Board 8 > [BOST] Day 3: Calamity v Zakuzaku, Rorona vs VA-11 HALL-A, Hypnospace v FF2 PS1

(+) Yeah! (+)

Greetings, and welcome to the results and bracket/contest discussion topic for Best OST Contest 5! In this contest, you and fellow video game soundtrack lovers will come together to once and for all answer the question "What is the best video game soundtrack? (For now.)"

Links:
Contest Bracket and Info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sD964sXfa3trbXrr14mFKeEIA14cGM2RtHmW9TqGBmw
Discussion Thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77915805

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VOTING RULES

- Each match will be between the songs representing each game, not the game as a whole. Please remember to listen and vote with this in mind! Any votes referring to a game name rather than a song name will not be counted. You have been warned!
- Listen to both songs!! If one is your literal favorite song in the world and the other is something you hate with a passion, listen to them both!!
- No alts, no rallying, no begging for something to get more votes, etc., etc., you know the drill.
- If you change your mind and would like to swap your vote, you may do so. As soon as it is 24 hours since the match topic was started, you may not change your vote and new votes will not be counted.
- If you would like to vote in advance for matches you know you will miss, please let me know in the discussion topic.

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Main Bracket: Match 1

Terraria Calamity - Servants of the Scourge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt30jWRMjLk" data-time="

Zakuzaku Actors - the witch under a blue sky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6WZ6zs3v0I" data-time="

Main Bracket: Match 2

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland - Silent Undersea Ruins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfRJxoJkhD0" data-time="

VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action - A New Frontier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SobZI445uRc" data-time="

Snubs Bracket Match

Hypnospace Outlaw - Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INj74XRTXbM" data-time="

Final Fantasy II (PS1) - Imperial Army Theme

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

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Vote Form:
Servants of the Scourge / the witch under a blue sky
Silent Undersea Ruins / A New Frontier
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve) / Imperial Army Theme

Calamity
VA-11
Hypnospace I guess. I remember this in a VGMGG

why do you hate zakuzaku, deo?

fine

21. Servants of the Scourge (Theme of the Sentinels of the Devourer [Stormweaver, The Ceaseless Void & Signus, Envoy of the Destroy] from Tale of a Cruel World, soundtrack of Terraria Calamity Mod by DM DOKURO

10. A New Frontier from VA-11 HALL-A by Garoad

12. Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve) by Jay Tholen
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the witch under a blue sky
a new frontier
imp army i guess

you let me down, deo

you let me down down down down down
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Servants of the Scourge
A New Frontier
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

really weak snubs match
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Zakuzaku Actors - the witch under a blue sky
Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland - Silent Undersea Ruins
Final Fantasy II (PS1) - Imperial Army Theme
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Zakuzaku Actors - the witch under a blue sky
VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action - A New Frontier
Hypnospace Outlaw - Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)
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Servants of the Scourge
Silent Undersea Ruins
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)
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Servants of the Scourge
Silent Undersea Ruins
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)
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the witch under a blue sky
A New Frontier
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

this is my least favorite activity
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Servants of the Scourge -- Dunno how to define this difficulty. Medium I guess? lowercase witch under blue sky is a fun song, on probably roughly the same-ish level as the other two songs I'm voting for today, while Servants of the Scourge is a great, intense techno piece that I really love, as my favorite of the 3 from the vgmc. Unlucky draw for the Witch.

A New Frontier -- Very easy, cool chill techno stuff vs. a slow moody song with traditional instruments I mostly really don't care for. I mean to be fair the little bit halfway into the Undersea Ruins was kind of neat, and the New Frontier perhaps comes across as slightly bland to me, but really, still an easy choice for me.

Imperial Army Theme -- Easy enough, vocals vs. this. This is a song I know probably "too" well from being in some SMW hack for raocow just for some cutscene at the start. Sounds even better in the original format. Really though the Millenium Anthem is Very pleasantly goofy, a trait certainly not to be understated, and there's a number of interesting synthy stuffs going on in the build too. Maybe this is a Medium level choice? But really, even past the cool instruments and unwanted vocals, the actual song isn't all that appealing itself, especially the slow repetitive pre-ending (though the actual ending is real neat, but that's just a small ending section!), while Imperial Army certainly is a cool engaging tune to me.
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Terraria Calamity - Servants of the Scourge
VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action - A New Frontier
Hypnospace Outlaw - Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

