The RPG Duelling League
RPG Debate => Tournaments => Music Tournament => Topic started by: Cmdr_King on May 18, 2017, 10:16:08 PM
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So... hello Music Tournament board! It turns out it's been 5 years since a tournament was conducted here, and fully seven since a song vs song tournament happened. In that time, many, many video games have happened, several of which have been all-time classics in the OST department; for example, did you know that the last time nominations for a music tournament were held, the original NieR hadn't been released? Yeaaaah.
Ground rules will be simple:
1. Up to 15 noms a piece
2. I need to be able to find the song on the internets (most likely youtube)
While not a strict requirement, I'd also encourage
3. Songs come from a game OST
4. Songs actually play in-game
5. Feel free to suggest songs outside your top 15 noms: I may need to expand the brackets and more to work with is always good in those situations.
I'll most likely be building the bracket to include as many noms as possible, so it's entirely possible I'll have to either cut or extend noms to get even numbers, although... y'know, who knows. Since I am doing it by hand though, I'll likely be selecting against obscura as best I can, although that can be a highly relative term nowadays; we do live in a world where about as many people played Undertale as the newest Mass Effect game I'm pretty sure.
I'm not sure how long I'll run noms: depends on many factors. But certainly I'm not launching with less than 128 entries.
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Trying to think of songs that aren't just the same stuff I nommed last time. I may have to edit in things as I remember what new stuff I've played.
Links below song noms for things that I think are more obscure/have potentially confusing searches/whatever.
1. Persona 5 - Rivers In A Desert
2. 100% Orange Juice - Peat's Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZj2SGZWGE&list=PLt5VTAP2XOT4YkmrnilFmYag-53lgYQuW&index=16
3. SaGa Frontier - Last Battle T260G
4. Dissidia 012 - God In Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGcRVfOCWb4
5. Lost Dimension - Farewell to a Friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3TKhYfyKTQ&list=PLfseE3JLZwXzQLLVNDtc-y5dCoqRSGgPu&index=4
Obscura In Game Context: this song plays during the Judgement section, when someone who you've finished the Character Quest and gotten max trust level with is chosen for Judgement. They give a heartfelt goodbye to Sho, talking about their personal goals and what they shared with him before, while understanding they couldn't be on the same side. It...really works well, imo.
6. Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate - Noble Monster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfTVrLmcLzw&index=41&list=PL595954EDB420C99E
7. Chrono Trigger - Corridors of Time
8. Secret of Evermore - Hall of Collosia, chamber 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9DuAzh9ejM&list=RDOHOyOVwcJD0&index=4
9. Terranigma - The Way Home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4HwR1jKjEs&index=53&list=PL04067EB703ECEDD0
10. Fate/Extella - Altera's Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOTU8e3qpMU
11. Final Fantasy 15 - Stand By Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv2DSmy3Tro
You know what, if Florence and the Machine is going to do a cover of a song specifically for a videogame, and it even includes the prelude melody in the background? I'm gonna nom it for a videogame music contest.
Cid Spillover section!
12. <Cidward> WA3: Fate Breaker (probably its best dungeon theme)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_5Zek_-SCQ
13. <Cidward> VP2: How Wicked Ruler (Lezard being Lezard)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMUM-sXcYVk
14. <Cidward> Star Control 2: Yehat theme (because Scottish space dinosaurs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOE-vVuBXKE
15. <Cidward> And I want to look at something Wa5 but I dunno what yet.
<Cidward> Let's just go with hot Avril on Avril boss action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipCa-V-eVhU&index=76&list=PL112DB550DF200604
(WA5 - At the Frozen Depths of the Heart)
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Not really sure what counts as "obscura" nowadays. I will say, though, that I am mainly into this for the sharing music, exposing people to new music and hearing other people's faves I am not familiar with. The actual tournament part to me is mainly a vehicle for that. So... I'mma (eventually) post two lists, one general and one "true obscura" that I *know* no one or almost no one else here has played.
Some other folks have said they feel the opposite and are turned off by a lot of music from games they don't know. SOOO, I'll try to post some context and talk about the songs where possible (ie when they don't spoil the whole game) and highly encourage others to do the same. This post is mainly do that! Discussion makes things fun!
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1. NieR: Song of the Ancients ~ Fate
There are four versions of Song of the Ancients: one for your guide in the library, one for her sister singing in the town square, one for the duet you can convince them to perform as a sidequest--and one for this boss fight, where you kill them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ady--PNMsfI
2. Bloodborne: The entire goddamn soundtrack Gehrman, the First Hunter
Fromsoft has always been fond of serving up tragic, fallen warriors for its most emotive battles. This is the king of that archetype.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V9zxXN1rx0
3. Final Fantasy XIV: Brute Justice’s Theme
You are now fighting Voltron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLCWCPyxByg&list=PLKzg0DeoAjD9iluNprQofHf9-XtILfGC7&index=3
4. No More Heroes 2: Philistine
Loligoth sniper fight theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYjYCaqshjE
5. Mass Effect 2: Suicide Mission
Basically the game's main theme in addition to being prominently placed in the final dungeon. Conveys sense of Shit Getting Real fantastically well. The world needs more marches in 7/8 time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTsD2FjmLsw
6. NieR: Shadowlord
Final boss music, cutscene shading into battle midway. Congratulations on winning the game and dooming humanity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqXPW0oBKgg
7. Bayonetta: You May Call Me Father
You should really just watch a video of the chapter XVI boss fight. Peacock feather comb? Oh my yes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFPVWv7X0c4
8. Final Fantasy XIV: Answers
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night scored for rock opera. Thank you, Uematsu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b96rrbo-_Ik
9. No More Heroes 2: Shoegazer Watched the Stars
Who are you supposed to be, some kind of cosmonaut?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONH5-U0JohE
10. Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Icarus
Main theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=402asYLG_b0
11. Undertale: Every boss theme right guys Spear of Justice
Anime is real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrBB3_rFPjg
12. Bayonetta: Red & Black
It's Bayonetta vs. Jeane. On top of a moving airplane. Which is, all things considered, one of the tamest boss contexts the game actually offers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qtr-IlViQ8
13. Portal 2: Bombs for Throwing at You
For the final battle against Wheatley, who is NOT A MORON.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uAsD6lQV1I
14. Xenosaga 3: Godsibb
It's one of the giant robot fights I think? I dunno man I just love Kajiura.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n10VyIRJj58
15. Final Fantasy XIV: Steel Reason
Recurring boss theme for the Evil Empire's generals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhr2mLhmdR4
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Woop. Hey everyone, Gate sprog here, been waiting for one of these to start back up again now that I'm an Alive Human Being. I'll probably add a couple more as I think of them. I'm just going to go ahead and hyperlink each song with a youtube link, just to minimize effort for finding them.
1. Xenoblade Chronicles - Crisis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5PPaevyKAQ)
2. Xenoblade Chronicles - Snowy Valak Mountain (Night) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmfRj1t3NRg)
3. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE - Event Battle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxJ97dG-HLw)
4. Chrono Trigger - Singing Mountain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN85h3H0Sdk)
(Before the 1:00 mark is just atmospheric Chrono Trigger wind noises, if you want to skip the main bit of the song)
5. Within a Deep Forest - Adventures (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSaFAksQmBY)
6. Persona 5 - Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01RAZcB40Tk)
7. Persona 5 - Life Will Change (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcE4-6QGgpc)
8. Final Fantasy Tactics - Antipyretic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ydZsK60gdI)
9. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Lanayru Desert (Past) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJkSWdCYb8A)
10. Okami - Ryoshima Coast (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1YRu2pqK3g)
11. Okami - Reset (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM6X76YMrF4)
12. Pokemon: Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire - Battle! Zinnia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIn8_Q27WFY)
13. Pokemon: Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire - Battle! Rayquaza (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jXNiy68kIM)
14. Golden Sun: The Lost Age - The Doom Dragon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SDzc7CxQiI)
15. Splatoon - Calamari Inkantation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7nC_4ailwI)
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I'm breaking my noms down into 5 themes: XXX, 11082016, Handmaid's Tale, Yas Kween, & Regret. I have to rep for Xenosaga, Xenogears and Xenoblade and will thus submit 3 songs; elections were a thing but I remember vibing to some OSTs then; Handmaid's Tale-themed tracks I love; Yas Kween for all the lit tracks, and good songs somehow related to regret in narratives. Posting this to fill in later.
1. Xenogears: Shattering Egg of Dreams - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obHR0ed_7uo&list=PLDCBCA0F06AA2551A&index=9 XXX
2. Xenosaga Epi 2: Fatal Fight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obHR0ed_7uo&list=PLDCBCA0F06AA2551A&index=9 XXX
3. Xenosaga Epi 1: Margulis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHefq05Div0&list=PL75103D71E579CE86&index=14 XXX
4. Final Fantasy VII: Don of the Slums - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGD1FGPMQ94&index=18&list=PL77D98F68F6DBB35D - Yas Kween
5. Final Fantasy XIII: Fang's Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdgF63xKTe0 Handmaid's Tale
6. Final Fantasy VI: What? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXIKFoP2lZ4&list=PL834FCA340E5D20DB&index=41 Regret
7. Kindgom Hearts: It Began With a Letter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKunWP229gw&index=11&list=PL2FFE386842EA290F 11062016
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Going to start with just one and edit them in over the morning.
Lufia 1 - The Sorrow of Parting. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34kRTnBmydc) It's a sad, melancholy song that gets me with the opening each time. A non traditional starter, but I think Lufia 1 and 2 both have strong OSTs. Also I'm obligated to start with something retro.
Hellcore 2.0 (Doom 2 custom MegaWAD) - Industry. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqdDujxFWms) It's one of those songs that's just catchy, it fits in the levels its used in and is good to listen to on its own merits.
Sunlust (Doom 2 custom MegaWAD) - Ocean Flute. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIlNpVJwj-M) It's the last thing you'd expect from Doom music, but it really works as its own thing. I think it works better out of context of the level it was made for.
Bravely Default - Wicked Flight. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHeuR_bC9GM) I'm not up on Bravely Default personally, but I've ran into the track and I just adore it. Great music, really has a top-notch feel and sound.
Rosenkreuzstilette - Luftfest Sleipnir. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efpi4L-a4tc) It's just an upbeat platforming game track with rock elements. It works, man. It works.
Tales of Graces - To A Sea Of Dancing Snow. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28wNKmjaHms) I have a weak spot for winter-themed music and this track really works. It plays in some of the villages of the game's Russia-alike, nailing that feeling of winter combined with a decidedly melancholy air.
Ducktales Remastered - Moon Theme. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHEifuLCSIY) What can I say? It's an update to the classic 8 bit version.
Ducktales Remastered - Mount Vesuvius Theme. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlCRkgmuujc) This is the opposite. Ducktales Remastered including a new final area and it naturally had a normal track. However, they included an 8 bit version. Tossing this in for the symmetry with the previous entry.
Lufia 2: Curse of the Sinistrals - Battle 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WJxc-IOKnM) Lufia 2's boss battle them remixed for the DS remake. I don't think it's the strongest boss battle theme for tension, but it makes up for it for sheer musical appeal. It's fun to listen to.
Speed of Doom (Doom 2 custom MegaWAD) - Getaway (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZW_2X3mBWs) Back to Doom? Sure. Anyway, more custom-made Doom 2 music.
