Introduction - Heh... that guitar was a little weird). But along with the fun and simple melody, those little "broken" rhythm set an interesting atmosphere for the rest of the soundtrack...

Meeting Takālu / Learning the Fire Tactic - Yay! I love tutorials!

Battle of the Rains - Battle Time! And why does that piano sound like the main battle musician is a drunken pianist)?

Battle of the Lava - Oh, mood swing? Heh. Now that's something creepy

Learning The Water Tactic - MAGIC.

Climbing the Martial Ladder - "WHO GAVE THE PIANIST A WAH PEDAL AND A CONTAINER OF WHISKEY?!"

Demigods Don't Need Counselors - "Goodbye Spirit! Take your piano player back to your place, please. He's already drunk all my alcohol."

Going Home - "Whoo! I'm going home! I hope the piano player doesn't get to my house first and drink my last supply of whiskey :_)"

Honestly, the whole soundtrack had me haunted by the feeling of a drunk musician wandering around next to me)
I loved it!

Your harmonic approach is really cool, loved it but maybe I would have liked a little more regular rhythm (personnal view) to install something before going somewhere else!

Nice submission.

I do really like a lot of your harmonic and melodic ideas, I think they were really cool and had a very regal feel to them, which i liked a lot! However, there were a few issues with everything lining up that made it a bit harder for your cool compositional choices to stand out as much as they could have; reading through the comments I can tell that the choice to be more freeform and not quantize the music was seemingly purposeful, and while I respect that and encourage people to branch out sometimes it felt like even in the free form nature parts that probably could have lined up to match each other a bit more didnt (I especially noticed this with the drums in Battle Of The Rains and Introduction). My point being, while I think you had a creative approach in your choice to go a more freeform direction, I still think some of those finer details are things you will want to watch out for when you attempt a naturally harder to arrange style, which is one of the main challenges with doing more free form work.

That being said, I can still tell you have a very strong ear for the actual writing part, and if you played all this yourself thats also really impressive! This is just a bit of a harsher critique because you chose an approach that I think naturally is a lot harder, and i wanted to direct my feedback in a way that would help you the most if you choose to tackle this again. Keep it up!

The Roland sound is recognizable, very beautiful and warm. I would have mixed it a bit better with the other sounds, which are a bit low in comparison. The arrangements are also interesting, but I would have used a broader range of timbres. It's nice that you wrote it on the keyboard, but I would have had the synth play a melody, perhaps layered with other instruments, and assigned the harmony to yet others. In other words, as if you were transcribing a piece from piano to orchestra. I think that way, the arrangements would have gained even more value. ☺️

Really well done, especially if it's all being played out by hand! This album gave me strong Jun Fukamachi vibes which is always a good thing. I personally like the mix, it gives the music a really authentic feel that you just don't get nowadays. I gotta know how you did these chord progressions, they are so unorthodox and beautiful. Great work! (Water Tactic is my favorite but it was hard to choose.)

Okay, this was an absolute audio adventure xD

I think the biggest issue this soundtrack overall faced was mixing/mastering. Some instruments totally overpowered the rest of the song, and some songs were relatively quite different in volumes levels from each other, which takes away from the cohesion of an OST. Overall, really enjoyed listening through the songs, and that Introduction definitely had me raising eyebrows to new levels. Zugzug

Liked this one a lot.

Love the way you've taken the sound and feel of a classic chiptune soundtrack and then turned it on it's head and made it sound very experimental. I think that really fits the narrative you described of having it focus on what would usually be a generic enemy or antagonist.

Some great use of recurring motifs and very nice synth sounds.

I did think the balance between instruments was a bit off in a couple of places and some tracks were noticeably at quite a different volume level to others but it didn't hold it back too much.

Your music is so full of creativity. Outstanding work. (love the crazy chord and tempo changes!)

Very chaotic and experimental, one of the most unique and hectic soundtracks on here so far! You took some very intruiging rhythmic choices and chord voicings, I can hear a lot of jazz influence in your arrangement style.  An unorthodox approach on game OSTs, very fun to listen to as I never know where it's taking me.  

It's definitely heavily dependent on game context/genre, as I would have a hard time while trying to analyze the music I'm playing + strategizing.

Otherwise, keep riffing on!

Dude, I am in love with all the places you've taken the leitmotif throughout the soundtrack. Your chordal knowledge is off the charts. I had so much fun listening to each track, they're so unique, I haven't heard anything like it! Please please please keep doing what you're doing, I'm all in! So much fun!

It’s certainly experimental! In the best way!

The opening piece feels like multiple pieces in a way. It’s regal and aggressive at the same time, capturing that vibe quite well.

The synth riffs over the harpsichord were interesting, especially with how often they’d he a little off from another in sound. Sick chord progressions though. It absolutely does get that 80/90s feel down.

Guessing this is a battle tune. Interesting choice to have the aggressive parts come in and out, it creates a really interesting parallel between softer sounds and extremely aggressive riffing.

Love the synths in this, they’re a little unpredictable and the chords don’t often resolve where the listener would expect them to. It still rises so well which is great.

A boss theme? Just as chaotic as one would expect it to be. Fantastic.

Another boss theme! Yesss this one is also fun!

Listened to the rest of the soundtrack and think it is great! Lots of unusual sounds that I would love to hear more in video games. Very jazzy, very excellent body of work. Lots of variety that I could hear being in the cutscenes of the games as opposed to the main background music that would be playing. Love your chords, by the way.

0) ooo regal and maybe a little hint of nefariousness or suspicion with the timing gradients (or maybe it was just in free time and I'm reading too far into it).  I think that captures impressions from the artwork nicely!

1) what a pleasant blend of classical riffing and harpsichord with the 80s pad-y synth sound.  Nicely evocative of like 80s/90s video game "rise for the royal court" kinda scenes

2) the slides, the soft clippiness.  The classical harmonies feel like they start to borrow a little more from rockier genres here which is a nice distinction for battling presumably the first distinct foe

3) aww yeah it definitely starts to feel like Shadow Universe Elton John is puppeteering the villains we're battling which I mean as a compliment.  I like how big it feels when the crashes start going crazy (maybe wish they took up more of the volume budget).  I also love how relentless the progressions felt going into the latter half

4) from the first bar I could already tell I was in for some intrigue and fun

5) oh even  more of a big initial impression than track 4.  The formant filter synth and the traditional piano sound blend together scary well.  Also a ton of nice building and falling feelings evoked.  "Climbing" definitely fits but this could be an entire narrative by itself.  I particularly love the one motif with the little run down the scale (at, e.g., 3:00).  Favorite track

6) I  like the sense of triumph coming in after the trials of the last tracks

7) Huh with the most traditional sounds at the forefront for the "going home" finale, I wonder if the synth elements were meant to represent a corrupting influence?  I'll have to go back and click around to see how they line up with the other feelings

overall thoughts: generally very compelling progressions and fun melodies and dynamic compositions and rad synths/sounds

Very jazzy, and with a good dose of those stanky chords too! But I think these tracks can get a bit distracting considering that it is a strategy game, I see these songs work more like in cutscenes with how energetic they were.

All right very experimental especially on the ryhtms, it feels like every song is many songs, its very chaotic, I don,t know if that was the goal but I think with some order in can work pretty well.