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Pokémon Music Appreciation Thread: Bring on the Trumpets! (X/Y soundtrack on 11/13!)

Firemind

Member
It's gotta be Silph Co. Not only does the chord progression give a sense of immediacy, the flute sets the atmosphere perfectly. It is a hostile takeover of the company after all. I could be wrong, but I don't think any other dungeon in the series has arranged a hostage situation akin to Die Hard. It felt awesome that, like John McClane, you alone averted the crisis. The subsequent organizations never felt as threatening as Team Rocket.

Runner-up would be Team Rocket's Hideout. The flute is also used to great effect here.
 
For starters, all aboard the Kageyama train:

Chargestone Cave
Dark, moody, plus I liked the instruments used here, very appropriate. The string plucks throughout give a feeling of creepy crawly things around you - I thought it was appropriate, given the association between the cave and Joltik/Galvantula. I also really liked how that main melody was left to complete itself every so often, which I never really noticed until I listened agan to it more closely (doot de/ doot de/doo ....). Was it to give an anxious feel to the track, along with the last few notes before the loop? Maybe.
Those pizzicato strings never reminded me of Joltik, Roggenrola, or any other Pokémon in those caves. Odd.

I counter your Kageyama Train™ with an Ichinose Barricade™ of my own.

Oreburgh Mine is a gorgeous mood piece, dominated by glockenspiel, meandering flute, and bass inserts. It gives off the feeling of fleeing through a mysterious, sporadically-lit mine seemingly without effort. And the track has great use of dynamics, fading in and out of the louder ranges to accentuate movement and the unsettling atmosphere this piece gives off. Plus: a great melody and a lot of development in the latter-half of the track.
 
It is a hostile takeover of the company after all. I could be wrong, but I don't think any other dungeon in the series has arranged a hostage situation akin to Die Hard.
Team Rocket version two took over the Goldenrod Radio Tower in Johto during Gold & Silver and HG/SS. That should count, though the Silph Co. music worked better for it's given scenario than the music used in Gen 2.

The above music is what I'm referring to.
 

Firemind

Member
^ Ah I somehow forgot about that. That track takes me back. If only Team Rocket would return to its former glory. So campy, yet not as cheesy as Team Magma, Aqua, Galactic and Plasma.
 
Team Rocket = badass.
Team Magma = butthurt.
Team Aqua = disco maniacs (I ain't kidding).
Team Galactic = actually insane.
Team Plasma = pathetic, except for Ghetsis.

That's how I see each Team. They're all full of camp, but the cheesiest of all is Team Aqua. Their music is hilarious.
 

Anth0ny

Member
Alright: let's all talk about something together, for a change.

What's your favorite dungeon track, and why? Do you like this track because of its "epic" chord progression? Is it foreboding, unsettling, scary even? Or is the track something completely unexpected?

Since this is an appreciation thread, and not simply an excuse to dump links and call it a day, I think we should have a set topic of interest.

Silph Co as someone mentioned.

Cinnabar Mansion is up there. So creepy.

I've also always loved Dark Cave in Pokemon GSC.
 
Best dungeon theme is a triple threat: Celestial Tower/ Dragonspiral Tower/ Giant Chasm

Mournful, creepy, elegiac, sombre piece, which works equally well for all three locations. The piano gives it a drive and a mournful timbre that works fabulously well. The strings and synths give it the funereal tone that befits the Celestial Tower, whereas it still feels mythical enough for the Tao trio's habitats.

I am very bad at musical analysis. :(
 
That post could have been much worse, Exter. Really. Most people have trouble analyzing music because they can't find much to talk about, other than technical aspects. But that wasn't half-bad. One of the reasons Nert and I want to make a Game Music-GAF thread is to explain to a wide audience that, yes, you too can talk about game music in detail. I mean: I go overboard with my musical analysis, but anyone can do it if they know what to talk about.

In the case of Pokémon: these dungeon tracks work best when they're great to listen to in and out of context. Oreburgh Mines, for example, is memorable on its own. In-game, it improves the experience of running through that early-game dungeon by providing an emotional link between the player and the game.

