OCR04762 - *YES* Pokémon Crystal Version "Spacious Beauty"

[prophetik music]

Artist Name: timaeus222

Ah, National Park... a truly iconic theme I had hesitated to do for years. I was actually re-playing Pokémon Crystal recently in July 2024, but using the game mod called Polished Crystal, which had quality-of-life changes, but also a few custom mini-stories, added evolutions, and convenient map changes. My team towards the end was Dunsparce, Gliscor, Houndoom, Ampharos, Sylveon, and Suicune. Since it was probably my 4th playthrough at this point, I had some fun with it by going into the Memory Viewer and hacking the hexadecimal code to make my favorite team members shiny and to optimize their DVs and natures. *gasp* Yes, essentially created my own manual cheat codes. :-)

That playthrough, ectogemia's prior take, as well as the fact that downtempo is my least-appreciated genre on my phone, inspired me to arrange 'National Park' this way. In terms of workflow, I convinced myself to just write things out and fix them later, finishing this in about 18 hours across 3 weeks. Something that had always slowed me down is just refining production a ton before I wrote more, but it's been less problematic lately!

While downtempo isn't the furthest stretch from the original, I strived to be as creative as possible through new chord progressions and inner voice movement (such as 1:21 - 1:26, 2:02 - 2:08, and 2:24 - 2:27), and just achieving harmonic clarity and precision. The simplicity of the original offered room for more colorful chords. I'm also pretty proud of the original section at 2:32 - 3:16, as I did not think it was in the same key as what I had earlier, but then it lined up really well with the iconic descending motif at 3:15, adjusted to the new, brighter mode.

The central instruments were electric pianos (3ee's Zebra2 presets), acoustic piano (4Front TruePianos), gamelan bells (ISW Resonance: Emotional Mallets), and the Chapman Stick (Spectrasonics Trilian), amongst the usual Zebra2 synth palette, some ISW Juggernaut sweeps/impacts, a few ambient impacts from ISW Celestia.

The title is pretty simple - National Park is known as 'a spacious and beautiful park', so I called it Spacious Beauty. Hope you enjoy, sit back, and relax! :-)

Extra Info:

Source Breakdown:
0:00.00 - 0:43.12 = Source [0:00.00 - 0:09.60] (National Park chords with noodling)
0:43.12 - 1:05:13 = Source [0:09.60 - 0:28.70] (National Park "chorus")
1:05.13 - 1:48.60 = Source [0:00.00 - 0:09.60] (National Park chords with noodling + chord changes + melodic flute)
1:48:60 - 2:09.91 = Source [0:09.60 - 0:28.70] (National Park "chorus" + chord changes / new inner voice movement)
2:09.91 - 2:31.74 = Source [0:56.49 - 1:16.44] (National Park "bridge" + chord changes)
3:15.89 - 4:00.57 = Source [0:09.60 - 0:28.70] (National Park descending motif in same key, with new mode + new chords)

43.12 + 22.01 + 43.47 + 21.31 + 21.83 + 44.68
= 196.42/242.60
= 80.96% source

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Games & Sources

Pokémon Crystal - 'National Park':

[prophetik music]

opens with some great EPs and organ. there's a really organic feel to this due to the timing being pretty loose initially. i'd recognize that chapman anywhere - one of my favorite sounds in Trillian! - and some fun bell elements. we get a beat at 0:43 and the melodic material to the fore. this is a really deep, low representation of the chorus material which is fun. there's a point at 0:58 where the melody is on an A and the bassline is on a Db, which is a little weird-sounding but is supported by the chord structure.

there's a break right at 1:05 to recap the opening a bit. the sweeps through here are really nice. this builds up through some fun flute-adjacent noodles to the melody again at 1:49. i like the shift at 2:11 to a more upbeat feel as well, as we'd kind of done the other stuff for a while now. there's again some funky chord structures at 2:19 - i'm not going to analyze them since they sound roughly correct to my ear, but they're funny as a transitional element! 

we get through some original material as a transitional element. there's a half-time groove here that i didn't see coming but really like, and it builds into 3:15 where we get some taikos or toms alongside the main melodic snippet. this floats through a bit more of that snippet and then it's done.

what a fun track! there's all sorts of interesting ear candy going on in here as i listen. you do a great job taking a fun and straightforward original and exploring some really varied elements.

 

 

YES

[Liontamer]

OK, opening sounded a lil' funkier than I was expecting, like you're trying to smoove the ladies. Alright, the main melody kicks in at :43 and the laid-back groove behind it is nice. The sound design isn't the same, to be clear, yet I can't help but say the overall sound design and dynamics feel reminiscent of Quinn Fox's stuff, which is a wonderful comparison, IMO. (Check out the cadence and tone of the beats of his old VGMix, "Slick Uniforms".)

By 1:45, I was expecting a ramp up of some sort and we got it at 1:49 with some beats. 2:18-2:20 was an odd moment that IMO should have been tweaked to sound major key throughout, but I'll live, it's a there-and-gone transition (and the notes aren't wrong, just odd). It felt like there was a potential build for a brighter or more forceful concluding section starting at 2:54 or 3:16 instead of what we got, which'll sound like I minded the direction timaeus took here. Nothing at all wrong with setting a mood here, and I was still getting Quinn Fox-esque vibes from this when it was all said and done. Cool approach! :-)

YES

[Emunator]

Oooohhh, this is so cool! It's immediately recognizable what source you're covering, but that makes all the changes to the chord progression and harmonies feel all the more engaging. I don't know enough to break this down from a theory standpoint, but it all goes down smooth all the same. Everything finally breaks wide open at 1:49, and I agree that it couldn't have come at a more perfect time. The first 1:45 is just enough to lull you into a sense of security before hitting the listener with some much more powerful beats and more of a rhythmically-charged focus. It's all paced wonderfully, even if it feels unconventional.

Love this so much, great stuff!

YES