There is nO possible concurrence. regice theme in bdsp is the best battle theme i've ever heard.
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Your Favorite Theme in Pokemon?
- Thread starter Azureaper
- Start date
Probably, but it shows me a simple white Screen to me
Now's the right time to bring in these wondrous arrangements of classic XY/ORAS tracks to ring in Legends Z-A. Whatever that game brings out for its own Lumiose remix, it has stiff competition!
Ten Carat Hill's theme is one of my favorite songs in the franchise. There's fierce competition though, this franchise has bangers every game. Maybe I'll make a list later.
Pokemon does indeed have a great amount of incredible songs.
I could list the usual ones like Rose, Ghetchis' various themes, N's, or my favourite overall theme in the franchise: the World Champion one from Black and White.
I do want however to point out that if there is something that has remained consistent in the Switch era is the fantastic music, particulary the ones related to legends. SWSH has the various themes of the wolves, LA has the Origin Formes and Arceus, and SV just...about anything really. The Loyal Three, The Ruinous Quartet, the one of the final Raidon vs Raidon battle and Terapagos are all great. Of course anything related to Area Zero is awesome too.
I could list the usual ones like Rose, Ghetchis' various themes, N's, or my favourite overall theme in the franchise: the World Champion one from Black and White.
I do want however to point out that if there is something that has remained consistent in the Switch era is the fantastic music, particulary the ones related to legends. SWSH has the various themes of the wolves, LA has the Origin Formes and Arceus, and SV just...about anything really. The Loyal Three, The Ruinous Quartet, the one of the final Raidon vs Raidon battle and Terapagos are all great. Of course anything related to Area Zero is awesome too.
As someone who grew up with Pearl I imagine the feeling this track fills me with must've been the same the GSC generation felt upon hearing HGSS' rendition of National Park for the first time
Probably a popular choice but for Town/Field music it is National Park and Ecruteak/Cianwood City, both the GSC and HGSS versions. Despite only being allowed an hour of gaming time in my early childhood I would still return to both places in GSC just to listen to the music. It is soothing in a very special way, even today. Reminds me of simpler times...
Battle themes are a tough choice... of the top of my head I'd say Giratina and Colress. Both feel super unique and out there, without sacrifing catchiness. And considering you usually only hear them once per playthrough, they make a very good impression.
I should listen to the soundtracks again, there are so many good tracks to talk about...
Battle themes are a tough choice... of the top of my head I'd say Giratina and Colress. Both feel super unique and out there, without sacrifing catchiness. And considering you usually only hear them once per playthrough, they make a very good impression.
I should listen to the soundtracks again, there are so many good tracks to talk about...
it's peak...
They dropped the Legends Johto credits theme and it's fire!
Wow, it really took me well over 20 years and this exact post to realize the GSC credits themes are just the Ecruteak / Cianwood lietmotif again.
Wonderful, I've found a thread where I can infodump about Pokemon's incredible OSTs! I've been on a SMC crank these last few days and I've been thinking about the soundtracks a bunch. This post will mainly look at the Scarlet/Violet soundtrack and how the different composers bring it to life. Huge post incoming.
First of all, for the newer Switch games I highly recommend finding the Super Music Collections and listening to them instead of game rips: the sound is so much better on a lot of tracks. I can't link to a download but it's on the Archive. I'll be using Youtube video links here, hidden in spoilers to prevent this post from being 500 yards long, but trust me, it's a much better listen on the SMCs.
Junichi Masuda left Game Freak in 2022 to work at The Pokemon Company. Mainly known for most of Pokemon's early music and battle themes, his soundtrack contributions have dwindled over time but many expect SV to be one of his last runs as a composer. (He'll still probably be credited on interpolations of things like the Gym theme, though.) The early-game themes for Poco Path (both arranged by Minako Adachi) are classic Masuda and a fitting sendoff if he does stop composing for them. Poco Path has all of the melodic inclinations of an 8-bit theme transposed to live instruments, and the battle theme is the only traditional one you'll encounter, as the rest of the game's wild battle music is dynamic with the location. For many fans, Masuda's music was the first thing they heard, and it's only right that he gets some of the first dibs on the music here too.
