Enter the Game Music Thunderdome

Nah, from what I can see, it’s an original setting of the piece rather than licensing an existing recording, so you’re fine.

Fantasy General
Secret of Mana

Thanks to @krayzkrok for the re-link to a better version. And thanks to @Shimarenda for a little history on Dies Irae that I didn’t know about.

Ys, Secret of Mana

While Bayonetta is one of my all time favorite sensory experiences in aggregate, I find that song in isolation to be a little bit lacking.

The Ys tune sounded familiar, but now I’m wondering, have I heard it before? Or another arrangement? Or not at all and it’s just evocative of that style of bombastic fantasy/rock?

Ys I & II Chronicles and Fantasy General.

It is the opening theme of Ys 2 (thus the middle cutscene of the Ys duology, as the game has been bundled since the PC-Engine version).
You can find it in pretty much any flavour.
Here is the PC-88 cutscene


or the PC-Engine one

Fantasy General and Ys I & II Chronicles.

Bayonetta and Secret of Mana

That Bayonetta’s combat stripper aesthetic (through a Japanese lens) is seen as empowering, in a game that otherwise trades heavily in the most flagrant stereotypes, is something my last-century moral calibration will never quite reconcile; my first impressions seeing it as just weird (if par for the course) Japanese fetishization with pistol stiletto heels.

As music i really like it for how catchy and unusual it is in gaming. I mean, it does feel like there should be a stripper pole in the room somewhere, but there are a lot of catchy tunes in Bayonetta in general.

Bayonetta and Fantasy General

I love the Bayonetta soundtrack and I’ve always been a fan of the J-Pop sound for videogames in general. That tune specifically though just really encapsulates the upbeat sexy action of that game. It’s kind of the Daytona USA song of action games. :)

Fantasy General’s soundtrack is brilliant.

Again, there are two great tracks alongside these, but Mana’s opening is not as memorable as others of that era and Y’s is just solid, but unspectacular for me.

Secret of Mana and Bayonetta

Ys and Bayonetta

Ys and Bayonetta. Not the strongest leaning for me this round, could have swung toward Secret of Mana very easily!

I feel like this could be a close round…

Group Y

Featuring nominations from @geggis, @ArmandoPenblade, @Enidigm, and @robc04.

Ys and Fantasy General for me.

Yeah, just a bit :)

Group X Results:

Fantasy General: 11
Ys Chronicles: 10
Bayonetta: 9
Secret of Mana: 9

Oh wow, that’s crazy.

Pity I didn’t sneak in in time to vote for that set!

For this one, I am gonna go with

Total Annihilation - "Attack!!!"
and
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - "Glory’s Theme"

:-)

Total Annihilation and Divinity 2: Ego Draconis

Rayman Legends.

Total Annihilation - “Attack!!!” and Divinity 2 - “Broken Valley Wakes” RIP Kirill Pokrovsky.

Divinity 2 and Total Annihilation

Rayman Legends and Total Annihilation