Board 8 > FL81 ranks VGM (Rankings: Part 2)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Update eventually

meant to post one last night, but forgot woops
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#22 Atelier Viorate - The Mudship Sinks at Karotte Village
Nominator: Zyxyz0 (2/5)
Link:

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

More sadvnsong.mp3! (Yes I know Atelier isn't a VN, you don't have to remind me )
According to the spreadsheet, this song was in VGMC6, but I actually don't remember this at all. Really nice, soothing sound here, very good track for a background music playlist, I might just go do that! As is usual with Atelier music, the instrumentation is super good, I love how they mix the calm piano with the bass guitar in this, and that jazzy section from around 1:20 to 2:00 in the song is especially sweet. I'll get around to playing these games sooner or later!
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#21 Bean Dreams - Fun Factory
Nominator: UF8 (2/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REGKzGsP4Gk" data-time="

Ah yes, Bean Dreams. This game has had a few VGMC entrants these last couple years, and they've all been really great! flashygoodness is imo one of the best artists to show up on the indie VGM scene as of late (also did the Rivals of Aether soundtrack), and I look forward to whatever they have in store next. I'm liking the groovy retro '90s VGM style beat this has, but not going into that faux-chiptune style of instrumentation that a lot of "trying too hard for retro aesthetics" games do. Fun Factory song! (although I somewhat prefer Brickworks to this)

Top 20! Woo!
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Woo

The Top 20

2048 Unleashed - Soilscraper (MycroProcessor)
Ar tonelico Qoga - EXEC_ViiBaCi_MjiiRa/. (Zyxyz0)
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - Credits (tazzyboyishere)
Bullet Heaven 2 - The Count of Darkness (Shonen_Bat)
C9: Continent of the Ninth - Where the Sky Ended (JONALEON1)
Deemo - Suspenseful Third Day (TheArkOfTurus)
Drift Stage - Artificial Ego (UF8)
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City - Their Own Brand of Justice (DireKrow)
Europa Universalis IV - The Voyage (handsomeboy2012)
Gurumin - To Make the End of Digging (pyresword)
Mega Man V - Sun God (deogenerate)
One Piece Treasure Cruise - Treasure Map Boss Theme (TheArkOfTurus)
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness - Necrotaur Battle (azuarc)
Super Smash Bros Ultimate - Vega's Theme (NowItsAngeTime)
Terraria Calamity - The Scourge of the Universe (NFUN)
Tokyo Xanadu - Believe It!! (Janus5k)
Touhou 11 - Satori Maiden: 3rd Eye (Shonen_Bat)
Under Night In Birth - Snow sisters (NowItsAngeTime)
Violent Vengeance: The Universe Hero - Nanmushi's/Nimeoseudok's Theme (rwlh)
Xeno Crisis - Boss Music (MycroProcessor)

We got ourselves a nice spread of different nominators here! Also, join the discord!!

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http://discord.me/board8
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woo satori maiden, one of my favorite vgms ever.
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FL81 posted...

Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness - Necrotaur Battle (azuarc)

When the rest of mine were going out in the 50s, I didn't expect this to be the track that would hold on for another 20 slots. Then again, with my 5, I'm not really sure what I expected would be. Cloudbits, maybe. With someone else ranking, probably Watching the Clouds.
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A lot of people's last remaining nominations not being what they thought they would be!

ranking tomorrow, probably
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Sorry for not participating. I usually just lose touch with ranking projects when the updates are slow. Glad you like the Bloodstained credits theme! Nice little gem I wasn't expecting to hear from that game.
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I can say my last nomination was definitely not a surprise >.>
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I am very much not surprised by my last nom

(bump)
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I thought my last one would be the first to go for sure lol

#20 Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - Credits
Nominator: tazzyboyishere (1/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ7D0c6L_hs" data-time="

Somehow, this was the only Castlevania track nominated for my topic (This is a Castlevania game, right? This song + the background image in the video totally has that aesthetic)
Super catchy chiptune, these have always held their own special place in my heart. Even really short, repetitive tracks like this one can still rank really highly for me if they have a catchy enough melody, and it always makes me sad to see stuff like old school Mega Man, Castlevania, and the first two generations of Pokmon music do so poorly in B8's contests (New Messiah got robbed!). This is definitely somewhere where I see myself not really in the majority here, but I like this stuff! Funky beat!

no more elimination notices, everyone in the top 20 is a winner
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It isn't officially a Castlevania game, but it is totally a Castlevania game.
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So it's Castlevania's Mighty No. 9?

