#Spyro OST

[crystalfissured]

A new way of listening to Spyro music! This is the Spyro: A Hero’s Tail Game Soundtrack that has been slowed and had reverb added. Plus a tiny bit of mastering, some vinyl record effects and tweaks. Hope you enjoy!

[maxyvert]

This was my very first try to record and edit inside the clock app, so it might be wonky.  Also,this drawing wasn’t uploaded to tumbler, so here you are:

[arimarushunya]

spiralmouth really put their whole pussies into making the soundtrack for the most failed crash bandicoot game and then died

[internal-bleating]

Doing the tag game where you spell out your URL in songs again cuz I changed my URL

I - I'd Like to Walk Around in Your Mind by Vashti Bunyan

N - Nice Boys by TEMPOREX

T - There Was Something Behind You by SHUDDER

E - Erica Western Teleport by Emperor X

R - Run Rabbit Run by Flanagan & Allen

N - Nothing Man by Sodikken

A - Anarchy by Egg

L - Little Boxes by Walk Off the Earth

B - Bullets by Tunng

L - Lost by scntfc

E - Evening Lake by Steward Copeland

A - All I See is You by Sweet Tuesday

T - Two Time by Jack Stauber

I - Imposter Syndrome by Sidney Gish

N - Never-Ending Performance by Yu-Peng Chen

G - Go Tell Aunt Rhody by Michael A. Levine and Jordan Reyne

Also tagging @sai-gemflower @scoobydoosbooty @orjizzy and @residentdormouse

[daringdoombringer]

HEY. YOU THERE🫵

ARE YOU SAD? ARE YOU LONGING FOR THE JOY OF CHILDLIKE WONDER AND WHIMSY? DO YOU WANT TO BE AT PEACE EVEN IF JUST FOR A MOMENT?

THE SKYLANDERS SPYROS ADVENTURE OST. DOESNT MATTER WITCH SONG. LISTEN TO IT NOW.

I DONT CARE IF YOURE TOO OLD OR YOUNG TO HAVE EXPERIENCED THE GAMES. GO FORTH AND RELIVE THE DAYS OF LEGENDS PAST.

[quonka]

The Lasting Effects on Writing Concentration That an Aggressive, Near Insatiable Childhood Obsession with Neopets: The Darkest Faerie Can Inflict on a Man

The first console that I ever owned was the PlayStation 2, and while we had many games, most of them were nearly and completely unplayable. Mostly because I was like, eight.

That's why I made my sister play them.

Maybe "made" is a strong word, it was technically her console-- her games-- but I definitely begged her to play certain games more than others, just so I could sit and watch on the teeny tiny little box television, its frame decorated with neon orange and white acrylic paint, and SpongeBob stickers.

I had a couple favorites I liked to cycle through, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom, and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa -- but no game was I more annoying about than Neopets: The Darkest Faerie.

Just a Bit of Background Research

Neopets: The Darkest Faerie is a third person, single player action-adventure game released in 2005 and developed by Idol Minds Digital Entertainment for publishment on the PlayStation®2 system.

The console game is based off Neopets.com, which was an extremely popular fantastical pet collection and care browser game published to the internet all the way back in 1999. While still active today, it has gone through multiple dubious changes and similarly perhaps questionable owners. However, the current owner of the site, Dominic Law, is looking to really dig in and overhaul the site for a modern era, with a budget of four million dollars.

I did play on the Neopets website when I was younger, but not as much, or as well as my sister knew how to. I more just played the minigames to earn Neopoints for my sister's account-- Neopoints being the sites currency.

Nostalgia Brained

despite my lack of relative interest to the site, I was completely enamored as a child with Neopets: The Darkest Faerie.

The game was, and still is, fantastic.

The graphics are... well. PlayStation®2 graphics, with the console's technological limitations making for a better experience when played on a much smaller, less detail-oriented television screen in the early 2000's than the ones we have today.

But despite the game generally being a little blurry, in my nostalgia-coated opinion, it still holds up pretty well. With its characters and semi-open world all being taken and expanded on directly from the Neopets website and put into 3D; there's a lot of gorgeous design and color and creativity given to the environments and the anthropomorphic Neopets inhabiting them.

You can even switch between the two main characters, a knight named Tor and a sorceress named Roberta whenever you want, only having to press two buttons at the same time once you get to the third act of the game where they meet. This allows you to instantly be able to change between their respective brute melee sword attacks and ranged magic attacks.

There's magic, and monsters, and multiple heroes and villains, all thrown into a medieval fantasy setting-- and despite how many video games I've either played myself or watched others play over the years, I really can't think of a single other game like it, in both gameplay and soundtrack.

