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Orchestral Final Boss or Rock?


Tani Coyote

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Well?

1998 to 2005, we saw rock themes. Then we saw a transfer to orchestral themes, the Black Knight final boss theme aside. The general trend is to have the rock theme be the same as the main theme, and for orchestral themes to be a twist of the game's main theme.

Which do you prefer?

I often find myself divided. While Perfect Dark Gaia makes me very giddy, so does Live and Learn. If I have to pick one, I will go with rock themes, because Crush 40 is nostalgic for me, epic as the orchestra is.

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Orchestra hands down. It always makes the fight look more epic and it really gives you the feel of a great battle between good and evil.

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Ideally, it should depend on the tone the game is trying to set. Unleashed had the whole "grand adventure" thing going on, so an epic orchestral finish makes perfect sense. Likewise, SA2 had a hell of a lot of showboating to it,so butt rock that sounds like it came out of a Tony Hawk game doesn't seem out of place. Nothing works all the time - you can't always get away with recycling the title theme as the final boss wholesale (namely ShTH and Secret Rings), nor can you get away with sticking with one genre or the other just for the sake of it (ala SatBK and Colours, as awesome as the latter was on its own). So whatever the case, if you aren't composing music with the game itself in mind, you're essentially shooting yourself in the foot.

Edited by The Cheese
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Well, for me, either one is fine:

Rock: FUCK YEAH LETS KICK THE SHIT OUT OF THIS BITCH

Orch: Alright, this is the final confrontation, the big finale, lets finish this.

This is why I love Solaris phase 2 so much (as much as I hate the game itself)

To me this is the perfect final boss music for Sonic. It gives you that feel of a story coming to an end, while at the same time hyping you up.

Or as Soniman put it, orchestral rock.

Edited by Solkia-kun
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What about neither? >8C

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL9TTFbbfk0

(But no I basically agree with The Cheese that they should use whatever style fits. And if they're going to use the main theme straight with no remixing, they most certainly need to use it as little as possible before the final boss (games that did this right: SA2, games that did this wrong: every other Sonic game that did this).

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Really, it depends on the Boss, pace,form and setting to me. Orchestral wouldn't really fit with SA1,SA2 or Heroes very well in my view. '06's orchestral fit well when it kicked in properly same with Unleashed. Now Colours, it did a great job of having kind of both, the final Boss for Colours wouldn't be as good for me if it was all either one. With Generations, it didn't really matter because you could change it to your liking with the Music Change feature. But yeah, it kind of depends on those three points I mentioned at the start of the post for me.

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I never really preferred a style, but I agree with things that set the mood more.

This is why Solaris Phase 2 is such an awesome track, not just because it's awesome on it's own but because it set to a final battle while time and space are tearing each other down, it pretty much gives off the "Ok, let's do this shit" feeling.

Nega Wisp Armor 2 would be my favorite Final Boss theme, but it's horribly misplaced considering how lackluster Colors was , I dunno an epic track kind of loses the epicness if the game it's attached isn't as epic, it doesn't help that the boss is so piss easy, you'll probably beat the damn thing before it even gets to the Chorus of "Reach for the Stars".

Seriously, when I first heard that track, I was expecting some type of interplanetary showdown between Sonic & Eggman.

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Depends on the style of music the game is going for. Orchestral (with rock or not) suits games like Sonic Unleashed and Sonic 06. Sonic Colours is another game with great boss music in Phase 2 of Nega Wisp Armor. I actually think orchestral rock is the best, especially when there's a few hits left and the battle is almost over.

Boss battle music like Time Eater are...um...not so great.

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I liked the Time Eater's theme just for being different, and if the boss wasn't a piece of shit, it'd be pretty fitting.

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I really don't have a preference between the two, so I'd probably say orchestra rock. However, I agree that it really just depends on the style of the game, but even more so the boss. For instance, Colors was a more light-hearted game with orchestra, but 06, a much darker game by comparison, also used orchestra. While it wasn't all that mature, the darker and edgier ShTH used a rock theme, just like Heroes, which was much more kid-oriented. Orchestra is better for conveying how serious the threat is, while rock is better for pumping your adrenaline. So I suppose it depends on how serious the final boss is, not the game.

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I liked the Time Eater's theme just for being different, and if the boss wasn't a piece of shit, it'd be pretty fitting.

It would've also helped if we didn't have "IT LOOKS LIKE A HOMING SHOT!" being shoved down our ears.

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I personally prefer Rock. There's something about Open Your Heart playing for the first bit of Perfect Chaos that makes the fight feel so much better and more epic than it actually is. That said, I would love to see orchestral versions of OYH and L&L to see how it changes the mood of the Perfect Chaos and Finalhazard fights and phase 2 of Nega Wisp is one of my favourite boss themes in the franchise.

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It would've also helped if we didn't have "IT LOOKS LIKE A HOMING SHOT!" being shoved down our ears.

Agreed. I couldn't take all of those characters saying that over and over again. If they know so much they should have gotten of their lazy butts and helped happy.png .

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I preffer Rock and the best orchestral finał boss theme is Solaris Phase 2. It combined Rock and orchestra making it great while Pefect Dark Gaia lost this and Egg Nega Wisp is one of worst finał boss themes in Sonic. Right after Time Eater.

So all in all Solaris Phase 2 (Orchestra Rock) or just Rock.

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I preffer Rock and the best orchestral finał boss theme is Solaris Phase 2. It combined Rock and orchestra making it great while Pefect Dark Gaia lost this and Egg Nega Wisp is one of worst finał boss themes in Sonic. Right after Time Eater.

So all in all Solaris Phase 2 (Orchestra Rock) or just Rock.

....So they're bad on the basis on not being rock?

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Time Eater's boss theme was crud. It was so boring and didn't really work. Didn't really bother me, though, as I just switched it out with "It Doesn't Matter"..

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I think orchestral rock is the best. Blends the best of both worlds.

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I'd like a mixture of the two. Orchestral makes it more dramatic and makes it heavier in tension. Rock makes it epic, and gives you more encouragement. I'd say it'll start with orchestral, and after a while, go to rock.

Sort of like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eFI0UFfAJE

Edited by Cristian Fox
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Egg Nega Wisp is one of worst finał boss themes

what is this i dont even

I prefer orchestral, because most of the rock is sooooooo fucking cheesy.

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