Board 8 > [VGMC] d126: Champion showdown -- EXSPHERE vs lastendconductor vs DOTSBAW

(+) Yeah! (+)

So...fun story: did you know if you create a new topic, but you misclick to the sides before hitting submit, you COMPLETELY lose your entire topic, including the text, the poll, and everything? I had this entire wildcard poll set up with 11 versions of Reach for the Moon and everything, but instead, this is what you get...

Links:
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VNrPnFRI7nJ4PqFiURBW0NWqxvXiuasoq8Sn_O169ss/edit#gid=320804650
Bracket - (RIP bracketmaker)
Discussion and results thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78865287
Bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1REnVI_W6yELaDP6Zac8b0Wq
ToC playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RE-TQMj19D0k5nm-0zeH12J
VGMC compability sheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lpX4faqnn_geI0y4i6MrZ2AXpV6SWXoWrIA6_eyx-yM/edit

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. (Matches do not begin until at least 10:00 EDT.)
- 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!

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Tournament of Champions Champion Showdown (TOCCS)

Ar nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BywGBJDXQ0c

Umineko Chiru - lastendconductor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkMDmaghbkA

Chrono Cross - Dreams of the Shore Bordering Another World

You shine, and make others shine just by being near them.

Ar nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
Ar Tonelico III - EXEC_Z/.

wow semifinal isn't even over yet looks like clear abuse of power to end it time to dq and advance geofront

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Dreams
Nilin
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excuse me where's deoxyribose

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azuarc posted...

11 versions of Reach for the Moon

good one

Dreams

Class::EXSPHERE

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Ar nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
Remember Me - Nilin the Memory Hunter

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Class::EXSPHERE
Nilin the Memory Hunter

all 5 are great songs!!!!!!!!!!!!

exsphere: ultimate darkness. i've talked about this a lot last year and this year too probably. I like it~! so many things i like at once that are hard to find in the same song as each other usually

lastendconductor: i never tire of the polymeter theme reused between all the epic zts trance songs in these games. i seem to really be in love with examples of polymeter where it's odd time layered on top of four on the floor trance edm drum beats including my favorite song sword art online fatal bullet dungeon geofront 4. actually this has even more polymeter stuff in it than worldenddominator, but its more subtle about all of it so i never noticed some of it until RIGHT NOW. Whoa..... in general this has COOL SOUND DESIGN and is EPIC and really makes you O_o think. epic tranbce music nostalgia for 2001 and also 2020 because it reminds me of my favorite song sword art online fatal bullet dungeon geofront 4. this reminds me of steins;gate which is a visual novel that I am watching the anime of that has video game music in it because it is based off of a video game(visual novel). It is about time travel which is cool because so is chrono cross

dream: the repeating fake choir pad always gets me here. WHY IS FRETLESS BASS SO 90s and i think it's 90% (90s percent) This song's fault that i associate fake fretless bass so much with "90s" whatever that even means I think yasunori mitsuda is almost as great as cubes; and dreams. i first heard this song in a youtube video in 2008 that was basically unedited all of the flybys in myst 1-3 and with a unfinished/rejected ocremix version of this song as the bgm. I had no idea what the source material was and it took me a while to finally figure it out despite it being listed in the video since it didn't mention the game, just track title and remixers' names. coincidentally a Myst youtube video using to far away times as the bgm is how I first heard the Chrono Trigger credits theme as well, even though i'd been familiar with most of that soundtrack for a lot longer. Was pleasantly surprised when I found out this was a champion in previous contests when i joined vgmc in vgmc 3 !

z: i talked about this one already in this cocntest. It's fun : )

nilin: this track's been memorable pretty much ever since kcf first nommed it for the first contest he nommed it for; it pops into my head any time I hear glitchy elements in something orchestral. you know this actually sounds like if you took a fairly archtypal aaa orchestral theme but then played it in sound voltex ha ha. I really love everything about it, it's a world created where you can't tell the difference between what's artificial and what's organic at times. some layers that start out sounding like real instruments turn into the fake computer glitch sounds; and the other way around too. It's not a jarring juxtaposition, the natural instruments and computer destruction of them depend on each other to make this a full experience, and the barrier between these two things is less clear than i'd expect them to be
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Both the finalists sounded like they were from the same game. Super identical to me.