Disgaea - Planet X (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol8e-FcEBwY) An old favorite I came back on recently. Has a nicely alien and techno-ish feel to it, which is a good take on what Celestia is to a demon.
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Alright...let's make this the OK-bait list:
1) Persona 5 - Rivers in the Desert (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KukSVxgsQkg)
Yeah...have to put a SMT nom in here. Battle for Everyones' Souls is better, but this one is still awesome. There is an instrument and vocal version - this is the vocal version I'm nomming, although both are good and work in their own ways. The song plays for most of the big battles in the game - the 7th palace boss (where it goes instrumental --> vocal version, as the boss switches forms), the secret boss, and the first part of the final boss. It's a culmination song, and the vocals are a play on that (read them sometime, and think about he context of the game...hard to talk about it without spoilers, but it's a dialogue between the party and the enemies about justice and right). It's awesome, probably my 2nd or 3rd favourite boss theme of the series, and easily better than the true final boss theme (which is...unimpressive).
2) Starcraft 2 - Terran Theme (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH3PXvVEwjM)
This is the entire Terran theme, which is about 15 minutes. It's technically composed of 5 different motifs, but plays as one continuous song in-game. If you want to limit it to 1 specific song, go with Terran 4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YfQjho2IOk&index=4&list=PL638D810B6ED1BACF). As it is...SC2: WoL was huge when it released. The nostalgia, the return of Starcraft, the way it was handled...excellent. The Terran music has always been the best, in my opinion, in the series, and
3) Undertale - Hopes and Dreams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz82xbLvK_k)
4) Lufia 2 - For the Saviour (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpFAcDghEuc)
***This is technically the Curse of the Sinistrals edition, same as the SNES version, just better quality
5) Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - The Tokyo Conception (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSpOK8JUCTA)
***For some reason, this recording has an extended silence section at the end - it should really stop at 2:10
6) Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean - Survival from the Force (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQw7xD7C2fY)
7) Phantasy Star 2 - Under (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_6KWiuNi5M)
8) Xenogears - Small Two of Pieces (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIzmMizFVE0)
9) Legend of Dragoon - If You Still Believe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBabT4hDZts)
10) Final Fantasy X-2 - 1000 Words Orchestral (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQpRwLdibm0)
***Yes, in case you decided to forget this game, the song does play in the perfect ending
11) Legend of Zelda - Overworld (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpEzYEoV9qY)
12) Chrono Cross - Fate, the God of Destiny (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3r3EWiUFBI)
13) La-Mulana - Interstice of Dimension (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfWB8odAPdA&index=37&list=PL3F0DE89E52897887)
***This is not the remake version - while that's better quality, I feel it loses a lot of charm, and frankly isn't as good
14) Diablo 2 - Tristram (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XheJnmLAwhk&index=6&list=PLD80CC3FEBE323161)
15) Path of Exile - The Grand Arena (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlT19fMddjc&index=20&list=PLQxAY0Zg-fcSgEjE9VEhoWXA1WTJgk2SM)
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Note that some of these go to playlists, which is good if you want to check out the rest of a soundtrack, but if you have it loaded up in another tab, it'll keep on going to non-nominated pieces.
I'll add a brief "context" if I suspect it's not obvious how a piece is used. Happy to expand on it if necessary. Also trying to focus on "recent" stuff where "Recent" = played in the past 10 years and not really in earlier tournies. Also also trying to resist urge to do all OMG-epic-final-battley type stuff and put in more moody background music and the like.
Edit: Expanded the context some for these, for Elf / others interested.
1. Final Fantasy 7 - Anxious Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMvHTlWyxH0
* It's FF7. You know this one. It just gets buried under stuff like the boss battle theme, OWA, Aeris, Main Theme, etc.
2. Adventures of Mana - Battle II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKU2tJufQE4&list=PLDJoQvN7sex4bvqLe0HU4Ml5r9OUvzEX7&index=19
* "Big" boss battle music. The hero vs. the Dark Lord on the roof of his castle fighting a duel. Very dramatic.
3. Terranigma - Crysta Village
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRzijVlfeM&index=3&list=PL04067EB703ECEDD0
* Our Hero's hometown. This piece ends up sadder than you'd expect based on what happens. (It's not a vanilla "burnt down by evil raiders as an excuse to leave.")
4. Ys: The Oath in Felghana - The Strongest Foe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pzcqZTVfDI&list=PLzFTGYa_evXiQUDpjYjUIB45uWkXK1g6k&index=29
* The final battle music.
5. Fire Emblem Fates - A Dark Fall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBQFNUJ8s2A (normal)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPo8NgrBBG8 (Fire)
* Context: Like most Awakening/Fates map themes, the "normal" version plays when inspecting the map; it switches to the "Fire" version when combat is initiated. (Not restarting from the beginning, but seamlessly switching.) Also I could only find a 30-minute extended-version of the normal version, obv don't listen all the way through it. You can probably just stick with "Fire" if you're really in a hurry.
* If CK would prefer to avoid weird stuff like that, that's fine, switch this with "End of All" instead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLZR1GdMJps (Which… also has multiple versions, but the differences are basically irrelevant.)
* Further context: This is the Nohr music for lategame fights in Conquest, and a few Nohr-related fights in Revelation. Since you are basically playing the bad guys by this point in the story, I'd say that "dark majesty" is an accurate depiction of what you're trying to go for.
6. Ori and the Blind Forest: Restoring the Light, Facing the Dark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaiJKLROq5M&list=PLTSIqhWP1gKWbtSaAFCz5erPddH--7D6L&index=17
* Note that this piece will keep looping at the 1:18 mark if you die during the event in-game. (Also, this is an actionier version of "The Spirit Tree", which gets remixed several other times in the soundtrack, so check that one out as well if you want to see what it's playing off of. I rather like "Escaping the Ruins" as well, which is for the Forlorn Ruins.)
* Context: This is an exciting escape sequence. After the 1:18 moment, there is a moment of respite, a moment of admiring your handiwork, and then a new surprise threat.
7. Ori and the Blind Forest: Completing the Circle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwN1MEjUeGk&list=PLTSIqhWP1gKWbtSaAFCz5erPddH--7D6L&index=24
* Music for the penultimate region of the game, a climb up a mountain. The journey is almost over.
8. Child of Light - Aurora's Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byz6960tWxQ&list=PLaTxFi804INY1IMdf9TzsgZN4rvvApCxS&index=2
* Not actually nom'd, but check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJnzWceKHxk for the flute version that also plays in-game.
* This plays for... a lot, since Aurora is the main character. It's the first area music and is used for some Aurora-related plot points. It also plays after you've completed the game. The flute version is played in two places, both after something very sad has happened. I'm not crying, there's just something in my eye.
9. Celestian Tales: Old North: The Ravager
https://soundcloud.com/agatesimfonia/celestian-tales-old-north-the-ravager?in=agatesimfonia/sets/celestian-tales-old-north
* Character theme, also plays for battles he's in. Despite the name, the Ravager is not a bad guy. He's basically the biggest badass in the Old North - legendary soldier, has a sacred sword on loan, has a prequel DLC where you can play as a younger Ravager when he's hunting down legends. He's a down-to-earth noble who's a natural leader and inspires his followers and has his own personal army. He's honorable. He also has the sense to see when things aren't quite right, that something is wrong, and something should be done about it, and damn the rules. I think the music gets all that across rather well.
10. BlazBlue Continuum Shift - Condemnation Wings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhArsCBByKM
* Not nommed because I don't think it plays in-game, but the vocal version ("Cry Camellia") is interesting in its own way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn40iGWlE0g (don't ask why the YT uploader used a picture of Noel for this..)
* Tsubaki's theme, will play in battles against her (in general) if you're not randomizing stages/music. Of the three friends of Noel/Tsbuaki/Makoto, she was the one who was the good student, the rules-follower, top-of-the-class type. So of course she's given orders by a "superior officer" in the Library (actually more like the Villain) to go hunt down her friend Noel, because that'd be super melodramatic, and also super anime that we're sending fresh graduates out to kill each other. Anyway, she ends up a vaguely Paladin-esque character, except with awesome Castlevania-esque music.
11. Trails of Cold Steel - The Sound of Rainfall at the Academy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV_zh3Q7N14&index=30&list=PLzFTGYa_evXg9ZudTxcGNs2m5X4O9nj66
* It's raining outside, everyone is huddled inside studying for midterms, and Rean pulls out his umbrella when hurrying between the school buildings. Very nice & wistful.
12. Final Fantasy XV - Veiled in Black
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52q6b-K_hGU
* Note that this isn't Apocalypsis Noctis, which is the super-over-the-top evil choir version of this. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giI1sYmGOBk ) It's fine, but the simple version is actually kinda better in its own way.
* This is the battle theme that plays vs. the forces of Niflheim, the Big Bad Evil Empire of FF15. You tend to invade their bases, and they come hunting you, a *lot*, so it's good this doesn't get old.
13. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - Lost Paintings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjI8J9Kaafg
* (It's barely different from the SOTN version if you know that one.) It plays in the Inverse Castle underground which is like Stage 8 or 9 or so. Technically DLC but if you play HoD you should get all the DLC.
14. Atelier Ayesha - Tasogare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAGXMgRcbFk
15. Drakengard III - The Rising Fool - Battlefield
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M6mWFVd0pU
* Similar to Fire Emblem, in-game, this seamlessly switches from the non-vocal first half to the vocal second-half when Zero activates her devil trigger equivalent for mutant dry-cleaning powers to clean up all the blood on her, and back after it expires.
* The extra bit of context I'll add is that, like the FE Fates Conquest track, Zero is kinda the villain. The Battlefield songs are all really good, but they also have that "dark majesty" of selling "Yo, villain here, I'm gonna go kill 563 soldiers that get in my path, good luck stopping me."
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Bonus: In the unlikely event that CK needs more noms to hit 128, I'll throw out Bravely Default - World of Scattering Flowers ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0JMpID0nEQ ) and Ys Memories of Celceta - Black Wings ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKVUGM3Zo1M&list=PLzFTGYa_evXgDphfkWMUDiwK71diXS5g3&index=28 ) for extras if need be.
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1. Front Mission 4- Hostiles
2. Front Mission 4- Pride and Honor
3. Castlevania Harmony of Despair- Ryukotsuki (Chapter 11 boss music)
4. XCom 2- SPARK Operational (Shen's last gift DLC)
5. Civ 5- Shoshone Sun Dance (Pocatello war theme)
6. Shadow of the Colossus- Demise of the Ritual
7. Persona 3- Battle for Everyone's Souls
8. Suikoden 2- The Chase
9. Final Fantasy 6- Dancing Madly 4
10. Through the Angles of Space- Star Control 2
11. Street Fighter 2- Guile's theme
12. Guilty Gear XX- Awe of She
13. Rogue Galaxy- Galaxy Public Corporation
14. SaGa Frontier- Melody of Time
15. Castlevania Curse of Darkness- Toccata into Blood Soaked Darkness
Note to Cmdr: Beat me upside the head if you need any links to these.
