Board 8 > You rank 100 songs, as submitted by azuarc - THE LIST

(+) Yeah! (+)

what crack are you smoking calling Dedede's Theme atrocious o_O

--
thelefty for analysis crew 2008 imo -tranny
I have a third degree burn in flame-o-nomics -Sir Chris

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

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

16. Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes - Unification of the Land

Score: 22/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 33

Comments:
(Jeff Zero) the only genuinely decent song IMO (in that five-pack)
(Kenri) Unification of the Land does a lot that I associate with traditional Japanese music, which I like, but is much more fast-paced than, for example, most Okami music. It also mixes in a lot of modern touches that work pretty well. I wasn't a big fan of this back in... VGMC5 I think? But I've come around to it. It's pretty good.

Unification of the Land is an odd one for me. It starts off seeming pretty good, and tapers off for a bit into merely ok, and then it hits the really driving part at 1:57 at jerks me back into paying firm, full attention to it once again. This was one of the songs I was really uncertain what to do with during the VGMotD rank 500, but it doesn't seem like the judges had much difficulty with it, as it earned just one score below a 3.



15. Shatter - Kinetic Harvest

Score: 23/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 70

Comments:
(Ed Bellis) not my favorite Shatter song
(MycroProcessor) Time to harvest Kinetics Shatter Has A Nice Sound Track

And Kinetic Harvest had no scores below a 3, which I believe makes it the first song that bears that distinction. I find that a bit surprising considering that as much as I generally like the sound Module puts into the Shatter soundtrack, I'm not a fan of Kinetic Harvest nearly as much as I am, say, Argon Refinery or Neon Mines. While I'm not surprised the song gets a decent reception, I didn't think it would be quiet this decent.



14. MegaMari - Prologue, Title, & Final Battle

Score: 23/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 44

Comments:
(TheArkOfTurus) Augh, more Touhou. Except I actually like the MegaMari songs I've heard, so I guess I don't mind!
(ImTheMacheteGuy) Not really a fan of the intro, but it takes a nice turn at around 0:33 and then further picks up. Starts to actually sound Touhou-ish at around 1:10. It actually works as both a title screen and a final battle. Still think my favorite track from the game is Yuyuko's stage. 7/10
(Ytterbium_70) My ears...they came close to bleeding here because of how loud this one was.

Loud, Ytt? Turn down your volume? Anyway, he and everyone else previewing this song gave it at least a 3, and it had the exact same distribution at Kinetic Harvest of 3-3-3-4-4-5, just barely surpassing it on tiebreakers. I personally find the song kind of funny because it psyches you out twice on the direction you think it's going, before breaking into the main melody with the...er...I have no idea what you call that instrument. I'm just going to label it a "synth."



13. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! - Training Theme

Score: 23/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 42

Comments:
(FL81) nice 8-bit tune going on here
(NioraptH) I.... I'm hyped

After dropping the first round completely with a 1, this song went on to grab straight fives for the three rounds after that, and I thought that just maybe this one was coming out of left field to challenge for the top of the list. While its final two marks were strong, they weren't fives, and here it sits at 11th. Still, how awesome would it have been for this classic to go top five?

12. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 - Brahman

Score: 23/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 20

Comments:
(Kenri) Pretty good. As usual I'm not a big fan of battle themes, but I've got no big complaints about this one. I really like how it periodically breaks up the song with little piano interludes.
(Natwaf_akidna) Best of the lot, though it's missing something to kick it to a higher degree of liking from me... but I'm not sure what.
(Ed Bellis) totally forgettable
(MycroProcessor) whoa some of the chromatics here are really nice for making the chord progression less OBVIOUS sounding. Awesome SYNTH sounds.

One black eye from Ed Bellis, (not the last time we'll hear that,) and the rest were fours and fives. I think this song is pretty amazing and I'm surprised the only DDS song to appear in VGMC is Battle For Survival, which isn't even half the song Brahman (also sometimes called Divine Entity) is. The captions on the video are pretty a pro pos: the quiet part at 1:04 is really good, and then the climax at 1:17 is simply great. This was #3 on underworld23's top 100 RPG battle themes, and considering his second was (the entire) Dancing Mad and his first was utterly laughable, I'm considering this the proxy #1 on his list.



