I’d still argue it’d be harder for me to interpret them like that, with one being very jazzy and one very impressionistic, but that’s just me. I still think the music here is great. I managed to kill Kzinssie and now Gerard has his blinged out armor. Found the Cat and best an octopus in the canal, so the thieves guild will now help me,and now I’ve reached this town where they’re talking about some dudes from a Dragon’s Lair or something and I’m gonna investigate that
Yeah, you can tell they overlapped quite a bit, though I feel even Mitsuda and Hamazu's early works feel like they were taking some cues from the older composers.
Honestly, it's not like it feels anyone is copying anyone here. It's more like it's very clear these two have similar sources of inspiration (80s hard rock, classical music), and you can tell these two also worked together and are, at least in professional terms, good friends.
Like I said, don’t get me wrong - it’s an amazing soundtrack and it really makes me feel something I have t felt in a while.
Fair enough, I really liked his OST for the game, course I have a bias for SNES era music so take that with a grain of salt.
Can I just say, Kenji Ito’s music is really great, even though it reminds me of Uematsu’s SNES days a little too much. Not that I don’t like that sound, because I do, but their style is so similar that if you told me any of his stuff was actually Uematsu’s, I’d believe you
Actually, the Christmas Town theme IS based on “Whsts This?”, but it’s a lot more liberal with the arrangement. In a way, it feels more like a variation in the classical sense rather than a remix/rearrangement, but I still appreciate the subtle nod that is there.
I feel one of the bigger reasons why I disagree with the idea it "wrapped up the series beautifully" was the entire introduction of Xehanort. Even back when this game came out, it was apparent the writers had a lot more to write about this guy because that twist was just so poorly handled. I also took issue with how muddled the nature of Kingdom Hearts and it's relation to the Door to Darkness was ultimately screwed up the cosmology of the series, but I guess in hindsight, the fact that Roxas and Namine are walking around despite their originals still existing already contradicts the nature of Nobodies. In KHII news, I finished Nightmare Before Christmas and the Lion King. I find it hilarious how obvious Nomura loves the Lion King. Of all the Disney worlds in the series, and despite still being truncated for space, the Lion King feels like the only world that happens to hit every major story beat from the film, whereas other worlds usually just gloss over all, but the most relevant parts. Most Disney Worlds are in media res, but this is the first world that actually has flashbacks to show what happened to start the plot. It's also been one of the longer worlds in general. Nightmare gets props for acting as a semi-sequel to the film in this version. Though it creates some continuity errors, as it's implied Oogie Boogie has been "dead" since KH1, so his role in the film would have never happened. Also, to my surprise, in addition to the new outfits the team gets in Christmas Town, I was surprised to learn they also gave the area new music as well. A bit disappointed it's not an arrangement of "What's This" as the film has a gorgeous instrumental version of the song anyway, but points for having a a theme that sounds like a Christmas song. I unlocked and finished new episodes of Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, and it looks like I opened up the second tournament in Hercules world. Once I finish that, I'm going to try my luck with Larxene one more time and then probably hit up Twilight Town again to start the second half of the game. I found this video, and I love it mostly because the guy's commentary is hilarious.
Btw, got Romancing SaGa 2. Any tips?
Yeah, I imagine midquels such as Days do have the benefit of hindsight to be really smartly woven into the bigger picture. And I’ll agree about the writing. I think the biggest issue I have with 2’s plot is something I disagree on with the consensus - I do t feel like this game wraps everything nicely at all. KHII is basically the game where they started coming up with new ideas, but they weren’t properly fleshed out until later. Days has all the good character moments while BBS pretty much takes the new aesthetic and actually turns it into something meaningful. Ironically, I feel this is the game where the series actually had an identity crisis
