I only have four games on my list. I think the write-ups for those four are already long enough anyway. I'll have to read through all of it again tomorrow on here to make sure every link is set right and I didn't write too much nonsense, but with all the links in it, this has become basically unreadable in my text editor and for some reason the preview here also looks a bit weird. So, well, I hope it's not too boring. I guess the choices are all pretty standard, though. So no lost masterpieces here. Also I just realized I didn't quite make it within the character limits of posts here, so I'll split off my #4 and the LTTP votes in a separate post.
1)
Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth
Composed by Yuzo Koshiro
In 2013 it was Etrian Odyssey IV and A Link Between Worlds competing for the top spot of my Soundtrack of the Year list (this was on some other forum whose name I shall not speak, of course). In the end I gave the #1 spot to the Zelda title out of pure nostalgia for some of the songs involved and mostly because I just felt like it at that moment. Interestingly enough four years later both series released their next mainline entries and so they ended up competing again. So, of course, it's only fair Etrian Odyssey gets to win this time. Not to mention Breath of the Wild already got my Game of the Year vote (over Etrian Odyssey V, no less, I put emphasis on the variety between my two lists after all!). So first up:
Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth!
Sure, compared to some other soundtracks released this year, this one did nothing out of the ordinary. But it's some damn fine music and if that's not enough for a number one placement then what is (especially if it's a Koshiro soundtrack)? The game is a bit more traditional in structure compared to the last main game in the series. There's no overworld to fly around in and therefore no distinction between big and smaller dungeon. This does mean however that there aren't as many tracks needed, so overall this soundtrack is a bit smaller than Etrian Odyssey IV's. Well, technically it isn't, but only if you count, well, let's get to that later.
So what's the best thing about Etrian Odyssey music? Battle themes? Sure, why not. Let's put them aside for now, though. The star of the show in Etrian Odyssey V are the dungeon themes. There's one theme for each stratum, so six overall, including the bonus dungeon, I don't think the fact that one exists isn't a spoiler by now, it's a series standard. But I will comment on the nature of each of the strata (except the final one and the bonus dungeon), so if you don't want to know about that, just skip to the next paragraph. As always you start off in a (seemingly) peaceful forest of sorts, so the
first stratum's theme is a pretty standard tune for the series, calm and beautiful, but in a month I probably couldn't tell you which game this was from. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, of course (they're all good), it's just what you'd expect from the series at this point. The second stratum however is more of a desert canyon area, barren, empty, lifeless (sadly, not monster-less).
Its theme is my favorite of all the dungeon themes, sparing use of instruments, just beautiful, we're starting off strong here. The next one is a graveyard, the remains of a battlefield from long ago. Ghosts, skeletons and other creepy creatures haunt this area, so accordingly you have a piano in the background of
its theme to represent the shivers running down your spine, not to mention the laughing and haunting noises in the background from time to time. You're not supposed to feel well in this areas, the enemies do a lot to support that feeling, but the music does a great job as well. The fourth stratum is a forest. Wait, again? Yes, but this wants a special forest. It's a forest made completely out of crystal. Listen to [
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNHw9QypnQU]its theme[/URL]. It starts off with all this, well let's call it clatter (hey, this isn't my first language here!), that frosty sound you often here associated with ice areas, or areas full of crystals like in this case. The actual melody only kicks in a bit later, it's a downright relieve to have something proper to cling to after feeling a bit unwell at first. The "good thing", of course, that in the game this would often be interrupted by the battle theme anyway. Can't fault Koshiro for that, though. And now to the final "normal" stratum, this one is a, well, ah come on, let's leave something open to imagination. Just listen to it
here, this one doesn't even give it away through its title. Close your eyes, imagine the possibilities. As for the bonus stratum,
its theme is rather unique. It sounds so distinctly, umm, 80s, lol. I mean there's a reason for that, but as with the fifth stratum, I'd rather not give it away. It is damn good music, though, leave it on, listen to it until the end. I haven't played much of the bonus dungeon yet (in fact, I only just finished the game fifteen minutes before I started writing this), so I'm not sure, maybe this will become my favorite dungeon music. Listening to it in the background while typing this, I realize this is some damn good music.
Okay, enough of that. Let's get to the battle music, you've all been waiting for. But honestly the meat is in the dungeon music. The battle themes are great, but in the greater context most of them aren't all that special. But let's listen to them one by one. First up, the
standard battle theme. This will play for about half the game. The first time it changes is when you reach the fourth stratum, so about 25 to 30 hours in. This better be good then. Well, of course it is. It's upbeat, it makes killing hordes of poor little animals and monsters fun. But also sounds about like your usual battle theme in the series, not a bad thing like I mentioned before. Let's move on to the
boss music. Now this one only plays for the big bosses at the end of each stratum, except for the final one, of course, and I presume the bonus dungeon will have a different one, too. So you have to imagine huge, huge enemies standing in front of you, a multitude of the size of your puny party. So that's why you get this imposing first bit, until after a while, presumably when you already started fighting, it gets more in on the action. For Etrian Odyssey IV I talked about how it alternates in tempo to represent your planning and attack phases. There's something similar going on here, but it doesn't feel as much correlated to that. I think it's better described as a back and forth between the enemy and your party. One impressing just with its majestic presence and your party battling against all common sense. Well then, let's pretend you've won a few times. You moved on. Now you're in the fourth stratum, time for the promised
new battle theme. It sounds much more optimistic. I mean you've gained a lot of confidence at this point, won a lot of battles, so you can be pretty proud of yourself and hopeful to carry on easily, though the game will destroy all that cockiness soon anyway. But with all that behind it, the battle theme almost sounded like a Persona battle track to me, thankfully no one is singing. And since we're on the topic of singing, here's the
final boss theme. It immediately stars off with a choir, which is just about the most tired cliché for a boss track, so I was immediately disappointed with this track. Thankfully, it slowly builds up to something really amazing. Very slowly, I must admit, this battle will probably take a while anyway. It's an incredibly slow track for a battle theme until maybe three and a half minutes in, but hey, you're spending all that time figuring out why you're getting slaughtered anyway. By the time you found your rhythm, you're already over three minutes in, so good thing, the track sounds a lot more optimistic by then. You can do it! Maybe. Well, at least if he doesn't do that one attack right now, that would be bad. Oh hey, remember that weird, weird music for the bonus dungeon (sure you do, I mentioned it above)? Yeah, well, this is the corresponding
battle theme, which is, well, it's appropriate. Only listened to it once in the game, so I don't really have a feel for it yet. Just listened through it once and see for yourself. It sounds pretty awesome, I must say. There's some other battle tracks, I assume they come later, I just saw them now going through the soundtrack. So apparently there's a rather good arranged version of
End of the Raging Waves from Etrian Odyssey III. But it's also an interesting example to see how boss battle themes have changed in the series (this was only two games ago after all). There's also
this, which I don't know where it belongs, I imagine it's another boss fight, by the sound of it from the final final boss? I dunno, so let's just appreciate that it's there.
Okay, aside from the dungeon and battle music, there are, of course, some other tunes, mostly for event scenes and town areas, but let's not get to that. For all I care they are pretty standard and there's still some other important part I want to write about. And that's: DLC! Hooray! Etrian Odyssey V is not the first Koshiro game to receive an arranged soundtrack as DLC (last year was Gotta Protectors after all), but nevertheless it's all the more important for the Etrian Odyssey series. After all music in the series didn't always sound like this, with actual instruments and all that. Remember people were pretty upset when they changed that tradition with Etrian Odyssey IV (even though that soundtrack is pretty awesome anyway). There was an album with FM arrangement planned for Etrian Odyssey IV, but as far as I remember this was cancelled for reasons, I don't remember (probably didn't have the time, funding). But this time it worked out well. And it's not just on some external album, it's actual DLC for the game (very much worth it!). You can change between the original soundtrack and the arranged version at any time in the game (outside of battle and event scenes). So get that shit, and switch as often as you can. Some of the arranged tracks are even better than the originals, but that's a matter of taste, I guess.
I thought about writing this whole thing again, just with comments on the FM tracks, but this got a bit longer than I thought, and everyone's probably bored by now anyway (and that Zelda writeup isn't all that much shorter either), so I just give some examples, look up the rest if you're interested or better yet get the game, play the game or replay the game with the FM soundtrack turned on. So here's the
arranged version of my favorite stratum theme, sounds pretty great as well. And here's the
FOE battle track which I for some reason didn't see the normal version of, the FM version is pretty freaky (I actually don't think I ever fought an FOE with music set to FM). The
theme for the third stratum is pretty good as well. And finally
the boss theme in all its glory, have fun!
2)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Composed by Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata, Hajime Wakai
Interestingly as much praise as this game (rightfully) gets, the music and especially the perceived lack thereof is often cited as a negative. They took a different approach than they usually did, sure, I mean they did that with basically the whole game, but the result is still nothing short of amazing. But let's first look at the good old regular music for towns, for dungeons, for event scenes, stuff you'd usually expect to have their own themes and unsurprisingly they are also present in Breath of the Wild.
My favorite town theme is the one for
Kakariko Village. It may not be the one we've gotten used to over the years (
youknow,
thisnight variant of the track, btw. The game does a really good job of transitioning from one song to another, especially when moving from day to night (or vice versa). It slowly adapts to the new tune in a way you probably won't even notice at first, at some point the new music plays and it feels just right, like it just had to be there. I tried to capture the transition period on my Switch, but the damn capture feature is a bit short for that and thanks to people's tendency to talk over their YouTube videos, I couldn't really find a good example there either, but if you played the game, you'd know what I mean, the game does it all the time.
Anyway, let's listen to some more themes. I guess the music you will hear the most aside from the rather weird battle theme in all its variants, is the
shrine theme, especially if you're like me and get stuck in these damn things from time to time. It's rather reserved, in a way, that you probably won't even take notice of it much after a while. I'd like to write a lot of clever things about this one and similar themes and music in the game, what with how the game uses a lot of pauses and just general silence to achieve its atmosphere, but then what do I know about music? I'd rather not make even more of a fool of myself than I'm already doing. So I leave that to the experts. I hope someone bothers to write something detailed about this game. It certainly deserves it.
Okay, time for some happy tunes. How about that music in the
Hateno Ancient Tech Lab? That's fun, and I guess weirdly fitting for the strange characters living there. Maybe it sounds a bit more like crazy scientist than the actual otaku grandma that's there, but in a general sense that still works. Or how about this
battle theme to get your blood pumping a little more? Or maybe something more
melancholic. There even are
dungeonthemes. Kakariko also
isn'ttheonlytown in the game.
Finally there's this huge castle shrouded in darkness. Total spoiler: You get to go there later and it's pretty huge. It's difficult and rather hard to natvigate which can lead to some desperation, which is way
this is its accompanying theme. And hey, listen! There's actually some "traditional" Zelda music in here.
Which brings me to the (hopefully) very brief second segment of my ongoing ramblings. The old music is still there! It's not usually not as prominent, but it's there. I won't spare you the really hidden and deconstructed ones, there are apparently plenty of YouTube videos about that. Some obvious ones that are in the game are
Epona's Song,
Fairy Fountain, the
Master Sword music thingie from A Link to the Past and some
random track from The Wind Waker. So, it's not like it's all new music with no nods to past games just because Kakariko Village is different. Maybe I've also just read too many YouTube comments while looking through this soundtrack to think this was a common complaint.
