Board 8 > [VGMC] d19: Frey's Philosophy vs E-102 Gamma, Moonstruck Blossom vs CIEL_NOSURGE

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to today's topic for Video Game Music Contest 14, a tournament of the best tracks from games, as decided upon by you, the voters.

Links:
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VNrPnFRI7nJ4PqFiURBW0NWqxvXiuasoq8Sn_O169ss/edit#gid=320804650
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=473292
Discussion and results thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78524521
Bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1REnVI_W6yELaDP6Zac8b0Wq
ToC playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RE-TQMj19D0k5nm-0zeH12J
VGMC compability sheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lpX4faqnn_geI0y4i6MrZ2AXpV6SWXoWrIA6_eyx-yM/edit

Rules:
- Listen to both of the songs. Links have conveniently been provided for both songs. Even if Son

B3 is cursed

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Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

Sonic Adventure DX - Theme of E-102 Gamma
Ciel Nosurge - CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Baldr Force - Face of Fact

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Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith
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Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

Frey's Philosophy
CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Zenith

Lanota - Frey's Philosophy at 8.9 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! WHOA i accidentally turned on a weird font i dont think the forum will show this but shit's weird. anyway song is good

Sonic Adventure DX - Theme of E-102 Gamma at 8.2 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! Cool robot voices and then piano because Sonic Adventure. Such a unique soundtrack.

Kirby Triple Deluxe - Moonstruck Blossom at 0 is my ???th favorite song in the conest!! dum pink ball lol

Ciel Nosurge - CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE; at 9.6 is my ???th favorite song in the contest!! Before this song I didn't know how to count (Colress lied). Practice Makes Perfect taught me how to type. Now if only I could find a song to tell me how to read...

Baldr Force - Face of Fact at RANKING SPOILERS is my ???th favorite retiree in the contest! I need to learn to be a hotdogger some day...

Ginga Force - Zenith at 9.4 is my ???th favorite retiree in the contest!! Thank you based Xar for this based Yasui during SiIva's based 100th list. I was supposed to nom Bust a Move or Aeronaut this year woops. Too many good songs. I don't care what people say, this is my favorite Ginga (GG is second, too bad it didn't retire). My tastes have diverged from this somewhat in the last few years but it's still an excellent song.
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somebody should probably relabel the game as Ar nosurge btw
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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact
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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact

my impression of the lanota song has varied so much it's almost hard to believe i've been listening to the same song each time. today, it's not the lowest it's been but it's also not very high
meanwhile gamma is a song where my opinion varies depending on where in the song i even am. it's one i don't really get at first and then somehow get way into like more than i probably should

oops this match is accidentally too good

listening to zenith first here just because punchier song that i remember better feels like something to have go out of the gate first. i like how much it reminds me of project x zone title screen themes but more fleshed out. i like both pxz title screen themes a lot. very strong.
it's been a while since i last heard face of fact... damn, i forgot that i like it this much. oh dear. this match is accidentally even better. sorry zenith

Lanota - Frey's Philosophy
Ciel Nosurge - CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Baldr Force - Face of Fact
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Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact

Frey's has a cool start and then the chanting happens and oh my god it's awesome when they're chanting. Great song! Gamma's good when I'm not paying attention to it, but it gets kinda annoying when I focus on it.

MB's pretty good for a Kirby song. Ciel's not that good for a nosurge song.

I used to like Face of Fact more than I do now. I might like Zenith more than I used to, but I think Gallant Gunshot was quite a bit better, too.

Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact
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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

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Frey's Philosophy
Ar Nosurge - CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Baldr Force - Face of Fact

In lieu of writeups, I'm going to do a random deep dive on one particular line from CLASS:CIEL_NOSURGE, which is deliberately written in kobun (a form of Japanese roughly equivalent to Shakespearean English):

(mujoujinjin-naru kotowari-wa)
(hyakusenmangou ai-au-koto-gotoshi)

Now, CIEL_NOSURGE (the song) is littered with Buddhist references, and this line is no exception: it's a clear reference to the following sutra:

(mujoujinjin mi-myouhou)
(hyakusenmangou nansouguu)

This sutra (which, as you can see, is written with only kanji -- welcome to sutras :)) has a standard interpretation: "The profound and peerless enlightenment spoken of by the Buddha is near-impossible to come across, even should one live pass through a hundred thousand myriad cycles of death and rebirth." This is the interpretation the translator in the video went with. But! The Japanese in the song is slightly different, and -- as much as I normally hate literal translations -- let's examine one for it.

