ZeldaFreak

Y'know what, even though my hands are a bit full with Survivor, I'll participate in this. Sounds like fun, and I do love me some vidya game music. I'll go ahead and do hard mode so there's at least a bit of challenge. My 30 Day VGM Challenge List - Hard Difficulty (Figured I'd add in a little image of my own, inspired by Fox's list ) Day 1: (Title Screen) | Title Theme - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Day 2: (Opening Level) | Beginning VRC6 ver. - Akumajou Densetsu (Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse) Day 3: (8-bit) | Dr. Wily Stage 1 - Mega Man 2 Day 4: (Console Exclusive) | Steam Gardens - Super Mario Odyssey Day 5: (Overworld) | Tropos By Day - Owlboy Bet you all thought I was gonna choose an overworld theme from one of the Zelda games. Well, think again. Day 6: (Relaxed) | You Can Always Come Home - Deltarune I was considering Hip Shop from Deltarune, as that is my go-to relaxing song, but the song I chose gives me that feeling of being at home, which just inherently calms me down. Hip Shop is another great relaxing song, though. Day 7: (Indie) | Nocturne Of Ice - Stardew Valley I could've picked any of the tracks from this game honestly, the whole soundtrack is a masterpiece, but this song is one of my personal favorites. Winter is my favorite season, and this song emphasizes everything I love about it. Day 8: (Shooter) | At Doom's Gate AKA E1M1 - DOOM Figured I'd go ahead and claim this one before someone else uses it. It may be a bit tonally inconsistent with my other choices, but I mean... c'mon, this is probably the single most iconic song from any shooter ever made. How could I not include it? (Also, it's illegal to spell the word DOOM in anything but all caps when referring to the game series.) Day 9: (Licensed) | Moon Theme - Ducktales Remastered This is the only reason I didn't use the Moon Theme on the 8-bit day, because I knew I could use it today instead (And also because I wanted to use the remastered version since I personally prefer it over the original.) Day 10: (RPG Battle) | Fight Against Smithy - Super Mario RPG One of the few RPGs I've actually played, although it has been several years since I last played it. I've always loved the music from this game, in fact listening to parts of the soundtrack is what got me to actually played it way back when. Honorable mention to the Final Fantasy IV Boss Battle Theme, I was considering putting it here, but there are other days in the future that I think will suit it better. Day 11: (Puzzle Game) | Final of Puyo Puyo - Puyo Puyo Never thought a puzzle game could have music this intense until I heard this track. Easily one of my favorite puzzle game tracks. I like all the remixes of this song that were in the Puyo Puyo games following this one, but I've always just liked the original the best, not sure why. Honorable mention to Track 10 from Puyo Puyo Tetris (My personal favorite version of the classic Tetris theme) Day 12: (Sad) | Farewell - A Way Out If you've ever played A Way Out, this song just shoves a dagger straight in to your heart any time you hear it. Highly recommend the game by the way, super underrated. Easily the best co-op experience I've ever had in a game, it was incredibly good. I would've loved to have put in a song from Owlboy, since that's probably one of the saddest games I've ever played, but that was already taken up by the Overworld day, and I figured this would be a good compromise. With that said though, here are a few honorable mentions: Something Isn't Right with the World - Owlboy The Truth About Otus - Owlboy (This one is particularly sad if you know the circumstances in which it plays) You're Both to Blame for This - Owlboy End Credits - Owlboy (This is probably the one I would've gone with if I hadn't already used Owlboy) Day 13: (Game I Dislike) | Opening - Super Smash Bros. This one was really tough for me, as I could probably count on both hands the amount of games I've played that I outright didn't like. I'm generally pretty easy to please when it comes to any entertainment medium, which I am grateful for. I'd rather be easy to please than cynical and miserable. With that said, I looked through the games I played for VGS Survivor, and I remembered that the original Smash Bros. for N64 was one of them. I really like all of the Smash Bros. games that came after the first one, but man... the first one for N64 is just... really not fun to play for me. The controls just don't feel anywhere near as smooth and polished as they did with the following games in the series. I really didn't have a very good time playing it, and because of that, I figured it would be a perfect candidate for this day since it has a very good soundtrack. Day 14: (Vocals) | We All Lift Together - Warframe This one was pretty hard for me as I don't know of many songs with vocals, but I managed to think of a couple. I've never actually played Warframe before, but I've heard this song before and I really, really like it. Honorable mentions go to Jump Up, Super Star! from Super Mario Odyssey, and One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII, which is the song I was heavily considering using for this day, but I figured I could squeeze it in to a future day. Also Last Surprise and Life Will Change, both from Persona 5. Day 15: (Boss Battle) | The Opened Way - Shadow of the Colossus I mean, how could I not, this game has some of the best boss battle themes of all time. I don't think there's a much better way to mark the halfway point. Honorable mentions to Cleric Beast from Bloodborne, Dance of Illusions from various Castlevania games (this one being my personal favorite version) and literally the entire Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack. If you haven't heard this soundtrack before, you're doing yourself a disservice. Easily one of the best video game OSTs of all time in my opinion. (Also a bonus shout-out goes to this really cool live rendition of The Opened Way) Day 16: (16-bit) | Bloodlines AKA Opposing Bloodlines - Castlevania: Dracula X I felt that this song deserved a spot on my list. Why? Well, I would say this is the song that got me in to video game music in the first place. I've loved Zelda games my whole life, and while they all have terrific soundtracks, I think the Castlevania series is what really got me to appreciate video game music, and this was the first Castlevania game I ever played. I still remember first booting up this game, starting the first level, hearing that awesome guitar in the intro, and realizing I was in for a hell of a time with this game. So, to summarize, the reason I feel this song deserves a spot on the list is that this song was the catalyst to my love for video game music. Day 17: (Never Tired Of) | Mining Melancholy - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest I mean, there are so many different options I could go with for this day, the possibilities are basically endless. But, I've been looking for an excuse to put in a song from the DKC series, and now seems like the best time. This song is probably my favorite from the entire series, and I'm super nostalgic for it, so honestly this would've been a good fit for the nostalgia day as well, but I've already made plans for that day. While I do obviously love many of the other songs in DKC 2, such as Stickerbrush Symphony, I've always liked this one the best ever since I was a kid. I think it's kind of overlooked compared to some of the other songs on the soundtrack. I also figured I'd link the restored version of it, made by a guy that goes by the name of Jammin' Sam. Essentially what he does is take all the original samples used in various DKC songs, and reconstructs them from scratch without the SNES's compression. It's the same exact song, just with better audio quality, and by god do the restored versions of these songs sound glorious, I'd highly recommend giving a listen to the other songs he's restored, it's really somethin' else hearing these songs again with sound quality this good. Day 18: (Game Over) | Game Over - The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks Pretty self-explanatory I think. Probably one of the saddest game over themes I've ever heard. Honorable mentions go to the other various game over themes in the Zelda games, the various game over themes in the Castlevania games, Wander's Death from Shadow of the Colossus, and the big one I was very heavily considering using for this day, Determination from Undertale. I was very close to using it, but I kind of liked the sadder approach to a game over theme better, so I went with the Spirit Tracks theme instead. Day 19: (Cover) | Dancing Mad Symphonic Arrange - Final Fantasy VI | (Original by Nobuo Uematsu) Probably not the type of thing most people will go with for their lists, but honestly, I just couldn't forgive myself for not including Dancing Mad somewhere on this list. Probably one of my top 3 favorite final boss themes of all time, and the Symphonic Arrange allows it to reach new heights. The original song on SNES is already an absolute masterpiece of course, especially given the limitations of the system, but being able to hear the song like this really does improve the experience in my opinion. This is likely close to how Dancing Mad would've sounded if it was composed for one of the more modern Final Fantasy games, and I absolutely love it. As for honorable mentions... hoo boy, this one is gonna be a doozy. PPF's various covers (Stickerbrush Symphony) (Hot Head Bop) (Mining Melancholy) Super Soul Bros' various covers (Flying Battery Zone) The 8-bit Big Band's various covers (Spring Yard Zone) The Second Narrator's various covers (Field of Hopes and Dreams) (Chaos King) (Tal Tal Heights) The Noble Demon's various covers (Dark World) (Death Mountain) (Stone Tower Temple) Theophany's various covers (Oath to Order) (Lost Woods) (Deku Palace) Rozen's various covers (Astral Observatory) (Clock Town) (Stone Tower Temple) Gooseworx's various covers (One of my personal favorites, she's extremely talented. Her original songs are great as well) (Hip Shop) (The World Revolving) (Metal Crusher) And many, many, many more that I can't think of off the top of my head. I will say that if I had included Dancing Mad on a different day, I probably would have gone with either Theophany's Lost Woods cover, or his Deku Palace cover. They're so entertaining to listen to, and those are two of my personal favorites of his. So, if you want to listen to a few of my honorable mentions but not all of them, listen to those two Day 20: (Racing) | N64 Rainbow Road - Mario Kart 8 One of my favorite songs in the game, from one of my favorite tracks in the game, which has one of my favorite designs in the game. Not much more to say really, I absolutely adore both this track, and the song accompanying it, even as someone who never played Mario Kart 64. Honorable mentions go to pretty much the entire Mario Kart 8 OST, all the tracks are great, but some of my other personal favorites from the game are: SNES Rainbow Road, Mute City, Big Blue, Animal Crossing (Summer), Dragon Driftway & Electrodrome. Day 21: (Frustration) | Mappy In-Game Theme - Mappy I played Mappy during VGS Survivor. Never again. ...I can... I can still hear the music echoing in my nightmares... Day 22: (Village) | Zora's Domain (Day) - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Since Oliver so rudely took my original pick of Rito Village (Day) I figured I might as well go with the next best one. Many of my personal favorite village themes in any game come from Breath of the Wild, this being one of them. I would've loved to have used Dragon Roost Island from Wind Waker HD, however I may use this game for a future day, so I don't want to take any chances. Day 23: (Underrated) | Boss Battle Theme - Final Fantasy IV There's plenty of picks I could've gone with for this day, from music from smaller game series, to tracks from bigger franchises that just aren't as well known, but I wanted to go with this, since (not counting the final boss themes) this is probably one of my favorite battle themes in any Final Fantasy game, yet I don't ever hear anyone talking about this one. Granted, as I've said, I've never actually played any of the Final Fantasy games, but I've always loved this battle theme since I was a kid, and I actually prefer it over many of the normal battle and boss battle themes in many of the other FF games. So, for those reasons, this'll be my pick for an underrated track. Day 24: (Stuck In Head) | Voyage of Promise - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Honestly, I could put any of the songs from the Castlevania or Bloodstained series on here, as I constantly get music from both series' stuck in my head, but this is the one I find creeping into my subconscious most frequently recently. Some of the songs from the Bloodstained games are just as iconic as the CV games in my opinion, this being one of them. Honorable mentions go to pretty much every Castlevania soundtrack, as well as the soundtracks to both Bloodstained games. They're all good. Day 25: (Pumped) | Break the Rules - Payday 2 If you're a fan of those 80s high-energy tracks (Stuff like Push It to the Limit from Scarface) then this song is right up your alley. I honestly forgot about this song during the vocals day, and if I had remembered it existed, I probably would've used this song for that day instead. One of my absolute favorites from this game's already fantastic soundtrack. If there was ever a sequel to Scarface (For whatever reason) this is how I imagine one of the songs on the soundtrack would've sounded. Honorable mentions go to the rest of the Payday 2 OST, Dreams of Triumph from Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, and BFG Division from DOOM 2016. Day 26: (Haven't Played) | One Winged Angel - Final Fantasy VII Had to put another one of my favorite final boss themes of all time somewhere on this list, and since I already have plans for the Final Boss day, this is my last opportunity to do so. Absolutely adore this song and the many remasters of this song that came after the original (Although none of the remasters and remixes of the song have quite topped the original IMO. The FFVII Remake got close, though) Day 27: (Handheld) | Lorule Castle - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds Plenty of options for this day, but I figured I'd go with one of the handheld games I'm most nostalgic for. I've personally always liked A Link Between Worlds better than A Link to the Past (Not that Link to the Past is a bad game, they're both masterpieces in their own right) and this is one of the best songs from that game. Plus this is the song that plays in the last area in the game, which I figured would be fitting since we're nearing the end of the challenge. Honorable mentions go to the various handheld Zelda games as well as the handheld Castlevania games. Day 28: (Nostalgic) | The Legendary Hero - The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD The obvious choice. Wind Waker was among the first 3D Zelda games I ever played, and I still remember the Christmas I got a Gamecube with Wind Waker, and I stayed up all day and all night doing nothing but playing it. One of the happiest memories from my childhood, so there's no better fit for this day than the opening song to that game. Honorable mentions go to Gardens from LittleBigPlanet, & Intro from Minish Cap (As well as this amazing cover of it) It was really hard to choose between these songs, as I'd honestly say I'm equally nostalgic for all of them, however that memory of getting a Gamecube for Christmas just barely pushed it over the edge for me. Day 29: (Final Boss) | Battle on the Ice - LittleBigPlanet You may click on the link to this song and think What? This isn't a LittleBigPlanet song. and you'd technically be right, this song didn't actually originate from LBP. This song originally came from the 1938 Russian film Alexander Nevsky, which is a historical drama based on the 13th century Prince of the same name. I've never actually seen the film, but I know of the song itself. In the movie, a lower tempo version (Which I personally prefer) was used in the titular Battle on the Ice scene, which many modern day battle scenes took inspiration from. Why they decided to use this song for the final boss theme in LBP, I don't know, but it was a fantastic choice, as this song is amazing. The reason I used this version for the link is because for some reason the version of Battle on the Ice that's used in the LittleBigPlanet OST isn't actually the version that's used in-game, the one I linked is the version that actually plays during the final boss. Regardless though, this is probably up there as one of my favorite final boss themes of all time, and this is one of the songs that got me to really love a good choir in music. Honorable mentions go to The Gadfly Suite from LittleBigPlanet 2 (Which has a similar backstory to Battle on the Ice) Banquet of Madness from Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, and the various iterations of Dance of Illusions (Again) as well as the other final boss themes I've already used, such as Dancing Mad and One Winged Angel. Day 30: (Credits) | Staff Roll - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Figured I might as well end the list on a high note, in addition to ending it with the same franchise that I started the list with. I'll get to work on my Day 31 list tomorrow

The music from Mappy still haunts my dreams to this day. I don't think I've ever been more frustrated playing a game in my entire life.

aaaaAAAAAAGH BUT I DON'T LIKE IT WHEN THINGS HAVE ACTUAL STAKES, I CAN ONLY TAKE PARTICIPATING IN ONE EVENT THAT HAS LEGITIMATE STAKES AT A TIME LEST I SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST FROM ALL THE STRESS

Wow... looks really nice! Super happy for you, even if you two are absolutely clinically insane for doing this at a time like this still though, you guys pulled it off, so I suppose I can't criticise too much!

damned if you do, damned if you don't.

While this is somewhat irrelevant to the topic of this thread, for what it's worth I can corroborate this. I'm 18, and, uh... math has never been my strong suit, to put it lightly. Although to be fair I've never been a big fan of math, so if I was around before electronic calculators existed, I still probably wouldn't be all that great at it, since part of me not being good at math was just me kind of dragging my feet on actually doing it as a kid.

I love how there's that one super out of place cat Mario, too. Like, he did have his normal outfit in that game so they could've just used that, but instead they went for cat Mario, even though every other iteration of Mario on that shirt has his normal outfit on

I didn't know this thread existed until now, but I'm very glad I discovered it just now.

Oh hey, I was wondering why I was mentioned in here. Hell, I'll take it

Honestly, I'm the type of person that will take any advantage a game gives me, especially if it's a particularly brutal game. I totally understand why people would have that outlook though, because there are some cases in which those little tricks just completely drain any difficulty out of the game.

Oh hey, I love Spirit Tracks too! I'm not sure I'd place it in my top 3, but that's honestly one of my favorites as well. Glad to see someone else enjoys that game as much as I do I also really enjoy Phantom Hourglass, although yeah, Spirit Tracks took everything Phantom Hourglass did and did it 10x better. I will also agree with you in that I do actually prefer ALBW over ALTTP.

I will admit though that while I may not enjoy the game's themselves all that much, the OSTs on the Mega Man games are always really good, especially the X games from what I've heard.

Oh hey, you actually just reminded me of an actually quite unpopular opinion I have: I don't really enjoy Mega Man games in general. Granted, I will admit it's been quite awhile since I've tried to play one, but I could never really get in to the originals or the X games. I gave both a pretty damn good shot, but I dunno. I just never quite got the hang of them. It's bizarre too, because I really like the Contra games for example, and stuff like Cuphead, so I'm not opposed to the challenge, I just... I dunno, I just never really liked them, and I'm not entirely sure why.

I can't comment on the other three, but I will say that the objective of Super Smash Bros. is to knock your opponent completely off the screen, not just the stage, however there is still a small portion off-screen in which your opponent can still survive, so you have to knock them pretty far. You have to whittle down their health enough to the point where you can do a powerful enough move that'll send them absolutely careening off the face of the Earth. Also, each direction you hold before pressing a button will make you do a different move, which is probably why you find the fireballs so inconsistent. So if you hold up and press a button, it'll do something different than if you hold right and press a button. Not to mention the fact that each character has their own move set and attacks, which further complicates things. But, to answer your question, generally speaking you hold a direction and then press the button, however if I remember correctly, doing both at the same time can also do different moves, but that may be different in the original compared to the one I'm familiar with. Granted I'm basing all of this on my knowledge of the newest iteration of Smash Bros, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, however I believe most of this does apply to the original as well, assuming that's the one you're playing. If you're still willing to give the game a chance, I would definitely recommend sticking with one character for now until you get somewhat used to the mechanics of the game before branching out to other characters to see which one you enjoy playing as.

And I hate your new profile pic, sweet holy mother of Jesus

Y'know... I was thinking that, but I just really didn't want to do him dirty like that.

Yeah, I am really curious why he thinks that.

I also really love Video game OSTs. While it's not first-party, I think the Castlevania series has some one of the most... listenable, I suppose? Soundtracks out of any game franchise I've ever encountered. The music holds up extraordinarily well without the context of the games in my opinion. While I obviously love Zelda, I think the CV games take the cake for some of my favorite video game OSTs of all time.

Welp, I think we have a winner ladies and gents

Yeah, although to be fair the rare times I can have a legitimate, respectful conversation about any of the latter ones I find to be the conversations in which I learn the most, both in general and about the other person.

Very good, yeah, this was a great idea. Honestly, there isn't much I love more than being able to respectfully discuss opposing opinions without it turning in to an argument, it's pretty fun

Yeah, while I disagree in general, a lot of open-world games do more or less boil down to checklists, so I can absolutely see how someone may not really enjoy that all too much. I do agree on Breath of the Wild though, really loved that game and the approach it took.

Honestly, I can see why you wouldn't like it, even if I obviously disagree. The overworld is quite big, and can be a bit of a drag to go through (Although the game does introduce fast travel, which mostly alleviates this issue) and, while I do think the combat is pretty good, I can see how it might get repetitive or boring to some people.

I have a feeling you guys haven't played Sonic Mania, that to me is by far the best Sonic game, it's at the absolute least on par with Sonic 2 and 3, but in my opinion it surpasses them. Everything about the game is superb, but the soundtrack in particular is on another level. As for my unpopular opinion... well, I would assume this is quite an unpopular opinion anyway: I personally enjoy the Sonic games more than the Mario games. Don't get me wrong, I love both, I'm not saying I love one and hate the other, I just personally have a bit more fun playing any of the Sonic games over any of the Mario games. Also, Breath of the Wild is my personal favorite Zelda game, even if it strays away from some of the things the Zelda franchise is traditionally known for. It's essentially my version of Ocarina of Time as far as how much that games means to me, and how much I cherish it. Not quite as unpopular as some of the bombshells that people have dropped in here, but hey, I'm generally an easy to please person when it comes to entertainment, if anything I'd be more likely to enjoy something that's generally heavily disliked than to dislike something everyone else loves.