Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: soundtrack album, extracted audio
Info
My favorite main Pokémon soundtracks are the ones where Go Ichinose and Hitomi Sato feature most prominently, so that’s Diamond & Pearl, Black2 & White2, and Sun & Moon. Both of them are pretty jazz-minded, with Ichinose tending toward more cutesy jazz fusion occasionally dipping into Pat Metheny territory and Sato tending more toward piano/loungey and traditional jazz. I like Sato a bit more of the two; while Ichinose is definitely no slouch, Sato messes around more with erratic syncopation, unexpected chord progressions, and synth sounds in ways I appreciate.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus takes that which I love the most about those two and adds in some nice dashes of:
- fantasy Japanese music in the style of Ōkami,
- pianoish ambience a bit reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and
- cool ambient sound design.
So this is my favorite Pokémon soundtrack now, pretty easily. With the game taking place in the distant past of Diamond & Pearl and either directly rearranging or referencing a bunch of tracks from those games, it very much sounds like “music from the land of jazz, from the era before jazz was invented and the lands were still wilderness.” Which is a peak aesthetic, I’m not gonna lie to you.
Ichinose and Sato were joined on this by ex-CAPCOM composer Hiromitsu Maeba, whose employment status wasn’t entirely obvious, but he appears to have started his own freelance company called “com monaural” soon after leaving and so isn’t GAME FREAK staff. He was generally in charge of event music and jingles more than area and battle themes, and his music shows off a bit more sophistication in instrumental programming and electronic production than Ichinose’s and Sato’s (which I kinda figured after listening to his tracks for Devil May Cry 5 as a reference). Mostly I didn’t find his contributions quite as interesting as the other two’s, but a lot of them are still good and there are a few very cool ones.
Recommended tracks:
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“Battle (People of Hisui)” (Ichinose, orig. Junichi Masuda) is pretty bumpy with its time signatures to give “the impression of rough battles from the era when Pokémon battle rules weren’t formalized yet” according to the booklet, which is great and all, but also you never have to justify shit like this to me, Ichinose
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“Prepare to Battle 2” (Maeba) shows off Maeba’s instrumental programming with higher quality samples and articulations in a fun, staccato track
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“The Heartwood” (Ichinose, orig. Sato) has some really cool ambient interludes between the more lyrical main sections
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“Wayward Cave” (Sato, orig. Ichinose) gets real funky at 1:24, the chords at 1:39 are nice too
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“Midnight” (Sato) is the funny Chrono Trigger soundalike (actually this song is incredibly pretty)
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“Obsidian Fieldlands: 1-2” (Ichinose, orig. Sato) is probably the track that sounds most like it comes from Breath of the Wild, with its big rolled piano chords and synths at the start
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“Alabaster Icelands: 1-2” (Ichinose, orig. Sato & Ichinose) builds up to this really over-the-top layered section at 1:15, some classic Ichinose compositional hyperactivity
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“Hall of Origin” (Sato, orig. Ichinose) is real creepy
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“Battle (Arceus) 4” (Ichinose & Maeba, orig. Junichi Masuda) tears open the fabric of reality
(track titles are unofficial translations from Bulbapedia)
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