Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 19! Onegonjou / Long Fall / BaJE (Tressa) / Op.13 / Immanence / Light

(+) 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 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

A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Immanence

Onegonjou does some cool things but A Long Fall is just a lot more fun. Final Fantasy.
why was this a round one match. rude.
Immanence has some really cool parts stained by a excess amount of wubs. Light... just doesn't interest me, which is unfortunate considering its Kirby and I normally love Kirby music, including a lot of Air Ride! Whatever of Journey's End/ Opus 13 win I will probably vote for next round over these two.

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onegonjou
OP 13


Love the aesthetic of this song. Has the same kind of... soft... marimba-feeling... thing that a lot of cakao songs have, but in a vocal song, which is very interesting. And it also has unexpected trumpet which is good. I dunno this song is just not something I would've expected to exist. Hilarious video too. The anime characters in front of sepia photographs was definitely something, and the artstyle is so inconsistent and so bad so much of the time. It's like a third generic or moe anime, a third stylistically... interesting RGD weird wide-smile nonsense, and a third aggressive horniness. 3:02 are you fucking serious? I love when OPs and mandated gameplay videos make me want to play a game less

Speaking of which, FFXIV. I was interested and then I was forced to see gameplay and eh. Anyway this singer needs to stop singing forever and stop ruining songs I'd've otherwise liked

Octopath music has never struck me as anything but generic. Acceptable. Uninspiring. Songs I'd tune into for two seconds while playing on occasion and think "this is neat" and utterly ignore the rest of the time, with them doing little more to enhance the experience than me shuffling my mp3 player

yeah i love dawn of ys perfect collection

Taishi is technically quite accomplished and definitely very competent, and even, I'll now admit, unique and experimental at times, yet I'm still pretty reluctant to love most of his tracks. They're usually firmly in the 7.5-8.0 tier; I enjoy them, and sometimes seek them out when in the mood, yet don't regard them as things I truly love (False God is hot though). Trance comfort food, and that's really it. Give me void instead. This song in particular is a bit too wubby for me, but that's whatever I can tune it out, and the piano section 4:30 or so in balances it out nicely. In all, very much a Taishi song

Hell yeah. One of the two Air Ride songs that stuck out at me on a replay that I didn't notice as a kid, which luckily coincided with Tox's favorites! Very magical SPACE track that i'm still not sure why I like so much I don't usually like stuff like this a lot (besides Illusionary Blue Flowers ig). I just like it. I like the catchy kirby melody. I like the catchy kirby bass. I like the stupid goofy AAAHs. I like the funky breakdown thing. I'm sure mycro will come in and say BIG LUSH CHORDS and SNEASEL 90S DANCE MUSIX so pretend he already posted and said those things and then assume that's what I like about the song because I clearly don't really know myself

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A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Immanence

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A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Light

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A Long Fall
Op. 13
Light

Onegonjou
Op. 13
Immanence
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A Long Fall
Op. 13
Immanence

Immanence was a standout for sure this time, nothing else really grabbed me from today but that one I like.

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A Long Fall
Op. 13
Light

---

A Long Fall
Op. 13
Immanence

A Long Fall
Op. 13
Immanence

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A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End
Light

The video accompanying Onegonjou was unintentional comedy at its finest. I get the feeling the game is super serious too which adds to the funny factor.

A Long Fall [8.5]
Onegonjou [7]
Battle at Journey's End [7]
Light [6.5]
Immanence [6]
Op. 13 [5.5]

Onegonjou
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Immanence

A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End
War of Brains

I do not like For Treasure and I wish we hadn't included it for some reason.
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Onegonjou (158th) vs A Long Fall (188th)
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa) (119th) vs Op. 13 (82nd)
Immanence (124th) vs Light (32nd)

hello rita i love you!!! although i think your voice is much more suited for not doing noriko mitose evil lady-like vocals so i'm not as attached to this song but its very good!! a long fall is pretty cool, even if it doesnt stick with me it is nice to listen to