"On the topic of the profound and peerless (natural) Law, even given a hundred thousand myriad eons, to have a coming across is a difficult thing."

Which is a super weird wording, but my point is this: what is "come across"/encountered/etc. is not actually explicit. Now, let's step back into context. Every hymmn in exa_pico is actually a spell; this spell's purpose is to call out to another world and make contact with the player for various reasons that I won't get into here.

Thus, we wonder: is the encounter referring to the player; is the difficulty referenced the challenge of finding one's soulmate? Let's consider the penultimate line of the counting song. It's mistranslated in the video, but it should mean "Wilt thou struggle for an encounter second to none?" This seems to be exactly that thought! Hence, we get this cool duality: a clear Buddhist, religious reference, combined with Ion's own desperate yearning.

tl;dr yes I have spent far too long staring at exa_pico lyrics why do you ask?
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Ouch, my nomination got a tough draw today.

Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

Frey's Philosophy (8.0) / Theme of E-102 Gamma (6.5)
Moonstruck Blossom (9.5) / CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE; (Edit:9.0 instead of 8.5!)

Yeah, Moonstruck Blossom is most likely my all-time favorite Kirby track. CIEL_NOSURGE is one of my favorite Gust tracks this contest, though.

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Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

Okay I'm starting to get somewhat exhausted at the sheer amount of songs with vocals here. Were there less last year or something? Maybe the problem is more complex than that such as going too long without a song for me to be hype over. A lot of this is honestly probably poor timing of a dry spell though because really there's like 6 or 7 songs I could maybe get hyped for coming up in just the next 4 days not even counting toc. Well anyway despite that I'm still voting Frey's Philosophy because the song has an active beat that is more my thing than E102 Gamma which melodically or something comes across as really "plain" and does not keep my attention. Also Frey's vocals are just chanting chorus which aren't really that much of a focus and E102 Gamma has robovoiceman. Ciel & FaceoFact are not my types of songs however and their opponents are more enjoyable to me.

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Lanota - Frey's Philosophy
Kirby Triple Deluxe - Moonstruck Blossom
Ginga Force - Zenith

Songs today are very very good. Frey's Phil and Zenith are good, particularly Frey's


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Frey's Philosophy (86th) vs Theme of "E-102" (137th)
Moonstruck Blossom (55th) vs Class::CIEL_NOSURGE; (117th)
Face of Fact [28th] vs Zenith [27th]

Frey's Philosophy is VERY FULL of RHYTHM GAME POWER i can't believe this guy powerless would LIE about him and song not true good sound piano goes updownupdownupdown SUDDENLY CHANTING. I've never really had much to say about this song but it's very cool. I feel like it never really reaches its full potential though. Speaking of not fulfilling its potential, Gamma's theme!! I do like Gamma's theme a lot as well, it seems to want to go places that it's never allowed to.... that is until Crazy Robo happens and that song was my favorite Sonic song like ever for a Long Time but this is not Crazy Robo!!

KIRBY MUSIC AAAAAAAAAAA the lines between fluffy happy and downright sinister that some kirby tunes manage to walk perfectly along is just absolutely insane, and this song is one of the best examples of that. It also doesn't come across as an "overly pretentious" song that acts like its The Most Important Song In The World which some kirby songs do nowadays but I won't get into that much here yet. CIEL_NOSURGE is super solid, but kinda weak by Akiko Shikata standards, which is a shame really. It's very good, but kinda "filler music" and I can never really remember much about it without listening to it besides that it starts with music noise. Easy match here but I appreciate both songs!!

NO THIS MATCH IS TOO HARD NOPE NUH UH okay it's actually... not hard at all despite being next to each other in my rankings lol. My problem with both of this is literally the same.... INSANELY good sound but lacks impact in melody and other composition stuff so when I listen to it its like WHOOOOOOA YEAAAAAAAAAAAH and then afterwards it's like "wow I love jihad!" or "wow I love Gallant Gunshot!" like they're kind of outclassed songs in a way??? which is totally bias because i'm familiar with these other extremely similar songs but I guess that doesn't really matter here because it's not affecting my decision between the two. yasui wins over kotoko today sorry face of fact!!! Lylics

