Board 8 > [VGMC] d3: Scourge of the Universe vs Waterworks, Tonitrus vs SEISMIQ

(+) Yeah! (+)

Remember: nobody cares about the letter L.

Links:
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=473292
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VNrPnFRI7nJ4PqFiURBW0NWqxvXiuasoq8Sn_O169ss/edit#gid=320804650
Discussion and results thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78524521
Bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1REnVI_W6yELaDP6Zac8b0Wq
ToC playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RE-TQMj19D0k5nm-0zeH12J
.

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

Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Dead Neon Hell City
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Also, apparently I can't count. This is day 4.

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what if i wanted to vote for the apostrophe

Waterworks Area
SEISMIQ
Dead Neon Hell City

Gosh first match today is Brutal. I'd take either of these songs over the other four and spoil alert for my write ups but I like all 4 of the other songs (I'm deciding this one last). Both make use of a digital atmosphere that I enjoy, Scourge is more of a "grand battle" with a more full experience, but Waterworks is more of an active, "mysterious environment" which I kind of prefer to "grand." Bits cancel out and balance my feelings on both making this a tricky decision! Ultimately I think I kinda prefer the Waterworks, the slower parts of Scourge before the loop aren't as appealing to me, but really I'm most likely gonna be voting for whichever loses here in the wildcard thingy, and I think it'll have a decent shot at getting it.

2nd match, Tron i trust is a pretty nice song, for a song with vocals. Do prefer Seismiq though. And I'm not giving up on my ranking topic sorry it's taking a while don't worry I've just had stuff to deal with !!

toc is a good match today, good stuff, maybe my favorite 2 songs to have shown up in toc so far (but there's only been 8 also it might actually be 1 & 3)
and actually yeah all around a decent song day keep up the good work

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Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

Easy day, Tonitrus probably the best here but nothing too amazing in the four pack. Love Flying Clouds Drifting Haze.

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Scourge of the Universe
SEISMIQ
Dead Neon Hell City

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Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Dead Neon Hell City

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Terraria Calamity - Scourge of the Universe
Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning - Tonitrus
Atelier Shallie - Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze
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Terraria Calamity - Scourge of the Universe
Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning - Tonitrus
Atelier Shallie - Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

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3rd day, huh? You tried to fool me, but you failed.

Eh, may as well do ratings.

Scourge of the Universe (9) / Waterworks Area (8)
Tonitrus (8) / SEISMIQ (7.5)
*Ranking topic spoilers*
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze....................................

Yet another good day of music!


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Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Dead Neon Hell City

Aw yeah more Terraria Calamity! I loved just about everything this game was putting up last contest, and looking at the video, was this in last contest? No, it wasn't. I guess they just use that purple worm graphic a few times. Still, another nearly 8 minute song! I don't like that at all. Alas, I have to put up with it, because early impressions don't hold up. Just yesterday I was well over two minutes into the first song in a match when I stopped with the assumption that there was no way I'd vote for it, except its opponent sucked, and it turned out if I'd waited five seconds longer I'd have been good!

There are times when I love B8's taste in music, and then there are times when I have no clue what they're thinking. Kirby's Return to Dreamland certainly does have some good songs--I think I actually tried to get Desert Area into VGMC13, to no avail. This? Not so good. And I was able to get that much written, pull up my list from 2014 to determine which song it was I'd tried to nominate, and get back and was like "wait, I thought this song was shorter than that?" and then it turns out I'd only been listening for two minutes. Felt like so much longer.

I have no words. And that was even before I found out it was a lyrical song! This is proof that I shouldn't fill out brackets without listening to everything, even though I don't actually do pure favorites brackets anyway. Kind of like a wishful thinking/cynic/goddamnit B8 bracket. I went to check to make sure I had no problem with this song retiring, and as far as I know, I don't, but my bracket has it losing this match!

Not that SEISMIQ is bad either. It isn't bad at all. In fact, it's going to be a damn fine sight when I put in the buttload of greater-than signs and it's my number 2!

Oh, no, wait, it's just Ayesha's soundtrack that I hate. I always had it in my mind that this was one of the Ayesha songs that I hated, and every time I see that it's actually from Shallie, I figure it must've been both Ayesha and Shallie that I hated. But I like this song! I don't know why I have it in my mind that I didn't. I think for some reason I see the title and always think about YOATI. I tend to remember things incorrectly though. Another reason I tend to have an aversion to the Ayesha soundtrack is because of Slag Dance, which I think I hated on its own merits but also the title reminds me of Meridian Dance, which I distinctly remembered being tortured with for multiple rounds but the record of past contests says it's never made it out of Round 1. Though it did have 3 appearances so there's that! Except one of them was in VGMC2 which was before I joined Board 8, so I'd have only heard it in a VGMC twice.

