Board 8 > [VGMC] d12: Class::EXPAJA vs Miracle Matter, Eulogia vs Cloak of Darkness

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to today's topic for Video Game Music Contest 14, a tournament of the best tracks from games, as decided upon by you, the voters.

Links:
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VNrPnFRI7nJ4PqFiURBW0NWqxvXiuasoq8Sn_O169ss/edit#gid=320804650
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=473292
Discussion and results thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78524521
Bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1REnVI_W6yELaDP6Zac8b0Wq
ToC playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RE-TQMj19D0k5nm-0zeH12J
VGMC compability sheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lpX4faqnn_geI0y4i6MrZ2AXpV6SWXoWrIA6_eyx-yM/edit

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.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - Miracle Matter
Escape Goat 2 - Cloak of Darkness
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!!

Wish i liked EXPAJA more! I keep waiting for it to blow me away--as most hymnos do--and that just never happens. MM isn't my favorite K64 thing, but at least it leaves an impression, y'know?

---

Class::EXPAJA
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!
---

Class::EXPAJA
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!
---

Ar nosurge - Class::EXPAJA
Escape Goat 2 - Cloak of Darkness
Atelier Ayesha - Slag Dance

I thought I was going to vote for Torna Battle but not today I guess, wasn't clicking with me like it usually does.

---

Miracle Matter
Eulogia
Battle!!

jun ishikawa wins again

---

Ar nosurge - Class::EXPAJA
Escape Goat 2 - Cloak of Darkness
Atelier Ayesha - Slag Dance

---

Class::EXPAJA
Eulogia
Battle!!

---

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

I sort of feel weird about the inclusion of Miracle Matter here -- a much younger version of myself used to really like this song, I think. But more recently maybe a couple of years ago I revisited stuff of this game and got pretty into just the normal boss theme! And then as for this it's like, alright but just alright. Like the parts at :27 & :48 kinda just feel like they're missing something. I dunno. Still though the Other song here isn't my kind of thing so this is still an easy match but I did like the sort of key change going on at 1:45 of Other Song.

Cloak of Darkness is cool all the way through. Section at 1:44 is real nice. Eulogio is alright but focuses around too many aspects I don't care for in the instrumentation and chorus (which is at least not that much of a focus). Ending of it was pretty good though.

in toc, slag dance has a slightly more appealing instrumentation for me but also electric guitar, but I prefer the fun stuff Torna battle with the two exclamation marks brings to the table.

---

Ar nosurge - Class::EXPAJA
Indivisible - Eulogia
Atelier Ayesha - Slag Dance


---

*abstain* (for now)
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!...............................

Class::EXPAJA (8.0) / Miracle Matter (8.0)
Eulogia (8.0) / Cloak of Darkness (8.5)

Great music today! The first match is aggravating....both are awesome, but in entirely different ways, and I can't tell which I like more >.< I was like "whatever" to Miracle Matter the first couple of times hearing it, but it grew on me like CRAZY by the 3rd listen. I'll listen again tomorrow. I suspect my Miracle Matter high will wear off by then. Oh, wait, the second match is tough, too. I was planning on voting Eulogia, but that one didn't pan out.

---

Ar nosurge - Class::EXPAJA
Escape Goat 2 - Cloak of Darkness
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!!
---

Class::EXPAJA
Eulogia
Slag Dance

Expaja has some real 10/10 parts where it just blows me away. I love the stuff at like 0:35. Basically I like it a lot when the main singer's singing, and less when it's the choir chanting, which is kinda backwards for me, but oh well. I think I like it overall more than I used to too. Of course, good with some flaws is more than enough to beat Miracle Matter, a very plain song that leaves no impression whatsoever.

Eulogia feels like a Nier song to me, which is a good thing. The ending isn't that great though. CoD's a little better than I remembered it being. Still nothing really special. Not bad at least.

Battle's never been a particularly high tier Xenoblade song for me. Wish we had songs from X retire instead of this ;_;. Slag Dance is great and I was always happy when it played in Ayesha.

Class::EXPAJA > Slag Dance > Eulogia > Battle!! > Cloak of Darkness > Miracle Matter
---

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

Class:EXPAJA
Cloak of Darkness
....Slag Dance, damn you, SLAG DANCE

Ar nosurge - Class::EXPAJA at 8.8 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! This is maybe my least favorite Class song in Ar nosurge. That's not saying much. The focused, dramatic feel it has going on throughout the whole thing is great, and though it's kind of samey until 3:30, the.. chord change then makes up for it. good hymnos

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - Miracle Matter at 8.5 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! Honestly I don't feel like this is too special. It's not a bad song at all, just it doesn't stand out too much. It mostly just makes me want to listen to Bomber Girl. Wow my scoring is awful.

Indivisible - Eulogia at 8.3 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! why does Eulogia sound like a Nier song. I feel like the song is mostly buildup and doesn't really go anywhere. I was really surprised when it played a little jingle and ended out of nowhere. Relistening I see that it did have a little more direction, it just didn't utilize it as well as I would've liked. dark rainforest for vgmc 15.

Escape Goat 2 - Cloak of Darkness at 8.9 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! At first I was disappointed because, looking at the description, it seemed some rando named MagicalTimeBean composed this, not Ian Stocker. And then :43 and then 1:01 harder and it became extremely obvious that this is Ian Stocker and that name is a LIE he's LYING to us. in conclusion upper city for vgmc 15

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!! at 9.8 is my ???th favorite retiree in the contest!! What the FUCK is this match. Fuck you.

Atelier Ayesha - Slag Dance at 9.8 is my ???th favorite retiree in the contest!! What the FUCK is this match. Fuck you.

toc scores and regular scores are not compatible btw
---

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

Oh wait I saw the name and thought Ar Tonelico, not Ar Nosurge. I guess that makes it official that I'll be voting for the A4 wild card in Round 3 and hopefully Round 4! I mean, this isn't great--wouldn't put it in the category of "better than literally everything in A3" category...but it's better than anything remaining up there! And not too long, either--under five minutes. But still over three, which is good because I find that songs that are under three minutes often leave me wanting more.

Miracle Matter! When I first saw this nominated, I threw it a support, but then I drew it back because the lock period hadn't passed yet and while I certainly enjoy it enough to see it in the contest, I don't love it enough to tie up one of my own nominations on it. As the final boss theme, it tends to get overshadowed by the far superior true final boss theme, but that's retired anyway so it's no use complaining about that. Actually, this is really good; I suspect I'd enjoy it a lot more if it were from a more recent game, because it's a little too young to have that sweet nostalgic sound that Genesis/SNES tunes have, but too old to have truly high-quality sound.

Oops! I forgot that I actually have no prior knowledge of either of the two songs in the last R1 match of bracket A. They could be horrible for all I know! But this one isn't. It's not great, though; I went to stop it to go to the next song and then I saw that it's barely over two minutes. And it actually does get better!

But not good enough. Damn, this is a solid day. Nothing amazing yet, but all solid. Of course if my memory serves me correctly that's about to change in both directions!

Well, part one down. Battle!! is every bit as amazing as I remember it, if not more so.

But Slag Dance is...not as bad as I remember! Still worst of the six songs today, but it's...uh...okay, I still can't find anything nice to say about it. It's not my thing. But it's tolerable! ...Wait, no, it's not the worst of the six! Except, wait, EXPAJA wasn't my #5!

Battle!! >>>> Cloak of Darkness > Miracle Matter > Slag Dance > Class::EXPAJA > Eulogia

I may need to add some extra punctuation on both sides of Cloak of Darkness, because even though it's not that far ahead of the other songs, it might as well be the Grand Canyon compared to how close everything else is! I'm actually glad that Slag Dance managed to wedge its way in where it did, because I was having serious doubts that I was truly voting for the songs and not the games in the first match. It was very close.

---

TsunamiXXVIII posted...

