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Which battle musics do you enjoy the most?

Random Encounters
5 (42%)
Boss Battles
5 (42%)
Character Specific Battles
1 (8%)
Final Bosses
1 (8%)
 
Total votes: 12
 
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M3CH4 N1NJ4
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That Sound's Dangerous!

Wed Oct 12, 2016 10:44 am

For myself, video game music is the jam to my peanut butter of the gaming experience. Themes need to be good and they need to be able to be listened to multiple times.

Overwold music is one thing. It can inspire awe, inquisitiveness, or even a sense of determination. Today, however, I would like to stress the importance for battle music.

Predominantly in RPGs, this music can be a basic tune for a random encounter, a engagement of difficult boss battles, tagged with a specific character or antagonist, and the final boss.

There's so many things that go into making these themes so memorable to us.

I'm going to use this thread to rant get into the complexities of a particular theme, one at a time.
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Wed Oct 12, 2016 10:50 am

I loved in oblivion the music would change when someone engaged you... really helped while galloping around to know you're about to get rocked.

In bioshock infinite there was a quick string run when you cleared the current fight... i also liked that to know that it's all clear?
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:53 pm

M3CH4 N1NJ4 wrote:
For myself, video game music is the jam to my peanut butter of the gaming experience. Themes need to be good and they need to be able to be listened to multiple times.

Overwold music is one thing. It can inspire awe, inquisitiveness, or even a sense of determination. Today, however, I would like to stress the importance for battle music.

Predominantly in RPGs, this music can be a basic tune for a random encounter, a engagement of difficult boss battles, tagged with a specific character or antagonist, and the final boss.

There's so many things that go into making these themes so memorable to us.

I'm going to use this thread to rant get into the complexities of a particular theme, one at a time.

Well put mech ninja
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Sun Oct 30, 2016 12:30 pm

Boss battles are my favourite type of music in video games especially from Final Fantasy because there are so many good songs to choose from but final fantasy 7's boss music is probably my favourite if I had to pick from them all.
Last edited by Panda on Fri Nov 24, 2017 6:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Sun Oct 30, 2016 10:29 pm

Panda wrote:
... final fantasy 7's boss music if properly my favourite if I had to pick.


I'll stand with you on that one. One-winged Angel is excellent for the final boss, but that standard boss battle jam rocks in just the right way.
 
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Mon Oct 31, 2016 3:35 am

I'm not a big RPG player overall but some music did burn itself into my head nonetheless. The music from the Red/Blue Pokemon games, they had a different music for like every route,city,forest when biking,when surfing and of course when battleling.

Spoiler: show
Probably the most heard of them all



And here are some other examples :)




While hearing the wild pokeomen encounter music could go on your nerves sometimes when you just want to get from A to B, the gym leader themes and higher trainer themes make it clear that shit's about to get real and create and intense atmosphere, at least it was what I was getting.
 
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Mon Oct 31, 2016 9:16 am

Gorillars wrote:
I'm not a big RPG player overall but some music did burn itself into my head nonetheless. The music from the Red/Blue Pokemon games, they had a different music for like every route,city,forest when biking,when surfing and of course when battleling.

Spoiler: show
Probably the most heard of them all



And here are some other examples :)




While hearing the wild pokeomen encounter music could go on your nerves sometimes when you just want to get from A to B, the gym leader themes and higher trainer themes make it clear that shit's about to get real and create and intense atmosphere, at least it was what I was getting.


Huzzah! Thanks Lars. This will make it easier for me to point out what kind of feeling is going on when you have those battles.
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Tue Nov 01, 2016 8:21 pm

The only sort of boss battle music that I can remember is, I think, Blow Me Away, maybe, is what its called, from, probably halo 3? or 2? One of those. During a fight in a big room on High Charity, probably, is what that place was maybe called.
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Thu Nov 03, 2016 5:33 am

M3CH4 N1NJ4 wrote:
Gorillars wrote:
I'm not a big RPG player overall but some music did burn itself into my head nonetheless. The music from the Red/Blue Pokemon games, they had a different music for like every route,city,forest when biking,when surfing and of course when battleling.

Spoiler: show
Probably the most heard of them all



And here are some other examples :)




While hearing the wild pokeomen encounter music could go on your nerves sometimes when you just want to get from A to B, the gym leader themes and higher trainer themes make it clear that shit's about to get real and create and intense atmosphere, at least it was what I was getting.


Huzzah! Thanks Lars. This will make it easier for me to point out what kind of feeling is going on when you have those battles.

I like how Lars just basically described and linked a bunch of the songs we were going through the other day too Mecha. Totally on the same page when it comes to the different battle music in a Pokemon game.
 
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Fri Apr 21, 2017 12:45 pm


Like a wild pokemon out of nowhere, lets get ambushed by the music shall we? Actually, that is the point. The opening motif is sort of a siren like sound letting the player know something is up. :00-:03. The screen transitions into a fight.
It'll be a thing synonymous for pokemon games to come.

One interesting thing is that there is a second motif :03-:07. Here the player is unsure of just what exactly is going to show up on screen, its shaded out, so its unfamiliar. Just what sort of wild animal has appeared before us? A rattata, a pikachu, or a wild Pineappling bird?

But soon we're given control and four options as how to deal with this creature. The chase notes keep our attention on the battle, this is a wild animal we have on our hands, after all.

:28 is a shift from alarm to decisiveness. We know what we must do, defeat the creature or capture it. I prefer this tonal shift since it sort of builds confidence in our decision making, the back and forth turn based battle lets us see the moves infold during these shifts in music.



What's particularly interesting is that Pokemon has multiple battle themes for common encounters. Trainer themes, however are preceded by little tunes while you talk to trainers/challengers.

The opening motif :00-:03 isnt one of surprise, but of getting down to business as the screen transitions.

:03-:11 is when we set the table of our confrontations. Challenge accepted, now go forth my critter I've trained for a few hours!

One of my favorite aspects of trainer battle music is that there is a back and forth between how the music is played, representing the flow of a turn based battle. The music never stays one way for too long. Here are those shifts. Sometimes they are echoes of a previous part of the song, other times they diverge, showing the shift of battle.
:11
:25
:37
:48
:57
1:08
1:19



Essentially boss battle music, this theme lets you know its not kidding around with an increased tempo. It follows the pattern of an intro motif like the trainer battle theme, but its accelerated pace lets you feel the urgency. :00-:12

:13 its sounds so heroic, you've worked your way to this challenge and nothing is going to stop you.

:24 except that rock type you've never fought before, suddenly, as drastic the change is in music, you know this opponent is no pushover

:39 but you will not be swayed so easily, keep battling and you will be victorious. Use what you've learned.

Where the music in a trainer battle shifts subtlety, I feel the gym leader battle has hard shifts. Auditory representations in the changes of battle.
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Sun Apr 23, 2017 8:40 am

the entire soundtracks for FF4, FF6 and Chrono Trigger. Every. Bit.
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Mon Apr 24, 2017 5:31 pm

HE FINALLY DID IT! He made the post!
 
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Tue Nov 21, 2017 11:24 pm

And now for an amazing analysis of Pokemon Gold/Silver’s battle music on a technical level.

I’ll let this author do the talking, buy it was fascinating.
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Re: That Sound's Dangerous!

Thu Nov 23, 2017 9:48 am

He wonderfully disected music from my childhood and I had no idea what he was talking about more than half the time but it was really cool nonetheless. shows what thought goes into this stuff and how much you can analyse that.

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