"I assume it's the typical rock/punk/pop sound that we've been hearing throughout this series." *song starts* Marco: **Visible Confusion** For real though, after completing the game, this song is one of those ones that can consistently bring a tear to my eye. It is a song of deep and abiding melancholy.
Someone is always moving on the surface... No matter how polluted or battle scarred; or how much some wish to reject this reality. One can only hope that the ones with the power to do so will choose the correct answer.
To walk on deserted land, devoid of life... Yet to find hope, you tread this wasteland. To bring others into a new light... Is *this* your answer? *Then so be it.*
This song is the title card song for For Answer. It plays with White Glint emerging out of the shadows. White Glint was the name of the mech piloted by your best friend in Armored Core 4. With that friend "gone" the player of AC4 takes over the White Glint name. So my take on the song is a sort of passing of the touch. You are a new main character, but the old you is cheering you on. Pushing you to make, hopefully, a better world than he did. It's a sad triumph song. It honestly works with all the endings
For Answer is really special in the whole series because, its very grim in its reality. The world is destroyed and the elite is living on the skies while the common folk are on the ground amidst the poisoned land. And you, a mercenary fights for these elites in their proxy wars while dooming the world more and more. And the game presents you with choices, depending on the missions you take, and simply put, you can maintain the status quo, change it by rebellion or destroy the world, in a way. So, yes, there is hope in the world that things can change, but means to betray and to rebel and the other choice is to become a monster. The game is never clear if at the end, any of the endings you make things better, its that thing, where you are only a mercenary, you fight and you kill, the future is above your paycheck. From Software is a master at this, the gameplay is very complex but the story telling is incredible simple, yet is full of details in its presentation, visual and above all, music, that let you create the world you want by role play. So, I dare say, Armored Core has always been a Mecha role play game.
Yes! Exactly. There's quite a few quotes that have really stuck with me from playing this game! Most of all during the route where you HAVE to kill one of the most virtuous characters you know because even though nobody is paying them anymore, they HAVE to stop you from your goal or else the ones they love will suffer even though in your own mind this must be done for the greater good of humanity, and as she dies she simply laments: "Everything is twisted. You. This world. All of it..."
Line Ark survives the destruction ending and the corpos don't. The destruction ending is, long term, the good ending. Become a monster so that Mankind may scrabble out of the pit without the yoke of the corporations to drag them down.
This is one of the most brilliantly melancholic songs in the entire series. It's somber, yet uplifting. By the way, this is the main menu theme for Armored Core For Answer. It's a game where the surface is so polluted that humanity has retreated into Cradles flying high above the surface, and yet cannot go into space thanks to defense satellites that will fire upon anything that gets too high. You end up having to decide the future of humanity by the end of the game. Do you cut off the power to the Cradles and reroute it to cannons that will shoot down the Satellites, killing millions due to them landing on the polluted Earth? Do you refuse to do so, meaning that humanity will eventually die out thanks to the increasing pollution below, or shot down by the cannons above? Or do you choose to destroy as much as you can?
The corporations have grown fat and callous on their thrones, built upon the bodies of billions through endless wars over petty power struggles. Their absolute disregard for the terrible weapons they wrought has brought this world to it's knees... why should they be allowed to escape the future they've sown?
Someone is always moving on the surface always give me a vibe of the beginning or the end for these For Answer series. The world is already polluted by Kojima particle (a kin to radioactive like). People are either living underground, somewhere far from the battlefield or in the air but the Lynx (the pilot or your character) remain on surface to do some work either to make a peace or bring a destruction. Either way... There's always be someone moving on the surface to do the job that they had partaking with
@@Scaevola9449 Kojima particle decay produces a profusion of gamma rays and has a half-life of 350 years. It is, by far, the most horrifying thing to let loose in a biosphere that isn't Tiberium.
@@Sorain1 I mean... 350 Years isn't that bad. It's basically nukes-lite, and if it's just gamma rays it wouldn't wipe out a biosphere, as was proven soundly in Chernobyl.