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Time to try my hand at one of these:
1: Xenoblade Chronicles: Engage the Enemy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wdc_cDaUNQ
2: Xenoblade Chronicles: You Will Know Our Names
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OfNgkxkM_o
3: Final Fantasy X: Otherworld
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbLQhzsJG0A
4: Final Fantasy VI: Terra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6t_uyg_pF8
5: Super Metroid: Lower Brinstar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj5DWB5a2n8
6: Mega Man 2: Dr Wily's Castle Stage 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJRoRt155mA
7: Pokemon Sun and Moon: Guardian Deities Battle Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKr616BOslU
8: Metal Gear Solid 2: Main Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiPon8lr48U
9: Spyro Year of the Dragon: Sunny Villa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0qZV6g3-9w
10: Crash Bandicoot 2: Rock It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsvHQCTgHvg
11: Super Mario Galaxy: Bowser Battle Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_VZo01MWYo
12: Chrono Trigger: Magus Battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKRRXt8J5YU
13: Final Fantasy VII: One Winged Angel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7wJ8pE2qKU
14: Castlevania Aria of Sorrow: Heart of Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxFWgilSyAE
15: Undertale: Megalovania
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcoqR9Bwx1Y
-
Entries ho!
1) Xenoblade Chronicles: Mechanical Rhythm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGw5kwHl_LU
2) Final Fantasy VI: Searching for Friends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnvZ6Dqv7Ws
3) Final Fantasy X: Someday the dream will end
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xRCjjiTR7I
4) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Dracula's Castle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh1qqLbuBww
5) Mega Man 2: Metal Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9I9zRyRyh0
6) Mega Man X: Storm Eagle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht7YJptvt_w
7) Shadow of the Colossus: Revived Power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVNcmGjNW6c
8) Spyro: Year of the Dragon: Harbour Speedway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1KbCnhhQYs
9) Pokemon Sun/Moon: League Title Defence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTOdIPQk7Ig
10) Final Fantasy IX: Dark Messenger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBNBwZe6GTI
11) Undertale: Death by Glamour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHL_Bk60F_4
12) Chrono Trigger: Zeal Palace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swsswovrlgw
13) Super Metroid: Theme of Samus Aran, Galactic Warrior
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lTWCkF8B3o
14) Super Mario Galaxy: Egg Planet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy8Sn6DHIi0
15) Xenoblade Chronicles: The One Who Gets in Our Way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xl3LF5A2lk
Don't worry, I'm not going to be an annoyance and share joke versions by GilvaSunner.
-
1. NieR: Emil -Karma-
Controlling for the songs nommed at time of writing, this is clearly the best option.
2. Drakengard 3: The Final Song
The fact of this song is basically the first thing I found out about Drakengard 3, which says a lot about how I research games.
3. NieR Automata: A Beautiful Song
Meanwhilst this song plays in the demo for Automata. It makes about as much sense there as it does in the final game I assure you.
4. Undertale: Undertale
I wish more games did this sort of thing. I strongly considered His Theme, but I get the sense it sounds a bit different on the OST vs how it sounds in the game. Also way more effort to get to that part of the game, whereas you're almost guaranteed (are guaranteed?) to see this scene.
5. Atelier Ayesha: MARIA
Quite possibly the best final boss theme of the PS3 generation. My aim is to make this the most obscure item on the list, although I can't make any promises.
6. Trails of Cold Steel: To Grasp Tomorrow
Final dungeon theme is oddly the only track to really jump out and grab me between the two Cold Steel games. Could just be that Falcom doesn't paunch quite as hard in Trails games.
7. Radiant Historia: The Red Locus
I'd be remiss without some sort of RH on here, and this one feels like it's held up the best.
8. Bravely Default: He of the Name
I've yet to see a version of this title that doesn't sound like literally translated garbage, but the song itself is real good.
9. Ace Attorney- Dual Destinies: Pursuit ~ Keep Pressing On
I think this might be my favorite Pursuit variation. Could be influenced by considering PW5 probably the best one of course.
10. Disgaea D2- Cradle Over
Probably the best thing about Disgaea D2, but... yeah. It's a perfect little earworm song for me.
11. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep- Aqua
Can't be CK without some Kingdom Hearts, and Aqua's theme is probably the best KH within the years I'm looking at.
12. Fire Emblem Awakening- Id -Purpose-
FE music usually doesn't stick with me, but here we are.
13. Persona 4 Arena- Heartful Cry -in Mayonaka Arena-
I dunno, this works for me. Sorry, not a whole lot to say about it.
14. Final Fantasy XIII- Blinded by Light
Y'know what, seem to recall this missed the cutoff, let's roll with it.
15. Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Crazy Chocobo
We'll call this the Eternity nom.
-
Top 15
Phantasmal Blaze - from Sen no Kiseki II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJhL-QZfZ9M
Unen Hidou - from Atelier Shallie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUhAKVY2DMg
Einherjar Rubedo - from Dies Irae -Acta Est Fabula-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJkUFgk4Sqg&t
Methuselah - from Dies Irae -Interview of Kaziklu Bey-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJkUFgk4Sqg&t
Magatsu Chisomebara - from Kajiri Kamui Kagura
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm15773525
YEHOSHUA - from Soushu Senshinkangakuen Hachimyoujin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVZI5ECzmYw&t
HAKAISHIN - from Blazblue Central Fiction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgCo7TA8lGk&t
YOMOTSUHIRASAKA - from Blazblue Central Fiction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg56Bsg4r0A
Restraint - from Malicious Rebirth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrbaqZHCA9Q&t
Abandoned City - Convergence of Wisdom - from Malicious Fallen
Cannot find on line, but I can provide the track
Crystal of Abyss - from Raiden 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtgoBgllvrQ
Unknown Pollution - from Raiden 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX3vEQ-KQvs
Distorted Happiness - from Caligula
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXTMp2CderA
CLASS::EXSPHERE_NOSURGE - from Ar no Surge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BywGBJDXQ0c
Twin Dimension Battle - from Legend of Legacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuZMZQyDrvA
---Aftre top 15
City of Phantasm - from Legend of Legacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x-EM4-cYx8
Boss Battle 6 - from Soul Trigger
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm19147463 (starting from 14:10)
Moon Knights - from SRW Moon Dwellers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt7KZdYgKIY
QuelI-＞EX[cez]-＞{kranz} - from Ciel no Surge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47r2VvjwWDE
CLASS::EXPAJA - from Ar no Surge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKCmAnIPKA0
yal fii ne noh iar； - from Ar no Surge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2WpyLtB0Ps
Phaleg Ives Final Battle - from Phantasy Star 2
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm31189353
New World Order - from Granblue Fantasy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKcXCvjcDBU
Sandolphan - from Grandblue Fantasy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXhO3X5R37w
Harukana Tabimichi, Amakakeru Sensen - from Granblue Fantasy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Ch5X_miHs
Invidia - from FF15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5NCWJor0LY
Wanderlust - from FF115
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePq0QzG6hjM
Valse di Fantastica - from FF15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpiEHxgLN-E
RESURRECTION - from Masoukishin F -Coffin of the End-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7CHzWaQAyM
Pincer Space - from Masoukishin F -Coffin of the End-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7CHzWaQAyM
Scias - from Y's Seven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZwLYYJH23A
Oral Tradition - from Y's Seven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVRdAhxqKAE
Ancient City - from FF14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIaP-50bqKI&t=9s
Woe that is Madness - from FF14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0JO_8Bo00Y
Thunder Rolls - from FF14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDG1rIz1S7k
Equilibrium - from FF14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMyHdX-06lI
-
1. Berserk PS2 - Sign - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf0EY3p3heY
2. Atelier Ayesha - Guidance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6uzZMNXMEY
3. Atelier Shallie - Scorpio - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ9nxCy8e6c
4. Atelier Shallie - Rusty Sky OP ver - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrSxGyWE02o&list=PLZXn6gckEbBxWXj4MZhCzB1pwtIudKmK3
5. Ar Tonelico 3 - Exec_Flip_Arphage - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFdRhJpUKt0
6. .hack//GU Vol 1 - Gentle Hands -English- - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1hJJsayICI
7. Wild Arms XF - Intrude Upon Happiness, Plunder the Future - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wrjp5Pu_q0
8. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Leo's Place - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fof2Zm71K9s
9. Suikogaiden - Currents - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1AoH6OlEuM
10. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga - Danger - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5U93eyig8w
11. Wild Arms - Boomerang Flash - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCXN4cqW6d0
12. Wild Arms: Alter Code F - Murdering Princess - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE7PwR4ER3o
13. Dark Souls - Moonlight Butterfly/Dark Sun Gwyndolin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA-bGE6ZFAk
14. Enchanted Arms - Sayaka Battle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9-Dum8bKNg&t
15. .hack//Link - Carl's Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm_DgypwkZc
-
Still maybe unfinished but got all the links in and a few additions.
Mainstream
1. Persona Q - Footsteps of Time - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqCxONuUK3s
Persona dungeon crawling music, but with a more mainline SMT vibe. Is it safe to call this prog rock? I don't even know what it is, but it's good. Captures the feel of a slick, slightly creepy but not really scary environment.
2. Shovel Knight - Strike the Earth! (Plains of Passage) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqAYMZSOQao
A whole lot of indie retro platformers try to do the whole "recapture the sheer joy of playing a fun video game" thing. Shovel Knight might do it best, and this song exemplifies the theme.
--- Fromsoft Zone ---
3. Dark Souls - Gwyn, Lord of Cinder - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB6sOhQan9Y
If you traveled back in time and told the DL that Motoi Sakuraba would compose a soundtrack for a difficult swords and sorcery action RPG, would anyone expect the final boss battle theme to be THIS? Likewise, people who have only heard about the game secondhand may be surprised at how strong its atmophere is. It's explicitly inspired by and patterened after Icelandic saga, with a sense of earnestness its imitators lack. Nowhere does that shine through more clearly than here. No bombast, no great fanfare, just a one on one with a hero's echo, to extinguish the flickering embers of an age. The best final boss theme in gaming, for my taste.
4. Dark Souls - Nameless Song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvvFnR0kJFw
Companion to the above, played after killing Gwyn, while the end credits scroll over a black screen. Emi Evans on vocals, the very same from NieR/Drakengard 3/NieR Automata's soundtracks. Supremely emotive. I can't listen to it without tearing up.
5. Dark Souls 2 - Majula - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O39qOA60Hm4
The hub area, a vaguely unreal place where ghosts and scholars gather. Captures a bit of a home base feel that DS1's Firelink Shrine lacked, and helps sell the theme of DS2 as being a little more obviously "this place is magic and the areas aren't actually connected."
6. Bloodborne - Hail the Nightmare - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlQcKBUcgmA
Some ways into Bloodborne, after a certain boss, the game starts spawning extremely high-statted enemies that look like trash mob rag men in areas that only held trash mobs before. The player is all but guaranteed to be caught off guard and "die" to one of them... and when you do, you don't actually die, you get dragged off in a cutscene and wake up in a cell in a new, otherwise inaccessible, and extremely creepy area. It looks vaguely like the busy town you've been running around in, but there are no mundane houses or structures. All the architechture goes in twisting nonsense directions, and every building is some sort of jail or cathedral or empty edifice of unknown purpose. The entire area is almost completely deserted, no enemies except for a light scattering of the rag men, a couple of enemy hunters, and a few wild animals. And this track, playing on loop the entire time you're there. The best possible use of Ominous Latin Chanting.
7. Bloodborne - Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rdt5XNvPkc
Gotta have a clock tower boss in a Castlevania game, right? That's her in the picture there. Not pictured: her flipping around the room, dual wielding katanas set on fire with her own blood. Completely indulgent. AWesome.
--- Supergiant Zone ---
3. Bastion - Setting Sail, Coming Home - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDflVhOpS4E
Bastion's one of those games where every song deserves a nom. This is the ending, a medley of the two main vocal character themes.
