Preliminary Battle X (B)

Listen to the tracks and make your selection.

Download Links:

Grandia II — Granasaber
Guilty Gear Isuka — Hunt A Soul
Wander and The Collosus — Prologue ~To the Ancient Land~
Shadow Hearts 2 — Astaroth

Well, it didn't take long for me to narrow this group down to two.

Grandia II — Granasaber - This track never was a big favorite of mine from Grandia II. It's decent, but I got tired of it after a bit. Good solid melody, but not much more.

Guilty Gear Isuka — Hunt A Soul - There are much better guilty gear tracks out there, IMO. This is nice, some good guitar work, but it's too short and tires out quick.

Wander and The Collosus — Prologue ~To the Ancient Land~ - A bit of a building track, but it does gain my interest after a while. As it develops, it gets better, and is a solid track.

Shadow Hearts 2 - Astaroth - Hehe, my Honorable mention makes it's appearance, I must say that most of Yasunori Mitsuda's battle themes have been forgettable, very forgettable. Until I heard Astaroth, and I must say it's now a favorite of mine. The awesome percussion and bass lines with the ethnic chanting, makes for a serene, yet accessible boss theme.

It was down to two, but Astaroth was the best of the four. Vote.

Unfortunately, you wont see me voting for Shadow of the Colossus often. After listening to the soundtrack a while, I've gotten extremely bored of it, particularly because it uses the same instruments, and really doesn't seem as passionate as some make to be.

That being said, Hunt a Soul isn't particularly strong of a track either. like Mana Dragon says, it becomes boring quite fast.

I end up voting Astaroth over Granasaber because of the complexity of the theme. I admit I'm a huge fan of Mitsuda. Particularly, the arranged version of Astaroth is one of my favorite themes. That being said, I still have to vote based on the original track, which nevertheless does a great job in staying simple and complex at the same time.

I don't fancy the orchestrated stylings of Granasaber all that much (Iwadare's rock and synth-town tracks were the highlight of the G2 OST for me), so that's out without too much fuss.

I'll ask my question again: How many Collossus tracks does it take to screw in a lightbulb? I don't know the answer, but I expect this one to be passed out drunk while the others are doing the work...It's outright boring.

That leaves Hunt a Soul and Astaroth as my two candidates and I like Hunt a Soul more...Simple, yet both catchy and effective (for anyone wondering, it's the character select music from Isuka...That's why it's so short and not as action-oriented as most GG tracks). But both of these are worthy of going on.

A rather poor matchup this time. Astaroth gets the point for uniqueness and okay fine I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't have minded one of my noms appearing here for guaranteed success.

Grandia II — Granasaber isn't as obnoxious as many of the Grandia tracks thet get shoehorned into these contests; it's light and pleasant, even a little martial, though decidedly low-fat, and it still has that 1970's touch that Iwadare leaves on all his stuff.

Z zzz'z zzzzz zzzz Zzzzzz Zzzz zzzzz, zzz Guilty Gear Isuka — Hunt A Soul zz zz zzzzzzzzz.

So, did the entire Colossus OST get nominated in the prelims, or what? Seriously, these are everywhere. Wander and The Collosus — Prologue ~To the Ancient Land~ isn't a battle theme, and is decidedly ambient. It's a nice tuneful sort, but I usually demand more of my ambiance, though the cooing choir is nice.

It's writ somewhere in a block of solid granite that Shadow Hearts tracks have to be weird, and Shadow Hearts 2 — Astaroth fits the bill well enough. Native American chant? Check. Harp? Check. Electronic backbeats? Check. Heavy synth interludes? Check. Clanging metal? Check. It works, sure, but man.

1 - Granny Saber
2 - Astaroth
3 - Prelude
4 - Zzzzzzz

The chant is actually from Bhutan, not anywhere the Americas. It's used in another song, and the liner notes for that album said so.

I mistook it for Pali and the stuff in the arranged version for Lao (a friend of mine said it wasn't).

Originally Posted by Yamamanama

The chant is actually from Bhutan, not anywhere the Americas. It's used in another song, and the liner notes for that album said so.

I mistook it for Pali and the stuff in the arranged version for Lao (a friend of mine said it wasn't).

Of course, how silly of me to confuse Quechua with Dzongkha. What was I thinking?

Probably the same thing I was thinking when I confused it for something in Southeast Asia. I just needed to throw out some useless information that was itching inside my head like little bugses, and would probably get to you too if you thought about it for more than a second.

I've never heard Quechua, but the instrumentation sounded more suited to an Asian language.

I've mistaken Kannoese for actual languages before.

Grandia II — Granasaber
The 70's influence that has tainted most of the songs from Iwadare's Grandia series aren't as noticeable in this track. This sweeping, grandiose ballad takes the listener on a rollercoaster journey through exciting highs and lows that are, best of all, creative. Stellar string-work and percussion really drive the song forward, allowing it to develop into a sound-web of intensity and intrigue. Excellent work.

Guilty Gear Isuka — Hunt A Soul
One of the weakest Guilty Gear tracks I've heard. Amateurish, generic, and worst of all, ends before anything can develop.