Zenith > Face of Fact > Moonstruck Blossom > Frey's Philosophy > Class::CIEL_NOSURGE; > Theme of "E-102"

Frey's
Moonstruck
Zenith
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Frey's Philosophy
CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Face of Fact

Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact

Frey's Philosophy is my 105th favorite in the contest! I like the trope of rhythm game music that soiunds like the way this song sounds...EPIC song is fun, intense dnb with cool background choir part and cut off glitch effects and fun stuff. the drums in the part in the 2:00 zone sound cool, constant 16th piano is fun. something about the chord change at 1:43 is really big and impacctful to me compared to any other moment of the song. Despite how much I like that it does on paper, it doesn't stick with me at all or stand out to me among the pool of other music in the same zone as it. I wish it did!

Theme of E-102 Gamma is my 74th favorite in the contest! but I wish it was my 102nd favorite in the contest because that would be very funny! Sonic Adventure is my favorite Sonic GAME. It is not my favorite sonic soundtrack(I think most people know what my favorite sonic ost is by now...) but at the same time, i would not like this game as much as i do if it weren't for the music being so cool to me. A big part of what makes this game a significant game to me is the atmosphere it exudes, and music like this is what makes that. Very Interesting chord changes i do NOT expect to be the oens that happen next (Sorry i'm so repetitive with what i talk about i only like music where i don't know what the next chord change is because i'm stupoid i like jazz fusion too much). This doesn't "stand out" very much, but it doesn't need to, it sucks me into this mildly melancholic, mysterious, and curious, electronic world. like i just woke up with no memory and learn about what being a machine is like, like that's kind of "dangerous" because you need someone to charge you up using mysterious red objects that loop in intricate patterns so that you can grow a christmas tree on top of your head and that's existentially uncomfortable isn't it? being a machine is very "mixed feelings" yeah. I like "vaguely JazzFusion-adjacent music on futuristic synths in 'y2k' music" this song needs to have a screensaver for your computer where it just shows a bunch of images of excessively shiny metallic organic abstract 3d objects

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Moonstruck Blossom is my 49th favorite in the contest! sorry about not liking miracle matter here's a Kirby song I actually LOVE this time that i can explode about. Modern Kirby Music is so overwhelmingly DENSE and I love every moment of it. Every single possibly empty space is filled with SOMETHING, like how much stuff the piano is doing in like the :50-1:00 is so busy it's almost silly, but it doesn't feel jarring or out of place or anything. Kirby music's always been frantic, busy and even some form of "complex" from the earliest Kirby music, it just naturally evolved into the modern hyperlayered style that I like more than anything it's ever been. I love you Hirokazu "I like complex chords" Ando! Fun xylophone! fun Piano!! fun plucked STRINgs. This keeps the whimsy of the modern kirby style while still feeling dramatic enough to feel like it can be a final boss theme. omG some of those chord stringy pads sweeping in at like 1:53 are so beautiful...! Never noticed them until this listen. I guess that shows how dense this music is, and why I like this era of kirby music so much. Most of the time I'm able to get something new out of a song every time I listen, and I'm glad I can't comprehend everything going on at once ever on a first listen. It's maybe ironic that Kirby's selling point is that it's simple easy and Anyone Can Draw Circle, because the music is the antithesis of that mission statement! It's probably some of the most overwhelmingly difficult to learn music out of any popular franchise imo. I LOVE it for that. Thank you ando (and ishikawa) for your relentless file cabinet MAZE of dominoes and i can't drink too much music all the time. that said, the "complexity" has never been "unfitting" since it's used to drive the cartoony whimsical chaos that fills DUM PINK BALL vgm ost. the 'complexity' makes it frantic, playful and fast paced VACUUM SPHERE. i love kirby music

CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE; is my 92nd favorite in the contest! as one of the Big Gust Music people on the board i feel bad that i'm not more excited about this. I like the style but it's i think a bit too centric on specific layers only, one at a time, and so much of what i like about music to this series is how full and dense it is, and how creative production-wise it can get, how much there is to potentially pay attention to at once. This doesn't really have those elements. I like the over-the-top distinct vocal styles present here but i wish they weren't treated as the sole possible focal point i think. Akiko Shikata focused way more on the types of sounds i'm into gust for on so many other tracks from ciel nosurge (I know this is actually from Ar Nosurge WHAT EVER). I don't dislike this at all, it's actively the aesthetic i'm attracted to the most these days, it paints imagery i want perfectly. but I guess it is "too empty" for my liking i guess is how i'll put it. This is a far more negative than necessary writeup, i really like this song, and it's not easy to find stuff like this and I value this for what it is A LOT. Just explaining why it's the thing in the contest from this series i ranked the lowest

