Board 8 > [VGMCXX #Reloaded] Wind Garden/Douse Shinundakara, Deadman Falling/Promised Pain

(+) Yeah! (+)

Note: today is the last day for you to do Bracket A predictions. I will be entering the values into the bracket at the end of this set of matches.

Welcome to today's topic for Video Game Music Contest 12, a tournament of the best tracks from games, as decided upon by you, the voters.

Links:
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=469506
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lzzbpDP2whgvOTN2XHETfWg79IyPs01jdwIQu_L2C7k/
Discussion and results thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/76419785
Main bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RFBXCwz0vAKZg8V0rnrKHsE
Side bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RFI-vkdyFa8-bXzbFLMLl1X

Rules:

- Listen to both of the songs. Links have conveniently been provided for both songs. Even if Song A is your favorite of all-time and Song B is from a series you hate... Listen. To. Both. (If I have suspicions your vote is not based on a fair and impartial preference, it will be disqualified.)
- Obvious contest rules apply (no alts, one vote per person, no rallying, etc.).
- Please make your voting options clear, rather than burying them in text.
- Each set of matches lasts 24 hours, even if the new one isnt up by then.
- Always vote on the versions of the song provided, not versions from different sources.
- If you know ahead of time that you're not going to be around and you want to vote in advance, post your choices in the discussion/bracket topic.
- Please do NOT post tallies/score updates in the middle of the match, as this has a tendency to directly influence matches.
- You don't have to vote in all the matches, but it'd be cool if you did!

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Match #1:

Super Mario Galaxy - Gusty Garden Galaxy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEIWhy-urqM" data-time="

Gravity Rush - Douse Shinundakara

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWrKHWpLn0U" data-time="

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Match #2:

REFLEC BEAT The Reflesia of Eternity - Deadman falling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbG2iqzUGQ4" data-time="

Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - Promised Pain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXm6JyNMPsE" data-time="

.
Side bracket (what should we call this?):

Persona 5 - The Whims Of Fate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA0nSkSxA3E" data-time="

She Wants Me Dead - She Wants Me Dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq1Ep2hrHzw" data-time="

.
Easy vote form:
Gusty Garden Galaxy / Douse Shinundakara
Deadman falling / Promised Pain
The Whims Of Fate / She Wants Me Dead
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Deadman falling
She Wants Me Dead

Three good and tough matches.

Super Mario Galaxy - Gusty Garden Galaxy
Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - Promised Pain
Persona 5 - The Whims Of Fate

motion to strike the first match from the bracket
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Douse Shinundakara
Promised Pain
The Whims Of Fate
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Deadman falling
The Whims Of Fate

Match 2 is a good one, match 1 and side bracket were easy picks for me.
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Super Mario Galaxy - Gusty Garden Galaxy
REFLEC BEAT The Reflesia of Eternity - Deadman falling
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Douse Shinundakara
Promised Pain
She Wants Me Dead
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Promised Pain
She Wants Me Dead
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Gusty Garden Galaxy - oh hey a French song. Not bad, but not the best. Gusty Garden is great. About the limit of songs I like but not enough to download.

Deadman falling- Modern Nekomata Master usually excellent, and DF is no exception. Pretty sure I could fill a 64 song bracket with NM songs I like if given the time and motivation. PP's okay. I like a lot of Yuki Kajiura songs more than this.

The Whims Of Fate - She Wants Me Dead is like a gimmick song that goes on three times as long as it should. Still entertaining, but not enough to beat something I actually like (Whims of Fate best Persona 5 dungeon theme).
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Douse Shinundakara
Deadman falling
She Wants Me Dead

I don't really like Mario Galaxy as much as most people in general. This one in particular I don't really like--it's like there's not really any melody to the song at all? It doesn't really feel atmospheric either. Like it's just kind of there. Douse Shinundakara is great all-around. Almost supported it during nominations.

Second match is a weird and hard one for me. Yuki Kajiura is actually a god (or goddess i guess) and I don't care what anyone says. That being said Promised Pain is probably not one of my favorite songs by her. It's a bit too...reserved I guess, and it ends up sounding a bit like generic jrpg final boss fare. Still being a Kajiura song it is at least solid. Then the REFLEC BEAT song I don't even know. The first half it sounds just confused to me (which yes is pretty unambiguously a bad thing in my book), and the repetitive bass backing in the latter half is in general a bad way to get me interested in a song. However the song (well the melody anyway) does get much better in the back half, and does some stuff I like pretty well. At a minimum it's a much more ambitious song than Promised Pain, so there's that. Think I'm going to go with Deadman Falling, though I don't know if it's the right call or not. (Note: I will also say the beginning has sounded somewhat less "confused" upon repeated listens. Also I liked the song enough to listen to it multiple times to straighten my thoughts out, whereas I have absolutely no desire to listen to Promised Pain again, so I'm going to say this was the right choice.)

