Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 1! One Final Effort v Ink Long Dry, LastPandemic v Original LoZ Title

(+) Yeah! (+)

Halo 3 - One Final Effort
Ciel nosurge - LastPandemic

Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru 8 - Ricordando il Passato

EoAL is one of the worst retirees we've ever had, if not the worst
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Ink Long Dry
Title
End of All (Land)

One Final Effort
LastPandemic
End of All (Land)

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Toxtricity posted...

this song reminds me of like 90 things that i don't remember what they are but if they did i would say the names of the music it reminds me of.

Okay HERE is one of the big examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40E0OXFo8JE
2:48 of this and every time that idea pops up (especially at the very end at like 4:55), and just the style in general kinda

I've always loved the music to Mystere (Cirque du Soleil show) ever since I saw it live irl on a whim having no idea what it is! It's a set of music that's very like "if you like ar tonelico music you might liike this lol" but for this song in particular I'd say 'if you like halo 3 one final effort you might like this'

I think there's a few other tracks from this show that might be even more similar to what I'm reminded of in One Final Effort but this has the whole "bouncy 6/8 but sometimes mechanical 2+2+2 rhythm grouping at the same time" feel and 'world music' (this is probably not how most people would describe OFE but whatever) feel and just, general feel of dramaticness mixed with strangely playful hopeful elements.

If i think of any of the other music one final effort reminded me of i will let you know but i think this was the main thing it kept calling my mind back to

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can I vote "owo what's this?" in the poll?
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One Final Effort
Title
End of All (Land)

Ink Long Dry
LastPandemic
Ricordando il Passato

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th3l3fty posted...

EoAL is one of the worst retirees we've ever had, if not the worst

Thing is, so is Ricordando. Two truly bottom tier options from the retiree pool.

One Final Effort
TItle
abstain

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Ricordando is one of the VERY few good songs that have even retired. Oops

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Halo 3 - One Final Effort
Ciel nosurge - LastPandemic
Fire Emblem: Fates - End of All (Land)

One Final Effort - 8.0/10
The beginning of this one teases me with The World On My Shoulders from Dariusburst Remix World, lol. Anyways very nice and powerful and emotional.

Final Fantasy XIV - Ink Long Dry - 5.1/10
See RTVGM for my full write-up, basically not really my kind of dissonance, overall the things it does are very interesting but there are just some parts that really annoy me that bring it down again. Is a 5.1 and not a flat 5.0 just cuz...it still interests me and I'd go back to it possibly for that.

Ciel nosurge - LastPandemic - 7.3/10
This is up from 5.4 on my first listen, lol. Some of the darker vocals are a bit weird to me but this is an enjoyable piece and I love the quieter parts of the vocals, reminds me of DR3 Despair OP.

The Legend of Zelda - Title - 6.5/10
It's...got a great, iconic melody. ...Review over. I just...nearly all retro music, at least outside of like Follin just doesnt interest me much. The only real one I could name thats actually really good to me is Dark Castle from DL2, if that even counts idk im really not knowledgeable on chips and stuff sorry

Fire Emblem: Fates - End of All (Land) - 8.5/10
While I've gotten kinda sick of the Lost in Thoughts All Alone leitmotif, this song is just...impressively powerful. Feels like a credits theme or something of the sort, and just...hits pretty hard I like it.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru 8 - Ricordando il Passato - 7.3/10
Some of the string parts here are really nice for me, nice and serene and stuff. Unfortunately, these amazing parts are really bogged down by the lengthy classical/opera-like parts which do nothing for me aside from kinda moved off the song a bit.

Worst is easily Sphilia and I can say that with confidence despite not having heard most from the last 3 years.

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Zigzagoon posted...

Ricordando is one of the VERY few good songs that have even retired. Oops

I call it "ritardando il passe" because it's so slow and bland. And this is from someone who loves MARIA. To be fair, it has a different kind of intensity, but I don't care for it.

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Ink Long Dry
LastPandemic
Ricordando il Passato

Ink Long Dry isn't bad at all, but I can't say the same for its opponent. Not big on classic nostalgia stuff, though LastPandemic doesn't interest me much. ILD definitely wins out of the four pack. I like End of All (Land) a good amount, but RIP.

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One Final Effort
LastPandemic
Ricordando il Passato

One
Last
Pass
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Ink Long Dry
LastPandemic
Ricordando il Passato

We got some insanely good regular contest music today! Too bad ILD will likely get destroyed.

One Final Effort
LastPandemic / Title
*Ranking topic spoilers*
End of All (Land)......................................................

I have very strong feelings for the ToC match, but I'm going to have to decline saying anything to avoid more spoilers.

OFE > ILD = LP > Title


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@Haste_2

I think you forgot to vote in the second match there.
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One Final Effort
LastPandemic
End of All (Land)

Ink Long Dry
LastPandemic
Ricordando il Passato

like no chance these ratings will be compatible with other ratings I've done let's just hope they're at all self-consistent

Halo 3 - One Final Effort at 8.2 is my ???th favorite song in the contest! it's the halo theme but more piano plinks at points. i mean it's the halo theme you know this shit already. would probably prefer listening to the Mjolnir mix or maybe even the OG because good vocalizations. yeah

Final Fantasy XIV - Ink Long Dry at 9.1 is my ???th favorite song in the contest! this needs no writeup everybody knows what it is from listening the other thing that matters is the magic phrases "this is good" or "this is not good"
...this is good. duh

Ciel nosurge - LastPandemic at 8.5 is my 4th favorite exa pico song in the contest! I'm sure I've heard this before, back in the dark days when I hated all hymnos and hymnos-adjacent songs. It's basically new to me now, and it's good. Not as good as three other exa pico songs but yknow

