Octopath Traveler: Reimagining Game Music

A small correction I want to make. At the end I say Yasunori Nishiki 'adhered to the same technical limitations as the classics', but that would mean he's using the old soundchips and making something that could actually work on the old consoles. What I meant to say was 'the same compositional limitations.' 🙂

Another great bonus to the music, especially the fact that it doesn't use 5 instruments simultaneously is that it remains background music. With maybe the exception of the Main Theme and battle themes, the music remains in the background, not taking away from other game mechanics. This also makes it great to use as background music in things like DND-Sessions

I know it’s 5 years late but came to say great video and FUCK RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2

Octopath music is perfect, just hearing it again evokes such powerful emotions

He played wind scene and the nostalgia all came to me.

That does explain why there are some games whose character themes are unmemorable and practically interchangeable. They use the same instrumentation, tempo, and style, so games such as Bravely Second and Final Fantasy X2 aren't as musically deft.

I haven't even played the game yet, I stumbled upon the soundtrack while looking through VGLeadSheets and thought Octopath Traveler had an interesting name and listened through some of the songs to decide on one to learn and I just fell in love with the whole soundtrack. The main theme has been stuck in my head for days. I'm enamored by "How Amusing!" and how well the oboe, clarinet and flute play together. Double bass and accordion is a deadly combo.

The Sunlands song gives me a lot of of Nier:Automata vibes

"Frozen deep inside us"
>immediately switches background music to Frostlands
nailed it.

As much as the story in OPT sucks the music is fucking incredible

It gets it right except for the extremely boring, same every time dungeon design that feels grindy and boring past maybe part 3 on everyone.

I sense underrated

I didn’t grow up with the classics. I didn’t even know any games existed outside of Pokémon and Mario til my early teens. But I do make a habit of revisiting the classics. Only last year I played Chrono Trigger and it’s one of my all time favorite games. Octopath is a game I hold close to my heart, especially the music, because it just… feels like childhood. It’s a game I desperately want to revisit when I have the time, and it did an excellent job of recreating the magic of old games. After all, it did the exact same thing the old ones did to a new generation.

your voice makes me want to throw up

I am not a technician or music scholar, I'm just a sad, fat lover of music and games but I think Stardew Valley does something interesting. You mention how in the older games, music was focused on the melody to allow a natural loop, but SDV's melodies have a principle and an ending, but still are focused on the melodies. You hear the melody once, then it stops and you are in silence for a while, only listening to ambient sounds. I think Super Metroid did the same thing with the track Lower Norfair, except it re-starts immediately after its clear ending, which causes a weird feeling, like something is wrong.

I wish Octopath Traveler was released on PS4; I don't have a Switch and it crashes my PC.

Tbh I've never played Chrono trigger I still get shivers.

"It's why hearing Wind Scene from Chrono Trigger still send shivers up your spine 20 years later."

Plays music: Literally felt shivers up my spine. 🤯

"Yeah just like that."

This man is a wizard!

Orchestra...and rock and roll for Ys.

I just picked up this game a few days ago after hesitating to pick it up for years, due to its pricetag. I've been crying nerd tears for the first time in like 20 years. It's truly a beautiful throwback to my teenage years, and I think the music is where most of the magic happens. I get carried away everytime the character themes ease themselves into decisive battle each in their own unique ways.

Great video! I have not played Octopath Traveler. Yet. :p

When I listened to Orewell’s theme the first time I immediately felt nostalgia even though I had never even been to Orewell in game

The flute songs are nostalgic to me because of the tinker bell movies, oh no

Wait I always thought that the Victory fanfare was a variation of the Main Theme

Mark my words, if there hasn't been an Octopath Traveler concert yet, there will be at some point. The Universe wills it. :)

Battle Theme 2 is definitely one of my favorite game tracks of all time, hands down

I miss playing this game

The main theme makes me emotional. Every. Single. Time. even in my first listen.
A true masterpiece.

One of the best OST ever!

The explanation of the reversal of "game OSTs imitating classical orchestra compositions and then an orchestra composition trying to sound like an old game OST" helped me finally figure out how to describe Octopath Traveler's visual style: it's the same kind of reversal. Old SNES RPGs were 16-bit depictions of a realistic world, and Octopath is an extremely realistic depiction of a world that looks like it really is 16-bit.

I wasn’t born before the 2000’s so I never played these old retro RPG’s but far off in the future when I’m much older, i’ll probably feel nostalgia for this game.



It’s a nostalgic chain.

The soundtrack also works for someone that never really grew up with these kinds of games.
And Alfyn is indeed best boy. :D

You got me with the spine tingles on that Wind Theme playback

I just bought this game and holy crap. This music is addicting. I never get sick of hearing the battle music.

No love for Motoi Sakuraba :(

Games like this keep Melody alive.
These days games are using cinematic soundtracks and effects but they've lost what people loved. Memorable soundtracks.

Octopath traveler is a masterpiece. I’ll fight anyone.

Watched this video 3 times within a year, I learnt something new every single time. Thank you!

I would love to see you do a video about Jeremy Soule. He uses orchestra but a lot of his songs are so memorable. I get the Elder Scrolls theme stuck in my head all the time. I just discovered your channel so forgive me if you've already talked about him.

YOU ARE SO RIGHT
ALFYN IS BEST BOI
also fantastic video!

This guy is soon going to be a big name in the world of video game composers.

I wish there was an option to switch the orchestral soundtrack to a 32bit Version. I'm just so into those electronic SNES sounds.

The textures of these arrangements are exceptional, especially in combination with strong, old-school inspired compositions. Nice video, glad to have found your channel!

This game took the number 1 spot for game score in my book!

Uematsu does give deference to the old masters, but a lot of his music is heavily inspired by 70s prog rockers. Aping Rick Wakeman and Ian Anderson was one of his favorite pastimes.

Incidentally, this game also does the same. The boss themes and Daughter of the Dark God knew what made old RPG boss themes work, and that's sparse arrangements that have rich texture. Battle at Journey's End has a little more than its share of Yes in its DNA.

So many "modern" arrangements of the classics (like The Dreadful Fight) miss out on what makes those songs so special, and it's the sparse arrangements with interplay between timbre. I'd like to see what Nishiki's thought process could do as an arranger for a remix album of some of my old favorites.

Wow. Great editing

This guy is seriously one of the best game composers. I am shocked he doesn't have a lot of credits of big titles to his name... seriously people need to get him on some stuff.

Yah large orcestra kinda dosen't fell right in a 8 bit style game dose it (tho I guess it not 8 bit but any way it want to look like a 16ish bit graphique or something even if it like 1080 or what ever...)
Any way case and point It sond weird whene you got crazy good sond quality to have low amont of pixel it just dosen't fit well as there like a flaw in the design there as Low amont of pixel useally all pixel NEED TO BE USEFULL The same way should the song be made (low amont of notes and instrument so it fell like it should be for the graphique power AND ALL NOTE NEED TO BE USEFULL like the pixel imitation)