4. Bastion - The Mancer's Dilemma - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HHqdLrTBwQ
Let's say, hypothetically speaking, you're a scientist in a slightly magical steampunk-western-frontier setting, and someone asks you to maybe build some sort of magitek nuke. For reasons. Just in case we need it...
10. Transistor - We All Become - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9O2Rjn1azc
The main theme played in all the trailers and used as a riff all throughout the game. Self explanatory.
11. Transistor - The Spine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41tIUr_ex3g
I guess "Weird boss themes that don't sound like they should be boss themes" is a theme of these noms. It is literally a gigantic technorganic spinal cord jammed into a city, you climb it and it tries to stab you and such while the song reinforces the cyberpunk sexual worldbuilding metaphors. Transistor is a weird game.
--- Yoko Taro Zone ---
12. NieR - The Wretched Automatons - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj4V7V-ALGc
This area is kind of tangential in NieR itself, except that it sets up all the basic plot for Automata about robots slowly making their own civilizations in the ruins of humanity. I think I don't need to say much about the music quality in this series.
13. NieR - Kainé/Salvation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dxcNHCFkf8
Everybody ride the chimera-go-round!
14. Drakengard 3 - This Silence is Mine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGbja6xxM2w
End credits.
15. NieR Automata - Wretched Weaponry (medium/dynamic) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMTEfT9NatM
This plays in a few places, but most prominently as a callback in spots evoking or linking to NieR 1 and The Wretched Automatons.
16. NieR Automata - Possessed by Disease (machine vocals) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xT-h8cEZbM
My personal favorite track, played for a mostly plotless boss but really for the climax of 2B's character arc and a lot of other thematic elements.
17. NieR Automata - Memories of Dust - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnFX6GuiBSM
Desert area, and stuff. No particular context, just a great song.
18. NieR Automata - End of the Unknown - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGkWhPBxzMs
And now for something completely different, in which Keiichi Okabe deliberately breaks out of the NieR house style and goes back to his Tekken roots. One of the game's major themes is "hey, these people you're in conflict with are actual people, other points of view exist." Great song for conveying that while you (get) beat up (by) certain antagonists.
19. Drakengard - Thirteenth Chapter (Closing) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgr5iW73UJg
In which the gargantuan salt statue of a blasphemous goddess descends from beyond reality and sings the song that will end the world. Come on, you know you love it.
--- End Yoko Taro Zone ---
20. Melty Blood Actress Again - Kara no Kyoukai - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtXBNGrkZLk
Cheating in Yuki Kajiura anime music, awwwwwwww yeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh. It plays in a game. Ryougi is the most stylish flippy anime fighter in a game full of stylish flippy anime knife fighters. You want to play her just because it's Ryougi. Go watch the Kara no Kyoukai movies. Link is an extension because the song was exclusive to the PS2 version due to licensing issues.
21. Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Brennenburg Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-clO2UE4vgw
The big "you are alone in a giant spooky castle (except when you aren't alone, which is maybe worse)" theme. It's saved for a ways into the game, when the player is past their initial disorientation and really starting to soak in the setting. Pure genre, but very effective - there's a reason this title gets called one of the best and most atmospheric horror games ever.
22. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Collective Consciousness - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYnDsr8z4iU
I could also nom Rules of Nature and It Has To Be This Way, but ehhn, full dubstep is better and something people might've been exposed to less. Also this song only gets more and more topical with every day that passes. The only thing that doesn't ring true is that the real Republican Party could never come up with anyone half as charismatic or competent as the fictional Senator Armstrong.
23. Undertale - Another Medium - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLsuam9o9BA
Amazing area theme.
24. Undertale - Bergentrückung/ASGORE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfgmMPke7_k
Amazing dramatic theme.
25. Sid Meier's Civilization IV - Baba Yetu - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJiHDmyhE1A
No one put this in yet?!
26. FTL: Faster Than Light - Mantis (Explore) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKfjuBgUtwY
Stellar track. The Mantis are the galaxy's hyperaggressive slicey melee warrior race, but composer Ben Prunty knows better than to focus on that. There's a lot of space in space.
27. FTL: Faster Than Light - Lanius (Battle) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG6Ys2opFD0
Revisiting a more upbeat piece from the Advanced Edition update. Every track in the game has two versions, "explore" for when you aren't in combat, and "battle" for when you are, seamlessly transitioning when an enemy appears on sensors or ceases to be a threat. Lanius ships are the actual most dangerous things in the game, if encountered late, so hearing this sector theme shift to the battle version is... intimidating.
28. Hotline Miami - Miami Disco - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5zTNr11kk8
Also shamelessly getting Perturbator in here. Hotline Miami is about... well, mainly this aesthetic.
29. Risk of Rain - Coalescence - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysPtBjY8o_A
Maybe not DL popular, but generally popular enough I'mma put it on main list instead of obscure list. Action roguelike, minimalist story, you're a crewmember on a cargo ship carrying assorted goods, it crashes on a strange planet full of neat environments and aliens who seem to have it out for you. This here's the music for the final stage, in which there's a nice sunset out as you finally make it back to the ship and fight to retake it and get off this rock. Oh yeah, there's some tough looking guy up in the bridge, he's acting like you're the bad guy here, but he's the asshole who teleported in and blew a hole in the cargo bays to begin with, so who cares what he thinks?
30. Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Layton's Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFBKHSitIjo
Fairly self explanatory. Edutainment games continue to have the best music. Technically pre-2010 but I don't think anyone tossed it in back then.
31. Touhou Shinkirou ~ Hopeless Masquerade - The Lost Emotion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZOnG5vAj60
As if we're really getting off this train with no Touhou. Final boss theme from one of the newer fighters, in which a collection of masks tries to find the lost emotion of hope. Sparking a three or four way religious war and turning the human town into zombies were just incidental. You know how it goes.
32. Dangan Ronpa - DANGANRONPA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeitvjG-dgI
Title screen theme. Lets you know what you're in for? Kinda. But it's good.
33. Doom 2016/Doom 4 - BFG Division - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHRuTYtSbJQ
Sometimes dreams do come true and stupid series reboots are actually really good games. With great music. Context should be self explanatory.
Niche Stuff Nobody In This Crowd's Played (But It's Good!)
1. 100% Orange Juice - Sweet Breaker's Theme (Dear Dragon) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5_D6LKF45Q
100% OJ is one of the world's most serious esports, perhaps best described as "Mario Party, but with chibis and mini RPG battles and stats instead of minigames." The part where there's a lot of RNG, but just enough strategy to be engaging, and the part where it ruins lives and turns people into pillars of solid salt? Those are the same. Anyway, whenever a character levels up, the music switches to their theme. Sweet Breaker's theme has nothing whatsoever to do with her personality or playstyle, it's just super fun and crazy. Hype ;evels off the charts when the piano starts running wild.
2. Sora - Le Train - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdXOYSAWJnc
The Suguri/Sora series are extremely fast paced bullet hell shooters that are WAY better than they have any right to be, but usually overlooked because their insane pace, mechanics and visual confusion make them impenetrable to onlookers, even those used to other shmups. Music's a big part of that "way better" thing though, some killer electronic stuff. This is I think the most popular track? Engrish singing, always a fun time. Context, uhhhh... there's an anime war, everyone knows they're gonna die but hopes and dreams of a better world etc etc.
3. We Know The Devil - Incense (Smoke & Honey) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb83zpkAIg8
If you don't know what "industrial" and "harsh wall noise" mean, maybe be careful about clicking this. I doubt (m)any other people are going to find this to their taste, but eh if I'm repping the game at all I might as well go all in on the most effective track, right? WKTD is in a close tossup with Undertale for best and most important game of 2015. It is about... well, read the page: https://datenighto.com/game/we-know-the-devil
This track plays when the incense is burned and the devil is known.
4. Mahoutsukai no Yoru (Witch on the Holy Night) - Five - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFZyw6mr2Zs
Before Kinoko Nasu turned to the dark side of mobage, he did actually finish one of his long-outstanding VN projects and give us Aoko's backstory. If you don't know what I just said, don't worry about it. Main character achieves her anime powerup mode and unlocks unstoppable bullshit magic lasers, that's all you need to know. It's really cool.
5. Hanakisou - Kenkyuusha (Researcher) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWQ3LcqgpIQ
This is apparently a yaoi game, with some sort of magic-science plot excuse for dramatic fated tragedy. I haven't personally played it, just listened to it and nodded and said "Yes. Akiko Shikata. Yes." Maybe I'm nominating this just because of that. Maybe because someone else played it and asked me to nom it for them because they didn't want to let the DL know they played the game. Regardless, real good song!
6. Alien Vendetta (Doom 2 custom levelset) - Misri Halek (Fight the Logic if You Can) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eJloUHWkB8
Gotta give it up for the old school MIDI crowd. A song doesn't have to be super orchestrated and hi-fi to be sweet. The specific level this was composed for is a sprawling Egyptian pyramid complex, quite famous in Doom and general FPS level design circles for how well crafted it is for its time.
7. Dustforce - Baryogenesis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqJHi7gRTK8
Maybe some people have at least seen this game. It's a masocore precision platformer, with a very high difficulty even for that genre, but a very chillaxed aesthetic about being a group of super ninja janitors. No real story or anything. This plays in later levels.
8. Qbqbqb - Armen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVtZnpk8lbQ
This is not even Qbqbqb the game in the video, I couldn't find much in the way of links. That's okay though. The game in the video is Soundodger and it makes equivalent use of the song. Qbqbqb itself is a spherical playing field piece drop color matching puzzle game, kind of like a mutant child of Tetris, Super Hexagon and Audiosurf. Totally abstract though. Just good music.
9. Our Darker Purpose - Time With Your Caring Friends - https://natefenwicksmith.bandcamp.com/track/time-with-your-caring-friends
ODP is an action roguelike similar to The Binding of Isaac, but with a heavier focus on combat, story and a strong kid-gothic creepy school atmosphere. This plays in the final set of floors, completely dark libraries populated no longer by rival students, but by the Administrators and the Caring Friends (creepy demon things.) Anyway they got a film composer to do the soundtrack and it owns.
10. VA-11 HALL-A - Every Day is Night - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jnD6dF0u_s
Another extremely excellent game, VA-11 is a cyberpunk bartending simulator. Which means, it's a visual novel with a small life sim element and a drink making minigame; there are no explicit dialogue choices, but you can affect conversations by serving patrons different drinks, sizes of drink, or amounts of alcohol. Emphasis is mostly on enjoying the slice of life cyberpunk setting, colorful characters and well crafted aesthetics, though. I mention all this not just to hype the game, but because the sound design in VA-11 is also unconventional: other than a few touchstone pieces between workdays, the player themselves sets the entire soundtrack. There's a library of some fifty or sixty ish tracks, and at the start of every work shift you set up the bar's jokebox with about ten of them to play in the background of that shift's conversations. Of course, you have free access to change the songs at any time, but most players won't unless something really inappropriate to the current scene comes on. Having to set it every day encourages keeping your favorites on the list and swapping out others to eventually hear everything. It all feels very natural, like you'd treat a real jukebox, and this sort of organic design is the game's real strength. As for the songs themselves, they all fit the cyberpunk MSX aesthetic, but also sound distinct and cover a wide variety of styles. This is probably my favorite, a nice rolling "nod your head and get in a good groove" kinda deal that fits almost any scene.
