LogFAQs > #938051290

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Megalovania
Trails in the Sky SC - The Merciless Savior
Cytus II - Chocolate Missile

MATCH 1

Man, imagine showing this video to people at the beginning of Smash Ultimate's release when the "Sans in Smash" memes were everywhere. Megalovania's a great song, both this and the original version, and I'm glad that we're past the point of this song suffering from overplay, at least for me. With this version, I like some of the really distinct things about it like the piano starting at 1:12 and the added guitar. The latter especially holds true from around 1:56-2:12. The ASGORE/Heartbreak motif thrown in there is a nice addition to the song.

Okay, I actually enjoy Speed Star Kanade to an extent haha. Part of it is in a humorous sense because the crazy glitchy stuff is just so absurd it's funny. In the sense of enjoying music, the cutesy vocals are enjoyable, but this would be so much better to me if it didn't go so heavy on the crazy rhythm game percussion and all that. Kinda reminds me of how Tox feels about Soflan-chan but somewhat inversely, where Tox would rather the vocals not be there so that it focused on everything underneath, and I would rather the glitchy stuff go away in Speed Star Kanade so that the vocals could be more prominent and some potential melodic stuff in the background could pop out as well. Here's a great example of a song I really like with similar vocals and a slight rhythm game song feel (more pronounced at certain parts), but without any of the crazy stuff that Speed Star Kanade has: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcBDREvIcmY
Though, the glitchiness is clearly what the appeal is for many people who like this song, so this song would likely be extremely unappealing for those people lol.

MATCH 2

This match is evil!! By far the craziest round 1 match in the whole contest this year and it pains me to vote against either of these songs because they're so good. Without a doubt my top 2 songs for today. At this point, there won't even be another early round matchup this strong for me unless round 2 Ar-ciel Ar-manaf vs. Moonlight Concert happens!

The first 47 seconds of Lake is the best thing about this song for me! I think Tox, in part, explains why when he says that it has "'nostalgic' chord progressions that make [him] happy." I love those lush, thick chords that fade in. The melody, too, is so soft and tranquil. It has this feeling of "everything's gonna be alright" to it. The rest of the song is nice too. Very playful in its rhythm and fast, downward piano notes. Probably one of my favorite Pokemon songs if I had to point some out!

Merciless Savior is such a crazy powerful, emotional song! Starts off with this dark violin melody then goes into this synth-y part with another cool violin melody. The sharp stabs of piano chords are also pretty neat during that part. Then there's this really cool transition to the choir part! More dark chord changes there that I like a lot. All of 2:49-4:06 is my favorite part of the song! More powerful violin melodies and brass backings with the choir intermittently coming in. Honestly, words can't describe how much I love that part and really the whole song in general. Top-tier Falcom song right here. How has this song only gone to round 2 at its peak? *checks prior brackets* Wow, matched up against Palm of a Tiny Hand round 2 in VGMC8. That's basically two very different songs that are both insanely good examples of their respective genres. I can understand that loss and I'd be unbelievably torn in that match. A 10-16 loss to You're Mine in VGMC11 round 1 though? That's an easy vote for Merciless Savior from me, even though I like You're Mine. All that rambling aside, I hope Merciless Savior gets a much better run this year! Especially since Love Scope, sadly, was knocked out, making Merciless Savior my favorite remaining song in the whole left side of Bracket C.

MATCH 3

As I mentioned during the Bad End Syndrome match, Chocolate Missile is definitely my preferred Alice Schach song! I just like the melody here a lot more. Nice bright and upbeat melody that's very nice! 1:13-1:29 has this neat whimsical and slightly cinematic feeling (the latter referring to the instrumentation) to it as well. It wasn't my preferred retiree during VGMC13 but I was pleased with it in the end!

Monolith's a decent song, but honestly, much of the song is only "okay" with some good parts in the song here and there, which makes the song a bit of a chore to listen through, but I don't really feel like I want to turn it off (in case that's implying otherwise, I did listen to the full song). Some of the good parts of this song are 1:46-2:12 and 3:19-3:58. The melody's noticeably better in those parts compared to the rest of the song and I particularly like the bagpipes in the latter part. Looking at the VGMC11 bracket again, I definitely would've picked Flower, Yesterday's Opponents, and Id ~ Purpose over it if I had been a participant that year. Sorry that this writeup's a little more negative than I'd like it to be because it's a fine song, I'm just not that enthusiastic about it.

The Merciless Savior > Lake > Megalovania > Chocolate Missile > Speed Star Kanade > Monolith