I was having serious doubts that I was truly voting for the songs and not the games in the first match. It was very close.

banshiryuu posted...

- Listen to both of the songs. .... (If I have suspicions your vote is not based on a fair and impartial preference, it will be disqualified.)

@TsunamiXXVIII And I will add that this means the entire song. As has been noted in the past, it's very possible to judge songs prematurely. Especially in certain "extreme" cases.

---

Class::EXPAJA
Eulogia
Slag Dance

Beginning of this track is a bit weak, but as we go on we start adding more layers. The male background singers with that super deep voice under the pop singer's voice is so good, and then you get AND THE LAST MINUTE oh my gosh it's just ultra epic and perfect in every way. Overall this is my least favorite of the Pajas but it's still pretty top tier exa_pico

Miracle matter is neat at times but it feels dominated by the rhythm, if that makes any sense.

oh hi world flutes you're pretty nifty wait COMBAT THEME ALERT chanting under violin this sounds like Ar Nosurge combat music to me for some reason, but a little more understated. Normally I don't like understated stuff, but here it works. Not a super big fan of the piano solo into kinda more generic stuff in the last 30 seconds, not quite sure what's happening there but okay.

jazz alert! and then that melody coming in super strong at 20 seconds is pretty nice. not sure what the instrument's called, but it's niftily haunting and I like it. Then we get into the meat of the piece, and I'm not quite sure I like it as much? Not sure why. Maybe because it feels a bit bound? Could've done with a good solo in there somewhere.

Torna Battle is the kind of track I think I would like more if I were hearing it live.

Slag Dance is like the 5th best boss theme in Ayesha, but my goodness Ayesha has a lot of good boss themes so that's not really an insult or anything. Go my chanting into pluckity pluck out-of-tune goodness (or maybe there's some other reason it sounds off-centered to me, but I love it regardless), and then the non-plucky guitars come in and it's so good. The chorus around 1 minute is so wonderfully soaring in that Gusty way I love it.
---

Class:EXPAJA
Cloak of Darkness
Slag Dance

Easy day is easy. Thank you to deo, mycro, and anyone else who got this day up and running.


---

Ar nosurge - Class::EXPAJA
Indivisible - Eulogia
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!!

MATCH 1

Class::EXPAJA isn't the best Ar nosurge song in the game, but it's still pretty good. I still have it going to round 4 in my favorites bracket since it's in a part of the bracket where the other 3 songs it competes against are weak enough to make EXPAJA the clear winner whereas it might face more stiff competition elsewhere in the bracket. Though if it does get to round 3, I could see myself voting against it depending on what the wildcard is. I don't think I've ever really cared all that much for the kind of operatic vocals that show up in EXPAJA, but they're definitely bearable. The lead singer's fine, though. Sound-wise, it's interesting enough to me. Like it definitely succeeds at keeping me invested in the song. I particularly like 1:44-2:12 because the dark chord changes throughout that part are really cool.

The intro to Miracle Matter's cool enough, but the rest of the song just feels like noise to me. Like, there isn't anything else that makes me feel any one way about the song. So it's not painfully bad or anything, but it's pretty outside the realm of what my tastes are and I can't really say I like this song much if at all. I guess I'm happy that this matchup is like this so I can easily vote EXPAJA without any second thoughts because, like I said, there are plenty of other strong entries that would be difficult to decide between if EXPAJA were to be matched up with them.

MATCH 2

Eulogia's a really nice and pretty song! This song feels kinda Gust-y with its instrumentation since you have stuff like flutes and violins in it playing this world sounding stuff. Which, well, is why I like this song as much as I do! The vocals in the middle of the song are also a really nice addition! The ending to the song's a neat way of changing things up. Kinda reminds me of Bravely Default music at that point. Really cool song! Also one of the aforementioned songs that would give me pause if matched up against EXPAJA (and I did make that happen round 2 of my favorites bracket) lol.

Cloak of Darkness is a nice song too. Sounds pretty cool throughout. I'd say Eulogia's more my thing, though, so Eulogia gets my vote. Don't really have anything to say about Cloak of Darkness, sadly.

