Enough about good 2hu music, what is ZUN's worst track? Is there any stage or boss theme that you don't like enough so you'd rather play in silence? Or maybe an insta-skip on one of Akyu's Untouched Scores/Hifuu albums?
>>46628346I only played the games from 6 to 14 for now and by far the "worst" tracks where not bad at all, just unremarkable and easy to forget.
>>46628436>from 6 to 14Things will change soon. Enjoy 15 while it lasts.
>>46628451What is there a quality dive after 15?
>>46628346The indie live expo theme
>>46628466not really, it just starts getting more experimentalhaving played all the games, I'm in the same camp as you where there's none that I'd really call outright trash, just mediocre where I don't really pay any attention to it.the only track that I can say I turn the game music off for is Eternal Transient Reign, and it's a fucking great song but I cannot listen to it any longer after all the time I spent on ISC. I just can't do it.
>>46628466Generally, yeah. The good songs become fewer and fewer and the bad songs become worse and worse.Btw, OP, now I'm going to say my worst tr->>46628500Fuck, ninja'd. What a mess.
>>46628500okay, yeah, I forgot about this one. That was straight up trash, what the fuck was he thinking
>>46628346The drum starts to sound weird and annoying from touhou 13.One of the tracks on touhou 16 (i dont remember the title) took the cake for the worst track ever. Not only does the drum sound cheap, the synth sounds like unmixed too.
The menu theme of Ten Desires is the worst one I've heard so far. The later games have a lot of stuff that are really dragged down by weak drums.
>>46630267>The menu theme of Ten Desires is the worst one I've heard so far.You're crazy.
>>46628346Kutaka's theme is audio diarrheaA shame since her design is adorable
>>46630283What's the appeal of it to you, then?
>>46628772Speaking of weird drums, I actually don't like the sound of drums in th06. They are extremely tinny and have no depth to them. Overall the melodies and arrangements for the most part in EoSD are very cool, but the mixing, effects and EQing really leave a lot to be desired.
>>46630391I agree. There's couple of tracks that are overall really solid to my ears, but there's a lot more with weird instrumentation/mixing choices. Lunar Clock has always been the worst offender to my ears, the melodies are so good but the really weird and bad drums really bring it down. There's also a few tracks which I think just sound really awkward, like the stage themes of stages 1 and 2 and Rumia's theme. ZUN as obviously learning how to make music in the Windows world though so I understand why there are a few duds and some weird choices. In context, it makes the PCB OST even better, it's such a huge leap in quality in a very short time in my opinion.In some ways I feel like ZUN has looped back to "otherwise good tracks brought down by bad instrument choices". There's so much music in the newer games which would slap if it had actual drums instead of the fizzy FM shit you can't hear.
>>46630429I agree with everything you wrote, even though I love the awkwardness of Rumia's theme. Also, I feel that PCB OST is so much better because ZUN got over the need to experiment with everything direct mixing and exporting to a wav in a DAW anabled him to do with th06, so the next game is a much more straightforward and subtle collection of mixing. Then th08 is again a huge soundtrack with a lot of phasers and reverbs but done much more skillfully.If there's one soundtrack I'd like an official remake/remix of it's EoSD, especially done at the end of the classic windows era, but oh well.
Anything after 15 You can tell ZUN was just pressing buttons on his new midi machine trying to figure out what they do and had record enabled through the whole thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewGbGpEp-dMPerfect example of a song ruined by overuse of the ZUNpet.
>>46630429>>46630482>but there's a lot more with weird instrumentation/mixing choicesUnpopular opinion: I really like the weird, distorted sound of the WAV OST of EoSD. It has a nostalgic feel that reminds me of the audio in old VHS.
>>46630568I'm still flabbergasted to this day by how competent all LoLK tracks were and how unimaginably SHIIIT all HSiFS tracks are to the point he never recover from it as it bleeds into the future games. It's like if a completely different person took over him.
>>46628346Zun lost the Mandate of Heaven after Double Dealing Character. There are a couple of standout tracks from the games afterwards but the soundtracks nowadays can't compare.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oe7Z9B26X8the worst remade track in 19, just ruined everything that makes the version from 10 good
Maybe a unpopular opinion but despite the Sakuya theme of EoSD being very nostalgic I dont like it very much, her theme In PoFV is very better.https://youtu.be/01skyPMeeoc
>>46633781LolK was great in my opinion. I mean, I don't like too much DDC, but LoLK is, without doubt, one of my favorites, and one of the reasons of why is the music.>>46631959Exactly, is like he had been another person.
