Lurker > trdl23

UshiromiyaEva posted...

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/f/fb/FFXIV_Redolent_Rose.png/revision/latest?cb=20200218202529

Embed didn't work, but:

"Are you prepared to suffer?"

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E come vivo? Vivo!

Wheels of Aurelia
Dreamy and Boisterous Holy Land
Neuchatel

I appreciate Celtic elements to Stay Gold - it's certainly better than I'd expected from a gacha game - but it's nothing super exciting. Generic semi-Celtic music that's not bad but not something I'd deliberately seek to hear again.

Its challenger, on the other hand is finally a vocal song with good singers! I don't need everybody to be Luciano Pavarotti to sing for VGM. The vocals fit the theme they're going for and are executed exactly how I expect them to be. I'm all for some good trumpets, too! I'd have fun hearing this on the radio on my way to work and turn the volume in my car up a bit. Man I hope this makes it through, this is sick.

Man, for being "Dreamy and Boisterous," the intro to this Falcom track sure us ominous and atmospheric. Ah, there we go -- there's the Falcom flare I was ready for. Damn good stuff too. Those frantic synth parts get me pumped; reminds me of some Touhou songs, which in my case is a great thing. Yeah, this is probably the best Falcom I've heard in a long while.

Its challenger is on the opposite end of the spectrum, and it's also quality. Really, this was a Sims track? That's a shock. This is gorgeous in its own right. Damn you, bracket-makers! How dare you pair good songs against each other and bad songs against each other in round 1 by my own personal definitions of "good" and "bad"? It's with a heavy heart I have to vote against this since the Trails song was just too compelling.

I'd never heard of Mad Rat Dead before, so until today's poll, I had no idea it was a "rhythm game." I checked out some gameplay, and now I know why: It's like Necrodancer in that it isn't a rhythm game for rhythm's sake. This is a good thing because, in my experience, the vast majority of the rhythm game music that gets nominated here is soulless, manufactured drivel that exists solely for bpm. Enough of me complaining about that, though; I'll have plenty more opportunity in the future. Everything works here. It's weird for a song with the trappings of EDM with a driving melody, and the more somber parts provide great contrast without distracting. I listened to it twice - four times, considering the loop - and wanted more. That's a damn good sign.

Optical Sign seems like the kind of thing people who like this music will love, but I am not one of those people. It's perfectly fine, if a little pointlessly cooky and incohesive, but that's just the genre in general. It does nothing for me.

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Unrest - The End of the Raging Waves
Collapsing Rift
Monolith Gate

Both songs in the first match are good, but Unrest is more what I'm in the mood for. Something more active; I appreciate lyrical songs, but usually anime-y songs aren't the best for that.

Collapsing Rift is neat, I guess, though it could stand to be a bit shorter. Jump is just droll -- it does interesting things in the most boring of ways. It's like the style that Bill Wurtz parodies, but he makes it work because he's upbeat and funny. Also, any "music" that dares use microphone feedback as part of a transition should be shot into the sun with a cannon.

You could have picked any of the great Zone of the Enders songs, but instead you chose Beyond the Bounds. I feel bad kicking all these vocal songs when I do genuinely like vocal songs; I just need ones with good singers! It's like some high school choir members swindled the devs into thinking they were professionals and missed half the notes in the harmonics. If all those dissonances were deliberate, then that's on the composer for deliberately making music that would embarrass its singers. The Chaos Code song is so forgettable I don't even remember how it went as I'm typing this, but ugh, yank Beyond the Bounds from the stage with a cane.

First match was pretty good, and I wish either of those songs had been in the other two matches instead. Bad day overall, though. Wish I'd had time to vote in yesterday's.

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Yeah the Ixal beast tribe story is both high quality and, for once (in ARR), super upbeat.

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Paranoia Agent

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Janus5k posted...

seething vocals hate

I like vocals a lot.

Just make the vocals good.

