Nobuo Uematsu VS Yasunori Mitsuda

[Vice Nebulosa]

Hell yeah, I approve! Gale had this eerie rythm, haunting strings and an organ that makes you wanna dance! It's definitelly one of a kind To top it off, it practically ditches the major-minor scheme for a more jazzy harmony style.

Whatever, mate. I just find it difficult to feel at all "haunted" or inspired to dance when the torture being plied against those opening strings peels in whenever another set of Viper Manor lanterns feels inclined to defy me. The track does little for me.

You're, like, Mr. Reverse!

Do I face an opposite force? It seems so. An equal one? It remains to be seen.

How can you hate Gale and like X's battle theme?! It's just boring, mundane and sounds as if it was done on one keyboard during a wedding party in the country! It's like bad disco!

I would not say that I "adore" the FFX basic battle theme, but "brass done well" is an occurrence rare enough that anything exhibiting the trait is given some automatic prestige points in my estimation. I found it to be an interesting mix of orchestral and synthetic elements that -- and this is the important part when dealing with a track that can literally start right back up again five seconds after terminating, thanks to the crude sadism of random battles -- does not make me wish to drop the game and read a damned Wiki plot summary. When I do feel in the mood to give the ridiculous complexity of Chrono Cross' plot another playthrough, I do suffer through the minutia that is invariably indicated by "Gale".

I have to agree that Mitsuda's final battle tracks are outstanding, but I still feel like you're not giving Uematsu enough credit in this area. Neo X-Death, Dancing Mad, One-Winged Angel, The Extreme... All are powerful, powerful tracks... Need I say more?

"One Winged Angel" I will give you. As for the rest, you are out of luck; all of them unfamiliar.

OK, first of, I think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself, because we're talking about music here (I think I'm mainly saying this because I think I'd have to agree with you about the whole atmosphere and story thing, but where's the fun in a discussion like that? )

*Shrug* Perhaps the remarks regarding the scenes in the Dead Sea were a bit tangential. Not entirely irrelevant to the discussion (as I was talking about the context into which a specific music track is placed in-game), but maybe it is an expansion of an already sizable discussion that we do not need.

I did exaggerate when saying I didn't like his area tracks

Apology accepted.

- the ones you listed (besides Home Village Arni) are good, but I just must have forgotten about them.

*Smirk* We are preordained to aggravate one another, it seems. :laugh:

The area tracks I meant were stuff like Hydra's Swamp and Gaea's Navel. Most of the less important area tracks seemed to lack imagination...

Granted. "Gaia's Navel" was actually the subject of an unusual quantity of my futile wrath. I made the fateful decision to stop the present playing session after entering the area and defeating the necessary green leviathan, and upon my return, I could not for my life locate the exit. Took. Days.

The area tracks you've listed and I liked are all important area tracks. I guess for Mitsuda it's the same with the area tracks as it is with the battle themes - he tries a lot for the important ones, but seems to lack imagination for the small ones. I don't really think that's a good thing - a balanced soundtrack is a good one, IMO...

*Shrug* Not a "good thing", per se, but certainly worth tolerating in order to hear what Mitsuda really has in store. The question of " the best composer", to my thinking (and I do expect you to flagrantly disagree), is one to be determined by comparing the best work of the parties involved. Not necessarily something so cut-and-dry as "One Winged Angel" vs. "Battle with Magus" or "Fight With Seymour" vs. "World Revolution", but, inevitably, the contest between the composers must be decided in the air, with their most powerful ammunition, rather than in the knife fight on the ground. The minutia counts for something, to be sure, but something like "Gale" fails to reduce my enjoyment of "Corridors of Time", or my esteem for Mitsuda in general, just as the fact that Uematsu produces little that I hate does nothing to change the favor he receives. If nothing else, the valleys are necessary to underscore the enormity of the mountains, and Mitsuda's blunders are somewhat more noticeable than Uematsu's due to the sheer bodies of work involved. Balance is crucial, yes. Inevitably, though, I will be inclined to favor the composer with the highest mountain and a decent balance over the composer who has fewer valleys to mar his record but never quite reaches the loftier heights. Such is my view of the comparison between Mitsuda and Uematsu in general, really.