Whims of Fate is probably what I would pick as the most overrated song on the P5 soundtrack. I do mostly like it still, but not nearly as much as most other people have said. The background beat is pretty solid, but I'm much more lukewarm about the vocals generally speaking. In other news, I remember She Wants me Dead from last year. Don't remember if it was just from nominations or if it made it into the contest itself, but it was pretty cool I guess. This is a style I'm not big on usually, but this is also one of the better examples of it imo.

Douse Shinundakara > Deadman falling > She Wants Me Dead > Whims of Fate > Promised Pain > Gusty Garden Galaxy
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Gusty Garden Galaxy - One of the best Mario tracks to exist VS uh whatever that vocalist is. I'm a sucker for made-up language but she is just not doin' anything for me.

Deadman falling - Deadman falling is a lot like Izanami no Nageki to me, its Nekomata doing what he does best and doing it well, but not as memorable because its just acting as a toned-down version of one of his top-tier works; in this case both of the Elferias, and in Izanami's case pretty much everything. Meanwhile, Promised Pain is just straight up boring to me, so... that's that. You're lucky I'm a sucker for your generic style, Nekomata.

The Whims Of Fate - kinda fun VS actively annoying, cool.

Deadman vs. Promised Pain is easily the hardest match for me so far. Which I prefer of the two pretty much depends on the day. I think in my favourites bracket I had Deadman as winning, but today I'm digging Promised Pain more, so...

Super Mario Galaxy - Gusty Garden Galaxy
Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - Promised Pain
Persona 5 - The Whims Of Fate
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Douse Shinundakara
Deadman falling
The Whims Of Fate
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I can finally post~! *dances*

Okay, here are my choices for this round:

Douse Shinundakara ~ Yassssssssss. So cool, like the Roaring Twenties :D

Deadman falling ~ This is a tough match, but mostly because I don't think either song is all that memorable. This one gets the vote for making me think of FFVII and winter.

She Wants Me Dead ~ I wanna sing this one, like, all the time. So much fun! Very New Orleans blues.

Douse Shinundakara
Deadman falling
The Whims Of Fate

I kinda have Gusty Garden Galaxy in my head as the defining SMG track-- nothing reminds me more of that game than this track. It's pretty solid-- really well-produced and arranged like almost everything that game had. There's more interesting tracks from the soundtrack, I think, but few that capture the spirit of the game quite as well.

When I set about nominating tracks for this iteration of VGMC, I decided to stop worrying about a lot of things that would hold me back from nominating tracks-- is this track something from a game most people haven't heard the soundtrack for, or will it have enough 'general appeal', or is it 'musically interesting', or whatever. I just decided to nominate tracks that I liked-- that made me happy to listen to.

Douse Shinundakara is basically that (despite a title that sounds like it's taking cues from the Zero Escape series). The style appeals to me. I love the weird singsong faux French and the singer that commits to it in sort of a freewheeling way. It's upbeat and fun. It makes me happy to listen to.

Deadman falling is another eminently listenable track from Nekomata Master's oeuvre, and I like his style, but what makes it stand out from other Nekomata Master tracks? Sometimes I wish he would surprise me more often.

Promised Pain is also someone not really straying too far from a comfort zone-- Kajiura goes back to the chanting chorus and the very melodramatic string arrangements. And hey, that works sometimes-- I'm a fan of Communication Breakdown. Here I'm fond of the stuff at 0:39 and 1:46 (why the latter? I just... like it, I guess). It gives me something to look forward to in the song but I find most of the rest of the time I'm just waiting for those two parts. But hey, based on the related videos it looks like it was used in a figure skating routine. That's pretty rad.

The Whims of Fate drips with the same kind of style Persona 5 has in spades, and it's pretty fun.

She Wants Me Dead could be fun, too, if I'm willing to stomach its quirks. I don't think it's quite getting over that hump today.

Match 1: Douse Shinundakara

Match 2: Deadman falling

Side Bracket: The Whims Of Fate

Honestly, none of these tracks were doing it for me. Aside from Whims of Fate that is. Whims of Fate is great.

Douse shinundakara also: rude
Promised Pain
She wants me dead

holy wow these votes are emo.
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Promised Pain
The Whims Of Fate
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Super Mario Galaxy - Gusty Garden Galaxy
Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - Promised Pain
She Wants Me Dead - She Wants Me Dead
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Douse Shinundakara
Promised Pain
The Whims Of Fate
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At first I thought the poll just said "favorite Fire Emblem track" and was laughing pretty hard though I was wondering why it included the Falcom song Id ~ Purpose.