A lot of songs from AC have a sort of "hopeful" sound to them, even some of the rock songs. For this one it's the opening music for the game. The entire song is building up from the desire for hope to "We can be that hope". the pulsing mechanical sound that starts up and keeps going is like a heartbeat. I see the song like this: all feels lost but there's a desire for hope, then your heartbeat starts as if you are awakened, then that desire turns into believing in hope (kinda like faith like how you mentioned). The song tells me "I am hope" and the game reflects that by making you the deciding factor whether humanity lives on or dies.
Armoured Core 4 Answer is depressing to be quite honest, with the state the world is in there seems to be very little good left in the world. Just reading the title you might think it is a hopeful song, yet as you listen everything sounds sorrowful. The fact someone is always moving on the surface is tragic, some poor soul is left to wander a dying world littered by the ruins of war and collapse of the environment.
"Almost like this is an epilogue or an ending... we've suffered great losses, and a friend has died." I love this song, and this analysis is a big part of why. The accompanying video of White Glint, cast in dim light, opening it's eyes just for a moment before fading in, and then out of this somber darkness... Spoilers, I guess: White glint isn't in 4A for very long, dying to the player in the second act. However, the pilot/Lynx for the white glint is the *main character* of the previous game, the Anatolian Mercenary, who was forced to kill the previous pilot of White Glint, his friend and rival Joshua O'Brien. In the events of 4A, the White Glint now serves as the lone guardian of Line Ark, a sort of last, desperate bastion against the oppressive League of Corporations. But Line Ark is failing. its foundation of good will and "accepting all who wish to enter" has created internal strife and left it open to sabotage. The Anatolian Mercenary, the White Glint, knows this... and there's a real sense that they are just holding on, beaten and battered but trying to hold back these floodgates, a lone soldier against everything.
Slight correction Outside game (I believe JP only) material heavily hints that White Glint survives the fight against Strayed or Fragile. This can be supported in my opinion because Fiona is way to calm about the situation after he is defeated.
@@corsnake6959 So is it similar to Otsdarva's plan for faking his death during that fight so he could create ORCA under a new identity? That Anatolia's Raven has been looking for a way to get away from the fighting for so long that when WG took a bad hit, he let it sink away with all the responsibilities of being Line Ark's top pilot?
Sounds a bit like the Free Planets Alliance in the galactic hero legend. I think it's hard to balance freedom, inclusion and security. Unless there is a natural barrier cover, only two of them may be taken care of
@@corsnake6959 It's in the artbook "Armored Core - A New Order of 'Next'" It was stated that Line Ark rescued a NEXT pilot after the battle. It wasn't stated who and Fiona refused to elaborate, but clearly hinted that it was Anatolia's merc.
AC:FA Was my first Armored Core game, and this is pretty much my favorite track. It's just so pretty, and as you said delicate, but yet not exactly slow. Was also funny to see you realize it was not at all what you expected. It's a great track to be welcomed by when you get to the start-up screen for the game.
People always assume that some war or catastrophe will be all that is required for life to cease to exist, but to quote a quirky doctor from a classic movie. 'Life finds a way.' The introspection this song exudes is to point out regardless how terrible things may be, or could become, life will go on. Someone is always moving on the surface reminds me a lot of Circulation from the first Armored Core game though that was a lot more 'active' because it was a mission soundtrack as opposed to a menu theme.
The entire series has a lot of great music like this, its pretty much its own genre (the composer was self taught and can't read sheet music) Listen to "we still have a long way to go"
I was young when I found this song and Armored Core 4 Answer and I remember so clearly the first time. I remember the realization that games and media can be more than flashing lights and loud noises and its held a very special place in my heart ever since. I played AC4A and Shadow of the Colossus around that age and felt like I found who I was, like my intelligence had finally been respected and used to process complex emotions. I owe my direction in life to these games for showing me who I am so young, allowing me to build my creativity and become a professional artist by adulthood. I listen to this song once every year or so for that melancholic hopeful feeling. That game and this song, the feelings I couldn't put into words at that age, set my life on a course that let me embrace niche hobbies and find communities. It was a perfect song and the exact right time and one day I want to make something like that for someone else. I cant wait for AC6, even if I'm alone on the surface, ill be okay
It's been somewhere between 14-10 years since I last played this game, so forgive me if I misremember some things. "Someone is Aways Moving on the Surface" was the song you heard at the title screen (maybe even the main theme for the entire game?). There is a longer version of the piece that has much more to it. I don't remember if it uses the same title with "(extended version)" or if the title was altered slightly.
