Leaderboard

i love the bitcrushing that eino uses on the drums in several of his tracks. it's just such an iconic sound. it's used to great effect here. combined with the heavy stuttering on the backing parts, there's a great glitchy vibe that comes through here. the lead has a lot of activity on it, which is nice, and it's also actively personalized with some fun call-and-response harmonic content, so that's nice. i didn't like that the first third or so mirrored the second third quite a bit, and to that extent the repetitive nature of the background that MW called out is noticeable. the break at 2:15 in the general concept is needed and well-timed. there's some more background breaks via subtractive arrangement that show up around 3:00, and that's a nice change as well. some more noodles in the leads and glitches in the backing parts, and the track is done. mastering is sound and the track sounds great overall. the arrangement is certainly different from the original if repetitive. i think this is solid. nice work eino. YES

Source usage is definitely not a concern anymore. Nice industrial backdrop. I do find that backdrop to be quite repetitive, though. It's complex and interesting, but it basically never lets up. It gets morphed during the the middle section (2:15-2:39), and a few moments at the end, but even for few seconds, its essential character is unchanged. Fortunately, the track isn't terribly long. I'm not super happy with the static backing, but I don't think it's quite a dealbreaker. Otherwise, the track is creative and engaging. YES (borderline)

Now that we have the correct mix to judge, let's go. Source is now clear as day! Super interesting sound palette and easy-going spacey vibe. I can almost see this theme working for the final part of the game where Link and Zelda chase down the demon trains in the Dark Realm. In fact I think this arrangement would fit even better than the actual theme the game used, which in my opinion always felt like it didn't fit with the rest of the OST. Production on this mix is terrific, cohesive and interesting arrangement, love it. YES

There's a more serious tone to the arrangement, but does so without making the theme feel dark. Some nice weight to the bass writing, which established a nice groove. Good depth to the soundscape; everything sounds full, and I enjoyed how various lines would trail off. Oooh, nice ending too; it can come off as too sudden, but I dug that last set of stabs, as it were, which was a nice surprise. Glad you picked this one back up; I always trust your work, Eino, so I'm glad you found the creativity and confidence to get this to a point where you were happy with it. CHOO CHOO