Board 8 > Kenri and CG7 rank 30 pieces of VG music -- with abstract images

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yep, we're finally, finally ready to get this started. We'll be doing 5 writeups a day each, and each writeup will come with an image of varying quality. I'll let CG7 say her own bit if she wants, but for me, well, I'm still not an artist, so... be kind? <_< (I'm kidding, you can be as mean as you want.)

The rules for this topic were:

-3 nominations per user.
-All 3 nominations must be from different games.
-Songs with lyrics (distinct words) were banned. Vocals (nondescript oohs and ahhs) were fine.

The field is:

.hack//G.U. Vol 3//Redemption - Full Force
Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden - jonathan taylor thomas
Blast Corps - Mission Replay
DJMAX - Seeker
Earthbound - Smiles and Tears
Guilty Gear X2 - Suck A Sage (Chipp's Theme)
Instant Brain - Challenge to the Past
Jet Force Gemini - Asteroid
Lost Child - Beginning
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Theme of Dr. Doom
Mother 3 - Master Porky's Theme
Mr. Driller Soundtracks - Machi ni Mukatte (Heading Back to Town)
Mr. Gimmick! - Paradigm
Mystical Chain - Stage Clear
Neotokyo - Imbrium
Odin Sphere - Victory
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow - Main Title
Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - Dance Difficult
Rayman - Saxophone Land
Skullgirls Soundtrack - Little Innsmouth: The Fish Man's Dance ~ HD ~
Super Dragon Ball Z - Namek's Destruction
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Meta Knight's Revenge
Team Fortress 2 - Right Behind You
Touhou Hisoutensoku - Our Hisou Tensoku
Umineko Chiru 6 - Life
Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown - AKIRA - Statues
Wild Arms 5 - Condition Green
Xenoblade Chronicles - Unfinished Battle
Xenogears - Faraway Promise
Ys: The Oath in Felghana - Sealed Time

Which is quite an eclectic mix! Who can say what will come of it? (Answer: at least one person, probably.)

First block of writeups will be in a few minutes. Please enjoy~

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Tag~

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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
GotD (219/384) Melee v FFX

Tag.

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Proud ValHellen x Maha_Bufudyne shipper.

My art took five minutes or less to make most of the time. This will be obvious when you see them.

That said! In an opposite manner of what we did last time, Kenri will post each day before me, and as he already stated, five a day from each of us. Enjoy~

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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

30. Guilty Gear X2 - Suck A Sage (Chipp's Theme)
Nominated by: Mega Mana
Link:
Image:

It's probably not a secret at this point that I don't really like Guilty Gear music. In fact I pretty much hate it, with a few exceptions, most of which I only consider "okay". In fairness to Suck a Sage, it isn't Vortex Infinitum or something equally without redeeming value, but it is still largely without merit. It's half obnoxious electric guitar wailing and half completely generic electric guitar wailing, so I go back and forth between being actively annoyed and just being really bord. Not a good place to be!

About the image: Jesus Christ is that utterly horrible. I think I joked to CG7 about it being literally the worst drawing ever created by human hands, except that's less a joke and more objective reality. I'm so sorry. ANYWAY: I do think that a rose being cut apart by a circular saw is an appropriately Suck a Sage-ish image, so that part is on the money, at least.


29. Mystical Chain - Stage Clear
Nominated by: Phase
Link:
Image:

...I don't get it. I'm hoping this was an attempt to throw a curveball at me to see what I'd end up drawing for it, because I'm not sure if anyone is capable of objectively ranking 7 seconds among other, longer songs. But, let's give this a shot. For being only a few seconds long, it's kind of loud and cluttered. I imagine you wouldn't notice that in-game, but listening to it over and over to get enough of a feeling for it to get a mental picture of it and then do a writeup for it, it can be a bit... much.

About the image: Probably the simplest thing I ended up drawing. To be fair I can't really control what a song makes me think of; this one made me think of a red dash, so I drew that. Somewhat interesting thing: I can kind of visualize music two ways; one way is the way I used for this topic, which is where a song makes me think of some image or scene. The other is more as flashes of light and odd patterns, which was my original intention for this topic because that's WAY EASIER but then I realized that looking at 30 images of differently colored lines and dots and so forth would be REALLY BORING. My point is: there may have been some overlap between the two for this image, in specific. Oddly enough, this is probably one of the technically best images that will come out of this topic (make of that what you will).

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

28. Mother 3 - Master Porky's Theme
Nominated by: todbot
Link:
Image:

I'm not sure why, but I'm not a big fan of Mother music from any game except the first one. It's weird because I usually prefer SNES and GBA sounds to NES ones, but eh. Master Porky's Theme actually has some really cool parts, mostly the slower, more ambient ones near the middle of the song. But then there are louder, stop-and-go parts in the beginning and end, which are just obnoxious.

