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Fox Quest 2: The Blade Of Legend's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #1 | 4.164 | 4.164 |
| Melody Impact | #1 | 4.061 | 4.061 |
| Composition | #2 | 4.182 | 4.182 |
| Melody Clarity | #2 | 4.273 | 4.273 |
| Correlation to Theme | #4 | 4.273 | 4.273 |
| Listenability | #8 | 4.030 | 4.030 |
Ranked from 33 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to Streaming Service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTrTNCvQwV8
Description
DEVLOG:
Kept a devlog/journal for those interested, with all the different progress versions of tracks, midi screenshots + other thoughts and struggles during the jam:
https://eetusuikkanen.github.io/blog/impressions-melody-1/
MUSIC:
I started out with just the first track THE BLADE OF LEGEND, but ended up getting other melodic ideas that turned into the battle theme VALIANT STRUGGLE, and then after doing some world building for the submission I got more ideas for tracks to outline the little jrpg pastiche story i came up with and came up with the two "dungeon" tracks, DARK SHRINE and SHRINE TRIAL.
I Included 2 version of VALIANT SRUGGLE, one with the intro at the start and a LOOPABLE one without the intro that SHOULD loop seamlessly back to the start.
I was going to not include SHRINE TRIAL in the submission since it felt a bit ehh to me and couldn't really make it to any better until the end, but since its almost a minute long and I did make it during the jam, I decided to include it, even if it doesn't really fit the whole melody jam theme with the melodic stuff being pretty meh compared to the other tracks IMO.
But anyway, long story short, a couple of snessy rpg tunes with the little companion story included in the youtube video to follow along, hope you enjoy it.
For more in-depth on the thoughts and reasoning of the tracks and story, please refer to the devlog 😉
Feedback and other stuff always welcome, thanks for listening!
GEAR,PLUGINS,DAW USED:
Cockos REAPER as the DAW and the stock plugins for any mix/master needs
Magical Box 2.0 (Kontakt FULL Library) by Toysounds, for all the snessy sounds.
NI Kontakt for using Magical Box 2.0
Vital synth for the little filter sweep in the intro of VALIANT STRUGGLE
DAW Screenshot
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Comments
Where is the melody though?
This is one of my favorite submissions to this jam. You absolutely caught the vibe with this. The production is so solid. The only thing was I thought the horns came in a little loud in the final track. Doesnt affect my score at all with you though 5/5 across the board. Plus all the writing is very commendable. Props to you
Yeah, the guitars ended up too loud at the big crescendo part in the battle theme now that i'm listening to this later on 😅
Glad you liked them!
I love the choice of SNES-inspired sounds, it adds a great retro vibe. Watching the story unfold on screen while the music plays is very immersive, it makes you feel part of the quest. The different moods fit the story in unique ways, and it has a vibe reminiscent of classic Final Fantasy games, especially the older titles :)
Glad you like them!
Fantastic submission. Love the variety of modes used to emulate specific situations, the melodies are memorable, and the choice to make a SNES-like soundtrack does the trick perfectly, actually. Doesn't take itself too seriously, but still remains perfectly professional. Also very creative, I can hear you had fun making this.
If I allow myself to be reaaaaallly picky, some moments are harmonically janky and do sound really out of place, like in 1:10, 3:04, or the beginning of Valiant Struggle which sounds like you tried to do some tension but ended up sounding a bit clumsy. But that's really me being picky.
5/5 everywhere
I was intending for a final fantasy esque battle track start with a initial impact sfx with the gallop bass under that for the start of Valiant Struggle but couldn't really make the proper sounds myself and didn't want to just rip the sfx from any ff game, so I just did the barebones filter sweep which is a bit lame 😅
Personal mantra for me this year is to just try any track ideas that come to mind, so I managed to get a lot more done compared to the usual amount in last years jams and suprisingly making stuff feels more fun and fluid by first making a draft of a new idea and then judging it later and not during/before making a first draft of it.
Thanks for the kind words, glad you liked them! 🙏
I should try doing that too !
I've tried to give all submission I rate a full breakdown of how many stars I gave in which category, but I hope you don't mind if I skip that here, since I'm just going to give you five stars across the board.
