...I may have gone overboard with the joke spoiler tag usage in these writeups.
23. Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden - jonathan taylor thomas Nominated by: ZaziGuado Link: Image:
This is probably legitimately controversial; didn't jtt come distressingly close to winning a VGMC here or something? I've just never particularly cared for it. Unlike a lot of the rest of the soundtrack, which is distinctive (whether for good or bad), jtt just kind of sounds like boss music from any random JRPG. OH MAN WE'VE GOT NOT-QUITE-VOCALS GOING "OHHH" FOR THE WHOLE TRACK i am intimidated. The rest of it isn't very interesting, either, though I need to stress that it isn't really bad at any point -- just kind of uninteresting and derivative.
About the image: jtt actually does have a pretty nice sense of movement, and for good or bad, the not-vocals bring to mind a whole lot of stock imagery. So we end up with this crystal energy spiral staircase to the heavens. God, that is fantasy as ****, I'm sorry. I also still can't draw perspective which is why some platforms are the wrong size. and orientation. and not three dimensional objects but instead just sheets of purple. Definitely click on the video's link btw if only to see an image that is actually good, god whoever made that makes me look bad.
22. Mr. Gimmick! - Paradigm Nominated by: Ed Bellis Link: Image:
Mr. Gimmick has a pretty good soundtrack, doesn't it? I prefer Strange Memories of Death (CONTROVERSIAL OPINIONS) but Paradigm isn't bad. Mr. Gimmick!'s music just in general is a lot easier to listen to than a lot of chiptunes, and the description for this video has informed me that it had a special audio expansion chip so I guess that makes sense. Anyway... I'm not a big fan of the whole start-and-stop thing Paradigm does (see: the first 24 seconds), but after it gets going I quite like it; unfortunately the song is imbalanced in favor of the parts I'm not a big fan of. It's also kind of upbeat for my tastes, but not enough so for me to take exception with it.
About the image: Paradigm made me think of two things: toys, and dancing. I have no idea why. But, the result is this: a marionette doing a merry gig. (One might even say it is a merryonette gig.) This is, by the way, absolutely the only time I will do a full sketch for one of these songs. I thought Mr. Gimmick deserved a gimmick, but it took me a long, long time so that was a horrible idea. Don't ask why the marionette is a trap. It was 2 AM when I did this. That is my excuse.
...well, I sure wasn't expecting this to take 3 posts. whoops.
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
...Remember when I said I don't really like music from Mother 2 or 3? ...Yeah. I feel like it is possible that I could like Smiles and Tears, though, except that it's just TOO ****ING LONG. If it was 2-3 minutes long, sure, but after that I pretty much check out for the entire second half of the song. Not only is it too long, but I feel like it gets worse around the middle and is at its best during the first 2 minutes. I will say that it really manages to hit the sweetspot in terms of sounding bittersweet. Not so much during the higher pitched sections, but definitely during the lower pitched ones; another reason I wish it ended earlier.
About the image: This one was more like... a scene than any one image. What Smiles and Tears made me think of was someone leaving their friends - moving away to somewhere far away - or maybe even being that person and leaving your own friends behind. It definitely captures the bittersweet feeling that this song brings to the table. So I could have gone a couple different ways there, but I eventually decided on the airplane (fun fact: the description for this image in my notes is "plane flying away forever"); I probably could have made this more detailed, but I like the rougher style and simpler colors for this image in particular. I think this is probably one of my favorite images of this project.
It's actually sort of appropriate that this comes right after Smiles and Tears, because I feel like they're sort of similar in the feelings they're trying to evoke. ...Anyway, I don't really like music box songs, but I think I like this one more than most, if just because it's a bit more involved than most. I still don't think the song itself is that interesting, though, and some of the samples are sorta obnoxious (there's really no avoiding this while still sounding like a music box, but still). However, what I do like about the song is that it's actually really emotional, for being a 2 minute music box track but also just in general. I get a really strong feeling of like... homesickness... out of this, which you wouldn't think would be a wonderful thing, but I like it!
About the image: Playing on that, we have this bedroom (things I can't draw: 1. perspective, 2. pillows, 3. perspective). I almost drew an actual music box on the dresser there but then I decided... no... let's avoid that. I feel like this captures that feeling of homesickness; blue is kind of a calming color, and I sort of think of this as representing a memory of simpler days, someone's childhood bedroom. This is the first image I drew for this topic and probably took me the longest of all of them. Most of the other images are not as complex for a good reason.
