Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 17! Apex / Children / Unk.Pollution / Phantom / {kranz}; / 08:16 Home

(+) 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
Compatibility sheet (courtesy of Haste!!): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iGYWo_ifr_p2uYpD_I6TwBQS2tm7zJtPCxYZfRJcG8I
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!

.

Match 1

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Apex of the World (Rain)
Composer: Takeru Kanazaki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0KjljX4Lqg
Loop Point: 4:28

Library of Ruina

afex twin

Certainly dramatic

i cant wait until instrumental songs from this game are officially released so i can stop hearing this fucking singer

probably not top 5 raiden v arvin smh

I'm sad that I don't like this nearly as much as I like Discovery. It's got a lot of similar properties that I should still enjoy a lot, and the parts that are different even reminds me of Tong Nou a bit! Alas, this feels like nothing terribly remarkable to me. Still solid, at least

I don't know of any ciel nosurge exclusive hymmnos I really like... and youtube has ein te hyme up next, so i guess i'm just a bit fat liar. Still, ones like this remind me of when i didn't like any

pretty cool mix of danger synthwave with risk of rain-esque funk and mood. even got some neotokyo "ba"s in there! Personality can count for a lot in songs like, and it takes this one pretty far. There are excellent flourishes scattered around too

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Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
08:16 Home

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Children of the City
Phantom
08:16 Home
---

Apex Legends
Unknown Pollution
Excess Crayons

i liked the mili songs that were swingier tbh. Both of the lyrics here are just... kinda monotone to me.
yeah
fuck fuck fuck fuck ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh im not sure

---

Apex of the World (Rain)
Phantom
08:16 Home

Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
08:16 Home

I remember being disappointed to vote against FE3H songs a bunch last year, since they're the sort of songs I don't quite love, but definitely enjoy. Now both of the first two songs fall into that category! I like Apex a little more though. Children not quite a top Mili.

Unknown Pollution is fucking great. Didn't get to nominate it, very glad it got in. Phantom starts out feeling kinda like a bad Metroid Prime song, then improves as it goes along.

Dammit why aren't we using a Kranz video with lyrics? I feel like we did in the past. I like a lot of this song a lot. It's generally great, up until 2:38 or so, where it drops off a lot for me. 8:16 is also quite nice. It sounds like another song I like but I can't remember what. Close match where I'd be happy with either winning.

Unknown Pollution > 08:16 Home >= QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz}; > Apex of the World (Rain) > Children of the City > Phantom
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Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
08:16 Home

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Mac Arrowny posted...

Dammit why aren't we using a Kranz video with lyrics?

dowolf declared war on all of the exa pico translation videos on youtube

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Hbthebattle posted...

dowolf declared war on all of the exa pico translation videos on youtube

dowolf is the loser exa pico translation videos are the winner
---

Children of the City
Unknown Pollution
08:16 Home

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Mac Arrowny posted...

Dammit why aren't we using a Kranz video with lyrics

i had actually forgotten i intended to replace the link with it. i edited the first post with one shortly after making the topic but you clearly voted before you saw that
---

Children of the City
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

Apex of the World doesn't really stand out from all the other contemporary FE symphonic music (something I feel I don't like as much as I should, I dunno, there's just something missing from it that I can usually find in similar stuff), except for the brief vocal sections which are pretty cool.

Children of the City (or really Mili's songs in general) are something I feel that I shouldn't like, but I actually really do! The silly lyrics here actually fit this pretty well and I like the smooth flow this has.

---

Woah, who knew pollution could be so fresh?! Raiden music continues to impress here. That echoey piano 30 seconds in reminds me of one of the Trails in the Sky songs.

Phantom is definitely a Kaze no Notam song, which I gotta give credit, is a soundtrack that doesn't really sound like anything else. It owns its distinct sound. It's unfortunately up against a song that is very me, but respect for Phantom.

---

No One Can Stop Mr. Crayola

Why is this called 08:16 if it's only 05:14? The piano part is okay, the synthwave is a bit overdone at this point.

