It's honestly really impressive what Masuda was able to achieve within the restrictions of the gameboy sound capabilities. Those 8bit songs really stand the test of time!
Timestamps: 0:34 New Bark Town 2:20 Battle! Johto Gym Leaders 4:44 Azalea Town 6:22 Battle! Rival 8:48 National Park 11:25 Ecruteak City (and Cianwood City !?) 15:16 Route 26 16:48 Battle! Kanto Gym Leaders 19:15 Battle! Red
i actually... can't believe how good this is. i love these games and, though i have no workable knowledge to do music analysis myself, i really love listening to other people do it - which meant this video which is so excellent and insightful and thorough, was also EXACTLY what i had no idea i wanted. i literally caught myself thinking "i hope this video isn't going to end soon" only to check and see i was only 1/3 the way through your use of sensory imagery and metaphor to explain what feeling a song gives off, is always spot on - like the tidal wave of the champion theme, or the peaceful cloud-gazing of national park, or the uphill climb of the gym theme. i really appreciated when you played very specific parts of the music to give examples of your point, like in the ecruteak theme, because i never even noticed how the voices sometimes converge and then drift apart and come together again, but now i can hear it so easily. i also never knew that the pokemon main theme is worked into the champion theme! and i can listen for that super aggro bass in the hgss rival theme when i had never discerned it on its own before. your rationale behind your ratings is solidly persuasive, and i agree with Almost every single one of them. the only exception for me is national park, i personally feel like the remake is a bit extra in the same way you described hgss ecruteak to be distractingly extra (but not as egregiously so). BUT it's still very clear what there is to love about it and it IS a gorgeous area theme, and your descriptions of it made me like it a bit more than before. also, i laughed out loud at "... CHIMES..." because ive always felt exactly the same way and felt so VINDICATED LMAO the amount of love you have for these soundtracks comes out so strong in the way you talk about them and it's so delightful to listen to. i actually started to get a bit choked up from the ways you talked about ecruteak and route 26. obviously you're not beholden to strangers on the internet, but if you do have a mind to do more videos like this (i saw you have a phoenix wright one and im planning to watch that next), especially for pokemon, that would be extremely cool. watching this made me think of my own opinions about rby / frlg / lgpe (for example i really think the rby trainer battle theme is a masterpiece of complexity and that's a hill im going to die on), and I'd love to hear you talk about the iconic themes from those games too. or honestly, probably literally any other game soundtrack too tbh. anyways, subbed AND notif-belled, have a kickass day
I loved both soundtracks so much as a kid. I grew up with HGSS as a kid and when I got the GB sounds I went back to a lot of previous areas to hear the old style music and I love both so much! I’m hoping after the sinnoh remakes we get some new Johto content
When I replayed soul silver, I battled lance with the normal remix champion theme but when I got to red I switched the gb sounds on to have the old school champion theme
Honestly, great video. Pokemon music is something that always hits hard. I think that one of the best moments in any HGSS battle theme is the part with the bells (it's actually a combination of piano chords, glockenspiel and bells if you extract the midi data and soundfont) in the Rival Battle theme. It sounds truly magnificent. Also, the lead in Cianwood's theme is indeed an Accordion, if, again, you look at the soundfont. I'd love to see you analyze the music of Earthbound, it's one of my favourite games out there and has a killer soundtrack.
Johto easily has the best soundtrack. I agree with most of your opinions overall, but what I love about the g/s/c soundtrack is how flat every channel is, which lets you really hear the counterpoint melody. Due to the limited hardware, they had to rely on counterpoint melodies a lot. The strongest example is Azalea town imo. You awarded the point to HGSS in this video, but GSC just has such a stronger middle melody on gameboy than it has in HGSS, Its so bouncy and they lose it in the remake. I don't know if you ever heard it, but the version of that song on FR/LG is amazing, its a sevii island theme.
Funny enough, after the DS version I recognized the similarity with the rival tune and the team rocket theme. Also, Post Malone his 'I only wanna be with you' has one of the towns tunes playing at the beginning. Since the song is for a Pokemon movie I really like the wink to the GB games.
