Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 9! Glessing v Animorphs, InevitableSAV v Baluchons, Butterfly v Prom

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to Video Game Music Contest 15, an annual celebration of the best of the best video game music according to the voters!

Important Links:
Bracket: https://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=474630
Contest info sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16XAaBMDuUnQ4c5AxQNL9ZhvD7VG5kQyrXWWZxnkrn-o
Contest discussion thread: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79443554
Main bracket playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT3m7iohpL0xt7lOF1eB-H4NpAaF1yAnU
Last years spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VNrPnFRI7nJ4PqFiURBW0NWqxvXiuasoq8Sn_O169ss
VGMC total stats sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1XdLWiUKB2kX99qYBgnRbLU_sCz4dvZSByKKJHCT6o
Discord: https://discord.gg/WDvMS4a

Rules:
- Listen to both songs in a given match, at least through the loop time provided (to make sure you don't skip before you've heard the whole thing!)
- Please consider the loop point listed when judging the song; if a video loops one minute 5 times, don't treat it as if it's a repetitive 5 minute song
- If it's a match between your favorite song ever and a song you despise, still LISTEN TO BOTH! Votes can and will be disqualified if there is suspicion songs are not being listened to, and you may be discounted for the rest of the contest for repeat offenses.
- No alt accounts, no rallying or begging, etc., etc.... You only get one vote! Swapping votes is alright, just make clear that you've already made a vote and are swapping.
- Make clear what your voting options are! Please keep votes separate from any comments, and use the titles given in the topic post.
- Voting in all matches is not mandatory, feel free to skip matches you do not wish to vote in.
- Vote based on the links provided, and not other sources of audio. Links are specifically chosen for best quality and the like.
- Don't discuss vote tallies in this thread, or in other threads, as they may influence votes. Likewise, please refrain from looking at the running tally before voting.

Voting Period:
- Today's matches will last 24 hours from the time of posting, or 24 hours from 10pm Eastern, whichever is the later time.
- Please note this may mean that two topics will be active at the same time!
- If you anticipate being unable to vote in a given day, please send an absentee vote to @banshiryuu or @Toxtricity, or post your absentee vote in the discussion thread!

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Match 1

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Glessing Way!
Composer: Yukihiro Jindo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dD0uOmcJmQ
Loop Point: 3:48

Animorphs - Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)

Glessing Today
Inevitably Struggling
Underwoter Pram Quens

the Ys begin. uh, this one lacks a bit of kick. It should be slapping me in the fact a little more. Melody isn't too interesting. Song really gets me pumping

Honestly this doesn't bother me at all. I actually love the start, how the song proper seems to show up way too soon when I'm never expecting it. Got a lot of personality. This is in the weird zone where I don't know if I can actually say I *enjoy* it, but I certainly appreciate it.

I discovered a fun glitch in my car today. When you connect your phone with bluetooth and queue up a playlist (like any music player implicitly does), the car gets the metadata so it can list the songs for you. It also can't tell songs with the same track name apart, so I was very confused when this came on and it said Osaki was the composer and the album was the original soundtrack for Zero. I thought I was getting some kind of Mandela Effect and completely misremembered which version was which. Nope, the car is just dumb

pretty calm violin song with a cool space thumbnail which is apparently sadly a platformer :( I really like the vibe of most of it, though it gets too "folksy" at times that holds back my enjoyment. I think it should've gone a bit harder for a calm mood. Close day

no. you can stop showing up i think thank you.

My least favorite of the OMORI trio. The intro doesn't interest me, and the song proper kind of has the issue a lot of Osamu Sato or "mycro music" has, in that there's a lot going on, a lot of which is cool and interesting, but nothing I can actually grab hold of to appreciate. It's like being presented with a huge feast at dinner, with unique and immaculate meals on platters, and everything is made out of plastic. I can't do much more than stare at it and offer up a placid "neat"


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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

falcombo
falcombo
go shiina is now falcom

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Glessing Way!
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

Master Ys pressed Q - Oh God it's Ys. Uh. Uhhh. Okay, so, I think the same disagreeableness I had with Fogbeasts strikes here but I pick up MMX5 vibes, or something, even though they're not intentional, and then the violin swells? Better than Fogbeasts for me, at least.
Keizaron's Pokemon elongated GDQ shitpost - Oof, ouch, ow, that opening. I've heard better off of Megaman 2 GB, and then it turns into something that early indie games tried to imitate. The track goes all over the place, but one part that sticks with me is the slower section a short ways in, mostly because it reminds me of the Wizards and Warriors series for some reason? Anyways, this is a lot of words for "not as bad as I thought, and I appreciate it's here, but augh, that opener."

