Least favorite song from the games?

[DrumstickGaming]

My post in High Quality Fanworks got me thinking, we have a "favorite theme" thread but we don't have a flipside of this in that we don't have a thread for Pokemon music we dislike. I know general negativity isn't the most attractive thing, but I was struck with the idea out of nowhere.

I'll start by saying I dislike the Valor Lakefront theme, I get it's supposed to sound relaxing but everytime I hear it it makes me dislike calm relaxing ambient music, which I'm normally a big fan of (I like most of Sinnoh's town/city music and the Pokemon League music, which is cut from the same cloth in terms of calming).

What are your least favorite songs from the games?

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

On top of my head, the credits/ending theme from G/S/C & HG/SS. I really like ending themes that manage to be either epic, melancholic or give you a feeling of victory and accomplishment. Or a combination of several/all of these categories. Unfortunately, the Johto games does neither as they have happy music instead, and that just feels wrong to me. During the last times I played HG/SS and got to the credits, I actually turned off the sound on my DS and listened to something else instead while the credits rolled.

I am not a big fan of the Goldenrod theme in HG/SS either. The original version from G/S/C was one of my favorites from those games since it gave a great bittersweet/melancholic feeling, but I think the remakes ruined it by making it way too happy-sounding. I prefer the original version. However, HG/SS has another version which plays on the Variety Channel on the radio (probably not always, but during some days/times at least) which removes the happy part and only has the background music. It sounds a bit more "empty" compared to the actual theme, but I like it better. Here's a link to that one in order to hopefully give a better explanation for what I am talking about:

Those are the main ones I could think of right now, I'll post here again if I can come up with something more.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Cool idea for a thread. Agree totally about Goldenrod's HGSS theme - the two don't match at all. Cianwood's HGSS theme for example conveyed the melancholy of the original perfectly while doing something a bit different. The stripped-down version is much more satisfying.

Anyway, for tracks I dislike:

-the gym leader theme from XY. I expounded about why I dislike this in another thread recently; it's slow and dull and very grating, and doesn't scream "action!" in the way that previous gym themes did. I actually thought there was some sort of issue with my 3DS making it run slowly when I first heard it. Most of XY's music makes this list for just being forgettable as hell, honestly.
-the Elite Four theme from Gen V leaves me cold. I first played Black in Japanese which I mostly can't read and I genuinely wondered if the Unova Elite Four were supposed to be evil - they're creepy, and their battle stadiums are all ominous and imposing. The battle music doesn't help but frankly it's more forgettable than scary. It never really builds to a crescendo and it feels a lot like low-level buzzing throughout most of the track.
-the "low health" music from Gen V also feels discordant and odd - probably deliberately so. It's not downright awful when you're playing in-game but I like to listen to a lot of the game tracks when I'm not playing and I would never listen to this one out of choice.
-Clay's gym theme in B2W2. I loved the approach of making each gym's theme distinct and they're all great... except for this one. It's just so goddamn dull. It doesn't go anywhere and it's not at all pleasant to listen to. Marlon's is relaxing, Skyla's is exhilarating, Drayden's is epic, Roxie's is fun, and this is just boring.
-the gym leader theme from SwSh. While I appreciate the stadium-esque flavour they were going for, to me it just sounds (and I'm being completely serious here) like the backing track of a low-budget porn movie. It's up-tempo and bouncy and bubbly but somehow it just... doesn't work, mainly for the same reason as the XY version: it doesn't convey action and excitement to me. Ironically, while I dislike this track intensely, I actually really like the scrapped beta version which is much more stripped back and slightly darkier/heavier in its tone. I love the little vocal bits before the main chorus starts up and the fact that the crowd cheering is part of the track - sounds more like an actual football match - the "cheering" segments are deeper and sound like an actual crowd, whereas the higher-pitched and slightly squeaky "naa naa naa, la la la la la la la"s from the final version sound bizarre and incredibly out of place. Why the hell did they scrap this?
(

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[DJWT64]

I was not a fan of the music from most of sun and moon. I just didn’t enjoy the soundtrack, especially the rival battle. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the tropical sounds from those games.

