It’s round 4 of the playoffs! 128 songs remain, and will face off in groups of 32 per day. We’ll be done with this round by Monday; the era of weeks long rounds is over.

Since it’s the playoffs, groups will be active until 9:00 am Pacific the day after they post, or for roughly 24 hours. You can listen to a playlist of today’s songs (in matchup order) here.

Or you can work ahead!
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Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

All songs

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PLEASE LISTEN TO BOTH SONGS IN A MATCH BEFORE VOTING

Voting will be live until Wednesday, June 10th at 9:00am Pacific

Previous Round’s Results:

Tie time!
Persona 2: Innocent Sin – Knights of the Holy Spear defeats The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask – Last End
Moon: Remix RPG Adventure – 226 46th Street (MoonDisc Version) defeats Final Fantasy Tactics – Team Making

Fun Stats About The Top 128

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Stats will be available soon! They will also be attached to tomorrow’s post.

Top 128 by group:

I’ve decided listing this out by raw number isn’t interesting; for me at least, the point of tracking groups is to see if “reputation” holds out, ie do the groups that started with the biggest shares stay that way, or do the “weak” groups hold their own? So I’m tracking this in Sheets here. I’m listing group representation as a percentage; for each round, every group “should” have ~4.55%. Groups above that number are overperforming (highlighted green), groups below are under (red). I’m also using lighter shades for groups that fell but are still above 4.55%, and groups that rose but are still below.

The scrambling continues. Our one constant is Group 11, which started strong and has improved every single round so far. I feel increasingly confident that early groups had an advantage despite my attempts this tournament, and I’ll have to try something different next time.

Top 128 by game:

(Songs in bold lost at least half their nominees this round (min. -3). Songs in bolded italics lost at least two thirds (min -4))

• 15 songs:
  • Chrono Cross [-4]
• 10 songs:
  • Final Fantasy VII [-8]
• 8 songs:
  • Final Fantasy VIII [-3]
  • Final Fantasy IX [-3]
• 6 songs:
  • Moon: Remix RPG Adventure [-6]
  • Super Mario RPG [-2]
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time [-2]
• 4 songs:
  • Final Fantasy Tactics [-5]
  • PaRappa the Rapper [-2]
• 3 songs:
  • Brave Fencer Musashi [-2]
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night [-7]
  • Parasite Eve [-2]
  • Super Mario 64 [-1]
• 2 songs:
  • Einhander [-1]
  • Grandia
  • Jet Grind Radio [-2]  
  • Kirby Super Star [-1]
  • Pokemon Red/Blue [-1] 
  • Space Channel 5
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask [-3]
  • Wild Arms 
  • Wild Arms 2 [-1]
  • Xenogears [-3]
• 1 song:
  • Ace Combat 2
  • Baldur’s Gate
  • Buck Bumble
  • Bushido Blade
  • Diablo 
  • Discworld 2
  • Donkey Kong 64 
  • Enemy Zero 
  • Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
  • Grim Fandango [-1]
  • I.Q.: Intelligent Qube [-1]
  • Koudelka 
  • Metal Gear Solid 
  • NiGHTS Into Dreams 
  • Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
  • Persona 2: Innocent Sin [-1] 
  • Rockman & Forte [-1] 
  • Seaman
  • Shenmue 
  • Silent Hill
  • Sonic Adventure [-2] 
  • Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike
  • Suikoden II [-1]
  • The Curse of Monkey Island 
  • The Neverhood 
  • Threads of Fate 
  • Ultima Online
  • Um Jammer Lammy
  • Vagrant Story [-2]
• Remember The Fallen
  • Afterlife (LucasArts)
  • Banjo-Kazooie [-4]  
  • Blade Runner (1997) 
  • Breath of Fire III
  • Descent 2 
  • Deus Ex 
  • Diablo II 
  • Diddy Kong Racing [-2]
  • Jazz Jackrabbit 2 
  • Kirby’s Dream Land 3 
  • Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards  
  • Legend of Mana [-2]
  • Lunar Silver Star Story Complete (1998)
  • Mario Kart 64 [-3]
  • Mario Party
  • Marvel vs Capcom 
  • Marvel vs Capcom 2 
  • Medal of Honor Underground
  • MegaMan X4 
  • Omikron: The Nomad Soul 
  • Outlaws 
  • Panzer Dragoon Saga 
  • Paper Mario
  • Phantasy Star Online (JPN)
  • Planescape: Torment 
  • Radical Dreamers [-2] 
  • Resident Evil 2
  • SaGa Frontier II 
  • Skies of Arcadia [-2]
  • Skullmonkeys
  • Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis) [-2]
  • Sonic 3D Blast (Saturn) [-2]
  • Sonic R 
  • Star Ocean: The Second Story [-2]
  • Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold   
  • Super Smash Bros. 
  • System Shock 2 
  • Tactics Ogre (PSX) 
  • Tekken 2 
  • The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
  • The Operative: No One Lives Forever
  • The Pandora Directive
  • The Sims
  • Twisted Metal 2
  • Valkyrie Profile 
  • Wave Race 64
  • Wipeout 
  • Yoshi’s Story

Goddammit Banjo-Kazooie plummeted. One of our most represented songs two rounds ago and now it’s gone. Fellow Rareware title Diddy Kong Racing joins it, meaning we have to go all the way to the 1-song tier to find non-Japanese games. We certainly have a type, eh?

Chrono Cross remains in 1st, building a commanding lead over initial #1 Final Fantasy VII. Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, our initial #2, continues its decline, falling behind the mainline Final Fantasies.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night had probably the greatest decline, however, plummeting from 10 songs down to just 3. It’s hard out there for non-RPGs; despite this massive decline it’s still tied for 3rd most represented non-RPG (2nd if you’re spicy enough to count Zelda).

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