11. VA-11 HALL-A - Synthestitch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzTvc8yFX40
And another quite different track. You might not think this would work nearly as well for bartending, but it's surprisingly effective.
12. Knytt Underground - Ljus - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bQx06TLtuI
Another amazing atmospheric exploration platformer, and another game where it's hard to pick out a single standout track, because all the music is so atmospheric and blends well together. Ljus will do, I suppose. Originally an abstract rose garden in Within a Deep Forest, Ljus in Knytt Underground has been remodeled into a mental health and counseling center for assorted fey and undercreatures. It contains some of the trickier puzzles in the game, but counteracts the frustration with a calm, soothing atmosphere and some poignant conversations... and this music.
13. Rule of Rose - The Attic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqiuG5ixVKE
Pre-2010 and certainly obscure, but dang, I finally got around to experiencing this game and it is great. Impossible to explain in a few sentences though. Silent Hill + Secret of Evermore + Lord of the Flies in a blender? You don't really need context for this though, it's more like the music establishes the context for the game.
14. I Wanna Kill The Kamilia 3 - Next Stage (Influka) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ6qZudoWPc
I Wanna Be the Guy fangames get ultra sadistic, maybe you've seen some of them, maybe not. They tend to come in a few flavors: barebones spike jumping platforming, "avoidance" bullet hell boss fights usually choreographed to vocaloid or similar songs, or full adventure games similar to the original IWBTG. The Kamilia series are all three, sort of a masterpiece collection of rooms from other fangames tied together into a full game with more polish and production value than the originals. They're also brutally difficult even for the genre. Yes, a level above Dustforce. Yes, I know about Yotta. Anyway, this is kind of cheating and sneaking in a vocaloid song, but watch the video and tell me that isn't spectacular use.
15. I Wanna Kill The Kamilia 3 - Common World Domination (Doruppi) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ11-Lkq6-I
Same deal as above. THIS one I'm just putting in because I love the base song.
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For the record, as much as I love Gilvasunner, he made searching for these vids very difficult.
1. Suikoden - Island Fortress - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bJ8eeJsajo
2. Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru - The Prince's Adventure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5lL9_jGX78
3. Chrono Cross - Gale - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuG4Mst-DS8 Kappa
4. Dragon Quest III - Adventure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9Vhk9_Jlzg
5. Super Mario World - Castle Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPqxXdzcNL0
6. Kirby's Dream Land - Bubbly Clouds - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em1Ux35lxLc
7. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Song of Healing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDX4ZwUeOok
8. Demon's Souls - Tower Knight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIW7Ho4xMa4
9. Super Mario RPG - The Road is Full of Dangers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RufrkrK37Kg
10. Metroid Fusion - Serris X Boss Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jVPwHqXz8A
11. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - Yoshi's Island (World 6) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCnRzWKPYg8
12. Super Smash Bros - Super Smash Bros OST - Pop Land Stage - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5TINBUsnp0
13. Super Mario Kart - Donut Plains - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB3QinXuaXI
14. True Love - Ending Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ-7p0mPz6w
15. Super Smash Bros Melee - Menu 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD33HjaO4iA
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1: Dark Souls: Ornstein and Smough (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgpYfCnLhAo)
2: Dark Souls 2: Old Dragonslayer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFrcmJQencc)
3: Dark Souls 3: Dragonslayer Armor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8KUwhYfotU)
I'll present my boy Ornstein so someone else better be getting some DS nods in!
4: Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War: Zero (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlSLCnbXMIE)
5: Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies: Megalith -Agnus Dei- (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ6ABV_Q9qU)
6: Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation: Liberation of Gracemaria (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhdNjzX4waA)
7: Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War: The Unsung War (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Qkzj5bStU)
8: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon: Gotta Stay Fly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVx1kq0B38U)
Get some Ace Combat in here with the capstone tracks. Gotta Stay Fly added for hilarity.
9: Tales of Xillia 2: If It's For You ~Song 4 u~ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU4qT3yEPhc)
One of the only things redeeming about the garbage fire.
10: Drakengard 3:The Upcoming Battle / Armaros (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvN5XKrcBtU)
My favorite Intoner theme.
11: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King: Bronze Jam (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3jSY5fIeDA)
Yes.
12: Heroes of the Storm: Dva Music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMwMGtk_0ug)
I like it.
13: Halo Wars Insignificantia (All Sloppy-No Joe) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aOWSHpV9-g)
Even if it's a nice tune, this is really here because the name is amazing.
14: Vanguard Bandits: Dingdingding (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdeZ03xo_IY)
15: Vanguard Bandits: Passion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaEusYcPNdM)
I'll show you obscura!
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10: Drakengard 3:The Upcoming Battle / Armaros (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvN5XKrcBtU)
That's how they translate the Intoner songs?
Guess they are translating without understanding again.
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Since I am doing it by hand though, I'll likely be selecting against obscura as best I can
Ok this personally kills any of my interest. This is a flat rejection of anything outside of the safe comfort zone bubbles of mainstream and flavors of the month that are the Accepted Talking Points everyone around the proverbial campfire circle nods and agrees are tested by committee to be Good. I question the intent of any music tournament that takes an actively hostile stance towards discovery.
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Since I am doing it by hand though, I'll likely be selecting against obscura as best I can
Ok this personally kills any of my interest. This is a flat rejection of anything outside of the safe comfort zone bubbles of mainstream and flavors of the month that are the Accepted Talking Points everyone around the proverbial campfire circle nods and agrees are tested by committee to be Good. I question the intent of any music tournament that takes an actively hostile stance towards discovery.
I actually missed that (since I've nommmed for these before and just submitted stuff I wanted to see in), but I agree with Tonfa here. Last tournament I remember voting in I heard a lot of new stuff that I really liked (TEA TIME MOTHERFUCKA). I understand some of the concept of avoiding obscure - you arguably lose some of the awesomeness without some context, which can be hard to convey with just a song link (I had that come up for one of my noms from Baten Kaitos in the last tournament, and it probably made the difference in it advancing to the next round). Having said that, others can elaborate on it, and I think selecting against obscura isn't a good standard for this tournament. So I'd recommend just randomizing the pools once you hit the requisite number of songs, and let it fall as it falls.
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I very much disagree with OK and Tonfa here. If your goal is to discover new music, then a simple "let's share cool obscure music!" thread will suffice. (Heck, this one works! Nothing stops you from cilcking on and enjoying all the tracks Alex linked.) In a contest, though, you want people to be able to meaningfully discuss and compare the pieces of music that are "against" each other. And discussion becomes much more meaningful if people are more familiar with the context.
Game music is trying to accomplish something besides being a good piece of music in a vacuum; it's trying to be appropriate for the context it plays in, develop certain emotions in the player, etc. For this reason it needs context to be properly judged. (Incidentally, I'm really digging the people who provide context for things I haven't seen and I hope that continues.) If you reject this view then you might as well have a general music contest rather than a game music contest.
Also in case you guys aren't in chat and aren't aware there are quite a few of us who mentioned losing interest in these contests because we felt they had trended towards too obscure.
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10: Drakengard 3:The Upcoming Battle / Armaros (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvN5XKrcBtU)
That's how they translate the Intoner songs?
Guess they are translating without understanding again.
I've actually seen a bunch of different names for the Titles so I have no idea which is the actually correct one that's just what came up for the song I wanted.
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I very much disagree with OK and Tonfa here. If your goal is to discover new music, then a simple "let's share cool obscure music!" thread will suffice. (Heck, this one works! Nothing stops you from cilcking on and enjoying all the tracks Alex linked.) In a contest, though, you want people to be able to meaningfully discuss and compare the pieces of music that are "against" each other. And discussion becomes much more meaningful if people are more familiar with the context.
Game music is trying to accomplish something besides being a good piece of music in a vacuum; it's trying to be appropriate for the context it plays in, develop certain emotions in the player, etc. For this reason it needs context to be properly judged. (Incidentally, I'm really digging the people who provide context for things I haven't seen and I hope that continues.) If you reject this view then you might as well have a general music contest rather than a game music contest.
Also in case you guys aren't in chat and aren't aware there are quite a few of us who mentioned losing interest in these contests because we felt they had trended towards too obscure.
While I agree with Tonfa's sentiment, I don't disagree with this. The last music tournament I remember (OST vs. OST) was a bit different than the way I interpreted the purpose of this tournament to be, however, hence why I think Tonfa's point is relevant and where my opinion falls. I was under the impression that this tournament was NOT like that OST one, or one where we were comparing pieces of music in terms of fit. I agree with your comments on video game music as a genre whole-heartedly. The OST vs. OST contest specifically stated that we were to think about the fit of the whole soundtrack when nomming the 2 songs to represent it - this topic didn't state that, so I was under the impression it was (and still am under the impression that it is) a straight up song vs. song contest ignoring the other details. Hence why I provided no context or thoughts for songs in this topic so far. If Cmdr can clarify the intent, that would help a lot.
I think both schools of thought are valid; my interpretation of this tournament, however, is that it's less focused on the "fit" of the song, and more of the song vs. song taken by itself.
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The cheery kumbayah compromise is that you can nominate obscura... which frankly consists of most stuff posted anyway... IF you explain the context for the uncultured masses. (Sometimes this will be easy, just say "boss battle theme" or the like, of course.) Otherwise no guarantees.
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Yeah Tonfa said what I was trying to say more politely at the start of the thread (and also as a response to that day in chat, which, if we're going there, was only a couple of people saying they disliked obscura, not "quite a few." I do not agree that view is shared by anywhere near a majority.) I lost interest in the past contests (and the main DL itself) because it trended towards too groupthinky and not enough willingness to vote on or discover things.
Giving context isn't hard, people should do it. Evaluating songs by themselves and voting on stuff you haven't personally heard in game isn't too hard either though. "Don't nom things outside of the tiny list of games most people have played ;_; or if you do don't expect them to win" is a really lame way to be. Please don't do that.
#freeobscura
#expandyourtastes
#livealittle
Speaking of. That makes me feel like posting more good obscura.
--- The Bone Zone ---
16. Sengoku Rance - Mars - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yff0LH-iGE0
This is a turn based factional SRPG - think somewhere between Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, and Dominions - set in Sengoku era Japan, except all the famous historical generals are genderswapped, and Rance, the protagonist, ah... shall we say... gets down with them after winning. 18+ players only please. That side of the content is fairly infamous for... reasons, but who cares, this track has nothing to do with that. This is the track for fighting the Takeda clan, generally strong lategame foes who cause a lot of resets to the unprepared. I have been reinforced that this is Kenshin Uesugi's theme! I haven't even played this, it's another proxy nom, but see how easy it is to find basic context with even the smallest bit of effort?
17. Kurovadis - Factory - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMXe3kVgmn8
Another proxy nom, though this time I actually have played the game in question myself. It's a sci-fi metroidvania, you walljump around and shoot stuff and find powerups to explore more. Also 18+ due to art and animations. Pretty good game though, graphics, gameplay and music all have strong production values. This is, shockingly, the music for the factory area. Crushers, switch puzzles, conveyor belts, you know how it goes.
--- VN Power Hour ---
18. Steins;Gate - Gate of Steiner - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVQj-yv91m4
Really good game (and anime) kind of like a reverse Terminator series with less action and more science. A few decades in the future, a time machine that can send weak electronic signals (short emails or text messages) into the past is invented. A covert time war ensues between the totalitarian dystopia of the future and the resistance leaders, who, in the present, are a motley group of deadbeat college students. This is the "main theme" that plays rarely, when some particularly big event or emotional revelation happens. Great track, highly remixable.
