TRUMPETS (or the ORAS Music Thread)

[Ivysaur]

I'm actually a little surprised we don't have a dedicated ORAS music topic yet. Now that we've had a chance to play through the games and experience all the new and remixed tracks, what do you like and don't like about soundtrack? What are some of your favorite tracks?

The Route 113 remaster is glorious, and Zinnia's battle track is probably my favorite new song.

On the other hand, that drought theme though.

 

[DasManiac]

I'm pretty disappointed in the soundtrack. Many areas still share themes and I thought that was unacceptable after HGSS. I don't know if everywhere in HGSS had their own theme but it seemed like it. I would also say there is a serious overuse of the trumpets. The Legendary Battle Theme and Elite Four have totally lost what made them great in the first place. The Champion Theme is a garbled mess that totally loses the melody of the original. Some of the pieces do sound great though. Mt Chimney, Route 113, Zinnia's theme, The Sky Pillar, Team Aqua/Magma Disband, and Vs Deoxys are all terrific themes. Many songs are simply too faithful to the originals and are overeliant on trumpets. I think the biggest problem is that Go Ichinose and Shota Kageyma no longer work for Game Freak. They really were the best composers at Game Freak and the quality has taken a huge dive since their departures.

 

[Team Gaara]

All of the music is fantastic and wonderfully remade!~ They're all really well done and still hold the nostalgia from the original games all while sounding much better. I'm glad my favorite Battle Theme, "VS Uxie/Mesprit/Azelf" made it into the game as well. It's like the icing on the cake. And, of course, you can't just not talk about Wally's Theme, which is probably the best new theme of all time ever~ I'm mad I can't use it for Wi-Fi battles, but hearing it at the Battle Resort is a pretty nice compromise.

 

[Life]

I'll try to be as brief as possible.

Spoiler

Hell yes.

I normally don't care very much about the music in a Pokemon game, but ORAS had such a fantastic musical score that I had to have headphones in every second I played. My favorite track is also Zinnia's. I thought the use of string instruments brought a really soothing element to an upbeat song.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

THE TRUMPETS! They were back and more glorious than ever in the Route 110 theme especially. The game had some nice music, though I think nothing beats Wally's battle theme! That battle theme's electric guitars are just so epic and the theme really does its job to symbolize Wally's growth and new found confidence.

 

[Isaac Gravity]

Overall I'm loving the remixes but they did tone down the brass in points where it really counts. The only time this outright bothered was when we compare the original Route 104 and wild Pokemon battle theme to the ORAS ones. I like the trumpets controlling that song for the former and the latter lost its frantic feel as a result of the change.

The funk add-ons to Mt. Chimney felt out of place as well. The E4 battle feels far more tame in comparison to its fierce predecessor. I blame lack of clapping.

That said the music is fantastic otherwise. A great example is of course Route 113 and the Primal Land & Sea duo. The song just sounds so...primordial now. I also like how Wally's battle theme is a gut guitar version of the more gentle piano one we hear throughout our encounters with him.

 

[Almonds]

I love the new rearrangements. Wally's theme was so epic. Best theme music ever.

 

[DraconicBandGeek]

Archie/Maxie's theme was amazing, and route 123 had the best route music by far. Although the heavy rain music woulds good too. And I also really liked Evergrande city.

I love the new rearrangements. Wally's theme was so epic. Best theme music ever.

I'm pretty indifferent about Wally's theme. At first I thought it was amazing, but i realized that it's also crazy repetitive. I listen to it while I hatch eggs on the island. It's nice, but not my favorite.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Wally's Theme is my favourite of all OR/AS. However it has two downsides:

- Too short
- Kinda "out of place" for the game

Do you know where I think this would fit amazingly? A battle in the anime.

 

[Lufenium]

I've only reached Fortree, so I naturally haven't heard every peice of music yet. However I've really liked what I have heard and can't wait until it hits iTunes in the west.

 

[firepanda]

Oh God, I haven't got the games yet, but I've been gorging myself on the music. (Exception: the credits. They're my favourite music in any video game ever. I'm saving that one for the moment.) Overall, this is my favourite track for a Pokemon game by far. DPPt had marginally better raw material for the routes and cities, but it's the execution that makes ORAS so good. They made consistently great choices in instrumentation and everything comes together in a wonderful mush of tunes and feels.

Standout songs for me:

• Secret bases! The first track I heard from ORAS and still my favourite. Everything is so perfect and happy about this theme: I think it beats Ethan's theme and "A New Meeting" for the happiest music in Pokemon. The drums, bass and trumpets are so perfectly Hoenn.
• Sootopolis. One of the best songs in RSE and even better this time round.
• Slateport, which was one of the poorest tracks in RSE. Tossing in drums and a dose of sound quality and balance made this theme fantastic.
• Verdanturf. Again, already a good track, but the added detail really made it come to life.
• Soaring music (both). Oh God, this is just musical porn. They don't even bother making a video game track: just the most fantastic theme they could think of.
• Pokemart. So nostalgic. They did a really nice job balancing the whole thing and I really like the synth. Probably still edged out by the old-timey Sinnoh mart theme.
• Mt Pyre (everywhere). Not especially notable in terms of tunes, but God these tracks are SO atmospheric. They set a new bar for Pokemon music that's atmospheric yet still melodic.

