Guilty Gear Strive - Necessary Discrepancy (Ramlethal) | Reacting To Video Game Music! 

Never forget that Ramlethal eating a cheeseburger is crucial to the Guilty Gear story

Can we appreciate how ''If a room without a sky is what we idolize, it's a dead tomorrow'' is one of the best lyrics ever.

Its kinda funny that you've never seen or heard of Ramlethal because she is both one of the most popular and strongest characters in Guilty Gear. The OST for Strive also has a physical Album which shares this song's title as the title of the Album itself. Daisuke considers it to be the theme song for Strive alongside "Smell of the Game" which goes to show how important Ramlethal is to the series.

I love that you noticed the lack of female voice in the second half. The Female voice represents her opressive "Mother" and her nihilistic view of things and the male voice represents Sin/Sol who are her gateway into her new viewpoint on life. Since she goes go with them (on the back of a really damn good BURGER) and is part of the hero cast by Strive, that reflects in Sol/Sin's voice completely taking over. As an extra bit of flavor, her mother's vocal's being angelic while the male vocal's being thrashy is a direct reference to their personalites and roles in the story, the first being essentially "the pope" and Sol and Sin being the rebels with a cause.

Fun Fact: The language at the beginning of the song is Esperanto, a real life language created by some guy to try and give Humanity a universal language with which to communicate. Fitting Ramlethal's existence as an artificial being originally created to unite Humanity with the Universal Will (by murdering them all) but instead turned to the side of trying to unite Humans and Gears to exist together and stop the plans of the Universal Will.

My god the lad finally did it. My request from over a year ago haha. This song always triggers and emotional response from me. great stuff uncle jesse

You're right about the 2 sides. Ramlethal was a villain in Xrd that basically had no emotions and thought humanity was a waste of space. In Xrd to current Strive she comes to understand emotions and becomes a good person with alot of heart (even if she isn't good at showing it). The song is her journey as a character, which is why to me the beginning is robotic like she was introduced, the duet if her conflicting emotions and the end is her becoming more human. It really feels like you go on that emotional journey with her in this song imo.

The first time I heard necessary discrepancy I could only think "Damn, that was weird and the lyrics were corny, but it had heart". Then I kept listening to it and now it's my favorite from the game.

Daisuke composes all the music/ making lyrics, AISHA sings for all the female characters NAOKI sings for the male characters. This is the only song I know of in GGST that has both NAOKI and AISHA in one song. Cheers

This song is easily on my top 3. I love Ram and this theme, it’s weirdly powerful and emotional at the same time. And really poetic too. This song pretty much show us Ram’s journey through the meaning of life and trying to understand what emotions are, while fighting her chaotic nature as a Gear/Valentine.

Its probably not the first one id listen to, but its always been the most unique track on one of their most experimental GG albums. I really respect it. Like a chaotic ballad.

I very much like the fact that some bits of the lyrics are in Esperanto, which reflects the fact that Ramlethal is an artificial being who is learning how to "live"

Love this theme! A number of people have noted similarities between the opening proggy portion of Ram’s Theme, and ELP’s song ‘Bitches Crystal’. So, another rock reference to consider!

Hell yea, I know it's a little out of left field but the first couple minutes have always made me think of if Daisuke gave "The Lives We Left Behind" from Skullgirls his own treatment. Definitely some awesome prog vibes, and one of few songs in Guilty Gear that has some great organ in it.

As someone who loves my clashing sounds, this is probably my favorite Guilty Gear song. I'm no lore master, but basically the character is an inhuman character that learns how to be more human, and the song is about learning and accepting the more irrational, emotional parts of being a human, rather than just being strictly logical, striving for just pure efficiency. As someone who sees things very logically and simply, the "necessary discrepancy" known as emotion shouldn't be gotten rid of. The song is about coming to that conclusion. ..... Basically, anime.