---

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Apex of the World (Rain)
Kaze no Notam - Phantom
Ciel nosurge - QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};
---

Children of the City
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

Also, no 4'33 for poll option? :D

Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

Apex of the World (Rain) (8.0^ - 25th place) / Children of the City (7.8v - 29th place)
Unknown Pollution (7.6 - 35th place) / Phantom (7.4 - 40th place)
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz}; (9.1v - 12th place) / 08:16 Home (6.3v -57th place)

---

Children of the City
Phantom
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

well, apex of the world is at least a lot better than the apex of the world in sound voltex. some parts i love in this though often, the parts i like are only in the background
i love mili

i really want to like unknown pollution more than i actually do in today's matches. inevitably, some parts make me think i have to put it in the top 20 at least, and then there are others i just don't care for. raiden v is a soundtrack i like for sure, but i guess not that evenly despite its consistency
phantom on the other hand, much like the rest of kaze no notam's soundtrack, is a song i just like a lot no questions asked

kranz. another song i like but also don't entirely, though it's not as critical as it is with pollution. depending on my mood i could've had this in my top 10 so far (i took it over phantom in my favourites) but not really today
8:16 home. only now realised this is one of those songs that's played in countdowns for some presentations, though i forget what ones now. playstation? anyway, it's a great song i like more than i honestly expected to. made this a tighter match than i anticipated. might even flip later and i don't tend to say that

10.Phantom
13.Children of the City (also i moved you were there up to 12th btw)
28.QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};
31.08:16 Home
34.Apex of the World (Rain)
42.Unknown Pollution

all in the top half out of 100 songs now quite a good day

Children of the City
Unknown Pollution
query excess crayons

first match is too hard. french horn vs. mili this is CHEATING.

Raiden V is consistently "13 sentinels but about 3x as good" to me.

god has it really been seven years?
---

Hbthebattle posted...

dowolf declared war on all of the exa pico translation videos on youtube

only the ones made by people who don't speak japanese.
---

Children of the City
Phantom
08:16 Home

Not a fan of Mili but some of the songs they did for Library of Ruina have become very big guilty pleasures for me. Children of the City would probably be my 2nd favorite Mili song from the game next to Gone Angels, just because the singing is more tolerable here than in the other songs. Its a big shame most of the non Mili stuff wasn't eligible for nomination this year, but there's always next year.

Phantom is a very cool vibe and I didn't expect to like it this much

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Apex of the World
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

e

Unknown Pollution on its own is a banger, but it is a huge step down from Apostle's Maraud. The song rocks my socks off, and then just ends abruptly leaving me blue balled after all that intensity. This song isn't pacing itself very well I guess is what I am trying to say?

Apex of the World [8.5]
Unknown Pollution [8.5]
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz}; [8]
08:16 Home [6.5]
Phantom [6]
Children of the City [6]

Apex of the World (Rain)
Phantom
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

Apex of the World is a ***9.1*** (wow!) (that's high) (what could it mean?) and my rank #3 in the contest!!! I realized that my top 3 songs are going to show up in countdown order, so hey why not announce them as they come? Discovering this song in last year's noms took me down the deepest of rabbit holes where I looked up all the motifs it borrows from other Three Houses songs, checked out more of the OST, listened to both versions of Edge of Dawn trying to decide which one was better (it's Japanese), looked up the lyrics to both, found out they don't play in the credits to Crimson Flower because it's a tragic song meant to make you sympathize with Edelgard, read the wiki pages for what happens on each route, read about the main characters and Rhea, listened to A Funeral of Flowers (good song), craved more stories about feuding...feudal houses, and proceeded to binge the first season of Game of Thrones (way late to the party on that one). Thank you Apex of the World, very cool

Ahh too many interesting songs, where were these yesterday?! Other thoughts:
Props to Mili for giving some love to a non-repeating non-terminating decimal other than pi, the 42 of irrational numbers!
I forgot why, but I randomly thought of Deoxyribose while listening to Unknown Pollution before half-remembering that they have the same composer! (I don't typically pay much attention to composers)
Yay Phantom!
Oh no I listened to kranz before the link was changed, no lyrics = Hymmnos experience RUINED

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Apex of the World (Rain)
Phantom
08:16 Home

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Library of Ruina - Children of the City
Kaze no Notam - Phantom
Ciel nosurge - QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

dowolf posted...

god has it really been seven years?

*opens VGMC8 nom/support/consider notepad*

...yep

---

Apex of the World (Rain)
Phantom
08:16 Home

match 1 songs are both :/

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Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Apex of the World (Rain)
Raiden V - Unknown Pollution
Haven - 08:16 Home

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Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
08:16 Home

no
Phantom
08:16 Home

man, I really don't feel like voting for either song in the first match right now. Screw perfect attendance.

