Board 8 > [VGMC] d18: Confronting Myself vs Thermal Base 1, To the Distant Sky vs Zadok

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to today's topic for Video Game Music Contest 14, a tournament of the best tracks from games, as decided upon by you, the voters.

Links:
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VNrPnFRI7nJ4PqFiURBW0NWqxvXiuasoq8Sn_O169ss/edit#gid=320804650
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=473292
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://w

Confronting Myself
Zadok
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested
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[abstaining from match 1 because i have not yet beat celeste]
Zadok
[abstaining from toc match because i was working on music before this and i'm too impatient to listen to 8 minutes worth of music oops]

gonna have to check out drift stage after this round lol

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Celeste - Confronting Myself
Skygunner - To the Distant Sky
Tales of Zestiria - Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

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Thermal Base 1
To the Distant Sky
Douwa Kairou

Celeste - Confronting Myself at 9.2 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! HEYYYYYYY YA!!!! let me hear you say HEYYYYYYY YA!!!! HEYYYYYYY YA!!!!!! HEYYYYYYYYYYY YA!!!!!!!!!

Freedom Planet - Thermal Base 1 at 9.3 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! Thank you Shiny[?] for using this in SiIva 100 you are good and i liked you. standout from that list. Also I have no recollection of you getting in wtj. Was thinking about nominating you and also last year. Guess you didn't need it lmao.
scary match

Skygunner - To the Distant Sky at RANKING SPOILERS is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! weeb shit

Drift Stage - Zadok at 9.3 is my ???th favorite song in the contest. Short name. I like how the trumpets go ... (pretend gfaqs has entered the 2010's and can do small text) and then they go !!! big honks. Super cheesy trumpets that will make @advokaiser completely die. honk. HONK

uh oh

Tales of Zestiria - Flaming Bonds are Being Tested at 8.6 is my ???th favorite retiree in the contest! "lmao why is the toc match so much worse than the main matches" - me before listening to the toc match. oh no this tales song isnt bad what the heck! pretty standard "epic jrpg" stuff at first but then beeps ans SPANISH GUITAR and clappies and weird electronic breakdown and trumpets and weirder electronic stuff?? what is this song doing? unlike FOR EXAMPLE sky of twilight or even heading back to town this has a very consistent feel to it while it adds this extra shenanigans on top of the rest so it's very coherent. probably too much so. Ironically, the "superficial" movement makes it seem more static. kaonashi won't like this. still leagues better than other Tales stuff. It's nice to listen to and i dont usually feel like analyzing songs too deeply if it'd lower my appreciation of them.

GITADORA OverDrive - Douwa Kairou at 8.8 is my ???th favorite retiree in the contest! . "lmao why is the toc match so much worse than the main matches" - me before realizing this was DJ TOTTO. *mycro hat on* this mixing is MUDDY and NOT THAT GOOD. otherwise uhhh. not worldly like CHLOE which i was hoping for but the guitar is still doing cool things and going to cool places. I can see why it retired. I can also see why I completely forgot it existed despite recognizing the name.

WHAT IS THIS DAY
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Confronting Myself
To the Distant Sky
Douwa Kairou

changed my mind yay
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Confronting Myself
Zadok
Douwa Kairou

Celeste - Confronting Myself
Skygunner - To the Distant Sky
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Thermal Base 1
Zadok
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

I have Context for Confronting Myself this time as I have played through most of Celeste between now & last contest. Does this change things ?? I don't know it probably does on some psychological sub-level! in this song I Like the digital electric guitar bass thing and how it works with the fast beepy beeps. Those make a decent pairing a nice duo but still needs some thing. And I would argue that normal Celesteish Night Sky Sounding instrument is not what I am looking for nor certainly would it be chanting be quiet you people. They are quiet for the most part to be fair. And the part where they start glitching up at 2:10 is pretty neat but in effect that just makes me hunger for more glitch. Don't just glitch the worst part of the song glitch up the Whole Thing please and thank you. Other song here is Thermal Base 1 and I enjoy the beginning part that sounds like the metallic madness thing from a sonic CD I think that is what I am thinking of here. While this song is pretty solid through and through, it also feels very... passive. It's quite enjoyable, but I think I also have a hard time really pointing out much notable about it (Even though I supported it?). Like don't get me wrong it's nice stuff, I guess it's just , "not catchy" ? I hardly have any idea how catchiness works so maybe that shouldn't matter. I'm overthinking this.