Probably tied with Let Me Carve Your Way as my favorite song in Strive. Kinda funny, it seems I gravitate towards the controversial songs. Anyway, I love the song in terms of composition (what are time signatures?) and its message. All these contradictions, these 'necessary discrepancies' are what make us human. Even if the world and humanity is often fucked up, in the end, maybe 'this loving, foolish world is just fine'.

This is my favourite song in the game. I just love how different it is and how it represents the theme so creatively.

Ramlethal's themes both have a part inspired from a Guilty Gear 2 theme named Diva which belongs to a character related to Ramlethal. I hope someone will request it one day

When you talked about never getting the spelling for "necessary" right, I totally felt that because I had that problem until recently. I know there's another word I have to rely on spellcheck for, but I don't remember which one. But, yeah, I picked up this game finally-after wanting it since the announcement and even going on PSN and getting Xrd for $5, only to be bad at playing Ram-and have heard this song so much while trying to her learn combos. Then I found that video and read the lyrics and how it tied in with her story and it cemented that I will always play her.

The song really is meant to reflect Ram's character development since she entered the series in Xrd. When she first shows up, she's an emotionless servant of the Universal Will, a godlike entity that is determined to destroy humanity. Thanks to the efforts of Sin Kiske, the son of Dizzy and Ky, as well as the power of a hamburger, she finally starts learning there's more to life than obeying the Universal Will, causing her to do a face turn. Her story in Strive is about finding who she is in a world where she no longer has the Universal Will to guide her, with all that entails. She's a great character, and she has an appropriately great theme to go along with it.

Ram's theme is so wild and dense and raw and beautiful. From the layered instruments and melodies to the shifting time signatures and tones to the back and forth of the male and female singers, and all of it works to tell Ramlethal's story of growth. The chorus blew me away when I first heard it, just an absolutely overwhelming wall of raw power and emotion. I'd never had tears well up like that before when listening to music before. Easy favorite from the album.

This song is the story of a character born without emotion trying to force mechnical logic to the world, an artificial being with a purpose, and the game story has her learning to love the world for its chaos. The song even start with esperando lyrics, showing how alien she is to the world.

You should listen to Requiem (Ino's theme), its my favorite out of all the GG Strive songs

the fact you've watched tournaments and haven't seen or heard of ramlethal *ONCE* is wild to me

Finally more Guilty Gear!! Always checking up if you've reacted to some GG! Thank you for this christmas present!

I think the biggest thing that I love about this track is the way that it coincides with Ram's character development. At the start of GGXrd she is a cold emotionless alien who is here to kill all of humanity because her mother told her to, and views herself as an object saying "I don't have emotions. A tool doesn't need emotions." when asked about how she feels. She just follows orders and does what she's told which is reflected in how controlled, confined, and almost inhuman the start of the track is. She's actually so ingrained in this mindset that when Sol and co' first capture her she tries to bring down the ship they're on in order to kill herself and everyone on it. Over the course of the story she starts to slowly learn that she and other people have intrinsic worth and that if she doesn't agree with her mother's plans she doesn't have to follow them. The track gets slightly more hectic as this happens introducing more electric guitar as that instrument generally represents character's humanity in GG music to show her blossoming personality and emotion. *short guitar solo happens* Things start to get crazy again during this part of the song and escalates louder and louder till the "end" of Ram's story. Near the end of Xrd Revelator during the final big battle with her mother she decides to allow herself to die in an explosion in order to save the life of a small girl and her new friend Sin saying that she wished she could spend more time learning to smile before the end. The song ends in the same way with a massive frantic explosion of noise and emotion before becoming more slow as Ram commits to her new belief that what matters is "heart and heart" while sacrificing herself for the sake of a tiny life that she wouldn't have hesitated to kill at the beginning of the story. *Spoiler alert* She lived anyway

what I love about this is that she's the most popular character and has always been a top tier pick but he's never seen her in tournaments

the male singer is naoki hashimoto, he's also in the japanese band Outrage

if you want a detailed breakdown of the Guilty Gear lore i highly recommend checking out WoolieVS who did a 3 part breakdown of the plot and characters which was overseen by Daisuke himself to make sure everything was accurate

