Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 13! warpwet/Moebius, Sunleth/Tranquility + Tiebreaker!!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - Moebius Battle
Alto's Odyssey - A Moment of Tranquility

Chrono Trigger - Ocean Palace

warp-wet-woods
The Sunleth Waterscape
Deluged Depths

warp-wet-woods
The Sunleth Waterscape
Deluged Depths

moebius was very good but warp-wet-woods was so cool and had this amazing atmosphere to it
a moment of tranquility was just... not my thing, sorry

warp-wet-woods
The Sunleth Waterscape
Deluged Depths

Really wish better uploads existed for the Xenoblade 3 soundtrack. I still wouldn't vote for the song either way because I'm not very fond of it, but these weird cuts/skips are REALLY noticeable.
Sunleth Waterscape is really lovely, though I will say I do prefer the instrumental version over this, even if I still like this one quite a lot.

warp-wet-woods
The Sunleth Waterscape
Ocean Palace

warp-wet-woods
The Sunleth Waterscape
Ocean Palace

Don't know much about Moon overall, but I think Warp Wet Woods is the best-sounding song from it that I can recall. The playful bongos, the distortion on the vocals and the guitar strumming all form this quirky, "spacey" experience that I really enjoy!

Moebius Battle is interesting for me, someone went up and chose to have the vocals be the one constant throughout the entirety for the track. I don't think that's a bad choice per se, but I think that does lose its impact a bit as I wish there were more coming from the instruments. The "maniacal laughter" bit sounds more hilarious than anything else, and that makes me not take this song as seriously as it probably wants me to. Despite all that, I think this battle track is just fine as is, just not my preferred battle track from this game.

Sunleth is probably my favorite iteration of Lightning's theme that I can remember, there's something about how light the piano sounds that makes it feel almost ethereal to me. The rest of the song is a straight-up jam, and I really like the vocals that come in later on. Such a good track!

Moment of Tranquility certainly lives up to its name, it's probably the most quiet piece I've ever heard from Alto and it isn't until the second half where it really starts picking up the momentum and sound more like what I recall from the Todd Baker songs. It's a really neat piece, I just wish the first half felt more captivating like how the second half turns into.

Tiebreaker Round:
I gotta admit, Deluged Depths kinda sounds like what you would get when you take Discord call sounds and a FM tracker bass and you combine both into a beta track for Waterworld for the SNES. It's a weird analogy, but it makes the most sense to me. Regardless, I still gotta go with Mitsuda here, the tone he strikes with Undersea Palace is what makes this match a little tough to decide.

Moebius Battle
A Moment of Tranquility
Deluged Depths

The background noises in Woods are annoying but the main melody from 1:33 on is nice. Similarly I dont like how Waterscapes vocals and thumping beat overpower the piano and violin.

Seems like a good time to talk about what I like about Deluged Depths. My favorite part is right at 0:34 when the intense grinding noise comes in and harmonizes with the high-pitched melody. I know that nature and machinery combining is something that appeals to TunnelScene and this is a really pleasing sounding example of that.

Voted Main Theme, hard choice between it and Shushi.

Moebius Battle
The Sunleth Waterscape
Ocean Palace

I vote that the loser of the tiebreaker gets to move on in this slot instead. (abstain)
The Sunleth Waterscape
Ocean Palace

moon: Remix RPG Adventure - warp-wet-woods
Final Fantasy XIII - The Sunleth Waterscape
Matthew's Dungeons of the Unforgotten - Deluged Depths

Moebius Battle
The Sunleth Waterscape
Ocean Palace

warp-wet-woods: 1:32 is awesome and the buildup prior is pretty cool too. The percussion and vocals really make this piece good.

Moebius Battle: The edited transitions and the mixing on this are so jarring, it's hard for me to appreciate the rest of this. It has potential though with the vocals and strings and all. Hopefully this is amended when the soundtrack releases in two months.

The Sunleth Waterscape: This is pretty nice, although it doesn't really stand out to me as anything spectacular. Nice piano and vocals.