Game music analysis, I think, is more about meta-text than anything else. It's about connecting the quality of the music—the most immediately-recognizable part of a game's presentation—to how the game plays and feels.
 

Sciz

Member
Hm... kind of a broad category. The series has a number of different kinds of dungeons, and they all take a distinctly different approach to their music. Pokemon towers, hideouts, ruins, forests, caves... let's go with caves.

Mt. Moon is the first and best of the eerie, oppressive variety of cave theme. It's a song that conveys a sense of mystery, and along with the infinite swarm of Zubats that accompanied it, complete and total disdain for anyone who dared set foot inside its realm. Ice Path is another solid entry in the same vein, albeit with less malice. The series has significantly mellowed out since, and it just hasn't been the same.

And then there's the grand champion of all final cave themes, R/S/E's Victory Road. It does not care that the place is long, labyrinthine, and dangerous. It does not care that you just saved the world, because you aren't done yet. It's a grand, sweeping orchestral piece that nearly has enough energy to be a battle theme and it demands that you prove yourself to be the best of the best if you want to have a prayer of continuing on. It's good enough that the anime remixed it twice and Sakuraba went to town on it for Brawl. Gen 1 is the only other one that comes close, and it's a distant second. The other three aren't even trying by comparison.

They're all full of camp, but the cheesiest of all is Team Aqua. Their music is hilarious.

The anime never cleaned anything up quite as well as Team Aqua's theme. Talk about going from the lowest of the low to some of the highest of the high.

Magma sort of went the other direction, ironically.
 
You forgot, Sciz: Team Aqua's theme was already the best Team theme yet. Miyazaki just made it better.

Gen 3 Victory Road is still the best Victory Road. Gen 4's was dull by comparison, and Gen 5's has a different objective entirely.
 
Those pizzicato strings never reminded me of Joltik, Roggenrola, or any other Pokémon in those caves. Odd.
It's more like, it reminds me of bugs and whatnot, and then with the web blocking your way before you can make progress, I had a feeling that the cave attracted plenty of <electric spiders>.

On that note, Mt. Coronet totally counts, right? Right? Right. *Kageyama detoured by Gen 4*

I think I wrote something a while back, maybe in the Community thread, going over which songs were my favorite and such, and this song made an appearance somewhere. Your comment:
Mt. Coronet is, from my perspective, an evolution of the technical complexity found in both the cave dungeon themes of games past and Mt. Chimney's lovely panache and intensity, finding a nice equilibrium that set the standard for future tracks like Sinjoh Ruins.
I'll just say "Yes" :)

I liked the progression from "snowy" to madness that the song took, maybe to show a contrast between the snowy mountain and the spacetimeyness of the peak. Although the song does sound odd here and there because of the random interjections as it went on. Not very cohesive in the instrument department, I guess? I do like more piano in my Pokémon though (Pokéwood track <3), so there's that.

On another note, I wonder if I can pin down why the dropoff at the climax of the song sounds very "Pokémon"-ish to me. I wonder if it was heavily present in one of the prior games. Closest ref. I can find is the start of Route 110, since it popped into my head, though it's not quite the same.
 

Azure J

Member
I've also always loved Dark Cave in Pokemon GSC.

You're a good man Anth0ny. This was one of the first times I'd get lost in a "dungeon" type of environment just for the music. Cinnabar Mansion was another good pick as is GSC Victory Road. One of my favorites though is the ominous Rocket Hideout from GSC. It just sounds so mechanical and possesses an air of infiltration as per what you had to do in that sequence of the game.

From the more recent games, Dragonspiral Tower gets a nomination.
 
On another note, I wonder if I can pin down why the dropoff at the climax of the song sounds very "Pokémon"-ish to me. I wonder if it was heavily present in one of the prior games. Closest ref. I can find is the start of Route 110, since it popped into my head, though it's not quite the same.
I think that's just a device Ichinose likes to use in some of his more "serious" arrangements. His arrangement of Route 29 (which takes the worst opening route theme and turns it into the best of them all) has that drop-off moment as well., and it's used effectively before the end loop.