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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l74RR-geLuIqazjQLeNa7xCyrlwLHBloRjuVQB-who4/edit?usp=sharing

Here's the B8 compendium link! If anyone doesn't see themselves on here, you can write yourself in.

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The Explosion
Lucky Charm (Cuilan phase 1)
Pressure Cooker

For some reason, the intro of The Explosion was the most compelling part of it. The weird sound attempting to be a clarinet was just a distraction, and when the song picked up, I was honestly disappointed - not because it's bad, but because it lost something that felt special. Planet X is something that plays on radio that I wouldn't turn on, though, so there's that.

Lucky Charm sounds like pretty good music of a genre I'm just not into. Nothing I can really say further on that. Cradle didn't make me feel like it's any different from 'generic girl action anime song' and honestly felt annoying during the repetitive cheering portions of the chorus, but maybe that's my disillusionment with mediocre IOSYS Touhou songs talking.

I've usually found VVVVVV's soundtrack overrated, but this one's good! Kinda tired so blah blah blah cooler than its opponent it gets the vote.

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https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79470232

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I'm not a huge fan of Reaper -- I was really hoping for something more Final Fantasy-ish -- but as long as it stays Bloodborne in its aesthetics I'm cool with it.

Most importantly, I now have a Maiming job for Eureka.

On a less silly note, mega props to Soken for remaining badass and making incredible music even while he was fighting cancer. Let's hope it stays in remission for a long, long time.

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CasanovaZelos posted...

I reached the beginning of Heavensward two night ago; it's weird how quickly I went from not caring about the plot at all to being very intrigued.

This is a normal reaction!

Unfortunately, it's hard to really sink one's teeth into Heavensward without the painstaking (on the player's part too) world-building from ARR.

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Great second and third matches yesterday!

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E come vivo? Vivo!

Glessing Way!
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

Baseline Falcom is baseline. Bops, but nothing special. Much as I find Falcom overrepresented in these contests, they're much more consistent in quality than VGMC's other favorite, Gust, so I appreciate that. Hey, I remember Animorphs; I loved those books growing up. Had no idea they made a game boy game, but if it sounded like this, I'm glad I didn't! Like one of the other matches, there's a core of a good song here, but the game boy sound font is just not great to my 2021 ears.

And we're back to more Falcom, huh? Well, this is a bit more fun! I seriously need to play Trails. I dig the mix of instrumentation with the electric guitar keeping the driving force behind the song for most of it. For the other track... oh. Oh, this is nice. Chill. I wasn't sure about the change to a synth kind of thing compared to the relaxing strings and woodwinds before, but the combo worked well! Damn, this is a tough choice. I think I'm going to lean toward Baluchons, if only for the diversity; the songs are evenly matched for me!

Hey, a song I nom'd! Butterfly's Temptation was a discovery for me a few VGMCs back, and it's lived rent-free in my head ever since. Absolutely nothing about this song should work, but it's great! I even like the brief wubby sections, which I usually despise. Also, NFUN hates it, so that's always a plus. That said, I understand why a lot of people want to punt it. Now for the challenger! Creepy. Very creepy. And then high energy? And then back to super dissonant? As someone else said, the 1:23 part is fantastic, but other than that, I think this is one of those things that probably works better in-game than standalone. Still, I can't say I regret hearing it.

EDIT: Copy-pasted the entire quick vote fill and forgot to actually vote. Whoops.

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Weight of the World / English Version
Rose-Killing Carmilla
Avian Animosity

Damn, I dig both songs in the first match. It's really hard to separate Weight of the World from the emotional context of that last ending, so I can't say for sure if this is the "right" call.

Carmilla is pretty good as far as "anime songs" go. Sure beats the hell out of VGMC-bait like Professional Problem.

The Pokemon song is nice and chill but, like most pokemon songs, there's no real meat to it. I've also listened to Avian Animosity three times now, and I have absolutely no idea if I like it or hate it, so fuck it, at least there's meat.

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E come vivo? Vivo!

Hades
Zagreus
Hermes

How do I only pick 3

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Imagine having a ranged attack as a melee.

