Lurker > kaonashi1

I'm running my first guessing game in about 20 minutes! Join in for what's hopefully some fun tunes.

I know I just finished my twenty but I'd already like to make a substitution-- replacing a track you've almost certainly heard before this thing started for one you may not have.

I'd like to replace

Song: Pleajeune (Revisit ver.)
Game: Gravity Rush 2
Series: Gravity Rush
Composer: Kohei Tanaka
Link:

with

Song: RESOLUTION
Game: Occultic;Nine
Series: Science Visual Novel Series
Composer: Takeshi Abo
Link:

-based on some searching I labelled the series as the 'Science Visual Novel' series which encompasses all those other games with semicolons in weird places (steins;gate/chaos;head/etc.); if someone has more accurate information please correct me on this

Song: With their fingers entwined.
Game: Lord of Vermilion IV
Series: Lord of Vermilion
Composer: Taku Iwasaki
Link:

Song: phreakout
Game: hackmud
Series: hackmud
Composer: Lena Raine
Link:

Song: Enforcer Brittanica
Game: Catacomb Snatch
Series: Catacomb Snatch
Composer: C418 (Daniel Rosenfeld)
Link:

Song: Killer Queen (Final Boss Phase 2)
Game: Hive Jump
Series: Hive Jump
Composer: Big Giant Circles (Jimmy Hinson)
Link:

Song: The Ten Saints
Game: Thousand Memories
Series: Thousand Memories
Composer: Keisuke Ito
Link:

-maybe one day I'll listen to 'With their fingers entwined' and not immediately think of Shipping up to Boston
-debated between phreakout and electroheist (another track on the same soundtrack) for a while
-I cross-reference my nominations with the guessing game pastebin; out of all the things in this set of five, I did not expect catacomb snatch to be the one to find a hit
-The Ten Saints was an attempt to find the most falcom-ass track from a non-falcom game/composer; this isn't quite there but it's kinda close I think

Song: Frogphone
Game: Off-Peak
Series: Off-Peak
Composer: Archie Pelago (Hirshi, Kroba and Cosmo D)
Link:

Song: Colored Engine
Game: FAR: Lone Sails
Series: FAR: Lone Sails
Composer: Okomotive (Joel Schoch)
Link:

Song: The Sound of Spring
Game: Gremlins, Inc.
Series: Gremlins, Inc.
Composer: A. Fruit
Link:

Song: The Song of the Sea
Game: RiME
Series: RiME
Composer: David Garca Daz
Link:

Song: OBLITERACERS! (Title Theme)
Game: Obliteracers
Series: Obliteracers
Composer: Garrett Williamson
Link:

-low quality alert-- the Gremlins, Inc. track is a spotify rip (sorry, having a hard time finding a better version at the moment)
-also the Gremlins, Inc. track might be the sole nomination I've made thus far that's technically ineligible for VGMC-- the soundtrack contains 'remastered' versions, though that might mostly be the incorporation of what would normally be in-game sounds to be part of the music (I'm not sure-- haven't played the game)

Song: Bungo to Alchemist
Game: Bungo to Alchemist
Series: Bungo to Alchemist
Composer: Hideki Sakamoto
Link:

Song: Terminum
Game: Ash of Gods
Series: Ash of Gods
Composer: Adam Skorupa, Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz, Michal Cielecki
Link:

Song: Impossible Worlds
Game: Monument Valley 2
Series: Monument Valley
Composer: Todd Baker
Link:

Song: On the Edge
Game: Metal Saga ~Kouya no Hakobune~
Series: Metal Saga
Composer: Yoshimi Kudo
Link:

Song: War of the Sundered (Gravity Well Remix)
Game: Endless Legend
Series: Endless
Composer: FlybyNo (Arnaud Roy)
Link:

guess I need to stop putting this off

Song: Aeolic Guardian
Game: Musashi: Samurai Legend
Series: Musashiden
Composer: Masashi Hamauzu
Link:

Song: Broken Elevator to Revelation
Game: OverPowered
Series: OverPowered
Composer: flashygoodness
Link:

Song: Scream
Game: Corporate Lifestyle Simulator
Series: Corporate Lifestyle Simulator
Composer: bignic
Link:

Song: City Never Sleeps
Game: REFLEC BEAT groovin'!!
Series: REFLEC BEAT
Composer: Dirty Androids (Daisuke Akitsu)
Link:

