A defense for Ishimoto

[Xblade13]

Ishimoto or not, there was no excuse whatsoever for the final boss music of KH3 to be midi and not fully orchestrated like the Ansem/Xemnas/YX battle.

 

[Absent]

Pirate’s Gigue is an amazing track and I will not stand for the KH1 slander.

Mods I demand that OP be stripped of posting privileges immediately.

 

[RonaldPoe]

I hope Absent is joking. I have a lot of fond memories of KH1 (I became a fan in late 2003). I feel it was a great start for the franchise and had a stellar OST. I just don't care for those 4 themes that's all (especailly in Melody of Memory). I didn't know people would get upset about that.

I made this thread because I think Ishimoto is extremely talented but gets a lot of flak after KH3 (he really shouldn't have been given the final boss theme). For the series, He's made some good tracks and a few mediocre ones. "Dark Domination" fits under the latter. Let's just hope his work on Neo TWEWY is great.

 

[bambii (aka foreteller)]

Just gonna drop this here, thought it was an interesting discussion:

Apparently Ishimoto straight up just copy-pasted a fully produced royalty-free beat, barely re-sampling it, for one of the Neo:TWEWY tracks, which is a bit cringe IMO. That being said, there are definitely some bangers on the Neo soundtrack, but this does make me kinda question the integrity of what I'm listening to half the time

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Just gonna drop this here, thought it was an interesting discussion:

Apparently Ishimoto straight up just copy-pasted a fully produced royalty-free beat, barely re-sampling it, for one of the Neo:TWEWY tracks, which is a bit cringe IMO. That being said, there are definitely some bangers on the Neo soundtrack, but this does make me kinda question the integrity of what I'm listening to half the time

Yeaaah, I mean, this isn’t the first time he’s done this. TWEWY’s OST has a lot of recycled open source and licensed music with a little remixing on it. Harder to track now since the originals are more obscure now.

Ishimoto is a fine musician, but yeah he’s also super lazy and it sucks. Honestly if you grab a handful of his own original tracks, you can sort of chart a course between each game he’s worked on and essentially hear the same chords over and over.

 

[Xagzan]

Just gonna drop this here, thought it was an interesting discussion:

Apparently Ishimoto straight up just copy-pasted a fully produced royalty-free beat, barely re-sampling it, for one of the Neo:TWEWY tracks, which is a bit cringe IMO. That being said, there are definitely some bangers on the Neo soundtrack, but this does make me kinda question the integrity of what I'm listening to half the time

I mean I don't know much about TWEWY but I've even said he straight up copy-pasted the same material between the 3 final boss tracks of KH3, so this doesn't surprise me.

I made this thread because I think Ishimoto is extremely talented but gets a lot of flak after KH3

*KH2, for me this is an old song and dance

 

[RonaldPoe]

If Ishimoto copy-pasted the "Rage Awakened" part s (still doesn't make sense for a final Xehanort theme) from the previous theme, no wonder that section of "Dark Domination" sucks and the transition feels abrupt. I feel the Armored Xehnaort theme (basically lethargic choir "Rage Awakened" and very unfitting) worse than "Dark Domination" (maybe it's because people remember the later theme more). I now feel Ishimoto is the definition of Lazy but Brilliant. Thanks to that video, I now have mixed feelings about his work.

Also he went with a Pop-Punk remix angle for Neo-TWEWY's final boss (I looked it up). At least Yoko is yet to disappoint us ...

I have no issue with "Rage Awakened" and think it's normally an epic track. I just think of it as more of a Terra or Terranort theme. I'm aware it was supposedly incorporated into "Dark Impetus" (along with "Darkness of the Unknown" and "Lord of the Castle") but that was more subtle and made sense as a red-herring (though you can do the fight as Terra).

 

[The_Echo]

It's not like Ishimoto is just plain bad, lots of his tracks are great.

But at the same time...

It's disappointing that his presence is becoming more pronounced in KH when its soundscape was built on Shimomura's incredible talent and ingenuity.

 

[Squood!]

Dark Domination and the Armored Xehanort theme are legit the same track but the former had Destati slapped onto it.

 

[bambii (aka foreteller)]

Follow-up video to the previous one I posted. I honestly love these lol Kinode is great

 

[Xagzan]

I'm aware it was incorporated into "Dark Impetus" (along with "Darkness of the Unknown" and "Lord of the Castle") but that was more subtle and made sense as a red-herring (though you can do the fight as Terra).

I heard that a long time ago, but I could never figure out which parts those were. Can you identify where they come in the track? Always wondered.

It's not like Ishimoto is just plain bad, lots of his tracks are great.

But at the same time...

It's disappointing that his presence is becoming more pronounced in KH when its soundscape was built on Shimomura's incredible talent and ingenuity.

Hurts my soul. If Square is smart they'll have Sachiko Miyano, Natsumi Kameoka or Yuko Komiyama handle whatever Yoko doesn't do in future games, rather than Ishimoto.

Dark Domination and the Armored Xehanort theme are legit the same track but the former had Destati slapped onto it.

And also bits of Replicas woven through both.