---

Children of the City
Phantom
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

Rain
Pollution
Home
---

Children of the City
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

---

Children of the City
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

-(yay modern fire emblem music! "duuhhh duhhh duuhh duuhh" is what the choir sounds like to me at the beginning and it is so funny. i LOVE the voices at :22 I like monotone vocals that sound like someone is reading all of the digits of an irrational number. big string chords~ yay! it's a thing i like about fire emblem music, but this doesn't really have the composition details that entice me and that's basically because it's not morishita (though non-morishita fe composers have certainly done songs i like, they have to feel more like morishita's style than this one does). I do appreciate the subtle electronic elements, the fake piano at 2:00 is nice! i wish those electronic layers were a bit more prominent, not because i don't want to hear the orchestral layers, i love strings and brass!! but the electronic bits are so buried that they may as well not even be there, they have no punch to them. still, it's a bunch of elements combined into one song i look for at once: orchestral stuff, interesting harmonies, electronic elements, etc, but not quite in the right balance for me)-

-[Kind of like apex of the world: this is an example of merging of traits i enjoy combined together: synthwave-y, natural sounding elements, dystopian, cool chords, etc. it's a bunch of stuff i like on paper, in practice i'm still into both tracks in this match, but not as much as other songs that have all these same elements in combination, probably because the balance of focus is not quite right. Still i love it and it stuck out to me in noms. I like monotone vocals that sound like someone is reading all of the digits of an irrational number. not a lot to say here, but i like it, find it memorable, and it's a rare track where i find myself specifically liking it for the /lyrics/ and not just the sound of the vocals or whatever. very cool]-

-{very close. expected to be voting Apex until a couple minutes ago, i could switch back upon relistening for sure.}-

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-(Yoshimi Kudo is one of my favorite composers (as is most of basiscape) for a reason, though i would say my appreciation of his stuff is actually very inconsistent, to polarizing extremes (either love it or hate it) but this track is surprisingly in the middle? Not quite as "literally a dream theater song" as some other tracks in this game i lean toward, but you can still tell it's kudo and i appreciate how distinct his style is when you know what to look for. Unexpected movement between chords is especially what makes his stuff work for me when he does that. This doesn't focus on that trait as much as some other songs in the game, but just enough for me to find it exciting. delay echo piano~! EPIC guitar. thick string/brass chords. jumpy rhythms. lots i love here)-

-[i feel pretty strong emotions from certain bits of phantom and i'm not actually able to point to why the way i usually am. one moment that hits me hard is 1:14, like usually its chord /changes/ that strike a given emotion into me (and usually requiring some other melody/ostinato interaction or something), but in this case it's just ONE chord, when that chord hits i'm like WHOA I'M IN SPACE DUBAI. cyberpunk dystopia (this song is absolutely not "cyberpunk" but i like it for the same reasons i like things like NeoTokyo or "Frogger Beyond OST - Future Lv. 1/3 Extra"). One big plus that's a recent jump in interest for me is how much the bits with guitars feel desert-y to me--that might not be the intended context (honestly think most people would picture more 'beach') but this hits the right mark for me. my favorite environment for a very long time has been deserts and maybe especially western ones. was just talking with kao about how this feeling has been even more amplified since i moved to new mexico a few years ago. so things that feel like "some ghost town in arizona" are very high on my list of places i want a song to take me to. this song takes me there, but in a hot air balloon floating above it. the eerie ghostliness of it makes the idea of "ghost town" turn even more literal, maybe fitting with the name 'phantom', a mirage]-