Armored core has a couple of these songs. They always land so well since they contrast with the otherwise more hyper, tech ones. One i really like is "We still have a long way to go" from the 20th anniversary disk. Perfect to listen while traveling. Its ending is a blast. That and "Vanishing", tho that one fits in the former category, hope to see you react to it someday!
I love hearing this song after my campaign of blasting 100 million civilians out of the sky. Edit: I dont think yall realize that's an actual mission in ACFA
For most part most of the Armored Core simultaneously has a union with its soundscape of it's games ost at the same time they sound nothing alike but they all play off of that late 90s synthesizer I recommend the whole soundtrack along playing the games because they go hand in hand together Also for 4th gen, For answer was more traditional Rock to orchestra music with synth mixed in
This song has always felt like a mind dying. It's building up the entire time, up the to very last concious thought, and then suddenly gone. This song will play at my funeral.
I find a lot of AC tracks melancholic and unusually arranged. Pretty unique approach for mecha series. Sorry, I don't want to sound annoying, but my personal wish is to get a review of some Darkest Dungeon tracks by Marco. Crimson Court "Bloodletting" or Color of Madness "Dark Mitochondria" are damn great.
In other’s reaction video for music, they want to talk about what chord progression is there, what instrument is there, what genre it has effected from and brah brah brah. But you, talk about emotion, talk about landscape, talk about abstract things. In other words, you talk about what you felt from music itself. I’m impressed for it. I like it. Every artists on the world shouldn’t forget it. Sorry for my bad English, but I hope you make sense.
An often overlooked aspect of this one is the slight eerie aspect to it and the fast pace of the piano. It's intended to be unnerving as well. Yes, there's hope and life still on the surface...but that's kind of terrifying in it's own right. To people living far above, peering down into the smoke and the murk, there's hints of movement in the devastation. To those dwelling below, they can hear the movement and the distant rumblings. What kind of monsters, is the question, what kind of monsters have managed to *survive* all that. It's introspective, soothing in its own way, but does prick its way down your spine, adding an air of tension. And it should. The sky is going to come crashing down, one day, and they're going to need to live with whatever's on the surface for better or for worse.
I think in particular it's worth mentioning in relation to the ARMS Forts. Most of them have names like Great Wall, Spirit of Motherwill, and so on, there's not a hard theme, but when you examine more closely there's definitely a broad trend towards things that are comforting or provide a sense of safety. The Forts were developed to try and render NEXTs, the next generation, Kojima equipped Armored Cores, that mercenaries on the surface operated, obsolete. Using hundreds of men to operate typically gargantuan machines....And they failed, most of them being destroyed by singular pilots.
I absolutely LOOOOVE that the part that *hit* for Marco, is the exact same chord that got me (0:53). That uplifting hopeful undertone over what is initially kind of minor and depressing sounding title theme. The painful part is they only use that beautiful chord once, which is definitely on purpose imo to express the dying theme humanity in 4A 😭.
Thank you so much for your analysis of AC music over these past months, they're both incredibly accurate and enjoyable to hear. It speaks a lot about both your knowledge in music, and the quality of the soundtracks to convey their themes so cleanly while being so distinct from most music at the same time. I'd love to hear your review of '5 Point Five', from Armored Core Last Raven. I hope it ends up on your list eventually. Thank you for your content!
Uch a beautiful melody. It doesnt just resinate with my soul, but feels like a part of it. And ya, I do feel the loss of a friend within the notes as they play. I always remember Joshua and the lessons he taught me. I remember the hope he gave me, the regret of having to end him in a battle that was already lost by both sides. There is a reason Anatolias mercinary chose to carry the mantle of White Glint. He felt it was his duty to do so. I bare White Glints logo not because I think White Glint Mk2 is an amazing build, but because I feel I should share the message of hope to those that need it. I still find it amazing that this game changed my competetive outlook from "I must Win" to "I must fight"
I would always play this to give me hope that armored core 6 will be a thing even after it's announcement I still listen to this to remember all the other armored core games I have played over the years glad to see other people like this song as well
So beautiful. The more ambient part of the music is what plays in the menu during chapter 1 (pretty sure). There were times I would get so hooked into that music that I would set the controller down and just listen in silence
It's always interesting to hear what musicians outside the game industry thinks of game music. For what it's worth.. I think "Muse" from the game "Advent rising" is an absolute masterpiece. (I don't know which is the Composer, afaik it's one (both?) of these: Emmanuel Fratianni and Michael Richard Plowman) But the OST for that game in general is very very good.
