Pokemon Legends: Arceus - Vs Wielder Volo Battle | Reacting To Video Game Music! 

Fun Fact: In game, when you battle Volo, if you stay on the screen with the text box “Pokemon Wielder Volo appears,” the music actually stops playing after the littler piano trill. It’s only after you both have your Pokemon out and the “Battle Start” splash appears on screen that the main piano begins to play. It’s as if the game expects you to be in shock that Volo is your enemy, and then the piano kicks in, making you realize exactly what you’re getting yourself into.

Volo’s theme is such a great rendition of Cynthia’s encounter and battle theme. I love how foreboding the piano sounds, as it really matches how he’s the games villain but he masquerades as being helpful to you. We’ll be seeing Cynthia’s theme on the channel too eventually, as I requested it recently.

The fact that despite having NONE of the context or experience behind this leitmotif, you can still see him seemingly become tense and nervous speaks VOLUMES for how well it was composed. The way he almost immediately stills and his eyes quickly flick back and forth gives me an impression that internally, his subconscious thinks something is off. Even for a typically kid's game that he hasn't played in over 20 years, he can still feel the tensity of a battle that has given Pokemon players genuine *fear* for GENERATIONS. Even if he doesn't immediately fully realize it (The fact that it nearly left him speechless alone is impressive)

Man Volo. First multi-stage boss fight in Pokemon and man does he leave an impression Worth noting that this team borrows HEAVILY from Cynthia's theme from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. Volo is Cynthia's ancestor, and uses a team near identical to the one she uses in the future.

The best part about this reaction is you, despite not having played a gen 4 game, still paused in awe to the piano. For long time fans when they got to this would pause in fear/amazement because they knew who this belonged to and what it meant for them. Playing this game i got goosebumps in this battle while blasting this. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Not only is it a very powerful theme, there is a LOT of history and context that makes this theme carry many complex feelings and emotions with it. (spoilers ahead) This is a rendition of a theme you first hear in the 4th generation of Pokemon games, Diamond and Pearl. It plays right before you battle the Pokemon Champion, Cynthia, who happens to be Volo's distant descendant. And while she is in no ways a bad person, in fact she's quite friendly, she is the final boss of the main story, and is regarded as one of the hardest battles in the entire game series. Not just with the high level of her team, but she uses more complex strategies and healing items to pull herself out of hairy situations. For kids and teens who have been playing the game by winning through sheer brute force and a bit of luck up until this point, it's understandable that she becomes quite frightening and the source of many game overs. Then you meet her again, in a future generation game rather accidentally stumbling into her on vacation, and to your horror the same theme plays again before she immediately battles you with a high difficulty team. You very quickly learn that anywhere she goes and anywhere you meet her, and hear that theme, it tells you it's about to get real tough real quick, and you better hope you prepared or you're screwed. So imagine the utter shock, amazement, and horror of many playing Legends of Arceus as an ally with a familiar look that had been present through most of the game suddenly turns against you at the very end, and THIS theme appears. And to rub it in even more, he opens with the SAME Pokemon that Cynthia usually opens with. It makes this already poetic and awe inspiring track have even more impact on anybody that has been faithful to the series.

The L:A ost goes so hard, but it really fits with how out of nowhere the difficulty spiked on this fight. There wasn’t a single fight where an opponent has a full team of six in the game, then this guy pops out with 8. Giratina and Origin Deities have banging soundtracks too.

I really like how the flute and wind instruments sound like they’re playing in response to one another. It feels like a thematic reference to how Volo is a two sided character, the friendly and antagonistic side, but those aspects of him are equally what make him whole.

Ah Volo. The ancestor to the scariest woman 10-15 year olds alike fear. This entire theme is a remix of Champion Cynthia's Encounter theme. Before fighting Cynthia in gen 4 an intimidating piano theme followed her. Then you fight her. Volo is a strange inversion of Cynthia. Just as intimidating pressure and just as strong as his defendant but far more sinister and... evil.

I'm not sure who did the track particularly, but Arceus' soundtrack has 3 composers credited: Go Ichinose (who has been a composer for most main Pokemon games since Gold/Silver (US release in 2000) Hitomi Sato (a fairly regulraly composer since Emerald (released in the US in 2005) Hiromitsu Maeba (a relatively new composer who, before this, worked with Capcom on the Great Ace Attorney soundtracks and Devil May Cry 5) If I had to guess, I would think this is a Maeba song, since it matches him more than the others, IMO.

