Sagacyte's BG corner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UNqHHPJhD4

Hello! Let’s all tread together the treacherous path of the final day of the work week joined by some great music!

Upcoming Final Fantasy XIV patch, "Gears of Change" (3.2) got its trailer revealed today and between all the awesome new stuff that's coming to us there's a preview of the boss of the new Antitower dungeon: Calcobrena. Also known as Calcabrena (or other names non-SNES players use these days) the boss is a group of creepy dancing dolls that, if left too long to their devices, will fuse into a giant doll that hits hard. I died a lot to this abomination.

The theme is creepy and there's a neat little detail that I'm not ashamed to say I found out today, while listening to it on repeat for today's post. The song is comprised basically of two melodies: one in pipe organ and one in a flute (of course, reproduced with SNES instruments, but you can clearly distinguish them from the very beginning of the song).

The organ part has four duos of notes. The first duo plays from the left side speaker/headphone, the second is still on the left but bleeds a bit to the right, the third bleeds to the left but it's predominantly on the right, while the final duo plays only on the right. It's like the four duos are dancing from left to right!

The flute part, however, is the opposite. While it's a bit difficult to notice in the very first set of flute notes, when the music gets moving you can clearly hear the flute floating from right to left! This goes on through the entire song creating this feeling of unease. Wonderful! This was the era of early Stereo gaming, and Uematsu used it to its fullest!

Perhaps both currents represent both types of dolls, the Calcos and the Brenas? Or is it just a waltz of doom that awaits those that face the giant doll... and beat her without enough life to be ready for the battle that lies just after?

Or am I just crazy? Must be the stifling air of the underground...

Game on!

- Sagacyte