Lurker > Kenri

VGMusic of the Day 687: Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg - Chant This Charm

Yes.

YES.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

That's a really cool song. I can't think of many older songs that can justify a 5+ minute length but this one definitely can.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

curious, who'd you put in Middle? a lot of guys in Low match well to one another and Middle gets quite a bit over 'em. the dancer i can see in that category for example.

Honestly I wasn't really thinking about how well they match with each other. <_<; In terms of just power I feel like D Money is too low, for one. Invisibility, modern firearms with no recoil, and the ability to summon endgame FF character equivalents should carry him over quite a few people. But yeah, if they match well with each other then that's probably more important than just power levels.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Tiers look pretty good. Some people in low that I'd probably put in middle, but eh. The Ambassador can definitely beat people, given the right terrain, I think. He's low tier without a doubt but yeah.

Some quick notes:

-In Solai's writeup you have "About her spells" prefacing the section with details about her weapons. <_<

-I think you missed Final Destination CAMPFC Edition, a terrain in post 353. Which is a shame because it is the best terrain.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Last bump before everything's locked in.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Van likes bigger arenas with a wide range of different terrains within them (Old Mineshaft, Bastion Cliff, and especially Final Destination CAMPFC Edition). He also likes crazy and chaotic terrains (like ROTTA and RST Arena). He dislikes arenas with innocent bystanders and ones that don't offer him freedom of movement, especially floating platforms. His home terrain is the UPSS Perspicacity.

Solai likes simpler arenas, but ones with walls or structures for her to drive opponents against. Floating platforms work well too, especially if the opponent can't fly. She dislikes any terrain with neutral parties. Her home terrain is the Wilder Woods.

An antithesis consciousness doesn't really "like" or "dislike" anything, but because an antithesis consciousness is created to counter one person, it has a disadvantage anywhere the terrain can used to the other fighter's benefit. So in that sense it "favors" the simplest terrains out there. Its home terrain is the Big White.

Terrain-focused terrains are allowed for all three characters because it's more fun that way.

With that said:

Finalize Solai and Van I guess.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Bump. Roughly two hours left, barring an extension.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Some quick changes:

Add to Van:

The AutoMap 9000:
-a suit function that automatically maps out the unknown locations as Van explores them.
-not very detailed. Divides areas into rooms and only really draws their rough dimensions.
-will note parts of the terrain that are suited to his suit's abilities, e.g. a ledge he'd need his jetpack to reach.

And for Solai, an attempt to make Gauntlet Snap not hose summoners so much. Change Gauntlet Snap to two different spells:

Gauntlet Snap
Locks a single enemy into combat with Solai until either she or that enemy forfeits or is rendered unable to continue fighting. Any time the enemy attempts to move away from Solai (including through teleportation), Solai may teleport directly to their location no matter how far away it is.

Joust Snap
Solai chooses an opponent. For 30 seconds, Solai and her chosen target cannot be harmed by outside parties, including but not limited to summons, allies, familiars, and any neutral parties that might come with the terrain.

And with that in mind, editing a paragraph about her personality (most of it's the same but the last sentence is changed):

Of her spells, Armory and Forge Snap are used to adjust to unique weaknesses in opponents, or trade out weapons that might be beneficial to enemies (a flaming sword against an enemy that controls fire, etc). These spells are by nature weaker than her other ones, though, so she tries to avoid using them. Light Snap is mainly used to deal with enemies with fast projectiles, especially firearms, though her best defense there is still just being a very small target. Bulwark Snap is used against enemies with homing or area-of-effect attacks, and also if she needs to take a hit to gain some sort of advantage. Against fast enemies, Solai prefers the homing teleportation granted to her by Gauntlet Snap to the regular teleportation and improved speed of Light Snap. She'll also use Duel Snap against summoners or fights with outside interference as soon as she starts to feel overwhelmed (unless they've demonstrated the ability to use counterspells), and will cast the spell multiple times if needed, because Solai's strategies really don't like having to focus on multiple foes at once.


If that's still too strong, people with summoners should let me know. >_>

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

I like the idea of the former because it can lead to amazing things when we happen to draw a match with two characters who both favor Ridiculously Over the Top Apocalypse. <_<

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

So... Should we be picking favored/disliked terrains for characters now? <_< If so, how many of each? ...Or should it just be like a general description of what the character likes and dislikes?

