0:09 Introduction 0:45 Primitive Mountain 4:03 Ayla’s Theme 5:23 Rhythm of Wind, Sky and Earth 7:10 Burn! Bobonga! 8:35 Burn! Bobonga! (Second Listen) 10:01 Magus’ Castle 10:28 Confusing Melody 11:51 Battle with Magus 15:57 Singing Mountain 18:46 Tyran Castle 23:15 At the Bottom of Night 28:02 Corridors of Time 31:24 Zeal Palace 35:33 Schala’s Theme 38:49 Sealed Door 42:29 Undersea Palace 46:42 Far Off Promise 48:28 Wings That Cross Time 51:42 Black Omen 54:41 Determination 55:35 World Revolution 59:28 Last Battle 1:03:59 First Festival of Stars 1:07:23 Epilogue ~ To Good Friends 1:10:14 To Far Away Times 1:15:36 BONUS: Schala’s Theme - Live Version
I love how you can hear a story being told just by listening to Magus's Theme, Battle with Magus, Zeal Palace, and Schala's Theme. You don't have to play the game to recognize that there's a relationship between those characters and that place.
I honestly never noticed that. I knew Battle with Magus and Schala's Theme shared the same starting notes albeit played at different speeds. I only just realized after reading your comment the same thing with Zeal Palace. That (leit?)motif really solidifies them all being a part of the Kingdom of Zeal. Always clever how game composers are unwittingly able to tell a story through their music, even if those not musically educated like me are likely to notice it even through multiple playthroughs.
Also in main theme ! Magus is the co-protagonist of the victory over Lavos, therefore in his songs there is also the leitmotif that represents the epic fight against evil
A co-worker and I have the same tradition of replaying Chrono Trigger every few years. It's a masterpiece and coincidentally, has stood the test of time.
My God I had never heard that live version of Schala's Theme at the end before. My eyes instantly started watering when the bass came in. What a performance. 😭
It's very nice, but I feel like her theme needs the bells. It's such a delicate sound, just gives you a feeling of how fragile Schala is, how very easily she could leave the world--the princess who cannot be saved once lost.
When I even think about this music my eyes water. I would argue that its possible some of this progression is possibly the most beautiful resolutions in all of gaming music, if not all soundtracks of anything ever.
Tyranno lair reaction did not disappoint. 😁 also I would pay a modest sum for someone to splice together every instance of Dan going “wut” at how awesome this OST is.
It took until I heard it to realize it was the Tyranno Lair song. I was looking at the timestamps and was like, “Tyran Castle… why don’t I remember a place called Tyran Castle? Was that the name of that castle where you finish the Frog sidequests? Ohhhhhh, it’s Tyranno Lair!”
Not something you can pick up on quite as easily only hearing the OST, but in Last Battle, the final enemy/boss is more of a wild parasite than something really sentient, the loud scream like noise is literally the creature roaring at you and is heard a few different times throughout the game. I've always loved that the final battle starts and intersperses this being just roaring at you.
That's sort of an inherent problem with a music teacher listening to these tracks out of context. Because this music wasn't really designed to be an album for broadcast or home listening. It's all BGM (Back Ground Music) that's supposed to fit a scene. So if he was to see the opening to the fight with Magus in front of him instead of just hearing the track, I doubt he would have made that confused face in the beginning. That track was so tailored to that scene that the game auto progressed the dialog in tune with the track and took control away from the player. That's how proud they were of that scene.
I'd argue that the final boss battles reveal that Lavos was actually a maliciously intelligent creature that has been aggregating all the world's knowledge to make itself stronger and devise countermeasures and stratagems to keep itself safe from attack. It defends itself with the memories of all the powerful entities you've encountered through the ages to wear you down before fighting you directly if you approach it on your own, and even pulls a bait and switch tactic on you with it's final form. It's been knowingly manipulating the development of the entire world in order to have more valuable samples to collect for its own self evolution, only wiping the slate clean once independent technology has advanced far enough to possibly pose a threat to it if allowed to continue. While it is still a force of nature as well (the other side of the coin of Lavos destroying to world on that fateful 1999 event was preparing the land for the Lavos Spawn to mature enough to make their own journeys to devour other planets, after all... and because they kicked the beehive and made it angry), it's just as insidious as something like Jenova from FF7. (I'd even theorize/headcanon they might be the same species as each other across the two game series?) Regardless, while saying Lavos is intelligent is supported by evidence in Chrono Trigger's events alone, it's also outright confirmed in Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger DS that it had a will and plans of its own, not just instincts. It's like a multiclassed wizard/barbarian, using rage and cunning in equal measure to dispatch anyone or anything that gets in its way.