GSC Rocket Hideout felt disappointing to listen to, since it's predecessor is so much more threatening.
 
I wonder if I could get pokerus by using old, discarded needles...

*straps on trusty tourniquet instead*

Edit: Lol Dragoon, it just dawned on me you meant something else. I feel dumb :p
 
It's supposed to work as a shortened hyperlink that links to YouTube videos. I can go check and make sure I haven't mis-spelled any link URLs. What usually happens is that Chrome links to said domain site when it's yout.be and not youtu.be. If that's still happening to you with the latter typing, though, then I'm not sure what else I can do.

EDIT: All of the links work for me, save one that I just fixed. I'm using Chrome as well, and the links are referring me to the correct upload pages.
 

Mr. RHC

Member
Great thread, I lot of good memories come to my mind!

It's hard to pick my favourites out of all games since it's been a while since I played most of the Pokémon entries but how could I not love all tracks :p


Black&White
Accumula Town:

A catchy track but the moment when I talked to the ingame musicians and they started to improvise along the city music I knew that I was sold to this game! :D I still think having this in various cities is one of the coolest things!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pomlM8tt8VE



This is fantastic!
 
^This is a good post. Interesting you picked themes that aren't battle themes, as in my experience (so purely anecdotal), most of the recognized themes in Pokemon are generally the battle themes.
Hey thanks, as for the main point regarding battle themes, while there are many good ones throughout the series I tend to resonate more with themes from the overworld, one thing that bugs me is that to me wild pokemon battles and trainer battles often end up as the weaker battle themes and they are the ones you'll hear the most. This is probably why the D/P battle theme irks me so, it starts off like the proverbial shit is about to go down and that random trainer bob is worth bracing yourself for and as it progresses it slips into a dreary lull that removes any tension and energy the song built up, I may be alone here so here's the theme to judge for yourself.
And as good as Black/White soundtracks are I can't even remember its trainer battle off the top of my head, so yeah i'd say I usually angle towards the other themes, the exception being Ruby/Sapphire where I felt the battle themes were easily the package highlight. Most other games tend to strike a solid balance.

Unova Route 6 has boring music. It must just be me, but the brass samples in B/W still don't have anything on R/S' awesome samples, though B&W2 has much-better brass usage. And that melody and chord progression isn't as original and captivating as the one in Route 4. That said, Route 4 is almost-always underdeveloped as a whole, though it's very memorable.

Mt. Chimney is both catchy and well-developed. That's why it's awesome.
Funny because i've never liked Mt Chimney too much, it always sounded overdone to me, trumpets hidden within trumpets and an overly in your face feel that came off as a bit fierce, I get this is aplce where villains turn up but the theme works better as applied to them, later on its just npcs and a lava cookie stand, meanwhile you've still got that in your face music blaring out of your speakers, BUY THE DAMN COOKIES!

As for the other point, yes Route 4 and B/W Route 6 are simple melodies and quite catchy to me, as someone like yourself with a far better ear for the composition of music I can see where you're coming from, but for me its those qualities that make me find them endearing.

But of course each to their own, this isn't the first time we've jousted with the trumpets of Hoenn.

FR/LG's rearrange is definitely more ferocious and less focused, but I think it's more bombastic, more menacing, and ultimately more memorable than the original. You could definitely make a case for Lavender Town sounding better in the original, but I won't make that argument for the original Champion theme.
I just can't forgive this, It starts so well with that percussion adding an extra layer of pumping up to the intro and then loses it, I don't know what starts happening at 19 seconds in but I don't like it.

Soooo...bike themes? :)

The DPPt one is one of my favorites.
A tough one really, D/P might be the best overall but I love the way B/W starts up.

Alright: let's all talk about something together, for a change.

What's your favorite dungeon track, and why? Do you like this track because of its "epic" chord progression? Is it foreboding, unsettling, scary even? Or is the track something completely unexpected?

Silph Co is an interesting one, the bane of every child playing Red and Blue. It starts slow and kind of eerie and it builds upon this by picking up tempo before completely going nuts and dropping into that slow finish. The maddening theme of the music goes well with the madness of those damn warp pads and makes for a suitable follow up to the Rocket Hideout which has a similar theme.

