Preliminary Match #1

Listen to all four songs and select the one you like best.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - Gaze Up at the Darkness
Tales of Phantasia - Aviators
Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter - Ending
Metal Saga - Driving to New Fork

Gaze Up at the Darkness: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
Aviators: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
Ending: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
Driving to New Fork: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:

Wow there we go!

The only song that did not hurt my ears was the BoF V track. The Metal Saga track was okay, too, but "Ending" will get my vote.

Rare as this may be, all four are decent enough to advance. I saved three of them to my hard drive.

But of the quartet, only the Metal Saga track caused me to stop and just listen, and I recognize the power in that.

Oof...What a match-up. New Fork is a great piano piece and there aren't many I remember too well. But I do LOVE Aviators and its old-school adventurous charm. Either of these are fine with me, but Aviators it is for now.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - Gaze Up at the Darkness owns the rest up for free.

Let's see...

I really like the Castlevania piece. It's got a nice flow to it and although standard Castlevania fare, it still comes off rather nicely.

Aviators is a nice airship theme, but it's not one of my favorites at all. It's got that old-school charm, as mentioned above, but it's nothing entirely spectacular.

I absolutely love the Breath of Fire series for it's music and Breath of Fire V is no exception. Ending is an excellent piece with a beautiful melody and some nice harmonies.

Wow, this Metal Saga piece is quite beautiful. I really like the focus on the piano and the melody is pretty good. Definitely a surprise for me.

With that said, I think I'm going to go with "Driving to New Fork" mainly because it surprised me. I'd be happy with most of the others advancing though.

IT BEGINS

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - Gaze Up at the Darkness The synth isn't quite capable of what's being asked of it here, and some parts are a bit limp. But it does have a whiff of the rock-opera goodness that Castlevania, at its best, can have.

Tales of Phantasia - Aviators I'm personally partial to the upgraded PSX version, but this is still a fine flying theme. Motoi did some terrific work in ToP, and this is one of the better ones.

Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter - Ending It's fitting that the finale track of the game is by far the most swelling and romantic. There's not a hint of the electronics that accompanied most of the OST, just a beautiful melody and lots of flourishes to represent the surface world.

Metal Saga - Driving to New Fork I certainly didn't expect warm, lively piano work with a name like that! The basic sound is quite compelling, and the slight electronic distortion in the second half adds some depth. A really nice find!

A tough choice, this. If I hadn't helped nominate one of these, it would have been a real coin-flipper of a moment.

1: Breath of Fire V
2: Metal Saga
3: Tales of Phantasia
4: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Honestly, it saddens me to say goodbye to 3 of these 4. They're all great, and if this is any indication of the quality of the rest of the contest, this will be quite a feast.

Out of these tracks I have to give it to Michiru Yamane, kicking ass again with Portrait of Ruin after a couple of somewhat iffy GBA and PS2 soundtracks, in my opinion reaching Symphony of the Night levels of awesome in certain tracks. This track isn't my favorite from the soundtrack (perhaps it's a bit too typical for its own good), but it is one of the top 10-15. I think it's amazing.

Here I thought I was going to be voting for BoFV, having heard three of the four tracks already. But wow, New Fork comes from nowhere to win as far as I'm concerned.

I nominated Aviators, so I'm going to support it. Though, it looks like BOFV is going to kick everybody's asses in this matchup

The BOF5 track started out beautiful but half-way through I just can't follow it anymore. Sakimoto always confuses me with the direction of his music from beginning to end.
The Metal Saga track was nice and had an oldschool touch being an arrangement of the original Metal Max music. The piano fits well, but..

Along with Clock Tower from Minuet of Dawn (?), this Gaze up at the Darkness track is my favorite modern Castlevania piece. It's so great even in NDS sound quality and deserves another round.

Gonna go with Driving to New Fork, I love the upbeat feeling to it and it has some nice tunes, not especially interesting but nice enough.

Ending is a bit too cinematic ie. it doesn't flow very well without the accompanying events; Gaze up at the darkness is standard Castlevania fare without a particularly memorable hook and Aviators, although it is pretty good for Sakuraba IMO, just doesn't quite appeal as much as DtNF.

Gaze up at the Darkness seems decent for in-game playing, but not as great outide. I can see where it becomes catchy though. Like the sound quality from the DS too.

Aviators was quite pleasant, but not best song worthy.

While BOFV has a great soundtrack, the Ending Theme did not stand out with me.

Driving to New Fork wasn't bad, just not enough substance.


Gaze

Another year, another contest.

Ending is Sakimoto at nearly his ethereal best, but the sincere piano work of New Fork gets my first vote of the contest.

Gaze at the Darkness - An interesting song that definitely smacks of Castlevania in all the right places, but feels a little like they tried to cram too MUCH of it into one song.

Aviators - The positive? It's a great little adventure song. The negative? It ticks all the boxes for "What an adventure song should sound like" and stops there. I like it, but it's nothing super original.

Ending - Why are ending songs always so boring?

Driving to New Fork - What a LOVELY little piano piece! Hints of optimism mix with a very animated mix and playing, making this song really fun to listen to.

"Ending" is the best here. There are some beautiful segments in this one, especially near the end.

When "Driving to New Fork" started, I was expecting Japanese vocals to come in at any second, but they didn't, thankfully. But bane of vocals cast aside, this track is still in a style that doesn't click with me.

I can't even remember where "Gaze Up at the Darkness" plays in game. I didn't find it to be a memorable tune. I think Dawn of Sorrow had a better music score overall, thanks in part to Masahiko Kimura.

"Aviators" is a good track, and doesn't sound too similar to any of Sakuraba's usual stuff. Unfortunately, it's not my favorite here.

"Gaze Up at the Darkness" is fairly decent as far as Castlevania tracks go, but it's lacking a little oomph or perhaps needs a more malevolent undertone. The end product is ok, with solid developments joining everything together, but it just meanders way too much in its 4-minute duration. Won't be going back to this one anytime soon.

Tales of Phantasia music kicks ass, as do RPG flying themes when they're done well. "Aviators" is nice, fun and joyous with its flighty melody and infectious, heroic tone. Nothing really hooks me, sadly. Works great in-game, though, I would imagine.

General rule: slow, orchestral Sakimoto sucks. Let's see if "Ending" adheres to this rule...actually, it's kind of ok. There's a pleasant little melody and the instrumentation is, of course, nice. Not my favourite sort of music but it's surprisingly done rather competently.

=O Someone nominated something from Metal Saga! I love that soundtrack! "Driving to New Fork" is arguably my favourite piece from said soundtrack; the piano-synth work is subtle, invigorating and just exudes happiness. Gorgeous. ^_^ I'm usually a sucker for a nice, light melody, and this tune's no exception to that. My first vote goes here!

"Gaze Up at the Darkness" - 6/10
"Aviators" - 6.5/10
"Ending" - 7.5/10
"Driving to New Fork" - 9/10