OCR00343 - Dragon Warrior "Timeless"

[Saunders]

Dragon Warrior 'Timeless'

Must say that I really liked this song. The strange flute sample at the beginning was really cool, and even though I never played the game myself (my parents did though!) I remembered the tune as soon as it started up. Love it when the drums and background beat kick in. Eventually after that, there's some deep warm strings that kick in. Great tune. I really liked it.

[skawttieboy]

The flute is what completes this wholllle piece....couldn't have picked a better instrument. Especially for a game like Dragon Warrior...it sets the stage for what is an excellent remix! Great job!

[Elvenstar!]

One of the better remixes on this site (IMHO). Does everything right for me.

[LibertyCabbage]

the drums kick in just at the right time, as does the flute... a well timed song... its good that he kept it short, as opposed to Ghetto Lee Lewis who did the same theme but almost 6 minutes long... nice, concentrated, I like it

[OceansAndrew]

A bit repetative early on, there is a decent amount of variation from the source, with some synth guitar counterpoint and a slightly expanded chord progression. The sounds are pretty midiesque, though the flute is nice, if not a bit too loud.

The drums are nice, but sound like a pasted on loop, and finally at the halfway point, the theme switches to a variation sans the melody. It's pretty welcome when it does arrive, but it would have been much more welcome much earlier in the song.

The slight fade at the end leaving an exposed guitar is a cool idea, but just when it is getting started, the song ends. A shame, really, because it was my favorite part of the mix.

[DragonAvenger]

I don't like how rigid everything is when it starts. Once the drums kick in it sounds better, but before that it's too mechanical to me.

A bit repetitive, I think more could have been done with this. As OA said, the fade to guitar is nice, but that could have been a lead-in to something else. The song ends way too early.

Love this melody though, and I enjoy the mix.

[Eino Keskitalo]

The combination of the flute, strings and the beat isn't bad as an idea, and the melody is intresting. Like OA, I found the fadeout intresting, but it stopped much too soon. Overall, the mix is very lackluster.. not enough ideas or stuff happening for the short duration, and the fadeout idea isn't developed at all. The instrumentation is good in idea, but not in execution.

--Eino

[halc]

everything here just sounds too fake for my liking.

the drums are repetitive but they do hold the track together suprisingly well.

it gets a bit more cohesive by the end, and at that point im really beginning to get into the melody.

not much to say here... nice work.

[Lint]

The whistle lead is very pretty, definitely sounds synthesized though. The drum loop kicks in at all the right places, but is still a very simple drum loop. The guitar is a nice little touch that feels very nice, it accents the song in a way that I normally associate with bells. The heavier synth background during the second half of the song changes it up a bit, making it feel more sinister.

Hmm... the song is a pretty piece, I don't think that it stands out by itself though. It's a good arrangement, but I think that if it were done with live instruments it would be a lot more intense and "Timeless".

[42]

Interesting start.

I get the impression of two wandering bards about to tell a story, and then at 0:46 they go slightly techno

Deep, dark, serious, contemplative. Very nice. Beautifully awesome mix.

But my only complaint is the ending; it's cut too short.

[Bahamut]

The beginning starts off quite repetitive with gradual adding of instruments. The song took waaaaay too long to get into the expanded instrumentation! Most of the samples could use an upgrade as well, although the drums are satisfactory.

The arrangement had quite some room to expand and then it ends like others mentioned . Wish it was expanded, as it just comes off as unfinished.

[ella guro]

Honestly I'm only reviewing this because I think it's really funny that there's an old OCR mix called "Timeless".

I don't really like this. I think it's kind of the opposite of timeless. The flute is pretty good, but everything else isn't too good. There's the same drumloop through most of the song that's just kind of there to be there, and the strings aren't well done at all. There isn't a whole lot of attention to how the instruments go together, they're just kind of stuck together. The arrangement is also repetitive and kind of uninteresting. Not much of note here to talk about really, cause it's pretty underwhelming to me.

[Rexy]

Hah, a bit of Dragon Quest coverage here. Nice.

This is kind of a mixed bag to me; "Unknown World" is a restrected source that's 8 measures long, though at least there's some liberty taken towards the chord structure to give it a more personal touch. The original section at 1:35 was actually a good way to play around with the general melodic structure of the source as well somewhat, so mad props there for knowing how things work.

So while in terms of arrangement you've managed to get it down, the production itself seems to have paled somewhat with the minimalist MIDI-sounding instrumentation; gentle strings and staccato work before suddenly bringing in a sudden drum beat that could give it a feel almost similar to the works of Massive Attack if handled more appropriately. Even then it ended rather sloppily with only fading the drums out, giving in quite an underwhelming feeling to the track overall.

But for something dating as far back as 2001 it's quite decent for its time. If there were more attention being paid towards the minor details as well then it might've stood the test of time a lot more, but for now it could merely be seen as a little bland.

[Marmiduke]

Once we break free from that looping flute melody, things actually get decent. I'm not looking for realism in these old tracks, but I am looking for cool ways to expand the melodies and I think this does that, or at least starts to do that.

The arrangement is very off balance. Way too much conservative delivery, and as soon as the inventive segment comes along, it's a rush to the finish. Poor structuring, but some promising remixing really.

I didn't mind the flute lead, the beats were a highlight, and while on the whole everything was a little washed out and distant, this at least gets a passing grade based on its age.

It's kinda grating to start with, but I can't lie... I enjoyed what came after more than I was expecting.

[TheCD1]

Not the flashiest mix,  but it's still holding up on my playlist. I like the flute intro, and I think it brings in other elements appropriately. The quality of the remix might be a bit dated at this point, and it does end a little too soon, but I still like its atmosphere. Very nice combo with the name, flute and guitar.