 

[bb skarm]

I was not a fan of the music from most of sun and moon. I just didn’t enjoy the soundtrack, especially the rival battle. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the tropical sounds from those games.

This is interesting because I felt like SM and USUM had by far some of the best music in the games. Although the music is very hawaii-ish so if that isn't your thing I get it

 

[CTNC]

There's not much music I don't like in Pokemon, but the I've got some controversial picks among the few I don't. Team Skulls Theme is so bad I turn my sound off. Put down your pitchforks! I didn't mean SM's Team Skull, I meant the Zubat Koffing, Skuntank trio in the second Mystery Dungeon games. :P That's the one Mystery Dungeon song I don't expect anyone say is good. Speaking of, Amp Plains from the same game is really good, but I think its remix in Super Mystery Dungeon adds a little too much.

My real controversial pick is the RSE Bike Music. I can't say it's bad, but it just really annoys me for some reason. I think it's because it's too whimsical? Canceling out music I like doesn't help.

I know someone is probably going to say the SM Elite Four for being too stressful, but I have anxiety issues it doesn't bother me at all. I actually really like it. The Smash Bros remix though, that's too much. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the original version has a part that's like it's two layers of chaotic stuff and the Smash remix added a third layer.

-the gym leader theme from SwSh. While I appreciate the stadium-esque flavour they were going for, to me it just sounds (and I'm being completely serious here) like the backing track of a low-budget porn movie. It's up-tempo and bouncy and bubbly but somehow it just... doesn't work, mainly for the same reason as the XY version: it doesn't convey action and excitement to me. Ironically, while I dislike this track intensely, I actually really like the scrapped beta version which is much more stripped back and slightly darkier/heavier in its tone. I love the little vocal bits before the main chorus starts up and the fact that the crowd cheering is part of the track - sounds more like an actual football match - the "cheering" segments are deeper and sound like an actual crowd, whereas the higher-pitched and slightly squeaky "naa naa naa, la la la la la la la"s from the final version sound bizarre and incredibly out of place. Why the hell did they scrap this?

As much as I love the final version, the beta version's cheering is so much more realistic that I almost feel like I'd be trolling if I said anything bad about it... Oh well, bring on the haters! >:D The pitch of whistling is just high enough to make me glad they went with the final version.

 

[R_N]

Hard agree on XY's leader theme probably being my over all least favorite. It's very low energy (no matter how hte guitars try to raise it up) and droning. It kind of feels like PBR's music if PBR's music was bad.

the E4 music is also not exactly my thing but the beat it goes for does it better.

 

[Tenshi]

I absolutely despise the Sinnoh soundfont and almost every single song that isn't purely piano(pretty much just Canalave and cynthia's prebattle theme) sounds garbage, the midis just sound ear grating at best and just a clunky mess at worst.
biggest offender of this is Eterna City's theme, it's just a gross sounding clunky mess of a song and none of the instruments sound good together at all. Messy.

I also really dislike Veilstone's theme, it's just a really poor attempt at some "funky" jazz and just again ends up sounding messy and clunky.

Also not the worst but I find Snowpoint(day and night) to be probably the most overrated song in the games and it's just honestly really fucking dull and boring, I don't see the appeal especially after coming from those slow hellhole of routes that precedes it.

Most of the songs are ok but honestly very forgettable, can't tell you what any of the battle themes sound like except Arceus' cause he has one of the worst legend themes in the series. And to add a slight bit of positivity, route 214's theme is good as well as day canalave(night's is honestly pretty meh). Jubilife is another theme that's just random piano embellishments in a poor attempt to sound "jazzy" but the song as a whole is passable albeit extremely forgettable. Hearthome is alright, sounds like happy elevator music which is about as much praise I'll get for this game for a song that doesn't exclusively abuse piano.
The plus to all of this is if they ever remake the gen 4 games, the awful soundfont will be gone and we'll actually hear sinnoh tracks that doesn't range from please mute the game to forgettable. In a similar vein to how RSE victory road was garbage due to GBA sound limitations and how they had to layer french horn on top of each other to produce a fake orchestra sound; then ORAS happened and the song is one of the best in the game because of a proper full orchestration of the song. :pray:

 

[Eonatator]

Nimbasa City's . I get that it's supposed to reflect the spectacle and entertainment aspects of the city, but it just doesn't really feel like a song to me. Just kind of a collection of droning long notes, particularly at the beginning. If you're anything like me and you spent a ton of time in the city training at the sports arenas, the music just got so annoying that I would turn the volume off anytime I visited the city. And that's saying a lot for me because I love Pokemon's soundtrack and always make a point to play with game music on.

