ZealPath

Mine finally came in yesterday, definitely worth the wait! I'll post some more once it's all had a chance to sink in, disc art is pretty awesome though!

That was pretty awesome. That is all.

Just wait till you you play X-2 then (then again, you may not want to go down that road)

Same ;x Living outside of the US rarely pays off when it comes to shipping, soon I hope.. soooon!

I found 10 to be a decent game, in hindsight, some of what made it seem like a good game were the features new to PS2 games, like the full-on voice acting and very high quality graphics. The battle system was probably it's strongest point, the turn based system had some dynamic elements which added a layer of strategizing that isn't present in most FF combat systems. The sphere grid was an interesting character development system, like virtually all FF development systems, if you took it too far, everyone could do everything but, but achieving this would take a lot of time. As always I'd have preferred something that didn't let you buff characters to the point of trivializing many things, but that is hardly a new thing in FF games. The soundtrack I actually like a lot, although I will agree that it is for the most part "detached." It is very atmospheric, and a major departure from any of the previous soundtracks (Uematsu was involved, but so were 2 other composers whose names I do not recall atm). I find the music to be much less in your face and just good as background music, which for me, I actually prefer. The combat songs are among my favorite of any FF game, although even they are a little less in your face (with some exceptions, hello Seymour Battle). One thing it does not skimp on is optional content. The "Final Weapons" quests are extremely difficult, and there are enough optional side bosses in the arena to make having them worthwhile. If all you're going to do is play through the game for the story, then yeah, I dunno how impressed you'll be. If you end up enjoying the combat system, and like hunting around to get every little thing, there is a fair amount here to keep you entertained.

Dare I even suggest Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon? Great album, if for some reason you haven't already been exposed to it.

Really diggin' this one. I don't generally download mixes from games I've never played before (I remember being mildly curious about Pilotwings back in the day, but never did try it), but this mix is continued proof of the fact that I should probably just download everything, I clearly don't know what I'm missing. Normally I like to comment on how a mix compares to the original, this time I'm just going to have to say I really enjoy this track. Very upbeat, a little more jazzy than I might have expected from a "flying theme" but it certainly goes down smoothly. The variations with the piano and synth are really awesome, this won't be leaving my regular playlist for a while. Time to check out the rest of the Pilotwings soundttrack...

Finally a podcast I might actually want to listen to! I will definitely check this out soon.

So many albums, so little time, I can't imagine I wouldn't enjoy this, what to do, what to dooo.

Very interesting idea, an album that is not based on a single game, definitely different and exciting. It will be fun to see how this plays out. This may not be the most original suggestion, but when it comes to Ice Dungeons, Secret of Mana's "A Bell is Tolling" is certainly the first track that comes to mind for me. Now with Meridian Dance already in play, maybe another SoM track is out of the question, I don't know, but I thought it was worth suggesting either way (after re-reading the original post, it seems like this is definitely out of the question, so oh well, moving on...). Barring that, there is always "Dungeon of Ice" from FF: Mystic Quest (yes, MQ, try to hold back your laughter, please). Not a bad track in my opinion, also an untapped source at the moment, although I know that MQ is held in contempt by a lot of people. It may not have been the best game by a long shot, but the soundtrack was at least passable. Another possibility would be "Ice Caverns" from FFIX. This is actually a pretty catchy track, though it sounds a little less "icy" than some other themes out there (and let's face it, icy themes are actually pretty common). That doesn't mean someone couldn't do something very cool with it though! For Final Dungeon, I'm gonna suggest "Final Dungeon" (what an original title) from FFVI purely because it has had no mixes done of it yet that I'm aware of, and I think if properly done this could be pretty awesome. Another one I like is "Platinum Shrine" from Brainlord, now that's going off the map... very catchy track though, if anyone played that game. Realistically speaking, there are a lot of very cool final dungeon themes out there though, and it won't be easy to decide on just one.

