Pairing F03 The Hospital Room vs. Lord of the Castle

PC vs. PS2 or classic gamer-oriented vs. kid-friendly? Either way, you decide! Who will win? CAST YOUR VOTE!

058 Dreamfall - The Longest Journey - The Hospital Room
199 Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete - Lord of the Castle

Cheers.

A SoTW alumnis, Dreamfall - The Longest Journey - The Hospital Room is one of the nominations I chose to boost. It's an exceedingly gentle, ethereal track that relies on a solo worldess vocal for its melody and atmosphere. And, for all that's been said about vocals in the contest so far, I generally enjoy wordless ones, especially when they're performed with such flair and nuance. Powerful stuff.

Kingdom Hearts' OST is full of contrasts, ranging from bubbly, fun tracks to those that are dark, impressionistic, baroque. Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete - Lord of the Castle is of the latter variety, with a choir, aggressive percussion, Shimomura's trademark piano runs, and a brass and string melody. I wouldn't call it the best "dark" battle track of the series, but there's no denying it's potent.

I prefer the gentleness of "The Hospital Room" here, though "Lord" is certainly no slouch.

Ciao.

The Hospital Room is, for one, well sung. It's vewy, vewy quiet but thanks to the strong vocal, it's not "boring ambience" but instead it has a gripping quality. The second half of the track opens up a bit more, though it never quite bursts into flames. Good stuff though.

Lord of the Castle sounds pretty shitty in comparison. From the endless choir to the weird low piano parts, it just doesn't work for me.

The Hospital Room is actually good so I'll vote for that.

Cheers.

I think this time I'd take the peaceful sounding Hospital Room against the Kingdom Hearts track. Funny, I don't recall hearing this track when I played this on GBA...

Ciao.

The Hospital Room sounds like it was borrowed from Lord of the Rings, but that's alright, because it's very good. Lord of the Castle is only mediocre (passable in terms of quality, but completely uninspired), and has the same mass-produced feel that the Kingdom Hearts games themselves do.

Cheers.

Lord of the Castle is a fairly standard KH battle track, but it's one of the better ones so certainly not bad. Hospital Room...just lacks something, and ends up feeling incomplete and lacking in emotion. Lord of the Castle it is, then.

Ciao.

Didn't I listen to this KH track in another thread? All the makings of the Shimomura battle theme are right here...The high BPM, the forgettable melody, the piano. The story of KH battle music is being played out right before my very ears. 1:53 breaks the mold pretty well though and is easily (if not painfully so) the highlight of this track. Did I mention I'm not a fan of KH music? 5/10

Hospital Room is pretty. It's also boring. Dunno...I think I'll take the pretty melody over the KH wall of sound, even if it is boring. 6/10

Cheers.

I REMEMBER The Hospital Room from one of the best weeks of SotW ever. It was so good that I can realize the immense enjoyment of this song, even though I didn't give it any points then. Credit is more than overdue.

Eh, I thought Lord of the Castle was pretty good myself. I was more fond of the piano work here than in most others with mad piano action, because this one was much more subdued and low placement, making it no more special than any other background instrument. This is a good thing in this case. Too bad for the song it quickly became stale.

I'll give my long overdue point to The Hospital Room.

Ciao.

Hospital room - Mixed thoughts on this one. The feel it gives off isn't revolting or anything, and the crescendo toward the end was well done, but overall it was kinda "blahhhhhhhh-ahhh-ahhhhhh-ahhhhhhhhhhh-ahhhhh"

Lord of the Castle wasn't much better at all, in fact Hospital Room was a better time. 1:50 was nice, but not unique enough to give it the victory.

Cheers.

: 058 Dreamfall - The Longest Journey - The Hospital Room
: 199 Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete - Lord of the Castle

Haha, oh man, at the start of Lord of the Castle, I totally asked myself "is this ZUN piano?" The understated piano is a bit of a perk here, because any louder and it'd probably pull away from the song instead of anchor it. I like the orchestral flourish near the end of the loop.

The Hospital Room is purdy.

Ciao.

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

the Kingdom Hearts track. Funny, I don't recall hearing this track when I played this on GBA...

I think this is from the Chain of Memories remake on PS2 in the Final Mix+ edition of KH2. At any rate, removed from the tepid GBA synth it's actually a fine piece, but Hospital Room is one of the best pieces of its type I can think of, and I can't bring myself to not vote for it. Props to Yoko, though.

Cheers.

The Hospital Room is eerie. There is some voice that sings "aaaahahaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaa ahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh aaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaah" all over, I don't know what to say about this. It is a good song, maybe a bit too fucking cheesy, but not too bad! Lord of the Castle is the first good KH nomination! Very powerful track, I like it! Even a bit more than the first track, so I gonna vote for Lord of the Castle.

Ciao.

Lord of the Castle isn't bad. Hospital Room, though, is one of my favorite vocal songs of all time. It carries a lot of emotion (especially starting at 1:22) and gives me a wonderful feeling each time I listen to it. I hope it does well here.

Cheers.

Excellent, I'm really fond of Hospital Room. Might not be the most common VGM I like, but it's a beautiful piece.

Ciao.