As everyone probably knows, vidya had some limitations involving music, so sometimes devs would release "arranged" versions of their music so you could hear the songs in a natural environment, with real music done by real instruments and clearer synth done outside the game system. In essence it's the true version of the music, without any system limitation bullshit holding it back.
This is mostly because most games used tracker music back then, or could only use compressed versions. There were plenty of masters who used this technology to make music clear enough to not need an arrangment version, but not everyone knew all the tricks or wanted their sound to be a certain type of music. Etrian Odyssey is a more modern example, but they're different because the music was intentionally done that way to provoke nostalgia, but they still released arrangement versions, I think.
This is Battle 5, from Saga Frontier, which played mostly when you were up against Metal Black (M. Black in the english version due to character limits), a motherfucking badass robot knight.
As much as I love Ryu Umemoto's work, I just can't find myself to like Mushihimesama's soundtrack.
Alexander Clark
I'll be honest, kind of weak compared to the last track you posted.
the Eschatos track you posted has a strong backbeat, with an analog stop (aka a full beat of silence as part of the music, first building up an expectation, then moving fucking headfirst into the melody with a fakeout, using the small silence to break expectation before you bass drop the music)
It also has about three bass lines, two of which unify while the 3rd is on the off-beat
the pattern when you unify a beat as an example is like this (- is a beat, 1 and 2 are instrument notes)
1—1—1—1 2-2-2-2-2-2 and so on, so the beat becomes
(12)-2-(12)-2-(12)-2-(12)
While the third offbeat takes the place of the beats, the Eschatos tune sounds wonderful because it was basically mathmatically created and arranged, while the Shantae tune has almost no emphasis on the backbeat (using a basic Amen drumbeat break most of the time which is too safe) and places a LOT of emphasis on melody and melody variation.
The best songs place emphasis on a strong backbone of a bass beat, and while Shantae does have good music, it's best used as an opening act to stuff like Eschatos.
breaking my own rules here about arrangements to show you a simple example of what i'm talking about. A good song lets both the melody and the backbeat have their own drum solos, essentially.
The melody in this one starts out, then hands it to the backbeat for a "drum solo".
Ryder Harris
I think I understand what you mean. Come to think of it, I guess I don't spend enough focus on beats like that. You clearly know your stuff.
If that's fine with you, I'd also like to break the arrangement rule to pull out a more recent Jake Kaufman example. This one in particular might have some similarities to the other one, but I'd like to hear what you think.
Colton Hughes
Speaking of Jake Kaufman
Daniel Diaz
And more Yosuke Yasui
Brody Wood
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Asher Myers
This arrange also incorporates Fly to the Leaden Sky from Battle Garegga, which was done by the same composer as Mushi Futari, and that's fucking sick
Cooper Wood
that's a good example of what I was talking about, actually.
The Shantae composer has improved his music game since their second one. Where as the first one has a sort of mushy, melded together feel, this one that you posted learned how to use the backbeat to it's advantage.
Jackson Sullivan
This is an arrangement of a boss theme from a previous game made by the same developer/composer, the whole ALLTYNEX Trilogy has references like that
Evan Murphy
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Hudson Lopez
The arrange tracks for SDOJ feature the motifs of the respective stage from all previous Dodonpachi games, which is quite neat considering that SDOJ is the final game in the franchise (mobile shit not withstanding)
Jace Peterson
These arranges were done by the original composer himself for the X360/PS3 release of Ketsui
Ian Russell
A Deathsmiles arrange by Ryu Umemoto, I'm fairly sure this one is supposed to play during the giant cow stage
Justin Lewis
An arrangement of Good-bye my earth from Dariusburst by Yoko Shimomura The Wonder World album features all kinds of arranges from a wide variety of composers, I heard it even won an award too
Benjamin Parker
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David Smith
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Liam Morgan
Nice Etrian Odyssey arrangement. The original version is the only one I've heard from IV. I can't help but focus on the chords brought in with this cover.
Half-Genie Hero is pretty small, but it may just have the best music in the entire series, which makes sense given that it's the newest one.
Luis Hernandez
the best
Isaiah Cooper
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Sebastian Cruz
forgot to mention, The track was arranged by the same person who did the Eschatos arrange from (Ryo Yonemitsu)
Robert Clark
Oh fuck, that's the same Ryo Yonemitsu who did the PC-Engine arranges of Ys
Xavier Bennett
youtube is for gays
Owen Russell
Sega's sound team had their own band back in the day, the arrangements they made are legendary tier.