Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 5! WhImMadeOf/Baluchons, HealWorld/AzrArchpelago, BuryLight/BrngRngrs

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to Video Game Music Contest 17, 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=477304
Contest info sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SAJKYJmYhccLvbf_H-5uSA7-eMwXfW8k1q74Qho1bLU
Contest discussion thread: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80433657
Main bracket playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT3m7iohpL0wlcxj-kHQRU1yHo-kpMxGe
Last years spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_IU5iCFTM_4WEx8ZWKwznMz5v2tarCKh1Ag0mxIgAes
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

Sonic Heroes - What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Composer: Jun Senoue, Johnny Gioeli
Loop Point: 3:41
https://youtu.be/FA0wWQ3gooQ

Saira - Baluchons
Composer: Yann van der Cruyssen, Lo Mathieu
Loop Point: 3:21
https://youtu.be/54A8i1XdYV8

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Match 2

Arknights - Heal the World
Composer: Kevin Penkin
Loop Point: 4:35
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o5pHx8XMPI

CrossCode: A New Home - Azure Archipelago
Composer: HAGANE
Loop Point: 1:37
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDAV9YgRW8E

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Match 3

Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition - Bury The Light
Com

Baluchons
Azure Archipelago
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

hi azure archipelago, a song made for me

What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Azure Archipelago
Bury The Light

What I'm Made of
Azure Archipelago
Bury the Light

I don't have much good or bad to say about the entirety of the bottom half of A2. Truly an 8 pack of the ages

Baluchons
Azure Archipelago
Bury the Light

What I'm Made of...
Azure Archipelago
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Saira - Baluchons
CrossCode: A New Home - Azure Archipelago
Burning Rangers - We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

I always forget just how good Baluchons is

Sonic Heroes - What I'm Made of...: Last Boss ver.2 / Metal Overlord
CrossCode: A New Home - Azure Archipelago
Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition - Bury the Light

What I'm Made of...: Last Boss ver.2 / Metal Overlord > Bury the Light >>> We Are Burning Rangers > Azure Archipelago > Baluchons = Heal the World

Baluchons and We Are Burning Rangers stood no chance, WIMO is my 4th favorite video game song ever made (and I'm still shocked it managed to get in) and Bury the Light has grown on me tremendously in the past... month or so, I want to say? WABR and Azure Archipelago are neat discoveries though I like them

What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Azure Archipelago
Bury The Light

Baluchons
Azure Archipelago
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Pretty weak day today :p

Space VGMC day 5

Baluchons
Azure archipelago
We are burning rangers

Baluchons was a real good listen it has lotta stuff I like :o

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/5/AARWb-AAEe8n.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/6/AARWb-AAEe8o.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/7/AARWb-AAEe8p.png

spoilers:
votes are for baluchons, azure and burning

Saira - Baluchons
CrossCode: A New Home - Azure Archipelago
Burning Rangers - We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Baluchons []
What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord [=]
Heal the World [=]
Azure Archipelago []
Bury the Light [X]
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version) []

What I'm Made Of is a song from my childhood, so I figure any affinity I still have for it wells from nostalgia and little else. It's a Crush 40 rock tune-- driving, corny, and frankly the perfect backdrop for a final fight with a big, robot dragon guy.

Sonic Heroes - What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Arknights - Heal the World
Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition - Bury The Light

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice (What I'm made of)
Heal the World
Bury the Light

Odd choice for Crush 40 tunes, this. It's not a bad one, mind. Just not very iconic. Though I suppose the iconic ones have had shots and not done all that well so... Yeah.

Do baluchons have anything to do with pauldrons? I dunno why my brain makes that connection but if there were ever a time to stop my brain from going on tangents during writeups, that time was at the very least yesterday it is now TOO LATE.

I ran a not-remotely-subtle campaign to try to find Arknights tracks I like that have any hope of getting traction. This was not the piece I expected to get the most positive reactions, but that doesn't mean I don't love it! I love how we go from "heal the world of darkness and then immediately shift into this much darker segment, bit of (male) background chanting and more stacatto rhythms, then you have the singer -- whoa, what a voice -- take command and be a savior. It proceeds to command for the rest of the song, but not without having tons of variety and dynamism and movement and it does almost all of this on the back of the singer. What a performance. People describe Awaken as a Disney-esque song but this is the one that seems to me like it wouldn't be out of place in one of the Mouse's musicals.