About the image: A lot of the song makes me think of, like, a red carpet flanked by trumpeters, which is what we might have gotten if I hadn't tried to force myself to never resort to just showing a picture of the instruments used in the song (because that is such a cop-out). So I kind of latched onto the part at 1:57 through 2:23. That part has a really cool whistle or wail... or something... on top of slow and dramatic percussion, which made me think of climbing somewhere where the wind is howling and each step is treacherous. So you got an ice cavern. I think it looks sort of like some areas in Phendrana Drifts, except that game had perspective and realistic lighting.


27. Wild Arms 5 - Condition Green
Nominated by: Phase
Link:
Image:

Not a big fan of Wild Arms' music either, though it has a few songs I really like, like The Dry Wind Blows Over You and The Princess-Sorceress' Feelings. Condition Green is a bit too short for my liking (but not ridiculously so), and I feel like it never quite develops as a result. The whistling thing is hit or miss but I kind of prefer it to everything else here because it's just a bit more interesting. What I do get out of this - aside from the obvious Old West or at least southwestern style - is a feeling of adventure, so that's something, at least.

About the image: Playing on that southwestern adventure feeling... I think I could have easily gone to just some cliche old west ghost town or whatever, and I'm glad I didn't. I sort of want this to be part of an actual platformer or action-adventure game now. Trying to climb a giant cactus? that's gold, i tell you. I actually really like this image and it might be the one I'm most proud of out of the entire project, not that that's necessarily saying much.


26. Odin Sphere - Victory
Nominated by: Phase
Link:
Image:

...So Phase, I really hope your intention here was to get interesting pictures out of me or something so I can feel less horrible about this. <_<;

UM SO ANYWAY, Victory kind of reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics' OST. Not sure why but then I looked into it and Hitoshi Sakimoto composed music for both! I'm more proud of being able to call that than I should be. I do think this song is rather pleasant to listen to, but it doesn't grab my attention or do anything unusual enough to make me seek it out. I generally like slower, simpler music, but this borders on just not having enough happening, and then it ends. It's not bad, but I just... wish there was more to it.

About the image: The way the song fades in and out, as well as the chimes or bells or something that show up here and there, made me think of the night sky, so that's what you got. If it wasn't obvious, the dark splotches are clouds, which kind of represent the quieter moments in the song. In looking up reference images of the night sky, I also realized that HOLY **** THERE ARE A LOT OF STARS so I just crammed the image full of them, and then a lot of them disappeared because Art Academy can only save images as JPEGs. Shame.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Oh yes. Tag

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Some things were sad enough to make tears come out... But you were always by my side.

tag

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http://i39.tinypic.com/2d7sp7b.jpg http://i51.tinypic.com/21llhd4.gif
http://i53.tinypic.com/2h7m3p5.png http://i29.tinypic.com/2s0zr0y.jpg

30. Rayman – Saxophone Land
User: FL81
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: SAXOPHOOOOOOOOOOOOOONES

Thoughts: Did I mention I hate saxophones ninety percent of the time? What I didn’t? You should have checked out the other two ranking topics then because that would have given it away quickly. On top of that it is less than a minute, so it has time for nothing besides saxophones. There is one section that has drums and for a moment I was like, “Oh hey this could be a good part!” Then this saxophone rudely cuts in and I hurl my headphones away.

About the Image: I really liked those cool drums. I wanted them to stay. But the saxophone just won’t let them. So I dreamed of the drums getting their revenge and it was awesome. The blood red background is to convey my rage at having to listen to this. I agree with Kenri that drawing the instruments is cheap but really it was either this or a picture with curse words written over and over again, so I figured this was nicer.

Rating: 1.5/10

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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

29. Super Dragon Ball Z – Namek’s Destruction
User: Orochimaru_Fan
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: Not much to say here-WHAT ARE THOSE VOCALS.

Thoughts: You know how I tend to love vocals? Not the case here. Screw those vocals. They suck and should not be here. There’s also a kazoo or something. That might have been neat in some cases. It was not here. It was messy and blah and I did not enjoy it. But mainly because of the vocals. So here is proof that entering vocals in a ranking topic is not an instant win. …Wait a second why did this even get permitted with those vocals? I mean sure I can’t make out what they’re saying but still!

About the Image: This sounded like something that could be heard in a Space Jam knockoff with terrible music, so I have a basketball being thrown at a hoop IN SPACE with several stars. Why are there no players? They couldn’t get any actors because it was such a bad knockoff and they all ran from the music. The basketball is being thrown by space. Somehow.

Rating: 2/10

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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

28. Mystical Chain – Stage Clear
User: Phase
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: What. Why.

Thoughts: What. Why. …Okay here let me expand on that. It’s a seven second victory jingle. And even more insulting that that, it is a bad victory jingle. I like Touhou usually but this is bad. And pointless. And not worth listening to. I want my seven seconds back. At least choose a good seven second thing next time. Though I think the most remarkable part of all this is that two tracks ranked lower than this one. That says a lot about them.