HHHHH what is this second match, i actually think i like For Fortune even more than the actual main Battle at Journey's End part lmao, i'm a pretty big fan of the way it flows into the main song. big fan even if i tried to find a way to say this was ILLEGAL but given our relaxation on eligibility, I could not. but rondo of blood is Attack of 1990s Roland MIDI Device Thrown Out a Window And Lands On My Head very very good song. will be happy with any result here

xenoblade 2 battle

A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Immanence

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Onegonjou
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Immanence

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A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Immanence

Light certainly didn't make the third match easy for me! Sometime last year I woke up with a musical riff stuck in my head, and jammed out to it on the keyboard for a few weeks - I thought I was putting my own twist on the Sky Tower opening notes! Now I'm pretty sure I was just half-remembering that 4+4 note grouping from Light...not to mention there were like 3 more songs in noms with a similar motif. Some people claim that the brain is incapable of creating new faces in your dreams, I wonder how much that applies to musical ideas!

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Teito Hiten Daisakusen - Onegonjou
Octopath Traveler - Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Kirby Air Ride - Light
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A Long Fall
Op. 13
Immanence

THD - It's an interesting beat for "anime opening/10", sort of like a mix between spooky-in-the-vein-of-Kagome-Kagome Japanese and Egyptian, but in a roundabout way it's almost samey to other anime opening stuff. As a point of detraction, I keep getting distracted by the anime titty monsters. Stoppit.
Shadowbangers - Okay I am well-known for being a FF14 fanboy to the point of distraction, and yet I feel some minor distaste for this song. This is unfair to it, since it is due to personal experience of having run this dungeon too much. Musically it is CONSTANTLY IN YOUR FACE and draws inspiration from a few different songs in the whole Final Fantasy series (Crystal Tower, the "start of battle in ff1-6/9" riff, eScape, the Prelude, the Allagan empire's leitmotif itself are what I'm picking up on one pass alone) and as such this gets my vote at least for this round. (Oh, and one other criticism for it - unsure whether it's Soken or Koji-Fox singing the lyrics that are even-more-warbled Omega, but the vocal component probably shouldn'tve been in it.)

Octopath - Okay, accordion block, I want to change the channel now. Octopath is at its best when it's doing interesting things with, say, the vocals in one of the final battles, or honestly, if they had done more with the accordion at the start, or used the castanets a bunch more. Then the castanets and accordion go away and the song becomes generic RPG battle fare and I'm just here waiting for it to stop.
Rondo - ...Oh who am I kidding it's Castlevania of course it gets a vote of mine unless it was from Lords of Shadow or something. It's 90s funky and amazing, and while I like Castlevania best when it's trying to go for sweet+spooky orchestral, Castlevania when it goes funky is just as iconic and great.

RE: Your brains - This song is a LONG order, but it varies enough to remain interesting throughout. The wubs that I usually dislike in other song are low-tone enough to not overbear the rest of the music, and the song uses choir decently and sparingly. I rather kind of like it!
Poyo! - I love me a lot of Kirby things, and this is kinda cool (and WHAT is that bassline) but it's... well, less overall INTERESTING than Immanence up there. Alack, alay, you're not the star today.

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banshiryuu posted...

but rondo of blood is Attack of 1990s Roland MIDI Device Thrown Out a Window And Lands On My Head very very good song

actually it's mostly Korg 01/W and E-Mu Proteus/1. there is a little bit of roland d-50 and jv-880 used in this game but i think not on this song
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Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers - A Long Fall
Octopath Traveler - Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Kirby Air Ride - Light

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Immanence
Op. 13
A Long Fall

Weird cool song vs weird fun song, both with lyrics that are hard to follow for quite different reasons. Also not really into either though i don't mind them, making this match pretty tough. I'll probably end up putting both of them really close in the ranking. (yes i did)

I don't really like begrudging songs for their loop points but also i didn't really care for listening to 1 minute of that octopath song let alone 4. Anyway, 90s.