Bells are cool. Feels like I'm at a beach party, going swimming, playing volleyball, broadly having a good time. Admittedly Heal the World is a super tough act to follow; this just... doesn't grab me.

I expected this to be a very boring ten minutes of no looping, but... This is interesting? Reminds me of some of my favorite big epic metal songs. Actually feels a bit closer to Mark Gordon than to other things I've heard from DMC. The second-ish verse is nothing if not dull, but then we get to instrumental interludes that are just these beautiful, conflict-ridden expressions of power and lightning. Yeah. Yeah I think I like this. Could've maybe been trimmed a bit, but it definitely uses moist of its time. Honestly my only complaint is the end. The vocal climax is pretty great, but I think the guitar that follows it is a bit out of place? I might've just cut it right at the big chord at the end of the vocal climax, cut out the last minute. It feels like a retread of the earlier ideas, and that's not a great way to finish out imo.

A friend of mine speedruns Burning Rangers, submitted a run of it to RTAiJ, and asked me to commentate for it. So I did, and there's this section where you drive a car through a giant pipe. It's very reminiscent of F-Zero, and when we got to it, I literally said in front of ten thousand people in Japanese, "Nintendo, give new F-Zero plz." This was over a year ago. I don't think it worked.

Baluchons
Azure Archipelago
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Baluchons
Heal the World
Gah, too close

What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Azure Archipelago
Bury the Light

What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Azure Archipelago
Bury The Light

dowolf posted...

Odd choice for Crush 40 tunes, this. It's not a bad one, mind. Just not very iconic. Though I suppose the iconic ones have had shots and not done all that well so... Yeah.

hi as the person who nominated WIMO I also nominated KNIGHT OF THE WIND but the people went for WIMO instead so blame them lol

What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Azure Archipelago
Bury The Light

english vocal day, japanese in shambles

From TunnelScene:

Baluchons (Saira)
Azure Archipelago (CrossCode)
Bury the Light (Devil May Cry V)

I had a dream that I was a time traveling media historian and I was looking for the first time that Sonic Heroes was ever mentioned in the entire world to the public. and it turned out that the first time Sonic Heroes was ever revealed in the world was at a really rough and dirty military occupied third world country where there were a bunch of thugs who were slamming people against a wall and sguff . and they were teaching people "military language" where they made patterns of throwing basketballs around rapidly that each meant different words. but I found the MOMENT which was at a dingy theater where they showed a trailer of Sonic heroes. and then I went outside and there was an amplifier blasting the Sonic heroes theme. and I heard someone say "oh haha this song. they're playing this before it got overplayed and everyone was tired of it" or something like that---which implied they were ALSO from the future trying to witness this moment

baluchons is the most crazy misspelling of balloons I've ever seen

this music feels way less "anime" than the game looks

I have NEVER heard of this cross code thing wtf is that

tough guy music

burning rangers feels like the kind of song that people expect you to have sex while listening to

Baluchons
Azure Archipelago
Bury The Light

I extremely didn't expect to be voting for Bury The Light but some of the chord changes are hitting me juuuuust so

DeviDoesNothing posted...

hi as the person who nominated WIMO I also nominated KNIGHT OF THE WIND but the people went for WIMO instead so blame them lol

I thought of supporting Knight of the Wind but my nominations were already full by then, tough luck.

Prince46 posted...

I thought of supporting Knight of the Wind but my nominations were already full by then, tough luck.

eh fair enough. there's always next year I suppose

Baluchons
Azure Archipelago
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Baluchons
Azure Archipelago
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Baluchons
Archipelago
Burning

Baluchons
Azure Archipelago
Bury The Light

shame to see the weaker part of CrossCode's OST but w/e

Saira - Baluchons
CrossCode: A New Home - Azure Archipelago
Burning Rangers - We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Saira - Baluchons
CrossCode: A New Home - Azure Archipelago
Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition - Bury The Light

What I'm Made of...
Azure Archipelago
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Baluchons
Azure Archipelago
Bury The Light

What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Azure Archipelago
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Damn is this a high percentage of cheese, especially the third match. Burning Rangers still fun though.

What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Azure Archipelago
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

What I'm Made of...
Heal the World
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Not decisive on any of these. Kinda hoping nothing's decided by these votes.

baluchons
azu arc
rangers

Baluchons
Heal the World
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

What I'm Made of...: Not as big of a fan of this Crush 40 song as most other Crush 40 Sonic songs. Melody isn't as catchy as usual from them. Guitar solo at 2:39 is pretty sweet though. Decent song.

