OCR04918 - *YES* Tales of Phantasia "I'm Gonna DOUSE Dhaos!"

[Liontamer ⚖️]

Artist Name: Unknown Pseudoartist feat. jnWake, minusworld, Pixels & Paradiddles

BASIC INFO

Game: Tales of Phantasia
Composer(s): Motoi Sakuraba, Shinji Tamura, Ryota Furuya

Link to the original source version:

Not very relevant, but here's also a link to a piece of game footage showing the voice clip (from the PSX port) used in the end of my arrangement (and the title). Just though that nonsense was too funny lol https://unknownpseudoartist.com/tmp/imgonnadousedhaos.mp4

CREDITS:
jnWake: lead keys
minusworld: guitars and mixing
paradiddlesjosh: drums
pixelseph: bass
Unknown Pseudoartist: arrangement, base programming, ideas, etc (aka everything else lol)

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STORY / BORING DETAILED NOTES:

Well, here we are again, 1 year or so after my first attempt of submission getting rejected. And yeah, not gonna lie: the main reason why I now decided to try with this one is because it's a funny coincidence that 3 artists involved happens to be recently joining the OCR Judges team. Not that this would have any impact on its (dis)approval, but it was just too funny not to try.

This particular one is not as important (in a personal/emotional level) as the one I submitted the first time, tho, plus I got help on the mix from someone else, so it won't affect that hard if this gets rejected again. I think it is good enough, but of course I though the same about the other one yet...

Anyways, for what is worth... this track was that typical scenario of: "this source is sooo cool... I can't understand why no one else arranged/covered/remixed/whatever it before! so I'll just try something myself!". I had some ideas on my head for very long for a mostly djent style arrangement, full of crunchy guitars and virtuosistic synths and a very dark atmosphere. Oh, and, believe it or not, but for the intro the initial idea was to be more like a weird mix of "surf rock" and some goth/dark vibe before moving to metal. I don't think that worked as expected, but for the rest... I think all went really well and just as expected.

Also as a curious fact, the basic arrangement was done sometime in mid/late 2022 as a silly shitpost alt track for Dwelling of Duels. It's hard to explain for anyone not familiar with my past on music, but let's say it had a decent but 100% MIDI base and leads were performed by a... let's say unusual instrument lol. The basic cool ideas were already there, tho, and I was personally proud of my work even though it hadn't a proper shape.

So the real action started sometime around mid/late 2024. I had a bunch of diverse Tales of Phantasia arrangements, both new and old and not-so-new ones. Tales of Phantasia is a game I simply LOVE dearly and it has one of the best VGM soundtracks ever made, in my opinion also Sakuraba's greatest work ever. And it always saddened me a bit how "Fighting of the Spirit" is pretty much the only source that gets enough love by VGM artists all around the world, while the rest of the soundtrack gets largely ignored despite so full of cool stuff too. And yeah, I know of OCR's own "Summoning of Spirits" and that's also why I appreciate Kyle's work organizing that album (also, Sixto's version of "Second Act" is still among my all-time favorite Tales of Phantasia covers).

So my plan was to reunite all these arrangements, improving the old to sound as best as I could do, recruiting real instrument performers for the arrangements that were still 100% programmed, etc and release everything as a full album, and eventually also upload videos for each individual track. I'm still pending more than half of the videos, but the actual album was already released at December 16th and it's all free in Bandcamp: https://unknownpseudoartist.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-phantasia-a-metal-tribute-to-tales-of-phantasia

When it was the time to go more serious with this particular track I'm submitting to OCR now, I had pretty clear the team I wanted for it. jnWake and minusworld are frequently teaming and collaborating for each other's works and both fits incredibly well on the style and ideas. Couldn't think of more proper keyboardist and guitarist, seriously. I also talked with Seph about joining as a bassist because his bass tone is just perfect for what is mostly a low-tuned, deep and heavy as heck track. Josh was the latest incorporation and it was somewhat close to the album's release, but it marked a huge difference for better. Before that, the arrangement had my own keydrummed improvisations that were sloppy as heck. Josh took the base and elevated the whole track to the infinitely superior level with his drumming work.

So that's how both recurrent teams joined together in an arrangement initially made by a pseudoartist lol. And now the result is what you see (or rather hear). That kind of "cover I wanted to hear for long but nobody else did, so just had to start it myself".

The original source is prog and complex as heck, and it was a pain to deal with, especially because the unusual time signature, and I'd expect performers to have a real pain with it also because the fast, proggy leads and rhythms and stuff. But of course, counting with such talented artists, one can only expect a cool result of this. I had a hard time trying to get the mix to sound decent enough, tho... so that's when minusworld offered to help. In just a short time he already got a mix that sounds a lot better than what I struggled so hard for weeks.

The original source is the "penultimate boss theme". You know, that typical boss theme for the main antagonist when they are not in their actual final form yet. It's not uncommon for such penultimate boss battle themes to be arguably more interesting than the actual final battle. Final Fantasy V is a good example of that, and although this might sound like a controversial opinion, I think the same about Final Fantasy VII despite so many people loving One Winged Angel so much.