Hey: what's everyone's favorite trainer eyecatch? I do love me some Ace Trainer good-ness from Hoenn.
Not my favourite but for comic value OLD COUPLE JOHN AND JAY WANT TO BATTLE
I never knew old folks rocked out like that...
 
This is probably why the D/P battle theme irks me so, it starts off like the proverbial shit is about to go down and that random trainer bob is worth bracing yourself for and as it progresses it slips into a dreary lull that removes any tension and energy the song built up, I may be alone here so here's the theme to judge for yourself.

I don't like that battle theme at all. I associate it with battles that took forever to end, and the music itself reflected the boredom and senility of these battles. So yeah.

Funny because i've never liked Mt Chimney too much, it always sounded overdone to me, trumpets hidden within trumpets and an overly in your face feel that came off as a bit fierce, I get this is aplce where villains turn up but the theme works better as applied to them, later on its just npcs and a lava cookie stand, meanwhile you've still got that in your face music blaring out of your speakers, BUY THE DAMN COOKIES!

That's valid thinking, though. You wouldn't need such a melodramatic theme once the melodrama was over. Not that it bothers me much, because Mt. Chimney is groovy as all-get-out, and you don't spend much time up there at all after the Team stuff is finished.

As for the other point, yes Route 4 and B/W Route 6 are simple melodies and quite catchy to me, as someone like yourself with a far better ear for the composition of music I can see where you're coming from, but for me its those qualities that make me find them endearing.

Well: I've nothing against simple material, so long as it feels substantial and worth a listen in and out of context. But Route 6 never did anything for me, and the brass in that track has nothing on the Gen 3 brass. Nothing. You either go brassy or you do something more creative and off-the-walls. Route 10's a great example of how to make a distinct, interesting route theme that doesn't rely on brass and other conventional instrumentation. And it's got more length, more development, more of the stuff that peaks my interest in a route theme. A lot of the new route music in B&W2 is, much like in its predecessor, boring and lacking development. I think they suffer from the same lack of interesting approaches and stylistic arrangement that has defined past route themes from Diamond & Pearl and Ruby & Sapphire.

I just can't forgive this, It starts so well with that percussion adding an extra layer of pumping up to the intro and then loses it, I don't know what starts happening at 19 seconds in but I don't like it.

So then it's a balanced arrangement that doesn't go all-out with either oppressive or glorious moods, instead walking the fine line between victory and defeat. Sounds good to me!

Silph Co is an interesting one, the bane of every child playing Red and Blue. It starts slow and kind of eerie and it builds upon this by picking up tempo before completely going nuts and dropping into that slow finish. The maddening theme of the music goes well with the madness of those damn warp pads and makes for a suitable follow up to the Rocket Hideout which has a similar theme.

Masuda's old dungeon themes should make a return. So memorable, and rather long by Pokémon standards.

Not my favourite but for comic value OLD COUPLE JOHN AND JAY WANT TO BATTLE
I never knew old folks rocked out like that...
lol, That's my other favorite eyecatch. Both of these eyecatches were from Ichinose, who's put more effort into composing them than any other Game Freak game musician. Great guy.
 

Tenki

Member
biKeW.jpg


I love R/S/E soundtrack :D
 

Razek

Banned
Pokemon music is amazing and some of the catchiest tunes in the industry. The overworld soundtrack in Gold/Silver is absolutely incredible.

Some thoughts on that:

I really disliked what they did with the music of Gold/Silver in Heart Gold/Soul Silver. Every track in the original had a very specific feel and tone to it. Nearly everything in the remakes was given a happier flair to the music which destroyed the original atmosphere for me. An example:

Pokemon Gold - Violet City
This has a more serious tone, like going on an adventure.
VS.

Pokemon Heart Gold - Violet City

This sounds like I'm at the market buying stuff.

I wish they let you choose the original music before you beat the game. It seriously ruined the remakes for me even if the gameplay in the newer games was superior.


