Preliminary Battle VII (A)

Listen to the tracks and make your selection.

Download Links:

Dew Prism - Full of Hopes
Fantasy Zone (arcade) - Hot Snow
Tales of the Abyss - The Arrow Was Shot
Super Dodge Ball - Multiplayer Theme

Full of Hopes
Interesting, but hard to get into.

Hot Snow
Fun stuff. Only a game as drugged out as Fantasy Zone could use Caribbean influences in the music for a snow level with a penguin boss. Not my favorite music from Fantasy Zone, but still good.

The Arrow Was Shot
The first thing I thought of was Mega Man headbanging.

Multiplayer Theme
Yay! NES synth! Rather catchy.

I'm not usually a fan of Sakuraba's battle tracks, but I think Valkyrie Profile has desensitized me to some of the flamboyant synth. That Dodge Ball track is pretty good too, though.

In the end I think the rock beat is what does it for me. The Arrow Was Shot is my vote.

Man, as beautiful as the entire Dew Prism soundtrack is, it just can't beat out the AWESOME that is the Tales track.

And mega props to whoever nominated Super Dodgeball. Fucking GREAT nomination. A shame it has to be paired with these other good songs.

Originally Posted by PICARDGONK

Man, as beautiful as the entire Dew Prism soundtrack is, it just can't beat out the AWESOME that is the Tales track.

And mega props to whoever nominated Super Dodgeball. Fucking GREAT nomination. A shame it has to be paired with these other good songs.

That would be me. It really is a shame its paired against a Dew Prism track and The Arrow was Shot .
Still, because its a good chiptune track Super Dodge Ball's multiplayer theme gets my vote.

Ah, I was wondering how that Dodge Ball song made it in here when it was my number 6 or 7 nomination.

Dew Prism - Full of Hopes
-Similar tone to the one below, but not as unique. (4th)
Fantasy Zone (arcade) - Hot Snow
-Always like these happy, cheerful ones. Not memorable however. (2nd)
Tales of the Abyss - The Arrow Was Shot
- This is new? Didn't hear anything about it. Anyway, fast-paced, energetic track that grows with time. (1st)
Super Dodge Ball - Multiplayer Theme
-Somewhat catchy, but not enough for this battle. (3rd)

Dew Prism, or Threads of Fate, never made it onto my system except in demo form, so I've never really heard Dew Prism - Full of Hopes before. The tune has some nice instrumentation and a sort of kiddie feel to it, but it badly needs more development than the same basic melody repeated over and over again ad nauseum.

Never played or heard of Fantasy Zone, so the Caribben-influenced Fantasy Zone (arcade) - Hot Snow was something of a surprise. It's a cute song, very synthy, and the melody's nice.

I normally loathe Sakuraba's uncreative rockin', especially his ubiqitous Battle Theme. And while Tales of the Abyss - The Arrow Was Shot features many similarities to those musical turds, I find myself liking it quite a bit more. Maybe it's the superior melodic development, I dunno.

Super Dodge Ball - Multiplayer Theme sounded very quiet, as if someone had deliberately adjusted the volume to make the tune weaker.
It's not bad, though I'm not sure if the volume issue is part of the song or another issue.

1 - Hot Snow
2 - Arrow in the Head
3 - Full of Hopes
4 - Multiball! MULTIBALL!!

Full of Hopes -- This song starts off like it's name. FULL OF HOPE =O Only singular. It's catchy ;D But maybe not catchy enough to warrant a victory...!

Hot Snow -- Ahhh, an oldie. Catchy as well =o But it feels... Repetitive for some reason =\

The Arrow Was Shot -- Oooh. Tales of game. And not Tales of Crap/Legendia! Pretty interesting synth job on it. A bit techno-feeling.

Multiplayer Theme -- BAHAHAHA! ;D AWESOME. I dunno why, but this was so much catchier than the others. Maybe the nostalgia is overwhelming? =( Still! I'll vote for this underdog.

My vote goes to Super Dodge Ball - Multiplayer Theme! Good luck, little one.

Dew Prism - Full of Hopes
For me - boring and not unique, especially b/c of repetition (4)

Fantasy Zone (arcade) - Hot Snow (3)
A bit better, but it still doesn't pack a punch in comparison to other songs

Tales of the Abyss - The Arrow Was Shot (1)
A friend of mine once told me that Tales of Abyss is a really good soundtrack. This is one of the songs that makes that soundtrack pretty good. Although this type of battle theme has of course been done before, this song is still unique and better than the others


Super Dodge Ball - Multiplayer Theme (2)
A second place; it doesn't beat the song above, but it's still pretty good because of its catchy theme

Well, it seems like Sakuraba's FINALLY learning how to compose other songs. I mean, it's a battle theme that doesn't go 300 miles a minute, but it's still just okay. As far as the two chiptunes go, they're both freaking AWESOME, but I have to give the edge to HOT SNOW.