This one...oh this one is special to me. If I could ever have a playlist where I was about to die in battle, I'd want this in my ears in my last moments Edit: Loved your introspective take on it. There is hope in it, a kind of transcendence. Glad you enjoyed it sir ❤
@@MarcoMeatball And you as well! I'm loving watching you react and speak to the music. I've always loved music and admit I wish I could of done something with it, but it's never diminished my love of understanding and feeling it. Like really feeling it. Your take from a personal and professional input is refreshing to watch, and I look forward to watching more. 😎
4 Answer is a unique game in the series for a lot of reasons. By fanon, it is where all the other Amored Core games' timelines branch off from. In 4A, we see the world near completely under the control of corporations that are such a series staple, with the last vestige of traditional government rule only surviving by the tireless efforts of the previous game's protagonist. We see groups calling out the folly of the corporations' short sighted actions that are rapidly making the surface uninhabitable. And we see the difference made by the actions of a single person. Three different endings with different outcomes- yet at the same time similar, as no matter what route you take, the end of an age has passed, and humanity's struggle to survive after the end of that once golden age begins. 4 and 4A are the twilight, the bridge, between the familiar world, and the rest of Armored core.
What I like about this one is that it does feel hopeful, but its very anxious. Like you know you have the strength to press on, but there's that uncertainty of the obstacles left ahead of you. There is a tiredness to it, and when you know the context and story of AC4A it makes sense.
Have you tried "Rain" from AC4? Every time I hear it I can hear Fiona saying "What are they trying to prove now that BFF is gone? They can't hold out forever..." and it hits me that in this game I'm always fighting people with ideals while I usually don't have one.
Around the end of the video, you mention that the soundscape of modern From Software was present even back in Armored Core. That's because Kota Hoshino and Hideyuki Eto, the lead composers for the AC series, went on to being the core sound designers for the souls games (the latter even bumped to lead sound designer and composer for Elden Ring). So the musical identity of AC probably bled through those games through those two.
This is the menu theme. A more uplifting variant of it plays when you're in the garage: "Set the Sunset" (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_Hx5g4ioNBY.html)
After watching many of your videos, whenever I hear songs, especially from games, I cannot help but think "What is this trying to tell me? What is the story here? Who is this for?" Especially with Steel Haze (Rusted Pride) I always hear the heroic effort, the main character style music that plays during the two encounters it happens. Whenever I hear it, I subconsciously go "Oh yeah, the main character is here."
Although unrelated to this game, since you listened to "Two Planets Approach the Roche Limit" from Kirby and the Forgotten Land, I suggest you listen to "The Star-Conquering Traveler" from Kirby Star Allies. It's a grand five-movement suite for the ultimate final boss of the game and has some of my favorite songs from the series.
You've got to show some love to Kota Hoshino and his band FreQuency, they composed this and all of the Armored Core soundtracks. AC For Answer has one of the best soundtracks in gaming. I can't wait for AC6!!
Something important to armored core even more than the souls games is the music. The music in combat sticks out but menu and garage themes have been as if not more important since they are the only real breather before armored cores and especially 4th gens aggressive pace bashes you over the head. "Lament over the howling age" I would say is the best at getting across the spirit of armored core.