>>46633899It is not bad, it is just that a better version appeared after it.
>>46630367I don't know how to talk about music but I love the piano and offbeat drums (?) and claps.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s53iSvSeso
Which is the most experimental ZUN song?
>>46634129"Interdimensional Voyage of a Ghostly Passenger Ship"at times it's literal penis music
>>46634186>at times it's literal penis musickek
I don't mind the soundtrack itself (its unremarkable), but I played half of Touhou 19s story modes on mute because the music distribution is so bad. Like half the character themes go unplayed so you can go insane hearing the same few songs over and over and over again
>>46628500Got details or source on that? I haven't heard it.
>>46634224yeah turns out there's a patch on thcrap that forces the character themes to be played for every stage and it immediately makes the game much more bearable
>>46634233https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK1iSU4Geog
>>46634233https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSdjKImDTzUI like it.
>>46633899I remember back when i was playing 6 for the first time this song was really intimidating, can't hate it >>46634129https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqkJmNe1MP0
>>46634129In terms of being experimental for ZUN, this comes to mind:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGIvZEr79moBut in terms of being quite a weird song there's this. 1:40 is one of the hardest things ZUN's ever composed:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVP_ZVaNahA
>>46628346Almost everything past 15 is uninspiring. It sounds like a generalized AI-made version of Touhou tracks, where he just repeats popular riffs in the same damn pattern with not much variance anymore.Older ones like PCB and SA were 100x better on this front. Almost every track had a different feel, not so much now.
>>46634129UM's soundtrack is pretty experimental in general I think. People shit on Immemorial Marketeers when the game came out for not sounding much like a final boss theme but it's one of the most experimental final boss themes ZUN's ever donehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udn3r030Wic
>>46628500I'm glad I'm not alone thinking this. I just remember seeing it get praised at the time, and I wasn't sure what they were hearing that I wasn't
>>46635211I love Chimata's theme so much when it comes to the composition but it suffers from the usual nu-2hu music problem that the drums are super weak and thus it feels like there's no energy behind the track.
>>46628346i've yet to find a ZUN song I didn't enjoy, just ones that weren't earworms. most of the ten desires soundtrack outside desire drive is my pick but i'd probably love it if i tried replaying TD >>46634375sannyo's theme is 'weird' in that it's a touhou theme in major key, that's it. it's legit my favourite stage theme besides, i dunno keine's in IN? it's also extremely fun to learn on piano so that too
is it even a true ZUN(TM) song if it doesn't feature at least one prominent section of i-VI harmonic movement?
>>46630391>>46630429I might be mistaken about this, but I believe that everything for EoSD was originally composed using a Roland SC-88Pro. The instruments are pretty different on that.https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdQcm51guT_Du9fuiiHpGENQWyLPtFoE
Now that we are agree the drum sounds weak. Can someone send a DM for ZUN to buy a DECENT DRUM SAMPLES. Seriously the drum sounds like those free fruity loops sample. Why cant he just use organic bass drum like Reisen or Sakuya theme. Its a SHMUP, if the drum sounds non-threatening, then its a shitty shmup game.
>>46634375>>46635559Like many other have noticed, Sannyo's stage theme is just Snow Halation lmaohttps://youtu.be/lxfraBp3lxs?si=PJSCdniq5Lvc9Fh4
I personally find Touhou 18 and 19 soundtrack very weak and boring
>>46635751you are right, he was still composing and making arrangements during th06 and th07 (and possibly th08?) era using an external sound canvas module from Roland. Installing a good soundfont (or even better, an SC unit) and playing MIDI versions through that is the best way to enjoy what ZUN intended at that stage of the process. That said, I think we should consider WAV versions bundled with the game as the "definitive" versions of the tracks, and those are not just MIDI versions using the Roland soundfont, as seen in that (cool) playlist you linked. WAVs have some... rather curious instrument and mixing choices re: EoSD.
>>46628500That is most certainly his weakest track
>>46628500I actually like this one quite a lot.
Literally the unique ZUN song that is really bad:https://youtu.be/DdCsWBMHqfUgood thing that he removed
>>4663378117 soundtrack is banging though. I'm very biased and its the only game where I genuinely like every track.
