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🦇 Ahhhhhhh, yes. . . 'Tis the time, my children -- The Witching Hour *(GMT)! 🦇 Gather 'round!--for the Oogie Boogie Man has come to me bearing gifts on this eventful All Hallows' Eve! 🎃 It is (a)live, my darlings! The first ever 'Unofficial' An OverClocked Halloween, Volume I! 🪦 https://overclockedhalloween.boo/ 🪦 Get it now while it's *F R E S H* from the witches' brew, empowered by the fires of Hell and Brimstone!!! 😈 Have it in the background for your sordid partying affairs! Groove away the blasted day on-through till the dead of night with these wonderful tunes! I'd like to thank everyone who believed in this project: helped out, made the website, endorsed it, made their tracks for it (and placed them trustingly and lovingly into my claws to help produce and master), AND (lastly but not least-ly) those of **YOU** who're downloading the .zip folder *RIGHT NOW* and partaking of the treats (and tricks) this marvelous day! 🧡🌹 Thank you so, so much, from the bottom of my hearts (all three of them!!); have a lovely Halloween, and I look forward to spreading the spooky cheer next autumnal season, October 2026! ENJOY--and remember kids: "don't ever invite a vampire into your house, you silly [humans]. It renders you powerless!" 💀

(Bit late, but The Coop had a point.) 🦇 Ahhhhhhh, yes. . . 'Tis the time, my children -- The Witching Hour *(GMT)! 🦇 Gather 'round!--for the Oogie Boogie Man has come to me bearing gifts on this eventful All Hallows' Eve! 🎃 It is (a)live, my darlings! The first ever 'Unofficial' An OverClocked Halloween, Volume I! 🪦 https://overclockedhalloween.boo/ 🪦 Get it now while it's *F R E S H* from the witches' brew, empowered by the fires of Hell and Brimstone!!! 😈 Have it in the background for your sordid partying affairs! Groove away the blasted day on-through till the dead of night with these wonderful tunes! I'd like to thank everyone who believed in this project: helped out, made the website, endorsed it, made their tracks for it (and placed them trustingly and lovingly into my claws to help produce and master), AND (lastly but not least-ly) those of **YOU** who're downloading the .zip folder *RIGHT NOW* and partaking of the treats (and tricks) this marvelous day! 🧡🌹 Thank you so, so much, from the bottom of my hearts (all three of them!!); have a lovely Halloween, and I look forward to spreading the spooky cheer next autumnal season, October 2026! ENJOY--and remember kids: "don't ever invite a vampire into your house, you silly [humans]. It renders you powerless!" 💀

Voting Guidelines Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Mega Man game and the other from a Mega Man Successor game. In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance): The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 2 Remix Pack (MP3). For your reference, here are the source tunes for Round 2. Mega Man 4 vs. Gravity Circuit Pharaoh Man Theme of Ray (Optic Circuit) Mega Man X4 vs. Mighty Gunvolt Burst Cyber Space Beyond the Watery Vortex Mega Man Zero 4 vs. 30XX Ciel d'aube Slave to Duty (Midgard Boss 1)

Fantastic round 1. Very impressed with what came out. Looking forward to the future rounds.

Amen. Highlight of the round for me :)

This is definitely "..oops! All Bangers" In particular shout outs to Dyluck and CW for doing what I love to do and do cheesy vocals over Mega Man Music.

Here's to the first of (hopefully) many Halloween album volumes to come! Thank you for putting the project together and sharing it with the world.

