Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 18! Id vs GTR, BrvNewWrld v Sogno, FatefulConfront v UndyingShores

(+) 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
Compatibility sheet (courtesy of Haste!!): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iGYWo_ifr_p2uYpD_I6TwBQS2tm7zJtPCxYZfRJcG8I
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

certainly dramatic
Songo
Fateful

I'm normally kind of critical on harsh genesis music. This is a soundtrack where I want it *harsher*. Kick my ass, song. A bit less interesting than Something Wonderful, but a bigger banger

I'd vote the theme of Civilization V: Brave New World over both of these

MAYBE IT WAS FATED NAGARENI

Fairly cool. I lost interest halfway through. Too focused on a mood I rarely care about at the expense of things I would care about

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GTR
BNW
TitS

39.GTR Attack!
42.Brave New World
46.Id (Purpose)
58.Fateful Confrontation
82.Sogno di Volare
104.The Undying Shores

i like brave new world but actually prefer it in later games since I have some gripes with the vocals. works great when the opening video is accompanying it but that's not what was used here

GTR Attack!
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
Fateful Confrontation

GTR Attack!
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
Fateful Confrontation

GTR Attack!
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation
---

Id Purpose
Brave New World
The Undying Shores

this is the year this is the year this is the
Remember that time I voted against a popular Sky song? Watch this, youll never guess.

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Id (Purpose)
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Undying Shores

Surprise song of the day The Undying Shores! On a night when I was sleep-deprived and not really able to focus on the music, the 7:41 runtime made me cringe but this song definitely didn't overstay its welcome! I supported The Thief in noms, and could very well have gone for Undying Shores as another "epic roguelike atmosphere" pick if I'd paid more attention!

Brave New World's got an EXEC_Z type beat

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Id (Purpose)
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
Fateful Confrontation

Except for GTR Attack a pretty good day. Greatly enjoyed the second match, and Id Purpose is good as usual.

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Id (Purpose)
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation


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Id (Purpose) (61st) vs GTR Attack! (148th)
Brave New World (17th) vs Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight) (254th)
Fateful Confrontation (68th) vs The Undying Shores (245th)

the quality difference is staggering in these ones tbh lol, three long-time favorites up today woooooo

Id (Purpose)
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation

Awakening - I had this song on highest settings before Corrin existed on the Fire Emblem levels in Smash 4 for a reason. I kind of want to see an accordion-off in this bracket, but besides that, apart from the lyrical section being maaaaybe a few bars too long, it's just glorious.
Contra - I see the composers, and I get excited, but then I realize it's just Konami namedropping their sound team. This doesn't sound very impressive to me, unfortunately. Even trying to give it a fair chance, it's just giving me a slight headache in comparison.

NxC - One of my greatest vgmgg host shames is using the inferior Project X Zone during the most bullshit "name the theme" themed block I ever ran. BNW gets stuck in my head a LOT and I have no problem with that - in fact, it's one of the songs that got me into the outskirts of the Megaman ROMhack community (thanks to Quick Man's level in Rockman no Constancy.) Unless its competition extremely "wow"s me, it's getting my vote here.
Civ6 - It's a good "hmm!" and not a "wow," alas. It's impressive, and versus some other matches I've been antsy on I likely would've voted for it (choral orchestra is a huge plus in my book.)

TitS - If I didn't know the name and if Konami didn't outright kill the game franchise, I would say this sounds like a modern Castlevania climax bossfight, except it's got some guitar shredding going on instead of a harpsichord. Pretty good!
Dead Cells - Mood music needs to grab me a lot earlier than this did. That runtime is a *big* ask. It does its job of mood well, but out of context, I don't think it performs too admirably, even with Nier-esque vocals during the second-half.


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Id (Purpose)
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Undying Shores

Id (Purpose)
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Undying Shores

Id is, as ever, pretty alright. I like Apex from yesterday a lot more. Outside match 3, yesterday a much better day in general! GTR is not great.

BNW feels alright. Exec Z it is not though! Feels way slower. Sogno is nicer. Feels like a good movie OST song, other than the lame ending.

