User:MomoQca/Music of the Xenoblade Chronicles series

The Xenoblade Chronicles series is a series of science fiction role-playing video games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. The series began with the 2010 release of Xenoblade Chronicles, which was followed by sequels in subsequent years. The music of Xenoblade Chronicles includes the soundtracks to all four main games, as well as the expansion pass of the second game. The original Xenoblade Chronicles was composed by Manami Kiyota, ACE+ (a musical group comprised of Tomori Kudo, Hiroyo "CHiCO" Yamanaka, and Kenji Hiramatsu), and Yoko Shimomura. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and the expansion pass of  Torna – The Golden Country was composed by nearly the same people from the previous game. Starting with the second game, Shimomura was no longer involved and was replaced by Yasunori Mitsuda as the main composer. For Xenoblade Chronicles 3, all of the composers from the second game returned, with the addition of newcomer Mariam Abounnasr. Xenoblade Chronicles X was solely composed by Hiroyuki Sawano.

Episode I
The first episode in the series was Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht, released in 2002. Designed as a spiritual successor to Xenogears, the game was worked on by much of the same staff, including the composer Yasunori Mitsuda. For the game, Mitsuda composed a score that is mostly orchestral in nature, using the London Philharmonic Orchestra for several tracks. Other pieces include vocal tracks by the Metro Voices choir, piano solos by Yasuharu Nakanishi, and performances by the Gen Ittetsu Strings. The game's theme songs, "Pain" and "Kokoro", were sung by Celtic singer Joanne Hogg of the band Iona, with whom Mitsuda had previously worked for the soundtrack to Xenogears. The vocal songs throughout the soundtrack range from choral to opera to a capella, while the tone of the soundtrack overall has been described as being "serious, sometimes dark, heavy and even haunting at times". At one point in the development process, Mitsuda planned to use a separate person to orchestrate his compositions after an early piece proved unworkable and had to be scrapped, causing him to lose confidence in his own ability. After working for several months, however, he regained his confidence and decided to work as his own orchestrator, a decision which he feels improved him as a composer.

The first release of the soundtrack as an album was the Xenosaga Original Soundtrack, released by DigiCube on March 6, 2002. The two-disc album includes every piece from the game's soundtrack, with a total length of 1:58:42 across its 45 tracks. Two years later, on May 19, 2004, Mitsuda released another version of the soundtrack through his Sleigh Bells label titled Xenosaga Episode I. This version features two new tracks—"World to be Born" and "Pain ~piano version~"—as well as re-recordings of some of the tracks. The playlist order was also changed between the two versions, with Episode I grouping the tracks by style, rather than in rough chronological order within the game like the original album. Mitsuda explained in the liner notes for the album that he felt that separating the two styles presented a different impression of the music that allowed the listener to greater appreciate the atmosphere of the pieces. In addition to the two albums, a single, "Kokoro", was released for the game's theme songs. Published by DigiCube, the disc includes "Pain" and "Kokoro" from the original soundtrack as well as a piano rendition of Kokoro and instrumental versions of both songs. The album has a total length of 23:55, and was released on February 6, 2002.

The Original Soundtrack album reached #38 on the Japan Oricon charts and was well received by reviewers. IGN termed it one of Mitsuda's best soundtracks to date, calling it "near genius with nearly every passing track". They especially praised the wide range of emotions present in the soundtrack. GameSpy agreed in their review of the game, saying that "the music is rich, full, varied, and underscores the cinemas and battle sequences excellently". RPGFan, in their review of the Xenosaga Original Soundtrack album, said that the album works well as a stand-alone album apart from the game, and that it has few, if any, bland or mediocre tracks. They repeated their praise for the soundtrack in their review of Xenosaga Episode I, though they felt that the two new tracks were not very impressive additions. "Kokoro" reached #61 and received praise as well, for its emotional intensity and lyrics.

Original soundtrack track list

Episode I track list