Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 6! Combat/AtlSpotDolphin, Yusnaan/DangerGoAlone, ScrollStg/Emmental

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to Video Game Music Contest 16, an annual celebration of the best of the best video game music according to the voters!

Important Links:
Bracket: https://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=475935
Contest info sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_IU5iCFTM_4WEx8ZWKwznMz5v2tarCKh1Ag0mxIgAes
Contest discussion thread: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80027411
Main bracket playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT3m7iohpL0xxfgkmGKvEyWfHvNZ53Kbn
Last years spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16XAaBMDuUnQ4c5AxQNL9ZhvD7VG5kQyrXWWZxnkrn-o
VGMC total stats sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1XdLWiUKB2kX99qYBgnRbLU_sCz4dvZSByKKJHCT6o
Discord: https://discord.gg/WDvMS4a

Rules:
- Listen to both songs in a given match, at least through the loop time provided (to make sure you don't skip before you've heard the whole thing!)
- Please consider the loop point listed when judging the song; if a video loops one minute 5 times, don't treat it as if it's a repetitive 5 minute song
- If it's a match between your favorite song ever and a song you despise, still LISTEN TO BOTH! Votes can and will be disqualified if there is suspicion songs are not being listened to, and you may be discounted for the rest of the contest for repeat offenses.
- No alt accounts, no rallying or begging, etc., etc.... You only get one vote! Swapping votes is alright, just make clear that you've already made a vote and are swapping.
- Make clear what your voting options are! Please keep votes separate from any comments, and use the titles given in the topic post.
- Voting in all matches is not mandatory, feel free to skip matches you do not wish to vote in.
- Vote based on the links provided, and not other sources of audio. Links are specifically chosen for best quality and the like.
- Don't discuss vote tallies in this thread, or in other threads, as they may influence votes. Likewise, please refrain from looking at the running tally before voting.

Voting Period:
- Today's matches will last 24 hours from the time of posting, or 24 hours from 10pm Eastern, whichever is the later time.
- Please note this may mean that two topics will be active at the same time!
- If you anticipate being unable to vote in a given day, please send an absentee vote to @banshiryuu, or post your absentee vote in the discussion thread!

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Match 1

Triangle Strategy - Combat -Destiny-
Composer: Akira Senju
Loop Point: 3:46
Genre: HARD REVENGE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-1V5vS6RSs

pop'n music 10 - Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
Composer: Hiroki Koga
Loop Point: 3:10
Genre: HEALING FUSION
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW6YO4wyAGk

Match 2

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Composer: Mitsuto Suzuki
Loop Point: 3:20
Genre: COMMOTION
https://youtu.be/T8tXcnEbF-A

Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! - It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Composer: Jonathan Geer
Loop Point: 2:57
Genre: DOWNTOWN RIDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6LjnEzLaqM

Match 3

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (GBC) - Scroll Stage
Composer: Alberto Gonzalez
Loop Point: 1:45
Genre: JURASSIC PUNK
https://youtu.be/st4aSeFzEBA

Mad Rat Dead - Emment

HARD REVENGE
DOWNTOWN RIDE
HEART-STOPPER

Combat -Banger-
I'm somewhat surprised it took this long for me to vote for the vocal song
rat

Whale
Glimmer
Mouse (computer peripheral, not animal)

7.5
8.5
8
3
8
8

Combat -Destiny-
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Emmental Catalepsy

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

Combat -Destiny-
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Emmental Catalepsy

Yusnaan
Scroll Stage

Emmental Calepsy is one of the weaker MRD songs for me, which is why I will be sadface when it wins tonight.

Combat Destiny [7]
Spotted Dolphin [8]
Yusnaan [9]
Dangerous [7]
Scroll Stage [10]
Catalepsy [6]

1. Turok 2:Seeds of Evil (GBC) - Scroll Stage
2. ???
3. ???
4. ???
5. ???
6. ???
7. ???
8. Alto's Odyssey - An Endless Desert
9. ???
10. ???
11. ???
12. Napple Tale - Dreams in a Pie
13. ???
14. ???
15. ???
16. ???
17. ???
18. ???
19. Lightning Returns - The Glittering City of Yusnaan
20. ???

