The month of horrors and diabetic candy began on Monday, and we came out swinging! This week was all about Battle Themes. Shots were fired with Wild ARMs 3, jobs were changed with Final Fantasy V, got funky with Persona 3, made music with Eternal Sonata, and became demons with Digital Devil Saga.

If you want to see the music as it goes up (and not wait every Saturday for these wrap-ups), remember to go to our Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM

Wild ARMs 3 – Gun Metal Action

Composed by Michiko Naruke

 

So to kick things off with a little bit of Wild Western flavor. Wild ARMs 3 had a lot of battles. A LOT of battles. But hearing this song, you almost didn’t want to run away from them. It’s those trumpets at the beginning man. The song’s also got some neat whistling to carry the main melody. This theme was made batter when you fought on horseback. It was like watching those old wild west chases. So then, from the four guns used in the game by the characters, what kind of gun would you bring to a horseback chase?

Final Fantasy V – Battle Theme

Composed by Nobuo Uematsu

 

Having never played Final Fantasy V (yet, but I own the game), the music for the game, especially this theme, always struck as something played in a frontier of some sort. Like, you and and your wayfaring buds are in some faraway land, fighting enemies not many have seen before. The song continues that classic intro bassline, this time with a rising chord progression to differentiate it from the bassline heard in IV. Also of note is the different instruments used in this one when compared to FFIV. Since we’re talking about FFV, what’s your favorite Job in the game?

Persona 3 – Mass Destruction

Composed by Shoji Meguro

 

Remember a couple of paragraphs back where I said something about Wild Arms 3 and being in a lot of battles. Well, same happens in Persona 3. And as such, you’ll be hearing “BABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABY” a whole hell of a lot in this game. But it’s so damn infectious. It’s good hip-hop, Lotus Juice spits some smooooth hell rhymes, and the female vocals complement the rapping well. It’s like a dance-off is occuring with every battle. This marked a rather noticeable departure from the hard-rock/techno roots of the Persona series before this, which did draw some backlash from older fans, with said fans seeing Persona 3 as the “Final Fantasy VII” of the series in terms of how much the Persona series (and MegaTen) gained notoriety after being in relative obscurity. So, if you were in the Main Character’s shoes, which school club would you join?

Eternal Sonata – Leap The Precipice

Composed by Motoi Sakuraba et al

 

I have a bit of a funny story here, so you’ll have to excuse my lack of talking about the song in question. I was pretty interested in getting this game when it first came out. I played the demo on the Xbox 360, and it looked mighty beautiful. And the premise of having Chopin being the main character intrigued. However the little problem of “The Xbox 360 is reina-rei’s” kinda kept me from playing it. Not that she had a vicegrip on the system, but it was more that I was self conscious playing a game like this… in the living room where the 360 primarily stayed. Then it’s revealed that the game was coming to the PS3, which I had gotten for Christmas the year it was released on it. However it was in very limited quantities where I lived, so I abandoned all hope in getting the game. Two years later, I see it on the used shelf of Game Champ. Gasping like an asthma attack, I bought the game and declared victory. So what oddly rare game did you come across in your gaming life?

Digital Devil Saga – Hunting

Composed by Shoji Meguro

 

I’ll break my own rules just slightly posting this since this is used for an ambush encounter rather than a regular battle (that and it’s another Meguro song for a single week). But this versions feels a little more complete with the silent part in the beginning. You just gotta love how… oldschool it feels, like a good ol’ brawl’s gonna break out in a bar between biker gangs. I remember hearing this song the first time, I was under a sort of false pretense that transforming my party back to their demon forms changed the music. This is because right after I transformed my last party member, that drum passage kicked it. I wanted to kick so much ass after that. If you like SMT or your just finished Persona, look for a copy of Digital Devil Saga. It’s that good! But enough of my whorish antics. If you had the choice, which clan would you side with in Digital Devil Saga?