Board 8 > [VGMC] d23: Id Purpose vs Stulti, Fateful Confrontation vs Mushihimesama Stage 4

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to today's topic for Video Game Music Contest 12, a tournament of the best tracks from games, as decided upon by you, the voters.

Links:
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=469506
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lzzbpDP2whgvOTN2XHETfWg79IyPs01jdwIQu_L2C7k/
Discussion and results thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/76419785
Main bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RFBXCwz0vAKZg8V0rnrKHsE
Side bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RFI-vkdyFa8-bXzbFLMLl1X

Rules:

- Listen to both of the songs. Links have conveniently been provided for both songs. Even if Song A is your favorite of all-time and Song B is from a series you hate... Listen. To. Both. (If I have suspicions your vote is not based on a fair and impartial preference, it will be disqualified.)
- Obvious contest rules apply (no alts, one vote per person, no rallying, etc.).
- Please make your voting options clear, rather than burying them in text.
- Each set of matches lasts 24 hours, even if the new one isnt up by then.
- Always vote on the versions of the song provided, not versions from different sources.
- If you know ahead of time that you're not going to be around and you want to vote in advance, post your choices in the discussion/bracket topic.
- Please do NOT post tallies/score updates in the middle of the match, as this has a tendency to directly influence matches.
- You don't have to vote in all the matches, but it'd be cool if you did!

.
Match #1:

Fire Emblem: Awakening - Id ~ Purpose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bio99hoZVYI" data-time="

REFLEC BEAT colette -Spring- - STULTI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6dQNjpWOcw" data-time="

.
Match #2:

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ok9bzDzaS0" data-time="

Mushihimesama - Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqNZL6Vp-w8" data-time="

.
Side bracket:

Ragnarok Online 2 - Yoru

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puzyl87m5EY" data-time="

Enchant Farm - The Queen of Soldier
http://picosong.com/wsUnu/

.
Easy vote form:
Id ~ Purpose / STULTI
Fateful Confrontation / Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
Yoru / The Queen of Soldier
---

STULTI
Fateful Confrontation
The Queen of Soldier

Stulti wouldn't be my choice for a DJ TOTTO song (the aggression/melody ratio is too high), but Id has never done much for me.
Night of Falling Stars is... interesting, but not really my thing, whereas its opponent very much is
Oh hey it's a ballad against a hype boy in the side bracket - not that I always vote along these lines but Yoru was pretty boring and QoS was good enough
---

STULTI
Fateful Confrontation
The Queen of Soldier

Stulti wouldn't be my choice for a DJ TOTTO song (the aggression/melody ratio is too high), but Id has never done much for me.
Night of Falling Stars is... interesting, but not really my thing, whereas its opponent very much is
Oh hey it's a ballad against a hype boy in the side bracket - not that I always vote along these lines but Yoru was pretty boring and QoS was good enough
---

Id ~ Purpose
Fateful Confrontation
Yoru

All fairly easy. I like Id ~ Purpose a good amount, and although STULTI coalesced into something I could like, I didn't like its beginning as much. Fateful Confrontation isn't one of my favorite Falcom songs but it easily beats an opponent I thought was quite bland and unremarkable. Yoru is very pretty and probably the best song of the day; I don't have any particular opinions on its opponent, which I thought was just okay.
---

Id ~ Purpose
Fateful Confrontation
The Queen of Soldier

Id has never done much for me, but neither does its opponent

Side match is really close
---

STULTI

Fateful Confrontation - I still like the vocal version of FC a lot more, but Falling Stars is really nothing.

The Queen of Soldier
---

Fire Emblem: Awakening - Id ~ Purpose
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation
Ragnarok Online 2 - Yoru
---

Purpose
Confrontation
Queen
---

STULTI
Fateful Confrontation
The Queen of Soldier

STULTI - i'm still surprised STULTI got traction but I'm really glad cause I love Qrispy's aggresive MAX MAXIMIZER style against TOTTO's light, airy melodies. I wish Rebellio could've matched up to it cause MAX sure matched his side of the song with CLAMARE, and TOTTO his side with... well, everything he's made pretty much. Dude's consistent as hell.

Fateful Confrontation - Like a Night of Falling Stars is not my kind of shmup stage song, and Fateful Confrontation is not my kind of falcom battle song, but Fateful wins out. Barely.

The Queen of Soldier - feels weird to be voting against Yoko Kano for royalty free music made to be shoved into rpg maker games but here we are, also this song owns

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
The Queen of Soldier

I'm not the biggest Id fan, but this was still a relatively easy match sadly.
While I knew I liked it, I didn't expect to actually take the Mushihimesama song here, but Fateful Confrontation isn't anywhere near as good as I remembered. Also easy.
Damn The Queen of Soldier rules. We need more of these kinds of songs in VGMCs. (Also Yoru's incredibly good too, and it's purely a testament to TQoS' quality that it's the only vocal song I'm not voting for in R1 of the side bracket besides the ones in days I missed)

Side > 2 > 1

REFLEC BEAT colette -Spring- - STULTI
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation
Enchant Farm - The Queen of Soldier

Id ~ Purpose's high points are really good but the rest of the song pulls it down enough to be beaten here.
---

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
Yoru
---

Id ~ Purpose
Fateful Confrontation
---

Id ~ Purpose
Fateful Confrontation
The Queen of Soldier

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
Yoru
---

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
The Queen of Soldier

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
The Queen of Soldier
---

Fire Emblem: Awakening - Id ~ Purpose
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation
Enchant Farm - The Queen of Soldier
---

STULTI
Fateful Confrontation
Yoru
---

STULTI
Fateful Confrontation
The Queen of Soldier
---

MycroProcessor posted...