There is something about "Demon Truck - Dead Neon Hell City" that instinctively makes me want to put the words in an order other than they belong in. Maybe it's the fact that the game's name is Demon Truck, but there's also the fact that for some reason I want to switch Neon to after Hell. Still, this turned into my least favorite kind of day: a 1/3/5 day. You know...

Tonitrus >>>>>>>>>>> SEISMIQ > Dead Neon Hell City > Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze > Scourge of the Universe >>> Waterworks Area

...Yeah, that kind of day. When I have to not vote for my second-favorite of the six, but do have to vote for my second-least-favorite. Though there was only one I outright disliked so at least I'm not voting for something I dislike, just that I liked all four of the songs in the other two matches more.

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Scourge of the Universe (TCal)
Tonitrus (Gahkthun)
Atelier Shallie - Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

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Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

The riff that plays for the first time at 20 seconds, coming back later a few times (best rendition being the ~55 one), is 10/10. But the bits in between that melody are very hit and miss, and there's more misses than hits.

Waterworks area fails to turn on the waterworks in my soul.

hi rita your voice is wonderful. I don't think I'd put this as one of my top 3 Rita tracks (off the top of my head: Dorchadas, half-dozen things from Little Busters, Underground Wanderer), but it's so much fun. Like listen to that fiddle! It knows where the party's at. Same with the accordion. And the electric guitar in the instrumental break. Actually that instrumental break could sell the song by itself, but it doesn't have to! I also love the three chord progression where all the percussion falls away for a bit it's so cool. also hopefully i am using those words right and people know what i mean otherwise oops.

seismiq's so seismik it thinks c-ing ain't believing.

hi asano your music is wonderful. I love everything else falling away for the violin and then we start taking turns with the melody and then the french horn says Hi i'mma countermelody this beauty and I'm in love. Then you put electric guitars in what was 10 seconds ago world music and it makes no sense and it works and I love it. It really makes me feel like I'm riding a boat in a sea of sand to fight a giant dragon, which is appropriate.

i literally don't know why people put mega loud bass drums in things it's physically painful. like there's some interesting things in the background that I kinda like here but the bass drum just screams "LISTEN TO ME I'M COOL" and I'm just like "you can have my lunch money just leave me alone with my cool world music plz kthanks"

Today was okay. I give it a Lightning/StormCloud.
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fuck
Tonitrus
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

And now I come to my worst match in round 1, come on P0 you can do it just one painful vote and you're good for the rest of the round.........I'll come back to this later
You guys love tempting me with these world instruments and Japanese vocals huh
Flying City Dead Hell vs. Drifting Neon Haze Clouds

This was better than the previous day AGAIN I can't handle this how can Seismiq be the worst song today IT'S SO COOL

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Waterworks Area
Tonitrus
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze
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Waterworks
SEISMIQ
Dead Neon Hell City

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Terraria Calamity - Scourge of the Universe
Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning - Tonitrus
Atelier Shallie - Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

Think I prefer Servant of the Scourge but Universe is good too. Tonitrus was very cool. ya go my gust.

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Waterworks Area
SEISMIQ
Dead Neon Hell City

Scourge of the Universe vs Waterworks Area: On one hand, Scourge of the Universe sounds cool, but drags so much I got sick of it. And on the other, we got Waterworks Area which is pretty inoffensive, but still pretty fun to listen to. I like the chiming that starts at 0:23.

Tonitrus vs SEISMIQ: Tonitrus felt like your typical anime game theme, which wasnt very interesting to me. I'm struggling to find anything positive or memorable about this track. SEISMIQ reminds me of bomberman 64, which i thought was very cool.

Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze vs Dead Neon Hell City: Flying Clouds is well, the usual Atelier stuff. It's not bad, but its not great either. Dead Neon Hell City is something that took me by surprise when I first heard it. A lot of funky stuff going on here, and i don't think I'll be able to get it out of my head for the rest of the night.