>>46643027that only applies to 6, 7 and onward were WAV first, midi as arranges
>>46630631Fuck you dude. This is one of my favorite 2hu themes, even with these trumpets blasting my ears every time I listen to it.
>>46637232Including the stage themes?
>>46634307>>46634308I was expecting this to sound worse. Granted I can see why people don't like it. Composition feels phoned in like it cobbled together a bunch of his past melodies and called it a day.
>>46628346I do not like Yuuka's theme from PoFV, I think it's quite bad. Compare it to both of her themes from LLS and it's night and day.>>46643145I don't. But I'll give credit where it's due, Idolatrize World is excellent.
>>46654182I realise this is kind of a pointless reply considering the theme of the thread but Yuuka's PoFV theme is one of my favourite ZUN tracks ever.I can listen to it for hours.
>>46647326And that's perfectly fine. But I think Necrofantasia is a far better song due to not making my ears bleed.
>>46628346I find the Touhou music after MoF to be hit or miss. Some tracks are good, while others are not so great. For example, I find Touhou 13 to be quite boring thematically, but desire drive and old yuanxian are god tier. Similarly, in Touhou 19 I think Reimu's theme is excellent, but the others are somewhat meh, or Touhou 12 I think byakuren's theme and Nue's theme is god tier while the other themes are boring
>>46654988Yeah post-MoF soundtracks are certainly less coherent when it comes to quality. >Touhou 12>Touhou 13I think these two, especially 13, are a kind of weird experimental/transitional phase for Zun. I quite like the OST of 12, but it has some really weird moments (menu theme, Interdimensional Voyage of Ghostly Passenger Ship).13 has...a lot of weird stuff, my least favorite 2hu track (the really boring and awkward menu theme) but also some of my favorites (Desire Drive, Starry Sky of Small Desires and Futatsuiwa from Sado). It's absolutely the most hit or miss from me and feels really different from other Touhou OST's.
>>46634224It was bizarre for multiple reasons. I could get if you had 'generic battle themes' (A lot of the ULiL theme are like this and the majority are super good) but instead what they did was made Reimu/Marisa/I think Suika themes do double duty as early/mid/late stage themes, which means outside of the final two stages you listened to the same three songs, and even worse it's one of those games where the story's told gradually through expecting you to play through every character's story mode so you'll hear these a lot.It also diminishes the actual character themes for Reimu/Marisa/Suika because it doesn't feel like they have character themes because they're used so often generically. It's a shame because for me this is the first Reimu theme that I think actually suited the character personality.
Yuuma's theme is the best in the series don't > me
>>46643145>17I'm maybe an outlier but I'm always surprised by how little praise this game gets on this board to the point where I suspect most people haven't really played it much.People go on and on about the series 'stagnating' while 17 feels really different to the other games where the 'grimdark' shit is a lot more obvious which makes it tonally very different to the other games. The animal realm and its associated characters are all interesting and don't exist in a vacuum from other characters (Which I think is something ZUN has realized is important to making characters interesting and why Yuuma later was shown to have relationships with other old characters), genre variety was good and the systems/stages/bosses were good. Music is consistently good and varied. Only complaint I'd make is that while the normal final boss is a good climax in how it plays out, storywise it isn't very significant and making the bulk of the story 'protagonist goes after the wrong person' and then hurriedly resolving the actual plot in the extra stage was a weird choice.I think 17 was so good that it made UM look boring and rote purely by comparison, while UM is imo actually pretty fine when compared to the wider series.
>>46655146which version though? for me her 19 theme is the peak
>>46654988>>46655035It's interesting, because I think that this is where for a time at least ZUN also clearly favored a kind of overall overarching musical inspiration for all tracks for each game (like a statement of intent), i.e. SA soundtrack has tons of 19th century European classical music pointers and TD has strong influence from ambient techno vibe for each track to be easily remixed to a more stripped down, rhythm-heavy 'trance' version. You'd think it would make for a more consistent package, but not really. Well, I think SA soundtrack is great and really consistent, but I agree that same can't be said about TD.
