Board 8 > [VGMC] d60: Field of H&D vs Toxic German, Neon City Hell vs Sky of Twilight

(+) 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="

Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude

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

Match 2:

Demon Truck - Dead Neon Hell City

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aptaoGaE13k" data-time="

Atelier Escha & Logy - Sky of Twilight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDa-vYgd1P8" data-time="

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Easy vote form:
Field of Hopes and Dreams / Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Dead Neon Hell City / Sky of Twilight

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Song lyric trivia: So throw your undies on the stage! No, wait...you're under age. You send us e-mails every day. Shop at tar-jay. You made your freq so uber-chic. You know what you are. S...U...P...E-R!
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DEMON TRUCK

DEMON TRUCK lS TOO POWERFUL FOR LOWERCASE LETTERS
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight

Love all these songs. LOVE both in match two, Sky of Twilight absolutely deserves this more but Demon Truck is the underdog I want to move on most... even though I dont think Ive ever voted for it. Secretly really want Sky of Twilight to not win somehow

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight

Everything here is pretty good, but Sky of Twilight was one of my favorites coming in, I would like it to do well. Even though I like Demon Truck way more than I thought I would.
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Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Sky of Twilight

Fairytale
Hell
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Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Dead Neon Hell City
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight
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Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Dead Neon Hell City

Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Dead Neon Hell City

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight

Huh, was not expecting to vote Sky of Twilight today.
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Atelier Escha & Logy - Sky of Twilight
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Dead Neon Hell City
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Deltarune - Field of Hopes and Dreams (close call)
Atelier Escha & Logy - Sky of Twilight
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Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Dead Neon Hell City

Toxic Faity
Sky of Twilight
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Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Dead Neon Hell City

The match I dreaded the most and the least on Fairy Toxic German's path. The song it's up against is a song I feel particularly responsible for getting in, even if I wasn't actually the nominator. I like Field of Hopes and Dreams with its CT throwbacks a good amount and respect its bye positioning more than most. I really didn't even expect it to have a chance of making it in when the focus seemed to be so clearly on the other two well before it even got nominated, let alone for it to be effectively touted as the favourite among them. Before bracket d r1 matches started, I expected fairy toxic to be bodied by either Octopath or RH, and considered anything immediately beyond them to be pretty easy to overcome by comparison. Now that they're both here though I'm definitely not as confident. This is the first match where fairy toxic doesn't have a bracket vote majority for one thing. I guess I have no choice but to accept what comes of this and let go

Sky of Twilight has insultingly bad parts, and may well be the bye recipient I respect the least. I'm still relatively neutral on Demon Truck but it's yet another easy decision in favour of it here.

Deltarune - Field of Hopes and Dreams
Atelier Escha & Logy - Sky of Twilight

MATCH 1

This first match is pretty close. Both contestants here are songs that I like a lot, but in the end, Field of Hopes and Dreams wins it over for me. I guess I just prefer Field of Hopes and Dreams' execution of "happy piano (and other instruments too, sure) music" over Fairytale Poison and Solitude's execution of "banger flamenco sound."

MATCH 2

This match, on the other hand, is very easy. Dead Neon Hell City is pretty good, but Sky of Twilight is my favorite song that's still alive in this contest. At this point, I want Sky of Twilight to just win the whole contest, but I'll still be very ecstatic if it hits retirement. Obviously, I'm gonna be rooting for this song every step of the way until it falls. Such a great song!

Sky of Twilight >> Field of Hopes and Dreams > Dead Neon Hell City > Fairytale Poison and Solitude

Good day of songs today! Bottom 3 songs for today are pretty close.

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Dead Neon Hell City

Had to think a bit over the first match, it felt like a repeat of yesterday, where FoHaD may seem more like the kind of song for me in the instrumentation stuff, it kind of comes off as "plain" compared to the opponent who is more fun and energetic! Plus, I can't really get too into the main beat of the song, and I'm not too interested in the playing preschooler feel of certain parts either. But, that's me being a little overly harsh towards FoHaD and giving FPoison too much credit. It's mostly the intro to the song that's super fun, and if it kept that feel up for the rest of the song it would very likely get my vote here, but it doesn't. I'm less interested in most of the rest of the song, especially the sort of feel from focusing on the guitar (and I especially don't like the slow bit at the end). And FoHaD still has plenty of good & interesting aspects about it too. Again this match is close for me but I gotta give it to Deltarune.

Second match is not at all close for me.
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Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Atelier Escha & Logy - Sky of Twilight
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Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Atelier Escha & Logy - Sky of Twilight

With the Octopath song out, FTG hasn't really had anything good enough to stand up against it, and won't for a few more rounds.

DEMON TRUCK is the quintessential "7/10 song". It's good and I will vote for it over anything below "love" status. Still really loving the instrumentals in SoT.
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Dead Neon Hell City

Fairytale Poison And Solitude
Sky of Twilight

Fairytale Poison and Solitude > Sky of Twilight > Dead Neon Hell City > Field of Hopes and Dreams
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Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Demon Truck - Dead Neon Hell City
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight
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Deltarune - Field of Hopes and Dreams
Atelier Escha & Logy - Sky of Twilight
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight
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20. Deltarune - Field of Hopes and Dreams (7.5) (over Out of Place Artifacts)

vs.

25. Murasaki Tsurugi - Fairytale Poison and Solitude (7) (for Daughter of the Dark God, Blue Radiance)

Field of Hopes and Dreams is nice adventuring music: very catchy melody, fun instrumentation. It's like going on a journey full of possibility, without much hint of danger. And there's SAX. Even though I have Field of Hopes and Dreams rated the same as Chaos King, I have Chaos King ranked higher.

