Your favorite pieces of game music

Wahoo ! A lot of interesting tracks here ! I didn't have time to listen to all of them but I'll try to do it asap ! Happy that some of you here have enjoyed this song from Star Ocean, that is marvelous ! A precision : the Young lady that is "playing" the voice is none other that Moi, the own daughter of the composer, Master Sakuraba !

I'd just like to point out that "Within the Giant" should have been the final dungeon song in Final Fantasy IV, not the second-to-last dungeon song. (Yeah, I know, you hear it in the last four floors of the Lunar Subterrain, but it should have been the entire Lunar Subterrain song, it's that heroic-sounding.)

Anyway, more RPG music!
Nobuo Uematsu and Hitoshi Sakimoto - Final Fantasy XII - Battle on the Big Bridge (FF12 Version)

Once upon a time, back in the magical year 1992, Final Fantasy V was released in Japan. We finally got it in 1999 as part of a compilation with Final Fantasy VI for the PlayStation. The translation was abysmal at best, and we thankfully got a much better translation when Final Fantasy V Advance came out in 2006.

I mention this because Final Fantasy V introduced us to Gilgamesh, one of Exdeath's incompetent lieutenants. You first fight him on a big bridge to epic 1992 SNES battle theme. You fight him a few more times, which culminates with Exdeath sending him to another dimension. This causes him to reappear in several other games in the series (notably in Final Fantasy I Advance as a retroactive addition, who challenges you to "get ready for the mighty me! And by 'me' I mean 'Gilgamesh!' And by 'get ready' I mean 'DIE!'")

Gilgamesh and his faithful foo dog companion Enkidu make for a challenging fight in Final Fantasy XII, and his epic orchestrated combat theme is accompanied by incredibly cheesy dialogue (his first line, after crashing into the side of the bridge your party is on and tumbling over it, only to jump back on and draw his swords is "Now we fight!") Yes, his fight(s) are awesome (considering the first thing he does when he's injured enough is pull out a replica of Cloud's famous sword from Final Fantasy VII, yeah.)

This is my favorite fighting game track. "Moonlit Wilderness" from Tekken 5.



They used it in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 as well.

I'm back for some great musics ! The two from Skies of Arcadia !
This game is truly awesome ! For me one of the best games I've ever played and more than 125 hours of happiness ! (yes, I've played it so long !!).
When you know who the conceptors are...it's not a surprise ! ^^
Many tracks are great but those two combat tracks are for me the best of the game, even if there are so many great tracks Inside...
Every time I'm listening to them, it sends shivers down my spine : listen to them !
[Youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2Qkm60hcL0[/Youtube]
[Youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRJPOBwKmC0[/Youtube]

And I'll also put the Battle 2 theme, even if for me this track is less better than the two others, it's still great ! (Music for the boss is far from them..)
[Youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b45bLJkZvn4[/Youtube]

While I'm being the shmup guy:

So, there's a rather prolific series of shmups known collectively as the Touhou series, which are largely the sole work of the Japanese indie developer Jun'ya Ohta (known mainly to everyone on the intersphere as ZUN) With 14 games in the main series (5 for the PC-9801, 9 on Windows) and numerous secondary games, the series is known mainly for two things.

1. Very artistically-minded shot patterns
2. Killer tunes.

Given that most of the effort on number two is put towards the boss fights, I had to pretty much limit myself to choosing from among the final boss themes (Most of which are really good anyways). ZUN doesn't always put together the most conventional compositions as far as the genre is concerned, considering that the vertical shmup is probably one of the most action-intensive games one can find, but I consider that a strength- besides, I'd be kind of a hypocrite insisting on shmup music purity, considering how much I like the Darius series.

So:

TH06: vs. Remilia Scarlet- Septette for the Dead Princess.


TH07: vs. Yuyuko Saigyouji- Border of Life


Yuyuko's Final Attack


TH12: vs. Byakuren Hijiri- Cosmic Mind


TH14: vs. Sukuna Shinmyoumaru- Kobito of the Shining Needle.


EDIT: Put in the correct videos.

That's a cool track from Tekken, VistaBlade, I've still gotta play that series some time. Also, speaking of Darius, I love Darius Twin's music.



Anything really intense like that always gets me. Probably why Laughter is pretty much my favorite Phantasy Star theme.



The first stage theme is really amazing, too.

I've gotta play Skies of Arcadia at some point, as well, so many good games I've missed out on!

BRAGATYR : You haven't played Skies of Arcadia ? "shame" on you ! I'm joking I know that there is a lot of games I've missed ! Unfortunately...

Going along with myau56's Skies of Arcadia post, I will post my favorite track from the game, even though the game really has too many great tracks to list. My favorite is the Kingdom of Ixa'taka music. It's just so perfect for the town, and it's so uplifting.



Myau56 is right Bragatyr, Skies of Arcadia is one of those rare gems that any RPG fan has to play. I've played the Dreamcast and the Gamecube versions and they are both so great. It's one of the only JRPGs I would consider playing again. (really burned out on them)

Okay folks, it's time to talk Yuzo Koshiro.

Mr. Koshiro started being active in the mid-'80s, and you folks were fans of action games, you probably ran into him at one point or another, whether you were popping in the data disk from this brand new game for the PC-8801 called "Ys", or later, where he tricked the SNES hardware into letting him do the music he wanted, or one of the numerous other things he has done.

So, here's a sampler of what he's done, past and near-present.



Shadow of the Tower of Death is probably the one thing that makes dealing with Darm Tower over and over again tolerable- It's probably one of the best dungeon themes to ever come out of the 8-bit era. Above is the original PC-88 version.



Actraiser's final area, the frozen land of Northwall, has two pieces that are actually unique to that part of the game and never show up in any other of the game's action sequences. I chose the first of the action theme musics of that area for this, because it's a non-action theme that still manages to fit the stage. Even though the game was pretty much a launch title, it still had one of the best soundtracks for the system.



Half-Minute Hero has a pretty beast boss theme, even though it's only on a 25-second loop- this is still okay, as you're only likely to hear about 7 seconds or so of it most of the time, if you're playing the game right.

I'm so totally behind on this thread since I've barely been on since Thursday due to PAX and related activities. But there's no way I can create a thread like this then NOT include something from EarthBound.



That tune is more or less the backbone of the plot. And when you first hear this particular version of it, you are coming to one of the most touching moments in the game, followed immediately by one of the weirdest parts.

Like Okami, I could easily fill a thread with just EarthBound music. So I'll find a few more after I've gotten some sleep (and check out all the tunes that have been posted!)