Fateful Confrontation is very good! I like the vocal version better though. WOW this match is so much better than the others! Undying Shores is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, just like great game Dead Cells (where I never heard it, because I never played the DLC...).

The Undying Shores > Fateful Confrontation > Id (Purpose) > Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight) > Brave New World > GTR Attack!
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GTR Attack
Sogno di Volaire
Undying Shores

Match 3 is basically dead even.

Sogno di Volaire [8.5]
GTR Attack [8]
Undying Shores [7.5]
Fateful Confrontation [7.5]
Brave New World [7]
Id ~ Purpose [6.5]

Id (Purpose)
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Undying Shores

---

GTR Attack!
Brave New World
The Undying Shores

GTR has OP fm so it wins in the literal first 2 seconds. Civ 6 is just, not very fun sorry. And Shores wins at the end cause it's better. Hahaha Shores shores shores. What a chore it'll be to convince people about this one. I did find it to not be the best match up, I feel falcom songs are very highly stimulating, and Shores seems to be suffering from feeling extra slow or drawn out. I know you should judge a song based on its own, but you know, I'm a believer that hearing and music enjoyment is a complicated mess of stimuli. These stimuli apply to music, and it applies to songs before, while, and after you're done listening. I call them appetizers, cause it truly makes a difference in your taste and appreciation of music. In this case, it's really an inverse. Shores has never felt slow or uninteresting in my opinion, but I felt a bit saturated jumping from high energy falcom to Shores. But even then, Shores is the better song, it's my baby and my emotions towards it are deep, true, loving, and few times in my lifetime have I felt what i felt with this song. Do yourself a favor and don't jump from the falcom song right into shores, give yourself some rest and then comeback, it'll make the experience better.

GTR Attack!
no
Fateful Confrontation

---

Fire Emblem Awakening - Id (Purpose)
Namco X Capcom - Brave New World
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation
---

Id (Purpose)
Brave New World
The Undying Shores

---

GTR Attack!
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation

---

GTR Attack!
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Undying Shores

Fire Emblem Awakening - Id (Purpose)
Namco X Capcom - Brave New World
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation

---

GTR Attack!
Brave New World
The Undying Shores

me from 2011 would absolutely vote sogno

Id (Purpose)
abstain for now
The Undying Shores

Oh, yeah. Scores/Ranks.

Id (Purpose) (9.3 - 8th place) / GTR Attack! (6.7 - 51st place)
Brave New World (6.7v - 52nd place) / Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight) (7.3v - 43rd place)
Fateful Confrontation (6.2 - 59th place) / The Undying Shores (7.3 - 44th place)


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Id (Purpose)
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Undying Shores

GTR Attack!
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation

Hot take time, Awakening has a better soundtrack than any of the FE games that came after it. Could maybe vote Id Purpose in another match, but GTR Attack!! (exclamation point) is cool!

---

Hehe clever matchup for #2. Brave New World sounds like every single early '00s anime opening theme. Sogno is far from the best Civ theme, but it's still pretty good. Actually a tough choice here.

---

Fateful Confrontation is what every boss theme should sound like. (actually super hype theme in game PLAY TRAILS)

Undying Shores has cool chanting at 2:40, is otherwise not memorable.

I had to double check to make sure I wasn't voting for the Civ song, man this is confusing >_>

---

Id (Purpose)
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation

I'm voting for Brave New World 100% entirely because of the one second panning FM bass fill at 1:24 and no other reason

FL81 posted...

