Board 8 > [VGMC] d43: Field of Hope/OOPs! All Artifacts!, Blue Rad/Fairytale, Tiebreaker

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to today's topic for Video Game Music Contest 13, a tournament of the best tracks from games, as decided upon by you, the voters.

Links:
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=471679
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17rEeB1_oYWgryWzIxOaZXw2a381gKGnMegjHCG_2OTQ
Discussion and results thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77672812
Bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RF28glW72G6s_5M1e4kcSxR

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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!

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Match 1:

Deltarune - Field of Hopes and Dreams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnLQnX7BPeU" data-time="

Tobari and the Night of the Curious Moon - Out-Of-Place Artifacts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH9R5LVK7dc" data-time="

Match 2:

Radiant Historia - Blue Radiance

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

Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjsbNeDAp0Y" data-time="

Match 3:

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness - A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8EfxAhz8-o" data-time="

7th Dragon III: Code: VFD - Ignith of the Final Attack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymNbe47KbXs" data-time="

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Easy vote form:
Field of Hopes and Dreams / Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Blue Radiance / Fairytale Poison and Solitude
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness / Ignith of the Final Attack

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Song lyric trivia: UNGH! Free love is too tame for him. UNGH! Tame for him, tame for him. UNGH! Free love is too tame for him. UNGH! Tame for him, tame for him. What is love? What is free love? What is love? Love is free.

Note: azuarc and I chose almost identical songs for the lyric trivia
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Out of Place Artifacts
-
Ignith of the Final

deltarune still fails to impressive me

DEMON TRUCK
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Hopes & Dreams Core Edition
Fairy Toxic German
Ignith of the final tiebreaker in R2 hopefully

Out of Place Artifacts
Blue Radiance
A Toccata Into blah blah blah
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness

Deltarune - Field of Hopes and Dreams
Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude
7th Dragon III: Code: VFD - Ignith of the Final Attack

UNDERSTAND, UNDERSTAND

UNDERSTAND, UNDERSTAND

UNDERSTAND, UNDERSTAND

THE CONCEPT OF LOVE
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Blue Radiance
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Tough choice, but I'll go with Fairytale Poison and Solitude for now.
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness
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Place posted...

THE CONCEPT OF LOVE

nope
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack

Switching my vote on the tiebreaker, I think relistening to these at home made me think more of Ignith rather than on my earbuds at the gym like last time.
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concept of passion mix?

UF8 posted...

concept of passion mix?

Can confirm.

Incidentally, although whoever puts the topic up can make their own trivia, the one I left for today was: "What is...? Love is free. Love is free. Love is free. Ready to kick some ass! Free love is too tame for him. Free love is too tame for him. Free love free love is too too tame for him. Tame for him. Understandderstandunderst the concept the concept of..."
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude

Again, abstaining on the 3rd matchup - these songs are ok, but neither one really does it for me
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Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Blue Radiance
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Blue radiance
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness - A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness
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Radiant Historia - Blue Radiance
7th Dragon III: Code: VFD - Ignith of the Final Attack
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Tobari and the Night of the Curious Moon - Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude
7th Dragon III: Code: VFD - Ignith of the Final Attack

I liked Field of Hopes and Dreams more than I remembered but it's not enough here.
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness

hey it's the good Deltarune

while I do quite like Desire Blue Sky, Toxic Faity is more interesting

tiebreaker
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Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Blue Radiance
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness
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out-of-place artifacts
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack feat. riya(eufonius)

Match 1 is extremely high quality, I love both of these songs to death but my vote is not painful because I know deep in my heart that ooparts has no chance lol. I think I do actually prefer it very slightly to FoHaD anyway cause I eat Beyond the Bounds-esque vocals like its fucking candy anyway but yeah. good match i look forward to voting FoHaD in the future lol, thank you for being one of my favorite contest finds ooparts!!!

