Favorite battle themes

[MegaHiro91]

For me it will always be Final Fantasy X's normal battle theme. FFX was one of the games a classmate I no longer talk to introduced me to, and I remember it to be THE game that knocked my socks off and demonstrated the leap between PS1 and PS2, not just graphically - that famous FMV where Yuna says "I have done it. I have finally become a summoner" where you see her up close - but also the orchestral soundtrack that hit 12 year old me like a truck. It made such an impression on me, I was disappointed to learn that all FF games have different battle themes.

My second favorite is the one from the Japanese phone monster catching game; Keitai Denjuu Telefang on GameBoy Color, which back in the early 00s circulated on the internet as the infamous pair of bootleg Pokémon games "Diamond" and "Jade". It is super upbeat and "bubbly" and you can't help smiling at just how overly whimsical it is. Like someone wanted to copy Pokémon, but decided to go above and beyond and make the most over-the-top battle theme they could think of.

Speaking of Pokémon, my third is of course the trainer battle theme in Pokémon RBY. Not only was it catchy as hell, but sometimes, maybe due to the GameBoy limited sound channels, the battle theme would overwrite the sound effects of the attacks, which made 7 year old me imagine that the fight was so intense it drowned out all other sounds. Like the thing they sometimes do in anime fights where the battle is so intense that the human characters flap their mouths as they yell commands, but their words get drowned out.

Fourth, just to cap it somewhere (and because 4 is my favorite number), is Digimon World 2003. No backstory this time, it just has a sick computer-y beat.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

The battle theme from Fire Emblem 4 Genealogy of the Holy War often randomly pops in my head, so that one.

 

[tenkai star]

Those are the two franchises I thought of as well. I’ll also put the FFX battle theme as one of my favorites. As for Pokémon, I nominate the theme for the battle against red on mount silver. That one is so good, even the original on GBC sounds incredible

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

The instrumentation of the game is a bit weak but the melody gives me some mood boost.

Not a battle theme per se but you'll hear it often

 

[fake-kun]

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Motoi Sakuraba the goat

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

And:

 

[Bakuma1997]

 

[OmegaPunch's icon OmegaPunch OmegaPunch]

Literally ALL of the battle themes from Shin Megami Tensei IV.
Here's some of my favorites:

 

[Eclipse14]

I'll stick to three.

 

[MasterEn]

For me it will always be Final Fantasy X's normal battle theme. FFX was one of the games a classmate I no longer talk to introduced me to, and I remember it to be THE game that knocked my socks off and demonstrated the leap between PS1 and PS2, not just graphically - that famous FMV where Yuna says "I have done it. I have finally become a summoner" where you see her up close - but also the orchestral soundtrack that hit 12 year old me like a truck. It made such an impression on me, I was disappointed to learn that all FF games have different battle themes.

i rank ffx's battle theme up alongside ff4's and ff9'sas being the best normal battle theme's with ff1's standing just an inch behind. lulu's intro scene is better in my opinion.
otherworld is probably the best final boss theme hands down in the series and most other games in general. rivaled only by eternity from blue dragon. not a final boss theme, but it should have been.

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

Touhou alone has a ton which are fantastic, if i was forced to choose a favorite, i would say Maiden's Capriccio from Imperishable Night.

Library of Ruina also has a bunch of good ones, but the Floor realization themes are my favorite.

Also SMT adjacent games have total bangers:

 

[Bonkers225]

3 comes to mind:

 

[Korova]

One of the best in FF8.

 

[What's His Face]

Pretty much any battle theme from Nihon Falcom.

You're welcome.

 

[Ian Naxieas]

This game is on my to play list and man, the battle theme is a bop.

It was going to be Mass Destruction from 3, but that was stolen from me! Next best thing is still a banger.

There's more than a few good battle themes in Final Fantasy Tactics, but this is my favorite. It's a good thing too because you will be hearing a lot of it.

I really need to get around to playing more of this game.

I've linked it elsewhere but I can't not include it. Easily my favorite song off the Payday 2 soundtrack (which is saying a lot, there's tons of great music in that game) and one of my current favorite songs period. Just hearing it gets me pumped to fight something.

 

[jiyuuboyetsvi]

Not a battle theme per se but you'll hear it often

YES, I love this song xD though I prefer the PC Engine version

The 13th Struggle from KH2 always gets me hyped. "Come here, I'll make it all stop! BURN BABY!!"

 

[Trainer Red]

already posted the fav on another thread
second fav though ...

Grandia series just has awesome battle themes !

 

[Yousef]

Nothing but hardcore stuff from Yakuza

A very gentlemanly song

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

YES, I love this song xD though I prefer the PC Engine version

Great theme in any versions to be honest. I love the PCE CD ost but I got some nostalgia for the Chronicles one.

I don't know if I could count this one but Zelda II in Japanese got some menacing tune for its battle theme

Which in turn gave us this great remix in Minish Cap

 

[Karnik 2.0: reboot]

 

[Ain_Gamer]

Suprised no one mentioned this Banger yet.

I also really love this one

 

[YoshifreakZX]

I haven't played that much of this game yet (planning to later this year through) but MAN, there's just something about this track that really clicked with me. I like it even more than the Battle 1 theme.

 

[MasterEn]

I haven't played that much of this game yet (planning to later this year through) but MAN, there's just something about this track that really clicked with me. I like it even more than the Battle 1 theme.

skies of arcadia is a 2 disc game. i haven't played the dreamcast version yet, but i'm fairly certain that this theme plays on disc 2, when everything starts feeling more intense. it definitely carries more gravitas than the first one.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Saving for a 3DS to get to buy Strange Journet Redux, i need to hear this banger by myself