Okay, so this is a theme that has quite a bit of history. To start off, this game is technically a prequel to the Gen 4 Pokemon games (Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum). What's so cool about this game is that for the first time, you see the relationship between humans and Pokemon before they became partners. Pokemon were more akin to dangerous wild animals that attacked humans on sight, and as a result, humans feared Pokemon. As the protagonist, you are part of a team in the local village that is in charge of completing the first ever Pokedex, all so that people could understand Pokemon better. To this end, you go out in the wilderness, where the Pokemon actually directly attack _you,_ the player, and catch those buggers in primitive steampunk Pokeballs to study them. It's a wild game, and it's a game of many firsts for the franchise. First prequel, first (semi) open world game, first mainline game with a drastically different plot structure, first one to slightly change the battle system, and the first game to really expand on the history of the Pokemon universe in general, in a generation that already has a heavy focus on history and mythology. It's certainly one of my favorite, if not my number one favorite, Pokemon games in the modern era. And since this is a prequel, you see many ancestors of characters from the Gen 4 games throughout your adventure. One of them is Volo, as you see here, who is the ancestor of the local region's Pokemon League Champion Cynthia. Cynthia is often regarded by fans as one of the strongest champions and hardest final battles in Pokemon for well over a decade, so much so that her music is enough to inspire dread and awe. This theme is an extended arrangement of not her actual battle theme, but the short piano piece that plays in the cutscene before you battle her. That's because said piece is just as famous as her battle theme, so much so that it's often joked that you're about to get your butt kicked whenever you hear the piano. Put two and two together at the moment you hear this during Volo's battle and... well, let's just say that Cynthia's fearsome reputation runs in the family.

This theme is based on Cynthia's theme. Battling Cynthia has been regarded as one of the hardest pokemon battles for about 15 years. When you get close to the end of the game, you have to battle Volo again and this theme plays for the first time, and the start just flashes you back to battling Cynthia. And it honours Cynthia, as it is one of the hardest Pokemon battles in the entire series. For stage 2 and 3 there is a different theme, Giratina's theme, which is also awesome and I hope you will get to it one day.

Man, Jesse even looks like he has Cynthia PTSD listening to some parts of of this song. Volo's theme just hits that hard.

I remember being that one kid with Empoleon that brute forced their way with one Pokémon all the way to the champion in Diamond. I was over level 80, but was running low on potions, revives, and most status healing moves. I was able to get through every Pokémon until Milotic. One Pokémon stood in my way, and I was at a dead standstill. Both our Pokémon had few attacking moves, no healing items, and she had a stupid freaking Aqua ring. Eventually she couldn’t damage me, but at the same time I couldn’t deal enough damage to get through her Aqua ring in time. I ran out of PP, and struggled to death. I had to grind my way with other Pokémon and prepare for my second encounter. That final battle showed me just how scary a final boss could be.

Oh also the reason he's called "wielder" is because he isn't a trainer. He doesn't see pokemon as partners or a team. They're tools. That's all.

that damn piano still gives me chills all these years later

this theme is so powerful i simply cannot. this theme is associated with what the community has dubbed the hardest battle in all pokemon games currently.

Volo is the distant ancestor to arguably the most popular Pokémon character, the Sinnoh league champion, Cynthia. She's well known for being one of the hardest fights in the series and having some of the best music. Volo's battle theme is a more menacing remix of Cynthia's encounter theme, but not her actual battle theme. It’s a piano piece that plays when you encounter Cynthia in several different games. I think it was a clever twist to have the ancestor of such a well beloved "good guy" character turn out to actually be an antagonist. And quite fitting for him to be a massive difficulty spike from the rest of the game.

The song is almost as dynamic as the emotions a player who recognizes the melody and understands the lore behind this character experiences.

As someone who’s never actually played or watched gameplay for this one, I did not expect Cynthia’s theme to show up

This theme is nuts. When we think of the rank of Champion we typically have 2 thoughts. 1) they are worthy of respect and 2) they are terrifying in power. This theme chucks out 1 in favor of madness.

I love this track. It has the leitmotif that calls back to his descendant (who is the final fight in d/p/pt) while also juxtaposing up beat and epic. This track also plays when he was essentially teaming up with pokemon equivalent to the devil.