To the distant sky has a pretty cool bass I Mean Oh No Another Cool Song vs. Less Appealing Song With Vocals Match. Zadok is a weird name this song is likely my favorite still in this division.

Tocmatch, I don't really care for the realistic instruments that Flaming Bonds uses, though the little digital spirit flying by at like 1:37ish is quite nice. Doesn't last too long though. This song does go places and while I don't really care much for them, I don't despise them either, so this worldly variety is nice. Also y'know I don't really care much about the instrumentation in Dowa Kairo either. It's got a nice strong beat but I don't like the moodysad piano loop it does even if the rest of the song is not moody or sad. Hmm... When I first heard FBaBT I thought I was going to be voting for DK here especially with how much I've been leaning into the VGMC13 songs in this toc but I guess FBaBT is growing on me more with it's variety, it's quite nice, and also I had forgotten exactly what DK is and it is okay but okay is okay.

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Thermal Base 1
Zadok
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

very high quality day, thermal base surprisingly great

hi zadok i hope you do well even if i am still spiteful about not getting in any drift stage songs in myself after all this time damn u people. see you again next bost, hopefully guaranteed(also sorry good skygunner song for being given my spite underseeded pet song)

speaking of spite hi flaming bonds i know it's not your fault that you had to murder the shit out of fighter's honor forever ago i still love you also hi douwa kairou you are better than i probably gave you credit for at the time i am sorry

UF8 posted...

very high quality day

Confronting Myself (8th) vs Thermal Base 1 (91st)
To the Distant Sky (25th) vs Zadok (106th)
Blazing Bonds in Trial [43rd] vs Douwa Kairou [21st]

EYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YAH i swear as time goes on i come to love confronting myself more and more. it got absolutely ROBBED going up against crab in the retirement round last contest but considering that it only lost to crab by one point.... yeah, this song is ready to go on a fuckan rampage. Thermal Base 1 is actually really cool as well though, it reminds me a LOT of the JP Sonic CD soundtrack, which people may remember I spent a good amount of time rather recently listening to intently and I love the JP Sonic CD soundtrack so this is a very good thing!! I wish I could vote for it... but Confronting Myself is way too strong an opponent to me. Thank you vocalisa slavic women's choir.......

haruka na sora ni chikae owaranai kibou to yuuki woooooo~~ there's just something so, SO good about the distant sky that I can't exactly pinpoint. It should be just another kinda generic-ish anime OP to me but there's something special about it. its soooo goooood aaaaaa. Zadok is also so good too but not in a way that's immediately super appealing to me so this match is WEIRD because I feel the same about the quality of the songs, but my preference greatly decides the match unfortunately. great match tho!!

Blazing Flaming Bonds Are Being Tested In Trial is a pretty cool song!! go shiina is BACK BACK AGAIN but i think this miiiiight be my least favorite of the trial songs??? water is def 1 and wind is def 2 so it's kinda a toss up between this and land. But it's still really cool sounding, shame it's in a Battle Against a TOTTO opponent. Douwa Kairou is TOTTO being injected with prog and REAL INSTRUMENT GUITARS and happy!!! gitadora i love you song even if you are like mid-tier totto.

Confronting Myself > To the Distant Sky > Douwa Kairou > Thermal Base 1 > Zadok > Blazing Bonds in Trial

Confronting Myself
To the Distant Sky
Douwa Kairou
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Confronting Myself
To the Distant Sky
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

mysteriously, i don't see anything in the sky

https://youtu.be/9bdc4kS2Wxs

Freedom Planet - Thermal Base 1
Skygunner - To the Distant Sky
Tales of Zestiria - Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

Two songs I supported versus two songs that are okay to me so that was easy. ToC I thought would be easy but was actually closer than anticipated.