Upon leaving Poco Path we're greeted with Toby Fox's composition on South Province, which goes on to be one of the most important motifs of the whole game. Fox's full-blast melodies come out here as it transitions between triumphant horns and strings, arranged by Minako Adachi (more on her in a bit). It's no surprise that the man known for heavy use of leitmotifs comes into play here, as South Province ends up being something of an anthem for Paldea and Miraidon/Koraidon. We also see a transition to dynamic battle music, with the battle theme being an energetic, pulsing variation of the theme with Go Ichinose-esque slap bass. Between this, the Academy theme, and another thing I'll get to, they've really trusted Fox with some of the most important music in the game.
Minako Adachi is, to me, one of Game Freak's composers most responsible for crafting its modern sound. Arranging for ORAS and doing a lot of composition for SM, she's fully unleashed on SV's soundtrack, composing soundtracks for the West, East, and North provinces that the player will spend a ton of time in. Adachi is highly versatile and she taps into a number of genres to make the soundtracks super distinct. West transitions from a jaunty Celtic overworld theme to a desert cowboy showdown in battle, East gets super adventurous and medieval with a constantly shifting time signature that keeps you on your toes, and North, intended as the final area, gets a slower theme that imposes scale and the nature of the area, from the lake to the icy mountain.
The entirety of the Team Star suite was composed by non-Game Freak composer Teruo Taniguchi, who produces some of the most stylistically unique tracks in the soundtrack as a result, with plenty of electric guitar and loud synths accenting his compositions. His work with the Team Star Boss and Cassiopeia themes are well known to be incredible, but I'll give a special shoutout to the Team Star Grunt theme, which many of you will not have heard, as you fight like five grunts and they lose in a minute. The thing is, about 39 seconds in, it switches hard from a murky, "you're fighting a generic enemy" theme to this melancholic, almost...heroic theme? It turns into something out of the final scene of an anime, where the protagonist is desperately pushing back against a giant meteor or something. Certainly not what you would expect for a generic evil team grunt, but when the full story of Team Star is revealed, it clicks: this is the theme of their desperate struggle to be accepted, the theme of people forced to become villains to protect themselves. And the thing is — you never hear most of this, because at this point in the story, you don't know Team Star's story. You're presented with apparent antagonists but it goes much deeper than you know, because you won before you could hear the full thing. I'm fully of the belief that this was intentional. (Also, please seek out the SMC version of the Team Star Boss theme: there's a variation in the second loop that 99% of game rips miss.)
Hitomi Sato, probably best known for jazzy compositions and one of the lead voices of Pokemon's DS era, has less of a prominent role on this soundtrack compared to her transcendent work on PLA. She still finds time to compose a decent amount of town themes and incidental music with her signature sound; my favorite is definitely Cascarrafa, a jaunty Alola-esque tune with plenty of free-flowing instruments, guitars and electric organs and pianos going back and forth with each instrument getting its chance to freestyle a little.
Credited on much of the cutscene and one-off music is Hiromitsu Maeba, a newcomer to the team who joined around the time of PLA. He has a lot of bits and pieces in the soundtrack but I'll give a particular highlight to his work on Clavell's suite; his battle theme is full of intrigue and importance, a formally dressed man holding a high office who actually cares, not your true opponent but one hell of an opponent nonetheless. The melody at 1:18 is just wonderful and I wish it went on much longer.
Maeba also sneaks in a motif that you might miss — it plays during the scripted battle in the cave at the start where you're horribly outmatched by a Houndoom, and it plays at the end of Teal Mask when Kieran declares he has to get stronger snd stronger. I don't know what to make of this besides it representing a character that isn't strong enough, but it's a very interesting use.
(this is not the full version, check the SMC for "I Have To Become Stronger")
Eventually it all comes back to the crater, and for the endgame you simply have to call in Go Ichinose. A composer and arranger with an outstanding sense of scale and importance, Ichinose is tapped in almost every modern Pokemon soundtrack to score important battles or climactic dungeons. This game is no different, as we see with his arrangement of Toby Fox's Area Zero theme. The base melodies are so very Fox, the underlying Tera motif and progression style almost reminiscent of his work on Undertale. Ichinose brings it to the scale it deserves with massive, reverberating drums, reversed and manipulated instruments, and — most importantly — a huge, unmistakably human choir. A rarely used instrument in Pokemon soundtracks, it adds a layer of mystery to the crater as you wonder just what the hell you flew into. The battle theme is more obviously Ichinose, with his drum fills and hyperactive slap bass accenting both the four-to-the-floor standard theme and the halftime variant used for Paradox Pokemon. Impressively, it sounds fitting for both versions, neither obviously representative of the future or the past. It's a beautiful, broken paradise, and you should not be here.