"I'll Do it Myself"

Being a game made in 2005, there is nowhere to buy the official Neopets: The Darkest Faerie soundtrack like you can with many modern-day games. The cinematic scoring producer of the game, Jack Wall, doesn't even have the soundtrack listed on his website with his other projects, or on his Spotify. The In-Game music producer Keith Leary doesn't even appear to have a website or Spotify.

This has left the creatives of YouTube to render their own easily accessible versions of the music.

In 2019, user monster860 uploaded their three-hour seven-minute render of the OST to YouTube, "This music was rendered using the tool I wrote, so it might not be totally accurate."

Then, in 2021, they uploaded an eight-hour five-minute render of the soundtrack, "This is the new and improved Neopets: TDF soundtrack video! Now featuring all of the variations, adding up to 8 hours, and also in stereo. In addition, certain issues are fixed, such as the flute part in the Bazaar District music not having the trills."

While not being technically official, it sounds very much like how it does in-game, and the inclusion of all the minor variants, as well as any cut and discarded tracks make this cataloguing of the game's OST perfect to study to for me.

Cause and Effect

In last week's post about Darkwood, I talked about how the horror game's OST was such an essential part to the horror atmosphere, that the intense focus I carried in-game, transferred out of the game when simply just listening to the soundtrack, and that it helped me with concentrating on my work.

Neopets: The Darkest Faerie OST has a similar effect, but in a different manner.

I have kept my PlayStation®2 specifically for the purpose of playing this game every couple years or so, with my oldest save on the disc being from 2014, and my newest being just from last month, 2024. I have beaten the game in entirety at least three or four times, and created a new save file much more than that.

Because I have played the game so incredibly often since childhood, whenever I have the soundtrack on, I can remember exactly where each song plays in the game.

It of course helps that monster860's video has its chapters titled with song currently playing, which is where it is found in the game-- but most of the time as I'm writing in a different tab, just through memory I am able to recognize the specific area, what its main color palette is and what character is available to play, and how far that specific song is in the game.

Instead of the soundtrack promoting a bit of healthy fear in order to get me working, the Darkest Faerie OST is calming, comforting really.

Don't get me wrong though, there are a lot of really fun and intense tracks in the game, my favorite specifically being "Brightvale Battle" at 4:39:32. Just starting off with that call and response melody at the beginning, on what I assume to be some sort of keyboard, is immediately effective at grabbing one's attention, which is apt for fight music. Then a little later into the song at 4:40:05, when the flute comes in on top of all the lower instruments, it sounds pretty and adds a bit of contrast while still feeling just as powerful as the heavier drums.

My absolute favorite piece of that song, however, is when the piccolo comes in at 4:40:41. It immediately pierces through the other instruments, sharp and passionate, and extremely impactful for how little time it actually stays in the song.

There are so many songs on the soundtrack just like this one that definitely don't inspire the horror that Darkwood's does but are comparably exciting-- and I think this drive that I get from more of the battle tracks, in combination with the calmer, atmospheric tracks-- in further combination with the nostalgic familiarity I have with the game and its idiosyncrasies-- leads to the Darkest Faerie OST promoting a similar concentration on the direct task at hand for me.

Recommendations

Honestly, I definitely would recommend for anyone struggling with concentrating when writing to try listening to the soundtrack of a beloved childhood videogame, or one that just meant a lot to you at some point. I'm not certain it will work like it does for me, but it'd be interesting to see more people talk about what their specific "work music" is and the story behind it.

Unfortunately, with the game being so old and so niche, the only way to play Neopets: The Darkest Faerie legally now is through buying a PlayStation®2 that works, and then also the disc. This is a lot to ask, I recognize.

If anyone is interested though, there are countless playthroughs on YouTube, so just find a commentator that doesn't annoy you and enjoy!

With the 25th anniversary of Neopets coming up, along with Dominic Law's aforementioned four-million-dollar plan to renovate the site, hopefully there is at least a miniscule possibility for a remaster of the game. I realize this is incredibly unlikely but considering both Spyro and SpongeBob: Battle For Bikini Bottom got their remasters semi-recently, maybe it's not completely out of the cards.