There's a very annoying moment that happens often in such battles against "the bad guy", Dhaos. And it's when he goes past your main protagonist (Cless) and starts attacking the rest of your party. That's a moment when you feel like "ok, now i'm gone". He'll throw his signature laser and your whole party might be dead in a matter of few seconds.

This frustration and desperate moment is exactly what I wanted to express throughout the music mood around 2:04 - 2:20. After the blast beats and chaotic stuff, at 2:36 you are practically dead. But still, at 2:42, your mate Chester brings the comic role in an unexpected role pretending to still beat Dhaos (the japanese voice acting says: "I'm gonna douse Dhaos!". That's taken from the conversations in the skits in the PSX port and I just though that nonsensical sentence was too funny to use as a title and outro).

You can think of this last thing like Vegeta in the last battle against Majin Buu in Dragon Ball Z, still bratting about going to kill him even though he's that weak and wounded. Then finishing the track with a ba-dum-tss because the bad joke. I know this kind of irrelevant shitpost details and references are not everyone's cup of tea but that being such a short part I wouldn't expect to hurt anyone.

Other relevant timestamps to talk about... while the arrangement is mostly kinda conservative regarding the notes (not the structure, tho, which is pretty differently organized), there's a few original stuff after 1:35, first on guitars (mostly divebomdbs and whammy stuff) and later (1:50) on synths. The later was my own improvisations on keyboard, although obvious jnWake played all the other synths (the really complicated ones) by his own.

Then there's the intro, initially planned as some kind of "dark surf rock" or "post punk" vibe or whatever, but accidentally coming to a somewhat different direction but still dark as heck, just like how I like it. I'm not that happy with the backing strings + choir there, but I think in general all fits the mood well. The next section, between 0:32 - 1:02 is the most conservative but still trying to keep it interesting (ie: doubling the leads the second time). More of the same with the later couple of sections.

It's not my most liberal arrangement ever, but I think it goes past the usually demanded "ammount of originality" in OCR. Even more so since it's arranged in a style that is not exactly like the original source, the structure is generally different enough and there's still place for some totally original ideas here and there. And so far probably the only existent remix of this source (unless we count Sakuraba's live band medleys, which he used at least once in his shows).

Anyways, that's all, I guess. Whether this gets finally approval or not, I hope you like. For any fellow fans of this fantastic game and its wonderful soundtrack, and without any pretension to spam my work, I'd totally recommend checking my album, Songs of Phantasia. It's full of cool stuff beyond the iconic "Fighting of the Spirit" (great track but so much of good stuff in the rest of the OST too!), and while mostly relying on metal as a base there's plenty of variety and interesting ideas there. My mixing skills still needs a lot to improve but I think all sounds overall good and totally listenable.

Okay, cutting the wall of text, now for real!

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Games & Sources

Game: Tales of Phantasia
Original source title: Conclusion
Link to the original source version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEnu4hlQPIc

[prophetik music ⚖️]

source is insane as expected.

opens with some bass and strings playing the initial riff. the bass gets a bit buried from a lead perspective under the drums when they come in, but it's still able to be heard some. guitar's just a touch behind for the first few bars that it's in. there's a quick break and we get the first real lead at 0:32.

this noodles through the melodic line, and then very suddenly kicks into bloody tears mode at 1:02. the texture here is a little thin - i don't hear much at all of the bottom end on the bass, and the rhythm guitar line is mostly monophonic to my ears. it's got a bit of an Incubus Odyssey vibe which is pretty hip. coming out of this more square section is a callback to the opening riff (is it 7+8+6+9? that's so wild). there's a break for an organ-like lead to do the ascending B riff, and some interesting sfx in the backing synths. when the drums come back in, it's straight blastbeat for like 15s until it drops, and then it's just sitting on a chord with some voice sfx until it's done.

i think that the mix has a few spots where it's not spot-on, but i like the approach and the variety of styles used. the original's so wild that just rendering it into something that's consumable here is probably enough and that's what you did. i think what's here is over the bar.

 

 

YES

[Chimpazilla ⚖️]

This original is wild and great, and I can easily see why jnWake approached it, it's already in your style, Wake! (edit:  my bad, Wake is just a performer on this mix and not the primary, but it does sound like a source he would remix, so my comment stands!) The remix is vibrant and varied, fast-paced and crazy, and super well performed by all involved. 

The mixing is pretty good considering the density of the soundscape.  The low end feels a bit loose and indistinct, while also being a little too loud.  Lead guitar and keys get buried in the busiest sections.  I wonder why it was mastered with a ceiling of -3db, that seems excessive.  But it sounds clean enough.  Interesting vocal outro, although it feels a bit tacked on since it is the only time in the track that there are vocals.

But this arrangement is exciting and fun!  Let's go.

YES

Edited June 15 by Chimpazilla

[Hemophiliac ⚖️]

This is a strong example of something mixed very well that it makes you want to turn up the volume. It's full enough, but not so full that it's overly dense.

The arrangement is solid as this crazy source is well represented and there's little tiny additions throughout the piece. My only thought is that there could have been more development with further expansion and soloing, I honestly thought this was going to happen after the vocal clip.

Blink and you miss it, strong performances, great mix, sweet genre adaption. Welcome to the club UPA!

YES