Board 8 > [VGMCOmniToC Day2] LostCity/MetalBeat, NewWorld/BlueDesert, DinDon/SummerLights

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to the first ever VGMC OmniToC, a celebration of the best of the best of the best video game music from the past 18 years of Board 8 Video Game Music Contests.

Important Links
Bracket: https://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=479163
Contest info sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EJ8JeKGY-Yu8RQz86ZJ7QBNiBOyzx5dureZxk3611n8
Contest discussion thread: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/81068627
Main bracket playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUDWXwQ0jwHMWexrrJQnRhBDLhQaT0dGP
Compatibility sheet: ?
Last year's spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HqEzmlfEUsm6BWJbBxDm6ZUnQQ_2d1ezDlVBN2sYepY
VGMC total stats sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1XdLWiUKB2kX99qYBgnRbLU_sCz4dvZSByKKJHCT6o
Discord: https://discord.gg/7FVXqWj

Listening Rules:
- Listen to both songs in a given match, at least through the loop points provided. Dont skip around, make sure you hear both songs in their entirety. If there is suspicion that you have not listened, I may ask you to confirm. If you do not confirm that you have listened to both songs, your vote will be disqualified, and you may be discounted for the rest of the contest for repeat offenses.
- Please consider the loop points listed when judging songs. For example, if a song with a 1:00 loop point plays for 5 minutes, don't judge it as a repetitive 5 minute song.
- Judge songs based on the links provided, not other sources of audio.

Voting Rules:
- Voting in all matches is not mandatory, feel free to abstain from matches you do not wish to vote in.
- Your votes should be clear and unambiguous about which songs they refer to. Its recommended that you use the easy vote form and keep your votes separate from any comments. If I cannot tell which songs you are voting for, I may ask you to clarify. If you do not clarify which songs you are voting for, your vote will be disqualified, and you may be discounted for the rest of the contest for repeat offenses.
- You may change votes youve already made, just make it clear that youre changing and what youre changing to. You may change a vote to an abstain or vice versa.
- No alt accounts, no rallying, no begging, etc.
- Please refrain from looking at the running tally before voting, as it may influence your votes. Likewise, don't discuss the tally until the match is over.

Voting Period:
- Today's matches will last 24 hours from the time of posting, or 24 hours from 8pm Eastern, whichever is the later time.
- Please note this may mean that two topics will be active at the same time!
- You may vote for matches in advance. You can send advance votes to @Gall, or post them in the discussion thread. Advance votes can be changed as normal, your latest decision takes precedence.

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Match 1

Alto's Odyssey: The Lost City - The Lost City
Loop Point: 3:44
Composer: Todd Baker
Retired: VGMC16 (Semifinalist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTsFutt5AzA

Metal Masters (Game Boy) - Metal Beat (Part 2)
Loop Point: 1:39
Composer: Alberto Jos Gonzlez Pedraza (Alberto Gonzalez)
Retired: VGMC9 (Quarterfinalist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVpkon8oOSA

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Match 2

Granblue Fantasy - Order of the New World
Loop Point: 4:25
Composer: Tsutomu Narita
Retired: VGMC13 (Semifinalist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pC4d9Nt-Zc

opoona - Blue Desert Hotel
Loop Point: 1:37
Composer: Masaharu Iwata arr. Mitsuhiro Kaneda
Retired: VGMC18 (Eighthfinalist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6VRd7_5t7o

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Match 3

Ragnarok Online 2: The Gate of the World - Din Don Dan Dan
Loop Point: 4:00
Composer: Yoko Kanno
Retired: VGMC4 (Eighthfinalist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjBEhlpWyJE

AIR - summer lights
Loop Point: 2:55
Composer: Jun Maeda (KEY)
Retired: VGMC8 (Eighthfinalist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLTMdFpRLkk

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Easy vote form:
The Lost City / Metal Beat (Part 2)
Order of the New World / Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan / summer lights