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Confronting Myself
Zadok
Douwa Kairou

CM is pretty cool song in context. Don't like it that much on its own though. TB1 is just some boring song. Don't really get what makes it special compared to any other random 16-bit song.

To the Distant Sky does nothing for me either. Zadok is fun at least!

Flaming Bonds is great. So is Douwa Kairou. Hell yeah good retirees.

Douwa Kairou > Flaming Bonds are Being Tested > Zadok = Confronting Myself > Thermal Base 1 > To the Distant Sky
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Celeste - Confronting Myself
Drift Stage - Zadok
Tales of Zestiria - Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

Match 1: Confronting Myself is still easily the best song on the Celeste soundtrack, although I'm not super-duper crazy about it like I was last year. Thermal Base 1 is pretty good, would probably take it over the rest of the Celeste soundtrack. Pretty good match.

Match 2: Oh hi, yet another somber anime vocal song (I like that genre, not a complaint). Zadok is an absolute banger, one of the surprise great finds of this year's contest! I like both of these, but this isn't close.

ToC: Easy ToC match, FBaBT is great.

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Confronting Myself
To the Distant Sky
*ranking topic spoilers*
Douwa Kairou..............................................

Confronting Myself (8.5) / Thermal Base 1 (6.0)
To the Distant Sky (8.0) / Zadok (6.5)

Yeah, normally I do comments for the highest scored track, but I'll do To the Distant Sky this time. Ahhh... more "feel good" music. Starts with a nice melody that's just a touch ambiguous in terms of tonality. I guess the main key is F# minor but it seems to like to hang around its relative A major, which is really nice. Nice smooth jazz feel. Synth pad clusters! \I like the Violins/percussion combination w/ shamisen(?) flourish is cool in the middle...nice upbeat/rhythmic contrast! Funny that I can't identify much that's truly great about it, but it managing to get an 8 anyway is a big accomplishment by my book!

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Freedom Planet - Thermal Base 1
Drift Stage - Zadok
GITADORA OverDrive - Douwa Kairou

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Confronting Myself
To the Distant Sky
Douwa Kairou

Confronting Myself is my 30th favorite in the contest! remember when this was my 8th favorite?! (16th in vgmc13). I still like it the exact same amount but that's how much I'm fond of this field compared to vgmc12 i guess! I literally have a youtube account called "Polymetric Manectric" so it is not surprising i like the fact that this has many parts that are Polymetric (starting right off that way from the beginning!), and 9/16 over 4/4 is a pretty cool polymeter type. I think it's cool how the 9/16 bounciness is enhanced by the way the drums work, it doesn't feel like it's the 4/4 that it actually is underneath until the section following. I like Big Chanting People in my songs, fav bit of the chanting is the starting section and the 9/16 layer being at the same time as it makes the first 30 seconds by far my favorite bit of the song and all the other parts similar to it. I also like cool warpy synth sounds and constant 16th bing bing bing bing computer sounds in my songs, the parts that continue with that even outside of the polymeter parts like the beginning are really cool and connect sections that'd otherwise feel unrelated very well. The glitchy section is COOL and I'm glad it's deconstructing my favorite part of the song rhythmically even more than it started as. This is a lot of things I love at once! I've talked about this a lot before so i'm just repeating myself. I like this song. The END