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Face of Fact is my 40th favorite ToC entrant! delay echo piano makes me happy because it reminds me of Robert Miles - Children (this isn't the first time I have referenced this piece of music this contest). The fake guitar at the very start does too. Cool synths and effects !!! Recognize some synth presets/samples and I always find it fun to hear these same sounds in wildly different contexts from each other. Track has a similar energy to the evangelion opening in terms of the way the vocals interact with the song or SOMETHINg and I like that song. weird unexpected key change a 1:29 for some reason I like that. I guess this is the kind of ANIME song i actually like a lot, syncopated y2k era dance music with trance supersaw synths filling the atmosphere with cool lines. though mostly it's because it reminds me of music from the year 2000(?) pretending to be the year 2020. I ranked this 40th. I don't like it "that much" but i liked the things I said anyways and i don't dislike anything much either

Zenith is my 51st favorite ToC entrant! i do not like being mean to songs i don't like so i am trying to word this as un cruel as i can while still talking about it. i do not like this song. I have very mixed both ultra-positive & ultra-negative feelings on Yasui music, but this is like the single yasui song i can think of with the lowest % of "things i like about yasui music" and highest %

Sonic Adventure DX - Theme of E-102 Gamma
Kirby Triple Deluxe - Moonstruck Blossom
Baldr Force - Face of Fact

wow all 4 songs in the main bracket were on my consideration list. I think I've supported Face of Fact in the past and... I think Zenith was a consideration too. wtf is this day. exa_pico B E T R A Y A L vote right there argh.

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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith
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Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

Good day. Feels bad to vote against Akiko Shikata though.

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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

Frey's Philosophy

wooooooooooah epic piano rhythm game ok i'm done. i just can't come up with creative enough words to describe the exact same sound 10 times in a row lmao. it's pretty good i was planning on supporting this.

Theme of E-102 Gamma

ROBOT JAZZ BAR. the mix of the piano, organ and the granulated feeling synths combine to make a feeling that's a blend of organic and artificial. this is compounded by the mix of voice types in the background throughout the song - the 'E-102 GAMMA, GOOD JOB' heard earlier in the song and the robotic vocals later in the song. The drum kit feels very compressed and mechanical which kind of fits for Gamma's character. vaguely house. I should probably note the motif from this song is used in a couple other songs in the Sonic Adventure soundtrack - Crazy Robo, and Unbound; both play in pivotal parts in Gamma's storyline. Crazy Robo feels more 'artificial' lots more synth pads and METALLIC INSTRUMENTS LIKE BRASS. Unbound is nothing but strings and piano in contrast. Saying all this because comparing the situations these songs play in ingame as well as their motifs makes this song feel a lot more deeper to me.

Moonstruck Blossom

A BATTLE OVER THE SKYLINES OF A BROKEN CITY WHERE NOBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME AND NO MIND KNOWS YOUR SOUL AND NO SOUL KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE. this is what kingdom hearts should sound like why does kingdom hearts not sound like this... hirokazu ando please compose for a kingdom hearts game... gentle. tragic. piano. FINAL BOSS MUSIC. [i actually love this song it's one of my favorite kirby songs ever i just can't FIND A LOT TO SAY ABOUT IT??? I CAN'T CONVEY MY EMOTIONS. INTO TEXT]

CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;

good but does not match up to moonstruck blossom in my mind which is ICONIC. there's not a lot going on here lmao. it's. alright. but it's also just. too calm for me to like. it's the song equivalent of a blank canvas with a bunch of monochrome colors splashed all over it and they're all really similar in shade. it just. smooths over my brain.

Face of Fact

oh hey kotoko didn't she sing ao-iconoclast. yeah this is ANIME and kotoko i'm good. big vn vibes and def reminds me of ao-iconoclast. i love the synth chords and kotoko is good at singing... i like the echo effect on her VOCALS.

Zenith

it's YASUI he makes the sharp orchestra hits and he sounds like konami i think learning about yasui might have been the impetus for me developing my own musical taste... yasui > arcade konami > arcade namco [great sluggers, knuckle heads, alpine RACER] and from there i started going in my current direction of older tracker stuff. really curious to see how my taste develops further with time...!

