Glad to have Robert back in our first episode specific to a game series. I picked Fromsoft because he fell in love with Dark Souls 1-3. Bloodborne is his current obsession! th-cam.com/video/tTIICL7n7fw/w-d-xo.html - for the full 2 hour video!
So a bit of armored core lore, the human + program (an evil corporate program of human experimentation) aspect is when you start getting into the "consciousness controlling the mech" territory but for most pilots what they control is called 'muscle tracer' technology (which is why some of the smaller mechs are called 'muscle tracers') in the games they're the units that were slowly molded into armored cores over many iterations of corporate mech development. (You must show this dude more armored core music wean him with the more addictive poppy music and then hit him with the AC4A the answer finale! Muhahaha! 😈)
This idea about the song being only white keys because gwyn feared darkness, I’m still not convinced. Dark souls has a lot of hidden things like this, but everytime I hear someone say it, it just seems a little extra like they want to feel special about knowing this secret. Some songs are written in these chords and it’s just how they were written, so it seems like a stretch to assume that ONLY this song was made in that chord for that reason. I’m not saying it isn’t true, but I just haven’t heard any good argument for it besides people saying it’s a ‘secret’ that they know of.
@@shroom1911 ??? these games are utterly replete with meaningful nomenclature and expect you to read into everything to understand whats going on around you and you think that one of the most important names in the games literal meaning was unintentional?
Watching this makes me feel bad for my older relatives who are really into movies and music, but put every video game in the same box as tetris and pacman, and automatically assume they are for kids, or a waste of time. I feel bad for them. Truly. They've only got so many years left on this earth and they are missing out on so many amazing experiences they could be having, all because of decades old stigma that has absolutely no basis in reality.
I've been using Marco's channel as an avenue for showcasing the brilliance of video games as an artistic medium. Well, to highlight the importance and how texturally complex and significant the music components are. The vocabulary and nuance that he always approaches these analyses and enjoyment really makes it accessible (lol first time stating that classical jargon aids in accessibility). @sandercohen5543
Thank you for including King's Field and Armored Core! So many people forget or are ignorant to FromSoft's rich history before Souls games. They were a legendary studio far before Souls games came into existence and it deserves recognition.
I will never get tired of hearing Ludwig's theme, and seeing people react to hearing it for the first time! Have you ever listened to the Bloodborne Suite performed live by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra? It's an incredible performance!
Ludwig's is by far one of my favorite songs in the souls series, even after hundreds of times, it still gives me chills, that 2nd part had me FLOORED while playing. I think it's tied with One Who Craves Souls from the ps3 version of Demon's Souls (Nothing wrong with the remake, they had to change the music because the remake changes a lot of the atmosphere!). This was my first time on the channel, love the video!
it was honestly one of the boss fights I choked for so long on because the music was just so intense it shook me each time I got to phase 2. every time I listen to it, I'm constantly reminded of that struggle, and like you it gives me chills every time I hear it, no matter the context.
This is a pretty damn solid list. In my opinion, Gael's theme is a must have though. (Well, nearly every theme in any Fromsoft is a banger so) And Robert is such a great guy who shares interesting insights. So cool that he went and played the Souls.
I agree, while Soul of Cinder is a great final boss theme for its owns reasons. I do believe Slave Knight Gael works better as the soundtrack that gives a golden brooch closure to Dark Souls as a series.
In my book, if u want a track from demon's souls, its hard to not go maiden astrea. Also, i dont know why but i fell like sister friede is a very underated song maybe cause of how annoying the fight is but musically, this track is so good
It's an interesting perspective of opinions when both speakers are informed about what music they're talking about, both experienced with the game and even talked about the composer of the music itself. Clearly both of them invested in it and open minded with new things. This is a very interesting and insightful video, from gamer to gamer and music enthusiast to another.
I think another really interesting thing about Gywn's theme is that in DS1, it's played using only the white keys on a piano. Gwyn's fear of the oncoming darkness extends even to his music.
I hope all this effort from Marco somehow lands the works of these insane composers into the playing schedule of serious teams. They deserve to be played like old classical pieces.
I love the vibe with Robert, super chill, AND he's engaged with the material firsthand so I can resonate with his hype over some songs and vibes. If you want a treasure trove of excellent game music, you should check out Pyre; it's by the same team who made Hades and has some really compelling songs. "In The Flame" in particular is fantastic; Supergiant tracks hit consistently.
Just to give a slight correction on the armored core context since you asked, in for answer humanity (or at least the wealthy better off) fled to sky in large colony ships called Cradles. They actually play a large story roll if you go down the bad ending in the game. Hence the title being "someone is always moving on the surface". Otherwise great video as always, I will never get tired of hearing guest opinions.
The Kings Field games are in a way a proto Souls games. Not so much gameplay wise, but exploration, puzzles and atmosphere are very much on point. Deracine was a side project for Miyazaki. It was made to explore "existence vs non-existence". Basically he had a cool idea for a VR game and at this point who would dare tell him "no". Actually a lot of their best output is basically games and ideas they have been working on and developing since the 90s. Demons Souls was simply a critical mass of quality that finally took them over the edge and arrived in timeless classics territory. By the way they have actually made Monster Hunter game. Its a comedy spin-off where you give orders to the MH cats. Its very fun, but also never got an official release in the west.
This was a good idea for a spot, Fromsoft music can grow into some very epic stuff that a lot of people that don't play game would love, and it makes sense that a conductor would fall in love in with it
Firelink Shrine DS3......whenever i hear it i feel i can let go of my worries and feel peaceful. Just like in game after all the chaos evil frustration. Your home ashen one. This just hits differently
I love that he recognized Yuka Kitamura's style immediately with Lady Maria! Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower has to be my favorite track in all of Old Hunters and fits Maria so well, and Kitamura absolutely blew it out of the park with that track.
@@ventus1179 He’s right though. It’s not that engaging or entertaining for these types of videos. It’s a calming track for sure, but the composition and arrangement is far too minimalist.
