Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 16! Psychomeddlr /Philosophicus, ApexOfWrld/HustlBustl, UnkPol/4Dunno

(+) 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!

.

Match 1

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Composer: Hirokazu Ando
Loop Point: 2:27
Genre: MINOR KEY TRIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOMqN_WyiBc

Subarashiki Hibi - Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
Composer: Fuminori Matsumoto (szak)
Loop Point: 2:57
Genre: - .... .. -. -.- .. -. --.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PW5ZrZ3JCw

Match 2

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - The Apex of the World (Rain)
Composer: Takeru Kanazaki
Loop Point: 4:28
Genre: GRANDIOSE FINALE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0KjljX4Lqg

NEO: The World Ends With You - Hustle and Bustle
Composer: Takeharu Ishimoto
Loop Point: 2:28
Genre: AERIAL CROSSWALK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0SyWfpz1Fc

Match 3

Raiden V - Unknown Pollution
Composer: Yoshimi Kudo
Loop Point: 3:39
Genre: ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT
https://www.youtube.

MINOR KEY TRIP
GRANDIOSE FINALE
ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT

Is it finally time for a Kirby redemption arc?

every philosophy book ever written
Deference for Darkness
UP

8
8
8
5.5
9
haha funny joke

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Tractatus
Apex
Unknown Pollution

Simple enough.

Psychomeddler [7]
Tractatus [7.5]
Apex [8.5]
Hustle and Bustle [7.5]
Unknown Pollution [8.5]
#4 dunno [5]

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Fire Emblem: Three Houses - The Apex of the World (Rain)
Raiden V - Unknown Pollution

yep

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Hustle and Bustle
#4 dunno

TLP (Thy Little Pony?)
AotW (The Attack of the Worgs?)
UP (SQUIRREL)

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Two of my favorite songs in the bracket, and Psychomeddler is pretty cool too.

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
The Apex of the World (Rain)
#4 dunno

Unknown Pollution is in this quadrant, oh, no! Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler is my favorite Forgotten Land track, oh, yes! Match one is my favorite match in Bracket B! It's not a big deal to me who wins. But man, I love the combination of sounds in TLP...so calming, so many good chords. I keep liking it more and more. I'm thinking it has a high chance of being in my top 100 vgm at this point.

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler (9.33 - 5th place) / Tractatus Logico-philosophicus (9.4 - 4th place)
The Apex of the World (Rain) (8.4v - 20th place) / Hustle and Bustle (5.8 - 53rd place)
Unknown Pollution (7.2 - 38th place) / #4 dunno (7.6 - 34th place)

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Fire Emblem: Three Houses - The Apex of the World (Rain)
Raiden V - Unknown Pollution

- .... .. -. -.- .. -. --.
NEO CROSSWALK no i don't mind the edit i just still prefer mine lol
IDK

8.25
9.05
8.25
7.05
8.3
8.95
cracked day

i'm glad the slightly lesser of the kirbs was the one to draw subahibi since i'd have felt pretty disappointed if i had to immediately pick between roche or blizz and it (and city trial is "less expendable" and stage 5 would've just been bodied and made it even more awkward >_>)

the best of this year's FEs that got in vs the... i guess best of this year's twewys? but they're all weak picks. i feel like i was being more generous to apex when i scored it mostly because of how memorable its use of its motif is, and i'm not really that into that motif generally speaking... so, sharply defying my scores here. i doubt i'd usually pick apex over any songs over like, 7.7 anyway, which is a good sign that this is just a case of overranking

i slept pretty hard on splatoon's less covered styles for a long time... a pseudo-pastiche of PMD (but weirder) is so far from the kind of music i associate with splatoon. shame raiden was what had to draw it, though it's the one that i don't want to do well anyway since it was clearly not raiden fans that pushed for it this time anyway so oh well. shame deo's been strategically meming dunno so people want to vote for it even less but if it all means tractatus has any shot at retiring instead i'm fine with it. the meta

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
[Abstain, for now]
Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion - #4 dunno

Psychomeddler is not as insanely good as I remember but it just edges the competition regardless. The second match, I just do not feel anything for either song. I think the TWEWY thing annoys me more, but I can't bring myself to throw a nod toward Apex either. Leaning Apex but likely to just walk out of that match entirely. For a brief moment I wondered why I ever had a problem with Unknown Pollution but then the guitar came in and oh yeah. The keys are cool when they do the cool things but a large part of the song is electric guitar driving rock whatever I do not like this sound. Betting #4 dunno doesn't stand much of a chance here but I love it a bunch and I'm just happy to see it make bracket. Today's entourage:

