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- Hooded Pitohui
Day 2.
Okay, I'm going to play with the definition of this one, here, because it's... kind of hard to talk about the first "level" if you aren't looking at it from the perspective of a platformer or something. (Is the first "level" of TTYD Rougeport or Petal Meadows, for example?)
First, I have to give an honorable mention to the original poster's choice of Greenhorn Forest, because that's seriously an incredible piece for an opening level. I also have to give special mention to Bob-Omb Battlefield, which, while it never really made it high enough in the rankings for me to consider it as a favorite but is still pretty iconic.
Ultimately, though, I'm going to go with 2. The Cipher Lab from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.
So, okay, yes, this is the fifth location you visit in the game, so I'm definitely stretching the definition, but I consider the first "level" because it's the first dungeon you actually work your way through in a game with a narrative arc defined by and broken up by its major dungeons. Alas, it also means I won't be able to use the Agate Village theme, or the Relic Forest theme, or the Miror B. Battle theme, or the Pyrite Town theme... Actually, you know what? Please, everyone, go listen to the XD GoD soundtrack right this instant, it's great, and I might even go so far to call it some of the consistently best in the series.
In any case, so, why do I choose this music? Well, like Greenhorn Forest, it has an incredible energy, a vibrancy that pumps you up. It doesn't go overboard with it. It's not music that makes you want to party, or even to really get up and dance for that matter. But it makes you want to tackle an obstacle. It makes you want to press forward in a metaphorical sense. It may be because the music itself feels as though it's in constant motion, with those continual percussion beats, the shifting of the overlay elements from keyboard to wind to periods with only the percussion, the restlessness of that overlay, which really never settles into a pattern.
I guess this is extra cheating, in a sense, because this track and location actually appeared before, in Colosseum, as the last major non-boss rush dungeon. Yet, I feel like the music didn't really... work? It didn't work as final dungeon music, in my opinion. It didn't have enough gravity. It didn't have ominousness for this laboratory where cruel biological experiments were being carried out, and it didn't have the weight to feel like you were finishing off a threat you'd been dismantling all game. As first dungeon music, though? It works much better. You're easing into a threat, one you don't even really recognize at this point in the game is as cruel and threatening as they appear. I mean, there's even a little charm and silliness to Cipher at this point, between the Super Sentai wannabe Hexagon Brothers, the scientists who clearly don't want to bother fighting you, the ever worn down Naps, and the valley girl, almost ditzy personality hiding a vicious intellect in Lovrina. This track has a light-heartedness that matches all of that, and it still serves the job of energizing you to tackle the dungeon and start bursting into the rest of the game.
But, it's not all light-hearted, and that's good. It shouldn't be, given the context. There's still something off about it, namely, it feels... artificial. Not artificial in the sense that it's techno, or has a sci-fi feel. No, it just feels... constructed. That constant percussion in the bottom of the piece gives me the impression of machines humming along non-stop, with its rapid pace. This is probably the part I struggle most to put into words, but it doesn't feel natural. If it felt natural, it would be slower, you'd have less occasional staccato in the piece. I don't really have a good way to express this, but, if you separated this out from its context and asked me to describe where it plays, some kind of concrete world with lots of flashing lights and a constant buzz of activity would be my answer, which isn't too far off from the metallic world where Cipher's research and development happens.
Okay, I'm going to play with the definition of this one, here, because it's... kind of hard to talk about the first "level" if you aren't looking at it from the perspective of a platformer or something. (Is the first "level" of TTYD Rougeport or Petal Meadows, for example?)
First, I have to give an honorable mention to the original poster's choice of Greenhorn Forest, because that's seriously an incredible piece for an opening level. I also have to give special mention to Bob-Omb Battlefield, which, while it never really made it high enough in the rankings for me to consider it as a favorite but is still pretty iconic.
Ultimately, though, I'm going to go with 2. The Cipher Lab from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.
So, okay, yes, this is the fifth location you visit in the game, so I'm definitely stretching the definition, but I consider the first "level" because it's the first dungeon you actually work your way through in a game with a narrative arc defined by and broken up by its major dungeons. Alas, it also means I won't be able to use the Agate Village theme, or the Relic Forest theme, or the Miror B. Battle theme, or the Pyrite Town theme... Actually, you know what? Please, everyone, go listen to the XD GoD soundtrack right this instant, it's great, and I might even go so far to call it some of the consistently best in the series.
In any case, so, why do I choose this music? Well, like Greenhorn Forest, it has an incredible energy, a vibrancy that pumps you up. It doesn't go overboard with it. It's not music that makes you want to party, or even to really get up and dance for that matter. But it makes you want to tackle an obstacle. It makes you want to press forward in a metaphorical sense. It may be because the music itself feels as though it's in constant motion, with those continual percussion beats, the shifting of the overlay elements from keyboard to wind to periods with only the percussion, the restlessness of that overlay, which really never settles into a pattern.
I guess this is extra cheating, in a sense, because this track and location actually appeared before, in Colosseum, as the last major non-boss rush dungeon. Yet, I feel like the music didn't really... work? It didn't work as final dungeon music, in my opinion. It didn't have enough gravity. It didn't have ominousness for this laboratory where cruel biological experiments were being carried out, and it didn't have the weight to feel like you were finishing off a threat you'd been dismantling all game. As first dungeon music, though? It works much better. You're easing into a threat, one you don't even really recognize at this point in the game is as cruel and threatening as they appear. I mean, there's even a little charm and silliness to Cipher at this point, between the Super Sentai wannabe Hexagon Brothers, the scientists who clearly don't want to bother fighting you, the ever worn down Naps, and the valley girl, almost ditzy personality hiding a vicious intellect in Lovrina. This track has a light-heartedness that matches all of that, and it still serves the job of energizing you to tackle the dungeon and start bursting into the rest of the game.
But, it's not all light-hearted, and that's good. It shouldn't be, given the context. There's still something off about it, namely, it feels... artificial. Not artificial in the sense that it's techno, or has a sci-fi feel. No, it just feels... constructed. That constant percussion in the bottom of the piece gives me the impression of machines humming along non-stop, with its rapid pace. This is probably the part I struggle most to put into words, but it doesn't feel natural. If it felt natural, it would be slower, you'd have less occasional staccato in the piece. I don't really have a good way to express this, but, if you separated this out from its context and asked me to describe where it plays, some kind of concrete world with lots of flashing lights and a constant buzz of activity would be my answer, which isn't too far off from the metallic world where Cipher's research and development happens.
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