Crystal wins in every single one of these comparisons, and do you know what the best part about my opinion is? I'm not biased at all because I never played Gen 2 until recently. I actually played HGSS (back in 2012) BEFORE I ever played G/S/C and that's how I know nostalgia bias isn't causing me to say this.
nothing like an excuse to hear johto music, either 8bit or remastered versions :] Really like the analysis, and i'm amazed that the comparisson makes me like the original even more. 4:42 best song, no amtter what version, 8bit, remaster, five island in fire red, ben briggs remix, it's amazing (Slowpoke GANG) ... 6:21 rival fight tho, ALWHAYS hits me. "from laying down watching the clouds, to lying on the clouds watching the stars" i didn't know i needed this quote in my life i knew i liked ecruteak music, and i REALLY didn't for the remakes, this comparisson back to back showed me wich version to pick definetly. 19:15 "..." you know what's coming. Never noticed how they contrasted the beggining of the battle songs, not even rocket grunts impose fear or warning battles, the beggining of vs Red is an amazing final boss song. (8bit song wins on this one, at least the intro)
Hard disagree on the intro to the gym leader theme. Probably my favourite in the series behind unova. So good to see a video about the amazing music in this game ❤
I prefer the 8-bit over the remake. Because it's more nostalgic for me, but the remake did well as a good remake! I wish Omega ruby got the same thing HeartGold did. And I love your video! ❤️❤️
For me the gbc versions were all superior. In hgss I feel they over do too much many themes.. too over the top. In the originals gsc on the other hand, it's more a complement.
Great video, but how could you have a johto comparison without comparing the ruins of alph soundtrack? It's one of the landmarks of the region after all
I love in Silver's theme in HG/SS they referenced Cyrus'/Akagi's theme. Some tracks I prefer the original. Others like that and the National Park, the remake is superior.
I feel kind of cringe for preferring the originals in pretty much every instance. I think that the soundfont and the limited sound channels make for extremely concise compositions that get so much out of simple chord progressions, modal harmonies, etc. A lot of the time in HGSS I think that the denser compositions with their added layers hurt the feeling of cohesion offered by the limitations of the originals. In theory I think I'd like the more diverse set of instruments and stuff because it would allow for more variety, but I think that the way that GSC manages to utilize its four channels allows for much tighter motifs, and puts more emphasis on the diversity of the compositions themselves due to the fact that every song is made of the same "instruments". HGSS's soundtrack feels a lot less carefully put together to me by comparison (though I'm sure that Masuda, Ichinose, et al. put a comparably immense amount of work into both), and I oftentimes find myself wondering if access to the wider variety of instruments affected how much effort went into distinguishing songs on a compositional level, intentionally or not. It's really, really emphasized to me in the difference between songs like National Park and the Battle! songs. Some of the infatuation with more dense, dynamic tracks like the battle tracks bleeds into the composition of the HGSS National Park song, whereas the original GSC rendition has a very uniquely melancholy tone that takes its time developing its melody over pretty minimal percussion by comparison. In Battle! Red, the way that GSC maintains the single layer of the song with silence in between as opposed to HGSS which populates the same intro melody with background arpeggios (something kind of identic of the HGSS OST, IMO) feels so much less impactful. Oh well. I still think both are great, but to me, the clear winner is GSC. It's all up to each individual person at the end of the day of course though. Hopefully nothing I said feels too accusatory or offended or anything, I honestly just wanted to document some of my thoughts. Even though we seem to disagree I think that you made a nice video and it looks/sounds like it took a lot of effort. Your audio balancing between your voice and the music is really well done; better than a lot of "professional" UA-camrs IMO. Thanks for sharing!
very interesting, i only wish you explained a bit more detailed about the music theory behind all of that. aside from that super interesting, hope you the best of luck.
This video made me realize how much I hate the soundfont used in the DS games, especially in the HGSS remakes as they really destroyed the beautiful soundtrack of GSQ that I hold in high regard. I wonder if this is part of why I still prefer playing the originals over the remakes.
![Ace Attorney -Pursuit- [SONG ANALYSIS]](/img/n.gif)
It's honestly really impressive what Masuda was able to achieve within the restrictions of the gameboy sound capabilities. Those 8bit songs really stand the test of time!
Comparing GSC and HGSS music is definitely in my top 3 love languages. Really enjoyed this
Don’t disrespect HGSS Red/Champion theme, I find it amazing, I love the theme, I don’t care about the chimes, it’s just a great theme in my opinion
Timestamps:
0:34 New Bark Town
2:20 Battle! Johto Gym Leaders
4:44 Azalea Town
6:22 Battle! Rival
8:48 National Park
11:25 Ecruteak City (and Cianwood City !?)
15:16 Route 26
16:48 Battle! Kanto Gym Leaders
19:15 Battle! Red
Where is Goldenrod 🥲
i actually... can't believe how good this is. i love these games and, though i have no workable knowledge to do music analysis myself, i really love listening to other people do it - which meant this video which is so excellent and insightful and thorough, was also EXACTLY what i had no idea i wanted. i literally caught myself thinking "i hope this video isn't going to end soon" only to check and see i was only 1/3 the way through
your use of sensory imagery and metaphor to explain what feeling a song gives off, is always spot on - like the tidal wave of the champion theme, or the peaceful cloud-gazing of national park, or the uphill climb of the gym theme. i really appreciated when you played very specific parts of the music to give examples of your point, like in the ecruteak theme, because i never even noticed how the voices sometimes converge and then drift apart and come together again, but now i can hear it so easily. i also never knew that the pokemon main theme is worked into the champion theme! and i can listen for that super aggro bass in the hgss rival theme when i had never discerned it on its own before.
