SwordBreaker

Must've taken a long time to make this a reality. Hats off to Larry for going through all the trouble. It'll take me awhile to appreciate this as I already downloaded many tracks and have my iTunes arranged the way I want it.

Very talented performance. Intro had a few off key moments, but it was smooth sailing after that. Yeah, it sticks to the original and is a medley, both of which are un-OCR-like...but I do agree with the fact that there's a lot of personality in the performance itself. It doesn't sound like a rigid straight forward cover to me. To have all five co-ordinate their performances live is very daunting. Also, Xylophone/Marimba is very fresh around these parts. Not familiar with the latter instrument, but I do know that DrumUltima is the only one who does Xylophone VG Remixes so seeing someone else follow that is definitely a plus. I especially enjoyed the NSMB part of the mix. Really good playing there. Although I don't see myself listening to this track often in the near future as it's not my cup of tea, I was impressed.

The Egyptians love using this instrument in weddings and celebrations. Even some mainstream songs have it. I think it's Turkish in origin though. Immediately gives a Middle Eastern vibe.

Really happy for Luiza. Definitely one of my favorite remixers and deserves the best. Great work as usual. As an Arab, I can say that the Middle Eastern influence mid-track is spot on. While it's a weird mesh of genres at first, it definitely holds up well. I'm a fan of organ snyth and funky electric guitars.

Very catchy. The synth here is groovy. Dang it. Now I gotta catch up with all the NT music! That was really cool and weird. Whatever post-processing the composer has on the lead violin is sweet.

I hated Network Transmission's Gameplay back in the day so I barely remember the OST. That good, eh? I do recognize Ayako Saso though. She (He?) made an AWESOME remix of Big Blue for the F-Zero AX/GX soundtrack, so I'll need to give the Network Transmission OST a listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZKeClQ6quI

I just wish they could releases this stuff overseas. Digital downloads. iTunes. Anything. Would definitely buy them. It would make a good way to celebrate the 25th Anniversary if they bundle these albums under one release or something.

That is so bluesy. Makes sense considering...you know...it basically has Blues/Protoman's theme integrated. Love the vocals!

I'm most likely the one who requested Baten Kaitos on your YouTube page. Yeah. I get ya. Perhaps OCR's standards don't fit your style of remixing currently. Either way, don't let it bother you much. You guys are doing a heck of a job. Plus, you have DOD as a current outlet. Maybe later you'd like to try making an OCR-style track if you have the time. BTW, the project I'm running has expanded to include all games from Tri-Ace and Tri-Crescendo not just Baten Kaitos, which includes hits from the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Proifle series. Hit me up with a PM if you have the time. In the meantime, keep doing what you're doing.

While Mega Man games are nowhere to be seen, Japan's going all out with the music. Recently released are two back-to-back albums, rock and techno-flavored...which may grab the interest of this community. It has a lot of well known composers contributing, including Hitoshi Sakamoto. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeWZpoyqRYI&feature=share&list=PLoAc5hlnzY8_d7WYcdyw1grMpZt6KlIxn Most of the tracks in the rock album are quite interpretive, steering away from the source a lot. I especially love what was done with the Splash Woman remix...now that's something I can see posted on OCR for example. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoAc5hlnzY8-K84KPVL_t3-nGr0IQafBK&feature=plpp Here's the techno playlist. Not really digging it yet, but Wily's Stage from Mega Man 2 is pretty good. Let's throw this one in for good measure. Released last year, I was thoroughly surprised by this album. It's called We Are Rockmen and has music spanning from the original MM games to the X series. Very, very good tracks. Listen to the Armored Armadillo take. EPIC. The reason why I'm mentioning this album is because they're releasing a follow-up in one month in honor of the 25th Anniversary. Thoughts? Discuss! Also link your favorite tracks out of these albums.

I've been following you guys since your Duet of Ninjas debut on DoD. Keep on pumping out these awesome acoustics! Also, you guys should start subbing your stuff to OCR and participating in projects. I know one which needs a pair like you (coughshamelesspromotioncough).

I really enjoyed Mario Sunshine as well. It's a unique entry and the FLOOD/Water mechanics were fun to use. It's one of the very few GameCube games which used the L/R double triggers effectively and it felt very nice doing so. The levels without the waterpack were insanely cool and difficult. I remember being so frustrated finishing up those. My only criticism to Sunshine is its abundance of Blue Coins scattered around the worlds. It's the dumbest and most frustrating collectable in the history of the series. You literally had to splash every single conspicuous thing so you can obtain all the blue coins. The problem is...they're mandatory for 100% completion. If there was an alternative use for them other than getting shines, I would see no problems. But because they're needed to obtain all the shines, I obviously couldn't find them all in my first run...and I was as sure as hell not going to backtrack through all the worlds just to find the remaining few I skipped. So I finished the game at 117 Shines I believe. Maybe if we were given any hints or a blue coin tracker upon completion, I would forgive the game for it.