>>46655193I like 17 when it comes to the plot and setting and characters themselves, but there's a lot of really dud character designs (basicaly everyone but Yachie, Mayumi and Keiki) and something about the actual gameplay doesn't vibe with me at all. It's a mix of the ottermode feeling too crutchy, the game being somehow visually hard to read and the animal spirits constantly baiting me into playing recklessly and/or adding to the cognitive load by having extra bouncing, blinking, noisy shit on the screen. As for the music, I think there's about the usual of good/meh tracks for latter Touhou games, marred by the extremely weak drums. Idolatrize World is a fantastic composition with many fan arrangements that improve upon the original on the simple merit of having drums that are not just weird FM puffs and hissess.
he spent all the drums for 始原のビート ～ Prinstine Beat
Wish I never visited this thread. I had a feeling that even /jp/ could be susceptible to bad takes, but it seems that no place is perfect. Imagine saying any of his tracks are bad, or even suggest he got worse as time progressed. I feel like I am the only one who is blessed with good understanding on ZUN's music. I can understand trashing his new games or characters or art or whatever, even I admit he has some flaws, but he never lost his touch when it comes to music. Literally the only thing I can agree on is the indie expo theme is weak, but that's the limit. Especially laughable are the people who think he would sound better with better samples. Bro, it wouldn't be ZUN's music if it sounded any other way. That's what makes him so unique. And lastly, Shinreibyou haters are simply retarded, no more words needed.
>>46664017I agree that he most definitively hasn't gotten worse with age when it comes to compositions, but I do think there are occasional duds in his immense pool of music and that the weak drums bring down the latter OSTs somewhat. But it's nice to see someone who likes all of it. He certainly has a unique style and even with most of the stuff I don't 100% vibe I can see where he was going with it. He is extremely talented at composing stuff that sounds exactly like what it's supposed to sound like, and he's only gotten better at that with time.
>>46628346I like most Touhou songs, but these stand out as ones I don't care for. I really don't like ZUN's current style in general.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xjzyw-Q5_Ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePzB2RTXtWkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXpOgqcyiswhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv87-GvQlrwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQsYcoyMGe0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko3Xg_sKq0w ZUN's parts in this were pretty weak. >>46628500I feel like this wolf song is a better version of that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G78gVVd4qY
>>46655198Aren't they exactly the same?
>>46664017To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Touhou music. The counterpoint is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of music theory most of the themes will go over a typical listener's head. There's also ZUN's neo-traditionalist outlook, which is deftly woven into his compositions and the associated writing - his personal philosophy draws heavily from the Nihon Shoki, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of his melodies, to realize that they're not just catchy- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Touhou music truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the playfulness in the eastern story leitmotiv or the bad apple ostinato which itself is a cryptic reference to Carroll's Alice's Adventures in WonderlandI'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as the Hakurei Kannushi's genius flows into their ears. What fools... how I pity them.
>>46664726didn't they arrange each other's theme? so the ZUN part is the undertale shit and the UN Owen part is Toby Fox? I didn't even listen to it and every time I think that I should, I immediately can't find the energy
>>46665005Correct. You have Toby putting his all into Flandre's theme, making it loud and full and energetic. Then for some reason you have ZUN doing the bare minimum.
>>46665027>Then for some reason you have ZUN doing the bare minimum.This sounds a bit weird, do you think ZUN has something against Toby Fox?
>>46664726>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXpOgqcyiswHSiFS tracks piss me off because if the instrumentation was just a little bit better they'd be great but as they are they're quite obnoxious because of that shitty saxophone soundfont.
>>46664726>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQsYcoyMGe0Chimatan...
Seihou 1 name register theme is really "eeh?" if that countshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtO91rM34vUMaybe somebody could rap over this?
>>46665582Jesus it's actually fucking great. Well, that's only expected from ZUN-shi. He is so great at writing mood-setters. Stop proving that he really has not a single bad track, it's insane. But not as insane as people here who claim otherwise.
>>46630631I like this
>>46665582It's a bit odd but I actually like it.
>>46643102Give your opinion you fuckers
>>46665120No, it's just his style nowadays. He doesn't go all-out anymore.>>46665306The saxophone is fine in my opinion, it's those awful drums and guitar he thinks sound so good.
>>46643102>>46665697I like it. It's a nice little theme. The trill gives it an oriental feel.
