14 - Music of the Year 2013 - Second Movement

Previously on Rhythm Encounter, we have talked about some important first impressions, namely some of our favorite intro themes, and even title screen music. But what happens next is just as important: the opening hours of an RPG can really set the stage for what's to come. When thinking about our favorite games, it's fun to think back to how they began, and how well the mood and world is established through the narrative, characters, and of course, the music. Today we're sharing some of our favorite early game tunes that were instrumental (sorry not sorry) in getting us into some great games.

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Michael Sollosi, Patrick Gann, Wes Iliff; Edited by Paul Dennis

Tracklist
0:06:23 - Reminiscence (Miki Higashino) - Suikoden II
0:08:11 - Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World (Yasunori Mitsuda) - Chrono Cross
0:31:30 - City of Bells (Ken Nakagawa) - Atelier Iris ~Eternal Mana~
0:33:32 - Caravan Crossroad (Kumi Tanioka) - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
0:57:24 - Autumn’s Rise (Deniz Akbulut) - CrossCode
1:00:14 - Garland Office (Yoshitaka Hirota) - Shadow Hearts: From the New World
1:16:50 - Unary Game (Shinji Hosoe) - 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
1:19:04 - Pledge of Demon (Hidenori Shoji) - Yakuza 0
1:51:57 - Sollosi's Bonus Track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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Do we at RPGFan like Final Fantasy VII? Off course! That's why we're ready for…a reunion of tracks from across the expansive (and still growing) FFVII universe. The timing here is intentional to celebrate the fantastic music associated with FFVII as we all get ready to enjoy Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Join our panel of savvy veterans and one newcomer SOLDIER: First Class news editor as we celebrate our favorite music from this (sub-)series in all its iterations and, of course, fight against Shinra. We hope these tracks will get you ready to battle on!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Audra Bowling, Kyle Cantelon; Edited by Jono Logan

Tracklist
0:07:40 - Those Who Fight (Nobuo Uematsu, arr. Shiro Hamaguchi) - Piano Collections Final Fantasy VII
0:11:33 - Judgement Funkadelic (Nobuo Uematsu, arr. Sean Schafianski) - MATERIA: Final Fantasy VII Remixed
0:31:49 - Crazy Motorcycle (Nobuo Uematsu) - Final Fantasy VII
0:35:23 - Dear to the Heart (Nobuo Uematsu) - Final Fantasy VII
0:54:29 - Why (Yoshihiko Nishio & Ayaka) - Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
0:58:52 - AVALANCHE (Nobuo Uematsu, arr. Mega Ran) -  Black Materia
1:24:56 - Bombing Mission - Infiltration (Nobuo Uematsu) - Final Fantasy VII Remake OST Plus
1:31:43 - Advent: One-Winged Angel (Nobuo Uematsu) - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
2:04:01 - Mike's Bonus Track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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It's finally time to celebrate the music of the (last) year! As you know by now, a great deal of incredible games released in 2023, and with them, many notable soundtracks. Our panel today brought some of their favorite songs of 2023, featuring music from some Square Enix heavy hitters to some lovely indie titles and others in between.

As usual for Music of the Year, this episode is longer than usual, as each of us picked one more song than usual, giving us a total of 12, plus two special bonus tracks from Rhythm Encounter's co-founders. It still isn't enough to cover it all, but we packed in as much musical greatness as possible! What are some of your favorite songs and soundtracks from 2023?