Song: Pleajeune (Revisit ver.)
Game: Gravity Rush 2
Series: Gravity Rush
Composer: Kohei Tanaka
Link:

notes:
-listed Scream's game as Corporate Lifestyle Simulator (which is where it was first used) but it's much better known for its appearance in Lethal League; the versions up on youtube use a shorter edit than the one used in the Corporate Lifestyle Simulator OST so I uploaded the version from the latter
-I think I prefer the extended mix of City Never Sleeps-- but that version's not technically a VGM; the IIDX version in CANNON BALLERS feels like a happy medium but I can't find a soundtrack-quality version

I wanted to spend a bit more time tailoring and filling out this list but it's late and time's running out

Bungo to Alchemist - Shoubi ni Kou Fu Bunshi Tare


V.D. -Vanishment Day- - Rock on the Heaven


I am Setsuna - Dance of Death


Alice Order - Poetry of heroes


Kakuriyo no Mon - Ryoumensukuna


Liberation Maiden SIN - Mechanical dance

End of All (Land)

Laguerra del Mundo
Xeus

-I've been pretty lukewarm on Laguerra and Sunshine Coastline throughout the contest so this is basically a toss-up-- both tracks have aspects I like (Laguerra's electronic drums and some cool rhythmic stuff that pops up here and there, and the bass that shows up after the piano; Sunshine Coastline's overall high-spirited tone, including a cheerful piano line which I can't help but like) and aspects I don't (a lot of the guitar parts in Laguerra don't feel interesting, and the solo piano melody doesn't grab me either; there are large swaths of Sunshine Coastline where the arrangement of the melody is really dull-- this is something I feel about a lot of Falcom tracks; neither uses its string patches to good effect). Ended up leaning just a bit towards Laguerra this time.

-I like Xeus a little more than I remember, and Valkyria a little less. I feel like a week ago I would have voted the other way on this.

End of All (Land)
Deep Forest

Hidra Heteromycin
Terrible Monster Attacking Crew!

Re: Blue Reflection OST-- glad to hear some love for the soundtrack and what people enjoy from it. The trigger for my own listenthrough was actually Mac's post in the pre-nomination topic! Other than the tracks I nominated, I like hallucination and hope a lot (I probably prefer to OVERDOSE at this point); favourite boss theme as a whole is probably DNF FW15C right now. I like that even the tracks that might have been filler in another OST have some charm-- I'm partial to Triangle, Square, and Circle (Disc 1 track 22), for example. Listening to Qualia, it's pretty nice as well.

Re: polarized opinions-- this is how I see it:
-outsize statements draw outsize reactions-- when someone says a track is 'trash', or starts an arms race for number of inequality signs used in a post, there's going to be several people who genuinely like the track (it needed the explicit support of at least three individuals to make it into the contest!), and some of them will probably respond in kind;
-related to the above-- a lot of people take their taste personally so they'll feel at least a bit hurt if a track they like is put down harshly or repeatedly (making it seem like an insult to their taste), making a harsh response more likely;
-it's more about perceived disparity in track quality than absolute quality-- if a track is 'okay' by one person's standard, that person isn't going to make any statements about it winning a first-round match against mediocre competition, but if it beats a track they really like, you're more likely to hear a response like 'I really don't understand why people like this track'-- a sentiment that really starts to set in when that same track keeps moving on and even makes it to retirement. Take, as an easy example, Amusement Park-- from what I remember it wasn't a track you hated so much as found totally unremarkable, but when it's made it to retirement after taking out a track you nominated, you're a lot more likely to spit invective at it. For most people, I think, the retirement tracks consist of a couple they like and a bunch more that they're ambivalent on that beat competition they liked a lot more. There's definitely no real consensus on track quality, even in the finals

Last Surprise
Deep Forest

Rivers in the Desert
Preserved Valkyria

Amusement Park
Terrible Monster Attacking Crew!

End of All (Land)
Apollo Justice ~ A New Chapter of Trials! 2016

Glass
Deep Forest

Hidra Heteromycin
benign spirit of the autoclave

Phantom R's Theme
Dark Prison

Flash Frost
Preserved Valkyria

Rivers in the Desert
Terrible Monster Attacking Crew!
End of All (Land)

End of All (Land)
Striking the Octopus
Apollo Justice ~ A New Chapter of Trials! 2016

Primal Dialga Battle
OVERDOSE
A Continental Gale

End of All (Land)
Striking the Octopus
The Azure Arbitrator

Zenith
Glass
Nilin the Memory Hunter

Phantom R's Theme
Last Surprise
Deep Forest

-nom9 vs nom4, but it's not so cut and dried-- there are days I'd probably prefer Ignition
-three rounds in and Last Surprise is still a great jam
-big fan of this side bracket match-- spent a while going back and forth between the tracks here.
-overall probably the most enjoyment I've had from a single day of tracks in this contest

Sunshine Coastline
Fight Between the Wind and the Blinking Sky
Mystic Pendulum

-Mystic Pendulum randomly played in my head a couple of times today. I don't even particularly like that song! But I guess there must be something about it I do like.