Wish you had gone for the original version of Demon's Souls. The chamber orchestra-esque size gives it a unique feel among the souls games. It has a certain feel of austerity to the whole thing that just adds to the overall atmosphere of the game that is lost with the much larger, bombastic interpretations that the remake offered.
I completely agree. The remake, ironically, doesn't have the soul of the original game. That's shown in both music and art style. I absolutely felt the tonal shift, and it feels like it's a loss of identity.
I completely agree. The remake, ironically, doesn't have the soul of the original game. That's shown in both music and art style. I absolutely felt the tonal shift, and it feels like it's a loss of identity.
His knowledge of the unique musical preferences of each different composer in these games is pretty awesome to hear. Kitamura definitely has that special sound that you can identify by ear alone.
I have heard Dark Reality used as "spooky music" in TH-cam music for years now and I'm just now finding out it's a FromSoft thing. It definitely tracks.
so this randomly popped up in my feed after i spent all day marathoning FF6 music, after watching this i went through your channel and watched every one of these, gonna go check out the full vods tomorrow, absolutely love these. big ups.
@@tristankadow3756I’m kind of glad it is even though it is awful, it’s a very FromSoftware move to make you feel like part of what you’re doing is wrong
The "Plin Plin Plon" reprise in the Soul of Cinder fight is almost heartbreaking and most definitely flooring. Especially after experiencing the full trilogy as they released. The tension rises as the primary verse ends... and then falls to an almost ethereal nothingness as the cadence returns; signifying the end of the cycle once again, and most likely for all.
Hey Marco, if you loved Always Moving on the surface, I recommend you check out more songs by Kota Hoshino. Specifically, check out the Sunrise album (it's related to AC) and the Evergrace 1 and 2 OSTs (they are niche FromSoftware games!). They are incredibly cool and unique. Apparently, Hoshino didn't have a formal music education and often went with the vibes when making music for the games. He normally does sound design for FromSoftware, but his music is out of this world.
The duality of self-plagiarism On the one hand, composers finding choices made in a piece of music that emblemizes a game, and using those ideas to further build a unifying style for a series of games that are thematically connected. On the other hand, Hans Zimmer using that Thin Red Line piece in f***ing everything.
@@MrGhostTheBigRoast I'll give you a better example since yours are shite. The Horner Horns. James Horner had a little horn riff that he threw into pretty much everything he did. You'd probably recognize it. It's a short, unintrusive piece of music that he uses at specific places where it's useful, as an easter egg or calling card. That's fine. It wouldn't be fine if it was a full five minute piece with very, very little musical content that repeats over and over and over and, despite actually having different harmony, sounds basically the same and serves exactly the same function in every film he (and his understudies, see Captain Philips) writes for. Hans Zimmer thinks he _improved_ the Lion King score for the remake. Nuff said.
@@davidwilson6577 I know but the way you said it sounded like he was arrogantly ‘improving’ someone else’s score. I just needed to make sure just in case you or someone else didn’t know.
I absolutely adore the way both Bloodborne and DS3 work with dissonance in various pieces, particularly as heard in the Cleric Beast, Dragonslayer Armour, and Dancer of the Boreal Valley themes.
I love that Marco remembers to include Armored Core in his FromSoft videos, but am consistently disappointed that he never plays 'King Lear' from Armored Core 2. 😢 It's such a good piece, and I'd love to hear his analysis. 🙏
I never noticed the musical connection between Cleric Beast and Lawrence. Aside from the obvious visual connection, I would always blow through Cleric Beast so quickly I never had time to notice it XD.
I have to confess my bias here, I click on maybe a quarter of the videos I see from you, but anytime one involves fromsoft it’s an instant click from me. What can I say, I like what I like 😅
One thing I will say about the Demon's Souls Remake ost is that it's actually quite radically different to the original From Software ost. It's not just like "epic orchestral version," a lot of the time it feels more like a vague reference or allusion to the original soundtrack than a modernized cover, to the point that the remake has faced a fair amount of criticism for losing the unique character of Demon's Souls in favour of a more stereotypical fantasy feel, which is a bit of a shame for a project that's ostensibly about celebrating the original game. I think it could be a fun idea for you to make videos where you listen to the OG and the remake versions of particular Demon's Souls songs, especially "Phalanx," "Flamelurker" and "Storm King." OG Demon's Souls music had a really different feel to more recent games like Bloodborne and Elden Ring, whereas the Remake tracks fit in much more. They aren't bad tracks on their own merits, and if anything it takes more effort to make such radical changes than it would to just write orchestral covers, it just strikes me as a weird decision for a remake to make, as if it's almost embarrassed of what it's remaking. But again, it would be really interesting to hear your thoughts on the changes made as someone with a much more musical background than I.
Nameless Song ( end credits dark souls) is the best track of all of these games and I will never budge on that. It might just be the nostalgia of the first time beating it, but.. It's SO powerful.
I really appreciate you putting Moving on the Surface and Cries of the Coral back to back like this. Moving on the Surface is my favorite FromSoft track and I found myself a little disappointed with Fires of Rubicon's soundtrack overall but hearing them together I heard Moving on the Surface within Cries, it felt like a worthy successor to the music I fell in love with all those years ago in a way I hadn't appreciated before.
- Marco "Ludwig the Holy Blade is easliy the best piece of videogame music ever written" - Me *cries in Nomai dialect* with "14.3 Billion Years" playing in the background
Every time I hear a piece from the Armored Core series I am amazed, I am impressed. That vocal is no longer human. That vocal is arranged as if it were part of the instruments. That elongated, stretched singing is amazing.
Something I feel is just absolutely genius is how the first time you're introduced to a REAL beast I.E. Cleric Beast, their motif and melodies can be heard woven into every other beast boss track, and its absolutely genius. Its not just the song OF the cleric beast, like with Lawrence, its the song of beasts, the song of the corruption the old blood has wrought.
