[A] First Round #9 (Tell a Strange Tale vs. The Battle for Everyone's Souls)

Listen to both songs and select the one you prefer.

Download Links:

Seiken Densetsu 2 - Tell a Strange Tale
Persona 3 - The Battle for Everyone's Souls

Streaming:

Tell a Strange Tale: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
The Battle for Everyone's Souls: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:

Cheers.

I never understand what's so great about Persona 3 music, but given how many copies the soundtrack sold and how many people love it I'm definitely a minority. The same thing can be said for the composer of the opponent track. Vote for the lesser of the two evils.

Ciao.

Seiken Densetsu 2 - Tell a Strange Tale
Lots of Kikuta in this year's contest; as an avowed fan, it's fascinating to see everyone come forward with their opinions on the man's work (good or bad). this tune has always been one of my sleeper favorites from Secret of Mana, and I never expected to see it in the BSC. While the melody is tremendous, the real strength of the music is the mood it establishes: quirky and off-kilter, but also sad.

Persona 3 - The Battle for Everyone's Souls
While I've never played Persona or any other SMT game besides Nocturne, I've had ample exposure to the series through the BSC and SotW. The style's never really clicked with me, usually offering pretty mundane techno/rock with few sweetenings. "Battle" is one of the better tracks from the series I've heard, though, largely thanks to the inclusion of piano and choral music with the usual SMT schtick. It's grown on me a bit from last year, for sure.

Strange Tale.

Cheers.

Haha good lord, fat opera bitch singing weird stuff in that song; dude, there is so much better Persona 3 music, like the track from last year, I forgot its name, but I will have a look.

Tell a Strange Tale is beyond boring but it reminds me of some role play game

Ciao.

I like both of these games a great deal, but I have to say that Persona 3's music took me a really long time to appreciate. This song is probably one of the most accessible of the whole album, with a lot of melody and no Japanese rapping. I kinda prefer the piano-and-fat opera bitch version that plays in the Velvet Room, but this is good.

Tell a Strange Tale is not as spectacular but does include some great melodies and has a more subtle charm than its adversary. I like it, but Battle has more meat for me.

Cheers.

Persona 3 has much better music than this track in my opinion. Seiken Densetsu 2 surprises me with good stuff, I will vote for it here.

Ciao.

hah, I used to use this Persona song as a guitar warmup backing track. I love the SD track, but randomness wins the day for persona.

Cheers.

Not a fan of Tell a Strange Tale; I think there's better SoM music, both in the BSC and out. I fell for The Battle for Everyone's Souls after hearing it in last year's torrent (at least I think that's where I heard it) and I'm still a fan today.

Ciao.

I went the nostalgia route. That, and I thought the Battle for Everyone's Souls had a rocking intro that took too long to settle into that operatic aria.

Also, it seems Pangalin and I have diametrically-opposed tastes - of all the brackets I've voted on, his name is always on the competition.

Cheers.

Like surasshu, Persona 3's music took quite awhile for me to get into. It stuck once I grew used to it though. Neither of these are strong choices from either game, but I prefer P3's selection to Secret of Mana's decent town theme.

Ciao.

The SoM track is all HERE'S A BEGINNING. Not the best thing from the OST, but enjoyable enough, with the hallmark of SoM's OST: harpsichord.

The Battle for Everyone's Souls is like Rock + Orchestra & Vocals. I don't know what the hell y'all are going on about "Operatic Aria." This isn't even vaguely operatic.




Fucking retards. For once, Kikuta didn't write the superior track in a pairing.

Cheers.

I really must listen to Secret of Mana, it seems to be full of lots of nice tunes like this one. It's unobtrusive and nicely formed making it very pleasing to lsiten to.

The Battle for everyone's Souls doesn't get good until it has the whole disco breakout thing but I have to say it comes off very well in my opinion. The development could be improved but I like the tunes and the character of the piece.

I feel TBfES has more presence in this pairing.

Ciao.

