Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 6! feat. Travelling Elsewhere, Dying Courageously, and Returning True

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to Video Game Music Contest 19, 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=479594
Contest info sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HqEzmlfEUsm6BWJbBxDm6ZUnQQ_2d1ezDlVBN2sYepY
Contest discussion thread: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80981071
Main bracket playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT3m7iohpL0zm7Svx4DXDy1XjUejSBazd
Last years spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HBxgL9woiCMFKNOPuN_qdxmzjStJXSpC3Ocalfsavdk
VGMC total stats sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1XdLWiUKB2kX99qYBgnRbLU_sCz4dvZSByKKJHCT6o
VGMC info site (thank you p0!!): https://p0p0p0p.github.io/
Discord: https://discord.gg/7FVXqWj

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

Cities Skylines: Campus - Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Composer: David Lindgren Zacharias (Check For Pulse)
Loop Point: 3:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCEnDyfIA9Q

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - Baladiums Drive
Composer: Kohta Takahashi
Loop Point: 1:14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glx8Hy4MjAs

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Match 2

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes - Flags of Brave
Composer: Michiko Naruke, Motoi Sakuraba arr. Noriyuki Iwadare, Michiko Naruke
Loop Point: 4:47
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQsToGNvhrk

DoDonPachi Blissful Death Re:Incarnation - Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Composer: Manabu Namiki arr. Kenichiro Fukui
Loop Point: 5:07
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5gsRX70Jlw

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Match 3

Goddess of Victory: NIKKE - Recursion
Composer: crayvxn
Loop Point: 2:48
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1izkgmfboM

Payday 2 - Break the Rules
Composer: Simon Viklund
Loop Point: 4:14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Z96WwZrL0

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Easy vote form:
Anywhere (Where Youre Not) / Baladiums Drive
Flags of Brave / Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion / Break the Rules

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - Baladiums Drive
DoDonPachi Blissful Death Re:Incarnation - Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Goddess of Victory: NIKKE - Recursion

Baladium's Drive (Klonoa)
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix) (DDP DOJ Re:Incar)
Recursion (Goddess of Victory: NIKKE)

Heh; its like i am a kid or young adult ; middle grade literature2003,1999,2004,1998,2002,2005

You know what Klonoa; you are very lazy, why are you inside of peoples dreams all the time. Wake UP. This is what the soundtrack to Quern would be like if it was really fastand old instead of slow and new

This is like baladiums drive but less fake and with a girl angry at the song

apparently , a youtube commenter can TASTE the Einhander. I think thats a bit aggressive, but I will eat the Einhander

This song needs the vocal samples from Bitter Dance from STar Ocean 3 over it, timed to be playing at a polyrhythm where whats a 4/4 bar here would be the length of a bar of 7/8 in the Bitter Dance layer, In my opinion

Heh; its like im an adult1985, 1987,1984,1989, i miss when they had the Top Gun ride at the Kings Island amusement park 24 miles (39 km) northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. That was one my favorite ride and made me pretend I cared about top gun for any reason other than liking 80s synth music

Baladium
Flags of Brave
Recursion

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Flags of Brave
Recursion

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Baladiums Drive (rip Cities Skylines)
Flags of Brave
Break the Rules

Strong day for round 1 when a track you supported might be the weakest track of the day.

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Break the Rules

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Drive
Taido
Rules

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Break the Rules

Baladiums Drive
Flags of Brave
Recursion

Baladium's Drive
Flags of Brave
Break the Rules

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Recursion [B] > Baladium's Drive [C] > Taido [C] > Flags of Brave [C] > Anywhere [D] > Break the Rules [F]

Sorry I DO NOT like Avril Lavigne. Klonoa song is solid. No strong feelings on the second match. Could go either way. Recursion is far and away the best song today. I have no clue why the Payday song is listed with a C rank in my bracket, I hate it.

Baladium's Drive
Flags of Brave
Recursion

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

I disliked anywhere a lot less than I thought I would but I still didn't like it 4/10

Baladium is cute 7/10

Flags of Brave is corny but it'd probably get me if I'd actually played the game. The choir is a bit much though 7/10

Taido is good, I'm a fan of crunchy basses 7.5/10

Recursion is pretty bog-standard dance music, there isn't even that much of a difference between it and Taido but this one's just a lot less inspired 5/10

Break the Rules is something I would have mistaken for AI music if it was written now 3.5/10

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Cities Skylines: Campus - Anywhere (Where Youre Not): Reminds me of 2000s Disney rock. It's pretty neat even if it feels a bit repetitive. 7/10

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - Baladiums Drive: Every Klonoa song I've heard thus far has been nice but kinda boring. This is the first one that has actually caught my attention. The pan flutes (?) mixed with the prominent percussion is just so fun. My only complaint is that it isn't longer. 7.9/10

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes - Flags of Brave: Oh hey, one of my favorite discoveries from the 2024 contest. Kinda sucks my nomination had to go against it in that round. I was victorious, but at what cost?

