Pokémon Sword & Shield: The Crown Tundra (Switch, 2020)

Game info: Bulbapedia
Listening: soundtrack album (tracks 4.16~34), extracted audio

Info

Since I wasn’t super impressed by the music from Sword & Shield up to this point, I never actually listened to the music for the second DLC. Maybe I should’ve, though, because it’s got a few really good tracks in it. Definitely better than the first DLC at least! More interesting sound design, better chords, and more just general wack-ass-ness.

This DLC sees the return of original Pokémon composer Junichi Masuda, whose contributions these days are only a couple of weird battle tracks for the occasional game. Given that the weird battle tracks are far and above my favorite Pokémon music by him, I think this is actually a strong use of his talents.

Recommended tracks:

  • Freezington” (Adachi) is a delicate little music box waltz

  • Battle! (King of Bountiful Harvests)” (Masuda) has a real “excuse me Masuda what are you doing” section at 0:41

  • Battle! (Legendary Giants)” (Sato, orig. Masuda) has some weird reversed(?) synths in it that actually kind of remind me a bit of the Tears of the Kingdom soundtrack

  • Battle! (Legendary Bird Pokémon)” (Ichinose) is one of the more unhinged battle tracks I’ve heard by Ichinose, love the quartal prog moment at 0:28 and random chiptune panning at 2:00

(track titles are unofficial translations from Bulbapedia)

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