LogFAQs > #936570654

Fire Emblem: Awakening - Id ~ Purpose
jubeat saucer fulfill - Scars of FAUNA
Persona 3 - Memories of You

Regarding the poll options, I voted "questions about the contest itself" but I'm fine with any of those options (though I'm not particularly invested in GotD and Crazy Bus is most certainly not good).

MATCH 1

Hello again, Id ~ Purpose! Will this year be the year you finally retire? I vote no. Plus I have it losing to Scars of FAUNA round 2 in my favorites bracket, so that would interrupt my desired outcomes. I do have it as my wildcard of choice, but that could very easily change depending on which matches go my way. Anyway, I do like this song a lot, but I feel like it's a song that would never end up as a retiree in my favorites bracket because it wouldn't be strong enough to beat every song in its division. I love the melody at the very start of this song. It feels like you're returning home from battle and receiving a warm welcome. The rest of the song is pretty much just as great. It's really easy for me to listen to the full 8 minutes of this song without ever getting bored of the song (in fact I just did this now!).

I feel like I can occasionally get behind weird, sample-based songs, but Osamu Sato's work has almost never been among those songs. Fax Factory is no exception here. It's hard to explain why, I just think it appeals to certain tastes that I just don't happen to have. Stuff like this, I think, is very hit or miss for me. Maybe more often on the miss side than not. I feel like there's some indescribable thing that can make a weird song like this tick the right boxes. Take, for instance, Bomber Girl from last year. Something about it made the song very enjoyable for me, and I think, to a certain degree, it also appealed to people like Collen who really enjoy songs like Fax Factory. For whatever reason, though, that just doesn't hold true here.

MATCH 2

I really like this style of Nekomata Master music! It's not the best example of it, compared to something like Despair of ELFERIA, but Scars of FAUNA still a very nice song. World music like this is just very appealing to me in general. I think this tends to be the case for songs like this overall for me, but for this song, it has a great melody with really cool instrumentation in the bagpipes and flutes. I think the intro is a pretty cool, mysterious sounding one too. It reminds me of LastPandemic's intro, which I have similar feelings about.

Imbrium's an interesting song, but something about it makes it less appealing than other songs I've heard from Neotokyo. Since the two songs from this game that I know I really enjoy are Scrap I/O and Tin Soldiers, maybe it's just that Imbrium lacks some of the energy that those two songs have. I guess maybe the melody isn't quite as good as in those two songs, but that might also have something to do with what I just mentioned about the song's melody. It's definitely a good song! It's just that Scars of FAUNA is the clear pick here for me.

MATCH 3

Aaaahhh very painful match! I don't want to vote against either of these songs because they're both so good :(

In a sense, The Black Song honestly feels more final than The Final Song. It just feels very wistful at times, like everything's over and there's nothing left that can be done. But it's also very triumphant when the percussion picks up, as if Zero's still picking herself up to fight even though everything seems hopeless (note: I don't know anything about where this plays in context). I like The Black Song probably just as much as The Final Song, but yeah, The Black Song's a very good and pretty song!

Speaking of wistfulness, I think Memories of You brings that feeling as well! But I think it does that better than The Black Song does. I definitely enjoy that upbeat triumphant style of music when it hits all the right notes, just as The Black Song does, but the emotional style of Memories of You, I'd say, is a style I prefer over that triumphant style. I think this combo of piano, vocals, and acoustic guitar is great here and definitely helps evoke emotions. I really enjoy melancholic-sounding songs, which makes me like the chord progression in this song a lot. In particular, that B minor chord in the chorus is very satisfying for some reason. I'm pretty sure this song is in B minor, so maybe it's just because it's the i chord, but it also doesn't really feel like it's trying to resolve on that chord, just serving as part of a downward progression? I don't know, I'm definitely no music theory expert lol. But yeah, I'm very fond of songs like this and I actually occasionally turn on this song when I'm in the mood for it. I just really enjoy this song, so I have to vote for it as much as it sucks to vote against The Black Song!

Memories of You > Kuroi Uta ~ The Black Song (International Version) > Scars of FAUNA > Id ~ Purpose > Imbrium > Fax Factory

I just noticed as I was typing out these rankings that "Uta" in Kuroi Uta's misspelled in the OP lol.