At least that’s what I thought when he told me he didn’t like Yasunori Mitsuda.
THEN, I found out Shinji Hosoe did the Megaman Network Transmission OST, and holy SHITTTTT the lengths I’d go to for a SINGLE track from that game! I don’t care if Hosoe’s other stuff is TERRIBLE, MMNT more than makes up for it. Sheesus!
Edit: And for those of you ignorant enough to not know who Yasunori Mitsuda is, he did, in my opinion, three of the four best songs in the entire gaming industry:
Xenogears - Star of Tears
Xenosaga - Kokoro
Chrono Cross - Radical Dreamers - Without Taking the Jewel
He also did the entire OSTs for those three games, as well as Chrono Trigger.
By the way, the other best song is “Song of Mana” from LoM. I like my Swedish music.
I was shocked to see Mitsuda, who had dome CT and XG, also had done CC. XG has one of the best soundtracks on PSX imho. Though I like LoM better, but they both have very different styles and purposes, so they’re hard to compare. Mitsuda definetly doesn’t make the best battle music, that much is obvious, but Knight of Fire is really nice.
What Mitsuda lacks in battle themes he more than makes up for in gentle, calming themes and town themes. I really like “The Valley of the Wind” from Xenogears: it’s very peaceful and serene.
And if I want good battle themes, I’ll play some Michiko Naruke or Motoi Sakuraba, thanks. 8)
Hades, for the record, Hosoe’s other stuff isn’t all that great, or at least what I’ve heard. It’s not like terrible, but it’s just very standard electronic music.
I think though, if y’all really want good battle themes, Kenji Ito (Romancing SaGa series, SaGa Frontier) and Noriyuki Iwadare (Lunar, Grandia, Langrisser) are your best bets.
I didn’t consider Hosoe’s other stuff very good. I mean it wasn’t the ultimate suck, but he’s not the sliced bread that DG makes him out to be. That’s why I was surprised to find out he did MMNT. Because that game has like, the BEST music, EVER
And I completely agree with Kenji Ito. His battle themes are unrivaled.
I don’t know, he wasn’t bad in the CT era. World Revolution (final Lavos, first of the two forms) was fantastic. Mitsuda’s not Nobuo Uematsu for battle themes, but he’s not bad.