Metal Masters (Game Boy) - Metal Beat (Part 2)
Granblue Fantasy - Order of the New World
Ragnarok Online 2: The Gate of the World - Din Don Dan Dan

The Lost City
Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan

Metal Beat...(Part 2? What?)
New World Order
Din Don Dan Dan Fo

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Order of the New World
summer lights

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Blue Desert Hotel
summer lights

Every match pretty easy, though it kinda stinks to view against DDDDF immediately. Metal Beat and Summer Lights are all-timers

The Lost City
Order of the New World
summer lights

The Lost City
Blue Desert Hotel
Summer Lights

The Lost City
Order of the New World
Din Don Dan Dan

Metal Beat (Part 2)

pretty easily the weakest match so far, but fun

for context of sorts, these comprised my 6th and 7th favourites in the first 8pk here, and it probably isn't much of a surprise which one was the 8th. was honestly pretty close, both then and i think moreso now

Blue Desert Hotel

I'm glad GBF isn't as popular now. Not a NWO fan

kinda weird it's not actually called new world order now considering how much more organic that title is... though this makes more sense for a very obviously fantasy setting (and i don't really feel that strongly about the naming anyway, i just used the old acronym because of bracketmaker character limits lol). anyway yeah still not that into it, i don't particularly like the vocals, the lyrics, the "evil" part in the middle... anyway blue desert hotel still good. funnily enough it feels even more like a yoko kanno song than the actual yoko kanno song following it lol

Din Don Dan Dan ((fu))

Man it's nice to hear Din Don Dan Dan again

Man it's nice to hear Din Don Dan Dan again. And condolences to summer lights, which is still amazing and very powerful in its own right. I haven't really taken it even once in any TOCs to date, though last time it was in vgmc I did take it to r3 up to rftm in my favourites bracket so I've definitely always liked it for what it's worth

The Lost City
Order of the New World
Din Don Dan Dan

Metal Masters (Game Boy) - Metal Beat (Part 2)
Granblue Fantasy - Order of the New World
AIR - summer lights

Metal Beat
Blue Desert Hotel
summer lights

Lost City easily clears the other four songs, but it unfortunately gets paired against actual insanity.

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Order of the New World
summer lights

all songs today rock

The Lost City
Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan

The Lost City (9.5) / Metal Beat (Part 2) (5.9)
Order of the New World (7.8) / Blue Desert Hotel (9.6)
Din Don Dan Dan (8.9) / summer lights (8.1)

If only it were The Won City and not The Lost City...! (not that I'm predicting a particular result) The Lost City grew on me after it retired, though... (it was originally only an 8.75) It's going to get a really nice ranking, for sure. Order of the New World varies wildly in terms of enjoyment, depending on the section.... When the guitars do those annoying rhythms (where the vocals begin) it's like a 3.5, but other parts are like 8.7. DDDD sounds as good as ever to me... my Yoko Kanno love has grown over time. Before hearing it again today I was expecting it to be in the 7 range. Maybe I could just be in an abnormally good music mood, though. The score of summer lights is higher than expected, as well.

Updated rankings:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RyUmpY7s3MZeuSDaN3vYEJXtS9BlR0GJ--7sapMOnaA/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Order of the New World
summer lights

ouch tough match 2

match 3 too while we're at it

The Lost City
Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan

The Lost City
Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Order of the New World
summer lights

Metal Beat is so goddamn cool.

City
Hotel
Dan

azuarc posted...

Metal Beat...(Part 2? What?)

The regular version has a longer intro, 36 seconds instead of 8.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5NZXMEtUoY
I was recently informed by an anonymous lefty source that the Part 2 version is what retired, not this one.

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Order of the New World
summer lights

Metal Masters (Game Boy) - Metal Beat (Part 2)
Granblue Fantasy - Order of the New World
Ragnarok Online 2: The Gate of the World - Din Don Dan Dan

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Order of the New World
summer lights

Match 3 is painful. Of course I'll probably be saying that a lot this contest.