This definitely sounds like a musical song with the orchestra and the passionate singer. I might actually like this better than the English version (the one in the contest). Actually, that reminds me, I need to show this to my musical-loving friend. Defying Gravity vibes for sure. 8.3/10

DoDonPachi Blissful Death Re:Incarnation - Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix): I mean, it sure is rhythmically good. But like, it's not standing a chance against one of my favorite 2024 contest discoveries from the Supracord server. 6.6/10

Goddess of Victory: NIKKE - Recursion: I wasn't paying attention to the time signature, but there's gotta be something related to recursion in here...Anyways, while I'm a particular fan of the slower parts in the beginning, it gets really good at the end in particular. 7/10

Payday 2 - Break the Rules: Nice 80s rock vibes. Fun song! 7.5/10

Defying Gravity > flute dog rabbit song > 80s rock > recursion >= skyline the band class song (I had to play a song with this name) > the rhythm song?
man, I am not good at coming up with this tonight. I need to go to sleep.

VOTES:
Baladiums Drive
Flags of Brave
Break the Rules (edited)

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Not really feeling either song from match 1 so.... No votes there lol

Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Ba
ta
re

battery

oh i forgot to actually post earlier oops (i remember i went to look something up for my writeups and then neglected to come back to it)

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

no writeups this time because i'm lazy

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Anywhere (Where You're Not)
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

I should be liking both Taido and BtR more, but *shrug*

Recursion [A] [13/30] > Anywhere [A] [17/30] > Break The Rules [C] > Taido [C] > Baladium [D+] > Flags [D]

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Baladium's Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Baladium's Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Recursion > Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix) > Break the Rules > Baladium's Drive > Anywhere (Where You're Not) >= Flags of Brave

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Flags of Brave
Recursion

Anywhere (Where You're Not)
Flags of Brave
Break the Rules

Break the Rules > Anywhere (Where You're Not) > Flags of Brave >= Baladium's Drive >= Recursion > Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Extend Remix)

Anywhere (Where You're Not) - 8
I don't particularly care for the riff between verses but everything else is great

Baladium's Drive - 7.5
pretty neat, feels like it could use more time to expand on its ideas tho

Flags of Brave - 7.5
I respect it, not really my thing tho

Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Extend Remix) - 7
not bad but there's a noise near the beginning that gave me a bit of a headache so it gets points docked for that

Recursion - 7.5
neat EDM song, doesn't do much to stand out to me

Break the Rules - 8.5
hell yeah banger, wish there was a good download for this tho the only one I can find loops the fucking song for some reason

Baladiums Drive
Flags of Brave
Recursion

Flags of Brave is really cool.

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Flags of Brave
Recursion

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

Baladiums Drive
Flags of Brave
Recursion

Holy crap, the singer of Flags of Brave is good... I need to look up her name... Sarah lainn... As for the opponent, Namiki + Fukui is a fantastic combination, despite the fact that I agree with Acire about the "noise" at the beginning being headache inducing. This is the first close match of the contest for me, so I could flip on this match.

Anywhere (Where Youre Not) (6.5) / Baladiums Drive (7.4)
Flags of Brave (9.35) / Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix) (9.25)
Recursion (4.7) / Break the Rules (4.4)

Baladiums Drive
Taido
Break the Rules

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Break the Rules

I supported Baladiums Drive. I didnt remember why at first, then 0:36 hit. Often I will say that a song has good sounds which basically means it makes noises that I like how they sound and I cant describe it any better than that. The instrument that starts at 0:36 is an excellent sound. It is the kind of sound that will pop into my head months from now and make me want to play this song back just to hear it again. And it gets repeated a few times as part of the same melody, until at 1:05 its cut short and then rises away, into the loop. That ending is incredibly emotionally powerful and makes hearing the repeated part after the loop a whole new experience.

Speaking of good sounds, my favorites in Anywhere (Where Youre Not) are the lower-pitched lines at 0:14 and 0:44. If the vocals were like that more often Id like the song way more strongly. As is, its a fine pop song thats outclassed in this match.

Tumult - Crest of a Violent Wave

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Flags of Brave
Break the Rules

Baladiums Drive
Flags of Brave
Break the Rules

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Flags of Brave
Break the Rules

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Flags of Brave
Recursion

Flags of Brave > Recursion > Anywhere (Where Youre Not) > Break the Rules > Grieving Womb (Kenichiro Fukui Extend Remix) > Baladiums Drive

Cities Skylines: Campus - Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes - Flags of Brave
Payday 2 - Break the Rules

Cities Skylines: Campus - Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
DoDonPachi Blissful Death Re:Incarnation - Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)

anywhere
taido
recursion

i love you taido (kenichiro fukui remix)

