Welcome to ReZ, where I show you the more musical side of gaming.
ReZonance Soundtrack Reviews * is a web video review show on YouTube by Nathan Moore, AKA ReZ, that began with three episodes all launching on November 7, 2012. The subject matter? Video game soundtracks. Something that pretty much no one else does. Further making the videos unique is his way of scoring the soundtracks, by which we mean he literally gives them a score. Over the course of a review, the soundtrack earns and is deducted points varying between 100 to 1000, depending on the amount of praise or scorn given at the moment. And at the end, if it scores high enough, it's put on the High Score table.
His style is comparable to Brutalmoose's and Balrog The Master's
: A informative and descriptive analysis of the soundtrack peppered with occasional oddball jokes. You'll probably have a good view on what the soundtrack is all about at the end of every review. So far, he's done the soundtracks for relatively well-known games, such as Skyrim, Katamari, or Shadow of the Colossus, but he does take requests. LIKE YS 3!
His channel is right in this link. You can access a playlist of all his reviews here. *
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List of the video games whose soundtracks he's reviewed
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Katamari Damacy (technically, he did all the games on the home consoles)
- January (BONUS ROUND)
- Banjo-Kazooie (the first one)
- Minecraft
- Ikaruga
- Bubble Bobble (the NES port of the first game)
- Ys 3
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Super Mario Kart
List of his Top X (usually 7) List videos
- Top 7 Fighting Game Soundtracks
- Top 7 Indie games soundtracks
- top 7 Boss Battle Theme Songs
- Top 7 Pavlov games
- Top 14 games with scary sounds (Part 1)
- Top 14 games with scary sounds (Part 2)
Not to be confused with Rez.
From here on, know that OST stands for “Original SoundTrack.”
This series provides examples of:
- April Fools' Day: A subversion. After ReZ lampshades this trope and the fact that he won't be doing it in the Bubble Bobble OST review, it's played straight all the way through. It's even important to the continuity of his reviews.
- Artificial Intelligence: Izumi, a Japanese-speaking AI that lives in ReZ's tech. She classifies herself as a VEA (Video Editing Assistant), which means she “do[es] all the hard work whenever [ReZ's] too lazy.” She mainly acts as a helping hand to ReZ, such as creating small video game remix compilations as filler or giving him a game soundtrack to review when he was struggling to find one. ...A game soundtrack that drove him temporarily insane with its awfulness and damaged his brain. Oops. Perhaps partly in guilt, she took it upon herself to upload herself to his brain and start repairing it.
- Broke the Rating Scale: Subverted. Despite getting several 1000 points deductions, Bubble Bobble's OST could not get below a zero, which is even stranger since the score has gone into the negatives before.
- Buffy Speak: What happens when ReZ tries to explain what Xemnas's third form in Kingdom Hearts II looks like in his Top 7 Boss Battle Theme Songs list.
- This was also used in the Ikaruga OST review when describing what the Sound FX made the setting feel like.
- Climactic Music: Ikaruga's OST gets 800 points for doing this in the review.
- Exposition Fairy: Izumi is turning into this with the more recent reviews, since she's ReZ's guide throughout his own mind.
- Freak Out: Bubble Bobble's virtually one-song long soundtrack dove him into a temporary state of insanity.
- Hypocritical Humor: Izumi lightly chastises ReZ for thinking that Ikaruga was actually alive and says that “Video Games can't be alive,” despite being a highly advanced AI herself. She isn't a video game, though. Still.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: “Fighting games are really awesome. And an awesome soundtrack really gives that fighting game that extra, punch. Get it? Ehhh.”
- Jitter Cam: Used for comical effect in the Ikaruga OST review.
- Also used in the Top 7 Pavlov games list video, when the Skyrim theme played.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: What all of the reviews since the Shadow of the Colossus' OST one have taken place in. This is thanks to Izumi, who spoke to ReZ while in his brain, and that somehow caused him to fall into his own mind.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: After his Freak Out, ReZ had a lot of his gaming memories and information go under that amnesia laser. And it's Izumi's self-given job to fix that.
- Musical Gameplay: He gets into a peaceful & immersive state with January's epitomizing use of this.
- Mysterious Protector: Izumi halfway qualifies but differs in that ReZ was, until recently, not aware of her presence at all, we know exactly who she is from the beginning, and it seems that her secrecy is partly accidental.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Not only did Izumi unintentionally give ReZ the object that caused him to become insane for a while and give him amnesia, she also caused him to become trapped in his own head just by talking to him while inside said head. You're not batting a thousand, Izumi.
- Power-Up Letdown: In-universe. In the Super Mario Kart OST review, ReZ discovered that since he is in his own mind, he does have Reality Warper powers... with limitations.
- Rhyming Episode: The Banjo-Kazooie OST review, which also was a Christmas Episode.
- Shout-Out: When ReZ goes on on his own in his mind, Izumi shouts to him, “Wait! It's dangerous to go alone.”
- Simple, yet Awesome: ReZ's theory on why Katamari's OST works so well for the game.
- Take That!: Twice against Marvel vs. Capcom 3's OST for just reusing and remixing previous songs from the crossing franchises in his Top 7 Fighting Game Soundtracks video.
- Theme Tune: The song used with the High Score Table at the end of the review (and was used in the opening for the first two reviews) is called “Buggie Running Beeps,” and is from, fittingly enough, the game Rez.
- Variable Mix: Banjo-Kazooie's OST received praise in his review for this.
- Voice of the Legion: He loves The Dormin's (from Shadow of the Colossus) use of this trope.
So I'm gonna give this page a massive score of 9999 points, and it puts it on the top of the list.