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Wiki is missing all of my boring terrains from post 188. I am offended!

...

<_<

I feel like Clockwork Malevolum and Malorg-Nai might belong in in-between rather than standard, and Swamp of the Lich in terrain-focused rather than in-between, but that could just be me.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Save any music ranking topics

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

I dunno, at that size and level of completion, I think you're approaching an area where pricing fails.

I guess what I'm saying is that that collection belongs in a museum.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Never been drunk.

Or maybe I was and it just... didn't change my behavior at all? I dunno.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Three more terrains, two of them boring. All of my characters now have "home" terrains, though in the case of Van it might not even end up on his list of preferred terrains. >_>

The Big White

Everywhere you look, it's white, white, white, with nothing to break up the monotony of it all. There seems to be a ground here, though it blends in with everything else, and the ground is perfectly level and extends forever in every direction. It's perfectly smooth, too, but somehow there's still plenty of friction to fight easily enough. If you fly up, you can fly forever and never leave the place. It's the perfect setting for a fight if you want absolutely nothing getting in your way.


The Stranded Strand

A small island untouched by human hands - or anyone else's hands, for that matter. It's about a mile in diameter, but not a perfect circle by any means. About one third of the island's coastline is a right inviting beach; the water's calmer there. The other two thirds are rocky bluffs; if the rocks don't do you in, the rapids might. In the middle of the island is dense tropical jungle, but luckily the island's small enough to make it hard to get lost. The water's shallow enough to fight in for about 100 feet from the beach, further than that and you better know how to swim. And if you do know how to swim, you'll find crystal clear water and plenty of natural structures near the seafloor for hiding in and around. Careful though, go too deep and the sun won't be able to find you. Aquatic or flying fighters who leave the island will find that the ocean seems to stretch on forever, with no other shores in sight...


The UPSS Perspicacity

A Universe Police Spaceship. Big enough to carry a crew of 100 people comfortably, but it's seen better days. Life support and artificial gravity are still online, thankfully. There are a number of both large and small rooms; the larger rooms have miscellaneous items like tables and control consoles bolted to the floor that can be used as cover. Some of the larger rooms are multiple levels or at least have scaffolding near the top. Smaller rooms are mostly crew quarters; cramped and with nothing of interest. Most of the ship's rooms are connected by corridors which have nothing in the way of cover. Be careful, as damage to the ship has caused a number of hazards. Electricity arcs out from damaged walls, scalding hot steam shoots from vents, and fires have started in some places. In some parts of the ship, lighting no longer functions, plunging them into near pitch darkness. In the ship's hangar, artificial gravity has failed (though life support hasn't); fighters who enter the hangar will find a number of boxes, smaller craft, and assorted debris floating about. Another large room has somehow managed to flood. The ship's engine room and adjacent areas have superheated, so entering them without protection isn't recommended. All prior occupants of the ship have evacuated, and taking control of the smaller craft or the ship itself is no longer possible. Leaving the ship is possible, if you wanted to blast your way out -- but all that awaits you is the vacuum of space.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Beyond the Bounds was indeed what I thought would be #1. Wasn't really a prediction though; I saw the spreadsheet with almost all the numbers filled in already so I knew it had a great shot. Great winner, too -- might be my favorite song of the hundred, definitely near the top at least.

Great project, hope there are some more like this in the future.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Yeah, I would suggest FR/LG, then Emerald, then HG/SS, then Platinum, and finally B/W and B/W2.

This is a really good order, yeah. I might switch Platinum and HGSS there but it doesn't make a huge difference.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

While its final two marks were strong, they weren't fives, and here it sits at 11th.

Uhhh not quite. <_<

I don't think I rated Ascend to the Heavens, which is kind of a shame because it's like the one song from PMD I actually like. People say those games have better soundtracks than most of the Pokemon series but I just don't see it. *shrug*

I feel like I know what #1 is because I was keeping track of scores before you removed them from the spreadsheet, but I won't spoil it. >_>

That's a really solid top 8 though. Good job everyone!

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Huh.

Well, those are certainly words someone could say, if nothing else.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

If there are going to be arenas at all beyond the usual "magical arena that somehow allows both fighters to fight at a normal level" I feel like having preferences is required. It's a competitive element, but it's better than the alternative IMO.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Aww, Downstream is licensed? That's kind of disappointing.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

I like ambiguous endings, but not in terms of "who won" (which is a really bad method of grouping endings but whatever). If who won is ambiguous it usually strikes me more as "whoops we forgot to resolve the plot".

