I like the emotional quality at the beginning and the non-traditional meter. The piano could’ve used a tad more humanization, because I’m not sure the strictly even tempo quite fits the emotive character of the piece. That said, once the strings came in at :17, you had me sold on the tone shift from sentimental to dramatic. The pacing certainly slows down there, but I’m better able to appreciate the clean mixing that way. The time signature change at :47 was another pleasant surprise, and the tone once again seems sentimental and somber. The string melodies at 1:20 or so help set the stage really nicely for the injection of energy at 1:35 with their gradually descending frequencies. The soaring harmonies at 2:19 make for a nice arrival point, although part of me wishes you had left the more staccato-y low string stabs in there to continue to sell the drama. There are times when some of the changes in instrumentation aren’t quite smooth enough for my tastes here, and some percussion filler or merely more careful orchestration might help mitigate that. All of that said, this is a really strong piece. I have absolutely no complaints with the production quality or sound design, and my compositional complaints are merely a bunch of miniscule details. Strong work, DarkMasterOfficial! Keep it up. ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9.5/10

yea it's epic alright. really enjoy the polymetric parts! the stereo imaging is really nice and while the panning true matches orchestra positioning there's still a feeling that everything is in the same space - however i'd narrow the piano a lot since it's jarring to me that one instrument is taking up the same amount of space as the entire orchestra (a little stereo spread would be fine). felt a bit like background music but still had a lot going on - wish the main theme was more prominent and memorable. those long legato string/flute unisons in the mid section are a bit tiring and it'd be nice to break those up with different articulations or a stronger counterpoint. great work overall!

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text