Taishi is strong. Some really cool stuff in this that really makes it stand out, albeit also make it not the easiest thing to remember afterwards. At the very least, it's easily my favourite song in its quarter, which is certainly unfortunate for Light which might've otherwise been in that position (i guess it'll be apparent when I do those rankings), but instead ends up in this weird pseudo-sff position. I find myself wanting a little more from this likely because of the nature of the match. I do like at least that it (surely unintentionally) reminds me a little of mean bean machine, even if that's also the weakest part.

13.Immanence
38.Light
63.Op. 13
90.A Long Fall
91.Onegonjou
99.Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
never mind i guess i was a liar phantom's the highest (though i did just adjust phantom down to 12th along with some other minor shuffling)

Onegonjou
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Immanence

The first 90 seconds or so of Long Fall are real good and make this match close, and there are other cool parts too. Kill the parts with the voices and I'm much more into it. Onegonjou isn't really a top Love Solfege song IMO, but it's still good.

I don't think most Octopath Traveler music is that good outside the game (Daughter of the Dark God being the exception), but I do think it's cool in-game. I like how all the final boss themes are basically the same, but with different intros. Makes them feel unique but gives continuity across them, and hyped me up every time in game. Op. 13 doesn't sound like the CV music I like, other than a couple parts.

Not liking Immanence as much as usual today. Still a great song! Light feels slight.

Immanence > Onegonjou > Battle at Journey's End (Tressa) > A Long Fall > Op. 13 > Light
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Onegonjou
Op. 13
Light

If the Octopath Traveler song were just the two bars of 5/4 at 0:59 and literally nothing else, match 2 would've been much harder

kirby music

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A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Light

Teito Hiten Daisakusen - Onegonjou
Octopath Traveler - Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
War of Brains - Immanence

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A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Light

Onegonjou
Op. 13
Immanence

Whoah, I've never even heard of Teito Hiten Daisakusen before, but this song is great! I get what Tox is saying now with the Ar Tonelico comparisons. The dark chanting is great, as usual, but the jazzy trumpet here is giving me flashbacks to The Heavy Black Smoke Blossoms (man, I wish that song did better). I actually am already familiar with the works of Love Solfege while listening through other music of that genre (I still don't know the name of this genre is, but there's a whole bunch of it).

A Long Fall has a catchy '00s alternative rock type riff with heavily distorted vocals that somehow work well with this, then a spooky Scooby Doo groove 2 minutes in. This match feels a bit too good for me to be happening in Round 1.

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I remember when Octopath Traveler first released, and everyone was hyping up Yasunori Nishiki to be the next "big" composer for the JRPG genre. I uhhhh, haven't really heard any of his works since. This style sticks to the classics of the genre, with a fresh twist. Listen to that clean instrumentation on this song, especially those sad violins, sounds like something straight off of an anime OST.

Op. 13 manages to fit into two of my favorite VGM categories: "Castlevania" and "PC Engine". I'm pretty sure that Rondo of Blood is my favorite Castlevania soundtrack. I don't know if picking Op. 13 was the right choice being as short as it is, but here in the VGM business we call this kind of music too much funky

Close match
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Immanence is another glitchy/electronic song, which may or may not be something I end up liking, but Taishi tends to be one of the best at doing this sort of thing. This drags on maybe a bit too long, but the high points of this are enough to carry it.

Light has that quintessential GameCube feel, and if this did just a little bit more, it'd be perfect. It's kinda short though, opposite problem of its opponent. Also a close match, going against my faves bracket here.

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Onegonjou
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
abstain for now

Onegonjou (8.2 - 21st place) / A Long Fall (6.6 - 55th place)
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa) (8.1^ - 23rd place) / Op. 13 (5.5 - 60th place)
Immanence (8.4 - 20th place) / Light (8.8v - 17th place)

Can't believe a 6.6 rating is bottom 10 in this bracket, but bracket B has my highest average rating! I also love Octopath Traveler music... the general sound of it makes feel good ;) Op. 13 I could have liked because it has stuff I like, but it has more stuff I don't like, oh no. ;( And the third match is not fair! I'm too tired to make a judgment today, but I am leaning toward Immanence.