Sayonara (All Phase Mix)
Undertale
On the Verge of Madness - Stage 5

Mystic Pendulum
Deadman falling
benign spirit of the autoclave

A Scattered Moment
OVERDOSE
Dark Prison

Denshi no Shi -Verum-
Amusement Park
Ar-ciel Ar-manaf

Bodhisattva Kill
Fallen Angel
Id ~ Purpose

End of All (Land)
A Beautiful Song
Ar-ciel Ar-manaf

Id ~ Purpose
Cloudscapes and Speed
The Queen of Soldier

Inferno (Cinder's Theme)
Ar-ciel Ar-manaf
Simon Belmont's Theme

The Azure Arbitrator
Moonsiders 1st
Preserved Valkyria

Last Surprise
Invitation of the Butterfly
Terrible Monster Attacking Crew!

Ignition
Phantom R's Theme
Studiopolis Zone Act 1

Apocalypsis Noctis
Life Will Change
Apollo Justice

Normal Battle
Rivers in the Desert
The Whims Of Fate

-normal battle still super rad
-sayonara still giving me mixed feelings
-one man's treasure is another man's-- you get the idea (honestly it's not terrible but it doesn't stand out to me in any dimension)
-rivers in the desert is still not really doing it for me compared to the other p5 entrants-- it should be catchy but I'm not really catching it
-xeus feels kinda plain for what it's going for
-so does whims of fate-- it sits pretty hard on one or two funky riffs that don't feel that interesting or earworm-y

Beneath the Mask
Spiral of Erebos
Nilin the Memory Hunter

OVERDOSE
Heavenly Flight
Look Pimpin'

The Tower (Quiet)
A Scattered Moment
Deep Forest

Primal Dialga Battle
Praying Hands
On the Verge of Madness - Stage 5

Activation
Bodhisattva Kill
Messenger

-Activation is rad and fun and the oscilloscope view in the video is totally hypnotizing
-listening to Striking the Octopus is definitely more enjoyable than striking an octopus-- instrumentation is cool and the bass is cool and I like the opening but find the guitar tiresome like it's a deviljho come to storm what had been a perfectly fine hunt without it
-I think Giselle shares a number of the same objections I have with Cicio but for what it's worth I like it more than Cicio and would probably find this pretty pleasant about half the time
-Bodhisattva Kill is INTENSE multi-phase boss battle theme action but I think it wears out its welcome by the third part
-Messenger has some cool things going on at the beginning and I like the mood it sets and it does some cool things with time signature but the melody it goes for feels really plodding
-oh I get it they took a pretty catchy chiptune track and overlaid it with the Space Jam theme because Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden is an irreverent self-aware basketball-themed game LOL

Albireo Lake
HITSUGI
benign spirit of the autoclave

I first heard A Beautiful Song during one of the earliest NieR: Automata gameplay demos and thought it was really cool in context, especially the way the boss's phases synced with the music. The NieR series's use of music in general is really effective-- A Beautiful Song is pretty melodramatic in a way that I might have found kinda silly but here it fits wonderfully with the overarching aesthetic. As the very first NieR: Automata track I heard, I have a soft spot for it.

As a standalone song I think it's enjoyable enough. It makes up for a fairly unadventurous melody with great arrangement, some cool use of vocals, and a couple of neat moments.

My enjoyment of Albireo Lake starts with the rhythm played by the piano, which is just super captivating to me, and the way it interacts with the various other elements of the track, from the repeating figure of the high synth in the background to the synth chords playing just off-beat to the stuttering synth that starts at 0:26 and does something crazy at 0:32. All this in the first 40 seconds! The opening melody stubbornly refuses to resolve into the tonic at the end of any bar, which is something I've always liked, and makes what feels like the 'chorus' of the track more rewarding to get to at the end. Constantly interesting and unpredictable, but never really discordant; a central idea that frames the track but doesn't get boring; cleanly-produced sounds with a myriad of textures; little details to keep repetitions fresh. It just feels well-made and thought-out.

