Board 8 > Final Fantasy Music Contest (FFMC) Predictions, Results & Discussion Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm sad Beginning of the End FFRK didn't win, or even come close, it was by far my favorite of the day! I guess Sunleth is a worthy winner too, though.
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There was a point I was going to nominate Can't Catch A Break but it didn't make my nom cut. Always loved that as such a fun, unique track, good stuff... better than Sunleth imo (and irrevocably linked in my mind to that area, of course)

Robazoid posted...

I'm sad Beginning of the End FFRK didn't win, or even come close, it was by far my favorite of the day! I guess Sunleth is a worthy winner too, though.

Glad you liked it! Definitely a rough draw for BotE.

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Sunleth getting so much love here, yet I think it only got two noms in VGMC

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Day 5 Results

(1) Corneo Colosseum (VIIR) - 13
(16) Aerith's Theme - Home Again (VIIR) - 26

(8) 'Neath Dark Waters (Scions & Sinners Version) (XIV: Shadowbringers) - 9
(9) One-Winged Angel (VII) - 29

(5) Shadowbringers (XIV: Shadowbringers) - 21
(12) Dear Friends (V) - 17

(4) Court Jesters (IX) - 18
(13) Matoya's Cave (PS Version) (I) - 17

The bottom two matches were very close all day. We lose another 1 seed (that's 2/3 already!) and FF1's only shot now is with a Record Keeper remix after Matoya agonisingly loses by a single vote.

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big oof at those last two results


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Man I love going 1/4

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can't wait to see what other prestigious songs got a 1 seed after the last two (and I voted for Corneo's colosseum)

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The other 1 seeds are listed in the bracket! But if you'd like to keep them a surprise... yes many are not your typical picks >_>

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not looking at the bracket, no

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2 great #1s left
2 #1s i'm not familiar
and the 5th is a song that defies categorization

hype

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As much as I enjoyed Matoya's Cave, I would have been very upset had Court Jesters gone out first round, especially if it surprised me by the amount of support it received in nominations.

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My vote actually made a difference. I thought I was going to vote for Matoya, but Court Jester edged it out slightly, and it was a new track for me

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I've never heard anyone talk about Court Jesters before, but it did stand out to me as one of the better IX tracks when I played it earlier this year. Cool that it's getting recognition, sad that it's at the expense of Matoya!

Hm thinking of Court Jesters, I wonder what the biggest differential is in FF between character quality and the quality of their theme. Zorn/Thorn are not nearly good enough to warrant such a fun theme!

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I thought they were fun enough! Enough fun I thought they were!

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Court Jesters was always one of my favorite IX tracks, and I'm pretty high on the IX soundtrack in general, so I'm glad to see it do well. I don't think it should have beaten Matoya's Cave, but that says more about how much I like Matoya's Cave than anything.

Zorn and Thorn themselves suck though, yeah.
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I barely remember Zorn and Thorn but they have unique designs and I usually like the trope of the two villainous lackeys (like Hack and Slash from Reboot). Why are they bad?

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Yeah I thought the music fit Thorn and Zorn perfectly.

Having said that, if I had gotten around to vote I think I would have chosen Matoya's Cave. I had forgotten how good the soundtrack of the first game was

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Mobilezoid posted...

Why are they bad?

I don't hate them or anything, they were just fairly unassuming+sometimes annoying third tier antagonists but their song is great!

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Day 6 Results

(3) Suteki Da Ne (Isn't It Wonderful?) (X) - 22
(14) Saber's Edge (XIII) - 17

(6) Main Theme of Final Fantasy V (AKA Ahead on our Way) (V) - 22
(11) Theme of Love (IV Pixel Remaster) - 17

(7) Crazy Chocobo (XIII-2) - 14
(10) The Landing (VIII) - 25

(2) The Extreme (VIII) - 34
(15) Prelude (X) - 5
(azuarc - 1)

Board 8 doesn't think it can ride this chocobo. Extreme put in a thoroughly dominant performance, laying the gauntlet down to all other title contenders.

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Prelude (X) deserved better.

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I wonder how much it's the song or how much it was the competition... but yeah feels like it's got that division locked down (Extreme/OWA division finals?)

shame Saber's Edge couldn't pull it off but that was always a long shot. Rooting for Main Theme of V in Round 2! Between that and Dear Friends the prior day, and Decisive Battle in the tiebreaker stage... reminding me of all these gems in the V OST I hadn't listened to in ages.

I really don't like metal so I'm glad Crazy Chocobo won't haunt me in future rounds
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I wanted to vote for Prelude (X) because I think it's a legitimate bop and have nostalgia for it, but I just thought The Extreme was better.

There was also a slight temptation to give the nod to Saber's Edge, but that was a trigger that couldn't be pulled.