Nil on the kisses, icky - All right, so if I'm getting my Falcom right, it's some Guilty Gear guitar and percussion, slowed down a bit, with some strings going on in the back? Or maybe Persona Arena? I've somehow not been exposed to much Falcom at all (and no, this is not an invitation.) Instead of aggressively okay, this track is passively good. I dunno.
Saira (dumb forced name not found) - I'm glad this one is here. It's got all the instruments I wish I could've played when I was a kid that my brothers ruined for me, and then it's got some maracas, and some very chill synths after 2:00. I dunno what this game is about, but this song has me interested. However, since I am contractually obligated to post a negative, it ends very abruptly. Boo. :(

Deus Vore - Robo-vocals off the bat are cool. Much of the song is too but, if I haven't made it clear, I absolutely despise the drop/prolonged wub that is the signature of dubstep, and that puts a negative on the song. I rather enjoyed every other part of it, so that's pretty good.
Depression-Undertale - I get the underwater part, but the only promgoers I'm getting from this song is Carrie playing early-'00s DDR with a mod to make the percussion more prominent. A tortured metaphor, I know, but no prom queens here.

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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
Underwater Prom Queens

Glessing Way!
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation
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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

I have forsaken the bottom option. Top option 4 lyfe!

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Glessing Way!
Baluchons
Underwater Prom Queens

Mission 5 - Spaceship
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange-
Butterfly's Temptation.

What a banger six pack of songs. Best day to date.

Spaceship [9.5]
Inevitable Struggle [9]
Butterfly's Temptation [9]
Glessing Way [8]
Underwater Prom Queens [8]
Baluchons [7]

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Glessing Way!
The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki - Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
God Eater 2 - The Butterfly's Temptation
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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

Glessing Way!
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

underwater prom queens sounds amazing at 1:23 but sadly the rest of the song isn't able to come close to that peak for me

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Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

Glessing Way!
Baluchons
Underwater Prom Queens

Glessing Way! / Mission 5 (3.5^ - 63rd place) - Spaceship (BGM #16) (4.0 - 62nd place)
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.- (5.4 - 57th place) / Baluchons (5.8 - 54th place)
The Butterfly's Temptation (5.5 - 56th place) / Underwater Prom Queens (7.2^ - 42nd place)

Glessing Way is super energized! Today is one of those days where it sounds kind of fun rather than annoying! Meh, Spaceship should theoretically be interesting with the echoes and it has a surprise change of tonal center, but they do nothing for me, and gameboy sound fonts annoy me easily. Super Arrange Ver., more like Generic Arrange Ver. Baluchons - it's relaxing at least, and the clarinet is nice (delay echoes), and I especially like the fake piano around 2:30. Butterfly's Temptation - 2:50 is kind of novel with that voice/guitar mixture, but mostly everything else boring to me. Actually, the acoustic guitar adds some nice flavor, too. The conglomeration of sounds of Underwater that you wouldn't think should go together actually appeals to me! Lots of odd harmonies and odd dissonances between different lines. Bowser orchestral hits even! (I underrated it)

The best day of music so far this contest, maybe the best ever since when I started participating in VGMC 13!


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Glessing Way
Inevitable Struggle
Butterfly's Temptation

im sorry baluchons.

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Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Baluchons
Underwater Prom Queens

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Spaceship
Struggle
Underwater
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Glessing Way!
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

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Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
Underwater Prom Queens

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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

Glessing Way isn't as good as I want it to be. I enjoy it, and I like when it plays in the game, but it doesn't stand out as much as I feel like it should? Spaceship sucks though, so this is an easy match.

Inevitable Struggle's pretty solid. Feels like a fun RPG battle theme. Still not something I'd go out of my way to listen to, but it's good. Baluchons pretty mediocre stuff.