19. Air - Tori no Uta - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtJnix-9niI
One of Key's breakout successes, mainly because of this smash hit opening song. Another case where the song sets the mood and context for the game, rather than the reverse. The game itself is a hot mess ("and now, we replay all 20 hours of part 1, except this time the protagonist has magically become a crow instead of a human") but the aesthetics do a good job of selling the whole "summer, pretty birds, flying, wishes and stuff" mood.
20. Umineko - Dreamenddischarger - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDPJuAxZaOo
Umineko is... uh... a thing. VERY loosely put, it's a meta-mystery about a rich family's reunion at their island estate, which turns into a murder mystery thriller. The series uses multiple perspectives and alternate retellings to present both mundane detective fiction explanations and wild magical fantasy possibilities, and challenge the reader to figure out what really happened and whether witches and magic exist. I don't actually like Umineko's writing at all, but it has pretty dang good music. This track is from the climax of part 4, a faceoff between Battler (main man and advocate of mundane solutions) and Beatrice (the legendary witch who attempts to force Battler to admit magic exists.)
--- Respect Your Roots ---
21. Marathon - Leela - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YdSbP6Z2Us
Didja know Marathon 1 had a soundtrack that was only included with certain releases of the game? This is the theme for Leela, the "nice" one of the trio of AIs on the ship... things don't go too well for her. Well, it's supposed to be her theme, judging from the title, but like all the tracks it plays for some random selection of levels. BUT... the theme might sound very familiar to some people, despite its obscure origin, because Bungie ended up reusing and rearranging it for several songs in the Halo series. Now it's their de facto "friendly AI" musical motif.
22. Rise of the Triad (1994) - Goin' Down the Fast Way - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX_Kb0cDN98
Song speaks for itself. Often imitated, never duplicated.
23. Elf - Forest World - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxBDZfTi7Gk
From downtown, where "downtown" is "the Amiga" we have Elf, very underrated exploration platformer with great tunes. The forest is the first level.
--- Blatant Abuse of Music Games ---
24. Guitar Hero 3 (& Dragonforce) - Through the Fire and the Flames - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4dXQ7CQTxU
So you think you're good at Guitar Hero, and then they hit you with the full seven and a half minutes of this for the end credits. And who doesn't want to do it? It's Dragonforce!
--- This is Your Brain on Puzzle Platformers ---
25. Fez - Continuum - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDr2_VyYUdk
Fez is a cute little game where you solve puzzles by rotating perspectives around the cube of the environment. And by ultra deep dive cryptography bullshit, for the deep secrets where the cube turns out to be a hypercube and things get weird. This is from the more mind twisting parts.
26. Braid - Long Past Gone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFMjWPRlPVw
If you don't know what Braid is, here's a better review than anything I could give: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSXofLK5hFQ
This is from a ways into the game, where a darker tone begins to creep into the lush fantasy setting. Really this isn't obscura but I don't feel like going back and switching categories, this is taking too much time to do already.
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I'm just trying to get some more modernish stuff in my noms, which includes some obscura(hi Lost Dimension) or genres that aren't widely played here(hi WO3). Really it's hard for me to think of stuff that I've played that isn't kinda obscure past the PS2 era here. We all mostly played a bunch of the same stuff from that era and before, but the PS3/4 eras are full of divergent tastes. I'm being a dirty fence sitter here since I'm not super excited about a bunch of noms from Dark Souls/Nier/etc games I haven't played, but I'm also not going to object to them just because I haven't played the games.
Elf: If you want songs you know and recognize, nom them. Encourage the others who share your opinions about less obscura and more stuff you know to do the same!
Alex: Maybe cut your list down to the 15 you care about most as your Official Noms and then have the rest of it below that as "here guys listen to this cool music" links? I'm not offended by obscura(nobody nomming Lost fucking Dimension music gets to be) but the sheer avalanche of it there is making me blanch.
What I'm getting at here with the two above notes is that if everyone who's participating has the same number of actual noms, then the content will actually reflect what the majority cares about. Elf wants no obscura? Fine, he has 15 noms to stack towards the games he prefers, and so does anyone who agrees with him. Alex and Tonfa want all obscura for the sake of sharing stuff? Fine, they have their 15 noms to stack towards the stuff they want to share and so does anyone who agrees with them.
EDIT: howver, I do agree with teh opposition to this statement: "Since I am doing it by hand though, I'll likely be selecting against obscura as best I can". Everyone should have the same number of noms and same weight of getting thier stuff in without bias for or against anyone's preferances.
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I'm not bothered by there being a lot of stuff I don't know (that's part of the attraction). In fact, I expect there to be a lot of stuff I don't know from personal experience, because my playtime has been too restricted to FFXIV/Fromsoft games the last couple years.
"Everyone noms the stuff they like" -> probably likely to lead to the most balanced pool. Because it's not like there is a central DL canon anymore anyway? I think we kind of all found our own specializations after the PS2 era when JRPGs were mostly no longer a thing.
That said, the above is more true if everyone's nomming the same number of tracks. Not that I actually want Alex to stop suggesting crazy things.
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I honestly think that if we're going to keep the DL Tournament alive, we really need to be thinking about expansion and not booting. For the entirety of the tournament, the more stuff that was ranked, the more it motivated me to seek out the random and obscure games on the roster and play them. It was a big part of what made things...
Wait. What are we talking about? Oh, right. Obscura vs Mainstream in MUSIC tournaments...
People have their own criteria for voting that's way more subjective here than the DL ever was. If people want to vote on in-game use and context, that's fine. Some people just vote on the quality of the song regardless too. It might hurt a song's chances of advancing, but it shouldn't really make a difference between it getting in or not.
I wouldn't judge CK too harshly overall? He may be setting a line, but I really don't think he's going to enforce it overly harsh? I mean, if Atelier Ayesha is his line, then 90% of what people have nommed should be fine (and I think Alex knows his 50 noms or so aren't all getting in... unless we set up a solely Alex bracket as a play-in... CAN WE CAN WE CAN WE???)
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I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the sentence immediately before the one Tonfa posted:
I'll most likely be building the bracket to include as many noms as possible, so it's entirely possible I'll have to either cut or extend noms to get even numbers, although... y'know, who knows.
Two points here:
1) I want to include as many noms as possible. Y'know, not cut things.
2) I haven't decided how big the tourney is. If I get 250 unique noms, well by golly it is pretty easy to conjure up 6 more, rather than cut 122 to get back to the nearest factor of two.
At a quick glance, everyone is already pretty much checking everyone else's noms and making almost all noms unique, which with the number of responses so far puts us at something north of 200 noms... and that's assuming I just took Alex's first 15 noms and called it good.
"selecting against obscura" is there for two reasons.
a) If we end just a few noms north of a round number, then sure, I'll probably cut the game that doesn't have an entry on Wikipedia or TV Tropes instead of saying "oops, Gate was the last person to nom, he doesn't get any"
But moreso:
b) to help put everyone on the same page. That is, if everyone kinda goes "well... I love this game, but no one else has played it, maybe I shouldn't do 10 noms from it", I think the whole process will be a bit more enjoyable for everyone. And I mean, the point of anything like this is to generate discussion and funtimes and comparative analysis in form of competition is just a common touchstone for the DL's brainspace, so that's a format to use.
So yeah. There's like 5 noms total I've looked at sideeye so far, and they aren't exactly one person's noms. And I'd still take them before delving into everyone's extra noms. It's fiiiinnneeee, everything's fiiiinnneeee.
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Yeah basically. Like I said all the way back, I just want good songs in and people not feeling sad because such and so great track got left out because they didn't have slots. I don't care whose noms they are, it'd make me happiest if everyone ignored the 15 limit and put forward everything they love enough and think deserves to be in.
I did limit my list to at most 2 per game (except Automata, which is a special case because people are still waiting to play it but have expressed that the music is probably worthy of more than 2 total noms) and am definitely not expecting everything (or even most of it) to get in. But I am also not interested in cutting down to a "top 15" before we're finalizing the bracket and CK comes to whap me on the head. I already did my self selection, this IS the cut list. Someone else wants it down to 15, well, what Soppy said, how about you all listen to them and tell me which you think are the best as a prelim? That is the whole idea here, after all!
I'm done though, ain't got no more songs. Probably. >_> Maybe a couple if I think of them.
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As a quick side note, I edited in some more extensive context notes for my noms above.
I am also totally down for a special before-tourney play-in to help Alex whittle his nom list down to size. See which 15 songs in the Alex bracket survive to the main tourney & all.
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because my playtime has been too restricted to FFXIV/Fromsoft games the last couple years.
Please nom something from Armor Core 4 or 4 Answer, pleeeeeaseeeee.
10: Drakengard 3:The Upcoming Battle / Armaros (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvN5XKrcBtU)
That's how they translate the Intoner songs?
Guess they are translating without understanding again.
I've actually seen a bunch of different names for the Titles so I have no idea which is the actually correct one that's just what came up for the song I wanted.
I took a look around. I can safely tell you this: none of them are correct.
The intoner song names are actually a word play that has no literal meaning. It is just merely mashing the first word from the last line of the Intoner's summoning incantation together, and that's it.
Take Four for example. The last lines of her summonings are theses:
"防御ろ アルマロス" 防御ろ is incorrectly written on purpose as the kanji of defend (防御). When it should really be written as 閉じろ, which means to close.
"おいで ゾフィエル" おいで means come, and the kanji that has the same meaning is 来
And Four's song title is just putting the kanji next too each other and becomes 防来
Naturally, this combination of words has no meaning as it is just two kanji next to each other out of the context.
The only Intoner song name that exempted from this rule is One's 友歌
There are no words in any of One's incantation can be replaced by the kanji 友, which means friend.
But that is because One can omit the summoning incantation of Gabriella because they are friends.
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because my playtime has been too restricted to FFXIV/Fromsoft games the last couple years.
Please nom something from Armor Core 4 or 4 Answer, pleeeeeaseeeee.
It's so weird. PS2 era Armored Core OSTs wouldn't be out of place in a Wipeout game. PS3 era ones are much more like a bridge between the electronica of that and orchestral of DS.
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I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the sentence immediately before the one Tonfa posted:
I'll most likely be building the bracket to include as many noms as possible, so it's entirely possible I'll have to either cut or extend noms to get even numbers, although... y'know, who knows.
Two points here:
1) I want to include as many noms as possible. Y'know, not cut things.
2) I haven't decided how big the tourney is. If I get 250 unique noms, well by golly it is pretty easy to conjure up 6 more, rather than cut 122 to get back to the nearest factor of two.
At a quick glance, everyone is already pretty much checking everyone else's noms and making almost all noms unique, which with the number of responses so far puts us at something north of 200 noms... and that's assuming I just took Alex's first 15 noms and called it good.
"selecting against obscura" is there for two reasons.
a) If we end just a few noms north of a round number, then sure, I'll probably cut the game that doesn't have an entry on Wikipedia or TV Tropes instead of saying "oops, Gate was the last person to nom, he doesn't get any"
But moreso:
b) to help put everyone on the same page. That is, if everyone kinda goes "well... I love this game, but no one else has played it, maybe I shouldn't do 10 noms from it", I think the whole process will be a bit more enjoyable for everyone. And I mean, the point of anything like this is to generate discussion and funtimes and comparative analysis in form of competition is just a common touchstone for the DL's brainspace, so that's a format to use.
