Games

Best Video Game Song Tournament, 1996-2000: Playoffs, Round 8 (Top 8)

It’s round 8 of the playoffs! Only the elite remain.

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.

PLEASE LISTEN TO BOTH SONGS IN A MATCH BEFORE VOTING

Voting will be live until Monday, June 22nd at 9:00am Pacific

Previous Round’s Results:

Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
I’m Waiting for the Night (MoonDisc Version)
 7 9 Wild Arms
Into the Wilderness
Buck Bumble Title Screen 6 11 Chrono Cross Scars of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Gerudo Valley 11 9 Space Channel 5
Spaceport: Introducing Ulala!
Grandia Theme 9 7 Wild Arms 2
Main Title (Instrumental)
Chrono Cross
Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World
 10 6 Final Fantasy VII
One-Winged Angel
PaRappa the Rapper
Chop Chop Master Onion
 9 7 Final Fantasy VIII Liberi Fatali
Final Fantasy IX You’re Not Alone 7 9 Chrono Cross
Dreamwatch of Time
Final Fantasy VIII
Man with the Machine Gun
 13 2 Final Fantasy VIII Balamb Garden

 

Fun Stats About The Top 8

Spoiler

Top 8 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.

These numbers mean absolutely nothing. I’m writing this Thursday night. Most groups have 0. There’s probably 1 with a couple. *shrug*

Top 8 by game:

  • 3 songs:
    • Chrono Cross
  • 1 song:
    • Final Fantasy VIII  [-2]
    • Grandia 
    • PaRappa the Rapper 
    • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time  
    • Wild Arms 
  • Remember The Fallen
    • Buck Bumble
    • Final Fantasy IX 
    • Final Fantasy VII 
    • Moon: Remix RPG Adventure 
    • Space Channel 5
    • Wild Arms 2

It lasted way longer than I thought it would, but Buck Bumble has finally met its match. With it, the top 8 is 100% Japanese. It’s also 75% RPG (I’m not counting Ocarina; the genre doesn’t need the help right now anyway). But while that might not be especially surprising, the particulars sure are. We only have one Final Fantasy left! And it’s VIII?! Chrono Cross has back-to-back perfect rounds to dominate our top 8. It’s also managed to avoid facing itself in the top 8, so it has a shot to do something truly impressive here.

Sadly, we must bid farewell to Moon: Remix RPG Adventure here. The true unknown star of the tournament, Moon is a game none of us have played but that had a killer and unique soundtrack. Hopefully that English Switch port happens soon so we can all experience this for ourselves.

Songs by console:

Playstation: 6 games, 7 songs
Nintendo 64: 1 game, 1 song

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