-{another hard match i could flip around on}-

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-(I like monotone vocals that sound like someone is reading all of the digits of an irrational number...ok i guess "monotone" is a misnomer since it's like, repeated chords every syllable, but i like that even more! i have talked about this song too many times. what new do i have to say that i didn't say back in vgmc8-11? who CARES this song is SO GOOD.
~~~~~
one thing i think maybe i haven't said that's important to my appreciation in more recent times: i am NOT as consistently/automatically a fan of odd time as i was years ago (a lot more picky about it from being exposed to SO much stuff with odd time as the main focal point at this point), but this still hits the mark for one very important reason---the ambiguity. it's harder to sell odd time to me when it's like "This is a specific odd time signature right here right now", but there's sections here where the location of the barline is so impossible to parse that it's 1000% what i am looking for. Like no two people would interpret the timesig changes from :53-1:14 as being in the same place as each other and i fucking love it, the barlines could be interpreted in so many different places there and put into question how much barlines as a concept even need to exist in a medium so fluid. even the really blunt "THIS IS 5/8" parts like 1:33 almost feel like they're going out of their way to make where beat 1 is actually really unclear, every one of those interlocking layers is accenting a different beat, so depending on what instrument i'm paying attention to i hear beat 1 as being in a different place. it's the sorta thing that could be dismissed as arbitrary technical stuff, but i just actively love the way that uncertain "searching for clarity and not being able to find it" FEELS a huge deal
~~~~~
the heavyhanded feeling of artifice at 3:17 despite it being all vocals has always been one of the most striking moments to me in this track, still is. plus i love the bits with guitar because "i like prog metal" and the bits with breakbeats because i like that. and um, conlang ""world music"" and "dramatic vocals" all at once yeah. it hits a bunch of separate areas i look for all mashed into one song and actually this was one of the first songs i can think of where i noticed "wait, the reason i like this song so far beyond normal is because it's mashing together elements i normally can only find one of at a time", and this time the balance IS right. even if my tastes have changed considerably since this was last in the contest, i'd rank it just as high as in the past, but actually for very different reasons!)-

-[i do not really feel anything from 08:16, but it has traits i look for; I can get things i enjoy out of this if i try really hard, but i dislike that i have to 'try', appreciation doesn't come naturally for me here, no matter how many things it touches for me on paper. like i like its 'sound', it has the types of harmonies i like, which feel just as relevant as the timbres (which i like) to an overall texture. my favorite parts here are the constant 8ths in the synth at like :31, gives it a very "song that would be named 08:16" feeling, like a CLOCK or Neon Wireframe Grid, and that's good imagery to my mind]-

-{the}-

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QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz}; (12th/100)
Unknown Pollution (39th/100)
Phantom (41st/100)
Children of the City (53rd/100)
Apex of the World (Rain) (64th/100)
08:16 Home (81st/100)
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Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz}

Apex of the World (Rain)
Phantom
08:16 Home

---

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Apex of the World (Rain)
Raiden V - Unknown Pollution
Ciel nosurge - QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};
---

Children of the City
Phantom
08:16 Home

children of the city is one of my favorite songs this contest

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Apex of the World (Rain) (185th) vs Children of the City (170th)
Unknown Pollution (92nd) vs Phantom (220th)
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz}; (95th) vs 08:16 Home (202nd)

quell e

Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
08:16 Home

Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};
---

Apex of the World (Rain)
Phantom
08:16 Home

---

Children of the City
Unknown Pollution
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

---

Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
08:16 Home

The lyrics in Children of the City were pretty good, but I liked Apex of the World more overall. Both were good though. The Hymnos thing this time wasn't great.

---

Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
08:16 Home

---

Peak AotW

NFTs UnkPol

public static void main(String[] args) kranz

ohhhh match 2 is close. oh its close. why is this an r1 match.
---

Apex
Phantom
Excess Crayons

Apex... I think was one of my noms? If not I know I supported it along with the other FE3H track in the contest. It's fantastic "final confrontation music" even outside of its context(s). Not quite enough of a music buff to go into more detail! Its challenger -- oh no. Oh no. These "vocals." Monotone and breathy? It takes a certain kind of person to pull this off. This singer isn't that kind of person.

Maybe I'm getting Falcom overdose from this contest, but Unknown Pollution feels really Falcom to my unenlightened, plebeian ears. Not a bad thing -- like I said before, Falcom has a consistent level of quality, even if very few of their songs "wow" me. Same boat I'm in here. Phantom is pretty immersive and chill! I'm usually not a huge fan of songs like this, but it continues to do things to avoid monotony while keeping its low-key vibe. I didn't even realize when it began to loop. Man, this one's tough. I'm going to tip it to Phantom if only in the name of VGMC diversity.

Excess Crayons! Could've sworn this one retired a few years back. The intro is gorgeous and, and then it hits like truck-kun onto an isekai protagonist. It does get weaker throughout, especially in the couple spots where all the focus is on the super distorted background singers, but I adore lyrical singers, even if she could use a bit more vibrato and a bit less breathiness. 08:16 definitely hits some kind of strange Risk of Rain vibe for me, which I'm usually a big fan of. Unfortunately, its competition is stiff today.

Only one bad song today. Good day!

---

Apex of the World (Rain)
Phantom
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

Apex of the World (Rain)
Unknown Pollution
08:16 Home

---

Children of the City
Phantom
QuelI->EX[cez]->{kranz};

---