MATCH 3

I'm really glad I was able to help get Torna Battle in last year because it's a really cool song! Definitely worthy of winning its bracket, even if it wasn't what I had picked to win. Really neat jazzy piano stuff throughout. I especially like that repeating part of 0:54-1:07. But yeah, the whole thing is great. It has that cool repeating part that I like a lot, but it also changes things up frequently to keep the song fresh (though I don't say that to mean that I necessarily don't like songs that repeat a certain part a lot without any changes).

Slag Dance is a cool song, but far from my favorite Atelier Ayesha song (or Atelier in general). I think the instrumentation's pretty unique, particularly those weird sounding vocals, but I think the song's a little too far removed from what I like about Atelier music to be a top-tier song. That's not to say it's bad, because it's definitely not bad. Far from the worst song today too. I just don't think it does enough of what I like to push it over the top. I guess something like 0:57-1:24 is more what I'm looking for? Hard to say because every part is good, but none are exceptional.

Battle!! > Class::EXPAJA = Slag Dance > Eulogia > Cloak of Darkness >> Miracle Matter

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

sorry expaja. like actually, i'm surprised i'm not voting it given how much i'm enjoying it today. i wonder how many song in pokemon were inspired by miracle matter like actually. surely at least a few especially in gen 5

second match is ok. weaker, but i'm okay with both of these i suppose

feeling slag dance A LOT more today than i often do for some reason... too bad it probably needed literally any other matchup to prove this. i didn't expect this to be close... well, ultimately it still kind of isn't, but it still gave it a scare

Class::EXPAJA
Eulogia
Battle!!

Class
Cloak
Battle
---

Class::EXPAJA
Eulogia
Battle!!

Class::EXPAJA is my 88th favorite in the contest! This doesn't really sound like much of what I expect out of this series and maybe that shouldn't be surprising because it is composed by Kenji Kawai and not "an actual gust composer" he is just imitating the sound of "gust music". I still like that sound but it doesn't actually "impress" me I just think the music style is cool. I like the kinda long phrasing of the rhythms of the chanting at the parts that have the chanting, they don't have a clear start-or-end to my ears even though they actually do have a clear start and end in REALITY. Never realized how much of this track is full of "church organ" that's "interesting". The main thing to keep my interest here is that it never feels predictable to me chord change-wise, it's just all over the place by my perception, though although that is something I like it doesn't do so in a way i aactually find emotionally effective or anything more just like "whoa that's cool". "cool", doesn't leave me bored with it anyways

Miracle Matter is my 170th favorite in the contest! I';m a huge kirby series music fan to the point i sometimes think of it as my "favorite popular series for game music" but this really has like 0 of what I care about in it. It's only this high because i don't dislike listening to it, and i can kinda appreciate the cool warpy acid bass synth sounds, but this song feels to me like it literally has nothing in it to me. i think i'd call kirby 64 one of the weaker kirby osts but that's not actually true because it has that one song that i like in it "yeah that one" and it is not this one.

easy match though i wish it was not easy because i normaally like kirby music : (

||||||||||||

Eulogia is my 65th favorite in the contest! I listened to the first 30 minutes of this song and then turned it off because this is an Umineko song which is not as good as Touhou music which is the same as bad umineko music. Time to SKIP this song. What the fuck this song is too long it is 5 seconds long!!!! Because the Game Name is cool sounding (it sounds like it's similar to the word "invisible") this one's gettin' my vote.I LOVE HIROK"I KIKUTA. This sounds like if secret of mana music was new. Honestly it isn't as gripping to me as most of his stuff, including other stuff i've heard from this game, but I still dig the vibe. FRETLESS BASS IS SO 90S EVEN THUOGH ITS 2020 NOW. I like the ethereal voices in the background and the harp and the violins and the sounds. But mostly the Fretless BAss which automatically makes things "90s new age". This picks up really gearing itself to my compositional interests at 1:38 where for like 5 seconds it's like Hiroki Kikuta's trying to scream at you "HEY GUYS IM HIROKI KIKUTA COMPOSERING THIS SONG FOR YOU HEAR. I MADE "Into the Thick of It from secret of mana"" and then goes into 5/8 for like 2 bars at 1:54 and that's cool. This song makes me reaally happy, both fun instrumentation/atmosphere and fun composition, right up my ALLEY