Special nod to the Rorona song for making that match way harder than I anticipated.
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Servants isn't in the top three.....how....? It feels like TC is cheating this round! (but who knows if it will win)

Terraria Calamity - Servants of the Scourge
Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland - Silent Undersea Ruins... wow, not bad.....
Final Fantasy II (PS1) - Imperial Army Theme

FFII has a really good top three! ... ts bottom three....not so much. It's a shame it never got a chance to use rthe better ones. Millenium Anthem is probably my least favorite song so far in the contest, so Imperial Army practically wins by default.....
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Terraria Calamity - Servants of the Scourge
Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland - Silent Undersea Ruins
Final Fantasy II (PS1) - Imperial Army Theme

Ouch, tough draw for Zakuzaku. SotS is likely my favorite TCM track I've heard as of yet. Good stuff, and hard match.

SUS is pretty chill, liking the flute here. A New Frontier sounds like "Board 8 Electronic VGM", also pretty nice. Slightly not-as-good as the first match.

Last match let me down down down down down down down down down
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Servants of The Scourge
Silent Undersea Ruins
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

Servants of the Scourge
A New Frontier
Imperial Army Theme

god damnit i really dislike the calamity list but here's one of the two songs on it i'd vote for... and i'd vote for it over most things, including my own noms. oops. actually, Glass is the only song on the entire zakuzaku list i'd vote over Servants. maaaaaybe Mao. oops!

Servants of The Scourge
A New Frontier
Imperial Army Theme
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Servants of the Scourge
Silent Undersea Ruins
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

Primacy bias!
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the witch under a blue sky
A New Frontier
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

Servants of the Scourge
Silent Undersea Ruins / A New Frontier
Imperial Army Theme

Pretty easy first match.

SUR is solid but ANF is great.

Oh man Millennium Anthem is real bad. So repetitive. IAT's not good either. Oh well.
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Terraria Calamity - Servants of the Scourge = 8.5/10
Zakuzaku Actors - the witch under a blue sky = 6.5/10

SotS is my favourite song to appear so far.

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland - Silent Undersea Ruins = 5.5/10
VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action - A New Frontier = 6.25/10

My least favourite of the Rorona picks vs. my least favourite of the Vahalla picks. Ended up being in Vahalla's favour, but there's plenty of other matchups that would have went the other way.

Hypnospace Outlaw - Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve) = 6/10
Final Fantasy II (PS1) - Imperial Army Theme = 5/10

The GM cuica samples are my single least favourite samples in music. That wasn't enough to prevent Millenium Anthem from winning, though.

My votes:
Servants of the Scourge
A New Frontier
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

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Terraria Calamity - Servants of the Scourge: 5.5. I wrote about this song often in VGMC, so I don't really feel like treading the same ground. I'll just say the intro is at least 8/10, but then the individual parts aren't nearly as compelling to me. This is actually half a point lower than I rated it during VGMC; chalk it up to song fatigue.
vs.
Zakuzaku Actors - the witch under a blue sky: 5.5. Hey it's Mozell hey it's bagpipes. Honestly some of these bagpipe notes are too shrill for me. But then the rest of the song is very lovely. Kind of torn on this one. At least it's interesting.

and

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland - Silent Undersea Ruins: 6. Speaking of shrill instruments, ouch that flute. This does some kind of neat things but never really hooks me; I wish it stayed in the pseudo-ambient style after the flute solo at the start.
vs.
VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action - A New Frontier: 4.5. I've listened to music from this game several times over the last few years and I can't recall a single thing about any of it.

and

Hypnospace Outlaw - Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve): 6. Quirky song from a quirky soundtrack. IIRC this was one of my least favorite tracks from this setlist, but it's still fine. Gets a little repetitive near the end. Tail ending bumps it up a little.
vs.
Final Fantasy II (PS1) - Imperial Army Theme: 5.5. Pretty uneventful march-type song.

Votes:
the witch under a blue sky
Silent Undersea Ruins
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

That's a vote for ANF sorry.
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Servants of the Scourge
Silent Undersea Ruins
Imperial Army Theme
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Terraria Calamity - Servants of the Scourge - 8/10
While this is actually probably my least favourite of the Calamity songs I've heard so far, there hasn't been one I haven't liked yet. Some of the melodies are really great, though the breakdowns could use a bit more in my eyes. While it sounds really good in general, some parts kinda lose me a bit.