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I'm not a fan of the 8 on 8 violence next round, considering they're both so good

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Theme of Love is good, but V Main Theme is really great and deserves more recognition

X songs getting slaughtered ;(

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andylt posted...

(4) Court Jesters (IX) - 18
(13) Matoya's Cave (PS Version) (I) - 17

rip. Never saw this match, and I almost assuredly would have voted for Matoya's.

The fact that the matches tick over in the middle of the day throws me off, because I'll see a topic one day, see it again the next (because I looked at the board in the morning,) and then go 30 hours without checking the board and miss a topic completely.

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andylt posted...

Extreme put in a thoroughly dominant performance, laying the gauntlet down to all other title contenders.

It only 34-tupled me, and I'm such turbo fodder that this is a disappointing performance. I think it's showing vulnerability, tbh.

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barreldragon88 posted...

X songs getting slaughtered ;(

Don't worry, X can fly! (It had 16 songs going into round 1, I'm sure it will be fine)

azuarc posted...

rip. Never saw this match, and I almost assuredly would have voted for Matoya's.

The fact that the matches tick over in the middle of the day throws me off, because I'll see a topic one day, see it again the next (because I looked at the board in the morning,) and then go 30 hours without checking the board and miss a topic completely.

Lol that makes you the third person I believe who would've voted Matoya in that match but didn't get there in time. The stars aligned for Court Jesters!

I know the timing isn't great for many but it's the easiest time for me to do this, and I figure the 24 hours gives most people a chance to drop in.

Now what track could 35-tuple azuarc, hmm...

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Day 7 Results

(1) Collapsed Expressway (VIIR) - 19
(16) Valse di Fantastica (XV) - 23

(8) Dragonsong (XIV: Heavensward) - 18
(9) Aerith's Theme (VII) - 24

(5) Magitek Research Facility (AKA Devil's Lab) (VI) - 18
(12) The Darkness of Eternity (AKA Dark Messenger) (IX) - 24

(4) The Legend Begins (AKA Let it Begin) (Legend 2) - 16
(13) Yuna's Theme (X) - 26

It's Upset City! The 16 seeds are now 3-1 up on the 1 seeds. VIIR suffers another close defeat, it is now 1/5 and its only win was against another VIIR track. Final Fantasy Legend 2 sadly exits the competition here, and the Game Boy is yet to rack up a win. In happier news for VII fans, the original FFVII is still undefeated after 4 matches, and Aerith's Theme joins The Extreme in having multiple versions in Round 2.

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Well, better to go 1/4 on the day than 0/4 I guess.

At first I felt bad about being focused only on getting songs in rather than getting high nomination counts, which led to my songs all being like 13th thru 16th seeds, but even the high seeds are dropping like flies, geez...

Lots of songs really were forged in the fire of the tiebreaker rounds it seems, 4 out of 5 of them have moved on, only loser being Lava Dome vs. Big Bridge? Though that was always too a big hurdle to overcome.

Looking ahead (bracket spoilers lol) Stamp vs. MQ Battle 3, yeah... hoping 16th Servants of the Mountain can pull another upset vs. Ink Long Dry, not familiar with that track nor Kaze no Ne so can't gauge their 1-seed chances, will see when those rounds come up.

I'm glad another 1 seed lost. Like Collapsed Expressway and those FFX-2 tracks are good and all, but I think this shows the limitations of seeding based on nomination totals only

Sad to see Magitek Research Facility go but three cheers for all the other results today

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*Still curling in fetal position from recent Titania fight*

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well it's not purely the nomination totals here but the fact that the songs that made it through the wildcard selection process were the ones that have the 16 seeds. not that it's inherently flawed reasoning when they also technically got outvoted before that, but still it's the fact that the 16 seeds are all songs confirmed able to win matches that is mostly causing this imo

^I'm fine with how things are tbh, it keeps stuff exciting. If this were a recurring contest I'd put more thought into the seeding process in future.

Day 8 Results

(3) Battle Theme (X) - 20
(14) New Bodhum + New Bodhum - Aggressive Mix - (XIII-2) - 19

(6) Terra's Theme (AKA Tina) (VI) - 26
(11) The Dalmasca Estersand (Zodiac Age Version) (XII: The Zodiac Age) - 13

(7) Ending Theme (X) - 28
(10) Shuffle or Boogie (VIII) - 11

(2) What Angel Wakes Me (XIV: Shadowbringers) - 15
(15) Bombing Mission (VIIR) - 24

We had a little hiccup with some tracks being taken down, but it's sorted now. Thanks to skulltrumpets and Martin for the heads up and help there!

Battle Theme X v New Bodhum was incredibly tight from start to finish. The lead was never larger than 3 and swapped many times, but Battle was ultimately triumphant!