11. Final Fantasy VIII - Force Your Way

Score: 23/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 3

Comments:
Speaking of great RPG battle themes, this one is so frequently overlooked IMO. I mean, yeah, it's got competition from its own game from The Extreme and The Man With the Machine Gun, but for a standard boss battle theme, I'd take this on top of everything else Final Fantasy has to offer, and that isn't exactly damning with faint praise next to songs like The Decisive Battle and Still More Fighting.



10. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue Rescue Team - Ascend to the Heavens

Score: 24/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 35

Comments:
I can't help but think that some of my saved comments got eaten along the way considering there have been a few songs now where I've been forced to give the entire play-by-play on my own. However, I don't have much to say about this one. The intro is neat, but once it goes into the main melody, it's kind of just happy sing-songy, and would be extremely bland if it weren't so well done.



9. Castle Crashers - The Race Around the World

Score: 24/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 13

Comments:
(MycroProcessor) WHOA A DESTINY SONG WITH SYNTHS IN IT there is one MAJOR KEY-y part that is out of place that I both like and don't like because I like minor more than major and I wish more of this song was minor and the major part doesn't make the minor parts cooler or fit with it in a nice way or anything but I DO LIKE the fact that it makes it kind of WEIRD. I LIKE this but it is always one that is really hard to RANK for me. Depending on my mood it could either be my 2nd favorite here or my least favorite of these 5.

This song is both silly and great at the same time. I'm amazed that the composer (I assume Waterflame?) managed to make so many different sounds work together, including that weird hiccuping noise I've heard others describe as a banjo. I'm also amazed that the song got such good support here, when I've heard a lot of people decry this song as being a bit lame or annoying. Mycro was the one that gave it the weakest rating, a 2, and you can see from his comment that he could have put it just about anywhere in his ordering. Otherwise it received 3-4-5-5-5.

And that brings us to the top eight. Who will emerge triumphant? Who will be left behind? Take your guesses now. The remaining line-up:

* Baldr Sky - Ruins of Silence
* Dungeon Fighter Online - Hamelin
* Gran Turismo 2 - Moon Over the Castle
* Legend of Heroes VI - Silver Will
* Super Mario 64 - Dire, Dire Docks
* VVVVVV - Positive Force
* Xenosaga III - Hepatica
* Zone of the Enders 2 - Beyond the Bounds

Uhh... Dire, Dire Docks for Top 3?

--
My Little Phineas and Ferb: Summer is Magic!
Aww, I lost to SuperNiceDog, Winner of the Rivalry Rumble Guru Contest

Eh, laws of probability say you have a 37.5% chance of being right on that. Care to be more bold?

I dunno the other songs well enough- oh what the hell, peg it at Number 3.

--
My Little Phineas and Ferb: Summer is Magic!
Aww, I lost to SuperNiceDog, Winner of the Rivalry Rumble Guru Contest

that's an amazing top 8

especially ruins of silence, moon over the castle, and silver will

--
Boomshine
~Justin_Crossing

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!

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

Force Your Way is way too high

--
thelefty for analysis crew 2008 imo -tranny
I have a third degree burn in flame-o-nomics -Sir Chris

Kenri posted...

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

Uhhh not quite. <_<

Whoops! OK, here it sits at 13th. My B.

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. >_>

You might be surprised, depending on when the last time you looked was. The current leader got there when the previous leader(s) dropped a bit in round 5.

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

In spite of my best efforts to get you all to vote for cruddy songs, I have been foiled once again. Curses!...Incidentally, my #74 is still floating somewhere in that top 8, as well as 51. (The rest are 30, 14, 12, 8, 4, and 2.)

