3 gain. The string sequencing was pretty good, but could have used a bit more refinement. Interesting approach having the low strings function as percussion, then having the pizz strings on rhythm; I was surprised by how well it clicked. Ended too suddenly, but it's meant to be a film score queue, so I wasn't as put off by it.

"Warriors of Light" is a favorite of mine by Darangen. Loving the harp-like intro along with that excellent bassline. The melody could have used a bit more oomph and edge to it (technical terms), but the end result was still very strong. The soloing/noodling starting at 3:13 was a nice touch. It does drag a little, I agree, but it still gets the point.

"Battle 2", yeah I remember this one from airplay on the Nitro Game Injection radio show. Definitely a fun composition. Just personally I'm not feeling this as much, I suppose on account of the source material. Nothing wrong with the track at all. I could have gone a cleaner atmosphere on it, but otherwise very nice.

: 242 - The Last Testament ~ 'Romancing SaGa' - Battle 2
: 083 - Voices of the Lifestream - Materia Junkie
: 170 - OCRemix - Final Fantasy Warriors of Light
: 118 - Chrono Symphonic - Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny is a nice tune. It's over in two and a half minutes, but it feels developed enough to me. Interesting arrangement ideas. I especially like 1:33, where the brass plays the first note in the phrase and then the strings play the rest.

Final Fantasy Warriors of Light drags, I'll buy that. I like the Preludio cover of this track more, but Darangen's is still pretty solid. Love the riff from Free Breezin' at 1:57.

Materia Junkie is an excellently dirty arrangement. Guitar work is excellent, in both shredding and setting the mood with riffs. Nice change at 2:11, and the aggressive ending seals the deal.

Battle 2 is awesome. Pretty straightforward arrangement for the style, but it sounds great, and I love the source. Winner right here.

Materia Junkie
There were always some parts of Midgar that I like listening to and others that I didn't. The same applies here, especially since it's easy to discern which theme is which. They gave a nice edge to the song overall with the rock touch.

Manifest Destiny
Not particularly a fan of this Chrono Trigger theme, and the remix doesn't deviate too far.

Final Fantasy Warriors of Light
No comment. It's not bad by any means, but it's also nothing special.

Battle 2
Oh~ a wonderful latin vibe version of Pantheon Four Kings Battle. Hands down winner!

083 - Voices of the Lifestream - Materia Junkie
Some of my least favorite tracks from the OST given the remix treatment for (I beleive) the first time ever. I just couldn't get into this one on any level.

118 - Chrono Symphonic - Manifest Destiny
Kind of ironic that the original version is in many ways more "symphonic" than this arrangement! Some nice colors and layers toward the end, though.

170 - OCRemix - Final Fantasy Warriors of Light
Good choice of source tune; meh arrangement.

242 - The Last Testament ~ 'Romancing SaGa' - Battle 2
Bit of a story behind this one. I wanted to put up some Kenji Ito Romancing SaGa stuff, and also expand my horizons into some latin stuff, which I generally don't like. So I found a latin track dominated by acoustic guitar and percussion that happened to be an Ito, and it was much better than the other latin songs I dug up. A happy coincidence, one might say; the song makes me want to get out the castanets

Definite nombiasvote here.