Hey all! I'm not on either team this time but wanted to stick my notes in writing somewhere: Калинка Cool proggy/post-rock opening, good vibe to start GSM4 on. Sounds like seph did a ton of overdubs. Ending is also cute and well thought-out. I Wish I Wish I can see people wishing the sources were more dominant but this is my second-favorite one for this round. Not sure who did what (I'm not familiar with Oscar/Atcero's styles) but it does a lot with a little* and I love the Satisfaction/VN-sounding portamento saws. Burning Obsession Perfect "fire stage" intro with the guitar trills and toms. Thought josh did these drums at first. Heard Queen did the mixing, sounds great. The bridge being tongue-in-cheek is really funny and Weeks' range works good for the X VA. Only real critique is that I think it could either be a little more punk/sludgy or a little more Broadway; as-is the backing track sounds almost surf rock at points splitting the difference. Vulcan's Doorstep Was expecting this to turn into full-fidelity psytrance at some point but kind of glad it didn't; JSA's writing with Xaleph's mixing/perfectionism is a great combo, reminds me of Project S-11 in some places. Specifically wrote down that the bass at 1:44 and Rocket Hideout-sounding foley at 2:08 are cool. Vile Circuitry Think this is my favorite one of the round. Seph(?)'s vocal foley at the start is funny but this one is really technically impressive. The almost djent-y rhythms and stuff in the second half help spice it up. I heard yami did the mixing - I'm not familiar with their style yet but it's a great start for mixing metal, the kicks around the 3 min mark are super aggressive. A Vile Medley Weil and Wave are both crazy sources - surprised neither team just called it Weilwave. Medley is really, really well-produced, to the point that I think it would have trounced anything from GSM3 Round 1. It's lush but not muddy. cammy's sax kicking in is comparable to Weeks' soprano coming in for Sakura Wa Karenai during GSM3. In practice this track has everything I'd want out of a jazz/funk mix, but I'm leaning slightly towards Circuitry, just because I'm familiar with seph's workflow and know he would have sunk a ton of time into doing those guitar overdubs/countermelodies for like 4 minutes straight. Hemo's debut on the keys is cool too - they're slightly too humanized imo, but a really strong opener and again, production is crazy across the board. --- Overall notes It's fun seeing the genres/production of each GSM based on who's playing. GSM2 leaned a lot more electronica, GSM3 was weirdly super consistent with longform pop/rock tracks. It was fun for 3, but I don't think 18 four- to five-minute tracks is sustainable or a normal expectation for every GSM. *The tracks being shorter but "burning brighter" for 4 gives it more room for stuff like I Wish I Wish to exist. I wouldn't really describe 4 as anything but "experimental" genre-wise so far but it'll be cool to see teams find more niches round-by-round. Also, just a suggestion for Team Mega Man - do something Splatoony! Get seph or someone to do some wobbly resonant synths and it splits the difference between the punk instrumentation and the more "aristocratic", un-filtered vocals on Burning Obsession.

We love a little Licc every now and again 😂

Still proud for contributing to that song via bell synths hehe Also I may have put... too many Lickitungs in the MIDI...

We are three days out from Halloween! I am pleased to announce that almost everyone has approved of their final tracks, and the track-list itself has been approved, and I also have the front and back covers for Vol. 1 fully done! :D Now it's time to get that website done up! ♥

You already know Josh and I are down - we’ll be mashing AQA from Fusion with Heart of Fire from Castlevania Aria of Sorrow

This will indeed become an annual album (classic, hopefully like AOCC). :) I will do my utmost to ensure it continues long after this year. ♡ Hope you enjoy it!

Hey! Kinda weird to post a comment on my own track, but there's just a couple things I wanted to respond to from what was said by the judges. First, @Chimpazilla the fact that you assumed this was @jnWake's own arrangement was like... one of the biggest compliments I got in a long while 🥰 You are right on how the original source totally fits his style, tho, and that's why I called him for keys. Also to @Hemophiliac, you are right on that more stuff could be added after the outro and voice clips. I can totally imagine more action coming, with the initial riff along with some drum hits caving the path for a somewhat funky section and then having a solos duet between guitars and keys. I note that for a potential future versions if everyone else involved agrees (maybe just toying on my own DAW with the additional stuff and then @minusworld adding the extra parts on his own mix project). And in general, thanks all 3 judges for the nice comments! I was quite discouraged after the first rejected track because that one was too much personal in many ways, so I'll consider submitting more tracks like this that, while proud of them, aren't that important in a personal/emotional level. In fact I was already toying with the idea of submitting the track 5 from the same Phantasia tribute album, which has a very similar lineup.

I'm having the strangest sense of deja vu right now 😛

Voting Guidelines Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Mega Man game and the other from a Mega Man Successor game. In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance): The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 1 Remix Pack (MP3). For your reference, here are the source tunes for Round 1. Mega Man 4 vs. Mighty Gunvolt Burst Cossack Fortress 1 Joule's Wish Mega Man X4 vs. 30XX Volcano At Her Doorstep (Aspera 1) Mega Man Zero 4 vs. Gravity Circuit Fate - Theme of Weil Theme of Medley (Wave Circuit)

Didn’t do any vocals this round, them spooky noises are all foley found on Splice :)

Absolutely legendary!

