Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 7! 1Night v 3rdDay, Dog's Howl v Steam Gardens, Fogbeast v Love Psalm

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to Video Game Music Contest 15, an annual celebration of the best of the best video game music according to the voters!

Important Links:
Bracket: https://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=474630
Contest info sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16XAaBMDuUnQ4c5AxQNL9ZhvD7VG5kQyrXWWZxnkrn-o
Contest discussion thread: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79443554
Main bracket playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT3m7iohpL0xt7lOF1eB-H4NpAaF1yAnU
Last years spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VNrPnFRI7nJ4PqFiURBW0NWqxvXiuasoq8Sn_O169ss
VGMC total stats sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1XdLWiUKB2kX99qYBgnRbLU_sCz4dvZSByKKJHCT6o
Discord: https://discord.gg/WDvMS4a

Rules:
- Listen to both songs in a given match, at least through the loop time provided (to make sure you don't skip before you've heard the whole thing!)
- Please consider the loop point listed when judging the song; if a video loops one minute 5 times, don't treat it as if it's a repetitive 5 minute song
- If it's a match between your favorite song ever and a song you despise, still LISTEN TO BOTH! Votes can and will be disqualified if there is suspicion songs are not being listened to, and you may be discounted for the rest of the contest for repeat offenses.
- No alt accounts, no rallying or begging, etc., etc.... You only get one vote! Swapping votes is alright, just make clear that you've already made a vote and are swapping.
- Make clear what your voting options are! Please keep votes separate from any comments, and use the titles given in the topic post.
- Voting in all matches is not mandatory, feel free to skip matches you do not wish to vote in.
- Vote based on the links provided, and not other sources of audio. Links are specifically chosen for best quality and the like.
- Don't discuss vote tallies in this thread, or in other threads, as they may influence votes. Likewise, please refrain from looking at the running tally before voting.

Voting Period:
- Today's matches will last 24 hours from the time of posting, or 24 hours from 10pm Eastern, whichever is the later time.
- Please note this may mean that two topics will be active at the same time!
- If you anticipate being unable to vote in a given day, please send an absentee vote to @banshiryuu or @Toxtricity, or post your absentee vote in the discussion thread!

.

Match 1

Snatcher (PC Engine CD) - One Night in Neo Kobe City
Composer: Konami Kukeiha Club

Kneel... or you will be knelt

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Fogbeasts

be glad i decided to not make the SUSpenseful Third Day Joke


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Suspenseful Third Day
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Love Psalm

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Fogbeasts

---

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm

---

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Fogbeasts

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Love Psalm
---

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Love Psalm

last match eesh

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One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

suspenseful seventh day
dance of the wolf's howl
mistbeasts
---

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

---

City
of the
Fogbeasts

sorry other songs

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Fogbeasts

One Night > Day Three

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One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Fogbeasts

Suspenseful Third Day
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

---

Kobe City
Dog's Howl
Fogbeasts

I'm really feeling the tonight. Don't know why i picked against Kobe in my fave bracket.

Fogbeasts [9.5]
Kobe City [8.5]
Dog's Howl [8]
3rd Day [7]
Love Psalm [6.5]
Steam Gardens [5.5]

Suspenseful Third Day
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm

Snatcher - If I didn't know any better, I'd say this came out of a WarioWare game. And given I'm a Supra-goer, I'm contractually obligated to like it. (And I rather do, actually, apart from the random crowd noises at 1:30 or so. Even though saxophone is not my favorite for personal reasons, too.)
Deemo - It's a Deemo track. It's got piano. It's got strings. It's got a notable, delicious shift in tone partway through the song with some percussion. I like it better than Snatcher, but both were good. Rough match.

Sigma Harmonics - I've listened to this track three times in a row and nothing with it has stuck with me. It's completely inoffensive and unremarkable to me in every way and gets a big ol' "meh."
SMO - It sounds more like a carnival at a beach with that twangy guitar and baseball organ (for lack of a better term for them) than it does a 3D Mario level. I like the bass being that prominent throughout, though. Props for that.

Xenoblade - For all the Xenoblade music I like, this isn't it. It's overly busy, which isn't a bad thing, but it feels like the piano is fighting harder than I would be. Of course I could be nitpicking because it's extremely long, or because...
SH2 - I am a sucker for Yamaoka's music, plain and simple, even if this takes Theme of Laura and throws a few coats of paint on it. This, however, winds up REALLY GOOD and extremely "Silent Hill when Silent Hill is not going for atmosphere or dread." It's still probably going to lose, but I'll play your requiem, you beautiful bastard.