Okay. That's all nice and stuff, but these tracks only play for fracture of your whole playtime, don't they? All you mostly here is
this and
this, right? Well, yeah, kinda. But first let me direct you to what I wanted, but couldn't say about the Shrine Theme. And secondly, it's all about how you use it. The whole time you running and climbing through the world, you get hints and little sounds that tell you about your environment. There's that distant town music, there's
Kass' music you can sometimes hear from afar, there's the sudden change when
a dragon is near. The music changes when you're
in the cold, when
something evil targets you (this might as well be the final dungeon theme) or when that
one cutscene approaches (the interval for this is just big enough that I almost always forget about it and then freak out and quickly look around to find out what the heck is going on now). In short: many of the more "atmospheric" tracks are used to give hints about things happening near you, things about to happen or just in general to give you that little bit of extra info about your environment. That's on top of all the sound effects used for creatures and objects around you. But there's just one more thing I still want to write about (sorry):
Tarrey Town. This is a bit of a shot in the dark. It's something I only found out about while going through the soundtrack, since I haven't really done much in this sidequest myself yet. I started it, so I know what it's about, but I didn't do much else yet. Anyway, this quest is about rebuilding a small town and for that you need to invite new people to the town. Not really a new idea for RPGs, I guess. What's interesting about it in terms of the music is that (apparently!) each time you add a new person to the town, they also add a new instrument to the town theme. So while you populate the town with new people, the music also changes, you unlock the full town theme step by step, so to speak. This sounds like a really nice concept, hopefully it works as well in the game as it sounds.
Take a listen how the different steps in this quest sound.
So that's it. It's all about really well used music that supports the game here. It might not have that many "big" themes as some of the older games in the series, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Far from it. And now please someone explain this all better.
3)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd
Composed by Hayato Sonoda, Takahiro Unisuga, Ryo Takeshita
I guess it's no surprise Falcom found their way onto my list yet again, Trails in the Sky 2nd was my #1 in 2015 after all, and this one didn't disappoint either. It's one of those soundtracks for which I could probably just list every track, they are all great. Hmm...would only need 49 words for that. Nah.
Let's first look at how the game is structured. Unlike the other two games this isn't a game where you travel around the world and discover new lands bit by bit. Instead you're basically locked into a huge dungeon (dungeon crawler style), but here and there there are doors that "warp" you to cetain events in the outside world. It's designed to fill in some gaps of the previous and then lay the groundwork for the next ones (I guess, still waiting for them to get an English version, I'm hopeful, at least). So what we have is a huge chunk of battle themes (lots of fighting after all) and then the usual mix of area and even music. I gotta admit, a lot of the tracks I couldn't immediately associate with where they played and after a while of trying I kinda gave up on finding out. It's a game that took me over 50 hours after all. Okay, the other reason may be, that many themes are reused many times, so there's not a specific part they exclusively belong to. That's why this won't be a long post of (attempted) analyzing, just plenty of great music.
Okay, let's start with the event music then. Lots of shit happening here, so there quite a bit of
sad or
sorrowful tracks here. There are the two theme from the
intro video and the
main menu. And of course there are also some great tracks for when
shit happens (don't want spoil anything, of course).
Which nicely leads to a nice huge list of
battlethemes.
This is the regular battle theme, btw., with a very
different theme playing when you're low on health, which I have to admit can be a bit annoying at times, because it can constantly switch between this and the actual battle theme if you're having a bad fight (and heal and then get hit again). Still, I like the music, it could be used better, though.
This is what I think is the standard fare boss battle music, there are loads of different ones used in
moreimportantfights, though. And finally here's the theme for the
very last boss fight, which is basically the game's way of telling you "You're almost there! You can do it!", which is something you might come to doubt a few times during this fight, so the help is appreciated.
But let's close it with some less energetic, but definitely just as great dungeon and general area themes. Like any proper dungeon crawler this game has plenty of different
strata planes, that
come with
theirownthemes. Then there's everything that's
behindthevariousdoors you find in the game. Oh, and then there's the theme for the
final dungeon of the game, which is fittingly awesome.
So that's it. I hope I didn't attribute anything to the wrong area, but eh, music's good either way. Guess this wasn't much of putting anything in context, but in exchange there's lots of nice music linked and all the words make it look a little better than just a huge list of things (and harder to find, too!). Don't think that's gonna last, the next entry on this list has some actual word-like things. This one wins anyway.