Wander and The Collosus — Prologue ~To the Ancient Land~
Another stellar track from this album. Quite a different outing than "A Violent Encounter...". It's calming, and superbly crafted. The flute is perfectly timed, and really creates that overwhelming sense of mystery. "What's out there?" I ask, as the flute softly whispers an answer...

Shadow Hearts 2 — Astaroth
This song attempts to create a unique sound by pairing ethnic instruments and heavy synth together. Unfortunately, the end product is disappointing. Stick with one or the other in this case, don't try to get fancy at the expense of sounding awkward.

VOTE
Wander and The Collosus — Prologue ~To the Ancient Land~
Note: Tough choice between "Granasaber" and "...Ancient Land". I bit my lip and went with the latter.

Granasaber, to connect with something I posted in another matchup, is the sort of orchestral we could use less of. Prologue is better, but not by much.

Hunt a Soul gets a nice amount of rock in there in a short amount of time. Pretty cool.

But here my point goes out to Asteroth. Consistently interesting to listen to, but not at the expense of design. Nice stuff.

It's between Astaroth and Prologue, and there's bias galore. A vote for Astaroth feels like a vote for Mitsuda's celtic stylings, which I fall for everytime. A vote for Prologue is a vote for Colossus' virus-like growth over this tournament. Both are very good songs (the strings of Prologue leave me breathless).

I cast a vote for Colossus. Barely.

Grandia II — Granasaber
-Sweet beginning and really catchy. Again not the best from Grandia II because it can get a little boring in the middle section, but overall it's good nonetheless. It easliy gets a vote from me (1st)
Guilty Gear Isuka — Hunt A Soul
Ain't great, ain't bad just mediocre. Greater GG songs out there. (4th)
Wander and The Collosus — Prologue ~To the Ancient Land~
- Very calm surreal piece. Choir works well here. (2nd)
Shadow Hearts 2 — Astaroth
-Not liking the vocal guy. It just doesn't seem to fit into the song. And this is a battle theme? What the hell. (3rd)

Granasaber is good. Not great, but good. It's not really catchy or memorable but it at least does something.

I am not a fan of Guilty Gear music. It's overrated but at least this particular track isn't loud and obnoxious like that other favorite, Holy Orders from Guilty Gear XX.

Prologue is nice and relaxing. Gonna be a contender for me, unlike the other Colossus songs spamming up the contest. Okay, so 3 songs so far isn't spamming up but my opinion so far is this soundtrack is overrated and overrepresented in this contest. It's not bad, it's just. . . meh.

Astaroth is a taste of something different. I like how the percussion is used but I don't like how the song keeps stopping and starting.

It's a close call between Granasaber and Astaroth. I went with Granasaber because it's more interesting.

Astaroth gets my vote. Shadow Hearts music definitely isn't for everyone. Actually, I listened to this song long before i ever played hte game, and I didn't give it a second thought - just hit the "next" button and went on my merry way.

Then I got to the Astaroth battle in the game, and sat back to enjoy the music for a minute, thinking it it set the mood perfectly, even if the boss himself was a bit dissapointing. I've liked it ever since. It gets my vote. It does a lot of strange things and combines disparate elements, but I really enjoy the result.

This is by far the hardest decision in this contest for me between Astoroth & Prolouge as I'm a big fan of both soundtracks. However Astoroth gets my vote today purely because of its mystisism. Excellent track, love it

Si

Granasaber
It's an OK track. I could have used more of that organ that pops up at 3:11, though. It's neat. (3)

Hunt a Soul
It's Guilty Gear music, and that means rock. You know, I generally like rock, but up against some of the other songs in this matchup, this falls flat. The solo just before the fade is awesome, though.(4)

Prologue ~To the Ancient Land~
It's overly pretty. That chorus really makes the track. I can hear traces of the music that plays when you kill one of the colossi in there, too. Very good. (2)

Astaroth
*eyes roll back in my head in swoon* Oh god, I love the ethnic themes included on the Shadow Hearts OSTs. Oh god, I love it SO MUCH. Also, what's up with the unicode? Did you get it from an actual japanese person or a wapa, cuz most of us can at least pronounce romanji names decently. I can't remember if it's Hirota or Mitsuda who did this one, though. (1)

Edit: oh, you got it from some wapa that can't stand to have romanji names in the id3, didn't you, cuz it's from the gamemp3s release, and they actually have them so those of us who can't speak japanese can read the names.

Grandia II — Granasaber - I like how there are only like two posts in favor of this track, but it's still winning. Not that I mind--like "Morning Journey" in an earlier battle, this has an "epic heroic orchestral" feel to it that may strike some people as trite, but I just eat it up.

Guilty Gear Isuka — Hunt A Soul - Eww, bad Guilty Gear music, gross. It's all repetitive and doesn't have a melody. Sucks (a sage lol).

Wander and The Collosus — Prologue ~To the Ancient Land~ - *snooze* I liked A Violent Encounter, and I even managed to enjoy Silence. Why do you have to punish my compliance with even more generic orchestral-choral stylings?

Shadow Hearts 2 — Astaroth - Oooh, I can see why this is doing so well. It's got atmosphere by the bucketload, and if the ethnic elements are weird, they still manage to fit together into a nifty, cohesive whole.

Grandia II — Granasaber still wins by a landslide, though.