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Suspenseful Third Day
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

Ah Kobe, that perennial stinker that just won't go away. Shame it didn't retire itself out of the contests long ago. Third Day is good piano stuff, though the end is a bit more anticlimactic than I'd like.

Year of Hamauzu? Please? I'd be cool with DotDH winning the contest. Hopefully it'll go further than last time at least. The start of Steam Gardens always hypes me up, and then the main song comes and drags me back down to Earth. It's still solid, but I don't really care about it.

I like Fogbeasts more when it's not using string instruments. The 'chorus'-y parts and guitar parts aren't great. The more piano and electronic-focused stuff is excellent though. Wish it was all that. SH2 has a few cool songs. Wouldn't say Love Psalm is one of them, despite sounding very similar.

Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl" > Fogbeasts > Suspenseful Third Day > Steam Gardens > Love Psalm > One Night in Neo Kobe City
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Suspenseful Third Day
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm

---

Deemo - Suspenseful Third Day
Sigma Harmonics - Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - Fogbeasts
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One Night in Neo Kobe City (99th) vs Suspenseful Third Day (243rd)
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl" (27th) vs Steam Gardens (96th)
Fogbeasts (108th) vs Love Psalm (236th)

>

HAMAUZU IS MY ...uh... AUNT yeah lets go with that i'm running out of family members to assign composers to oops, this match is not very close even though i actually enjoy steam gardens WAY more than i think i ever have, i've definitely gotten over the fact the song sounds like it is constantly underrwater cause i used to HATE that but now i dont mind it at all!! shockingly good match

fogbeasts is cool but yall trippin if you say this is battle torna 2 wtf this is soooooo much "safe"r than battle torna, like its good but just because ACE is just that solid at composition and not because its a song i remember. but like i dont care/think about love psalm at all so it still solidly wins out OOPS im glad i can support it at least this once!!! and i'm glad that its here :)

Deemo - Suspenseful Third Day
Sigma Harmonics - Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - Fogbeasts

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One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

-(unlike, the rest of board 8, my taste is so special; that i have NEVER heard a fucking piano, or rap song. what the heck. who would have imagined that someone who has never been outside, would like "jazz", which is the genre of music with the saxophones. i am a genius by the way, i have played the piano before, which this song has in it (that's what you call the 'old instrument' right? like in the commercials?) but the pianos in this song, they are ELECTRONIC. HOLY FUCK!!!!! ! WHAT!!!!!! this song is so normal, and i am proud to be the most normal person in the world, unlike the rest of board 8, who is not normal, and all hates me and wants to put metallic pipes from their ar tonelico ears in their bulgarian nintendo-hating choirs (i know this is technically a sega cd game...but nintendo, ,,sega,,, same thing))-

-[wtf this song is MESSED UP. I can't believe you've done it board 8. a yule log? look at that picture of yoko taro's head on the cover of this artworkd? you know yoko taro composed the music to drakengard 1 right? which is a WEIRD SONG, so that means this song must be a weird s. i think this song is the perfect example of everything that is wrong with board 8. these people with no thoughts in their minds because they are too busy playing their favorit egames "LSD Dream Emulator" and "Ar Tonelico II" i love Koumajou Densetsu II: Stranger's Requiem - Rose-Killing Carmilla for not being ar tonelico]-

-{normal}-

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-(I have only listened to the first 9 minutes of this song, and i can already tell it's going to be a disaster, typical board 8. this is probably like my 9th favorite song from this soundtrack but it's the one i remember the most times. You would think that "modern board 8" would like this game, because it has the word Sigma in it, which sounds like SilvaGunner, the youtube uploader that uploads all our favorite nintendo soundtracks, or Mitsuo Singa, the guy who composes all the music to every falcom game. there's also that guy named super darky, but i think he's heard this song before, because it has a piano in it (you know, like the old instrument from the commercials?) Masashi Hamauzu always has pianos in these songs, the composer for masashi samurai melting cold steel liberal. And gatorade waste. I love to fill up my "bucket 0" with guardians iwithout my departure ticket.[three washed HELP ME VIOL[three washed H[three washed HELP ME VIOLINS]ELP ME VIOLINS]INS] and this is why masashu hamaushi is a conductor. when i go to the library i make sure to eat lots of prezels so that i get very fat so i can condduct the orchestra with my head phones on. and this is the song. I love this song. This song is everything i love about board 8, where I discovered Threads of Fate throuhg "stickam" in 2009 which led me to looking up every soundtrack by Junya Nakano which let me to looking up every soundtrack by Masashu Hamauzu. I still do not know which of the two i like more, but Nakano made my 3rd favorite song ever and Hamauzu didn't so that might be the deal breaker)-