Aside from that, I have a love hate relationship with the wild battle music specifically in gen 3 Hoenn. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome the first few times around, but when you're training in the grass and constantly running into wild Pokemon, the bleepy beginning gets unbelievably annoying. The same could be said for any wild battle music in any game after a while, but for some reason this is the only one that get's on my nerves after a while.

 

[tondas]

A lot of XY's soundtrack feels like orchestral filler:

Granted a lot of the soundtrack is good! I don't even mind a lot of these pieces! But I'll admit that I forgot most of what this game sounded like without looking up the full OST.

Ultra Sun and Moon feel like missed potential if you ask me: there's a few good tunes added but they completely destroyed the wild battle and trainer battle theme. I get that they're supposed to be like super-charged variants of the OG variants but they didn't need to be fixed. They just come off as ridiculously overdone and it quickly becomes grating:

repetitive.

aged like wine.

Am I the only one who didn't like the Cyrus' theme remix from USUM either? It sounds okay?? But the originals tempo and instrumentals are much more nerve-racking and like the whole world is at stake but the new version just sounds like rave music. They even took out the key change which is utterly sinful:

Not for me, sorry. At least they nailed Lysandre's remix

 

[QuentinQuonce]

A lot of XY's soundtrack feels like orchestral filler:

Granted a lot of the soundtrack is good! I don't even mind a lot of these pieces! But I'll admit that I forgot most of what this game sounded like without looking up the full OST.

Ultra Sun and Moon feel like missed potential if you ask me: there's a few good tunes added but they completely destroyed the wild battle and trainer battle theme. I get that they're supposed to be like super-charged variants of the OG variants but they didn't need to be fixed. They just come off as ridiculously overdone and it quickly becomes grating:

repetitive.

aged like wine.

Am I the only one who didn't like the Cyrus' theme remix from USUM either? It sounds okay?? But the originals tempo and instrumentals are much more nerve-racking and like the whole world is at stake but the new version just sounds like rave music. They even took out the key change which is utterly sinful:

Not for me, sorry. At least they nailed Lysandre's remix

Oh good god I'd entirely forgotten how terrible USUM Cyrus's theme was

 

[RocketSurgery]

Hard agree on XY's leader theme probably being my over all least favorite. It's very low energy (no matter how hte guitars try to raise it up) and droning. It kind of feels like PBR's music if PBR's music was bad.

In my (possibly unpopular) opinion the PBR music is bad. :P At least the more common battle theme in this vid is. Something about it just comes off as really grating to me, like it's perpetually out of tune or something. I'm not saying I think it actually is out of tune, that's just the closest analogy I can think of to articulate what I don't like about it. It may be the same reason I don't like lofi mixes on Youtube...

 

[Scorpio]

OK, a lot of this is gonna be less “outright sucks” and more “inferior to another version of the song” but here are a few of my thoughts on the matter.

HGSS Goldenrod

I am not a big fan of the Goldenrod theme in HG/SS either. The original version from G/S/C was one of my favorites from those games since it gave a great bittersweet/melancholic feeling, but I think the remakes ruined it by making it way too happy-sounding. I prefer the original version. However, HG/SS has another version which plays on the Variety Channel on the radio (probably not always, but during some days/times at least) which removes the happy part and only has the background music. It sounds a bit more "empty" compared to the actual theme, but I like it better. Here's a link to that one in order to hopefully give a better explanation for what I am talking about:

Yeah they trashed Goldenrod’s music in HGSS. The original I feel fits very well with the “big-city” vibe Goldenrod gives off, similar to Castelia and Jubilife. The remix, though, sounds like something out of Pokémon Musical, except a game early... which, given that I already dislike that side-thing and have never touched it, is not helping.

