Board 8 > [BOST] Day 26: ChrgCycles v DDPDFKBL, MM10 v Trails FC, UnrealTour v Spindizzy 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

Greetings, and welcome to the 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: Winners Round 2

Charge Cycles - Welcome to Ulka!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHaHqQ3GFXY" data-time="

DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Black Label - Xanadu (Stage2-B)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUhN1jEKLfU" data-time="

Main Bracket: Losers Round 1

Mega Man 10 - Cybersheep's Dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZGZeUpSM1I" data-time="

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Ancient Makes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rIegfs7c3E" data-time="

Snubs Bracket Match

Unreal Tournament - Organic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_6cZzjfjSs" data-time="

Spindizzy II - Arrow Maze

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dkUoDOFxh4" data-time="

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Vote Form:
Welcome to Ulka! / Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Cybersheep's Dream / Ancient Makes
Organic / Arrow Maze

fuck. Welcome to Ulka!
fuck. Ancient Makes
fuck. Organic

all 3 matches were tough

fuck. Xanadu (Stage2-B)
fuck. Cybersheep's Dream
fuck. Arrow Maze

these are all amazing matches i hate this also goddamnit moon (but not actually goddamnit cause i'm fine with today being Thanos Day)

Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Organic
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DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Black Label - Xanadu (Stage2-B)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Ancient Makes
Unreal Tournament - Organic
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Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Organic
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Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Organic

Close (but ultimately straightforward) and reasonably above average day.

Xanadu is neat but I still find its loop an unfortunately unengaging aspect (not the nature of it so much as just "actually i just don't think the start of the song fits"). And apologies to [charge cycles composer] but Ulka still just doesn't engage me enough to capitalise, even if it's still cool in its own right.

Cybersheep's Dream is a pretty alright megaman song, but I guess I haven't been terribly big on the broad style for a while. Ancient Makes is solid.

I didn't expect to like Organic as much as I do, it's aged better than it has any right to. Sorry Arrow Maze, which was also really solid and good.

Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Arrow Maze

no matches approached "fuck." levels but still a very Nice Day
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Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Arrow Maze

Oh no, DDPDFKBL got matched up against another support of mine again. I've only listened through the DDPDFKBL soundtrack a couple times, but Xanadu sounds a lot more familiar to me than it should. Anyways tough match, both of these are good!

Classic Mega Man music is really hit or miss for me. This one isn't too bad, but the opponent is just a lot better, especially when it picks up around halfway in.

Organic really reminds me of something, and I want to say it's the menu theme to ATV Offroad Fury 2. Ooh, classic X68K FM synth music. Close match here.
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Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Organic
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Xanadu
Cybersheep's Dream
Arrow Maze
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Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Organic

Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Organic

Xanadu
Ancient Makes
Organic
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Welcome to Ulka!
Ancient Makes
Organic

Man Dang this first match, DoDonPachi has been one of my favorite discoveries of this contest, possibly within my top 10 osts of the contest, and here I am voting against it for the second time in a row because these match ups are nuts. I'm loving this upbeat digital energy of Xanadu, especially with the instruments in focus during the slight reliefs around :33 and :50, as well as the sudden extremely industrial turn at the section at 1:20 right before the loop point. There are some points throughout the song that the actual notes themselves come across as slightly "weak" and/or repetitive but honestly part of that is sort of "looking" for something to complain about, this is a very strong song for me, it's just, sometimes a little less strong. And Welcome To Ulka is also a very strong song for me, too! Super surreal vibes going on as this "welcome" to an alternate reality. A bit calm but very weird & interesting, particularly my kind of weird. Somehow the drums at the beginning at like :08 remind me of Obsidian. The glitchy bits at :31 are really great. Super nice surreal track of a foreign landscape with neat hints of things that are not quite right with this reality scattered throughout, especially but quietly right before the loop point at :49. This is to me one of the weaker Charge Cycles tracks, a bit short & can sometimes be a bit more ambient-ish than I'm sometimes in the mood for, but again, still real strong for me anyway. So as I said, two very strong tracks for me so this is a particularly difficult choice, but this is what a winners bracket match ought to be. Thank goodness which ever one loses here will stay around in the 2nd Chance bracket.