@@Shalakor I haven't played Cross personally so I can't speak on anything it introduces to that conversation, but what does the DS version add that leans that way? That's the version I've played the most of and thought it was still fairly ambiguous if not pretty blunt with party members even directly saying it's acting on instinct
Well with Chrono Cross it's implied/stated that the human race should've died out long ago, leaving the Reptite race as the dominant species. After Lavos landed and triggered an ice age the Reptites died off, being cold blooded and all. The humans would've been soon to follow, but it seems that Lavos was subtly influencing their evolution, making them smarter over the ages. They survived and spread, furthering their technology, living longer lives. It was essentially cultivating this life that it could feed off of to eventually trigger what happens in 1999 AD. Though the Zeal dynasty got a little too greedy in 12,000 BC, using their magic to siphon energy from Lavos. And he responded appropriately, razing their palace and robbing the Enlightened Ones living in Zeal of their magic to prevent that from happening again.
57:56: "I dunno if they had pitch shift in 1995" They definitely did. These soundtracks would not have been possible without it. Basically, each instrument you hear is made of a single sample at a single pitch, played back in a stream of pitch-shifts to the various different notes in its track. If you have any familiarity with MOD/S3M/IT style tracked music, that's essentially how the SNES sound chip operates, which is why converting between IT and SPC (SNES music format) is so easy.
Yeah the snes has such a small amount of sound allocated ram (64K for samples, echo and the music program) that being able to pitch samples is huge. The compressed sample format helped a bunch too. I converted a bunch of amiga mods to spc recently and getting those big amiga samples to fit is pretty tricky.
@@MusicTheoryforGamers Hey there brother. May I make a humble request? Please listen and react to the Jet Set Radio Future OST. It is legendary and funky and I guarantee your viewers would love it. Thank you for reading and I hope to see it some time soon.
You’re legitimately the only person on this website that I watch for OST reactions because no one else really gives every track a chance like you do. Also, I highly recommend Dying Light 1’s OST; it’s great. Keep up the great work and I’m loving the tutorials!
Chrono Trigger is still one of the greatest JRPG’s there is, the game has aged very well. Looking forward to seeing Dan check out more of Mitsuda’s work, as Chrono Cross and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are on the list.
FYI Kara Comparetto is in the process of arranging and recording the entire Chrono Trigger OST for grand piano, pipe organ, and harpsichord so if that’s sounds awesome you should go and subscribe to her channel
Mathew Valente is also currently in the process of restoring the soundtrack after finding what they can of the sources of those instruments. Go sub to that channel as well !
For those interested, there's a youtube channel that's being doing a "restoration" of every song of CT, is called Mathew Valente. He already did it for FF6 and some other old games.
Mathew does great work, he has done restorations of all 3 mainline SNES FF games so far and they sound fantastic. He was actually the composer/arranger for the Chrono Trigger fangame "Chrono Resurrection" which was sadly shut down by Square back in the day. On a similar note, I also highly recommend Jammin' Sam Miller's restorations of the Donkey Kong Country SNES trilogy's soundtracks.
I highly, highly, highly recommend giving the Chrono Cross OST a listen. Yasunori Mitsuda does not disappoint when it comes to any of his music from the Chrono games to the Xenogears/saga/blade games
The composer actually made To Far Away Times to a woman he had been in love with and then decided to add in the game. It was not originally composed as soundtrack.