Cloak of Darkness is my 145th favorite in the contest! I love Ian Stocker! I think he's a really cool composer, his music's really DELAY ECHO drenched and that's always a plus for me. Really pitch-bendy too in a maybe kinda stereotypically tracker-user way but that makes sense because that is what he is...and I value that sound a lot! Once this picks up with the piano and faster drums a minute in i'm like wooooaaaa coololl man... this song sounds like a funny song : ) hee hee. This reminds me of Robots GBA but it's not quite as much my thing as that. I lose a lot of interests when the really straightforward arpreggiated chords happen at 1:48. I don't really dislike anything else though, I love the general sound of it. the only reason this is so low really is generic statements like "it's not memorable to me" "Idon't feel anything from it" crap that who cares that is TOO SUBJECTIVE to be meaningful commentary. I think the reason for why I don't feel much from it is basically that the chord progression doesn't really go anywhere that's to my interests even if it hints at that it might do so a bunch. Like it modulates in this cool intense way at 2:19 but then it goes right back to its neutral sounding original home zone and then i feel unsatisfied. Honestly have like exactly the same complaints with this as I do with Dreamy Somnom Labyrinth, and it's a very similar type of track too. This one speaks to me a bit more, but doesn't quite hit the mark for me. I do like other work from this composer though and it has the exact same very distinct style, just happens to hit the right marks for me in those cases rather than this example I guess. IAN STOCKER SOUNDS LIKE GHOST TRICK

2

||||||||||||

Battle!! is my 5th favorite ToC entrant!! I feel bad that i have a lot less motivation to talk about the ToC entrants since I've already done so before and am not sure I have much new to point out. But yeah this is even more my thing than it was last year lol. Cool complex chords, jazz elements mixed with strings and stuff is fun. Man I'm noticing that upright bass part is COOL. quartals...transposing chord blocks.mmmm TASTY. oh man i forgot about the 5/16 over 4/4 polymetric piano comping moments those parts I WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH THOSE PARTS OF THE SONG this song is so funky : )

Slag Dance is my 42nd favorite ToC entrant!!! I love autotune/vocoder/etc type stuff and always have. This just relentlessly throws the voice under that with no care and it's wonderfully playful. VERY cool instrumentation all around, some of the coolest of anything in the contest imo even though I'm ranking this pretty low. Although I do like it this is not at all what I'd pick to represent Ayesha (and ayesha is not what i'd pick to represent atelier music in general) but I guess it's better than some picks for tha.t. . . PHRYGIAN MODE is a scale i like because it sounds like a spooky ancient desert ruins with the bad dangerous defense system automatons made out of bricks (regirock) going to beat you up.. Eiffel 65 turned into a girl and then made tense desert level music for a 3d platformer jrpg about minecraft. with as much as I like here on paper i'm not sure why this has never been able to be rated super high by me, maybe just because it's straightforward about what it's doing even if i think what it's doing is cool. a more funky "hydro city act 2" level of diversion from this but in the same style/general melodic sense/etc would be ranked far higher by me. but this really straight forward four on the floor kick punching me in the face exactly 4 times evenly spaced every bar without much else in the song for such a high chunk, just way harde

Class::EXPAJA
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

Main tourney matches all kind of average today, other than Miracle Matter which I didn't enjoy. The ToC match is good though.

---

Class::EXPAJA
Cloak of Darkness
Slag Dance

Miracle Matter
Eulogia
Slag Dance
---

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

Class::EXPAJA
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

Class::EXPAJA
Cloak of Darkness
Slag Dance

Class::EXPAJA
Eulogia
Battle!!


