Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 24! KillCommand / Painted / Tidal / Pioneer's / Valestein / Normal

(+) Yeah! (+)

Kill Command
Pioneer's Horizon
Valestein Castle

Painted Foothills

that'll be all

savageshark21 is voting for:

Kill Command
Pioneer's Horizon
Normal Battle

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward - Painted Foothills
Sonic CD (JP/EU) - Tidal Tempest
Pokmon Trading Card Game - Normal Battle

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Kill Command
Tidal Tempest
Valestein Castle

Kill Command
Tidal Tempest
Ok, before I even finish my ratings for this round, I wanted to mention how much this song means to me. I tend to keep one vgm in my mind as some of my favourite pieces of music ever, and this is one of those. This is my favourite video game song of all time.
I think it's just simply about the atmosphere for me. The development, and the envelopment, and the energy it irradiates. It makes me feel like I'm being involved by the waves and the seeping atmosphere of a chorus of voices echoing through the long since desolate and empty corners of the temple. I close my eyes and I'm there, between the tidal bliss of a pyramid that hasn't seeked the human light in years.Tidal Tempest is right before my very eyes, so vivid, so real, and I don't think i've ever felt that to such a strenght in a song in my entire life. Every time I listen to this song I feel something new, something wondrous, and it just leaves my mind at ease every single time. Beyond Sonic cd, beyond funny video games, it leaves me at such wonder and peace to the point where my mind kinda just... doesn't even associate it to music anymore, but rather to a place I've indexed and associated it to so in my mind. I could talk about it for hours, and I'm sure I'll have the chance to do so more some other time rather than in a vgmc thread I'm sure no one's going to care to go through much, so I suppose I'll kinda just end my thoughts here for now. God I fucking love music

Valestein Castle


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Painted Foothills
Pioneer's Horizon
Valestein Castle

Painted Foothills
Tidal Tempest
Valestein Castle

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Kill Command
Pioneer's Horizon
Valestein Castle

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Painted Foothills
Pioneer's Horizon
Valestein Castle

Painted Foothills
Pioneer's Horizon
Valestein Castle

After its big intro moment, Ekoroshia spends a lot of time playing guitar over its main riff. Sticking with a repeating riff makes sense-- it's apparently an investigation theme-- but it's very prominent, and so is the guitar! The track draws a lot of attention and so I notice the repetition, enough to wear on me. When it strays a bit I find it engages me more, like at 1:09, so when it returns to the initial riff it feels more powerful.

Painted Foothills opens like a dirge; wandering this zone must be an altogether mournful affair. I like its slow growth and energy buildup until the BIG ACTION MOMENT at 3:57-- it's willing to play the long game, and the way the main melody shifts between the flutes and strings and brass while the other parts accompany seamlessly is very nice. I especially like the arrangement of the brass; after the timpani roll moves in like a wave, it's the brass followup that really pushes the energy of the track. It knows when to step back and when to step forward.

Tidal Tempest is a pretty chill groove. I like how echo-y the opening feels-- it starts the track on a strangely otherworldly note, and stays present throughout. It establishes a cool area theme feel that doesn't wear out its welcome, even if it's not making dramatic movements.

Pioneer's Horizon just seems so well-crafted-- right from the jump, the feel of the flute lead and accompanying instruments just feel note-perfect, the melody is immediately catchy, the arrangement is tasteful and full of little flourishes and elegant touches; nothing here is taken for granted. There are predictable progressions but also many unpredictable ones! And they all feel great. It just seems to move along effortlessly-- it feels so dextrous. It has little emotional peaks and sections where the track is allowed to breathe.