I think you are really fantastic !! I study music in a musical high school, I generally play classical music, but I go crazy for movie / series / video game soundtracks, and I enjoy composing songs all the time, and finding a video that reacts to the soundtracks I go for crazy, and who talks about music as I do, is simply unique. I've never found videos like this, and I just think it's a really great thing. Congratulations indeed and you have a new subscriber
It's funny how much harder "Battle with Magus" hits orchestrated. Some songs just sound iconic in their original state, but that you can tell that theme is meant to be as bombastic as possible. Also, that Zeal Palace note...I got there in the middle of the night as a kid and it unnerved the hell out of me. It is the most ominous damned thing in a video game.
Yes, I love the Magus fight in the past, and especially Corridors of Time. I do also like Schala's theme, the daughter of the evil queen of Zeal kingdom, she did not subscribe to such evil ways. It's a sad theme. Eventually, the kingdom of Zeal, to where most people could use magic was destroyed.
WHAT THE HECK I've played Chrono Trigger COUNTLESS TIMES since it came out in 95, even speedran it for a little while and somehow I've NEVER HEARD the guitar in the left ear during the first part of the wings of time theme This is blowing my mind it just made me stop full in my tracks to make sure you weren't playing along or something
You know how there’s always that one song on a video game soundtrack that burned itself into your memory when you played it as a kid then you hear it as an adult and you’re immediately like, “Oh my god! THIS song!” Watching this made me realize that Undersea Palace is that song for me with Chrono Trigger.
I get a big smile, feeling it incredibly apropos, that you just jammed out with Corridors of Time. It's my favorite song in pretty much all of video games, and it's a really great example of how you can just let the music speak for itself.
Something Chat never brought up is that a few of the tracks in the game have "implied lyrics" for lack of a better way to put it, such as Gato's Theme and Burn! Bobonga, where in-game dialogue provides lyrics that while unvoiced, can be applied to the song in question as if sung with it, Bobonga isn't exactly hard to guess, but Gato's is "My name is Gato I have metal joints Beat me up And earn 50 Silver points!" A little chant before you fight the training bot
some old games that I totally love the OST : - Chrono Trigger - Xenogears - Valkyrie Profile - Legend of Mana - Saga Frontier / Saga Frontier 2 - Grandia / Grandia 2 - Wild Arms series - Final Fantasy Tactics - Armored Core series - Front Mission series - Atelier series - Ar Tonelico 1 & 2 - etc.
"The bass really slaps in this song!" - comment for 95% of CT songs, and I love it. I also know jack diddly about music theory and just love Chrono Trigger, which is why I'm here. But I also learned about sus chords from this video. I never knew what the term was for it or what the heck it was, but I LOVE them in every song I hear them in. I instantly could just "feel" it as Dan played it while he described it at 27:25. So for Dan, even if you think you are explaining something so basic and think everyone is going to get it, I'm so glad you explained it anyway! I learned something really cool. Thank you for that!
It's always interesting hearing a pro react to video game music, even out of context. But for me what's most impressive is how this music sets the tone of the entire experience when you're playing the game. Just the right tune at the right moment.
He mentions Corridors of Time sounding like a sitar. I didn't even think of the Kingdom of Zeal being a criticism of the caste system! But the names of the villages fit that. And the magic users were called the Enlightened ones. How am I still learning new bits of genius after playing through this game 8 times already?
Last Battle Theme starts with a sound that is meant to be the cry of Lavos andd then it send a zumbing noise that loops all around the track. Similar to the piano noise from the VERY FIRST TRACK of the OST, the movement from left to right and also playing with High, Medium, Low tune when you hear it with headphones is making the symbol of Infinity in your head
You should give the BlazBlue ost a shot, I think it has great music, which is needed in a fighting game. It’s always a delight landing a combo and defeating your opponent in sync with the song.
"World Revolution" is part of the final boss battle theme of the game, and features both the chords from Lavos's Theme and part of the melody from Crono's Theme, i.e. the main theme of the game. Super cool use of motifs
Could we possibly see a Halloween edition this year? I'm thinking Silent Hill 2 OST just because of how different Akira Yamaoka composed it compared to how others had composed other games during the same time/era. Something different but amazing, and I'd love to know your thoughts and teachings on it!
Is this the SNES version of the soundtrack? It sounds way cleaner than any version i've heard uploaded on YT lol Last Battle specially sounds so crisp it's unreal.