Thermal Base 1 is my 81st favorite in the contest! This is honestly a pretty similar pick to Confronting Myself in 305 ways...sorta dramatic synthy music with cool weird sounds and constant 16ths and from indie 2d platformer. (I didn't want to have to make this matchup partially for this reason, but all the alternatives I had left made matchups that had even worse issues!) I prefer this instrumentation SIGNIFICANTLY to Confronting Myself's actually, some of the coolest SOUNDS of any song in the contest imo!!!! Some of these synth patches have an interesting metallic timbre that makes them in themselves a chord or at least interpreted by my ear as 2+ notes always moving parallel to one another as far as i can tell. Lots of this weird parallel harmony/transposy stuff that reminds me of like all the pso songs I've gushed about for that reason. I know exactly what a lot of these synth patches are, presets from 90s synths i have familiarity with, but others i have no clue and they're probably "just presets" too but that's not something I look down upon, this selection of sounds is VERY COOL to me basically. Composition-wise i'm more neutral light-positive about it aside from the parallel harmony stuff so it's nowhere near as high as Confronting Myself in my ranking, but I am fond of it and wish I could vote for it. This soundtrack as a whole is consistently pretty cool to me though i'm not sure there's any track from it i'd take over Confronting Myself, but i'd definitely consider supporting other picks from it in the future. This reminds me of MEGAMAN ZX/ZXA TUNES (official arrange album(s)) and that is a soundtrack(s) I have fondness for! It's both the instrumentation and composition reminding me of some tracks from it. also this sounds like metallic madness past HA HA it's so funny i wonder if that is intentional reference because of being fake sonic game

sonic

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To the Distant Sky is my 120th favorite in the contest! siivagunner to the distant sky is a very pretty song. Oooooh glassy synth bells that sound "90s" !!! Pretty !!! Honestly the appeal of this to me is pretty shallow, just like the sound of it and nothing more haha. Still things i regularly talk about appreciating, thick full chords filling the landscape colorfully and softly. It's pretty ! makes me nostalgaic for some thing that doesn't exist, some anime i never watched or whatever

Zadok is my 181st favorite in the contest! This is one of only TWO 4.x rated tracks in my ranking. THat means that I dislike it enough to always want to turn it off when i am listening to it, but that I actively appreciate specific elements of it A LOT, usually that's what 4.x means anyways. "Mixed extreme positive&negative but still dislike enough to not want to have to hear it". I LOVE 80s, this isn't as authentic 80s as i'd like, or at least not the aspects i look for when it comes to 80s synth stuff but it's alright at being it. There's lots of REALLY COOL interesting fusion chords and movements between those chords at some moments, production is nice and full and AAAAAH. Parts like 2:20 are SEX musically and timbrally both. Ooh prominent high bass part at like 2:31 time for lasa to point out how often i like that type of flourish or solo. So many things to love here, but I can't stand the ROCKIN boring megaman x song with driving gungugnugnugnhgugh boring drums boring song and STUPID synth melody it starts with that sounds so dumb i hatae that starting synth melody. ok sorry i don't like being mean to songs Other Drift Stage tracks are more my thing. Sorry song : ( Maybe i'd like this if the drums had gated reverb snare oh wait actually it almost does does and i like the parts that have that. Constant 16th note synth bass is a cool 80s song i like. I am so inconsistent with which type of simple things make me want to punch the screen and which things i love lol. Lots of cool synth stabs, synbrass/saw/bell chord stabs that are aaah! ok honestly the drums are cool at the parts that aren't really straightforward but fuck this song at the straightforward parts

19807. Want to like Zadok but it's too anti-me at too many parts. it'd easily get my vote if it were only certain portions/layers/etc of it. Sorry Drift STage i do like your music but not this time...

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Flaming Bonds are Being Tested is my 32nd favorite ToC entrant! Another Go Shiina song! Not quite as "creative" as the one yesterday, and not quite as "Only Go Shiina He Is Unique" as the one yesterday, but still has the same "enthusiasm" i look for in his stuff. I think I appreciate how this one is less forcefully melodic and more just bombastic fun without trying to enforce any specific focal point on any one layer. Cool synth solos, the detuning at 5:13 is insanely fun. spanish guitar reminds me of ace combat zero ZERO which i dunno if i've ever thought of before haha