My theory on AC music. You spend a lot of time boosting around dodging in and out of missile fire. Sometimes you're running away and dodging over 50 missiles at the same time, dodging bullets. Zigzagging around. I feel like the music represents this fast paced gameplay. I've been a big fan of armored core my entire life and just hearing the music brings me back to all those fights. I close my eyes and I can see the battles. Every song sounds like a boss battle song
Also the fact that you are ace mercenary pilot with a personally customised unique craft, You are part of the few groups of people who see beauty in the battlefield and aren't afraid of dying "To live as I please and die a senseless death, that is who I am, not a mere man of flesh, war, is part of my existance"
I've been a huge fan of the Armored Core series since I was 7 and "played" the first one on PS1. I like the music of the games, but none of it really stood out to me until I played 4 and heard "Overture" the intro cinematic theme. Overture was phenomenal, and stuck out to me in ways none of the other AC songs before did. Also helps that the intro cinematic it was attached to was hype as hell. I'm not very well versed in music terminology, but I think leitmotif is where a piece of a track is used in other tracks. Overture has a leitmotif of this choir section that carries over into 2 other songs "Chapter 4" and "With Heat." What I've recently noticed listening is that the leitmotif makes each track have a vastly different feeling. Overture sounds heroic, like you're in a power fantasy and crushing ants beneath you. Chapter 4 has a slower sound, and has an ominous bell. It sounds like the apocalypse is coming for you and you're not ready. With heat sounds like you're in a battle for you life against near impossible odds.
This song is so powerful that it has three variations (four, if you include the final mission of the default path) used in the the game: "Intro" (literally called that), "Curtain Fall ~end roll~", and "Outro". It's not uncommon to find mashups of those songs on RU-vid.
AC4A is actually probably the most similar, plot-wise to Dark Souls, having come out three years prior to it. Basis is that you are a ground-dwelling sword of the rulers who sit in their lofty castles, using you and your shackled (insert ring-symbol here) kind as fodder to perpetuate the status quo. In the end, you're given the option by a two-faced snake to keep things as is, or open up a new way, into the dark of space, one that could bring hope, but is littered with suffering all the same. A personal favorite of mine.
The actual ending options: Maintain the powers that be Open up a future (for the powers that be) by causing millions of deaths Destroy everything There is no good ending.
Another favorite of mine is Integrity from the first Armored Core. I've only played AC1 and Project Phantasma, but I'm trying to get a hold of the others
Even after the devastation of the Lynx War. Even after the corporations formed the League and moved into the skies. Someone is always moving on the surface, looking for an answer. What will your answer be?
If he is interesting about the music of mecha/big robots fighting histories, I didnt watch too much of Gundam cause Im pretty new to it, but I have to say that Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans and Gundam: The With of Mercury have pretty good songs that make your skin chills. And yes, I will like to see Marko analysis it cause I will like to know why they provoke me that kind of feelings.
Also feels like Ace Combat song for me, where the soldiers feels so tired after all the wars and horrible things they've been trough. When I hear this song I've always imagine soldiers coming out from their mech near a beach after a hard long battle and looking at the sun dawn on the horizon.
I feel like it'd make sense for AC6 to have both the dramatic piano moments as well as the hyper intense drum solos followed by dudes yelling in garbled english. Pretty much every AC game past and including 4 include both the dramatic and the intense yet bizarre sound that FreQuency is known for.
We are finally moving on the surface again, Lynx & Ravens. BTW, the song is essentially telling the journey's end of one part of AC lore, we are facing city-destroying super fortresses the size of aircraft carriers as bosses in this game & due to the destruction wrought by mankind's own greed, there aren't much left to sustain our race by the end of this game. But humanity always finds a way to survive, for better or worse. BTW, For Answer is a masterpiece. Even those that hated 4th-gen AC think highly of this game. Especially now when emulation allows us to pay the game at it's intended pace & 60fps framerate(seriously, you can easily get 1000++ km/h by quick boosting around to dodge).
okay so this isnt a game ost, rather from a show (a very popular anime called attack on titan), but i feel like its almost the embodiment of what you mean with these rock and electronic aspects that games bring in music being the next step for classical and orchestral pieces. you can find it by searching "attack on titan suite" on youtube, its about 18 minutes long with 25 mil views, should be the first one to show up.
I beg you pardon, This "Someone Is moving on the surface" is originally in the Game theme like in a base before entering battle. Again im here to ask what are you reffering to? The part you said "Next step for classical orchestral pieces" are understandable but the other such as the "Attack On Titan Suite" (i listened already) doesnt have a match to this "someone is moving on the surface" notes.