WHY ARE ALL OF THESE SONGS GOOD??? I really had to hesitate and decide for a long moment for all of them...

Today's the day. I sent mine in. Did everyone else send in theirs?

JESUS FUC-! You can't just pop in here like that! You'll scare the children!

DJ Pretzel you are an amazing dude. I found OCRemix in the glorious heyday of my middle/highschool years, and I had endless fun hanging out with friends and "mining" cool new tracks that we would download and make mp3 cds from. The good old days when most of the music was techno, Hah! I am just rambling because I have been a casual explorer with no musical background for about 24 years here on the site, and wow, the love and passion of this project just oozes good vibes. One of my favorite things was DJ Pretzel's critiques. I did not have an ear for music at all, but the more I listened to his reviews/critiques/judgements and explanations of the music, I felt my own understanding and listening habits change. I began to notice little details and appreciate what the remixer was going for. As a non musician it's hard to put into words how much appreciation I have rooted in this little corner of the digital universe, even as a non contributor I have a warm feeling for this community and wish for continued success and music. Now time to go browse some old remixes from you OG admins back in the day. P.S. I am beginning my journey under a mentor to repair and play piano, so maybe one day, I will contribute to this community, or maybe my daughter when she's old enough to learn, will also be inspired by the music OCRemix has spread.

Interesting chord options in that sample. I suppose I should've been a little more clear on my approach. I'm going more into a direction of non-functional harmony. I'm trying to get a blend of diatonic and non-diatonic, hence the A♮ in my composition. But I will consider the options you provided. That third chord sounds the most promising to me. It's unfortunate, though, because the E and E♭ is a bit jarring. But even with open voicings, I was hoping that it'd sound a little more pleasant. I'm trying to create a "desert" theme, but without going the stereotypical route. Anyway, thank you for your input. I appreciate it.

Hey all, this is a rework of my previous Metroid Fusion album/EP idea. Plan is for it to be an "official" OCR album, but wanted to put feelers out to make sure there was interest first. The idea is that every track uses a Fusion source and a secondary source, meaning the Fusion remixes from Game Set Mash 2 would all be eligible. Round 1 / Round 2 / Round 3 It doesn't have to be a literal back-and-forth; "pastiche" tracks (like something in the style of John Williams or Gorillaz) are acceptable as long as they follow the usual OCR submission guidelines. I'm hoping for about 8-15 tracks; there are 6 that would be eligible from Game Set Mash and then at least one I want to do personally. For release time we'd shoot for Fusion's 25th anniversary, so either November 2027 or we could do February 14 2028 if we needed an extension for some reason. EDIT: Also meant to mention Fusion sources can be used more than once. If you want to do AQA Depths three times, go for it!

I didn’t come back to OCR after a 15-year hiatus (not unless you want to count a direct rejection from Larry himself), but I did come back to arranging VGM after a 10-year hiatus along with @pixelseph and joined OCR in so doing. I did the same thing you’ve already done: revisit and old completed project and do it again, only with better tools and more experience. In our case, Seph had done a few tracks with Team Dogfight for Homestuck, I took audio production courses in community college, and the two of us played in a few bands between 2012 and 2022, even did some studio recording time. We had a massive knowledge gap holding us back that we needed to fill before we felt comfortable coming to the community and revisiting old material got us back in the saddle, so to speak. Snappleman shared some wisdom in the Discord and I’m inclined to agree: if you’ve got any old backburner projects you didn’t finish, you could pick one of those up and see if you can complete it now.

Hey there old timer. The last time I did any serious music arrangement work regularly before the last couple of years was back in the first half of the '00s. I know where you're coming from. Technology now is at the point where I can make the kind of things I want to make easily and cheaply compared to 20+ years ago when it was all locked away in ivory towers and you couldn't just "go on YouTube to learn how to do something". If you still have a grasp of the arrangement fundamentals – and judging from your past contributions you did then and I doubt it's left you – you'll be fine. I have learned so much in the past few years through osmosis and from trying things out. That's the most important thing. Try things out. Like Zack said, join the Discord and hang out. There's usually a regular WIP commentary night called Office Hours on Wednesdays, but even outside of that, the #workshop is always active. Make stuff, see what others think.