[9.5] #4 dunno
[8.0] Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
[7.5] Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
[5.5] Unknown Pollution
[4.5] Apex of the World (Rain)
[4.0] Hustle and Bustle

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Faded Dum Pink Ball
I refuse to call it what Kama does, but H+B.
Unending Tiebreaker

Match 1 is entertaining: "I can't believe it's actually Kirby" versus "I can't believe it's not Super Mario Galaxy x Phantasy Star Online 1." Could go either way, but I found Faded Dream more interesting.
Match 2: As far as Fire Emblem tracks go, this is a nicely memorable one, but Hustle and Bustle is one of my favorite tracks and grew on me quite a bit from NEO: TWEWY since I first heard it, and I'm happy to finally have a clean link of it.
Match 3: Oh no, not you again. At least this time you're actually beating your competition, in my eyes. #4 dunno is plenty *interesting* but doesn't go anywhere; IDK is the perfectly apt genre for it.

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
#4 dunno

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
Hustle and Bustle
Unknown Pollution

Faded
World
Pollution

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
Hustle and Bustle
#4 dunno

imagine voting against hirokazu ando who woul

#4 dunno sounds like a Ligeti etude or Hungarian Rock or something, and I maintain the reason it wasn't chosen as one of the tracks for the rhythm game is because no one at Nintendo could figure out how to write a beatmap for it

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Hustle and Bustle
Unknown Pollution

Poor Apex. (Or H&B.)

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

You know, listening to Hustle and Bustle makes me wish I had discovered No Straight Roads - Vs. 1010 sooner just to nominate it. Oh well. Also matches are fine I guess. Apex is better than I remember!

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Subarashiki Hibi - Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
Fire Emblem: Three Houses - The Apex of the World (Rain)
Raiden V - Unknown Pollution

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
Hustle and Bustle
Unknown Pollution

How did "#4 dunno" even make it in ? There's really not much to hear in that song. I don't see the appeal.

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
#4 dunno

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Hustle and Bustle
Unknown Pollution

Forgotten Land's music is weird, the tracks all have at least one bit I like but are so cluttered and constantly shifting that I never get into the groove of the song. Logico is alright.
I'm generally a fan of FE music but this is my least fav in the contest by a wide margin. I think I prefer the regular version of the main theme to whatever they're doing here. It's not bad or anything, but I'm not feeling it.
On the other end of the scale, I'm not usually a fan of TWEWY but this track is great! It's catchy and straightforward, clean and fun. Easy vote!
Ah, so this is the track that Fire Emblem took down last year. Well if I were taking part in this contest back then I would've voted Unknown Pollution easily, this is pretty awesome. I will say though, I don't enjoy the electric guitar here as much as the other instruments.
#4 is bizarre, I appreciate what it's doing but there's not enough there for me to get into it.

Psych: 3/5
Logic: 2.5/5
Apex: 2.5/5
Hustle: 4/5
Unknown: 4/5
dunno: 1.5/5

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Hustle and Bustle
Unknown Pollution

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Hustle and Bustle
Unknown Pollution

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
Hustle and Bustle
Unknown Pollution

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Matches 2 and 3 were extremely hard for me and I kind of feel like I've gone for the boring options. If I find time to relisten tomorrow, maybe I will change my mind...

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
Hustle and Bustle
#4 dunno

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Hustle and Bustle
#4 dunno

1. PowerOne
2. ???
3. Scroll Stage
4. ???
5. Staff Roll (Super Mario 64)
6. Dreams in a Pie
7. ???
8. ???
9. ???
10. Passing Through the Forest
11. ???
12. ???
13. ???
14. ???
15. ???
16. ???
17. ???
18. Kusanagi Village
19. ???
20. Calling
21. LIN NE KRO NE
22. Egg Reverie
23. ???
24. ???
25. The Glittering City of Yusnaan
26. ???
27. ???
28. ???
29. ???
30. The Elephant's Foot of Obnoxious Music
31. Time Moves Slow
32. The Apex of the World (Rain)
33. ???
34. Interwoven Stories
35. ???
36. ???
37. ???
38. ???
39. ???
40. It's Dangerous to Go Alone
41. ???
42. ???
43. ???
44. Yggdrasil
45. ???
46. ???
47. SaKuRa
48. ???
49. ???
50. Kaze no Ne

Apex always gets me pumped up, every single time. 3:10, when the choir kicks in, is so good.

Votes:
Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
#4 dunno

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Hustle and Bustle
Unknown Pollution

The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus
Hustle and Bustle
Unknown Pollution

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler is a fun song. Nice piano, synths, and melodies in general. I think I like Blizzard Bridge more than this one, and it's a shame that that one's already gone.