Metal Masters
NWO
Summer Lights

what the hell is this match 1? one of the best gb tracks ever (and one of the few GB tracks to do well, historically) vs. a multi-contest winner. boooooooo

also i refuse to prepositionalize Granblue THE NEW WORLD ORDER LIVES ON can't wait for that to be taken out of context. But yeah. Weird to see this here over Zero, or "for you", or Morning Light Hymmnus, or Versuvia. Also I just learned today that "you" is apparently a character in the game??? wow. ANYWAYS.

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan

Metal Beat (Part 2)
New World Order
Din Don Dan Dan

The Lost City
Order of the New World
Din Don Dan Dan

dowolf posted...

what the hell is this match 1? one of the best gb tracks ever (and one of the few GB tracks to do well, historically) vs. a multi-contest winner. boooooooo

I dont think The Lost City is a multi-contest winner. It only won a contest once on Supra.

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan

close matches already, this is not going to be an easy contest

The Lost City
Order of the New World
Din Don Dan Dan

The Lost City: The opening, with the vocals chanting as the hum grows louder, followed by the drumbeat, is on the level of a religious experience. A songs opening does so much for my impression of it, Im more likely to fondly remember a song that has a great opening and mediocre everything else. Well, The Lost City is a song that is as great as its opening. And thats even though the rest of the song turns out to feel quite different: once the strings come in, the division between the instruments disappears, and its as if they are all speaking with one voice. At 1:07, the vocals seem to be emerging unbidden from the strings, and the drums that were so prominent in the opening are now so light they almost sound the same as the strings! The vocals do get more independent later on, to the point where they start chanting from on high again at 2:16, but they too stay light and dont overshadow anything else. Yeah, this song is pretty much perfect. I took Big Blue over this??? Man, anyone who thinks R1 is hard, no one is prepared for the later rounds of this thing.
Metal Beat (Part 2): Its hard for me to judge this on its own merits. Its catchy and punchy and has the beep boops, all things I like. But its also very simplistic in its structure, and while I have no problem with simplicity, I know that Gonzlez is capable of more than this: take for example Turok 2 - Scroll Stage, which is just as catchy while also throwing twists at you what feels like every few seconds. I know its unfair to Metal Beat, but when I listen to it, even though I do enjoy it, I cant help wanting it to be something more.
Order of the New World: The instrumentation isnt bad, it has some standout parts like the buildup from 1:18-1:43, but overall Id call it serviceable. The vocals need to carry this song, and boy do they ever! Theyre belting it out and you know I eat that up. They sound good both when theyre speeding through the middle of the song and at the end, when they slow down to acknowledge that the road will be tough, but theyll power through. Complete with 10 second long aaaaaaaa from 3:23-3:33.
Blue Desert Hotel: I realized what bugs me about this song, and it shouldve been obvious: its not alien enough. What the opoona OST is best at is creating a world thats different from ours in a way that makes you notice those differences and be absorbed by them. Its futuristic, filled with creatures in funny shapes and technology that shines just to look at. Lest you think Im only talking about Partizans and At Tokione here, Id also like to shout out Earth Prison, a dark, atmospheric song that still has that opoona sound, soft around the edges and with electronic noises that seem more mysterious than malevolent. Anyway, Blue Desert Hotel just sounds like an orchestra. Its a good orchestra, and one that, like I said before, does make me feel like Im peeking into another world. But the world I see through Blue Desert Hotel is too much like what I can see here on Earth.
Din Don Dan Dan: Im not going to mention the vocals this time. I mean theyre good obviously, but its the little details that make this song. Like the murmuring sound, most noticeable from 1:45-1:50, which might actually be vocals from the throat of that great wolf. And afterwards, details like that start popping in everywhere. I particularly love the quiet trills of the strings from 1:56-2:07 and their slight wavering from 2:58-3:17. While I dont know where this plays in-game, it seems like exactly the kind of song an MMO should have, one that feels like a world thats alive and bustling with activity.
summer lights: Theres only one thing I dont like about this song which is that whiny sound that starts at 0:53. I get its supposed to sound sunny and sentimental but it misses the mark. While its too bad the ending uses that sound, it doesnt change that most of the song does succeed at the emotional tone it goes for. Theres a haziness to the sounds at the start and 1:17 like its emerging from a dream, or into one. And by contrast, the piano from 1:59-2:28 is beautifully clear and certain.

