Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 28! feat. the Silver New Life on a Spiritful October Night

(+) 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!

.

Poisoned Well and You

As some of you may know, the song Poisoned Well that shows up late in Bracket D is a 21 minute 36 second song that does not loop. As is customary with longer songs in the VGMC nowadays (longer meaning "roughly more than a Dancing Mad") we thought to give a little heads up in advance so that if you would like to do your listening of the song at a time convenient to you, you may. Here's a link to the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe4GIkEulSM

.

Match 1

Kururin Paradise - Neo Land
Composer: Atsuhiro Motoyama
Loop Point: 0:59
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlonUoUfnlk

Utawarerumono Lost Frag - Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
Composer: Mutou Hironori
Loop Point: 4:46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoiD1hQaatQ

.

Match 2

Eschatos - SILVER LINING
Composer: Yousuke Yasui
Loop Point: 1:14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqv4NiiVwI4

Xenogears - October Mermaid
Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda
Loop Point: 2:05
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksTZRnAHhkU

.

Match 3

Gaiapolis - Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)
Composer: Seiichi Fukami, Satoko Miyawaki, Yuji Takenouchi (Konami Kukeiha Club)
Loop Point: 0:59
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3p59pbM3EM

Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE - STARRY NIGHT FEVER
Composer: Ryo Watanabe
Loop Point: 4:29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX1DN9qcaJc

.

Easy vote form:
Neo Land / Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING / October Mermaid
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM) / STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Utawarerumono Lost Frag - Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
Eschatos - SILVER LINING
Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE - STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

neo land more like "no" land
october mermaid more like october mer"meh"
starry night fever more like starry "nah"t fever

the songs weren't that bad i just needed a consistent theme for all 3 comments

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

I can vote quickly today because all the songs are short. And in each match Im voting the shorter song, because even though I like all 6 today, I value highly songs that have a good hook, show it off for a bit, and end without wearing out their welcome.

The good ending for the We All Lift together gang is them living in the idyllic technology world of Charge Cycles, where they no longer have to struggle to survive.

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Neo Land
October Mermaid
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Neo Land (Kururin Paradise)
October Mermaid (Xenogears)
Blancmute (Gaiapolis)

there's a period where I'd have been really dismissive about neo land, but the 4-against-6 feels really fun and honestly reminds me of the mindset of no one cares about the letter l, grown on me since last listen for sure. crunchy gba sounds cool and I like the combinati9n of being this epic 80s workout theme and being a layering of the two ideas at the same time like a spinning around object that can't touch the walls. i like the flourishy piano repeating idea not lining up with the non repeating idea. I always picture Loituma Girl spinning a leek for this song for some reason

very nice kind traditional japan instrumentationino. that wins over my heart sometimes quite quickly and tbh i feel like I'd have voted for this one in the mindset of as recent as last year. neo land just grew on me a lot

eschatology is a great ideaateliereeschatos..this sounds like a fm cover of an anime op and it's probably supposed to but if there was an anime girl actually singing here, the audience of wjo appreciates this song would completely invert (though id like it the same amount probably)

I remember finding this match hard in favorites bracket phase. i guess its because this track i have distinctive fav parts way above others where exchatos i like about the same all the way thru and I can't decide what's above the other once you average things out. I feel like if this song was in a myst clone I played in 2006 I would be obsessed with it. it has some super mitsuda tonality moments i dig, just certain chords/sequences you instantly knoe are him in a great waythis vote is not very confident though. just a very hard to evaluate pair

you know this is Kind of like no one cares about the letter/deluged depths/neo land too. I just like this sort of, mesmerising polymetric as vehicle for that kinda depressed fraction of flake function from fucker fun kxkuvnermvjv sad epic sharpies off cloud motion in the melancholic blue purple skies. ahoy there you saucySpicy large anthropromorphology dragon history. I guess this isn't really polymetric it's just consistently 5 but it feels polymetric because of getting to the number 5 thru in both the space of 5/8 and 5/4 simultaneously. I like this choice of planets

this sounds like elebits but with a distracting woman on it. some good epiano sus cluster transpose momentsi love those things

Neo Land
October Mermaid
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Neo Land
October Mermaid
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Going to be the change I want to see in the world and vote for the GBA song 6/10

The other thing isn't for me, we can leave it at that 4.5/10

Silver Lining is cool, it's some kinda shmuppy actiony thing, I like those 7/10

October Mermaid is lovely, it's certainly a Yasunori Mitsuda song 7.5/10

Blancmute is super cool, haven't heard of Gaiapolis before but it seems like an interesting game 7.5/10

I started out liking Starry Night Fever but got a little meh on it as it went 6.5/10

neo land
october mermaid
starry night fever

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
October Mermaid
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

i'm still surprised that i managed to get in this super unpopular utaware song in while hikari (the other utaware nom) somehow folded. i mean admittedly i do see why (i decided i wasn't able to support hikari because i was still on my one, while arti was more willing to commit to both and eventually just ditch hikari) but even then, it's still something i just never expected to happen. neo land is alright, nothing too out there for gba but still good
definitely a match where it isn't much of a mystery who the composers are lol (admittedly silver lining does manage to also give... ds/3ds monolithsoft soundtrack (aka. salamander factory... mostly) vibes too though)
blankmute is dece, starry night fever just makes me really happy though (i feel like this year's been pretty good at revealing a lot of info about the types of jpop/anisongs i prefer). also i think it's funny that the intro also reminded me of neo land

