SPOILER WARNING: This editorial contains spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles. Read at your own risk.
It should come as no surprise that many of us here at oprainfall are pretty hyped for the upcoming release of Xenoblade Chronicles X. So, in anticipation of that game, we’re starting a new series called Memories and Visions, where we take a look back at some of our favorite aspects of the original Xenoblade Chronicles, and look ahead to X and what we hope it’ll be, or what we hope it’ll improve over the original. So, to kick off this new series, I would like to take a look at one of my favorite parts of Xenoblade, and one of the things that makes it probably my favorite game of all time: its original soundtrack. This is basically going to be a celebration of my favorite songs from Xenoblade and X.
First of all, take a listen to this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGkPEDFRgng
Anyone who’s played Xenoblade Chronicles (which, I imagine, is many of you reading this) will recognize this song as the title screen theme from that game, simply titled “Main Theme” and composed by Yoko Shimomura, who composed many songs for Xenoblade as well as other games, such as multiple Kingdom Hearts games and the upcoming Final Fantasy XV.
Compare that to this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OklykLqYdWE
This is (ugh) “no9=MONOX”, alternatively known as “Mono X”, the title theme for Xenoblade Chronicles X. It is the title theme for that game, and is composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, also known for his work on several anime series such as Kill la Kill, Attack on Titan and Aldnoah.Zero. He has a definite style that comes across in pretty much all his work, not the least of which being Xenoblade Chronicles X. This stands in comparison to the original’s team of Yoko Shimomura, Manami Kiyota, and ACE+ (which itself consists of Tomori Kudo, Hiroyo “CHiCO” Yamanaka, and Kenji Hiramatsu), with an ending theme written by previous Xeno series composer Yasunori Mitsuda. The result of one composer working on X compared to the original’s six is notably less diversity, with many tracks ultimately sounding similar to each other, but in my opinion no less amazing than Xenoblade’s seemingly insurmountable OST.
