Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 10! ShininQueen/Hungary, JENOVA/SubSunrise, SkyLand/1WBFatGod

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to Video Game Music Contest 17, 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=477304
Contest info sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SAJKYJmYhccLvbf_H-5uSA7-eMwXfW8k1q74Qho1bLU
Contest discussion thread: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80433657
Main bracket playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT3m7iohpL0wlcxj-kHQRU1yHo-kpMxGe
Last years spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_IU5iCFTM_4WEx8ZWKwznMz5v2tarCKh1Ag0mxIgAes
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 post your absentee vote in the discussion thread!

.

Match 1

Cleopatra Fortune - SHININ' QUEEN
Composer: Shuichiro Nakazawa
Loop Point: 2:27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hlBhdcPVdw

Sid Meier's Civilization VI - Hungary (The Atomic Era)
Composer: Roland Riz

Queen
zzz
God

Cleopatra Fortune - SHININ' QUEEN
Rogue Legacy 2 - Subterranean Sunrise
Xenogears - One Who Bares Fangs at God

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

Easy choices today, but banger status haven't dropped.

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
Subterranean Sunrise
One Who Bares Fangs at God

Sid Meier's Civilization VI - The Atomic Era (Hungary)
FINAL FANTASY VII - JENOVA
Chameleon Twist 2 - Sky Land

JENOVA > Subterranean Sunrise > Sky Land > The Atomic Era (Hungary) > SHININ' QUEEN > One Who Bares Fangs at God

that Xenogears song was way more boring than I anticipated given the name. Subterranean Sunrise was shockingly good, but it never stood a chance against JENOVA. might've voted SHININ' QUEEN if it weren't for the weird shit at the beginning of the loop wtf

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

Hungary
Jenova
Fangs

Jenova is an ol' reliable kind of song. Nothing really wow worthy to it, but it's super solid and a nice listen every time.

1. ???
2. Xenogears - One Who Bares Fangs at God
3. ???
4. ???
5. League of Legends - Nilah, The Joy Unbound
6. ???
7. ???
8. Mortal Kombat (Sega CD) - Techno Syndrome
9. ???
10. Spark the Electric Jester 3 - Utopia Shelter ~ In the Depths
11. ???
12. ???
13. Deus Ex - The Synapse - Ambient
14. ???
15. ???
16. ???
17. Legaia 2: Duel Saga - Lost Forest
18. ???
19. Chrono Trigger - Yearnings of the Wind
20. ???
21. ???
22. ???
23. ???
24. ???
25. ???
26. ???
27. ???
28. ???
29. Galactic Pinball - MOONMAN'S Fandango
30. ???

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/2/9/AARWb-AAEf8l.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/0/AARWb-AAEf8m.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/1/AARWb-AAEf8n.jpg
didn't think i'd be voting this way on the last match tbh

SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
Sky Land

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
One Who Bears Fangs At God

SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
Sky Land

SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
Sky Land

my favorite part of shinin queen is in the beginning when she says Steven 3 Lord Of The Unknown Tower 2001 Konami
Steven Bell Kenny Bell Kathryn Bell Lily Bell Zachary Bell Jake Bell Judy Bell

From TunnelScene:

SHININ' QUEEN (Cleopatra Fortune)
Subterranean Sunrise (Rogue Legacy 2)
One Who Bares Fangs at God (Xenogears)

long time fan of shining queen. can't decide whether I like this version or the yasuhisa watanabe remix in puchi carat more. but one big plus of this version is that looping crystalline sample at the very start. just feels so much like a SHINY GEM in Egypt anime puzzle world. and the sharp cutoff every time it loops is so stylish and viscerally funky. what a great game, a huge fan of it. it was one of my early gateway drugs into zuntata and now im addicted to that set of musicians more than anything

I always associate Hungary with quite intense music

jenova descending beeps is always pretty nice

this appealed to me more than I expected. even if it's just 4/4 it dances around rigidity quite a bit in just the unexpected over-the-barline angular 3+5 way its grouped

I don't know anything about this game but chameleons are my favorite animal for sure these days. they were riight before I joined b8 too, and I discovered this ost from getting into everything gamebop did back in 08 because of being obsessed with that entity. well anyway it gives me "2008 learning about all the things my cool friend likes" nostalgia AND "chameleons are my favorite animal" nostalgia which. is good. because I'm pretending its 2006-8 again because I was happiest then and by pretending it's those years I'm happiest now too

I think I basically got into this track because of seeing Evan Marien do a great cover of it at magfest which is absolutely insane since initially I think of Evan Marien as "amazing bassist for allan holdsworth and virgil donati" but he likes vgm so this crossover can happen. thanks mitsuda. modulationcore forever. . .

SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
One Who Bares Fangs at God

SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
abstain

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
J-E-N-O-V-A
Sky Land

Cleopatra Fortune - SHININ' QUEEN
Final Fantasy VII - J-E-N-O-V-A
Chameleon Twist 2 - Sky Land

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
Subterranean Sunrise
One Who Bares Fangs at God

Best song that was a Round 1 casualty in A2?

Genetos - Origin, even though I voted against it

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
One Who Bares Fangs at God

The messenger aka Shining Queen
Subby Sun
They who bear fangs at God

She is the shining queen, young and sweet, only 2,092~ that doesn't sound quite as good. Anyways I literally don't know how to feel about this song because the chorus is 100% lifted from Steins;Gate like come on.

Hungary for a treat, with food that's fun to eat~ The fact that Hungary and Turkey are roughly in the same part of the world will never stop being adorable to me. Anyways shoutouts to Max to teaching me that the reason why Baba Yetu is so much better than most Civilizations music is because it's done by a different composer this explains so much.

okay if you writ the name of a song with dashes between each letter, that means you're supposed to interpret the song title as showing up somewhere in the lyrics. Right? So if there were a lyrical version of Jenova, you'd need to have a six-beat section that's just chanting J-E-N-O-V-A over and over again. But the main rhythm is perfect 8th notes, the snare drum at times is 5 notes, even the baseline in the cool bit right before the loop point is five beats. Nobuo Uematsu you disappoint me.

ooh layering prog, okay. I thought it was going to build to something, but instead we get whole notes before shifting gears entirely. Odd. Almost as odd as the odd time at 1:50, now this is as odd as a tricolor hat. And let me tell you, hats? Should not be three colors. Two is fine, 4 is ideal, 3 is unimaginable. You can't even color a map with three colors, for Christ's sake! So tell me, how are you going to hide the map of the world inside your hat so you can cheat on your final exam and graduate on time with a tricolor hat? You just can't. In less German and more germane news, my god we've finally reached the climax promised by the opening of this song and my god it's incredible. I wish we hadn't taken such a long detour. And as a hater of detours, I formally apologize for this entire paragraph.

The background bell in Sky Land is really loud. And high pitched. It's all I can think about. Behold, for I am a DING, never a DONG.

I bear my fangs at God. God thinks this is adorable, pats me on the head, and gives me a treat. I feign indignancy but secretly I was in it for the treat all along. This isn't my favorite from the OST, but unlike normally when I say that line I'm still down with the pick; Xenogears is just stacked. Anywho, there's a long-standing tradition of every new translator with half an opportunity will retranslate the names of all of Mitsuda's PS1-era and earlier songs, and this post is clearly my shot! , eh? Uhh... Umm... that kinda doesn't lead itself to any other interpretations does it. I mean I would like to pluralize the fang-bearers, go with a "They" instead of a "one," but that's all I got sorry.

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

Shinin'
Sunrise
Sky

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

Strong day today. I'd be tempted to vote Hungary if it was just the first two mins, but I don't love where it goes after that. I like the... I don't know what you'd call it, but the bit that first shows up at :15-:30 in SHININ', that's awesome.
JENOVA is an ol' reliable, those descending 8 notes are iconic, but the section that starts at 1:52 in Subterranean is just as neat. I'm fond of the plucking strings and general vibe of the buildup at the start, too. The song reminds me of that Risk of Rain 2 song from last year a bit.
The fake vocals kinda ruin Fangs for me, I'm afraid.

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

Cleopatra Fortune - SHININ' QUEEN
Final Fantasy VII - J-E-N-O-V-A
Xenogears - One Who Bares Fangs at God

honoroable mention to Subterranean Sunrise, pretty neat surprise but unfortunately falls short on some aspects

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
One Who Bears Fangs at God

SHININ' QUEEN: Not a fan of the vocal samples in the intro, but the rest of the song is nice. Nice melody and the staccato synth chords throughout are pretty cool. Good song.

The Atomic Era (Hungary): I have mixed feelings on this one. It has nice orchestration, but I feel it kinda goes all over the place and the melody is a bit weak. There are some of the nommed Civ VI songs that I really liked, but this wasn't one of them unfortunately.