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Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

Match 1:
While Waterworks Area is a nice little futuristic remix that fits really well Halcandra and the second half of Return to Dreamland in general, problem is the main synth sounds bland, generic even. The parts with the higher pitched high synth do give a bit more seasoning but it doesn't compete with Scourge of the Universe.
Scourge of the Universe is one hell of a track, I can tell ya. The song is long, but it doesn't feel long. You get a cool chiptune-y feeling layered with more "real" sounding instrumentation which adds some flavour, and with that you also get some nifty breakbeats around the beginning and 3:10 (and lord knows I'm a sucker for breakbeats lol). This track hits a lot of good points for me. Great all around.

Match 2:
Hardest match yet lol.
I went into this thinking I would go with SEISMIQ but when that accordion in Tonitrus came in I wasn't so sure anymore.
SEISMIQ goes hard as hell with that fire breakbeat and BANGING synth but Tonitrus won me over with that crazy accordion, catchy chorus and that goddamn guitar solo that goes into a violin solo that goes into an accordion solo (I almost died irl). I'm a bit sad I have to pick one lol, they're both so good!

Tournament of Champions Bonus Match:
Why are all songs so good today?
Well at least, this wasn't as hard as the last one. Dead Neon Hell City rocks but Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze sounds so rich. The instruments work so well with each other, also that guitar is on fire (and at 1:21, that sounds like Spring Wind Skylark, is this perhaps a leitmotif? Love Spring Wind Skylark btw).
Both songs are good, but that Atelier track is really good.

Oh and here, have my ordering of today's songs.
Tonitrus > Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze > SEISMIQ >>> Scourge of the Universe >>> Waterworks Area >>> Dead Neon Hell City

Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Dead Neon Hell City

Writeups maybe later

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Scourge of the Universe
SEISMIQ
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

Scourge of the Universe is my 89th favorite in the contest! I wish I was more consistently fond of this one, it's the "type" of Terraria Calamity song I like, dramatic and full of the kinds of chord changes that make me EXPLODe that DM Dorurkororko likes to use so much. I feel like I'm taken a bit out of the soundscape this ost typically presents by the choice of square lead that dominates 1:23 - 2:03, like it doesn't really fit with the rest of the song to me and not in an endearing way either. and I LIKE "cheesy msgs midi sounds" but in this case it's breaking the immersion of an atmosphere i otherwise want to experience so it's mildly frustrating. I LIKE FRETLESS BASS, the 2:24 - 3:12 has a good bit of that and the particular flourish at 2:40 is WOW. I feel like I can't think of much more to say here but basically this song is EPIC and I like that : ) big full chords that make me feel good and. Chime

Waterworks Area is my 94th favorite in the contest! Love the chill chord pads that come in at like :22. Every sound in this track is extremely cool to me, most kirby games from this game on do a crazy amount to my liking in terms of the soundscape they go for...kirby games in general do but especially starting with this one. Ando and Ishikawa both seem like they have an obsession with "not being empty" in their own ways, and that's something I find interesting in terms of how it affects the music. Kirby music's always ultra busy and dense, even the sparsest modern kirby tracks have big massive full complex chords somehow. And even when it's like "happy simple normal song" there's usually some subtle interesting background thing to pay attention to in addition, or even just some snuck in unconventional chord progression even if it doesn't sound like it. This one isn't subtle though, it's overt, it's in your face, "this is the FAST WEIRD KIRBY MUSIC genre" and I can respect that. I feel bad but the frantic intro doesn't really interest me tonally even if I like the style of it instrumentally & rhythmically. It's actually very similar feelings to my reaction to fax factory, except maybe even more extreme in terms of how I feel like...I like weird music, and THIS is one of the types of weird songs I like the MOST...!...but...I just have a hard time conceptualizing the track as "not boring" because the note choices in the first 22 seconds are too 'neutral' (blues scale type stuff) or something. There's no emotion evoked for me it just makes me go "wat ever" votes calamity. The thing is like, this is a remix of another kirby song that I DO NOT feel this way about, a song I actually like, and I like this instrumentation more!!! but i think it's just because this arrangement focuses attention most on the elements i don't like, and doesn't really have the parts that interest me most about the original. In every other way I love this i just want the notes at the start to be ones I like more. ALSO this reminds me a lot of some of the more frantic junichi masuda pokemon battle themes! there's lots overlap between that style and kirby music but kirby music's usually far more tonally adventurous.