My favorite part of this song is the end lyrics because it sums up the lesson Ramlethal (note: pronunciation is "ram-luh-THAHL" or "ram-luh-THAL") learned from her time growing past her existence as a tool of her "mother" and becoming her own person. I have the key to leave to leave the door. It can hurt me, it can hurt you. All things are made of heart and heart. It's talking about learning compassion and emotion. It's a key to being _more,_ and the song doesn't deny that it can hurt. She can get hurt when people are unkind to her. She can hurt other people by aiming unkind emotions at them. That's part of what being a person is...but she holds on to it because knowing she's irreplaceable, that she's unique, that _everyone_ is unique, is precious to her.

The male singer in GG songs is Naoki from the JP thrash metal band Outrage. I highly recommend you check them out.

You'd also like Find your one way! It's the most rock out of the metal songs in this game.

Much like a few of Strive's songs, they often have leimotifs from previous songs in the franchise. Specifically, "Diva of Despair, which also uses the same lemoteifs from "Diva." It's always interesting to see the journey of these characters be reflected in their songs. Also, the singer is Naoki Hashimoto. He is the lead vocalist in a thrashmetal band called Outrage.

You mentioned that Ramlethal sounds like a metal band name, and you're right, because it is (two different ones). Daisuke always names his characters after bands or singers.

this is the only video game song i can think of off the top of my head that has made me cry multiple times, and it's from a FIGHTING GAME. it's genuinely a prog masterpiece. its storytelling both instrumentally and vocally is off the charts. imo this is daisuke's magnum opus. underrated and misunderstood by a lot of players, though. :(

Strive I feel really swung for the fences with its ost, some of the subgenres represented by different characters I've never heard Daisuke use in his compositions before. Another of my favorites from Strive that tries something different is Trigger, the theme for newcomer Giovanna, which feels more like Funk Metal, definitely worth a listen.

I've been on a roll listening to Strive's soundtrack this week, and I figured hey why not find out what someone who knows their stuff thinks about it. Then I found your channel, and binged a ton of your vids. Love your stuff, your thoughts and reviews, even to a non-musical (question mark?) person, you got yourself a new sub! I hope you react to Testament's theme someday :p

Leave it to Daisuke for shoving an entire character arc into the theme song. It starts mythical and otherworldly at first, and the lyrics reflect only a fragment of emotions. But as Ramlethal learns human emotions, it becomes more human and heartful.

honestly, to get an even further understanding of why this song kicks so much ass in terms of its meaning, I really do suggest checking out of Diva of Despair (Ramlethals' theme from Xrd) and Diva (which is the theme of Valentine, who essentially acts as the progenitor of the other Valentines in the later GG games) Diva being the basis that Diva of Despair and Juno (Jack-Os' Xrd theme), which then gets morphed yet again on the transition to Necessary Discrepancy and Perfection Can't Please Me, highlights how much these characters have been changed for the better by those who care for them, and the ones they care for in kind. (Also if you ever feel like going back further again, I still highly recommend checking out Keep in Gates)

I hope you react to Alone Infection next along with Requiem and Out of the Box since those are the ones I really like that you haven't reacted yet to in the GGST ost

Ishiwatari talked about this song when the game first came out in an interview. They used a bit of an awkward translation, but in Japanese the phrase is "hitsuyōna muda" which more accurately means "necessary waste." It seems to contradict itself, but he considers the term to be representative of the entire franchise, the idea that everything is done to excess, you could say it's all superfluous, but without it the series would lose its identity. It's "trash" that's "important."

This was one of my favorite tracks from Strive for a long time next to Let Me Carve Your Way! As much as I love Strive’s themes, you should check out some of Xrd Rev 2’s themes :D I recommend The Tuner, Does the Sheep Count the Sheep, Magnolia Eclair, One Dawn, and Rokumon. Although I’m only listing these 5 that’s not to say the rest of them are mid, far from it. They’re all really amazing, like not a single bad apple imo.

That track has a very distinctive TOOL feeling to it

Not related to the music (which is a fantastic song, btw) but my personal word that I never spell right is "guarantee" and its variations. It just destroys me.

