Board 8 > [VGMC] Video Game Music Contest 13 FINALS: Revenger vs EXSPHERE

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to the finals for Video Game Music Contest 13, a tournament of the best tracks from games, as decided upon by you, the voters.

Links:
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=471679
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17rEeB1_oYWgryWzIxOaZXw2a381gKGnMegjHCG_2OTQ

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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 (NORMALLY) 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!

Polling for this thread will close at 10:00 Eastern on Thursday, despite the start time.
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Today's match:

Crystar - Revenger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFCi2UonT4k" data-time="

Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BywGBJDXQ0c" data-time="

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IMPORTANT FOR ALL NEW VOTERS!
If this is your first vote in the contest, please copy/paste the following line into your post or your vote will not be counted. (Sorry, we have to do these things in the final rounds, after the way the year with Megalovania ended.)

I certify that I have read the rules, listened to both songs, and am making my decision based on the quality of the songs present.

Easy vote form:
Revenger / Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

Final song lyric trivia:

ubaisaru
hari no shira be
rinneno hito tari

shito habatatsuami
koi kuraishiro kara
itsu oa tooku kikoe
amai kirokubane sasameku

kuroi hana
ano koe ga
kowaretamero aru mama

kuroi hana
ano uta de
tsukurimaitsu aru mama
imi

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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Revenger

Revenger
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

truly this was

a Video Game Music Contest 13
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Crystar - Revenger
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Revenger
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class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE
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class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

This contest was even better than last years

Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

This is not The Final Song
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

Revenger

I have reached my conclusion.

Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

Great finals, great contest.
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

this is bad

Revenger
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Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

QuelI->{
Cls(ih) {
XeEX[handi];

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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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UF8 posted [p:902217589] in [VGMC] Sunshine Coastline (Ys) vs Hidra Heteromycin (Ar Nosurge) -- THE FINALS!! [t:76656199]...

Hidra Heteromycin

I don't think I've really talked much about Hidra this contest.

[...]it was also very much just my fourth favourite Gust song in the contest. Maybe third.

Still, it's a disservice to consider that such a bad thing. All of those top four were ones that would probably be within my top 20 for the contest, and four of my favourite Gust songs that have appeared to date (the only other one I wish was here is Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;, which I keep forgetting about during noms).

That was when I first made a playlist on youtube for planned noms this contest, and naturally it was the first song added. The fourpack it was in back in VGMC9 was extremely top tier to me, even if the actual results didn't live up to that. Also featuring secretly the best non-vocal vocal song in Umineko, the guitar instrumental theme of Ougon Musou Kyoku X (as heard in Ougon Musou Kyoku Cross aka. Golden Fantasia instead), and also the long version of Following Flow, which is of course a long Nekomata Master song so of course I considered it super top tier, I didn't even take exsphere out of round 2 in my favourites bracket. But that didn't mean it didn't leave a strong impression on me. While people were hyping up crayons and other gust things in the following years... Without actually remembering what it was, I kept thinking about it specifically. However, given its poor performance at the time and general lack of buzz following that point, it didn't really fall back into my consciousness until last contest, when four of my other top 5 gust songs that had been in contests to date all made it in (my favourite was actually sayonara).

Anyway, I rambled in the finals then as I always do and finally remembered it in the process. And I'm glad I did, as it became immediately apparent that it was significantly more in line with board 8 tastes than it was when it got mauled by some rock remix of big blue, and the only reason it wasn't really talked about was because everyone else apparently forgot about it too. Dowolf actually responded to me in that topic not even realising it had been in before despite me clarifying as much in my post lol

I suppose more than anything, it was because of that response that really made me decide I wanted to push for it.

Regrettably, ironically, I yet again didn't take it past round 2 in my favourites bracket thanks to landing in yet another four(3)pack with another of my complete overall favourites. Of course, that doesn't mean I couldn't be more glad that it actually did make it this far. It's exsphere, it's just a really strong mindfuck of a song and nothing can take away from that.

And so, it is with all of that exposition that I too must provide a bit of a mindfuck and vote for Revenger. As far as underdog stories go, I wish its origin didn't entail brutally murdering another of my favourite Gust songs in round 2 and making every song after it look phenomenal with extremely narrow losses, but hey. Having made it past that R2-4 gauntlet, I've had time to realise that this song has grown on me a lot, and that I didn't fully understand just how much I liked it at first. It did catch my attention in noms, but never made it out of my 30ish song support shortlist. Now though... It's an extremely tough and close call, but I'm actually siding with it.

Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

lets do this.

Trivia: The Final Song
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Cako votes:
Class::EXSPHERE;NOSURGE (sic)
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Revenger
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

MycroProcessor posted...

The fact that something this complex/atonal/glitchy/weird/etc even retired seems like an absurd miracle to me, nothing even close to this extreme in any of those categories has ever has retired by my definition

I would say that the voters' familiarity with Ar Tonelico/Nosurge music set it up for success. No way it would do so well otherwise.

I must say that the timing of my immersing in VGMC for the very first time was extremely lucky and fortunate. If this contest went like previous ones I might have quit it altogether. I was already very familiar with all the retirees, and while most of it is good, there's not a whole lot of complex stuff among them. I was very surprised and happy with the sixteen retirees, as a whole, this contest (many of them were nothing like the typical retiree). ...but I had a TON of favorites, that were given "byes", that flopped in the second round, argggghhhhh! There's definitely been a shift in taste, in some ways worse but in more ways better, in my opinion.... didn't you (Mycro) say that you and kaonashi had a terrible win percentage the previous VGMC? And now you two have about an average win %.
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Revenger

Revenger
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Revenger
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

So it's time for this contest to come to an end, huh? I'll definitely share more about my feelings on this year's contest in the discussion thread after this last match is over, but for now, I want to say that this is definitely a very strong final match, and I'm really pleased with it and the contest results in general. This was my first time participating in this contest and I had a blast throughout the whole thing!

Revenger

Revenger

Revenger
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Pablo Smith wants...

Lemme get uhhhhhhhh
Vote for revenger

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Revenger
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

Revenger
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Rankings out of 2!

2. Crystar - Revenger (7.5) (over Everythings Alright, Mystic Pendulum, ENDYMION, DNF, Chloe; for Innocence and Emptiness, New World Order)

vs.

1. Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE; (9.5) (over The Final Song, Dont Turn It Off, Escaping the Courtyard Garden, Dead Neon Hell City, Invitation Flower, Battle!!)

Really good finals match. Not quite as good as we could have had, but way better than a lot of the alternatives. Revenger is cool and EXSPHERE is awesome. I have a clear preference but either way this contest has turned out pretty okay!

Vote:
Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

Revenger
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JONALEON1 posted...

Revenger

Gonna cancel your vote one last time, Jona...

Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

good job
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Revenger

Revenger
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Final match-up analysis:

It's really hard to describe this match in an essay-long kind of post, so instead I'll sum it up by saying: I'm sadly underwhelmed by these finals. But hey, if the majority is fine with it (I actually don't know what everyone else thinks of this particular result), I'll take it.

The thing is... Well, I'm saving up some words for a final, contest-wide review, but I gotta say...

How could you screw this up guys? Hmm, maybe that's too harsh... But yeah, we had a handful of really decent options in the final 16 and then...

Okay, maybe I'm just rambling too much. Back to the actual analysis:

EXSPHERE (without even having to look at the votes cast so far) cannot be stopped. It's proven to be extremely powerful despite being divisive. The problem here is that, had any of the 1NF3S+@+!0N/Servants/NWO trio been here, it would've not only been a match with 90% more hype, but it would also have been a true "hero vs. villain" kind of match, with only one of those three aforementioned heroes having a true chance to prevent EXSPHERE from stealing the throne. Instead, we get a rather random (although still decent-in-quality) rival that doesn't have a realistic chance at doing much. Well, that's what I think; I really hope Revenger lives up to its name and takes true revenge from all the slaughterfest EXSPHERE's been causing, especially by taking down its own (better) Gust peers. I mean, if Revenger managed to beat NWO, which came close to doubling a song that was also obliterating everything in its path, maybe it does have a realistic although really slim chance at taking down EXSPHERE.

The drunk guy at the mansion really got far... Farther than I would've ever imagined.

FINAL VOTE:

Crystar - Revenger

Revenger >>>> Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE
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shouldn't have voted nwo over tcal then sorry
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Yeah, people voting for NWO basically wrecked the contest.
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