I feel like the first two games have a much weaker soundtrack in general than the rest of the 98 and forward titles
>>46665761I like th02 soundtrack MIDI version
>>46665761this but the opposite
>>46665719Great drums and guitar you dumbfuck. Please please PLEASE clean your ears.The thing is, why would you want him to make music conventionally better sounding? I like these precise samples because it filters plebs who think everything should sound like the thing they are used to, sorry for lack of better examples. The electric guitar slander is what irks me the most. It sounds perfectly fine, gritty and original. I am glad ZUN doesn't listen to public opinion too much, his craft unsoiled by illiterate folk.
>>46665804>great drumsthey're the same drums soundcloud rappers use
>>46665804t. ZUN
>>46664017No amount of the usual "Akshully, ZUN is still great, he's just got a mature and more experimental style, you just can't appreciate him because you don't have proper music education" drivel is going to change the fact that I would love every single old track of his, while, starting from TD, there's an ever increasing number of tracks that are just bad and make me grimace.And yes, it did start with TD: as soon as I heard Ghost Lead, I knew something was wrong, because ZUN had never composed something that awful in a previous Windows mainline game. Before, his worst was just "okay".
>>46665719I don't know about drums but the guitar can also fuck off.
>>46665878Ghost lead is catchy.
https://twitter.com/korindo/status/1782778168782602485No matter what you say, ZUN always loves his music.
It feels like there's no real solid climaxes anymore.
>>46665956Can we make a list of what exactly makes the music of current games so bad?I dislike the electric guitar from some themes of TH16. I don't hate it, but I feel like its out of place.
I really want to like Hecatia and her theme but it sounds like circus music for half the song.
https://youtu.be/YikgHSnYiFE
>>46666131what your image is moving how you did that
I love Touhou music in small doses, but the repetitive nature of ZUN's songwriting and his tendency to go for his cliches in every single song (>>46635691, Picardy thirds, the ZUNsoft arpeggio) really wear down on me, so ZUN's music is more of an occasional treat. I actually appreciate his more experimental choices of timbres and inspirations, but those songwriting cliches do make a lot of this music really predictable in the long run.
>>46665997>out of placeThat's his entire music style right now. The whole point of Touhou is that it's set in a time capsule of 1800s Japan. The general aesthetic of the series was carefully constructed around this, so why would ZUN move away from faux-orchestra in favor of electronic?His comment for this song says that he tried giving it an autumn-like feeling, but other than the oboe it just sounds like music you'd hear at a low-budget daytime rave.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9xdMzUTBsw
>>46666893I maintain that it's the instrumentation. Marasy can make anything sound good but piano renditions of HSiFS sound pretty solid then you listen to the real tracks and it's like "what happened here". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg1GNxSa6j0&t=186s
>>46667913Yeah, that "remixes are always better than the original songs" meme is starting to make sense. Marasy is incredible.
>>46643102Honestly expected this to appear when I saw the thread since it sounds like the sort of old game ost others would tell me to turn down.But I'm a massive retrofag so I still like it even if it sounds pretty different from HRtP style.>>46665761First two games are pretty unique, they feel pretty melancholic and dark. There's a big style change from SoEW to PoDD.>>46665582I miss score entry themes honestly and really like Seihou ost in general. Might be my favorite ZUNost[/spoileridk, in general I agree with modern 2hu ost not being that good, but it might be due to getting used to 2hu music, being a nostalfag and not listening less the newer songs(not giving them much of a "chance") and going instead back to the old ones.
i don’t know if his instruments are horrible now or if he doesn’t bother doing any mastering at all but every track post-15 sounds cacophonous with how none of the instruments sound good together or form a cohesive song at all. it sounds like a child playing around in garageband. it was made especially clear when he remastered PCB and UFO tracks and essentially made worse versions of them. horrible what he did to charming domination
>>46665761I think touhou 1 has the best pc98 ost, these are my favorites: https://youtu.be/i5QfOOtp31Ihttps://youtu.be/SzOUqOCRXOshttps://youtu.be/x21zqGC4mOchttps://youtu.be/bzt87vI6YT0touhou 2 isnt that great but I like very much the extra boss themehttps://youtu.be/TfFd1xLMbEA
>>46669300For Nazrin's theme, he at least kept all the instruments and changed only some of them. For Ran's he took his old midi and slapped some piano, strings, bass, and drums over it and called it a day. So many extra instruments omitted.
>>46669421>touhou 2 isnt that great but I like very much the extra boss themeDo you know about the MIDI version? Every single track comes out great, and the compositions have some differences with the FM version.
