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GAF VOTES: The best game music of all time.

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Page 1 list has been updated again. I've started to move alternates up to the main nominees list if I can narrow them down to 3. Any suggestions as to what other songs should move up from the alternates to the nominees list are welcome, as always. I'll continue working on that later today.

I've listed a few nominees that have no decent Youtube links. I'll take care of them myself later, if need be.

There are no Smash Bros Brawl songs on the nominees list at present. I'm just having a hell of a time narrowing down the entire selection and have placed all of the Brawl suggestions in the alternates list for the moment. I don't really want more than 1 version of the main theme in there, but they're all so different and generally pretty good. =/

I expect the final nominees list to top out at around 900 songs at this rate. The voting process is looking to be a 1-to-5 month project depending on how in-depth I decide to go with it.

EDIT: I'd just like to throw out a :mad: to forum-goer Ranger-X for submitting remixes in his Earthbound list. There's already enough crap to sort out from this series. I don't need to clutter up the list with ineligible pieces on top of that.
 

dog$

Hates quality gaming
Thanks for all the work you've done. Even if the voting process ends up pissing everyone off and only has a fraction of participation it deserves, the thread already is a tremendous resource for people to experience a lot of great music.

Figured I'd toss these in just in case there's room or whatever -

Einhänder - Shudder
Einhänder - Bloody Battle
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune - Stream of Tears
Tempest 2000 - Thermal Resolution
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike - Let's Get It On

(I think the opening and character select songs for 3S is among the strongest in the game but there's already three listed so uh we'll see I guess)
 

Masked Man

I said wow
"Everlasting Love" from the Katamari series is listed with the wrong game. It should be as follows:

We Love Katamari - Everlasting Love

I feel like Pokemon R&S must be lonely being the only Pokemon games with two tracks listed in the OP, so I'll nominate a track for them. The soundtrack is so good!

Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire - Sootopolis City

The link to "Smiles and Tears" from EarthBound is incorrect. Here's the proper link:

EarthBound - Smiles and Tears

For the game itself, I recommend this poignant little number:

EarthBound - Because I Love You

I was torn between two songs for the FFVI soundtrack, but I made up my mind:

Final Fantasy VI - Aria de Mezzo Carattere

You might consider moving up Aeris' Theme and Main Theme (Cloud's Theme) from FFVII into the OP--those are the only other two pieces from that particular OST that have had numerous nominations from various people, i.e. not just me. ;)

Final Fantasy VII - Aeris' Theme
Final Fantasy VII - Main Theme (Cloud's Theme)

In terms of FFVIII, we at least need Eyes on Me in the OP, so we might as well, eh? ;)

Final Fantasy VIII - Eyes On Me

About FFIX: it's commonly mistranslated as "Loss of Me" but the correct title of the song is "Rose of May." (The original Japanese is ローズ*オブ*メイ, or "Roozu obu mei"--a fairly direct transliteration.) For those in the know, this was undoubtedly a literary allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which Ophelia is referred to as the "rose of May," symbolizing youth and beauty. Beatrix fulfills this role in FFIX, and her story is almost as tragic.

Final Fantasy IX - Rose of May

If I may nominate another for the same game (since we haven't reached the quota yet), I recommend this one as well:

Final Fantasy IX - Kuja's Theme (Millennium Version)

We definitely need some Zanarkand love up in here:

Final Fantasy X - To Zanarkand

Other assorted things that should be moved into the first post:

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Hyrule Field
Shadow of the Colossus - Epilogue ~ Those Who Remain (Beautiful.)
Mega Man 2 - Air Man (I think it could replace Flash Man.)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (I just like it better than Song of Storms, but it's a tough call, because both are pretty iconic.)

I guess I'm done... for now.

(I need time to think about more MOTHER 3 and SSBB music since we're allowing for three songs per game.)
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
OP updated for what should be the second to last time. The final song list will consist of 900 tracks. It currently has 907, but that's only because I started filling out the list with whatever was coming to mind and not even bothering to find Youtube links yet. Feel free to keep making suggestions, as I can trim my recent additions down as necessary. (I doubt many other people on this forum are into Korean DDR clones.)