Hot take time, Awakening has a better soundtrack than any of the FE games that came after it.

correct tho

---

Attack
Dream
Shores
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Id (Purpose)
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
Fateful Confrontation

---

GTR Attack!
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation
---

GTR Attack!
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation

---

GTR Attack!
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Undying Shores

---

Id (Purpose)
Brave New World
The Undying Shores

---

GTR Attack!
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation

Id (Purpose)
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
Fateful Confrontation

---

Id (Purpose)
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
Fateful Confrontation

Id (Purpose)
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Undying Shores

---

Id Porpoise
Brave New World
Undying Shores

Sogno di Volaire is just no Baba Yetu

actually was super in a Fateful Confrontation mood; Undying Shores is just that good.
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Id
Sogno di Volare
Fateful Confrontation

-(Id~Purpose is a long-time favorite for me, not sure i have much new to say about it so i will keep this writeup brief. it's pretty emblematic of the "nearly every chord change is a key change" types of modulation-centric chords progressions that move me the most, :57-1:25, and 2:02-2:33 being some of the prime examples in this track. it reminds me of my favorite parts of songs by Pat M-*gets STABBED by a big sword that is in this youtube video*)-

-[note i probably should've written: "*(Suspected: Hiroshi Kobayashi)" and i may even be able to confirm, they're known to have done the majority of the ost and this song "sounds like the majority of the ost". also it's known NOT to be Hirofumi Taniguchi, because we know which specific single song is theirs (Gekokujoh Norakura (which is actually easily my favorite in the game~!))
~~~~~
anyway gtr attack as a nom is really disappointing to me. i'm pretty loud about how i was once such a fan of sega genesis music that i listened to "EVERY" sega genesis soundtrack. multiple times!! i went through all of them...a lot, AND i LOVE the Contra series for music! so naturally I think Contra Hard Corps is a brilliant OST!! but this song always made me roll my eyes like...this ost has INSANELY COOL fm synth sound design, and this song centers itself around imo not-that-good fm guitar, it's like hilariously unappealing a sound compared to every other sound to me in the entire soundtrack, can name dozens of genesis osts i prefer the fake guitar in to this. and i'm saying this as someone who LIKES harsh FM! it's sad too because i've even warmed back up to like this type of guitar-centric stuff, i could like this for the same reason i like fateful confrontation (spoilers) if it had been done a bit differently. i could pick apart everything that makes this not click with me but, well i don't need to be negative any more than i've already been. there's actually some really good bits here, :23-1:06 has really quirky chord changes and melody layer over it, very super paper mario-esque and i adore that whole section, tonally super weird in a way i respect a lot and every moving layer highlights that. I also really like the parallel-y harmonized synth layer sorta thing doing fun big arps at like :43 and all the stuff that sound does a bit later. There's lots of cool sounds in this song, like basically everything other than the guitar i think sounds fucking cool. i used to be a total "automatically likes fm synths" guy, but it is harder to literally automatically sell me on FM synth chiptunes than it once was, and maybe especially this song, which i was never even quite into]-

-{honestly even 2009 me might've gone id here, not sure. not sure there's any hard corps songs that beat id for me now (though Gekokujoh Norakura comes close) but most of the rest of this ost would've beat it for me in 2009}-

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-(given that my guntz (klonoa character) avatar(s) on discord that i'd been using recently mostly actually came from this game rather than klonoa games, i wish i actually had something positive to say about the music from it here in the contest. but it doesn't really make me feel anything at all. the appeal here is mostly in the sound design, i like the instrumentation a lot (cool gated synth patterns, piano-mixed-with-edm is a thing i like, vocals are nice) and i would probably be really into this track if the composition did anything for me. at least i can say "i like the way the song sounds". i like crossovers so i should probably play this given what characters are in it ha ha, just hope i like other songs in it more...lets find out? i'm not really fond of the klonoa song picksWAIT WHAT THE FUCK THAT BURNING FORCE SONG I LOVE THAT RETIRED IN THE TAIKO MEDLEY LAST YEAR IS IN THIS??!!?!?!? and a literal Dino Crisis arrange?! HOW lol, ok i need to play this thing. some of the other original music is cool too, a shame the composers/arrangers are mostly not even known for this game at all. also watching the opening movie right now and this song is so much better with that visual alongside it)-