Insanely close match. i think disinterest in the tonality of the start is the key thing bringing waterworks down for me but I wish i could vote for it in honesty, because it's clearly going to get destroyed and this is a very, very close match for me. Maybe the closest one in round 1

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Tonitrus is my 154th favorite in the contest! This is pretty stereotypically board 8 music and i always at least like that "sound" but composition-wise this isn't really my cup of tea at all. I could trash it a bunch but it'd just be complaining about the same things I always do, just don't like how much attention it calls to it's predictable Anime resolutions, form of dramaticness i perceive as patronizing rather than 'epi'c...and stuff and there's just not enough going on to engage me. I'm happy that there are accordions and violins in the song though. and the anime voices make me feel like i'm watching anime and sometimes that's fun to do maybe. some of the light synth elements at like 1:35 are pretty neat. 3:30 haas some echoy synth sounds i like too. The violin and accordion solos right around that time are neat too and the abrupt in your face chord change out of nowhere at 3:46 really gets me in a good way too, favorite part of the track BY FAR and it only lasts like a split second lol

SEISMIQ is my 43rd favorite in the contest! on the exact opposite end of tonality style, sometimes all it takes to please me is jungle/dnb/breakbeat stuff with randomly transposing chord stabs lol. Unpredictable where it will land, though not completely random sounding either, just a really longwinded complex pattern and I love how "verbose" it feels so much. The antithesis of my issue with fax factory, this doesn't feel like it's evenly mechanically resetting itself every bar too fast for my interest to be retained. I'm realizing it doesn't do much exploring how different each chord makes the playing field of the music world feel from itself, the stuff behind those stabs is actually pretty conventionally tonal compared to the chords in isolation...not something I ever noticed. I still like the track just as much as I always have but now i feel like there was a missed opportunity for totally modal transpose-core fusion stuff that could've gone on under here or SOMETHING. Sound design's cool. I LOVE this soundtrack. Funnily I'm playing along to this on my synth right now and happen to have it on a vibraphone patch, and given the transposechordstab jungle style, playing along to it makes it sound like BOMBERMAN HERO, like Mimesis or something. Funnily I'm not the only one to make the bomberman comparison so far in the topic, though I wouldn't have made it if my keyboard wasn't literally on a vibraphone patch that makes it sound just like bomberman hero songs with vibraphone chord transposition stabbing stuff when playing along

not close

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Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze (8/10) yeah i've talked about this song 3000 times because it's a retiree ok yeah it's aa song with the violin and the some parts Hayato Asano's rhythms are always really fun and his chords are always such fun voicings too i wish the guitar didn't sound liek dururrrnrngnungofnh though because then you can't hear the cool parts. favorite thing is all the 6-phrased stuff instead of 4, cool. yeaht i like the numbers. I wish there was a more 'polished' version of this or something, exactly the same composition but just different instruments because it has potential to be one of my favorite atelier tracks but instead it's just "one i like a lot" man i keep being negative about all these so

Scourge of the Universe (76th) vs Waterworks Area (59th)
Tonitrus (84th) vs SEISMIQ (107th)
Soaring Clouds, Drifting Haze [8th] vs Dead Neon Hell City [9th]

Hi DM DOKURO i love your music!!! and i love this songs too i LOVEEE that gong bell DONGDONGDONG and then it becomes a higher pitched actual instrument wtf!!! This song is very EPIC and cool but I just wish it were a little bit cooler and a little more epic (oh oops that's servants of the scourge which wouldve been 15th in this field but it is RETIRED) Waterworks Area is bouncing off the walls blub blub blub wub and then suddenly its actually Iceberg?????? I think the first time I realized this was actually Iceberg I actually just fell on the floor like holy fucking moley but yeah the Random Bounce Blub of this song wins out over Mini-Scourge in the end. Both great though!!

I LOOOVE Rita's voice so much and I've kinda known of Tonitrus before but never really listened to it and WOW what a mistake that was. It's not dorchadas levels of just absolute crazy but it's definitely a bop in its own right. The line at 1:09 "kimi wo yobou" where her yobou just RESONANTES is one very distinctive quality of Rita's voice where her vowels tend to do that when she's like REALLY putting energy into her singing is just AAAAUGH and she does it SOOOO MUCH in this song god I fucking love it. I can already tell once this contest is over that I'll have wished I put it around the 50s or something but like yeah great song lol. Speaking of great songs though, SEISMIQ!! I haven't got around to listening to the CROSSNIQ/+ ost in full yet and only have heard what I have while playing and this song isn't quite my favorite from it (that'd be SUPERSONIQ) but i love the sound design and love what it does for what it is but it's not Tooooootally my thing but yeah cross nicks

toc match is a thing yep i hate it. last time i voted for atelier over demon truck i pushed sky of twilight from winning to a tie where it would then lost in a tie break!! oops. feeling DNHC a little bit more today but like these are literally RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER in my "all vgm" ranking and theyre in the top 100 sooooooo yeah fuck this match fuck it being in round 1 what the fuck both just simply amazing, amazing songs.