TODAY is even mORE INSANE THAN YESTERDAY WTF why is this section of bracket b so "mycro" all of these are in my top 30 . . .

Next year, I'll wait to do the bracket until you pass me your cribsheet with the rankings np.
---

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
The Queen of Soldier
---

Id ~ Purpose
Fateful Confrontation
The Queen of Soldier

The Mushihime track is weird. It's in 7/4, but it feels like it wants to be in 4/4, so every phrase just feels like it's missing a beat at the end (as opposed to, say, Suicide Mission, where it's more of a 3.5 x2 sort of thing). Gives it a kind of blue balls effect? I dunno.
---

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
Yoru
---

REFLEC BEAT colette -Spring- - STULTI
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation

side later
---

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars
The Queen of Solider

I feel bad that I'm voting for Id Purpose, but better to be mind-numbingly boring than to be actively bad. Stop nominating rhythm game tracks.

Both songs in the second match are good. I wish both the songs in the first match had been fed to them. They're pretty close to me, but I'm feeling the ambiance right now, so Mushihimesama is a go.

I didn't like The Queen of Soldier much when it started, but it grew on me. The opposite happened with Yoru -- I liked it quite a bit at first, but it didn't feel like it went anywhere, so it became "meh."
---

STULTI
Fateful Confrontation
The Queen of Soldier

No write-ups/rankings today. I'm kind of busy.
---

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
Yoru

Oh hey vocal tracks I actually like. Side bracket wins for me again today.
---

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
Yoru

It's been a while since I listened to Id ~ Purpose-- I remembered the main motif but not much beyond that. I was a little disappointed when I heard the choral samples, which lack the fullness of a real choir and hurt the mood of the song a bit. But the more I listen to it the more it makes me smile-- it's really enjoyable. It maintains its sense of grandeur, but does so with an accordion! The chords are just shifty and unpredictable enough to keep me listening, but the melody remains very coherent throughout. (The progression at 0:58 is a highlight for me.) I'm even okay with the more heavily choral section that starts at 2:33 (with the accordion still yipping along in the background like 'hey, I'm still here!'), which is something I used to dislike somewhat initially. I used to debate with myself a bit on whether I actually enjoyed this track or if it just fit some of the tropes I have a weakness for. I give up. I really do like this track a lot.

I feel the same kind of ambivalence about STULTI that I did about various other tracks in the contest-- some stuff I like, some stuff I don't. Electric guitar/double bass drum underpinning-- not a fan. Some of the filtered electronic drums, like the ones that kick in at 0:10, I'm a huge sucker for. Sudden moments of silence-- cool, especially with a track that's this loud. Melodically not the most interesting, but with some interesting moments. I think the lead synth at 1:09 is boring. I like the marcato strings.

Man, more double bass drum pedaling? Mercifully Fateful Confrontation lays off on that after a while. So it's another Falcom boss track and all that implies. Again, the instrumentation doesn't do much for me, so it comes down to the pretty straightforward melody. It's not bad. It's catchy enough. I can definitely fight some bosses to this. But the delicious chocolaty centre of this track is at 2:03, which is a pretty cool interlude that fits really nicely as a change of pace in the track.

Like a Night of Falling Stars, in contrast, is all about the instrumentation for me. It starts with the bell synth and its delay echoes. Then it's the bongos. Then it's the shimmering high synth pads that sit on top of it all, giving the track a sort of ethereal feel. I'm more accustomed to tracks from Mushihimesama or the DoDonPachi games with a sharper, more frenetic sound, so this took me by surprise with its much more chill, atmospheric approach and I think it's really nice. The 7/4 time signature is gravy-- I find I actually mentally organize it by half beats 3/3/3/3/2, following the lead synth.

Music that makes me happy etc. Yoru sits at the intersection of a lot of things I like in VGM. I love the instrumentation-- the piano, the flute, the vocals, the brushed snare, that other percussion that I like for the same reason as bongos in that they almost sound like they almost speak. (Also the marimba! And the marimba comes with bongos!) I love the chord progression. That major chord at 2:20 is just the best. But perhaps most significantly-- I love the effect this track has on me. There's a lot of great hype VGM for exciting moments. This track makes me feel calm-- calmer than just about any other VGM I've listened to-- and does so without boring me to tears. I've never played Ragnarok Online 2: The Gate of the World, and I won't ever get to-- the game's servers have been shut down. But I'm sure if I'd played that game and encountered this, I'd have just sat there and soaked it in for a while. And isn't that the surest sign that a video game track has really made an impact on you?

So, The Queen of Soldier. This isn't bad. It sounds a bit harsh given I'm listening to it right after its competition, but after a few listen-throughs it's grown on me a bit. The melody is somewhat predictable but it's the sort of melody I like regardless, I think. The sound design felt a little awkward at first but it's not bad either.

Fire Emblem: Awakening - Id ~ Purpose
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation
Enchant Farm - The Queen of Soldier
---

Enchant Farm - The Queen of Soldier
---

Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
Yoru
---

Id ~ Purpose
Fateful Confrontation
-
---

Fire Emblem: Awakening - Id ~ Purpose
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation
Enchant Farm - The Queen of Soldier
---

eb insists on helping out:
Id ~ Purpose
Like a Night of Falling Stars Stage4
Yoru
---

Id ~ Purpose
Fateful Confrontation
The Queen of Soldier

Did I vote? I bet I didn't vote.

Id ~ Purpose
Fateful Confrontation
Yoru
---