Board 8 > Haste2 ranks all 180 VGMC Retirees.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Monty on the Run is definitely on the lower end of retirees. I doubt Gangplank Galleon is but whatever. I don't even remember Last Location of Mankind.

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-Monty on the Run's music is great, but I totally get why some people don't like it (also, it would have almost certainly retired and done better in VGMC4 if it hadn't somehow drawn Moon Over the Castle in R1)
-Gangplank Galleon is boring but inoffensive, which is more than can be said for most DKC music
- LLoM is good stuff, but again, not for everyone
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172) Lamento -Beyond the Void- - When the End
https://youtu.be/7uc966dxi-I
Composer: Yoh Ohyama
Score: 5.8/10 (Decent)
VGMC History: VGMC III (Lost R1), VGMC VI (R2), VGMC VII (R4), VGMC VIII (R3), VGMC IX (Lost R6 to Dark Legacy (beatmania IIDX 21 SPADA)
Favorite Part: The violin

Man... people were way too persistent with this track! I enjoy the jumpy guitar patterns that play throughouttheyre the backbone of this music! The low flute and choir synth add to the calm atmosphere. The male/female pop combination isnt my favorite thing, but it's "okay". I like how they start "shouting" suddenly to give this song a boost of energy. The intervals between them are a bit unusual, most notably at the ends of their phrases (strange 4ths in parts, major IV in other parts), which I like! The electric bass, though (in the relatively loud sections). I dont like the grindy sound of it. I almost always welcome violin use I actually like that part the best because you can hear all the non-melodic stuff better there. Ooh, that last softening chord!


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oof

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If that can retire so can In the Flame! even if it takes 7 years

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171) Dark Cloud - Dark Cloud Main Theme
https://youtu.be/vGPZ1hDQ5q8
Composer: Tomohito Nishiura
Score: Decent (5.8/10)
VGMC History: VGMC III (Lost R3), VGMC IV (Lost R7 to Hope)
Favorite Part: https://youtu.be/vGPZ1hDQ5q8?t=67

Its kind of somber. It makes me think Dark Cloud is not a light-hearted game. No wonder its so unique. I like the marimbas at the start. Once the melody comes in it becomes the obvious highlight of the piece! Its really good. I especially like the ornamentations at 1:07 they make a big difference! Too much use of cymbals and the guitars are plodding, though. Instrumentation is boring and stays the same the entire time aside from the beginning. I feel this track has a lot of wasted potential.


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170) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Gerudo Valley
Series Rank) 4 of 4
https://youtu.be/0hEYvdMoF2g
Composer: Koji Kondo
Score: 5.9/10 (Decent)
VGMC History: Lost R3 (VGMC 1), Lost R5 (VGMC 3 to Time Circuits)
Favorite part: The first part of the melody, I guess.

I know this is extremely popular and that some people have this among their all-time favorites (sorry jcgamer), but this one is not for me. From the games music, give me Lost Woods or the overworld theme instead. The beat is catchy! The guitar has a very clear, smooth tone. The guitar strumming pulse is cool, especially the way it lines up with the castanet pulse. The melody is nice, but it doesnt grab my attention. I suppose it could be considered cool how the melody alters over the changing harmonies, but not in a way that interests me. Im not a fan of OoT trumpets or other orchestral instruments in the game. It would have been nice to hear extra development or something. For Spanish guitar, give me Albinezs Asturias any day!

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Gerudo Valley is good stuff

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you should go back to ranking the stuff that isn't good
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th3l3fty posted...

you should go back to ranking the stuff that isn't good

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when the end so good!

never liked gerudo valley either though.

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Agreed on When the End.

th3l3fty posted...

you should go back to ranking the stuff that isn't good

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I like When the End, but I have a absolutely huge thing for harmonized male/female vocal duets so yeah.