There's tons of little details I enjoy here, like the way the guitar rises at 0:27 to meet the flute for the melody. I love how the track seems to grow in breadth at 1:00, the way the string synth lead at 1:07 comes roaring in to add a jolt of energy and carry the melody to its next evolution (maybe my favourite melody segment in the track)-- I get kind of an SNES-era RPG vibe in the best way. The use of ocarina instead of returning to the flute at 1:38 just feels like an inspired decision-- the difference in timbre works really well. (Maybe this is my favourite melody segment in the track.) Using the piano for that one descending line of the melody at 2:07 is similarly wonderful. The bass guitar doesn't draw a ton of attention but it does some really great work on its own-- listen to the way it subtly supports the flute-guitar union at 0:27, for example, or the line it plays on 0:44 to add a bit of flair to that section. It's all of these small things, from the light bell/chime sounds the track has in its opening to the little arpeggio the harp plays before the loop point to sweeten that moment, that I think really elevate this track-- turn it into something uniquely memorable, something to really admire and marvel at.

There's various parts of Valstein Castle I don't dig melodically, but it's a reasonably energetic jam. 1:21 does some cool work with its synths-- it's clean and the effect is cool.

Normal Battle also coaxes a pretty clean sound out of the Gameboy Color. For some reason when this track started playing I started imagining what an a capella version of this track would sound like. I think it's the bassline that made me think of it, like you know how the bass vocalist would carry a line like that with lyricless vocals? Now I want to hear this theoretical a capella version! Oh-- what do I think about the track? I think it's okay. I like the feel of 1:15.

Kill Command
Tidal Tempest
Valestein Castle

Damn it, another match where I want to vote for the GBC song and then it ends up being a weak one. I mean, it's a good song, but there are a lot of good songs in that game. Why is this the one that got nominated? Valestein Castle has good percussion. I don't know why that's the main thing that I took out of the song.

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Kill Command
Pioneer's Horizon
Normal Battle
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Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - Kill Command
Timespinner - Pioneer's Horizon
Ys III: Wanderers From Ys (PC Engine CD) - Valestein Castle

MATCH 1

Similar to how rhythm-changer yesterday had a fitting sound of plotting out the solution to a mystery for Umineko, I think Kill Command does a good job at being the equivalent of this for Danganronpa, whatever that may be thematically haha (I'd like to play through the Danganronpa games one day, but I haven't gotten around to it yet). It doesn't rise to the level of excellent song, but it's good enough to make the entire duration of the track length fly by without me really noticing because of me being into the music.

I like softer songs like Painted Foothills. This song makes for a nice, calming listen, but it's not the best example of this kind of song for me. It's probably just that it could be better melodically. It's good, but not good enough to beat Kill Command, unfortunately.

MATCH 2

I really like this sound that Tidal Tempest Present and some other Sonic CD songs have! It's relaxing, but you want to tap your feet to it at the same time. Quartz Quadrant Good Future is my favorite Sonic CD song that I've heard, but this song's really nice too.

Pioneer's Horizon is really cool too! It has a really nice sound with all the instruments together. Makes me feel like I'm back in like 2007 playing Runescape. I like the melody throughout, but I think the flute melody stands out the most to me? Bit of a close match.

MATCH 3

Valestein Castle is so awesome! That intro packs such a punch and is a great way to kick off the song. In general, this is another high-energy Falcom song that makes for a great listen. I actually like this version more than the Oath in Felghana version. The instruments sound punchier here which makes it sound more energetic for me. There are also a few differences in arrangement that I prefer in this version like how the intro has that pitch up to a G note almost a whole octave instead of down to an E in the Oath in Felghana version as well as the part at 1:21, which I believe isn't in the Oath in Felghana version but is a nice addition here.

Normal Battle sounds nice, but I don't think it's all that special. Certainly not enough to come close to beating Valestein Castle for me.

Valestein Castle >> Pioneer's Horizon > Kill Command > Tidal Tempest > Painted Foothills > Normal Battle

Good day today :)

Kill Command
Pioneer's Horizon
Valestein Castle

Kill Command
Tidal Tempest
Valestein Castle

Valestein Castle goes unbelievably hard. This is my favorite version by a long shot, ten out of ten out of ten

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Painted / Pioneer's / Castle

great day. also why did u guys get normal battle in and not like grandmaster duel. though normal battle still delivers
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Akkrillic posted...

Valestein Castle goes unbelievably hard. This is my favorite version by a long shot, ten out of ten out of ten

so you're giving it a score of .1?

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NFUN posted...

so you're giving it a score of .1?

yeah it sucks actually

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