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Michael Sollosi, Patrick Gann; Edited by Jono Logan

Pat's Picks
0:05:05 - Toto’haha (Yasunori Nishiki) - Octopath Traveler II
0:08:38 - The Apotheosis (Brandon Boone) - Slay the Princess
0:11:21 - Celestial (Toby Fox Remix) (comp Ed Sheeran, arr Toby Fox) - Pokémon Scarlet & Violet - The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC

Mike Salbato's Picks
0:38:00 - Dedicated to Moonlight (Masayoshi Soken) - Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
0:43:44 - World Map (Reo Uratani) - Meg's Monster
0:45:53 - Colgera Battle (Manaka Kataoka, Maasa Miyoshi, Masato Ohashi, Tsukasa Usui) - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Bonus Track 1: Stephen Meyerink
1:11:33 - Normal Battle I (Yasunori Nishiki) - Octopath Traveler II

Michael Sollosi's Picks
1:17:30 - Preserved Realm (D’Anthoni Wooten) - Dave the Diver
1:20:56 - Ascension (Masayoshi Soken) - Final Fantasy XVI
1:25:04 - Mr. Top Player (Shigeyuki Kameda) - Street Fighter 6

Hilary's Picks
1:48:14 - The Way I See (Andrew Jeremy) - Coffee Talk Episode 2 - Hibiscus and Butterfly
1:54:46 - Down by the River (Borislav Slavov) - Baldur’s Gate III
1:57:05 - Lux Tizer (Norihiko Yamanuki) - The 7th Saga Soundtrack Composer’s Edition

Bonus Track 2: Derek Heemsbergen
2:33:17 - Main Theme (Tsutomu Narita?) - Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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We're kicking off the new year on Rhythm Encounter with a brand-new kind of episode: Building a soundtrack from pieces of other games. We distilled our imaginary RPG down to eight core musical moments — title, overworld, town, dungeon, battle, emotional, final boss, and ending, to be specific — and pulled a song for each from eight different RPGs. While we were all prepared to justify how eight disparate tracks made sense together, the resulting "soundtrack" was more cohesive than we expected!

We hope you like this musical experiment, because we already have plans for a future sequel. Stay tuned!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Gio Castillo, Lucas Greene; Edited by Paul Dennis

Tracklist
0:07:45 - Breath of Fire IV ~Opening Animation~ (Taro Iwashiro) - Breath of Fire IV
0:09:13 - Quatera Woods (Yukihiro Jindo) - Falcom Field Zanmai (originally Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim)
0:31:51 - Hateno Village (Yasuaki Iwata) - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
0:37:35 - Pyramid (Yuzo Koshiro) - Actraiser Symphonic Suite
0:58:34 - Battle 1 (Yasunori Shiono) - Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
1:01:32 - The Sandy Beach of Gumbo (Noriyuki Iwadare) - Grandia
1:25:52 - On Blade’s Edge (Masayoshi Soken) - Endwalker: Final Fantasy XIV
1:30:11 - Journey’s End (Rich Douglas ft. Jillian Aversa) - Shadowgate (2014)

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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To celebrate the new year, we put together a special episode before we return to our regularly scheduled topics, with a short episode full of music dedications. We were inspired by the idea of radio DJs who take listener calls and offer up dedications on air, so we polled the RPGFan staff, asking them for songs and written dedications to read on the episode. We both offered some of our own as well, so we hope you enjoy everyone's heartfelt messages and musical choices.

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff; Edited by Paul Dennis

Links for this episode

• Prelude / Crystal Theme (Final Fantasy) - Harp and Strings cover by Patti Rudisill & Paula Bressman
• My Mind | Final Fantasy VIII Piano cover by Sebastien Skaf
• OverClocked ReMix: The Legend of Zelda "Zelda Heineken"

Tracklist
0:05:31 - Wind Crest ~The Three Trails~ (Takahito Eguchi & Noriko Matsueda) - Piano Collection Final Fantasy X-2
0:10:11 - Boss Battle Theme (Shigeki Sako) - Vay
0:14:56 - Prelude (Nobuo Uematsu, cover by Patti Rudisill & Paula Bressman) - Final Fantasy series
0:23:32 - A Sailor Never Sleeps (Masayoshi Soken) - Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
0:31:20 - My Mind (Nobuo Uematsu, cover by Sebastien Skaf) - Final Fantasy VIII
0:36:17 - New Days (Shoji Meguro) - Persona 4
0:39:59 - Land of Radiant Flowers (Revo) - Bravely Default
0:47:17 - Zelda Heineken (Main Theme) (Koji Kondo, arr. & perf. by Mattias Holmgren) - The Legend of Zelda
0:52:33 - Overworld Theme (Koji Kondo) - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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In farming games, typically the slowest part of the year is winter. So why did we record our farming music episode when it's winter for many of our listeners? Hey, I don't have all the answers... unless it's about work/life balance and the best Stardew Valley partner. But I digress. Today's panel is only three people, but we still have a full slate of music to share from some of our favorite farming and sim games. Some are more RPG than others, but what they have in common are great lineups of music to set a mood for every season. Grab your watering can and your straw hat and let's go visit the farm!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Tin Manuel; Edited by Jono Logan

