The goal of a remix is to be derivative. Or else it's a cover.
Well yeah, but I mainly mean that that Mania's remixes tend to be so derivative that they're practically just the original song with better quality. Chemical Plant Act 1 and Oil Ocean Act 1 being good examples. Good point of comparison to both is Water Palace and Chemical Plant Classic from Generations. The Act 2 themes (except Flying Battery Act 2, I really see that one as the original but the synths don't sound harsh to the ears) and the CD remixes are fine though because they're different enough for me to not just see them as "this song but inferior." Not the hugest fan of Green Hill Act 2 though, I really wish it was just Green Hill in reverse for the surprise.
I disagree. And I certainly hope you don't say that because of Sugiyama as a person rather than an artist.
I do not, even before learning about Sugiyama, I genuinely have tried to listen to Dragon Quest music and I don't find anything particularly interesting. I guess I kinda find 5's normal battle theme unique but its meh
Sonic's soundtracks have variety though. If you don't just think of SA2 (and even then there are like 5-6 genres).
Also what millions with catchier musics? Aside from Mario, Zelda, SMT, Kirby, Guilty Gear and so on I just think Sonic is still A-tier.
They do have variety, but a lot of games tend to just have rock as the focus, which I don't mind I must say, but it's there.
(edit 2/19/25 at 2:53 PM on Wednesday and I'm starting to realise that's probably because I only recently played the Adventure era games, later Sonic games Rush onwards are far more diverse, I don't think I know what the fuck I'm talking about here lmao)
There's a lot of genres that I like that aren't really represented in Sonic much. I really wish there was more experimental stuff like hardbass, breakcore, speedcore (come on how does Sonic not have SPEEDCORE), psychedelic rock, bluegrass, heavy metal, etc
Also Blazblue, Neptunia, various PC-98 games, Touhou, Ultrakill, Mega Man, Gravity Circuit, Rabi Ribi, Metal Black, Freedom Planet, Donkey Kong Country, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Ace Combat, Etrian Odyssey, Yakuza, Puyo Puyo, Astra Superstars, and especially Atelier to add to your current examples, there's a lot of stuff that I feel deserves a little more credit ignoring the obvious ones like Touhou, Yakuza, Mega Man, Ultrakill, Ace Combat and Donkey Kong Country that I just listed. I do agree that Sonic music is A tier worthy, but it is not the best in all of video games to me.
While I don't see myself the appeal of Galaxy despite the grandiose orchestra I cannot genuinely say that Mario music is "mediocre".
Especially when even after 45 years some of the older themes like Underwater are still great.
Fair take, definitely a me thing. I just notice that Mario music just doesn't click with me most of the time, mainline at least because I do like Paper Mario and M&L music and forgot to mention that