There are only a few tracks that aren't great. Usually this is because of too much going on at once. Route 113 falls guilty of this and what is even up with Route 119? The Pokemon Centre theme is also far too busy.


This is also the first game where I enjoyed the battle themes. Normally I find them perfectly functional, but never anywhere near as musically interesting as the routes and cities. They tend to be too busy and harmonically tedious. Apart from 'extra-special' themes, they all sound the same.
ORAS completely threw this out the window however. Hoenn already had the best battle themes, but the three new tracks blow everything else out of the window. Wally, Zinnia and Deoxys have the best battle themes ever. I have been listening these three on repeat and they are so good.

 

[Muur]

I like what I've heard so far. Up to Mauville.

 

[EvilChameleon]

This is the first Pokemon game in a long time where I have kept the music playing, even during repetitive tasks such as grinding. Loved the music in the original, love it even more here.

 

[Osprey]

Who needs trumpets? Zinnia proved that WE NEED MORE VIOLINS.

I think they did an excellent job with remixing everything, for the most part. The tracks stay true to their original tune, and they do enough to distinguish themselves from their GBA versions. While I do miss some things about a lot of the old songs (clapping in the E4 theme, anyone?), they still are catchy enough to keep me tapping to the beat, and some of them are better than the originals: Kyogre/Groudon's theme, Rival's theme, and Magma/Aqua boss theme are all excellent. Even better, they included strains of the original music in the Weather Beasts' theme. Game Freak, you sneaky, nostalgia-mongering geniuses...

One of the best things about these games is that the Battle Spot allows you to use all battle themes you can find in the game. That means all the themes fro the plethora of legends found in Hoenn can be listened to while beating up a non-AI team. Isn't that great or what?!!

 

[Jolene]

I was utterly pleased by the entire soundtrack. The themes that stood out to me the most are Zinnia's theme and the Groudon/Kyogre remix.

My only issues:
Wally's theme was a huge letdown. I have never been so disappointed in my life.
They could've split the Rustboro/Mauville/Mossdeep theme into different ones like they did with Ecruteak and Cianwood in HGSS. Same with Lilycove and Pacifidlog.
They used Zekrom's theme for Reshiram. How did they copy and paste the wrong theme?

Special mention to the fact they brought back the Frontier Brain theme from Emerald for the Chatelaines. That was enough to mostly forgive their laziness.

 

[Windchild]

I loved every bit of the music, the battle themes in particular. :3

They could've split the Rustboro/Mauville/Mossdeep theme into different ones like they did with Ecruteak and Cianwood in HGSS. Same with Lilycove and Pacifidlog.

But wasn't that the only city theme in HGSS that was split up?

 

[Aulos]

For the record, I've never associated Hoenn's OST with 'trumpets'. If anything, I associate it more with the French horn. Probably because tracks like Sealed Chamber were always my favorite, while tracks like Route 104 were awfully annoying to me. And god, Route 104 is still just as atrocious and annoying as it ever was.

 

[Soulweaver]

I'm left with an astoundingly positive impression.

One problem I had back then with HGSS's soundtrack was that they, in my humble opinion, butchered some themes; specific examples that come to mind are the Dragon's Den and Game Corner. On the contrary, the ORAS versions of old compositions feel more faithful to the originals across the board. Of course, it can be argued that the much more advanced audio quality of Gen III compared to Gen II left less room for reinterpretation this time around. Who knows. Particularly impressed with the gym battle theme, which I had forgotten to be as awesome as it is. If I'd need to pick one piece I didn't exactly like, it's the Fortree City theme, now decoupled from the Secret Base one. Not really a fan of the tempo decrease.

As far as brand new compositions go, they're all fine in my book. Of particular note, Rival's Theme (Wally's, but that's what the Japanese title translates to), coupled with the whole scene right there at the end of Victory Road, was probably the best experience I had in the entire game, and that's quite a feat considering I didn't really like Wally in Gen III. In the other hand I'm not that much into the Zinnia battle theme, which seems to be a favourite of many. I mean, it's not bad, but it certainly isn't among the top picks for me either. Heck, I think I even like per aspera ad astra! (BGM for the "flying with Rayquaza to space" cutscene) more than it. AZOTH is also a really beautiful song that deserves a mention; can't be sure what part of Delta Episode it was exactly played right now though.

Yeah. I like it, really like it. That's all.

 

[Morgil]

At first i wasn't too impressed with the music. I didn't think it was bad or anything, but it just didn't sound much different then to the GBA versions to me. Then my opinion changed when i got to the Groudon battle and was just blown away by how awesome the remix of that battle theme was. The various battle themes at the Pokemon league and most of the new music in the Delta Episode were pretty awesome, too.

BTW, does anybody know when the Soundtrack comes out?

 

[Soulweaver]

BTW, does anybody know when the Soundtrack comes out?

It came out on 3rd in Japan, but I believe the status for an international release is still "unknown". Would bet on it appearing on iTunes like the others did eventually, though.