This is amazing. It makes a perfect wandering "beginning of a story". It would make a perfect first or second track of a soundtrack. It desperately wants to be followed up with more music, with the continuing developments of the "story".

Wow this is really good

for some reason it reminds me of something i'd hear in Final Fantasy

holy moly! how did I miss this piece in round 1?? you have a very complex and unique style, my friend! like what the other reviewers said: it could have been longer, more focused, and could use better samples; so I don't really have much to add.

that being said, I kinda like the low sample quality, actually. it brings me back to the good ol' days of PS1-era RPG gaming. I miss that little grey box, with horrific load times and blocky graphics (the fond memories of being 9 years old). whoops, sorry for getting off-track there. I feel that having limited sound sets really pushes the composer to make a great piece that can transcend the production quality, and you've definitely accomplished that. I can't wait to hear more music from you!

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

Great introduction! I’m quite impressed with the composition of this piece. It’s interesting to listen to – sounds sort of like battle music for a game. I love the chords that you use throughout. I like that you’re not afraid to incorporate some fast moving strings and runs into the piece. Great play between the strings and piano! Some things that could use work – your sound quality is definitely not on par with your composition skills. Production needs to be a bigger focus – while this wouldn’t be a huge issue if you were just writing for a live orchestra to record, few sadly have that luxury. Your piano and string sounds, while not bad, could definitely be better. The track doesn’t sound very “beefy” to me. Also, it feels to me like the fade at the end was a bit of a cop out. Such a wonderful, flying piece, only to just sort of… fizzle. All that said, great job with this! You have immense potential.

Score: 7/10

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

--

You have such incredibly good melodies and harmonies to support them, always. You won't begin to imagine how much I enjoyed the harmonies at the beginning, especially that beautiful 0:16 seventh chord. I love how you manage to flow through different moods so well, by the way. You morphed the song into a multitude of different moods and your pacing is flawless. The production actually is better than I expected by the way! I can hear everything quite clearly, and although it isn't hard to make everything sound clear when you don't use that many instruments, that's still something I should commend you for!

The main issue is exactly what BlazingDragon said. This feels directionless, and nothing here seems really developed (except one of the piano melodies in the middle which had suitable development). And, just like in Sea of Grass (Jazz), there are times when the flow just feels interrupted because you throw pauses in at points. This needs to be more structured - you've got such good compositional talent but then you never quite form a structured piece out of it. Also, the sounds aren't very good. They're low-quality, and have very artificial legato and release times, often making the track feel MIDI-like, unrealistic and dry. Lastly, the fade-out ending really made the whole thing feel unfinished, especially since it's quite short.

It took me long to decide whether to give you less than or more than 8, especially since this track is quite short and lacks development... damn your composition is so good, but you need to work on its form/structure!

Score: 7.8/10