8. Gran Turismo 2 - Moon Over the Castle

Score: 24/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 2

Comments:
(Ed Bellis) ...has good parts but is overrated
(NioraptH) the intro is like "how pretty~ my fragile heart~" and then suddenly.. BADASS RIFFS AW YEAH!!! TWANG~ Somehow this song sounds really ~romantic~ <3 <3

This will be the last time my ranking is higher than the board's. MotC took a pair of threes, a pair of fours, and a pair of fives. I love the piano work at the beginning and end of the piece, and the energy of the guitar sections in the middle. I've listened to a few other versions of Moon Over the Castle, and I can't say I like any of them better than GT2's.



7. Xenosaga III - Hepatica

Score: 24/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 74

Comments:
(Kenri) Not the best XS3 choice. Give me Godsibb any day. I will say that Hepatica is really cool as a boss theme, but outside the game it suffers from long stretches of time where basically nothing happens. ...Not that those aren't there in-game too, but they're much less noticeable. All that being said, when Hepatica is actually doing something, it's really good! I just wish it was about half as long so it could always be doing something.
(xp1337) Hepatica was the only song of these 5 that I knew for sure I heard before, and I knew it was pretty much automatically going to be the highest ranked of the 5. Excellent song, though not Xenosaga III's best (Godsibb.) Such a great OST, one of my favorites. As a bonus, this is the best of the 3 Hepatica versions in the game.
(Ytterbium_70) It's a beautiful song, though it drags on for a bit though, and that annoys me a tiny amount

I think this song is a bit overrated. I like it; it wouldn't be here in the first place if I didn't like it a little, but I'm amazed that across five rankers, it got 23/25. It would be challenging for the top of the list if I weren't forced to fill in for somebody and assigned it a 1. (It had good competition.) Still, where others have pulled down songs that are slower or more touchy-feely for being boring, I have to admit that I find this one rather soporific. It's pretty, but it goes on for over five minutes, which is a bit more than my attention span can handle.



6. Baldr Sky - Ruins of Silence

Score: 24/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 30

Comments:
(TheArkOfTurus) One of my favorite new discoveries of VGMC6.
(xp1337) Eh, Ruins of Silence is okay I guess, but that's about all you'll get out of me.

What Ark said, basically. The first time I listened to RoS, I wasn't sure if I even liked it or not, but after hearing it a second time and getting into the right listening mood for it, I was blown away. Unlike Hepatica, this slower piece maintains my attention more readily, as just when it's about to lose me, the guitar enters. That spanish guitar. while not technically impressive, is a masterful part in being exactly what it needs to be without trying too hard. The toughest match in my VGMC6 prediction brackets was this vs Savior of the Waking World (or whatever that Homestuck song is called.)

5. Legend of Heroes VI - Silver Will

Score: 24/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 51

Comments:
(SoliPants) Tol choice was pretty obvious here.
(xp1337) Silver Will was the other song I was very familiar with before. I actually was having fun with this during the other songs. I was hoping for this version of Silver Will because I prefer this one, but you said Legend of Heroes VI and not SC, so I started second guessing myself on what Silver Will I was going to get (Kind of like Hepatica last time, except I feel the default answer there is (KOS-MOS) as it was.) It started getting intense because I think first place on the rankings was depending on the version here, because I think I'd take Run and One Final Effort over the other Silver Will.
(Kenri) I remember listening to this once a while ago and just thinking it was "okay"... But it's actually pretty good. Maybe I'm thinking of a different song. Anyway, this does have some weird sections that I'm not a big fan of, and it's kind of long, but when it's good, it's really good.
(th3l3fty) oh my god did you seriously give me Positive force and Silver Will in the same set...Silver Will would get +5 from me in literally any group without Positive force

You'll note the one person who ranked it that did not comment was Ed Bellis, who apparently has it in for this song. Silver Will had a near perfect record until he decided to nail it with a 1. He was determined to see it not be the #1 on the list, and quite frankly I agree with him. It's a great piece, but we've had three pieces in a row that are a touch on the slow side, and Silver Will in particular just seems to sit on its melody and not do much with it. It's perfectly deserving to be somewhere in the upper end of the list, but it was on pace to go top 3, and I think that's just a pinch too high for a song this monotonic.