---

Class::EXPAJA
Eulogia
Battle!!

wow I didn't know eli ayase did the ar nosurge red album, I just assumed it was akiko shikata singing
violin went merciless savior for a second at 1:07, love the bassline in cloak
heeeeey-YEAAAA-eee-aauuu

---

Ar nosurge - Class::EXPAJA
Indivisible - Eulogia
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!!

Match 1: EXPAJA is pretty cool, but it sounds more like standard JRPG boss battle music more than Gust music. Miracle Matter is one of the better Kirby 64 tracks, but it's still no Zero-Two. These are both decent, nothing to write home about.

Match 2: Eulogia is a better Gust song than either of the actual Gust songs we have in today. Cloak of Darkness is a little bit better than most other music in this style, it has a few specific bits that I like.

ToC: At this point I think it's safe to say that Torna is my favorite xnobep song by a very large margin. I love jazz! Slag Dance is good too, another song that took years of VGMC to grow on me, but I like it.

---

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

i await the day ar music ceases to exist

---

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Slag Dance

I've finally decided.

Ar nosurge - Class::EXPAJA

Hard choice because Miracle Matter is really good all the way through, while EXPAJA is fantastic at times, but not very good in other parts. But yeah, MM has one of those classic 3/4 intro moving into 4/4 time things. Good choice of sounds. I love the woodblocks doing that cute polyrhythmic pattern. Catchy fast synopated theme down low is a pleasure to listen to despite it's repetitions.... it's a bit opaque, but after multiple listens I can hear what's going on now. Plus, nice and dark melody towards the end of the loop... major 3rds work amazingly well despite it sounding so RIDICULOUSLY minor... oh right. Phrygian. EXPAJA is nice and dramatic. I'm not really that interested in the Dies Irae-ish chorus singing, which is pretty generic. But most everything else I love. WOW @ the stark chromatic shifts as the harmonies change whenever the soloist gets her turn (0:39, 0:46, and 0:52). Also a great middle section at 1:40... more weird major-minor shifts. The organ 8th notes in the intro have a really nice effect... I love effects that don't sound like how they're written unless you pay super close attention to them!

---

Miracle Matter
Eulogia
Battle!!

---

Class::EXPAJA
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

---

Class::EXPAJA (147th) vs Miracle Matter (13th)
Eulogia (108th) vs Cloak of Darkness (153rd)
Battle!!/Torna [17th] vs Slag Dance [45th]

NOOOOOOOO EXPAJA continues its rampage over my life by steamrolling over one of my favorite songs in the contest just like BOST... rip no turning back... I really do wish this didn't crush me so much and that I cared more about EXPAJA but it's just.... missing something. Like a lot. There's nothing special sounding to the vocals like EXA_PICO songs usually have, the actual conlang portions could just be in Japanese for all I care cause random choir #24 singing them doesn't add anything to the song at all. Then when the Cass section actually comes in, its too little and does not stick around for long at all. The instrumentals are cool though, I'm always a sucker for this kind of EPIC JRPG MUSIC so that makes it even more sad that I'm left so disappointed by EXPAJA. Meanwhile Miracle Matter is unrelentingly my kind of shit lol DARK EVIL SYNTH LOOPS AND CRAZY PERCUSSION GOING AT 500BPM ORCH HITS STAB YOU IN THE CHEST the way the warble synth raises in pitch and becomes the focus for a split second at 0:56 before going insane again is just ahskhjfsjskj jesus. this songs so good and its going to die in a fire but that's okay... i love you miracle matter ;;;