When Gwyn's piano motif comes in halfway through "Soul of Cinder", my favorite thing about it is that it doesn't get to resolve. The piece spends almost 2 minutes letting the theme play over the IV and V chords - straining for release, eternally denied! The melody itself doesn't really get much further development than the initial, most recognizable three notes. Always searching for completion, always burning down into its barest essence. Absolute mastery from Kitamura
Still waiting for the sir alonne theme from DS2. It's the most underrated theme of the entire series in my opinion. It kind of set the stage for everything that followed in DS3 and even Elden Ring.
Demon's Souls original ost is better than the remake's. Edit: in Elden Ring Rune Level 1, you can in fact avoid one shots in most cases. The Ritual Shield Talisman massively boosts your defense when you're at full health and is essential for the post-Morgott half of the game, various other defense talismans help, armor helps a lot, as do consumables like boiled crabs
@@THEPELADOMASTER it's a matter of preference: would you rather have more attacks one shot you but you can potentially end the fight faster, or would you rather have very few attacks one shot you but the fight goes on longer. You can even change strategy after learning a boss more thoroughly and switch to more danage
@@THEPELADOMASTER Technically you are correct (a lot of text incoming)… But having done RL1 all Remembrances minus Elden Beast so far, shieldless, my opinion is that we really can’t fault people for brute forcing it. What FromSoft did in Elden Ring was make the dodge timings intentionally unnatural, weird, delayed and sometimes even ludicrous to make it more difficult to even learn, and also harder to execute even once learned, to the point that you’re not reacting to a lot of attacks so much as actively fighting your instincts to dodge a deceptively slow swing when it starts, or reminding yourself not to punish an attack that looks like the end of a combo but sometimes is a bait, or seeing an enemy pause, then counting to 2.87 seconds in your head before rolling the instant hit. Margit in particular feels like he was specifically designed to condition people into becoming turtles with the weird delays, instant hits, mixups and combo-end knife fakeouts and seemingly undodgeable multihit combos, combined with his health and damage to low-level builds. Every instinct that normally makes combat actually flow like in Sekiro is used against you here. The crazy damage everything deals really doesn’t help either: without a shield or the health or armor to take two or three hits, either you execute perfectly the entire fight, or you decide to turtle or at least use Opaline Bubbletear on basically every build and level. The huge variety of consumables and talismans to make yourself tankier or take less damage don’t feel like buffs so much as bandaids on the issue that most enemies (especially bosses) have unintuitive timings, delays and lingers designed to screw with you, and are very likely going to deal a LOT of damage to you without these buffs, especially in groups. Kinda felt like you were buffing yourself “back to normal” in terms of how much damage you could take in a very short time compared to other games. No matter how much damage you deal, some bosses are always going to suck to purely dodge. This kind of difficulty has become an outright trend in Soulslikes and is, sadly for me, not really my personal favorite kind of difficulty since it feels like there’s not many transferable skills from enemy to enemy due to these weird delays making each new enemy effectively a skill reset where everything you’ve learned to dodge before has no bearing on your ability to dodge this new guy, within the same game. At least blocking restores a tiny bit of that old combat flow by letting you get in something’s face or reposition by walking without worrying that a new attack you haven’t practiced or maybe even seen before will just end the fight if you don’t guess right on your dodge timing.
Any man that cold opens with Dark Reality is a real one. Huge respect. I'm hoping Marco can show him Godsibb, EXEC_SPHILIA/., The Opened Way, Severing the Chains of Fate, and the many tracks of NieR at some point.
Marco, if your guy has played more than one souls game, he is absolutely a gamer. This kinda feels clickbaity. Idgaf what a guy whose played a souls game thinks of the soundtrack, of course he'll think it's good. Show me somebody who has NEVER picked up a controller in their life. Damn.
@@Shlankyman545it IS that serious, this is absolutely definitely the most serious thing in the world… like bro… seriously, this is life changing…. i think i might die because of it
Since you asked AC's usually just have pilots. Direct machine/human interfaces like you've described are relegated to 6 as far as I know (I missed most of Gen 3/all of Gen 5 so I could be wrong), and there's been a few AI-piloted AC's (Chatty in 6, famously Nine-Ball in the earliest titles). That said, augmented human pilots are SUPER common and even a game mechanic in the earliest games (human PLUS)
I love the attention the souls franchise is getting here in terms of you pointing out leitmotifs and connecting the music of each game and it's emotional impact to their broader narrative and ambiance. The atmosphere of these games is so important in understanding what they are. For Bloodborne you can hear the fear and determination, with an undercurrent of rage as you hunt the cleric beasts. For Dark Souls 3 you can feel the nostalgia in the music as the lord of cinder calls back to gwyn. In Firelink shrine, you can hear that this world is at the end; almost at peace, but not yet ready to die. These pieces paint a colorful picture of sadness at the world being lost to demons in one musical breath that fills you with power and steels your heart to fight until your battle is won. These worlds are full of emotion, and I think they deserve the respect you're trying to give them.
Oh my god, I've never had Demon's Souls and Elden Ring compared to side by side to ever realize that the motif of each main theme is the same, that's actually insane.
for fromsoft, there has only been a few songs that made me sit up and take notice when playing. none were featured here today. original demon's souls, not the remake - maiden astrea, and return to slumber dark souls 1 - nameless song dark souls 3 - secret betrayal bloodborne - hail the nightmare
i want to see Roberts reaction to Living failures from Bloodborn, that song is silly. love the content, artist discovering videogames as a medium is quickly becoming one of my favorite TH-cam video genres.
Gwyns callback in Soul of Cinder makes people emotional not only for story reasons i think. It transports people back to that time in their life when they played Dark Souls for the first time and beat it for the first time. That leaves a mark. And Soul of Cinder is making you feel all these feels when youre trying to fight...
Fromsoft games are incredible because they don't really spoonfeed you the story, you have to piece it together through the environmental worldbuilding. This leaves room for the music to have a much greater impact as a storytelling tool!