(except presumably good?)
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Yes and yes.

Although it's actually a bonus prequel to the actual kickstarted not-Castlevania.
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#19 Tokyo Xanadu - Believe It!!
Nominator: Janus5k (1/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj4O07XEKVM" data-time="



Falcom music! I always feel like the Falcom music composers are at their best when doing heavy metal stuff like this. The other stuff is nice too (Silver Will in particular stands out), but I feel this is really where they stand out in comparison to the rest of VGM. They're always putting out really high-energy music like this that always gets me hyped up with each listen (Power metal is my favorite genre of music so expect a few more like these!)
Fast melodic guitars, with piano and strings thrown in too (not enough music does this), all adds up to "music FL81 really likes". Of course there's a lot more variety in my tastes now, so I probably would've ranked this higher back when I first started posting here, but this is still very good!
On a somewhat-unrelated side note, the Falcom jdk Band arrange albums are all god tier
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#18 Terraria Calamity - The Scourge of the Universe (Theme of the Devourer of Gods)
Nominator: NFUN (1/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Syn1mJVt7U" data-time="

Long, epic, final boss-y sounding music! I had honestly never heard of Calamity Mod until NFUN started using tracks from this game in just about every one of his guessing games, though judging by the view count on this video, it seems pretty popular! One thing that's always standed out in all of the music I've heard from this game is the cool instrumentation. You got the retraux chiptune mixed in with the dark electronic music and heavy strings here, all pulling together for cataclysmic video game boss music. Powerful sounds are good, easy cookie points here. The slow parts of this are also really nice sounding, absolutely love that bass guitar sound at around 2:30 in. All around, I'm very impressed by the production value on this song and others from this soundtrack, very well made for something that's just a fanmade mod for another game (I believe?)
Long songs are great if they can keep me interested the whole duration (this one does!)
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*Actually remembers to listen to a song when he gets home from work*

Oh I really like that one, though maybe that shouldn't be much of a surprise at this point in the list. The gongs are nice. Reminds me a bit of Beat the Angel. (Yes, solely because that is also a song that utilizes gongs...>.>)
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pyresword posted...

The gongs are nice. Reminds me a bit of Beat the Angel. (Yes, solely because that is also a song that utilizes gongs...>.>)

#SaveTheCLANG
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#17 Mega Man V - Sun God
Nominator: banshiryuu/deogenerate (1/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG49U_Md3GU" data-time="

Continuing on the topic of long songs vs. short songs, this one is actually the single shortest (unlooped) song in the entire nomination list! I almost feel bad that I have a 22 second long looped chiptune ranked so highly, especially above a bunch of other really great stuff! But man, is this catchy! As I've brought up previously in my #20 writeup, this is something I really wouldn't expect B8 as a whole to enjoy much, but this is totally my kind of thing. I can't really say I'd nominate this for a contest over something longer (like Solar Man's theme) for that reason, but I do enjoy my share of short, catchy jingles.

Also, is "Sun God" the Japanese title for this track, or am I out of the loop on some sort of meme or another?
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Was working on my writeup for today before work, but just got a call and need to be somewhere so it'll have to wait

#16 is a real doozy, I have a lot to say about it lol

Anyways, hoping I can get these writeups all done before the 30th when I fly out of state for vacation. If I can't by then, I'll probably need someone to keep this bumped until I get back.
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#16 2048 Unleashed - Soilscraper
Nominator: MycroProcessor (2/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO1mc2DWTAc" data-time="

Oh boy Where do I even start with this?? Might as well start with the beginning!
"Oh no it's one of these" are my initial thoughts as I am immediately slammed in the face with Windows MIDI sounds. Starting off, we have heavily distorted electric guitar and piano sounds repeating variations of the same melody for the first 44 seconds, BUT THEN it goes into this really cool section focusing on the guitar and organ that sounds SUPER COOL. Then comes in the FUNKY BASS. Cool chord progression at 1:31. Then we get those onestop.mid MIDI "ohs" near the end of the song that sound pretty cool too.

Very jazzy sounding all throughout, not quite sure if I'd consider this jazz or hard rock, or even what it is, but it's very cool, probably the "busiest" song nominated for my topic. Overall this does strongly remind me of benign spirit of the autoclave from VGMC12 snubs (another one I quite liked), but I think I like this one even more!