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
One nice thing about Art Academy is that it makes it really easy to end up with something that looks at least halfway serviceable. I'm still lacking a lot of really basic technique though, so I still wouldn't consider myself an artist.
But, thank you.
Also the Porky's Theme image really fit that specific part, so nice job!
Aww yeah. I figure if I can pull this off with at least two or three images for everyone, the topic was not a watse. >_>
Man I'm about a third of the way through my own listening topic - if this is the worst you guys were given, you got off easy!
Pretty much everything was at least listenable IMO, which is nice.
One of these days, I will get a last place from CG7. ONE OF THESE DAYS.
Sonic Rush - Medley Rush #2 Resident Evil 2 - Screaming Target Mario Kart Wii - Coconut Mall: Final Lap
...In about that order. You're welcome. (I could list more songs she hates, but I'm trying to match or beat her 1.5/10 for Saxophone Land.)
But the point of my noms was to show that music does not necessarily need to be "good" to convey a strong, distinct feeling. It just needs to be there, communicate a message, and leave. Or return five times in the case of Odin Sphere. Whatever, you get what I'm saying.
This is definitely true (in fact, I sometimes feel like really, really good music can actually lose that ability, though that might just be confirmation bias). It's also an interesting approach to the topic. I was hoping this gimmick would cause people to pick a lot of weird songs that they like but which they don't nominate for many ranking topics because they're concerned about doing poorly. ...Though I don't know if anyone actually cares about that or not.
AND FFS IT'S SEVEN SECONDS OF BLARING. HOW DO YOU DO WORSE THAN SEVEN SECONDS OF BLARING?
8+ seconds of blaring. <_<
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
…Wait a second why did this even get permitted with those vocals? I mean sure I can’t make out what they’re saying but still!
To give an actual answer to this, I only banned songs with lyrics because if they were allowed (and if some ended up being nominated), I'd have just ended up drawing whatever the song's lyrics were about. Take Escape from the City for example, I don't think there's any way to draw that song and have the picture not involve a city in some way. And by itself that's fine, but it's sort of against the spirit of the topic.
As for why I didn't raise the issue for Namek's Destruction (and two others)... eh. I didn't think it was a big deal.
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
I'm not sure why, but I'm not a big fan of Mother music from any game except the first one. It's weird because I usually prefer SNES and GBA sounds to NES ones, but eh. Master Porky's Theme actually has some really cool parts, mostly the slower, more ambient ones near the middle of the song. But then there are louder, stop-and-go parts in the beginning and end, which are just obnoxious.
About the image: A lot of the song makes me think of, like, a red carpet flanked by trumpeters, which is what we might have gotten if I hadn't tried to force myself to never resort to just showing a picture of the instruments used in the song (because that is such a cop-out). So I kind of latched onto the part at 1:57 through 2:23. That part has a really cool whistle or wail... or something... on top of slow and dramatic percussion, which made me think of climbing somewhere where the wind is howling and each step is treacherous. So you got an ice cavern. I think it looks sort of like some areas in Phendrana Drifts, except that game had perspective and realistic lighting.
Not a big fan of Wild Arms' music either, though it has a few songs I really like, like The Dry Wind Blows Over You and The Princess-Sorceress' Feelings. Condition Green is a bit too short for my liking (but not ridiculously so), and I feel like it never quite develops as a result. The whistling thing is hit or miss but I kind of prefer it to everything else here because it's just a bit more interesting. What I do get out of this - aside from the obvious Old West or at least southwestern style - is a feeling of adventure, so that's something, at least.
About the image: Playing on that southwestern adventure feeling... I think I could have easily gone to just some cliche old west ghost town or whatever, and I'm glad I didn't. I sort of want this to be part of an actual platformer or action-adventure game now. Trying to climb a giant cactus? that's gold, i tell you. I actually really like this image and it might be the one I'm most proud of out of the entire project, not that that's necessarily saying much.
...So Phase, I really hope your intention here was to get interesting pictures out of me or something so I can feel less horrible about this. <_<;
UM SO ANYWAY, Victory kind of reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics' OST. Not sure why but then I looked into it and Hitoshi Sakimoto composed music for both! I'm more proud of being able to call that than I should be. I do think this song is rather pleasant to listen to, but it doesn't grab my attention or do anything unusual enough to make me seek it out. I generally like slower, simpler music, but this borders on just not having enough happening, and then it ends. It's not bad, but I just... wish there was more to it.