-[one of my "favorite discoveries" in noms...? how had i not heard this before lol. it was certainly presented to me in some form before? well if it was, i certainly didn't find it as stand-out as i do now because holy shit this is like one of my favorite orchestra+choir things i've heard in a while. contending with id~purpose for me (if they both get past r1 that match between them will be hell to decide on). One appeal to me here is the unpredictable hard-to-follow bar phrasing here. mostly "groups of 8 bars of 6/8" but how those 8 bars are divided up are inconsistent in a really cool feeling way. This is mostly determined by the rhythms of the lyrics, and when the last beat of them is, which is not always in the same place; makes it so sometimes chord changes enforce a 3bars+5bars pattern and other times 4bars+4bars. it actually "feels" more complex than it is to me i never know when the next phrase is going to start or end unless i'm actively counting, which is cool. makes this surprisingly unpredictable, and all of it feels it serves a purpose too. its not just like i like the song because i can type funny numbers about the song, the way it's handled just makes it feel EPIC ok. not knowing quite when the chords are going to change, or when these vocal melody lines are going to end, makes it way more exciting and powerful once they do start/end. the 6/8ness gives it a bouncy floatiness that makes me feel like i am FLYING which fits with the song name. this song grows on me every time i hear it]-

-{lets go aLTERNATE universe FAvorites Bracket Winner Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)}-

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-(wait why is the song called "FC" in the game called "SC instead of "FC" HMMMMM. i went from listing this in my top "planned supports" in like vgmc11 or something, to not liking this song anymore for a few years, back to loving this song again! FC/SC sound design is just really god to me, the synth leads are especially shiny. all the triplets are fun, EPIC SONG. the 7/4 bit is my favorite part, though not "because it's 7/4", more just think it's the spice of variety and drama the song needs to get pushed ove the TOP!!!! it's actually "perfect" to me in a way where i can't stand any arrangements of this because pretty much every element needs to be exactly how it is for me to get into this as much as i am. i've started to feel similar about this to most SC songs especially any with lots of synths, instrumentation choices in that game were just so fun and it's the falcom ost i come back to most for a reason (tho my actual favorite falcom ost is probably zwei still, but SC has CERTAIN SONGS in it that um, yeah))-

-[i think i'm more receptive to slow orchestral stuff than the majority of this community, or most 'vgm fan' communities i'm in tbh. but this lacks something important i like about that stuff, tiny details and nuance. some layers here are super rigid fake feeling Every Note Played Same Volume, and actively force me to focus on them with very few other background details that i look for when it comes to orchestral stuff. and i'm instantly lost on ability to care about it. if this were arranged by JACK WALL or someone i might have something better to say. i dont think this is "boring", but i do think it is "cheesy", which is far harder for me to get over]-

-{FINALLY voting for falcom rock}-

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Id (8th/106)
Sogno di Volare (9th/106)
Fateful Confrontation (38th/106)
Brave New World (91st/106)
GTR Attack! (102nd/106)
The Undying Shores (103rd/106)
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GTR
BNW
Fateful

Unisuga tracks are weird to me, in that many of his songs are super cool and fun to listen to if I'm not paying too much attention, but once my ears start listening for details they start to sound unpolished and messy. This is definitely *more* true for his older tracks, but still holds true for some of his newer ones. Undying Shores is putting me to sleep tho, that makes this easy.

GTR attack is a pleasant surprise! would listen to more of this. good thing it's not against the best song in Awakening, that might have made this tough.
---

Toxtricity posted...

-[note i probably should've written: "*(Suspected: Hiroshi Kobayashi)" and i may even be able to confirm, they're known to have done the majority of the ost and this song "sounds like the majority of the ost". also it's known NOT to be Hirofumi Taniguchi, because we know which specific single song is theirs (Gekokujoh Norakura (which is actually easily my favorite in the game~!))
~~~~~
anyway gtr attack as a nom is really disappointing to me. i'm pretty loud about how i was once such a fan of sega genesis music that i listened to "EVERY" sega genesis soundtrack. multiple times!! i went through all of them...a lot, AND i LOVE the Contra series for music! so naturally I think Contra Hard Corps is a brilliant OST!! but this song always made me roll my eyes like...this ost has INSANELY COOL fm synth sound design, and this song centers itself around imo not-that-good fm guitar, it's like hilariously unappealing a sound compared to every other sound to me in the entire soundtrack, can name dozens of genesis osts i prefer the fake guitar in to this. and i'm saying this as someone who LIKES harsh FM! it's sad too because i've even warmed back up to like this type of guitar-centric stuff, i could like this for the same reason i like fateful confrontation (spoilers) if it had been done a bit differently. i could pick apart everything that makes this not click with me but, well i don't need to be negative any more than i've already been. there's actually some really good bits here, :23-1:06 has really quirky chord changes and melody layer over it, very super paper mario-esque and i adore that whole section, tonally super weird in a way i respect a lot and every moving layer highlights that. I also really like the parallel-y harmonized synth layer sorta thing doing fun big arps at like :43 and all the stuff that sound does a bit later. There's lots of cool sounds in this song, like basically everything other than the guitar i think sounds fucking cool. i used to be a total "automatically likes fm synths" guy, but it is harder to literally automatically sell me on FM synth chiptunes than it once was, and maybe especially this song, which i was never even quite into]-