So yeah. There's like 5 noms total I've looked at sideeye so far, and they aren't exactly one person's noms. And I'd still take them before delving into everyone's extra noms. It's fiiiinnneeee, everything's fiiiinnneeee.
Okay so, as for point a), why not just give an equal amount of noms to everyone, in the order they were listed? That is fair and how it has been done before.
As far as b) goes, familiarity through a field of pre-known candidates or such making the process "more enjoyable to everyone", well. You saw the discussion in this thread, yes? "Everyone" is a very large misnomer and people in fact find value, interest, fun, points for discussion and conversation in a number of different things here. For some it's reminiscing, for some it's sharing, for some it's discovery. Some draw connections with the song and the moment in the game, others treat it as a standalone or let their own imagination conjure a context for it. To have one of such promoted as the word of god golden standard is offputting and on a personal level doesn't make me want to invest time into researching and finding nominations if there's a distinct possibility I get, say, ~70% of mine in while someone else bats a 100%.
The voting itself is a process that tends toward groupthink and if it turns out the majority is more comfortable with things they have previously heard the "obscura" will fall to the wayside soon enough. If they enjoy a song they haven't heard before it will advance. And so forth. Before committing to this I need to be certain that everyone is on the same playing field to begin with.
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If you're asking for written guarantees of legislated technical fairness, then I'm afraid I can't offer you that. There isn't a program I dump noms into and brackets come out, and this isn't something I have a written procedure for. The process is laborious and impromptu, and the best I can offer is being straightforward with my goals and biases. And as I've said, a lot of what I ultimately do will come down to what the noms look like in the end. Which I don't know yet.
I know I'm not offering much comfort if you're worried about it here, just... I do this shit on the fly, and to a certain extent that fact is the only reason I CAN get anything out the door.
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Lotta stuff got hashed in chat after seeing the above post. Posting to say I'll be happy to take over the technical side if that's a concern. (Challonge.com is a cool website. You can dump noms in and brackets come out!)
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Will toss in a few noms that I like. May not be my personal top 15; I picked out tunes I like that aren't mainstream for the most part. I plan to include links for some of my picks since most are far off the beaten path.
"Love Colored Master Spark" Touhou 8: Imperishable Night (plays during Marisa boss fight)
- The only "automatic" pick of mine because my absolute favorite ficticious character ever.
'Don't Wait Until Night" Haunted Castle (final stage theme) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHgAYzVo-Ag
- I have this weird fascination with tunes that very few people will hear in game (I have only heard it in Youtube videos myself) It's the regular stage theme but the game is also brutal and doesn't allow credit feeding, an anomoly for an arcade game.
"Legendary Beast" Final Fantasy 8
- See above on few hearing it ingame. I suspect everyone here kills off Griever quick with Limits and only hear the first 30 seconds of this since the next form uses a different track.
Dr Wily Patchy's Castle stage 1&2 Megamari https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhz8aMI1SZY
- Popped into my head after seeing Wily stage 1 from Megaman 2 in the noms above. Decided to throw it in as a joke due to Megamari borrowing heavily from Megaman 2's design such as a lack of slide and losing E-tanks on gameover. Even has the wiggling eyebrows. The music holds up well enough as its own thing in a "Mega Man meets bullet hell" game.
Protoman whistle: Mega Man 3 (full version that plays in ending)
It cuts off before the whole thing is played normally. By holding up +A on controller 2 for long enough when the whistle starts though, the song will keep going while Mega Man is frozen in Dr. Light's lab and the whole tune can be heard in-game (unless you're playing something other than the original NES version since I think all the ports disabled the controller 2 tricks).
"Lame" Darius Force/Super Nova (plays in Zone L and M) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXJ48JJW6zU&list=PL09D241B4CA5D4883&index=10
Title is a misnomer. Unless it's talking about the tempo, it's a slow paced piece. A personal favorite. haven't touched the game in years but still find it memorable. Oh yeah, zones L and M are both endgame. The game also strips all weapon upgrades upon death and throws the player back to a checkpoint making it hard to recover. It takes lots of persistence to reach either stage and even more skill to live long enough for it to loop.
i've also heard Taito is really aggressive about taking down uploads of their music on Youtube so there's an above average chance the tune could become unfindable. I guess this nom will become a casualty, worst case.
Act 12: Kidou Senshi Gundam F-91 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrYMbbz79dQ
I don't know anything about the game of origin. Heard it elsewhere and sounded awesome.
"City of Flickering Destruction" Legend 0f Mana (Jumi city theme) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HRzKkD20YM
A sad sounding theme for a race with a story full of misfortune.
"Pride and Honor" Front Mission 4 Plays on Mission 28; defend the EC Assembly
Felt catchy for me in a mostly decent but forgettable soundtrack. (credit to super for title)
"Go, go, go" Lunar SSSC (final battle theme)
I may be wrong on the title since I didn't look up the sound test before typing this. For a fight likely to last a half hour, a theme that doesn't get on the nerves is most welcome and this delivers.
'Departure for Space" Gradius 3 arcade (most outer space pre-stage sections) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezISQchcvlo
The very first tune upon gameplay starting after picking weapon loadout: I find it likeable. Conveys a sense of wonder before dying in stage 2 and the game grinding most players to a pulp.
stage 1 theme; Super Earth Defense Force (SNES version)
Ear worm. The game is rather average.
"Dark Groove" Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Heard it elsewhere and liked it enough to care about its origins. I have no in-game context.
'Menu" Crusader No Remorse/Crusader No Regret (plays on main menu, derp)
It's one of those pieces that gives me a happy tingly feeling and hasn't already been nommed. I think it's listed as "menu.mod" on modarchive.org, at least that's where I'm looking to redownload this after replacing my old PC.
Title Theme, Megamari (also used in final battle) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnx1J2KuPlM
I'm reluctant to do two noms from the same game but well... This one might be more enjoyable without context. A high energy piece for an action game, I find it catchy whenever i cross it. The link includes the prologue ditty that plays when the game starts up.
Extra Stage: the tunes not part of my 15 (even if I don't make it to 15)
'Crystal Labyrinth" Gradius 3 arcade (crystal stage)
I have strange tastes, taking a liking to the song from the stage with one of the most notorious segments in any shmup, ever. This was my phone ringtone for a while.
boss battle - Castlevania Chronicles
Strangely catchy. Don't like it as much so into the reserves it goes. Likely to be cut if I trim my list. There's four versions of this on the disc but I don't think they're different enough to care.
stage 1 - Dragon Spirit (arcade)
Again with the shmup tunes. Picking the arcade version because of better sound quality than the NES port.
Captain America stage - Marvel Super Heroes (arcade)
Capcom does licensed games right. This shows up several times in their games but I like this rendition the best. Also happens to be the first appearance of the theme and of Cap in a fighting game.
Title theme - Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zp13bc--v8
Another "I bet no one's heard this before" pick or if you have, it's because it's the title music for the Rockman No Constancy romhack. Had I thought of it earlier, I might have put it in the main 15 but that's how the cards fall.
"Garden" - Doom PWAD Jenesis: Map 10
Apeing the others nomming tracks from Doom mods. Composed by Stuart Ryan and simple enough to locate on his channel, among other sources. It's an Extra pick so locating this will probably never come up though I can track down a link.
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FM4 track is Pride and Honor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgQ_63EDwH0
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I lost interest in the past contests (and the main DL itself) because it trended towards too groupthinky and not enough willingness to vote on or discover things.
Okay, this annoys me.
The main site was about balancing what the community wanted, what the voters played (big difference there), and making sure that the work got done. Obscure games were a pain in the fucking ass, both for writing and for the drain that they were on voters/interest. We had 70~ games ranked by the end, that is a fuck of a lot to remember (Let alone spend the time and money for). The community on the whole put a lot of effort and time into playing new things and trying new games. Implying otherwise is wrong and insulting to boot. Any comparison between the two doesn't hold up otherwise. It takes a few minutes to listen to a track and this is just for us; playing a RPG takes 20-60 hours.
As far as the music topic goes: I like finding new things in this topic but I'm nomming tracks I like and that are fun in the contest. I nommed more mainstream things to balance things out, as most of the noms look new this time. We'll see where it goes.
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Since the topic keeps coming up, I want to expand on the whole dropped noms possibility.
Apparently there's some confusion on why this would come up? I prefer 1v1 matches, so I'm using brackets. Which means that you have to find a way to get powers of 2 in the final pool. Based on current eyeballing of the topic that means 256 noms. I'm not sure EXACTLY where we are, but a quick count says more than 200 so it'll be close one way or the other in all likelihood.
Upon prodding memory, there's two steps I should write down so I don't forget them later if it comes up:
1. CK noms are the first to go if some need to go.
2. If people can be reached at time pools are being assembled then seeking volunteers (assuming the number of needed drops was small: single digits say) would happen.
Beyond that I'm reluctant to commit to any one approach before seeing the final tallies. While in some scenarios buy-in rounds or similar solutions will work nicely, that depends the specific outcomes. And in the end maintaining timely updates (example: if it takes all day to do the pools and it's getting towards bed time, and the choice is "take the wheel for that last cut" or "wait a week") will win out over perfect fairness and I have to trust my own judgement in those cases. I do want to take steps to minimize this, but not acknowledging the possibility would be dishonest.
I do so many tourneys that "is this obscure" is kinda an intuitive process for me, but to formalize it as much as possible...
1. How many people do I know of off the cuff have played this.
2. Have I heard of it.
3. Or its series/developers
4. How many people do I know are familiar with that series.
And failing everything in terms of personal knowledge...
5. Do the major wikis (TV Tropes is my first source usually) have entries for it, and how robust are they if so.
I've found it pretty accurate and trustworthy on the whole, since I do so much of this stuff, but obviously it might not be super well suited for this format. More than that, and this is something that's come up in discussion trying to piece together what does and doesn't need addressed, I think I'm more worried about flooding particular games. This is something a bit more universally applicable, although I'm not entirely sure how or if it should be done. But I've definitely been mulling it over.
Beyond that there's not a whole lot I can say before I start the process of sitting down to count and record everything.
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Tracks listed in mostly arbitrary order.
Less stressful:
1L: Mysterious People (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXPvQ3xs410) for Suikoden 3
2L: Waterfall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEK4LJdaM3A) for Koudelka
3L: Snowbelle City (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iabhM-i43XI) for Pokémon X & Y
4L: Where The Wind And Feathers Return (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw3e-TGMqY0) for Radiant Historia
5L: Blue Bird Lamentation (2nd) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHsHJn7lH3g) for Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma
6L: Thorn In You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82RtMUQtki4) for Fire Emblem Fates: Whichever
7L: Reporting From The Weather Balloon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDRPgDgw4tM) for Little Inferno
More stressful:
1M: "Boss Battle Theme 2" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrn4gKmMDfY) for Tokyo Mirage Sessions: ♯FE
2M: Battlefield: With Eyes Blazing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIFYT35yguw) for Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends Of The Titan
3M: Depend On Me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5yE0iUS4W4) for Solatorobo: Red The Hunter
4M: Dummy! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3epEVMNJdY) for Undertale
5M: Flock Step (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUBNskNv_KM) for Rhythm Heaven Megamix
6M: Fighting To The End (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcGD8x4BiLg) for Bravely Default: Where The Fairy Flies
7M: Mountain Mania (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiD9i8p_1_M) for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Reserves:
8L: BGM E: Mystery (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeqR8jWFu8M) for Picross 3D: Round 2
8M: Over Boss (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6vysgV_CLY&t=15m39s) for Princess Remedy In A Heap Of Trouble (15:39 through 19:23)
9L: Shifty Boo Mansion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9fnof6a7OI[/url) for Super Mario 3D World
9M: Winged My Steps (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkiA2ty35uA) for Half-Minute Hero: The Second Coming
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So for my list I decided to do things that are new, unrepresented, or God Hand. I didn’t want to limit myself to 15 songs, so I’ve numbered those I’d like to see get in, and the rest are alternates or whatever, or just to listen to.
