(Full, current standings can always be found here)
Group 4 & 5 Results
[spoiler]
Group 4:
| 55.56% | Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) | White Acropolis (Snowy Peak) |
| 51.85% | Chrono Trigger (DS) | Singing Mountain |
| 51.85% | Pokemon Diamond / Pearl | Champion Cynthia’s Theme |
| 48.15% | Trails in the Sky SC | The Fate of the Fairies |
| 48.15% | We Love Katamari | Disco x Prince |
| 44.44% | Super Stardust HD | Taranis |
| 44.44% | Granado Espada | Violin of the Death |
| 44.44% | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | Kakariko is Saved |
| 40.74% | Super Mario Galaxy | Final Bowser Battle |
| 40.74% | Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume | Blameless Thoughts |
| 37.04% | La-Mulana | Sabbat |
| 33.33% | Xanadu Next | Clover Ruins |
| 33.33% | Trails in the Sky SC | Heartless Surprise Attack |
| 29.63% | Dear Esther | The Cave |
| 29.63% | Jade Empire | Main Theme |
| 25.93% | Kingdom Hearts II | Roxas |
| 25.93% | Lost Odyssey | Fire Above the Battle |
| 22.22% | Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow | Into the Dark Night |
| 22.22% | Mega Man ZX Advent | En-trance Code |
| 22.22% | Higurashi When They Cry 2 | Fabricated Dream |
| 22.22% | Dissidia: Final Fantasy | Cosmos (Your Favorite Enemies) |
| 18.52% | World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King | Howling Fjord |
| 14.81% | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance | Eternal Glory |
| 14.81% | Lost Odyssey | Eclipse of Time (Vocal Version) |
A popular group, with 10 songs scoring above 40%! The group champion is from Sonic ’06, an infamous game that nevertheless proves the rule that there are no bad Sonic OSTs.1 Chrono Trigger also sneaks in here, with a song for an area cut from the 1995 original. It wouldn’t be Chrono Trigger without some time travel shenanigans now would it?
Group 5:
| 69.57% | Wild Arms 4 | Nightless City Guara Bobelo |
| 69.57% | Final Fantasy XII | Nalbina Fortress Underground Prison |
| 60.87% | Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War | Near the Border |
| 56.52% | Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII | Calm Before the Storm |
| 56.52% | Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness | Temporal Tower |
| 52.17% | Elebits | Failed Mission Results |
| 52.17% | Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume | Delusional Extremities |
| 47.83% | Sonic Rush | Vela-Nova |
| 43.48% | Animal Crossing: Wild World | New Year’s Day |
| 43.48% | The Lord of the Rings Online | Home From the Hunt |
| 43.48% | Mother 3 | 16 Melodies |
| 43.48% | The World Ends With You | Shibuya |
| 34.78% | Trails in the Sky the 3rd | Looking Up at the Sky (Ending Version) |
| 34.78% | Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts | LOGBOX 720: Access Granted |
| 34.78% | Sonic Unleashed | Opening |
| 30.43% | Marc Ecko’s Getting Up | Welcome to New Radius |
| 30.43% | Granado Espada | Pray for Soul |
| 30.43% | World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King | Dalaran |
| 30.43% | Yakuza Kenzan! | Brand-New Japanesque |
| 30.43% | Dead Space | The Necromorphs Attack |
| 26.09% | Shadow of the Colossus | Idol Collapse |
| 21.74% | Dead Space | Entering Zero G |
| 21.74% | Genji: Dawn of the Samurai | Konjikido (Male Voice) |
| 13.04% | Ys Origin | So Much for Today |
Jeez, and I was impressed with 10 over 40%; this group has 12! For context, if we assume playoff songs are evenly distributed we’d expect the top 6 or 7 from each group to advance. So unless we’ve got some weaker groups on the horizon we might need to update our prior re:~40% as the threshold.
Math aside, we’ve got some new #1 songs, with our top 2 songs from this group tying for the highest ranking so far. Wild Arms 4’s song is a really weird jazz-adjacent title, with a lot of disparate parts coming together beautifully. And Final Fantasy XII gets on the board with a subdued but powerful theme.
[/spoiler]
It’s time for group play! We have 1,358 songs this time; we’re trying out 24-song groups this time, so we have 56 groups of 24, plus a 57th of 14. For the group stage, vote for as many songs as you like! Songs will be ranked based on how many upvotes they got compared to how many people voted in that round. 2 After all groups are done, the top 384 songs from across all groups will advance to the playoffs.
…unless! After group play, but before the playoffs proper, there will be a wild card runoff! If an individual game places more than 10 songs into the top 384, songs 11+ per game will face off against songs 385+3 in a play-in round.
We’ll be “feathering” groups; voting on group 6 will be active until Tuesday January 19th at 10:00PM Pacific. Group 7 will start Tuesday and be active until Wednesday, and so on. Please listen to every song! Don’t just vote name recognition.
You can listen to all songs in group 6 in this handy YouTube playlist! (Don’t worry, songs will also be linked in the comments, where voting will take place)
You can work ahead if you like:
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[spoiler title=(11-20)]
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[spoiler title=(21-30)]
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[spoiler title=(31-40)]
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[spoiler title=(41-50)]
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[spoiler title=(51-57)]
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Or listen to every song here.
Again, voting for group 6 is open until Tuesday January 19th at 10:00PM Pacific