your rationale behind your ratings is solidly persuasive, and i agree with Almost every single one of them. the only exception for me is national park, i personally feel like the remake is a bit extra in the same way you described hgss ecruteak to be distractingly extra (but not as egregiously so). BUT it's still very clear what there is to love about it and it IS a gorgeous area theme, and your descriptions of it made me like it a bit more than before.
also, i laughed out loud at "... CHIMES..." because ive always felt exactly the same way and felt so VINDICATED LMAO
the amount of love you have for these soundtracks comes out so strong in the way you talk about them and it's so delightful to listen to. i actually started to get a bit choked up from the ways you talked about ecruteak and route 26.
obviously you're not beholden to strangers on the internet, but if you do have a mind to do more videos like this (i saw you have a phoenix wright one and im planning to watch that next), especially for pokemon, that would be extremely cool. watching this made me think of my own opinions about rby / frlg / lgpe (for example i really think the rby trainer battle theme is a masterpiece of complexity and that's a hill im going to die on), and I'd love to hear you talk about the iconic themes from those games too. or honestly, probably literally any other game soundtrack too tbh.
anyways, subbed AND notif-belled, have a kickass day
Just beautiful. You almost made me cry with your comments on Ecruteak City. Enormous and beautiful job!
Would you do this on Ruby and Saphire?
JCharades MV I appreciate it, thank you! And I have a few projects underway but I will definitely do RSE vs. ORAS sometime
@@JCfromJohto Perfect! I will look forward to it
Me too
I loved both soundtracks so much as a kid. I grew up with HGSS as a kid and when I got the GB sounds I went back to a lot of previous areas to hear the old style music and I love both so much! I’m hoping after the sinnoh remakes we get some new Johto content
When I replayed soul silver, I battled lance with the normal remix champion theme but when I got to red I switched the gb sounds on to have the old school champion theme
i was shocked when i went downt to the comments and realized this only had 208 views. awesome video my man
I liked the chimes in the champion theme it was very atmospheric
The heck the quality is so good why doesnt this have more views???
Honestly, great video. Pokemon music is something that always hits hard.
I think that one of the best moments in any HGSS battle theme is the part with the bells (it's actually a combination of piano chords, glockenspiel and bells if you extract the midi data and soundfont) in the Rival Battle theme. It sounds truly magnificent.
Also, the lead in Cianwood's theme is indeed an Accordion, if, again, you look at the soundfont.
I'd love to see you analyze the music of Earthbound, it's one of my favourite games out there and has a killer soundtrack.
Earthbound might be an amazing idea
Absolutely wonderful video. The way you cover music is just very pleasinn
The way you cover the music while it’s playing in the background and when you explain it you still keep up with it is just really great
So nostalgic! I love this. Well edited, good even audio, an amazing video!
So happy I found this channel. Wishing you the best in growing, great content
shoulda compared viridian forest theme
Pokemon soul silver is my childhood, litteraly nostalgia to me, everytime i hear a music from it feel total nostalgia
Johto easily has the best soundtrack. I agree with most of your opinions overall, but what I love about the g/s/c soundtrack is how flat every channel is, which lets you really hear the counterpoint melody. Due to the limited hardware, they had to rely on counterpoint melodies a lot. The strongest example is Azalea town imo. You awarded the point to HGSS in this video, but GSC just has such a stronger middle melody on gameboy than it has in HGSS, Its so bouncy and they lose it in the remake. I don't know if you ever heard it, but the version of that song on FR/LG is amazing, its a sevii island theme.
Funny enough, after the DS version I recognized the similarity with the rival tune and the team rocket theme.
Also, Post Malone his 'I only wanna be with you' has one of the towns tunes playing at the beginning. Since the song is for a Pokemon movie I really like the wink to the GB games.
I wholly disagree with what you say about HGSS, but I will defend to the death…! Your right to say it!
Definitely needs more views
They feel completely different to the Orginals unlike the other Remakes.
This video is such a masterpiece. You should definitely make more videos on other remakes too!
Great vid bro
Commenting before this video takes off
Your comments were eyeopening and nicely worded! Loved it
Am I the only one that thinks you straight up cannot beat the original 8 but songs? I wish they never changed them
Crystal wins in every single one of these comparisons, and do you know what the best part about my opinion is? I'm not biased at all because I never played Gen 2 until recently. I actually played HGSS (back in 2012) BEFORE I ever played G/S/C and that's how I know nostalgia bias isn't causing me to say this.
It could be recency bias.