Match 2 features my least favorite song still alive!! (it is 177th overall wow) god generic shimomura is just... the worst "generic composer" style out there. at least like sakuraba puts good emotion or sick melody lines into his generic "The true mirror - Baten Kaitos" songs (thats my fav btw true mirror is amazing) but shimomura is just a slog to listen to and just. immense boring nothingness. there's nothing even bad there's just... nothing. nothing is worse than having noteable negative stuff to me. Toxic German Fairy is very fun and interesting and this is just not even a decision worth thinking about for a second.

oh wow actually thanks to this tiebreaker both my second least and least favorite songs left are up today sick. I actually think a bit higher of Tocatta than when I ranked things, but it's still very "whatever". Has noteably good stuff as opposed to Blue Radiance having nothing. That's beside the point though, we're talking about Tocatta vs Ignith here and Ignith slobbers all over it still

Field of Hopes and Dreams = out-of-place artifacts > Ignith of the Final Attack feat. riya(eufonius) > Fairytale Poison and Solitude > A Toccata into Blood Soaked Darkness > Blue Radiance

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness

Field isn't as good as H&D classic, but it's still fairly nice. A song I can vote for.

Blue Radiance is not a song I can vote for, though. please stop coming back

time to change my vote and cause another tie then. I like both of the tiebreaker songs much better than all of today's songs!

Field of Hopes and Dreams > Fairytale Poison and Solitude > Blue Radiance > Out-Of-Place Artifacts
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Deltarune - Field of Hopes and Dreams
Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude
7th Dragon III: Code: VFD - Ignith of the Final Attack

UNDERSTAND UNDERSTAND UNDERSTAND UNDERSTAND UN--

MATCH 1

Field of Hopes and Dreams is my preferred Deltarune song in the contest over Chaos King and The World Revolving. Nice and happy melody. It's not the most amazing song ever, but it does enough to be good in my eyes.

Out-Of-Place Artifacts is also pretty good. Tough match, but I think I'm liking Field of Hopes and Dreams a bit more. I'm not incredibly invested in this match, but they're both good songs and I don't mind either song winning this match.

MATCH 2

Blue Radiance is okay, but this song just kinda feels like generic orchestra to me. Doesn't really do anything interesting to me.

Fairytale Poison and Solitude is really cool, and I like it a lot more than Blue Radiance.

Ignith of the Final Attack > Fairytale Poison and Solitude = Field of Hopes and Dreams > Out-Of-Place Artifacts > A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness > Blue Radiance

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Blue Radiance
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness
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Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack

Ignith of the Final Attack > Out-Of-Place Artifacts > Fairytale Poison and Solitude > Field of Hopes and Dreams > Blue Radiance > A Toccata into Blood Soaked Darkness

wait did i talk about field of hopes and dreams already lol. it's happymellow walk down a path chirping birds. blue radiance is weeeeird but yoko shimomura is weird in general for me lol. it feels like generic jrpg but there's composing quirks you can tell are distinctly 'shimo' like the rolling drums and main violin melody.
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Blue Radiance
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness

Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack

Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Blue Radiance
Ignith of the Final Attack
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Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Blue Radiance
Ignith of the Final Attack

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Blue Radiance
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness
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Blue Radiance
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Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Blue Radiance
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness

Tobari and the Night of the Curious Moon - Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude
7th Dragon III: Code: VFD - Ignith of the Final Attack

Best Deltarune track in the contest, but it's up against my pet nom, not really a hard choice.

Blue Radiance is the better of the two RH tracks, but again, not a hard choice. Really loving the Spanish guitar here, and I'm glad I can vote for this song now.

Changing my mind on the tiebreaker.
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OOPA
Fairy Toxic German
-
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Tobari and the Night of the Curious Moon - Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness - A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness
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Field of Hopes and Dreams is...a thing. Actually, it kind of reminds me of something oh wait that's right this is Toby Fox. Yeah, it kind of sounds like a Homestuck track. A little. More in the melody than in the instrumentation.

Ah, I must have missed the day when these two non-byes had their first-round matches; neither seems remotely familiar. Nor do their games. This is pretty awesome. I'm wondering how I'll manage to muster up the ability to care about many matches in later rounds because these are all so awesome.

Case in point. What's been keeping Blue Radiance from retiring for so long? Bad matchups? Or just B8 taste?

...Uh, yeah. The former. Gotcha. Well I mean probably also the latter, but not this year. Oh, wait, the thing that beat it last year actually retired. Whatever.