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion

oof this is a blowout if i've seen one, Anywhere (Where You're Not) just isn't for me, and Baladium's Drive very much so is. Sometimes that's just how the matchups shake up!! (i will enjoy this while i can cause some other matchups in r1 are not like this who the hell made this bracket oh wiat-====)

what an absolutely star-studded lineup Flags of Brave has holy frickin moley, Naruke/Sakuraba composition, Naruke/Iwadare arrangement sung by Sarah Alainn (noteable for Xenoblade's Beyond the Sky, one of my favorite vocal songs in all of vgm) ?!?!?!? This song should be AMAZING!!! ....and it mostly is! I think there's something more I wish it had that it doesn't, not sure exactly how to put it. Still gets pretty high marks, but mama.... it's up against a banger remix of one of my favorite songs from last VGMC..... I love how completely different the intro is to the original, and about around 1:40 you start to realize the background synths are doing the progression from the second half of the original... and then 2:07 hits and oh Yep it's Definitely a remix of Taido UHNNN this second half is definitely the maker of the song. he kept the namiki claps AUGH 4:39 HOW DARE HE DO THAT. HOW DARE YOU FUKUI beautiful beautiful. during noms i totally thought this was the Fukui Takmi which got nommed to combat the Hommarju Takmi and I DO NOT care for his Takmi at all tbh so when I got here and realized it was actually his Taido i was so relieved lol. anyway yeah banger its probably dead round 1 but thats okay itll join the original in round 1 hell lmfao

i'm so grateful i got to get hypertrance into bracket LOL crayvxn has quickly become one of my favorite artists of all time over the past two years and nu:chronia.1999:. is one of my favorite songs of all time now so when i found out nikke had a hypertrance update and crayvxn did a song for it i lost my MIND and this was basically guaranteed day 1 nom from the moment i heard it lol, amazing amazing i don't care if it loses i got it here and i'm so happy other people get to (more like have to rofl) hear it!! :> And it has a worthy opponent too, I was very impressed by Break the Rules in noms! I've yknow... known about Simon Viklund for a while but never really got into his stuff just by not seeking it out lol but yeah I like Break the Rules a lot! Can def tell he comes from a demoscene tracker background and if I can sniff that out that's a very very good sign haha

1. [9.2] - Goddess of Victory: NIKKE - Recursion
3. [8.7] AZISAI (Long ver.)
4. [8.7] - DoDonPachi Blissful Death Re:Incarnation - Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
5. [8.5] Kenhull Badlands
6. [8.3] - Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - Baladiums Drive
13. [7.5] Kiss me Sunlights
14. [7.5] - Payday 2 - Break the Rules
17. [7.4] Volcano
18. [7.4] - Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes - Flags of Brave
35. [5.4] Believe In Myself ...Theme of "MILES"
36. [4.0] - Cities Skylines: Campus - Anywhere (Where Youre Not)

From dowolf:

Day 6
Anywhere You're Not
Flags of Brave
Break the Rules

Anywhere (Where Youre Not)
Flags of Brave
Break the Rules

Yipee, writeups are back.

Hmm, I'd say there's nothing I can particularly highlight of Anywhere, but it's a good feel song :) I like the vocals, the lyrics are nice and I think it manages to capture me a bit, specially on the chorus. I doubt we're gonna get any more simpler than this one, but you know what they say, if it's not broke don't fix it. I came for Baladium pretty excited, but now that I listen... I kind of don't care for it that much? Sure, it has a really cool Andino composition and the second part is great, but like... I don't think it really shines enough for being a single minute, it feels like it should be doing way more than this. I don't know how, I'm just not feeling this one today, and that's considering I've been playing this game as we speak. It's a vote for Anywhere, and maybe they can win me more in R2.

Flags of Brave is a-ma-zing. Yesterday when I was listening, it peeked my interest by the 2:30 minutes mark, and now on a relisten, this song just rules. Amazing singer (apparently the one of Beyond the Sky from XC1), and the instrumental is great. When the song drops by the aforementioned 2:30, it doesn't hold back, it's a dose of epicness as pure as it gets, the choir, the added instruments, the high notes, waiter give me more. One of my favorite discoveries so far, and well deserved of that position. Alright, as for Dodonpachi... man, I think I'm just cursed to never enjoy this franchise as much as others do. The drops are pretty great and it's overall a well done track, but it just kind of stays doing the same thing for a lenghty time and doesn't grab my attention as much as it should. I know this must be fantastic for someone else, but it's not for me. Either way, hard to just beat Flags of Brave like that...

Recursion kicks it up immediately, and that's how I like it! A fantastically danceable song, the drops go hard too. A frantically fun tune wherever you look at it, I could put this anywhere and have a blast dancing. Don't think I have much else to say, this just slaps goddess almighty, and it has my support.
Oh boy, retraux 80s synthpop! That's a guilty pleasure of mine. Kickass guitar, the lyrics are fun, the small changes on the bridges and the chorus are fun... yeah, what's not to love about this, a brilliant formula here, I applaud Mr. Viklund for outdoing himself again. Honestly, a terrific match here, both songs are strong. Picking Payday, but both have my blessing for next round...

Baladiums Drive
Taido (Kenichiro Fukui Remix)
Recursion