I'm planning to have the voting thread up by no later than Monday evening EST, so if you want to make additions/changes, now's the time to do it.

EDIT: Also, the Halo soundtracks piss me off a bit. A lot of the tracks linked on the first page seem to be combinations of multiple songs from the games, and I think that sort of stuff is likely to affect the voting.
 

KajunW

Member
Sixfortyfive said:
=== REJECTS ===

Each of the following games already have 3 songs in the nominees list. You can still suggest that I replace one of the nominees with another song from this list if you think I fucked up, though.

I would like to see more little changes, but here are some songs that should not be left out, as I think many would count these amongst their favourites.

--Castlevania Symphony of the Night - The Tragic Prince--
There's no way this should be left off the list. Castlevania SOTN has a good overall soundtrack, but this one definitely stands out. Might leave 'Wandering Ghosts' out instead, but I have no strong feelings to which one should go out.

---Chrono Cross - Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World--
It seems quite a few people here have mentioned this track before in previous 'best music' threads, so I am guessing they will be unhappy with this not being on the list. Replace 'Frozen flame' with this song, as it is one of those songs start promisingly but don't quite deliver in the end.

As for Dragon God, I like it, but I would personally not put it there; rather some like 'People imprisoned by time' or 'the girl who stole stars'. But the choice for Dragon God is defensible.

--Chrono Trigger - Corridors of Time--
AKA 'The Kingdom of Zeal', or 'Time Circuits'. Can't leave this off the list, just can't! It fit the game's world so well, and if you were to name one game track with a 'magical feel' to it, this would be it. In my opinion this 'Wind scene' needs to be replaced by this.

Also, why was 'World Revolution' (which I nominated amongst others) not on the backup list? World Revolution has my preference above Magus' theme, although I can see why people prefer the latter.

--Final Fantasy 6 - Ending theme--
The ending theme music all character themes into one great coherent megatrack, and finishes off with a rousing rendition of Setzer's theme. One of the best ending themes of all time. 'Aria' was nice, but it's more a 'nice when you were there' type of song, and it doesn't really hold up that well, thanks to its fake 'voices'. Replace 'Aria' by this song.

Kinda odd that nobody voted for 'The Decisive Battle' in the end...

--Final Fantasy 8 - Ending, Force your Way (Boss), Premonition, The Extreme--
Replace Eyes on Me by one of these four, as it is a little bit too cheesy for its own good.

Thanks for the hard work, Sixfortyfive. Three nominees per game does make a better list.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
All of the constructive criticism has been very much appreciated. No way I'd be able to hack this together otherwise.
 

Ventrue

Member
Sixfortyfive said:
All of the constructive criticism has been very much appreciated. No way I'd be able to hack this together otherwise.

How many tracks will we be able to vote for? One? Three?
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Ventrue said:
How many tracks will we be able to vote for? One? Three?
Here's my current plan:

- The final nominees list will have 900 total songs. This massive list will be broken down into 18 sets of 50 songs each.
- On Monday, I will post a link to a voting page with the list of the first 50 songs. Your task will be to pick (up to) 20 of your favorite tracks from this list and rank them in order from most favorite to least favorite. The interface for this is already complete and is fairly user-friendly. And even then, if picking and ordering 20 songs seems like too much of a hassle for you, you can keep it to 10 or 5 or however many you feel like.
- Your top song will get 20 points. Your 2nd-favorite will receive 19 points, and so on.
- After a week, voting for the first set will stop and I will tally all of the results for that set. Then I'll post a link to a page for the 2nd set, and the process will repeat.
- The 10 best-scoring songs from each of the individual lists advance to a second round. This will consist of 180 songs divided into 4 sets of 45. We'll repeat the process for these sets, resulting in a final list of 40 songs for the final vote.

