LogFAQs > #965527422

An Endless Desert
Night birds
Time Moves Slow (Home)

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An Endless Desert [8.6]
Soflan-Chan (Long] [6.5]

Alto's Odyssey ended up being a surprise find for me back when we did the Best of 2021 contest over on Supracord. Endless Desert is no Lost City, unfortunately, but a lot of what made that song great - the tribal percussion and the lively/mystical atmosphere created from the instruments - can still be found here, making this a solid song regardless.

Soflan proves that I'm not a big fan of "overly-cute/sweet"-type Japanese vocals for songs (not that it's the reason why, it's just the most recent example I can now name). And even then, the vocals still kinda work in a couple moments, it's just nowhere near enough for me to like it more. That said, the backing track is something I can still appreciate - a crazy progressive rhythm made by Camillia no less. Overall, it leans a bit too much into that saccharine soundscape for my liking, but I can see why people would flock to it.

Night birds [9]
Kusanagi Village [8.6]

I can't just ignore smooth jazz like this, like damn. So chill, such a cool way to play instruments in a genre I love to my core. I'm always surprised by the range of styles/genres that Gran Turismo seems to use for its music, and this is by far no exception. This is just perfect night cruising music in my head, and I'm happy to listen to it here.

I think my bias for certain songs in this game, like Ryoshima Coast and The Sun Rises, has made me flat out forget about the other songs that exist in this soundtrack as well because I don't remember hearing this at all, but it's SO cool. It starts out all slow as the xylophone carefully lets all the traditional Japanese instruments into the mix until it just soars in energy and lets out this mystical vibe with ancient Japanese flavor that I really appreciate from Okami as a whole.

Time Moves Slow [10]
Treasure Town [8.5]

From all the songs I've ranked personally since last summer, there's only been a handful of songs that I've given a 9+ ranking or higher too. There's a little group that's sitting right at 9.5, and maybe only 2-3 songs that I've straight up given a perfect 10 to for the time being.

Time Moves Slow, I'm proudly to say, is one of those very few songs to earn such a high rating from me.

There's not much I can personally recall being my favorite in the realm of R&B (yet at least), but this HAS to be at the top for me at the moment. Everything about this feels perfect for me - the vocalist's deep tone, the key the song is played in, the slow yet upbeat rhythm, and the overall symbiotic relationship between the voice and the instruments to create this beautiful, melancholy song that has managed to make me feel a deep level of emotion that rarely any other VGM has accomplished to this day.

The fact that I actually get emotional every time I finish the song has to mean something; it has to mean that this can only be one of the greatest songs I've ever listened to in my life, and I'm happy it's finally here to share the stage for this year's contest.
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Treasure Town is such a happy song for Pokemon standards, it already sounds like a great introduction for the grand adventure you're about to embark and then it goes a step further by sounding catchy and jovial. Really neat song, even if there's other in the same franchise that I would flock to instantly.