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus is an interesting song. Some neat production elements here with the piano and some of the synth effects used. The melody does feel a bit too random for it to be particularly memorable to me, but it's still enjoyable as is.

Apex of the World is far from my favorite Fire Emblem theme, (my favorite obviously being Don't speak her name!) but it's still pretty solid. I like the vocals in the intro in particular. I will say that I'm not particularly fond of the main motif of this one (at 1:15). Something about it bothers me, and I'm not sure how to describe it. Nice to also use the main Three Houses motif later (which I like better than the other one). Good percussion throughout this one, and the cello solo at around 3:30 is great. The synth drop at 3:52 is cool. So yeah, good song, but far from Fire Emblem's best. I'd be more inclined to vote for a 3H song if it were something like God-Shattering Star or Shambhala (Area 17 Redux).

Hustle and Bustle is such a fun progressive house song. The Daft Punk-esque vocoder bits are definitely my favorite parts. Great synths and overall production here. Fairly easy vote for this one for me.

The mix on Unknown Pollution is uh, not good. The background stuff is way too loud, making the main instruments difficult to pay attention to. The composition itself is decent. Decent melody, and I do like the underlying strings here. But yeah, that mix is making this one hard to vote for.

I actually might vote for #4 dunno solely for the reason that the mix on this is so much better than in Unknown Pollution. It's a really weird song, with wack instrumentation and melodies. But I can appreciate that to a certain extent. So yeah, going with this one.

Votes:
Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Hustle and Bustle
#4 dunno

I haven't been making time to listen to songs, and I didn't vote yesterday =( Need to get myself to do it today. Match 3 for me is the hardest matchup that we've had in the contest yet.

Psychomeddler's rather more enjoyable than other noms from the game. Lots of fun. Tractatus is okay.

I feel like my evaluation of Apex swings every time I hear it, heh. I like it, just not as much as I did last year. Hustle Bustle isn't great.

UP is always awesome, #4 dumb.

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Unknown Pollution > Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler = The Apex of the World (Rain) > Tractatus Logico-philosophicus > Hustle and Bustle > #4 dunno

--
--
#4 dunno

Came very close to just skipping voting today with how close all three matches are for me! Only match 3 do I feel strong enough to choose between, but still just barely, both Unknown's engaging action & Dunno's quirky digital dreamscape are nice. Both songs in match 1 are really good too, I just can't easily decide between them (or maybe I'll change my mind on that before the day is done, we'll see)

(just realized that I'm basically saying "dunno" for all 3 matches today lol)

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

< P0's Top 16 >
9.1 (0 left): Labyrinth V - Forgotten Capital / Im Back (to Rise!) / Apex of the World (Rain)
8.9 (2 left):
8.8 (2 left):
8.7 (0 left): The Wind's Blooming Mountain
8.5 (1 left):
8.4 (1 left):
8.3 (1 left): Don't speak her name! / Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke
8.2 (3 left):

Well, that was a pretty early top 3 reveal! But what could those 8.9s and 8.8s be?! ooo the suspense ooooo

Like Back to Rise, I won't say much about Apex since I already did so in R1 last year. Maybe if it makes round 3 or 4 I'll do a write-up? Of my top 3, it feels like the most "I like this VGM for VGM reasons" song - it has an important in-game context, can be actively listened to or used as background music, and incorporates a bunch of motifs from the rest of the OST. A good song to recommend to a VGM-curious friend! Shame that I have to sacrifice Hustle and Bustle (8.0) here.

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Hustle and Bustle
#4 dunno

Almost went for the full Nintendo sweep, but I have a slight preference for Hussy and Bussy today (thanks Kama)

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
Hustle and Bustle
#4 dunno

Match 1: Since the game is so recent, my mind still associates Psychomeddler with the tedious, boring, unfun mode where it plays and tries to make me like it less. But the other song here doesn't do anything special for me, so Psychomeddler ends up winning anyway. I found out that it's a remix of an older Kirby song, which I didn't pick up on when I actually heard Psychomeddler ingame.

Match 2: Easiest match yet. It's a series recognized as consistently having some of my least favorite music ever, vs the series which I had previously noted as being one of my biggest (positive) finds of the contest. This isn't even my favorite TWEWY song in this year's contest, but there's no chance that I'd vote against it here.

Match 3: This one hard because Unknown Pollution is pretty cool in its own right, and I wish I didn't have to vote against it (especially coming off of that dubious loss last year). But in the end there's a reason why I love Splatoon music so much.

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler
The Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution

Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler (Arrangement) The Apex of the World (Rain) > Hustle and Bustle Unknown Pollution > #4 dunno > Faded Dream of a Psychomeddler (Sound Design) > Tractatus Logico-philosophicus