A Moment of Tranquility: Easily my favorite song of the day. Love the buildup through the first half and the instrumentation is gorgeous. The outro with the quick mallets and piano is so good too. Easy vote here.

Have the same feelings as I did two days ago on the tiebreaker match.

Mostly good day.

Votes:
warp-wet-woods
A Moment of Tranquility
Deluged Depths

warp-wet-woods
The Sunleth Waterscape
Deluged Depths

The Sunleth Waterscape > warp-wet-woods > Moebius Battle > A Moment of Tranquility

warp-wet-woods
The Sunleth Waterscape
Ocean Palace

warp-wet-woods
The Sunleth Waterscape
Deluged Depths

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - Moebius Battle
Final Fantasy XIII - The Sunleth Waterscape
Chrono Trigger - Ocean Palace

MATCH 1

Really do not care for these reversed vocals in warp-wet-woods, so I'm not a fan of the first 53 seconds of it, but it starts getting a lot better once that guitar kicks in. Unfortunately, the reversed vocals are still there for a little bit longer, but I really enjoy that dreamy guitar loop. 1:32 to the end is really good though. Now that the reversed vocals are finally gone, I can enjoy what it's replaced with. The "ooh-ooh-ooh" is really nice, especially when it ascends upwards at 2:12. The extra guitar that comes in at 1:59 is very much my thing. Really love the overlapping guitars. That kind of thing is an indie rock style sound that's probably one of my favorite things to hear in that genre. There's some other songs in VGM like szak visual novel OPs (see, e.g., SubaHibi OP) that do this as well that I also really like. Also really like that specific chord at 2:37. I know it's different because there's a note slide that's not in any of the other chords, but I feel like it's slightly different in chord structure from the others that show up in a way that I can't quite tell with my ears. 2:52 to end has this weird garbled sound in the background that I think is the low notes of a synth, but whatever it is, it's a bit distracting and I'd rather it not be there. There's a lot that I really like about this song, but it unfortunately has some things I dislike about it, especially that first third or so of the song, that hinders it too much in my eyes to vote for it here. Its opponent is pretty strong, so I can't say this for sure, but I might have voted for this if it was just post-1:59.

I didn't even notice that the very beginning of Moebius Battle sounds like it's swearing at us until Sceptile pointed it out, but what I did notice on first listen is that 0:10 sounds like it's chanting "PIIIIIIZZA." I could join in on that tbh. But on a more serious note, what I really like is the in-your-face sound of this song starting from 0:21. I like really dramatic choirs like that, especially when it has that big wall of sound like it does there. The whole melody during that main part after the intro is very cool too. I also really enjoyed the evil laugh in the choir at 1:09. It kind of feels like things I like about Bravely Default music mixed with things I like about Xenoblade Chronicles music, and I'm all for it.

MATCH 2

Sunleth Waterscape is a very pretty song that I've really enjoyed for a while. Though I like the song as a whole, I think the vocals are really what make this song for me. The way the singer says "chase the gentle light" at 1:06 is just so good. Something about the note slide in between the syllables for "gentle" really does it for me.

A Moment of Tranquility also has its pretty moments. Despite the name, I like it the most when it's not tranquil, during those climactic moments of the song. Sunleth's more my kind of song though.

The Sunleth Waterscape > Moebius Battle > warp-wet-woods > A Moment of Tranquility = Ocean Palace > Deluged Depths

Moebius Battle
A Moment of Tranquility
Deluged Depths

Match 2 very good

warp-wet-woods
abstain
Deluged Depths

moon: Remix RPG Adventure - warp-wet-woods -7 - The second half of this track just has a mood that is so pleasant that I cant describe
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - Moebius Battle - 6.5 -I dont expect much from Xeno tracks as theyre not my favorite, but this one was bringing a lot more energy than I was prepared for. It was still a bit repetitive.

Matthew's Dungeons of the Unforgotten - Deluged Depths - 7 - this is good on the ears. Its a pretty short loop but i hardly notice it at all. It contains an active mixture of sounds and mystery
Chrono Trigger - Ocean Palace - 6 - Countdown to death with an air of fanfare

Ocean Palace