HITSUGI doesn't have the addictive piano rhythm of Albireo but is maybe even more interesting in progression. More cool, well-produced synths, drum patterns that refuse to repeat themselves, a relentless energy throughout. The part at 1:49 randomly makes me think of ice-based Mario Kart tracks. I think some people will find the constant parallel fourths of the violin to be annoying but I'm pretty okay with it. Just a lot of fun to listen to.

New World Order has a pretty killer opening, I think, but I don't think the vocals are very good (they don't feel especially confident in a track that seems to demand it), and whenever they come in the track stops doing interesting things a lot of the time! The vocals are clearly the centrepiece when they come in but sit a bit low in the mix. I think this is a pretty good track otherwise-- but that's a pretty large caveat.

There's something weirdly compelling about benign spirit of the autoclave (cool title), from its atmospheric opening to a progression that draws me in even if I don't quite understand how it works. Something about it really makes sense. It's not atonal, but I can't really trace what it's doing. It's something that I definitely want to revisit.

Menu Theme is not something I want to revisit. It's a rote repeating guitar riff (not entirely fair-- a different lead synth makes an appearance later, and some of the accompaniment shifts around) overlaid with police radio and sirens. (Pretty literal interpretation of the theme, here, though I guess it's a menu theme.) It's this for three minutes! If this had more to say I might actually find some of the production interesting but it's just "I'm a POLICE THEME rawwwr" the whole way through.

End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O
Swamps

-I rather like Botanic Panic and its jaunty tone-- like a lot of Cuphead stuff, really evokes that old cartoon feel
-End of All has lots of cool ideas and transitions; the section at 1:43 weirdly reminds me of the Rabanastre theme from FFXII, which is a good thing because I like the Rabanastre theme; I remember when my impression of Fire Emblem music was basically 'Together, We Ride'; things have changed
-(I really don't like Together We Ride)
-this first match is tough as nails for me
-Scrap I/O is something like the fifteenth-best track in one of my favourite soundtracks; I like a lot of different things about it but not the main piano motif, which is unfortunately extremely prominent
-I feel like G Free is trying really hard to preserve ZUN's style, which I don't really understand-- why not make the remix a little more adventurous? Instead I just spend a lot of time paying attention to the pretty obnoxious drumming
-Count of Darkness is awkwardly mixed, compositionally banal and has some ugly-sounding samples; the piano section came in and after the first two chords I was like 'oh man is it going to use that progression' and it totally did and I actually laughed out loud
-Swamps does that thing that the Follin brothers love to do and that's cool with me because that's a lot of fun; otherwise it's pretty inoffensive and somewhat catchy

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
Yoru

It's been a while since I listened to Id ~ Purpose-- I remembered the main motif but not much beyond that. I was a little disappointed when I heard the choral samples, which lack the fullness of a real choir and hurt the mood of the song a bit. But the more I listen to it the more it makes me smile-- it's really enjoyable. It maintains its sense of grandeur, but does so with an accordion! The chords are just shifty and unpredictable enough to keep me listening, but the melody remains very coherent throughout. (The progression at 0:58 is a highlight for me.) I'm even okay with the more heavily choral section that starts at 2:33 (with the accordion still yipping along in the background like 'hey, I'm still here!'), which is something I used to dislike somewhat initially. I used to debate with myself a bit on whether I actually enjoyed this track or if it just fit some of the tropes I have a weakness for. I give up. I really do like this track a lot.

I feel the same kind of ambivalence about STULTI that I did about various other tracks in the contest-- some stuff I like, some stuff I don't. Electric guitar/double bass drum underpinning-- not a fan. Some of the filtered electronic drums, like the ones that kick in at 0:10, I'm a huge sucker for. Sudden moments of silence-- cool, especially with a track that's this loud. Melodically not the most interesting, but with some interesting moments. I think the lead synth at 1:09 is boring. I like the marcato strings.

Man, more double bass drum pedaling? Mercifully Fateful Confrontation lays off on that after a while. So it's another Falcom boss track and all that implies. Again, the instrumentation doesn't do much for me, so it comes down to the pretty straightforward melody. It's not bad. It's catchy enough. I can definitely fight some bosses to this. But the delicious chocolaty centre of this track is at 2:03, which is a pretty cool interlude that fits really nicely as a change of pace in the track.

Like a Night of Falling Stars, in contrast, is all about the instrumentation for me. It starts with the bell synth and its delay echoes. Then it's the bongos. Then it's the shimmering high synth pads that sit on top of it all, giving the track a sort of ethereal feel. I'm more accustomed to tracks from Mushihimesama or the DoDonPachi games with a sharper, more frenetic sound, so this took me by surprise with its much more chill, atmospheric approach and I think it's really nice. The 7/4 time signature is gravy-- I find I actually mentally organize it by half beats 3/3/3/3/2, following the lead synth.

Music that makes me happy etc. Yoru sits at the intersection of a lot of things I like in VGM. I love the instrumentation-- the piano, the flute, the vocals, the brushed snare, that other percussion that I like for the same reason as bongos in that they almost sound like they almost speak. (Also the marimba! And the marimba comes with bongos!) I love the chord progression. That major chord at 2:20 is just the best. But perhaps most significantly-- I love the effect this track has on me. There's a lot of great hype VGM for exciting moments. This track makes me feel calm-- calmer than just about any other VGM I've listened to-- and does so without boring me to tears. I've never played Ragnarok Online 2: The Gate of the World, and I won't ever get to-- the game's servers have been shut down. But I'm sure if I'd played that game and encountered this, I'd have just sat there and soaked it in for a while. And isn't that the surest sign that a video game track has really made an impact on you?

So, The Queen of Soldier. This isn't bad. It sounds a bit harsh given I'm listening to it right after its competition, but after a few listen-throughs it's grown on me a bit. The melody is somewhat predictable but it's the sort of melody I like regardless, I think. The sound design felt a little awkward at first but it's not bad either.

Ar-ciel Ar-manaf
Sunleth Waterscape
Diptera Sonata

Mixed feelings about Ar-ciel Ar-manaf-- some parts have the sort of EXA_PICO sound I go in for, and some of it is boring (the first impression it makes on me is not the greatest). That instrumental section at 2:00 with the bass showing up prominently is pretty nice-- I actually like the slower part afterwards as well.

Transformer Robot Sing Wheels On The Bus (cool title, but not as good as No One Cares About the Letter L)'s primary motif is, uh, strangely catchy, actually. It moves into some atonal stuff that I don't really find enjoyment in. That part where the track finally establishes what appears to be a fairly well-defined drum pattern only for the motif to override it with something else entirely is pretty cool.

I think the main theme of Final Fantasy XIII is a really pretty composition. A version with a boring beat and vapid lyrics overlaid on top isn't really going to be my favourite version of it. I think the beauty of the composition still shows through but I'd really rather be listening to another arrangement of it.

Zenith is okay but for some reason I expect to enjoy it more than I do. It's pretty straightforward in its melody and arrangement.

I saw 'Clap Your Hands' and was like 'I didn't know we were letting k-pop songs into the contest HEH'; then I listened to it

I think I would have preferred the k-pop song. This feels trite in basically every way-- chord progression, aesthetic, vocals, the really vapid lyrical content. Give a shout-out to the green grass and the sun, indeed. It's one of those really generic 'let's feel great about today!' songs that I think are really shallow and pandering. Sorry. Makes me sound like a real sourpuss, huh.

Diptera Sonata goes for the whole creepy vibe, in almost a campy way at times. I like some things about this, like the distorted piano. It doesn't really do much melodically but I think it's perfectly workable background music.

Inferno (Cinder's Theme)
kyokugen da!!
Simon Belmont's Theme

Oh hey more Mick Gordon. I think Inferno is a bit exhausting to listen to. I don't think it's bad but I do find stuff like 0:26 to be really boring. It does evolve considerably from there so some credit to it, I guess. (I actually prefer the sections where the synth takes the lead.)

Azalea Town is pleasant enough-- enough, in fact, to make this a pretty close match for me-- but a more fully-fleshed arrangement would really do this thing wonders. This is pretty sparse as-is.

Kyokugen da-- see now, those babies know how to throw down some electric guitar. I like this.

There are plenty of tracks I like with Rivellon's aesthetic, but Rivellon feels so paint-by-numbers in its composition and arrangement, from the incredibly common chord progression to the 'dramatic' string/brass crescendo. It plays the tropes it uses just way, way too straight-- nothing at all surprises me about this track.

Simon Belmont's Theme is okay, though I think its melody is among the weaker ones in Castlevania's oeuvre. I do really like that syncopated synth section starting at 0:32, though. It's definitely the highlight of the track for me.

I like both the progression and the mood set in the intro to Long Way Down. I think the vocals are kinda so-so.