Man, you never lose the satisfaction of showing someone a part of a game you like and convincing them to try it themselves. On another note, Armored Core 6 is an entirely new story, completely separate from the series' previous installments, so you might be a tiny bit off the lore there. Regardless, I highly recommend playing AC6 as blindly as possible, as it's the most straightforward story that FromSoft has done in a long time. Plus, the game's soundtrack, especially cries of the coral, will hit so much harder in context. It is absolutely worth playing!
![เปิดบ้าน นาราเครปกระเทย 1 ไร่ ขายขาดทุนหลัก10ล้าน เอามาใช้หนี้!!! l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0jz84VFWVP4/mqdefault.jpg)
Glad to have Robert back in our first episode specific to a game series. I picked Fromsoft because he fell in love with Dark Souls 1-3. Bloodborne is his current obsession!
th-cam.com/video/tTIICL7n7fw/w-d-xo.html - for the full 2 hour video!
So a bit of armored core lore, the human + program (an evil corporate program of human experimentation) aspect is when you start getting into the "consciousness controlling the mech" territory but for most pilots what they control is called 'muscle tracer' technology (which is why some of the smaller mechs are called 'muscle tracers') in the games they're the units that were slowly molded into armored cores over many iterations of corporate mech development.
(You must show this dude more armored core music wean him with the more addictive poppy music and then hit him with the AC4A the answer finale! Muhahaha! 😈)
id love to see this again with Neir and Neir-adjacent tracks
Marco, you set the ''Laurence The First Vicar: Bloodborne'' to 57:55 instead of 43:55 in the description.
I'd love if you did a comparison of Kalameet motif from dark souls one and compared it to Fortissax in Elden ring
Amazing video!!
Fun trivia for Gwyn's theme. "Gwyn" is Welsh for "White" and his theme is in A Minor meaning it's played with all white keys on the piano.
Gwynbleidd
This idea about the song being only white keys because gwyn feared darkness, I’m still not convinced. Dark souls has a lot of hidden things like this, but everytime I hear someone say it, it just seems a little extra like they want to feel special about knowing this secret. Some songs are written in these chords and it’s just how they were written, so it seems like a stretch to assume that ONLY this song was made in that chord for that reason. I’m not saying it isn’t true, but I just haven’t heard any good argument for it besides people saying it’s a ‘secret’ that they know of.
And the part about gwyn meaning white in welsh, was that intentional or a coincidence?
@@shroom1911 ??? these games are utterly replete with meaningful nomenclature and expect you to read into everything to understand whats going on around you and you think that one of the most important names in the games literal meaning was unintentional?
@@shroom1911 who mentioned fearing darkness?
im glad Marco and I both giggle like kids when Ludwig the Holy Blade comes on
me too! 😂😂
I’ve heard it countless times, both in game and just the OST, and it still brings chills
One of the best boss themes in gaming history - it never fails to make you smile at just HOW good it sounds
I actually laughed when he said "It gets better", I've said those exact things showing people this OST LMAO
trust me, you guys weren't the only ones like that
"And you're laughing. Ludwig the Accursed plays and you're laughing."
I'm not gonna lie, Robert is about 1000 times more into Elden Ring and Dark Souls than I would have expected.
Watching this makes me feel bad for my older relatives who are really into movies and music, but put every video game in the same box as tetris and pacman, and automatically assume they are for kids, or a waste of time.
I feel bad for them. Truly. They've only got so many years left on this earth and they are missing out on so many amazing experiences they could be having, all because of decades old stigma that has absolutely no basis in reality.
@@sandercohen5543 go and convince them!!
I've been using Marco's channel as an avenue for showcasing the brilliance of video games as an artistic medium. Well, to highlight the importance and how texturally complex and significant the music components are. The vocabulary and nuance that he always approaches these analyses and enjoyment really makes it accessible (lol first time stating that classical jargon aids in accessibility). @sandercohen5543
@@med2vigilante that is such a sweet message i stumbled across. thank you so much.
@@sandercohen5543just play the music for them, no context. There are missing parts, but my grandparents really enjoy the music.
The cleric beast theme just isn't the same without the screeching.
was thinking the same thing like "something is missing here" xD
I came here for this comment. Man didn't get the REAL song :V
@@ZeranEmpire He will in game
and the wonky camera
Same with Ludwig’s first theme if you ask me
The fun part of Soul of Cinder too is that not only does Gwyn's theme start playing but Soul also starts fighting like Gwyn as well.
at first i didnt notice it when i was fighting it, but when i saw that stumbling grab move all the memories came rushing back
It's the greatest callback in videogame history. And the game does it without any announcement or asking you if you got it.
I love how they're just, first name Soul, last name Of Cinder
Admittedly, some people may not know, since Gwyn is a victim of the parry button
the return of the plin plin plon
I only recognize Dark Reality from Zullie the Witch videos.
Listen to Norman Lyre's version of Dark Reality. It is VERY VERY good.
Zullie banger 🔥
Zullie the GOAT 🗣🐐
I knew it! I was not crazy thinking: I've heard this song before somewhere, didnt I? Know ik where it was 😂
I love that she got so many people to enjoy this random obscure song
Thank you for including King's Field and Armored Core! So many people forget or are ignorant to FromSoft's rich history before Souls games. They were a legendary studio far before Souls games came into existence and it deserves recognition.
The influence of Kings Field on the Souls games is very apparent as well. If it weren't for Kings Field, Demon's Souls never would have been made.
I will never get tired of hearing Ludwig's theme, and seeing people react to hearing it for the first time!
Have you ever listened to the Bloodborne Suite performed live by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra? It's an incredible performance!
Ludwig is definitely one of my most favorite fromsoft osts
Wish Majula was here to represent DS2...
Favorite osts*. Truly majestic.
