The Mechanical Music of ARMORED CORE 6 | Spotlight
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- Our cars will make music, if we listen to them closely enough.
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It's also unsurprising then, that the first track to include vocals you'll hear is Steel Haze (Rusted Pride) representing the humanity that despite everthing still exists on Rubicon and is embodied by our buddy Rusty.
Kinda wish we had a little bit of remember sneak in to Rusted Pride would have been awesome
I like your deconstruction of "Contact With You", but I think it's important to note that the song title is likely a reference to the player character meeting Ayre just before the fight, rather than about Balteus (Her first words are "Have we... made Contact?").
The track is absolutely perfect for the boss, as it's the most cinematic fight up to that point, but besides all the high energy beats and synths, the track sounds hopeful. Up until this point, 621 is performing mercenary work at the behest of handler Walter and appears to have no say in the matter. The early tracks reflect this to some extent with their dark, moody texture and odd time signatures.
In contrast, "Contact With You" has a very clear 4/4 time signature and a much brighter sound than anything we've heard up to this point. From a gameplay standpoint, this makes sense. Meeting Ayre is a major turning point in the story. This Contact is what eventually leads to the branching decisions that determine the various endings in the game. You're no longer just another mercenary scrounging for coin on this war-torn planet. You have a choice to make now, and this song feels like a celebration of that.
I love this interpretation.
!Spoilers!
The only other time Contact with You plays is during the mission where you attempt to shut down Xylem, and take out Carla and Chatty.
Hearing the first notes of the song along with the almost galloping electronic precussion at the start... oh man. After having put full faith in this being, this friend, that we've come to care for through the entire game, and being greeted with *this* song? It was like the game equivalent of the food reviewer from Ratatouille tasting that one dish, and instantly reminiscing on his childhood. Only here it's about hope, peace and the joy that is to care for someone else.
From Software, you've made yet another masterpiece.
It should be noted that Hoshino, who did most of Armored Core's music, was self taught. He's really good at making unorthodox tracks.
I blame him for me getting into breakcore, shoegaze, and atmospheric music lol
Edit: But yeah. Hats off to all of the composers, because they went HARD. My favorite track in the game is surprisingly Watchpoint Alpha. It has this eeriness to it, and really makes you feel like you're trapped in a giant tomb that still manages to feel claustrophobic. ALLMIND is a close second for it really feeling like everyone you've come to love is gone, and all that stands is you and an incomprehensible horror
I remember reading during my research for this that Hoshino was self taught! Absolutely wild.
I don't think that Contact with you is made to match Balteus. Hell it's in the name "Contact with you" it's not Balteus' theme It's Ayres
Thematically, yes “Contact with You” is absolutely Ayre’s theme - but sonically I think there’s still an argument to be made that Balteus is inspiring the composition of the music. I think an argument could be made that maybe they’re both inspiring it. The darker rhythm section (drums, percussion - that steady thumping cadence) I think is definitely evoking Balteus, while the brighter melodic parts are entirely Ayre’s. It’s a fascinating composition all on its own and even more interesting when you look at it in the context of the moments it appears.
Thanks for watching!
eh, it's balteus theme
I see it as a mix of both, it’s not ayre or balteus’s theme directly, it’s the theme of that moment, the moment of contact, with ayre, and her then using this newfound contact with you to face a new, unique threat, unlike anything yet seen.
@@hijousTempleOS
@@pursuedcomic3 I viewed Contact With You playing later in the story symbolizes Raven’s and Ayre’s renewed bond for each other, especially since it’s the first mission of the Liberator of Rubicon path.
also someone commented that ALLMIND is basically a remix or a darker reprise of 2 iconic tracks in AC history Shaped Memory Alloys ("garage" theme of ACs1-MoA) and Apex in the Circle (basically the cinematic intro theme of MoA) thematically they both "fit" considering the context of MoA ya know the final boss being an AI controlling an all powerful mech
Haven't played armored core but a big reason I love these kinds of videos is because it gives me a glimpse into this whole other world of appreciation I wouldn't normally have for games. I will definitely be paying more attention to the sound track now when I do pick it up. Great video!