Well apparently Kikuta's entire repertoire has been nominated, or at least the noms have been showing up real close to each other. I almost dismissed Strange Tale due to overrepresentation until I realized it was THAT SONG YES, THAT ONE SONG FROM SoM I REMEMBER SO WELL YES

The Battle for Everyone's Souls has a cool beat, but that's about it.

Cheers.

Well, this is one item in his repertoire that lost the battle for everyone's souls, Darkcomet72...!

Ciao.

: Persona 3 - The Battle for Everyone's Souls
: Seiken Densetsu 2 - Tell a Strange Tale

Tell a Strange Tale is pretty good. I like the melody of the first half more than anything that happens in the second.

Speaking of over the top, whoo boy, The Battle for Everyone's Souls. Love this track. The guitar/synth/beats to open the track up are nice, and then the piano comes in and I'm like "what the crap," and then vocals out of nowhere. Awesome.

Cheers.

I've never played SoM, so I may be at a disadvantage in identifying with the first track. It wasn't bad, but at the same time I'm having a tough time remembering much about it now that it's over.

By the same token, my copy of P3 is on the shelf and in the queue, but I haven't yet played it either. However, Battle for Everyone's Souls is more of the excellence I've come to expect from Meguro. A little of the techno intensity of Nocturne's last boss, the acid-rock style from DDS, and his deciding to include Belladonna's singing from Persona 2's Velvet Room was a stroke of genius.

P3 track wins easily.

Ciao.

'The Battle for Everyone's Souls' - For a song with supposedly so many souls at stake, it certainly manage to lack soul in every possible way. Bringing out both cranked-ass metal guitars, giant rock bass drums, club beats, and an over-the-top opera singer are the most blatant overcompensations that one sees again and again in all sorts of morbidly forgettable themes. Over-cooked production ideas like this unfortunately cannot make the melody and harmony not suck.

'Tell A Strange Tale' - Good christ, more music from Secret of Mana. Relative to the other song, this song's melody is far more inviting. On top of that, the arrangement is fantastically unique. Harpsichord + Electric Piano + Flutes + Electric Bass + Minimal Percussion = a simple yet innovative palette which Kikuta uses to nice effect. I haven't played this game since it came out and remember almost nothing about the gameplay (except it being fairly frustrating) and the story (umm...some kids fly a dragon around and fight another Mode-7 dragon eventually...), but the music became a permanent fixture. Easy win over the other pile.

Cheers.

Gosh, I must have a kindred spirit or something on here. "Tell a Strange Tale" is one of my favourite Kikuta pieces, strangely enough what with all the epic bundles of Kikuta joy out there. This one, though, has an absolutely gorgeous melody and some lovely, dreamy progressions. The sounds at work make me feel all nostalgic, too. But yeah, the melody is the key winner here, rivaling the one found in "What the Forest Taught Me". A+!

Huh. I still haven't really listened to the P3 soundtrack. Fancy that~ From what I hear Shoji Meguro is pretty...bitchin' for lack of a better word. "The Battle for Everyone's Souls" is certainly a great mish-mash of sounds and stuff, and the vocals and guitar really make this one rise above the pack for me. A really good listen, but it won't get my support here.

"Tell a Strange Tale" - 9.5/10
"The Battle for Everyone's Souls" - 8.5/10

Ciao.

This voting baffles me. Are people choosing Persona because of its strengths or against Mana because of weakness/overrepresentation/Kikuta-hating?

Cheers.

Persona due to strengths here. Dunno about anyone else.

Ciao.

Originally Posted by Chuckster

This voting baffles me. Are people choosing Persona because of its strengths or against Mana because of weakness/overrepresentation/Kikuta-hating?

What strengths?

Cheers.

Is repeating an 8-note loop for the first half of the track a strength? No, wait, it's going somewhere now, this part is kind of nice, it's picking up... oh, and it returns to the original loop and then abruptly fades out.

DEEDLE DEE

DOODLE DOO

Ciao.

Originally Posted by indutrial

What strengths?

Exactly.

Cheers.

I missed out on voting in all of the #9 threads (except OBORO), but I don't recall any that made me want to fight for them (except OBORO).

Ciao.