About the Image: This is literally an explosion of noise so I put an explosion of noise in a more literal form. That is, a bomb exploding. I considered putting a cheesy BOOM above it but decided to treat it as Pictionary rules would dictate for no good reason. Also the bomb is made of agony.

Rating: 2.5/10

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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

27. Guilty Gear X2 – Suck A Sage (Chipp’s Theme)
User: Mega Mana
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: Allow me to make the obvious joke. The sage is not the only thing to attribute to sucking.

Thoughts: I like fast paced guitar tracks when they are good. Unfortunately this is not good. Guilty Gear tracks have a way of doing that. I still have no clue why I tend to love BlazBlue tracks but dislike Guilty Gear ones. It probably has something to do with Bang being in BlazBlue, his aura just makes all the music awesome even when he is not involved. Oh right I should be talking about the music here. It sucks. There done.

About the Image: Since this track sucks and you can suck on lollipops, I drew a lollipop. It is yellow because of how energetic the track was in an awful way. You might not be able to tell what is eating it, but it is in fact a hyperactive squirrel. It sounds like the type of animal that would eat sugar and then rock out to this sort of thing. The bright green background is to make your eyes bleed like my ears did. You’re welcome.

Rating: 3.5/10

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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

26. Wild Arms 5 – Condition Green
User: Phase
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: How repetitively annoying.

Thoughts: On one hand, this is not seven seconds long. On the other, it would have been better if it was because it would not have that irritating whistling. This is coming from someone who usually likes Wild Arms and the whistling its music has. Here it is not welcome and should pack its bags and leave before it taints the rest of the soundtrack for me. I am going to go listen to some The Dry Wind Blows Over You to cleanse me of this.

About the Image: Wild Arms music always makes me think of the desert, so I drew a desert. Along with a tumbleweed to signify that I was bored. The wind is to symbolize the whistling and how much I disliked it. I considered drawing a whistle getting impaled by a cactus but then decided against it because drawing a cactus with all its needles would take more than five minutes and I just am not that devoted to making great cactus pictures in MSPaint. Plus a whistle is sort of an instrument and I already did my one instrument drawing.

Rating: 3.5/10

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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

…Wait a second why did this even get permitted with those vocals? I mean sure I can’t make out what they’re saying but still!

To give an actual answer to this, I only banned songs with lyrics because if they were allowed (and if some ended up being nominated), I'd have just ended up drawing whatever the song's lyrics were about. Take Escape from the City for example, I don't think there's any way to draw that song and have the picture not involve a city in some way. And by itself that's fine, but it's sort of against the spirit of the topic.

As for why I didn't raise the issue for Namek's Destruction (and two others)... eh. I didn't think it was a big deal.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Truth be told, I didn't even notice that Namek's Destruction even had vocals. Just a lot horrible, screechy instruments made to make people's ears bleed :P

Orochimaru_Fan posted...

Truth be told, I didn't even notice that Namek's Destruction even had vocals. Just a lot horrible, screechy instruments made to make people's ears bleed :P

So you posted it KNOWING it was an abomination to mankind. Thanks a lot you blargher. =(

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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

Tag

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snowpork
Zazi is posting from his cellular telephone

I will be honest: my noms came from a desire to see you try to encapsulate 7 seconds of blaring into an image. I didn't expect anything to break top half (though I didn't expect EVERYTHING to be bottom quarter). And as a plus, 7 seconds long, all blaring. CG7's going to HATE this. Without a doubt, last place. Slam. Dunk. And once again, I am surprised that for BOTH lists something managed to get lower than the Mystical Chain victory sting. One of these days, I will get a last place from CG7. ONE OF THESE DAYS.

Anyways, once that was in place, in terms of a thematic tie-in I was left with blaring and victory themes. (okay, nominally speaking I could transition into like... original themes from doujin games based off another franchise but I don't know enough for that) The former had no chance of musical diversity so victory themes it was. On the opposite spectrum is the Odin Sphere victory sting, so in it goes automatically, pretty much. (and I could swear I linked a different video. Wait, did my link die AGAIN?)

For the third nom I wanted something evoked something other than victory as well. So, wild west, because it was the first thing I came up with. Though now that I sit down and think about it longer I think the only option I actually know of would be the MGS4 victory song. ... Which also coincidentally invokes the exact same image. What the hell? <_< I thought I knew more than this. That or the only image you can mix with victory is the wild west?

But the point of my noms was to show that music does not necessarily need to be "good" to convey a strong, distinct feeling. It just needs to be there, communicate a message, and leave. Or return five times in the case of Odin Sphere. Whatever, you get what I'm saying.

AND FFS IT'S SEVEN SECONDS OF BLARING. HOW DO YOU DO WORSE THAN SEVEN SECONDS OF BLARING?