I’m so glad to hear you say you will eventually pick it up! Join the nest comrade!
The way you talk about music is pure magic. Best video I've found in a while
Thank you so much! We don't talk this specifically about music that often, but I'd definitely like to in the future. Though we did do a video about the final boss music in Elden Ring!
ruclips.net/video/ndPlC9kTcLY/видео.htmlsi=Zs5o7EDp7CMMfEci
@@Subpixel will watch
People don't give sound design nearly enough credit, not just in video games but in every media.
First thing to do when playing Armored Core is increasing the slider on the music and lowering a smidge the slider on the sound effects. Not the voices though, because you want a hint of humanity to still accentuate the mechanical.
Anyways, loved your analysis dude!
Oh yeah, I wouldn’t have dropped the VO completely out if I hadn’t already gotten all the endings. V.IV Rusty is my best friend.
Incredible analysis! It's always a treat to see a passionate pro describe why my uneducated ears are so happy lol.
I'd like to point out that Unbreakable is more than likely our theme as 621, a cold killing machine that came to bring death and destruction to Rubicon for the highest bidder. Similar to us having our own theme in For Answer, Scorcher. First time it plays is during Operation Wallclimber as we stomp out the RLF with Arquebus, not even during a boss.
I did actually notice that about Unbreakable as I was gathering b roll for the video - I like that idea that the song is about us, especially considering the body-pulverizingly rough landing we had to endure just to get out of orbit, not to mention all the combat we endure after.
This is and amazing break down. I love the music of armor core but now thanks to you I have a new level of appreciation for it.
holy crap Sound Chaser sounds like a Gen 3 Armored Core track
Wonderful video man. This deserve waaay more views. You clearly understand what you're talking about in when it comes to music, but also understand games themselves and how they come together. Plus editing and just the quality of the videos themself are superb. Wish ya luck, buddy.
Armored core 2 music was actually some of my favorite but ac6 had some good tracks too
I can't believe you missed Rust's theme! It plays both when he's the hero joining you to save the day, and when you're having to fight him to finish your own mission. I've never seen a track that fits so perfectly in such opposite settings.
Rusty is my best friend, and I’m hoping I can cook up a script that is all about him (narratively, thematically, and musically).
You should really talk about the music from ac 4, and 5 you say ac 6’s music symbolizes the depth of these machines and how they move, but in the older tracks I believe it was more about representing the ambiguity of war and the ethics of it, I love all of ac’s music, but my personal fav is thinker reprise from ac4. Great vid btw.
I'd like to add that the soundtrack that plays when you're fighting the Sea Spider, to me, is reminiscence of the Tunnel Chase song from The Terminator. Both are autonomous weapons hell bent on killing you.
Reasons why I brought that up is because the long string that plays to add that sense of intense dread and despair, from both soundtracks.
I approve of your thesis! it deffo compares well to machine-like sound
I freaking love your theory of "machines making the music". I feel so bad that I didn't think about that when I played the game. There's these bunch of videos on YT that plays "sound of planets" where they use some other mechanics rather than air pressure to make a waveform so that we can hear it as audio. We could think of the OST as something like that. We can't hear it directly from the machines themselves, but perhaps from all the other information that they pump out, perhaps another machine could make a waveform out of that and listen to it as audio. Maybe that's what we're doing. That's so cool.
I also saw this one comment from the a "Contact With You" video, where the guy theorizes that since the track is named "Contact With You", it's actually not a theme for Balteus, but the connection between 621 and Ayre. The synths in the track represents Ayre, as this dynamic energetic entity, while the monotonous beats represents 621, as this cold and calculating being. In the beginning of the track, it is as though they're out of sync, but as the track progresses to its 3 minute mark, they finally become in sync, signifying how Ayre and 621 learns to fight alongside each other, after the initial shock of this unexpected meeting. I thought that was an insanely good take on the track.
Anyway, keep up the good work!
I've been waiting for someone to make a video on just the music of this game. It's incredible and perfectly matches the theme of the game. It's different from previous titles, but it still bangs and I'm so glad you're so enthusiastic about the soundtrack!!!