-{honestly even 2009 me might've gone id here, not sure. not sure there's any hard corps songs that beat id for me now (though Gekokujoh Norakura comes close) but most of the rest of this ost would've beat it for me in 2009}-

ok i TAKE THIS BACK i am now relistening to the whole contra hard corps ost and remembering how much i like the whole thing. including that song. I basically just dont like the guitar sound used in the first 23 seconds, because i read it as being really blocky and unexpressive and unnuanced of a timbre that i just find too cheesy to take seriously, especially when i think there's tons of cool sounding fm synth guitars out there. but that's not enough to demote this to that low in the ranking. EVERYTHING else that i mentioned liking in the song, i still like, and actually actively love...some of the best moments in the whole ost for me are the very things i said i love about it in my writeup above. in fact it's ridiculous that a writeup where i say as many positive things as i do i still rank this song that low

imo it's not as sound_design-impressive as many of the other songs in this game (and knowing that "using genesis chip in cool interesting-sounding ways" is part of why i like contra hard corps music, it made me assume i rank this really low relative to the rest of the game, thoughtlessly, and i feel that feeling of "bad pick from ost i know i like most of" or even "part of song i hate when i like most of the rest of the song" probably biased me against this unfairly)

but it's compositionally super fun, so i can't complain. i just wish the guitar in the first section were like, time trax's guitar, hitoshi sakimoto genesis pseudo-guitar, or even 'other songs in contra hard corps' guitar. but everything else about the song is great and i'm SORRY for being so mean to it. it is definitely not my least favorite song in the game, probably at least like mid-tier? my reaction is "mixed" but i clearly have more positive things to say about most of the song than not.

here is my new ranking position for the contest though
GTR Attack! (60th/106)

it could be bumped up easily (as could id/sogno too)

still no chance of me voting for it because of what it is against though haha
---

Fire Emblem Awakening - Id (Purpose)
Civilization VI - Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation

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Fire Emblem Awakening - Id (Purpose)
Civilization VI - Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
Dead Cells: Fatal Falls - The Undying Shores

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GTR Attack!
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Undying Shores

GTR Attack!
Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Undying Shores

GTR Attack!
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation

You know I can sympathize with Id fans but it's really just not my thing.
Second match was closer than I expected; both songs were pretty neat.

Fateful Confrontation is my favorite song in the first half of the bracket! Using part of the writeup I gave it during the Trails (Evo) OST project: I love the spooky triplets at the start which cut out two beats before you'd think to get into the meat of the song, I love the HUGE reprise of the Enforcers theme, complete with the rhythm guitar chugging away in the back, I love the keyboard sound and the way it follows up the previous part, as well as the triplets leading into the next bit, and I LOVE LOVE the 7/4 part at the end. Just a really infectious rhythm. Any time I wonder if the song is getting stale that part hits and nope, I still love it.

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GTR Attack!
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation

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Id (Purpose)
Brave New World
Fateful Confrontation

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Contra: Hard Corps - GTR Attack!
Civilization VI - Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Fateful Confrontation
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