Although it was a little strange to see this posted so long after DQD's release, I certainly can't let this one go by without showing it some love. As mentioned in the writeup, "The Healer Stalks" is a very boring source, personally I would say it's probably easily the most boring song between both the Doom I and II soundtracks, yet this track does so much to make it interesting again. That same "boring" melody is there for most of the track, but the key here is that this mix varies things up quite a bit throughout, something the source was very much unable to do. The result is an upbeat, catchy track that was definitely one of my favorites from DQD, and, seemingly late as it may be, I am definitely glad to see it stand on it's own now.

haha, well don't worry, I liked what you did as well! On top of that I have to give you props for being able to pretend you're Zeromus and give it all you've got, that has to take some doing. That goes for anyone doing lyrics on this or any mix that are supposed to be in character btw, I know it probably feels like a stretch when you're singing it but hey, they turned out pretty well! I think for me, I found the singing a little more unique since we've had a few growling mixes lately (and particularly liked the short parts that were sung in unison), but both versions of the Final Battle are pretty sweet as far as I'm concerned. I like Aubri's comparison to the Black Mages' Darkness & Starlight as well, good call, I get a similar vibe. I think this probably resonates a little more since it's in english, which obviously helps.

I remember hearing the WIP of this quite a while ago and didn't even realize it was the same song till I went back and checked. This may not be reaching any new creative highs, but it's still a very solid orchestral rendition of a song that's seen many mixes over the years. It's Mega Man 2, Wily Stage 1, Orchestral version. And it's pretty friggen sweet, nice job!

I really like the quiet, almost curious atmosphere of the intro. This is definitely a somewhat different take on the source, which has certainly seen it's share of mixing over the years. This would make a great track for so many movie intros, and things of that nature. This piece starts so softly it almost creeps up on you, the other day I queued it up and when it started I almost didn't notice (in a good way) as it subtly began. I really think this style suits the source, even if it changes the feel a little bit (that's what mixing is all about anyway), and really worked well. Towards the end the source creeps away a little bit but there's room for some creativity here. Awesome debut mix, hope we see more!

Listened to the previews, and decided this was definitely for me! Not a huge surprise I guess, I liked Thai Guy, I like the OneUps, and now, I shall enjoy Chononotorious, at least... as soon as it arrives. I don't think I've paid for an arrangement album since the PMM days, but hey, I can deal with $10 (ok, it was more like 15 Canadian, but I'll still live) for what I was hearing in those previews (actually nevermind, I got the OneUps volume 2 last year, so that wasn't that long ago at all!). Looking forward to hearing the finished product!.

Pretty friggen cool, very interesting idea!!

I'm not sure the musical aspect meant a whole lot to me, but I REALLY feel like playing some Tetris now! This is not necessarily a bad thing!

Thanks for the lyrics! Just to add something else meaningful, I have to say I'm really enjoying some of the bonus tracks now, especially Phantom of the Zeromus, and I Love this Radio. I really only went through the bonus tracks once initially, but there are some definite gems now that I've started to spend more time with them. The clash between the growling Zeromus in Genesis of Destruction, versus the opera like, almost too proper Zeromus in Phantom makes the two songs seem completely different even though they are very similar aside from this difference. I can fully understand why Genesis was used as the album track but I really think the opposing male and female singing voices in Phantom worked awesomely, and even created an interesting harmony at times. It's certainly staying in my head more than Genesis did (and how can anyone not love the "NO... GET BACK!!" part). I Love this Radio is very unique, it was very nice to get a rendition of Theme of Love that kinda threw the original atmosphere of the song out of the door and just had fun with it. This track just kinda plays with the melody, creating a catchy groove that I've been having a hard time getting out of my head as well. The ending with the "radio" sort of sputtering out was a nice touch. This track for me, is basically the equivalent of the Still Alive tune you hear on those radios in Portal, for FFIV... I know people here played Portal so that shouldn't be too obscure a reference. Anyway, it's clearly time for me to do a track by track review, I just have to to find the appropriate method of doing so as there's no way it's going to fit into a single post.

My brother thought it was "I Want Milk" too at first, I guess it does kind of sound like that if there's no context, mind you, the metal style of the song should be context enough. Anyone have the full lyrics for "Rhymes with Elixir"? Been having a lot of fun with this song but there are some parts I can't quite make out lyrically.