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

Scroll (5) > Alone (5) > Yusnaan (5) > Catalepsy (4) > Dolphin (3) > Combat (3)

Who gives a Shit about match 1? That is some weak shit when we literally have three of the best songs in the contest, in succession, right after. The best part about today is that two of my favorites are fighting, which means one is guaranteed not to die. I am very happy about this. Yusnaan has some thicc drumming that I find quite neat. It feels like good battle music so obviously the expert designers for literally the third Final Fantasy XIII used it as a town theme apparently? I have only played the first 5 hours of FF13 so maybe I'm a bad judge of that, but that five hours I played felt like 30 so maybe I actually am. Then we have a Zelda meme that shakes me to my bones, where he goes "babum" a lot with a really pretty voice. Jonathan Geer please take me into your arms, or are you just the composer? I like how it gets happy, then sad, then happy, then sad. Of course, you just can't go wrong with the CRUNCH on Scroll Stage. Alberto Gonzalez is a god at making the Gameboy sound amazing. Fuck everyone who shits on the Gameboy, sure it's games were bad but a few sounded great. GBA is the best Nintendo handheld for music though. It's basically lo-fi which I like, but there are no GBA games today. Sorry Catalepsy, which is somehow in the lower half of today's songs despite being better than most of the stuff so far. You will probably win though because not enough love for CRUNCH.

Combat -Destiny-
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Emmental Catalepsy

I am very upset that I have to vote for Combat -Goes Nowhere-. I'm sitting here waiting for the song to go anywhere meaningful the whole time and it all just feels like buildup to... nothing? Or at least, nothing exciting. There are so many places this could have gone that could have wow'd me, but nope. You just get all average buildup.

Dolphin on the other hand has a cool beat... but it's also just not my thing. It almost got there, if it did a few things in the ways I enjoy, maybe. But as it is, a vote for Combat -Still Going Nowhere-

Yusnaan is a song that made it in the contest. Congratulations. 1/10

Danger has a pretty decent first minute and then falls off a bit for me. It also sounds incredibly familiar to something I know at 22 seconds and it's going to kill me not knowing. Could do with more like the first minute, vocals after that don't interest me.

Scroll is actually sorta close to being something I kinda like. The wobbles or whatever that play all the time don't do it for me though and the melody goes off the beaten path a bit too much to really hook me. Good effort though.

Emmental is a very good Mad Rat song. Not in my top 5, but would definitely make a run for my top 10 MRD tracks. I might have mentioned this before, but it just lacks that UMPH moment that a lot of MRD songs have. It definitely has a moment that SHOULD be that, but it doesn't deliver enough.
:33-:43 is definitely my favorite part. Just great stuff there. And then the drop into 1:48, that's what I'm talking about that doesn't quite have enough umph. I expect to go crazy omg here, but it's just eh alright pretty dece, and I wanted more out of that. Still very good track tho.

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

Mammalfish
2Danger4You
Scroll Down

Combat -Destiny-
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Emmental Catalepsy

I'm sorry, but I've already forgotten combat and I listened to it thrice over in the past hour. Defaults to Dolphin, which sounds way more interesting.

Easy pick for round 2. Combination FF fanboy and a really good track from it, to boot. The latter has not gotten any less cheesy over the past year.

MRD, on the other hand, grew on me over the past year. I still don't like the dubsteppy tracks from it very much, but this one is a good'un. For Turok, I can appreciate what they did with the limited GB sound, but it didn't beat out Emmental in my eyes.

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Emmental Catalepsy

Combat -Destiny- (8.1 - 30th place) / Atlantic Spotted Dolphin (8.5 - 18th place)
The Glittering City of Yusnaan (7.4 - 46th place) / It's Dangerous to Go Alone (7.2 - 52nd place)
Scroll Stage (5.1^ - 63rd place) / Emmental Catalepsy (8.0^ - 34th place)

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Emmental Catalepsy

match 3 is so close it pains me, either victory here is totally cool with me they're both very cool

(9th) Mad Rat Dead - Emmental Catalepsy
(10th) Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (GBC) - Scroll Stage
(15th) pop'n music 10 - Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
(20th) Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - The Glittering City of Yusnaan
(21st) Triangle Strategy - Combat -Destiny-
(30th) Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! - It's Dangerous to Go Alone