And then we have the tiebreaker. I felt like I could've voted either way in the original match, and that depending on my mood, I could easily end up changing my vote. And sure enough, I did! With a little help from Out-Of-Place Artifacts making Ignith seem far more pedestrian.

Votes:
Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness

Rankings:

Fairytale Poison and Solitude > Out-Of-Place Artifacts > A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness > Ignith of the Final Attack > Blue Radiance > Field of Hopes and Dreams
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack

Dr-FoHaD -- While I really like the bassline of this song, especially the digital synth for it, but in the variety of focuses this song has, it's all things that I don't particularly care much about, -- piano, high & child-like strings, saxophone, peacefulish mood, and as a result this song kind of falls flat for anything beyond background music for me. The little fluttery thing the piano does is kind of neat though, especially as a transition between sections, and I like the little addition at 1:16 that's like birds adding to the song, but they're more like abstract concepts of birds which is cool. The radio quality at the intro is interesting, but also why is it even there, but on the same hand, why not? As I said earlier though this song doesn't really rank that highly for me but it does beat Ooparts.

RH-BR -- Orchestral battle-ready determination. Kind of alright but also kind of generic to me, but at least I can enjoy the mood. I do like the beat that picks up at :47 though. When it goes away at 1:33 it feels like my interest takes a significant drop as the mood gets moodier and the fun beat is replaced with a focus on high woodwinds. Well not really I guess as the two serve different purposes but one goes away and another is added in and I don't appreciate this trade.

T-B -- My strong dislike of vocals makes this match closer than I like but I am just not particularly sold on the churchland music. I will say I think I didn't mention in yesterdays writeups that I liked how the downstepping tuba stuff at 1:47 in Castlevania song sounded but it's not enough.
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MycroProcessor posted...

*snip*

You always have the best writeups

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack

Field of
Poison
Into Blood-Soaked Darkness
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Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack

Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness

I-should-really-play-the-sequels day.

Match 1:

-Taking into consideration the overall context and sound of Undertale's Hopes and Dreams, this piece not only sounds radically different, but it's also a little weird to hear a catchy beat throughout. Yeah, I gotta play Deltarune. Anyway, the song itself is well-constructed (like such a promising title should at least sound), but nowhere near the level of epicness that Undertale's Hopes and Dreams has. Maybe in future Episodes we can finally see an epic final boss theme worthy of true praise.

-Y'know, O-O-PA sounds like the kind of song someone like Shantae would rock in a dance performance. Nice. The beat is sooo catchyyy... Despite only singing two notes throughout the song, it actually works, and that's what matters. It reminds me of the 90's hits of the era (the good ones, obviously).

Match 2:

-So I'm guessing this is the second time we have a match in Round 2 where both participants come from Round 1, right? Either way, I've heard Blue Radiance so many times, and it's good but not great. It portrays a nice and epic medieval dramatic battle theme, but that's as far as it goes.

-Murasaki Tsurugi continues to give solid performances, even if they are not top-tier material. I also wish the "improvisational" parts near the end of the song and when the loop is supposed to come in disappeared completely or was performed differently, because that's the main problem that affects pretty much every watson song.

Tiebreaker:

-Tocatta still crushing, not only in this match but also the entire day in general. Everything about it is just so extremely well-made, and... Would this be my all-time favorite Dracula theme in the series? Well, I can't really think of a greater one than this one. So please, Ignith... "SCATTER TO THE WIND!".

-Listening to Ignith again, it's certainly a little better than what I remembered from it, but there are a handful of other better vocal Japanese songs in the contest, so we could easily get rid of this one and not have a real loss.

A Tocatta Into Fluff-Filled Puppies >>> These Tools Don't Belong Here >> Field of Beats and Catchiness >= A Song From Murasaki 2 > Shininess That's Not Red > I've Never Heard of the Word "Ignith" Before
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Out-Of-Place Artifacts
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Ignith of the Final Attack
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F
F
I

F
~ The Field of Leitmotifs and Trills

B
hi i am i put the drums in my orchestra again
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Blue Radiance
A Toccata Into Blood-Soaked Darkness
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