Board 8 > Phantasy Star Online 2 of the Year: Day 10

(+) Yeah! (+)

MATCH 1:

To the Star Singing Sky ~ For All Life {Hideaki Kobayashi}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=677_fzTBcFI

vs

Yggdrasil {Mitsuharu Fukuyama}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifEmsaN5bcA

MATCH 2:

Wandering Bloom {Mitsuharu Fukuyama}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EIG3onCWV4

vs

Mother ~ of the Earth {Tadashi Kinukawa arr. Hidekuni Horita}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsDAa92YjJU

I know what you're all thinking. "Who the fuck is Tadashi Kinukawa?" Well, contrary to popular demand, there were other composers who contributed besides Kobayashi/Tokoi/Fukuyama/Horita, and one was Tadashi Kinukawa, who made a lot of fairly mediocre story themes, including the very boring but ever-present Urgent Quest alert music.... as well as making two of the main leitmotifs of the series, those being Xion, which this is based off of, and Path Towards Justice, which shows up prominently in Path to the Future. I regret not adding in the one Chihiro Aoki song to really fuck with you.

Also, Wandering > Wavering and it's not close.

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Yggdrasil
Wandering Bloom

absurd parallelism that sounds like a computer even though it is on real fake instruments at 1:11 is so good. so many of these chord changes are so cool they almost sound like they are 'wrong' because they feel so much like pso2 making fun of itself and i mean that in the absolute best way possible that is a compliment

ranking topic spoilers

omg this match is close, both tracks cool for very different reasons. as fond as i am of the slow piano tune below moments like 1:35 really test me here GAAAh at llike 4:00 those big brass chords made me float in the air sorry cool piano song

you also could've included the Tomoya Ohtani scenery trrack we both really love... anyways this song is so pretty : ) it has cool harmonies that sound so much like ice cubes (i might flip on this 2nd match, very very close easily the closest match for me so far)
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Toxtricity posted...

you also could've included the Tomoya Ohtani scenery trrack we both really love

that was totally supposed to be here fuck

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Yggdrasil
Mother ~ of the Earth

If it wasn't for me loving the hell out of Mesetan Shooter, I also wouldn't know who this random guy popping up was.

Spoilering the section below as it's probably Trigger Warning worthy material for NFUN given his Wandering > Wavering statement.

Wavering is just "haha loud cool noises go brr", and sometimes that is all I want from a vgm track. I don't mind admitting that. Wavering is in my top 3 Fukuyama vol. 1-8 songs alongside Battle Arena ~ Battle and Yggdrasil. Last year I even considered it his best song, but that goes to Battle Arena now.

Yggdrasil [9.5]
Star Singing Sky [8.5]
Mother ~ of the Earth [7]
Wandering Bloom [7]

Yggdrasil
Wandering Bloom

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Yggdrasil
Mother ~ of the Earth

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Yggdrasil
Mother ~ of the Earth
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To the Star Singing Sky ~ For All Life
Mother ~ of the Earth

TtSSS~FAL has some weird mixing on the , particularly in the beginning, but it's otherwise a really good song.

Okay so listening to the first few seconds of Yggdrasil, it sounds like it's going to start playing Silence in the Sunlight Filtering Through Trees, but then it goes off onto something totally different lol. (which is kinda funny because Yggdrasil is a BIG TREE). Groovy jazz guitar two minutes in is nice, close match here.

Not sure what Wandering Bloom is going for exactly, some cool elements in this scattered here and there though.

sadvnsong.mp3 is my favorite genre of music

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Still going

Yggdrasil
Mother

Star-Singing is good, though it always felt a bit off for me. It's cool that Magatsu is the only non-Dark Falz boss that got the whole Whole New World treatment in the game. Supposedly somewhere there's an IDOLA the Imitated God reference in here, or one of his themes, but I've never been able to find it

Wavering Bloom is fine, it's just not amazing. Wandering Bloom is going for a majestic feel, in both the sense of royalty and the sense of being graceful. The intro, the strings at 1:16, the choir and flutes all give it a natural flow, while the horns, emphasis on on-beat drums, and everything about 2:15 contribute to the royal feel. It's an odd song for me, because I like it a lot, and especially respect the direction it went in, but feel that it could be improved with a few changes. If it somehow got the Ep5 treatment like Majestic Dynasty/DINATIS KONUCER got, it'd be a pretty high ranking song. Fits the boss super well too, even if the fight is pathetically easy @FL81
<img src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/korcdHih_Yo/maxresdefault.jpg">

sadly mother of the earth is way too good. evokes an ethereal "empty" feel I love. There was a comment about The Whole New World on my upload that said they loved the song because it made them feel they were alone in a world with nothing but the orchestral. This has the same effect on me with the piano and strings. PSO2 has a surprisingly weak motif game, so shoutouts to Horita for carrying it so hard. I always liked Xion's theme, and between this and Superluminal, it was taken exactly where it wanted to go

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