I might be a bit biased since I grew up playing Final Fantasy 4-6, and Nobuo Uematsu is close to being my favorite VGM composer, but I really love the style here and I think you really nailed the aesthetic. I might have to ask in the discord what you use for the NES sounds, I've used some tracker software like Furnace myself but find the tracker workflow a bit alien. At least I can see you did this in Reaper so no trackers needed for a sound like this!
The melodies are memorable and impactful across the board here, and the overall composition and arrangement is simply pro level imo. Listenability is also a no-brainer, this could be in a NES game and I wouldn't bat an eye.
My main instrument is bass, and one cool thing about Uematsu's music in old FF games is that the basslines absolutely slap. I don't really know why, but he composed super intricate bass work for tracks like FFVI Decisive Battle and FFV Clash at the Big Bridge. There is some of that here, the distinct basslines stand out to me and could be fun to learn!
You also deserve extra credit for the visuals and the story. Great stuff! Don't really know what else to say, wouldn't be surprised if this is the top rated entry this time around.
EDIT: Well this is awkward, I skimmed your description and missed you posted your Kontakt library there.
Love me some uematsu too, though grew up on 10 and 9 myself 😄
I've tried learning trackers myself but the spreadsheet/column way of working has never really clicked for me and feels really hard to read compared to a piano roll or sheet music 😅
Magical Box is a nice soundset (also really cheap for the quality), but Plogue's Chipsynth SFC might be a better to get in the long term since its a really accurate clone of the snes chip, has the snes echo effect and can rip instruments from snes game to use inside the plugin, I probably would have gotten that instead if it had been released back when I was looking for snes sounds 😄
Glad you liked them!
This really sounds like a full blown story! Like the whole track progresses through different stages overtime. Good job!
Many thanks 🙏
Very nice tune! Good job!
Glad you liked them!
Reminds me of old Square games from Super Famicom. Great work!
Those were what I had in mind while making these, especially with the down pitched tambourine hits 😄
Glad you liked them!
Really lovely work. Fantastic submission.
🙏Glad you liked i!!
Yo Eetu! This was so fun to listen to, not many do the SNES throwbacks in these jams so it's cool you went that route. I also really like the vision across the pieces and how you documented the process so well - mine was so erratic I don't know if I could structure my process like that bu tit's cool to see your iterations. Personally I found the first piece to be the best, just loved it's opening vibe and melody the most. Great pieces!
The journal writing might make the process seem really structured, but usually ends up being more erratic at parts than my writing style might make it come across, since I usually try to write pretty succinctly to not make the posts too long 😂
One sort of structure/workflow thing I always use on jams and has always worked for me, is working on tracks in 1 or 2 hour sessions, and then taking a short break after that to clear the mind before returning back to work more on them in a sort of pomodoro fashion. Of course if a good creative flow gets going then the session might be longer, but the 1 to 2 hours a session time has usually been the amount of time before I start running out of creative juice, start getting stuck and need a break. Coming back with a clear mind and fresh ears after the break always helps hear whats wrong with the track and maybe get some new ideas going as well.
Don't really remember when I started using the pomodoro method, but it has helped me a lot! I do understand that it might not work for everyone, since every brain works differently after all 😉
Glad you liked them!
This is so clean dude! I was holding off on listening to it on Discord, and it does not disappoint. I love the Legend of Zelda vibes of this. I think each song conveys the story very well and confidently. Your rhythm game was on point for this soundtrack. Melody stands out and isn't obviously repetitive without being too chaotic. The actual jam theme is conveyed perfectly as well. The mix is a bit dry, but that's kind of a retro thing, which I get. I also like how you included loopable versions of some tracks as well. That's a good piece of knowledge i'll probably be trying to use from now on haha.
Well done! :D
Glad you liked it!
I used the Echo effect inside the Magical Box instruments, but those were all set to a pretty short slap back sort of sound. In retrospect, having it longer/with more feedback could've been better, especially for the more ambient dungeon tracks.
Had to try and do proper looping tracks this time around, since I had initially made my tracks seamless loops for the Mystery Jam #1, but ended up totally fucking up the looping for the final submission that time, so this time had to do it right, all though SHRINE TRIAL ended up as non-loopable since I got a bit stuck working on that 😅