Butterfly as fun as ever. I don't think I like UPQ as much as the other Omori songs in the contest, but I do like it. Fit the battle quite well too.

Wow a day with four good songs how nice.

Glessing Way! > The Butterfly's Temptation > Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.- > Underwater Prom Queens > Baluchons > Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
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BALUCHONS MEANS SWAG

Glessing Way!
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

Wow I hit 1500 karma!!! For my next trick I will pretend I have 1500 points to distribute among the six songs as I please! (the average would be 250 if I divided it evenly)

Glessing Way! -> 400
Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16) -> 50
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.- -> 250
Baluchons -> 300
The Butterfly's Temptation -> 400
Underwater Prom Queens -> 100

Cool!!!

Oh and Butterfly can be song of the day I guess, this song is absolute madness why is it EDM with Beyond the Bounds chanting and acoustic guitar why is there violin WHY ARE THERE WUB WUB WUBS why is there a synth voice/vocoder going YEAHHHH OOOH YEA OO YEAAAAAH NOW THERE'S AN ELECTRIC GUITAR SOLO NOW THE VIOLIN IS SOLOING OVER THE WUBS NOW THE ELECTRIC GUITAR IS FADING IN AND OUT OVER THE ACOUSTIC STRUMS okay they decided to end the song there I guess

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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
Underwater Prom Queens

Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

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Glessing Way!
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

Glessing Way is that classic style of Yukihiro Jindo hard rock that I love so much. This has much of that same Ys 7 feel (whereas I kind of feel Ys 8 was a small step down as far as the music went). Love the energy here. Animorphs Mission 5 was one of the more interesting songs I've found in the nominations phase (even making its way onto my "maybe support" list) but it is simply being fed to the wolves in this matchup.

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More Jindo rock in the second match! Inevitable Struggle definitely feels more "Ys" than "Trails". For what it's worth, I actually prefer Glessing Way over this (though this would not be the case if you asked me several years back). Baluchons has a very smooth "caf jazz" sound to it. Like its opponent it prominently features a "screechy" violin as a lead instrument here, but obviously used to a very different effect. This might actually be the closest match of the contest yet. I feel really bad that one of these has to be eliminated right here.

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And even with two rocking Jindo tracks today, Go Shiina takes it with Butterfly's Temptation as my favorite song today! This is in a style that I already love, but Go Shiina always manages to find a way to spice it up with the craziest sounds and instruments and adds a flair that is distinctly his. Underwater Prom Queens does a few specific things I really love (cool intro chord progression, "glitchy" sounds but in the way I like them almost sounding like shmup music EDM, dynamic melodies), but again it's a song that got a bad draw.

All six songs today are excellent.

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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

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Mission 5
Baluchons
Butterfly's Temptation
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Mission 5 - Spaceship
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