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Onegonjou
Op. 13
Immanence

this might be like the first day where i dont mind if i go 0/3

Onegonjou
Op. 13
Light

-(during noms last year, I remember listening to this song on my phone from the noms playlist while going for a walk, and having the yt screen visible, it facing a direction pedestrians could see. Was very embarrassed when immediately after, i realized what visuals would be visible to anyone who happened to be able to see my phone screen. but i was simultaneously enthralled by the amazing new discovery of this track!!! was disappointed that it failed to take off last year, and i'm glad it came back this year and got enough traction to actually get in!
~~~~~
the most immediately shocking thing here is the bits like :11-:30, i like the 13/16 time [repeating the same chords every note] pseudo-robotic harmonized vocal stuff, they're wonderfully funky tight rhythms that sound like AR TONELICO and i like that video game music soundtrack.
~~~~~
THis whole track is actually pretty "not 4/4" but mostly in ways much more subtle than those sections, but it's how i always feel music "should be". often times when i listen to all-4/4 music i'm bothered by how it feels like it's forcing itself to fit into a conventional container when occasionally changing the meter up would actually feel /more/ natural. this song feels SUPERNATURAL. it has bits that are totally alien (the overt 13/16 stuff) but also bits that are more natural than if it had done something more conventional (stuff like the "mostly 6/8 but sometimes 4/4 or something else" section at 1:02-1:12, which might be my favorite part). That's important to me because it shows both extremes of a trait that i think is far too often derided as arbitrarily academic or jarring, in this song it's necessary for the track to flow how it does, even the comparisons of the 13/16 rhythm to the normal 4/4 parts that reference similar rhythm patterns to the 13 parts...both opposite things need to be in there for this song to feel how it does and these things just FEEL COOL. Pop music could totally sound like 1:02 and mostly doesn't because of stereotypes, not even because people are averse to the sound or because it's doing anything particularly weird or out-there
~~~~~
One thing i really love about this track's instrumentation is all the mallet percussion. it becomes very clear in the section around like 1:38 in the background, but those cool percussion sounds are throughout pretty much the whole song. traditional japanese instrumentation in general is cool too! especially plucked strings, anything shamisen/koto-esque, a thing i always like at least in sound.
~~~~~
i often jokingly reductively describe my taste as ANIME PROG because i like a lot of soundtracks and music sources people here tend to describe as "anime", but never the popular songs, always the weird proggy ones. but usually that description doesn't actually make any sense to the way it'd sound to someone external to this community (ie rhythm-changer). but well, here it /actually/ is. absolutely proggy, totally a eroge vn op that sounds like anime, and i unsurprisingly love it. it's two odd niches lurking in the corner of b8's taste that aren't usually combined, but i'm happy it's merged here just for me!)-

-[i like the ""atmosphere"" of a lnog fall. strange distorted distant and buried vocals are oddly a plus, though in other ffxiv songs that aspect of the production bothers me. here it makes it almost have like a gritty "if akira yamaoka became TOO FAST" feel to it. silent hill meets sonic forces...............Also i actually like the guitar and super basic dance beat here it makes it feel like you are rapidly traveling through a place with cool glowing cyan neon lights where some big ACTION is taking place (which i guess according to the video, it actually is?...sort of). i don't really have any significant problems with the song in terms of sound even if the production feels off to me, but the actual melodies are not what i'm looking for. if this were melodically something else but with the exact same instrumentation/pacing/etc i'd be way more into it]-

-{sonic}-

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-(i don't know how much your octoman is like the "why does each section have to loop 2x what is this dancing mad?" i like the harmonica because it feels like one of the nowhere places in Pokemon Colosseum. and i like the tiny 5/4 part that chz pointed out, mostly because the modulation there provides just enough elevation for me to not go so numb oh no now i can't feel anything just like your piano piss garden where you scream. I like when the xylophone comes in becase that os one of my favorite instrument by the tunes. this rmeinds me of final fantasy HA HA that's so funny because one of thes ongs in the soncteonxt is by finfal fantasy today)-