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assert(!hotterThan(foo, "Hot Nymphomaniacal Lesbian Mind-Controlling Dominatrix Fairy Doctors with glasses"))

You are a much better artist than I am.

One nice thing about Art Academy is that it makes it really easy to end up with something that looks at least halfway serviceable. I'm still lacking a lot of really basic technique though, so I still wouldn't consider myself an artist.

But, thank you.


Also the Porky's Theme image really fit that specific part, so nice job!

Aww yeah. I figure if I can pull this off with at least two or three images for everyone, the topic was not a watse. >_>


Man I'm about a third of the way through my own listening topic - if this is the worst you guys were given, you got off easy!

Pretty much everything was at least listenable IMO, which is nice.


One of these days, I will get a last place from CG7. ONE OF THESE DAYS.

Sonic Rush - Medley Rush #2
Resident Evil 2 - Screaming Target
Mario Kart Wii - Coconut Mall: Final Lap

...In about that order. You're welcome. (I could list more songs she hates, but I'm trying to match or beat her 1.5/10 for Saxophone Land.)


But the point of my noms was to show that music does not necessarily need to be "good" to convey a strong, distinct feeling. It just needs to be there, communicate a message, and leave. Or return five times in the case of Odin Sphere. Whatever, you get what I'm saying.

This is definitely true (in fact, I sometimes feel like really, really good music can actually lose that ability, though that might just be confirmation bias). It's also an interesting approach to the topic. I was hoping this gimmick would cause people to pick a lot of weird songs that they like but which they don't nominate for many ranking topics because they're concerned about doing poorly. ...Though I don't know if anyone actually cares about that or not.


AND FFS IT'S SEVEN SECONDS OF BLARING. HOW DO YOU DO WORSE THAN SEVEN SECONDS OF BLARING?

8+ seconds of blaring. <_<

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

next 5 incoming

25. Earthbound - Smiles and Tears
Nominated by: todbot
Link:
Image:

...Remember when I said I don't really like music from Mother 2 or 3? ...Yeah. I feel like it is possible that I could like Smiles and Tears, though, except that it's just TOO ****ING LONG. If it was 2-3 minutes long, sure, but after that I pretty much check out for the entire second half of the song. Not only is it too long, but I feel like it gets worse around the middle and is at its best during the first 2 minutes. I will say that it really manages to hit the sweetspot in terms of sounding bittersweet. Not so much during the higher pitched sections, but definitely during the lower pitched ones; another reason I wish it ended earlier.

About the image: This one was more like... a scene than any one image. What Smiles and Tears made me think of was someone leaving their friends - moving away to somewhere far away - or maybe even being that person and leaving your own friends behind. It definitely captures the bittersweet feeling that this song brings to the table. So I could have gone a couple different ways there, but I eventually decided on the airplane (fun fact: the description for this image in my notes is "plane flying away forever"); I probably could have made this more detailed, but I like the rougher style and simpler colors for this image in particular. I think this is probably one of my favorite images of this project.


24. Xenogears - Faraway Promise
Nominated by: ZaziGuado
Link:
Image:

It's actually sort of appropriate that this comes right after Smiles and Tears, because I feel like they're sort of similar in the feelings they're trying to evoke. ...Anyway, I don't really like music box songs, but I think I like this one more than most, if just because it's a bit more involved than most. I still don't think the song itself is that interesting, though, and some of the samples are sorta obnoxious (there's really no avoiding this while still sounding like a music box, but still). However, what I do like about the song is that it's actually really emotional, for being a 2 minute music box track but also just in general. I get a really strong feeling of like... homesickness... out of this, which you wouldn't think would be a wonderful thing, but I like it!

About the image: Playing on that, we have this bedroom (things I can't draw: 1. perspective, 2. pillows, 3. perspective). I almost drew an actual music box on the dresser there but then I decided... no... let's avoid that. I feel like this captures that feeling of homesickness; blue is kind of a calming color, and I sort of think of this as representing a memory of simpler days, someone's childhood bedroom. This is the first image I drew for this topic and probably took me the longest of all of them. Most of the other images are not as complex for a good reason.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

...I may have gone overboard with the joke spoiler tag usage in these writeups.

23. Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden - jonathan taylor thomas
Nominated by: ZaziGuado
Link:
Image:

This is probably legitimately controversial; didn't jtt come distressingly close to winning a VGMC here or something? I've just never particularly cared for it. Unlike a lot of the rest of the soundtrack, which is distinctive (whether for good or bad), jtt just kind of sounds like boss music from any random JRPG. OH MAN WE'VE GOT NOT-QUITE-VOCALS GOING "OHHH" FOR THE WHOLE TRACK i am intimidated. The rest of it isn't very interesting, either, though I need to stress that it isn't really bad at any point -- just kind of uninteresting and derivative.