Every year I feel my tastes getting closer to Mycro's ;>_>
wouldn't have ranked this so high when I first came to B8, but I like it now!
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#15 Bullet Heaven 2 - The Count of Darkness
Nominator: Shonen_Bat (2/4)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5iLSURT2Sw" data-time="

I've been seeing this track pop up everywhere lately, first in the reverse ranking topic, then in VGMC12 snubs, and now here in my own ranking topic! Initially this was one of those "oh this is pretty neat, I'll vote for this" tracks, but now it's grown on me even further into something I actively really like. The sound design on this kinda sounds like one of those fan submissions to Newgrounds (or maybe even OCRemix), but this is one of the ones done really well. Organs, piano, and that cheesy fake electic guitar combo is something I have a soft spot for, and it all has good synergy here.
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it's for a flash game so yeah
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#14 Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness - Necrotaur Battle
Nominator: azuarc (1/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaKj8VQ7ePs" data-time="

Now THOSE are some samples lmao
This is the 2nd cheesiest track nominated for my whole topic (#1 still hasn't showed up yet actually). I love how hard this song tries to sound cool, like that in itself is something I find really appealing in music. You got those obviously fake electric guitars and heavy drums, throw in a few claps for good measure, and then just go all out with this. This is the quintessential early '90s PC soundtrack, trying to showcase all the new stuff they can do with the sound system. But I don't just like this for its narm factor either, the melody in this actually is really good too, with a kickass rockin' guitar solo to boot. For all the really bad music that has tried to accomplish same thing, this is legitimately great!
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#13 Under Night In Birth - Snow sisters
Nominator: NowItsAngeTime (2/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxrQCZA17J4" data-time="

Ooh, cool sound on this, sounds very much like a Melty Blood track. Granted I've never actually played any Melty Blood or Under Night games, but I recognize this style very distinctly being a Raito work, and just about everything I've heard from him I've really liked. Again, this is another one where it gets its high ranking mostly based off the cool instruments being used here. They keyboards used here have that very "jazzy early '00s anime style" almost even with a futuristic spacey sound to it too. I dunno, it's hard to describe, but it's really cool. I'm also really liking that smooth bass guitar, and then how it throws in the electric guitar at the end for the climax. Nice atmosphere this one builds.
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If azuarc ever did the OST contest again, I would definitley include UNder Night In Bith in there
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I can get behind that.
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I've considered it. It's just a lot of work and I'm trying to sell a (not-empty) house right now.

I have made multiple offers for someone else to run it, since I'm doing VGMC now. Nobody's taken me up on it, though. Maybe I should try passing off VGMC instead.
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#12 Ar tonelico Qoga - EXEC_ViiBaCi_MjiiRa/.
Nominator: Zyxyz0 (1/5)
Link:

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

More cool Gust Sound Team sounds! Just like that last Ar tonelico song earlier in the thread, I am thoroughly impressed by how cool this all sounds. I really like the evil sounding chanting with the apocalyptic lyrics here. I love when songs throw in ominous chanting, and when it's two different chants going on simultaneously in the same song (even more bonus points for being in two different languages), it's one of my favorite things in music (what is that even called anyways?) Great instrumentation too, giving this a really "mysterious" vibe to it. I am legitimately thankful for B8 having introduced me to Gust music, I love it!

Afezeria!
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#11 Touhou 11 - Satori Maiden: 3rd Eye
Nominator: Shonen_Bat (1/4)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12AHLzW4kks" data-time="

This entry here is the highest ranking track from games I've actually played. SA is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite game in the mainline Touhou series, and I'd even say it has my favorite soundtrack. In fact, there are at least two or three songs from this game I'd rank all the way at number one! (Okay, maybe #2 actually, the #1 in this list is really good and I was pretty much expecting it to win the moment I saw it nominated.)
Anyways, to the song! Lots of busy, melodic piano in this, basically what I love about Touhou music in the first place, with really dark spooky chords for the atmosphere (hey just in time for Halloween!) On my first listen to this track many, many years ago, I thought it sounded familiar, like I've heard it somewhere else before, it does have a very haunted mansion vibe to it. Midway into the song, we get the trademark ZUNpets, which have always been a mixed bag for me. They work pretty well here though, not being too overpowering like they are in some other Touhou tracks (looking at you Wind God Girl), and do well in adding to the dark atmosphere of this track. I love the aesthetic this game goes for, and the music in it is great to boot!
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As mentioned previously, I'm gonna be out of town without a PC until the 4th, so if you'd like you can keep this bumped until then, or I can just create a 3rd topic TOP 10 Edition

