In today’s article, we will be talking about a popular favorite category of game music: boss battle themes!! So far, in the first two articles comparing the music of Brave Frontier and Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, each pair of tracks have been fairly similar, almost interchangeably so. The boss battle themes, however, while both still very epic and intense, are quite different.
DTA.02 – BF & FF:BE / Overworld/Map Selection
Today’s article will focus on the Overworld music, where you select in which world you’d like to embark on your next adventure. These map selection themes in both games, Brave Frontier and Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, are quite similar. Let’s go through three different categories in which they can be easily compared and contrasted: tonality + meter, structure, and instrumentation.
DTA.01 – BF & FF:BE / Main Menus
“Summoner” vs. “Moment of Recall” (Main Menu Themes)
The main menu music to a game could be considered a flagship piece of sorts, and in games like Brave Frontier (BF) and Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius (FF:BE) even more so, with so many playable options within these menus. Whether you’re checking your daily tasks, fusing or evolving units, or using precious in-game currency in hopes of summoning that newly released unit, this main menu music accompanies all of those endeavors, and in turn sets the tone for the entire game.
New Series ~ DOUBLE-Track Analysis – Brave Frontier & Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius Collaboration
Games currently playing: Brave Frontier, Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, Kingdom Hearts Union Cross, Pokémon Alpha Sapphire
Two of my favorite mobile games, Brave Frontier and Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, both announced last week that they’re doing another special collaboration! They had this cross-over last year, and I’m happy that they’re bringing it back, with new additions in both games (new units, and new evolutions, woo hoo!).
STA: KHUx.30 – Dearly Beloved / A Lesson in Letting Go
Today is the last article of my Single-Track Analysis: Kingdom Hearts Union Cross series! I will continue to do Single-Track Analysis articles in the future—which will focus exclusively on mobile game music—but not quite as often as one article a day ;P
When the new, huge update was made, and the official switch from Kingdom Hearts Unchained X to Kingdom Hearts Union Cross, I knew I wanted to end this 30-day series with an article about the new “Dearly Beloved”. I initially thought I would write about picardy third—which is still an interesting concept that I might tackle later—but I thought as the last article of the series, I would write about something a little more poignant.
STA: KHUx.29 – Roxas / Simultaneously Minor and Major Music
In the penultimate STA: KHUx article, we are going to be talking about the theme of one of the Kingdom Hearts series most interesting and tragic characters. While I don’t know exactly what happens with Roxas, as I have not yet finished KHII or 358/2 Days, I do know that Roxas is a character you get to know and love, which makes it all that much more heart-breaking when you have to say good-bye to him, whenever that is. Again, I haven’t played all the games through yet so I don’t know exactly what happens… All I know is that it is very sad…!
STA: KHUx.28 – Xion’s Theme / A Lesson in Musical Allusion
As I mentioned yesterday, the track of interest today is going to be the lovely “Xion’s Theme”. Also as I mentioned yesterday, for some (awesome) reason, there are a few medals in Kingdom Hearts Union Cross that, when you look at their stats, their musical theme plays. And I also just found out that if you set that medal to your shared medal, that character’s theme plays as your home menu music! I thought that was a nice addition ^_^
STA: KHUx.27 – Kairi’s Theme / Passing the (Musical) Torch
This article and the next two will be based around character themes that show up ever so briefly (or for a while, depending on how long you stay on the screen ;P) in Kingdom Hearts Union Cross. I’m not sure when exactly they added in this feature, but for certain characters (Casual Roxas, Illustrated Xion, Illustrated KHII Kairi, Illustrated Sora, HD Roxas, and possibly others), when you tap on their medal info, their theme plays as you check out their stats. I think it was a wonderful addition, and props to whoever had the idea. In today’s article, we are going to be talking about the musical theme of one of the central characters of Kingdom Hearts, Kairi.
STA: KHUx.26 – Destiny’s Force / An Intro to Jazz Theory
In high school, right after I had composed my first two or three pieces of music, I started to take what were called at the time “jazz piano lessons”, but they really turned out to be a combination of piano, jazz, theory, and composition. From those lessons, and from that amazing teacher, I learned so many things over the next three years. Among the countless useful techniques, tips, and tricks he showed to me, my teacher introduced me to a concept that I had barely begun to scratch the surface of at the time, and the topic of interest today: chords that go beyond simply major and minor.
STA: KHUx.25 – Shrouding Dark Cloud / Pieces with Multiple Time Signatures
Yesterday and the day before, we talked Raid Boss battle themes, and we will do so again today! The article of interest for today is “Shrouding Dark Cloud”, which first showed up in the original fight against the Guard Armor in Kingdom Hearts I, and is now also the battle music for the Guard Armor Raid Boss in Kingdom Hearts Union Cross. And just as the title suggests, today’s article is going to be about pieces that incorporate different time signatures–that is, the number of beats per measure changes throughout the piece.
Whimsically Theoretical 