Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 30! InTheBlood/KillCommand, BreakLimit!/MakeRight, BattleB2/E.SYNAPSE

(+) Yeah! (+)

Kill Command
Make This Right
Battle - b2

In the Blood
Make This Right
E.SYNAPSE

In the Blood
Make This Right
Battle - b2

Kill Command
Make This Right
Battle - b2

Blood
Right
Battle

8
8
7.5
8
7.5
6.5

Kill Command
Make This Right
Battle - b2

Will post my writeups later. Not at home rn.

Votes:
In the Blood
Make This Right
E.SYNAPSE

Kill Command
Break the Limit!
E.SYNAPSE

(out of 172)
(25th) Blue Reflection: Second Light - E.SYNAPSE
(36th) Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - Kill Command
(75th) Final Fantasy Brave Exvius - Break the Limit!
(94th) Shin Megami Tensei IV - Battle - b2
(122nd) Furi - Make This Right
(166th) Hades - In the Blood

From Toxtricity:

In the Blood (Hades)
Make This Right (Furi)
Battle - b2 (Shin Megami Tensei IV)

Hades is on my list of games to play but it is like 50th in the queue i have written down. I will probably not get to it until like 2029 lol

This match is closer than i thought. The actual experience of listening to kill command all the way through is always cooler than i remember kill command as a song actually being

Cool final fantasy fast

Every time id listened to make this right until NOW; i disliked the song. This time around: Something about the weird chopped vocals in the distance..it really helped recontextualize how i felt about every other layer, and suddenly i really like the whole thing huh. Well i like darkness so that isnt surprising. Close match still tho

Always liked this smt 4 track for those metallic sounds. The transposing synth chord stabs with that slow decay are so out-of-this-world too..love it

Loud reflection

In the Blood
Break the Limit!
abstain

just notes:
-In the Blood probably remains my favourite Supergiant game credits song for the foreseeable future; I like how all of them are about how people are connected in some way, but In the Blood seems to hit me hardest. it's not solely a context thing, either-- I've played three of those games! I just savour this one more than the others. Darren Korb's vocals feel particularly delicate here, and I love how he delivers the bridge. Wintory's orchestration provides the whole thing with a stately grandeur, and it's the absence of that grandeur that makes that bridge feel so gripping emotionally. this basically turned into a full writeup of the track so uh b2 etc. (no, not that b2)
-I like break the limit's piano excursions so much more than the rest of the track it's kinda remarkable
-match 2 felt weirdly close, and then for some reason I just got completely stuck trying to figure out how I feel about match 3, making this my first abstain

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - Kill Command
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius - Break the Limit!
Shin Megami Tensei IV - Battle - b2

I've had an exhausting time of it recently so this contest has fallen way, way to the side. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood but this was a real lukewarm bunch. 'Sleepy' is the word I'd use. Love Darren Korb but that vocal is not a great match. Kill Command still jaunty and fun as ever; that's a contest staple I'm very happy to have around. VGMC this is the 173rd time you've shown edm anime violin music in class. Today's program:

[8.0] Kill Command
[7.0] Break the Limit!
[6.5] Make This Right
[6.5] In the Blood
[6.0] Battle - b2
[3.5] E.SYNAPSE

Kill Command
Make This Right
Battle - b2

Ekoroshia
Make This Right
Battle - b2

Kill Command
Make This Right
Battle - b2

In the Blood
Break the Limit!
E.SYNAPSE

Break the Limit! > E.SYNAPSE In the Blood Kill Command Make This Right >>>> Battle - b2

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - Kill Command
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius - Break the Limit!
Shin Megami Tensei IV - Battle - b2

Kill Command
Make This Right
E.SYNAPSE

Kill Command
Break the Limit!
Battle - b2

In the Blood is also very cool and easily my 2nd favorite today. Big fan of the vocals and the use of dynamics.

Both songs in match 2 feel very disconnected to me and I don't particularly care for either.

In the Blood
Break the Limit!
Battle - b2

--
In the Blood [7.9]
Kill Command [7.2]

Kill Command really hasn't changed how lukewarm I feel towards it, even a year after I heard it last. For In the Blood, I'm still trying to warm up to the vocalist - just something about her voice that's not hitting me in the right way - but I can easily appreciate the instruments more now after playing the game for several runs already; I do like the bitter/melancholy energy coming from the song, it fits Hades to a tee.

Break the Limit! [7.8]
Make This Right [7.5]

Make This Right is some decent dubstep, nothing great but certainly keeps me in the zone while it's playing. Break the Limit just knows what I want in a fast-paced battle theme and plays its strength decently, so it'll get my vote for this one.

