Jump to content

OCR01281 - Dragon Warrior IV "The Grief of Aktemto"


djpretzel
 Share

Recommended Posts

I've been waiting a VERY long time for a Dragon Warrior IV piece to reach this site, long enough to break my long standing lurker status. I always felt it was an under appreciated RPG, and holds a very special place in my heart for being the very first RPG that I beat. I love this take on the tragic theme of Aktemto .I wasn't horribly impressed until 1:12, where the scope of the song just seemed to get bigger. Then I just wanted to die at 2:03 onwards, when the guitar comes in and takes the theme to the next logical level. However you manage to not loose the creeping hopelessness that the theme is suppose to show. If I have to complain at all, it'd be pre 1:12, where some of the acoustic guitar just seems somewhat off to me (perhaps it’s just that I'm not a huge fan of most acoustic tho). Overall while it may have some technical issues, I feel it captures and recreates the right feeling in the end.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been waiting a long time for a DW4 mix, a very long time. I really think this game has some of the best 8-bit video game music I've heard. And to have it translated here, makes me very happy.

Although I could be harsh...I do give kudos to the rawness of this song...and I'd like to add that I once (a long time ago) attempted to make a meager mix of this song...and failed miserably...So I appreciate what has been done.

I've always thought this is one of the saddest songs in video game history...and when I was downloading this, I was afraid that the original tune would be carrying this mix...But I can feel very powerul emotions and feelings coming from elsewhere, and that is good enough for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is absolutely no reason this song should have been kept off the site. This is perhaps the single most emotional, well-orchestrated, and deeply involving song I've ever downloaded from OCR, and if it had been denied the chance to be posted, my opinion of the judges' panel would have decreased significantly.

Glad you made the right decision, judges. And glad you made this song, Ryan. Awesomeness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While the orchestral part does just come in very abruptly and then disappears just as fast, the acoustic guitar is just oozing out emotions and I can really feel all that was put into the performance. Great to see a new Ryan8bit back on OCR with such an awesome song.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say this is too flawy to be ocr quality and should have been debugged and improved significantly and resubmitted. Way too many simple mistakes and bleh performance. At the same time... man I loved this game. Memories...

And some things like that were said by the judges. What it seemed to come down to was whether or not production was more important than heart. I was never really trying to be a guitar virtuoso or to make it a spotless, flawless playing. Any of the delays in timing are mostly due to human emotion of playing. You don't typically get that with technical sequencing. I was looking for more of the natural live performance feel.

But thanks for the comments, everyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say this is too flawy to be ocr quality and should have been debugged and improved significantly and resubmitted. Way too many simple mistakes and bleh performance. At the same time... man I loved this game. Memories...

And some things like that were said by the judges. What it seemed to come down to was whether or not production was more important than heart. I was never really trying to be a guitar virtuoso or to make it a spotless, flawless playing. Any of the delays in timing are mostly due to human emotion of playing. You don't typically get that with technical sequencing. I was looking for more of the natural live performance feel.

But thanks for the comments, everyone.

Songs that get on ocr go on here forever.I don't think its justifyable to post a flawed song when it could be retooled and resubmitted. No justification whatsoever. Thats the problem here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was a difficult decision. I would have liked to hear a rerecording because it frankly would have been entirely possible to do a take without slips without losing the desired emotion.

however we didnt get a rerecording, and the mix DOES have lots of expression and dynamics that so many remixes lack. A close call, but certainly an enjoyable track.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The duo acoustic playing in the beginning was really nice. But the left channel one which strums the chords really shouldn't use the pick. I couldn't hear the chords and just the picking sound since it was played rather lightly. The ending felt really sudden. Felt like "oh it ended already?"

This is really emotional, and I can really feel it. The arrangement is awesome. The electric guitar recording could be done a bit better. It doesn't sound too bad tho. Good enough for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say this is too flawy to be ocr quality and should have been debugged and improved significantly and resubmitted. Way too many simple mistakes and bleh performance. At the same time... man I loved this game. Memories...