Metal Beat (Part 2)
Order of the New World
Din Don Dan Dan

The Lost City
Blue Desert Hotel
summer lights

Todd Baker and Opoona being against each other R1 would've dealt damage to me, but thankfully that wasn't the case here.

I respect the hell out of AJG and Kanno, but I've heard plenty more from both that I've been more enamored with. I like Din Don Dan Dan, but I've never been attached to it.

Never heard Order of the New World before, it's such a fun piece. I feel bad I can't vote for it here.

The Lost City
Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan

The Lost City
Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan

din don dan dan is the work of a literal angel who has graced is with the honour of hearing her music.

Alto's Odyssey: The Lost City - The Lost City
Granblue Fantasy - Order of the New World
Ragnarok Online 2: The Gate of the World - Din Don Dan Dan

Ratings/reviews coming later maybe again
No super close matches today though, and OofNW is a big hit

Alto's Odyssey - The Lost City:
Copy-pasting from Supra winners' commentary:
This has a very otherworldly, almost ethereal tone to it, which makes it very pleasant to listen to. I really love the flutes in particular here, but as a flautist, Im obviously biased, lol Funnily enough, even if the flutes are my favorite instrument, my actual favorite part of the song is right at the 2 minute mark with the rising choir that crescendos to the climax. That part is really awe-inspiring.

Admittedly, while I enjoyed it on a first listen, I had slowly started to grow extremely sick of this song back in the day when the hype surrounding it was still fresh. It beating my literal favorite song of all time in a matchup just added extra salt to the wound. But that was long in the past now, and listening to it after all this time has reinvigorated my appreciation for this song that was lost after I developed severe fatigue for it and all things Alto back then. Even if I wish it had a stronger melody, Im glad to say that listening to it today, I feel free from the shackles of my past grudge against this song and am able to genuinely enjoy it for what it is again.
8.3/10

Metal Masters (Game Boy) - Metal Beat (Part 2): Decent chiptune but doesn't do a whole ton for me. 6.5/10

Vote: atlantis
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Granblue Fantasy - Order of the New World: Huh, a vocal song where I actually like the vocals. This was fun. 7.5/10

opoona - Blue Desert Hotel: (copy-pasting from VGMC 18): The oboe melody with the beautiful instrumentation in the background is lovely. Very delightful to listen to. 7.6/10

Vote: BDH. close match

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Ragnarok Online 2: The Gate of the World - Din Don Dan Dan: (copy-pasting from my Rate the Albums commentary) I was first introduced to this OST through Supra's Best VGM List Contest where someone nominated "Din Don Dan Dan." "Din Don Dan Dan" ended up mid-tier for me where I placed it 18th out of 38 songs. I've since grown to enjoy it significantly more since that contest. Ever since then, this OST has shown up in a variety of video game music contests I've participated in, and, even if it has a couple of songs I didn't vibe with (especially "Pub"), I've grown to largely really enjoyed it. I've always enjoyed Celtic/Celtic-inspired music, and this OST ended up being no exception. 8.75/10

AIR - summer lights:
Pretty piece. Don't have a lot to say. 7.6/10

Vote: D4
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the OG D4 > atlantis > blue desert hotel > AIR > order of new world >>> metal beat

VOTES
The Lost City
Blue Desert Hotel
Din Don Dan Dan