Also Kanako Itou in general is a vocalist I'm pretty fond of. There are a few exceptions to that though. (Her stuff for Steins;Gate 0 is whatever)
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what the fuck that was kanako ito, good on her for pulling off the english so well

Gerudo Valley vs. Time Circuits sounds like a legendary match

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I didn't even know either until someone else here pointed it out to me lol
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169) Castle Crashers - Winterbliss
https://youtu.be/SDHZgVf8xsU
Composer: Cycerin
Score: 5.9/10 (Decent)
VGMC History: VGMC 6 (Lost R6 to Zero from Ace Combat: Zero)
Favorite Part: Those violins

This reminds me of a remix Marathon the Forerunner by Nick Singer, because of those panning synths at the start. I can see how the music's supposed to sound icy cold! Overall the sound is nice, but its a bit mechanical sounding to me. I LOVE those soft bleets that double the melody (no idea what theyre called). Later, the violins add much needed energy... it's kinda fun the way they bounce around, and when they arpeggiate up at the end... aw, yeah! Overall, it's not particularly special to me, though.

168) Touhou 8: Imperishable Night - Lunatic Eyes ~ Invisible Full Moon
https://youtu.be/UjTdXX7MYrU
Composer: Junya Ota
Score: 5.9/10 (Decent)
VGMC History: VGMC 1 (Lost R6 to Scars of Time)
Favorite Part: https://youtu.be/UjTdXX7MYrU?t=40

Here comes the first VGMC1 retiree! Simple ideas that work nicely here. A simple melodic fragment getting transposed into related minor keys is cool. I like the feelings evoked by the slower pace at 0:29!! Harmonies are cool when the melodies start to run loose and wild. Finally, its the unmistakable Touhou synth at 1:08(boo) I guess it provides energy for its climax, though. 1:31 provides some fun electronic panning effects! After that, I actually find it refreshing how it drops down to just drums and the honkey tonk-like instrument at 1:49. Overall, its not my favorite Touhou music, but theres certainly worse.


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Winterbliss too low ahhhh.

time for some real talk. poet and the muse is already at least 13 spots too high. #grudges #ThisIsWhenVGMCDied

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167) Ys Seven - Desert of Despair
Series rank: 4 of 4
https://youtu.be/T-xGBHMVaig
Composer: Saki Momiyama
Score: 5.9/10 (Decent)
VGMC History: VGMC 7 (Lost R5 to TIn Soldiers)
Favorite Part: First 24 seconds

Wow, what an intro. Loving the harpsichord textures, as well as those really DARK chimes. Uber-grindy electric guitars! LOVE IT! Nice chimish bells at 0:28. The melody at 0:39 isnt notable, but its got some style with that buzzy synth! There is that little slide up to the high note at 0:52~! I enjoy the contrast the low guitar provides at 1:19 its refreshing to hear guitar stuff that isnt so treble-sounding. But yeah, aside from general energy and the intro, it doesnt have a lot to offer.

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Current ranking:
Winterbliss
Desert of Despair
When The End
Six Feet Thunder
Gangplank Galleon
Monty on the Run
Rendezvous
Daddy Mulk
Gerudo Valley
The Last Location of Mankind
Lunatic Eyes ~ Invisible Full Moon
Dark Cloud
Bloody Tears
-
Memories of You

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I hope you keep up the rankings, azuarc! It would be fun to compare yours to mine at the end.

165) Tales of the Abyss - Meaning of Birth
Series Rank: 3 of 3
https://youtu.be/-SHM-7qMiDs
Composer: Motoo Fujiwara
Score: 5.9/10 (Decent)
VGMC History: VGMC I and II (Lost R1) ,VGMC V(R4) ,VGMC VI(R3) ,VGMC VIII (R4), VGMC IX (Lost R5 to Decisive Battle with Saruin - Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song)
Favorite Part: The string bass stuff at 0:13.

I can see why you could love it or hate it. Lets talk about the negative first. Its a bit cheesy, like music that tries to be exciting from a B-grade cartoon. The poor sampling/blending is the main reason for this. Tales of the Abyss was kind of benind the times in sound quality, wasnt it? Finally, I feel like the track kind of ends abruptly before it loops. Okay, now lets get to the positives. For one, I can overlook the cheesiness because it really is EPIC! I feel like it progresses in terms of form/development very nicely (except for the end). The flute starting the theme does a good job setting up the louder stuff after. There are a few nice chords in there when the choir pad joins in. I enjoy how the string bass was done at parts, playing interesting eighth note patterns (0:13)!! They are hard to hear without headphones, though...