Congratulations to everyone who's made it this far, here's what's left

C9: Continent of the Ninth - Where the Sky Ended (JONALEON1)
Deemo - Suspenseful Third Day (TheArkOfTurus)
Drift Stage - Artificial Ego (UF8)
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City - Their Own Brand of Justice (DireKrow)
Europa Universalis IV - The Voyage (handsomeboy2012)
Gurumin - To Make the End of Digging (pyresword)
One Piece Treasure Cruise - Treasure Map Boss Theme (TheArkOfTurus)
Super Smash Bros Ultimate - Vega's Theme (NowItsAngeTime)
Violent Vengeance: The Universe Hero - Nanmushi's/Nimeoseudok's Theme (rwlh)
Xeno Crisis - Boss Music (MycroProcessor)
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.

Woo, top 10, never happened to my nominations before

So how often do topics need to be bumped, these days?
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Once a day seems about right.
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It's variable based on number of posts on the board, but I think every other day is about right for Board 8. Every day to be super safe.
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Probably better if I'm super safe.
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Mostly because I worry that I'll forget to bump it one day.
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Back from my vacation!

Update after I get settled back in
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#10 Drift Stage - Artificial Ego
Nominator: UF8 (1/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtWN0tk1pNI" data-time="

Oh man, this is the most stereotypical late '80s-early '90s thing ever and I LOVE it! Very rarely do I get such a clear vision of what the music is trying to embody, as tracks like this one. I can just see some old '90s sports car driving on some tropical getaway race track, and I've never even heard of this game before. Cheesy early electronic, with electric guitar, throwing in that flute in at 1:18 is a nice touch too. Very aesthetic piece.
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FL81 posted...

#10 Drift Stage - Artificial Ego
Nominator: UF8 (1/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtWN0tk1pNI" data-time="

Oh man, this is the most stereotypical late '80s-early '90s thing ever and I LOVE it! Very rarely do I get such a clear vision of what the music is trying to embody, as tracks like this one. I can just see some old '90s sports car driving on some tropical getaway race track, and I've never even heard of this game before. Cheesy early electronic, with electric guitar, throwing in that flute in at 1:18 is a nice touch too. Very aesthetic piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR79DU97kRI" data-time="

You're not wrong.

(and yes, the entire soundtrack is like this. Artificial Ego specifically is probably only like my fifth-most-favourite among them, and that's out of only like 10-15 tracks.)

Given how well it did here, and the menu theme in Flamander's topic, I'm feeling quite confident about the game's chances in a potential future BOST.

Same goes for Bean Dreams, which I decided to throw a song from in here to get a feel for how well it might do in VGMC. 21st place here definitely isn't bad, but you kind of also confirmed my suspicions that people might just think of it as an inferior Brickworks. I might end up picking something like Candy Kingdom or Marble Mountain instead there... Or maybe I'd just go with the copout option of the Ori theme from Rivals. Or, Sealark will suddenly finally come out and I'll just default to something from that instead. Or maybe I'll just go "fuck this flashy prick, I'll just go and pick something from Askiisoft's latest game that didn't involve 'em instead"... is that game even out yet? I remember that it looked kind of amazing with this samurai assassin guy sprinting around doing murders on everyone. Forgot its name sadly.

UF8 posted...

Or maybe I'd just go with the copout option of the Ori theme from Rivals.

I probably would support this if nominated

flashygoodness is too good
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#9 Europa Universalis IV - The Voyage
Nominator: handsomeboy2012 (1/5)
Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9yzenyI7_0" data-time="

"Epic cinematic music" is something that's always either really boring to me or my favorite thing ever. I guess the main thing separating these categories for me is how intense it is. Listening to this, I feel ready to set out on a grand journey, conquering all challenges in my path. This here embodies the feeling of starting a brand new day, just me against the world with everything to gain and nothing to lose. I know I'm just a real sucker for Two Steps From Hell-style music, but I can't get enough of it. These powerful chords with focus on the strings and horns, IT'S SO COOL

(Interestingly enough, this same song was nominated for Dire's topic, but got a much lower ranking. Just goes to show how different other users' tastes can be! )
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Oh yeah, perfect for exploring the new world and Killing natives

Still waiting for Dire's rankings to return...