It would take about 5 months to do it this way, but I don't really mind. I think we need to give everyone enough time to really evaluate each nomination at their own leisure, so spreading single sets of 50 songs across an entire week or so seems ideal. This would also make it fairly easy to maintain, as I'd only really need to tend to the process one day out of the week. The voting script does most of the work for me, and I have the means to check for and remove ballot-stuffers.

One more rule I'm thinking of adding is only allowing one song from each game to advance past the first round. Let's say all 3 of FF7's songs score in the top 10 for its respective set. I'd consider discarding the lower 2 songs and letting #11 and #12 from that set advance in their place. I still want the final list to have a diverse top 40, and letting the Gaffers narrow the selection down this way instead of me handpicking one song from each game myself seems to be a better way to do that.
 

Ventrue

Member
Few people will stay interested for 5 months, meaning that the voting will be fairly spotty. And very few people are going to select more than about 20 tracks total. Why not just do two rounds, the first being to select 20 out of the 900 and the second to vote for the top x many out of that?

Just a suggestion, your thread of course.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Ventrue said:
Few people will stay interested for 5 months, meaning that the voting will be fairly spotty. And very few people are going to select more than about 20 tracks total. Why not just do two rounds, the first being to select 20 out of the 900 and the second to vote for the top x many out of that?

Just a suggestion, your thread of course.
Everyone will just pick the stuff they nominated from games they've already played if they have to sort through a list of 900 tracks. Restricting it to 50 tracks (or so) at a time would increase the odds of voters actually giving some of these other games a listening to, which is one of my goals here.

What I would be willing to do is shorten the time between sets from a full week to 2 or 3 days. I figure I'd run the first set for a full week just to gauge interest and see how it plays out, though.

Ultimately, I'd like this to end up being a routine thread of sorts like the weekly VC/XBLA/etc threads.
 

Cosmozone

Member
I couldn't find much arcade stuff on Youtube. :(
Ordyne - Stage 2
Go to minute 2:27

Gradius II - Farewell
I could only find a longer NES version.

Gradius III - Prelude of Legend
Again, I also could only find a NES version - which is completely different, don't fall for the trap.

Misc. nominees: (how could I forget Chris Hülsbeck - must support my countrymen :) )
Yie Ar Kung Fu (NES) - Main theme
The arcade game has worse music, lol.

Turrican II (Amiga) - Intro
R-Type (Amiga) - Intro
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Dracula's Tears
 

KajunW

Member
I have to agree with Ventrue here; extending the voting process to 5 months will not keep everyone's interest. There may be some hardcore music lovers on GAF, but I'm guessing it's just a select few that will keep up with the process. GAF has different forum-goers, than say, GamingForce Audio. So, while the idea of having a routine thread definitely has its charms, the idea of losing potential voters should weight more in my opinion when deciding on a proper format. For that sake keeping it to one month max -- and even that seems a tad long -- might be worthwhile pursuing.

Breaking down the huge list into smaller chunks may not work. Even 50 tracks might be too much, to listen to at once. People will not want to listen to new material if they are forced to. And even if they will, they will listen to the new material with a less open mindset than they would normally have. Also, many songs require repeated listens in order to appreciate them (which is often the case when people say, 'you need to have played the game in order to appreciate the music'). What you can do however is giving them incentive to do so. Just one example of an idea: give individuals that vote for more different games extra points to allocate to their songs, so that they have a bigger weight in the outcome. I'm sure some people here can come up with brighter alternatives.

Personally speaking, a 'best gaming music' might not be the best vehicle for having a routine thread.I would rather have a routine thread based on periodical voting contests (one or two monthly), with each contest having its own theme, ranging from some obvious 'best Final Fantasy soundtrack' and 'best ending theme' to perhaps some more obscure ones like 'best fire/ice theme' (see Dwelling of Duels), or 'best official remix'. These type of threads periodically pop up anyways, so one voting thread with different themes would be a decent substitution for all of this. Each theme will bring its own people. These people might then be more open to new material, as long as the theme fits into their interests. In terms for broadening people's taste, these threads might be more useful.