@@judicatorhurayth1927 sorry i was saying the attack on titan suite isnt from a game, and i didnt mean to compare the two tracks at all my bad. their both super good in their own way! i was just making a suggestion for him to check it out on his own time or maybe on video
Give DIrty Worker from Armored Core Verdict Day a listen! It's another one of the techno-rock/punk themes, but it's got more of those fuzzy lyrics like Mechanized Memories that you dug into!
You should react to "Remember" from the For Answer soundtrack. That song has the original "I'm Scary" lyrics that was remixed for Mechanized Memories, but it's a completely different composition 🙂
I will never forget the most easy mission in For answer and just Jack listing my achivments. twenty million dead. forty million. sixty million. eighty million. one hundred million.
Hi Marc, you probably get a lot of suggestions of things to listen to but I would highly recommend A Plague Tale: Innocence or Requiem if you ever get the chance, two of the most emotionally impactful games that made this 30 year old cry for the first time ever since I started playing games at 8. It's a story of survival about a brother and sister set during the bubonic plague and about their struggle to survive. From innocence I recommend Beyond the Horizon, Prisoners and Together Forever. From Requiem I highly recommended the PT: Requiem main theme, La Haut and No Turning Back. I really hope you'll consider it. Thank you!
So a subtle not-subtle thing about this song is that it's most likely an homage piece to Moby's "God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters" because it has a very similar structure and the title is a small nod about God moving on the surface of the water.
For me, this song represents the game's title: What is your Answer? You start off as a practically no name mercenary, intended to live up to the Legacy of the current White Glint. Throughout your journey there is turmoil, but you have hope that one day, you'll make something of yourself, that you will find what you seek in this conflict. And as time passes, as each decision you make, you ultimately must make the choice: Does Mankind remain safely dreaming amongst the clouds? Or does Mankind pave it's future into the stars at the cost of many? Or will you ultimately be not the savior but destroyer of everything? End it all by bringing forth chaos with your machine? The music brings about the best of both hope and tragedy - What is your choice? What is, your Answer? There is indeed goodness but there is also cruelty. Someone is Always Moving on the Surface because they are searching, wanting to know what to do next. We all want to find what is the Answer is, to the choices we make. Hence why if you Defend the Cranium, you hear the line: "And Mankind is Safe to Dream, Floating Amonst the Clouds. Is that your Answer? So be it." While if you choose to attack and destroy the Cranium, it's: "Target the two NEXTS; Reiterpallasch and My Bliss. You've chosen your Answer. Now see it through." Even in the final mission, the Narrator speaks up: "Soon after, the blood of the innocents would rain down from the Cradles, all at the hands of a single Lynx. One who will be the greatest monster mankind has ever seen, taking more lives than any other in history." Each line indicates what the choice you made is. This song represents in the beginning of your journey when you see White Glint's gleaming eyes, as if compelling you to understand, that to fight is your choice. To see things through to the end and see what you'll ultimately do. That is what ends up becoming the end of this journey you're on: A mercenary finding his Answer on the battlefield.
I told you it was different to the typical Armored Core faire. This is the title theme for Armored Core For Answer, and parts of this tune reappear in the soundtrack often, notably in 'Outro' and 'Set the Sunset' The games made by From Software often feature bleak worlds. And the world presented in the 4th generation or Armored Core is possibly the bleakest. The protagonists of Armored Core have traditionally been mercs: free spirits who live, fight, kill, and die as they please; even if they chow down on the corpo's dime today there's nothing stopping them from turning coat tomorrow. The power of the mercs, LYNXs in this world, is at something of an apex. The armored core NEXTs they field are monsters on the battlefield, faster then jets and with arsenals only surpassed by dreadnaughts. But this power is at a cost, the Kojima energy that feeds these machines is toxic, and by the time of For Answer, cities sleep below the waves, and most of the remaining land is desert, with nowhere left to run humanity finds refuge amongst the clouds, but for how long? Someone is Always Moving on the Surface, some for good, some for bad, and some for greed. What will be the answer that one merc offers to the question that is this doomed world?