[yeongrak]

have you ever considered compiling a sample pack/have ever made one in the past? im really curious about where you get alot of the stuff you use and id like to also make my own scary wet meat anime girl music

i havent actually considered making a sample pack no but i can do something that in my opinion is probably more useful and tell you what i use and where/how i get it: https://www.sounds-resource.com/ you can get entire sfx and voice packs from a ton of games here and thats where an absolute ton of the sounds i use come from, especially the packs from MDK, unreal, quake, misadventures of tron bonne, xyanide, spyro, and very commonly ape escape and 40 winks.

actually here is a kind of "soundfont" (not an actual one just wavs of the dif samples that make up the psflib file) i ripped from the .psf's of the ape escape ost that im gonna ul cause it was a bit annoying to do https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rwsGC1Xf1ltNDgcbyAFODAaJOAEkH50j/view?usp=drive_link its not all of the tracks though just the ones i wanted

the acapellas you can find by just looking for kpop acapellas or covers of them on youtube or soundcloud, if they sound too clean you can try detuning them a wee bit by fucking them up with an autotuner, layering some white noise underneath it and exporting them at a really low bitrate (recommend using .amr or .spx especially if you have something like xmedia recode that gives you a lot of control over the quality - i've managed to crush sound files down to 2kbps with that and the effect it has on vocals is really interesting)

the other big thing is just my own tracks, a huge portion of my stuff for the last 5 years or so has been me taking a track of mine, chucking it into renoise and either slowing it down or speeding it up an octave and using that as a base to build off of (if its minimal enough you dont even need to change the speed), because you can trigger samples at dif points in renoise and a sample can be just an entire track - you can end up making it sound quite dynamic by just changing the start point of the sample and the entire base of the sound has changed. really you can do this with any music and i dont mind if you want to use my music to do this, you dont even have to credit me although im not sure how this might work in other daws.

i like cutting chunks of the beginnings and ends of squishy/vomity noises, layering rhythms, using really flat and lifeless sounding percussion, using long almost-unedited samples from genres that are very different to the one im making, i use a synth called jellyfish and synplant a lot

im just now realizing after ive written all this that not only does this only really apply to stuff ive made in the last couple of years and may not apply to stuff you're asking about that could be older, but this is not what you asked,you didnt ask for a whole ass fucking tutorial on how i make my music and i could not be more sorry, but this is the best i can do as i have started adjusting to some new meds and slept about 2 hours in the last 3 days. ive let you down and i will never be the same

[appears]

25th Anniversary

Faye Wong: Eyes On Me (1999.02.24)

While I'm not much of a gamer now, I used to play video games a lot when I was in grade school, and my top two favorite game franchises of all time also reflect two of my favorite video game soundtracks of all time: the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy, composed by Stewart Copeland (and famously, tragically, never officially released in either physical or digital format until very recently), and Final Fantasy VIII, composed by the prolific Nobuo Uematsu, who wrote the music for the Final Fantasy franchise in whole or in part through Final Fantasy XI.

Besides the gorgeous orchestral arrangements that make up the bulk of the soundtrack's sprawling four discs, there was also a notable vocal version of the central love theme. The central romantic story line in FFVIII was a notable game-changer for many young people who might not have found any reason to play video games before, bringing in many new players who would grow up to help expand the demand for alternative gaming, so its importance cannot be understated. The love theme between the characters Squall and Rinoa (and Laguna and Julie/Raine) was sung by ultra-popular Hong Kong-native Faye Wong, one of the most well-known figures in Asian pop culture at the time. Besides a storied career in films, Wong also had a history in popular music, having recorded several of her most well-known albums throughout the 1990s. I'm not sure how Uematsu was able to snag her for this soundtrack, but it created that delightful moment when the perfect song meets the perfect singer. "Eyes on Me" was released in Japan in February 1999, about two weeks after the release of the video game, and is a sweeping love ballad expanding upon the themes heard throughout the game, notably with cues like "Waltz for the Moon" and "Julia" (in fact, Wong is singing as the character Julia in the game, who is confessing her feelings toward Laguna during a performance). Wong's voice is lithe enough to keep the song light and sweet, rather than moody, which is perfect for the tone of the game, which is exciting, occasionally dangerous, and sometimes sad, but never dark or grim. There are many beautiful instrumental iterations of this theme throughout the game, but the song plays in its full vocal glory only twice: once toward the back half of the game, and again with an expanded orchestral arrangement upon the game's completion. They're all fantastic.

The single's c/w track is "ACACIA no Mi," a ballad composed by Jim Lau, this time sung in Mandarin. It's a pretty, though somewhat anemic, slow number that fits the mood of the disc, but of course comes nowhere near the grace and beauty of the A-side. The single finishes with the instrumental version of "Eyes on Me."

The single came in standard 3" mini-disc packaging, with the lyrics and credits written on the back of the cover. Not surprisingly, this song ended up being one of the most popular video game songs of all time, second only to Hikaru Utada's "Hikari," written for Kingdom Hearts. It hit #9 on the Oricon chart, which was also pretty impressive at that time for a song from a video game. The entire soundtrack to Final Fantasy VIII is incredible and merits many more words of analysis and praise, but this post is just for the game's most well-known song -- the four-disc soundtrack proper was released one week later. Like the rest of the OST, "Eyes on Me" has aged incredibly well, and still sounds as beautiful as the day it was released, a testament to both Faye Wong's impeccable vocals and Uematsu's bottomless capacity for moving melodies.