From Toxtricity:

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin (popn music 10)
Glittering City of Yusnaan (Lightning Returns)
Emmental Catalepsy (Mad Rat Dead)

The guy with glasses in the triangle strategy picture is the same person as the guy with glasses in crosscode

Atlantis spotted dolphin is one where i can say pat metheny group and it not being like a parody where im comparing totally absurd dissimilar things to it,,,this is very obviously supposed to be exactly that. But its not even the most overt pmg pastiche in the contest! Its only like..the third closest this year? I keep thinking this is going to turn into that fire emblem song nee made fun of in that wacky youtube video around 2:16 here

I love the groups of 5 in that saxophone..the most unexpectedly fitting layer to this landscape of other beautiful sounds

It took me a while to fully acclimate, but I would probably vote for its dangerous to go alone over the majority of things in this contest at this point, but unfortunately it is against yusnaan. Just love the subtle extra beats smoothly segued in, and the cute synths and some other things like that

Beep!

Mad rat dead is such a perfect concept of thing to exist

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

pop'n music 10 - Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (GBC) - Scroll Stage

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Scroll Stage

7
7.9
9.4
8
8
7.7

Yusnaan is a banger holy god damn. This is one of the songs I feel like I should have actually spent a nomination on in retrospect

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Emmental Catalepsy

Spotted
Dangerous
Scroll

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

Sheesh, Yusnaan is difficult to not vote. Very hard match, but I love CSD's composition so much so I shall stick with it. Not much to comment on the other 4 songs, they're nice and all.

Combat -Destiny-
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Scroll Stage

It's a good day when the worst song I have to listen to is Atlantic Spotted Dolphin.

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Scroll Stage

pop'n music 10 - Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Mad Rat Dead - Emmental Catalepsy

Triangle Strategy - Combat -Destiny-
Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! - It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Mad Rat Dead - Emmental Catalepsy

All pretty close, especially that first match. Feels bad voting against HEALING FUSION in R1.

Spotted
Dangerous
Cat

HEALING FUSION
COMMOTION
HEART-STOPPER

8.1
8.7
8.85
7.35
6.9
7.4

caps

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Emmental Catalepsy

Combat -Destiny- is weird, and I blame the drums - the melodic parts feel like they should have a more dynamic and/or orchestral backing instead of just the ghost of Unisuga. Kind of just feels confused. Atlantic Spotted Dolphin is solid enough jazz.

Yusnaan has a certain quiet intensity that draws me into it; it's probably grown on me since FFMC. Dangerous to Go Alone sounds like Smooth McGroove which is kind of neat.

Scroll Stage is honestly pretty good - has a nice drive. That said, Elemental Creation was one of my favorite discoveries during noms. a_hisa's style has always really appealed to me; it has clear electronic elements but at the same time is very smooth and melodic, which in an era of rhythm game artists trying to always one-up themselves in ridiculosity is quite welcome. also EC sounds a bit like a Falcom song and that is cool

Strong day!

Combat -Destiny-
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

match 2 and match 3 are hell, ultimately went with my gut

pop'n music 10 - Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! - It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Mad Rat Dead - Emmental Catalepsy

poppingt'n music 10 - Atlantic Spotted Dolphin featuring Russ Freeman
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (GBC) - Scroll Stage

Don't have much to add except that I vastly prefer those over their opponents. Catch of the day:

[9.0] The Glittering City of Yusnaan
[8.5] Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
[7.5] Scroll Stage
[6.0] Emmental Catalepsy
[5.5] Combat -Destiny-
[4.0] It's Dangerous to Go Alone

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Scroll Stage

Combat -Destiny-
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

Oh boy, this is the strongest day so far imo! Maybe the strongest day in the whole of R1.

It took me a couple of listens to get into Combat. I don't think it's amazing but I love the parts where it drops and you just have the piano and strings. I wish the main thrust of the track felt like it was going somewhere a bit more if that makes sense, but wtv it's enough to win today.
Dolphin feels like a waiting room theme or something to play in the background of a shopping app. I like the second half more.

