Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 22! MtPyreExt/LeftAlone, Kiyarora/BestYetToCome, FrznCave/FrznGround

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mt. Pyre Exterior
The Best Is Yet To Come
Frozen Grounds

Mt Pyre is a good song that I think the RSE soundfont is a bit ill-suited for. I like the guitar in Left Alone, but the melody parts feel like they need to be a bit crisper. Still gives off a neat atmosphere anyways though.

This Gitadora song is quite good. Really like the mix of fluorishing melodies and epic blaring notes from the guitar. Mixing the violin and guitar together here is also very cool. I know The Best is Yet to Come is a meme here at this point but it's always unironically been a favorite of mine. Vocals are very pretty and I love the folk-sounding ensemble that provides accompaniment.

Adventurous Ball in a Giddy Labyrinth is honestly a god-tier subtitle for a game. Anyways Frozen Cave is firmly in the "good-but-not-great" tier which unfortunately puts it near the bottom of today's songs. It provides a neat ambience and doesn't really try to step outside of that, but it's still very pleasant to listen to and has some cool synths. It's probably true that I could describe Frozen Grounds similarly, but this song is noticeably better across the board. Though, the sad string parts do definitely provide some element of catharsis here as well. Snowy ambience as a "genre" is something I often like a lot, and this puts it on full display. Soft woodwinds, mallet percussion, and strings are all things I like and this arranges them together in a very compelling way.

Frozen Grounds > The Best is Yet to Come > Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite > Mt. Pyre > Left Alone > Stage 2 (Frozen Cave)

Terraria Calamity - "Left Alone" - Theme of Brimstone Elemental
Metal Gear Solid - The Best Is Yet To Come
Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 - Frozen Grounds

Mt. Pyre Exterior
The Best Is Yet To Come
Frozen Grounds

holy fuck dude i love how catchy mt. pyre is. it dances and ascends and descends and just goes all over. i was excited to support this :) one of my favourite pokemon songs for sure :)

i can't tell if i like the combination of a "softer" melody and that hard abrasiveness overlaying it. i think if the track was static i'd probably hate it but it almost feels like you're traversing a dungeon and every so often you find a safe zone. yeah ok i guess i'm on board!

the intro to this is very, very nice. honestly wish there was more of that. i like how this one has more slower moments too a lot of these fast rhythm game songs just feel like trying to stuff a whole lot in a little package, which like i totally get, but man it can feel a bit exhausting sometimes. i like the percussion heavy bit a lot.

can we please stop getting this song in, im tired of watching my baby get murdered over and over again like some twisted video game version of the movie groundhog day. like im not even tired of this song i just hate watching it die over and over again. please for the love of god let it rest. this match is pretty close, all things considered, i have some slight preference to tbiytc though, it still manages to hit harder.

this music reminds me of earthbound at parts. i love earthbound. i also like this way better than in noms phase jesus i was STRESSED. thanks for making the bracket so i can appreciate you better.

now THIS is the kind of eo song i adore. holy shit that guitar wins me over just like how it did in noms phase. and when the strings kick in. oh my god, so beautiful and warm and inviting (isn't this supposed to be ice level music????) jesus. the little descending chime-y bits are so cool and doth my ears detect drums??? bongos?? idk this is just god so fucking good. so warm PLS more eo stuff like this!!!! <3333

good day today.

Mt. Pyre Exterior: This one's actually pretty cool for Pokmon until it turns into a regular Pokmon song randomly for a few seconds at the end of the loop. Cool rhythms, melody and countermelody.

Left Alone: Eh, not sure how I feel on this one. Feels very moody without a lot of substance, and the mix is pretty poor. Probably the weakest song of the day.

Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite: The intro of this song is one of the coolest things ever. The rest of it is good, but never reaches the greatness of the intro, which is unfortunate. It was still one of my favorite discoveries during noms. Great e-guitar, rhythms, and violin throughout (although the violin is too bright again).

The Best Is Yet To Come: I still can't believe this is one of the memed to death songs here, as it's very good (unlike the other one). This is a cruel matchup btw, why do you put the best two songs of the day against each other?

Frozen Cave: Very interesting song. The dissonant melodies are a bit odd, but the soundscape is pleasant. Not much else to say on it.

Frozen Grounds: Another pleasant one. Love the soundscape and especially the bass guitar. It does lack a strong melody, and feels more like the backing to a vocal song than anything, but it's still very nice.

Good day. Match 2 is mean.

Votes:
Mt. Pyre Exterior
The Best Is Yet To Come
Frozen Grounds

Mt. Pyre Exterior
Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite (Long Version)
Frozen Grounds

with regards to left alone, match 1 kinda brutally close lol

From TunnelScene:

Left Alone (Terraria Calamity)
Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite (GITADORA)
Stage 2 - Frozen Cave (Tama)

go ichinose = chick corea

dm dokuro = pat methen*is zapped by the Lazer beam that is tired of hearing tha(match between two great tracks by two great composers)

kudo is so good at liking dream theater. some parts of this are insanely 96, like exactly the same as "predators crypto part 1:

although I perfectly understand why, it's hard for me to believe I ever disliked tbiytc. most of the jump in appeal to me has simply been that I'm a lot more forgiving of compositional simplicity when it exudes certain aesthetics and "sounds like it could be in gust" is one of those. and that i like acoustic/folky stuff a lot more than i used to. but ALSo I realize that this isn't even that simpleit's melodically stuck in a thin range of one scale the whole time, which was what bothered me most in the past, but the chords behind it all are like DENSE and stuff. and serve as a context-altering counter to the simple lead in the same way as a lot of my favorite hisayoshi ogura stuff where the melody is like 2 notes but the adventurous chords behind it make it feel like 13 notes. there was a period where I was even more in favor of this a few years back but I'm regressing into the proto-gamebop clone I was in 2008 which is why tked supported all 4 of the songs I have winning in my favorites bracketsso it's gonna be a bit less likely for me to press the vote button on stuff like this than in recent years. especially when it's against yoshimi kudo. but I certainly have a lot more respect for tbiytc than I used to