-[ZOMG" 19945; you know, i lived in the 90s. did y ou know that, i rememver , i remember it. i remember when i couldn't go on youtube to listen to vgm. that was so fucking cool holy shit. my favorite synthesizers were most widely used in the 90s : ) which was when this song was made!!! that's so unsurprising, because i like all of the synthesizer sounds that are in this song, like the ones i pointed out in my response to deo generate. very "funky" like a blue pangolin man. this is one of my TOP THREE FAVORITE CASTLEVANIA SOUNDTRACKS, but i likke other songs more than this one such as "james". why do i like "90s romplers" (that were usually actually made in the 80s) SO much ? ?? well probably because they sound like "glass" and are very "shiny", ttttttttthey have a quality to them that makes me want to stab myself with rounded transparent crystals and DIE because of how iridescent i can see through them boys. i know you. you hate me mom werewolves]-

-{a close match actually not really shut up}-

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-(I never remember what happens in this song which makes it a FRESH amazing new experience every time. DEEEEE reverse piano?! oh now it's going forwards! I like this taishi man he sounds like he /(thank you for teling me what art core is direkrow) is playing the piano but he broke into tv station and now has duplicated into 15 of his men. fragments of his mind are in the 5 places: minotaur monitors / aphex auxillary port / circuit boards of canada / formal format (that's only four places you ESCCHEWED PARAMETERS) well you're not the circuit linear diaphragm i am listening to you photon. this song gets so intense and mean!!! How Cruel! i love the glitchy journalism and the choir people being chopped into genetic conversions of pathos just like neotokyo. this is ridicujlously EPIC and GRAND and absurd deep in distortion realm. i love the constant 8ths piano part. EXTREMELY dire/me overlap music)-

-[why is this song so MEMORABLE/. it's not just that this song fit my 2003 music taste and i played this game more than any other game for so many years in my life. there's other songs that that applies to and they don't hold quite the same level of elevation in status for me. they don't go "aaah" they don't have a "inside a computer" ostinato. they don't have the morphy BIG LUSH CHORDS from :58-1:10. and they don't have cool synth solos secretly hidden in the song after the fake first loop. This song defines entire categories of electronic music to me. a wonderful piece from (probably) Hirokazu "I love complex chords" Ando]-

-{one of the harder matches in r1. an old favorite vs something new that i THINK i would like more if i heard both for the first time today? but it's impossible to re-create that experience. could flip}-

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Onegonjou (15th/112)
Light (22nd/112)
Immanence (27th/112)
Op. 13 (60th/112)
A Long Fall (87th/112)
Battle at Journey's End (90/112)
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A Long Fall
Op. 13
Immanence

I was so sure I'd vote for Onegonjou since it does a lot of cool and proggy things, but after a while it kind of got boring. A Long Fall, on the other hand, is just a straight up banger, and the way it blends classic Final Fantasy elements into this synth rock context is really well done.

This round is mean. So mean.

I really like the Kirby song, but... Taishi is the goat. I don't think there's a single producer I like more than Taishi. He's just so... aggressively insistent on flexing his sound design skills, in the best way possible.

A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Immanence

Onegonjou
Op. 13
Immanence

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Toxtricity posted...

i like the tiny 5/4 part that chz pointed out

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Fall
13
Immanence
---

A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Light

Onegonjou
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Light

---

Onegonjou
Op. 13
Light

---

A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Light
---

A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Immanence

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Onegonjou
Op. 13
Immanence

Op.13 and immanence are really freaking cool.

Onegonjou
Op. 13
Immanence

A Long Fall
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Light

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A Long Fall
Op. 13
Light

What in the hell is Op. 13? I'm still blown away by it

Teito Hiten Daisakusen - Onegonjou [9.0]
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood - Op. 13 [8.0]
Kirby Air Ride - Light [8.0]

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers - A Long Fall [5.5]
Octopath Traveler - Battle at Journey's End (Tressa) [4.0]
War of Brains - Immanence [6.5]

What the FUCK onegonjou is incredible, maybe my favorite example of this sound in recent memory. If this ran away with the bracket or even the contest I'd be all for it.


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A Long Fall
Op. 13
Light

Onegonjou
Battle at Journey's End (Tressa)
Immanence

A Long Fall
Op. 13
Immanence

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