Lurker > trdl23

Butterfly
Explosion
Fly

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

And uhhhhh is Ultima Weapon the first instance of the standard distance based unavoidable AoE?

Nah, Stone Vigil has the endboss cast a party-wide Rime Wreath.

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One Night in Neo Kobe City
Fogbeasts
Glessing Way!

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Each healer gets the same potency but an extra treat to their AoE.

AST gets to cast theirs at range, SCH gets to cast their instantly, WHM adds a hefty stun to theirs (at the cost of the animation taking forever to come out)

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It looks like there will be no more Ivalice content in XIV according to Matsuno's twitter.

I'm of mixed feelings on this. The 24-man Stormblood alliance raid storyline was mediocre, and Bozja's narrative was outright terrible until Zadnor almost redeemed it, but still, I kept seeing glimmers of what could have been greatness. It's a shame we won't find it realized.

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Steel Reason is pretty good yeah, and it's woefully underrated.

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mccheyne posted...

A rookie rite of passage?

Yeah, basically.

The way you're supposed to do it (at least nowadays) is not to aggro them at all and instead sneak behind them to turn off the searchlights, which will get rid of all but 2 before the guns unlock to take down the airship.

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Nekozamurai no Gyakushuu
Fairfrozen: Selicy's Theme
Rose-Killing Carmilla

Voting for Carmilla is technically voting Touhou, right? No it isn't.

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Sorry I haven't been as active. After the whole... thing from before, I wanted to make sure I "detox'd," so to speak. I should be voting more as from now on.

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Rain
Tar
Foregone

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I hate hate hate playing SCH.

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Delubrum speedruns are so good, I'll never duty finder them again.

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E come vivo? Vivo!

I think I Believe is one of those songs that sounds way better in context because that story moment is so amazing. I'm not sure my own vote was free from that bias.

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Battle! (Colress)
Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix-
I Believe

Not sure if my distaste for Gaze is fully because of the music or if the gross name is playing a part in it. Another song I wonder if I'd like if it weren't in chiptune format.

As is often the case, not a fan of this rhythm game music, but I dislike the other song more.

I adore I Believe, but while I didn't expect to like Wavetapper given it's, well, bizarre for a normie like me, it does somehow manage to have its own weird charm to it despite having a literal fax signal as part of its music and some of its "vocals" sound like samples from Moonbase Alpha. I might have voted for it in the second match, and that blows my mind.

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Yeah, it has to be Ben Franklin.

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Yeah, unlike previous mogtomes there's no exchange after it's over.

I also missed the boat on smart speculations for /shiver and Gyr Abanian plait. I could have bought them at 200k each a few days ago but now I'm paying 400-500k per shiver and 300-350k per plait to sit on them.

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Tundra
Sky
Beautiful

Pretty easy day for voting (esp. with Beautiful Song being my nom), but Give Me had me laughing in a good way.

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Working
Overcome
You're Not Here

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In terms of tragic shock, it's 9/11, but in terms of overall tragedy, it's definitely the stock crash.

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The Shackled Wolves (Rain)
Pursuit ~ Lying Coldly
IMAGE -MATERIAL- <Version 0>

I supported this FE track, which is unusual for me to say. Three Houses too good. Its competitor is honestly pretty great on what I'd assume is paper; given the lyrics and style, it almost seems like it could be a Panic at the Disco song, which I adore. Unfortunately, the singer ruins it for me -- I can't stand breathy timbre except as a brief stylistic choice. The one who I assume is a backup singer at 1:17 is so much nicer, and I wish she were the one in the lead here!

Nothing beats the classic Pursuit, but this is a strong example. I should probably play AAI 1 and 2 at some point. I caught myself bobbing my head here, which is a good sign. Love You Love is perhaps the song I am most aggressively ambivalent on in this contest so far. Don't like it, don't hate it, it's just there.

I've made it clear throughout my entire VGMC history that I do not, as a rule, like rhythm game music. So much of it feels manufactured for bpm. I am so, so glad I gave IMAGE a chance here -- this is fantastic! Damn, I love this; definitely my song of the day and maybe of the week, even compared to my support earlier. I'm often not a fan of songs that whiplash between styles and moods so starkly, but here, it just works? I don't have the vocabulary to explain why. I hope this makes it far, and that more rhythm game music sounds like this in future contests! Oh, I didn't even talk about Targets, which is probably the best song you could make loop for 38 seconds. That's about the amount of time it takes for me to fail utterly at trying to complete the challenge as Yoshi. I can only pick one of these? Fine, I'll go with the one that made me write a paragraph about it. Meanie.

