Board 8 > [VGMC] d25: Botanic Panic vs End of All (Land), Scrap I/O vs G Free~ Final Dream

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to today's topic for Video Game Music Contest 12, a tournament of the best tracks from games, as decided upon by you, the voters.

Links:
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=469506
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lzzbpDP2whgvOTN2XHETfWg79IyPs01jdwIQu_L2C7k/
Discussion and results thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/76419785
Main bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RFBXCwz0vAKZg8V0rnrKHsE
Side bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RFI-vkdyFa8-bXzbFLMLl1X

Rules:

- Listen to both of the songs. Links have conveniently been provided for both songs. Even if Song A is your favorite of all-time and Song B is from a series you hate... Listen. To. Both. (If I have suspicions your vote is not based on a fair and impartial preference, it will be disqualified.)
- Obvious contest rules apply (no alts, one vote per person, no rallying, etc.).
- Please make your voting options clear, rather than burying them in text.
- Each set of matches lasts 24 hours, even if the new one isnt up by then.
- Always vote on the versions of the song provided, not versions from different sources.
- If you know ahead of time that you're not going to be around and you want to vote in advance, post your choices in the discussion/bracket topic.
- Please do NOT post tallies/score updates in the middle of the match, as this has a tendency to directly influence matches.
- You don't have to vote in all the matches, but it'd be cool if you did!

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Match #1:

Cuphead - Botanic Panic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uH2_sPJuLw" data-time="

Fire Emblem Fates - End of All (Land)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4F7MhS1ATU" data-time="

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Match #2:

Neotokyo - Scrap I/O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5byxSgCDDo" data-time="

Touhou: Concealed the Conclusion - G Free ~ Final Dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdq2Twv3ZOU" data-time="

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Side bracket:

Bullet Heaven 2 - Count of Darkness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5iLSURT2Sw" data-time="

Smurfs (Gameboy) - Swamps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdYQj3gZaHA" data-time="

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Easy vote form:
Botanic Panic / End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O / G Free ~ Final Dream
Count of Darkness / Swamps
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Botanic Panic
G Free
Count of Darkness

Sorry Gonzalez, Phyrnna too good.
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For the Poll, Birth of a New Witch getting eliminated round 1 is a crime against humanity.

I had Lullaby of Deserted Hell as my Bracket B favorites winner!

It's also sad to see I'll Save You All My Justice and Birth of a New Witch gone

Azalea Town too
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Per Ed Bellis:

Votes:
Botanic Panic
Scrap I/O
Swamps
g free is probably my least favorite song of the contest so far
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Botanic Panic
G Free ~ Final Dream
Count of Darkness

End of All and Scrap I/O are both strong contenders for my least favorite song of the contest.

At least both songs in the side bracket are good!
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Botanic Panic - yoooooouuuuuu are the ooohhhhhh god this soooooong. at least botanic panic doesnt hurt me even if its boring

G Free ~ Final Dream - Shame the original isn't in a game, this version of G Free is pretty good but not completely there. Scrap I/O is a song that.... exists. I listened to it. I think.

Swamps - Count of Darkness just wasn't doin' it for me. I love that instrument in the wavetable channel in Swamps a lot

Botanic Panic
G Free ~ Final Dream
Count of Darkness

wow, very contested matches for me today.
I like Scrap I/O quite a bit and generally i dont care for Touhou music, but the drum work in G Free won me over today.
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End of All (Land)
G Free ~ Final Dream
Count of Darkness

not entirely sure why we got three FE songs in a row but at least we saved the best for last
G Free is really cool in a very Touhou way, whereas Scrap I/O is a pest
Count of Darkness is very nice, though Swamps is a decent enough chiptune
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End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O
Swamps

easy main bracket matches today, but both the side bracket songs are kinda meh. Swamps wins out for the more interesting instrumentation I guess
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Fire Emblem Fates - End of All (Land)
Touhou: Concealed the Conclusion - G Free ~ Final Dream
Bullet Heaven 2 - Count of Darkness
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Botanic Panic
G Free ~ Final Dream
Swamps

End of All is certainly better than Id ~ Purpose, but Botanic Panic is cool as hell! Floral Fury deserved better btw.

G Free ~ Final Dream is one of only two of my noms left in the contest! Hopefully this is one Touhou song that isn't doomed because it isn't from a real Touhou game. Anyway, this is a godstomp. I really don't see why some people fawn over Scrap I/O. It feels like people just randomly hit buttons on the instrument synthesizer and then set it to a beat (that's admittedly catchy).

Side bracket is kinda meh, though the Smurfs song has that funky trill going on, so that gets my vote.
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Botanic Panic
G Free ~ Final Dream
Count of Darkness

Botanic Panic is definitely what I am into, was excited and into it the whole way through. End of All wasn't offensive but felt like it dragged. I heard G Free a good while ago while I was more into Touhou songs and thought it was totally awesome, and I stick to that even now. Not a hard match for me, though I like Scrap I/O. Count of Darkness was enjoyable, I liked the melody, but a ham sandwich would have also received my vote this round over Swamps.
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Match 1: Botanic Panic

I dig it. I like the Fire Emblem song, but isn't even near as fun as this one.

Match 2: Scrap I/O

I dunno, there is just something about it that I really like.

Side Bracket: Count of Darkness

Yeeeeeah. Don't really care much for the Smurfs song.

Botantic
Scrap
Count
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End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O
Count of Darkness
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Botanic Panic
G Free ~ Final Dream
Count of Darkness

Not a bad day, but none of the matches were in question for me.
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End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O
Swamps
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All's End
O/I Scrap
Darkness's Count
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End of All (Land) - Botanic Panic is terrible to listen to on its own. EoA isn't the greatest, but it's still pretty good at least.