*sigh* Sadly, you once againg gave the wrong examples. Guadosalam is Nakano's most prominent (IMO) contribution to X's soundtrack, while Besaid is by Masashi Hamauzu (another awesome VGM composer, who doesn't seem to get enough credit, seeing as he wasn't even considered for a debate during the creation of this thread )

. . . Damn it. And you.

Don't really agree... I mean, it is a great final boss track, but it's not really what I'd consider The King of all Final Battle Tracks. I do enjoy it a lot, but I think it gets far too much credit than it deserves...

The Advent Children version is more special than any other, methinks; the way the male and female portions of the choir are pitted against one another (particularly around 4:00 - 4:16) creates an incredibly daunting contrast. One does not often hear male vocals forced to that kind of volume, and it is truly impactive. *_*

*Blinks* We were talking about what, again?

You learn quick

Not always true. In this matter, though, little "learning" has taken place for several years. I have become more familiar with the work of both composers over time, but after Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, I considered the battle essentially won, and Uematsu has yet to ever subvert that rule. Uematsu is consistently good, and I will say it to whoever cares to listen, but Mitsuda is the unpredictable genius, who is liable to blow you utterly away with some incomparably evocative atmospheric or emotional track (at least whenever he and Kato are put in a room together). The latter type of genius, while he may elicit a little more caution from those seeking to hire him to score a video game, is certainly the more interesting.

However, I still believe Nobuo has had a far greater influence in video game music, spreading even wider than that.

Probably. The extent of one's influence is not directly proportional to the quality of one's art, though. Not to say that Uematsu's laurels are at all unearned, mind you, but Mitsuda has purchased my loyalty with a style and profundity that I have never before seen, and his influence upon me will remain, regardless of whether his industry grants him the same perspective. Again, this question of "the best composer", to me, has to do with the answer to the question "which composer has evoked the most/best from me?", and questions like "how has he influenced others in his industry?" are completely peripheral.

I share your hopes that Mitsuda may one day rise again.

Here's to that, mate. ^_^

Yet, part of me may have to give this to Nobuo. Not because I prefer his work; but because the man has written and arranged a ton of music over the years and most of them are great.

See, this is the sort of statement that confuses me. :laugh: Is not your "preference of his (Mitsuda's or Uematsu's) work" the criterion that matters most? Reducing this debate to the concept of "quality over quantity" may be entirely subjective and perhaps an oversimplification of things, but it is not entirely without merit. Quality must trump quantity, and it is the question of quality that should be addressed -- Uematsu, or Mitsuda? A case could be made for either, but I think that a comparison on those terms is the only one that matters.

Humble opinion, of course. <_< >_>

I'm not as familiar with CC's soundtrack as I would like to be, its one of the few soundtracks that tends to elude me when I go searching for it or its just overpriced when I find it.

Indeed. Acquired it through . . . less legal means, myself, so unless your objections to the idea are explicit, perhaps locating a torrent might be in order?

I do know quite a few tracks though so I am aware of its beauty but I feel its unfair to overlook Xenogears. Its soundtrack is also incredible and serves as the bridge between CT and CC.

Never quite thought of Xenogears in this context. Really can't say whether I agree with it at the moment; I just find it an interesting perspective.

Mitsuda's works on Xenogears creates the foundation for CC's and many of his most beautiful scores that I personally love come from Xenogears, like Bond's Of Sea and Fire, Faraway Promise, Daijiru: City of Burning Sands, One Who Is Torn Apart, and The Beginning and The End

The forever controversial "One Who Bares Fangs At God" bears watching, as well. ^_^

Even his work on Xenosaga is actually quite good, one of my biggest complaints about the game was the terrible use of Mitsuda's work. The game stuck to the same five tracks while the other 20+ tracks are usually only played once and its usually a snippet. Insecurity, Beach of Nothingness, Ormus, and The Miracle are all outstanding tracks that don't get the attention they deserve.

Fully concurred. Personally, I do not even remember the beautifully minimalist and offbeat "Warmth" being played in-game at all. ~_^

I just find it odd that Mitsuda fans are so quick to dismiss the two Xeno soundtracks Mitsuda did. I feel both are on par with the Chrono series, they are only limited by the fans lack of awareness to their existence.

Well, I can honestly say that this is not the case for me. I genuinely feel that the Chrono soundtracks are superior. :laugh: