Round 1, Battle 26 Discussion (July 11/12, 2006)

[Dave]

Four new themes have been put up against each other for today's battle. Vote here (http://www.squareenixmusic.com/uematsu.php) and don't forget to comment! :)

[Neo Locke]

*first vote dance*

I must be the only person on the planet who doesn't think the FFVII Main Theme is everything and a bag of chips... Its pretty good... but the other main themes, aside from V's and VIII's, were all better IMO.

I did, however, thoroughly enjoy Interrupted by Fireworks. the piece had some real charm and emotion, something Uematsu used to be so very good at. I'm voting for that, hoping it gets in along with the obvious first.

Chaos' Temple has a whole lot of potential, but as it is, it's far too repetitive. And the PS1 version wasn't doing much with it, either. (And, by the way, Uematsu wasn't in charge of arranging for Origins, so does that version even count?)

Dear Friends was good too, and I know it'll probably be a contender for second place, but alas I never found anything that great in that track either... I find it to be a very oversimplified melody that doesn't bask in that simplicity like other tracks do.

[Black Mamba]

Final Fantasy VII's Main Theme, hands down. Nobuo creates a very complex and memorable piece here. Vote.

[Totz]

Chaos' Temple - wow, very nice. I did not know this arrangement beforehand, and I'm very impressed with it. It doesn't have a whole lot of development, but the ostinato is interesting and the melody is pretty good.

Dear Friends - it got annoying after the first minute. The woodwind or whatever that comes in halfway through isn't that good.

F.F.VII Main Theme - I believe comments aren't necessary.

Interrupted by Fireworks - like Locke said, it has some charm and emotion, but I dunno, there's something missing. :(

Since the winner is pretty clear here, I'll give my vote to "Chaos' Temple".

[TheShroud13]

I must be the only person on the planet who doesn't think the FFVII Main Theme is everything and a bag of chips... Its pretty good... but the other main themes, aside from V's and VIII's, were all better IMO.

Not quite. I also happen to not think that theme is everything and a bag of chips. I, in fact, do not like it at all. Big yawn. It sounds somewhat expansive, but it's too slow paced for my tastes, and nothing melodically special for me. It started a trend for FF world map mediocrity that led to tracks so bad it actually forced the developers to cut out the world map for FFX after seeing that Nobuo had submitted a track very similar to the Baja Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out" for the beta version's world map. Note: The result of FF map theme mediocraty on FFX's map is purely speculative, although I'm fairly certain that's the reason.

This is a pretty weak round in my opinion, with only "Chaos Temple" really standing out. "Interrupted by Fireworks" has always touched me as cheese, and "Dear Friends" is pretty darned close to cheese itself. It is somewhat rousing performed by orchestra (emphasis on somewhat) but is flat on the 16-bit sound.

"Chaos Temple" is nothing extremely special either, but is far more memorable than any of the other tracks in this round, so it gets my vote.

Since the winner is pretty clear here, I'll give my vote to "Chaos' Temple".

A two vote lead isn't particularly commanding :p (although I'm sure "Main Theme" is gonna get plenty -_-)

[Totz]

It started a trend for FF world map mediocrity that led to tracks so bad it actually forced the developers to cut out the world map for FFX after seeing that Nobuo had submitted a track very similar to the Baja Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out" for the beta version's world map. Note: The result of FF map theme mediocraty on FFX's map is purely speculative, although I'm fairly certain that's the reason.

Who let the Fayth out? Who, who who who who?
Who let the Fayth out? Who, who who who who?

That would totally make Uematsu's contributions to the FFX OST better than Hamauzu's.

[Rain]

I will have to go with the Final Fantasy VII map theme on this one...simply because I have nothing else to choose! Its a bag of chips alright...but its the really greasy kind that you always wipe on your jeans while there is a camera pointed at you. If we are to equate these tracks with chips I will note the following:

Final Fantasy VII map theme - Pringles (because its crisp)
Dear Friends - Cheetos (cuz its cheezy)
Chaos Temple - Tortilla chips (bland and yet somehow too much salt)
Interrupted by Fireworks - wavy potato chips (gimmicky.)

And just to be fair, I realize these comparisons were stupid. But the shear boredom of listening to a few of these tracks made me want to gorge myself in a bag of chips.

[WarpstarRider]

(And, by the way, Uematsu wasn't in charge of arranging for Origins, so does that version even count?)

Uematsu did arrange the FF side of the soundtrack. Sekito only arranged the FFII stuff.

[Resk]

Chaos Temple gets my vote... I've never actually heard it till now, but I liked it a lot. The melody was nice and flowing, which I love :P

[WarpstarRider]

Anyway, for my ratings:

Temple of Chaos got my vote. One of my favorite older FF tunes.

I like the FFVII Main Theme a lot, but I figure it'll get enough support anyway. And the game version has a lot of the bad synth that bugged me on a lot of FFVII's soundtrack; the arranged versions are easier to take, but that's not what we're voting on.

Interrupted by Fireworks is pretty ordinary. Never really interested me much.

And as for Dear Friends...*shudder* My first experience with that track was on GamingFM...they seem to have gotten their version of the soundtrack from an odd gamerip, in which Dear Friends has a running time of 14 minutes and 35 seconds. So whenever it would come on, I had to sit through a nearly 15-minute loop of it before something else could play. And it just wasn't good enough for that to be enjoyable.
It never got fixed or anything, since that was the way they got the song.
So nowadays, I don't really care for it much.

[TheShroud13]

Chaos Temple - Tortilla chips (bland and yet somehow too much salt)

I will not have you insulting tortilla chips so ;_;

[insertnamehere]

I voted for interrupted by fireworks because it sounds really sweet.

Dear friends: Was way to annoying after awhile.

FF main theme: i liked it before but now it's a little to long and slow it bores me

Chaos temple: well i couldn't hear it but i tend to hate most of the old tracks before ff3

[Dave]

I'm quite worried at the lack of votes. Maybe it was too hard to choose? :p

[Jared]

Yay, I am 1 of 2 people who voted for Dear Friends. ^_^

[Dave]

I used to like "Dear Friends," but when you listen to it more and more, it just seems to become bland and worthless. The synth does it no favours, I guess. "Interrupted by Fireworks" gets a bit repetitive after a while, and that's why it comes third for me. "F.F.VII Main Theme" is the most sophisticated of the lot, but, it doesn't come first for me, because I really didn't enjoy it as much as "Chaos' Temple." Final Fantasy has so many great themes!

[Solartide]

I blame lack of votes on that no one knows about the website switch.

Chaos sounds great from the get go, slightly repetitive, but fair over all.

I don't like Dear Friends, though some arrangements of it is nice. Assuming we are voting for the original, this doesn't get my vote.

Fireworks annoys me.

VII Main Theme is bland, but perhaps that is because I heard it so much...

Vote goes to Chaos.

[Dave]

Well, yesterday, we received more than 60 votes.

Anyway, here are the results:

F.F.VII Main Theme (FFVII) 41.67 % (10)
Chaos' Temple (FFI PSX) 33.33 % (8)
Interrupted by Fireworks (FFVII) 16.67 % (4)
Dear Friends (FFV) 8.33 % (2)

The two in bold go through.

[Chris]

I blame lack of votes on that no one knows about the website switch.

I'm working on it! The votes and visitor numbers are increasing day-by-day, and I'm in the process of organising a SquareSound disambiguation page for the proper launch.

It's great to see this contest has returned. Thanks for running it, Dave, and everyone else's input.