164) Ougon Musou Kyoku Cross - Tomorrow
Series rank: 15 of 15 (Umineko)
https://youtu.be/zft1Rtwyvio
Composer: ????
Score: 5.9/10 (Decent)
VGMC History: VGMC VIII (Lost R5 to Boku no Te no Naka no Rakuen - Papiliones)
Favorite Part: The xylophone

Apparently this game is connected to Umineko? Correct me if I'm wrong there. Anyway, it doesn't sound at ALL like the standard Umineko music. Very acoustic and sounds like it's from an older period. It sounds kind of like a battle in a King Arthur movie! The string parts are written in kind of a militaristic style, and the addition of brass of course helps with that feeling, of course. The hard-mallet timpani strikes makes the start more fun (but when it plays on the offbeat it is SO corny), and the TAM-TAM!!! (yay) helps in other sections (the triangle is nice, too)! The agile xylophone on top (I didnt notice it at first), aw, yeah! I love fast patterns! I just wish they were louder. :( Overall, this isnt really my cup of tea, but I can see why some love it. Oh, yeah, and I'd like to add that it has some COOL rhythms, particularly at 0:16 - 0:19... love how it does the slow triplets, followed by that syncopation!

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164) Baldr Sky - Ruins of Silence
Series rank: 3 of 3
https://youtu.be/1j3ZBXD97bc
Composer: SHIM (TGZ SOUNDs)
Score: 5.9/10 (Decent)
VGMC History: VGMC VI (Lost R5 to Ace Combat Zero - Zero)
Favorite Part: 3:02 3:27

Random fact: The Baldr series may very well be the most successful game series in VGMC, statistically. Its three for three in terms of getting music retired! (granted, one of them took five tries) Music is calm and very, very somber. The string harmonies at the start are VERY NICE, even if Im not crazy for the sampling quality. Next comes the piano with the main idea that everything revovles around. I guess you could say there are some good note choices that stray from the standard triad expectations in the piano idea, but it goes stale very fast. (I do like the accented guitar strums in there) The guitar does play an important role in focusing attention away from those trudging eighth notes, fortunately. For the majority of the track Im honestly not into it but then it suddenly gets WAY better at 3:02 (the way the melody passes between the guitar and piano is NIFTY! Plus intriguing chords)

And with that write-up completed, we come to the end of the decent tier! Which VGMC is the loser so far in the rankings? VGMC 6. Meanwhile, reps for VGMC 2, 10, 12, and 13 have yet to appear on the list.

Not Good - 1
Mediocre - 1
Decent - 15 (prev. 9)

More "decent" ratings in my finalized ratings than my preliminary ratings. I hit 5.9 a bit too early... I think some of the scores will be revised slightly downward again to space things out a bit better. Expect a big increase of music rated as "good", as well.

Here's the link to the rankings list once again:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RyUmpY7s3MZeuSDaN3vYEJXtS9BlR0GJ--7sapMOnaA/edit?usp=sharing

Notice there's a link to the full list of retirees, if you want to go to the playlist.


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xp1337 posted...

poet and the muse is already at least 13 spots too high. #grudges #ThisIsWhenVGMCDied

poet and the muse one of the best retirees

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Arti posted...

poet and the muse one of the best retirees

Board List | Topic List | Track Topic | Post New Message | Eject Topic


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Poet and the Muse is fine.

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Might as well get a couple more in today....