Join the discord and mingle. Workshop is a great spot to rediscover yourself.

Just jumping in and writing is probably the best way. Work on the broad strokes of composition without focusing on details, making stuff you don't intend to polish to a 'finished product' to keep yourself familiar with tools, and possibly trying out ideas or techniques you are not as familiar with to stretch yourself. If you end up with something you particularly like the direction of, then maybe circle back to work more on it.

Absolutely 100% agreed with Argle that this mix NEEDED to exist. Loved every second!

So i happened to find THIS absouletly SLAPPING metal orchestral Remix of the Cog Dancers song. Which is not only BEAUTIFUL but it just is like a Banger! So please find a way to get this song onto the site!

@Uffe von Lauterbach No problem. There are said to have been people who once tried to create soundscapes with dodecaphonic music. ;) But maybe let's approach it according to the rules of conventional harmony. You wrote that the piece is in E flat minor. This means that the following notes occur: Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb (B), Db. An Emaj13 chord contains the following 7 notes: E, G# (Ab), B, D# (Eb), F# (Gb), A, C# (Db). This means that only 5 of these 7 notes in the chord are part of the scale. And that obviously creates this brief dissonant interlude in the soundtrack. So you can either change the chord or the key to make this little passage sound more harmonious, although I would definitely modify the chord to match the key. I created an audio sample with 4 little piano chords for ya (everything arranged from the lower to the higher notes). Chord 1 >>> your Emaj13 chord that doesn't really fit your chosen scale (just for comparison) >>> notes: E, G# (Ab), H, D# (Eb), F# (Gb), A, C# (Db) Chord 2 >>> a highly depressing chord (but fitting your scale) >>> notes: Eb, Gb, Bb, Db, F, Ab, B Chord 3 >>> a little bit less depressing chord with a tiny spark of hope (fitting your scale) >>> notes: Eb, Gb, Bb, Db, F, Ab, Db+1 (1 octave higher than the previous D) Chord 4 >>> a rather inviting chord with a slightly eerie undertone of impending death (fitting your scale) >>> notes: F, Ab, B, Eb, Gb, Bb, D# It sounds like this: Piano Chords.mp3 Perhaps you should check whether one of these three chords would be more suitable for the critical part of your track. ... Have fun and good luck with your composing. ))

Played FFV for the first time a few years ago on the ole SNES, and this jam goes so great could see myself just flying around in the airship listening to this with a nice drink and the cat on the lap and the kiddo screaming in the background throwing stuff at me.

Very fun, I started listening and right away envisioned Scarlet as the singer without knowing what track was being covered. Great stuff. 😎

I hope this starts an annuel thing (Like the Overclocked Christmas)... Last Halloween Album I downloaded from here was "Candy Corn" .... Keep up the amazing work ... Cheers!

If I do join, I'm thinking of doing "Another Winter" from Scott PIlgrim vs The World...

I agree that this subforum might be not the most appropiate if we want more people to notice the album release. After all, this is more like the place to find people interested to make something new, rather than showing the world the cool stuff that was just already done. As a former lurker in the scene (and including these forums) I might not even check here at all. But yeah, I understand the hesitance, and even more so in times when forums in general aren't as active as used to, unfortunately. So, if anything, my complain is that... why not adding the spooky front cover artwork to the first post too, instead of just the spooky Santa or whatever that creature is? :P

I didn't touch any Windows system since 2008-2009, when my transition to GNU/Linux and free software programs began. The times when Ubuntu was still good, basically. Of course my situation is kinda different, since I was not interested in music production back then (I barely started on this around 2020-2021, or arguably late 2022 - mid 2023 if you count only the serious attempts). So I hadn't any problem with any of the creative subjects or programs I was active in at the moment, as I had a proper replacement working for pretty much all programs I was used to before the transition, even if some of these weren't the most convenient. And regarding user interfaces and customizability and all that I couldn't be happier. Used to hard-closed and walled gardens all felt so fresh and so much like "my own system" in comparision... With music making, however, I was already hearing/reading comments online about how the situation on GNU/Linux and free software was still pretty rough and many steps away from other systems. So when I got into this (by totally accidental ways) in 2020 I expected the worst, but to my surprise all was a lot easier than expected. Surely a lot of stuff improved and lots of new programs, plugins, etc making life easier in comparision to 1 decade earlier. And nowadays I know of a few examples of musician doing great stuff using exclusively free software and on GNU/Linux systems. The guitarist Daniel Bautista is a good example, if anyone knows him or is curious to check. Although totally experimental and bizarre stuff I wouldn't recomend to everyone, the avant-garde band Sebkha-Chott is another curious example that also relies purely on free software for their live shows and other related stuff. So definitively things can be done, and not even needing the privative DAWs everyone is used to. And still with Reaper having its own native version and Wine working pretty well to open Windows programs, Jack as low latency sound server, etc... probably easy to do stuff without even needing to migrate regarding your favorite DAW. It's weird, as a person who was long fleeing away from the many problems of Microsoft and other "big tech" companies, to see so many people joining such campaigns precisely now, but kinda optimistic about that. Hopefully will see similar steps happening regarding the situation with Youtube and the move to free and federated alternatives instead (already started prioritizing on Peertube myself).

In theory I would love to go to Linux because of the ethos and Microsoft sucks balls, but in practice I would need to see some extensive documented setup by someone who operates very similar to me and has installed all of my big heavy hitter stuff that I can't live without (Spectrasonics, Kontakt libraries + Native Access, iLok), and it works smoothly. Bringing up these issues seems to result in 2 responses, neither of which acceptable for me... a) tear your hair trying to get specific software to work and maybe suffer with a buggy, crippled workflow, or b) abandon your expensive paid Windows exclusives and switch to native FOSS solutions. For someone starting out who doesn't mind having access to the best of the best virtual instruments I think Linux is well worth a try, but someone with $10k of Windows-based software the cost-benefit just ain't there. That said I don't have to worry until 2032 because I'm using W10 LTSC IoT. I would LOVE for Linux to pop off before then. But then again the year of the Linux desktop has been coming every year for, what, the last 30 years? It's like cold fusion lol I would very much prefer to not ever touch Windows 11, which for my music production rig it's safe until 2032 (at which point whatever horror after W11 will make W11 look like the halcyon days haha). My gaming rig, I have until next October with that and then that's gonna be a reaaally interesting choice.

Huh, WinBoat looks pretty slick. It does seem to be a full (partial?) Windows install running in a VM, with all the pros and cons of that. I wonder how on earth they manage licensing... For those of us for whom installing MS software is a complete no-go, there are some alternatives to Windows-in-a-VM, and here in the year of our lord 2025 things run surprisingly smoothly. Might be worth trying out these solutions first. Everything is based on WINE, of course, which is a Windows API emulation layer. You can use WINE by itself like a neanderthal, but it's much easier with a nice frontend. I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard good things about Bottles https://usebottles.com/ For games, the name of the game is proton, which is WINE + a DirectX translation layer. Again you can roll your own, but here you have a choice of a few frontends. If you're playing Steam games, just install Steam. Steam is Linux native and just works and so do 99% of games. By default Steam will only let you launch games that are "verified", but if you go to Settings -> Compatibility there is an option to enable Steam Play (what Valve has branded proton) for all titles. For some games you may or may not want to fiddle with running different the game with different versions of proton, but that is a game-specific setting. For non-steam games, first of all you can just add them as a Steam shortcut and run them that way. Works pretty great with things that are just distributed as a .exe inside a folder (I use it for Sonic fangames). But also, GoG, Epic, and Amazon storefronts have a frontend call Heroic Launcher which works incredibly well. It's how I played Baldur's Gate 3 and Witcher 3, both of which I have on GoG. There's also a miscellaneous game launcher called Lutris, but I haven't had much luck getting it to run anything successfully. In a certain sense that can never happen and in a certain sense it already has. We have to get our terminology straight a little. "Linux" the way we've been using it in this conversation is shorthand for a big glob of software, only one part is technically actually called "Linux". "Linux" is just the kernel of the OS, the very low-level part that talks to the hardware directly and provides APIs for applications to use computer resources (among other more technical duties like process scheduling and memory allocation). The rest of the OS is usually called "userland". Android is Linux in that it uses the Linux kernel, but the userland on top of Android is increasingly under Google's draconian control. They just announced new shenanigans about sideloading set to take place next year that people are actively protesting https://keepandroidopen.org/ In that sense, large companies have already taken over and displaced open-source software. Desktop Linux (what Stallman wants everyone to call GNU/Linux but that's also kind of not technically correct anymore) though has proven more resilient. Large corporations have tried shenanigans with desktop Linux, but every time they do, someone comes out of the woodwork and creates a new Linux distro without said shenanigans. A sort of "my own Linux, with blackjack and hookers" sort of strategy. The biggest threat to desktop Linux isn't so much corporate software meddling, but corporate hardware meddling. Microsoft continues to try to make Linux more and more difficult to install on your own hardware with "features" like Secure Boot. I worry that the almost-assuredly-impending mass migration to ARM-based PCs will be the opportunity that MS seizes to really lock down the hardware and make it impossible to install a non-Windows OS. (Even then there are companies like Raspberry Pi and Framework that will keep the torch going, but I worry that's not a self-sustaining ecosystem...)