Tracklist
Winter
0:07:38 - Quiet Winter (Dai Nakajima) - Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
0:10:55 - Winter (Nocturne of Ice) (ConcernedApe, arr. Matthew Bridgham, perf. Augustine Mayuga Gonzales) - Stardew Valley Piano Collections

Spring
0:30:56 - Spring (Town) (Manual of Errors) - Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland
0:33:46 - Bird’s Eye Brae (Day) (Go Shiina) - Harvestella

Summer
1:00:35 - Summer Day 4 (Yugo Pratomo) - Coral Island
1:03:57 - New Life in the Desert (Claude Ruelle) - My Time at Sandrock

Chill
1:23:56 - Starry and Calm (Night) (Bashi Boizu) - Littlewood
1:26:00 - Whale Island Outside (Tomoko Morita) - Rune Factory Frontier
2:00:28 - Tin's Bonus Track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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It's time for another composer spotlight on Rhythm Encounter, and this time we're celebrating the works of Hiroki Kikuta. Many RPG fans know his work on the Mana series — particularly Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana — but there's much more to Kikuta than many people know.

From a PSone game that never left Japan to his contributions to many indie games today, today's episode digs into the many hats Hiroki Kikuta has worn over the years. We hope you discover new facets to his work as some of us did on this episode!

If you want more composer episodes when you are done, check out episodes 108 and 61, where we spotlighted Hitoshi Sakimoto and Yoko Shimomura, respectively.

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Hilary Andreff, Patrick Gann, Greg Delmage; Edited by Paul Dennis

Links for this episode

• Valiant Mirror Website
• Soukaigi - Fire Wire

Tracklist
Fiji Block
0:08:13 - Where Angel Fear to Tread (Hiroki Kikuta, arr. Sachiko Miyano) - Trials of Mana (2020)
0:10:54 - Into the Thick of It (GENTLE LOVE) - Prescription for Sleep: Lullabies of Mana

Indie Darling Block
0:36:59 - Ajna (comp/arr Hiroki Kikuta) - Indivisible
0:39:44 - Land of Blooming Mushrooms (Hiroki Kikuta) - Tangledeep

Cinematic Block
1:04:31 - The Essentia 2000 Arrives (aka Exploring the Wilderness) (Hiroki Kikuta) - YIIK: A Postmodern RPG
1:07:05 - Halls of Karba (Hiroki Kikuta) - Earthlock: Festival of Magic

"I'll do it myself" Block
1:26:07 - Requiem (Hiroki Kikuta) - Koudelka
1:27:29 - Quake (comp/arr Hiroki Kikuta) - Soukaigi
2:02:20 - Mike's Bonus Track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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We're knee-deep in fall leaves in some parts of the world, though much like our spring themes episode earlier this year, what autumn (or fall) means to each of our panelists varies. Some of us chose songs based on cozy evenings with a hot drink, and some of us used our imaginations since not everyone lives in parts of the world with the typical four seasons. So enjoy eight different musical approaches to autumn, and let us know which of these sound like autumn in your part of the world!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Audra Bowling, Gio Castillo, Jimmy Turner; Edited by Paul Dennis