163) Persona 5 - Rivers in the Desert
Series rank: 3 of 4
https://youtu.be/sdDiHZiBtpE
Composer: Shoji Meguro
Score: 6.0/10 (Good)
VGMC History: VGMC XII (lost R5 to Sunshine Coastline)
Favorite part: https://youtu.be/sdDiHZiBtpE?t=222

That singer is really good, as is her singing in so many other Persona songs! It helps a lot. (Lyn Inaizumi) Yeah, her energy really makes it better. The way she anunciates is really good, too.I have to consciously try to ignore the bass because its so... rough. The melody is kind of nice? Its bluesy, but not really in a way that I like. Yeah, the melody of the other retired Inaizumi song is MUCH better, in my opinion. The accompanying violins initially seem boring as they just imitate the bass, but then they do something awesome all of a sudden a 1:59 (atonal triplet stuff! YEAH!), plus there are a couple of moments where they really add to the harmonic flavor. Anyway, 3:42 provides something noticeably different. The added backup vocals there are REALLY good, actually, which bumps the score up a bit, too. I always like fourth-based chords like at 4:41, so there's at least one chord in there that's cool!

162) Undertale Megalovania
Series rank: 2 of 2
https://youtu.be/wDgQdr8ZkTw
Composer: Toby Fox
Score: 6.2/10 (Good)
VGMC History: VGMC X CHEATER (DQd R7 against Beatmania IIDX 22 PENDUAL - Despair of ELFERIA)
Favorite Part: https://youtu.be/wDgQdr8ZkTw?t=48

Im not sure why Megalovania is the most popular Toby Fox theme (its not in my top five from Undertale), but it certainly has its positives. I mean, my ranking is controversial, but I still like the music! It's in the "good" tier, after all. The way it suddenly gets loud at 0:16 is awesome, though the melody is... catchy, but not really high tier in my book. Nevertheless, like all of Undertales soundtrack, I love the music that way sounds combine... chiptune with who-knows-what. It's get especially groovy at 0:40! The 0:48 section has to be my favorite part because of its quirkiness (pretty much, I love anything quirky from Toby Fox)! The chromatic harmonic shifts at 0:54 and then at 1:18 where you expect it to resolve back to the tonic but then Toby says FOOLED U HAHAHE! and leaps up a chromatic momentarily. Cool use of diminished chords at 1:24. (On a side note, I hope something from Deltarune retires)

xp1337 posted...

time for some real talk. poet and the muse is already at least 13 spots too high. #grudges #ThisIsWhenVGMCDied

Thanks for saying this. I just realized that my preliminary rating of that track was way too high.

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Rivers in the Desert is fantastic. Probably my #2 Persona 5 song.

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I think I've cooled a bit on Rivers in the Desert as time as passed, but it's still definitely among the best Persona songs.

Megalovania is solid but I also don't like it as much as a lot of other Undertale music.
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Rivers in the Desert and, to a lesser extent, Megalovania are good and probably shouldn't be this low.

of course megalovania is a cheater and should have its retiree status VACATED where do you think the astros got their inspiration from

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Megalovania is going to have a bad time

I've become the very thing I hate now that I've played Undertale

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Rivers in the Desert is the 2nd best Persona song

because The Battle for Everyone's Souls exists

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Meaning of Birth, Rivers, and Megalovania out

much better
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Can someone explain to me the cheater aspect to Megalo in its contest? Was it getting flooded by alts or something?

Here I won the predix that year and somehow missed such juicy controversy...

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poet and the muse is good

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trdl23 posted...

Can someone explain to me the cheater aspect to Megalo in its contest? Was it getting flooded by alts or something?

A bunch of voters were showing up only for Undertale matches and voted for Megalovania. I want to say azuarc reluctantly let it pass for most of the contest (or maybe it wasn't altering outcomes I forget) but it went up to another level in the finals and ended up swinging the match. Though azuarc might have a better handle of the exact details, I'm doing this from my spotty memory.

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xp1337 posted...

A bunch of voters were showing up only for Undertale matches and voted for Megalovania. I want to say azuarc reluctantly let it pass for most of the contest (or maybe it wasn't altering outcomes I forget) but it went up to another level in the finals and ended up swinging the match. Though azuarc might have a better handle of the exact details, I'm doing this from my spotty memory.

That's kinda sorta what happened. The actual rendition is a little less dramatic than that, but pronounced enough that I felt I needed to step in, but be aware that anything I write here will be an incomplete story that doesn't really reflect the full nature of the situation.