Ha, thanks! I got more cooking 😁

My favorite thing about GSM is listening to the different takes on the sources that each team comes up, and how unique those takes are between each team. We’ve got a great spread of styles here - classic rock, electronica, emo, psytrance chiptune, doom metal, and funk!! Excellent work from both teams! 6 bangers off the rip, as is the standard 😆

Hi everyone! We're nearly there, folks! Today I'll be sending everyone the version of their track that's to be on the album, after any mastering/clean-up/balancing I've done to them! This is to ensure artists are 100% happy with the final product, before I send a zipped file of the tracks to my website team to get them up and on there in time for the 31st of Oct! Be on the lookout for my DMs/PMs either through Discord or on the forums soon! ♥ Can't wait to show people how cool they all sound! \o/

I aim to misbehave.

I'm going to throw out the other option that I went with: Windows 10 LTSC IoT. You have to deal with purchasing a grey market key, as this is not technically meant for home users. Then you have to find a full ISO as the trial ISO from MS can't be upgraded to the full version without a lot of headache. Finding it is not hard but that may or may not be a deal breaker for you. But it's Win10 (with some of the unnecessary fluff stripped out) that will keep receiving updates until 2032. (!!) I recently migrated from 10 Pro to 10 LTSC IoT and all of my music software works fine. The only downside is since it's a version of Windows 10 that's basically be frozen in time in the past, other than security updates, new software could theoretically not work on it. But all of my stuff (including Kontakt 8) installed no problem, and I have a ton of VSTs.

Happy to see this on the front page!

Epic Idk how this all works I just made my account

I've listened this a couple of times now, and this is a nice arrangement of some great remixes, with some very fine transitions. That transition from "You and I" into "Fathoms" is particularly smooth.