Cries in Monk

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The Rain Formerly Known As Purple
Labyrinth VI - The Vengeful God in the Dark Ocean Abyss
It's Dangerous to Go Alone

Don't feel like making an actual writeup. Brief thoughts:

-In the Sky reminds me of Peper Steak from OFF but not as catchy. Works great in its game but not something I want to listen to on its own.
-Not a fan of Vengeful's instrumentation but the Sonic song, while pleasant, is kinda boring.
-Too many wubs. Way too many wubs. Too bad, since I liked most of the rest of what Heartless Being was doing, and I don't care about the Cook Serve Delicious song much.

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E come vivo? Vivo!

PerfectChaosZ posted...

I love Hedonism Bot, genuinely laugh almost every scene he's in and I never felt like he was overused like Calculon.

This is how I feel about him vs. Nibbler. Sure he only does one thing but he does it so well.

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E come vivo? Vivo!

The two I cared about won, so yay!

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E come vivo? Vivo!

Yeah, unless for some reason you want to do more crafts for them. Even then, you can get it back for cheap... somewhere.

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E come vivo? Vivo!

Yeah. I knew DDLC would have some kind of twist, but I was not prepared for what was in store for me.

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E come vivo? Vivo!

God why are they all so good

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E come vivo? Vivo!

linkage-alter
Soaring Through Azure Sadness
Fury Sparks

Soft Collision was perfectly serviceable, but it didn't stand out for me compared to the ocean of songs in a similar vein. Meanwhile, linkage-alter... okay. I think VGMC is messing with me. I often get frustrated with VGMC-ers for picking "interesting" music with weird-ass rhythmic patterns and dissonances tossed in all over the place even if they sound like absolute trash, yet here I am, picking a song with weird-ass rhythmic patterns and dissonances tossed in all over the place. I listened to it loop three times. I'm liking it. Send help.

Azure Sadness - God am I a sucker for classical guitars. Vocals feel out of place, but they're barely there, so I can forgive it. I also appreciate they take the guitar away for a bit after the vocals - really adds the oomph when they come back. I guess my main criticism is this doesn't sound like "Azure Sadness"? Fuse Man stage is rock solid, good even, but -- oh jesus christ I'm picking things based on being "interesting" again aren't I. It's too late for help. I'm beyond salvation.

I forgot I even listened to Discovery right after I did, so...

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E come vivo? Vivo!

All understandable wins even if I disagreed with a couple of them. Worst song was definitely Heritors so I'm glad it had the lowest.

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E come vivo? Vivo!

The First Thing
Reach for the Moon
Collapsed Expressway

First Thing is way cooler than it has any right to be with its mix of monologue and guitar. Nefertiti is better than I'd expected (didn't get around to this in noms; I anticipated it to be typical B8 bait like a lot of Atelier stuff) but it didn't grip me. I didn't want to listen to the full thing like I did with First Thing. Nefertiti did have some Touhou feel to it when there wasn't a guitar, so that's a plus from me... and likely a minus from almost all the rest of the board.

Speaking of which, second match time. National Park is pretty whatever. I can appreciate more placid themes, but the game boy instrumentation does this no favor. I'd love to hear a version of it with more updated production quality. Meanwhile, this version of RftM is fightan' gaem 2hu, which is gonna make it hard to top for me. Not sure about that Theremin-like trill in the background sometimes, even though I helped support this in.

I used to train to be a classical singer, so I'm way harsher on vocal tracks than I probably should be. I hated the breathy timbre of the singer in half the song and general lack of emotion throughout most of it, which is a damn shame because I think a good singer could've made this work. Collapsed Expressway is solid. Not amazing, but respectable, and more than enough to make R2

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E come vivo? Vivo!

@KanzarisKelshen You main tank, give us the deep tank analysis

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Is it true you can cheese Lyon and the Pyromancer with Death?

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Yes and I am male

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E come vivo? Vivo!

We're pretty good out in Primal tbh. We may not be the best at savage but we have our Eureka nailed!