My favorite track from all the pokemon games because of it's ability to invoke a strong emotion using such a primitive music system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MNAktk9ei8&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL15B2635104835348
 
I'd say a lot of the older Gold & Silver music was just as happy and complacent, though. Route 29, just to cherry-pick an example, sounded a lot less interesting in the original, like a sugar rush without any range of taste. The HG/SS arrangement, however, made that tune a lot more complex and multi-layered, for the better. And Violet City was always a happy-go-lucky tune to me. I've never heard anything like the new arrangement in a market before, and I'd like to think that the HG/SS arrange does a better job of conveying the local city landscape better. It also benefits from a wide range of instrumentation.

That said, I'm disappointed with more than a few arrangements from HG/SS. Many of them felt like complacent plug-ins, where the original composition was simply put into the new sound engine and, then, Kageyama called it a day.
 
Well I found the BW2 music collection on Japanese iTunes. But how do you make an account and is it possible to use my NA credit card? I have no problem using it on my Japanese 3DS so I don't see what the issue is with iTunes...

EDIT:
I was just told I would have to buy a Japanese iTunes gift card, $50 I don't think so. Why must it be so difficult? :/
 
I know absolutely nothing about the Japanese iTunes store, so I can't help you there.

I would like to point out that the iTunes version of the soundtrack appears to be identical to the CD album, sans the extras. It's a good investment, but I don't know how to work the Japanese store.
 

Kokonoe

Banned
I'd like to start off with some superb 8Bit music.

Part 1 (Will post Part 2 of 8Bit later)

Pokemon TCG
  • Club Master Duel!

    The intro to this song is an interesting power build up, and the background beat I suppose is deck shuffling? It sounds really great, especially when the song picks up with it.
    Certainly one of the best 8Bit tracks ever.

  • Pause Menu

    Is this the greatest pause menu theme ever? Yes.

  • Grand Master Duel

    Creative, but it starts out slow. That is fine though, because for such a battle and the way these games are played, it has a nice build up to where it really kicks off. However, when it does kick off, gosh is it amazing.

  • Ronald's Theme

    The simplistic sound of this song isn't quite so simplistic. The beat is consistently slipping against itself, making some interesting sounds.

  • Imakuni's Theme

    An odd and hilarious tune, it fits perfectly with the odd character Imakuni that was absolutely random. It's quite catchy too. I like how there are fast bits that pop every second or so.

  • World Map

    I wouldn't say it's as catchy as the Mario theme, but this song is certainly is catchy. It's also charming to listen to due to how soft it is.

  • Duel

    My pick for the greatest song in this game as it has everything. Engaging segment, tone that represents basic parts of a match, creativity, and easy on the ears.

Pokemon Red & Blue
  • Pokemon Opening

    Perhaps it's nostalgia, but nothing is like hearing this song. It represents everything Pokemon is, and was to me.

  • Last Battle (VS Rival)

    Whoever wrote this song is a musical genius. It has such an epic sound, like nothing else matters, just you and your opponent exist. This song makes up half of the battle in that game.

  • Battle (VS Gym Leader)

    Nothing rings a bell for a battle song like this one. When I listen to these tracks, I kinda realize Pokemon hasn't had music on this level since these games, I guess that's a big portion for me.

  • Bicycle Theme

    You're at a fair! That's the vibe it gives, and I suppose that's the feeling of excitement you feel when you ride a bike for the first time. Very happy tune, and so pleasent to hear.

  • Pallet Town

    I guess I like this song a lot because it really does fit from an area that's suppose to be your beginning. It's soft, charming, and peaceful.

  • Your Rival Appears

    Instant classic, and for how randomly Gary appears in this game, this song increases that surprising feeling. It also has a tone that matches Gary's personality, like he knows he's better than you.

  • Lavender Town

    Ominous, creepy, and just right. It's a clash of low tone with high tone to emphasize on how spooky this town is.

  • Cerulean City

    Super catchy, and possibly the most memorable town team in the game only from how catchy it is.

  • Celadon City

    Possibly my favorite town theme in this game. Odd thing to say, but I'm going to say this is perfect "skipping" music, hah.

  • Pewter City

    Another memorable tune, I like how happy the vibe of music in this game, but how often it switches from happy to ominous, or engaging, when the time fits it.

