Monday, January 25, 2016

SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - Winter Role-Playing Edition

It's Monday, so that can only mean one thing. Well, aside from obvious things like most people going back to work or school. What I'm talking about is SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs! I have for you a themed edition this week, an edition chock full of RPG goodness.

This week we start off with some Ys I & II Chronicles music. Then we enter into a waltz with music from Kingdom Hearts II. Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan leads us to the halfway mark of this week's edition, while Chrono Trigger and Skies of Arcadia take us home.

If after listening to the VGMs this week has left you yearning for more, check out the VGM Database, where more than 1,000 past VGM volumes are located for your listening pleasure!

v1061. Ys I & II Chronicles (PC) - First Step Towards Wars


Yuzo Koshiro originally composed the themes heard in many early Ys games. Falcom's masterful arrangers took the already excellent compositions and turned them into even greater pieces with the Ys remakes. This theme, First Step Towards Wars, plays early in the first Ys game, which featured simplistic combat compared to future games in the series.

v1062. Kingdom Hearts II (PS2) - Waltz of the Damned


Yoko Shimomura is a goddess of a game composer. That's not spreading it on too thick, is it? Her work in Kingdom Hearts 2 is fantastic, as exemplified by this theme that plays during the Beast's Castle level of the game, obviously modeled after Beauty and the Beast. Played in 3/3 time, as waltzes are wont to be, Waltz of the Damned is a magical and marvelous piece of music.

v1063. Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan (3DS) - Area I - Windy Plains


We just can't get away from Yuzo Koshiro, can we? While we sampled a composition from his past works, his compositions on Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan is much more recent, but no doubt just as capable and compelling. This beautiful travel theme for the Windy Plains area of Etrian Odyssey IV welcomes the listener with gorgeous strings and piano.

v1064. Chrono Trigger (SNES, DS) - Secret of the Forest


We've already had some great composers featured on this RPG-filled edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs. Now I feature one of my favorite game music composers of all time, Yasunori Mitsuda. His work on Chrono Trigger was quite stressful to him, making it so he became ill during working on the music. Thankfully, the equally awesome Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame came through and assisted Mitsuda with work on the soundtrack.

v1065. Skies of Arcadia (DC) - Little Jack


Vyse and crew travel the skies of Skies of Arcadia in a variety of vessels. The Little Jack is Drachma's ship and namesake, one of the earlier ships used in the game. Little Jack as a theme is heroic and majestic, great for soaring through the skies, passing by towns and clouds alike, as the adventure continues.

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