Every time I listen to Eulogia I am always SURPRISED by how suddenly it turns from "jrpg with a kinda cool intro song" into epic Nier Tonelico area theme... which makes sense after learning this is Hiroki Kikuta cause like just listen to "ametsuchi no kotowari" from atelier escha/logy you can tell this guy wants in on the EXA_PICO so bad. which makes Eulogia the best Gust song of the day wow! ((please dont be mad at this ridiculous claim im just haVING FUN)) Cloak of Darkness is pretty cool!! I like the sounds of it a lot but what the sounds actually do gets pretty lost on me while/after listening. I think the way the song suddenly loses energy somehow at 0:35 always catches me offguard and then I never really get that energy from the cool sounds back until 1:44 but by then its too late. anyway yeah cool match, i like both songs but there's only one here that i "love"

uhhhhhhh yeah Torna still bangs as fuck, seriously put this up there with Sophisticated Fight for most "how the fuck is this a regular battle theme" in video games. this song knows how to cram content into its long runtime to make it all worth it, absolutely lovely. slag dance is really cool too with its CRAZY WARBLE VOCALLY LADY WHOAAA and just your usual ethnic awesome yanagawa instrumentation juxtaposed with heavy rock drums and guitar somehow like HOW DOES HE DO IT. HOW DOES HE CAST MAGIC AND MAKE THIS WORK but sadly its not enough to come close to topping Torna. sorry slag dance!!

Miracle Matter > Battle!!/Torna > Eulogia > Slag Dance > Class::EXPAJA => Cloak of Darkness

Class::EXPAJA
Cloak of Darkness
Slag Dance

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

Ar nosurge - Class::EXPAJA
Escape Goat 2 - Cloak of Darkness

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!!
---

Class::EXPAJA
Eulogia
Battle!!

-I enjoy expaja more on a second, more careful listen than I do on the first-- some of the chord changes are genuinely pretty nifty, and the main melody starting at 0:34 kinda grows on me. I think one of its weaknesses is that as a whole, it maintains one feel throughout, dulling its impact-- there's no emotional modulation. it stays as big choir and strings and organ most of the way through, with the same sort of energy. the moments where it feels like it wields the most staying power are when that changes, even a bit-- the modulation at 1:44, for example. or 2:11 defined by the metal clangs on a rising brass line-- this progression is very conventional but feels powerful regardless. or 3:52 where the single voice (with a slight effect on it-- a deliberately artificial autotune?) shows up in contrast to the relentless choir (unintentional dandara name drop!).
-the idea of a track being dulled by uniformity of feel-- I feel the same way with miracle matter. it sets up its percussion and synth loop and doesn't do a lot with it-- it adds and removes layers, and changes up the percussion and rhythm in a few ways, but those actions don't actually make me sit up and pay attention (in part because the rhythm it establishes isn't notably interesting). even the fragment of melody it introduces at 1:09 feels pretty token and mostly plays second fiddle to the main loop. I'm reminded somewhat of similar objections I had to zero-two.

-eulogia sounds quieter than expaja, and somewhat less well-produced, which is probably why my first reaction was to think it was less energetic. it opens in a very kikuta way and goes into a very nice main melody (a take on ajna's theme) with full forest-y instrumentation and vocals. eulogia keeps things short, which is good in that there's not much more to the theme melodically other than what's presented. this is cool but the outro (while it has some cool short segments) puts it very definitively in a 'this is the opening' context and I kinda wish it didn't. I go back and forth between this and the calmer feel of ajna (though ajna feels significantly more repetitive due to its length).
-cloak of darkness's initial groove kinda reminds me of a cleaned-up version of pc game music of old, like a jazz jackrabbit track. I like the shiny, echoing feel of the lead synths in contrast to the darker feel of the bass synth, which gives it its exploration feel. even if this isn't my favourite thing melodically the sound of it carries this a long way. sharp and catchy.

-battle probably doesn't need any introduction. this track, as the kids say, 'slaps'. almost four minutes of full-throttle fun before the loop. and that loop point is awesome-- I wish every track's loop point were so enjoyable. the piano really jams here-- I can imagine a pianist playing this live and just having a blast.
-slag dance opens with some cool vocal manipulation and some catchy fiddle and plucked strings. it kinda repeats itself from there, save a short diversion from 0:57, and keeps drifting back to its tonal centre when I wish it would stray a bit further. like at 1:25 I think 'oh it will do something cool here!' and it never really makes the jump. still, pretty catchy. I like the 'everything drops out' moment at 2:06.