Voting in the finals is an awkward situation because on one hand, you'd love to pull in the extra people who see "FINALS" and think, hey, there's going to be a great match here. On the other, people who haven't read the rules have a very high probability of just picking the song they know without giving any credence to its competitor. I honestly had no idea which it was when 8 or 9 people who were either new or infrequent voters dropped in for the finals, however those people almost unilaterally voted for Megalovania. Taking their votes away swung the match from something like +6 to -2.

So I had a dilemma. Did I keep their votes, under the guise of that being the majority, including the walk-ins who were happy to vote in the finals, or did I DQ them and stick to only the contest regulars? Mind you, this was the first contest I hosted after taking over from lefty, and I'd never seen a situation like this in the years I'd been a participant (from year 5 onward.) Fortunately, I kept a backlog of who voted for what, and was able to track that at least two of the infrequent voters had established a pattern of strictly voting for Undertale -- as in, literally the only days they showed up were for Megalovania and ASGORE. And some of the posters (Ulti, notably) made it pretty obvious that they hadn't listened to both. This was enough to merit a deeper dive.

I recruited lefty, and we tried to contact a lot of the new voters to ask if they'd listened to Elferia or not. We confirmed who was definitely legit and, in the end, I cooked the results to engineer a tie. There was simply no way to decide who should have won, but if I had been forced to choose based on those results, it would have been to toss most of the extra Megalovania votes and award it to Elferia. So I forced a tie and re-ran the match. If anything, I was being generous to Megalovania in that regard, and maybe that's because I would have rather seen Megalovania win.

Elferia won the rematch. Not by a landslide, but by roughly the amount I would have expected if we had left the new voters out. I still feel uncomfortable knowing I threw out a bunch of board votes simply because those people weren't regulars in the contest, but it was the closest I could come to generating a result that was fair and consistent with the rest of the contest.

If you participated in the semis or finals of this year's contest, you'll recall that I had an addendum in the post that any new posters had to copy-paste a statement that they had read the rules and were abiding by them. It seems weird to add a TOS to VGMC, but that's been something I've done every year since just so we don't have a repeat. Then again, I doubt we'll have quite as high-profile a song in the finals ever again. This was the first year after Undertale won BGE3, and it had completely flooded the bracket, with more than one song per division represented in the bracket. (That's never happened before, even in the early days with Smash and Touhou, mostly because there were 16 divisions rather than 8.)

So yeah, Undertale was a little nutty that year, completely permeating the board in a way that I doubt a new game will ever manage again, so the likelihood of anything like this happening again is so ridiculously remote, but I still watch the voting records for suspicious behavior, which is the primary reason I still leave that "host may disqualify" bit in the rules, even though it always makes me look shady. The reality is I think I've DQ'ed maybe two votes per contest since.

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Got it, thanks!

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Interesting.

161) Tales of Symphonia - Starry Heavens
Series rank: 2 of 3
https://youtu.be/g1PFjfn2RhM
Composer: Motoi Sakuraba?
Score: 6.3/10 (Good)
VGMC History: VGMC IX (Lost R5 to Deemo - Evolution Era)
Favorite Part: https://youtu.be/g1PFjfn2RhM?t=187

Isnt this the ending theme for Symphonia? (whoops, turns out its the OPENING theme) Style kind of reminds me of DDR music! The way it goes between tonic and the vi chord in some of the key sections comes across as cheesy, but otherwise it's pretty good. The leap up a 7th at :08 is kind of fun, though. The mix of sounds is a definite positive (soft chimes, electric bass, piano, orchestral hits, etc.) here. 1:55 is my favorite part not only does it become more interesting harmonically, but it's, like, EPIC! 3:07 takes an unexpected turn with the unconventional piano, odd chromatic guitar movement, then it takes a more fitting twist at 3:16 where it does fun circle of fifths patterns! Its certainly my favorite part (oops, sorry Mr. 1:55!).

