SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - Eternal Wings and the Facing Worlds Edition

A new work week at SuperPhillip Central nearly always means it's time for SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs, a segment where I deliver unto you five new video game themes that I consider to be excellent ones. This week is a mishmash of music from games like Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' first arcade outing, some more RPG action with Xenosaga III, and to cap things off, some stuff from Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- and Unreal Tournament! Before we get down to the gnitty gritty, check out the VGM Database where all past VGM volumes are located!

v931. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (GCN) - Start on a Voyage

It seems like Motoi Sakuraba is a soul that just can't let SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs go. He seems to always be here, or at least every other week! His work on Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean is fantastic, as is most of his composition profile. Start on a Voyage brings memories of roughing it on the rough waves to travel from location to location.

v932. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (ARC) - Boss Battle

Let's get some arcade action into SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs with this VGM volume! It's the boss battle theme from an absolute classic of the arcade scene, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Although it's hard to track down an arcade cabinet of this game nowadays, you can jump in to the Xbox Live Arcade and download it for both local and online play.

v933. Xenosaga III (PS2) - Godsibb

The final boss theme of Xenosaga III, the final chapter of the Xenosaga... er... saga, gives off a haunting feeling due to its wonderfully magical female vocals. What starts as a mysterious theme turns into a rocking one with percussion, guitar, and strong strings.

v934. Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- (ARC, PS4, PS3) - Fizz

We rock out to this theme from Guilty Gear Xrd's expansion, -SIGN-. This is the character select theme for the game, and it almost makes you not want to choose a character to play as. Or it at least makes you want to linger on the menu longer than you otherwise would, thanks to this awesome theme.

v935. Unreal Tournament (PC) - Foregone Destruction (Facing Worlds)

This track is a familiar one to most Unreal Tournament players. It plays during the Facing Worlds map, which is devised up of two towers with a branching duo of paths in the middle. It's all over an outer space setting that players can fall into if they're not careful. Facing Worlds is indeed one of Unreal Tournament's most popular maps.

SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - Back from Cybering Edition

The most important unofficial holiday of all time was yesterday, so SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs had to be out of the office for that! Of course, I'm talking about Cyber Monday. How else do you expect SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs to get half price cutting boards shaped like ducks?! Do you think that kind of deal happens any other day? No way!

Nonetheless, this favorite music-related feature of mine is here for your Tuesday instead of Monday this week. Such games featured this week include Shadow of the Colossus, Tales of Legendia, and Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. Let's go!

v751. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - To the Ancient Land

I start off this edition of my favorite VGMs with the introduction song of Shadow of the Colossus. The composer of this game, Koh Otani, might be familiar to anime fans, as he wrote the music to both Gundam Wing and Outlaw Star. Those are two of my favorite non-Yoko Kanno anime soundtracks. Regardless, Otani-san's (I don't usually do the "san" stuff, so beg my pardon this one time) approach to the Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack is a soundtrack full of raw emotion. It's as moving as the game itself.

v752. Tales of Legendia (PS2) - Enemy Attack

Before Motoi Sakuraba became pretty much the de facto composer for the Tales series, Go Shiina had his talented hands on the Tales soundtrack with Tales of Legendia for the PlayStation 2. This lively and energetic Enemy Attack theme is showcased by a brilliant, fast-paced piano melody, followed by lovely strings. It's a gorgeously designed piece, for sure.

v753. Hot Shots Golf 3 (PS2) - Main Menu

Moving away from epic scaled games to the links for a short respite here, the Hot Shots Golf series is one that rarely disappoints. The music also stays strong game after game in the series. Rather than choose a theme from one of the golf courses in the game, I figured I'd share the main menu theme. Not only is it heard a lot obviously while playing, but it constantly gets you in high spirits and in the mood to play another round of golf.

v754. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (GCN) - House of Cards

We return to "epic" games and sounding stuff with Baten Kaitos's House of Cards, composed by a name I mentioned in the Tales of Legendia Enemy Attack VGM, Motoi Sakuraba. Not only does this fantastic and masterful composer get around, he consistently makes quality soundtracks. I guess that would be a great reason as to why he gets around so often!

v755. Breath of Fire (SNES, GBA) - Battling

Breath of Fire was one of my first RPG's I ever played. Thus, it has a certain nostalgia I appreciate, but even then, the game still holds up rather well-- at least much better than its poorly-translated sequel. Battling is the second battle theme that plays after Ryu's party has reached a certain point in their adventure. Its much more uptempo than the first battle theme, making it my personal favorite from the game.

SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - The 700 Club Edition

We took Labor Day off, but we're back and we're going to have some interesting articles for you this week. We kick it all off with SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs, which this edition is celebrating its 700th VGM selection! This week has games like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Sonic Rush Adventure, and Baten Kaitos! Since we're hitting 700, why don't we share with you our VGM Database? It has every song and piece of music we've ever spotlighted on this site!

v696. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U) - Trunk Twister

We kick off this special Tuesday and even-more-special 700 VGM edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs with a catchy theme for the first mine cart level of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. It's a perfect tribal beat to it, as you roll down and around the trunk of a gigantic tree, ducking under plane chopper blades and jumping over gaps.

v697. Sonic Rush Adventure (DS) - Waterbike

It's the unofficial end of summer, being the day after Labor Day here in the United States, but the official end isn't until later this month! Let's take this opportunity to soak some last sun rays with the Waterbike theme as heard in the second 2D Sonic the Hedgehog title for the Nintendo DS, Sonic Rush Adventure. It was set to a tropical theme, including these waterbike, jetski, and boat side segments of the game between each zone.

v698. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (GCN) - The True Mirror

Motoi Sakuraba certainly gets around with his soundtracks, doesn't he? He's the man behind the music for the majority of the Tales of series, Golden Sun, Star Ocean, among many others. He did the music for Baten Kaitos on the Nintendo GameCube as well, and the song we are highlighting today from the soundtrack is The True Mirror, the basic battle theme of the game.

v699. Perfect Dark Zero (360) - Combat Arena

Perfect Dark Zero received positive reviews when it released. Some say that's due to the fact that it was a launch title for the Xbox 360 and was given the benefit of the doubt. We here at SuperPhillip Central enjoyed it, as it's one of the few objective-based shooters (i.e. not a corridor shooter) from the seventh generation of game consoles. The multiplayer, where Combat Arena plays, is still one of our favorites that ever existed on the Xbox 360. Killegal!

v700. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii) - The Theme of Alexia Type I

Our glorious, monumental 700th VGM comes from Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, a game that was a rail shooter for the Wii that was based off Resident Evil 2, 3 and Code Veronica, as well as having a brand-new chapter called Operation: Javier. This piece, The Theme of Alexia Type I, is a remade version of the original Code Veronica final boss theme, or at least part one of it. If you're in the mood for a sensational orchestral piece with some lovely Opera vocals attached to it, look no further than The Theme of Alexia's two parts!