Board 8 > [VGMC] d16: Endeavor vs B2 Battle, Central Park vs FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL!!

(+) Yeah! (+)

xp1337 posted...

Dark Legacy isn't the song I remembered.... ahhhhhhhhhh what is happening i need to solve this mystery

idk maybe you were thinking of elferia or something

UF8 posted...

idk maybe you were thinking of elferia or something

No chance of that lol. I don't like Elferia enough to have supported it. Looking at my own past noms/supports the closest match (in my own way of thinking) would be Spada but I know I wouldn't make that mistake.

The conclusion I came to was it was Dark Legacy and without checking the actual bracket it must have ended up in a series of matches where I just kept voting for it for a really long time. Or maybe I just liked it a lot more back then? That doesn't explain why I expected a different song in my head but for the life of me I couldn't find an answer in my old noms/support considerations going back to VGMC8. Best I could come up with was a dropped support for Tunnel Vision but I also don't think that's it.

my memory is terrible i'm not making much more of it than that

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Endeavour
FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL
Whereabouts of Light

Endeavour reminds me a lot of New World Order except I understand most of the lyrics
I can't stop hearing old-school cartoon Dr. Robotnik in Feel the Power, was about to write Central Park off but it got pretty catchy in the second half!
Instrument quality in Dark Legacy holds it back from living up to its intimidating name, Whereabouts is nice and projects a feeling of Light I guess

azuarc posted...

I doubt anyone is paying such close attention that they're going to notice if you vote in a way that might betray your rankings

haha yeah who would do that...

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B2 Battle
Central Park
Dark Legacy...

Idola Phantasy Star Saga - Endeavour at 8.4 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! man they really wilding with the idola songs arent they. At least this isn't as generic as it could've been. The rhyming is so goofy

Shin Megami Tensei IV - B2 Battle at 8.6 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! Those bell dudes in the back are pretty unique. This, like Endeavour, could've been very generic and luckily decided to avoid it. That's kind of a backhanded compliment. I don't really care about either of these songs.

War of Brains - FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL at 8.8 is my ???th FAVORITE SONG in the CONTEST!! I think NAGANUMA is probably one of the COMPOSERS that I RESPECT the MOST. He's has a STYLE and is NEVER AFRAID to just GO for it. A lot of his SONGS I DON'T CARE for much BUT he DOESN'T CARE what I THINK. He DOESN'T CARE what you THINK. He DOESN'T CARE what ANYBODY thinks except maybe PETER GRIFFIN. ANYWAY, this is PRETTY GOOD though I DISLIKE the VOCAL SAMPLE at 2:35.

Last Ninja 2 - Central Park at RANKING SPOILERS is my ???th favorite song in the contest. Ranking spoilers lmao rip.

Beatmania IIDX 21 Spada - Dark Legacy at 8.9 is my ???th favorite retiree in the contest! Oh hey I remember this thumbnail very specifically from the Nekomata Master playlist I listened to a few weeks back. This isn't a standout from it but it's Master so.....

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC - Whereabouts of Light at 8.8 is my ???th favorite retiree in the contest! We apparently have two Sora no Kiseki ending songs in the contest this year! And the worst one isn't among them!! I probably only like this song at all because of the game. Deal with it.
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B2 Battle
FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL
Dark Legacy

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B2 Battle
FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL
Dark Legacy

Endeavour
FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL
Dark Legacy

Endeavour
FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL
Dark Legacy

-sometimes a vgm track gets stuck in my head for a really long time. (they tend to be vocal tracks lately!) this was one of them, back when I first ran into it sometime last year (mid-April, I guess, based on the video's upload date and vgmdb info). I think when I wrote remarks for it back in crowdsourced 2 I said that it was mixed really loudly, that the lyrics were really dumb, and that the singer sometimes emphasized odd syllables in words (a rwlh pet peeve!), but that it felt really heroic. yeah, all of that still holds. this goes in big with the brass, almost from the get-go, and I love how the upward-moving marcato string chords and thrumming 6/8 drums drive the song forward in the first verse. the chorus goes even bigger! it's pretty awesome. the touch of piano in the second verse is a nice bit of flair. the little break at 4:24 is a nice moment of air. this is certainly not the most subtle track here-- it takes a big ol' swing, and it really hits with me.
-I don't love the sound of the electric guitar in b2 but the chime-like synth lays down a pretty cool motif and I like the feel of it. I'm super partial to that chill section starting at 1:16 with that piano-ish synth playing back the chime synth melody under different chords-- really hits the spot after the heavier guitar arrangement. pretty cool stuff.
-you can recruit nekomata in this game, which gives you the ability to compose for bemani games! hahaaa hey wait where's everyone going

-hideki naganuma presents block rockin beats. this has all of the naganuma staples-- catchy little melodies and beats ornamented with lots of vocal samples, and that all but ensures a certain baseline experience. I feel this is sort of a middling entry for him-- I only feel a little bit of its POWER in MY SOUL.
-central park is kind of a mess-- hamfisted drum lines and weak melodies on one of the most basic four-bar progressions there is, until a variation at 2:37 where it meanders into fairly directionless riffs. this really drags for me. the sounds used make pretty neat oscilloscope patterns but I don't find them notably appealing or interesting.

