Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 39!! Nar/WHAL, Desert (Desert)/Unwavering Belief, BreakPandora/Gambit

(+) Yeah! (+)

narwhal rogue legacy
unwavering belief
gambit

Punishing: Gray Raven - NARWHAL
Lost Judgment - Unwavering Belief
Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge - Gambit

MATCH 1

Narwhal is pretty decent. I don't think what it does is my kind of thing, but I can certainly appreciate it!

NARWHAL has some nice melody and vocals going on. I like it the most once the trance part starts at 1:32. Plus, the song name is louder, which means it's better.

MATCH 2

For some reason, 0:12 of Desert Dunes reminds me of The Big Ride from last year's contest, which was also a kaonashi upload (and probably nomination/support too). Unfortunately, I don't like Desert Dunes as much as The Big Ride, but it's still a decent song.

Unwavering Belief has some cool vocals and violins, but there are a few things holding it back. There are a few parts I don't like a whole lot, such as the very dubstep part at 0:59, as well as 4:37. I also feel like I want some kind of peak or climax to the song that stands out among the other parts of the song, which I don't personally experience here. But that said, it's a cool song overall!

MATCH 3

Breaking Pandora isn't very interesting to me. The repeating melody in this song isn't bad, but it's just kind of meh.

I've always really enjoyed the Follin brothers' music. Gambit isn't as good as many other songs from them, but it's still a pretty good song! It has some elements of those lush chords that I like from some of their songs, which is what I like the most about Gambit, though there isn't as much of it as something like 0:49 of Briefing (https://youtu.be/nqnaE-MeGqo?t=49). There are also better melodic lines in other songs like Plok - Beach, but again, Gambit is still a good song either way, and it easily beats its opponent here.

NARWHAL > Unwavering Belief = Gambit > Desert Dunes (Desert) > Narwhal > Breaking Pandora

Not entirely sure what order I'd rank the middle four songs in. They're all fairly close to each other.

Gray Raven - NARWHAL
Lost Judgment - Unwavering Belief
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 - Breaking Pandora

NARWHAL (Haloweak)
Desert Dunes (Desert)
Gambit

i knew i liked caps narwhal but holy FUCK on listening right now its SO MUCH BETTER THAN I REMEMBER i'm actually fucking shocked i ended up not being a supporter on this. speaking of supports or rather noms HI GAMBIT I LOVE YOU i'm very glad you are here even though you will probably be destroyed by song i really dont care for lol. gambit is one of the few songs that i currently would bring back that i have already nominated/supported in the past, especially since we gave it a really rough match lol. its been growing on me steadily for like eight months now and isn't stopping

(out of 226)
(3rd) Crackle Cradle - Intuition & empty brass
(4th) Magical Chase - Variations on a Ra Melody
(10th) Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner - Beyond the Bounds
(17th) Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge - Gambit
(21st) Punishing: Gray Raven - NARWHAL
(49th) D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die - Theme of D4
(52nd) Operation S.T.E.E.L - Desert Dunes (Desert)
(62nd) Lightfield - Shadoubt Shaps
(84th) Pokmon Super Mystery Dungeon - Tree of Life: Roots
(101st) Fate/Grand Order Waltz in the Moonlight/Lostroom - Dance With the Shadow
(102nd) The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - Partners - The game is afoot! Let's dance, my dear fellow!!
(108th) Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late - Beat Eat Nest
(135th) Fez - Flow
(141st) Lost Judgment - Unwavering Belief
(158th) Ragnarok Online II: The Gate of the World - Yoru ~ Sailing
(203rd) Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 - Breaking Pandora
(211st) Rogue Legacy - Narwhal
(220th) Control - Take Control

really really insanely good past few days damn

From Toxtricity:

NARWHAL (Punishing: Gray Raven)
Desert Dunes (Desert) (Operation S.T.E.E.L.)
Breaking Pandora (Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11)

This sounds like it would be the music to a modern commercial for some website that zoomers use like tiktok that i dont know what it is, except they made the commercial sound really small instead of really big

The irony is the song that sounds really big is the one where the track title is in all caps. This match is so funny, i am so glad that my own jokes make myself smile

The morphing synth pads in the background of this one are even cooler than normal ones, and i already like normal ones!!! The electric piano is so nice and crystallineits actually quiet in the mix, but it pierces through the heavens like a ceramic spear that is translucent

This song is just like that black knight3000 pinball song; or halo2 follow

Breaking pandora always makes me think of linkin park but on this listen its making me think of metroid prime1-3

Chord samples are so c ool; bendy chord samples??? Those are even more cool

From Haste_Deux:

Narwhal (lowercase)
Desert Dunes (Desert)
Gambit

From hbthebattle:

NARWHAL (The PGR one)
Desert Dunes (Desert)
Gambit

NARWHAL
Desert Dunes (Desert)
Gambit

NARWHAL (Gray Raven)
Desert Dunes (Desert)
Breaking Pandora

--

Narwhal (Rogue) [7]
NARWHAL (Gray Raven) [8.6]

I haven't felt the feeling of "...That's it?" for quite a while during this contest it seems, but that's how I felt with Rogue Legacy's Narwhal. I like the electric guitar strums you have here and there, but nothing else about the song really jumps at me for anything. NARWHAL, on the other hand? I can do time with NARWHAL, this one knows how to rave pretty well.

Desert Dunes (Desert) [8.6]
Unwavering Belief [7.7]

Unwavering Belief certainly spends a lot of time trying to sound dramatic, when it's really around the halfway point for it where I start to finally care about the sound for the song. Desert Dunes on the other hand is just a treat with its synths right from the start.

Breaking Pandora [8.5]
Gambit [8]

Weirdly enough, I feel like Gambit should go even harder than it really does, especially if we're talking about BOTH of the Follin Brothers working on it. But it's there, still sounding neat at least. The fact that Breaking Pandora was hidden away in a Tiger Woods game of all places is probably the biggest mystery and crime I've ever heard for VGM so far, a song this cool HAS to be shared with more people.

NARWHAL
Desert Dunes (Desert)
Gambit

NARWHAL
Desert Dunes (Desert)
Gambit

7.5
7.6
7.8
6.3
6.7
10

Gambit is probably the third or fourth best F*llin song

NARWHAL
Unwavering Belief
Gambit

NARWHAL / (Desert) / Gambit

Narwhal: The telltale clop of horseshoes on the hard clay of the desert marks every step of your sweltering journey.

NARWHAL: The sound of rumbling engines energizes the drivers, getting them riled up and energized for the upcoming race.

Desert Dunes (Desert): Encouraged by his friends' kind remarks, he gets back up on his feet and resumes his fighting stance.

Unwavering Belief: Meteors fall from the sky, some burning up in the atmosphere, some splashing harmlessly in the sea, and some destroying whole cities.

Breaking Pandora: Cleaning the air ducts is a grueling and often disgusting task, but someone's got to do the dirty work.

Gambit: "Attention all units: An anomaly has been discovered in Sector 15A; capture and neutralize the target immediately."

Desert >> Gambit > NARWHAL > Breaking = Unwavering > Narwhal

Punishing: Gray Raven - NARWHAL
Lost Judgment - Unwavering Belief
Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge - Gambit