The Legend of Zelda - Title at ??? is my 3rd favorite main theme in the contest?? Honestly I have no idea how to rate this. P good, I guess. Anything more specific feels wrong and like a betrayal... 7.8? 7.0? ... 7.5 sure feels low. moving on

Fire Emblem: Fates - End of All (Land) go away

Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru 8 - Ricordando il Passato at 7.7 is my ??? favorite retiree! I had zero recollection what this sounded like and was pretty surprised that it's the second Shikata song of the day! That alone is enough to boost it up a fair bit, at least over what it could've been. Of course, it could've been more (of course, in the game this kind of song is probably more appropriate than CLASS::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE; [of course, that song is in the contest and we'll get there soon])
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Ink Long Dry
LastPandemic
End of All (Land)

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Oops. Thanks. But if my ranking them wasn't obvious, here's my OFFICIAL vote.

LastPandemic

I am enjoying very much all the write-ups and comments, by the way.

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Ink Long Dry
LastPandemic
End of All (Land)

-bracket opens with 'halo' and ends with 'bye bye' nice (credit Mac for the latter observation)
-I like the Halo main theme in general; in this specific version the piano flourishes are pretty but lack a bit of force compared to halo 1 and 2's takes on it? (revisited the previous versions of the theme-- this statement is probably bunk) the differences in arrangement for this version are nice and an improvement overall I think
-Ink Long Dry has this filtered lo-fi piano which I think is really cool and adds a neat texture and atmosphere to the track. this has a sort of improvised jam session feel that's been chopped up and scrambled a bit; my favourite segment probably starts at 0:39 and its contrast with the more relaxed vibe at 1:02. constantly uneasy but strangely relaxing

-LastPandemic is entirely uneasy and the choral parts have almost a robotic quality that's cool. I think 1:00 is actually a weakness of this track-- Shikata's vocal performance in the other segments adds enough of a human element to cut through the feel of the rest of the track, but 1:00 seems to break the aesthetic entirely and the track doesn't really build up to it in a way that welcomes it
-Title serves as an interesting experiment for me-- years of a 'what's new' vgm diet means I don't really revisit and evaluate tracks that are this immediately recognizable and established. very deliberately paced march feel, straightforward-- very much like the character it's associated with. solid theme for a stoic hero.

-this ToC match is pretty interesting to me in one way-- I like both tracks here but if this match were held around VGMC5 I'd have probably voted for ricordando pretty quickly; around VGMC10 I'd have said it was very close; and right now I'm voting pretty comfortably for End of All. I dunno what this says about my tastes (lefty, from the audience: 'it says they're getting worse!') but that's something I thought about while listening to this match
-anyway this is a really cool take on a motif I already really like. in some ways it sounds a very classic 'epic RPG' note of finality but expressed in a way I think is composed really cleverly. Morishita consistently creates progressions that I love listening to, and that's on full display here. the mood is immediately set with a slightly dissonant chorus and ostinato and moves straight into this tense, energetic take on the lost in thoughts melody. the fast hits starting at 0:56 to the transition section starting at 1:17 that really expresses some of the progression of the original motif in a neat way to the part starting at 1:43 (a sort of piano-focused heroic section that actually kind of brings me back to one final effort!) is likely my favourite section of music in this match day, period. it returns to the lost in thoughts chorus afterward and that's great too. this is probably one of my favourite retirees right now, and that surprises me because I didn't think about this track in those terms at all when it first retired.
-phew didn't leave enough breath for ricordando il passato. I mean, it's nice! an akiko shikata slow hymmnos-style track. there's a nice lead-in to the first really grand section (1:11) where an oboe comes in and a cool chord change occurs. it's little things like that that make me enjoy this more when I examine it closely. shikata writes these melodies and progressions that grow and explore instead of sticking to a really standard verse-chorus structure, and I like that a lot too.

Ink Long Dry
LastPandemic
End of All (Land)

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DireKrow posted...

One Final Effort
Title
Ricordando il Passato

Pyromide votes:
Ink Long Dry
LastPandemic

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Oh no the house almost missed video song game voting time

Final Fantasy XIV - Ink Long Dry
Ciel nosurge - LastPandemic
Fire Emblem: Fates - End of All (Land)



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Ink Long Dry
LastPandemic
Ricordando il Passato

Match 1:
I like both songs but Ink Long Dry takes it. I love the atmosphere this songs gives, like you're in a sort of magical timeless area. The tempo keeps changing in weird and sudden ways and it feels like there's a constant ticking clock (even though there isn't, I think I get that feeling from the light drumming during the slow part at the beginning). I especially like that switch up into that part at 1:02. It feels so calm and jazzy, and unusual.
I feel like I'm repeating myself right now, so I'll conclude it there lol.

Match 2:
The choice was quickly made there lol. I have the choice between an okay but very basic NES track that just doesn't do much or an unique sounding track with some wack vocals and cool drums.
Nothing against Zelda, but yeah, this is a no brainer.

Tournament of Champions Bonus Match:
Fairly neutral towards both songs but if I'm picking Ricordando il Passato because contrary to End of All (Land), it fully assumes its vocals and uses them throughout the entire song. End of All (Land) introduces you to vocals at the beginning then goes most of the song without them, which doesn't feel very committed.
Also, Ricordando il Passato feels more consistent with what it's trying to sound like, while End of All (Land) switches up quite a few times (which I'm not against, but there it's not really interesting).

One Final Effort
Title
End of All (Land)

Im surprised to find out that OFE is a battle theme, sounds like the theme for a majestic grandiose area or final dungeon to me.

Second match is very close for me. idk, this version of Zeldas main theme just does some subtle things that I like, and it has this neat adventurous but cill mood to it.