Devil May Cry 2. Man...to think that a sequel to a great game would be this bad? Other than fluid new moves for Dante, everything else about this game sucked. Final Fantasy XIII, for reasons the world knows why by now. I played it for 30 hours...felt dis-attached from everything except for the good battle system. Star Ocean 3. One of the first PS2 games announced yet arrived much later than usual. I was hyped by the initial batch of screenshots. Coming fresh out of the epic that's Star Ocean 2, I expected a lot out of this game...I just couldn't get into it after 10 hours of play. Additionally, over the years the infamous plot twist has been spoiled for me. The worst cop-out ever in the series! I really did like Star Ocean 4 though despite the negativity it received. A lot better than SO3 in my opinion. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Very disappointing from my end. I expected a lot more. I actually liked Mario 2 and Zelda II. They were really well developed despite the shocking change in gameplay mechanics. They were the good kinds of black sheep games in my opinion.

Wow. I admit that I'm not following his solo independent releases, but that was insanely cool! Synthing his way through as usual. BTW, wonder if any of you guys seen his live performances with his bandmates? This is my absolute favorite part: The bass solo is just freakin' cool! And Sakuraba comes in toward the end. Pure bliss.

Agreed with the general consensus. I don't know who in OCR would not like FF music, but in general most fans of the series should be fans of the music too. They're inseparable in my opinion. I also want to download all the DLC. I have Cosmo Canyon so far. Most of the tracks are exciting, particularly Sonmus; I was surprised to see that in the list since Versus hasn't been released yet. But I LOVE that track.

I'm surprised that I couldn't find a dedicated thread to this game on OCR. My initial reaction was, "Man, Final Fantasy is stooping to new lows." But then, I played it. Wow. This is just a love letter to Nobuo Uematsu and fans of Final Fantasy music. It's basically made for communities like OCR. They visualized the various soundtracks quite well in the game. Keeps you on your toes with various hand-eye-ear co-ordination as you tap & slide your way through the notes of some of the best game music ever. I found myself acing and loving the music I'm very familiar with, particularly over-world notes. The difficulty scales up quite well depending on the song and choice of which notes you would like to tackle. In the harder difficulties, some tracks put notes out that I initially didn't pay attention to, especially battle music. The transition from melodies to background harmonies during the song is jarring at first, but that's what makes it so cool and special. In addition to all of that, the RPG aspects are really cool and addictive. A lot of the favorites make in the game. I never expected to see Dancing Mad though as it is quite a long track. Sadly, it's the abridged version...not the entire song, but still the longest track in the game. Takes some time to unlock though. DLC tracks are also good choices. Nintendo really needs to take notes from theatrhythm and celebrate their own music in a game similar to it. Definitely a must play for VGM communites like OCR.

So Ergosonic thankfully has joined in the fun. He's going to arrange Bellflower & Gentle Wind from Baten Kaitos into a medley. I can't wait for the results as both are my favorite tracks in the series. This hopefully signals the responses to the invites I've been sending. It's looking good so far.

My problem is that I'm pretty nostalgic about Sonic Adventure 2, particularly the splitscreen Battle multiplayer. Sucks that it's 5$ extra DLC, but I used to love playing it with my friends. Maybe I'll go for NIGHTS for now and wait until they drop the price with SA2.

I never owned a Saturn, but I played the original Nights at my buddy's who did own one...many, many years ago. I thought it was an awesome game, and the controls really impressed me. I see that the HD Port just got released on PSN from my end. One problem; Sega simultaneously released Sonic Adventure 2 HD in the same day as well! Each is 9$ a pop. Not sure if I'll download both in one go or wait for a price drop or something. I'm really itching to play each game.

Makes sense to tread these grounds carefully. Good luck!

Man, I don't want to jinx this project, but there's some insane support going on right now. 62K is an EPIC number, and there's still 27 days to go. I honestly thought that the relaunch will hit a roadblock because of the debacle the first one had, but I think that by now it'll definitely break the record of the first one and then some! Keep up the pace, guys. So...any other surprise stretch goals planned?

Well, I pledged 50$ just as before. Hope that stretch goal is reached. Looks like all your bases are belong to Square-Enix (couldn't resist that joke). Good luck!

Indeed. Going for another round of invites and will hopefully get some awesome response. Bahamut tipped me off to a bunch of remixers. You guys can do whatever you can to promote the project too. The concept is just too good to pass up!

You guys are going to kill me for this, but I'm forced to change the direction of the project (again) due to low interest. Thought long and hard and decided that this is the best course of action. I tried following the OCR guidelines in having a project concept, but certain limitations turn off a lot of people. So instead, I'm keeping the tracklist open to choices by the remixer within one unified concept: games composed by Motoi Sakuraba under the guise of Tri-Ace and Tri-Crescendo. That's all you need to do; pick and chose from the many tracks under this banner. The first post has been edited to reflect this major change. New sigbanners coming soon.

Glad I'm not the only one hearing things. This remix immediately gives me the vibe of "I belong to you" and "fly away". The acoustic version of the latter in particular has a lot of mirrors to this song and the vocal style. Makes me wonder if the remixer is influenced by Kravitz.