  • Viridian Forest

    Mysterious tone for a mysterious area. Your entry into this forest introduces you to a mix of spooky with mystery, "what will happen next?". This song makes the forest in my opinion, it also has a nice creative beat.

  • Wild Battle

    I like how the intro starts out slow to give you that anxious feeling, "I wonder what Pokemon it is!". but takes off into the battle shortly after leaving you no time to second guess about the mysterious vibe that originally was playing. Certainly a classic.

  • Pokemon Center

    To this day, I still haven't heard a Pokemon Center theme that I like more than this one.
 
Whoever wrote this song is a musical genius.
image.php


I have to give you credit, though. I was planning to bump the thread later.

Hey, guys: who's your favorite Game Freak game musician? We haven't really talked about this yet. A lot of different musicians have made music for the mainline Pokémon games, and they all have unique styles (except maybe Morikazu Aoki&#8212;she was a chameleon).

Junichi Masuda is known for his simplistic, minimal style of arrangement and composition, often contrasting rampant battle tunes with low-key dungeon themes.

Go Ichinose is known for his romantic style of melody, combined with a natural sense for instrumentation, funny passages, and musical sense of humor.

Hitomi Sato is known for her unique chord progressions and frequent usage of complex melodies and harmonies.

Shota Kageyama is known for his background in orchestral arrangement, and showed off his ability to set context in BW's soundtrack.

Minako Adachi is a stalwart from an earlier era of game music, alongside Masuda and Ichinose. She hasn't contributed much to the games yet, but her work in BW was well-prepared and provided a contrast to Kageyama's originals.
 

Kokonoe

Banned
image.php


I have to give you credit, though. I was planning to bump the thread later.

Hey, guys: who's your favorite Game Freak game musician? We haven't really talked about this yet. A lot of different musicians have made music for the mainline Pokémon games, and they all have unique styles (except maybe Morikazu Aoki—she was a chameleon).

Junichi Masuda is known for his simplistic, minimal style of arrangement and composition, often contrasting rampant battle tunes with low-key dungeon themes.

Go Ichinose is known for his romantic style of melody, combined with a natural sense for instrumentation, funny passages, and musical sense of humor.

Hitomi Sato is known for her unique chord progressions and frequent usage of complex melodies and harmonies.

Shota Kageyama is known for his background in orchestral arrangement, and showed off his ability to set context in BW's soundtrack.

Minako Adachi is a stalwart from an earlier era of game music, alongside Masuda and Ichinose. She hasn't contributed much to the games yet, but her work in BW was well-prepared and provided a contrast to Kageyama's originals.

I decided to read the OP after I made my post because I was curious. But yeah, I suppose Junichi Masuda is my personal favorite.
 
In case people still don't know: my favorite is Go Ichinose. I think he's done the most to advance mainline Pokémon music, and he's done a little bit of everything in-between.
 
I absolutely loved BWs soundtrack. It was very refreshing and had a lot of surprises. From what I've heard of BW2s soundtrack it sounds even greater than its predecessor.
I'm really looking forward to hearing what they do with Gen VI on the 3DS.
 
Nice post there kokonoe, reminds me just how awesomely nostalgic Red/Blue music is, perfect skipping music you say for Celadon eh? Yes I can see that angle, great town themes across the board.

Time to bring in Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD
These games would share quite a few themes due to the setting being the same in both games, for this outing the battle themes stand out a fair bit more which makes sense as battles are more of this games angle with the limited overworld sections.

Colosseum
First Battle
Used for weaker trainers and most early game battles, not sure how to describe why I like this theme, something sweeping about it, I guess it gives off that beginning of an adventure feel.

Trainer Battle
The most often heard theme in the game, better get used to it because battles take a lot of time here, it's grown on me a lot over the years, it's not really that remarkable but I dig that little piano opening.

Cipher Peon
Quite an interesting blend here for the enemy team, gives me a "lets go for it" sort of vibe if anything, you could question its suitability as it's oddly pleasant but who cares, I like it.