I wish I had this game..but I can always enjoy the music

"What is this soundtrack?" Well its a telling of the charakters story/philosophy in song form... Ram is an artificial being made to conquer humanity (a so called Valentine), but she slowly but shurely develops a personality of her own and decides that she actually likes most of the people that she knows and she subsequently becomes one of the good guys (the realization that she can think for herself also saved her from being murdered by a comatose guy who uses a robot bed to kill people... guilty gear is weird) Btw can you to react to Fausts theme "Alone Infiction"? its my personal favorite on this soundtrack.

one of my favorite tracks on the ost also, i have a tip for remembering how to spell necessary! think of a shirt; one Collar, two Sleeves

not sure if someone already mentioned this but a fair amount of this song reminds me of emerson lake and palmer but jazzed up with metal

There's a nice video by GekkoSquirrel simply called "What does Each Strive Character Theme Mean?" that you may want to watch if you're curious what these themes mean for the characters.

This song is like Daisuke heard Between The Buried And Me once and said "oh lemme try that"

Definitely one of the more unique songs from the ost, fits her really well though. When you find the time you should check out her first theme song, from XRD, called "Diva of Despair". It's very good and has a pretty unique solo in there, not to spoil what it is but it's an instrument you don't really hear very often in VGA

One thing Ive learned since getting into GG is that all the songs in Strive are SO much better when you have context of the story/characters. They makes a ton more sense and have a bigger emotional impact. If you ever have the time or the chance I'd recommend watching some lore vids on or off stream. For this song in particular, it describes Ram's development as basically an Artificial Human (A Valentine) sent to destroy but instead is shown what it means to be human and why some things no matter how much they hurt are necessary for humanity. Also Burger.

At the beginning the lyrics are in Esperanto, if I recall correctly. Which is a "made up" language not actually spoken anywhere in the world officially, just representing that she is like an "alien" and something that was made by someone else and not natural, two aspects really important for her lore.

they really went full prog for this one. The time signature changes are crazy

A way ive learned to spell necessary is the phrase “a shirt has one Collar and two Sleeves” referencing, the letters in neCeSSary, naturally :p

This song always makes me think of dream theater

One day we will get, Alone infection

3rd favorite track after, Jack-O's theme, and I-No's. Hope you get to listen to I-No's theme sometime

Oh, you finally listened to it! Ramlethal started out as a emotionless baddie (main boss of Xrd until later versions) with no free will as a slave to the real big baddie but through the puppies and burgers* she was won over by the good guys, discovering that she did in fact have both emotions and free will, and now fights on the good side. This song reflects that: the female voice is telling her what she has to do, but the male voice speaks of heart and freedom. The song starts with female vocals exclusively til male vocals join in until it reaches a duet until finally the male voice slowly but surely completely drowns out the female vocals and from then on stands alone and powerful: free will and heart has beaten obedience and control. Such a poweful song even with it's questionable engrish, heh. * I am serious. She was captured and one of the characters offered her a burger. She's a titular Gear which means an artifical being of great power so she doesn't need to eat so a hamburger was the first thing she has ever tasted and it of course blew her mind. Also, then she was introduced to puppies and of course the darned cute thing instantly had her fawning, because who wouldn't?

Oh cool, a sonic and ggst one back to back? He'll yeah, this song grows on you, I love it.

I do love both this character and her theme for sure! really caught my attention! :D

Having a native speaker validate my inability to spell Necessary correctly fills me with joy.

Still my favorite GGS song

If you‘ve been watching Xrd tournaments then it makes sense that you’ve never seen her cause she was considered like bottom 5 or so for a long time(I think either in Sign or Rev1 she got gutted) but in Strive she‘s been top 3 for pretty much the game‘s entire run

You can say the black & white aspect is because "Guilty Gear" refers to a specific individual of the gear race and has trickled to their entire family all have a general theme of being walking cataclysms who love life and peace when allowed to develop to their own egos....or in Ramlethal's case, a love for hamburgers and puppies lol

I can't wait for you to react to "Play The Hero" from this

i know your not likley to look at it on here cause its not really metal but i love bridgets theme so much and you should totally check it out even if just on your own time

definitely is the word I always mess up, I forget that the root is definite, or de - finite and that would clue me in on the spelling but I always end up thinking its spelled like diffedently or something.