-(I like this type of music significantly more than i used to because of hanging out around the singa rpg people; still far form my favorite type of music these composers put out, but i'm not going like "i am mad that i was mislead to think falcom music was only fast guitar melody songs i dont like and not all the other songs i like more" because now i like stuff like this at least slightly. just even hearing people passionate about these songs and them talking about why they love them in detail, it's gotten me to try to find things to look for that i wouldn't have noticed before. I think i also got into learning a lot about the styles of each composer because of the composer breakdown speculation project, and that's the sort of attention to detail that i can get invested in. Jindo is the one who makes things sound like a stadium that is made entirely out of transparent glass that is tinted primary colours
~~~~~
i always think this song sounds like BLOODY TEARS because of the part that sounds like bloody tears. honestly this song is very castlevania hahaha, the harpsichord at the start makes it reminiscent too, but cv would be like a more funky version of this vibe. the reverb-y production makes it feel like you are in a symphony of the night castle in the 90s even though this is from "ys 9" and i appreciate that. i assume it is because of the big influences on this stuff is metal in the period where it'd be produced that way.)-

-[although this is far from my favorite song from this soundtrack, I'm very glad it was nominated (thank you rwlh). It was at least interesting /enough/ that it got me to check out the full Animorphs gbc ost finally; after place and pacific had been nagging me for 50 years to check out this soundtrack and composer in general. and now...Animorphs is one of my favorite soundtracks! Possibly my favorite GB ost, Metroid II being the only other contender (which, interesting to note, rwlh also loves!)
~~~~~
One of my favorite things about this track is the very bluntly loud delay echoes, them being nearly the same volume as the initial hit of a given sound creates some neat ambiguity on which layer of the the music to focus on, the melody at times can work equally as if it's in either of these two rhythmic positions it's simultaneously playing it ACCIDENTAL STEVE REICH MOMENT. the thing is though, these sorts of things are absolutely deliberate. it's not like randy wilson doesn't know what he's doing, there's bizarre choices all around but you can tell they're deliberate, there's clear technical competency in the sound of it all in so many ways. So he WANTED to make strange musical choices, strange sound design choices, and it's amazing. My other big favorite part musically is unsurprisingly the odd chord changes and uneven phrasing. Unpredictable without ever being jarring, which is fascinatingly well-executed, and just simply...cool sounding! it's easy for people to be dismissive and say "people only like this because it's 'interesting' and not because it's '''''good'''''" but music like this, it's viscerally engaging to me! It just sounds fucking cool, the strange melodies, i don't like them "because they're strange", i like them because they hit me hard; they hit in ways i can't get anywhere outside this ost, but that almost feels just like a technicality. my thoughts when hearing this are why /aren't/ these traits more common? this is on the border between pop and prog at a border that i think is the most desirable position in my mind, not even an uncanny valley.
~~~~~
i think this soundtrack as a whole is one of the only things i've ever found to capture the same level of "alien"-ness as zzzv's stuff. it plays by entirely different musical rules, while still having vestiges of familiarity. I know place compared the randy wilson song in the contest last year to like one of those AI generated images sourced from photographs, that's like a bunch of semi-familiar objects all morphing into each other but nothing you can parse as truly recognizable as something real. That's what the ruleset of this ost feels like as well, just in chiptune form. it feels like a style of music that can exist in whatever context it wants and still be recognized as music, but like nothing you'd ever hear anywhere else, and not in a way that's overt quirks, but all in a way that's subtle, and simply, another option that has not been often enough considered. those are the types of composers i get most excited about, the ones that seem to have their own rules that aren't attainable by anyone but them, yet can apply those idiosyncratic traits to a variety of contexts. randy wilson clearly has something like this going, zan of course, norio hanzawa, CHAMY? I guess though, what should i expect from a composer somehow associated with Boredoms of all bands haha
~~~~~
can't wait to check out other randy wilson stuff. especially since i'm typically actually more into gba than gb. place/pacific/rwlh please let me know if there's any particular by this guy that you want me to hear first, knowing that i've fallen in love with this game's music]-

-{i love falcom music}-

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-(melodically memorable, the types of rich keyboard layers i like hearing jindo slide into the background of things. the breaks here where it's calmer and less energetic showcase the beauty underlying the arrangement, so that once everything kicks in again, you can appreciate the way the quieter layers enhance the full sound. again, while not what i look for when it comes to music from this series or by these composers, i'm definitely able to find more things to appreciate than years ago. but yeah i'd rather be listening to, many other songs from these games that aren't these ones, even other similarly styled battle themes over these)-

-[baluchons is so pretty ! hahah both songs in this match have a vIOLIN and GUITAR!!! that means they are similar!!! i can never think of much to say about this one. i just think it's pretty and has nice instruments in it! i like the DELAY ECHO and the motorcycle outside of my house being very loud layered on top of this song. but oh god 2:08, that is a good moment. suddenly nice rich dense epiano harmonies, that sells this song to me as much more suddenly. It's initially almost jarring, despite how pretty it is, such a contrast, but when the familiar melody comes back in on the violin, that's when there are so many wheat thins karma WHY ISNT THIS SONG IN BRAID ]-

-{i love falcom music!}-

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-(i have talked about this song too many times. i like go shiina, but this definitely isn't what i think of when i think of what i like about him, still pretty cool though. i like the gust-adjacency in style, i can always get behind this kind of chanting, and shiina's distinct crazy sound design with absurd morphing filters on violin or whatever is typically cool to me~! his production style is always so DENSE and overstimulating and i really appreciate that.)-

