RUUNYTH123'S PROFILE

Here's my essay:

NOSTALGIC THEMES

1 - It would be a great Ending Theme, and possibly Town - great melodic theme with a nice buildup and tempo changes. Nostalgic, but could have been more "flashbacky"

2 - Very good Town music, again nostalgic with emotive chords and melody. Like the use of chimey instrumentation to give it a dreamy feeling. Could have a bit more variation to make it more so.

4 - This one is a sombre piece with a lot of 16-bit nostalgia. Good attempt. It's difficult to bring out an "orchestral" feeling in this style. You could have pulled it off with a bit more dynamics changes and a bit more ebb and flow I think.

5 - Desolate and subtle use of harmony here reflects a sad memory. I actually quite liked this one. The biggest downfall of it is that it didn't strike me as orchestral. Still, great effort!

8 - Immediately made me think of a nostalgic theme. Having said that I think it has to potential to be bigger and badder - nice buildups to emphasise the orchestral feeling.

9 - I like the subtle instrumentation here to give a bittersweet, sombre feeling to the theme. I felt this subtleness, as well in the texture was very effective!

10 - This one, hands down, was the best in terms of instrumentation and arrangement. A solid knowledge in orchestral arrangement echoes strongly from this piece. Just. Wow. The only gripe is it is perhaps a bit too grandiose for a nostalgic flashback scene. My personal favourite in terms of sheer impressiveness though!

11 - This one screams to me either a badass heroic or fighting memory and it is clear what the composer tried to accomplish here. Unfortunately I feel that in this sense it isn't really "nostalgic", but good work with the orchestral feeling!

16 - Sombre and reminiscent of bittersweet memories. Some good instrument choices could be built upon to push this into the Flashback category. Abrupt finish though.

BOTH

6 - An excellent introduction - really set the scene of the flashback! There is just a feeling that the texture of the instrumentation is a little inconsistent at times, so it is nostalgic at points. Good work though!

13 - This sent chills down my spine in the intro. Everything about it was perfect. This and a lot of pieces decided to do a slow piano arpeggio that is very reminiscent of a nostalgic town scene. It works, but IMHO a bit of deviation from this tried and tested formula would break the "town" feeling and bring something more unusual and interesting. Still, poignant melody and chords make this one shine!

15 - A great theme. Heavily nostalgic and passes through many stages through the memory. I like some unique instrumentation such as the e-guitar that gives that sense of warmth and fondness. The dynamicness of this theme really shone out for me. Excellent work!

18 - I immediately fell in love with the ambience and windy bleakness of an unforgiving event in the past. This screams regretful nostalgia and the blurry and shifting ambience definitely screams hazy flashback. Great sounds, mixed incredibly well, with a some truly touching solos. Damn. This is chillingly good...

21 - There's something about starting with a solid piano solo at the beginning of a piece that I love. Add some lovely harmony and chord progressions and you've got a great theme! I think for me this one had the best piano arrangement. Amazing!

OTHER MENTIONS

14 - A lot of people have given this one stick. I'm not sure what this is supposed to represent? I certainly don't think it was mistaken for a Lava Temple theme. If I really focus, I can kind of tell what the intentions were. But, unfortunately, themes need to fit, and this one didn't :S keep trying though!

20 - This one... blew my.. mind. Seriously, my jaw was on the floor the whole time. Having said that, it was surprisingly catchy XD Not nostalgic, not flashbacky, but hey, catchy as hell!

22 - Set out for adventure! Grab your weapons and armour! ...is what I thought for this one. Some solid, effective use of orchestration that would certainly pass for a game theme. Although, again, nostalgic it is not unfortunately.

24 - There is a classical piece that this is heavily reminiscent of. It also reminded me of Balamb in FFVIII. Not a bad thing though! Great effort and interesting use of different guitar textures. However, I can't say that it fits the orchestral component though...!


...and there we go! This round has been amazing seriously - like MrChearlie said, there really aren't any entries that I disliked and everything was of high quality!

Granted, my final vote is Entry #18. It just mesmerised me.

Close contenders: 10, 13, 15, 21.

For everyone else: looking forward to some epic battle themes!!!

Ho. Ly. Crap...! It's safe to say that the bar has been doubled in this round. Some AMAZING sounding pieces here - it's going to be tough to choose!

Entries I felt fit a "temple" theme:

16 - the instrumentation and texture DOES remind me a lot of FF - good job!
18 - wow, this could be applied to so many scenarios - very very good!
1, 4, 6, 14, 20, 29, 30, 33 as well.

Entries I felt fit a "lava" theme:
13 - nice, ambient piano, with fitting drums :)

Entries that fit both:
24 - this one is crazy! I can picture everything from the lava chugging along to traps and other surprises lurking around every corner of the temple! excellent work!
26 - awesome! I can picture the temple from the pipes and the gushing lava from the racing drums - I especially like the transition half way through!

Considering theme and composition, I have decided to cast my vote to Entry 24. Musically however, my personal favourite was Entry 18 - a very ominous and majestic theme!

Other mentions:
23 - There was a change of flow with this one. I felt really serene and peaceful listening to it, definitely stood out as a special one.
27 - Awesome use of chiptunes - a very unique entry! In a different context this would have been a strong contender for me I think.
31 - This one was... interesting xD the composer was very experimental with this one! Very interesting..

To everyone else - keep up the good work!!

woww... I have to say there are some talented musicians in this contest :O
somewhere along listening to them I started thinking I was listening to an actual game OST and forgot this was for a contest lol

hmmm i'm gna take some time to listen to them a few times before making a decision :p

also, just a suggestion with regards to entry identities - maybe for an ultimately fairer contest, it would be wiser to reveal the winner of the whole contest first before we reveal who did what track??

I know it's a long shot but it might prevent last minute motivation loss if one entrant happens to be dominating the competition :p

Hi all! How are you guys doing?

I'm from the UK so a huge shout out from here! I caught wind of the music competition here at RMN and want to get involved XD I'm a budding composer and I love rpgs so it was a no brainer for me.

I am also interested in developing my own game in the future so it will be awesome to get involved with the community!

So yeah nice to meet ya :)

Ruunyth