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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

Theme of E-102 Gamma
CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Face of Fact

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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact

Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact

Lanota - Frey's Philosophy
Ciel Nosurge - CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Baldr Force - Face of Fact

Match 1: Oh hi Frey's Philosophy. Dire nominated this for my first ranking topic, and I remember quite liking this one. Also, is Powerless the same artist as P? I remember hearing one of their works many years ago and absolutely loving it, so it wouldn't surprise me if they were the same. E-102 Gamma has some cool Gran Turismo jazz going on. Not a very close match though.

Match 2: Moonstruck Blossom is quickly cementing itself as my favorite modern Kirby song, loving the clean sound. Super tough match though, since I love the Japanese sound Ciel Nosurge (the song) has. This is the better of the two songs in this year that feature a countdown in the lyrics. Like damn, I want both of these to advance.

ToC: What better way to end that last match, with an even tougher one! (Even worse, since the winner of this faces against Exsphere next round! ) Absolute banger ToC match, this is how good all ToC matches should be. Face of Fact is super memorable anime opening song that I used to hate when it first started showing up in VGMCs but one day out of the blue I started loving it wtf. Zenith is one of my TOP 5 Yasui tracks. Grrr going Face of Fact but I don't feel comfortable about this at all.

Excellent day all around.

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Sonic Adventure not DX: Director's Cut - Theme of E-102 Gamma
Ciel Nosurge - CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Baldr Force - Face of Fact

This ginga force thing is like Ken's Theme, Big Blue, and the most stereotypical anime OP rolled into a meatwad and then arranged by Yousuke Yasui. why am i being mean to video game music. Cool Song, Man

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Place posted...

This ginga force thing is like Ken's Theme, Big Blue, and the most stereotypical anime OP rolled into a meatwad and then arranged by Yousuke Yasui.

as all music should be

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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact

Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact

Lanota - Frey's Philosophy
Ciel Nosurge - CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;

Ginga Force - Zenith
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Frey's Philosophy
CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Face of Fact

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Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact

rhythm games
second match was pretty close but not really feeling "Gust on some shit" right now
Face of Fact kinda goes on a little long but it's very good so I forgive it

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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

Frey's Philosophy a bit to rhythm game-y for me, though some parts of the song are good. Sonic song is nice and chill and the piano part is pretty.

Moonstruck Blossom a good example of the type of Kirby music I like. (For reference, Epic Yarn is by far my favorite Kirby OST from what I have heard.) Clever and happy melodies with pretty instrumentals supporting them. Not a huge fan of CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE. The instrument sound is nice, but I don't find the actual melodies particularly engaging. The vocals are also very straightforward rhythmically, and there's individual parts I really really do not like. Mainly I cannot stand the part at 2:37 (instrumentals or vocals), but also the vocal part at 0:33 among other places pretty boring to me.

Who cares about vocals anyway amirite
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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

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Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact

CIEL_NOSURGE is not a good Exa Pico track. Just because the champ came from there last year doesn't mean you should nominate random garbage.

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Frey's Philosophy [8.7] > Theme of E-102 Gamma [7.9]
Moonstruck Blossom [9.2] > CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE; [8.6]
Face of Fact < Zenith

EPIC RHYTHM GAME PIANO . Wow i bet that means mycro hates the song like deemo (i dont mean this realy) 1:05 is the best thing in music ever

E-102 Gamma more like SpeaknSpell and synths and the future chilling in yor basement. 1:12 and 1:36 is the best thing in music ever

qood26i11138$(+#)/#)_

EPIC FUTURE SAD HEROISM . Wow i love music and MELODIES that cry my brain and STEEL resolve and piano parts that sound like Hooked - Splatoon 0:00 is the best thing in music ever

JAPAN SAD HYMNOS.. something very cine matic for the soul. festival taiko traditional angry . 2:36 is the best thing in music ever

2+kfo17={~eioa910os72##

hi anime. you're dramatic and like the 2000s.

hi...is this yasui? i dont remember what he sounds like.. it sounds like a shoot em up (shmup for short) with a melody..cool melody

wth this toc match is not that good..
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Frey's Philosophy
CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Zenith

