Board 8 > Xenoblade Opinions Day 7: Best Battle Music

(+) Yeah! (+)

*assume spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (including Future Connected)*

Past results:
Best Character- Dunban, 2nd Melia, 3rd Shulk/Riki
Best Character in Battle- Shulk, 2nd Melia, 3rd Dunban
Best Antagonist- Dickson, 2nd Mumkhar, 3rd Egil
Best Area (1)- Satorl Marsh, 2nd Bionis' Leg, 3rd Eryth Sea
Best Area (2)- Fallen Arm, 2nd Valak Mountain, 3rd Sword Valley

Yesterday: Fallen Arm takes the win once more for the title of Best Area in Xenoblade!
1st- Fallen Arm (18)
2nd- Satorl Marsh (11)
3rd- Bionis' Shoulder (5)

Today: It's battle music time! Vote on remastered or original, whichever you prefer. I split these as best I could into regular battle music v boss battle music, the metric I ended up using to decide where a track fell was 'can you skip battles where it plays or not'. Please consider listening to the FC ones if you haven't yet played it (they are very good!).

Note: The Future Connected tracks don't have official titles so I just referred to them so you know which ones I mean.

Time to Fight
When it plays: Regular battles on Bionis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0KGphqJVk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX8xS0sYQ1c

Hostile Gazes
When it plays: When facing high level enemies on Bionis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5fe3Bm-5yY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf4DBnsZu4k

Enemies Closing In
When it plays: When you're losing in battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lpXT553qoE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HORbpPSv2w

Visions of the Future
When it plays: When the future is changed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH6hB0dFD94
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0wYa6DmDXg

You Will Know Our Names
When it plays: Unique monster battles on Bionis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aPA7gBY1ek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7yNyhLOIa4

Mechanical Rhythm
When it plays: Regular battles on Mechonis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXafUA1laIU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_LuNdyM_7k

Irregular

Going to give a special shoutout to the DE version of Time to Fight. It's not my favorite battle theme in the game (stiff competition) but it's SUCH a big improvement over the original version.

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the FC themes DO have official names, actually... but they're just Time to Fight! (Bionis' Shoulder) and Fogbeasts

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This is way too stacked for me, not sure how I'll vote yet. I am surprised Visions already has a vote though!

Hbthebattle posted...

the FC themes DO have official names, actually... but they're just Time to Fight! (Bionis' Shoulder) and Fogbeasts

Really? I saw that's how they're titled on youtube but I couldn't find an official source for that and apparently the rest of the tracks only got official titles because of an OST release, which FC hasn't had.

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andylt posted...

This is way too stacked for me, not sure how I'll vote yet. I am surprised Visions already has a vote though!

Really? I saw that's how they're titled on youtube but I couldn't find an official source for that and apparently the rest of the tracks only got official titles because of an OST release, which FC hasn't had.

fairly certain both were posted on Nintendo's twitter at one point with those names.

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also there was infact a soundtrack released with the collector's edition

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Mechanical Rhythm by a wide margin.

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YWKON followed by Time to Fight (Bionis Shoulder) and Mechanical Rhythm.

As amazing as those three are, I do think this is a place where XBC2 wins handedly.

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Hbthebattle posted...

also there was infact a soundtrack released with the collector's edition

Whoops, I was indeed wrong about those, thanks for the correction.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

YWKON followed by Time to Fight (Bionis Shoulder) and Mechanical Rhythm.

As amazing as those three are, I do think this is a place where XBC2 wins handedly.

Damn this is another one of those posts that makes me want to play XBC2. I am constantly bouncing between yes and no for that game!

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Ooh, first time I've heard it and I really like Fogbeast

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It's weird how much modern xenoblade sounds like watson music now

anyway, regular time to fight good, irregular bound still very cool, og visions fun, i wish it didn't lean into film score tropes though even if less so than hostile gazes and enemies closing in... also wish ywkon and mechanical rhythm weren't slightly worse in de. fogbeasts best, still wish i could give votes to the first 3 i mentioned tho since i know they won't get many otherwise

Bionis Shoulder battle theme always makes me think of Torna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1weNnjzaXbY

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I'm the only one who picked Time to Fight? Not even the DE one, the original is perfect as is. Shimomura battle music has always been my fav genre though.

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I wish Torna was a standalone thing that I didn't need XC2 for, I've heard nothing but good things about it!

Expected YWKON to blowout win so it's nice that it's more split. Glad people aren't ignoring the FC tracks too, they are so good.

foolm0r0n posted...

I'm the only one who picked Time to Fight? Not even the DE one, the original is perfect as is. Shimomura battle music has always been my fav genre though.