Now you really need to give Cynthia's theme a try. This one is good but it hits less hard without her theme burned into your memory. Her theme hits crazy hard so to hear it used in Legends really does hit you harder. This song haunts anybody that faced that woman, so as soon as he had the same backing track it was time to brace for impact.

YESSSS AHHH MORE POKÉMON AND HECKING POKÉMON LEGENDS TOO XD Thank you for the great videos, Jesse, I'm always really excited when I see one pop up! ^^

volo's theme is ominous and foreboding and then you recognize who the music is invoking and suddenly you're afraid

I genuinely love Volo's theme way more than Cynthia's cuz he takes the very start of her theme (which I honest just see as her intro theme more than her battle theme) and extends it fully but more epic and just man.. I miss Volo wish I could re-battle him again.

Up until this point, all the hardest Pokemon battles in the main story of all the games had all been rather easy and very manageable. This battle is just difficult in a way no other battle in any of the games are... its almost guaranteed you wont win on the first try... the music completely matches the seriousness of the battle, and its why this theme and battle is already iconic despite only coming out a few years ago

This theme terrified longtime players, but it wasn't because of anything Volo had displayed up until then so much as it was because it is a remaster of Cynthia's theme and the implication then that Volo is Cynthia's ancestor clued them in to what kind of difficulty spike they were in for in this battle...

I haven't played any Pokémon in years and ... the beginning completely caught me off guard? So classical? :O Only when the flute first came in I felt the Pokémon sound coming through :O I really didn't expect that, it was so surprising and so good!

Now ya gotta listen to Cynthia's theme to get the real feel from this haha

I feel like Jesse puts on his cool shades when he tries to hold back all the comments during songs. :'D

This arrangement has 2 main themes from Diamond Pearl and Platinum it uses as a base: 1) "Champion Cynthia" - Composed by Go Ichinose - Which plays before you battle her in D/P/Pt. You can listen to that one offline, since basically the whole thing was in here. 2) "Vs. Cynthia" - Composed by Junichi Masuda - Which is her battle theme. It got a *_TON_* of remixes and official arrangements over the years and maybe one day they'll all appear here on the show. (I mean, you could also do a playthrough of Platinum to find all of its incredible music by simply playing, if you wanna! ^^)

This is _so_ impressively composed that just _how_ impressively composed it is probably outright goes over most people's heads. This is seriously, _seriously_ impressive.

Volo is the main antagonist of the game, although only briefly. He is a post-game boss (after the credits), and has one of, if not the most difficult battle in the franchise. He is only revealed to be a villain at the end, and after you defeat him, disappears entirely. His team comprises of Champion Cynthia's team (for the most part), and his theme references her encounter theme. Once you beat his 6 Pokemon, Giratina (mascot of Pokemon Platinum and the Pokemon equivalent of Satan) appears and you have to battle it twice without being healed in between, practically making this fight an 8v6. The game takes place a couple centuries ago, during the colonization (?) of Hokkaido (or Sinnoh/Hisui in Pokemon). Since its that time period, not many people have Pokemon they train, so the term ''Trainer'' isn't widely used (Hence ''Wielder''). Volo is the first trainer with a full team of 6 (and more) Pokemon in the entire game, and is the last.

I feel like this theme doesn't have nearly the same effect when you don't know who Cynthia is. Lol

It warms my heart that you have music from Ape Escape, such a great soundtrack!

Volo's theme is awesome! Any Chance you'll do Giratina's battle theme in this one? They remade it with absolute justice. God tier legendary theme song.

someone’s gotta make this man listen to the other battle tracks from this game. I loveeeee the battle themes for this game. The trainer battle, warden battle, and noble battle themes are my favs from the game

When you inevitably listen to the Cynthia tracks, this track is what you'll hear at the beginning in a more condensed version, there's two themes most of the important trainers have... An Intro Theme that's shorter as well loops simpler and plays during cutscenes or just before a battle, then a Battle Theme that plays during the battle itself and is longer as well usually more orchestrated with a bit more complex loop. Game release wise Cynthia's intro theme came first then Volo's battle theme remixed it, Lore wise the Crazed Volo's battle theme comes first and in the distant future Respectable Cynthia's intro theme is a more refined version.

That Ape Escape music in the beginning was nice to hear again

This might be the best moment in Pokémon. Up there with Red on Mt Silver and Ultra Necrozma.

