Board 8 > [BOST] Day 61: Caravan v Umineko, SSBU v MurasakiTsu, TX eX+ v Mekazoo

(+) 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 Semifinals

Caravan Stories - Raging Spirits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-8kfkJPODQ" data-time="

Umineko no Naku Koro ni - dreamenddischarger

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

Snubs Bracket: Quarterfinals

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Kasss Theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_5I8T_NWUY" data-time="

Murasaki Tsurugi - Speartip of Judgment

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

Snubs Bracket: Round 3

Tokyo Xanadu eX+ - My Blaze, My Truth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOXa6OqShrQ" data-time="

Mekazoo - Mad Motor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3FgxLm6UKg" data-time="

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Vote Form:
Raging Spirits / dreamenddischarger
Kasss Theme / Speartip of Judgment
My Blaze, My Truth / Mad Motor

Raging Spirits
Speartip of Judgment
My Blaze, My Truth

dream end disc harger
Speartip of jUVB-76ment
Mad Motor
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dreamenddischarger
Kasss Theme
Mad Motor

Umineko no Naku Koro ni - dreamenddischarger
Murasaki Tsurugi - Speartip of Judgment
Tokyo Xanadu eX+ - My Blaze, My Truth
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Caravan Stories - Raging Spirits - gotta go with the shorter and sweeter and prettier one.... Raging Spirits definitely worthy of the semi-finals.

Murasaki Tsurugi - Speartip of Judgment - aw, Smash has to disappoint me this time. Oh, well. (p.s. the Zinnia remix rules)

Tokyo Xanadu eX+ - My Blaze, My Truth - ooh, I think this my favorite Tokyo X track yet....if this wins, I'm looking forward to its top three.
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Damn i lost all my writeups because some assholes kept calling me ffs

dreamenddischarger
Speartip of Judgment
My Blaze, My Truth

I consider Raging Spirits a very strong song, so it's a shame it landed here, against a song that has long been a traditional favourite of mine among zts epic songs. lec has always had it beat to me but it's still so close to a literal 10 for me that it's just unfair.

Finally we are at the real proving grounds for my last remaining nom. It's pretty appropriate, really, considering how Murasaki pays homage to Smash with specific elements. Having said that, while I consider it quite good actually, and I like what it has in it... Unlike my favourites bracket (which had Stage 4 Luxor from Pharaoh Rebirth+ here instead), Kass's Theme fails to give me pause. The general methodology behind my set was that I basically evaluated each song in terms of how high their ceilings could be in terms of appeal (aka. how much I like them) vs how broad i considered their appeal could be, with the intent of getting one consistent song with appeal in both halves of the set, and two ones that are more hit or miss (with an emphasis on the former, of course). What this resulted in was the lower set having two blatantly dangerous songs (fortune and unicorn) which I expected more people to be turned off by than not, but their ceilings were super high to me (like 9/10). The upper set though... I'm pretty sure I gave this an 8/10 and a 10/10 ceiling, so... yeah. I really should try finding the text file i had with these notes. Also, like I said on Discord already, factoring in the transition to in-game versions that weren't exactly planned around, this would probably be my outright #1 on the set now (odd as it is to say that about a song that lost half its length (and the half that was way better at that)). Incidentally, this match probably would've given me pause had something like, I dunno, Fairy Toxic German been here instead, but I only gave that like a 6 and an 8 or something, so, you know.

Lastly, other snubs match. First two matches are a hard act to follow so I don't feel very strongly about them. Pretty close but eh

I think these writeups are slightly shorter than before oh well

ded
soj
blaze=truth
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(going to be very painful to watch it get destroyed very hard almost certainly today)

We can fix that. Just pull an AAI2 Mastermind on all the "ded" fans.... i.e. incite them into posting something that gets them banned before they come to this topic!
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dreamenddischarger
Speartip of Judgment
My Blaze, My Truth

hell yeah ded
hell yeah TX
Spear of Justice is more pop than I remember

this is my favorite kind of day where everything is good but no matches are close enough to be hard
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Raging Spirits
Speartip of Judgment
Mad Motor

voting against ded hurts but it's kiiiiinda not close (kinda close still tho but yeah not close)

dreamenddischarger
Speartip of Judgment
Mad Motor
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Umineko no Naku Koro ni - dreamenddischarger

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Kasss Theme
Mekazoo - Mad Motor
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Raging Spirits
Kasss Theme
My Blaze, My Truth

dreamenddischarger
Speartip of Judgment
Mad Motor
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Raging Spirits
Speartip of Judgment
My Blaze, My Truth
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dreamenddischarger
Speartip of Judgment
My Blaze, My Truth

Electro day
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dreamenddischarger
Kasss Theme
Mad Motor

Pretty easy first match, wasn't as big of a fan of Raging Spirits as some of the other CS tracks.