SWSH Gym Leader Fight

-the gym leader theme from SwSh. While I appreciate the stadium-esque flavour they were going for, to me it just sounds (and I'm being completely serious here) like the backing track of a low-budget porn movie. It's up-tempo and bouncy and bubbly but somehow it just... doesn't work, mainly for the same reason as the XY version: it doesn't convey action and excitement to me.

I actually like the Sw/Sh gym leader fight theme... right up until the “last Pokemon” part, mostly due to the crowd. The whole sing-along bit annoys me to no end and just sinks the whole thing lower - it doesn’t help that, for me at least, the sing-along tends to start as the big DMax showdown starts up, sullying what’s supposed to be the fight’s big climax.

Sinnoh

I absolutely despise the Sinnoh soundfont and almost every single song that isn't purely piano(pretty much just Canalave and cynthia's prebattle theme) sounds garbage, the midis just sound ear grating at best and just a clunky mess at worst.
biggest offender of this is Eterna City's theme, it's just a gross sounding clunky mess of a song and none of the instruments sound good together at all. Messy.

I also really dislike Veilstone's theme, it's just a really poor attempt at some "funky" jazz and just again ends up sounding messy and clunky.

Also not the worst but I find Snowpoint(day and night) to be probably the most overrated song in the games and it's just honestly really fucking dull and boring, I don't see the appeal especially after coming from those slow hellhole of routes that precedes it.

Most of the songs are ok but honestly very forgettable, can't tell you what any of the battle themes sound like except Arceus' cause he has one of the worst legend themes in the series. And to add a slight bit of positivity, route 214's theme is good as well as day canalave(night's is honestly pretty meh). Jubilife is another theme that's just random piano embellishments in a poor attempt to sound "jazzy" but the song as a whole is passable albeit extremely forgettable. Hearthome is alright, sounds like happy elevator music which is about as much praise I'll get for this game for a song that doesn't exclusively abuse piano.

OK while I don’t dislike all of Sinnoh’s music I do feel that for every song that has Day/Night variations much of the time one version is clearly inferior to the other - and the exceptions are often when there’s barely any difference between them. Oftentimes it’s a matter of pitch change, which I find is less enjoyable. Oftentimes it’s the night version of most themes that I like less, with at least one notable exception - while Floraroma’ day theme sounds a bit too prettied-up for my tastes, the night version is more subdued, which I like much better.

...also is it me or does some of DPP’s music sound more French than some of XY’s music? The aforementioned Floraroma Night music for example I feel would fit right in with the region.

USUM Battle Music

Ultra Sun and Moon feel like missed potential if you ask me: there's a few good tunes added but they completely destroyed the wild battle and trainer battle theme. I get that they're supposed to be like super-charged variants of the OG variants but they didn't need to be fixed. They just come off as ridiculously overdone and it quickly becomes grating:

repetitive.

aged like wine.

I feel the same here, though I don’t feel the themes were “completely destroyed” they still are decidedly inferior to the originals. It’s mainly a factor of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. At least they kept the original trainer music as the VS theme for the Trial Captains.

Also, not gonna give personal opinions on the USUM Cyrus remix since I haven’t gotten to RR in either version and am not spoiling myself musically, but do know you are not alone in disliking it. Someone (can’t remember who) posted a big ol’ rant in either Unpopular Opinions or Little Things that Annoy You about it.

As for what hasn’t been mentioned, I feel the Black version of Opelucid is the decidedly inferior version - the White version is somber and beautiful, fitting for the old-style city that version chose to keep, while the melody for the Black version is... kinda drowned out by all the techno. May have to try and give it another listen tho, been a while since I last did.

Oh and Hulbury just feels like they just piled on the loud jazz horns and called it a day. There is some charm to it, but mostly in an ironic so-bad-it’s-good way.