Neo
silber
8

wow that was an immediate mitsuda (not on the mitsuda song)

Neo
Silver
Spirit

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Back to (somewhat) short write-ups due to lack of time

Kururin Paradise - Neo Land: catchy. I just wish it was longer. 7.3/10

Utawarerumono Lost Frag - Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi: the strings are nice. Not a fan of the vocals, but they dont bother me either. Good song overall. 7.3/10

Eschatos - SILVER LINING: gives mega man or 20xx/30xx vibes. Neat. Like the first song up today, I wish it was longer. The sound is also a little rough on the ears. Still good though. 6.75/10

Xenogears - October Mermaid: I can definitely tell its Mitsuda. I think Xarnax showed me this a while back. Not one of my top favorite XG songs, but still quite lovely, especially when the oboe (?) comes in around the 1 minute mark. 7.8/10

Gaiapolis - Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM):
8th.BGM more like 8th Board (sorry). Anyways, this sounds like it would be great in context, but Im not super into it in its own. Not enough melody to grab me. 6/10

Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE - STARRY NIGHT FEVER: Ok, this is a groove for sure. I definitely like a certain *other* Starry Night from Wangan better, but this one is still great. Might be my favorite Ive heard from this series thus far and definitely among my favorite discoveries. 8/10

VOTES:
abstain
October Mermaid
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

NEO LAND
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

all caps.

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

"Neo Land" kind of reminds me of "Blue Monday" by New Order (that's a good thing). Cool song but I liked its opponent a little better.

Neo Land
October Mermaid
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Neo Land
October Mermaid
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
October Mermaid
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

October Mermaid > STARRY NIGHT FEVER >> Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi >> Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM) >> Neo Land >>> SILVER LINING

October Mermaid is one of my last horses left in the race. Awesome song. STARRY NIGHT FEVER was really good too.

Neo Land
October Mermaid
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

STARRY NIGHT FEVER [S] > Neo Land [A] > SILVER LINING [B] > Song that Summons the Water Spirit [C] > October Mermaid [C] > Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi [D]

Neo Land is pretty easily the best song in this quadrant. Unfortunately it won't tear through the bracket like it should because GBA scares people. I've heard it's opponent today upwards of a hundred times. Not really, but this is as generic as they come.

SILVER LINING goes pretty hard. Fun as hell song. October Mermaid is solid but doesn't do much for me. Context is probably important for it.

Water Spirit is neat, but feels like it's getting cut too short. Hardly matters, as STARRY NIGHT FEVER is perfect in every way.

Neo Land
October Mermaid
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

STARRY NIGHT FEVER > Neo land > October Mermaid > SILVER LINING ( AREA 1-4 ) > Life on this Earth >= Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Neo Land - 8
sounds pretty good for GBA, and it's a fun song I like it

Life on this Earth - 7.5
god there's a lot of songs in Japanese this year

SILVER LINING ( AREA 1-4 ) - 8
never quite got the Yasui hype, he does solid stuff but not much more than that

October Mermaid - 8
very nice song

Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM) - 7.5
neat but it's not sticking with me even immediately after listening to it

STARRY NIGHT FEVER - 8.5
wait this is a bop wtf

Neo Land
October Mermaid
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Lives Upon This Earth (hoshi)
October Mermaid
STARRY NIGHT FEVER.

Fun fact: the Japanese title for October Mermaid uses the old name for the tenth month of the old Japanese calendar (corresponding to roughly November), Kan'nazuki, which means "month of the gods."

i will be back with lyrics later.

Neo Land
October Mermaid
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Good day today.

Neo Land
Silver Lining
Blancmute

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

A GOOD DAY

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
October Mermaid
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

I love the fuzzy handheld sound, though the flipside is that the track is a bit too short for my tastes. Like I'm getting so into this but then it ends right when it gets really good.

I've been kinda grumpy about the Japanese rep this year overall, but there's always a few exceptions, and Utawareumo music is definitely one of them. Suara's voice is so beautiful, and the composition is lush with some of the most beautiful instrumentals I've ever heard. As per the course.

Eschatos music is catchy and fun but I don't have anything to say about it really. I think I'm in a bad mood today because I usually ranked this higher, but now I just didn't feel as strongly. I decided to just split the difference in the end.

October Mermaid is a very beautiful song. I enjoy how it begins melancholic, but switches to something that feels more hopeful at the very end before the loop begins again. Definitely one of my favourite sad retrospective kind of songs.

Like the Kururin track, this one is good for it's length, but it could be a bit longer. Weird place to rank because I could see myself listening to it a lot, but it doesn't really stick in my mind as it is.