Soaring Clouds, Drifting Haze =??= Dead Neon Hell City > Waterworks Area > Scourge of the Universe >?> Tonitrus >?> SEISMIQ

Waterworks Area
SEISMIQ
Dead Neon Hell City

ok so i was doing writeups beforehand but i was on my phone and i lost them so now you can have a pale imitation of them now cool? cool. yes

i think the main reason scourge of the universe ultimately works for me is just because elements of it have specific nostalgic appeal to me like its chimes making me think of pmd and pokemon things in general among other things but mainly rthat and the electronic d&b stuff like half way through not being stuff i listen to that often now but reminding me of when i did with like pokeremixstudio a decade ago (funny that those things are very linked to each other i didn't really have much variety in what i watched or listened to in 2008 lol) and i wouldn't really be all that on board with it if it wasn't a fulfilling ride throughout, which i mean it is, but what i'm really getting at is that i'd say there'd be a lot of room for improvement if i wasn't giving the elements like those a free pass. really what i might as well be saying is that scourge of the universe is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2 Remix: Temporal Tower by PokeRemixStudio of calamity mod to me
i like how waterworks starts off feeling like a song that came from a pacman ce game and then it incorporates unexpected kirby stuff in a good way it is a good track yes obligatory words to signify that i like it more and that is why i vote for it i am glad my favourite kirby game gets acknowledgement in some way these days even though i never really felt that strongly about the soundtrack it is good

this writeup is more of a lie now than it was before because of reasons i will delve on but i don't know how to feel about tonitrus. i really don't. like, i'm not saying that in a good or bad sense (lie). it feels like a number of things are kind of a miss on me, like the way the accordion is incorporated at basically all times. i dunno. but i actually don't know if i consider it bad anyway. i guess tentatively you can say i am neutral
unfortunately, the bad thing about about feeling neutral on something here is that generally, i actually come off feeling positive about most things here. even something like seismiq here that i'm not really that big on i only really have generally positive thoughts on so actually neutral is bad oh no

fcdh. it left a pretty good impression on me the first time it was in vgmc and having subsequently strengthened my grasp on ps3 and later gust along with the rest of the community probably lol that impression has kind of weakened but still i like it quite a bit. good shallie song
now the question is, is it out of demon truck's league? ... today, i'm actually going to say no

Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Dead Neon Hell City

I don't really care for most of the Kirby songs in the contest this year, alas, and this one's no exception. It's not bad or anything, but it isn't anything special. Scourge of the Universe is maybe my top Calamity song. Love the epic <3

Tonitrus is nice. I enjoy listening to it. SEISMIQ doesn't have much going on. I enjoy it more at lower volumes.

I like Yesterday's Opponents a lot more than FCDH. Dead Neon is good times.
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Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Dead Neon Hell City

Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

Scourge of the Universe
SEISMIQ
Dead Neon Hell City

The main reason why I like Waterworks is because it's a remix of a KDL3 song. But the fact is that I've never really enjoyed RTDL and I always felt that it had one of the weakest soundtracks of all Kirby games. If you take the KDL3 out of Waterworks, then you just have... another disappointingly bland RTDL song. And that's enough to drag it below another song that's long but listenable.

SEISMIQ kind of sounds like what Waterworks would be if it didn't have Iceberg in it, but contrary to what I just said that's not a bad thing here. Borrowing a previous comment, Tonitrus sounds like "stereotypical B8 music", and I'm not into it.

My match 2 comment also applies to the champions match, except I actually like this song better.

