Oh, man...I can't describe ORAS' soundtrack with any words other than beautiful. :) It may be a little bit of bias since my first game was Emerald, but I think the re-done songs were absolutely perfect. Some remixes stayed somewhat faithful to the original (
route music,
Ever Grande City), some changed the tempo (
Fortree City,
Archie/Maxie battle) and feel (
Mt. Chimney) entirely, but in the end,
all of them brought new life to the various songs from the original in different amazing ways, while also still feeling new and fresh- something that all remakes should do. :) The songs really enhance the originals, and dare I say, at least a lot of them are even
better in my opinion. Overall, they all just make the adventure feel even bigger and grander than the originals (and the visuals also help that too :P). And of course, they made the game an amazing experience for those who have childhood memories of playing the originals. :)
I was disappointed that there wasn't a "GBA Sounds" item that replaces the music with the RSE versions like they did in HGSS, but the new songs are just so dang good that I've come to be perfectly fine with that. :) Even so, the, the little snippets of RSE music in there were all really nice touches (
beginning of the game,
Primal Groudon/Kyogre battle,
Time Travel Award).
Overall, AS has easily become my favorite Pokémon game of all time, and the soundtrack is one of the biggest reasons. Powerfully nostalgic, and enhancing the original's charm tenfold. And yes, the new music is amazing too ^^ I really like the different Zinnia songs played during the Delta Episode, especially her battle theme.
Holy smokes, I almost forgot about this lovely piece. It's really relaxing. I could honestly go to sleep to it! If only we could hear it more than just once in the game :'c
If you had the Eon Ticket, you could go back to catch the remaining Eon Latios/Latias you didn't get earlier in the game :)
So is there any one in particular that you guys would say is your favorite? My favorite is definitely the Primal encounter theme. It's just so cool how they mixed in the remixed version with the original GBA one, like Kawaii Shoujo Duskull said. It just feels so epic :')
There's quite a lot that I love, but I'll list a few ^^
Littleroot Town - Just really instills that warm, home-y, nostalgic feeling for me, and it's perfect to start your grand adventure with :)
Route music - All of these are just so great! The ones I especially love are Route
101,
104,
110,
120. All of these just really take me back and take in the nostalgia <3
Battle music - Particularly the
rival battle,
wild battle,
trainer battle,
elite four battle, and
especially Gym battle music. All of these are just so much more energetic and awesome sounding, and I love them :) Especially the Gym Leader theme, I honestly cannot stop listening to that one ^^
Southern Island - This song is very serene, calm and relaxing, and it reminds me of when I encountered Latias in AS, who became my favorite Pokémon shortly after that :')
Primal/Rayquaza battle - Dear god do I love these. In short, both of theme amazingly instill a sense of "you are battling one of the mightiest creatures in the history of the world" like every legendary song should, and helps the Pokémon establish a very intimidating, strong presence. The Primal battle theme has samples of the original track, which is one of my favorite little details in this game, while the Rayquaza battle really sounds intense, like from some epic action movie or something. After being told the history and lore of the ancient savior Pokémon from the heavens, you
really feel the weight of standing right in front of that Pokémon.
Victory Road/Ever Grande City - Both really convey the feel of "You're near the end of your grand aventure, all you've done has finally led up to this" and helps you to keep pushing forward, which I think is the best tone to instill for that part of the game :)
Ever Grande has that nice, relaxing break in between, letting you breathe a sigh of relief from overcoming the first part of your final challenge. It's beautiful, and I think the flute-ish instrument sounds a bit like
the original in itself (at 0:07)
In the end, all of the music contributes to one of my absolute favorite soundtracks in gaming. Bless Masuda and the other composers for making the music in this series so amazing ^^