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I'll get more hip-hop and rap in here next year, just you watch!

Sad as I am to see I'm Back wait to, well, be back next year, Vardelos is fantastic. Can't mind the loss too much.

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I'm Back (to Rise!)
The Thief
High Above the Land

It was going to be a hard sell for me to vote against what I think was my favorite of my noms this contest, but damn if Vrdels doesn't come close. The vocals are unorthodox but still fantastic; they fit the song brilliantly. This first match is cruel. Whoever wins deserves it, and I want to see both songs back if one doesn't retire. I also appreciate the people I've seen in this topic who have been excited by I'm Back -- I know it's not a style that gets represented much in these circles, let alone gets praise. Yes, I see the irony given the discussion Tox and I had a few days ago, and it only makes their point more accurate.

I've ripped on Gust in the past, especially on their non-Hymnos stuff, but this is more like it! Then again, I'm a mark for an electric fiddle. I listened to both loops and hadn't even realized it. The Antibirth song has a lot of dissonances in a shell that I like with them, but I guess I'm not feeling it as listening material for its own sake. Given how Isaac's narrative themes are, I expect it's amazing in context -- not that almost anyone is going to find it anymore now that Repentance is out.

I think that's a Theremin in the very start on Nilin? And a bit throughout too, which feels really weird on an otherwise orchestral piece -- okay, I think I see where this is going now with the electronic distortions, and they fit the game's theme. Is it cool? Yeah, it's pretty cool. Is it something I want to listen to again? Not really. All right, I must not give into nostalgia for the Shovel Knight theme. Is it weird to have nostalgia for a game that is itself based on nostalgia? Intro is definitely not a thing I enjoy, but the rest is chipper, and for once I think the chiptune aesthetic improves it.

Good day today.

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I'm disappointed the quote isn't... well, you know.

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It was banned in my house because it's a shitty game.

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Keeping your windows aligned while also doing tank things can get tricky, and unlike most other tank jobs you need those to stay aligned.

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I'll be the first to admit I'm not great at self-assessment, and while that's no excuse for being a dick, I've learned to value it when someone tells me "Hey you're being a dick, stop it," and explains how I wasn't getting it before.

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Toxtricity posted...

over nove isn't even that complicated. and you have really broken perception if you consider unusual NICHE music that took an active amount of effort and work to find people who appreciate "vgmc bait"

you're kicking people who are already weak while they're already down and you absolutely need to stop it

it is viciously invalidating and cruel: to berate a NICHE of people who already struggle to find friendship, anyone with remotely shared tastes. and speak about it as if it is the norm and something successful in these environments when it is NOT. it invalidates the struggles of people who have to dig deep to find the unusual stuff they enjoy at all.

i'm not saying you have to like it, but speaking about it if it is the "status quo" is objectively inaccurate, but more importantly, beyond rude, it's among the most cruel things you can say to the sorts of people who enjoy these things. whether or not you intend it or not, it makes you a horrible person to behave how you're behaving

I... see.

As much as my distaste for a lot of the more "niche" stuff remains and probably will continue to remain, I somehow hadn't realized how much it was slapping people in the face -- people I genuinely like having in these contests like you, who know more about music than I ever will. Despite a lot of this niche stuff becoming the VGMC norm (from my perspective), I suppose there aren't many other places welcoming to the niche crowd. It's dumb to feel like I'm the one being crowded out when I can go almost anywhere else for similar opinions.

I know it sounds like something I should have understood immediately, but I didn't, and I apologize for that. I'll refrain from being so vitriolic from now on. I appreciate the reality check.

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Rays of Light
Voyage of Promise
Breath of Forest

over-move seems likes way too much of a VGMC bait song. It's overly complicated for the sake of being complicated and suffers for it. NieR song is nice, chill, but has a certain gravitas to it most "chill" songs lack.

Voyage is fairly simple with its melody focus and kinda formulaic but hell, it does its job. It's not mind-blowing but I enjoyed listening to it all, which is not something I can say for its competitor. It's not bad, it just has too much going on and not enough oomph for that to be worth it. Guess I'm in a mood for less energetic songs today.

