Lurker > Haste_2

It's always good to see Gumshoe!

Moonlight Concert

I prefer Azure compositionally, but I love the instrumentation of Moonlight too much...

Ken

don't do this to me. i can't vote against either.

Dialga's Fight to the Finish!
Purple Town
abstain for now

This may be the last "amazing" day of music for me.... everything here got at least a 9.0 except To Far Away Times, and even that one is my top 100. I need to re-listen tomorrow to decide the third match, but I'm leaning towards Azure.

I would say a 2. One of my symptoms of my aspergers is poor coordination, so I struggle with almost any kind of 3D game play (except Mario Kart). I'm proud to have beaten Battletoads on NES without cheating or savestates... perhaps that alone could boost me to a 3, but I dunno if that's enough. As for RPGs, I used to play Pokemon competitively clear back in the RBY days when we had "PBS". I won a 64-man tournament in 2001, but people weren't very good back then! So maybe there's another argument I could be a 3, but I haven't even played any true "strategy" games... though I do intend to play both FFT and 13 Sentinels before long.

Chain of Pain
-{EDGE OF THE FUTURE}
Desert-Duo

Great music today!

Song of Mourning: The Eternal Wind
An Empty Tome
Dancing Mad

UF8 posted...

i only just realised i deleted the wrong song on the vote form on match 2

Oh, noooo! The winner of that match was almost certainly retiring. At least Un Deux Trois pulled through.

abstain
nATALIE
Un Deux Trois

Sayonara (ALL PHASE MIX)
PowerOne
abstain

Frozen Grounds
Rainbow after snow
Festival of Dionysus (Greece)

Aria Math
The Last Specter's Theme
Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite (Long Version)

there would be no music if there were no

swap to

Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Voted Bobby Fulbright, but... *DD spoilers* It's really a vote for the Phantom. But yeah, if Bobby could just have stayed as Bobby, or if we had Leonhart's proposal, that would have been a lot better....

I never said it would retire. I just said it looks strong enough to do so.

Me and My Little War
Blue Whitecaps
Crystal Caves

That match two!! It's very close. (here I am betraying my rankings again) I would be happy with either one winning, and whoever wins this had better retire! But really, all the music today sounds really good to me... I'm in an unusually good mood today, I guess.

Apex is the new Id ~ Purpose, isn't it...? Also, wow @ Sunleth's victory! It's looks strong enough to retire. It would be the first fully Hamauzu retiree, I believe. (Someday the Dream Will End was arranged by Hamauzu, but it borrows Uematsu material)

The Apex of the World (Rain)
The Sunleth Waterscape
Banbard (Chroma Remix)

I gotta admit, Banbard probably should be in my top 100 now. (or maybe I'm just in a weird mood)

Crystal Caves
SHININ' QUEEN
for you

Maya's one of the best characters, of course, but I do think I like Apollo a bit more...

Yeah, Origin got robbed.

banshiryuu posted...

Azure Archipelago 27 v 26 We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

W....whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/0/3/AAOHCGAAErEr.jpg

I can rest easy for the entire left half of bracket A now.... It's amazing that all five winners so far this round scored a 9.0+ in my book... of course, this trend is about to end, because the next day's matches have absolutely nothing rated a 9.0... in fact, I don't think any of those would even score an 8.0.... (oh, wait, Crystal Caves qualifies)

8-player Smash Bros. with 8 Jigglypuffs with items on high, but only with explosive items.

Moonlight Concert
Azure Archipelago
Lost Forest

MacArrowny posted...

That just means their competition in early rounds was quite weak

Yes, I know. I realize I made it sound like I was saying songs are strong one round and then they suddenly weakened. I didn't mean it that way... I meant that it "looks" like songs are really strong in R1 or R2 only to look weaker (get exposed) in the next match.

Blackquill!!!

Man, why does the music that I love that have great R1 or R2 performances always underperform the next round? Purple Town looked so much stronger than Samsara the first two rounds, but in advance I figured Purple Town would find a way to lose, and I was almost correct. (my first count had Samsara winning by one vote; thank goodness that was wrong) Similar situation with Temporal Tower, as well as Tree of Life ~ Roots and Geometric Dance last year (and all of these lost sooner than expected).

But really, though, I'm ecstatic about A1 because I can rest easy no matter what! I gave them both a 9.0+ rating, which will likely be the only quarter-bracket final where both songs got a rating that high. I like NFS slightly more, but I would rather see Purple Town retire, because, you know, this would be the first Yack retiree! (I'm expecting the Kirby track to win, though...)

Northeast Frost Street
Purple Town
They Who Govern Reason

Complete list of rankings!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UZzZU_RtYD8MhmFG7vqkrP56qdPgYFSNDsBHpMnDjHU/edit?usp=sharing

Let's check out some stats regarding the field this year! There were 48 that got a score of 9.0 or higher, about the same as last year; however, there were only 14 that got a 9.5 or higher, compared to 25 last year. The distribution of scores in the top 100 are otherwise pretty similar to VGMC16, though. Still, my #100 vgm is ranked about a 9.5, so yeah, those fourteen have a shot at my top 100 when I revise the list! Horita and TunnelScene pretty much killed it in the rankings, like usual. Max Galactica doesn't agree with me on much when it comes to voting in these contests, but his noms were solid this year again. Place's nominations did a heckuva lot better in my rankings this year than last year.

Some contestants would score much differently if I rated them again... trending down are Mt. Pyre Exterior, Dancing Mad, and POP TEAM BATTLE. Act 1: The Void of Space is trending up, for sure.