Close second match, let's see if I made the right call swapping Vega Stage out for this (granted it probably wouldn't affect much).

Also close last match, Mad Motor takes a while to get going, but near the end it's pretty good.
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dreamenddischarger
Speartip of Judgment
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dreamenddischarger
Speartip of Judgment
Mad Motor
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dreamenddischarger
Kasss Theme
My Blaze, My Truth

Raging Spirits is quite good. Can't really beat ded tho!

Match 2 is real bad. Kass's Theme is definitely not one of the 200 best songs in Ultimate, and Speartip is aggressively mediocre.

Blaze is missing the Falcom battle fun of the previous TX tracks. Not that into Mad Motor either.

I wish I could vote Raging Spirits over all these other songs...
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Kass
Mad Motor
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dreamenddischarger
speartip
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Raging Spirits
Speartip of Judgment
My Blaze, My Truth

There's a weird, seething energy under the repeating figures of Raging Spirits, which is what always brings me back to this track. There's no other track quite like it in the Caravan Stories soundtrack (except I guess the track right before it-- Tenement of the Blue Spirit-- which is a calmer take). Mesmerizing each time I revisit it.

I change my mind on this once in a while but dreamenddischarger is probably my favourite umineko zts track. There's sort of a hopefulness to this, a fighting spirit, that doesn't seem to be expressed as much in the others. Drakeryn once described this as the theme of town (and miragecoordinator the theme of mafia)-- I wholeheartedly agree.

A few years ago I'd have voted ded without so much as a pause. Even today this is a really tough match-- a day where I leaned more towards the positive vibes of ded would have swung this. I have a lot of good history with that track, and I still welcome opportunities to listen to it.

Kass's Theme has an accordion and a lot of energy, but I don't think it really knows what to do with it. In the end it decides to play this kinda generic melody with the Legend of Zelda theme thrown in.

Speartip of Judgment's opening klaxon of a synth has this feel of an alarm as the rest of the track cresendos (that delay echo pluck synth is great). Exciting! Synths pan back and forth and the bass plays a frenetic pattern. Real shmuppy. Real nice. Not super sure about the trumpet but I like this.

The main piano melody kinda reminds me of random things. Zoo. The piano segment of Thermosphere. That's weird. In the end I can kinda see how this fits into a Falcom vision of Persona. This is 'groovy' in the way the very prominent bass guitar carries it. Good production, typical of Falcom's sound team, but also very 'safe' melodically (which is also somewhat typical of Falcom's sound team).

The opening to Mad Motor is pretty nifty. Another electronic track full of energy-- this feels like the running theme of today's matches. There's less to this than its predecessors, though. I think the little skittering bits in the background are my favourite part of this track. Like, listen to the thing in the background starting at 0:59! That's cool. Really hits that 'mechanical animal sounds' feel.

Caravan Stories - Raging Spirits
Murasaki Tsurugi - Speartip of Judgment
Mekazoo - Mad Motor

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Umineko no Naku Koro ni - dreamenddischarger
Murasaki Tsurugi - Speartip of Judgment
Tokyo Xanadu eX+ - My Blaze, My Truth

MATCH 1

Raging Spirits was a very noteworthy song from VGMC13. I really liked it a lot, and I still do! Very pretty melody with some great harmonizing going on. I said in the previous match Caravan Stories was in that Bunwaii Desert was my favorite song, but I almost forgot Raging Spirits existed lol. Despite that fact, Raging Spirits, I'd say, is actually my favorite song from the game that I've heard.

dreamenddischarger's just too strong of an opponent, unfortunately, as much as I'd like to vote for Raging Spirits. zts' Umineko stuff is just so good. Funny enough, I actually don't care all that much for his non-VGM trance stuff, but I consistently love the music he's put out for Umineko. Probably the closest I've been to voting against the Umineko song and likely will be the closest in this entire contest once it's over, though it's still a pretty easy choice here.

MATCH 2