Gusty Garden Galaxy
Deadman falling
The Whims Of Fate

Deadman basically carries the day.
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Douse Shinundakara
Promised Pain
She Wants Me Dead

weakest four pack

Gusty Garden Galaxy
Promised Pain
The Whims Of Fate

Janus5k posted...

At first I thought the poll just said "favorite Fire Emblem track" and was laughing pretty hard though I was wondering why it included the Falcom song Id ~ Purpose.

It was originally just going to be Mario track, and then I realized that would only be 4 songs, so I looked for more Nintendo and realized it was basically all Fire Emblem, with a side of Pokemon. And yeah, I know, I always screw up with that pesky Id Purpose. I'll be sure to put it in the proper poll next time.
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Deadman falling
The Whims Of Fate

Gusty Garden Galaxy
Promised Pain
The Whims Of Fate
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Deadman falling
The Whims Of Fate
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Super Mario Galaxy - Gusty Garden Galaxy
REFLEC BEAT The Reflesia of Eternity - Deadman falling

side match later
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Day 4 let's go!

Douse Shinundakara sets up with that bass and strings section at the beginning, as it continues on a woodwind instrument starts to play (sounds like bassoon?l), and as the song hits its apex - a piano starts to play. The lyrics serve as a melody that connects the whole song - notably, the singer repeats the same lyrics that begins at the start of the song.

I haven't played Gravity Rush, but from what I know, the lyrics are in a made-up language - as well as a track from the sequel, Gravity Rush 2.

Gusty Garden Galaxy is orchestral. Violins, bass, strings - the exception is a guitar that plays throughout the song. Unlike Douse Shinundakara, Gusty Garden's melody play constantly throughout the song - and I think this is to lesser effect.

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Promised Pain is too slow for my liking - it's not interesting enough. There's the beat, I guess... but apart from that... eh.

Deadman falling on the other hand, I hadn't heard before - the accordian, fast paced snare drum beat, violin/la and the glockenspiel all combine together in order to make a song that sounds like it's moving forward at very fast speeds - but cohesively, I guess? It's weird. I like it.

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This one's pretty easy. Whims of Fate, no contest. She Wants Me Dead just sounds like annoying dubstep-trap, while Whims of Fate is really funky - organ riffs in the background, and a bass playing over the energetic vocals in the game - I feel like Whims of Fate would work even without this leading melody. A bongo/drum beat goes steadily through the song.

Meanwhile... DE-DE-DEDEDE-DEDE - it's annoying. Bleh.

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My votes:

Douse Shinundakura
Deadman falling
Whims of Fate

Gusty Garden Galaxy
Promised Pain
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Deadman falling
She Wants Me Dead
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Gusty
Pain
Dead

First match is brutal. I forget which one I picked in my bracket, but I remember spending like twice as much time picking a winner for that than any other in R1.
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Deadman falling
She Wants Me Dead

Kind of a weak day all around.

-Gusty wins by being an orchestrated piece done right.
-Deadman wins by sounding Touhou-like in a good way.
-She Wants Me Dead wins just for being catchier and less cheesy than The Whims of Fate.

Deadman Falling > Gusty Garden Galaxy > Douse Shinundakura > She Wants Me Dead > Promised Pain > The Whims of Fate
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Douse Shinundakara
Deadman falling
She Wants Me Dead

The first two matches are pretty easy. I like the ones I voted for and I really don't like their opponents. Douse Shinundakara is the best of them. The side bracket match is much closer, as I am a fan of both songs, they both have good style and are very catchy. I just think She Wants Me Dead executes its style better.
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Ed votes:
Gusty Garden Galaxy
Deadman falling
She Wants Me Dead

I'm voting:
Gusty Garden Galaxy
Promised Pain
She Wants Me Dead
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Deadman falling
The Whims of Fate

why the hell did somebody nominate a persona 5 song for the side bracket
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Promised Pain
The Whims Of Fate
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Promised Pain
She Wants Me Dead
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Douse Shinundakara
Deadman falling
She Wants Me Dead
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Douse Shinundakara

The Whims Of Fate
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Gusty Garden Galaxy
Deadman falling
She Wants Me Dead

Pretty solid matches today. Feels like a step up from the last few!
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Gravity Rush - Douse Shinundakara
Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - Promised Pain
Persona 5 - The Whims Of Fate
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She Wants Me Dead - She Wants Me Dead

both bad though
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