Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 17! LifeReturns/LittleWar, FishMaze/DanceBoys, FeelSunshine/Misogi

(+) 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!

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Match 1

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Life Returns
Composer: Yoshito Hirano
Loop Point: 3:24
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4g3qY0GpJB0

Elebits - Me and My Little War
Composer: Naoyuki Sato
Loop Point: 3:19
https://youtu.be/6KKtDzRV6w0

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Match 2

Freddi Fish and Luther's Maze Madness - Mazes 31-35
Composer: Jeremy Soule
Loop Point: 2:17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mAV6V-1MSQ

Bayonetta - Let's Dance, Boys!
Composer: Hiroshi Yamaguchi
Loop Point: 3:34
https://youtu.be/txTSrACkyd4

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Match 3

Sonic R - Can You Feel the Sunshi

Elebits - Me and My Little War
Bayonetta - Let's Dance, Boys!
beatmania IIDX 29 CastHour - Misogi (Extended Mix)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/0/1/AARWb-AAEhQh.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/0/2/AARWb-AAEhQi.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/0/3/AARWb-AAEhQj.png

Elebits - Me and My Little War
Bayonetta - Let's Dance, Boys!
Sonic R - Resort Island : Can You Feel The Sunshine?

Resort Island : Can You Feel The Sunshine? > Let's Dance, Boys! > Me and My Little War > Life Returns > Misogi (Extended Mix) > Levels 31-35

I like the JENOVA-ness of MaMLW. I'd heard of Let's Dance, Boys! before but never actually listened to it, cool song. Sonic is my favorite song of the day, no surprise there.

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Life Returns
Mazes 31-35
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
abstain

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Life Returns
Bayonetta - Let's Dance, Boys!
Sonic R - Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Life Returns
Mazes 31-35
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

I was pretty shocked to see Life Returns in the nom pool last year, since I've always thought it was an interesting and unusual song and I didn't think anyone else cared about it but me. Happy it got support to make it in this year, so it can lose to Nekomata Master in the first round :) Really really pretty partwriting in 1:36-1:58

Elebits - Me and My Little War
Bayonetta - Let's Dance, Boys!
Sonic R - Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

rhythmhmh gamed

From TunnelScene:

Me and My Little War (Elebits)
Mazes 31-35 (Freddi Fish's Maze Madness)
Can You Feel the Sunshine? (Sonic R)

I love the electronic drum layers in this one. and the string chords late in do some stuff that's exactly what I like about their work

very close match to my surprise. elebits is an old favorite, but I didn't really know I cared about anything from this fire emblem soundtrack until this showed up in noms phase. but given the composer maybe I shouldn't be surprised. tbh this match is my frustrating "I prefer sad and dark and edgy---but my fav composition traits are more commonly found in happy vgm" problem that I have talked about(but never to anyone here). someone make something with a bunch of parallel movement on extended chords thats edgy(its called "limit break from ff13-2") oh. anyway overall the elebits one does more what I like within its genre than the fe one does, kinda the opposite of that sakimoto vs frantic fusion case. but its very close. both of these are great.

I don't think I'm ever coming back from my recent return to my "90s rompler new age compressed to 11025hz 8-bit" roots. this fuzziness every time it dips from quietness to back up oh my god I love this form of compression artifact so much. Jeremy Soule composition in this era is exactly what I want too. so much freedom with stuff going over bar lines in this cool ambiguous way (like :41 oh man). it's actually LESS "pat metheny group tonality" than a lot of other songs in the game with much weirder chord changes, but probably the one that sounds the most actually like pmg in feel. you know the piano layer could be in botw. AAAHHG when those synth chord sweeps flow in at 13 its so good

Mood: A little loud | Level Origin: Finance | Coral Iceland | Ambient Violence

I love edgy music such as the genre of music jazz fusion which is what the prog metal band Planet X is. one of my favorite jazz fusion songs is Can You Feel The Sjinginr from sonic s. I like it because it is so edgy just like pat metheny group

I wonder if this is what people who have never heard ar tonelico music think ar tonelico music sounds like. I like it!

From NFUN:

Little War
Maze
Misogi

Life Returns
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

No ranking today but I did decide that Waltz gets to be the sole 8.1:

< P0's Top 16 >
9.3 (1 left):
9.1 (1 left):
8.9 (0 left): Crocus
8.8 (1 left):
8.7 (0 left): Purna
8.4 (1 left): Journey To Candle Hill
8.3 (4 left):
8.2 (1 left): Nilah, the Joy Unbound / SHAKE YA BODY / Shutoko - Spiral Maze
8.1 (0 left): Waltz of Meditation Part2

Me and My Little War.
Let's Dance, Boys!
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

My
Mazes
Feel

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Life Returns
Bailamos, boys!
Sunshine

Life Returns
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Life Returns
Let's Dance, Boys!
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Elebits - Me and My Little War
Bayonetta - Let's Dance, Boys!
beatmania IIDX 29 CastHour - Misogi (Extended Mix)

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Can You Feel the Sunshine makes me so happy it's unreal

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

two things i wanted to mention about can you feel the sunshine i neglected to mention earlier since i was rushing before going back to the survival list at the time

1 - i like how the synths move around it makes me think about SONIC especially the one that's extra wobbly like he's rolling and jumping around like he might in the game Sonic R(unners) (why is sonic r the only sonic racing game where they run anyway (please don't at me sonic fandom for forgetting about whatever series besides r/drift/riders/allstars exist i have googled this now and acknowledge the error of my ways))