About the image: jtt actually does have a pretty nice sense of movement, and for good or bad, the not-vocals bring to mind a whole lot of stock imagery. So we end up with this crystal energy spiral staircase to the heavens. God, that is fantasy as ****, I'm sorry. I also still can't draw perspective which is why some platforms are the wrong size. and orientation. and not three dimensional objects but instead just sheets of purple. Definitely click on the video's link btw if only to see an image that is actually good, god whoever made that makes me look bad.


22. Mr. Gimmick! - Paradigm
Nominated by: Ed Bellis
Link:
Image:

Mr. Gimmick has a pretty good soundtrack, doesn't it? I prefer Strange Memories of Death (CONTROVERSIAL OPINIONS) but Paradigm isn't bad. Mr. Gimmick!'s music just in general is a lot easier to listen to than a lot of chiptunes, and the description for this video has informed me that it had a special audio expansion chip so I guess that makes sense. Anyway... I'm not a big fan of the whole start-and-stop thing Paradigm does (see: the first 24 seconds), but after it gets going I quite like it; unfortunately the song is imbalanced in favor of the parts I'm not a big fan of. It's also kind of upbeat for my tastes, but not enough so for me to take exception with it.

About the image: Paradigm made me think of two things: toys, and dancing. I have no idea why. But, the result is this: a marionette doing a merry gig. (One might even say it is a merryonette gig.) This is, by the way, absolutely the only time I will do a full sketch for one of these songs. I thought Mr. Gimmick deserved a gimmick, but it took me a long, long time so that was a horrible idea. Don't ask why the marionette is a trap. It was 2 AM when I did this. That is my excuse.


...well, I sure wasn't expecting this to take 3 posts. whoops.

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

Whoops. So I seem to have made a rather major mistake in terms of the order of things, and since nobody has posted yet, I decided to just delete it and remedy this on my own rather than reveal the mistake later or just pretend nothing was wrong. I'll post 6 writeups tomorrow to get things back on track. If you saw what #21 was, I'll ask that you not reveal it. Again, my bad.

Also, I have no idea where CG7 is or when her next writeups are coming. *shrug*

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

A bit late with them I'm afraid, but they're coming.

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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

25. Jet Force Gemini - Asteroid
User: todbot1
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: Well this is a whole lot of nothing until the annoying sound effects kicks in.

Thoughts: This had potential! There was one section with bells that was really good. The problem is that everything else ranged from uninteresting to terrible. I especially disliked those, um, crackling sound effects. Not sure how else to describe them. It’s particularly bad because such a large portion of the four minute track is taken up by these wastes of noises.

About the Image: At first I was picturing the inside of a rocket ship due to some of the effects I was neutral to. Then those crackling awful sounds kicked in and it made me think of a giant insect alien piloting the thing. So that is what you get. Its eye is red because it was up all night playing Asteroids.

Rating: 4/10

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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

24. Mr. Gimmick! – Paradigm
User: Ed Bellis
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: A fine example of why chip tunes rarely impress me.

Thoughts: Yeah, nothing has changed since my last ranking topic in regard to chip tunes. I still prefer other video game music to them most of the time. The sounds used here are not appealing and it feels like a pointless track. I guess the melody is okay and it stays short, which is a relief, but the noises used are not appealing. Mild apathy sounds right for my feelings here.

About the Image: This is disco popcorn. Why is it disco popcorn? Because it seems like it could be a disco track and the popping noises made me think of popcorn even though it does not actually sound like real popcorn. It does make me wonder how disco popcorn would taste though. Fruity is my guess.

Rating: 4/10

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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

That's pretty funny. The plot of Mr. Gimmick! is that a little girl gets a new toy (the main character) and the other toys, feeling jealous, kidnap her, so Mr. Gimmick! has to go into Toy World or wherever to rescue her. Coincidence or Wikipedia summary???

That's... really strange. I don't think I knew that, consciously at least.


Also Strange Memories of Death is probably the most popular (read: the only popular) song from this game, so yes, highly CONTROVERSIAL. I just chose another song because I wanted to give you something you probably hadn't heard before.

I do appreciate that. I had heard a couple songs from Mr. Gimmick, but not Paradigm, I think.


Smiles and Tears picture was great. I MISS YOU

Thank you!


About the Image: This is disco popcorn. Why is it disco popcorn? Because it seems like it could be a disco track and the popping noises made me think of popcorn even though it does not actually sound like real popcorn. It does make me wonder how disco popcorn would taste though. Fruity is my guess.

You don't know it yet, but this bares a remarkable similarity to a picture I'll be posting later today. <_< (Bonus game: Name the song it will be for!)

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"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

23. Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden – johnathon taylor thomas
User: ZaziGuado
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: Feels like an inferior standard final boss battle theme from an RPG.

Thoughts: I think the worst part about this track is that it seems like it could be really good. The beginning in particular makes it especially disappointing when it dives downhill shortly after. From there it gets worse and worse, mainly because of the high-pitched strings and then the boring strings after that. I usually like strings, making this a particular kick to the gut. Way to fail my expectations, track, way to fail them!