This was a great two parter! Very much enjoy your videos and how much you genuinely *feel* the music. If I could request a short and long cover... I can never catch you while you're live! Short: Turok - Battle of the Bionosaurs for Gameboy. Childhood faaaavorite. Long - Seiken Densetsu III on Super Famicom (Fan ported/translated to snes). This will always be my favorite video game of all time. The sound track plays in my head every single day for the last... 15 years? Chrono Trigger is a close second. Thank you for all that you do.
Chrono Trigger is my favorite game of all time. Music is so good. I never really paid attention to the bass lines as much as I am watching this video. Of course you can't miss that bass line from Secret of the Forest - from part 1 video. Tyran Castle has the bass showing off.
its so interesting to see someone who has never played Chrono Trigger, to listen to all the music. i cannot unlink the story and characters' moments with the songs. its quite emotional, which shows how strong the impact of the game is. wonder how you feel about the songs with just audio
If you're having trouble keeping up it might be because, in addition to the weird chord progressions and left-right shifting, the time signiture also changes periodically, and sometimes the drums aren't in the same as the melody.
"At the bottom of the Night" is one of my personal favorites, It's so nostalgic and beautiful. Alongside "Secret of the Forest", "Corridors of Time" and "Tyrant Castle".
The last few themes are so good, glad you enjoy it, I hope for the best when you listen to Mother 3 OST, and I wish that someday you may listen to Super Mario RPG OST
Always a joy when someone has a legit reaction to some classic video game OST's. If you're looking for more OST's I highly recommend Risk of Rain 2 or Lunacid.
I know this might get buried and never happen, but I think Astral Chain has a super cool guitar soundtrack and I would love too see your reaction on it. Love the vids, keep doing what your doing
When I used to play bass, this game was a huge influence on every aspect of how I played - Black Omen even showed me that sometimes just root notes are better than a more intricate bass melody. The "chorus" of that song is a huge favourite of mine and it's basically just two notes. Also Ayla's theme sounds like a game show theme, and I love that for some reason.
less than half of the people who watched part 1 made it to part 2?? im legit curious to watch someone versed in music theory experiencing this masterpiece for the first time!
My favorite version of Schala’s theme is by PPF, he basically made a sample-to-live-instrument cover of the song, about as accurate as you can get in literally remaking the song with real instruments. He doesn’t do anything different or extra, but considering just how gorgeous Schala’s theme already is, he didn’t really need to do anything in the first place
Singing mountain, much like Battle 2, was not included in the original game at all but was brought back for the DS release for one of the new locations that was added
One thing you might check out, just throwing this hat into the ring, since you've finished the Chronotrigger soundtrack, is consider the album Brink of Time. It's a recompolation of the CT soundtrack, not all of it, into Jazz by the original composers. I'd love to see your take on how those tracks are decompiled and rearranged. I think this would be right up your alley.
Chrono Trigger is one of those games that would likely explode in popularity if remade to the effect of FF7R - There are a lot of amazing retro games that would also shatter limits like-wise.
12:50 During the battle with Magus he is literally laughing at you because of the great disparity between your power and his. This is all powerful foreshadowing for the immense time travel related plot revelations that follow.
Man, given that you're already into Uematsu's work, this deep, I can't wait for the day you continue down the square enix rabbit hole and get to bravely default, octopath traveler, and Triangle strategy I feel like Revo, Yasunori Nishiki, and Akira Senju, the respective composers for those games, are some of the best in modern Jrpgs, easily
I've listened to this soundtrack more times than I can count; and only now am I realizing things I've missed. Like Wings that Cross Time. I legit never noticed there was a guitar counter-melody playing this whole time. It's like listening to a new song!
You should totally react to Guilty Gear Strive's OSTs. Not only were they composed by the director of the game, which had the position of art director and writer for the game, but every Vocal OST was made so perfectly to fit every character that they practically tell its whole story. Absolute masterpiece of a soundtrack.
Thanks again for another wonderful reaction, Dan from Delaware! Hoping to catch the next one live. Btw is there any way to show my support outside of a live stream?
![[Part 2 of 2] My First Time Hearing Chrono Trigger OST | Reaction to Original Sound Track](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
