I'm likely to be quite self-contradictory in ordering, so I'm just gonna do the round robin thing, because that makes it generally easier for me.
Nefertiti (Mana Khemia) vs. Bonus track- GENESIS BEYOND THE BEGINNING (Ys Origin) - Maaan this took a ridiculous amount of listening to. Think I checked each track about 5 times before actually deciding. Nice match.
Nefertiti (Mana Khemia) vs. Divine Identity (Digital Devil Saga 2) - Ohhhh maaan. Turns out Nefertiti did provide some closer matches after all! Uhm... Damn. Another close one. I... think Nefertiti takes this. Barely.
Nefertiti (Mana Khemia) vs. Calling an Awakening Memory -The Battle with Schirach- (Romancing SaGa) - Hunh. Pretty much the same thing, only better.
Nefertiti (Mana Khemia) vs. Someday the Dream will End (Final Fantasy X) - Ahahahahahaha. Ha.
The Fate ~ Cluster Amaryllis (Shadow Hearts Covenant) vs. Bonus track- GENESIS BEYOND THE BEGINNING (Ys Origin) - Wow. Clean sweep for Fate. Genesis is damn awesome, but not in the slightest bit memorable, it seems. I remember thinking Fate was the most memorable track in the tourney before I'd played SH2. Seeing as both are awesome, that's enough to decide this match.
The Fate ~ Cluster Amaryllis (Shadow Hearts Covenant) vs. Divine Identity (Digital Devil Saga 2) - Ooh, this should be more interesting. Brahman's a tune with a lot of emotion, so quite similar to The Fate... but yet a very different style, so not all that similar. Hunh. Brahman starts strong, then dips slightly, then picks up again. The Fate starts slow and builds up into something good. That build-up provides a much better effect with no downtime after the good sections, so... yeah.
The Fate ~ Cluster Amaryllis (Shadow Hearts Covenant) vs. Calling an Awakening Memory -The Battle with Schirach- (Romancing SaGa) - The Fate has a beautifully crafted build-up to an excellent piece of music. Seriously, this should have won. Awakening Memory is pretty damn awesome, but doesn't have even a shred of the emotion that The Fate excels in, and wins with.
The Fate ~ Cluster Amaryllis (Shadow Hearts Covenant) vs. Someday the Dream will End (Final Fantasy X) - The Fate seems that much more awesome now that I know the scene in-game. It would have completely outclassed Someday regardless.
EXEC_SPHILIA/. (Ar Tonelico 2) vs. Bonus track- GENESIS BEYOND THE BEGINNING (Ys Origin) - Yeah, so the last tourney apparently played to my tastes much more than this one. At least Nefertiti will provide some close matches!
EXEC_SPHILIA/. (Ar Tonelico 2) vs. Divine Identity (Digital Devil Saga 2) - Damn, this was a close one. Brahman is an awesome track, and a style I really like, but not an amazingly brilliant version of it. Exec is an odd style that I don't like, but done well. Prefer Brahman overall, methinks.
EXEC_SPHILIA/. (Ar Tonelico 2) vs. Calling an Awakening Memory -The Battle with Schirach- (Romancing SaGa) - This is exactly the sort of song I like. It's not an amazing example of the style, but personal preference means I rank this much higher than Exec.
EXEC_SPHILIA/. (Ar Tonelico 2) vs. Someday the Dream will End (Final Fantasy X) - The first 20 seconds of Someday are the best, and those don't compare to any of Exec.
Main Theme (Orchestral) (Parasite Eve) vs. Bonus track- GENESIS BEYOND THE BEGINNING (Ys Origin) - Hunh. Genesis is good, but really fades into the background... It took me a couple of listens to get anything out of this, 'cause I kept forgetting it was there. That'll be used in a tiebreak as the decider, but it's not needed here. Beats the Main Theme pretty easily.
Main Theme (Orchestral) (Parasite Eve) vs. Divine Identity (Digital Devil Saga 2) - Hunh. I remember thinking Brahman was really good in-game. Out of it, it doesn't work anywhere near as well. That said, I'm not a huge fan of the main theme, so it takes the win here easily enough.
Main Theme (Orchestral) (Parasite Eve) vs. Calling an Awakening Memory -The Battle with Schirach- (Romancing SaGa) - Not really much to say here. Prefer Awakening Memory, simple as that. It's more upbeat, has better composition, although less emotion. Relatively close, but not enough to not vote.
Main Theme (Orchestral) (Parasite Eve) vs. Someday the Dream will End (Final Fantasy X) - So, I don't know why, but I'm starting at the bottom. Expect comments to not make sense as a result. Anyway, Someday the Dream is just so... blah. It's so plain. Especially when compared to some of the other Uematsu stuff. I'm not a huge fan of the main theme, but it's definitely the winner here.
Okay, so I could just do a list, but I wrote those comments and I'm keeping them there, dammit.
The Fate: 4-0
Nefertiti: 3-1
Exec: 1-3
Main Theme: 1-3
To put this another way:
Fate > Schirach > Nefertiti > Brahman > Genesis > Exec > Main Theme > Someday.
Just wondering, what were the winner/runner-up from the last tourney out of the 4 tracks here? If Someday won the tourney, I think I'll shoot someone. ;o