About the image: The way the song fades in and out, as well as the chimes or bells or something that show up here and there, made me think of the night sky, so that's what you got. If it wasn't obvious, the dark splotches are clouds, which kind of represent the quieter moments in the song. In looking up reference images of the night sky, I also realized that HOLY **** THERE ARE A LOT OF STARS so I just crammed the image full of them, and then a lot of them disappeared because Art Academy can only save images as JPEGs. Shame.
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
30. Guilty Gear X2 - Suck A Sage (Chipp's Theme) Nominated by: Mega Mana Link: Image:
It's probably not a secret at this point that I don't really like Guilty Gear music. In fact I pretty much hate it, with a few exceptions, most of which I only consider "okay". In fairness to Suck a Sage, it isn't Vortex Infinitum or something equally without redeeming value, but it is still largely without merit. It's half obnoxious electric guitar wailing and half completely generic electric guitar wailing, so I go back and forth between being actively annoyed and just being really bord. Not a good place to be!
About the image: Jesus Christ is that utterly horrible. I think I joked to CG7 about it being literally the worst drawing ever created by human hands, except that's less a joke and more objective reality. I'm so sorry. ANYWAY: I do think that a rose being cut apart by a circular saw is an appropriately Suck a Sage-ish image, so that part is on the money, at least.
...I don't get it. I'm hoping this was an attempt to throw a curveball at me to see what I'd end up drawing for it, because I'm not sure if anyone is capable of objectively ranking 7 seconds among other, longer songs. But, let's give this a shot. For being only a few seconds long, it's kind of loud and cluttered. I imagine you wouldn't notice that in-game, but listening to it over and over to get enough of a feeling for it to get a mental picture of it and then do a writeup for it, it can be a bit... much.
About the image: Probably the simplest thing I ended up drawing. To be fair I can't really control what a song makes me think of; this one made me think of a red dash, so I drew that. Somewhat interesting thing: I can kind of visualize music two ways; one way is the way I used for this topic, which is where a song makes me think of some image or scene. The other is more as flashes of light and odd patterns, which was my original intention for this topic because that's WAY EASIER but then I realized that looking at 30 images of differently colored lines and dots and so forth would be REALLY BORING. My point is: there may have been some overlap between the two for this image, in specific. Oddly enough, this is probably one of the technically best images that will come out of this topic (make of that what you will).
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
Yep, we're finally, finally ready to get this started. We'll be doing 5 writeups a day each, and each writeup will come with an image of varying quality. I'll let CG7 say her own bit if she wants, but for me, well, I'm still not an artist, so... be kind? <_< (I'm kidding, you can be as mean as you want.)
The rules for this topic were:
-3 nominations per user. -All 3 nominations must be from different games. -Songs with lyrics (distinct words) were banned. Vocals (nondescript oohs and ahhs) were fine.
The field is:
.hack//G.U. Vol 3//Redemption - Full Force Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden - jonathan taylor thomas Blast Corps - Mission Replay DJMAX - Seeker Earthbound - Smiles and Tears Guilty Gear X2 - Suck A Sage (Chipp's Theme) Instant Brain - Challenge to the Past Jet Force Gemini - Asteroid Lost Child - Beginning Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Theme of Dr. Doom Mother 3 - Master Porky's Theme Mr. Driller Soundtracks - Machi ni Mukatte (Heading Back to Town) Mr. Gimmick! - Paradigm Mystical Chain - Stage Clear Neotokyo - Imbrium Odin Sphere - Victory Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow - Main Title Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - Dance Difficult Rayman - Saxophone Land Skullgirls Soundtrack - Little Innsmouth: The Fish Man's Dance ~ HD ~ Super Dragon Ball Z - Namek's Destruction Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Meta Knight's Revenge Team Fortress 2 - Right Behind You Touhou Hisoutensoku - Our Hisou Tensoku Umineko Chiru 6 - Life Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown - AKIRA - Statues Wild Arms 5 - Condition Green Xenoblade Chronicles - Unfinished Battle Xenogears - Faraway Promise Ys: The Oath in Felghana - Sealed Time
Which is quite an eclectic mix! Who can say what will come of it? (Answer: at least one person, probably.)
First block of writeups will be in a few minutes. Please enjoy~
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
mm... that's fair. and i was thinking of it being a broken tier but that's not quite right, it's more of 'this character will have bad matches with an overwhelming majority.' if it's super broken like that then yeah, that's a whoole other problem.
