Topic: Professional Opinion about Lords of Shadow's Musical Score

[Kingshango]

I was surprised that this boss theme wasn't in the offical soundtrack, it was pretty epic and it sounded like something I would hear out of one the Conan movies.

Mechanical Monstrosity: Castlevania Lords of Shadow

[Alutwon]

Yea the battle themes were really good and I loved that they sounded like something out of Conan. It does sound rather generic at first but it is slowly growing on me. I just mean the battle themes of course, the other songs aside from a few need to be slightly influenced by the levels Gabriel is exploring. Another thing is that certain levels like the machine tower don't have their own theme (blasphemy) it shares it with the maze gardens and a few other levels. I'm not saying that they have to follow the old way and make level-based music but they shouldn't share music between chapters. If I'm in Agharta I don't want to be reminded of the castle.

Notable mentions: Waterfalls of Agharta, Belmont's theme, The Dead Bog, The Swamp Troll, Mechanical Monstrosity, Maze Gardens, The Evil Butcher, Carmilla, Final Confrontation, BGM125, and the song that plays during chapter 4-1 (can't find the name )

[default2k]

I cant really tell each soundtrack from each other, they are not that memorable.
The DS vanias had more beatiful scores IMO.
To each their own i guess.

[ShinAkumaXX]

Professional opinion? I liked the soundtrack, it was good. Like many others though, I definitely think it needed a few more tracks. I even bought the L Edition with the soundtrack. It seems a bit odd that the PSX and PS2 Vanias have more songs by at least 10 tracks.

[Harrycombs]

Mind pointing me toward a more representative track?

Because the one mentioned here was definitely more "generic sounding" than anything I've heard out of LoS.

I'm shocked you didn't like that one

How about:

U-TIC Facility -Xenosaga Episode I OST-

Xenosaga Episode I - The Miracle

Xenosaga Episode I - Zarathustra

Xenosaga 1 - Omega

Mitsuda is awesome

Bah! Chiptune and Mitsuda bashing... What is the world coming to???

The world must be coming to an end...

[thernz]

I'm not "insulting" synths per se, I'm insulting the sound capabilities of the consoles such games were released on. Some of those songs became immortal once given room in other environments (once again Bloody Tears started on the NES and just listen to that guy I linked playing it on the piano) but while the tune is the same, the result is much different.

HoD's music isn't my favourite in the saga (I'm a classicvania guy) but it sounds like very good music... played by a guy blowing a leaf and hammering on a keyboard that only has 2 keys. The fault isn't in the music, but when you're working on a platform that is so limited in terms of musical reproduction, you're stuck with working on songs that hold their own thanks to the tune.
The genius in Castlevania's case was that Konami put a lot of resources in composing and they managed to get a consistent track of excellent tunes. But the NES/GBA's sound capabilities remain crap.

Despite IGA's lame excuse that the focus on graphics strained the engine so much that the sound capabilities were degraded, I think it was purposely done in HoD's case. I feel that in HoD, it takes into account the limitations and even relies on them. If anything, you're actually underestimating the sound capabilities. And besides that, HoD's music is pretty distinct even when compared to Metroidvania titles anyway. It manages to be complex, dynamic, yet still catchy and hummable. I would group it up with SCVIV with the more unique soundtracks in the series. I personally find there's a beauty in limitations. Every arrangement of HoD music I found just pales to the original song.

My problem with the Araujo tracks is that they feel extremely excessive to me. Araujo likes to use a variety of techniques and layers but I don't think they hold up to form good individual songs. I am just not feeling the way a lot of the songs develop or how his use of techniques contribute to the identity of a track. Laura's Mercy is good, but it helps that it's short. But in the longer tracks, they start to meander to me. So there may be parts I like in a song, but as a whole, I don't think those parts build to form a cohesive song. There needs to be more in pulling the song together. Otherwise, they just sound disjointed to me and I can't enjoy the soundtrack. I also have problems with the mixing, because there really isn't that clear of a order or priority with the instruments, and despite all the proficient techniques employed, it fails to be distinctive. So it all just fails on what I would consider a good soundtrack.

[corneliab]

I personally thought that HoD's soundtrack was just pure garbage. There are a couple of memorable tunes, like Juste's theme, the bad epilogue, the chapel, and the Dracula fight, but everything else was both nondistinctive and offensive to the ears. That boss theme that plays when you fight Maxim is one of the ABSOLUTE WORST songs I've ever heard in any game.

[Alutwon]

Even though HoD suffers from horrible boss fights the game has other redeeming qualities(Aesthetically) like the music for example. The only truly bad song in HoD is "Luminescent caverns", The rest of the songs are really impressive imo. But this is coming from a person who found AoS ost to be really bland, idk maybe I'm just strange? 

I do have to agree with Thernz, other than a couple songs the rest seem boring.

[crisis]

What are you guys talking about? Max Slimer & the Merchant's Theme are among the best boss fight/song in any CV game.

[thernz]

I'll sell at my place
BEST SONG.

Oh yeah, HoD has some pretty atrocious boss themes and boring themes. I mainly talked about it because otherwise, I thought some of its compositions were the most unique and daring with how it played around with dissonance and all the layering in the songs despite its substandard instrument quality.

[DragonsAndCarpetBags]

I supose Lords of Shadow's soundtrack is good from a technical point of view, but each Castlevania game has something different to say (well....most of them) that makes it unique, whether you like it or not.

[Dracgou]

comparing sound capabilities between diffrent consoles  

nes

Ninja Gaiden (NES) - Act 4-2

Snes

Music of Ys 3 - The Final Fight

Genesis

[TOP 100] RPG Battle Themes #23 Ys III Wanderers from Ys

Pc-Engine

My Top 25 RPG Final Boss Themes #8- Ys III

Sega CD

The Terminator (Sega-CD) Music - Taking to the Air

[e105beta]

I'm shocked you didn't like that one

How about:

U-TIC Facility -Xenosaga Episode I OST-

Xenosaga Episode I - The Miracle

Xenosaga Episode I - Zarathustra

Xenosaga 1 - Omega

Mitsuda is awesome


The world must be coming to an end...

All those videos make me think "Uematsu could have done it better"

Honesty, Mitsuda has yet to trump his score on Chrono Trigger.

[DragonSlayr81]

All those videos make me think "Uematsu could have done it better"

Honesty, Mitsuda has yet to trump his score on Chrono Trigger.

I actually agree. Chrono Trigger's probably my favorite Mitsuda soundtrack, with Xenogears following close after. I'm really not a fan of his New Age-style of Eastern meets Celtic as seen in Chrono Cross(and some of his other, more recent stuff). Reminds me of what Sting did in the 90s. Though, as Chrono Trigger is concerned, what little Uematsu did for that, those songs WERE well integrated(the song that places in the Manolia Cathedral, the Denadoro Mountains, as well as the music everytime you try to open a magically sealed door).

Though, listing Mitsuda's work on Xenosaga, I'm surprised nobody put up the song that plays during the "Ma Belle Peche" scene. That's probably the only song I found memorable in the first Xenosaga game.

[Harrycombs]

All those videos make me think "Uematsu could have done it better"

Honesty, Mitsuda has yet to trump his score on Chrono Trigger.

Uematsu is good, but most of his orchestral pieces are actually arranged by Shiro Hamaguchi, because he admits to not being very good at using them, while Mitsuda still transitioned from synths to an orchestra perfectly.

And the soundtrack for Chrono Trigger is good, but I actually prefer Xenogears.