As someone who hasn't played Bloodborne, I always think of the streamer Ludwig first
I also think the same, the best soundtrack of all Fromsoft
*Ludig
Ludwig's is by far one of my favorite songs in the souls series, even after hundreds of times, it still gives me chills, that 2nd part had me FLOORED while playing. I think it's tied with One Who Craves Souls from the ps3 version of Demon's Souls (Nothing wrong with the remake, they had to change the music because the remake changes a lot of the atmosphere!). This was my first time on the channel, love the video!
Welcome!!!!
it was honestly one of the boss fights I choked for so long on because the music was just so intense it shook me each time I got to phase 2. every time I listen to it, I'm constantly reminded of that struggle, and like you it gives me chills every time I hear it, no matter the context.
Elden Ring's final battle always gives me the goosebumps, so much emotion, tension, suspense and epic af
The Final battle in Elden Ring always gives me the vibe that you are witnessing that you should not be able to see. A truely indescribable being.
The alternative Firelink shrine music for DS3 is my absolute favorite, you can only hear it if you done the betrayal, giving the fire keeper her eyes
Secret betrayal is the name of the song
Some of the best FS music easily
Still believe DS3 has the best OST out of all the FS games. Just absolute brilliance
This is a pretty damn solid list. In my opinion, Gael's theme is a must have though. (Well, nearly every theme in any Fromsoft is a banger so)
And Robert is such a great guy who shares interesting insights. So cool that he went and played the Souls.
I agree, while Soul of Cinder is a great final boss theme for its owns reasons. I do believe Slave Knight Gael works better as the soundtrack that gives a golden brooch closure to Dark Souls as a series.
I agree, so few people appreciate the beauty of Gaels OST
In my book, if u want a track from demon's souls, its hard to not go maiden astrea.
Also, i dont know why but i fell like sister friede is a very underated song maybe cause of how annoying the fight is but musically, this track is so good
@@canocohen4218I feel like it’s pretty clearly considered the 2nd or 3rd best theme behind Ludwig and maybe DS3 main menu theme
@@SJ-di5zu again regardless of it’s quality I said so few people “appreciate it” as in so few people review it /talk about it
It's mandatory that you play the cleric beast theme (with screams), there is truly no other way to experience it
It's an interesting perspective of opinions when both speakers are informed about what music they're talking about, both experienced with the game and even talked about the composer of the music itself. Clearly both of them invested in it and open minded with new things.
This is a very interesting and insightful video, from gamer to gamer and music enthusiast to another.
I think another really interesting thing about Gywn's theme is that in DS1, it's played using only the white keys on a piano. Gwyn's fear of the oncoming darkness extends even to his music.
1:33 I've never touched King's Field, but thanks to Zullie, I'm deeply familiar with this song, and I had no idea what it was.
I hope all this effort from Marco somehow lands the works of these insane composers into the playing schedule of serious teams. They deserve to be played like old classical pieces.
I would lose my mind if the Bloodborne ost got played live
@@ajohndoe17 I think there is a video of gehrman's theme being played live
I love the vibe with Robert, super chill, AND he's engaged with the material firsthand so I can resonate with his hype over some songs and vibes.
If you want a treasure trove of excellent game music, you should check out Pyre; it's by the same team who made Hades and has some really compelling songs. "In The Flame" in particular is fantastic; Supergiant tracks hit consistently.
Wow I never see anyone talk about Pyre. Love that game and its music. Unfortunately it tends to get overshadowed by Supergiant's other games.
@@skullz1 It's in a bit of a niche genre as well so it doesn't have as much draw, but it is genuinely very good.
Pyre has my favorite soundtrack of all their games, and the music is a huge part of the in-world story.
@@zedre7633 bro listening to the soundtrack sing your choices is wildly cool
Give him Father Gascoigne, The Hunter. Very underrated. The tempo in there is amazing.
YES
you mean OUR theme?
First part of father Gascoigne is my favourite from soft music ever
Cleric Beast doesn't hit the same without the constant screaming over the music haha
Just to give a slight correction on the armored core context since you asked, in for answer humanity (or at least the wealthy better off) fled to sky in large colony ships called Cradles. They actually play a large story roll if you go down the bad ending in the game. Hence the title being "someone is always moving on the surface". Otherwise great video as always, I will never get tired of hearing guest opinions.
I don't know if it's only me but I find it really wholesome that Mister Robert has been playing Elden ring and Dark souls 3 after your last podcast!!
The Kings Field games are in a way a proto Souls games. Not so much gameplay wise, but exploration, puzzles and atmosphere are very much on point.
Deracine was a side project for Miyazaki. It was made to explore "existence vs non-existence". Basically he had a cool idea for a VR game and at this point who would dare tell him "no".
Actually a lot of their best output is basically games and ideas they have been working on and developing since the 90s. Demons Souls was simply a critical mass of quality that finally took them over the edge and arrived in timeless classics territory.
By the way they have actually made Monster Hunter game. Its a comedy spin-off where you give orders to the MH cats. Its very fun, but also never got an official release in the west.
23:33 he is so spot on!!!!! Twin princes and lady maria are very very similar tracks and he caught it in just one listen
This is my favorite segment ever on this channel and possibly youtube. You always have such great conversations and wonderfully open guests.
Sekiro needs more love! Demon of hatred, Divine dragon, both Owls' themes...
Sekiro's ost is gorgeous
sekiro poopy
This!! Divine dragon is one of my favorite fromsoft osts
@@MrTeddy12397 Skill issue
@@MrTeddy12397 skill issue
King's field is the origin of the Moonlight Greatsword.
oh dang
And From has put it in pretty much every game since.
Yes, that includes Armored Core. The futuristic mech battle games.
@@Damonnanashi Except Sekiro and Kuon rip
@@Shadowzdota wrong! the divine dragon has the moonlight greatsword.
You can trade Midir's soul for a spell called Old Moonlight that directly references Kings Field.
This is such a good video, thank you for doing this! Also for adding Armored core tracks!
Glad you like it!
This was a good idea for a spot, Fromsoft music can grow into some very epic stuff that a lot of people that don't play game would love, and it makes sense that a conductor would fall in love in with it
Ok if this is done again, the Lawrence and the Living Failures has to be included.