In short, I would favour a shorter format, like the one Ventrue proposed. Well, whatever you do, it's nice (and massive) undertaking, and I'll try and keep a close eye on the voting, though I am not sure I would follow it week in, week out, for five months.
 
Sixfortyfive said:
Everyone will just pick the stuff they nominated from games they've already played if they have to sort through a list of 900 tracks. Restricting it to 50 tracks (or so) at a time would increase the odds of voters actually giving some of these other games a listening to, which is one of my goals here.

What I would be willing to do is shorten the time between sets from a full week to 2 or 3 days. I figure I'd run the first set for a full week just to gauge interest and see how it plays out, though.

Ultimately, I'd like this to end up being a routine thread of sorts like the weekly VC/XBLA/etc threads.

I think this is a great idea. A top 100 would be best I think, rather than a top 20.

If there is still one change I would love to appeal, is Floater Land from Mario Galaxy has to be in there. I know that piece has many fans. I would personally swap it for Melty Molten Galaxy, I doubt there would be many people arguing against that. Otherwise this is looking like a very solid list.
 

[Nintex]

Member
It's good to see that my favorite Advance Wars: Dark Conflict song is on the list, I couldn't find it myself because they changed the CO names in the PAL version. I don't agree with the one song for each game rule though. Especially with the Galaxy example above. Byuo Base is a brilliant song, but most of Galaxy's OST is amazing.
 

Masked Man

I said wow
Sixfortyfive said:
One more rule I'm thinking of adding is only allowing one song from each game to advance past the first round. Let's say all 3 of FF7's songs score in the top 10 for its respective set. I'd consider discarding the lower 2 songs and letting #11 and #12 from that set advance in their place. I still want the final list to have a diverse top 40, and letting the Gaffers narrow the selection down this way instead of me handpicking one song from each game myself seems to be a better way to do that.

Ehh... Are the sets just going to be alphabetical? That would make the decision considerably more difficult. But I would happily wager that all three of FFVII's nominated songs could stand up quite well against just about any other game music and still triumph. Diversity is great, but there's also something to be said for an undeniably high level of composition and recognizability. All three are iconic in their own right, frankly.

(Though the Crisis Core version of Aeris' Theme would more than suffice and is likewise worthy of approbation.)

As for the list:

Bemani time! Here are some quick edits to your parenthetical notes:

* beatmania IIDX 6th Style - Colors (radio edit)
* Dance Dance Revolution 2nd Mix - AM-3P
* Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix - Trip Machine Climax
* Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix - Absolute (Not my favorite of dj TAKA's stuff... but I already nominated my favorites for IIDX.)
* Dance Dance Revolution 6th Mix (MAX) - MAX 300
* Dance Dance Revolution 7th Mix (MAX 2) - Tsugaru

This is actually the correct title(s) for the MOTHER 3 song(s) in question:
* MOTHER 3 - Misplaced Revenge
* MOTHER 3 - Anthem of Destruction
(The "Unfounded Revenge / Smashing Song of Praise" medley is a Brawl remix.)

In place of either of those, though, I guess I should recommend this instead. Replace it with this, and we have a winner:
* MOTHER 3 - Porky's Pokies (Porky's Theme + Mr. Batty's Twist + 8-bit = AWESOME.) :D

This was the closest thing I could come to the original from this game:
* Uncharted Waters II: New Horizons - Mast in the Mist

The problem with Shadow of the Colossus is that "Intro" is actually "Prologue ~ To the Ancient Land," and much of its thematic material is recapitulated in the gorgeous "Epilogue ~ Those Who Remain." I recommend replacing "Intro" with this (which was nominated at least twice, according to your reject list, albeit under the guise of slightly different names):
* Shadow of the Colossus - Revived Power ~ Battle with the Colossus

