Board 8 > [BOST] Day 6: Shallie v Gurumin, Xenoblade v Ar tonelico 1, Zero Divide 2 v TTTT

(+) 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

Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea - Sweep ~ Part 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sefqCnVi-E" data-time="

Gurumin - Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybROH2G6ueA" data-time="

Main Bracket: Match 2

Xenoblade Chronicles - Mechanical Rhythm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGw5kwHl_LU" data-time="

Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia - A Requiem's Melody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinjkST9_yk" data-time="

Snubs Bracket Match

Zero Divide 2 - Power Glide

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

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)

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

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Vote Form:
Sweep ~ Part 3 / Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!
Mechanical Rhythm / A Requiem's Melody
Power Glide / Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)

Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!
A Requiem's Melody
Power Glide

Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea - Sweep ~ Part 3
Xenoblade Chronicles - Mechanical Rhythm
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)
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Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea - Sweep ~ Part 3
Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia - A Requiem's Melody
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)
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Sweep ~ Part 3
Mechanical Rhythm
Power Glide

Sweep's solid. Rainbow is pretty nothing.

I've never been a huge fan of MR, but it's pretty good. A Requiem's Melody is not one of the 20 best AT1 songs. Maybe not even one of the 30 best.

I keep expecting vocals in Power Glide. Really feels like vocal prog metal song. I like this better than any of the songs in the first two matches! I feel like there were some TTT2 songs I really liked in the nomination, but this one I'm not a fan of.
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Sweep ~ Part 3
Mechanical Rhythm
Power Glide

Other than Rainbow Phantom, decent day overall.
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Sweep
Mechanical Rhythm
Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)

anyone surprised by my vote in the first match doesn't know me.

**()&^)q(#*^() the second match please win AT1.

Third match is tough, but t^4's track's style appeals to me more.
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Sweep ~ Part 3
Mechanical Rhythm
Power Glide

zwoooop blip blip thwack

Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea - Sweep ~ Part 3
Xenoblade Chronicles - Mechanical Rhythm
Zero Divide 2 - Power Glide
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Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea - Sweep ~ Part 3 - 7.5/10
A lot of pretty great things going on here. While there are times where the melody sorta loses me, this is still very energetic and still does a lot of different things as it goes on. I can certainly say above all that this song is not boring.

Gurumin - Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim! - 7/10
Ah yes, Gurumin, the game that always seems to surprise me with how dissonant it can be. My first exposure to this game's soundtrack is through Bomber Girl, and I think I can say with a fair amount of certainty that I like this song much better. It has an honestly surprising amount of variety throughout the song, with some parts honestly reminding me of Darius a bit. Some other parts are not quite as much my thing, but, again, this song remains interesting from start to finish.

Voting, ultimately, for Sweep ~ Part 3

Xenoblade Chronicles - Mechanical Rhythm - 7.5/10
I'm always going to be a sucker for songs with guitars going this hard (to the point where I designed a character around it once), so this was always going to get a pretty high rating to me despite the fact that it isn't that unique? The melody is fairly generic and not always fully developed, but I feel everything else that goes into the song is pretty perfect. Well, the melody does pick up at a point near the end anyways.

Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia - A Requiem's Melody - 7/10
This song certainly has a nice feel, but aside from the general theme it probably won't really be remembered by me much. Well, and the letters just being said in the background. Is that a thing?
Anyways, again, nice song, but it just doesn't make me feel that strongly in any way.

Vote for Mechanical Rhythm

Zero Divide 2 - Power Glide - 7/10
More guitar, but this time somewhat subdued. While it has a very different feel from it, I feel like a lot of my comments for A Requiem's Melody sorta apply here. It's very enjoyable and kinda chill at times for what it is, but no part really sticks out to me aside from maybe the breakdown near the end. And yeah, I would say it warrants the same rating.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions) - 7.5/10
This is certainly both Fantastic and Theater. Jazzy and bopping, I do wish the...backing? Electronic part changed up a bit, but everything else is really putting their all into it and it all works great.

Vote in for Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)

Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea - Sweep ~ Part 3
Xenoblade Chronicles - Mechanical Rhythm
Zero Divide 2 - Power Glide

MATCH 1

Sweep Part 3 is super good! I think all of the versions of this song are good, but Part 3's definitely my favorite. Such an upbeat and happy melody, and everything comes together in this song so nicely. I could probably say this about a lot of Atelier songs though haha.

Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim is pretty nice too. It's a nice, relaxing song. The Gurumin songs I've heard so far are pretty decent, but with the exception of To Make the End of Digging and maybe Soaring Through the Sad Blue Skies (or whatever the proper translation is), they usually fall a bit short of being considered "great" in my eyes. I could definitely vote this song over a number of things in the contest, but definitely not Sweep.