Zakuzaku Actors - the witch under a blue sky - 5.5/10
The backing isn't very interesting to me honestly, I do like some of what the melody does, but the actual instrumentation for it grates on me. Some of the piano parts are good though! Wish they were a bit stronger and more frequent.

My vote for this match is Servants of the Scourge

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland - Silent Undersea Ruins - 7/10
Some beauty to be found here, for sure, and it does a lot of unique things. Again, a nice piano part. While it still somewhat starts to fade into the background for me, this is probably one of the better somewhat ambient songs I've heard.

VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action - A New Frontier - 7/10
Some really good melodies here. Wish it just wasn't quite as repetitive as it was, it's a nice experience but just kinda forgettable at the end of the day.

Another Abstain wee (I *might* still change this one but we'll see, unlikely but)

Hypnospace Outlaw - Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve) - 5/10
This is wacky for sure. The whole "you let me down" part I think does sound good, but man is it repetitive, and there's not really that much more of merit here.

Final Fantasy II - Imperial Army Theme - 4.5/10
It's a march theme, I guess. It doesn't sound that bad, but is really boring.

My vote goes to Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

the witch under a blue sky
Silent Undersea Ruins
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

Evil match. Also very close. I was pretty close to resorting to a TB check to decide.

Harsh match, I still like A New Frontier quite a decent amount as far as VA-11 Hall-A songs go. The unintentional 00s techno feel it has accompanied by the more intended 80s/90s feel kind of enhances it for me, somehow. Unfortunate it drew rorona, and a rorona song I find no faults in at that.

Hypnospace is fantastic but its soundtrack's strengths lie strictly in areas that are not a contest setting really. It was fortunate it drew a rather forgettable song from a rather forgettable (albeit enhanced) soundtrack because I would've easily taken anything else today over it...and probably the other days too, actually, save for maybe meat boy.

Servants of the Scourge (But seriously this is a close match)
A New Frontier
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

Servants of the Scourge
A New Frontier
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Servants of the Scourge
Silent Undersea Ruins
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

I think I've made up my mind-- aside from the intro, I like section W the best.

The witch under a blue sky feels very blue sky and not quite witchy enough. It does the whole 'play variations on short looped progression' for a lot of the track where the loop doesn't interest me a great deal. I wish it were more adventurous.

Silent Undersea Ruins has sort of a dull melody but a pretty cool atmosphere. I think it really shines starting at 1:06 (which is also the one segment of melody I really like in this track). Lots of nice instruments and synths and effects to sell its core idea (though the water effect is a bit lacking in subtlety).

A New Frontier kinda sounds like a Shatter track, but written with a Hotline Miami/Katana Zero-esque neon-tinged aesthetic. That sounds like it might suit the game's style! I can't help but think it strays from what I like about the soundtrack, though. This has a few cool touches-- that little left/right panning chord at 0:19, the synths at 0:24. This is upbeat and fun enough but a bit shallow. This was a difficult match to decide on.

As I find with Hypnospace Outlaw tracks, Millenium Anthem takes a bit of time to digest. This is weird and goofy but I feel... sort of sad after listening to it? The whole thing feels full of regret. you let me down down down down

The Imperial Army Theme feels very Imperial and very RPG 'bad guy army approaching'. Look out! Hide in your homes! I mean it totally nails that feel. It's not much more to me than that, though-- best served with a side of actual RPG bad guy armies.

Servants of the Scourge
A New Frontier
Imperial Army Theme
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Zakuzaku Actors - the witch under a blue sky
Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland - Silent Undersea Ruins
Hypnospace Outlaw - Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)

MATCH 1

The Witch Under a Blue Sky is pretty nice. Not my favorite mozell song but I've always liked the nature-sounding feel of his music and this song has many of those elements in it that I like. Servants of the Scourge is pretty cool too and it's definitely close, but I slightly favor the Zakuzaku song.

MATCH 2

Silent Undersea Ruins is a nice and tranquil song. I like how all the instruments come together in this song. A New Frontier is pretty cool with the dancier portions of the song, but the rest of it kinda falls flat for me. Also sort of close I guess, but less close than the first match.

MATCH 3

Millenium Anthem is kinda weird and cheesy but actually sounds kinda nice. Imperial Army Theme, on the other hand, just kinda feels like basic Final Fantasy music, so I'm not particularly enthused about it.

Servants of the Scourge
A New Frontier
Millenium Anthem (2000 New Years Eve)