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Scourge of the Universe
SEISMIQ
Dead Neon Hell City

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Area
Seismic
Haze

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Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

Waterworks Area
SEISMIQ
Dead Neon Hell City

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Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Dead Neon Hell City

Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze
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Scourge Of The Universe
SEISMIQ
Dead Neon Hell City

Scourge Of The Universe

Going to start this off by saying that by no means is Scourge of the Universe my favorite song in the Calamity soundtrack. Both Servants of The Scourge and UNIVERSAL COLLAPSE are better variations of the general 'Scourge' theme than it - outside of those types of tracks, my favorite tracks in the soundtrack are Left Alone, Pest of the Cosmos, and Murderswarm. I agree with Tox - the lead instruments are... the best way I can describe them is 'GAMER' music music that sounds like it would be an crunchy retro themed song in a rhythm game EXCEPT IT'S FAKE GAMER MUSIC FOR PEOPLE WHO AREN'T ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN VIDEO GAMES AND STARE AT THEIR PHONES ALL DAY. It contrasts heavily against the kind of prog-medieval instrumental backing and the song feels a lot better to me when the lead is removed and it relies solely on the bells.

Waterworks Area

I suspect this would've won this match but I can't get over... the gelatinousness of the weird bass synths. THE PADS IN THE BACK ARE AMAZING and i love the drums but the arps ruin it for me it's a real hot and cold situation. it feels like you're stuck in a disgusting bog that you can't get out of even though you really want to and it's clogging up all your clothes and getting all over your body and it's really terrible to be in but you're scrambling to get out because it's not nice to be in. this does not feel like water it feels like condensed sewage that's the mental image i get

=+

Tonitrus

oh anime. this reminds me of melty blood - wonderful boy because it has COOL GUITAR STRUMMING CHORDS AND VIOLIN AND ACCORDION and i love the melty blood ost except melty blood wonderful boy sounds like a fighting game and this sounds like an anime opening mixed with umineko which is significantly less enjoyable on the cathode scale of musical magnitude. also gahkthun of the golden lightning is HARD TO TYPE OUT dude and it's a large reason i'm not doing game names for the italics titles here unless it's absolutely necessary lol [see: loz title].

SEISMIQ

i'm a small dude on a globe but there's a large hand constantly spinning the globe and i'm trying my best to keep up but the globe keeps on spinning really fast in varied directions SHIFTING SEISMIQ PLATES and also remember how i said back in fax factory that i had a vivid mental image of cameras constantly shifting around an object? same thing is happening here except the cameras have a lot more of a drift to them as they shift around the objects. my mental image for this feels like some kind of weird art installation lol. this reminds me of super monkey ball 2 but that makes sense it literally states on the bandcamp page 'inspired by super monkey ball 2'

=+

Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

this does not sound like what i imagine SAND DRAGONS TO SOUND LIKE my mental image of sand dragons is LOW SAMPLE RATE SITAR, BREAKBEATS, AND RAPID STRUMMING AND PICKING OF MULTIPLE GUITARS. ALSO VOCALS. this sounds like gust generic anime battle jrpg music i would have picked it if it was facing something i actively didn't like but it isn't... this feels like a battle against a swordswoman who may be themed after [multiple???] birds. big drama storyline leading up to where this battle takes place PROBABLYYYY

Dead Neon Hell City

THE TRUCK ON THE BANDCAMP COVER HAS TEETH WHY DOES IT HAVE TEETH. . . . . this reminds me of super house of dead ninjas i don't think i said that last vgmc. like a mix of super house of dead ninjas and dannyb theoretically i should love this but i just like it and I KNOW EXACTLY WHY. the drums and the guitar overwhelm everything else and it makes it hard to pick out the rest of the song. this is our only fm retiree!!! whoa isn't that cool? maybe we'll get another this year. . .any thing is possible . . . . . .

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Scourge of the Universe
SEISMIQ
Dead Neon Hell City

easy

Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Dead Neon Hell City

Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

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Scourge of the Universe
SEISMIQ
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

Return to Dream Land is one of my favorite soundtracks ever but Waterworks Area is a pretty odd pick for the contest IMO
(I should also mention that Scourge is a literal 10)

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Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Dead Neon Hell City

my account finally got activated pog, i'll introduce myself for the people that don't know me yet

i'm a moderator on the silvagunner fan server and i've been participating in the video game music guessing games there from the start and have met a ton of
b8 people in the process, i've known about this for a while now but you guys got me to participate this time through just the overall quality of all of the songs that got nominated!

i looked through the playlist and was blown away at how many songs are in this that i genuinely love
so yeah im gonna participate in this too, didn't end up nominating anything but hey you guys somehow nominated like a big chunk of songs that i would have nommed anyways so yeah good job, banger time

Terraria Calamity - Scourge of the Universe
Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning - Tonitrus

Demon Truck - Dead Neon Hell City
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Today is an interesting day in that 4/6 of today's songs were nominated for either one of my ranking topics! Three were in my first topic, and the other one has already showed up, so I don't need to worry about ranking spoilers.