Oh, and the Dew Prism track is bland.

Dew Prism - Full of Hopes - This started off decent, but quickly grew repetitive and fell out of favor quickly, it's a nice littly quirky tune, but needs more development.

Fantasy Zone (arcade) - Hot Snow - Hehe, this is a fun little tune right here, a upbeat melody, happy and catchy, but the one part I was not fond of as much was, that annoying whistle sound that would be in the background at parts, not a big fan of that synth.

Tales of the Abyss - The Arrow Was Shot - Hmm, a Sakuraba battle track that isn't as chaotic and all over the place, with a good synth melody and some ROCK'N mixed in = teh WIN, but honestly, this is a cool track that grows on me the more I listen. Me like.

Super Dodge Ball - Multiplayer Theme - Another hyper little chiptune, but I like this one a little more than Hot Snow, it's catchy, upbeat, fun.

A good group, but The Arrow Was Shot takes my vote for the group, with Super Dodge BAll not far behind it.

Hmm, the first group where I liked all 4 choices to some extent.

All are sort of the catchy variety, but when it comes down to the most catchy, I have to go with "Hot Snow."

Tough pairing again...Almost too hard to pick a winner. All are insanely catchy and 2 are new/2 are old classics.

I'm going to go with "The Arrow Was Shot" and I might regret it later...Multiplayer Theme sounds like a great long, lost track from River City Ransom (not surprising, since it's from the same universe of games) and I've always been a fan of "Full of Hopes" (which manages to avoid Truth-syndrome by repeating just enough and mixing things up into something insanely catchy).

But "Arrow..." is definitely packing the heat. And although I'm one of the ones saying "Hey you guys...Not all of Sakuraba's battle themes sound alike!", this one does remind me of "Stab the Sword of Justice" a LOT (mind you, STSOJ and ONLY STSOJ). But that's okay, since STSOJ is my favorite Sakuraba battle theme of all time.

I do hope "Everlasting Fight" (also from Tales of the Abyss) made it into the brackets as well...I remember seeing it linger with a high point count.

Picking The Arrow Was Shot. I don't really like Sakuraba, in general, but this one surprised me by being really catchy, and not sounding like a clone of his previous battle themes.

Full of Hopes...argh, this piece drove me freaking INSANE when I was playing the game back in 2000. Repetitive, and chipper in the annoying way.

Dodgeball didn't make much of an impression, to be honest. Maybe I'd feel differently if I'd played the game in question.

Hot Snow's pretty cool. It reminds me of Ristar, and that's most definitely a good thing.

I really like The Arrow Was Shot too, but Snow has its catchy little hooks in me.

By popular demand, more smilies:

: Fantasy Zone (arcade) - Hot Snow
: Super Dodge Ball - Multiplayer Theme
: Tales of the Abyss - The Arrow Was Shot
: Dew Prism - Full of Hopes

Tough grouping for my #3 nom to get sorted into. Probably won't make it out, either.

Fantasy Zone's my third favorite shmup of all time (some might remember my Opa-Opa av/sig combo from a little while back), and Hot Snow was my pick from it. It's too damn happy for its own good with a catchy as hell melody.

Super Dodge Ball... I knew I forgot a game when looking through NES music. Multiplayer Theme is damn good.

The Arrow Was Shot has the benefits of both being the first Sakuraba track I've listened to in this contest and a Sakuraba track from an OST I haven't heard, so I actually listened to it the whole way through and enjoyed it.

And the intro to Full of Hopes was great and got me expecting an awesome track, until it turned out that the whole song is the intro.

Dew Prism - Full of Hopes

I like revisiting the Dew Prism OST every now and again, but most all of it, including this, is fluff.

Fantasy Zone (arcade) - Hot Snow

The simplest pleasure in the group. Damn catchy and pretty relaxed, but not overly so for being a shooter track. Just plain fun.

Super Dodge Ball - Multiplayer Theme

A very good chiptune that grew on me the more I listened to it. There's a surprising amount of development. It's very satisfying.

Tales of the Abyss - The Arrow Was Shot

Pretty :metal:. I have the same problem with this as I do with The End of a Thought. Intro is outstanding but then the rest of the track is kind of ho hum. Still good but doesn't keep that head of steam.

My vote goes to... it goes to, uh... Super Dodge Ball - Multiplayer Theme. Heartbreaking decision. I shouldn't worry myself too much over it, Arrow is probably mopping the floor, anyhows.

2nd () - Fantasy Zone (arcade) - Hot Snow
3rd - Tales of the Abyss - The Arrow Was Shot
4th - Dew Prism - Full of Hopes