All songs today are decent actually, pretty good, but the other two matches are considerably easier choices for me especially compared to the first match. Cybersheep's Dream is a nice lighthearted Megaman NES track that sounds like Kirby at the start, I would say it's above average of a MMNES song, but not really much of a fan of those from the start, so that mostly just brings this song to "decent" for me. I love the synthy instrumentation of Ancient Makes as well as the active energy the song features, and this includes the sort of key changes back & forth with the kind of minor sound I really enjoy at :22. 1:00 sounds like pokemon mystery dungeon a comparison I maybe make too much did I just say that yesterday? Anyway 1:21 features high strings I don't care for which does bring the song down a bit, but I'm already a fan of what else this song has to offer so I can forgive you this time Ancient Makes.

Organic reminds me of Schizm, with those big purple structures made from organic material. That's a really bad description but I'm digging the surreal vibe those noises at the start give and the sort of tune they have, and enjoy the whole atmosphere of this song in general, really. The light hint of the beepy tune in the back of 1:14 is great, and this whole song is a real nice exploration experience. Arrow Maze is neat too, an interesting intense feel of, once again, a surreal atmosphere through the more limited soundchip it uses followed by a more calmer take on it. Cool stuff but Organic comes across as doing things better overall for me.

Really great day
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Xanadu
Ancient Makes
Organic
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Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Organic

Xanadu saved the day
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Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Arrow Maze

Xanadu (Stage2-B)
Ancient Makes
Organic
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Charge Cycles - Welcome to Ulka!
Welcome to Ulka, more like Welcome to the Best OST in BOST. This is a really great menu theme, short yet ambient, with elements of some of the other songs in it. It makes for a very chill and extremely good introduction to the game. Also I'm just gonna admit this right up front, I listen to this OST when I'm on my lunch break at work (OST's just shy of 30 minutes which is perfect timing for a 30 minute lunch!) and it's always so great to walk to~! The way the track titles loaded on my mp3 actually puts this song last due to its file_name.mp3, but to me it really works because it serves as a musical palette cleanser after the energy of all of the OST's other tracks (which I LOVE by the way, great examples of this musical energy would have to be Charger Insertion or Mechanism Turned On).

I really love all of the bits and pieces of the other songs the composer put into this menu theme. It's short, but you can tell the composer had a personal attachment to it-- it was definitely made with a lot of love. If they ever were to read this, I would want them to know how much this kind of music speaks to me. It has made an impact on my life, and I'm happy to vote for it in today's match. I have this kind of music to thank for giving me the courage to make my own so <THANK YOU!>

All of today's other songs are great, but they don't leave as much of an impression on me as "Welcome to Ulka!" does. Also, random comment but the title of this song is seriously charming and sweet. It's as if I'm individually being welcomed into the Charge Cycles OST and I find that really personal and honestly really touching.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Ancient Makes
It feels weird to vote for a Trails game, but here I am! I was actually a little bit surprised by this one. I've never really liked Trails music, but this track is definitely going places! It's musically diverse, and to me, pretty fun! Megaman's track was great but this was just so crazy and neat to discover. Thanks for surprising me, BOST!

Spindizzy II - Arrow Maze
This is such a cool song! How can I not vote for it? Organic felt a little repetitive to me, but this track bopped! I had a lotta fun listening to this one.
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Charge Cycles - Welcome to Ulka!
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Ancient Makes
Spindizzy II - Arrow Maze

Yeah, what a day. I like everything on offer here all for different reasons so having to vote against anything here is very not fair

Running out of time again so I'll just leave a thought: for me to vote against Charge Cycles would require its opponent to be something very close to my heart like, uh, Sonic Mega Collection - History (the specific sort of thing that doesn't really perform in contests like these anyways).


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DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Black Label - Xanadu (Stage2-B)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Ancient Makes
Spindizzy II - Arrow Maze

MATCH 1

Welcome to Ulka is definitely reflective of Mycro's taste for unconventional/unpredictable chord changes (or at least, that's how I see one aspect of his style of music). It's pretty unique and interesting from a compositional standpoint, but it's not really the kind of music that I like, unfortunately.

Xanadu is really cool! Pretty hype song with a cool melody. Kind of has this dance-y feel to it that I like.

MATCH 2

I'm usually not the most interested in Mega Man music, but Cybersheep's Dream is actually really good for Mega Man! I think Mega Man 10 is my favorite game from the series in terms of music. The melody here is actually pretty engaging, which I don't feel about a lot of other Mega Man tracks.

Ancient Makes is pretty interesting. Not all that interested in the first minute or so, minus the intro because that part's actually neat. The part where the violin kicks in is really good, though! That actually makes things a bit difficult since these two songs are pretty close for me. Leaning a bit towards Ancient Makes here. I feel bad for voting it though because Cybersheep's Dream is getting blown out, but it's actually good!

MATCH 3

[Will finish soon]