Douwa Kairou is my 4th favorite ToC entrant! Yeah I like odd time signatures and this has that for a lot of it. only really 5/8 and the parts that aren't odd time are bouncy 6/8 but that's still pretty fun! The 5/8 is very blunt and choppy sounding and sometimes i don't like that but I like that here, I like when stuff in 5 isn't clear about its underlying grouping. So much 5 stuff is like "THIS IS 3+3+2+2 or 3+2 take 5 part 9003

Confronting Myself
To the Distant Sky
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

Confronting Myself
Zadok
Douwa Kairou

Confronting Myself
Zadok
Douwa Kairou

hey ya by outkast
in a very "to the distant sky" mood which actually just means this match is close
totto

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Celeste - Confronting Myself
Skygunner - To the Distant Sky
Tales of Zestiria - Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

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Thermal Base 1
To the Distant Sky
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

Not a big fan of anything here except Flaming Bonds.

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Thermal Base 1
To the Distant Sky
Douwa Kairou
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Confronting Myself
Zadok
Douwa Kairou

Thermal Base 1
To the Distant Sky
Douwa Kairou

Confronting Myself
Zadok
Douwa Kairou

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Confronting Myself
Zadok
Douwa Kairou

Confronting
Zadok
Bonds
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Thermal Base 1
To the Distant Sky
Flaming Bonds Are Being Tested

Flaming Bonds Are Being Tested > Thermal Base 1 > Douwa Kairou > Confronting Myself > To The Distant Sky > Zadok

Don't be fooled by the fact that they're the only pair of songs facing each other that are adjacent in my ranking; the second match was the only one that WASN'T close. The four songs in matches 1 and 3 are all close to one another.

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Thermal Base 1
Zadok
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

Confronting Myself
-
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

Confronting a middle of the pack Celeste song for me, pretty close match
wow wtf I really appreciate both songs here
this isn't a wild arms song??? douwa pretty forgettable vgmc13 retiree sad to say

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Celeste - Confronting Myself
Skygunner - To the Distant Sky

GITADORA OverDrive - Douwa Kairou
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Thermal Base 1
Zadok
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

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Zadok

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Confronting Myself
To the Distant Sky
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

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Thermal Base 1
To the Distant Sky
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

Thermal Base 1 surprisingly great.
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Confronting Myself
To the Distant Sky
Douwa Kairou

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Confronting Myself
Zadok

Confronting
Zadok
Bonds

(What KCF said)

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Thermal Base 1
Zadok
Douwa Kairou

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Thermal Base 1
Zadok
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

Confronting Myself vs Thermal Base 1: Confronting Myself has those lame chants and that boring melody that just annoys the hell out of me. Not gonna be spending too much time on the write up for that track just because I really have nothing positive to say about it at all. Thermal Base 1 is ok as well but not by much. It reminds me of some other soundtrack but I can't place it. This track doesn't stand out in anyway but it isn't Confronting Myself so I guess it gets my vote.

To The Distant Sky vs Zadok: To The Distant Sky doesn't really have any good moments. For the entire duration of the song I felt like I was listening to nothing. I don't have anything else to say about this track other than that. Zadok has its moments. It has a pretty solid start and then 1:00 happens and I'm like YOOOOOOOOOOO and thats the song basically. The same thing happens towards the end and its still pretty good but it just doesn't hit the same way as the first time 1:00 happens. Not a bad song.

Flaming Bonds are Being Tested vs Douwa Kairou: Flaming Bonds is pretty spicy. The guitar on this track is really good but it can't carry this track Its a bit too long but I gotta say that the part at 4:10 and 5:00 and beyond are pretty good. Douwa Kairou is also ok. A bit underwhelming and I can't pick out any parts in it that I really liked but I think still alright.

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Confronting Myself
To the Distant Sky
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

Thermal Base 1
Zadok
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

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Love how VGMC XIII is dominating the top of your ToC list, Mycro. The retirees for that contest are awesome.

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Confronting Myself
To the Distant Sky
Douwa Kairou

Confronting Myself
Zadok
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested

HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YA

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Thermal Base 1
To the Distant Sky
Flaming Bonds are Being Tested