 

[Tenshi]

Yeah they trashed Goldenrod’s music in HGSS. The original I feel fits very well with the “big-city” vibe Goldenrod gives off, similar to Castelia and Jubilife. The remix, though, sounds like something out of Pokémon Musical, except a game early... which, given that I already dislike that side-thing and have never touched it, is not helping.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
I recently started playing HG for the first time and I was deeply disappointed getting to Goldenrod City and just hearing a generic swingy version of it(the og is my favorite song in the series so big shoes to fill as well lol) but on the bright side the bike theme is a much better arrangement and more similar to the GSC goldenrod city theme than the actual theme is lol.

Also yea Black's Opelucid is techno garbage, white's is one of the best songs in gen 5 though along with Accumula town(piano + drum), anville town, and Nimbasa city imo.

 

[PsychicAcademic]

My real controversial pick is the RSE Bike Music. I can't say it's bad, but it just really annoys me for some reason. I think it's because it's too whimsical? Canceling out music I like doesn't help.

In all fairness, we are probably sick of bike musics after trying to hatch a lot of things....
I actually second this, while I actually love XY version. Though imo this is still better than SuMn Tauros ride (etc.), it's not my taste and it overrides a lot of musics in Alola.

 

[Ransei]

Extremely watered down from the original games and ORAS. What in the world is this? They no longer sound all big and scary anymore.

??? this is music? (Dawn Wings/Dusk Mane USUM theme. idk why it says Ultra Necrozma theme)

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I'll start by saying I dislike the Valor Lakefront theme, I get it's supposed to sound relaxing but everytime I hear it it makes me dislike calm relaxing ambient music, which I'm normally a big fan of (I like most of Sinnoh's town/city music and the Pokemon League music, which is cut from the same cloth in terms of calming).

Just checked it and... yeah, it doesn't sound good. For a song that's supposed to be relaxing, that grating midi thing really destroys the idea.

-the gym leader theme from XY. I expounded about why I dislike this in another thread recently; it's slow and dull and very grating, and doesn't scream "action!" in the way that previous gym themes did. I actually thought there was some sort of issue with my 3DS making it run slowly when I first heard it. Most of XY's music makes this list for just being forgettable as hell, honestly.

-the gym leader theme from SwSh. While I appreciate the stadium-esque flavour they were going for, to me it just sounds (and I'm being completely serious here) like the backing track of a low-budget porn movie. It's up-tempo and bouncy and bubbly but somehow it just... doesn't work, mainly for the same reason as the XY version: it doesn't convey action and excitement to me. Ironically, while I dislike this track intensely, I actually really like the scrapped beta version which is much more stripped back and slightly darkier/heavier in its tone. I love the little vocal bits before the main chorus starts up and the fact that the crowd cheering is part of the track - sounds more like an actual football match - the "cheering" segments are deeper and sound like an actual crowd, whereas the higher-pitched and slightly squeaky "naa naa naa, la la la la la la la"s from the final version sound bizarre and incredibly out of place. Why the hell did they scrap this?

These two takes could go straight in the Unpopular Opinions thread and no one would bat an eye.

I kinda get what you mean with the XY Leader theme, even though I don't particularly agree with it.

The SWSH Leader music is a certified banger and I honestly don't understand how you'd think otherwise tho.


As for music that makes me want to hit the mute button...

SwSh's Route 1 is really grating. Sure, a lot of the beginning routes try to be overly cheery and wind up extremely grating, with HGSS Route 29 being one of the worst offenders too, but SwSh stands out because it was the one I played most recently.

Opelucid Techno garbage is also terrible.

Some of the older games' songs also kinda aged poorly because of their technical limitations, the Sinnoh games being some of the ones that suffered the most because of it.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

I never knew people thought Black Opelucid City was terrible until this thread. I mean I like White Opelucid fine (I grew up with Black) but like...huh. I always thought Black Opelucid was one of the great town themes in a generation full of great town themes.

Of course, opinions are opinions and nobody is wrong for disliking Black Opelucid or any theme for that matter.

Other town themes I dislike...Solaceon / Pastoria never really did anything for me. Again, goes for laid-back and just comes out sounding...bleh and forgettable.