4. VVVVVV - Positive Force

Score: 25/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 8

Comments:
(xp1337) Positive Force is great though. Probably my favorite VVVVVV song, although Pushing Onwards and Predestined Fate are both up there with it.
(NioraptH) delicious chiptunes and it just sounds so CUTE and FLUFFY~

And finally we have our first song to transcend an average of 4.0 per round. With three fives and two threes (and a four,) it just comes out above the line, but just misses top three. Well, ok, not really, since third place had 27/30, but it was one place away from medalling. I can't say it wouldn't be deserving; it's rare you hear a chiptune that deserves such honors, but of course this is a contemporary chiptune rather than an old school NES piece. IIRC, I read somewhere that SoulEye wrote the piece using exactly two sound samples. VVVVVV's soundtrack in general is excellent, but this song is indisputably the crown jewel in the collection.



ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF AZUARCBALL Z: Now down to the top three, who will bring home top honors? Dire Dire Docks looks poised as the favorite to snuff out its remaining competition, but Beyond the Bounds is not prepared to go down without a fight. Meanwhile, as the two are duking it out, could underdog Hamelin stun the field and the world by defeating them both? Find out next time!

naturally the two best songs in the top 5 got 4th and 5th

--
thelefty for analysis crew 2008 imo -tranny
I have a third degree burn in flame-o-nomics -Sir Chris

I'm feeling like Hamelin got lucky with me. It would have gotten destroyed in some of the other groups I had.

Think I'll just assume Hepatica won instead!

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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
GotD (219/384) Melee v FFX

Holy crap, my first guess was right.

--
My Little Phineas and Ferb: Summer is Magic!
Aww, I lost to SuperNiceDog, Winner of the Rivalry Rumble Guru Contest

3. Dungeon Fighter Online - Hamelin

Score: 27/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 12

Comments:
(Ed Bellis) pretty cool, I love ASIAN SONGZ
(xp1337) DFO song that isn't Wind of You/Main Theme? Eh, whatever. (Hamelin's all right)

I seem to be the biggest (or maybe only?) supporter of music from DFO on the board, so needless to say I'm absolutely astounded that this came in third. However, nobody gave it below a 4. Maybe I shoudln't be surprised; it's a really good song. It's just one I didn't think was going to garner a great deal of support.

I've played a fair bit of DFO, but I haven't gotten far enough into the game to see the part where this is from. Actually, I've only gotten as far as the third main map area, come to think of it. Plus, the U.S. version of the game often lacks behind the Korean. For whatever it's worth, DFO just went up on Steam, so if anyone's playing it let me know and maybe I'll start up again.



2. Super Mario 64 - Dire, Dire Docks

Score: 28/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 4

Comments:
I know many considered this the likely winner, and it just missed. The only difference between DDD and our #1 is that the lone person who did not give it a 5 assigned it a 3, whereas our #1 got a 4 besides it's Yahtzee of fives.

The song itself is quite possibly the greatest for a song on an N64 game. Nothing else comes to mind to rival it, at least, and the piece definitely adds to the magic of Mario 64. After finishing Bob-omb Battlefield and then a brief stay at another level, Jolly Roger Bay opens up. And while JRB is peaceful and tranquil, it's a water level. How often is a water level enjoyable? Like Fear Factory, this is a song that placated me while I got frustrated with the area it plays in. DDD also resurfaces later in the level for which it is named, which is another frustrating water level. Still, the song breaks free of being associated with annoying water stages and is simply plain good. It's funny how it can loop and just add a subdued drum track and add to the vibe of the song.



AND FINALLY, YOUR NUMBER ONE...


1. Crazy Bus - Title Screen

Score: 30/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 0

Comments:
(xp1337) AMG, Crazy Bus so good!
(Ed Bellis) It's so bad it's awesome.
(Kenri) Listening to this is like being entranced by hypnotoad.
(TheArkOfTurus) Easily the best track in the whole list, perhaps anywhere.
(NioraptH) The random noises are so <3. First I was T_T, and then I went T___T, and finally T_______T

Ah, dear sweet Crazy Bus. It was so unfair putting this on the list, because seriously what else on the list was going to compete with it? Perhaps a horrible decision of mine since it would have been nice to see what B8 things when I already know exactly what they think about this piece. But I suppose we can just ignore this one and look at the next track down as the real #1.

