Best VGM 2240 | SupraDarky's Best VGM List Archive

SupraDarky on December 13th 2018, 12:57 am

People might not agree with me, but I feel like Sakuraba lost his unique touch. When I compare his early Tales and Star Ocean soundtracks to what he's doing now, it's like he's just on automatic drive now pumping out tons of uninspired music. Maybe it's not that surprising with the amount of Tales games that came out. This theme is a perfect example of Sakuraba magic.

Replies

LeonisBrafer on December 13th 2018, 1:22 am

As a huge Tales fan I can sorta get where you are coming at. I do still feel he hits it dead on with some songs but as much as I love Graces f for it's fun battle mechanics, I can't remember much of the music.

Waywarde on December 13th 2018, 1:37 am

Haven't played the most recent Tales games yet, but I did notice a dip in quality for the OSTs as the series went on..

terracannon876 on December 13th 2018, 2:15 am

I've actually never been a huge fan of Sakuraba music... They work great in the game, but they almost never capture my attention as standalone music pieces. This one is better than most that I've heard, and perhaps this has to do with me starting with the later games?

Freddy Martinez on December 13th 2018, 2:32 am

@terracannon876 his music certianly fits and are catchy, but are hardly memorable.

jsh020 on December 13th 2018, 2:42 am

No i fully agree, its actually why i kind of wish he'd just step away from the franchise for a while, i think its a massive missed opportunity for the games to feel distinct by not allowing them to have different composers like say a FF game.

jb1980ist on December 13th 2018, 3:00 am

I haven’t really liked anything he’s written since Golden Sun. He’s just phoning it in now.

RoyalGreenTea on December 13th 2018, 3:04 am

Hmm, he never really stood out for me except for his battle themes, and even considering that I can barely remember the last few pieces from him.

virgil9940 on December 13th 2018, 3:22 am

I remember from an interview that Sakuraba did some years ago where he mentioned that he would have liked to do something different for the tales games but he was asked not to make the sound too thick or something to that effect and tries to stay within a specific tales theme. Tales of Graces and onward is when I personally started to notice uninspiring tracks. I am almost certain that had it not been for this we would've seen more of his magic. And that outside of Tales we get to see him work relatively unfettered like in Dark Souls, for example.

Solvanderlyn on December 13th 2018, 11:38 am

I'm a HUGE fan of Sakuraba's early works, and I totally agree. The last game he helped compose for (period, not just Tales) that grabbed me was Vesperia. Even then, he'd been past his prime for a while.

RizziSmoov The 2nd on December 13th 2018, 4:43 pm

Probably to a lesser degree, but, Sakuraba has always had this issue. Tales of Eternia's OST sounds like it was made entirely of unreleased Star Ocean 2 tracks. Some of the Baten Kaitos tracks he composed however sounded like he was let off his leash which was obviously well after ToE.

Sunny Burrito on December 13th 2018, 7:47 pm

Indeed I don't agree with you, Sakuraba created a lot of memorable compositions after this game, it's not fair to diminish them.

onresonance on December 16th 2018, 8:49 pm

Completely agree. Besides Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny, Star Ocean 2 (and to a lesser extent the original Star Ocean), I had a really hard time getting into any of his other work. There were some good tracks here and there, but most were filler imo, with a lot of monotonous droning.

ramminchuck on December 28th 2018, 5:16 pm

Go Shiina is the best thing to happen to the Tales series musically by far.

Adam Epp on January 13th 2019, 5:37 am

I mainly think Sakuraba phones in the OSTs that he does for new Tales of games. The music he composes for other game series is generally better (if not exactly amazing).

Gaming will NEVER be good again on September 18th 2019, 9:14 pm

@Freddy Martinez Hard disagree. I listen to Golden Sun, Tales of and Baten Kaitos tracks almost daily.

Gaming will NEVER be good again on September 18th 2019, 9:16 pm

@Solvanderlyn Dark Souls and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn tho?

Aaron Holley on October 25th 2019, 8:42 pm

@Gaming will NEVER be good again Tales of symphonia had a great one!!

Best VGM 2240 - Tales of Phantasia - Freeze

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