Kingdom Heart Soundtrack Boxset

Qui-Gon Joe wrote:

Ashley Winchester wrote:

Uh, I don't want to get into this argument but was playing the "I've been posting here for x amount of years" card really necessary?

Err... sorry, didn't mean it that way.  Was just pointing out that I've said such things a lot in the past and don't have anything specifically against Zane.

Even if you *did* mean it that way, I think coming from you it is totally acceptable. There are some folks who are respected more than others, especially as the years go by. I'd bet money you'd be one in most people's books.

I also agree this board, throughout its past, has been pretty free of drama... at least compared to all the other boards. So let's try to keep it that way.

That said, when I read Zane's original comment about buying neither and selling the one already owned, I chuckled. This coming from someone who's never played either game nor listened to either soundtrack. (I thought it was all Disney music?)

Not that my opinion's worth anything.

Qui-Gon Joe wrote:

Zane wrote:

My recommendation is to sell your KHII OST and not get the boxset. Or the original KH OST.

I love it when people troll threads just for the sake of pointing out that they don't like the music under discussion.  Clearly Bernhardt likes KH music, so what exactly is the point of you coming in here and saying this?

I actually thought Zane's burn was rather hilarious, even if I disagree. It's just an incredibly well-worded burn.

Qui-Gon Joe wrote:

I'm bothered when I see excessive pointless negativity on a board that is typically so civil.

Agreed there, at least. Though, I think Zane's keeping it more civil than most here do.

...

Previously, I've never really cared for KH at all until KH2 came along; that's when I went back to the original.

Ever since Legend of Mana, I've wanted more Shimomura; she doesn't really seem to have a very large discography, even if she was considered one of Square's "Big Three," along with Uematsu and Mitsuda back in the day.

...

As for the Chrono Cross Arrange comments, when the hell is that man going to stop making lousy/non-memorable soundtracks like everything he's been making for the past 3-4 years, and finally give us a legitimate score?!

Last edited by Bernhardt (Aug 11, 2007)

I'd say in the US, it was Uematsu, then Mitsuda then Shimomura/Kikuta (for Mario RPG and Seiken 2, respectively). None of the SNES Saga games or Seiken 3 (or Soukaigi) made it over, but the FF's and Chrono Trigger were fairly popular titles...People are more divided over Secret of Mana 2 and Mario RPG.

Personally, I've grown more fond of Kikuta and less of Shimomura the more I've heard from both. I always thought it was strange that I enjoyed listening to Shimomura (for the most part), but so little of her music stayed with me. I think she peaked melodically at Mario RPG (and Street Fighter II!) and the rest of her work seems to have about 5-7 "amazing" tracks amidst "the rest". Then her two KH scores kind of illustrated that more vividly than Legend of Mana or Parasite Eve did (where the most I got out of them was the "Under the Sea" arrangements). I don't like every Kikuta track I've heard either, but I like his general style and unpredictability/quirkiness more.

Last edited by GoldfishX (Aug 13, 2007)

You basically covered Kikuta's discography...Outside of his hentai scores, you got pretty much everything. He doesn't have much, unfortunately...

Bernhardt wrote:

Relevant back to topic:

The KH2 battle themes, I'm having difficulty discerning between pieces since they're roughly similar, but they're still good. In some cases, I'm even finding nuances reminiscent of things Hamauzu/Nakano applied on battle themes in Samurai Legend Musashi - "Boss Battle (First Movement)" (Disc 01, Track 06), and "Gorpus's Vendetta" (Disc 01, Track 10), namely the percussion samples.

This is a gold example of why I don't think as much of Shimomura as I used to her...Her battle themes for KH ARE extremely similar: Percussion-based chaos that's light on discernable melody and high on repetition, add sprinkles of piano and you've got the blueprints for basically every battle theme in the series (OWA not counted). They're not BAD per se, but I find little reason to find the motivation to tell them apart. At least back with Legend of Mana and Mario RPG, she varied things up a lot more.

(just a minor note, but I'm surprised you don't mind the synth in KH2...the normal buzz on it is that it's less than acceptable for a lot of people.)

Last edited by GoldfishX (Aug 13, 2007)

allyourbaseare wrote:

As far as battle tracks, she'll have a hard time topping "Pain the Universe" and "The Darkness Nova" from Legend of Mana.  Ooo, "U.B." from Parasite Eve was excellent as well.

Those are goodies... I like "Irwin on Reflection" a lot as well. I also think it's cool how "Plosive Attack" and "Marginal Beast" play off one another.

allyourbaseare wrote:

As far as battle tracks, she'll have a hard time topping "Pain the Universe" and "The Darkness Nova" from Legend of Mana.  Ooo, "U.B." from Parasite Eve was excellent as well.

I haven't heard KH2, but I always liked "The Deep End" from KH1.  Parasite Eve still has her best battle themes though.  The standard battle theme gets a bit repetitive on its own, but it works well in the game.  Then again, I think much of Shimomura's music has a certain repetitive quality to it.  It's something I've come to accept as a tradeoff for the fact that much of her music is also instantly accessible and enjoyable.

As far as the Kikuta versus Shimomura debate...I tend to side with Shimomura myself.  I like Kikuta but he hasn't really put out a wholly compelling score for me, except for perhaps SD2.  I wish they could assign him to something epic like a Final Fantasy game.  Then maybe we'd hear some good stuff again.  SD3 was a bit too bouncy even though I mostly enjoy it. (yeah, SMRPG is lighthearted, but it also has a boatload of memorable melodies; SD3 is fewer and far in-between with that by comparison)  As for Soukaigi, the sound quality is nice, but it kind of feels like a collection of unrelated tracks.  It could be because I haven't played the game, but I think it's probably more than that, as I've been hooked by other scores without having played the games.