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!

Miracle Matter
Cloak Of Darkness
Slag Dance

Class::EXPAJA

ok so i'm shifting from listening to a ton of aquabats songs straight to this so it's quite a big difference lmao. big orchestra, soft vocals. clangy bells. feels like a massive halloween battleship is approaching above the city of vgm that i constantly make up.

Miracle Matter

vivid mental images abound in this song lmao. it feels like it begins with an orb of darkness exploding... but then it doesn't and then just starts pulsating and rotating and shooting rings of light everywhere. at some points it slows down. when the strings come in at 1:10 suddenly the orb forms into a massive mech and starts stomping stuff in like. an autoscroller sequence. very threatening and unknown. an enemy from the sixty seventh dimension or something of that description. i feel like all of this mental imagery is taking place in like. an ultradark STAR ZONE where the floor doesn't actually exist and it's not solid at all - best way i can describe it is like a waterbed. cool 90s sounds. i love it!!

Eulogia

YOUR PET GOT A SKILL POINT! check the skill points tab to see how they leveled up... OH NO THE SKILL POINTS TAB IS TAKING OVER THE WHOLE UI WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME SKILL POINTS TAB. . .big life, nature vibes from this song. what why do i love the last quarter of this song that makes things significantly more difficult for me. . .

Cloak Of Darkness

the beginning of this song has a real vivid mental image for me of like. the world being drawn out extremely finely in chalk, before everything fades into to color when the drums fade in. and then it turns into exploring a cool halloween spooky maze where you don't know what's around every corner and it's a fun adventure - there's plenty of space for you to find out cool new exciting things. love how the bass interplays against the pads. ian stocker is the best. this is... probably my favorite song by him lmao. this or upper city. there's also a ton of other escape goat songs i love like heavy forest from eg2 or machinery from eg1. the soundtrack has a real alexander brandon vibe to it and i think if i didn't listen to this soundtrack my taste wouldn't have shifted massively in the direction it did today.

Battle!!

ok i spent half the day just not looking at this and my thoughts are collected. it's jazzy jrpg music that's all the justice i'm doing to it. my opinions on it have changed zero. it's xenoblade chronicles music.

Slag Dance

OPEN UP UNREGISTERED HYPERCAM 2 IT'S TIME FOR SOME 2006 YOUTUBE VIDEOS ON HOW TO REFORMAT YOUR BOOT DRIVE AFTER THE BREADSTICKS VIRUS REMOVES ALL YOUR CAT PHOTOS IN 505 SECONDS FLAT.. . . .i knew this song existed even before i got into the ayesha ost it's a good song and it makes me wish i got into it sooner. . .

---

Class::EXPAJA
Eulogia
Slag Dance

There is something about the unrepentant triumph of the vocals in EXPAJA that really gets to me. It's similar to the sort of feeling I get from a really good classical trumpet solo. It is probably only a tier 1.5 or tier 2 Exa Pico song, but that's still easily enough for a support and a vote from me. Miracle Matter is weird. I like it more than one might think based on what I have to say about similar songs at least. Overall I'd say I like it, but on the other every once in a while when listening I start focusing too closely on whatever that springy sounding instrument is and recoil in horror, or something.

Eulogia is one I hadn't heard before but was really impressed by during nominations. Not a lot specific to say, but it's got nice vocals, nice violin, and nice harp and I'm not sure that you need to do anything else in order to meet pyresword music judging criteria tbh. Cloak of Darkness is a really cool sounding track. Beat is nice and it's got good ambiance and cool piano/synth parts. In a vacuum I'd like to see it do well, but it drew the wrong opponent here as far as my vote goes.

This time around Battle!! doesn't irritate me like it did whenever it was actually in the contest for whatever reason, but it's still no Slag Dance.
---

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Slag Dance

Miracle Matter
Cloak of Darkness
Battle!!