Board 8 > [VGMC] SEMIFINAL 2: Battle!! (XBC 2: Torna) vs Class::EXSPHERE (Ar nosurge)

(+) Yeah! (+)

with apologies to bob and vah'ruta. Didn't have room for the R1 opponents.
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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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Today's match:

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_SlG-xDBLo" data-time="

Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BywGBJDXQ0c" data-time="

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IMPORTANT FOR ALL NEW VOTERS! If this is your first vote in the contest, please copy/paste the following into your post or your vote will not be counted:
I certify that I have read the rules, listened to both songs, and am making my decision based on the quality of the songs present.

(Sorry, we have to do these things in the final rounds, after the way the year with Megalovania ended.)

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Easy vote form:
Battle!! / Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

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Song lyric trivia: In your darkest dreams see to believe. Our destiny is time, and endlessly we'll all be free tonight. And on the wings of a dream, so far beyond reality, all alone in desperation, now the time has gone. Lost inside you'll never find. Lost within my own mind. Day after day this misery must go on. So far awaaay we wait for the daayeeayyy, for the lives all so wasted and gone. We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days....we carry on.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr4hPUeMnQ0" data-time="
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Ar nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

azuarc posted...

with apologies to vah'ruta.

apology

not accepted
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

Vote in vah'ruta

Battle!!

this match hurts

cakophon votes...

Battle!!

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Before I forget him again...

Cako votes:
Battle!!

(He wanted Revenger over NWO yesterday, which was added to the results.)
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Battle!!

I'll keep listening to Exsphere until I like it, but don't think it's gonna happen today.
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

Battle!!

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!!
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Battle
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ExSPHERE_NOSURGE
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

I feel bad that I keep voting against Battle!! since I supported it. At least there have been rounds where voting Battle!! was the clear decision for me. But here, Exsphere is just too good for me to vote against it.

Battle!!
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Battle
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Battle!!

fitting trivia after EXSPHERE left Bracket D a sea of fire and flames
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Battle!!

Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Battle

battle
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Battle!!

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!!
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Battle!!
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Battle
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Battle!!
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Battle!!

class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Battle!!
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Battle!!
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4. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!! (7) (over Divine Beast Vah Ruta (Dungeon); for Happy Hippo; over Knight of a Foreign Country; for Studiopolis; over Flash Frost, Chocolate Missile)

vs.

1. Ar Nosurge - Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE; (9.5) (over The Final Song, Dont Turn It Off, Escaping the Courtyard Garden, Dead Neon Hell City, Invitation Flower)

Battle!! is pie

EXSPHERE is cheesecake

Vote:
Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Battle!!

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Battle!!

Hype gone away in like a 90% after yesterday's fiasco, but moving on...

Match-up analysis:

So we have two "villains" here. (For me, a "villain" is a song that's regarded as better than what I think it deserves; in other words, plain overratedness.) Every villain has to be taken down, but what happens when you have a match like this? Well, we recur to the lesser of the two evils, of course! In pretty much every aspect, Battle!! feels like the little "hero" here (including the happier and lighter tone it has going), but EXSPHERE is just an unsurmountable colossus; a giant monster that can no longer be stopped. The powerful hero that could give this one other song a fight (New World Order) was taken down yesterday in a really sad manner (well... actually any manner was going to be sad for it at that point).

If (when) EXSPHERE advances, it will be expected and logical, but if Battle!! advances, it will be an incredibly random result to have at this point. Shocking as well. I'd say I know it won't happen, but hey, if NWO managed to easily take down the other two favorites to win it all and then lost just the Round after, I can't really take anything for granted anymore.

(...Oh wait, I just realized something. New World Order did really have a Shadow-of-the-Colossus run after all! That's so freaking sad... It could've been this contest's Majora's Mask, but oh well...)

Note: As far as the actual songs go, I thought Battle!! was both messy and ordered at the same time: "messy" as in the style it has with all of the different instruments, yet "ordered" in the sense that it doesn't really go the "watson route" of adding unnecessary and bad improvisations. It kind of wants to do that at 3:10 onwards, but it has an actual structure that you can perceive, and that's what makes it good and maintaining that "order" I'm talking about, since it never decreases the speed of the actual song at all, and that's good.

What I was trying to say, though, is that it took me until this day to realize that this particular song had 2 parts: the first section which lasts 3 minutes and a sort of looped version just after the improvised-sounding-but-actually-not part that comes just afterwards, until it finally ends. I hadn't noticed about this until now, mainly for how complex the song is (but also because I wasn't a fan of it).

Overall, it's kind of sad that we have a song so... "okay" with the name "Xenoblade" at this point of the competition.

I'm Not "Torna" 'Bout Anything This Time Around >>> Villain That Must But Cannot Be Stopped
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;

Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;
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Class::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE;