So I was going through Birdie's awesome Move List retrospective (seriously, go check it out) and it got me into a Youtube rabbit hole where I watched old gameplay. Something that stuck out to me was the battle music, and how it is not uplifting or jolly (like most Pokemon music post Hoenn), but rather it's very frantic and does not sound like a friendly contest at all. Indeed, it actually puts me more in a mindset that this is a fantasy RPG battle of life-and-death, with how intense the battle themes are.
You can attribute a large part of the end result to the Game Boy's limited sound capabilities, but the minimal noise pollution seems to allow the base battle tune to just really shine. Both R/B/Y and G/S/C all feature battle tracks that make you feel like you're in mortal combat.
This doesn't sound like an official contest, it sounds like an assassination attempt:
And of course we have the classic:
In case you haven't listened to them in a while:
Johto Trainer Battle
Johto Rival (aka best rival) Battle
Johto Team Rocket Battle
Kanto Champion Battle
Johto Champion Battle
Kanto Gym Leader (Gen 2) <-- This sounds like Kanto is in a dark age or something
Now I'm a huge defender of newer Pokemon games and despise the rose-tinted glasses of "every design is downhill after the first 150," but that GB soundchip was cranking. You've got some gorgeous battle tracks in later games like Colress' and Cyrus' battle themes, but the depth and added instruments still have a light-hearted feel.
Is it just the chiptune whore in me? My account is named after the Yuzo Koshiro-composed Etrian Odyssey series, so that could be it. But I definitely think there's something apart from nostalgia that makes those Gen 1 & Gen 2 battle compositions sound like there's an ultimate cost on the line. R/B/Y had some really dark undertones -- like fainting being "near death" in Japanese, all of Lavender Town, Gengar and Clefable representing malice and purity of the same being, etc -- so I think this heavy tone was 100% intentional. Then we got to Hoenn and it lightened up with all the trumpets.
Not just me who thinks this, right? :P
You can attribute a large part of the end result to the Game Boy's limited sound capabilities, but the minimal noise pollution seems to allow the base battle tune to just really shine. Both R/B/Y and G/S/C all feature battle tracks that make you feel like you're in mortal combat.
This doesn't sound like an official contest, it sounds like an assassination attempt:
And of course we have the classic:
In case you haven't listened to them in a while:
Johto Trainer Battle
Johto Rival (aka best rival) Battle
Johto Team Rocket Battle
Kanto Champion Battle
Johto Champion Battle
Kanto Gym Leader (Gen 2) <-- This sounds like Kanto is in a dark age or something
Now I'm a huge defender of newer Pokemon games and despise the rose-tinted glasses of "every design is downhill after the first 150," but that GB soundchip was cranking. You've got some gorgeous battle tracks in later games like Colress' and Cyrus' battle themes, but the depth and added instruments still have a light-hearted feel.
Is it just the chiptune whore in me? My account is named after the Yuzo Koshiro-composed Etrian Odyssey series, so that could be it. But I definitely think there's something apart from nostalgia that makes those Gen 1 & Gen 2 battle compositions sound like there's an ultimate cost on the line. R/B/Y had some really dark undertones -- like fainting being "near death" in Japanese, all of Lavender Town, Gengar and Clefable representing malice and purity of the same being, etc -- so I think this heavy tone was 100% intentional. Then we got to Hoenn and it lightened up with all the trumpets.
Not just me who thinks this, right? :P