Lawrence is all the way at the end after cleric beast
Lawrence and the living failures would be a sick black metal band name
And Orphan of Kos.
And Mohg Lord of Blood
Firelink Shrine DS3......whenever i hear it i feel i can let go of my worries and feel peaceful. Just like in game after all the chaos evil frustration. Your home ashen one. This just hits differently
I love that he recognized Yuka Kitamura's style immediately with Lady Maria! Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower has to be my favorite track in all of Old Hunters and fits Maria so well, and Kitamura absolutely blew it out of the park with that track.
I watch Zulia the Witch and never realized the song they’ll often play in their videos is from kings field
Majula not being present is a CRIME
not that interesting
@@Johnytomm hush child the adults are speaking
Majula is best 👍
@@ventus1179
He’s right though. It’s not that engaging or entertaining for these types of videos. It’s a calming track for sure, but the composition and arrangement is far too minimalist.
@@OfficialCrowMaulerless is more. "its not about the sh1t you play, its about the sh1t you dont play" -Miles Davis.
Wish you had gone for the original version of Demon's Souls. The chamber orchestra-esque size gives it a unique feel among the souls games. It has a certain feel of austerity to the whole thing that just adds to the overall atmosphere of the game that is lost with the much larger, bombastic interpretations that the remake offered.
I completely agree. The remake, ironically, doesn't have the soul of the original game. That's shown in both music and art style. I absolutely felt the tonal shift, and it feels like it's a loss of identity.
I completely agree. The remake, ironically, doesn't have the soul of the original game. That's shown in both music and art style. I absolutely felt the tonal shift, and it feels like it's a loss of identity.
His knowledge of the unique musical preferences of each different composer in these games is pretty awesome to hear. Kitamura definitely has that special sound that you can identify by ear alone.
I have heard Dark Reality used as "spooky music" in TH-cam music for years now and I'm just now finding out it's a FromSoft thing. It definitely tracks.
There needs to be a second part to this combo. Awesome to see you both nerding out
so this randomly popped up in my feed after i spent all day marathoning FF6 music, after watching this i went through your channel and watched every one of these, gonna go check out the full vods tomorrow, absolutely love these. big ups.
Welcome aboard!
I’m not sure if this has been listened to yet, but I would love to see Sif, Great Grey Wolf’s theme on this channel! So beautiful and melancholic 😢
why does Sif have to be a mandatory boss...
@@tristankadow3756I’m kind of glad it is even though it is awful, it’s a very FromSoftware move to make you feel like part of what you’re doing is wrong
The "Plin Plin Plon" reprise in the Soul of Cinder fight is almost heartbreaking and most definitely flooring. Especially after experiencing the full trilogy as they released. The tension rises as the primary verse ends... and then falls to an almost ethereal nothingness as the cadence returns; signifying the end of the cycle once again, and most likely for all.
Hey Marco, if you loved Always Moving on the surface, I recommend you check out more songs by Kota Hoshino. Specifically, check out the Sunrise album (it's related to AC) and the Evergrace 1 and 2 OSTs (they are niche FromSoftware games!). They are incredibly cool and unique. Apparently, Hoshino didn't have a formal music education and often went with the vibes when making music for the games. He normally does sound design for FromSoftware, but his music is out of this world.
Oh how the mood drastically switched when plinplinplon started, that piece is something else
I really like this guy
So much Dark Souls music has been removed from TH-cam lately, glad to see you keeping the passion alive!
The duality of self-plagiarism
On the one hand, composers finding choices made in a piece of music that emblemizes a game, and using those ideas to further build a unifying style for a series of games that are thematically connected.
On the other hand, Hans Zimmer using that Thin Red Line piece in f***ing everything.
how is that different from like an artists signature or a hip hop producer tag or self inserts?
@@MrGhostTheBigRoast I'll give you a better example since yours are shite. The Horner Horns. James Horner had a little horn riff that he threw into pretty much everything he did. You'd probably recognize it. It's a short, unintrusive piece of music that he uses at specific places where it's useful, as an easter egg or calling card. That's fine. It wouldn't be fine if it was a full five minute piece with very, very little musical content that repeats over and over and over and, despite actually having different harmony, sounds basically the same and serves exactly the same function in every film he (and his understudies, see Captain Philips) writes for.
Hans Zimmer thinks he _improved_ the Lion King score for the remake. Nuff said.
@@davidwilson6577the og score was composed by Hans zimmer.
@@lumenx7499 there's the self in self-plagiarism.
@@davidwilson6577 I know but the way you said it sounded like he was arrogantly ‘improving’ someone else’s score. I just needed to make sure just in case you or someone else didn’t know.
The best part of these videos is finding something new, and even as a mega soulsborne fan, I still found new songs. Great video!
Glad you like them!
A song I love from the Soulsborne games is Dark Souls 2 Majula's theme. I could turn that on for hours on loop. It's such a chill vibe.
I absolutely adore the way both Bloodborne and DS3 work with dissonance in various pieces, particularly as heard in the Cleric Beast, Dragonslayer Armour, and Dancer of the Boreal Valley themes.
Ludwig hits hard with that phase change especially if the music change lines up to when he stabs the ground with the sword. instant chills
Glad to see Cleric Beast get some love, it's my personal favorite track from Bloodborne.
Same!
Also robert Would probably really enjoy Lies Of P, very great souls like
Seconding this!
Thanks for the recommendation! Marco also suggested that I check it out. I will definitely have a look once I've finished Bloodborne...
Man there's just this feeling whenever I hear Dark Souls 3. The really nailed that atmosphere. Just made it have a purity and finality of everything.
You should compare the main firelink theme from Dark Souls 3 to the alternate one, Secret Betrayal, that plays for one of the endings.