LOL

By the way, I forgot to mention what really good soundtracks the Dissidia Final Fantasy series had to offer. As this is one of the core topics on OC Remix, I just wanted to share a few outstanding Dissidia soundtracks that I remember particularly well (I tried to get some high quality versions of the soundtracks that might not have always the English title in the video link - but I will provide a proper translation of the song titles in my text): 1) Prelude (or rather "Prelude - menu -", a remix of the famous opening theme that shows up in kinda every Final Fantasy game in many different versions) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In my opinion, it's one of the best Final Fantasy Prelude themes ever composed. But there are many further arrangements of themes in the Dissidia games that might sound very familar to you. 2) Sprouting (or rather "Sprouting - arrange -", a really nice arrangement of a well-known track from Final Fantasy 10) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beautiful soundtracks like these can be heard in the first two Dissidia games (this one is from the very first Dissidia Final Fantasy game), for example, when you play the story mode for a certain character in the dungeons or on the overworld. You'll even have to play the stories for the individual heroes from the various Final Fantasy parts several times, because there's a lot to discover, unlock and buy (from what I remember, apart from new characters or antagonists from the Final Fantasy series, new outfits and original soundtracks, there are also things like new weapons and equipment, rare items, espers that can support you in battle, etc.), depending on how well you play the dungeons in the story mode. The bonus stuff you get at the end of a dungeon depends on how well, tactically clever and in how many moves or with how many points you complete the dungeons. But you also want to explore the dungeon on the first try to get all the visible and also pretty valueable treasures in there. However, anyone who thinks that the game is already over after completing the prologue and the character-related story parts is very much mistaken. That's when the interesting part of Dissidia's story really starts, which unfolds in further, non-character-related story complexes, where you also have a free choice of character, if I remember correctly. 3) Battle 1 (or "Battle 1 - arrange -", an arrangement of the Final Fantasy 9 standard battle theme) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since the Dissidia games (at least the first two parts) are story-based beat 'em ups, you will of course listen to a lot of pretty cool battle and boss battle theme arrangements during the fights. 4) The Decisive Battle (or "The Decisive Battle - arrange -", an arrangement of the boss battle theme from Final Fantasy 6) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is the arrangement of a famous and pretty driving boss battle theme you know from Final Fantasy 6. ... But there are also possibilities to unlock some original themes from the Final Fantasy series as well and listen to them in some sort of a jukebox or during battles, for example: 5) Omen (or "Omen - original -", the legendary opening theme from Final Fantasy 6) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Even as an original theme from the past days, this composition still has its charme. 6) The Landing (or "The Landing - original -", a theme from Final Fantasy 8 that plays the first time during the attack on Dollet) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is one of my favourite themes from Final Fantasy 8. For those who don't know, there was an early version of this theme called "Raid on Dollet" for an official demo (I think it still was in the PC version of the game I bought as a present for a friend back then), but it was obviously removed due to some similarities to a soundtrack from the movie "The Rock" - I assume they mean the soundtrack called "Hummel Gets the Rockets" (the part after minute 0:51, for example): ... But in Dissidia Final Fantasy, you also have a lot of really dynamic and soulful arrangements, for example the following two tracks: 7) A Moment of Rest ------------------------------------ On the first sight, this kinda sad piano composition seems to be a new soundtrack exclusively composed for Dissidia Final Fantasy. But it's an arrangement of the Game Over theme from the very first Final Fantasy. 8) Find Your Way (or "Find Your Way - arrange -", an arrangement of a Final Fantasy 8 theme) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I really love the mystical vibe in this arrangement of a well-known Final Fantasy 8 soundtrack. This one is from Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy (spoken "Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy"). ... There also some really good soundtracks that were exclusively composed for the Dissidia Final Fantasy series, for example: 9) Cosmos ------------------- This is the theme of Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, who opposes Chaos, the god of discord. She is supported by the Warrior of the Light and the other heroes from the different Final Fantasy series, while Chaos rather brings the villains and antagonists of the Final Fantasy series into the battle. 10) The Messenger --------------------------------- I can't really remember at which point this soundtrack plays in the game. But since it has a similar compositional structure (just in the form of a heavy rock version) and a similar spiritual message like the Cosmos theme, I think this could be a soundtrack related to Chaos. 11) Massive Explosion (Arcade Version - or "Massive Explosion - arcade -", a soundtrack from the arcade game version of the new Dissidia Final Fantasy from 2015, which was later ported to PS4 and got the game title "Dissidia Final Fantasy NT" that also included this version of the song) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The name of the track might sound like a movie title from the kinky hardcore porn movie corner. But in fact, it's one of the heavier Dissidia Final Fantasy NT hard rock tunes I really love. 12) Massive Explosion (Arranged Version - or "Massive Explosion - arrange -") ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In addition to a few other interesting versions (also some really good instrumental arrangements) of this track, this one was exclusively composed for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. For the vocal part in this version of the soundtrack, the game developers have apparently even hired a real opera singer, namely the Jamaican-Indian lyric soprano singer Nadine Benjamin. There's also a really epic strings version with vocals of this theme in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT: ... To summarize, you could say that the Dissidia Final Fantasy games are worth it just for the excellent soundtracks alone. But the story, the really good fusion of beat 'em up and convincing RPG elements as well as the extremely large amount of content, bonus content and unlockables (especially in the first two Dissidia games) make this game series an extremely worthy and extraordinary Final Fantasy spin-off. So I would be really happy if a next-gen title of this series in the style of the first two Dissidia games were to be released for Playstation 5 sometime in the near future.