NEVER apologize for piano/music arranging talk haha, this is delightful!!! exactly the kind of thing i Shout Into The Internet Void for :D
there are a few tracks in COE33 that have catchy melodies, i think, but unfortunately they're pretty heavily backloaded in terms of where they appear in the game and, yeah, overall the soundtrack is *much* less melodically-focused than Uematsu.
i do still enjoy it more than the median game soundtrack, which i often feel has a... static-elevator-music-y-mediocre-elctronica-y-"blah"-background-sound vibe? (like e.g. i think the assassin's creed soundtracks historically sound like Boring Ambient Sound, and it's hard for me to think of other specific examples because they're so... SAME-y... meant to vaguely evoke an atmosphere but never so much that you actually notice it...)
anyway, Testard's tracks *do* have a bit more of a "notice me" & a coherent/interesting thematic identity than aforementioned median soundtrack, imo... i haven't gotten Super Deep into breaking it apart, but there's some riffs/motifs/tracks throughout that kind of gave me renaissance motet/polyphony vibes which i think work very satisfyingly with where it goes with the overall story, and he's doing kind of Opinionated Things With Strings at points in a way that got satisfyingly under my skin... it's not Uematsu but it did get its hooks in me a few times lol. but uematsu really is just so so good sighs into hands
> I (too harshly?) suspect that some VGM composers are just taking inspiration from other video game music, so the style just gets clichéd and stale and becomes an increasingly dull parody of itself
nah i don't think you're too harsh lol that's def A Thing i've noticed in modern video game music. (plus i suspect the lack of technical constraints from earlier eras has been bad in enforcing discipline/thoughtfulness about What Should Go Into The Game, in certain ways? like i've seen some internet commenters make a big deal out of "omg the coe33 soundtrack is EIGHT HOURS that's SO MUCH music that's SO impressive" and i'm like... i mean, one, a lot of that length is "this is actually five variations on the Same Basic Idea because there's the battle/quiet/etc version of the same song for different scenarios," which is fine to have but isn't *in and of itself* impressive; older games had to be judicious about making the same track work in a variety of situations due to space constraints! and yeah having an 11-minute-long track that's Perfectly Matched to a bunch of cutscenes and battle moments etc is cool and all, but like, "One-Winged Angel" is a Beloved Gamer Fave Track™ without needing all that length—it was just really smart about effectively using the space/instruments/etc available to it.)
ETA: ohhh and ty for the Treno arrangement! it does look so fun to play... i printed it out just now lol, may add it to my lil repertoire over here...!
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Date: 2025-07-23 09:48 pm (UTC)there are a few tracks in COE33 that have catchy melodies, i think, but unfortunately they're pretty heavily backloaded in terms of where they appear in the game and, yeah, overall the soundtrack is *much* less melodically-focused than Uematsu.
i do still enjoy it more than the median game soundtrack, which i often feel has a... static-elevator-music-y-mediocre-elctronica-y-"blah"-background-sound vibe? (like e.g. i think the assassin's creed soundtracks historically sound like Boring Ambient Sound, and it's hard for me to think of other specific examples because they're so... SAME-y... meant to vaguely evoke an atmosphere but never so much that you actually notice it...)
anyway, Testard's tracks *do* have a bit more of a "notice me" & a coherent/interesting thematic identity than aforementioned median soundtrack, imo... i haven't gotten Super Deep into breaking it apart, but there's some riffs/motifs/tracks throughout that kind of gave me renaissance motet/polyphony vibes which i think work very satisfyingly with where it goes with the overall story, and he's doing kind of Opinionated Things With Strings at points in a way that got satisfyingly under my skin... it's not Uematsu but it did get its hooks in me a few times lol. but uematsu really is just so so good sighs into hands
> I (too harshly?) suspect that some VGM composers are just taking inspiration from other video game music, so the style just gets clichéd and stale and becomes an increasingly dull parody of itself
nah i don't think you're too harsh lol that's def A Thing i've noticed in modern video game music. (plus i suspect the lack of technical constraints from earlier eras has been bad in enforcing discipline/thoughtfulness about What Should Go Into The Game, in certain ways? like i've seen some internet commenters make a big deal out of "omg the coe33 soundtrack is EIGHT HOURS that's SO MUCH music that's SO impressive" and i'm like... i mean, one, a lot of that length is "this is actually five variations on the Same Basic Idea because there's the battle/quiet/etc version of the same song for different scenarios," which is fine to have but isn't *in and of itself* impressive; older games had to be judicious about making the same track work in a variety of situations due to space constraints! and yeah having an 11-minute-long track that's Perfectly Matched to a bunch of cutscenes and battle moments etc is cool and all, but like, "One-Winged Angel" is a Beloved Gamer Fave Track™ without needing all that length—it was just really smart about effectively using the space/instruments/etc available to it.)
ETA: ohhh and ty for the Treno arrangement! it does look so fun to play... i printed it out just now lol, may add it to my lil repertoire over here...!