MATCH 2

Mechanical Rhythm's really cool! Fast-paced rock songs like this are generally really nice when they come from the Xenoblade games and this is no exception. This song manages to bring out a strong melody with the strings and some neat guitar solos too on top of the cool guitar riffs, which is much appreciated from me. A lot of people have compared Still, Move Forward from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to Mechanical Rhythm in Youtube comments, so I'll say that Still, Move Forward is without a doubt my preference between the two, but this song is great as well. The XC2 song is my preference because it happens to be even better than an already great song.

Oh no, I said in the discord server earlier that I anticipated this match to be tough and I was right. A Requiem's Melody is really nice too. I really like the melody in this song and the choir harmonizing sounds great as well. The melody in particular is really calming, which I like about it. I guess the vocals might be a tad bit weird to me, but I don't really mind that. Tough decision, but I'm leaning towards Mechanical Rhythm right now. Definitely hurts to vote against A Requiem's Melody. Maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow, I don't know. They're both great songs so either song winning here would be good.

MATCH 3

I remember both of these nominations being a mix of songs that were cool and songs that weren't as good. I've been thinking that it might come down to whether or not the good songs are pulled today. Listening to Power Glide and this seems like it was one of the good ones! I definitely like it. Cool prog rock kind of feel to it. I'm actually liking the lead guitar a lot. Really cool melody. This seems like it might be a tough one for TTT2 to beat, but let's see.

Oof, another tough match. Fantastic Theater was one song from this nomination that I remember liking as well. It sounded like it might end up being a bit circus-y during the intro, which I didn't really want this song to end up like, but fortunately it didn't. It's actually a pretty neat electronic song with some cool brass sounds in there as well. I think I'm leaning more towards Power Glide over Fantastic Theater. At the very least, I feel more certain about this than I do about match 2. I'm also okay with either song winning this match.

Sweep ~ Part 3 > Mechanical Rhythm > A Requiem's Melody > Power Glide > Fantastic Theater > Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!

Really good day today! I like all the songs today quite a bit.

Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!
Mechanical Rhythm
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Main matches today are too good. Will listen to snubs tomorrow if I have time.
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Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea - Sweep ~ Part 3
Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia - A Requiem's Melody
Zero Divide 2 - Power Glide

Sad to vote against TTT2, (even used this exact song in a VGMGG list with Flamander) but Zero Divide is infinitely more my vibe as of late. So many great snubs, man.
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Gurumin - Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!
I really dug the Gurumin song because it was really fascinatingly structured. It did a lot of crazy stuff in a short amount of time... which is always welcome in my book!

Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia - A Requiem's Melody
Gotta rep Ar tonelico on this one because this song was so amazingly varied and, to me, pretty fun. Theres just something so beautiful about Ar tonelico music-- I really love it.

Zero Divide 2 - Power Glide
This song is... AMAZING! I've liked all of the songs that I've heard from this OST and this one is no exception. The sound and instrumentation were incredible and it kinda left me speechless. Probs my favorite song I've heard so far!!
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Sweep ~ Part 3
A Requiem's Melody
Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)

For a modern atelier song, Sweep is just kind of there. I've listened to it a few times now and it still has yet to elicit much of a reaction from me. If the section in Rainbow Colored Phantom starting around 1:45ish didn't exist, I'd likely be taking it here with ease. Unfortunately though, it does. I don't mind songs being creative, but the nature of its "creativity" there is kind of the exact opposite of what I'd like to hear at all.

I hadn't fully realised just how burnt out/generally over I am on xenoblade music till now. Weird. Requiem's Melody is decent.

Fantastic Theatre skirts a line to be sure, with it coming dangerously close to being "the worst of both worlds", to paraphrase mycro, even to me. But, at least to me, it nailed something. Namely managing to feel like Miror B's theme but with gratuitous jazz/swing slapped over it (in a good way). That's a scary power combination to me. It's a shame this exact match had to happen, because it was genuinely the only possible matchup out of every single song in the Zero Divide and TTT2 sets where Zero Divide gets edged out to me. rip my favourites bracket preferences

Sweep ~ Part 3
Mechanical Rhythm
Power Glide

Sweep is holy shit. This is some prime Atelier right here. RCPCS is also pretty good.

Mechanical Rhythm is one of those "FL81 power metal" tracks, albeit one that has lost a significant amount of its oomph for me. A Requiem's Melody is peaceful, but doesn't really do anything interesting for me OH WELL.