Desert-Duo
Dialga's Fight to the Finish!
To Far Away Times

17) Shadow Hearts: Covenant - The 3 Karma
28) htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary - Reach for reality
31) [-Aka-] - Desert-Duo
36) Pokmon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness - Dialga's Fight to the Finish!
80) GROOVE COASTER - Got more raves?
94) Chrono Trigger - To Far Away Times

Pretty strong 12-pack at the end of the bracket!

Orla!!! (okay, so it's actually a pity vote, but I really do like her)

abstain
-{EDGE OF THE FUTURE}
abstain

13) 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - -{EDGE OF THE FUTURE}
42) NieR: Automata - Weight of the World / Kowareta Sekai no Uta
50) Duel Masters Play's - POP TEAM BATTLE
67) Planet DOB - sometimes i breathe
97) Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Moonlight Canyon

I feel like the first 245 seconds exist for the climactic moment at 4:06 in -{EDGE OF THE FUTURE}. POP TEAM BATTLE is ranked too high. I'm short on time and don't feel like doing the full listening in the third match, so I'm just going to skip the first and third matches.

Ryunusuke's reaction to Damon Gant nearly matching him so far:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/0/4/AAOHCGAAEqOA.png

PEARLS
Old L.A. 2040
Turning Point

Hard third match. The former has a bit higher highs, but it also has lengthy parts I don't like that much.

Rankings:
8) Lost in Shadow - hinagiku (another version)
79) Policenauts - Old L.A. 2040
91) Cowboy Bebop: Tsuioku no Serenade - PEARLS

Turning Point would probably get a spot on the list if I re-rated. Chain of pain is also an HM.

Edgeworth, but I love Barok and decided to cast him a vote.

Town, Flow of Time, People
Dancing Mad
Un Deux Trois

Rankings:
7) Crossy Road Castle - Dance Of The Daring
46) Final Fantasy VI - Dancing Mad

Wait, a song that I wanted to win actually came back from behind? Impossachievable!

Fidough. How appropriate.

Oops, I forgot about rankings.

58) Senko no Ronde: Dis-United Order - Travelers into the shadow (Ranatus Phase 2)
65) Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis - Song of Mourning: The Eternal Wind
78) Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure - Sight of Silence

Song of Mourning: The Eternal Wind
Sight of Silence
X-Naut Fortress

Oh wow... I have not thought about that game Rampage in years. Good times.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/6/3/AAOHCGAAEpq_.jpg

(excuse the poor quality)

Temporal Tower has now collapsed, and the world is forever enveloped in darkness...

Staff Roll
Memories in the Mist
Un Deux Trois

Rankings:
25) LSD: Dream Emulator - Long Tall Eyelash
45) Verytex - Act 1: The Void of Space
72) Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course - Baking the Wondertart
75) DEEMO II - Un Deux Trois

I should have voted for Shamspeare (despite the unimaginative pun of a name) because I think he needs at least one vote. (though I'd vote half the list over him)

Temporal Tower
abstain
Labyrinth IV - Echoing Library

1) Pokmon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness - Temporal Tower
4) Splatoon 3 - Toxic Anoxic
43) Etrian Odyssey IV - Labyrinth IV - Echoing Library
76) Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- Arcade version B - nATALIE

Did PMD seriously have to get #1 for the third time?! (I'm not looking forward to all of my top nine being out by round 2... VGMC is way too time-consuming for it to be worth watching all my favorites lose...why am I still voting?) I consider Temporal Tower to be GOAT tier among PMD (I consider the TT and Vast Ice Mountain Peak to be far above everything else from the game). But the truth is that #1 thru #4 in this year's field were really close... 9.786 vs. 9.750. (and maybe Eden 1 belongs in that range, too) Toxic Anoxic really surprised me. Like, I think other Splatoon music is really awesome, but Toxic Anoxic resonates with me way more than anything else from that series... (the only thing that kinda competes is Sudden Depth, which failed to qualify for this contest). It's the only vgm that both tickles me with laughter and amazes me by its compositional quality. It has a great shot at my top 30 vgm (well, more like top 50 vgm because there's a large quantity of other great music still unrated). I would like to say more about my favorite music in this contests, but I'm at a family reunion....

Second match was hard to decide, so I abstained. Natalie is sounding as good as ever to me, so match three is really close, too...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/5/AAOHCGAAEpWF.png

Epic tie!

(would have been more epic if that vote for Valerie wasn't on there)... oh, but hey, even if you count that vote, all numbers are related to the 5:1 ratio!

PowerOne

abstain for now
Second Warning
Megaraph Fleet

Rankings:
5) Outpost 2: Divided Destiny - Eden 1
15) MOTHER 3 - Battle Against The Masked Man
26) TRianThology - gram-encounter
44) Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter - PowerOne
74) Nobunagas Ambition: Tenshouki - Flowery Wind
99) Spark the Electric Jester - Megaraph Fleet

Match one was supposed to be a fairly easy vote for Masked Man, but they basically tied, so I need to re-listen later. Oh, hey, Megaraph Fleet went from a 6.0 in VGMC14 to an 8.3 this contest! The vocals are fantastic.

Reach for the Summit
Kuraki Koutetsu no Verga (Full ver.)
Portugal

Rankings:
90) Final Fantasy IV (DS) - The Dreadful Fight

I love Uematsu.

We have some great choices here. Blackquill is great and is part of why I like Dual Destinies so much...