Top 5 Favorite and Least Favorite Musical Themes and KH3 Music Expectations

[alexis.anagram]

Since I think everyone can agree that Dearly Beloved and the credit themes for the games are generally super good, I think I'll pluck a few of my favorites out that I feel are generally forgotten/underrated. Not because they are my absolute favorites (but actually some of them are?), but because I think they deserve some love. (I also know nothing about music I just like pretty sounds.)

1. Treasured Memories: Shimomura is just so good at these quiet piano pieces, and more than any of her big epic stuff, I find myself coming back to these for the nostalgia effect and the room they give for contemplation. This piece in particular feels like it leaves a lot of space open for you to bring yourself to the music: your own memories, thoughts, and feelings.

2. It Began With a Letter: I find this piece to be simply magical. It evokes a similar sense of wonder and charm as Dearly Beloved.

3. Welcome to Wonderland: I think this is one of the KH1 tracks that benefited the most from live orchestration. It's just a beautiful, warm composition and it shines on the HD Remix soundtrack. I also happen to love playing around in Wonderland so the field music brings happy thoughts.

4. Isn't It Lovely?: I don't understand how Nomura could have heard this track and not immediately scrapped the crappy musical Atlantica plot for a real world. I would have happily swam around under the sea for hours drifting along with the languid, sweeping currents and swells of this piece.

5. Destiny's Union: I feel like this piece showcases Shimomura's talent for tugging at your heart with a bittersweet melody. This song is like a sad smile, like waving goodbye to your best friend who's moving away, not knowing how long it will be before you see each other again.

As for songs I don't like? This is actually pretty easy:

1. Dice and Shine: I could have lived my entire life happily without ever playing the Command Board, much less playing it as many times as I needed to in order to achieve 100% completion and placate my sad gaming neuroses.

2. It's a Small World: To be fair, it's not Shimomura's fault this song is diddlying evil.

3. Mickey Mouse Club March: This song really thinks it's cute but it's not.

4. The Deep End: I don't hate this piece at all tbh, it just scares the ten-year-old in me to tears. I'M NOT READY TO BE A STRONG MAIN CHARACTER. ;^;

5. Byte Bashing/Striking: The field music for Space Paranoids is fine but the battle music is so repetitive and broken I just want to smash my head into something glass for the proper effect.

On a related note, I was actually sitting at the bus stop today wearing my Kingdom Hearts necklace, carrying my purse with a Kingdom Hearts keychain, texting my boyfriend about Kingdom Hearts and listening to the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack and I had a moment where I thought to myself, "I think I may have taken my love for this fandom too far at some point." Thankfully KHInsider exists to reassure me that I'm not, like, weird or anything, haha. Hahaha.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Oh dear, Music favorites.
This is hard because nearly all of Shimomura's works have a potential to be earworms and choosing just five is close to impossible.

I guess I'll separate them into the different categories in order to do them all justice:

I. Battle themes:

1. Fate of the Unknown => Unquestionably my absolute top piece of music. It is such a shame that this epic piece was never used in an actual game and only in trailers/the secret ending of KH II FM.
2. Enter the Darkness/Unbreakable Chains & L'Impeto Oscuro => This nifty trinity show practically what I enjoy most about gripping battle themes, them being both Vanitas' normal battle theme and the final one (on the awakening platform) as well as Young Xehanort's from DDD.
3. Rage Awakened & The other Promise => Lingering Will & Roxas plus heaps of asskicking in both KH II and BBS, nuff said.
4. Desire for All That Is Lost & The Tumbling => pretty catchy boss battle themes.
5. Black Powder => Although not a suitable replacement for Fate of the Unknown by far for the climax of BBS, in other situations it is a decent piece.

II. Field themes:

1. The Home of Dragons (2.5 HD) => The HD remaster really improved this song on more than one level. Now it sounds like some real chinese music and you feel as if you're really in China.
2. The promised Beginning (Land of Departure) => This piece is really fitting for the setting of the world, as in having a certain layer of brightness and warmth, but also a strict note.
3. Radiant Garden (BBS) => I actually like all variants of the Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden theme, yet I find this one the most fitting for the world in its undamaged state.
4. Symphony of Sorcery (both Riku & Sora) => Instrumental classic music is a small more hidden passion I have, so everything regarding this world fits.
5. La Cloche (DDD) => a really powerful piece that at some parts really sounds as if it would be played inside the Notre Dame cathedral all the time.


III. Character themes:

1. Ventus => In my view one of the most heartrending music pieces of the series, it had caught my interest already when it first appeared in the BBS Trailers before I knew what it was. It's almost like a more "refined" version of Roxas' theme and I do actually get goosebumps whenever I listen to it.
2. Roxas => Very similar to Ven's theme with a similar message, made somewhat more powerful by having a second rendition of it with "The other Promise". The only reason it isn't 1. for me is because Ven's theme sounds a tad more complete.
3. Riku => a very solemn yet encouraging piece which strikes almost the middle ground between the dedicated "sad" pieces of Ven, Roxas and Aqua and the upbeat theme of Sora. Something that fits Riku very well as someone who's standing on a middle-ground in-series.
4. Aqua & Terra => These two rank on the same level for me, mainly because they were largely lifted from parts of "Fate of the Unknown", but they do fit the characters in question. Aqua's theme almost beats Ven's in terms of melancholy and heartstring-tugging while the fast paced parts of Terra's really underline his often impulsive nature.
5. Sora => Probably the only major character theme with an undoubtly positive vibe to it, it serves as a neat contrast to the others and underlines Sora's general positive and optimistic attitude.