Match #2 is top tier, I really like Yusnaan and thought I would be taking it to win the division when I first saw the bracket. It has so much going on but still feels cohesive, I love the sax part of course but the whole thing gives off a hustle and bustle city vibe in a surreal and fantastical way, it's such a standout track and so fun to listen to!
Unfortunately it's going against one of my fav discoveries of the contest. I don't know the game this is from at all, but Go Alone completely hits the spot for me. I love the layered vocals, the background instrumentation (and how they occasionally come to the foreground), and how the piece seems to travel wherever it wants. There's something about the last twenty seconds I adore too, the repeated lyrics there are maybe unnecessary but they add a whole other layer to things, idk. The whole song feels both comforting and wistful. I love it!

Scroll Stage comes out of the gates swinging and never looks back. I know 'x didn't need to go this hard' is a bit of a meme, but christ is it applicable here. It totally gets me pumped up, and there's more to it than a simple catchy hook which is often what I feel GB tracks are limited to. Love the bass.
Emmental is also really good, in another bracket position I'd be taking it to win a few rounds. I guess if I had to say something against it, parts of the main melody are only alright. Everything else is top tier- the backing, the buildup, the piano+percussion, the different phases- but the strings coming in at 1:05 and 1:47 just don't quite match up imo. Still, an awesome track.

TriStrat- 3.5/5
Dolphin- 2/5
Yusnaan- 4.5/5
Alone- 5/5
Scroll- 4.5/5
Cheese- 4/5

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Scroll Stage

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Emmental Catalepsy

I really love the part of Yusnaan from 1:00 to 1:40! I kinda wish they could have that powerful feel in more of this 3 minute song but the rest of it is still good, a neat dream-like town festival atmosphere

Combat -Destiny-
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Emmental Catalepsy

Combat -Destiny-
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Emmental Catalepsy

I'm actually okay with either in match 2, but I love the lyrics and the mellowness of It's Dangerous to Go Alone. It just makes me feel cozy :D

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Emmental Catalepsy

Combat -Destiny-
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Scroll Stage

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Emmental Catalepsy

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Emmental Catalepsy

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
The Glittering City of Yusnaan
Scroll Stage

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Emmental Catalepsy

I was prepared to vote for Triangle today, but upon relistening, the stuff that bothered me about didn't really bother me so much. It has grown on me or maybe I just have adjusted my expectations accordingly ...

The Legend of Zelda is my favourite franchise. Though Final Fantasy is pretty cool too.

Match 3 is fucking stupid man. Scroll Stage is catchier, but Catalepsy does stuff I enjoy more.

I like the intro to Combat -Destiny- with the ostinato with the strings and later the drums and e-guitar building around it. The actual meat of the song is somewhat uninteresting though. An okay melody and not a lot of variation structure-wise in the composition. This is kind of my complaint on the Triangle Strategy soundtrack as a whole, but that's a discussion for elsewhere.

Hello, Pat Metheny synth. The Pat Metheny synth is always a good time. I think the piano is what really makes Atlantic Spotted Dolphin for me though. The mixing here is great too. Good jazz stuff that will definitely take my vote here.

Glittering City of Yusnaan is interesting. Very strong Middle Eastern vibes in the instrumentation of this one. Pretty unique soundscape, and I think I like it more than I did during the nomination period. If there's a negative about this one is the lack of a strong melody to really solidify the composition. But you can't get everything every time.

The production of It's Dangerous to Go Alone is excellent. The vocals blend perfectly with the synths. Good melody and piano too. Just a nice, fun song all-around. This is a very close match, but I think I'm leaning more towards this one atm.

The wobble synths in a lot of GameBoy music are very much not my thing. They distract way too much from everything else going on around it, and make it hard for me to enjoy the song as a whole. Scroll Stage's melody isn't particularly interesting to me either, so yeah, this is a hard pass from me.

Not really feeling Emmental Catalepsy either. I like the piano parts, but that's about it. The DnB syncopated rhythm feels really out of place here to me. The melody lacks anything to keep my interest. Just a messy composition in my opinion. But I guess it's still better than Scroll Stage, so it'll get my vote.

Matches 1 and 2 were pretty good today, but match 3 was very weak for me. Match 2 was the closest one by far today.

Votes:
Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Emmental Catalepsy

Combat -Destiny-
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Scroll Stage

Combat -Destiny-
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
Emmental Catalepsy

Good day. I've liked the entries from Mad Rat Dead for the most part.