2 - it also reminded me of songs from puyo puyo (dr. robotnik's mean bean machine) ok yeah just specifically that one song, you know the one, but still. reminds me of that one time i mentioned that basically all the mean bean ost was from puyo because somebody had no idea and it was when i was listening earlier that i fully realised for the first time how justifiable that basically was because i mean really all i'm saying is if somebody was insane enough they could probably do a sonic r style remix of the exercise theme and if it somehow even had accurate vocals i would probably die

also shame it landed in misogi turf really that was the real reason i didn't bother doing these remarks sooner because i felt awkward talking this much about it when i'm not even voting it here but oh well

also feel bad i'm feeling life returns and bayo a bit less today (came back to the matches now for a relisten to make sure i didn't just rush my thoughts too much but sadly just too into wars and mazes today. condolences esp to life returns which was more of a tossup when i was doing predix tbh, still consider it very good either way)

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

In a more mellow mood, maybe.

Life Returns
Mazes 31-35
Misogi (Extended Mix

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
Misogi (Extended Mix)

M

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Life Returns
Mazes 31-35
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Life Returns
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

at least the title of the elebits song is good

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Kinda confused why Life Returns is here. Nothing unique or interesting about it, and it's not a strong example of what it does. Meh. Me and My Little War's always been a classic at least. Not sure it needed to come back, but I'll always vote for it.

Mazes don't really do anything for me. Let's Dance Boys always makes me think it's gonna have bad vocals for some reason, and then I like it when I realize it doesn't.

Sunshine's another returner, but a bad one. Misogi is fabulous. Give me all the rhythm game music, especially when it sounds like this. Misogi has so much sheer power to it.

Misogi (Extended Mix) > Me and My Little War > Let's Dance, Boys! > Can You Feel the Sunshine? > Life Returns > Mazes 31-35

Life Returns
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Can You Feel the Sunshine?
i cannot explain the pure joy i feel with elebits being in this, it's literally my favourite soundtrack ever. like actually my favourite ost of any game to ever exist. Me and My Little War wouldn't be my first choice of favourite song in the game, but literally ever song in that game (except Fairy Tale Time) is absolutely amazing and is worth a spot on this list

fun fact: let's dance boys is literally one of my favourite pieces of vgm ever. this round is getting really easy LMAO. like the other two songs so far were good just like... sorry. there's no way either of them can beat these for me lolllll

last one is fairly hard, but i think i prefer Can You Feel the Sunshine, its a really good song and i've always loved it but Misogi had a lot of potential

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Misogi is one of those songs that sounds cool but doesn't have anything for me to latch onto besides the raw energy. Still like it, just not nearly enough when it's against such a bop

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

I always forget that Life Returns is discordant and kind of creepy at times with the instrumentation, actually. The lyrics themselves feel kind of standard for an ending theme but the backing is just remarkably haunting. But then I re-listen to it and it's like wow!!!! totally forgot.

Jenova comparisons are overdone, but the parts of this song that are like Jenova are like exactly why I like this lol. Its very poppy and very cute. :)

Every time I've listened to this song, I go, "oh right, the Elder Scrolls guy haha", and I can't help but wonder how it would sound like with the Bethesda budget and with current hardware. I still like how it sounds currently in a way. It honestly feels dreamy, and a bit maze-like with how it dances around. Actually, tbh a higher quality would probably lose some of what makes this special.

I kept waiting for the singing to start until I remembered that I confused Let's Dance Boys! with another song. Playful, sexy, groovy. Yeah, this is Bayonetta alright.

Oh. My. God. This song is so good, so so fucking good. I love how it just rolls along, feeling very high energy, but also chill in its own way. Just like the eponymous hedgehog, it lives life fast and free, but so warm and sunshine-y. I never not smile whenever I listen to this. I never not bop my head and dance. I never not sing along.

I like most of what Misogi is doing. Some rhythm music can be very "much", and whether that muchness is good to my ears or not is a bit of a mixed bag. A rather precise science. And I never know what to say about a lot of the louder stuff because it is so busy!!!! Very busy! I liked it, especially the beginning and the end, but very, very little can hold a candle to Can You Feel the Sunshine.

We are back into groups of songs I wholeheartedly enjoy, evidently, but I do have some clear preferences here (except for match 1, that one is a little trickier)

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Life Returns
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Me and My Little War
Let's Dance, Boys!
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Life Returns
Mazes 31-35
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Match 1 is the VGMC1 special. LittleWar gets good with the key change at 2:07 followed by the emptiness at 2:43. DanceBoys is better than I remember it being, all the disparate elements work surprisingly well together even if it does feel overbearing at times.

Sonic Colors is the only one of these Ive played. Good game.

Life Returns
Let's Dance, Boys!
Misogi (Extended Mix)

Elebits - Me and My Little War
Bayonetta - Let's Dance, Boys!
Sonic R - Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Out right now, so no writeups today, but Can You Feel the Sunshines the best song up today

Me and My Little War
Mazes 31-35
Can You Feel the Sunshine?

I'm going to be honest here, I don't really get the appeal of Me and My Little War. I do enjoy it as I usually enjoy Nekomata compositions, but it doesn't strike me as anything particularly special. I still prefer it over its opponent, but yeah.