Greetings, my dude. Let me set the stage for you - it is now Monday, one day after the rating period for this jam was supposed to have ended. I have now rated 99 submissions - not as many as I would have liked to have gotten through, but each of those was an honest and whole-hearted listen that I felt I gave the proper amount of attention that each of these submission deserves. I stumble upon yours - cool little artwork, neat idea. Oh god, there's 800 songs here. I have to go to work in like 2 hours and this is all the time I have left for ratings. Why would you do this to me?
Now don't get me wrong, 16 tracks is quite impressive, and I have nothing but respect for that level of dedication (and presumably overextension of yourself, unless you literally had nothing else to do - in which case I will just choose envy.) But you do have to keep in mind that you are asking for quite a bit of time and effort here.
The worst thing is, like these tracks are actually good - so now I have to sit here and listen to all 16 of them and attempt to come up with some sort of coherent review. Personally, I love giving feedback and honest reviews - it's one of my favorite parts of the jam! But I am also that unique combination of overly wordy, ADHD, OCD, etc - meaning I will sit here and type/retype this out several times trying to not only get my message across as close to my intention as possible, but also to attempt to give you my undivided (as much as it can be at least) attention for an honest and accurate review.
Anyway, I haven't done any of that because I was typing the above nonsense, so I'm already behind. What's the point I'm making? Bruh, this is a lot of music. As someone who also puts way too much effort into everything that they have ever done (see the above text for exhibit A,) at some point you gotta slow down and say "Maybe ten tracks is enough" lmao
The problem is, this is an endeavor to listen to. I am enjoying it, as I'm listening while I'm typing this obviously, but trying to keep up with creating an honest and in-depth review while paying attention to the details that you've not only put into the music but your story as well - tbh, it's difficult. What the hell is this megaman nonsense that suddenly popped up in track 8? That was cool, nice work there. And going back a bit: "Old Yellow Lights" has quite the vibe going on with that organ bass. It kind of reminds me of The Doors "Riders on the Storm" but paired with everything else in the song it creates a feeling somewhere between soothing and melancholy. Nice job on that one. I'm also loving the Persona 5 vibes in "Trapwater Beach," it sounds like it could have easily been a palace infiltration theme.
And you know - I've only got two monitors. So I've gotta go back and keep referencing what you've written for each track, because I'm too old and lazy to size the windows down to make everything fit. Besides, then I'd have to just scroll back and forth more and that would also annoy me. How much of all this is a me problem? I'm not going to answer that. I like how in Darker Hometown we kind of switched to this heroic vibe halfway through. Speaking of switching things up, why is this Calypso Lemonade dude all about the chiptube vibes? Is he a gamer? I assume he's like an ancient greek warlord zombie or some other nonsense, does he have an atari in his cave or something? Not to say I didn't like how it played out, I just thought it was an interesting turn for the soundtrack when you start getting into the "Grotto" how things start getting much more... chipper. Chippier. Whatever, you know what I mean.
I like the concept of turning villagers back to normal with a camera flash, but tbh if somebody shot a camera flash in my face while I was asleep, I'd probably wake up too? Also, that flash has got to be alerting the guards or something, right?
Okay, Sally is having a moment here. I get it girl, it's been a long night of fighting the ancient, long forgotten ancestors of Dhali Lama, Dhali's Llamas. Not to mention watching everyone you know and love get turned into mindless drones and having to flash them all to fix them... uhh, let's take a step back with the phrasing there, actually. Ooh, that's a cool guitar that just came up in "The Lighthouse." I get the feeling that some serious stuff is about to go down here. The transition into the loop is an interesting choice, musically - it actually works really well as a kind of shortcut to get back to the vibe at the beginning of the song. Which, in proper fashion, you included a snippet of in the very beginning of that track. Nice work there.
Okay, I'm into this final boss battle so far. Starts off strong and the synth lead hooked me in properly. Calypso brings out his brand new NES (I guess he stole it from someone in the town) for the fight, I see. Ooh, those are some sick chords with the choir just past the halfway point. And of course, we've got a little guitar breakdown at the end. Nice. And was that a callback at the 3/4 mark of the song? It sounds like one, but I honestly can't remember as I started listening to this soundtrack six weeks ago and I'm starting to lose track of time.
If that's not a callback to "Calypso'sTheme" in "Not Forgotten" then it was close enough to fool me. I'm glad he got to play his Atari one last time before presumably evaporating back into the darkness from whence he came.
Photo Finish? There was a photo contest? Oh, I guess that's why she had a camera. Oh, you did say that in like the second sentence or something, but I read that part back in my youth, you know? I'm old now, I can't be expected to be remember all these details (just kidding, I was old before too)
Anyway, scrubbing back through your OST real quick, I think where it really shines is the area themes. Trapwater Beach, Grotto, Darker Hometown, The Lighthouse - these are all areas where you'd be listening to the music on repeat for awhile I would think since you're running around doing stuff there. In proper fashion, they are the more memorable tracks. Both fight themes were pretty boppin', too. My only issue here is the little drum break I feel might last for juuuuust a bar or two long in "The Grand Finale!" and then the drums are gone for a bit too long before the song loops again. Emotion-wise, it translates well, I just worry the energy drops a little too much at the end for what should still be an intense boss fight.
So all-in-all, this is a very cohesive and complete entry. I definitely enjoyed listening to it, and the length of it gave me plenty of time to complain about the length of it. Don't try to work out the logistics of that. Great work, now don't ever make me do this much work again, thanks.