At the center of it all, it's "Battle! Zero Lab," an all-Fox job and by now renowned as one of the best Pokemon battle themes out there. In the first section, the Area Zero motif transforms into a racing, heavily layered anthem that imparts dread as guitars and thumping drums drive home just how important this battle is. But then, there's a break, with the jingling Area Zero motif almost providing literal glimmers of hope, and the Tera Raid motif comes in triumphantly on electric guitar, a spark of...determination in the face of an unstoppable enemy using Pokemon you've never seen before. Almost reminiscent of Fox's work on "Battle Against A True Hero," it's a reminder that you can win this battle, but also that you must.
"Battle! (■■■■)" is the official title for the soundtrack to the climax, the wonderful scripted fight as you break the UI to select your longtime partner and defeat its rival against the odds. Composed by Fox and arranged by Ichinose, it's huge, triumphant, and brings back in Fox's South Province motif — the place where you first met your beloved bike, reminding you of the journey to nurse it back to full power, all the adventures you had on its back, and now finally getting to unleash the monster on the cover of the game. The slap bass goes off at rapid fire as everything comes together, you and your giant lizard friend against the world. It's not the AI's theme; we already had that. This is all yours.
When I mentioned finding the SMC it's at least partially about this track. The Academy Ace Tournament theme has a much improved sound and it removes a lot of the muddiness (this link is timestamped): it really brings out all of Toby Fox's glorious maximalist energy. His double-time drums back an absolutely euphoric series of melodies, soaring saxophones celebrating your victory before you've even won. And pay attention to that second loop, where he throws in this infectious groove accompanied by a sax solo.
At this point I'll pivot to highlighting a few DLC tracks. Much of the Teal Mask soundtrack is handled by Minako Adachi, who continues to flex her versatility. Her Kitakami suite features a traditional-sounding overworld theme reminiscent of an old Eastern province without falling into stereotypical Asian music tropes, before transitioning into a drum-heavy banger that frankly goes harder than a wild encounter theme has any right to. The siblings obviously get great themes too: Carmine's shows off a mixture of her initial aggression and a friendliness that becomes apparent as we spend more time with her. More on her sibling in a second...
Hitomi Sato mainly lends her sound to cutscenes and one-off scenes like the Flying Time Trial music, but I specifically have to note Perrin's Theme, which sounds like it was ripped right out of DPP and given fresh instruments — even the bass sounds similar to the soundfonts she frequented in the DS era. Interpolating her own melodies for the clan settlements in PLA, it's super cozy and features more freeform piano stylings, making this one of her most recognizable pieces.
The evolution of Kieran's themes represent his decaying sanity as he gets lied to, gets rejected by an ogre, and promptly Locks In just to lose anyways. Things start innocuously, as he starts out being just the shy rival, not too serious of a theme, he's using mons like Furret. In his final Teal Mask battle, his violins become discordant and chaotic, and it's obvious that his emotions are threatening to boil over. He's swapped out the weak mons for monstrous-looking ones, and likewise his theme introduces electric guitar and piano that almost hit 3DS Kirby boss-esque chord progressions, with only a few melodies from his initial theme remaining.
Then, one DLC later, we get his Champion theme, and the Kieran we knew is all but gone as he challenges us with VGC strats and a burning desire to watch us fall. Barely anything remains from the first battle, with his violins twisted into an ominous opening and a wicked guitar intro to start it off. At one point the theme drops into a double-time segment that I swore was Toby Fox's work (seriously he does this in so many of his battle themes), and later there's plenty of slap bass in a climactic Go Ichinose style, but it's all Adachi, a certifiable chameleon on these soundtracks.
Now, much of the Indigo Disk's soundtrack consists of faithful callbacks to the Black and White soundtrack, classic works from Shota Kageyama, Masuda, Ichinose, and Sato. Most notably, Unova Routes 4 and 6 (Shota Kageyama) are interpolated in every version, and they're dead right in identifying them as iconic themes of Unova. I'll single out Coastal Biome as my favorite overworld track for its aggressive slap bass (presumably from Go Ichinose) and interpolation of Hitomi Sato's classic Driftveil City theme. Adachi's Elite Four theme calls upon thoughts of the BW legendary theme without actually sampling it; it's clever and adds extra oomph to battling four ridiculously powerful students.