Katamari disco fever!!!!! Bright and sunshine just like I expect from this franchise. I feelkle it's got a nice rhythm too.

Decent day when at worst I just wished some songs were longer.

[9] STARRY NIGHT FEVER
[9] October Mermaid
[8.5] Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
[8] SILVER LINING
[7] Neo Land
[6.5] Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

neo land is my #3 fav song in the contest!!!! lol i have it on my sheet (that is massively out of date rn but this one is correct at least) as a 9.994 this song is just incredible. been a long time favorite of mine and I'm very glad someone finally slapped it onto the table and forced me to finally get it in a contest LOL i will be very very sad if it loses here but at least it will be to a reasonably good Suara song which I will always be happy to listen to :)

do i even need to say anything about eschatos at this point i think everyone knows what a slut i am for yasui and especially the soundtrack that was catalysm to my yasuiphilia, actually it's kind of crazy to think this is like probably in the lower half of the OST if I thought of ranking everything and it's still a 8.4 that's so wild lol. october mermaid is a song that I did not think much of for a long while which is crazy cause Mitsuda orgel songs are like certain to rank very high with me and this isn't an exception! cool match thank you whoever made it it's a very cool contrasting match :)

there is not a sound chip that I love more than the K054539 chip... AND WE GET TWO SONGS PLAYING ON IT IN THIS CONTEST?!? WTF Mystic Warriors and X-Men would make me believe part of that is just because of Junya Nakano... but then he is not part of Gaiapolis and Gaiapolis is probably my favorite soundtrack of all the K054539 games?? the sort of crisp yet crunch on all of these beautiful BEAUTIFUL samples is just too gorgeous to pass up. there's actually so many songs that I would probably support from this game and a good chunk that I have wanted to put forth in the past but just not done yet!! so uh yeah expect more from this soundtrack in the future probably lol. starry night fever is funky but funky ain't gonna beat gorgeous here

1. [9.9] - Kururin Paradise - Neo Land
24. [8.4] - Eschatos - SILVER LINING
33. [8.0] - Gaiapolis - Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)
34. V [8.0] Forlorn Last Stand [just swapping this below blancmute and porgy]
45. ^[7.8] Upsky of Fire Land [yeah this was WAY too low for too long, was being kind of gatekeep-y to 7.5s]
63. [7.5] - Xenogears - October Mermaid
86. [7.4] - Utawarerumono Lost Frag - Kono Hoshi Ni Aru Inochi
108. [7.2] - Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE - STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

Neo Land reminds me of Out of Freedom from Super Hydlide, neat track!

Neo Land
October Mermaid
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Lyrics for Starry Night Fever:

I've had more dreams granted than I can count.

I love opening maps of the unknown and letting myself quiver with excitement
(Shake! Shake! Fever! Fever! Baby!)

Worry, struggle, hope, frustration, full circle
(Stand up and be counted!)

I can feel it. I can't overthink it. Just follow my heart

Enveloped in the starry, starry night
Each and every one of us, a master of this twilight
Unite with you. Connected
With friends, let us dance the dawn of this night of meteors

In the light of the disco ball
You and I dance the dance of the stars
The two of us curl into one
And at last illumine the heavens

Hey, don't give up
Coming to you from Alpha Centauri is a
Lucky Falling Star
Spend another night searching for, gathering, and rolling the fragments

Music for the dreamers.
Music for the passion.
Music for the moment.
Music for the starlight.

My emotions will not cease
They will carry to where even starlight can't reach
Unite with me, and rolled together
We'll continue our once-in-a-lifetime journey

Heartbeats echo on the moonlit night
As eternally continues the dance of love
We squeeze tight, then separate -- that warmth
Is something I always want besides me
You won't be hurt again
Embrace in your bosom the song of peaceful love
Tomorrow we'll eat, play, forget, and move forward

Music for the dreamers.
Music for the passion.
Music for the moment.
Music for the journey.

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
STARRY NIGHT FEVER

> Life on this Planet Lyrics:

I wished and wished from the heart
That the burning feeling in my breast
Would rise like a flame past the firmament
To be seen by the whole world

They who rebel within a torrential flow
Carve a new path for the world to flow

The next beginning but continues a dream entrusted to us by a distant, faraway past
And the lives on this earth proceed to the next finale
Each completes her role, continuing the cycle eternally

I wished and wished more than anyone
That the burning feeling you never heard
Would flame out into white smoke
To rain down across the whole world

The new flows merge into one
Creating a new torrential flow

The next beginning but continues the dream we entrust to a distant, faraway future
And the lives on this earth proceed to the next finale
Each is given her role, to repeat eternally

The beginning is is forever blind
To the end and to where the world goes
But the end leads to the beginning; it is all the same flow; all one

Another beginning continues the dream the distant past entrusted to the future
And the lives on this earth proceed to another finale
Each completes her role, then is given another
Repeating and repeating, a cycle to continue forevermore

Neo Land
SILVER LINING
Song that Summons the Water Spirit - BLANCMUTE (8th.BGM)

Neo Land
SILVER LINING