Risk of Rain
1. Tropic of Cancer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dGpteJyMK8&index=9&list=PLLDf8Bnp1K1Kkk3Kbepm9UamqHjMZlgsb
RoR’s got a great, menacing, idiosyncratic soundtrack, and this here’s my favorite from it. It’s a boss fight typically in the later stages of the game
Hollow Knight
2. City of Tears https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1unm0LS10ao
So Hollow Knight is a metroidvania taking place in a decrepit, failing insect kingdom, and City of Tears is the music that plays when you (finally) reach its capital, about halfway through the game, which by the way you all should totally do because it is a really, really good game you guys, and when it comes out on switch/ps4 you can bet your butt I’ll be harassing all of you to play it. Where was I?
God Hand
3. God Hand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFSen7DRQWU
About which I can add nothing.
DDR SuperNova
4. Xepher - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upvHNBjzeF0
DDR X
5. Switch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjyFrznuHuU
I was thinking a bit about what you even say to the question of how rhythm game music is used in-game, what the context is. What I chose for DDR are the songs that to me are the best suited to the game, that have innate qualities that make them a lot of fun. For DDR, the sweet spot is a rhythm that is fast, loud, energetic, moderately complex, and punchy.
Love Live School Idol Festival
6. Watashitachi wa Mirai no Hana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3hsi-qNV28
I wanted to include more Love Live music, but all the youtube videos of it are awful. Oh well.
Deemo
7. The Witch's Invitation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3FwUCKTFj8
8. Parallel Universe - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpfQ91VgXrY
The Forbidden Codex - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAmgQvCCUoY
Deemo is a rhythm game for phones/tablets. The game is a fantasy setting that stars a young girl who, by some means, has come to live in a lonely world inhabited by her and a mute, humanoid being called Deemo, who plays the piano. As you play the rhythm game, a tree in the world grows, and the mystery of the setting unfolds. The game plays on nostalgia, whimsy, childhood, and a search for meaning. The music and the images that go along with it sometimes give hints as to the plot and setting, as Parallel Universe does, or sometimes tell unrelated stories. The Witch’s Invitation and Forbidden Codex are both part of the ‘Knight Iris’ collection that lays out a tale of tragedy and revenge.
Project Diva F 2nd
Kokoro - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-t_WoGHMgg
9. Break it Break it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWULwSjy1Xw
Project Diva Future Tone
The Snow White Princess Is... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCaqf9WhqOY
10. Step Forward - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKcQ9KwCFTE
T H E B O N E Z O N E (aka Skeleton Orchestra and Lilia aka Gaikotsu Gakudan to Riria) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2tO6wQL7TE
No Logic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ZwTvVYBbI
Denparadigm - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uJXQtp620s
11. Arifureta Sekai Seifuku (Common World Domination) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhrCE15CpC8
Vocaloid music really speaks for itself so I don’t have a lot to say about it. If you’re not familiar, vocaloid games use music culled from the community of mostly amateur composers that create music using the vocaloid sound simulation software, so you get some pretty idiosyncratic stuff (and a lot of dreck also). I encourage you to watch the videos.
Tokyo 7th Sisters
12. Fire and Rose - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvsUnz9nXvo
Bokura wa aozora ni naru - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40TO1E1AT5g
13. Hello...my friend - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4waokl4p0E
Clover x Clover - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfqpTvDxfY0
14. Twilight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bQIX85ECYI
Falling Down - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBusu-bz4h8
Cocoro Magical - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woQ2diwInBU
Tokyo 7th Sisters is a mobile rhythm game (with some pokemon-inspired combat elements as well). The rhythm game component uses only 2 buttons, so unlike other mobile rhythm games the challenge that is lost from having fewer things to think about resurfaces in deeply complex rhythms and tricks. Tonfa would probably hate playing it, but I am fond of that sort of design. As it happens, of the songs I’ve nominated, only Falling Down is from that deep end of difficulty. They’re just a representative sample of music from the game that I particularly like.
Persona 4: Dancing All Night
15. Snowflakes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVvHm7kKEkw
I thought most of the P4DAN Remixes were kinda weak - like, they were good dance remixes but what makes good dance music doesn't make good rhythm game music. But this? this is lovely.
BlazBlue: Chronophantasma
Science Fiction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grF717fy79w
Kokonoe's theme. Builds well. I like it.
Ys VIII: Lacramosa of Dana
Lacramosa of Dana - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-2SAPCGgFw&index=1&list=PLFUKmme134BNIZ2vmerr543NkgxgCmni4
Sunshine Coastline - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8NcbPPB6Yw&list=PLFUKmme134BNIZ2vmerr543NkgxgCmni4&index=5
A-to-Z - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88QD5qniwo4&list=PLFUKmme134BNIZ2vmerr543NkgxgCmni4&index=53
Ok the game's not out yet but just listen to this stuff. So damn good! September 12 for NA, September 15 for EU.
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I hope the top 15 don't need to be ordered... Also I don't remember what's been in before so if any of these have let me know.
1) Reel Rumble - Final Fantasy XV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsDpuDm-qzQ
Intense fishing!!
2) Buried City - Wild Arms 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unE6_4PwZpA
3) Izareya - Atelier Violet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRCWLPg0O4o
4) Last Surprise - Persona 5
5) Evolution Era - Deemo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTvjQNSv5k8
6) Agame yo, Ware wa Shinki - Atelier Escha & Logy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3hXhQYIycM
7) EXEC_METEMPSYCHOSIS/. - Ar tonelico III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPcXWAnhn2I
8) CIEL_N_PROTECTA - Ar no Surge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mObp9qfDDuE
9) Origin - GENETOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTCf62Frf5s
GENETOS is a shmup where you play through the history of shmups. You start out with a ship that can only move in one dimension and fight against space invaders. As you progress, your ship evolves (there are multiple evolution paths), unlocking new features and mechanics, such as bombs and subweapons. The enemies and environments also start to look more modern as you go.
This song is for the first half of the final stage, which goes through phases of evolution of a planet. The first three phases are completely timed and the music reflects that. The fourth stage is not timed (and can take a long time if you don't know what you're doing), so the music will loop until you finish.
10) Penitus - Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx3QPiTcXa4
The music for the last dungeon in the A Realm Reborn 2.0 storyline.
11) Locus - Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cKy5Qk0QMM
Heavensward had a lot of good music, but this was the most "unique" in my opinion. This is played during most of the Alexander raid battles throughout Heavensward.
12) Metal - Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhDvQIqEkuI
Another song from the Alexander raid. This is for the final boss of Gordias (Manipulator) as well as the first half of the final fight of Midas (the second part is Brute Justice which was nominated earlier in this topic).
The goblins are the ones summoning Alexander, and they have a fairly simplistic way of speaking. They use a lot of onomatopoeia and simple compound words. The lyrics do a good job of keeping that style.
13)
New World Order - from Granblue Fantasy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKcXCvjcDBU
14) Just a Coffin and an Automaton - Atelier Ayesha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xnTRq_PC7k
15)
Steins;Gate - Gate of Steiner - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVQj-yv91m4
Really good game (and anime) kind of like a reverse Terminator series with less action and more science. A few decades in the future, a time machine that can send weak electronic signals (short emails or text messages) into the past is invented. A covert time war ensues between the totalitarian dystopia of the future and the resistance leaders, who, in the present, are a motley group of deadbeat college students. This is the "main theme" that plays rarely, when some particularly big event or emotional revelation happens. Great track, highly remixable.
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More Stuff That's Good (Reserves / May Move Up if I Change My Mind)
Beneath this Blue Sky - Atelier Violet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwj2SEcMdFc
Empty Corridor - Atelier Iris 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PigW6UJrPo
Visiting the Ancient Castle - Atelier Iris 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0LH7rTA2TE
GO GO TOTORI - Atelier Totori
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqG2FfNfn1E
Cadena - Atelier Meruru
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laahA764Qjc
Flower Marks - Atelier Ayesha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltrDPd5sIY8
XaaaCi. - Ar tonelico III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGaM07Pc-nI
Class::XIO PROCEED - Ar no Surge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9VIF_CWV2s
始原のビート ～ Pristine Beat - Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPZjh4cKiRM
Cosmos - La soeur de barrage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmWuZlP7NIo
Answer - GENETOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi4v4f-agrw
Nine Point Eight - Deemo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI2TpFZ27BE
Ultima - Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZZDnlAg3Pk
Fiend - Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMciY-HYqQU
Power of the Light - Mugen Souls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNZd4jnRfkg
Harukana Tabimichi, Amakakeru Sensen - from Granblue Fantasy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Ch5X_miHs
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Guys, not just Deemo. Nom something from Cytus too!
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Guys, not just Deemo. Nom something from Cytus too!
I've never gotten that familiar with Cytus music because the game is pretty much unplayable on smartphone. I always smile when I play it because who thought this design where notes reverse directions every measure was a good idea? It's absolutely bonkers. I'd say it's the SaGa of rhythm games, but you can't get a game over no matter what so maybe not. I kinda love it, but I barely ever play it.
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Alrighty!
My goal is to get voting of some sort started by Sunday night (or possibly Monday afternoon). As such, it's time to start the process of collecting, formatting, and arranging the noms.
As such: if you've already submitted noms, please notify me if you are changing them. Posts in thread, board PMs, or via irc are all fine, I just need to know a) what you're removing and b) what you're replacing it with.
If you haven't submitted noms but would like to, they're still open! No real need to worry about that, and if this does come up I'll make a second post letting those folks know they've been counted and need to inform me of changes as well.
PS: Thanks to everyone for taking a lot of the legwork of digging up links out of things!
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Alrighty!
My goal is to get voting of some sort started by Sunday night (or possibly Monday afternoon). As such, it's time to start the process of collecting, formatting, and arranging the noms.
As such: if you've already submitted noms, please notify me if you are changing them. Posts in thread, board PMs, or via irc are all fine, I just need to know a) what you're removing and b) what you're replacing it with.
If you haven't submitted noms but would like to, they're still open! No real need to worry about that, and if this does come up I'll make a second post letting those folks know they've been counted and need to inform me of changes as well.
PS: Thanks to everyone for taking a lot of the legwork of digging up links out of things!
I have made some adjustments here and there before you made this post.
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Well, I'm up to 15 noms and 6 Extra with one known duplication of another person's nom mixed in.
Didn't remove anything but did move Megamari - Title into my 15 picks from the Extra catagory. I suppose that calls for a notification.
Some of my later additions are in the middle of my post because I tried to clump all the obscure stuff next to each other. Sorry.
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Everything's counted, and I'm rolling up the first set of matches now. As such, noms are closed! See y'all soon.