Enter the Game Music Thunderdome

Treasure of the Rudras
Life is Strange: Before the Storm

It’s the longer one.

Treasure of the Rudras
and Before the Storm

Chrono Trigger and Before the Storm

My wife turned her ears 180 degrees like some rabbit from the other side of the appartment on the first four notes of Chrono Trigger. And for her to ramble on and on about some “medieval age” and other nonsensical stuff. Then proceed to sing it for half an hour. Good thing it isn’t her voting.

I choose Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and trGKR’)"t)zekge Chrono Trigger
yes, I am weak.

Perfectly put. I had an urge of nerd-rage earlier when somebody referred to YU-NO as “MIDI”.

Speaking of which, Chrono Trigger is pretty much the perfect example of that phenomenon for me. The orchestral arrangement album To Far Away Times was a mainstay on my study playlists in college, and going back to the original in-game version makes me sad that I’m not hearing this instead:

Oh yeah, this version too:

All the Square SFC games seem to use roughly the same “MIDI set” of sort, and it is one that is really unappealing to me and makes me impossible to appreciate them… unless under durress.

Bear in mind, I have next to zero idea of how the SFC sound system actually works: I just heard it was a MIDI box with really small sized samples.

Funny thing about that remix: it didn’t provoke the same reaction in the house that playing the original of the previous track did. Weirdness of the human taste :O
Is that track Uematsu work? Sounds a lot like some of the phrases in one of the SaGa 2 tracks he composed that I can recall.

@Thraeg wow, that To Far Away Times version sounds lovely. The SNES strings are quite shrill but the main melody still holds despite the uncanny valley effect.

Will vote tomorrow. I really like three of this group’s tracks so it’s going to be difficult.

Oh I hear you. We’re it allowed I would nominate literally any Black Mages version of FF songs for that reason, or Metroid Metal versions of the original Metroid tracks, or Vangough’s Game On versions like this

The composition exceeds the capabilities often. But this is a good group of songs, and hold up better than the hardware says they should.

Your wife sounds like an objectively good person.

Those 16-bit soundtracks had such a profound effect on me that I prefer the originals in almost every case (except for Dancing Mad, which I already brought up). Is it actually the strength of the composition or nostalgia that gets me? No idea, and I don’t think there will ever be a way to know.

I kind of go the opposite way from most of you – the fact that these people were able to make these instruments sound anything like real-world instruments makes them more impressive to me than an orchestral arrangement of the same music.

More interesting? Perhaps. More enjoyable? Mostly not.

I played most of them long after the fact, most of them 2003 onwards, so while I have nostalgia for some, it is a different nostalgia than those who grew up playing them 25 years ago. So I tend to have a stronger preference for real instrumental versions.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm is the clear winner for me this round. And I guess Xenoblade Chronicles 2 gets my second vote? I’m starting to come to the realization that maybe I just don’t like the music in most Japanese games.

Definitely the hardest group to decide, by far. I can make a case for all of them. Chrono Trigger gets a lot of points for the memory of that moment and music, none of the other three I’ve played. Treasure of the Rudras has this cool neoclassical vibe that wouldn’t be out of place with Yngwie Malmsteen or Vitali Kuprij playing it, and I love some Yngwie and Vitali. Life is strange has the soothing post rock thing going, and Xenoblade Chronicles is a solid adventuring song. Again.

Ultimately I liked the other Xenoblade song better, and Chrono Trigger just doesn’t quite have enough to it.

Treasure of the Rudras and Life is Strange

Chrono Trigger and Life is Strange: Before the Storm

Oh wow, this just happened with my girlfriend, although she doesn’t know anything about the medieval age :-) In the first few seconds of the track she was like ‘Oh, this sounds nice’. She even asked if it was from Final Fantasy. A very sweet (and catchy!) song. I have not played Chrono Trigger either.

@CraigM I nearly got lost down a Corneria metal hole this morning thanks to that video. I’m partial to Family Jules’ version:

I’ve got to say, I prefer my Metroid electronic rather than metal, although some of the covers have been great. There’s a delicate balance between the organic and electronic/mechanical in the Metroid games that I think is reflected beautifully in the music.

Yeah, I loved that version too and wouldn’t have objected to it being longer! They’re going for different things but I missed that dreamy and contemplative quality a lot. Both lovely tracks though.

Treasure of the Rudras reminded me of Turrican and… Mega Man maybe? It’s got a rocking sound but it didn’t grab me like the other three tracks here. Alba Cavanish strikes again with more epic and triumphant adventure music! Loved this one too.

I think it’s got to be… Xenoblade Chrono Trigger for me.

To be clear, although I’d wish she was an historical nerd, my wife was referring to the Chrono Trigger medieval age: she is a desperate Chrono Trigger fan, something which I don’t understand.

Also you guys should get out of those guitar riffs’ passé (so 1980!), and jump onboard the progressive 1985 wagon and witness its PSG and FM futurescapes!

Ahh, my girlfriend hasn’t played Chrono Trigger so that’s why her reaction surprised me!

Treasure of the Rudras & Life is Strange: Glass

I gotta go with Alba Cavanish (Night) from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Glass by Daughter for Before the Storm. Loved both a lot. Like some discussion upthread, I find a lot of the MIDI area very difficult to get into. Orchestral remakes tend to let me enjoy the melodies, harmonies, and intricacies much better, which I know makes my distaste at least a little unfair, but it is what it is.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Glass

I’ll go with Chrono Trigger and Before the Storm

This is a tough category. I’d say that musically, I was at a toss-up between the two Mitsuda tracks, but gave it to Chrono Trigger because of nostalgia, and because of the added difficulty of composing on the SNES.

Not having any history with it, Treasure of the Rudras sounded like many a SNES Square battle theme, and so didn’t really stand out.

I was surprised by Glass, after a kind of weak opening, I liked where it went. In a very strong bracket, I also voted for it just sort of as a palate cleanser, as I imagine it will be very different from most of what gets advanced against it.

For me, there’s a break between NES and SNES era, where I feel like NES era music is kind of quintessentially built on the bit tune sound palette. I often don’t really care for remixes or reinventions of music from that era, because I feel they kind of miss the point a little bit. By the time we hit the SNES though, I feel that the compositions are similar enough to real instruments, that I think they’re better served by orchestral or remix versions.

Genesis, falling between those two, varies a bit, but I think the soundscape was a little more electronic-y, and so it generally falls into the NES category.