Another Remix Squashed:

It only took listening to the song 44 times to realize that 'A Gathering of Stars in the Night Sky' was a remix of 'Flight', both from Xenogears.  You would think I could discover these things sooner.  However, Flight's opening is different for the first thirty seconds or so, so I never noticed until now.

Despite being a remix, 'A Gathering of Stars' is still one of the best songs ever, so it's a major blow to my music hall of fame that I had to excise it.  But the rules are clear, every song has to be a unique individual melody -- even Xenogears' soundtrack isn't above the law.

If I were allowed to keep 'A Gathering of Stars,' next I'd have to include 'Crossing Those Hills' from Final Fantasy 9, and then 'Crowded Street Corner' from Lunar 2, and then 'Figlio Perduto' by Sarah Brightman, and then there would be no end to it.

It's clear that until I listen to every song 100 times, the threat of remixes will continue to lurk.  Due to that, I have to keep adding to my collection just to tread water.

It was also clear that I needed to make a more thorough inspection of all my Xenogears music to make sure this problem didn't keep popping up.

'Aveh, the Ancient Dance' shares most of its theme with 'Bonds of Sea and Flame,' and the rest overlaps with 'Star of Tears,' so sadly it had to go.

'After the Soldiers' Dreams' has unique parts as well as portions mimicking 'Bonds of Sea and Flame', so it survives.  'Bonds of Sea and Flame' itself has some unique portions (the opening string plucks) but more importantly is the best rendition of the melody so it too is safe.

My recently added song, 'A Prayer for the Joy Man Desires,' turned out to be a remix of 'Our Wounded Bodies Shall Advance Towards the Light', so it also had to go.  I finally understood why it had been previously deleted.  However, the cure to remixes isn't deletion but proper identification, otherwise the tragedy will just keep repeating itself like it did here.  Now that I've rooted it out as a remix and properly labeled it as such, I'll never make the mistake of including it in my hall of fame again.

Many other songs share portions of their themes, like 'Premonition,' 'Awakening,' 'Dark Daybreak,' etc, but they all diverted down their own pathways, so I found no fault with them.

It's possible that even now there are still remixes lurking within Xenogears' soundtrack, but as best as I can tell it now has a clean bill of health.

With three songs lost, my hall of fame now stands at 5357.  Whether through remixes or just plain bad songs, I suspect my collection will continue to shrink.  But if Ares no Tenbin or Granblue Re:Link are any good, maybe I can overcome those negatory trends.  It's a constant struggle.  But each time I add or subtract, the hall of fame gets that little bit better overall.  It's not just a constant struggle, it's also a constant refinement towards perfection.