Round 2, Pairing 29: "Black Mage's Village (FFIX)" vs. "The Stage is Set (FFVIII)"

[Dave]

A little earlier than usual tonight. Vote here (http://www.squareenixmusic.com/uematsu.php). Only four more pairings left in this round. :)

[migglie]

Link down, down, down, down. Down-downdowndown-down-down.

[Dave]

Seems to me like I don't know what site I work at anymore! Thanks for telling me, it even took me a while to see why the link was broken too.

[Black Mamba]

Two pieces I enjoy, but not very crazy about. BMV has all the quarky synths, but I like SiS's "going to war" feel much better.

People better not vote for BMV saying "yay for FFIX". Honestly I'm getting sick of that; we're not judging the games, we're judging each individual track on its own. Vote for a piece because you enjoy it best, not because you enjoyed its game the best.

[migglie]

Dave, you need some shut-eye. Badly. :ashamed: Like that if you sleep with your mouth open.

I agree with Black Mamba. Why BMV is so adored I'll never know, I find the synths pretty cheesy. It's a decent melody but superior in Vivi's Theme. The Stage Is Set is a great set-piece track, that successfully accompanies the mission ahead. Now that I listen to it, it reminds me alot of Uematsu's "Shinra Wages A Full Scale Attack". It's not too overdone but the pace is driving enough to evoke some urgency. Much better.

Indeed, there's been a bit of not-so-subtle voting decisions made upon prefering one of the games or hating one of them or just saying that they hate the whole soundtrack which makes no sense, since it really ought to be track-by-track. Follow your hearts, children.

[Brittany]

I agree about voting based solely on what you think of the specific track. It's not right to vote for any song just to "get a track from this game into the next round" or whatever the excuse, but I'm not accusing anyone of doing that.. :)

Black Mage Village is a nice song, but it doesn't do anything for me emotionally and The Stage is Set does very much so. :) Those drums are so pleasing to the ear and the repetitiveness doesn't really bother me possibly because it manages to keep an intense feeling throughout the whole song.

[Neo Locke]

Dave, you need some shut-eye. Badly. :ashamed: Like that if you sleep with your mouth open.

I agree with Black Mamba. Why BMV is so adored I'll never know, I find the synths pretty cheesy. It's a decent melody but superior in Vivi's Theme. The Stage Is Set is a great set-piece track, that successfully accompanies the mission ahead. Now that I listen to it, it reminds me alot of Uematsu's "Shinra Wages A Full Scale Attack". It's not too overdone but the pace is driving enough to evoke some urgency. Much better.

Indeed, there's been a bit of not-so-subtle voting decisions made upon prefering one of the games or hating one of them or just saying that they hate the whole soundtrack which makes no sense, since it really ought to be track-by-track. Follow your hearts, children.


You've contradicted yourself here, though I'm sure not on purpose. You say you agree that a piece shouldn't be ranked by the game it accompanies, but then you say you prefer SiS because of how well it fits with the events it surrounds in FFVIII.

I'm not bad-mouthing SiS by any means, as I love how epic such a simple melody is made to sound. I'm still not sure which one I'm going to vote for though.

[Totz]

I like the militaristic tracks from FFVIII (even "SeeD" *gasp*), and "The Stage is Set" is no exception. BMV is cute and Mysidia-ish, but my vote goes to TSIS.

[migglie]

You've contradicted yourself here, though I'm sure not on purpose. You say you agree that a piece shouldn't be ranked by the game it accompanies, but then you say you prefer SiS because of how well it fits with the events it surrounds in FFVIII.

I'm not bad-mouthing SiS by any means, as I love how epic such a simple melody is made to sound. I'm still not sure which one I'm going to vote for though.

I see what you mean. I'll just word it better (I hope). What I meant was these pieces should be taken independantly of your opinions of the game or soundtrack as a whole. Ie. I hate FFVIII - thus I hate this track. This reasoning has been employed in previous polls.

As for ranking a piece by the game it accompanies, I think it's important in any programmatic music to at least consider the context of the piece to some degree.

[Resk]

I'm gonna go with.... black mage village. It was pleasent to listen to while walking around that place, and it didn't get old ^_^

[Dark Cloud]

BMV is so...bleh! I mean, it's a good song, but, as said before, "The Stage is Set" feels more, 'heroic,' due to its 'going to war' feel. Great track, and it's from FFVIII...zOMG!

[Stryfe]

While Black Mage Village is catchy and one of my favorite town songs evar (and it's in FFIX ;3), I like The Stage is Set more for it's military atmosphere and such that's already been said, and that it reminds me of Movin', in which I think The Stage is Set's melody is used sometime/s. (I might be wrong, or maybe they have intentional little references to one another.) FFVIII seems to have plenty of that sort of music, just like FFIX has a lot of catchy stuff like Black Mage Village. (did Gurugu Volcano make it? Damn, that's catchy.)

(even "SeeD" *gasp*) I love SeeD. :D Maybe it's just the percussion doing it for me, but it's just neat. That's a topic for another day, though.

[Don]

I'm gonna go with Stage is Set here. I wasn't too fond of BMV but some parts were nice. Stage is Set is an adrenaline pumping piece motivating you to get to action...and that action is to vote for it.

[TheShroud13]

"Black Mage Village" for me. It's just what I'm in the mood for right now. Neither is particularly appealing to me really.

[Solartide]

Yeah, both are not that great, but Black Mage's Village is really disappointing for such an impressive name.

[McFate]

Well, I'll go with The Stage is Set. The series of scenes while it was playing are some of the best in FF VIII. And the Village is a bit... zany. :P

[insertnamehere]

Im going for black mage villge because im not racist j/k but really the stage is set i couldn't really remember while black mage i did.

[Dave]

^ eh?

Anyway, the results are in:

The Stage is Set (FFVIII) 63.64 % (21)
Black Mage's Village (FFIX) 36.36 % (12)