Despite being light on the lore, the finale of Indigo Disk brings some great music. Fox brings back the Area Zero motif for the Underdepths theme, arranged by Sato for an eerie, uncanny, almost holy atmosphere, the choir returning and more disturbingly human than ever. You're still not supposed to be here, but the voices call you deeper and deeper — you would always end up here.
Kieran's battle theme is even further distorted as he tries to control Terapagos, who is put off by his bad vibes so much that it actively tries to kill him later; you hear the remnants of his theme fight with Terapagos' own instruments. For both Terapagos fights, Rei Murayama enters the fray, a 2018 hire in several leadership roles making his composing debut here. Ichinose obviously arranges both themes, with the final one featuring Fox's melodies as well. Between the soaring choirs, the timpani drums and ominous horns, there's something almost playful about Terapagos' final theme, a reminder that you're fighting essentially a baby with power far beyond its control.
I could go on about half the tracks on the OST but I'll stop here — just wanted to show appreciation for what I think is one of the best modern Pokemon soundtracks. Next time I get into a writing groove I'll tackle the Pokemon Legends: Arceus soundtrack. Spoiler: I'll be gushing over Hitomi Sato and Go Ichinose for several pages.
First of all, for the newer Switch games I highly recommend finding the Super Music Collections and listening to them instead of game rips: the sound is so much better on a lot of tracks. I can't link to a download but it's on the Archive. I'll be using Youtube video links here, hidden in spoilers to prevent this post from being 500 yards long, but trust me, it's a much better listen on the SMCs.
Junichi Masuda left Game Freak in 2022 to work at The Pokemon Company. Mainly known for most of Pokemon's early music and battle themes, his soundtrack contributions have dwindled over time but many expect SV to be one of his last runs as a composer. (He'll still probably be credited on interpolations of things like the Gym theme, though.) The early-game themes for Poco Path (both arranged by Minako Adachi) are classic Masuda and a fitting sendoff if he does stop composing for them. Poco Path has all of the melodic inclinations of an 8-bit theme transposed to live instruments, and the battle theme is the only traditional one you'll encounter, as the rest of the game's wild battle music is dynamic with the location. For many fans, Masuda's music was the first thing they heard, and it's only right that he gets some of the first dibs on the music here too.
Upon leaving Poco Path we're greeted with Toby Fox's composition on South Province, which goes on to be one of the most important motifs of the whole game. Fox's full-blast melodies come out here as it transitions between triumphant horns and strings, arranged by Minako Adachi (more on her in a bit). It's no surprise that the man known for heavy use of leitmotifs comes into play here, as South Province ends up being something of an anthem for Paldea and Miraidon/Koraidon. We also see a transition to dynamic battle music, with the battle theme being an energetic, pulsing variation of the theme with Go Ichinose-esque slap bass. Between this, the Academy theme, and another thing I'll get to, they've really trusted Fox with some of the most important music in the game.
Minako Adachi is, to me, one of Game Freak's composers most responsible for crafting its modern sound. Arranging for ORAS and doing a lot of composition for SM, she's fully unleashed on SV's soundtrack, composing soundtracks for the West, East, and North provinces that the player will spend a ton of time in. Adachi is highly versatile and she taps into a number of genres to make the soundtracks super distinct. West transitions from a jaunty Celtic overworld theme to a desert cowboy showdown in battle, East gets super adventurous and medieval with a constantly shifting time signature that keeps you on your toes, and North, intended as the final area, gets a slower theme that imposes scale and the nature of the area, from the lake to the icy mountain.