-looks like we recruited that nekomata back in match 1! this has a more 'orchestra epic RPG' feel than most of his tracks but there's no mistaking that synth that enters at 0:38. this is a neat change in style even if it's not among my nekomata favourites.
- 1) I need to get around to playing this sometime 2) Why is my present a BOY?! (no that's the wrong game) the melody bugs me here-- kind of a pet peeve thing that I haven't nailed down, probably related to its usage of VII-i at the end. I think the electronic drum loop could be dialed back a bit too, to let the (very nice) accompaniment to shine through a bit more.

B2 Battle
FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL
Dark Legacy

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kaonashi1 posted...

2) Why is my present a BOY?! (no that's the wrong game)

no that's right
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then you shouldn't have used it as the thumbnail for a SC upload

also it's causing me a great deal of stress that I might like whereabouts more than looking up at the sky ending...

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PIayer_0 posted...

then you shouldn't have used it as the thumbnail for a SC upload

also it's causing me a great deal of stress that I might like whereabouts more than looking up at the sky ending...

Guess I should've used lefty's other favorite

instead

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Idola Phantasy Star Saga - Endeavour
War of Brains - FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL
Beatmania IIDX 21 Spada - Dark Legacy

MATCH 1

I was really hoping to see Endeavor in the contest this year ever since kaonashi used it in a list that one time. I love the super powerful melody and all the harmonizing going on with the brass and the strings. The piano backing starting at 2:58 is a nice touch as well. It's like you're rushing into the final battle but we know we're going to win so everyone's full of hope and vigor. I 100% would've supported this if it didn't make it in as quickly as it did. I like to think about where my music taste intersects with others, so I guess this song is the lem-kaonashi intersection (I would lump Toxtricity in here too since their tastes have a lot of overlap but I view this song as more kaonashi than tox, and I think there are better examples of lem-tox intersect). What an awesome song and a great discovery!

B2 Battle is another really cool discovery! This was one of the strong considerations of mine for my wildcard pick, but honestly, it might actually be what my preference is in the end. At least the main considerations were between two songs so if my memory's correct and there's a maximum of 3 points allocated towards a song with 6 points in total, I can devote all my points to my top two preferences. This song has a slightly edgy feel to it, but it's the cool kind and not the cheesy kind, so I like it. The use of tubular bells for the lead instrument is a really cool choice and I like how it sounds here! I like the melody a lot and I'm really digging the guitar solo too at 0:46. This is definitely a really strong match and I wish this didn't have to be a round 1 match. I'd vote this song over every song today besides Endeavor. I hope putting this match as the first match in B2 was intentional haha.

MATCH 2

There's a lot of really cool stuff from Hideki "Peter Griffin" Naganuma. Being a part of the siiva community for a while gave me a lot of exposure to stuff like Jet Set Radio music which is a big favorite there. He just does a lot of cool sample-based music like this song. Some of it can be a little hit or miss, but FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL (the caps feel so necessary here lol) appeals to the side of me that likes general EDM stuff. I definitely feel the power from this song! Favorite part is 1:10-1:25.

Central Park is a good example of a song I can highlight for being a song from an older console that I can enjoy. C64 rock tunes from the likes of Tim Follin or Jeroren Tel are a lot of times enjoyable stuff for me, and while this song's definitely distinct from the works of those two composers, I get a similar sense of enjoyment from it. Not a whole lot to say about it, it's just a cool sounding song from start to finish, with the exception of 3:16-3:27-ish. That part just leaves a slight ringing in my ears and I don't like it lol.

MATCH 3

I really like the piano and violin combination from Dark Legacy. My only complaint is those wub-wub sounds like at 0:52 and 0:56. I think it's actually the worst during the 1:19-1:39 part because it really feels like it interferes with the melody for me. But other than, yeah, I love how pretty this song sounds. Nekomata Master putting out some good music as usual.

Here's another chance at highlighting a type of song I like that I don't always get to: soft, emotional Japanese music. Stuff like this with sad piano and vocals is hard to go wrong for me! That said, there are some things that make it not as good as it could be. For one thing, I don't really care much for the beat of this song. Feels kind of R&B-ish in a sense and that's not really what I'm looking for in a song like this. I think I'd like this song a lot more if it was different. I guess I wish the vocalist was a little less breathy but that's a more minor issue. This is actually a pretty close match! Like I said, I think there are some changes that could theoretically be made to push this song over the top for me, but as it is now, I don't think I can vote for it. Just to throw out an example of something I do like a lot in this song is the vocal harmonizing at around 1:18 right before the key change. I feel like fast-paced stuff tends to take precedence over slower, emotional songs like this which kinda sucks because sometimes it isn't as easy to express that I do like both types of songs a lot in the right context!

Endeavor > B2 Battle > Dark Legacy > Whereabouts of Light > FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL > Central Park

Pretty good day today!

Idola Phantasy Star Saga - Endeavour
War of Brains - FEEL the POWER in YOUR SOUL
beatmania IIDX 21 SPADA - DARK LEGACY

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