And some things like that were said by the judges. What it seemed to come down to was whether or not production was more important than heart. I was never really trying to be a guitar virtuoso or to make it a spotless, flawless playing. Any of the delays in timing are mostly due to human emotion of playing. You don't typically get that with technical sequencing. I was looking for more of the natural live performance feel.

But thanks for the comments, everyone.

Songs that get on ocr go on here forever.I don't think its justifyable to post a flawed song when it could be retooled and resubmitted. No justification whatsoever. Thats the problem here.

Now I see errors in this remix. The decision really was difficult: 6 "YES" / 5 "NO".

That is pleasant to the ears.But the errors justify an improvement in the work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This song is clearly not the smoothest OCReMix ever, but its got that certain intangible something that most songs lack. In fact, after the first 36 seconds or so, the mix really hits its own stride. I really like this song, and I feel that it makes OCR a better site with it. Sometimes not being perfect is the best scenario. Everythings got its flaws, and if done well enough flaws can be the best part of something. This song simply has "it"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Songs that get on ocr go on here forever.I don't think its justifyable to post a flawed song when it could be retooled and resubmitted. No justification whatsoever. Thats the problem here.

This song was made to the best of my ability. I did try improving it, but found any changes I made insignificant. I wouldn't have submitted it here if I thought I could marginally improve it (hence why all my releases are on vgmix).

I personally think the flaws are minimal and that the emotion and general arrangement far outweigh any errors/inability on that side. And judging something solely on a technical basis without acknowledging the other elements seems a bit off to me. Yes, technical know how is a must, and I think I can say that this is higher on a production scale than most live performance work. But production is not the end-all be-all of a song. I'd rather hear something with a great arrangement regardless of the production over something very polished but uninspired.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

God this one hurt. The begining sounds like he just picked up the music and recorded his first time playing it...The orchestral piece didnt help either.

A good 2/3 of this song was not up to standards in my opinion. I guess the only saving grace (if you could call it that) this song had was when the precussion started in with the electric guitar. The after about a minute of that it went right back to the acustic. Now were back at square one. Most of the time I'm with the judges on their decisions, but how could they overlook 2/3 of the song. I guess everyone has their off days. Even the judges

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am really surprised that there's so much controversy over this piece. To be honest, The Grief Of Aktemto is one of my favorite remixes. One of the main reasons I take such a liking to it is the same reason why I love Time's New Scar by gutzalpus--it's a very human piece. The emotion is so thick you could mold it into some kind of play fort. Even the theme being covered seems really raw and powerful, and I really feel that. As for the orchestral section, I feel that it just brings the transition half-way through the song into more recognition, if you can get what I'm trying to say about that.

Ryan, I loved your work since your Crystalis remix, and I'll continue to enjoy your future works, no matter where I end up needing to receive them from. Keep up the great work, and don't let this feedback get you down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In general, the criticism of this mix is valid but exaggerated. There are problems with a lousy percussion part, some flubs in the guitar (which again, were exaggerated in the decisions), and possibly the orchestral part that builds tension but doesn't have a whole lot of bearing on the rest of the mix. Still this is very emotional and well-arranged, and the rawness gives it more of a charm that the mix might not have retained if it was more produced.

Yes it's rough, but I think too many of the judges made their decisions based on what it could've been instead of judging the mix in it's current state. The arrangement and the emotion put into the parts make this very passable; and from a non-technical standpoint, I'm enjoying this much more than I have a lot of other, more cleaned up guitar mixes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I'm just a casual music lover and I registered here just because I wanted to tell Ryan8bit how great this song sounds to me. Congratulations to you for creating this! It's a very moving and emotional piece to listen to and puts me right into the mood of it. If you think you should rerecord it to get out the imperfections, that's respectable, but I think the arrangement is perfect. This is definitely one of my favorite songs. Kudos!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR01281 - Dragon Warrior IV "The Grief of Aktemto"

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...