Wow, youre in a incredible themes row!

Pokemon has a bunch of great music tracks with my favorite one being colress's theme from black and white 2.

yes i’m so excited for this! :D

When I heard this for the first time, I was like "Oh. Oh no. NooooOOOOOOOO!!!" All I had was the war flashbacks of fighting Cynthia in Diamond and Platinum. This mix of the different themes involving her plus more epic flair of extra instruments just made it better. Never knew Game Freak's composers would do this.

Was that ape escape music playing in the intro? Ahh

I'll always remember this theme fondly because this was the first time in years that I've had my a*ss royally kicked in a pokemon game. Such a shame everything went back to being too easy in Scarlet and Violet. Definitely a battle I won't forget for a long while.

Jesse if there is 1 Direction in wich Gamefreak (Pokemon) keeps getting better and better its the Music. there is so much greatness and many many gems. i would love to see more pokemon music on ur channel

This game shook up the old system in more ways than one. And yes, they definitely went way harder on the music than was necessary - and we LOVE that!

A song I’d definitely recommend is In the Final from Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, it’s the final boss against Bowser and it’s good (I’m talking about the original not the remake)

This sounds like the music that plays right before you battle with THE GREATEST CHAMPION Cynthia! And Cynthia's battle theme is my favorite.

Volo is a man who wanted to meet god so bad that he let the devil out to force god out of hiding.

How did they make such a title feel so gross? All they changed was going from trainer to wielder and that in and of itself informed you on how Volo sees the world and his should be friends and partners. Brilliant story telling through a single word

You should definitely listen to “Guzma’s Encounter Theme” and the Champion theme from Pokémon Sun and Moon. In my opinion, Sun and Moon has the best Pokémon OST, though most will say Black and White did. Both are master class, that’s for sure. And what makes this particular champion theme special is that it’s YOUR theme as the protagonist. There is no champion of this region, and you are the very first one. This theme incorporates the main theme of the game itself within it, showing just how momentous this moment is, and it honestly leaked me personally emotional, especially when you have to fight the man that was the first character that you ever saw in the game that honestly, sort of played a father-figure role for you on your journey. The characters and character development in this set of games is amazing, and it makes the themes hot that much harder.

I just discovered your channel and I love your reactions. It's kind of relaxing to hear you talk about these soundtracks. Short and sweet videos to watch. Pokémon is my favorite videogame franchise, and even though the modern games aren't the same anymore, the music still slaps sooooo hard. Hope to see more reactions, I recomend you to check Fire Emblem Awakening, Fire Emblem Fates or Fire Emblem Echoes music, keep that up dude!

3:42 the setting is that he wants to summon the god of pokemon and bring it under his command or something (he's crazy) and the battle between you and him is you trying to stop this from occuring

Still cant believe this lovely merchant betrayed his favourite customer like that TvT

I didn't play Legends yet, so this reimagined Cynthia theme really got me

I wasn't scared of Volo until I heard that piano "Diamond/Pearl and Platinum flashbacks"

My man did a premiere for Pokemon music. Mad respect

The look on his face when *that* part played at 1:55 😂

One of my favourite themes in pokemon because of the fear it strikes at least on me!! ALSO BATTLE MOEBIUS FROM XENOBLADE 3 PLS👀👀👀

If you think this theme goes hard, you should listen to Arceus's battle theme from this game.

The terror players of the Sinnoh region feel as that piano starts (the game refuses to start it until you go past the dialogue of you being challenged, its just the opening piece then eerie silence until you continue) and then they see the 1st opponent and fall into true FEAR. Literally the most popular pokemon character and champion just evil essentially. And then he breaks the rules and makes it a 7v6 match.

i really hope you react to the giratina battle theme from this game. it's one of my favorite pokémon songs and it goes SO hard

I hope he listens to the battle tower theme

The fact that he's referred to as a "wielder" instead of a "trainer" is actually very telling about his personality.

Classic Pokémon music going extremely hard for no reason.