Hey I almost used both these songs in the same vgmgg, except the Sonic song was Event: Unbound
Third time voting against Kirby and I feel bad because I'm a pretty big fan of the games
Zenith pretty catchy, just wish the leads had a tad more power

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Lanota - Frey's Philosophy
Ciel Nosurge - CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE;
Baldr Force - Face of Fact

MATCH 1

Frey's Philosophy is more along the lines of what I wanted RE:UNION to sound like with the heavy focus on melodic piano lines. Speaking of which, the piano melody here is really good! 0:11-0:30 has this hint of sadness to it but it's also very upbeat with the rhythm. The addition of the vocals starting at 0:30 is a neat touch too. I like that the song adds all these additional layers to it in a way that's also pretty distinct from other rhythm game songs I know and like. Take, for example, certain a xi song like Niflheimr. It combines cool piano melodies with synth stuff to create a lot of different moving parts to the song. I see Frey's Philosophy in a similar way, but with things like violins instead of synths. Perhaps it might be more appealing to me this way, anyway! Like, 1:09-1:47 is so good with the violins harmonizing with the main piano melody. I didn't think I had enough room to support this in the beginning, but I managed to be able to throw this song a last-minute support during the end-game rush and I'm happy I was able to do so because it's a great song!

Theme of E-102 Gamma feels like such a Cathode song haha. It feels like you're in some jazz parlor in a futuristic robot city. It's a cool song and I like it, but Frey's Philosophy is just way too strong here.

MATCH 2

I have some mixed feelings about Moonstruck Blossom, but overall, I do like it. That piano intro from 0:00-0:20 is so good and by far my favorite part of the song. I just really wish I enjoyed the rest of the song as much! I don't really like that lead instrument at 0:21. I said this in my RtVGM writeup of this, but it reminds me of one of those rubber chicken toys that make noises when you squeeze them. The rest of the song is neat whimsical Kirby stuff that I've mentioned before makes up what I like about Kirby music. Definitely leagues above Miracle Matter and something I would say I like overall, but I also think it could be better.

Sadly, though, regardless of the good things Moonstruck Blossom does, it's up against Akiko Shikata goodness. CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE; is such a cool song! This one plays up the world genre a ton. Probably more than many of her other songs, which is interesting to note. 0:33-0:50 just hits you like a freight train and illustrates so well what I like about Akiko Shikata's music. 0:50-0:59 is also a super cool part with how dark and mysterious it sounds. It's like you've angered the gods during that part. The only thing I don't like is the vocals during 2:41-3:25. Particularly the not-so-singing vocals. They're a little too weird for me. That's my only complaint for a song that's otherwise incredibly good, so it certainly doesn't overshadow all the good parts. Never have I been more excited to learn how to count!

MATCH 3

Seeing the Alchemist logo at the start of the video makes me sad because they went bankrupt a few years ago. If only I had a bunch of money to throw at them to keep them afloat! Anyway, Face of Fact is such a great song! I feel like it might not seem like the song I'd be so head over heels for, but I listen to this song so much haha. I have this as a finalist in my favorites bracket because it's that good. The sad thing is that I can't even explain that well why it is I like this song so much. The melody in the vocals is great, as you could probably expect me to say, but I guess it's also that there's different layers to this song that work very well together. For instance, the synth backing starting at 1:12. For whatever reason, it feels like slamming the gas pedal when that part comes up. And then there's 4:46 to the end with more vocal harmonizing! That part sounds so good! Might be my favorite part of the song? Hard to say because I love the whole thing lol. The piano outro is also worth noting.

Zenith is good Yasui stuff that I tend to like from him. Nice energetic, upbeat music. I guess I like this more than some other Yasui songs because it feels more conventional in a sense? Hard to explain, but take, for example, Massive X from Eschatos. It gets a lot of praise, but I'm pretty lukewarm about it. Just the chords/melody the song uses just feels too weird for me. Zenith, on the other hand, is more diatonic I guess? So, yeah, this is a pretty good song, but Face of Fact is just too strong.

Face of Fact > CLASS::CIEL_NOSURGE > Frey's Philosophy > Zenith > Moonstruck Blossom > Theme of E-102 Gamma

Another good day today! Not too surprising that so many of these days recently have been strong since Bracket B has so many favorites of mine. Of course, it helps when the ToC match is good too lol.

Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Zenith

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Theme of E-102 Gamma
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact

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Frey's Philosophy
Moonstruck Blossom
Face of Fact