I'm part of the camp who is unenthused by Sonic 3's "Ice Cap Zone," so I agree with whomever recommended this little gem:
* Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Hydrocity Zone Act 2

No one nominated anything for SSBM? Strange... Here are three, if that's okay.
* Super Smash Bros. Melee - Opening
* Super Smash Bros. Melee - Fountain of Dreams
* Super Smash Bros. Melee - Temple

Okay, and now, for the big one: SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL! My favorite soundtrack in recent months, and I'm excited to have finally made a decision, however strenuous it may have been. Since we need at least one example of the Brawl Main Theme (Uematsu<3), "Final Destination" should stay. As for the other two, I have finally come up with two solid recommendations:
* Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Meta Knight's Revenge (from Kirby Super Star) (I love "Butter Building" to a surprising degree, but this is just PERFECT.)
* Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Ocarina Medley (from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) (Naruke-san has just done something incredible: she made the already wonderful music of OoT into something even better.)

Aaaaand... I'm done. :D (I think I'm going to make a "Best Brawl Soundtrack Picks" thread sometime soon...)
 

Cosmozone

Member
I'd suggest the vote system used should be a rating system instead of a "sort it at your preference" vote. Otherwise you've got a problem with merging the sub-results. More specifically, each voter must rate *all* music from the current batch on a scale from 1 to 5 or so. Then the tracks are sorted by average score.

I've also got this wild idea about using the quicksort algorithm for sorting the list, but it's very unconventional to do it with human beings. :) So, not a real suggestion, just for fun.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
KajunW said:
Even 50 tracks might be too much to listen to at once.
Not a bad point. If it's impossible to get a decent number of Gaffers to really put forth some time into something like this, then it may not be a good idea to try and force it.

KajunW said:
Just one example of an idea: give individuals that vote for more different games extra points to allocate to their songs, so that they have a bigger weight in the outcome.
Too complicated to implement.

KajunW said:
In short, I would favour a shorter format, like the one Ventrue proposed.
How about:
- 1st round: pick up to 100 from the full list of 900+
- 2nd round: pick from a trimmed list of the 300 top scoring songs from the previous round
- 3rd round: pick from a final list of 100

Cut the list into a third of its original size twice, ending with a top 100?

[Nintex] said:
I don't agree with the one song for each game rule though. Especially with the Galaxy example above. Byuo Base is a brilliant song, but most of Galaxy's OST is amazing.
Masked Man said:
Ehh... Are the sets just going to be alphabetical? That would make the decision considerably more difficult. But I would happily wager that all three of FFVII's nominated songs could stand up quite well against just about any other game music and still triumph. Diversity is great, but there's also something to be said for an undeniably high level of composition and recognizability. All three are iconic in their own right, frankly.
Nobody but me seems to like the "one song per game" thing, so I'm leaning towards tossing it out now.

Masked Man said:
I'm part of the camp who is unenthused by Sonic 3's "Ice Cap Zone," so I agree with whomever recommended this little gem:
* Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Hydrocity Zone Act 2
You know what's funny? Nobody nominated Ice Cap, and I don't care for it much either compared to most of S3&K's soundtrack. I just stuck it on the list because it always seemed to be super-popular among Sonic fans and somebody would throw a fit if it wasn't there. If nobody really cares though, sure, I'll swap it out for Hydrocity.

Cosmozone said:
I'd suggest the vote system used should be a rating system instead of a "sort it at your preference" vote. Otherwise you've got a problem with merging the sub-results. More specifically, each voter must rate *all* music from the current batch on a scale from 1 to 5 or so. Then the tracks are sorted by average score.
Good point, but this seems even more impossible to implement (making the voters rate every single track in a set).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright guys, so what's it gonna be? Does a weekly routine thread seem doable, or would you favor just doing the whole thing at once and keeping it shorter?
 

Sciz

Member
Sixfortyfive said:
You know what's funny? Nobody nominated Ice Cap, and I don't care for it much either compared to most of S3&K's soundtrack. I just stuck it on the list because it always seemed to be super-popular among Sonic fans and somebody would throw a fit if it wasn't there. If nobody really cares though, sure, I'll swap it out for Hydrocity.
Basically everyone listened to Ice Cap for years until we all got sick of it and finally turned a critical ear to the rest of the soundtrack. Hydrocity Act 2 is the new cool, but give it a few years and I expect we'll all be singing the praises of Chrome Gadget or Flying Battery Act 2.
 

Masked Man

I said wow
Sciz said:
Basically everyone listened to Ice Cap for years until we all got sick of it and finally turned a critical ear to the rest of the soundtrack. Hydrocity Act 2 is the new cool, but give it a few years and I expect we'll all be singing the praises of Chrome Gadget or Flying Battery Act 2.

Huh. I've never understood the hype about Ice Cap, frankly, and I've always been partial to Hydrocity Act 2. Maybe I'm just ahead of the curve. ;)

Regardless, should we really be treating the two soundtracks as one? I mean, I know that S3&K were made for compatibility, but they were released separately, and should probably be addressed as two separate entities.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Death_Born said:
Could you replace "Valedictory Elegy ~guitar version" from Baten Kaitos Origins with Le Ali Del Principio? It's just reduntant, and this song is soooo much better.

Also, add Suck a Sage to Guilty Gear X2.
Sure thing. I'll get around to these and other suggestions on this page in a minute.

IcebergSlim3000 said:
Hey guys. I haven't bought Bionic Commando yet but I'll be damned if that soundtrack isn't hot shit.
Stuff like this makes me consider this thread a success already. :)

I'm still leaning pretty heavily on doing the voting in sets of 50 tracks at a time. I've given about 75% of the tracks posted on the first page a thorough listening (it took pretty much all of a week's worth of free time that would have otherwise been spent actually playing games and whatnot), and honestly, there are well over 100 or 200 tracks on the front page that I would personally feel compelled to vote for, the majority of which is from stuff I've never actually played. The lesser-known stuff is just that much more likely to get steamrolled if voting is condensed and we handle the entire list at once.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Death_Born said:
I agree. 50 tracks at a time, and 5 make it to the next round (stuff like Final Fantasy should be separate though)
Do you mean separating FF songs from other franchises, or separating the FF games from each other so that they aren't all in the same set?

This issue would probably be the most unfair part of conducting the vote this way. There's really no good way to prevent the sets from being a little bit unbalanced in one way or another.
 
Sixfortyfive said:
Do you mean separating FF songs from other franchises, or separating the FF games from each other so that they aren't all in the same set?

This issue would probably be the most unfair part of conducting the vote this way. There's really no good way to prevent the sets from being a little bit unbalanced in one way or another.

I mean separating them from other franchises, and possibly making them fight amongst themselves for 3 of the best FF tunes.
 
Oh god the more I look at this list the more it fails, not a single Ridge Racer suggestion. And here I was thinking GAF had everything covered. Well I go ahead and post 3 tracks from the greatest racing OST ever put to ears, R4.

R4 Pearl Blue Soul

R4 Your Vibe

R4 One More Win

Edit: I see Relaxed Muscle beat me to the R4 love. I also see we chose the same tracks except for Pearl Blue Soul. How can you not love that song.
 

KTallguy

Banned
R4 is hot.

To be perfectly honest, there's probably a TON of win in this thread, but I can't be bothered to go through all of it :lol
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
GCQuinton said:
I hope you won't mind if I substitute the instrumental version in its place. Sonic R's soundtrack is about 50x more tolerable if you remove the vocals.

IcebergSlim3000 said:
Oh god the more I look at this list the more it fails, not a single Ridge Racer suggestion. And here I was thinking GAF had everything covered. Well I go ahead and post 3 tracks from the greatest racing OST ever put to ears, R4.
Keep it up. Maybe we can crack the 1000-song barrier after all.
 
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