Mad Rat Dead continues to astound me for being a quasi-rhythm game with music that actually sounds good. Everlasting Love is a victim of my vocal snobbery -- I don't like talk-singing much outside of musical theater. The chorus is perfectly serviceable (if not super impressive), so I wish the verses were good!

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Justice has prevailed.

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NFUN posted...

maria is extremely 4/4

I'm keenly aware, it was just the thing that pushed me over the edge after a lot of other frustrations.

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Kimi ga Tame Re:boot
We All Lift Together
Space Mode

First two matches are solid.

Incoming toxic rant regarding the third one, spoilered so people don't have to read it if they care about their blood pressure. It's about what you probably think it would be about.

I'd stopped doing match-by-match reviews for a bit, but I'll say this: Maybe it works in context, but on its own, MARIA is a joke. It's a meme. It's a laughingstock of VGMC. It encapsulates one of two reasons a significant part of the board doesn't bother with us. As NFUN put it, it's literally three chords, over and over, in a way that would put me to sleep if it weren't for perhaps the most phoned-in wannabe choir vocals. I think seeing this take matches was the last straw that led me to throw up my hands and ditch VGMC for a while because "VGMC would put the sound of someone gargling for three minutes into retirement contention so long as it was in a 69/420 key signature and was from a Gust game." Thankfully, this criticism doesn't apply that much in this contest, but seeing this drivel take significant numbers of votes still makes me weep.

This might seem too passionate for a song so mediocre. Perhaps it would be better reserved for something more akin to Crazybus if it ever got in even though we've had things I'd call almost the same quality take matches. MARIA pisses me off because it's musical sophistry. It uses surface-level distractions to make it so that loop point is at 5:47 when it should really be at 1:33. It's the Kingdom Hearts of tracks: throw enough pseudo-deep takes in the listener's face so they don't realize that the entire foundation of the song is a heap of dirt.

Its contender isn't even that good, but god, please punt MARIA out of the contest.

Reach for the Moon is my favorite Touhou song and legit one of my favorite songs in the contest in any given year, but if I had to drag it behind the metaphorical woodshed in order to do the same to MARIA in VGMC, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Stop nominating this garbage. Please.

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No. Some of the stuff around him was funny despite him, not because of him.

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Painted Foothills
Pioneer's Horizon
Valestein Castle

Shout out to Normal Battle for both the nostalgia trip and for being such a damn good song given the state of its technology.

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So glad to see my boy (girl?) RtO not get thrown in front of a bus like it did last year.

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Is anyone gonna explain that's a B8 meme, or

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owoah whoat's this

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Return to Oblivion
Dienos Advento
Chrono Trigger

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Man, if those didn't have the stupid sticks jutting out of them they would look fantastic.

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topic

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

I've got all the mounts, outfits, and hair from the tomestones event. Anything else here worth going after?

Minions are pretty cheap and otherwise hard to come by, especially the 24-man ones. Emotes are good too unless you plan to do a lot of HoH and/or become a Eureka monster like Dante and me.

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Yuck Id

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At least I have fun running the Dalriada. Last two bosses are sick.

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A Long Fall
Op. 13
Light

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GTR Attack!
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation

GTFO Id


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For a friend? Whatever, it's fine.

For a relationship? Hard no. It's too gross in any quantity.

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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

I don't like fighting Pagaga :(

So you're gaga for Pagaga, is what you're saying.

Zadnor is significantly better than the Southern Front was, both in gameplay and in story. Map is way too damn big, and CEs could stand to pop a bit more often, but most of the CEs are pretty great, some are obnoxious, and one is Belias (aka the fucking worst). Seriously, if you get Belias, bring Reflect. You're going to need it. The Castrum equivalent is insanely cool with a sick final boss. The skirmishes are mostly the same, though I've yet to encounter a horrific one like the Saurtevoir + Colossus one was in Southern Front.

The story is... eh, it's not quite to the level of "good for FF14," but it's a lightyear better than everything else in Bozja. Certain characters finally get the spotlight they deserve. Others finally grow a personality. Not everything is abject misery porn for once.

They also haven't fixed lockboxes at all, so enjoy all the indigo stars and random corsages.