J-E-N-O-V-A: This one's a classic. Very strong melodies and what Uematsu is able to do on the PS1 is really impressive. The temporary shift to the relative major at 0:59 is probably my favorite part of this. Great song.

Subterranean Sunrise: This one's pretty cool. The irregular rhythms while being 4/4 is always something I appreciate. The buildup at 1:53 is the best part and the overall instrumentation is well-done. Good song.

Sky Land: The melody on this one is pretty cute. The soundscape does feel dated though. It's fine for what it is, it's just not something I'd personally go back to.

One Who Bares Fangs at God: This is my favorite Mitsuda track, which is saying a lot because I really like a lot of his stuff. The soundscape is otherworldly. The way it progresses from chord to chord throughout is so good. The vocal samples are bone-chilling. I just love everything about this song. Easily the best song of the day.

A bit of a mixed day, but the good stuff is really good.

Votes:
SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
One Who Bares Fangs at God

Sky Land

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
J-E-N-O-V-A
One Who Bares Fangs at God

jenova

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
J-E-N-O-V-A
One Who Bares Fangs at God

SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
Sky Land

I don't have a 10 pun today help

Shinin queen
Subterranean sunrise
Sky land

Curious for the Cleopatra game haha the song was hella neat too
Kinda feel like JENOVA could do more? At least compared to the match, not saying it's bad tho but yeah

Hungary - The Atomic Era (Cinege, cinege)
Subterranean Sunrise
One Who Bares Fangs at God

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
Subterranean Sunrise
One Who Bares Fangs at God

SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
OWBFatG

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

fully expected to vote JENOVA but Subterranean Sunrise is really cool

SSS

Cleopatra Fortune - SHININ' QUEEN
Final Fantasy VII - J-E-N-O-V-A
Chameleon Twist 2 - Sky Land

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

shinin queen is literally one of my favourite pieces of vgm ever and hungary was like.... just not really all that good imo so its a very easy clean sweep choice for me lmao
okay holy shit that rogue legacy track was AMAZING as expected but like wow, i really didnt expect it to beat jenova at the start of it but as it went on it absolutely does for me lol
im gonna be honest i dont really care for either sky land or the xenogears one but sky land is my preferred of the two so ig im choosing that one lol

SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
Sky Land

Shinin' Queen is pretty fun, kinda like a Nier x Steins Gate mix. Hungary is awfully jaunty for a song about the atomic era, not that that's a bad thing.

Jenova getting in always makes me sad, because I love it and it always fails early. Will this be its year? No. At least its enemy is fun too. Sounds a lot like a Shatter song.

Sky Land doesn't really have much unique going for it? Feels like a real typical video game song. Maybe this is how other people feel when they listen to Mario songs I like because of nostalgia... Bares Fangs could be good if it ever actually went anywhere. What a ridiculously repetitive song (I stopped at the loop point).

J-E-N-O-V-A > Subterranean Sunrise > SHININ' QUEEN > Hungary (The Atomic Era) > Sky Land > One Who Bares Fangs at God

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

SHININ QUEENs main melody is nice and sparkly. JENOVA also has some sparkle to it. Appropriate that Spark the Electric Jester shows up in the poll.

Voted What Im Made of, quite an eclectic lineup.

Hungary (The Atomic Era)
Subterranean Sunrise
One Who Bares Fangs at God

SHININ' QUEEN
Subterranean Sunrise
Sky Land

SHININ' QUEEN
J-E-N-O-V-A
One Who Bares Fangs at God

I definitely prefer DESIRE from last year, but SHININ' QUEEN is still a pretty fun song.

Hungary took way too long for it to start sounding interesting to me (literally the last 30 seconds). It's nothing offensive, but I really wish music like this stood out more to me.

Every time J-E-N-O-V-A plays, I know things are about to get serious; it's a wonderfully tense battle theme that gets my heart pumping and gets me excited to fight. Definitely one of my favorites from what I've heard from the FF7 soundtrack.

Subterranean Sunrise was a surprising new find for me, I wasn't expecting the progression to be this lively. That guitar is certainly a treat, this almost feels like a Risk of Rain remix that should be made official.

Sky Land is just your usual fun platformer song from the 90s, you can certainly feel its age with some of the synths used but I think that adds to its charm more than anything else.

One Who Bears Fangs at God was one of my favorite discoveries from BOST6, there's something so hypnotizing about it to me. It sounds like you're trying to summon a higher deity while in a trance, which is fitting for a song titled like this! I don't go for minimalistic songs roughly half the time but this is one case where the subtle yet powerful vibe just hits, and my brain drinks it all in.