Slightly repetitive.
It's definitely a cool-sounding song, but it didn't go through many changes and was the same thing for almost the whole song with some changes in the background.
The main melody was really awesome, ambient-ish but full of action at the same time. From 1:37 onwards, there was a rather good buildup, so nice job over there. I just wish there were just a few more alternate melodies, since it would fix that variety problem. Although I loved the part at 3:28, by the way. The piano and ambient-ish melody played by the pad in the background had contrasted so much with each other since they were each in a different rythm, and it took me a little while to get the rythm back again, but it still sounds cool and fit a lot with the 'Illusion' feel you were going for. Loved how the piano got faster after, too and eventually went back into rythm with the pads again.
Really amazing instruments. They fit a lot with the name, and sounded excellent. The one playing the ambientish melodies for the whole song sounded extremely good, and the quality of the piano was nice too. I really enjoyed the high-bell-ish instrument towards the end of the song, it was really cool, and played a nice melody as well. Wish I saw it in other parts of the song though, it felt sort of like it came out of nowhere as it is now; just suddenly appearing at the end of the song without a trace of it in any other parts of the song.
Very good job on the transitions in the song. There was a nice number of effects around to transit from one melody to another, and new instruments were introduced really well. Good buildups, and nice song structure. It's the variety that needs a little fixing over here. The ambient-ish melody that first played at 1:37 kept playing and stayed the same for almost the whole song, and it would be better if you changed its notes a little around some parts of the song.
Also, as for the length, this does need to be shorter. I mean, heck, this is probably the longest WIP there is on Newgrounds XP. You should remove some repetitive parts to not only make this song shorter, but also take away the reptitiveness that this song has. The intro was good, with an awesome beat, but it was very repetitive. You could either remove a lot of that drum beat at the beginning, or give some more variety to the drum beat.
The ending is OK so far, but very abrupt. I'd say you should firstly repeat the last melody with the bells 4 times instead of 2 times, and after the fourth repetition, end it with a proper ending note (depending on what scale you played the song with; E.g. if it's in G Major, end it with G).
The drums were awesome with really, really good samples, and they were just the right loudness. I liked the reverse kick around the beginning, too, you don't usually hear many reverse kicks in songs, and it fit brilliantly in this song. The drum beat was superb as well, and fit excellently with the song. The only thing I'd complain about in the drums is that they were very, very repetitive. Practically almost the same for the whole song, almost. This definitely needs some more alternate drum beats here and there.
Well, it's a good song, and it fits a lot with the name. Excellent melodies, fantastic instruments, cool drum beats, awesome effects, and nice song structure, but what really concerns me is the intro, ending and variety. Fix those, and you would've gotten a 10 from me (although it's too late now :P). Still, keep up the good work, this was a brilliant collab. Awesome job! Oh man, this must be my longest review yet! O_o.
8/10
4/5
-Review Request Club-