 

[Plague von Karma]

The Gym Leader theme from XY sounds like a music intro that never actually gets to the hype part. Not even on the last Pokemon. When I first heard it I put my 3DS down just to wait for it only to realize "Oh.".

 

[Tenshi]

The Gym Leader theme from XY sounds like a music intro that never actually gets to the hype part. Not even on the last Pokemon. When I first heard it I put my 3DS down just to wait for it only to realize "Oh.".

I feel like the e4 theme in xy should've just been the intro, its so good.

And then the melody kicks in and hhhgggghhg so fucking awful. Good thing you beat then fast enough to just hear the intro anyways lul

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

Thoughts on some themes that were mentioned by others here:
- Black version of Opelucid: Partly agree. I wouldn't say it is downright bad, but I prefer the White version, no contest.
- Gen 5 low health music: This was an interesting concept but it got annoying after a while, especially when it happened in battles which had really awesome regular music.
- X/Y Gym Leader theme. Partly agree here too. I don't think it is bad, but it isn't super great either. I really prefer the Successor Korrina theme which is basically just a variation/remix of the Gym Leader theme, find it below:

Hulbury: Yeah, this one is quite annoying.
Solaceon/Pastoria: Partly agree. Some parts of it is fine, other parts are just plain annoying. I remember being annoyed by it when I did all of my traditional breeding in D/P/P.

...

I thought about this subject for a bit and remembered some more music I’m not too fond of. Unsurprisingly, all of them are from the Johto games. Mostly from the Kanto part of the games.

First some battle themes. I don’t like the Kanto wild Pokémon and trainer battle themes in the Johto games. They just sound so boring. Neither of them give me any feeling of excitement or fun, they just bore me when I listen to them. If anything, I think they amplify the feeling of boredom I get when I play the Johto games, especially the awfully bland Kanto part. The wild Pokémon and trainer battle themes in Johto are fine, but I find the Kanto themes to be really boring. However, I really like the Kanto Gym Leader battle theme in the Johto games. It slaps hard, and I actually prefer it over not only the Johto Gym leader battle theme, but also over the original theme from the Kanto games.

Then there are some route and city themes as well.

I don’t like Route 29 in HG/SS. The original in G/S/C is fine, but the remake version does this weird thing where it slows down on a few occasions, which completely throws of the rhythm for me. It feels like they made it way to pretentious for a first route in the games, I prefer the original from G/S/C.

Dragon's Den in G/S/C. It feels like they were way too ambitious with this one, the Game Boy soundfont just couldn't do it justice. The remake version is much better, thankfully.

Then there’s one, which plays in far too many Kanto cities and towns in the Johto games (especially in G/S/C). I think the original version is just plain boring, but the HG/SS version is actually okay. Not good, but it works. It doesn’t bore me at least.

There’s also this one which plays on several Kanto routes in the Johto games. It bores me a bit and it does not give me a feeling of exciting adventures and exploration. Ironically, it really manages to capture the feeling of boredom I get from exploring the barren wasteland that Kanto is in the Johto games. I prefer the original version from the Kanto games over the Johto version of it.

This one had some potential to be epic, but I think it is too short and it loops too much to the point that it becomes more of a chore to listen to. I don't get this feeling from any other Pokémon League music, the other regions managed to have much better League music than Johto.

To end this on a more positive note (I know this is the wrong thread for that, but I wanted to say it here anyway), I still think there are some good music to be found in the Kanto part of the Johto games. I really like the Johto version of Lavender Town, I prefer it over the version in the Kanto games. I also think HG/SS absolutely nailed it with Cinnabar Island, and they did very well with Route 24/25 too.

 

[King Feraligatr]

How dare you criticize my stomping ground game (Gen 2. Their remakes are even better)?! Evil, tasteless people! May all the frowny faces look at you. >:( I kid. You're fine. While I'm a petty person, I'm not that petty in this case.

As for themes I dislike, I'm sure there's plenty I dislike. However, I'm going to to talk about a game's soundtrack I find mostly mediocre in this post. And in my infinite predictability and unoriginality, that game is (and it's been said previously): X and Y.