Power Glide is really "cool" and Fantastic Theater is "fun". Hardest match today, but Power Glide takes it by keeping it interesting throughout with new musical mixups.
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Sweep ~ Part 3
Mechanical Rhythm
Power Glide

Good songs all around today
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Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!
Mechanical Rhythm
Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)

Sweep ~ Part 3
Mechanical Rhythm
Power Glide

betrayed Falcom for Gust and then betrayed Gust what a monster
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Sweep ~ Part 3
Mechanical Rhythm
Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)

Very B8 day; if only it was VVVVVV instead of TTTT.

I liked what Requiem's Melody was going for and look forward to hearing more from that setlist.

wtf the Tekken song is so good
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Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!
A Requiem's Melody
Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)

Sweep ~ Part 3
A Requiem's Melody
Power Glide

In Sweep I Hate the string segment at :50, but while Rainbow colored phantom has slightly better instrumentation for me, it is a bit too bland & repetitive in comparison to sweep's fun energy.

As someone who often really loves Mechanical themes, I get absolutely no Mechanical impression from Mechanical Rhythm. The instrumentation makes the song come across as terribly generic to me, and especially the parts focused on the high strings are unappealing to me. The calmer guitar at the end is cool but that's just the end. While Requiem's Melody incorporates a bunch of elements I don't care for (vocals/chorus, piano, slower tempo), they don't come across as strongly offputting to me as they could be and the song overall manages to kind of work more interestingly to me than the generic piece of mechanical rhythm

Fantastic Theater has this nice, grand performance feeling to it, but I'm super into the neat rhythms & cool chill guitar of Power Glide. Anyway this has been the hardest day so far, all matches were decently close for me in their own ways. But also I mean it's only the 6th day so far so it's not like this is a crazy accomplishment yet. Also this is probably the least close match of the day (0/2 v TTTTTTT) but it is still some what close.
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Sweep ~ Part 3
A Requiem's Melody
Power Glide

Sweep is fun and full of accordion and, uh, guitar? (I had to look this up-- it's apparently a "bouzouki".) I don't always love the segments where the melody is too heavily focused on, but the peripheral elements of the track do a capable job of not letting it become completely melody-dominant.

On a day where half of the tracks are at least somewhat loud, I found Rainbow-Colored Phantom's dosage of plucked strings, mallet percussion, and low-key electronic drums to be a very pleasant panacea. Very difficult match to decide on.

For a track whose style I don't typically gravitate to, I actually rather enjoy Mechanical Rhythm-- its energetic pace and its classically grand RPG-boss approach. This is also really loud, though, in a way that hurts it-- it feels like there's a ton of clipping going on here, muddying its sound and blunting its appeal.

A Requiem's Melody is a really nice slice of Ar Tonelico music that touches on a few different aspects of what I enjoy from that soundtrack-- the mix of chimes, acoustic instruments and electronic elements; the odd vocal stylings; the repeating piano; the bass and percussion; the excellent production throughout.

Power Glide is surprisingly chill for a track that uses that heavily overdriven guitar at parts. Rhythmically interesting, fun chords. Remarkably enjoyable listen.

I enjoy sections of Fantastic Theater's vision of electroswing-- 1:08 is a pretty head-bobbing section-- but I think it falls into some musical tropes I don't find as enjoyable (like the way that section resolves at the end).

Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!
A Requiem's Melody (But this was a hard match)
Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)

(huh all underdogs today)

Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea - Sweep ~ Part 3: 5.5. I just can't get into much Atelier music. It's all so unengaging to me. Like this is fine, the production is good, but I don't care about it at all. There are actually a few parts near the loop that bring this above a 5.
vs.
Gurumin - Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!: 6.5. I really like the forest/tropical vibe here. Fun percussion, nice and varied.

and

Xenoblade Chronicles - Mechanical Rhythm: 2.5. Guitars.
vs.
Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia - A Requiem's Melody: 4.5. Forgot I was listening to it as I was listening to it. It's pretty I guess?

and
Zero Divide 2 - Power Glide: 8.. The mixed meter and interesting instruments (try saying that three times fast) kept my interest all the way through. This is a fun type of music I could see myself wanting to get more into.
vs.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions): 8. A very bombastic song, one of my favorite new discoveries from noms. This is a lot of fun to listen to but doesn't excite me as much on subsequent listens. Still great though!

Votes:
Rainbow Colored Phantom Can't Swim!
A Requiem's Melody
Power Glide

Rainbow Coloured Phantom Can't Swim!
Mechanical Rhythm
Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)
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Rainbow Colored Deo Can't Bracketeer
Traitor's Requiem*
Power Glide

*the traitor is deo
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Power Glide
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Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea - Sweep ~ Part 3
Xenoblade Chronicles - Mechanical Rhythm

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - Fantastic Theater (Odeum of Illusions)
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Sweep ~ Part 3
A Requiem's Melody
Power Glide. snubs match best match today
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Sweep ~ Part 3
Mechanical Rhythm
Power Glide
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