This is actually really cool, I always liked Hyrule Symphony, I can only imagine how weirded out I would have been if I'd stumbled upon this randomly and heard the sample. Wonder how long it would have taken me to put two and two together... Nice find!

WoW and FFXI are basically apples and oranges imo. FFXI is an old school MMO which is clearly based on the model of the original EverQuest, which is basically, go out and kill stuff, do the odd quest, and kill some tougher raid type mobs for the best loot. A tooooooon of your time is spent just grinding on the same mobs over and over again, and quests do not give experience points. WoW is more like EQ2, do a shitload of quests, in some cases, the same ones over and over, and you'll level up. Now, presumably in doing many of these quests you'll also be killing things, but generally speaking, these things are easily soloable regardless of class (whereas if you wanted good exp in say FFXI, you want a party of 6). FFXI has actually tried to add something like this (it's called Fields of Valor), but it isn't really anywhere near as developed as what you have in EQ2 or WoW. A lot of this is major generalization, but the way I see it, we have the casual friendly games, and the not-quite-so casual friendly games. The casual friendly ones are loaded with simple quests and generally easier to level up in, while the others are a little more focused on grouping/grinding to accomplish your goals. They all share the concept of raiding to acquire high end loot, with some of the progression techniques more interesting than others. I prefer the oldschool type game a lot more, which is probably why I'm still playing FFXI, but I certainly got enjoyment out of EQ2 when I played it, just not in the same way I enjoyed EQ1. A lot of people, most people I would say, are the opposite, and just want to come home from work and do some quests and make meaningful progress without having to look for a party or whatever, hence the overall popularity of a game like WoW (in short, play what you like, and if you think something sucks, that's fine, we probably don't care though). So to get back to FFXIV, it seems they are stepping away from grinding, if nothing else. I don't think anyone truly enjoys grinding so that's cool, for me, I just hope it's somewhere between hardcore group only grinding and painfully easy quests anyone can solo.

This was the case years ago but hasn't been for quite a while, the game is much much friendlier about allowing players to return now, and even has a year-round character reactivation service to help people get back up and running. What happens now is if you de-activate your characters, they'll remain re-activateable for 10 months, after which you'll need to use the reactivation service to get them restored (which is still pretty bad compared to most other mmos, but infinitely better than their old 3 month rule). One thing that always confused people with FFXI is that your PlayOnline account itself is free, and only when you add services (in this case, FFXI characters) will you incur charges. Therefore there is never any real reason to close one's PlayOnline account, and doing so could make you unable to get your characters back (although the reactivation service may address this as well, I'm not sure).

Just as long as this is bumped, I might as well throw my 2 cents in about a mix I have liked for a while but never did get to the review thread on. I fully agree with djp's assessment of how this mix conveys a sense of traveling. I get a very clear vision of flying (obviously that comes from the fact that it's a mix of one of flammie's tracks), but on a much grander scale than just the world of SoM. I can clearly see a vast ocean through the clouds below me, and an island somewhere in the distance. Lyrics can often go both ways with me, but I really like their use in this case, they carry the song without distracting too much from the excellent instrumention for a blend of well, pure awesomeness!

Not what I was expecting at all, based on "Eat your own dust," but this is really nice to listen to for a completely different reason, waaaay chill! I can always use some more chillout type music so this is definitely a welcome addition for me. Definitely doesn't sound like it would be out of place in an icy area, so I'm board with that vibe too. Normally I like to compare mixes to the source but since I've never played GX, I'm just gonna have to go with I like it, I'm keeping it, and keep on doin' what ya do!

As someone who still plays FFXI pretty much every day, I can't really let this one go by without a comment. Although I generally only turn my music on for new mission stuff these days, the sources used were instantly recognizable to me and I think this was very well done. I like the piano usage in the middle, and the blending of the two source tracks worked out pretty seemlessly. When I saw "Dawn," I was hoping this would be a mix of the Promathia Battle theme, but hey, I'll take this too!