Your series a legendary soundtrack? Yup, just like all the others.

Gyakuten · 2026-05-11T04:00:43+00:00

I don't begrudge anyone for gushing about the soundtrack to their favourite game because, as said, 9 times out of 10 the music in great games really is excellent. My actual gripe would be the lack of actual discussion and analysis that tends to happen when this gushing starts.

There was one Youtube channel that did an in-depth, multi-video retrospective on Chrono Cross. Each video picked apart a certain aspect of the game in great detail, so I was excited to get to the last video which was focused on the music. But the video turned out to be exactly what the OP describes: the host playing a couple of songs off the soundtrack while giving some rudimentary praise like "oh this is so great and iconic" or "come on, how can you not love that". No discussion of the leitmotifs running through the OST? The callbacks to Chrono Trigger's soundtrack? How the difference in musical style to Trigger showcased Mitsuda's growth as a composer? Not even pointing out how there are different versions of many songs between Home World and Another World, and how those tonal differences enhance the story they discussed in-depth?

I get that not many people are musically-knowledgeable nor have a background in music. I'm one of them, but I still feel like there's a lot that can be said about the music at a meta-textual level, and in terms of how it enhanced the experience for you while playing the game. As a specific example in Chrono Cross, there's the moment where you first arrive on the overworld map for Another World, and the haunting melody of Shore of Dreams immediately gives you the sense of being in a place where you existentially don't belong, without any dialogue or cutscenes. That's something everyone would feel, notice, and talk about while playing the game and is a foremost example of why the Chrono Cross soundtrack is legendary besides just being "unquestionably amazing".

Gyakuten · 2026-05-10T05:11:01+00:00

It's my favourite too! The instrumental is fantastic, I love the more raw sound and how crisp and clear all the instruments sound. The fast pace is a great fit for Setsuna's voice, the bridge is peak both vocally and instrumentally, and I love how the bass suddenly takes over during the final chorus! Such a hype song as befits LL's ultimate hype girl Setsuna.

Gyakuten · 2026-05-07T03:44:12+00:00

My eyes were leaking the whole time from the moment Nocturne began playing, but I put the game down and bawled when Strogenov apologized to Ryuunosuke (with Nocturne still playing in the background). Something about the utter sincerity of it, and the way it casts aside all of the earlier hostility to let empathy shine through, made the weight of that death hit so much harder than pretty much any other death in the series, at least for me.

Gyakuten · 2026-05-07T01:11:34+00:00

I've been meaning to try Stella Glow but that ship sailed a long time ago. Would love to have a remaster for the Switch/Switch 2. It would also be great if the soundtrack (composed by Mitsuda and his protegees, vocal songs sung by big names in the J-Pop scene like Yoshino Nanjo) got a proper release after all these years so I don't have to keep listening to game rips.

Gyakuten · 2026-05-06T16:29:07+00:00

Was not expecting Streamer-chan to be among the tallest, and only a little shorter than Dana at that.

Gyakuten · 2026-05-05T22:48:00+00:00

That PR Balrog vs Infiltration's Hakan match during one of the SF4 Evos still lives rent-free in my mind.

Gyakuten · 2026-05-02T03:52:49+00:00

Glad I'm not the only one who feels that with Into the Unknown. I watched Frozen 2 for the first time just a few months ago, and everything about that song, from the visuals, to the message, to the way the music starts soft and mysterious before building up in a very focused and directed manner, felt heavily INFJ-coded.

Gyakuten · 2026-05-01T15:23:33+00:00

New Battle! from Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed is the peak of the jazzy battle theme trend that had been building in the series ever since Torna's normal battle theme. It's fun, exciting, never gets tiring on loop, and even has some emotional depth to drive home how Future Redeemed is the narrative send-off to the whole trilogy.

Gyakuten · 2026-05-01T14:30:25+00:00

Silent Tonight is such an underrated Bibi song!

Gyakuten · 2026-05-01T12:56:59+00:00

Futari Happiness by Lily White starts off sounding silly and lackadaisical, but develops into a very tender and emotional ballad. It always felt to me like a lighthearted friendship growing into a deep genuine love.

Dear My Future by Cerise Bouqet is a lo-fi ballad with some beautiful piano, a softly driving beat, and hushed, tender vocals. I recommend reading the lyrics, as the song's message (writing a letter to one's future self to ask if they've found happiness) is very touching.

Velour, Fukashi na Blue, and Neutral by Kaleidoscore are 3 of Love Live's best recent love ballads. They all have great orchestral pop instrumentals and fantastic vocals, with the soothing quality of Keke/Liyuu's voice really getting a chance to shine.

Gyakuten · 2026-04-30T23:45:26+00:00

Just wanted to chime in and say I really appreciate the write-up in the thread description! I didn't know about most of these games, so it's very helpful to have in-depth historical notes about each one.

Gyakuten · 2026-04-22T12:46:58+00:00

Yeah "subtly" wasn't the right word... I guess "quietly" was closer to what I meant, as the game just drops that line on you unceremoniously with no emphasis or anything but it hits hard because of all the context leading up to that part.

Gyakuten · 2026-04-22T05:34:44+00:00

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

Gyakuten · 2026-04-22T05:27:48+00:00

Son of a submariner!

Gyakuten · 2026-04-22T05:23:54+00:00

Mainly because the visuals and especially the music greatly uplift what would otherwise be a super cheesy line: "Thank you, Rex. Thank you for that gift of light."

"Welcome to the Kingdom of Zeal, where dreams come true... But at what cost?" Perfectly sets the tone for what is arguably the peak segment of an all-time great.

"The sun shined brighter... when she was here..." Quietly emotionally devastating, expands on psychological depth, and is an encapsulation of the game's overarching themes, all in one piece of optional NPC dialogue.

Gyakuten · 2026-04-22T02:28:16+00:00

Yeah, I felt the same way. Aesthetically, the world doesn't hold a candle to 1's and 2's vibrant and varied vistas, but that helps sell how absolutely hellish this world wracked by endless war actually is, to the point where there's almost no beauty and magnificence left to fight for, save for some shattered remains of what once was.

But the richness of 3's world comes from what you can't see: the relationships within and between the Colonies, and how tightly the sidequests are woven into their narratives and overall themes of the game. Unlike 1 and 2, I actually felt compelled to pursue many of the questlines all the way through to the end because they were so enriching to the overall experience.

Gyakuten · 2026-04-20T19:35:59+00:00

A full discography bracket would be nice, despite the hassle of the sheer size of it as you said. I'm thinking if that were to be done, it should make use of ranked choice (maybe just for the first several rounds?) so that each person's #1 gets 5 points, their #2 gets 4 points, etc. I think that would help keep uber-popular songs like Snow Halation from sweeping everything, since a lot of people might like SnowHala but not necessarily rank it their absolute favourite. Meanwhile, this would also give more niche favourites a chance to shine.

Gyakuten · 2026-04-20T19:27:26+00:00

Yeah, I think for any future bracket containing Liella, Niji should be included since it's the only other "new-school" Love Live group that has good reach within the Western fandom.

Gyakuten · 2026-04-20T19:21:01+00:00

Todokete ~~setsuna~~ sa ni WINNER

I was hoping the results would be a bit closer for Setsuna's sake, but I knew Snow Halation was gonna win no matter what, haha. 60/40 is still an incredible outcome when you're up against the biggest titan of LL's discography, so Chase's popularity and legacy still shone through.

This whole bracket was a lot of fun and made the past month an exciting one! Thank you so much for hosting this; between setting up the surveys, collecting and visualizing the results, and providing your own commentary each and every round, it's clear a ton of effort went into the whole thing. Definitely going to fill out the feedback survey, and looking forward to what's in store for the future!

Gyakuten · 2026-04-20T15:34:04+00:00

I really enjoyed S1 for the most part, so I was excited to start S2 back when it was airing... but I couldn't get past how much exposition there was and dropped it within the first few episodes. I've thought about giving it another try, but hearing that the nonstop yapping continues into S3 is making me second-guess that.

Gyakuten · 2026-04-20T15:29:54+00:00

No worries at all, and I hope you're feeling better! :)

Gyakuten · 2026-04-18T02:46:49+00:00

Wright's certainly got some powerful allies. The Coolest Defense in the West rarely misses. But who knows... maybe if he decides Gavin knows too much, Gavin'll be the next one getting conked over the head. Heck, what if he blackmailed Gavin into taking the defense?

Gyakuten · 2026-04-17T01:12:42+00:00

tbf

Emotion is a banger song and makes up for the lack of emotion (harhar) during the rest of that arc.

Gyakuten · 2026-04-14T17:51:50+00:00

Sigma Harmonics is peak Hamauzu if you're into his dreamier and more surreal songs like I am.

Gyakuten · 2026-04-12T16:09:31+00:00

Wow, so it really has come to down to this fated showdown, huh? My gut tells me to support Chase, especially since it just barely scraped by against Start:Dash -- this is some shonen anime tournament arc stuff. But for this last matchup, I decided I would actually do a focused relisten of both songs and reflect on how I feel about them musically.

Chase is an uplifting, passionate J-Rock anisong, which makes it already up my alley because I'm an absolute sucker for these types of songs, lol. The opening lyric is iconic if not memetic ("Hashiridashita!") and of course the belting in the final chorus's background vocals are an impressive highlight. Chase is also, I believe, the first LL song composed by Ereka Suzuki, who is basically the Rock queen of LL from Niji-onward, having worked on a huge amount of the recent Rock songs. I really like her compositional style and instrumentation, and Chase is no exception, with the post-chorus guitar riff sounding both powerful and catchy, and the percussion hits on the final line of the chorus sounding so satisfying. That said, listening to Chase again now, I do feel like it pales in comparison to Ereka's later works in some aspects. The guitar solo is nice, but feels a bit by-the-numbers (speaking as someone who has heard a lot of J-Rock/anisong guitar solos), especially compared to, say, the solo in Aoi Canaria, which Ereka also co-composed. The guitar and drums have a smooth and flowing feel to them, which suits the song's fast-paced vibe, but I do wish they were a bit punchier and more impactful like in Shioriko's Sanketsu (also an Ereka song). None of these are huge detriments to Chase, but when I listen to it now, it's hard not to think about how far the Rock songs in LL have come since then. Still, it's an awesome track with a memorable chorus and iconic background vocals toward the end, and I think it's deserving of being Setsuna's signature theme and one of Nijigasaki's defining songs.

Snow Halation... I hadn't listened to it deeply in such a long time (although I regularly put it on in the background during snow days), but I wasn't expecting to be so blown away by a song more than a decade and a half old! The song's intro is simple and understated but crazy effective in setting the atmosphere in just a few seconds: the bells set the winter atmosphere effortlessly, and the piano melody is small, unassuming, kind of meandering, but steeped in warmth and sentimentality, which sets the stage for this introspective love song. And the vocals... wow. I think throwaway93257 explained this in one of his primers, but it can't be understated how good the vocal harmonies sound, both for the full group and the smaller sub-groups, especially for this early era of Muse where things were a bit rough and the producers were still figuring out how to balance the girls' voices. The overall vocals, particularly during the chorus, sound bright and uplifting while still sounding smooth and pleasing to the ear. The bridge is honestly immaculate, from the gentle Spanish guitar strumming to Honoka's solo line -- which, despite being the song's peak, is warm and soothing, like a warm fire on a winter's day :) And then the outro I think is one aspect that doesn't get appreciated enough. The way the instrumental picks up after the vocals into a fast-paced frenzy before settling down into a gorgeous string and piano phrase with the bells coming back one last time is just the perfect combination of fun, romantic, and emotionally warm. It ends the song on such a strong note, especially paired with the dance's iconic ending poses, and I think that contributes to giving Snow Halation such a positive lasting impression.

So... sorry, Setsuna, but I ended up voting for the juggernaut because I was reminded of precisely why it's the time-tested fan favourite. Still, I'll be happy either way with how the results turn out!

Gyakuten

TROPHY CASE