Baluchons: Love the upright bass work on this one more than anything. And the particular synths used in the second half are really pleasant to listen to. Fairly simple song, but the instrumentation is more than enough to make up for it. Great song.

Heal the World: Kevin Penkin and Sarah lainn is a very good combination. The staple Penkin synths with the great vocals and melody really make for a memorable song. The piano work in the interlude is pretty cool as well. Very good song.

Azure Archipelago: The pan flute, steel drums, acoustic guitar, and everything else make for great instrumentation in this one. Only instrument I'm not a fan of is the sampled trumpet. Melody is on the weaker end too. Still a pretty fun song overall.

Bury the Light: I normally don't like this type of edge alt rock/metal/djent. But Bury the Light is one of the ones that I like quite a bit. Really neat chord progressions, and the synth breakdowns are really cool to listen to. Victor Borba does a great job on the vocals as well. It is a long song, but I don't ever find any moment that I'm uninterested in what's going on. Best part is the synth at 5:45. Definitely one of those songs that you find something else to appreciate every time you listen to it.

We Are Burning Rangers: This matchup is not nice. >:[ The rap is awesome and the vocals are fun. Love the slap bass and guitar work too. And the Rhodes is going crazy as well. Probably my favorite two songs of the day unfortunately.

Big fan of today.

Votes:
Baluchons
Heal the World
Bury the Light

What I'm Made of...
Heal the World
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Baluchons
Azure Archipelago
Bury The Light

What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Azure Archipelago
Bury The Light

What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Azure Archipelago
Bury The Light

First match isn't too great. What I'm Made Of is okay, but would be better without the awful singing, like most Sonic vocal songs. Baluchons does nothing for me.

Heal the World's singing is even worse than the Sonic song's. Really ruins the song. Azure Archipelago is nice, but not amazing.

Bury the Light is a lot of fun. Burning Rangers feels like corporate garbage.

Azure Archipelago > Bury The Light > What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord > Baluchons > We Are Burning Rangers (English Version) > Heal the World

baluchons
heal the world
we are burning rangers

for someone who started listening to more vgm because lyrics can be distracting i sure am voting for a lot of vocal songs. this is probably my favourite six pack so far. even the songs i didn't vote for ROCK.

i agree that what im made of is one of the weaker sonic vocal tracks, especially for this contest when we have fly in the freedom and can you feel the sunshine as well. hell... burning rangers is pretty adjacent to that too come to think of it. it is still pretty fun.

baluchons is great!! i definitely wanted to see this make the bracket ... i find this song to be comforting in a way, even though it doesn't seem like it. i have hummed along to the opening section quite a bit today.

heal the world is so GOOD powerful vocals as expected. sarah's voice is so lovely and inspiring??? its... maybe borderline cheese but not too saccharine for my tastes. it really kind of does feel a bit disney princess-y and i admit that i eat that shit up.

i don't wanna vote against azure archipelago. i listen to it a lot ... it is also comforting but in a warmer way. i do not like the beach but i like music that makes me think of the beach. but heal the world is just too STRONG!!!!!

i do not want to vote against bury the light either! i expected to dislike this one because of opinions from individuals i shall not name, but wtf this is good. when i was halfway through i checked the time and i was shocked because it did not seem as if five minutes have passed. i expected to dislike the """""edgy lyrics""""" but hardly noticed them throughout most of the song.

but burning rangers is so FUN and CHEESY and PLAYFUL. it is the kind of song that always puts me in a happy mood and make me dance and wiggle in my seat. i wish both these songs could move on.

Baluchons
Heal the World
Bury The Light

Sorry Crush 40, but you have many better songs, and Baluchons is a pleasant auditory experience.
Match 2 is close, Azure is a solid if fairly standard area theme but Heal the World keeps growing on me... it's no Operation Blade (shame that couldn't get in!) but I think I'll deviate from my bracket for the first time here. Love the singer.
Not a big fan of either in the third match. Bury the Light has higher highs. I was disappointed in noms that the latter isn't the track where they shout BURNING RANGERS on the chorus.

Baluchons
Heal the World
Bury The Light

What I'm Made of...
Heal the World
Bury The Light

What I'm Made of... / Last Boss ver.2: Metal Overlord
Azure Archipelago
We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)

Bury the Light seems like something I should like more but it kinda drags. Good day overall though.

What I'm Made of...
Heal the World
Bury The Light