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Damn, that was fast. Nice work!

Time to put on my villain hat and complain about B8 favorites like I usually do.

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E come vivo? Vivo!

If you're on Primal, I'm glad to help!

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E come vivo? Vivo!

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I was told Baldesion Arsenal is basically Coils level of you have to get a party together for it or the run ain't happening.

That's correct, but there are entire discord servers for just that! I run BA on the regular just because it's my favorite content in the game. The discord I'm in fires off runs 2-3 times a week, and some are dedicated to newbies.

The nature of the final boss means it could easily take a few tries to get your clear, but keep at it and you'll get it for sure.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

I gave on bothering with Eureka when I was informed that getting the Ozma mount was basically a wash these days.

What do you mean by "basically a wash"?

EDIT:
UshiromiyaEva posted...

I think the main thing I'm still needing to get a hang on are status effects, by which I mean which don't matter and which I need to prioritize Esuna for. I only even know a handful at a glance.

Aside from the super obvious (Doom, when it's possible to Esuna; usually Damage Down too) it depends on the fight. Some fights have a poison, bleed, etc. that's meaningless, some that are terrible. In general, my policy is "If I can esuna it, I will."

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The /shiver emote and the "Form and Function" hairstyle are A) not too hard to get if you're heavily invested in Eureka, and B) worth a lot of gil.

Now all of these peasants can get them without Dante and I charging exorbitant amounts of money for them.

Absolutely disgusting.

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New moogletome event gives people access to Form and Function as well as Shiver emotes.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Is there any incentive to doing Blue Mage other than just....having a Blue Mage?

People enjoy doing Blue Mage content, and Blue Mage raids are hilarious

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LordoftheMorons posted...

I was not actually aware that DPS checks existed in four player content (besides Ifrit's nails). Impressive!

As Ushiro said, the final MSQ dungeon in Shadowbringers has two of them -- one of the second boss, and a "soft" one for the third boss where you'll eventually run out of safe spaces to move.

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Lightning Strikes posted...

I couldnt solo T10 as a DPS

You can! You just need a bunch of burst. I do it all the time on MCH.

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Eureka

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I followed the story and gameplay quite a bit and did a few local tournaments, casted a few more.

Yeah, Netherrealm window dressing is out of this world, and I mean that in a loving way.

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Thinking about things, I don't understand why 14 refuses to have more voice acting within its fights. That's something I loved in WoW -- even the "nothing" bosses got VA work, much of which was good (and some of which was wonderfully memetic).

The voice acting is a huge reason why Stormblood/Shadowbringers MSQ trials, Orbonne, E8, and E11 are so hype. In ARR and HW, I understand budgets were constrained, but at this point, it feels like there's no real excuse. Give some real VA work to the NieR fights and I think they'd have hit a lot harder too.

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I could have sworn I just saw this topic a couple months ago...

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

I was utterly baffled about not getting more AoE for Dark Knight until level 72.

Man, we Paladins didn't even have a gap closer until 72. I don't get it at all.

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cries in MNK AoE

At least we have Enlightenment now.

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Oh, I missed the time of the tweet. He very well might not.

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I'm kind of amazed GM Wyndallus still has a job, given the outrage he triggered a couple months ago.

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E come vivo? Vivo!

greengravy294 posted...

I'd like a MBA but I know I'd fuck up there too.

As someone halfway through his MBA program, it's really not that rough if you did well in undergrad. The hardest part is usually getting in.

Make sure the places you look at are legit and useful though.

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+ Dicey Dungeons | Fortune Favours The Bold | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1xs4CnLqBs

Yeah, this song is damn good.

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CasanovaZelos posted...

I've decided to get into FFXIV with some friends after never playing a MMO; anything I should know?

Last thing I'll add is that you're already doing it right by playing with friends! It's way more enjoyable going through things together.

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+ Oninaki | Battle -Threat- | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uEikuxVUZA

Yeah you right NFUN, this is good stuff

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