Bad and tragic endings are, in my experience, basically never done correctly even if they're fine in theory. To be continued is fine except when it's another case of "whoops we forgot to resolve the plot" or, even worse, "please buy the sequel to learn how the game actually ends".

So I guess I prefer good endings, though those are usually awful too.

tl;dr: the best ending is frequently when you just stop playing 85% of the way through and pretend everything resolved itself in a satisfying way.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

One last bump just in case?

One last bump just in case.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Anything you care to share? I've spent the year thinking about exotic inclusions since DFO did half-decently, and obviously ikon's Frozen Synapse went deep in the winner's bracket.

Super Mario Galaxy, Fire Emblem 4, Riviera: The Promised Land. I feel like SMG could be pretty strong, the other two are more just personal favorites.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

That must have been part of Pinball Pack 3. I only had 1 and 2. 3 came later.

Could be. I don't actually own the game, I just like its soundtrack.

Android's pretty cool! I'll have to keep the game in mind for Best OST 2, though there are a few others I've been smacking myself for not thinking of during the first Best OST contest, so it might have to wait in line. >_>

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

I could swear I had seen another comment from someone saying it's no Crash and Burn or...some other track I had never heard of. Apologies to whomever that was.

Pretty sure this was me, unless some other gent has exceptional taste in VG music and I just missed it. <_<

Songs I said were better:

Crash and Burn -
Space Journey (my favorite from the game) -

Excalibur might be next after those two, though.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Pass.

Don't give them enough credit to actually refine the gameplay and balance enough to make the trade-off worth it. Would rather have a diverse cast and just hope they strike gold again. *shrug*

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Mad stats (courtesy as usual of xp, all two remaining readers should thank him). Lowest scores are bestest, highest possible score is 87, lowest possible is 6:

Kenri:

xp: 9 (05, 03, 01)
FL81: 33 (16, 11, 06)
Nio: 38 (19, 17, 02)
JONALEON: 38 (21, 10, 07)
Mega Mana: 43 (30, 09, 04)
Ed: 43 (22, 13, 08)
Orochimaru: 45 (18, 15, 12)
todbot: 67 (28, 25, 14)
ZaziGuado: 67 (24, 23, 20)
Phase: 82 (29, 27, 26)

CG7:

xp: 9 (06, 02, 01)
Nio: 19 (12, 09, 07)
JONALEON: 26 (14, 08, 04)
Ed: 39 (24, 10, 05)
ZaziGuado: 41 (23, 15, 03)
FL81: 54 (30, 13, 11)
Mega Mana: 64 (27, 21, 16)
todbot: 64 (25, 22, 17)
Orochimaru: 67 (29, 20, 18)
Phase: 73 (28, 26, 19)

And combined stats, which should be taken with even more of a grain of salt than regular stats:

xp: 18 (06c, 05k, 03k, 02c, 01k, 01c)
JONALEON: 64 (21k, 14c, 10k, 08c, 07k, 04c)
Nio: 66 (19k, 17k, 12c, 09c, 07c, 02k)
Ed: 82 (24c, 22k, 13k, 10c, 08k, 05c)
FL81: 87 (30c, 16k, 13c, 11k, 11c, 06k)
Mega Mana: 107 (30k, 27c, 21c, 16c, 09k, 04k)
ZaziGuado: 108 (24k, 23k, 23c, 20k, 15c, 03c)
Orochimaru: 112 (29c, 20c, 18k, 18c, 15k, 12k)
todbot: 131 (28k, 25k, 25c, 22c, 17c, 14k)
Phase: 155 (29k, 28c, 27k, 26k, 26c, 19c)

...With apologies to Phase and congratulations to xp

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

I will fight you.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Finalize Antithesis. Not gonna bother reposting it though.

Solai isn't going to get a major overhaul but I wanted to address two things:

In addition, Solai is a Snapdragon-type spellcaster, which means that her spells have no casting time or material or spoken components, but she can only use a set number before needing to rest. This is represented by six lights which orbit above her head; each spell she casts snuffs out one of the lights.

