SoV's Music

[LucarioGamer812]

So I really like Echoes soundtrack. Some notable highlights for me are:

What Lies at the End *When this kicked in, I knew the game was just getting serious, and I liked it*

Twilight of the Gods *to be expected, between this version and the gaiden version, I find both of them to be perfect, and the way it's presented is really good in my opinion, with characters giving their final battle dialogue with it plying in the background fits so well*

Those who Challenge Gods *Hey orchestral music speaks to me what else can I say*

Unity *despite not appearing often, when it does it feels right*

Echoes *I find this oddly good, and it gives me hope for maybe future echoes games*

The Heritors of Arcadia *My god is this amazing, End of All and ID Purpose were fine at least, until they got outclassed by Shigures Version and ID Hope at least, but this theme, I have no idea how they can top a vocal track this good and so meaningful to the story*

[KoimanZX]

While I do think the soundtrack is very strong, I do think that the Smash Bros. version of "With Mila's Divine Protection" is better.

[Alastor15243]

My only complaint with the soundtrack really is that they kept the old-school battle music system. That saddens me, because after seeing the new system in awakening with the dynamic map and battle themes I can never really go back. It's just so jarring having "DA da da DA da da DAN DAN! DA da da DA da da DAN DAN!" play out of nowhere every 6-ish seconds in the middle of, say, This:

Seriously, I was hoping they'd just move the Gaiden battle themes and use them as the boss themes of minor skirmishes so that we could really enjoy the new music system, I'd love to see what they'd have done with "ablaze" sorts of stuff, and I really hope this isn't something they continue to do if they remake other games.

[Sentinel07]

13 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

My only complaint with the soundtrack really is that they kept the old-school battle music system. That saddens me, because after seeing the new system in awakening with the dynamic map and battle themes I can never really go back. It's just so jarring having "DA da da DA da da DAN DAN! DA da da DA da da DAN DAN!" play out of nowhere every 6-ish seconds in the middle of, say, This:

Seriously, I was hoping they'd just move the Gaiden battle themes and use them as the boss themes of minor skirmishes so that we could really enjoy the new music system, I'd love to see what they'd have done with "ablaze" sorts of stuff, and I really hope this isn't something they continue to do if they remake other games.

I would say it's highly likely they'll keep the same music systems for further remakes. They're not going to remove music and rightly so. I personally prefer the separate battle and map themes.

Heck, if anything, Echoes showed how much I missed it.

[Sentinel07]

13 hours ago, KoimanZX said:

While I do think the soundtrack is very strong, I do think that the Smash Bros. version of "With Mila's Divine Protection" is better.

Honestly, it's kind of hard to compare those directly though.

The softer tone used in Echoes suits the fact that it's a map theme perfectly, while Smash is a fighting game so naturally the tone is going to be more upbeat.

[Alastor15243]

7 minutes ago, Sentinel07 said:

I would say it's highly likely they'll keep the same music systems for further remakes. They're not going to remove music and rightly so. I personally prefer the separate battle and map themes.

Heck, if anything, Echoes showed how much I missed it.

I never said to remove music, I said to take the player and enemy phase battle themes and make them part of a set of boss themes. I just feel that the repetitive use of those songs can really kill the mood in some levels with some map themes and that the dynamic map themes was in hindsight a massive improvement.

Edited June 7, 2017 by Alastor15243

[Sentinel07]

28 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I never said to remove music, I said to take the player and enemy phase battle themes and make them part of a set of boss themes. I just feel that the repetitive use of those songs can really kill the mood in some levels with some map themes and that the dynamic map themes was in hindsight a massive improvement.

Eh, agree to disagree.

The one thing I would change is make them Radiant Dawn-style where the battle music at least continues where it left off during each battle instead of starting at the beginning every time.

Edited June 7, 2017 by Sentinel07

[Party Moth]

Just listened to the final battle map. What the fuck were they thinking with the mixing and timbre choices!? And "Twilight of the Gods"? An insult to the care and craft of Wagner's operas in terms of music.

On 5/29/2017 at 2:37 PM, Agro said:

Not sure if people realised but there is definitely a recurring leitmotif in almost every song just like there has been in Awakening and Fates, which I don't mind at all. You can even hear it in the levelup theme, but it's also a big part of Alm's Map 2 and Map 3 themes, as well as the Prologue map theme.

How could you not? Kanazaki quotes it as often as he drinks water. I'm actually fully sick of it now, as (like Fates, but with better material) it plays at every single opportunity and insistently wants you to forget that there are other leitmotifs in this series and in this very game. I hesitate to even compare it to Awakening, which takes 3 leitmotifs and bothers to heavily weave them in and out of not just most in-game tracks but various modalities, cadences and particularly each other. I'm not a fan of most of the new material, but if the primary leitmotif didn't play every fucking second you played the game I'd greatly appreciate that it's a fairly flexible and interesting melody. In fact, when I first heard it as an extension of Alm Battle Map 1, I praised it.

A better composer would have worked with the motifs already present in the game and presented those are a focal point rather than ignore all but Chapter 3 (Liberation Road- Each Battle) and Chapter 5 (Reunion, and Then...). But this is the guy who missed the key change performing "Don't Speak Her Name!" in the Cipher live stream, so what can you do?

It's a shame about the finale, though, given that the trumpets, when mixed with horns and placed in a smaller British march style, really sound closer to real. In this giant bombastic orchestra/choral performance, the honky trumpet and conspicuous piano carry a tinny, GarageBand-esque quality.