Links for this episode

• Rhythm Encounter 11 - Pumpkin Spice

Tracklist
0:08:35 - 日常 (Everyday) (Ayako Minami, Makoto Asai) - DAEDALUS: The Awakening of Golden Jazz
0:14:10 - Fall (The Smell of Mushroom) (ConcernedApe, arr. by GENTLE LOVE) - Prescription for Sleep: Stardew Valley
0:31:32 - Old Familiar Scent of Iselia (Motoi Sakuraba) - Tales of Symphonia
0:34:18 - Thank You (Jason Chen) - Autumn’s Journey
0:45:30 - Mages In Their Chantry (Inon Zur) - Dragon Age: Origins
0:47:13 - Works and Ways Unseen (Ryan Ike) - Shadows Over Loathing
1:00:11 - Branch-Colored Past (Time) ~First Chapter - One Hundred Years Ago~ (SOLIDTUNE [Seiichi Takamoto]) - Suikoden: The Woven Web of a Century
1:02:55 - National Park (Go Ichinose) - Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver
1:18:02 - Audra's (and Jimmy's) Bonus Track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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We all know those big moments in RPGs. A place, a scene, or a pivotal battle that really makes the game and solidifies it in your memory. The scoring in those moments isn't always what makes it work, but it often plays a crucial role. In many cases, the music really does make the moment, if not the game. Today we are talking about songs that carry that burden of really defining the RPG they're in, making the whole experience better by just being there.

We've been wanting to do this topic for over four years, and there's certainly more music that fits the bill than we had time for, but we are thrilled to talk about these eight songs. Be sure to get in touch with us and let us know some of your game-defining music!

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Zach Wilkerson, Wes Iliff, Stephanie Sybydlo; Edited by Paul Dennis

Tracklist
0:05:54 - Transcending Love (HIMEKAMI) - Suikoden III
0:08:59 - Dynamis (Masayoshi Soken) - Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
0:26:56 - Theme of Grandia (Noriyuki Iwadare) - Grandia
0:31:32 - Arc the Lad Theme (Masahiro Andoh) - Arc the Lad
0:48:09 - Star Ocean Forever - Jazz Ver. (Motoi Sakuraba) - Star Ocean: Till The End of Time
0:55:15 - Battle 3 (Yasunori Shiono) - Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
1:14:33 - Weight of the World / The End of YoRHa (Keichii Okabe) - NieR: Automata
1:20:02 - Carrying the Weight of Life (Kenji Hiramatsu & Yasunori Mitsuda) - Xenoblade Chronicles 3
1:49:26 - Wes' bonus track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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From 2001 to 2005, the Game Boy Advance was Nintendo’s golden son. The Game Boy Advance brought gameplay depth and audio quality yet-unseen in a handheld gaming device, and gave us dozens of superb RPGs to enjoy over its run of success. Today, we celebrate the indigo blue machine with nine fabulous songs from a few of the GBA’s finest RPGs.

Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Greg Delmage, Patrick Gann, Peter Triezenberg; Edited by Jono Logan


Tracklist
Part 1 - When something’s going wrong, you must shrink it.
0:15:43 - Awake (Sotaro Tojima) - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon 
0:18:04 - Minish Woods (Mitsuhiko Takano) - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

Part 2 - I’m starting with the Mana in the mirror
0:37:37 - Mana Shrine / Mana Sanctuary (Kenji Ito) - Sword of Mana
0:39:45 - Within the Stars (The Elemental Stars) (Motoi Sakuraba, arr. Sam Dillard) - Golden Sun

Part 3 - Get in the tank, loser. We’re getting coffee.
1:01:59 - Boss Battle (Yoko Shimomura) - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
1:03:51 - Jess’s Theme (Yoshito Hirano) - Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

Part 4 - And I’ve seen the promised Landorus-Therian.
1:27:11 - Heaven’s Gate of Darkness / Dark Gate (Minako Adachi) - Riviera: The Promised Land
1:29:07 - Elite Four (Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose and Morikazu Aoki) - Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire
1:53:50 - Patrick's Bonus Track!

Album links for places to buy, stream, and more are available in our post on RPGFan.

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