The entirety of the Team Star suite was composed by non-Game Freak composer Teruo Taniguchi, who produces some of the most stylistically unique tracks in the soundtrack as a result, with plenty of electric guitar and loud synths accenting his compositions. His work with the Team Star Boss and Cassiopeia themes are well known to be incredible, but I'll give a special shoutout to the Team Star Grunt theme, which many of you will not have heard, as you fight like five grunts and they lose in a minute. The thing is, about 39 seconds in, it switches hard from a murky, "you're fighting a generic enemy" theme to this melancholic, almost...heroic theme? It turns into something out of the final scene of an anime, where the protagonist is desperately pushing back against a giant meteor or something. Certainly not what you would expect for a generic evil team grunt, but when the full story of Team Star is revealed, it clicks: this is the theme of their desperate struggle to be accepted, the theme of people forced to become villains to protect themselves. And the thing is — you never hear most of this, because at this point in the story, you don't know Team Star's story. You're presented with apparent antagonists but it goes much deeper than you know, because you won before you could hear the full thing. I'm fully of the belief that this was intentional. (Also, please seek out the SMC version of the Team Star Boss theme: there's a variation in the second loop that 99% of game rips miss.)
Hitomi Sato, probably best known for jazzy compositions and one of the lead voices of Pokemon's DS era, has less of a prominent role on this soundtrack compared to her transcendent work on PLA. She still finds time to compose a decent amount of town themes and incidental music with her signature sound; my favorite is definitely Cascarrafa, a jaunty Alola-esque tune with plenty of free-flowing instruments, guitars and electric organs and pianos going back and forth with each instrument getting its chance to freestyle a little.
Credited on much of the cutscene and one-off music is Hiromitsu Maeba, a newcomer to the team who joined around the time of PLA. He has a lot of bits and pieces in the soundtrack but I'll give a particular highlight to his work on Clavell's suite; his battle theme is full of intrigue and importance, a formally dressed man holding a high office who actually cares, not your true opponent but one hell of an opponent nonetheless. The melody at 1:18 is just wonderful and I wish it went on much longer.
Maeba also sneaks in a motif that you might miss — it plays during the scripted battle in the cave at the start where you're horribly outmatched by a Houndoom, and it plays at the end of Teal Mask when Kieran declares he has to get stronger snd stronger. I don't know what to make of this besides it representing a character that isn't strong enough, but it's a very interesting use.
Eventually it all comes back to the crater, and for the endgame you simply have to call in Go Ichinose. A composer and arranger with an outstanding sense of scale and importance, Ichinose is tapped in almost every modern Pokemon soundtrack to score important battles or climactic dungeons. This game is no different, as we see with his arrangement of Toby Fox's Area Zero theme. The base melodies are so very Fox, the underlying Tera motif and progression style almost reminiscent of his work on Undertale. Ichinose brings it to the scale it deserves with massive, reverberating drums, reversed and manipulated instruments, and — most importantly — a huge, unmistakably human choir. A rarely used instrument in Pokemon soundtracks, it adds a layer of mystery to the crater as you wonder just what the hell you flew into. The battle theme is more obviously Ichinose, with his drum fills and hyperactive slap bass accenting both the four-to-the-floor standard theme and the halftime variant used for Paradox Pokemon. Impressively, it sounds fitting for both versions, neither obviously representative of the future or the past. It's a beautiful, broken paradise, and you should not be here.
At the center of it all, it's "Battle! Zero Lab," an all-Fox job and by now renowned as one of the best Pokemon battle themes out there. In the first section, the Area Zero motif transforms into a racing, heavily layered anthem that imparts dread as guitars and thumping drums drive home just how important this battle is. But then, there's a break, with the jingling Area Zero motif almost providing literal glimmers of hope, and the Tera Raid motif comes in triumphantly on electric guitar, a spark of...determination in the face of an unstoppable enemy using Pokemon you've never seen before. Almost reminiscent of Fox's work on "Battle Against A True Hero," it's a reminder that you can win this battle, but also that you must.
"Battle! (■■■■)" is the official title for the soundtrack to the climax, the wonderful scripted fight as you break the UI to select your longtime partner and defeat its rival against the odds. Composed by Fox and arranged by Ichinose, it's huge, triumphant, and brings back in Fox's South Province motif — the place where you first met your beloved bike, reminding you of the journey to nurse it back to full power, all the adventures you had on its back, and now finally getting to unleash the monster on the cover of the game. The slap bass goes off at rapid fire as everything comes together, you and your giant lizard friend against the world. It's not the AI's theme; we already had that. This is all yours.