Where to start though? Oh I know, I'll start with another unoriginal pick: the Gym Leader theme. It's barely even memorable. It barely ever builds up to something --- it just stays unhype for most of its loop. I mean, I guess it's just as well. Basically all the Gym Leaders in this game are pushovers (like just about every other opponent) and you'll barely listen to this garbage before you demolish them.

Another theme that's just bad is the Elite 4 theme. I can't even remember anything about how this theme sounds most of the time without listening to it again. And since this keeps happening, it must really say something to how forgettable this theme is. I can't really criticize more of it without listening to it again and jogging my memory on it, so let's do that, shall we?:

Now that I can jog my memory, it's "okayish" I guess? But it suffers from the same things as the the Gym Leader theme. It lacks hype. It lacks threat. It's just a weakly looped theme. And since I forget how this theme even sounds a lot, it must be worse than the Gym Leader theme. At least I can remember XY's Leader theme on a whim (however bad it is). This.... I cannot.

I also don't like many of XY's route and settlement themes. They end up being background noise I just drown out while being bored playing these games. The routes and settlements themselves are barely memorable as well. The route design in this game just "blahs" together for me and I can't even remember most of the settlements' names. There's a few I can, like Lumiose, Snowbelle(?), Dendemille, and Ainstar. However, I only like the themes for the last two settlements on this list. Lumiose's theme is merely okay and the city is memorable purely because of how big it is. Me putting a question mark after Snowbelle's name is also a bad sign and I had to check to see if I got its name right (I did). The fact I can't even name the other settlements based on their names or even really match the themes I have in memory to them is a really bad sign.

I guess, in general, XY are forgettable games. And that's not a new sentiment (and it's one I share... I was just finding ways to support and reiterate the point). I mean, to me, this is the point where the Pokemon franchise really took a massive nosedive in quality and never recovered from (and these where my least favorite main series Pokemon games until SwiSh came along). Again, not a new sentiment, but it's one I share. These games are painful to play. Between the piss easiness, extremely bad writing, really lacking artstyle, forgettable area designs, etc. it's not hard to see why. And when most of the music is just reinforcing this and failing to make me hype (or is just unfitting...more on this in the future...maybe.), it's just more of a drag.

That all being said, I do like some of the game's themes. Diantha's battle theme, the rival battle theme, most of Team Flare's themes (which had to grow on me...for reasons unrelated to Team Flare themselves), and the afore mentioned Dendemille and Ainstar themes are all examples of music I like in these games. Well, in a vacuum. Me liking these themes does not make their contexts any better. They're still chores...just chores with actually decent music. But perhaps this is best done for another post, in another thread.

 

[pokemon4eva]

This is going to be hard one for me since I think Pokemon has always nailed it with the ost. Even some of the disliked tracks like Dragon's Den, I find them pretty good. However, there are some exception in the more obscure titles...

EEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW WTF IS THIS?! WHO HIRED THE COMPOSER OF THE SONIC DARK BROTHERHOOD?!
Hard to believe this track is in a game made by Genius Sonority. You know? Colosseum/XD orchestal masterpieces? Yeah...

 

[R_N]

Guzma's theme is wonderful


So Pokemon Masters took that theme and then, in a stunning twist, made it sounds absolutely terrible

Its like...techno-adjacent now? The vocals are gone; granted this might be a cost cutting issue but eesh. It just sounds bad, nothing here works, even at its best its still worse than the original.

 

[Tenshi]

I'm kinda surprised nobody talked about Wally's disgustingly bad 16 measure(38 second long) "theme" from ORAS

It has one of the worst sounding guitars I've heard in a pokemon game, and while I like the idea of giving Wally a "hype" theme, this is just boring and repetitive as fuck(do you know how awful it is to hear a bad 40 second long guitar loop for an end-game battle?) and the kicker? The original Wally theme was the rival theme that May and brendan has...yk one of the best arrangements in ORAS as a whole, yet they replaced it with this garbage????????? Gamefreak honey, stop.