About the Image: I had a mental image of a climactic battle field which was a stone staircase, spiral-shaped, hanging in a black abyss. That is what I tried to draw. It looks more like a film reel but it is not meant to be that. Sorry to all those who really hoped I would draw a film reel here.

Rating: 4/10

--
You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

same ranking, similar writeup, similar picture

sorry CG7, you're going to have run all future posts through Turn It In first.

--
"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

Kenri posted...

same ranking, similar writeup, similar picture

sorry CG7, you're going to have run all future posts through Turn It In first.

I honestly did not read your write ups from last night yet. XD (I read the first five but not the ones after due to being more busy then.) That is a weird coincidence.

--
You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

22. Mother 3 – Master Porky’s Theme
User: todbot1
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: This could be interesting… nope never mind.

Thoughts: The first part is actually rather fun, and the trumpet part is catchy. Then the rest drops off a cliff and becomes boring as sin. If only it ended far sooner than it did. That beginning section is the only reason it got this high. Helps that I like horns, but that can only go so far. Also I still hate the name Porky even if it is fitting.

About the Image: This image is of guys saluting to an obviously evil dude with a cane who is somewhat elderly. You can tell he is evil because of his fiendish mustache. There is also a red carpet which is symbolic of blood and stuff. It’s very deep. I am an artist who draws works of hidden meanings like that.

Rating: 4.5/10

--
You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

21. Lost Child - Beginning
Nominated by: JONALEON
Link:
Image:

This is a much, much better electric guitar-centric song than Suck a Sage. It still suffers from a lot of the same problems, but is just generally less blaring and thus way nicer to listen to. I want to say it changes things up more than Suck a Sage too, but that could just be because I'm not willing to relisten to Suck a Sage to find out. In any case, it feels less repetitive, though 4+ minutes is still pushing it a bit. However, despite being less repetitive I do feel like it's kind of one note; the best part might actually be the beginning (appropriately enough) because the chimes used there add an extra dimension to the piece that I feel really helps it.

About the image: ...I have no idea, but it's different, at least. It took me a long time to even think of anything for this one and what eventually came out of it was this idea of... some kind of action scene that's only partially illuminated, but my attempt at that just looked weird so I started over. I kept the idea of bright colors on a solid black background though, and tried to keep some sense of action with the girl's hair. One thing Art Academy lets you do is vary the amount of water and paint on your virtual paintbrush. More water lets you blend colors more easily, so here I used basically no water to get deeper, more solid colors.


20. Xenoblade Chronicles - Unfinished Battle
Nominated by: ZaziGuado
Link:
Image:

Man, Unfinished Battle. This song is gonna haunt me, isn't it? God, I just don't think it's as good as other people do. LEAVE ME ALONE. ...that was a joke please do not overreact to this or think i'm being rude. I've actually come around to this song in the time since my last ranking topic, though not enough that it's one of my faves now or anything. I do generally like battle themes that make use of bowed string instruments; it's a perfect match IMO and a wonder that they're not one of the staple "battle theme" instruments. Unfinished Battle is also appropriately... I dunno, dramatic? It's definitely closer to the hopeless side of the hopeless-struggle vs. time-to-kick-ass battle theme spectrum, which also the better side, so yay for that.

About the image: One of the harder songs to actually think of a picture for, and keep in mind that I don't really think of them so much as wait for them to come to me, so I guess "harder" is wrong and what I really mean is like... time consuming. What eventually happened was an image distressingly close to the one in the video, at least in terms of color choice. Stormy skies, tall grass being pushed around by the wind, and a guy running, wow it's almost like this song is DRAMATIC and has a sense of MOVEMENT.

Me (6:38:27 PM): welp, this image was supposed to have a person running, but i didn't slant him enough, so instead it has a person prancing
CG7 (6:38:34 PM): XD

--
"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

19. Skullgirls - Little Innsmouth: The Fish Man's Dance ~ HD ~
Nominated by: NioraptH
Link:
Image:

I'll just get this out of the way first: this does not need to be over 6 minutes long, god I hope it loops somewhere in there. At times I sort of turn against this because it does something that sounds like obnoxious circus music, but the majority of the time it sounds more like mid-tier Castlevania music, which is better because even mid-tier Castlevania music is generally really good. At its best moments (one of which is at the 4 minute mark), Little Innsmouth sounds... determined, which is not to say that the song itself is determined, but rather that it packs an emotional punch of determination, which I like a lot.

About the image: Wow, I even drew something Castlevania-ish. I can practically hear the cheesy Simon's Quest reference. I think this image only really applies to 4:00 through 4:13 and the other sections like that, but those were the parts of the song that jumped out at me the most, for multiple reasons, so yeah. You can just picture someone running across that bridge (that is supposed to be a bridge; I wouldn't blame you if you couldn't tell); I thought actually adding someone would detract from it, especially because there was a huge chance I'd mess something up trying to add it, because Art Academy kinda sucks at small details.


18. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - Dance Difficult
Nominated by: Orochimaru_Fan
Link:
Image:

This song is really weird and I'm really not sure whether I like it or not, but it's sort of interesting so I give it the nod here. All the samples sound really tinny to me, which adds a degree of cheesiness that... I actually find kind of charming. I have to imagine it was intentional because most music from DPP doesn't sound like that. It doesn't really have a persistent melody either, instead just doing whatever all the time. ...I can kind of respect that, it's like the song itself doesn't give a ****. I do need to note however, one section, which is 0:22 through 0:25. I have no idea why but I think those, like, four seconds of the song are SO GOOD. I sort of wish the whole song was in a similar vein to that part of it, though it would lose some of its uniqueness in the process, I think.

About the image: Another image in that simpler style that I also used for Smiles and Tears... and I sort of regret that, at least in regards to effectively making the canvas even smaller. It was pretty nice of the sparks from that sparkler to conform to an arbitrary square that coincidentally matches up with the space I used to draw it, right? Must be one of those expensive, deluxe sparklers. There are some other issues with the way the sparks are falling which I tried to fix after I realized it, but couldn't fix entirely. Oh well. Anyway: Dance Difficult is a pretty cheerful song and made me think of a party or festival or something similar. It also made me think of... flashes of light, with a certain degree of randomness and motion to them. So I combined the two and we got a sparkler.

--
"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

17. Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown - AKIRA - Statues
Nominated by: NioraptH
Link:
Image:

Pretty cool song. It actually does a lot I really like, blending things I associate more with traditional Japanese music with... jazz influences? I dunno. I really like the piano work, at least; that's probably my favorite element of this. While the juxtaposition is pretty cool, it has a side effect of making the song seem kind of chaotic, and not always in a good way. For me at least, the song transitions between the two styles in a very, very abrupt way. That could be an interesting stylistic choice, but feel like here it's just a plain old flaw, though not a huge one.

About the image: Hey, remember that thing I was just talking about? well, here are some buildings. i was talking about buildings, right? Uh... it should be pretty easy to connect this with what I said about the song, so yeah. I think someone on this board (Aga maybe?) did a drawing sort of like this except theirs was actually really, really good and didn't suffer from weird scale issues where one building was supposed to be like a hundred times the size of the other one and thus looked weird when scaled down. (I didn't think this out very well.)


16. Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Meta Knight's Revenge
Nominated by: FL81
Link:
Image v1:
Image v2:

FL81, please tell me you nominated three jazzy tracks in an attempt to piss CG7 off. Please. That would make my day. In either case, the side effect is that I get to possibly overrate everything you nominated because I like jazz music/songs with jazz influences. Meta Knight's Revenge is SUPER JAZZY and just puts a smile on my face every time I hear it; it's not in the usual Kirby style, but it's fun and upbeat enough be Kirby-ish despite that. Perhaps appropriate considering that the original Revenge of Meta Knight was a timed thing, it's really easy for me to mentally associate this with a chase scene, especially a somewhat lighthearted one. One thing I will say about the song itself is that it goes back and forth between some sections that are really good and some that are just... sorta there... An example of a just-sort-of-there one is from 0:15 to 0:25 or so. Whatever instrument's being used there, I just don't really like it or think it fits with the rest of the piece.

About the image: ...And then it was super hard for me to not associate it with a chase scene, and as a resulted we ended up with a tricycle-taxicab carrying a tower of watermelons and driving recklessly. Those watermelons must need to get somewhere in a hurry. Not my usual style in a couple ways. My uncle (an actual talented artist) has done a couple paintings in a style with hard pencil sketches left in and then lightly painted over, but slightly off to the side, sort of mimicking a newspaper print that was misaligned. I thought it would work well for this picture but... couldn't really execute. The general badness is my fault but some of the specific badness (the splotchiness for example) is Art Academy's fault. I actually redid the painting part of this once so that's why there are two links, I don't think I actually improved it much though.

--
"The courtroom is the garden of holy judgment. Those with lechery in their hearts should leave this sanctuary at once!" ~Franziska von Karma

21. Team Fortress 2 – Right Behind You
User: Mega Mana
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: Do not want.

Thoughts: Creepy strings dominate this track. In general, I do not like suspenseful music like this, where it feels like a jump scare is just waiting to happen. I can understand it fitting in certain situations, but you wouldn’t catch me listening to it out of context. This one feels like it is building to a climax that it never quite reaches, which leaves me feeling as if it is sort of an unfinished track. In a sense that makes it even creepier since it will never end, constantly following… And being below average forever. Oh no!

About the Image: Since it was music that had sort of a scary feeling to it, I thought of something, well, scary. It’s sort of a cliché monster in the closet idea. The thing is that I feel monsters lose a lot of their scariness when they are seen, so I made it a single eye being shown rather than giving away what it is. It felt more fitting that way since the track never seems to reveal exactly what the scary thing is.