Nah, that's exactly what I'm saying. It works fine with other problematic or gimmicky characters, but just top tier guys like Cthulhu or Dark Schneider? Ehhh. I think it loses pretty badly there. Luckily nobody has proposed anyone like that yet.
maybe that's not the right phrase to use; the examples you listed to beat it are that somebody's flames improving to the point where they burned through the immunity (is this Needless all over again) or literally getting new powers.
I actually didn't mention how that character beat it. It countered her by being strong enough to beat her immunity.
But yeah, Mewtwo's a good example. It would be immune to Psychic powers there, so the argument is: does Mewtwo figure that out and start using other means to fight, or is he too proud to believe that anyone could ever be immune to his powers and thus keep trying? I guess that's anime Mewtwo more than game Mewtwo but whatever.
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
Didn't watch Gurren Lagann far enough to really get the Anti-Spiral references. My experience with it in terms of MPFC is basically limited to "it scales to the opponent, except when it doesn't", so that's not very helpful either. <_<
The thing I should probably spell out for AAC is that it can't ever scale to such a point where victory is impossible for its opponent, no matter who it's fighting. Some characters are of course going to have harder times - especially characters who rely on one gimmick - but I feel like it's still a character where you can reasonably argue it over anyone or anyone over it. ...That doesn't mean its matches wouldn't be boring or just a headache though. Boring, because like you said, voters could just reduce it to "Batman finds a way" or "Rand can't Balefire it, guess he loses", even though in theory both those matches are arguable. A headache, because even what general form it'll take for a specific opponent is open to interp.
Your call here, I won't be disappointed if it doesn't work out or anything. Would be fine with it being thrown in a Headdesk Tier, though if that's just the tier for the most broken things, I feel like it loses pretty badly. Can't really ever scale enough to pose a challenge to someone who's borderline omnipotent or whatever.
Will probably post the sci-fi guy eventually, want to make him less generic first. <_<; Also want to add to the fairy's writeup regarding her personality and fighting style, just in case it isn't clear from her spells and such.
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
My house was without power for like... half the day yesterday, so I'm kind of behind right now, however I still feel confident in saying that if anyone delays this topic, it will be CG7 and not me. <_<
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
Oh man. I'm super pleased with the earbuds from that last sale you linked. Not sure if I should be spending another $28 right away though, especially when I'm not much of an audiophile.
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
Also, I just wanted to say that I really like Keyuri and The Disease That Hates, but I'm kinda confused about how to actually... win... against the latter.
Also also, The Hyperorb is amazing and needs to be in. I, for one, welcome our new Hyperorb overlord; may death come swiftly to its enemies.
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
So I typed up a super long writeup for a sci-fi shooterguy type character because I thought we had too many magic people, but it's super long so have this silly thing I thought up in 5 minutes instead. It might be completely unworkable. <_<
An Antithesis Consciousness
Antitheses consciousness (plural, as opposed to antithesis consciousnesses as one would expect) are beings from the 2014 anime Anti-. Despite only appearing in a few episodes and being generic beings, they're considered some of the most dangerous foes in the series because of how they scale to match their opponents.
In Anti-, antitheses consciousness are fought primarily within dreams, though they are shown to have the power to manifest in the real world as well. Normally, someone will only fight their antithesis consciousness during a major transition or turning point in their life -- for instance, the main character, Freeman, fights one during the first episode, the night after he witnesses paranormal events and is given the choice of pursuing them or returning to his normal, everyday life.
An antithesis consciousness will be different in terms of appearance and powers depending on who it's fighting. It will always take the form of the greatest challenge to the being it's fighting. For Freeman, it took the form of a spirit who could not be harmed whatsoever by any sort of conventional attack; it nearly killed him, but he managed to awaken his latent Antipathy power and repel it. It returned in a later episode near the end of the series with the power of magnetism, which nullified his Antipathy; he was able to overcome it by beating it to death with his bare hands.
Another character, Rin, had the power of Antimony -- immunity to, and creation of, fire. She fought an antithesis consciousness made of fire. It was thus immune to (and absorbed) her attacks, and its own flames were hot enough to overcome her immunity. A third character and one of the main antagonists, Moses Black, had the power of Anticipate -- perfect precognition. His antithesis consciousness had the power to rewrite fate and thus defy his predictions. Unlike Freeman and Rin, Moses was unable to overcome this limitation, having relied too much on his powers for too long. His antithesis consciousness killed him.