>>46673399>he took his old midihe expressly didn't, actually. He said that he didn't have it, so he had to remake it from scratch (how the fuck he lost it when he can just extract it from the game file was not explained)
>>46674488He lost The GameAnd so did you
>>46669300>every trackare you only talking about boss theme?
>>46674488>Lose game files>Finds a site hosting downloads>Downloads it>Sends lawyers to shut it down>Refuses to elaborate
>>46674474yes I know, I mentioned the extra boss theme because I think it is the one that is better in the original form
>>46674491
>>46674488I heard that he lost the source code for Touhou 6 to 9, dont know if it is true
>>466754749’s on steam (albeit with revamped netcode i believe?) so it should just be 6-8 lost to time
>>46634129Without a doubt, Izanagi Object.
>>46665761How can one person be so flat-out wrong? Highly Responsive to Prayers and Story of Eastern Wonderland are full of hidden gems. I suppose I could see one not liking it if dark music wasn't their fancy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlp7WLGJZ9E (Strange Oriental Discourse)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_LJcQfaOD0 (Magic Mirror - Hell)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeMrru0Ghoc (The Legend of Kage)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzt87vI6YT0 (Now, die for the debt you have accumulated)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzYNAMeHjsg (Iris)As for Highly Responsive to Prayers, for some of the themes, the MS music room version is far better.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcvTjFo2T8I (Angel's Legend)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vtd_uyO1uY (Civilization of Magic)You can't just listen to World of Empty Dreams and tell me that they are weaker.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8di6az9BBQ (End of Daylight)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oluGWBK8Bk8 (World of Empty Dreams)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8N3XswjEuI (Power of Darkness)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glGtklFzZ2k (Complete Darkness)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5j6uIIybXA (Extra Love)If anything, HRtP and SoEW are completely overlooked because of their rough exterior. But, after SoEW, the music does trend towards being dreamy rather than dark and melancholic.
>>46655146>>46655198Not the og anon, but both "Memento of the Avaricious Beast" and "Memento of All Organisms" are my top 2 tracks from 16 onwards, and proof he's still got it when he actually tries.
>>46675958patrician
Rumias theme sucks and Im tired of pretending it doesnt.>>46675958>But, after SoEW, the music does trend towards being dreamy rather than dark and melancholicThats something that I liked about the first 2 games, and thats why I love Eternal Shrine Maiden so much, its so sad and melancholic yet fits Reimu so well, I really hate that its so underused.
Of older ZUN his worst track is Gensokyo, Past and Present ~ Flower Land. It's not close either, that track fucking SUCKS.
>>46676562>Rumias theme sucks and Im tired of pretending it doesnt.Is the most nostalgic song for me, together with her stage theme
>>46674488>he expressly didn't, actually. He said that he didn't have it, so he had to remake it from scratchWhen did he say this? I find it hard to believe when it's the same pitch and only a slightly different tempo.
Crazy how this thread is much more civil than the "favorite track" ones lol
>>46665582Its simply but I like it
>>46676700Its quite literally the only battle song from that game that I cant consistently remember, its so forgettable to me, I dont get all the ruckus around it.
>>46682324It might be from Rumia herself being the only EoSD character that hasn't reappeared a bunch of times.
>>46681688No favorites to fiercely defend here.
>>46678875https://twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1697602355037167890
>>46676562>Rumias theme sucks and Im tired of pretending it doesnt.Sou nano kaa... Do you really not like catchy bass and the whimsical flute?Not only it's musically pleasant, it's also perfect thematically. You have an edgy synth introduction section up to 0:13, then it tries to scare you further with an insisting idiophone, humorously turning quite cute instead, before completely giving up on a coherent strategy and just going all out with the flute. This is pure youkai moe in jocular music and it's wonderful! deochi! deochi! romantic! deochi moe!!!
>>46686159Huh, interesting. I wouldn't have known that.Though I will say there's a chance he's talking about the project files and not the songs themselves. Like, you know how Tsukasa's theme is the same as Th18 but with different drums? He just went into the project file and changed them. He likely took the midi for Ran's stage theme and started a new project.