So, er, speaknig of the real #1...

1. ZONE OF THE ENDERS 2: THE 2ND RUNNER: BEYOND THE BOUNDS

Score: 29/30
Azuarc's Ranking: 14

Comments:
(Kenri) Aside from that crazy noise at like 40 seconds in (and I've even started to tolerate that after listening to this so many times), I'm a fan of every part of Beyond the Bounds. It even has one of my all-time favorite lines from all the VG songs with lyrics I've heard: Fear to see "The World to Be"
(xp1337) Beyond the Bounds is pretty good. Not my favorite Zone of the Enders song, but even still.
(NioraptH) delicious vocals, random twang-ey instrument thing, violins... SO GOOD~~~ and Dingo Egret

After 40 seconds of prelude where you're wondering if the song comes in, it gives us this sudden opening with a sound effect I can't identify and Nio has told me we should just refer to as "twang." Surprisingly, for a top pick, this is a vocal track. Not that I have any idea what the singers are singing, as it doesn't even sound like words to me. (Yes, I know it's in another language, but at least normally the "words" sound like they have actually phonemes in them.) The verse is engaging, the chorus (which switches into English) serves as a decent change-up, and then the bridge starts at about 3:30, and treats us to a great violin solo. We get more of that in the ending at about the 5 minute mark.

I'm not the least bit surprised this song went high. I am slightly surprised it went #1, as the only person to not give it a 5 was superangelo128 in the first round with a 4. As a result of being a point behind, it wasn't at the top of the list each time I sorted until the songs that did start with straight fives like Dire Dire Docks, Silver Will and Hepatica got out of the way. Meanwhile, BtB just get plugging away with fives and didn't look back.



So there you have it, folks. Your list of 100 ranked songs, the list that YOU ranked. Certainly a little different than the usual "hey give me 100 songs and I will rank them all by myself" and perhaps a little more entertaining on the part of the host. Instead of trying to frustrate myself trying to put these songs in some semblance of a perfect order, I got to simply do data entry. (OK, that's not fun, but seeing the results was.)

Your complete list and all the delicious data about what happened can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoS8GGHS9FDGdEdBOG04RWtuV0hSS0RhaVVWcW5xOXc

I want to give a big thank you to everyone who participated on this list. Kenri, ArkOfTurus, Ed Bellis, and Mega Mana especially devoted themselves tirelessly to ranking as much as humanly possible. When it became impossible to give them new lists of 5 because they had seen it all pretty much, others like xp1337 stepped up. Quite a few others took multiple ranking sets, and I appreciate that greatly considering that we ranked each one six times, and therefore that was 600 songs to rank.

I hope you all enjoyed the festivities, the body of works that were used, and the results. Maybe we'll do it again some time with user submissions and user rankings.

Ham'eh'lin

not too keen on Beyond the Bounds either

--
thelefty for analysis crew 2008 imo -tranny
I have a third degree burn in flame-o-nomics -Sir Chris

Oh man, it sounds like I missed the opportunity to write false praise for everyone's favorite song, Crazy Bus. Truly, an all-time great. Never before has a song touched so many people.

Beyond the Bounds an okay winner, there were far, far worse.

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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
GotD (219/384) Melee v FFX

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.

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

Yeah maybe you shouldn't let us see the spreadsheet until after it's over, if at all. You study it hard enough and you can see who's going to win before you tell us. Good contest though, think I would have rather seen DFO win it if not VVVVVV, but both did pretty decent so I'm happy I suppose.

--
Currently Playing: Bioshock, Portal 2, The Real Texas, Resonance.
Last Game Beat: Thomas Was Alone.

SoliPants posted...

Yeah maybe you shouldn't let us see the spreadsheet until after it's over, if at all.

If I wasn't lazy, I'd have made two files -- one just a list with the songs and their youtube links, and the other a private spreadsheet.

I am, however, lazy.

bump just to prevent a purge before anyone who wants to gets to see this

one last time before I leave this thread to the mercies of the forum gods (or whomever else decides to strike up conversation)