My favorites track is pretty obvious but it's Rusted Pride. The song feels like an actual power-up when you hear it for the first time holy smokes!
Oh yeah that and Rough and decent bad joke are my top two currently.
There is a video where Contact with you is slowed down, the feel is more somber, and you can hear the trailer's theme within
Thank you for talking about the music; I'm new to AC, and the music was what hooked me onto it the most, aside from the themes and super cool mechs.
What about the IBIS's soundtrack tho? AKA "The coral guardian".
Coral Guardian rocks. I could probably get a second video out of analyzing more of the music. Heck I could’ve spent a whole video just looking at the different variations of the main theme.
I love a lot of AC6's music, but my favorites are definitely ALLMIND (bet you couldn't guess from my name) and Rough and Decent.
Loved this so much, thank you for making it!
Probably the best video I've seen on this game great work I listen to this every time I go to work 😂❤🙏
Would be interested in hearing your thoughts on some past AC tracks. It’s amazing how they keep approaching this concept in different ways with every entry.
The best kind of content is that which makey you appreciate art or aspects of art about which youre not knowledgeable about
One of the best albums of the last 20 years easily
"Look at you 621...you found a friend."
The soundtrack is really weird to me, my introduction to Armored Core was the soundtracks made by FrequencY and not having a PlayStation meant I had to wait for AC6 to play one of the games for the first time. I liked the soundtrack but I definitely feel we traded the raw emotion and story telling of the J-rock for the ambience and cinematics of a mostly orchestral soundtrack.
While I definitely enjoyed the soundtrack, it's very few songs in particular that I can sharply replay in my head. While my favorite is Stargazer, many peoples favorite is Rusted Pride and I'm certain the inclusion of lyrics connecting the song with a players experience plays a major role in that. A lot of people will also think fondly of Contact With You because it similarly will be a song you remember whenever you think of the first time you beat Balteus; so much so that people will often refer to it as "Balteus's Theme" even when the song is about Ayre, in comparison a player wont be likely to listen to Rusted Pride for too long considering the missions it plays in are not as hard in comparison.
The soundtrack is good and deserves the praise it gets, but dont sleep on the less technically impressive part of the Armored Core soundtracks.
Ohh I like the analysis but I think you missed the fact that halfway through the Contact with You song changes from a 4 to a 7 beat rhythm!
You're totally right! That second phase of the fight shifts the meter and reintroduces main theme. There's so much nuance in this soundtrack I could've made this video at least an hour long.
@@Subpixel Hehehe well I wouldn't have minded! Thanks for the reply :D
I recently came to this conclusion as well, though i have no idea about the intricacies of music beyond it sounding good. I dont understand time signatures and the like. The machine like sound of AC6 made me think about Rubicon itself, how the only life that teams beyond some trees is the Coral, a smattering of meal worms, and humanity, but not once do you see even a hint of human skin outside of drawings which can be likened to cave paintings. This is a world of metal. Metal humanoids duking it out, metal worms, met buildings, and across much of your playthrough, a metal sky going through the grids. The weakness of the flesh has been all but purged in game and in the soundtrack. The most humanity you get out of it is the choir in tracks like the main theme and Contact With You. The only songs to break these trends of oppressive steel and synths are Steel Haze (Rusted Pride) and the theme for the final ending cutscene in which full on vocals are heard, both songs which in context are the humanity in Rusty and the player character raging to life like an inferno. Rusty gets his vocals when he breaks free from his corporate shackles and fights for life on Rubicon against the monster who'd see it all burned again, while we get our vocal track when our compassion for the Coral carries us all the way through the final final boss and into a new age of life and symbiosis. We find our human heart and become the Coral Savior in an act of sheer compassion.
I also wanna note that Rusty doesn't get a full on song like we do, his lyrics are hard to make out, the end of the song gets cut off at its high point, and this is because while Rusty and the RLF fight for life, they're life is a selfish one that exploits the Coral. As said in game, it's not TRUE symbiosis. His humanity peaks through his AC, but it's only a glimmer unlike us when we achieve true symbiosis. Our humanity is on full display, to include our imperfections represented by the admittedly bad Engrish.