Least favorites do not actually exist, as the music in my opinion is one of the few things in the KH series that is almost universally good.

 

[Vanitas666]

Its funny because playing Days I thought Vector to the Heavens was supposed to sound like a mess. On the DS the sounds make it feel hurried and all over the place, like the memories that Xion's took. I like it.

Oh, I'm sure it's intentional. I just don't think the end result sounds good. /shrug

Am I the only one who almost liked the original better? The 1.5 edition was the best but I remember when I first heard the hd version from the BBS, Days, Coded collection and I just liked the DS version so much more.
That 8-bit-ish Chaos tune is just so fucking awesome I love it.

 

[Grizzly]

This definitely took me a while. After taking my time to figure it out, I've finally come up with my lost of favorites. It is late for me, so I'll just give an explanation for my favorite and list the rest.

1. Musique pour la Tristesse de Xion- This is, in my opinion, the best song in Kingdom Hearts, and maybe one of my favorite songs in all of gaming. It gets the mood of not only Days and Xion's events right, but I feel that it accurately represents much of the strife that many of our favorite characters go through during the entire series. There are some piano versions out there that pull at the heart strings relentlessly. As depressing as it is, it is also strangely comforting.

2. Ventus

3. Vector to the Heavens

4. Tears of the Light

5. March Caprice

There are so many other songs that I couldn't imagine living without, but I think these are the cream of the crop. It took me so long to come up with this list that I won't delve into least favorites for now.

 

[Muke]

Now that I think about it, I really love Hunter of the Dark, especially the beginning.[h=1][/h]

 

[Rydgea]

Does no one remember 'Another Side'? The whole Another Side, Another Story [ deep dive ] movie basically secured my KH fandom for life. The perfect amounts mystery, melody and general Yoko Shimomura magic:

[video=youtube;oFs2vkKNr54]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFs2vkKNr54[/video]

It's definitely in my top 5, which I'll expand upon later.

 

[Hakan Xatos]

My top 5 favorites:

Lord of the Castle (Actually I thought all 3 of Marluxia's themes were good. Graceful Assassin and Scythe of Petals)
Dark Impetus
The Encounter
Enter the Darkness
Vector to the Haevens (Memoria preferably)

 

[Rage-Roxas]

Aaaa, there are so many, I can't just choose five favorites. But I hate Rowdy Rumble. ARGH. It just play everywhere and I'm bored of it...

Some of my favorites are... Well, I'm sure I'll forget some themes and then I'll feel bad for them. Not in particular order.

- Night of Fate (KHI)
- Hollow Bastion (KHI)
- The Force in You (CoM and Re:Com)
- Graceful Assasin (CoM and Re:CoM)
- L'Oscurità dell'Ignoto (DDD)
- The Encounter (KHII)
- Deep Drive (KHII)
- Riku (KHII) 2.5 version is even better
- Lazy Afternoons (KHII)
- Traverse Town (KHI)
- Le Sanctuaire (DDD)
- Fragments of Sorrow (KHI)
- The 13th Reflection (KHIIFM)
- Squirming Evil (KHI)
- Sinister Sundown (KHII)
- Always on my Mind (KHI)

That's sixteen... lol.

Least favorites... Rowdy Rumble, Welcome to Wonderland, To Our Surprise. I also don't like Sora's theme that much.

 

[Emperor]

Memorably picks

Dearly Beloved - all versions

Rage Awakened

Fate of the Unknown

Froze dell'Oscurità

Encounter

Dismiss

Dislikes

I have none. For me, KH music either really stands out in a good way, or fits the situation so well that it just blends into the background.

What I want from KH3

For Yoko to put hands on instruments again. That woman is a genius, and I'm pretty sure she won't disappoint with anything she comes up with.

 

[disney233]

My top 5 favorite themes from the game huh?

The Top 5 Best
5: Rowdy Rumble
4: The Spooks of Halloween Town(1.5 & 2.5)
3: The Rustling Forest
2: Untamable(Dream Drop Distance)
1: He's a Pirate(2.5 HD Remix)

Top 5 LEAST Favorite
5: Byte Bashing(Space Paranoid Combat Theme)
4: Mickey Mouse Club March(Birth by Sleep Version)
3: Under the Sea(Kingdom Hearts 1)
2: Welcome to Wonderland
1: What Lies Beneath(Underworld Combat Theme)

 

[shady543]

I won't be able to list only 5. I have too many favourites. xD


Favourites (in no particular order):


1. Dearly Beloved.
2. Roxas's theme from the piano collection and The Other Promise from the piano collection. I think these version of his themes need more love since I think they're better (and sadder) than the original versions.
3. Vector to the Heavens (1.5 version)
4. Rage Awakened (2.5 version).
5. Dark Impetus.
6. Fate of the Unknown
7. Hikari Orchestra
8. Xion's theme
9. La Cloche
10. Darkness of the Unknown (mainly the last two, Final Xemnas being my favourite)
Honorable mentions goes to Ventus, Roxas and Riku's themes (for being my other favourite character themes), The Other Promise (2.5 version) and Tension Rising.


Least favourites:
I don't really have any. But these are ones I'm not as fond of:


1. Adventures in Savannah
2. Agrabah
2. Most of the Atlantica songs in KH2.
Pretty much any Disney song that doesn't do the world justice.


I just want violins and piano in KH3, since I love the violin and piano in KH music. xD

 

[Ree]

Best: 13th Discretion (Com), It Began With A Letter, Floating in Bliss (II), Beasts Castle (2.5), 13th floor (Re:Com)
Worst: The Force in You, Vector to the Heavens, A New Day is Dawning, Swim this way, Revenge of Chaos