I was about to post #160, but then I decided I needed to up that particular track's score. I will let you guys know what that song is soon enough. ;) I think I'm done for tonight.

Hey, we're 1/9th of the way through! Excluding the "bonus" music, that is....

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It makes me so mad that this is the one Symphonia song that retired out of such a good OST

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yeah that's pretty inexplicable

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catching up on a lot of these

- monty on the run sounds godawful. maybe in context it'd be more fun but not a selling point

- lamento is fantastic! i'm actually only on this one but had to comment. here's another song that doesn't really sound like "video game music" but i'm loving it

(adding)

ah man dark cloud sounds great and it makes me interested in playing the game! like many of these, the beginning is the absolute best part of it

gerudo valley might get a little overhyped, but it's still really good... and certainly better than lost woods and OOT's hyrule field too. (is there a reason why the main zelda theme is so rarely used since OOT? they certainly don't mind recycling plots...)

don't get the hype for winterbliss ITT. it's ok but prob in the bottom half of the songs you've ranked so far
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SeabassDebeste posted...

don't get the hype for winterbliss ITT

it's less hype and more that i know for a fact there are worse retirees! >_>

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160) Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai 8 - You -Destructive-
Series rank: 14 of 15 (Umineko)
https://youtu.be/qpvwR_njFKc
Composer: dai
Score: 6.3/10 (Good)
VGMC History: VGMC IV (Lost R2), VGMC V (Lost R5)
Favorite Part: https://youtu.be/qpvwR_njFKc?t=107

Ranking is hard. How much I like it depends on the day. Yesterday I felt like this should rated like 5.6, but today like 6.6. Apparently this is from a Umineko spin-off game! (correct me if I'm wrong) The main ideas, to me, fall flat. The piano bass 1st/5th/7th transposing ostinato introduced at the very start is.unique. But it gets old fast. Likewise with the piano melody when it comes in at 0:40. The OTHER ideas are what keep me engaged here. I like the piano chords at 0:53, though! Cool. Then theres the flute melody, the peaceful joy it brings ! And the strings joining in adds to the charm. Everything really jives around this part. I love all of that section! The piano uses the main theme for a little bit at 2:14 but it's modified in a tasteful way. To sum it up, it starts off a bit boring, but overall it fills me with peace and happiness!

159) Granado Espada - Laguerra del Mundo
Series rank: 2 of 2
https://youtu.be/2_--z5kyU1w
Composer: SFA
Score: 6.5/10 (Good)
VGMC History: VGMC IX (Lost R1), VGMC X (Lost R3), VGMC XI (Lost R4), VGMC XII (Lost R6 to Sunshine Coastline)
Favorite Part: https://youtu.be/2_--z5kyU1w?t=175

Yup. 0:17 is cool how you got those isolated blocks with a funky guitar repetition between them. That is one rocking idea starting about at 0:24 (the vibrato high note especially)!,I would assume that is the main reason Laguerra was so successful. That's one classic melody at 0:40,especially with the support of those full bass notes. Some of the subtle guitar stuff bolsters the atmosphere at about 1:30. TCs The Filthy Mind reminds me of what goes on at 2:32. Cool. I like the hemiola there. Finally, 2:55.... HOLY CRAP, the contrast sounds good! So lush and dark.

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VGMC4 was my first vgmc and I remember really liking You -Destructive- back then. 10+ years later I've really expanded what vgm I've heard so relatively speaking it's not nearly as high but yeah.

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Laguerra del Mundo should be about 155 places higher and it was very much composed by SFA, not Soundtemp

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I probably threw out more votes as a temp host for Ed Bellis than azuarc has over five contests

Haste_2 posted...

Series rank: 14 of 15 (Umineko)

WOW
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umineko taking over

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Haste_2 posted...

Apparently this is from a Umineko spin-off game! (correct me if I'm wrong)

Haste_2/10
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NFUN posted...

Laguerra del Mundo should be about 155 places higher and it was very much composed by SFA, not Soundtemp

Thanks for the correction.


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lefty, Mac, and xp... I'm not sure what you guys are trying to say?

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