Battle - b2 [8.8]
E.SYNAPSE [8.4]

This matchup kinda sucks since Blue Reflection has been getting more of my interest recently, but I gotta give it to SMTIV for this round. I LOVE the synths and electric guitar parts in Battle B2, and the fast-paced energy from it hooks me in. Easy vote here, though I'll still play nice with Blue Reflection if it wins this round.

In the Blood
Make This Right
E.SYNAPSE

mayb writeups later

In the Blood 7
Kill Command 5

Break the Limit! 6.5
Make This Right 8

Battle - b2 7.5
E.SYNAPSE 8

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - Kill Command
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius - Break the Limit!
Shin Megami Tensei IV - Battle - b2

MATCH 1

In the Blood is decent, but I don't find it very engaging melodically. It feels like it stays pretty static in how much I enjoy it and never really takes off for me.

Kill Command has a similar problem where after the intro, it feels like it kind of meanders for a while, but I just like what I'm hearing more at a base level of enjoyment. In fact, despite how I just described it, I like it enough overall that I took this song to round 4! Though looking back, it might have been a mistake to take it over Time.

MATCH 2

Break the Limit is still really cool! Looking back at VGMC13, it looks like I heavily underrated this back then given that I took Mining Melancholy over it in round 2, which I absolutely would not do now. The piano melody and the strings at 0:34 are both pretty good. The pace of those kicks is a nice touch too. It's funny seeing Junpei Fujita as the composer here because I always forget that him and Elements Garden have done stuff outside of visual novels. I first knew him from being the composer for the Grisaia series, so it's a bit of whiplash when comparing this song with his VN music lol.

Make This Right has a cool melody with those vocal samples. Unfortunately, it doesn't stack up to Break the Limit in the end. I like this song the most in the middle when the percussion gets more intense, but less so towards the end when the vocals stop.

MATCH 3

[To be finished]

Battle - b2 > E.SNYAPSE > Break the Limit! > Kill Command > Make This Right > In the Blood

In / This /SYNAPSE

In the Blood: He resigned to his fate, realizing finally that at least his own ties to his family were unbreakable, and resolved to make amends.

Kill Command: Fluorescent lights dimly light the playing field as contestants stealthily hunt one another, trying to land laser shots.

Break the Limit!: Jaunty explorers square off against a bumbling but dangerous foe, each striking it with buoyant ease.

Make This Right: Blocks click in and out of existence to the beat, a path forming itself ahead of you, but decaying behind you as you step.

Battle - b2: A grotesque creature with tightly curled horns and a snarling grill of teeth rears its head, charging at the human forces.

E.SYNAPSE: Putting her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun, she steps outside, squinting, as the bright light of day envelops her.

Make > Blood > SYNAPSE > Kill >= Break > Battle

In the Blood has some great grungy e-guitars. The vocal mix is a bit weird, making the vocals feel a bit too echo-y to me. I also am uncertain on if the brass adds or detracts from the song. It could probably do without it regardless. Still a great song, just like most of the Hades soundtrack.

Kill Command has some nice solos throughout. Particularly the Rhodes solo towards the beginning, the e-guitar one shortly afterwards, the trumpet one after the midpoint, and the last trumpet one towards the end. There is some pretty nice instrumentation in this otherwise. It is a bit too long and kind of aimless structurally for me to like it more though, so In the Blood gets the edge here.

I like the piano in Break the Limit! as well as the strings. The choirs aren't my favorite though. It's a pretty solid melody overall. Good song, but it's definitely not gonna beat its competition.

Make This Right was one of my favorite discoveries during noms. I may have to check out the rest of the Furi soundtrack at some point as well. Very cool synths throughout. The vocal samples also add a lot to it. Including a cello in this type of track is pretty unique and welcome as well. Best part is the buildup from 3:36 and the climax at 3:55. Easy vote for this one.

Battle - b2 is pretty cool with the instrument choices it uses, particular with the metallic percussion used. The mix is pretty poor however. Kinda makes it hard to focus on the appropriate instruments that carry the melody. It significantly takes away from what's otherwise a pretty neat song.

E.SYNAPSE is one of my favorite BR2 songs (A Hopeful Astraea is really the only one that I like significantly more. RIP to that one). Really love the melody and synths used in this. Nice violins and piano as well. And the mix is pretty good, which give it a significant edge over Battle - b2. Actually quite surprised that this one lost by as much as it did. Really thought it'd perform better.

Really solid day with no bad songs except for the awful mixing on Battle - b2.