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Apex
Phantom
Excess Crayons

Apex... I think was one of my noms? If not I know I supported it along with the other FE3H track in the contest. It's fantastic "final confrontation music" even outside of its context(s). Not quite enough of a music buff to go into more detail! Its challenger -- oh no. Oh no. These "vocals." Monotone and breathy? It takes a certain kind of person to pull this off. This singer isn't that kind of person.

Maybe I'm getting Falcom overdose from this contest, but Unknown Pollution feels really Falcom to my unenlightened, plebeian ears. Not a bad thing -- like I said before, Falcom has a consistent level of quality, even if very few of their songs "wow" me. Same boat I'm in here. Phantom is pretty immersive and chill! I'm usually not a huge fan of songs like this, but it continues to do things to avoid monotony while keeping its low-key vibe. I didn't even realize when it began to loop. Man, this one's tough. I'm going to tip it to Phantom if only in the name of VGMC diversity.

Excess Crayons! Could've sworn this one retired a few years back. The intro is gorgeous and, and then it hits like truck-kun onto an isekai protagonist. It does get weaker throughout, especially in the couple spots where all the focus is on the super distorted background singers, but I adore lyrical singers, even if she could use a bit more vibrato and a bit less breathiness. 08:16 definitely hits some kind of strange Risk of Rain vibe for me, which I'm usually a big fan of. Unfortunately, its competition is stiff today.

Only one bad song today. Good day!

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Reach for the Moon
BWLAUTE
Sight of Silence

It's Reach for the Moon -- it's always been my favorite 2hu theme, and that's yet to change, 10+ games later. The percussion in the background sounding like the ticks of a clock after the intro sequence always gets me. Am I biased because Mokou is one of my favorite bosses of all time? Yeah, probably. It would've beaten all but the finest contenders, which Slope Cave is not. Don't care for the instrumentation, and while I wouldn't be irritated hearing it in game, I also wouldn't ever think to nominate it for this tournament.

More anime vocals, but I can get behind these! There's more soul to this song than its anime song predecessors, and I love this singer's timbre. The guitar and percussion drive it forward and accompany the song wonderfully. The song is formulaic, but you know what, there's nothing wrong with a good formula when it's executed well! Its challenger: Decent track with unfortunate soundfont. EZPZ.

Not a fan of Sight of Silence's intro, but once we get past that, this is a nice, groovy little track. I dig it! It doesn't wow me or anything, but it's pleasant and unique enough that I understand why it's here. Terminal March... oh man, Terminal March. I supported this during noms mostly to get another Supergiant track in (which VGMC really like to kick in the ribs for some reason), but this is among the weakest from its own game. It's not In Case of Trouble, Bynn the Breaker, Spike in a Rail, or even Mine Windbag Mine, let alone one of the excellent vocal tracks. It's with a heavy heart I vote against it, but my conscience is clear.

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It's Kill or Be Killed ~ Destroy Resort
Tellur Town (Autumn)
Fortune Favours The Bold

Hey, another of my noms! It's cheesy and I adore it. It'd take a whopper to make me vote against it... which Bloody Rose isn't. First 2/3 of the songs are just too repetitive without building on it in a way that matters to me. It's not bad, but it's not very good.

Well, this is more delightful than I'd expected from something from Pokken Tournament of all things! I don't really have the vocabulary to say much other than "solid violin melody with solid percussion and accompaniment good" and "Why couldn't that Arknights song be more like this?" For its opponent: If it takes a minute for your song to start, then I don't care about it, especially if that minute wasn't very pleasant. Hell, much of the actual song sounds like what you'd hear from a high school band all warming up before rehearsal haphazardly. Someone wrote this deliberately? Now it's turned into an entirely separate song halfway through with no transition -- and then again. Please escort this clown to composer jail.

Oh, I remember this Dicey Dungeons song from noms! I don't remember who was signal boosting it a bit, but I believe it was someone with whom I often butt heads musically, so I originally checked it out just to see how bad it was. Turn out it's good! Takes a while to get going, but it actually does something with its extended intro, building tension up. Not a head turner but solid. I usually like Einhander music but for some reason, this doesn't click with me much.

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Luis_Sera89 posted...

I'll believe anyone from the Arcanist's guild ever so much as making an appearance again after level 30 when I see it.

Pink cat honestly might. She's cute and stuff.

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