-[ok i have to tell you about something boy. I used to HATE THE FUCK out of this song, i was so mean to it! but i am so sorry now (This is not sarcastic unlike my previous writeups btw), I actually grew to love this song between the span of 14 days ago and 1 day ago somehow. it has the "type" of melody i typically despise, where every action it takes is predictable to a degree i find genuinely nauseous. if this match were held like a few weeks ago, this song would be comfortably, easily last place of everything in so far. but i think growing to actually really like the "aesthetic" of the track has actually pushed enough of my buttons for this to cancel out anything i dislike about the melodic component? because in every other way aside from the melody I love the song. and even the melody that i hate i still love because it is like "pokemon main theme" where it sounds like a person could be singing about a "story" to it. I also think a lot of my frustration with this track was actually frustration regarding its context; i LOVE The sort of environment this song takes place in, futuristic garden dome, nature meets technology. but instead it sounded like a dumb cow boy song. except now that's exactly the type of song i want to hear!!! i just dont want to hear it in a futuristic dome with a bunch of plants in it (WAUIT FUCK ; I HAVE TURNED INTO MY OWN ENEMY/ hating a song that plays in a futuristic garden dome because i don't think it "fits" and i think that the melody is too "soulless".....oh no.....no.....it can't be) i love the combination of low quality artificial drums and "real sounds" at the same time. especially detached from the intended context, i love this song, somehow. i don't know how that happened.]-

-{I LOVE MASASHI HAMAUZU and i can't believe i like steam gardens now; probably the most violently i have turned around from "hatred of song" to "love the song" 180. steam gardens is still a 4/10 but it's also a 9/10 at the same time and that's why it is so milo thatch from disney's atlantis without your stupid obsession with guns}-

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-(i showed this song to my mom on Mother's Day and she REALLY liked it which did not surprise me at all because she is really obsessed with music that sounds like "Hiromi Uehara" which this song sounds incredibly similar to to the point i basically assume that is the inspiration here. I have basically nothing in common with my mom at all and we extremely do not get along (including on music taste, "music that sounds like hiromi" is basically the only way her taste lines up with mine at all and we each hate everything else each other like); so i am glad there is that extremely thin fragment of musical alignment so that we can not completely hate each other. and I was so happy to show my mom this song and for her to love it just as much as i expected and just as much as i do. imagine an invisible extra +1 from her as an honorary vote from her for this song in vgmc. Here is what Hiromi Uehara's music sounds like if you are curious. it sounds like this song and i like that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYUU19Cnf-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QssXe5sANK4
maybe these examples are not "perfect", i know she has some other stuff i think "this sound like video game battle theme" but these two examples flotation tank into my brain example stepping on the red man. Fog beasts has so many moments that make me happy like the constant 16th piano hiromi energy but my favorite part is the GROUPS OF 5 NOTES: OMG POLYMETER (1:58-2:05): what the fuck "mycroprocessir has inferior thought processes that is not emotional because of liking math"
)-

-[i am 49 years old, the otldest person on the entire website board 8, there is no one older than me, not even norenxaq or nfun. But what i will say: this song is just like those rusty floors. that's what i love so much about akira yamaoko musisc. and the songs snake 5555555555 likes that sound like this. they feel like metal that has blood on it. you know it's like a "bad place" and that's so cool, but you still feel the "emotion" in the song because it is not "planetary nation" i'm going to beat you up. why doyou come too my school. and that's what this song sounds like. it's from 1994 when there were noo people alive anymore OH NO. everyone died. this is what the instrumentation to "grosstown traffic" by "zan-zan-zawa-veia" from "finely crafted fetish film" should sound like. I agree.]-

-{happy mothers' day}-
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One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

---

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Fogbeasts


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One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm

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ranking time., i'm going to stop posting the whole thing every time but here's a "summarY"

linkage-alter
Twelfth Chapter ~ In the Sky
Obstacle
Untamed Heart
Anistar City
--- 6. Fogbeasts ---
Collapsed Expressway
--- 8. Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl" ---
Rose-Killing Carmilla
The First Thing
...
...
Discovery
--- 19. Steam Gardens ---
Class::CIEL_N_PROTECTA;
Soft Collision
--- 22. One Night in Neo Kobe City ---
Foregone Destruction
...
...
National Park
--- 30. Love Psalm ---
The Rain Formerly Known As Purple
...
...
Fuse Man Stage
--- 38. Suspenseful Third Day ---
Nekozamurai no Gyakushuu
...
...

this is out of 42 songs now, still don't truly dislike any of them.

my opinions on steam gardens are very "complex" mixed feelings that it makes ranking positioning difficult so if anything's moving around, that one is the most likely

i also think i have a hard time separating my reaction to one night in neo kobe city when younger (it was perfectly to my tastes earlier in my time on b8) from my reaction to it now. like it feels "wrong" to have it too low because i'm used to having liked it noticably more, so then i put it way higher than my actual enjoyment is? still trying to figure out where that one goes
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One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

First match is stupid close, and I really like both of these. Actually, these two songs are the ones I have the most prior familiarity with! ONiNKC has that vintage cruisin' jazz sound, and Suspenseful Third Day has a somber yet active piano. In all likelihood, I see myself taking the winner of this match for next round too!

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Match 2 is one I don't really feel much of anything on. HG~DotGH has that recognizeable mid-'00s RPG sound going for it, and the guitar in Steam Gardens kinda irks me, but I could see myself voting either way on this one.

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Fogbeasts is yet another hard rock JRPG battle theme but with a groovy piano!! The piano carries it pretty hard, but man is it cool! Love Psalm is another Silent Hill ambient industrial rock track, and honestly after 10+ years here, I just think it's this genre of music I just don't like. It has an okay~ish guitar solo, but otherwise it just drones on.

---

Kobe
Dance
Fog
---

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

jazz emotes

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Suspenseful Third Day
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

Really fun matchups this time around!

The first round was pretty unfair all things considered, because Suspenseful Third Day is a genuinely great song, that's utterly overshadowed by the unprecedented grooviness of Neo Kobe City. The fact that there isn't much else like it in this contest give Neo Kobe a distinct advantage and freshness.

Second round was pretty easy. I love Steam Gardens. A lot. But under no circumstance can it go toe to toe with a good Hamauzu.

Third round was pretty painful so far. SH music has a special place in my heart, and in most matchups I would've voted for Love Psalm, but in this particular case it went against one of my favourite JRPG battle themes in recent memory. Jazz prog fusion is pretty much my whole identity at this point, so there's no way I couldn't vote for Fogbeasts.

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

Six great songs, but I'm still expecting some landslides here.

Suspenseful Third Day
Steam Gardens
Fogbeasts

Suspenseful Third Day
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm
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Suspenseful Third Day
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

---

Suspenseful Third Day
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

Good day; I liked everything here, but I still have some clear preferences.

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Suspenseful Third Day
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm

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One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

Neo Kobe City is back, baby! This is another song I got into in my 2017 Klagmar days along with Tears Stained Eyes, and was like VGM can sound like THAT??? Most cyberpunk/retrofuturistic/synthwave-y city music I've heard goes for something dark, shady, and mysterious, while this song totally nails the image of a lively city that you'd just love to hang around for a while (much more HOME aesthetic than AWAY aesthetic!). Slap reverb on everything for extra style points!

My vgmgg brain keeps thinking "LEAP THE PRECIPICE" as soon as Dog's Howl starts

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One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Fogbeasts

one night in neo kobe city is the most fucking song ever. lotta good tracks this round!


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Snatcher (PC Engine CD) - One Night in Neo Kobe City
Sigma Harmonics - Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition - Fogbeasts
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One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm

the guitar segments in the XBC song is cool but then the piano segments come in and i want to fall asleep

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Steam Gardens
Love Psalm

One Night in Neo Kobe City > Steam Gardens > Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl" = Suspenseful Third Day > Love Psalm > Fogbeasts

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

---

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Love Psalm

One Night in Neo Kobe City
Hope Given ~ "Dance of the Dog's Howl"
Fogbeasts

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