AC6 gets a 9/10 from me.
Any idea why AC6 wasn’t nominated for best score and music for the game awards? I’m not musically inclined so I can’t speak to the games that were nominated but I really liked this soundtrack. I’ve noticed a lot of AC6 fans say that the nomination was ‘stolen’ from us. Was AC6 OST really up against 5 better OST’s?
awards are popularity contest between game journalists and select people with a margin of it being added by votes from the public. which explains a lot 😅
Try Last Raven's OST if you want to know what mechanical music really means.
Sounds like you are on the ground floor of a dystopian autonomous gigafactory.
Thanks for the recommendation!
I do still miss the chants of For answer even if this soundtrack rocks.
Best video on this soundtrack i've seen, not the best AC soundtrack but still better than 90% of videogames in terms of production
That was so good I loved your vid
Rubicon crys
More of a backdrop than a main piece
... Fck it! Im going back to Rubicon 🔥
Cries of Coral is my fav.
What would a sort of assault boost rhythm or peice of music sound like? Trying to make a game and gonna try my hand at composing too.
where is STARGAZER??? please do it
The OST felt very hit and miss. The more ambient tracks really didn't work for me. The game has a few outstanding songs and moments but overall it felt like a lot of the magic of previous entries just wasn't there. I know from a music-design standpoint they shot for lonely and nostalgic, but what they achieved fell into hollow, passive and disappointing barring a small number of absolutely outstanding moments.
I got so completely sick of hearing "Unbreakable" that if I heard it, I'd turn the music down, or off until the mission was beat -- it was just so unbelievably not Armored Core:
I was waiting for it to start or to drop and just absolutely nothing happened and 90% of the ost is like this, just this dissonant whining grind putting me to sleep during fights that should be intense in a game that's half the speed of the last six entries.
Usually melody and call/response with instrumentation is front and centre and instead it was all rhythm and vague mushy timbre: I just don't super care for that decision, honestly?
The weird part in the back of my brain gets this vibe that like, the producer was forcing Kota Hoshino to fit in with these other musicians and to "fit" with "what FROM Software is" now, and they just didn't really let him cook barring two or three tracks. Its similar to a problem with modern vs classic death-metal, where things have become less melodic and more rhythmically focused. I just do not vibe with that at all. I had this sentiment a while back, and a friend showed me a video called "What Modern Metal Guitar Sounds Like To Non-Metal Listeners" and instantly it hit me like a ton of bricks: "yeah that's exactly how I feel here".
Something is just very very off and I can't entirely put my finger on it.
I'm very happy for the people who enjoyed AC6 but as a long time fan of both the games and the music, I can't pretend to like this new direction.
Man this whole situation just sucks.
As someone that's played through almost every entry in this series, I'm of the opinion that 6 has actually one of the weakest soundtracks in the franchise. This is mainly stemming from my own preference towards the series' more melodic roots, which can be found in 6's best tracks such as Contact With You, Steel Haze (Rusted Pride), and Stargazer. Although I understand the more ambient and slower songs fit a lot more for 6's bigger and more open environments and general moment-to-moment gameplay, I can't help but miss a lot of the tracks from previous entries such as Mechanized Memories, or the much more impactful garage themes such as Gridroom and 12 Steps.
This was my first experience with the series, so I’m excited to go back and play through what of the old games I can, because I’ve only ever heard good things about the AC series’ music.
@@Subpixel You should know unfortunately that some of the best full soundtracks in this series stem from its most controversial titles, namely Armored Core Nexus and Armored Core V and Verdict Day
I'm happy to hear you plan on trying out the older titles ^^, I'd recommend Duckstation for the PS1 titles, PCSX2 has recently obtained a twinstick patch for the PS2 titles allowing you to avoid using the godawful default control scheme and play the game like a more traditional third person shooter.
RPCS3 runs 4 and FA perfectly, but has troubles running V and Verdict Day.