Shuffle or Boogie's defeat means OG VII is the only game to have a 100% win record at this point. Elsewhere a match finally goes VIIR's way, and XIV's original tracks continue to struggle. At the midpoint of the round, the (3) and (6) seeds are the only ones to go 4/4! What will the lower bracket have in store? Only time will tell!

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on the "1 seeds all losing" topic: in vgmc we haven't used nomination-based seeding since vgmc5(2011) for a REASON (this sort of nonsense happened in every contest from 1-5. what does well in terms of tracks with a dedicated tiny fanbase enough to break the nom barrier, correlates none at all with what'll win in a 1v1 setting)

but I also think what uf8 said is an even bigger factor. in the 1v16 matches specifically, these 16 seeds arguably went through a more rigorous process to be allowed in the contest. they had to win 3-way or 4-way matches to make it in. on top of already getting enough votes to be liked enough to be at least border-line.

the losing high seeds were mostly niche songs liked by dedicated slivers of nominators who'd be more excited about the rarer tracks that deviate from convention. and those are getting stomped by more widely-popular stuff that actually had to go through a more rigorous process to get in. it's not a particularly expectation-subverting result in any of these cases, and it shouldn't be reacted to as if the underdog winning is what's going on---the underdogs are these high seeds that are expectedly losing. imo.

(being on the side who nommed a lot of stuff that got high seeds only because of them standing out to a small group of people---knowing full well they wouldn't be widely popular with most of the participants, it is a bit upsetting to see it reacted to if those unusual picks were the expected winners and are being beaten by 'underdogs')
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Oh yeah I'd go so far as to say every 1 seed is the underdog.

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shoot, i ctrl+f'ed Bodhum and Battle Theme and thought Bodhum had it. guess just more people were talking about it and also a few voting with the full title that has it twice.

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Yeah there were a bunch of posts talking about how great New Bodhum was... that was a real heartbreaker, but I figured whichever won that match would lose against Terra's Theme anyways, now I can save TT in R2 without hesitation.

I also agree w/ what UF8 and Toxtricity mentioned, in fact I could've swore I posted yesterday agreeing with UF8 but looks like I never did... but it is like there's a "sampling bias" with songs emerging from the tiebreaker rounds, being proven winners. Truly forged in the crucible of battle there!!

Lastly I have to say, "What Angel Wakes Me"... I don't know what it was about that song but it was invoking the musical equivalent of fight-or-flight reflex for me, like I felt an overwhelming urge to stop listening to it/skip to next song. I guess it was the vocals or tempo or something but man, it just felt seriously off-putting to me... what a strange one. I wouldn't mind listening to an instrumental version of it but a quick youtubing didn't seem to turn anything up.

Wouldn't you know it, there's two versions of What Angel Wakes Me on the Scions & Sinners album! They both have vocals but are very different from the original so hopefully won't trigger the same reflex in you >_> (I still think the original is way better)

Piano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x69SZbYGGlA

Band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMsfjxtcYTQ

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MartinFF7 posted...

Lastly I have to say, "What Angel Wakes Me"... I don't know what it was about that song but it was invoking the musical equivalent of fight-or-flight reflex for me, like I felt an overwhelming urge to stop listening to it/skip to next song. I guess it was the vocals or tempo or something but man, it just felt seriously off-putting to me... what a strange one.

There's a decent in-story reason for that. FFXIV fae are fucked up. This one even moreso for spoiler reasons.

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There's actually two more official remixes of WAWM, an instrumental version of the piano rearrangement is a bonus track on Scions and Sinners, and there's also an EDM version on the Pulse album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JxcXFfSx3I

So yeah, not even quite out of the expansion yet and it's already had 3 rearrangements in completely different genres! I can see why, it's definitely a very unique track, but very love or hate. Then even a lot of the people who liked it eventually got sick of it after replaying the fight over and over >_>

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Isquen posted...

There's a decent in-story reason for that. FFXIV fae are fucked up. This one even moreso for spoiler reasons.

making a song sound unpleasant for thematic purposes is always a bold choice, thought not quite as bold as nominating that song for a music contest without context

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nfun calling out xaaaci fans

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NFUN posted...

making a song sound unpleasant for thematic purposes is always a bold choice, thought not quite as bold as nominating that song for a music contest without context

If you're trying to call *me* out, I didn't nominate it.

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Hbthebattle posted...

nfun calling out xaaaci fans

xaaaci was a very bold nom. it's also very good which balances things out (and it's unpleasantness is self-contextifying)

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I've never even played an Ar Tonelico game, I just nominated XaaaCi because it sounds cool as hell

also it has some of the most metal lyrics I've ever seen in a song

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i finally remembered this topic exists and i see y'all talking about the bane of my existence

falalalala

(Results coming once the tie is broken!)

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