I've always wanted to get into GG:S but I just don't have the time for that but the soundtrack sure is a banger! It's only the second track I've heard yet but I really like it a lot!

when the song get to 4:57 or so i expect it to go into the welcome to the black parade guitar solo

god i love the weirder tracks on this OST. theyre my guilty (ha) pleasure music

So basically, some dude found the backrooms (it's actually called the backyard) and in there, all knowledge of the universe exists. Including the fact that, magic does in fact exist. That dude then creates an AI, and gives it one task. Figure out how humanity can reach eternal happiness. Because, humans can't really stay there to study themselves. So, the AI starts doing that and keeps doing that. Eventually it asks itself a question; what IS a human? So, the AI debate lords itself into thinking humans don't exist, just these fake humans. It figures that the only way to create eternal happiness for humans is to wipe out all current humanity and start from fresh. So, it at first uses humanity's technology to do that, but humans just ban technology and replace it with magic. It does a couple attempts. But eventually it decides a more direct approach and starts creating Gears, these are what the AI considers what "true humans" are. And Ramlethal is one of them. She was made to be am emotionless killer to wipe out all humanity. She then eats a burger and realizes that genocide is cringe.

Seriously SLAYER'S THEME IS THE FUCKIN NUTS youll absolutely love it

This song is kinda if Nietszche wrote a 21 millenium metal rock.

Jazzed you're getting into Guilty Gear! Her name is said "Ram-luh'thawl"

Looks like you have a Necessary Discrepancy :D

once you've reacted to all the guilty gear strive themes you should check out a video by GekkoSquirrel called "What Does Each Strive Character Theme Mean?" which tried to explain all the character themes in more of a lore point of view.

Strive always welcome.

"I'm guessing she's not a good tournament character." Uhh...

hi!!! pro tip for spelling necessary. like a shirt, it's only necessary to have ONE (C)ollar and TWO (S)leeves!

this is by far my favourite song in the ost for my favourite character in the series, and seeing you enjoy the song so much put a big ass smile on my face. i'm used to people saying that this is one of the weaker songs in the soundtrack, pointing out that the beginning is "jazz but bad" and that the song in general is boring, but i couldn't disagree more and im so happy to see you liked the song as much as you did!

This is the best song in the soundtrack for me, hands down. At first, I disliked it and skipped it before the first chorus ended, because it was not the classic trash metal. One day I left it on and I LOVED it. Also, the slow parts have the Diva theme motif from Guilty Gear 2. I ADORE Diva.

there's something funny about people who don't really know a thing saying a name or whatever wrong like it's both painful but also really really funny

Do you think you could listen to Rock Parade (Anji Mito's) theme

No Jesse, you're gonna gas up the ramlethal downplayers, she strong af😭😭😭

so when are you doing the rest of the OST

"Maybe she's not a very good tournament character" LMFAOOOOOOOOOO

The most tragic part of this song is that rounds are so short that you'll never hear the full song, which is awful because the best part of the song is the latter half. Also while pretty good overall, this doesn't quite reach the absolute banger that is "Diva of Despair" from Xrd.

NAOKI is the male singer, AISHA is the female singer.

Also, idk if you've done it, but please listen to Monster Hunters theme, "Proof of a Hero"

Disaster of Passion is really good. I hope you check it out sometime

Dude you need to react to naruto pain theme ost it will not disappoint you

valentines

The "Necessary Discrepancy" is referring to humanity, their desires and their emotions, in a very general sense.

Ah yes , my main...

placing song structure in a prog song is useless tbh....😂

Gotta love how the first part was a huge node to 'Bitches Crystal' by Emerson Lake & Palmer, based and progpilled :^)