I can't say I really "dislike" any of ZUN's musical work, but maybe that's because I haven't heard all of it yet. Some songs I definitely like better than others, like most of MoF's and IN's soundtracks. Yet I disagree with others here about the newer soundtracks for the games. I really like HSiFS and WBaWC sound tracks, they are among my favorites. I like that ZUN is branching out to more experimental styles, as long as he doesn't make a hip-hop or rap style or something ridiculous I think he'll be great. Some songs in EoSD are a bit overrated even if they are still good, with U.N. Owen being the biggest culprit of this. Good song but in the fanbase done to death and overrated. Beloved Tomboyish Daughter and Septette for the Dead Princess are just better off of the same sound track. Frankly, most of the other songs in 6 are better than U.N. in my opinion. My favorite songs are Youkai Mountain ~ Mysterious Mountain and Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall. Every time I listen to new songs from the games and fan remixes, I find more I like. I just wish I didn't suck at the games with my paltry 2-3 games 1cced (10, 17, 19)
>>46664726>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQsYcoyMGe0Hold the fuckin phone what you mean? This is like the best track in this game. It's damn great. I especially like the piano. Zun's recent tracks that have had a decent piano focus have all been my favorite tracks from him.
>>46689463The piano is good of course, the piano is always good and probably always will be good. The main issue I have with it is that it sounds like an unfinished amateur cover of Idolatrize World. The whole thing is empty-sounding, like ZUN forgot to put anything in the background. Melodically, it sounds generally aimless except for the climax, which I didn't even know WAS the climax at first until the piano kicked in thanks to the aforementioned emptiness. It was a huge disappointment after how good Keiki's theme was, especially since I liked it so much more than Okina's and Junko's.The icing on the cake is that she's the first Windows final boss since Remilia to not slow the game down when she explodes. It's the only time I thought "That was it?" after clearing a game.
>>46690209>first Windows final boss since Remilia to not slow the game down when she explodesKeiki also does that
>>46690240Odd, I just checked and you're right. Maybe I'm just misremembering because I liked her fight more.
entire ddc soundtrack
>>46699481Only stage 1 and 3 are weak.
I second the decline started with TD. True Administrator is an absolute nothing of a song.
>>46699481Take that back. Stage 4 and Ex are awesome
>>46704216someone else appreciates Thunderclouds of Magical Power? It's my favorite extra stage theme
Love the game itself, probably in my Top 3 gameplay wise, but MS' soundtrack is not ZUN's best. It's still pretty good, has a few great songs but a lot of the song is kind of meh. It took the SC-88 revisit to make Mai's song feel complete, later stage themes are pretty great but there's a lot of whatever.MS aside his weakest soundtrack is probably EoSD? Feels like just a video game OST and not Touhou to me, it just goes through the motions, and EoSD's incredibly entry level inspirations lead to ZUN hardly ever being challenged in his composition. It's competent but damn is it boring.Also while the "Stage 6 is just the Final Boss with anticipation of the big bad storytelling attached to it" can give good songs I do find the process in itself rather boring and lazy. Not every Stage 6 boss has the context to make a Fires of Hokkai tier song but again, the appeal with ZUN to me is seeing how he translates complex character traits into a song.
>>46704404hey me too
>>46704404Stupidly good song.
>>46704523I understand about MS but not really about EoSD. It's just... all-around great and fitting to the stages and the characters?
>>46709377Is that a question?
>>46700868I actually like it, one of the very few ZUN tracks where the sampled distorted guitars actually work
>>46713098You can elaborate on why you think the EoSD soundtrack is boring if you want. But you don't have to.If I understand your point, it is that ZUN was playing it too safe.
>>46718264That wasn't me, but i'll give a brief answer. I don't think EoSD's setting & characters often challenged ZUN as a compositor. With all the context of a character like her, Remilia's theme almost writes itself. It's not too interesting. I guess you could say it's playing it safe but i'd moreso call it make do with the cards in your deck.Septette is still a very enjoyable song, and sometimes the simplest things are the nicest, I wouldn't blame anyone for loving it. If you couldn't decipher it from the first post, I like ZUN's songs as an exercice in musical literacy: Trying to understand what led to a song sounding like it did contributes to my enjoyment of a song.
16 onwards for me, pretty unremarkable and boring except a few from 18 (eg: Chimata's theme). TD's tracks are by far the worst from 2nd gen.
>>46722188Desire Drive reigns supreme, but the rest of the soundtrack is pretty weak, i agree.
Re-listening the whole UM ost today, still didn't like 'em