When I mentioned finding the SMC it's at least partially about this track. The Academy Ace Tournament theme has a much improved sound and it removes a lot of the muddiness (this link is timestamped): it really brings out all of Toby Fox's glorious maximalist energy. His double-time drums back an absolutely euphoric series of melodies, soaring saxophones celebrating your victory before you've even won. And pay attention to that second loop, where he throws in this infectious groove accompanied by a sax solo.
At this point I'll pivot to highlighting a few DLC tracks. Much of the Teal Mask soundtrack is handled by Minako Adachi, who continues to flex her versatility. Her Kitakami suite features a traditional-sounding overworld theme reminiscent of an old Eastern province without falling into stereotypical Asian music tropes, before transitioning into a drum-heavy banger that frankly goes harder than a wild encounter theme has any right to. The siblings obviously get great themes too: Carmine's shows off a mixture of her initial aggression and a friendliness that becomes apparent as we spend more time with her. More on her sibling in a second...
Hitomi Sato mainly lends her sound to cutscenes and one-off scenes like the Flying Time Trial music, but I specifically have to note Perrin's Theme, which sounds like it was ripped right out of DPP and given fresh instruments — even the bass sounds similar to the soundfonts she frequented in the DS era. Interpolating her own melodies for the clan settlements in PLA, it's super cozy and features more freeform piano stylings, making this one of her most recognizable pieces.
The evolution of Kieran's themes represent his decaying sanity as he gets lied to, gets rejected by an ogre, and promptly Locks In just to lose anyways. Things start innocuously, as he starts out being just the shy rival, not too serious of a theme, he's using mons like Furret. In his final Teal Mask battle, his violins become discordant and chaotic, and it's obvious that his emotions are threatening to boil over. He's swapped out the weak mons for monstrous-looking ones, and likewise his theme introduces electric guitar and piano that almost hit 3DS Kirby boss-esque chord progressions, with only a few melodies from his initial theme remaining.
Then, one DLC later, we get his Champion theme, and the Kieran we knew is all but gone as he challenges us with VGC strats and a burning desire to watch us fall. Barely anything remains from the first battle, with his violins twisted into an ominous opening and a wicked guitar intro to start it off. At one point the theme drops into a double-time segment that I swore was Toby Fox's work (seriously he does this in so many of his battle themes), and later there's plenty of slap bass in a climactic Go Ichinose style, but it's all Adachi, a certifiable chameleon on these soundtracks.
Now, much of the Indigo Disk's soundtrack consists of faithful callbacks to the Black and White soundtrack, classic works from Shota Kageyama, Masuda, Ichinose, and Sato. Most notably, Unova Routes 4 and 6 (Shota Kageyama) are interpolated in every version, and they're dead right in identifying them as iconic themes of Unova. I'll single out Coastal Biome as my favorite overworld track for its aggressive slap bass (presumably from Go Ichinose) and interpolation of Hitomi Sato's classic Driftveil City theme. Adachi's Elite Four theme calls upon thoughts of the BW legendary theme without actually sampling it; it's clever and adds extra oomph to battling four ridiculously powerful students.
Despite being light on the lore, the finale of Indigo Disk brings some great music. Fox brings back the Area Zero motif for the Underdepths theme, arranged by Sato for an eerie, uncanny, almost holy atmosphere, the choir returning and more disturbingly human than ever. You're still not supposed to be here, but the voices call you deeper and deeper — you would always end up here.
Kieran's battle theme is even further distorted as he tries to control Terapagos, who is put off by his bad vibes so much that it actively tries to kill him later; you hear the remnants of his theme fight with Terapagos' own instruments. For both Terapagos fights, Rei Murayama enters the fray, a 2018 hire in several leadership roles making his composing debut here. Ichinose obviously arranges both themes, with the final one featuring Fox's melodies as well. Between the soaring choirs, the timpani drums and ominous horns, there's something almost playful about Terapagos' final theme, a reminder that you're fighting essentially a baby with power far beyond its control.
I could go on about half the tracks on the OST but I'll stop here — just wanted to show appreciation for what I think is one of the best modern Pokemon soundtracks. Next time I get into a writing groove I'll tackle the Pokemon Legends: Arceus soundtrack. Spoiler: I'll be gushing over Hitomi Sato and Go Ichinose for several pages.