Fairytale Poison and Solitude is a nice Spanish guitar-based track that's constantly moving forward and being EXCITING. I like a lot of things this song does: the overall vibe is, as with Field of Hopes and Dreams, adventure, albeit this song has more of a sense of impending danger. It gets a bit too repetitive for my liking in the second half, although the total acoustic breakdown is unexpected and nice.

FOHAD gets the edge for more variety and greater emotional connection, but I wouldn't mind FPAS winning either.

and

19. Demon Truck - Dead Neon Hell City (7.5) (over Galaxy of Friendship, for Dark Man Stage)

vs.

64. Atelier Escha & Logy - Sky of Twilight (0.5) (for Intersection: Me vs. You)

I love the grungy in-your-faceness of Dead Neon Hell City. The instrumentation is wet and dripping with grossness. This is a song you don't want to face in a dark alley. zircon does interesting things with whatever sound samples he's using here, giving the track an FM synth vibe. Very fun.

Sky of Twilight is my least favorite song remaining and might be my least favorite song overall in the contest (although upon relisten I might bump it up to a 1 or even 1.5). The sheer wall of noise this song emanates at parts is deafening. Droning guitar is one of my least favorite musical tropes, and there's just too much of it all throughout the song. I like Itou Kanako, but this is not one of my favorite songs by her: the non-guitar parts are average at best. The instrumental break at 3:10 in particular makes my brain hurt. The song's overall package is incredibly unappealing to me. I could, in all fairness, see this growing on me a bit with repeated listens, but I'd rather not listen again if I can help it, you know?

Very easy match.

Votes:
Field of Hopes and Dreams
Dead Neon Hell City

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Dead Neon Hell City

Deltarune - Field of Hopes and Dreams
Demon Truck - Dead Neon Hell City

Been flipflopping on the second match--it's another case of being in the right mood for one thing vs another. As of now, I'm team DEMON TRUCK.
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Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Dead Neon Hell City

Oh, it's the winners of the one day I missed voting last round! I feel bad about that now, because both songs are sounding really really good today! I started out having hopes and dreams today, but found myself lost in the fairytale after some solitude. Field has cool motifs and a sweet (fake) sax solo, but Fairy has an even sweeter guitar solo and I just love the way it teases the gradual transition back into one last run of the main theme.

Funny contrast in the second matchup.
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Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Dead Neon Hell City
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Dead Neon Hell City

Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Dead Neon Hell City
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All of these songs are pretty good. Only one is a remotely tough decision, though, and that's still not that tough a choice.

Votes:
Fairytale Poison and Solitude
Sky of Twilight

Rankings:

Sky of Twilight > Fairytale Poison and Solitude > Dead Neon Hell City > Field of Hopes and Dreams

Huh. I guess it did still end up being 1 vs. 3 and 2 vs. 4, so I'll clarify: Fairytale Poison was the one that was a truly easy choice. If both of my picks win, though, it'll be a very tough choice next round (You can see how I'm leaning today, but I've already voted oppositely in a tiebreaker to my original vote once so that's hardly an indication of anything.)

All four would be worthy retirees, though. Field of Hopes and Dreams less so than the other three, but it's far from the "I am only okay with this retiring because it means it can't come back to darken these contests again". So far, I've only gotten to that point once, when Seymour Battle retired (I don't remember what it was up against in Round 4 but I didn't like that much, either, so I just voted for the one I hated more so it couldn't come back.)
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight

Second match is close

First match might be the second most painful for me so far

That poll made me realize that Battle!! vs Kill Command would also be trouble. Battle!! vs Studiopolis might be tough...

FOHAD
Sky of Twilight

Could have gone either way on match 1, hope whoever wins also wins next round.
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight
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Fairytale
Dead
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Field of Hopes and Dreams
Sky of Twilight

Field of Hopes and Dreams
Dead Neon Hell City

Match 1:

Battle of the sequels yet to play!

FoH&D too happy, not enough hopey; too catchy, not enough dreamy. Still not the best Deltarune track in the contest; probably Top 3 though. Toby Fox is a downright genius. He's a one-man-band developer that managed to prove himself superior to everyone else today. Meanwhile, FtP&S doesn't quite get the job done as an awesome battle theme, especially when it reaches the part at 2:40 onwards where (I bet) is supposed to loop and it just digresses, like watson's compositions tend to be, which is truly a shame since I kind of get the vibe that watson just doesn't care about his overall compositions to get kind of ruined by details like those, and I dislike that. Eh, maybe I'm just overthinking it, but that's what it sounds like.

Wait...

"Toxic German"? What do you mean with that title, @azuarc?

Match 2:

You know, it's kind of weird to have such an unconventional song (Dead Neon) at this point of the contest. Of all songs today, that one clearly sticks out as the one that's pretty clearly not as "professionally composed" as the rest, but it tries its best and it does good regardless (even better than some songs today), which is what matters in the end. Sky of Twilight was the only song I didn't remember today at all, and... I mean, it's good, but it exaggerates a little with the vocals and especially the instrumentation. Ironically enough, it doesn't offer much interesting material for the rest of the song and it only makes it sound aggressive and like dragging on for quite a while (remember, having a song longer than 4 minutes is pretty dangerous for itself).

Field of Cookies & Cream >> "Toxic... German"? >= Demon Truck In Hell City :) >> Try-hard Anime Opening Performance

Match 1 > Match 2

Hardest thing today was deciding which was better between the Truck and the German. Literally took me like 30 minutes to decide.
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Advokaiser posted...

"Toxic German"? What do you mean with that title, @azuarc?

@Advokaiser The song goes by two names. One is Fairytale Toxic German. Don't ask me the origin, but that was what the song was originally nominated as.
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Been thinking about it too much, swap my vote to Dead Neon Hell City aaaa

Fairytale Poison and Solitude
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