I love that Marco remembers to include Armored Core in his FromSoft videos, but am consistently disappointed that he never plays 'King Lear' from Armored Core 2. 😢
It's such a good piece, and I'd love to hear his analysis. 🙏
I never noticed the musical connection between Cleric Beast and Lawrence. Aside from the obvious visual connection, I would always blow through Cleric Beast so quickly I never had time to notice it XD.
I have to confess my bias here, I click on maybe a quarter of the videos I see from you, but anytime one involves fromsoft it’s an instant click from me.
What can I say, I like what I like 😅
One thing I will say about the Demon's Souls Remake ost is that it's actually quite radically different to the original From Software ost. It's not just like "epic orchestral version," a lot of the time it feels more like a vague reference or allusion to the original soundtrack than a modernized cover, to the point that the remake has faced a fair amount of criticism for losing the unique character of Demon's Souls in favour of a more stereotypical fantasy feel, which is a bit of a shame for a project that's ostensibly about celebrating the original game. I think it could be a fun idea for you to make videos where you listen to the OG and the remake versions of particular Demon's Souls songs, especially "Phalanx," "Flamelurker" and "Storm King."
OG Demon's Souls music had a really different feel to more recent games like Bloodborne and Elden Ring, whereas the Remake tracks fit in much more. They aren't bad tracks on their own merits, and if anything it takes more effort to make such radical changes than it would to just write orchestral covers, it just strikes me as a weird decision for a remake to make, as if it's almost embarrassed of what it's remaking. But again, it would be really interesting to hear your thoughts on the changes made as someone with a much more musical background than I.
thats a wonderful idea
Insanely good video, thank you Mr. Marco!
Nameless Song ( end credits dark souls) is the best track of all of these games and I will never budge on that. It might just be the nostalgia of the first time beating it, but.. It's SO powerful.
I saw Lady Maria on the time stamp and started giggling lol. I just KNEW it was going to be here. Such an amazing piece!
I really appreciate you putting Moving on the Surface and Cries of the Coral back to back like this. Moving on the Surface is my favorite FromSoft track and I found myself a little disappointed with Fires of Rubicon's soundtrack overall but hearing them together I heard Moving on the Surface within Cries, it felt like a worthy successor to the music I fell in love with all those years ago in a way I hadn't appreciated before.
Wish Ds2 got some more love on its ost. Sir Alonne's theme is legit one of the best boss themes in all of souls
I’d love to see Rob back on after he plays Bloodborne and after Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree expansion releases!!
- Marco "Ludwig the Holy Blade is easliy the best piece of videogame music ever written"
- Me *cries in Nomai dialect* with "14.3 Billion Years" playing in the background
Every time I hear a piece from the Armored Core series I am amazed, I am impressed. That vocal is no longer human. That vocal is arranged as if it were part of the instruments. That elongated, stretched singing is amazing.
Something I feel is just absolutely genius is how the first time you're introduced to a REAL beast I.E. Cleric Beast, their motif and melodies can be heard woven into every other beast boss track, and its absolutely genius. Its not just the song OF the cleric beast, like with Lawrence, its the song of beasts, the song of the corruption the old blood has wrought.
The demons in Dark Souls 1 have something similar, you can hear the same style of choirs and vocals in almost every demon boss theme
Loved the FROMSOFT video!!!!!!!!! Next time show him Laurence. The transition is so beautiful and epic it always gives me Goosebumps!
What a beautiful video. Thanks to both folks involved.
When Gwyn's piano motif comes in halfway through "Soul of Cinder", my favorite thing about it is that it doesn't get to resolve. The piece spends almost 2 minutes letting the theme play over the IV and V chords - straining for release, eternally denied!
The melody itself doesn't really get much further development than the initial, most recognizable three notes. Always searching for completion, always burning down into its barest essence. Absolute mastery from Kitamura
Still waiting for the sir alonne theme from DS2. It's the most underrated theme of the entire series in my opinion. It kind of set the stage for everything that followed in DS3 and even Elden Ring.
Do you mean you're waiting for Marco and Robert's combined reactions?
Because Marco already reacted to Sir Alonne's theme! But without Robert
This is absolutely one of my favorite tracks from DS2!
That was a really good video!
He's most likely heard Midir's theme himself, but that song alone is good enough to bring Robert back for a whole video
Fromsoft forever! PRAISE THE SUN!
Demon's Souls original ost is better than the remake's.
Edit: in Elden Ring Rune Level 1, you can in fact avoid one shots in most cases. The Ritual Shield Talisman massively boosts your defense when you're at full health and is essential for the post-Morgott half of the game, various other defense talismans help, armor helps a lot, as do consumables like boiled crabs
Learning to properly dodge is way better than defense. You can focus all your efforts into offensive gear to finish fights faster.
I agree, I much prefer the original DeS theme
@@THEPELADOMASTER it's a matter of preference: would you rather have more attacks one shot you but you can potentially end the fight faster, or would you rather have very few attacks one shot you but the fight goes on longer. You can even change strategy after learning a boss more thoroughly and switch to more danage
@@THEPELADOMASTER Technically you are correct (a lot of text incoming)…
But having done RL1 all Remembrances minus Elden Beast so far, shieldless, my opinion is that we really can’t fault people for brute forcing it. What FromSoft did in Elden Ring was make the dodge timings intentionally unnatural, weird, delayed and sometimes even ludicrous to make it more difficult to even learn, and also harder to execute even once learned, to the point that you’re not reacting to a lot of attacks so much as actively fighting your instincts to dodge a deceptively slow swing when it starts, or reminding yourself not to punish an attack that looks like the end of a combo but sometimes is a bait, or seeing an enemy pause, then counting to 2.87 seconds in your head before rolling the instant hit. Margit in particular feels like he was specifically designed to condition people into becoming turtles with the weird delays, instant hits, mixups and combo-end knife fakeouts and seemingly undodgeable multihit combos, combined with his health and damage to low-level builds. Every instinct that normally makes combat actually flow like in Sekiro is used against you here.