There is 3 things that tell you he's not to mess with right off the bats. 1 - He's the only opponent in the game with a full team of six like you ( spoil : technically 7 even). 2- He's not named " Trainer " but " WIELDER ". Which give an idea on his skills. 3 - Oh yeah. HE HAS CYNTHIA THEME. A champion known to be deadly. If after all this you don't get he's a threat like how blind are you 😂

When I heard the piano y literally cried-

Single greatest Pokemon soundtrack

Ah it's too bad you didn't hear any of the Cynthia themes, outside of the battle and in the battle, since this one is basically a new rendition of both of them mixed as a Battle Theme, but mainly the out of battle one (Volo being a distant ancestor of Cynthia, a Legendary pokemon trainer)

Oh you GOTTA do Giratina's theme after this one.

I will subscribe to you because of your use of ape escape music

Volo is some Kind of "Friend becomming Post Game Plot Twist Villain" Character

You should react to Giritina's theme from either legends arceus or bd/sp. Both renditions are good

Fighting track for a man who pretends to be your friend just to be revealed to want to kill god.

In the Volo battle, you face a Pokemon called Giratina in 2 forms

Ultra necrozma theme goes hard too

I'd like to be one of the many hoping you'll listen to Cynthia's theme, it's insanely fun!

Dude don't know if you'll read this but recently i found music from the game honkai impact 3rd and i think you would enjoy it anyways good vid

This song being a remix or rendition of Cynthia’s theme, previously known as one of the scariest people in the franchise, scared the hell out of EVERYONE who played this game The absolute raw terror the first few notes invoke in people is ridiculously insane

Hope he does this games giratina and palkia/dialga boss theme.

Man Legends Arceus had some banger music, hope he'll listen to legends giratina theme

I think it's funny how you surmised that the character would be in the upper echelons of society when he's basically the opposite. Volo is a merchant, not even the head of the guild, and often gets chastised for not doing his work. However, huge spoilers below he's also basically a self appointed priest of both the creator of the universe, whose attention he desperately seeks, and the creator's "unwanted child", the god of antimatter. See, Volo is a Celestica, an ancient people who used to populate the region, but long ago left because they had lost the favor of their god. It's implied that they mostly went to a region from a download event from a prior game, the Sinjoh region. We don't know anything about Volo's past other than he's been studying myths for some time and wants to know what happened to those ancient people. But somewhere along the lines, that wonderment turned to both a creepy devotion and utter resentment. He worships Arceus fervently, more than any other, he claims, but he also despises it and wants to destroy it. It turned away from his people, it turned away from *him*, so why should it remain a deity if it refuses to pay mind to what it created, to its once chosen people? He resorts to extreme measures to get its attention and nothing works. After you defeat him, he disappears, saying that he'll obtain those answers no matter how long it takes him. The other merchant guild members never mention him at all. That's how utterly unimportant he was in the big picture.

This song will come into your house and dunk on you till you're dead That's the vibe I get

Hello, this is a suggestion but can you react to one of the shantae games ost or at least VGM ? Specifically shantae and the pirates curse or half genie hero (for me personally they have one of the best osts of all time). Anyways thanks for checking my suggestion out and have a nice and wonderful day.

MUST REQCT TO CHAMPION CYNTHIAS BATTLE THEME

this song alone is amazing but it is even more amazing if you know the "story" behind it and listen to it on its own context it is like you meeting a very old and good friend and being totally scared at the same time xD

the decision to not only reference Cynthia in this game, as she's widely regarded as THE Champion of the series, but to also bring back her battle theme but incorporate the two-faced nature of her ancestor Volo into it is just golden. for everyone who has ever faced cynthia in battle, when we heard that opening piano riff we knew INSTANTLY that we were about to get walloped. Cynthia had to get her prowess from somewhere, and her blood relative does not disappoint in the slightest

the person who suggested this really should have added cynthias themes as well for conext :|

even if a pokemon game is disappointing, the soundtrack and character design will ALWAYS be 10/10 so you can always count on that

gosh i wish you would do the theme AFTER this one cuz damn its good... but it was fun watching u listen to this one!

hola, me gustan muchos tus reacciones y se que aceptas recomendaciones atreves de patreon lo cual yo no puedo , pero te dejo este tema por si quieres reaccionar a el Blasphemous - Wounds of eventide - OST

Please someone make it so he can finally hear the Giratina battle theme.

hey jesse! i love you man but I requested a song long before this game came out and it acnt be that your reacting to this song which was obiously requested after I requested mine its getting kinda wierd my guy I requested it thru superchat.

Mango is that you?

Good video,you should react tô Fly Octo Fly from Splatoon 2

More pokemon good

Cynthia great great great grandpa