Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 38! feat. the Bible, the Twilight Saga, and Don Quixote

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to Video Game Music Contest 19, 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=479594
Contest info sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HqEzmlfEUsm6BWJbBxDm6ZUnQQ_2d1ezDlVBN2sYepY
Contest discussion thread: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80981071
Main bracket playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT3m7iohpL0zm7Svx4DXDy1XjUejSBazd
Last years spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HBxgL9woiCMFKNOPuN_qdxmzjStJXSpC3Ocalfsavdk
VGMC total stats sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1XdLWiUKB2kX99qYBgnRbLU_sCz4dvZSByKKJHCT6o
VGMC info site (thank you p0!!): https://p0p0p0p.github.io/
Discord: https://discord.gg/7FVXqWj

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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Poisoned Well and You

As some of you may know, the song Poisoned Well that shows up late in Bracket D is a 21 minute 36 second song that does not loop. As is customary with longer songs in the VGMC nowadays (longer meaning "roughly more than a Dancing Mad") we thought to give a little heads up in advance so that if you would like to do your listening of the song at a time convenient to you, you may. Here's a link to the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe4GIkEulSM

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Match 1

Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - Abel's Ark
Composer: Yuki Kajiura
Loop Point: 1:32
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgCmNN5jY6k

War of Brains - EXODUS (Full ver.)
Composer: Keitaro Ujiie (Ujico*)
Loop Point: 3:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dP0fcwu2g0

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Match 2

GAKUEN IDOLM@STER - Koukei
Composer: Hakushi Hasegawa arr. Hakushi Hasegawa, Arthur Verocai
Loop Point: 4:31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJk2etK8I1w

Twinkle Star Sprites - Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Composer: Takao Ohshima
Loop Point: 2:08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4ZXsPzt34w

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Match 3

Dungeon Explorer (Sega CD) - Darkazure
Composer: Jin Watanabe
Loop Point: 5:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9XGiJzAuLo

Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection - Estrada da Estrela
Composer: Akitaka Tohyama arr. LAG STAGE
Loop Point: 1:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FedhI9XohFk

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Easy vote form:
Abel's Ark / EXODUS (Full ver.)
Koukei / Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure / Estrada da Estrela

War of Brains - EXODUS (Full ver.)
Twinkle Star Sprites - Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection - Estrada da Estrela

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

exodus is pretty cool, abel's ark is quite pleasant but it doesn't really go anywhere

koukei's vocalist inhaled helium, love so wins by default

estrada has decent piano even if i'm not a fan of the overall atmosphere of the song, darkazure also doesn't go anywhere and unlike able's ark, it is only mildly pleasant

Abel's Ark (Xenosaga Episode III)
Love So (Radio Active Mix) (Twinkle Star Sprites)
Darkazure (Dungeon Explorer (Sega CD))

Relevant to the dolls nest track. here is a method in which artificial female voices do wind up perfectly representing machine themed anime girls. this reminds me of a lot of new age I liked when young. it actually reminds me of something I composed as a kid that im curious if i have any recordings of. at that age I was more dotted eighth delay echo focused than anything---like that was the entire #1 thing I liked. so this takes me back to the 90s, which were not a great time for Me, but perhaps thats why media that represents the things i genuinely liked in the era is so important to me.

ahoyThere captain. it's the computer song also. this bracket section is very computer. I like that

jazz color pinkSonicshards . the glass shards of everyone is made of gem stones Steven universe Land of the Lustrous (TV series) . there are some very advanced concepts in my opinion. it is such the way of a card captor sakura wars mindset when the notes get very woke.

whoa this sounds fucking fake. I'll take it. the vgmc14 version of me looking into the future before memory is erased to prevent temporal anomalies is incredibly confused to see this vote. but the vgmc3 version of me thinks this is obvious

jin watanabe is very good at making very prog music to games with werewolf player characters in it so that i want to play them a lot. however.. . this stands out to me due to the lower energy manifestation of the same rhythmically/tonally challenging ideas. it sells a mysterious water dungeon you are not supposed to be in very wellalso yeah slow pitch bends that make a space feel quite empty and large. I think this is pretty clearly a past few years of my tastes track exemplified, but I actually discovered it in the mid2010s when i was mostly nominating obnoxious rhythm game music so i didn't prioritize it as much as the more rhythmically erratic examples from the game at the time. now it slots into my interests with perfection. I would say I love how my copy of the game is so broken so that it takes a full minute for the CD to let any music start playing and like unironically love the unintentionally broken feeling but also i cant play it for more than like 30 minutes without the game crashing unfortunately. I either need to emulate, fix or get a new Sega CD (other games do this too so I think it's not just this disk but this game reacts worst to it). Year Of Sega CD!!!!!!!!

I think this is what people would think the band Deep Forest sounds like if i told them what it sounded like without showing the actual music

Love So (Radio Active Mix)

I love Holiday by Madonna

exodus
love so radioactive
darkazure

Abel's Ark
Love So
Darkazure

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Koukei
Estrada da Estrela

Abel's Ark
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

Koukei
Darkazure

kinda neutral on both, don't really feel strongly enough to commit to a vote on either
this match is literally the most evil in the whole bracket (am very happy about there being twinkle star sprites representation for once, even if i personally would've liked to see stuff from its sequels get the nod more. but yeah koukei was one of my absolute favourite songs from last year that i'm glad i'm not alone in being a fan of here)
this one's honestly up there too (darkazure is a masterpiece and i'm disappointed my vote for it has to come at the cost of a tekken song i like)

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

Abel's Ark
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

*Sees topic title*
Excuse me, but Limbus Company - Hero was already here (and gone)

Abel's Ark
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

Abel's Ark
Koukei
Darkazure

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

Most of this stuff is just kinda 5/10 or 6/10 zone (except Koukei that one is not so good), the only one I really have anything to say about is Darkazure, cool track, Sega CD stuff has been real interesting this contest 7.5/10

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

Abel's Ark
Koukei
Estrada da Estrela

Short write-ups again with the exception of my least favorite song because I know it from before.

Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - Abel's Ark: Cool and mysterious. Doesnt really go anywhere though. 6.3/10

War of Brains - EXODUS (Full ver.): Pretty good composition. I like the build up. Not a fan of the dubstep parts, though. 6.9/10

GAKUEN IDOLM@STER - Koukei: Copy-paste from my Hindsight 2024 write-up.
Ohhhh boy. This song. Well, it has a promising start. Energetic horns begin the song with a bang and almost makes me think it's going to lead into some glorious big band song.....but then the vocals come in, and all hell breaks loose. High-pitched airy female vocals have like a 95% miss rate with me, and this one is no exception. The voice makes me squirm...ugh. The rest of the song is nice, especially the horns and the percussion. But those vocals, man. Sorry to whoever nominated this, but this is really not my cup of tea.
4/10 (previously 3/10 but it grew on me a little)

Twinkle Star Sprites - Love So (Radio Active Mix): Pretty catchy. 7.1/10

Dungeon Explorer (Sega CD) - Darkazure: Its a decent mix of ambience and music. Im not feeling it that much though. 6/10

Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection - Estrada da Estrela: pretty catchy. 7.2/10

Oh, I get it. You put the two songs with Biblical names in round 1. Nice play.

VOTES:
EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

I was actually mildly obsessed with Love So back in *checks guessing game archive* 2019, so I'm glad to finally see it in VGMC!

Abel's Ark
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

Abel's Ark
Koukei
Darkazure

Abel's Ark
Koukei
Estrada de Estrela

Koukei > Abel's Ark > EXODUS (Full ver.) >> Estrada de Estrela > Darkazure > Love So (Radio Active Mix)

Really good day. Hakushi Hasegawa is too good.

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

War of Brains too good

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

Abel's Ark
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

Abel's Ark
Koukei
Estrada da Estrelal

Koukei [S] > Love So [A] > Estrada da Estrelal [B] > Abel's Ark [C] > Darkazure [C] > EXODUS [C]

Whatever first match.

Koukei is so fucking good. I love Hakushi Hasegawa so fucking much. This is far more approachable than most of his stuff, but if you're into this, definitely check out some of his work. AWFUL draw for Love So (We'll actually for Koukei probably). This is just lofi Touhou which is two things I love a lot. DUMB MATCH!!

Darkazure is fine, but boring. Completely whiffed on Estrada da Estrelal during the bracket picking phase. This is a bop.

Exodus
Love
Estrada

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love so "Radio active mix" (Sky Stage 2)
Estrada da Estrela

Love so "Radio active mix" (Sky Stage 2) > EXODUS (Full ver.) > Abel's Ark > Estrada da Estrela > Darkazure >>>>> Koukei

Abel's Ark - 7
nice song but it lies in that weird space where it's not chill but it's not really interesting either

EXODUS (Full ver.) - 7.5
for rhythm game stuff it's cool

Koukei - 5
I do NOT care for these vocals. they're not vocaloid levels of offputting but very much a hard pass regardless

Love so "Radio active mix" (Sky Stage 2) - 8
cool song I like

Darkazure - 6.5
I forgot this was playing while I was listening to it

Estrada da Estrela - 7
have not found much Tekken music that clicks with me but eh I guess it wins by default

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

Exodus
koukei
stars

I love Kajiura. This would not be my pick from XS3! But given how my picks do in the current meta, perhaps that is for the best. I do like the almost simmering energy of it, like something is surely about to happen. Meanwhile War of Brains intrigued me through the opening minute, and then explodes into a wonderful symphony.

I really don't like the Scenery singer's voice. The lower part of her range in particular is very whispy to my ears. But I like the instrumental side of it enough to still vote for it. I love the African drums, and then suddenly 2:30 is incredible. The repeated bouncing between two notes kinda grates on me, not sure why.

Darkazure didn't click at all for me, sorry. I might try to give it another listen. Meanwhile Stars is just what i am somehow in the mood for.

Abel's Ark
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

Abel's Ark
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

Abel's Ark
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

Match 1 is another surprisingly hard one. On my first listen to EXODUS today I was put off, as I often am, by the impression that the thumping beat overwhelms the interesting parts. After some relistens I no longer think that. Its more like the melodys energy lets it stand out even against the beat, which leads to some of the best moments in the song, like the 1:15-1:21 descent into static bursts, and 2:34-2:53 sequence of light beeping into bursts into returning to the melody. So I feel very positive about both songs here, and incidentally I predicted EXODUS to retire, so no issue with it winning this.

Exodus
Love
Darkazure

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Darkazure

EXODUS (Full ver.) >= Darkazure = Estrada da Estrela > Love So (Radio Active Mix) > Koukei >= Abel's Ark

Thank you Bastard Jin

Abel's Ark
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - Abel's Ark
Twinkle Star Sprites - Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection - Estrada da Estrela

@dowolf which would be your Yuki Kajiura pick?

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

Abel's Ark
Koukei
Darkazure

Never thought I'd be voting against Estrada in Round 1, but I guess stranger things have happened before.

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Koukei
Estrada da Estrela

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Love So (Radio Active Mix)
Estrada da Estrela

EXODUS (Full ver.)
Koukei
Darkazure

Changing my Match 3 vote to Estrada da Estrela

Sorry Bastard Jin