Pokemon Center
Putting this in because Kokonoe's mention of R/B having the best pokemon center music led me to some inner turmoil, I didn't know whether to agree or bring this version to the conversation.

Phenac City
Okay lets get at least one town theme in here, a very pleasant theme that takes a shift for the merry, a remember first hearing the shift in tone and being quite jarred.

XD Gale of Darkness

Cipher Peon Battle
Okay so unlike the last Cipher battle theme this one basically becomes the main battle theme and as such it's very similar to the previous trainer battle with the same little piano thing going on, like many battle themes in this game it could do with being a bit longer.

Miror B
Miror B trades his old salsa style music for some funky disco style music

Cipher Admin battle
Okay this is odd because it really feels too short, like it had an intro cut off but what there is is pretty grandiose, not as intimidating with the slow build of Colosseum's Ciper Admin theme but I like it more.
 
The main reason I love Colosseum's version of the Cipher Peon Battle theme is because it feels like one of Tsukasa Tawada's tracks from Earth Defense Force, specifically Naval Battle. Jazz chords, heavy use of timpani + piano to create a percussive arrangement that isn't in your face all the time, and great melodic components. One of my favorite battle themes in a JRPG ever.

And R/B's Pokémon Center arrangement is awful, only topped by the dreck that is the FR/LG arrangement. That Colosseum version, all that sai, is just an updated version of the RSE arrangement. I still think Sato's DPPt Day and Night arrangements are the most creative Pokémon Center tracks yet.

Tsukasa Tawada is amazing, by the way.
 
The main reason I love Colosseum's version of the Cipher Peon Battle theme is because it feels like one of Tsukasa Tawada's tracks from Earth Defense Force, specifically Naval Battle. Jazz chords, heavy use of timpani + piano to create a percussive arrangement that isn't in your face all the time, and great melodic components. One of my favorite battle themes in a JRPG ever.

And R/B's Pokémon Center arrangement is awful, only topped by the dreck that is the FR/LG arrangement. That Colosseum version, all that sai, is just an updated version of the RSE arrangement. I still think Sato's DPPt Day and Night arrangements are the most creative Pokémon Center tracks yet.

Tsukasa Tawada is amazing, by the way.

I should've know that you'd know about the people behind Colosseum's music as well.
Nostalgia tells me you're wrong about the pokemon center damn it! WRONG!
Well you may have a point on Fire Red, it's pretty bad. Not much of a fan of D/P daytime pokemon center but the night one was pretty nice.
 
You forgot: I know everything. About Tsukasa Tawada. Err.

And, really, the original arrangements of the Pokémon Center theme both bore me and annoy me to the core of my being. Gen 3 onward, though, and the themes are now tolerable and, in some cases, quite intriguing on a musical level.

Trumpets are awesome. Bring on the trumpets!
 

Razek

Banned
I'd say a lot of the older Gold & Silver music was just as happy and complacent, though. Route 29, just to cherry-pick an example, sounded a lot less interesting in the original, like a sugar rush without any range of taste. The HG/SS arrangement, however, made that tune a lot more complex and multi-layered, for the better. And Violet City was always a happy-go-lucky tune to me. I've never heard anything like the new arrangement in a market before, and I'd like to think that the HG/SS arrange does a better job of conveying the local city landscape better. It also benefits from a wide range of instrumentation.

That said, I'm disappointed with more than a few arrangements from HG/SS. Many of them felt like complacent plug-ins, where the original composition was simply put into the new sound engine and, then, Kageyama called it a day.

It will be different for everyone, that much is sure. It's just the emotion the original game evoked on me where the remake had a different feel. I definitely don't want to say the music is objectively bad. It's good, just not what I was hoping for.

To the bolded, that is precisely what I want to avoid when remixing music. However, a music lover will point out that the composition in the remixed version is much stronger overall. The only real issue I have with that one is it isn't very 'gamey'.


I made it sound like it was a blanket for all of HG/GS. That was incorrect of me to do. I liked quite a few tracks better than the original. I actually thought the remix version of Cianwood City's theme ended up very awesome with it's acoustic guitar rendition. The lead instrument can be a bit grating at times however.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1f9WJd64No
 
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