I think the basic default battle themes always have trouble standing out in RPGs, as no matter how good they are people just get sick of them eventually.

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HanOfTheNekos posted...

YWKON followed by Time to Fight (Bionis Shoulder) and Mechanical Rhythm.

As amazing as those three are, I do think this is a place where XBC2 wins handedly.

X the real champion.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

X the real champion.

I mean X is the champion in all arenas.

switch remaster please

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xp1337 posted...

I mean X is the champion in all arenas.

switch remaster please

All arenas, huh? Even bestest Nopon?

(I have heard bad things about Tatsu)

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okay i don't immediately recall a superior nopon to bana and riki in x but that's it.

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YWKON is just too hype

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Dang that's a very bold claim about X.

YWKON has indeed pulled away in the end. We've still yet to have any winner come from behind!

Also is Fog King's battle theme just called 'Fog King'? That's all I can find.

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X has a top 3 worst game soundtrack ever, it's really impressive, coming off the XC1 soundtrack

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andylt posted...

Dang that's a very bold claim about X.

X has a very small but very vocal subset who swear it's the best thing ever

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foolm0r0n posted...

X has a top 3 worst game soundtrack ever, it's really impressive, coming off the XC1 soundtrack

I have definitely heard multiple people claim XCX's soundtrack is terrific, I haven't heard this before.

Leonhart4 posted...

X has a very small but very vocal subset who swear it's the best thing ever

I'm learning that Xenofans have very differing opinions on everything outside of Xenoblade 1!


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X has some severe flaws that stop me from thinking it's the best thing ever, but it also does some stuff better than any other game, so it's a bit of a mixed bag. I love it overall though.
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X severely drops the ball music, plot, and character models. It has great gameplay for the most part, but the rest is tough to get past.

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we're stuck on a whole diffrent plan net

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X's character models aren't great, but they're at least an improvement over the original Xenoblade's.

Music is too!
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KamikazePotato posted...

X severely drops the ball music, plot, and character models. It has great gameplay for the most part, but the rest is tough to get past.

See, I'd give all of those to X. Maaaybe main plot, but if you fold character sidequests into that X wins by a goddamn mile again so =/ (Also, character models is something all the Xenoblade games are bad at with like the exception of Torna because it was the XB2 we should have gotten but did not deserve)

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xp1337 posted...

See, I'd give all of those to X.

Man, even if you're not big on Xeno 1 or 2's main plots, this is a bold statement. I would say X has one of the worst JRPG storylines I've ever experienced. Sidequests can't salvage that.

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I was just comparing 1 against X. Torna would win main plot ez.

Torna > 2 > 1

1's main plot goes into self-destruction halfway through before throwing itself off the Bionis in the endgame. X's main plot by itself might still lose to that because it's extremely barebones and a lot of the fleshing out of characters and the world is in the character quests and major side quests. When you give it that it probably beats the other Xenoblades except, again, maybe Torna.

but X's real problem is it needs a sequel

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andylt posted...

I have definitely heard multiple people claim XCX's soundtrack is terrific, I haven't heard this before.

Just listen to it lol. It's cheesy anime climax music, except you're forced to listen to it for 50 hours on loop since it's used as regular background music.

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I mean, it's a Sawano soundtrack, and it's similar to Sawano's other soundtracks, most of which are for anime. I don't think there's really any other anime that sounds like XCX though. Can you give me one example?
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XCX soundtrack was always shall we say controversial and some tracks definitely take a number of listens throughout the game to grown on you.... but they actually can be infectious once they do. I'm namely thinking about New LA (night more... but both) & Black Tar here

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YEAH

YEAH

uh uh

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Mac Arrowny posted...

I mean, it's a Sawano soundtrack, and it's similar to Sawano's other soundtracks, most of which are for anime. I don't think there's really any other anime that sounds like XCX though. Can you give me one example?

Madoka is one, but like you said all her soundtracks are similar. It's just that most of her soundtracks are for 2-3 minute sequences in dramatic anime scenes, not 100 hours RPGs. I'm not saying it's bad music, it's just completely out of place and detrimental. It's like they designed the whole game and then slapped her tracks in there at the end just because she has a lot of fans.

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uh i think sawano is a guy... and also, he has a noticeable problem where most of his soundtracks are in fact not made with individual scenes in mind and the songs tend to regularly hit 5+ mins just like with x. the sawano problem

(yes this is a stealth sawano bashing post god he's a hack)

UF8 posted...

sawano is a guy

Oh wut that is surprising

And yeah I don't think his anime music fits too well either, but if you have some dramatic anime scene and you also his track over it, it's gonna work decently. And it will be memorable, which is all you want.

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