talk about"my favorite composition traits are in happy music even tho I prefer dark and sad" which is why when I REALLY like a cute happy song it has to get messed up post-tonal stuff every 5 seconds. harmonically WILD stuff even at the cute parts. and since tonality/atonality is kinda the element of composition I react to most these days, this track does mean a lot to me. there are darker songs I like the emotion of more later in game, but I think this winds up as my overall favorite in the end---it strikes the best balance of sounding like "a normal song" while being like impossible to predict the next chord so I have to put actual effort into soloing along to the changes. it makes me have attention called to how wild the composition is on this ost moreso than the ones where i can just filter it out as "dissonant song" the wjole time and not think about how it subverts 3xpectation. also yeah I like 80s-90s rompler synths so it's my jam timbrally 1000%. if this were like old vgmcs where i was more around to give multiple-post-long writeups believe me I'd transcribe this madness and talk about how it sounds like p------allan holdsworth.

well my other favorite type of synth is fm of course. I like how even in full production arrangements in this series you can still hear a bit of that icy punch

From NFUN:

Left Alone :(
Satellite
Frozen Cave

Left Alone
Trajectory of the Kiyorara Satellite (Long Version)
Frozen Grounds

Mt. Pyre Exterior
The Best Is Yet To Come
Frozen Grounds

Pokmon Ruby/Sapphire - Mt. Pyre Exterior -6.5 - Just a normal pokemon song,, except its not. I find the faux jazziness of it cool. The dizzying, whimsical unserious tone of the dissonant melody is fun too.

Terraria Calamity - "Left Alone" - Theme of Brimstone Elemental - 4- The first half didnt leave too big an impression on me. Nothing really leaves a strong impact. The instrumentation, the guitar especially feels a bit muddy.

GITADORA EXCHAIN - Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite (Long Version) - 5-Felt too subdued. Also like it kept interrupting itself before it reached anything climatic. Push harder Gitadora! I know you have it in you!

Metal Gear Solid - The Best Is Yet To Come -7.5 -
Last years comments: This song makes me kinda want to cry i dunno why. I don't even really like it that much. I guess my heart feels differently. The last minute was good in a tribal, worldly way.
This year: This song just keeps coming back! Im not a big fan of the slower beginning, but when the main melody comes in with the persisting quiet guitar, the harmonic melody takes a change. It moves so resolutely and the instrumentation backs up the major chord changes perfectly.

Tama: Adventurous Ball in Giddy Labyrinth - Stage 2 (Frozen Cave)- 4.5- Feels like being trapped in a rich magestic anime VN. Reminds me of something like ouran host high school club. Well until the ufocore comes in. I dont think the two sides mix well but its novel

Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 - Frozen Grounds - 6.5 - Im used to Etrian music being loud and chiptune rock. This sincere and heartfelt serenade is a departure but is still pretty good. I just wish there was more of that signature Etrian feel to it.

"Left Alone" - Theme of Brimstone Elemental
Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite (Long Version)
Frozen Grounds

I'm not too sure on how to describe the vibes that Mt. Pyre Exterior is giving me, I guess it's something close to "cartoony mountain area right by a desert" if I had to try and word it. It's a decent-sounding song, though I'm sure I've heard more compelling tracks from the Gen 3 era.

For Left Alone, there's something intriguing about the contrast between the flute as the main instrument and the heavy bass guitar in the background, it strikes that RPG vibe very well. There's this sense of loneliness/being lost amidst the more exciting elements, that helps me feel interest for sure!

Kiyarora Satellite is no Jupiter Guns Novel for sure, but a few relistens to it has helped it grow in my favor. The beginning is easily one of the best parts, with the groovy guitar and the inclusion of the energetic violin. The slowdown around 2:20 is a real good part, though it's shortly after where I think the song tends to drag for a bit, thankfully coming back to life around the 4:15 mark and ending off with a good finish. Pretty good Kudo piece, nice to know he hasn't lost his touch!

3rd year with The Best Is Yet To Come, and it just isn't hitting me yet. It's a decent song with folksy vocals at best, and it really doesn't sway me in any significant direction.

I'm not sure where Tama came from, but it sounds like the game's music has a little Kirby influence to me? It kinda feels a little Super Star/Dream Course-esque flavor to me, where it's whimsical, light and bubbly more than anything else. An interesting song for sure.

When Etrian Odyssey music hits (which is most of the time), it hits, and Frozen Grounds is no exception. It might not be as exciting as some of the other entries in the franchise, but this is still nothing to scoff at. Real good instrumentation, it's just an really satisfying song for adventuring in the Etrian world.

Mt. Pyre Exterior
Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite (Long Version)
Stage 2 (Frozen Cave)

Terraria Calamity - "Left Alone" - Theme of Brimstone Elemental
GITADORA EXCHAIN - Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite (Long Version)
Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 - Frozen Grounds

Something came up so no time for writeups, but I'll try to get something in after the voting deadline if I can.

Frozen Grounds > Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite (Long Version) > "Left Alone" - Theme of Brimstone Elemental > Mt. Pyre Exterior > The Best Is Yet To Come > Stage 2 (Frozen Cave)

Mt. Pyre Exterior
The Best Is Yet To Come
Frozen Grounds