Rating: 4.5/10

--
You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

20. Pokémon Diamond & Pearl – Dance Difficult
User: Orochimaru_Fan
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: Way too cheerful.

Thoughts: I don’t even remember hearing this when playing Diamond and Pearl. Does it play during contests or something? I totally skipped those so I wouldn’t be surprised. Anyhow, this is divided into two parts for me. One is the absurdly happy sections that are grating. The other is the bells which are pretty awesome. It all evens out to be an average track. A lot better exist in the series, but it’s definitely not the worst.

About the Image: My picture actually has nothing to do with dancing. Rather, it sounded like shopping music to me. So I made a brightly colored shop with medicine on the shelves. Why they’re all green bottles is not something I put a lot of thought into. I guess since it’s Pokémon you could justify them as the vitamins used to raise stats, but then you would be putting way too much thought into my silly pictures.

Rating: 5/10

--
You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

From: Kenri | #041

FL81, please tell me you nominated three jazzy tracks in an attempt to piss CG7 off. Please. That would make my day.

I didn't make it too obvious, did I?

;>_>

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http://i39.tinypic.com/2d7sp7b.jpg http://i51.tinypic.com/21llhd4.gif
http://i53.tinypic.com/2h7m3p5.png http://i29.tinypic.com/2s0zr0y.jpg

19. Odin Sphere – Victory
User: Phase
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: I wish this was not just a victory theme.

Thoughts: Honestly, this is probably higher in the rankings than it should be, but I can’t help it. I actually really liked what this track had. The problem is that it did not have much. If it was, say, cutscene music that went on after the low-key part, it could be great. As it is, it is one of the better victory themes I have heard, which is only average on the entire spectrum of music. It also means Phase is the first to have all three tracks posted, but at least the theme was interesting!

About the Image: I thought of old parchment first when hearing this. A scroll seemed fitting. Since it was more of the image of the paper and style of writing rather than what was written, I decided to not try to make actual words. The long, thin style of writing conveyed the feeling better. The lines at the top and bottom are my poor attempt at showing the paper curling at the ends.

Rating: 5/10

--
You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

18. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow – Main Theme
User: Orochimaru_Fan
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: Ho hum de dum.

Thoughts: It sounds like something from a movie soundtrack. Gee I wonder why. That doesn’t make it bad, but I tend to not really notice movie soundtracks that often, since they often have a feeling of epicness to them that… is not… incredibly epic. Yeah. It’s okay, which is better than some, at least. It does lack the full CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow in the game’s title so that’s fairly disappointing, but we’re here to rank music, not game title correctness.

About the Image: You know how movies often open with wide, colorful shots of nature, especially with plains or mountains? That made me recall those. Then I thought of a woman being the one looking off a cliff at the green grass below with her hair billowing. It would be a really pretty image if not for it being done by me on MSPaint. Or being done by me, period.

Rating: 5/10

--
You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

17. Earthbound – Smiles and Tears
User: todbot1
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: Nostalgic.

Thoughts: This may have been the hardest one to rank on the entire list. On one hand, I don’t particularly enjoy listening to it. It doesn’t really, um, stand out in terms of music or melody, I guess I would say. But the feelings I get from it? Oh man. I felt such a nostalgic feeling despite never having played Earthbound. No, it was nostalgia for when I was a kid, playing outside back in the neighborhood when I had no worries beyond the occasional piece of homework. The fact that it can do that makes it really noteworthy in my mind, even if I would not call it a favorite. So, I actually give this track a lot of props, even if I hesitate to call it ‘good’ in technical rankings. I wish it had left out that “I miss you” part, that was abrupt and sort of tore me out of the mood. Thankfully it comes at the very end.

About the Image: Since it made me think of playing in the neighborhood as a child, I drew that. Nothing really funny to say here. …Wait this track sapped out my (terrible) ability to be humorous! The horror!

Rating: 5.5/10

--
You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800

16. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – Theme of Dr. Doom
User: Mega Mana
Link:
Image:

First Impressions: Not bad, but not remarkable either.

Thoughts: I swear, I’m not trying to eliminate a bunch of people like this, yet here is the fourth track in a row that has someone with all three of their tracks posted. This doesn’t particularly seem fitting as a theme for someone called Dr. Doom. I mean, it’s sort of laid back while still keeping a fast beat. It always feels like a paradox to say that. It’s difficult to come across battle themes like this, and that usually has me look at them positively. This one feels repetitious, but the parts it repeats are okay.

About the Image: You know those lava levels in games that have grates or steel beams you have to walk across? That is what I attempted to draw. In reality it looks more like several gray lines with a red background. Genius or laziness? You decide. (It’s not genius in case you’re having trouble deciding.)

Rating: 5.5/10

--
You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out.
11900/7800