Posts like this profoundly encourage me. It's good to know there are still people out there willing to engage with Pokemon as a series of art pieces made by actual human beings rather than writing large chunks of it off as meaningless corporate refuse and treating it all as hyper-optimized challenge run fodder
This is genuinely one of the best posts on the website, I thoroughly enjoyed every word
I'm glad some of you enjoyed my rambling! (I rambled so much that I had to type this out on page 1, because the page my writeup is on just crashes the tab on mobile lol.)
I do have one more track that I forgot, though. Once you finish a certain post-post-postgame, you're kicked back to the title screen, with a change in the books and a new theme playing:
It is, on its face, just a piano arrangement of Masuda's original Pokémon theme. But in the context of his departure from Game Freak, and the fact that the title screen has previously just been musicless, it's especially poignant. The fact that you're forcibly sent here tells me this might just be intentional, a tribute to the man that was Pokémon music for so long. The day is up, you've done everything you had to do, and after many hours of work, it's time to rest.
I do have one more track that I forgot, though. Once you finish a certain post-post-postgame, you're kicked back to the title screen, with a change in the books and a new theme playing:
It is, on its face, just a piano arrangement of Masuda's original Pokémon theme. But in the context of his departure from Game Freak, and the fact that the title screen has previously just been musicless, it's especially poignant. The fact that you're forcibly sent here tells me this might just be intentional, a tribute to the man that was Pokémon music for so long. The day is up, you've done everything you had to do, and after many hours of work, it's time to rest.
Y'all, I can't choose TT_TT . In no particular order, my favorites are:
The Snowpoint City Theme (Day version)
National Park theme in GSC
Pokémon Johto theme from the English dub of the anime
Cipher Syndicate Theme in Colosseum
Pokémon Title Theme (Pokémon Horizons version)
The Snowpoint City Theme (Day version)
National Park theme in GSC
Pokémon Johto theme from the English dub of the anime
Cipher Syndicate Theme in Colosseum
Pokémon Title Theme (Pokémon Horizons version)
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I wasn't too sad about losing out on Cyrus' theme in Legends Arceus since I had kinda soured on it anyway but they've GOT to figure out some context to bring in another Lysandre remix. Both of these themes manage to be so sinister and evocative of his character in completely different ways. One of my favorites from XY alongside Geosenge Town
I'll quickly spotlight Minako Adachi's work on Sun and Moon, arguably her breakout game that led to her taking point on a lot of modern Pokemon's soundtracks. I'll limit myself to five tracks so I don't yap forever.
She's responsible for the main theme of the whole region, and leads with choir chanting that immediately tells you that this region is not like what you've seen before culturally. Adachi is one of the only Pokemon composers that uses vocals in her tracks, and she makes sure every use has significance. The track also highlights her inclination towards powerful, loud melodies, and sets up many of the motifs for the whole game's soundtrack.
Here vocals are used for a completely different reason as we take a left turn into hip-hop-inspired beats. Adachi works a bad-guy-via-James-Bond melody into a thumping beat that fills a genre space previously unexplored in Pokemon, complete with what sound like sampled stabs and aggressively panned instruments. Warping bass and unsettling adlibs (YEEAAAAHHHHHH) make certain that Team Skull aren't too appealing to join, intentionally rough around the edges in a couple places.
Lusamine's theme intentionally clashes with itself: the strings and xylophone intentionally clash with the piano at times, and the seemingly serene melody is countered by increasingly active percussion, chopped-up synths, and a rimshot that's just off-kilter enough to keep you on your feet. It foreshadows the clash between the altruistic protector of Pokemon, the grief of losing her husband, and the space parasite eating her brain and leading her to obsession at the cost of her own children.
Malie City is one of the prettiest locales in Alola, designed as an intentional ode to Johto's architecture and Japan itself by extension. To that extent, Adachi goes all in on the Japanese instruments, using flute melodies and what sounds like a koto, the two instruments exchanging back and forth. I love the nighttime version of this track, it's incredibly serene.
She explores a lot of different genre spaces, but Adachi has repeatedly shown that she's capable of making straight-up banger battle themes too - remember, her first real assignment was the Team Flare suite. I could pick any number of tracks from the Skull suite to the trainer battle theme itself to either Lusamine theme, but I'll go with the Aether Foundation battle theme. It effectively flips the Aether motif with the modification of a deep, sinister piano loop, and doesn't adhere too hard in terms of being a motif flip either - at 30 seconds she goes off the rails with a chaotic, ascending section that climaxes in one of my favorite 2 bars of trumpets in Pokemon.