While these are the only fights seen on-screen, additional information on antitheses consciousness is given in one episode near the beginning of the series. It's stated that they can take any physical form and have any power (and any number of powers). It is stated that the more powers and abilities one has, the more counters their antithesis consciousness will have. The example given was that a marksman who is also skilled in combat holds would fight an antithesis consciousness that is bulletproof and too large to grapple. In short, antitheses consciousness counter all the powers, abilities, and talents their opponent has come to rely on. Clever, inventive, and very determined enemies find ways to win regardless. Everyone else dies.
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
Solai Pedastel is a fairy: a six-inch tall humanoid who can fly through the use of magic, though she does have six gossamer wings as well. Solai herself is unusual among fairies for being interested in warfare -- the kind of warfare that involves weapons and armor rather than just magic. She is missing her left eye, having lost it in a fight, though one wouldn't know this from looking at her as she wears a full suit of fairy-sized heavy armor into battle (and is still able to fly despite this).
Solai makes use of her magic to mentally control 16 different normal (or larger than normal) sized weapons. These weapons are controlled independently and can dance through the air with ease or come crashing down on enemies all around her. She owns a huge variety of different weapons, one for just about any occasion - and tends to bring 16 of a variety of different types (swords, shields, glaives, gauntlets, etc) and properties (fire-element, anti-dragon, poisoned, etc) into battle with her. Nevertheless, there are a few standbies she almost always brings:
Earthsplitter, an enormous hammer that can split the ground and send out shockwaves with a swing.
Heavens Asunder, a sword with that fires bursts of cutting air with each swing. It earns its name with every overhead swing that parts the clouds above.
Skyburner, a spear that can transform into a bolt of lightning when thrown.
Radiant, a shield imbued with light that burns at any enemy who comes near. Especially effective against the undead.
In addition, Solai is a Snapdragon-type spellcaster, which means that her spells have no casting time or material or spoken components, but she can only use a set number before needing to rest. This is represented by six lights which orbit above her head; each spell she casts snuffs out one of the lights. Some of her spells include:
Armory Snap Able to instantly exchange up to two of the weapons she is currently wielding for ones stored in her armory.
Forge Snap Instantly creates a weapon of any type and with up to one property of Solai's choice, adds it to her armory, and then exchanges one of her current weapons for it.
Light Snap Gains superspeed (in excess of the speed of sound), reaction time and perception to go with it, and the ability to instantly teleport to locations she can see. Buff lasts for 4 minutes.
Bulwark Snap Her armor becomes indestructible and infinitely protective for a period of 4 minutes. This includes doing things like blocking the heat from a fireball in addition to the actual flames. Attacks that bypass the armor entirely (for example, mental attacks) are unaffected.
Gauntlet Snap Locks a single enemy into combat with Solai until either she or that enemy forfeits or is rendered unable to continue fighting. Any time the enemy attempts to move away from Solai (including through teleportation), Solai may teleport directly to their location no matter how far away it is. In addition, Solai and her target become unable to summon anything or call for allies, and any preexisting summons or allies become unable to harm Solai or her target.
Health Snap Instantly undoes all damage Solai has taken in the past hour. In addition, repairs all damage done to her armor and weapons in that time.
Weapon Snap Destroys one of Solai's weapons in order to unleash a massive burst of raw magical energies corresponding to the properties of that weapon. (A fire-element weapon unleashes an inferno, an anti-dragon weapon unleashes a burst of energy especially damaging to dragons, etc. A normal weapon, if sacrificed, would just create a burst of generic - but still deadly - force.)
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
True Neutral because I'm too lazy to really devote myself to Good vs. Evil or Law vs. Chaos even if I wanted to, and I've been made to understand that the alignment system is mostly about what you're devoted to.
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
Yep, I'm doing another one of these, and Celtic Guardian 7 wanted in for some reason so she is also a part of this. As before, we're going to be rating video game music submitted by you (yes, you!) Unlike before, there's a gimmick, which is that each writeup is going have with it an abstract image - a representation of whatever that particular song made me picture, because most music gives me some sort of mental image.
As a warning, I am not an artist. At best this will be sort of interesting and you'll get to laugh at how bad everything is. Also: actual art supplies are expensive, so I will be using a 3DS/DSi program called Art Academy. ...It beats MSPaint, at least.
CG7 is not officially part of this gimmick but she has said she may be contributing MSPaint pictures. This fact should terrify you.
The rules for nominating:
-3 nominations per user. -All 3 of your nominations must be from different games. -Nothing with lyrics (that is, distinct words). Vocals are fine if they're confined to oohs and ahhs or whatever. Ask if you're not sure if something counts. -Give a link for each song.
That's it! Happy nominating~
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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma
