"Best of Battle" Compendium

UltimaWizard · 10:31 AM

Hey, composer-buddies! I'm beginning my work on creating a pack of the best battle tunes from Square works. I've found that my favorite part of the musical collections of most games are the battle tunes; they're always far more energetic and involving to me than the "usual" backdrop tunes, even if you hear them 198319808 times in the course of owning a Square game.

So far my grand list consists of the following:

A Fight to the Death - Kingdom Hearts II
Dive into the Heart -Destati- - Kingdom Hearts II
(8-30): Sinister Sundown - Kingdom Hearts II [Attached!]
Forze del Male - Kingdom Hearts
The Deep End - Kingdom Hearts
Spooks of Halloween Town - Kingdom Hearts
Night of Fate - Kingdom Hearts
Bustin' Up on the Beach - Kingdom Hearts
The Man with the Machine Gun - Final Fantasy VIII
The Extreme - Final Fantasy VIII
(9-19): Bombing Mission - Final Fantasy VII [Attached!]
Boss Battle - Final Fantasy VI
(9-23): Battle - Final Fantasy I [Attached!]

These 8 pieces are from Kingdom Hearts I know, but personally I really like Yoko Shimomura's style. I'm going to be adding some of the Nobuo Uematsu works, and the Crono Trigger battle music isn't a half bad candidate either. Any other suggestions are more than welcome. I'm aiming for a nice 20 pieces...that should give wind players/pianists both a nice little set of driving tunes to have a fun time playing.

At least, it should be more fun than getting frogged/pigged/blind/poison/petrified/paralyzed/doomed by a Malboro. We'll soon see, I think.

UltimaWizard · 08-30-2008, 08:42 PM

Heeheehee. Was listening through the game music I have...when I hit FFVIII, I found perhaps one of the cooler Nobuo Uematsu Pieces. Can somebody say:

The Man With the Machine Gun - Final Fantasy VIII

?

UltimaWizard · 08-31-2008, 07:57 AM

Found another fun tune I like from KHII...

The 13th Struggle - Kingdom Hearts II

I know this one has some arrangements up, and I listened to the one by Aaron Dyne for Orchestra, which sounds super awesome. This one's interesting enough I was thinking of having it for a small woodwind chamber ensemble accompanied by piano.

**Joseph Perkins** · 09-01-2008, 03:36 PM

I personally love all of the organization 13's battle songs. You can find a full orchestra version of these on Dramatica-The Very Best Of Yoko Shimomura. It's called The 13th Anthology.

UltimaWizard · 09-02-2008, 03:52 PM

Here's a new question - would you consider the Gummi Ship themes from the Kingdom Hearts series "Battle Music"? I'm considering adding Gummi Ship I, II, or III depending on what the rest of the compendium winds up taking. Thoughts? Opinions? Valedictions? Maledictions? Malware? Spyware? Russian spies? What do you think?

SND15 · 09-03-2008, 04:51 AM

I don't think the gummi ship themes would be considered battle themes, but if you do consider them then I guess I recommended that you do arrangements of the encounter, scherzo di notte, and the 13th dilemma.

Cessebabe · 09-03-2008, 11:22 AM

Coolest thing ever would be a piano version of the entire 13th Anthology song from Yoko Shimomuras album Drammatica.

UltimaWizard · 09-03-2008, 03:39 PM

Aah, but I can think of something better: a piano/woodwind arrangement. That way *everyone* has something to play.

**Nicol Armarfi** · 09-04-2008, 05:43 AM

So much Kingdom Hearts battle themes already D:... You should try something from another Final Fantasy or Star Ocean or something; personally I think it'd be cool to see an arrangement of The Extreme from Final Fantasy VIII or the Final Boss music from Final Fantasy IV, since both are very good but neither are arranged very often.

UltimaWizard · 09-08-2008, 08:31 AM

Yeah you got a point. =/

FFVIII has some great battle music. FFVI's Boss Battle is also a nice piece too. Those both hold possibilities.

And of course, Battle from FFI. You don't leave out the classics. You just don't.