Side note: I also have a request. An USUM SMC was never released, so I haven't been able to find good composition/arrangement credits for any USUM tracks. I have some strong suspicions (Mantine Surf is probably Adachi, Beach Spot sounds a lot like Sato, Ultra Necrozma is obviously an Ichinose affair based on Masuda's melodies, a lot of the Rainbow Rocket boss remakes sound like Adachi) but nothing concrete. If anyone has credits for these I'd love to see them!
As an aside, I'm very excited to hear ZA's soundtrack - the slow French take on Lumiose sounds great. The second trailer track sounds like something Shota Kageyama would make. The battle theme goes for a fast version of French house drums which is a cool homage to the region, you can hear the 808 drums in full effect.
I'm hoping this soundtrack follows PLA and runs back the composers responsible for the original, being Kageyama/Sato/Adachi. I'd particularly be quite intrigued to see Kageyama return to main-series games after being put on remake and mobile game duty. If they cut him completely loose and let him roam from the source material more, he could deliver an all-timer.
She's responsible for the main theme of the whole region, and leads with choir chanting that immediately tells you that this region is not like what you've seen before culturally. Adachi is one of the only Pokemon composers that uses vocals in her tracks, and she makes sure every use has significance. The track also highlights her inclination towards powerful, loud melodies, and sets up many of the motifs for the whole game's soundtrack.
Here vocals are used for a completely different reason as we take a left turn into hip-hop-inspired beats. Adachi works a bad-guy-via-James-Bond melody into a thumping beat that fills a genre space previously unexplored in Pokemon, complete with what sound like sampled stabs and aggressively panned instruments. Warping bass and unsettling adlibs (YEEAAAAHHHHHH) make certain that Team Skull aren't too appealing to join, intentionally rough around the edges in a couple places.
Lusamine's theme intentionally clashes with itself: the strings and xylophone intentionally clash with the piano at times, and the seemingly serene melody is countered by increasingly active percussion, chopped-up synths, and a rimshot that's just off-kilter enough to keep you on your feet. It foreshadows the clash between the altruistic protector of Pokemon, the grief of losing her husband, and the space parasite eating her brain and leading her to obsession at the cost of her own children.
Malie City is one of the prettiest locales in Alola, designed as an intentional ode to Johto's architecture and Japan itself by extension. To that extent, Adachi goes all in on the Japanese instruments, using flute melodies and what sounds like a koto, the two instruments exchanging back and forth. I love the nighttime version of this track, it's incredibly serene.
She explores a lot of different genre spaces, but Adachi has repeatedly shown that she's capable of making straight-up banger battle themes too - remember, her first real assignment was the Team Flare suite. I could pick any number of tracks from the Skull suite to the trainer battle theme itself to either Lusamine theme, but I'll go with the Aether Foundation battle theme. It effectively flips the Aether motif with the modification of a deep, sinister piano loop, and doesn't adhere too hard in terms of being a motif flip either - at 30 seconds she goes off the rails with a chaotic, ascending section that climaxes in one of my favorite 2 bars of trumpets in Pokemon.
Side note: I also have a request. An USUM SMC was never released, so I haven't been able to find good composition/arrangement credits for any USUM tracks. I have some strong suspicions (Mantine Surf is probably Adachi, Beach Spot sounds a lot like Sato, Ultra Necrozma is obviously an Ichinose affair based on Masuda's melodies, a lot of the Rainbow Rocket boss remakes sound like Adachi) but nothing concrete. If anyone has credits for these I'd love to see them!
As an aside, I'm very excited to hear ZA's soundtrack - the slow French take on Lumiose sounds great. The second trailer track sounds like something Shota Kageyama would make. The battle theme goes for a fast version of French house drums which is a cool homage to the region, you can hear the 808 drums in full effect.
I'm hoping this soundtrack follows PLA and runs back the composers responsible for the original, being Kageyama/Sato/Adachi. I'd particularly be quite intrigued to see Kageyama return to main-series games after being put on remake and mobile game duty. If they cut him completely loose and let him roam from the source material more, he could deliver an all-timer.
The theme that plays when you storm Rose Tower with Hop doesn't remotely fit the vibe of the scene, but it's so catchy that it's completely forgivable.