I like how the champion theme of HGSS has the same sound clip as the move twister (a dragon type move) that Lance's dragonite can use.
nothing like an excuse to hear johto music, either 8bit or remastered versions :]
Really like the analysis, and i'm amazed that the comparisson makes me like the original even more.
4:42 best song, no amtter what version, 8bit, remaster, five island in fire red, ben briggs remix, it's amazing (Slowpoke GANG)
... 6:21 rival fight tho, ALWHAYS hits me.
"from laying down watching the clouds, to lying on the clouds watching the stars" i didn't know i needed this quote in my life
i knew i liked ecruteak music, and i REALLY didn't for the remakes, this comparisson back to back showed me wich version to pick definetly.
19:15 "..." you know what's coming. Never noticed how they contrasted the beggining of the battle songs, not even rocket grunts impose fear or warning battles, the beggining of vs Red is an amazing final boss song. (8bit song wins on this one, at least the intro)
All this is my childhood and I still love it at 25
Hard disagree on the intro to the gym leader theme. Probably my favourite in the series behind unova. So good to see a video about the amazing music in this game ❤
I prefer the 8-bit over the remake. Because it's more nostalgic for me, but the remake did well as a good remake! I wish Omega ruby got the same thing HeartGold did.
And I love your video! ❤️❤️
The remake should be okay on the system like on Nintendo GameCube/Wii or should been on GBA. The only remake I love was FireRed/LeafGreen on GBA
For me the gbc versions were all superior. In hgss I feel they over do too much many themes.. too over the top. In the originals gsc on the other hand, it's more a complement.
This should have way more views. Well done mate
i wish you'd have analysed the actual music a bit more, but great video nonetheless, even if i disagreed with your points at times
also, you should use "x bars" instead of "x notes" when referring to specific sections in the music
you described the intro in red's theme as "a calm rendition of the original intro theme" but i would say a better word is "suspenseful"
Great video, but how could you have a johto comparison without comparing the ruins of alph soundtrack? It's one of the landmarks of the region after all
Team Rocket got shanked so hard.
Underrated channel alert
Found another insanely well done video
I love in Silver's theme in HG/SS they referenced Cyrus'/Akagi's theme.
Some tracks I prefer the original. Others like that and the National Park, the remake is superior.
I feel kind of cringe for preferring the originals in pretty much every instance. I think that the soundfont and the limited sound channels make for extremely concise compositions that get so much out of simple chord progressions, modal harmonies, etc. A lot of the time in HGSS I think that the denser compositions with their added layers hurt the feeling of cohesion offered by the limitations of the originals. In theory I think I'd like the more diverse set of instruments and stuff because it would allow for more variety, but I think that the way that GSC manages to utilize its four channels allows for much tighter motifs, and puts more emphasis on the diversity of the compositions themselves due to the fact that every song is made of the same "instruments". HGSS's soundtrack feels a lot less carefully put together to me by comparison (though I'm sure that Masuda, Ichinose, et al. put a comparably immense amount of work into both), and I oftentimes find myself wondering if access to the wider variety of instruments affected how much effort went into distinguishing songs on a compositional level, intentionally or not.
It's really, really emphasized to me in the difference between songs like National Park and the Battle! songs. Some of the infatuation with more dense, dynamic tracks like the battle tracks bleeds into the composition of the HGSS National Park song, whereas the original GSC rendition has a very uniquely melancholy tone that takes its time developing its melody over pretty minimal percussion by comparison. In Battle! Red, the way that GSC maintains the single layer of the song with silence in between as opposed to HGSS which populates the same intro melody with background arpeggios (something kind of identic of the HGSS OST, IMO) feels so much less impactful. Oh well. I still think both are great, but to me, the clear winner is GSC.
It's all up to each individual person at the end of the day of course though. Hopefully nothing I said feels too accusatory or offended or anything, I honestly just wanted to document some of my thoughts. Even though we seem to disagree I think that you made a nice video and it looks/sounds like it took a lot of effort. Your audio balancing between your voice and the music is really well done; better than a lot of "professional" UA-camrs IMO.
Thanks for sharing!
I appreciate your input and I do agree that the GBA's soundfont really pushed the limits and gave more life to the melodies
@@JCfromJohto Yours too! I really liked the bit about Ecruteak City. I'd never really thought of it that way before.
very interesting, i only wish you explained a bit more detailed about the music theory behind all of that.
aside from that super interesting, hope you the best of luck.
"poured their heart n soul"
Dude you should make RSE/ORAS please
This video made me realize how much I hate the soundfont used in the DS games, especially in the HGSS remakes as they really destroyed the beautiful soundtrack of GSQ that I hold in high regard. I wonder if this is part of why I still prefer playing the originals over the remakes.
Hall Christopher Hall Amy Walker Helen
Taylor Paul Taylor Eric Anderson Donna
5:25 Gen 3 is the best one
Bruno mars did one thing : ruin national park music