lastendconductor
Nilin the Memory Hunter

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Dreams of the Shore
EXEC_Z/.
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Umineko Chiru - lastendconductor
Ar Tonelico III - EXEC_Z/.
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lastendconductor
Nilin the Memory Hunter

fun fact I'd take Nilin over the other 4. lec is alright but vastly overstays it's welcome. Though honestly I'd most likely go with Nilin even if that weren't a factor. (see: me wanting to move on from lastendconductor when it's still just 2 minutes in, and then wanting to play Nilin again after that song finishes)

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Class::EXSPHERE
EXEC_Z/.

for a match between three Super Champions that was comically easy

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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
Nilin the Memory Hunter

EXSPHERE > Nilin the Memory Hunter >>> lastendconductor > EXEC_Z/. > Dreams of the Shore

Wasn't expecting the song closest to EXSPHERE to be from the bonus match. Nilin is fantastic.

Dreams of the Shore
EXEC_Z/
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lastendconductor
Nilin the Memory Hunter

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Dreams of the Shore
Nilin
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Oh God that matchup of champions is so Board 8 it's painful. Umineko, Exa Pico, and Chrono, the holy trifecta of things that Board 8 overrates. It was sho tempting to just vote Dreams of the Shore song unheard, because Chrono's chronic overrating isn't actually VGMC-related, but luckily I remembered that lastendconductor is one of the few Umineko songs I can not only tolerate, but actually like. Which is good because I don't even have to listen to the Chrono song to know it's probably not my jam; I can tell by the title in conjunction with being a Square RPG. And I've got plenty of time to write this because holy crap lastendconductor. 10+ minutes?

Huh. Not as sleepy as I expected, but still pretty sleepy. Songs with "dream" right in the title are rarely promising.

Sorry, Nilin, but I don't remember you. Enough so that I nearly got the game and song title confused. I vaguely remember seeing this song title in this contest somewhere, but the song's unfamiliar. What's it doing in a bonus match? Did it get really close against one of the finalists or something? Well, thanks to that awful day where I was forced to pick between two Exa Pico songs, I vaguely remember EXEC_Z/. being pretty decent for a hymnos.

And so it is. God this day's awful when you've got 5 songs and a Hymnos is #2--and technically, I should add "#2 to an Umineko song" even though I legit love lastendconductor.

Vote:
lastendconductor
EXEC_Z/.


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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
EXEC_Z/.

extra_pico

Umineko Chiru - lastendconductor
Ar Tonelico III - EXEC_Z/.

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Ar nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
Ar Tonelico III - EXEC_Z/.

EXSPHERE > LEC > EXEC_Z/. > winner of this year's VGMC > DotSBAW > Nilin

why have a VGMC champion vs. an Umineko song vs. something with Dreams of the Shore's exact melody

when Hope is all three in one

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Umineko Chiru - lastendconductor
Ar Tonelico III - EXEC_Z/.

Hey look, I can finally start talking about the songs again since these are mostly from previous years.

MATCH 1

Wow a three-way match! That's a first for this contest.

I completely forgot what I wrote about Exsphere during the ToC matches, but to sum up my feelings on this song, I initially found this song a little too overbearing when I first listened to it in VGMC13, but I fairly quickly got used to it and eventually started to really enjoy it! That hasn't changed now as I still think it was a great champion for VGMC13 as well as this year's ToC.

I actually like lastendconductor a little more than worldenddominator! Of course, both are fantastic but lastendconductor's a little more appealing to me melodically. It does a great job at being worldenddominator's more upbeat counterpart. While worldenddominator has its darker synth lines, lastendconductor uses some great, more brighter violin melodies and synth chords. More top-tier zts music at work.