Scrap I/O - G Free is exactly like every other Touhou song. Not sure why people talk about it like it's different. SI/O doesn't deserve to keep getting into these contests, but it's okay.

Count of Darkness - CoD's kinda like a rocking Castlevania song. Fun times. Smurfs starts out good enough, but it doesn't really go anywhere after that.
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End of All (Land)
G Free ~ Final Dream
Swamps
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End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O
Count of Darkness
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End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O

To its credit, Botanic Panic is far better than Floral Fury or whatever the other Cuphead song that made it in was, and I'm glad this one managed to also get in (iirc. it only barely scraped by, whereas Floral Fury was safe from the very start). That said, it's up against End of All.

>Remixing an existing touhou song to sound like a touhou song. Could've picked a song from basically any fangame and that's what gets in?

I really don't care for the Bullet Heaven series or its soundtrack at all, and Count of Darkness is no exception. That said, Swamps is a surprisingly weak song considering how solid the Smurfs GB soundtrack is in general.

End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O
Swamps

Botanic Panic
G Free ~ Final Dream
Count of Darkness

Fire Emblem Fates - End of All (Land)
Neotokyo - Scrap I/O
Bullet Heaven 2 - Count of Darkness

First match I still strongly believe the DLC Version of End of All is by far the best version but this is still an incredibly easy decision because Cuphead's music is just not for me I guess.

Second match is really mean. Coincidentally, I've mainly been listening to Concealed the Conclusion's OST the past few days because it's quite good. While I like G Free ~ Final Dream it's arguably the Reimu related theme I'm least for. I can go either way with it versus G Free ~ Ultimate Dream. And I'd take Dream Express ~ Red / White over either (and it was on my consideration shortlist to boot.) And while probably a bad idea from a contest performance idea, I'd prefer Blue Sea of 53 minutes as well. All that said, Scrap I/O is - without thinking - likely a Top 5 song in the contest for me so they're all pretty much doomed anyway. You could maybe have gotten me to vote for Plastic Mind here which is really quite impressive given what I just said about Scrap I/O but it'd probably take me not feeling Scrap I/O too much on a given day... but today may have been such a day! And since I'm naming tracks here Legend of Aokigahara is another one I really like and it's also got a pretty great remix of Alice Maestra. I could go on a bit more but I'll stop.

Uh side match, Count of Darkness is really good and also another member of the "on my consideration shortlist club" so that was easy.
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End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O
Count of Darkness

Fire Emblem Fates - End of All (Land)
Touhou: Concealed the Conclusion - G Free ~ Final Dream
Smurfs (Gameboy) - Swamps
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End of All (Land)
G Free ~ Final Dream
Swamps
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Botanic Panic
Scrap I/O
Swamps
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End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O
Swamps
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Botanic Panic
Scrap I/O
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Fire Emblem Fates - End of All (Land)
Touhou: Concealed the Conclusion - G Free ~ Final Dream
Bullet Heaven 2 - Count of Darkness
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FE combo day 3
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Cuphead - Botanic Panic
Neotokyo - Scrap I/O

Smurfs (Gameboy) - Swamps
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End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O
Swamps

-I rather like Botanic Panic and its jaunty tone-- like a lot of Cuphead stuff, really evokes that old cartoon feel
-End of All has lots of cool ideas and transitions; the section at 1:43 weirdly reminds me of the Rabanastre theme from FFXII, which is a good thing because I like the Rabanastre theme; I remember when my impression of Fire Emblem music was basically 'Together, We Ride'; things have changed
-(I really don't like Together We Ride)
-this first match is tough as nails for me
-Scrap I/O is something like the fifteenth-best track in one of my favourite soundtracks; I like a lot of different things about it but not the main piano motif, which is unfortunately extremely prominent
-I feel like G Free is trying really hard to preserve ZUN's style, which I don't really understand-- why not make the remix a little more adventurous? Instead I just spend a lot of time paying attention to the pretty obnoxious drumming
-Count of Darkness is awkwardly mixed, compositionally banal and has some ugly-sounding samples; the piano section came in and after the first two chords I was like 'oh man is it going to use that progression' and it totally did and I actually laughed out loud
-Swamps does that thing that the Follin brothers love to do and that's cool with me because that's a lot of fun; otherwise it's pretty inoffensive and somewhat catchy

End of All (Land)
G Free ~ Final Dream
Count of Darkness
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End of All (Land)
G Free ~ Final Dream
Swamps
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Fire Emblem Fates - End of All (Land)
Touhou: Concealed the Conclusion - G Free ~ Final Dream
Bullet Heaven 2 - Count of Darkness
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End of All (Land)
G Free ~ Final Dream
Count of Darkness

No time for full write-ups or rankings, but:

-Not a fan of Cuphead's soundtrack yet again (is it just me, or does it sound extremely similar to Floral Fury?).

-G Free takes the cake today (I didn't think I'd vote against Scrap I/O, but it's not like Scrap I/O is untouchable or anything; close match though).

-Count of Darkness sounds repetitive, but good. Swamps sounds weird with that chiptune, but I couldn't expect more from Smurfs music.
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Results, day 25:
Botanic Panic < End of All (Land), 14-23
Scrap I/O > G Free ~ Final Dream, 19-18
Count of Darkness > Swamps, 20-15

This was a wild one to track the votes for. Both Botanic Panic and G Free started off with a commanding lead, on the order of 10-3. Then, somebody flipped the switch, and instead of voting for those two, everyone started voting for End of All and Scrap I/O. G Free nearly mounted a comeback at the end, but End of All never looked back. First time in a while we've had a really tight match, down to the buzzer, though.
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