Preliminary Match #8

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

Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard - Labyrinth IV - Cherry Tree Bridge [Dungeon 16 ~ 20F]
Musashi: Samurai Legend - Aqua Memory
Perfect Dark Zero - River Extraction - Riverchase
Drawn to Life - Wilfre's Domain

Labyrinth IV - Cherry Tree Bridge [Dungeon 16 ~ 20F]: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
Aqua Memory: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
River Extraction - Riverchase: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:
Wilfre's Domain: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:

3 of these songs never seem to lift off, and one ends just before it's about to get good.

River Extraction is the one that gets the closest to liftoff.

I absolutely love the music to the Etrian Odyssey games. "Cherry Tree Bridge" is no exception, either. Kinda ethereal and quite pleasant.

Hamauzu is very hit or miss with me, and "Aqua Memory" is stuck in the middle. I love his violin work and piano work at times, but this just doesn't cut it for me.

Rivier Extraction has its ups and downs. It has a lot of energy but it does seem to meander on for a while. Lost interest after a while.

Wilfre's Domain is really interesting. There is a nice fusion of sounds and it's pretty decent.

I think I'm going to Koshiro on this one. I absolutely love his recent DS works.

Riverchase for me...It has a dead spot in the middle, but the first and last minutes were really good. Wilfre's should have been more than it was and Labyrinth was just too long and slow to leave much of an impression. If all four were to be around later, Riverchase would definitely be the freshest remaining one.

All of them are keepers for me, but I just loved the melody and chord progression of Cherry Tree Bridge. Wilfre's Domain had some awesome melodic touches and there was a great string performance in Aqua Memory.

Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard - Labyrinth IV - Cherry Tree Bridge [Dungeon 16 ~ 20F]
It's relaxing enough, but as Mo0 so aptly pointed out, it never seems to get started. Can't say I see what all the fansquick is about, and some of the synth instruments are pretty awful.

Musashi: Samurai Legend - Aqua Memory
Hamauzu usually leaves me cold, and this isn't an exception. Just a bunch of meandering, barely related instruments and synths, and it's short to boot ("This food is awful!" "Yes, and such tiny portions!").

Perfect Dark Zero - River Extraction - Riverchase
I have this CD, and it has exactly one good track, "Datacore Demolition." Everything else is either uninspired, shit, or uninspired shit. Luckily for humanity, this one is just uninspired--a dull bunch of aimless strings and drum hits.

Drawn to Life - Wilfre's Domain
I had high expectations for this one, given some of the thing people were saying about it in the planning thread. It's hard not to be disappointed in situations like that, but this song definitely continued the trend of aimlessness in this bracket.

This is easily the weakest bunch so far. No ranking this time; none are keepers. I'll throw Drawn to Life a pity point because it's got none so far.

I liked Cherry Tree Bridge, but it's not something I would listen to on a regular basis. Not something that makes you go =0, but very pleasant to the ear. Aqua Memory seemed over before it even began. Wilfre's Domain hurt my ears in the beginning and occassionally throughout, overall mediocre. And the PDZ track Riverchase is not the best option for its soundtrack.

Cherry

I want EO2. I really liked the soundtrack to EO, and even though I haven't heard this game's music yet, I imagine it is more of the same. This track certainly sets a solid standard, it's a calming track with a memorable melody. It really goes somewhere, although it initially fooled me into thinking it'll meander for five minutes and then fade out.

Anyway, it's a pretty easy vote for this over what I would say are three pretty lackluster tracks.

I haven't heard as much Koshiro stuff as the next guy, but I'm semi-familiar with his Etrian Odyssey works. "Labyrinth IV - Cherry Tree Bridge" is a great representation of the second game's soundtrack, with unique, lovable sound quality and phenomenal developments. The melody is also really sweet and enjoyable, making a very complete and enriching listen!

"Aqua Memory" is pretty for a one-minute tune. Some gentle, delicate orchestration very Hamauzu in nature complements the melody wonderfully, but nothing about this piece wows me in particular.

"River Extraction - Riverchase" is a pretty awesome track. It's got a nice drive and pace, and moves really well throughout. No notable sections, but the end product is surprisingly cool~! I think I'll vote this one; has a bit more of an appealing edge to it.

I prefer my Drawn to Life musics to have more fun-ness. "Wilfre's Domain" is ok, especially for a DS tune, but falls to relative mediocrity when the (admittedly badass) melody develops in a...kind of hackneyed way I guess? I dunno, but I'm not a fan.

"Labyrinth IV - Cherry Tree Bridge" - 8/10
"Aqua Memory" - 7/10
"River Extraction - Riverchase" - 8/10
"Wilfre's Domain" - 5/10

Not a bad round: Cherry Tree Bridge is pretty and has a nice melody with a smattering of techno influences, it does meander a bit though; Aqua Memory is lovely but I can't endorse a track that short; Riverchase was alright but I lost interest after a while, it didn't hold my focus; Wilfre's Domain is good but just seems a little disorganised to me.

So it's Koshiro or Franco... Koshiro has the more interesting offering IMO.

Every single one of these tracks starts off great then utterly fails to deliver.

Labyrinth IV - Cherry Tree Bridge [Dungeon 16 ~ 20F] - Vanilla, even when it tries to add more layers to it. It overstays its welcome at that length too.

Aqua Memory - Short and succinct, albeit not memorable.

River Extraction - Riverchase - Has more energy than the previous two but is a victim of noticeable redundancy.

Wilfre's Domain - Messy, but rather cute and energetic. Much more appealing to me than the other three though. Not fantastic, but not horrendous.


Another weak quadrupling.

I'm sad to see Wilfre's Domain doing so poorly; I think it's an awesome song. Love that bass at the beginning in particular. I'm thinking it might (honestly) have something to do with the fact that the song is so quiet compared to the rest for some reason; that really lessens the impact. Hopefully people turn the volume up.

If one of my noms wasn't here, I would have voted for Riverchase, as it's one of the best songs I've heard so far in the Prelims. Shame it looks like it's going to lose out to the decent but less interesting Labyrinth.

EDIT: Replaced Wilfre's with a louder copy.

Wilfre's for me.

The others are good, except for Aqua Memory which really failed to get my attention or hold it for any meaningful amount of time.

It was a close toss-up between EO and DTL, but DTL wins for its energy and pacing. Honorable mention to EO.

I think Cherry Tree Bridge is one of those songs that would sound much more interesting if played backwards. Other then that, nothing notable from that, River Extraction, or Wilfre's Domain. Aqua Memory wipes the floor with the competition, and it's only a minute long. Good job.

Not a bad match-up. I particularly liked "Cherry Tree". It's pleasing and flows well. "Wilfre's" and "River Extraction" had some really, really good parts but I did wish they were more consistent. "Aqua Memory" was nice but could have been devleoped more.