Match 1: Scourge of the Universe I feel has been the big Terraria Calamity Track being pushed through these contests, and is one of the better ones at that. Very solid indie soundtrack all around, and this one has a really cool instrument soundset used here. Waterworks Area has a strong focus on the drums and its EDM energy, but sadly this isn't what I'm looking for in Kirby music. It needs to be short cheesy jingles that sound like ice cream truck music!

Match 2: Tonitrus has grown on me heavily, and while I don't remember exactly where I placed it, I can tell you it was way too low. Every Blueberry&Yogurt VGMC entrant has been great, and these guys don't get enough love. SEISMIQ has some cool proggy chords, but otherwise doesn't do enough to really garner my attention.

ToC: This one was actually pretty tough. FCDH has some neat guitarwork in it, but DNHC is more consistently good throughout, and the overall dark sound it has is enough to edge this over.

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Scourge of the Universe
Tonitrus
Dead Neon Hell City

Waterworks Area [8.7] > Scourge of the Universe [6.5]
SEISMIQ [9.2] > Tonitrus [6.6]
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze > Dead Neon Hell City

there's something really offensive abt scourge i get really into it for the first 30 seconds and then at 0:32 it stops being super cool and is just like ok..why did you do this
the first eight bars of the melody that starts there is my LEAST favorite part of the song but after that part it gets back to good dokuro IDK WHAT IT is about it but it makes me angry like the quality drops so much for me at that specific point melodic phrase whenever it comes up but everything else is like good just i hate that a lot

waterworks is this really cool future shuffle that pulls in this airy melody that is really nice just love it a lot

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wy does tonitrus the chorus lead in sound like every song like skclad observer and INITIAL its because it has a wholestep halfstep walkup to minor third yes lots of songs like that but now i dont like it a lot because its always there

OW i broke my beats

- (close match!)

this song is cool because its got a cool melody and it bounces and dances because it is in 6 sometimes but also in 4 which is more like headbanging and rocking out to the CHORDds..midi violin but i can overlook it because everything sounds so big again really cool direct modulations song that has em

me when the song goes DUN DUN DUN DUN and does a little sidechaining maybe as a treat but notreally i love how low music this sounds (crypt of the narcodancer)
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Scourge of the Universe
SEISMIQ
DEMON TRUCK

Terraria Calamity - Scourge of the Universe at 9.4 is my second favorite Terraria Calamity song in the contest! Big bell boy go "dong"

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - Waterworks Area at 8.4 is my ???th favorite Korb in the contest! I'll admit, you're cooler than I expected. The really odd percussion line contrasts well with the reverby melody to give a good atmosphere. Kind of reminds me of a couple of Top Ride songs. Too bad you were pit against wormy

Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning - Tonitrus at 8.0 is my ???th favorite generic weebshit in the contest! Generic weebshit. Not much to say other than that. If you like generic weebshit you'll like this, and if you don't you won't.

CROSSNIQ+ - SEISMIQ at 8.7 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! Cool song that does cool things. I like the BOO-BOO DODODODOOs

Atelier Shallie - Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze at 9.4 is my ???th favorite Gust retiree in the contest! The prototypical Atelier battle theme, as least as far as anybody I know is concerned. I remember seeing this in my first contest and secretly hoped it beat its opponent, my nomination (Another Medium). It's warm and fuzzy from the nostalgia... and also just being a really good song. Excluding Ayesha, I'd say that this is probably the "best" Atelier song. It does everything you'd want from one extremely well.

Demon Truck - Dead Neon Hell City at 8.8 is my favorite DEMON TRUCK in the contest!

DEMON TRUCK
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Waterworks Area
SEISMIQ

jun ishikawa wins again

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Scourge of the Universe

It feels messy and I wish it was Universal Collapse instead but it just barely convinces me to vote against my own nom. Cruel, cruel matchup (the newest super mario 64 course)

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Waterworks Area
SEISMIQ
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

Scourge of the Universe
SEISMIQ
Flying Clouds, Drifting Haze

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