-[imagine people expect me to enjoy this more than i do. reminiscent of frantic kirby boss themes, i can like that. tonally pretty creative, does things i like on paper, could use the same words to describe this song i use to describe other songs i like "parallel harmony" "thick chords" etc, but my feelings here are why i get irritated by people who think that those who talk about theory/etc arent reacting with their gut, arent experiencing music how you're "supposed to". my detail/theory jargon brain is telling me "these are the chords you like!" but my gut is telling me "this is not an emotion or atmosphere you care about", and that's all it takes for my vote to go the other way]-

-{go}-
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Glessing Way!
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

...
Weight of the World / English Version
---16. Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)---
Out of Tartarus
Impossible Worlds
Dear Dragon (Theme of Sweet Breaker)
Labyrinth VI - The Vengeful God in the Dark Ocean Abyss
Discovery
---22. Baluchons---
Steam Gardens
...
...
National Park
---34. The Butterfly's Temptation---
---35. Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.----
Love Psalm
---37. Glessing Way!---
The Rain Formerly Known As Purple
---39. Underwater Prom Queens---
Professional Problem
...

out of 52 songs now. a bunch grouped around the same part of the list today. lots of songs from soundtracks where i know i like other songs from them way more (including the highest ranked, animorphs) but still, nothing i disliked today. a fairly neutral day i guess for me, which is welcome, to follow the intensity i felt all of yesterday for so many reasons.
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Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Baluchons
Underwater Prom Queens

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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
Underwater Prom Queens

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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
Underwater Prom Queens

Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Baluchons
Underwater Prom Queens

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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

Ys mania, here we go. I enjoy the Animorphs song a lot, and it's one of those tracks that would definitely win if pit against some generic contest filler. Unfortunately, it had the misfortune of going up against Glessing Way. What I appreciate the most about Glessing Way is probably how immaculate everything feels, from the way the track is paced to all the small details in the arrangement. None of it is overblown, but it hits a sweet spot. Bonus points for some badass synth playing.

The second round is pretty much the same. I'm not as attached to Inevitable Struggle as I used to be, but it's definitely great. The super arrange fixes the production issues that marred the original, and you love to see it.Baluchons, on the other hand, was definitely a track I can listen to and say "nice". But not much more than that. It didn't do too much for me.

I'm pretty sure my opinion has been perfectly aligned with NFUN up to this point (or at least, almost) but this is where our paths split. I'm a big fan of Go Shiina and how he manages to blend so many different elements from different genres into one semi-cohesive... thing. This track does just that, not just in a way I consider to be "peak Go Shiina" (read: Mr. Driller). Though I'm actually a pretty big fan of wubwubs (chalk it up to dubstep exposure at a young age) I didn't think they made sense in this particular track. The drop especially seemed to disregard rhythm which is like, the single thing that makes a good drop good. Other than that though, the song does a lot of cool stuff. The Omori track was really neat too, and vibes with me for different reasons. I definitely wouldn't be upset if it won the round.

Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Baluchons
Underwater Prom Queens

i love upq so much

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Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Baluchons
Underwater Prom Queens

faluchoms

Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
Underwater Prom Queens
---

Glessing Way!
Baluchons
Underwater Prom Queens

awesome

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Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Glessing Way!
The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki - Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
God Eater 2 - The Butterfly's Temptation

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Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.
Underwater Prom Queens

---

Animorphs - Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16) [8.0]
Saira - Baluchons [8.5]
God Eater 2 - The Butterfly's Temptation [7.5]

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - Glessing Way! [4.5]
The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki - Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.- [4.0]
OMORI - Underwater Prom Queens [6.5]

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Animorphs - Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Saira - Baluchons
OMORI - Underwater Prom Queens

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Glessing Way!
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

I kind of wanted to antivote Glessing Way because it's one of the more mediocre Falcom noms to make it in I can think of, but I still don't want to vote for chiptune. The second match is a big contrast, with a high tier Falcom song, but I also really enjoyed its opponent and would be happy if it won too. Painful match there. I like Butterfly's Temptation alright but I do get tired of some of these contest hanger-ons occasionally. Still better than its opponent this time.

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Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
The Butterfly's Temptation

Chiptune 4 life. Other two songs have banger melodies so I voted them.

Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

Mission 5 - Spaceship (BGM #16)
Inevitable Struggle -Super Arrange Ver.-
Underwater Prom Queens

Glessing Way!
Baluchons
The Butterfly's Temptation

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