Catalog Number: TODT-5271

[oransvillage]

The past brings fouth the future

Got the idea for this from listening to .The Legend of Spyro OST || Burned Lands

[red-hemlock]

Get to Know the Mun.

What's your phone wallpaper: One of about a million pics of my bro's dog, Boo. <3

Last song you listened to: Spring: Savannah - Roots of Pacha OST (whole soundtrack gives me Spyro + Crash vibes tbh. x'D <3)

Currently reading: Gachiakuta. Fits my whole trashcan vibe, tbh. 8D

Last movie: Re-watch of Dune: Part 1.

Last show: Blue-Eyed Samurai.

What are you wearing right now?: BEAUTEOUS COMFY PJS. <3

How tall are you: 6'1''

Piercings / tattoos?: Nope and nope!

Glasses / contacts: Glasses, I'm too lazy to do contacts right now, lol.

Last thing you ate?: Big ol' bowl of fruit with honey.

Favorite color: Blue!

Current obsession: Roots of Pacha, now I kinda wanna buy a Switch. =T

Do you have a crush right now?: Naaaaah, lol.

Favorite fictional character: Aw geez... Too many of those, I guess I'll name like four though: Guts - Berserk, Hiei - Yu Yu Hakusho, Vivi - Final Fantasy 9, Yuri Hyuga - Shadow Hearts 1 + 2.

Last place you traveled: Las Vegas, but that was years ago, I really want to go back. T_T

Tagged by: @bluefeathrs

Tagging: @dontstepinmypuddle, @tootyfuckingfruity, @mute-call, @jonnyjonnyfrost, @theserpentsjester, @draggeddowntothedark, @sanguine-salvation, @question-marked, @twcfaces

[vixenbuck]

you guys ever heard the legend of spyro ost it's really good

[s0apshipping]

being a huge fan of the book/movie obviously, the fight club game is probably my least favorite video game of all time

they had an opportunity to make such a good game, or at least a decent one. like an action RPG following the story of the movie. judging by the pre-release material and behind the scenes stuff, that was how the game was originally planned to be, and they were gonna follow the story and use the characters’ likenesses.

what did they do instead? they completely ruined the story, and made the characters nearly unrecognizable both aesthetically and in characterization. there were also a lot of plot holes to the story because they tried to follow the movie AND make the game its own thing at the same time.

aaaaand they made the game into a clunky tekken ripoff…which making a fighting game out of fight club is completely missing the point. it would be fine if the fighting game was like a minigame or multiplayer mode, or something part of a larger game, but that’s not the case.

the voice talent is spectacular. they got some top tier voice actors like dave wittenberg and nika futterman. too bad they had to work with such a terrible script adaptation.

and sierra/eurocom/vivendi universal are behind the game, who made a huge number of my favorite childhood games. and apparently many of the people who worked on the game were ex-insomniac games members (im a massive fan of spyro and ratchet & clank)

i’m also a huge fan of the ps2/gamecube/xbox era of games. i grew up with that era, and the ps2 is probably my favorite console of all time.

just very disappointing

oh btw: tommy tallarico (my mother is very proud) apparently was behind the sound/OST in the game. i found out when i noticed it on the hbomberguy video. unless that’s one of the many things he’s lied about. idk why even he would lie about working on this game tho.

[biomecharnotaurus]

Playing Quake while listening to the Sgt Byrd Spyro OST

[lil-melody-moon]

... I'm afraid The Police hyperfix is coming...

I'm finished with their discography and damn, do I love them! Everything is freaking perfect and the drumming... Jfc, Stewart Copeland is surely in the top of my favorite drummers list. I love his style, it's different from what I heard so far and so pleasant to the ear.

I saw that he did a lot of soundtracks, with three I've already met, but I think I will dive deeper, I'm just curious how he developed throughout the years - so far I heard Spyro and Spyro 2 ost (the second not entirely, I'm working on quitting gaming) but I think I will give them a stand alone listen. I remember recognizing the style so maybe it didn't change this much.

Anyway, I welcome this cutie here with a smile on my face - he's such a sweet sweet guy!

[rivetgoth]

I didn't say anything on this on here but I'm super excited about cEvin doing the new Silent Hill OST. Stewart Copeland's work on the Spyro the Dragon series was literally the very first time I remember ever having appreciation for music, I was like 5-6 at the time and it really felt like a defining moment for me (still holds up, btw). Seeing talented musicians involved in scoring video games is something I'm always so thrilled about, both for the way it can elevate the game and the way it really allows established musicians to get to play with sounds in new ways. The previews (1, 2) also sound really good and cEvin's influence is super recognizable. Super super cool news.