Dreams of the Shore Bordering Another World is a really nice and peaceful song! While it's not quite as good as Scars of Time, it's great at creating this relaxing atmosphere. Probably works really well in-game to create some immersion.

MATCH 2

EXEC_Z/. is still very good! Gone too soon :(
May you get the chance to retire in a future contest.

Not much to say about Nilin the Memory Hunter. Don't really care for some of the glitchy elements of this song, but I'm not sure how much of a fan I'd be of this song even with those things absent. As I've said in the past, orchestra is very hit or miss for me, and it doesn't seem like I'd be a big fan of this song's orchestra bits regardless.

lastendconductor > Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE; > EXEC_Z/. > Dreams of the Shore Bordering Another World >> Nilin the Memory Hunter

Super close between lastendconductor and Exsphere! Also, fantastic top 4! Once again highlighting how great I find a lot of past retirees to be.

loweffortmemes posted...

Wow a three-way match! That's a first for this contest.

It was either that or justify why I had chosen lec or dotsbaw over the other. And I forget which one won five years ago.

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lastendconductor
EXEC_Z/.

azuarc posted...

It was either that or justify why I had chosen lec or dotsbaw over the other. And I forget which one won five years ago.

you could've done LEC vs Dreams and then the next day had the winner against Exsphere. And since these are important matches, they'd be one per day. Plus KCF has plenty of other snubbed songs to compete

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rip swarmlake

and when am i getting a snubbed song match

Dream of the Shore
EXEC_Z/.
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
EXEC_Z/.

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lastendconductor
EXEC_Z/.
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Dreams of the Shore
EXEC_Z/.

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Class::EXSPHERE
EXEC_Z/.

Look at me, being a scumbag who just votes for the two Gust songs. =x

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Class::EXSPHERE
EXEC_Z/.

Class::EXSPHERE
EXEC_Z/.

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Umineko Chiru - lastendconductor
Ar Tonelico III - EXEC_Z/.
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lastendconductor
EXEC_Z/.

Ouch, Nilin gets a final chance at redemption and it's against EXEC_Z of all things! KCF did get his retiree this year, so I guess I won't feel bad for betraying Nilin one last time.

Holy shit I get to talk about lastendconductor! Why am I so nervous! I had the pleasure of listening through the Umineko soundtrack two months ago (actually it was rwlh's shortened playlist of 45 songs thank you rwlh) and it was nothing short of an eye-opening experience. I really don't know much about the story of Umineko, but the comments and description under each video really gave me a sense of the intrigue and epic confrontations that slowly unfold. It would always seem like my favourite tracks were big showdowns with the villains done by zts! Then, the way lastendconductor comes in to top them all off with its callbacks to earlier songs just blew me away. I always imagine an epic JRPG-style final boss where you're flying through space with planets and stars swirling all around you, signalling the end of the universe as you desperately fight for your last hope to save everything from collapsing on itself...come to think of it, I don't know if I want to break that connection by experiencing the game's true nature of clicking through a bunch of text boxes! I'm happy enough leaving everything up to my imagination based on the visions that the music conjures up for me. The only thing is that the song can break its sense of finality by sounding too happy at times, but there's so much to digest in terms of highs and lows that I'm still debating whether it should place way above or way below a song like goldenslaughterer. In a lot of ways, it feels like an epic final battle that also prepares you to say goodbye to the fictional world you've found yourself immersed in for so long, which is an aesthetic that really resonates with me. the executioner coming in at 3:33 gives me chills every single time and is probably my favourite moment from the entire soundtrack!

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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
Nilin the Memory Hunter

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Dreams of the Shore
Nilin the Memory Hunter
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
EXEC_Z/.

Class::EXSPHERE
EXEC_Z/.

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lastendconductor
Nilin the Memory Hunter

i didnt expect to vote like that in the top match but i hadn't heard all of lec before i don't think...really cool song
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
Nilin the Memory Hunter

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