The lights here are just lights, they're not something that can really be targeted, and if they were, it wouldn't do anything. Not sure if that was clear.

Gauntlet Snap
Locks a single enemy into combat with Solai until either she or that enemy forfeits or is rendered unable to continue fighting. Any time the enemy attempts to move away from Solai (including through teleportation), Solai may teleport directly to their location no matter how far away it is. In addition, Solai and her target become unable to summon anything or call for allies, and any preexisting summons or allies become unable to harm Solai or her target.

And I wanted to check with everyone else about the last line of this spell, because the contest has a lot of summoners so it just seems like kind of a dick move. Nerf/revamp/cut entirely/leave it as is?

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Dr. Scissors, PhD

Scissors is stronger than Lizard and a perfect counter to him in every way. He's a giant, animate floating pair of scissors with the brain of history's greatest professor (who is also a professor of history). However, Statue is a perfect counter to him in every way. Whoops.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

I'm also wondering how with three decent reviews, it comes in at only 66th, but the other three people gave it a collective four points.

Awful. Poor Shades of Blue.


Where all the people that go "Nefertiti's terrible, Stigmata easily best song from Mana Khemia?"

Well, in fairness, I do like Stigmata more than Nefertiti... <_<

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Nope, I still love them.

Hell, Rivalry Rumble was better than nothing, IMO.

This.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Inexplicably the song did get a lone 2 in the final round when Kenri wanted to emphasize just how badly he hated another song.

Fun fact: it was close to getting a +3, but I just couldn't.

I just couldn't.

How are you breaking ties, by the way?

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Contributing some boring, basic terrains because I'm just a boring guy I guess:

The Sand Blasts

A flat plain stretching for miles in every direction. The ground here is hard as stone, baked by the sun and hardened over time. A thin layer of dust and sand lies on the ground, ready to be kicked up by any sudden movement or gust of wind. Every here and there is a crater, easily located by the blackened char marks around it. These craters are easy enough for a human-sized combatant to hop in or out of, and can be used for cover if you crouch. Seems like the two fighters weren't the first ones to have a battle here...


The Wilder Woods

A dense forest of lush greenery, though oddly devoid of any animals. The trees are packed close together, making the whole place a bit claustrophobic, and most of the trees' branches are strong enough to support a fighter's weight. Sun trickles in through holes in the canopy, enough to light up most of the place while still leaving plenty of shadows to hide in. The ground is uneven and teeming with roots, vines, and other life, so watch your step. And be careful: the woods are alive, and not in the way you might think. When you look away, they change, so don't expect to leave a hiding spot and then return to it later. Whether the woods are really shifting, or if it's just a trick of the mind, we don't know. But if the woods are alive, they have an agenda. If the fighters lose track of each other, they'll find themselves brought back together sooner than you might expect.


The Empty Fields

An idyllic field blanketed by short, soft grass. Here and there are a few gentle slopes, but most everywhere is flat enough ground to fight on without a problem. Large gray stones lie planted in the ground every few hundred feet, give or take -- they're large enough to be used as cover by human-sized fighters, if you're willing to crouch, at least. Aside from the rocks on the ground and the clouds in the sky, there's not much else here. But isn't that enough?


The World Arena

Once the site of a great tournament, now the site of a match of another. On the ground is a massive stone disc, a couple feet high and a couple hundred feet in diameter. Another fifty feet or so from the disc are the stands, where people used to sit to watch the tournament -- but there aren't any people here anymore. The disc itself is solid, but can be damaged by powerful fighters. The stands are less solid, only made to withstand rowdy crowds, so tread lightly. Fighters who leave the arena will find an empty desert for miles in every direction; guess it makes sense not to build a place like this near anything important...


The Broken Pieces

A bunch of blackish-blue, somewhat important looking stones floating in a void, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The stones are perfectly flat on top but rough and uneven on the bottom, like tiny mountains, cut from the earth and flipped over. The stones are various sizes, with fighters starting on opposite ends of the biggest one, over a hundred feet long and a bit less wide. From there, athletic fighters, or ones who can fly, can move to the other islands, which float all around the larger one -- some floating above it, some below it, and some about level with it. The stones are tougher than stone has any right to be, but the strongest fighters can still smash 'em, if they want to. But no amount of force or weight will ever be able to force one of the islands up or down; they're stuck there, in the middle of nowhere.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma