Mega Man and Soul Blade and Dune 2 Music:

I quickly burnt through my supply of Soul Blade song reserves with still more Tales songs that need to be erased.  Next came Dune 2, famous for being the first real time strategy game.  Even that wasn't enough, and after applying the iconic Dragon Quest 1 overworld theme into one last hole, it was time to resort to a trick I didn't want to use:

Mega Man legacy collection 2 is coming out this August, and it will have 9 and 10 available for the first time.  I didn't want to listen to its music until I'd already beaten the games, but completing the perfect video game music playlist took priority over every other concern.

Between the two, I erased every bad Tales song left.  In exchange, my playlist features the theme song of every single robot master, a completionist's dream.

I couldn't have done it without Mega Man.  The other video games are nice, but they only represent a handful of songs each.  Mega Man has enough good music to really push things in a new direction.  With Mega Man on my side, I've managed to split my music from two halves (FF and Tales) into three thirds (FF, Tales, and Other.)

Everyone knows tables are less wobbly with three legs than two.  Likewise, my video game music playlist has been shored up from its previous incarnation, the 'best possible mix of FF and Tales,' into a new and better perfection, the 'best possible mix of video game songs from all the games I've played.'

I wasn't wrong when I said my playlist had reached its final form.  There was no way for it to improve under the rubric I was previously using.  But by downloading all these diverse new franchises which still fit under the category of video game music, I revitalized the project and sent it in a whole new direction.  However, even after casting a wider net, it was inevitable that I would yet again reach the finish line.  Today marks the true ending to the video game music playlist.

I had to rely on Mega Man games I've yet to play until later this summer, but I rounded up enough music to create a truly satisfactory collection of 3600 hand-picked champions (223 of whom are remixes).  1421 Final Fantasy, 1246 Tales, and 933 Other.  Still 700, 700, 700, 750, 750.  Still 1.4 days, 1.4 days, 1.4 days, 1.1 days, 1 day:

5 star:  FF: 415.  Tales:   98.  Other: 187.
4 star:  FF: 371.  Tales: 209.  Other: 120.
3 star:  FF: 192.  Tales: 451.  Other:   55.
2 star:  FF: 332.  Tales: 182.  Other: 236.
1 star:  FF: 111.  Tales: 306.  Other: 333.

All these changes had no impact on my 5 star playlist, and only a minor effect on my 4 and 3 stars.  This was really about improving the 2 and 1 star lists such that they'd be about as fun to listen to as the higher ups.  As it was they weren't worth listening to at all, but that's all been fixed now.  Every list under the stars is my pride and joy.