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Well. I can definitely say I have been surprised.

This is a high energy song from the first parasite eve. I'm actually kind of surprised it's not been remixed here yet. I would like to see a higher energy, heavier bass remix of the song, but honestly, I'd be happy with any genre.

I thought the movie was good, but not great. Some of the things I had problems with (Rey being stupid-good at the Force despite having zero training and only knowing she was Force sensitive for like 20 minutes) other people had already mentioned, but one thing that bothered me no one else has brought up yet. None of the main characters feel very heroic. Okay, well, there is Poe, but he doesn't get much screen time. Finn is a good guy but would rather run than fight. Rey is a good person as well, but is more worried about getting back to Jakku than anything else. Both of them had the potential to suck it up and sign on with the Resistance, but neither actually does it. Finn was all ready to leave and do his own thing, but makes a detour to save Rey after she's captured. He helps the Resistance because that will lead to Rey getting rescued, and actually lies to them in order to make sure that he can rescue her. He might have changed his mind by the end, but he's unconscious by that point so we don't know what he thinks. Rey gets pulled into the conflict by Finn (the stormtroopers see them together when they're after him, which he points out makes her a target too), tries her best to stay alive without getting any of her friends killed, consciously rejects the idea of becoming a jedi and fighting the First Order and mostly just wants to go home, but she's captured and spends most of the rest of the movie escaping. There's the bit where she goes to find Luke at the end, but honestly given that there's no dialogue it's impossible to say why exactly she's doing it. (To bring him back to help the Resistance and save the galaxy? To get answers about the visions she had? To embrace her destiny and train as a jedi? To get his help in healing Finn? Because he's her father? To return his lightsaber to him so she doesn't have to carry it around anymore?) Han is deliberately avoiding the Resistance (and has been for years, apparently) and even when he does get involved again, it's clear that his relationship with Leia and his son are his real motives (and what he's been running from until then) rather than any particular calling to help the Resistance or fight the First Order. None of these would have been problematic on their own, but when every main character is like that, it leaves things feeling a little flat. If either Finn or Rey had been eager to sign on with the Resistance and fight the First Order (thus leading the other to do the same because they're important to each other), then it would have solved the problem. But they don't, so it seems like they end up being heroes basically by accident instead of because they're heroic characters. Now, things that were really good: The dynamic between Finn and Poe was fantastic. The (sadly few) scenes where they're on-screen together are some of the best in the film (even the "Damn, that's one badass pilot" scene where Finn is watching Poe from the ground without realizing who it is). The return of Han Solo was great, and they really nailed the sense of "older and wiser, but still getting himself into trouble". Harrison Ford's wisecracking was amusing without being overdone. Finn and Rey were both well-acted. My issues with their character arcs aside, I have no problems with the way their dialogue was written or executed. I see what some people mean about Finn being Jar-Jar light (he's certainly not as smooth as other Star Wars protagonists), but I disagree with that characterization. Seeing him get flustered made for an interesting contrast to the other main characters, who are generally unflappable. On the same note, the relationship between Finn and Rey was also done well. They clearly care for each other, and it was developed much better than the standard "love at first sight" or "I publically hate you but secretly love you". Things that were less good: I didn't particularly care for the performances by Poe or Kylo. They weren't horrible, but they weren't especially compelling, either. (Except when Poe was with Finn, anyway.) Kylo wasn't especially impressive as a villain in general. They humanized him too much, too quickly. If you want a villain to carry a movie like that, then he needs to be a genuinely impressive threat. Instead he gets beaten up by a wookiee, an ex-stormtrooper, and a girl with Force sensitivity but not an ounce of training. Really, the whole climactic duel with Kylo (and Han's death preceding it) feels like it should have been the end of the second movie, a la Luke vs Vader at Cloud City. Without the first act building up the character, it felt like a bit of a letdown. They kept it a bit too close to the original trilogy at times. We start on a desert planet that's not Tatooine, after the band of plucky do-gooders that's not the Rebellion gets some important information that's not the Death Star plans and sticks it in a droid that's not R2 because the rebel that's not Princess Leia is about to be captured by the evil force user that's not Darth Vader. The droid ends up with the skilled pilot local kid who's not Luke, who ends up having to leave the planet after stormtroopers chase them off on the Millennium Falcon. The middle bits (first with Han and Chewie, then with the old-lady alien) were great; they hit the Star Wars feel perfectly without seeming derivative... then it's back to rehashing the attacks on the Death Star -- launching from the no-longer-secret Rebel Resistance base to attack the superweapon's weak point with X-wings and blow it up before it can destroy the Resistance base's planet, while another team does a ground assault to bring down the shields and make it vulnerable.

Fantastic playing here. The arrangement is very nice and detailed. You can feel some emotion throughout the track, and it's crazy how a single instrument can do that. Some parts reminded me of Kingdom Hearts (Destiny Islands). Something not unique by its genre, but by its execution.

It's also for us to want to go back and play the games the music came from and appreciate Mr. Iwata's contributions. @Brandon Strader I've got more than a few items from OCRemix's back catalog in my Nintendo music playlist, appropriately titled... "Iwata Jams".

It's fixed, but should take a few hours to update on YouTube. Thanks!

http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01511 This song has a youtube thumbnail from a different game.

I love the original 'Parasite Eve' soundtrack and I'd really enjoy hearing more arrangements from this game on OCR too. 'Plosive Attack' is, indeed, a very powerful track that just screams to be remixed: Hope someone will take care of it very soon ^^

Voted. Difficult, nearly 1abc and d, but that's a good problem to have! I was a little nervous about if AoeII were too obscure or different, but it got one more entry than my last pick.

yeah it's totally disappointing that they didn't waste time explaining this totally mundane thing for needlessly fastidious people, what a bad movie, ugh

Package came in the mail today. Got some guitar strings I've never tried before from whoever my secret santa is. Thanks! They will definitely be used! and yes, I tried to use the receipt to figure out who you are but to no avail. :/

You sir for the record blew me away. Now if i can only find a controller for the big one. Mine is nowhere near as impressive to my recipent. But it worked well last year, so i'm ready to try it again. =)

I liked this movie but I don't like that it was basically Episode IV, Again

I was initially disappointed in the somewhat lower than expected amount of comments and reviews for this album. But after a while I starting to think about it. Maybe doing an album like this isn't about accolades and praise. Maybe it isn't something we did, so we could pat ourselves on the backs and say "we did it". Maybe it isn't for others to compliment and rate. It isn't a lot of things. But I do know what it is for. It's for a man that isn't here to listen to it. It's for his fans to reminisce his work. It's for his legacy. And maybe... maybe that's all it needs to be.