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.
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.
