Board 8 > [VGMC] Day 97! THE FINALS!!!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Shiva (Glacier Remix)

I am glad to have made it to another end of a VGMC, always love this contest and it never dissapoints in helping me find great music that will accompany me for a lifetime and more. None of my nominations made it past the retirement round, but I am very satisfied how the final rounds evolved and we have a duel titans to end the show.

I'm very happy to see Shiva made it to the very end, a beautiful, emotionally charged song, as if it's the anthem of someone charging for the final blow. I love the vocals, the intensity that the vocals shift around is fascintanting, the rap lines feels great and I have had the chorus backing vocals stuck on my mind for a few days. And those horns, ohh boy they're chilling! I also love the piano at the end. Just a outstanding song from beginning to end. I don't even need to remember what the lyrics are saying, they just speak to me. Sadly it had to eliminate songs I really liked, such as Katamari on the Dream, diamond meditation or where is smiley, but I think it has deserved its spot.

Of course, big shotouts go to Precipice, which also looked like a winning ticket from the moment I listened. It's boisterous, it's energetic and it's strong as bedrock, but also very emotional and leaves a lot for thought. Never a piece I ever imagined Minecraft to have, but it probably encapsulates the great things about the game like nothing else. A masterpiece by Aaron if you will.

Anyways, sorry for the sudden writeups! Whoever wins today is just a great choice in my books. Best of luck!

Precipice

Shiva (Glacier Remix)

It's by a hair though. they're both good songs don't get me wrong but I don't feel that strongly about either. weird feeling for a vgmc final but at least I won't be mad regardless of which one wins!

bye deo

precipice

Precipice

Heaven Burns Red - Shiva (Glacier Remix)

Precipice

I can plainly say, both of these songs are not for me. I'm not sitting here thinking "I hope Precipice wins the contest". In fact I considered abstaining this match out of apathy for the two options. It's been (more than) 97 days and I've found plenty of songs that I enjoyed in the noms and round 1. None of them made it to the finals, and that's too bad; even if a majority of B8 didn't vote for them, I still discovered them and can listen to them whenever I want. But the fact remains that the contest is not over yet. There's still a voting day left, and so regardless of where these two songs fall within the entire field of 256 songs, I prefer the song Precipice over the song Shiva, and I will give the match its deserved vote.

Minecraft: Tricky Trials - Precipice

So wild for me to be voting for Minecraft to win a competition but it deserves it

Be sure to check out MARGIN OF THE STRANGE composed in part by Aaron Cherof when it comes out in a year or two i dont know

Precipice

The end of VGMC is finally here...with a song I nominated no less! I've supported a number of songs that make it to retirement every year, but this is certainly the farthest my picks have ever gone!

I went with Precipice this time around, still a little letdown that Aria Math got so close to retirement back in VGMC17 and then got knocked out by Nrburgring Suite last year. I thought there was no other song from the Minecraft soundtrack I'd ever give a chance to and back all the way like I did with what I consider to be C418's best song yet.

...But lo and behold, Supracord's Best VGM of 2024 contest rolls around, and it gives me a song composed by Aaron Cherof, a name I had barely heard of thanks to Cobalt Core, who gives an audible offering that floored me the first time I heard it. Precipice is Aria Math's more ambitious cousin; while Aria Math is incredibly atmospheric and makes you feel like you're floating nonchalantly in the emptiness of space, Precipice does nothing but continuously climb upwards in energy and sound, breaking past every barrier it comes across so it can finally reach its goal: past the highest summit in the world.

And its competition is no slouch either! I haven't listened to the entirety of the HBR soundtrack, but this version of Shiva has definitely climbed to being my 3rd favorite from all that I've heard so far. Really good vocals, great instrumentation, it has what it takes to make it far in music contests like this.

I can't complain about these final songs, nothing but goodness here. Excited to see what happens!

Shiva (Glacier Remix)

Both songs are fine, but definitely not the final I'm most enthusiastic about.

Heaven Burns Red - Shiva (Glacier Remix)

And so another VGMC comes to a close! First, a recap of how the retirement round went for me. I previously ranked every song that was still in the field in round 3. Of those songs, here are the rankings for the ones that retired:

2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 16, 21, 25, 31, 38, 40, 51, 55, 59

Kinda runs the gamut of songs I really like to songs that were just okay. But with a mean ranking of roughly 24 and a median ranking of 18.5, retirement results were pretty decent! That makes the average retiree this year for me somewhere in the 7.5/10 range. I feel like an 8+ would be my ideal retiree, but that's only a little short.

Onto the final match, having my third-favorite song in that ranking, Shiva, come this far was really nice to see! Heaven Burns Red has had some great songs enter the contest, White Spell and Sailing Ship being my favorites alongside my own attempt last year with Before I Rise. Shiva being the first song from this game to retirement is a great choice! I do wish To You in the Dying Season had better luck, as it was my #1 favorite song in the contest and my favorite Heaven Burns Red song by far (though I'd love to see something top that!). A Shiva champion would be a great outcome for the finals that was already a top contender for my retiree spot in Bracket D, falling in round 4 to my own nomination, Oyasumi Monochrome, but I would've definitely taken Shiva if not for that.

Precipice was a welcome surprise for a Minecraft song, as my familiarity with its music stemmed entirely from C418's more ambient music, which, while fine, isn't the kind of music I'd actively seek out. My preference for Shiva is very strong here as much as I like Precipice, so I can't say I won't be a little disappointed if Precipice wins, but what I can say is that it'll be a decent champion, far from the worst. It is true though that champions of past contests that I've participated in (Exsphere, Endeavour, resurrectedreplayer) have been much more my kind of song (Endeavour and resurrectedreplayer were supports of mine I think, and I even used Endeavour in a VGMGG list after hearing through, I believe, kaonashi the first time), but I'd be okay with a Precipice champion.

In ranking where the potential champions of this year would go, Precipice would probably be 13/19 above Emil/Karma and below Mechonis Field, and Shiva at 9/19 below Scars of Time and ahead of The Extreme. By the way, since the champion ranking thing rwlh hosted after VGMC16, Mechonis would probably be 12/19 and Back in Time at 16/19. I'm doing this in real time with some preliminary listens, so it's a rough estimate lol but seems right.

Anyway looking forward already to VGMC20!

Precipice