The crazy damage everything deals really doesn’t help either: without a shield or the health or armor to take two or three hits, either you execute perfectly the entire fight, or you decide to turtle or at least use Opaline Bubbletear on basically every build and level. The huge variety of consumables and talismans to make yourself tankier or take less damage don’t feel like buffs so much as bandaids on the issue that most enemies (especially bosses) have unintuitive timings, delays and lingers designed to screw with you, and are very likely going to deal a LOT of damage to you without these buffs, especially in groups. Kinda felt like you were buffing yourself “back to normal” in terms of how much damage you could take in a very short time compared to other games. No matter how much damage you deal, some bosses are always going to suck to purely dodge.
This kind of difficulty has become an outright trend in Soulslikes and is, sadly for me, not really my personal favorite kind of difficulty since it feels like there’s not many transferable skills from enemy to enemy due to these weird delays making each new enemy effectively a skill reset where everything you’ve learned to dodge before has no bearing on your ability to dodge this new guy, within the same game. At least blocking restores a tiny bit of that old combat flow by letting you get in something’s face or reposition by walking without worrying that a new attack you haven’t practiced or maybe even seen before will just end the fight if you don’t guess right on your dodge timing.
Since the last time, Robert went further into the Souls iceberg than I expected. Sekiro, even. How can I not respect him?
Any man that cold opens with Dark Reality is a real one. Huge respect. I'm hoping Marco can show him Godsibb, EXEC_SPHILIA/., The Opened Way, Severing the Chains of Fate, and the many tracks of NieR at some point.
Lol, your "non-gamer" has played most of the major fromsoft ganes
I was thinking the same thing! He had even beaten some bosses going lvl 1 in Elden Ring. Totally not a "non-gamer"
Marco, if your guy has played more than one souls game, he is absolutely a gamer. This kinda feels clickbaity. Idgaf what a guy whose played a souls game thinks of the soundtrack, of course he'll think it's good. Show me somebody who has NEVER picked up a controller in their life. Damn.
@picklejho69 Take a chill pill it ain’t that serious.
@@Shlankyman545it IS that serious, this is absolutely definitely the most serious thing in the world… like bro… seriously, this is life changing…. i think i might die because of it
Since you asked AC's usually just have pilots. Direct machine/human interfaces like you've described are relegated to 6 as far as I know (I missed most of Gen 3/all of Gen 5 so I could be wrong), and there's been a few AI-piloted AC's (Chatty in 6, famously Nine-Ball in the earliest titles). That said, augmented human pilots are SUPER common and even a game mechanic in the earliest games (human PLUS)
I’m so happy to see the draw between Demon’s Souls and Elden Ring
From knows their roots
Actually the remake version isn't the same as the original. While the same composer came back for the remake it's not the roots
You can tell this man LOVES Dark Souls lol
There's a motif is the Shadow of the Erdtree trailer that is VERY similar to Slave Knight Gael's theme.
I would love Marco to show him "Close in the Distance" and "Answers" still the only 2 pieces of music I can hear and instantly tear up.
I love the attention the souls franchise is getting here in terms of you pointing out leitmotifs and connecting the music of each game and it's emotional impact to their broader narrative and ambiance.
The atmosphere of these games is so important in understanding what they are. For Bloodborne you can hear the fear and determination, with an undercurrent of rage as you hunt the cleric beasts. For Dark Souls 3 you can feel the nostalgia in the music as the lord of cinder calls back to gwyn. In Firelink shrine, you can hear that this world is at the end; almost at peace, but not yet ready to die. These pieces paint a colorful picture of sadness at the world being lost to demons in one musical breath that fills you with power and steels your heart to fight until your battle is won.
These worlds are full of emotion, and I think they deserve the respect you're trying to give them.
Just wanted to extend a massive thank you to Robert for, again, commiting so much time to make this wonderfull video possible.
So happy armored core is on here. For answer has some of my favorite music. The tone setting on the menus and the not always fast but soaring music.
Oh my god, I've never had Demon's Souls and Elden Ring compared to side by side to ever realize that the motif of each main theme is the same, that's actually insane.
for fromsoft, there has only been a few songs that made me sit up and take notice when playing. none were featured here today.
original demon's souls, not the remake - maiden astrea, and return to slumber
dark souls 1 - nameless song
dark souls 3 - secret betrayal
bloodborne - hail the nightmare
Marco being unable to avoid vibing to Ludwig's theme in its entirety is such a mood. It's too powerful
i want to see Roberts reaction to Living failures from Bloodborn, that song is silly.
love the content, artist discovering videogames as a medium is quickly becoming one of my favorite TH-cam video genres.
Gwyns callback in Soul of Cinder makes people emotional not only for story reasons i think. It transports people back to that time in their life when they played Dark Souls for the first time and beat it for the first time. That leaves a mark. And Soul of Cinder is making you feel all these feels when youre trying to fight...
Fromsoft games are incredible because they don't really spoonfeed you the story, you have to piece it together through the environmental worldbuilding. This leaves room for the music to have a much greater impact as a storytelling tool!
Cleric Beast is my personal favorite Bloodborne song. It’s like horror incarnate. When those vocals first pop in it’s chilling.
Hoping you’ll show him “The man who passed the torch” from ACVI next time!
...Now I don't know if it's Assassin's Creed, Armored Cored, Ace Combat or Animal Crossing
@@WillKazeOh definitely animal crossing
Bloodborne is my favorite work fromsoft has done, its grandiose in all aspects and it doesnt hold back
You should make this more often. The songs from every Fromsoftware game are sooo good.
Man, you never lose the satisfaction of showing someone a part of a game you like and convincing them to try it themselves.
On another note, Armored Core 6 is an entirely new story, completely separate from the series' previous installments, so you might be a tiny bit off the lore there.
Regardless, I highly recommend playing AC6 as blindly as possible, as it's the most straightforward story that FromSoft has done in a long time. Plus, the game's soundtrack, especially cries of the coral, will hit so much harder in context. It is absolutely worth playing!