When Nintendo announced they were publishing a full soundtrack for Pokémon Legends Arceus, I was elated! While the publisher has a history of (eventually) releasing OSTs for the main series, music for spin-off Pokémon titles has been notoriously overlooked. Thankfully, that trend ends with Nintendo Switch Pokémon Legends Arceus Super Music Collection, published in February 2024.
Notably, during this same release window where Nintendo published the OSTs for Sword & Shield and Scarlet & Violet, they opted not to publish Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. This lapse seems significant, given that all prior remakes, such as Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, have had published OSTs. If I had to guess why, it would be that both BDSP and Legends Arceus essentially serve as elaborate arrange albums for the original gen four Diamond & Pearl, and perhaps the publishers thought fans would only have the appetite for one. While I’d have happily taken both, I have to say I am more excited about Legends Arceus than BDSP.
What I love about the music in Legends Arceus is its clever, nuanced take on themes from past Pokémon entries. For fans who want the exact details, head over to the album’s vgmdb page: the packaging scans reveal a nifty chart that shows the melodic motifs sourced from Diamond & Pearl and other series titles. If you cannot read the Japanese text, a user on the discussion page for this entry breaks it down in English. Simply by looking at this chart, you can see that motifs get re-used throughout the game and some tracks utilize multiple motifs in a single song. This isn’t a one-to-one transliteration of the Diamond & Pearl OST to better quality synths. It is a clever take on the source material alongside plenty of new compositions that fit the past Hisuian aesthetic quite nicely.
Across this mammoth four-disc OST, the most memorable pieces of music are also the lengthiest tracks. These are the themes for the base town, “Jubilife Village,” and the five exploration areas: “Obsidian Fieldlands,” “Crimson Wetlands,” “Cobalt Coastlands,” “Coronet Highlands,” and “Alabaster Icelands.” I especially love the nine-minute medley “Jubilife Village: 3,” which serves as the opener of disc four and is utilized as the town’s music after clearing the Arceus main story (after facing Dialga/Palkia). This version of Jubilife utilizes the original “Jubilife” motif in many ways. At some points, it’s a clear statement of the melody. At other times, there are moments where the melody falls back and only the harmonic structure stays as a folksy jam band made up of light percussion, strings, and strong piano improvisation. It’s a lovely tune.
One noticeable contrast from the quality arrangements, in my opinion, is the classic “Lake” theme. What made this theme so memorable was its clever use of metric modulation (see the 8-bit Music Theory “Lake” video for more). There’s a beautiful trade-off from 6/8 to 4/4 and back throughout the piece, which becomes entirely lost in Legends Arceus‘s scaled-back, minimalist approach. We have the melody and some pretty instrumental decoration, and not much else. Granted, this approach works really well for the game’s setting, but goodness do I miss the original piece’s structure!
In most cases, however, the sound team (consisting of Go Ichinose, Hitomi Sato, and Hiromitsu Maeba) makes strong choices in arrangement, even when minimizing the melodic motif and building something new with it. I’ll point to one prominent example in four parts: “Battle: Arceus,” at the end of disc four. Utilizing Junichi Masuda’s unique battle theme for Arceus (originally written for HeartGold & SoulSilver), arrangers Ichinose and Maeba build a cacophonous series of symphonic stings that hit harder and harder with each iteration. This isn’t necessarily an enjoyable, casual listen: it builds tension and anxiety well and truly fits the ultra-final battle of this game perfectly.
Other specific battle themes, whether challenges from specific trainers or fights with the Noble Pokémon (Kleavor, Electrode, etc) successfully balance classic motifs, instrumentation fitting the age and Japanese influence of the Hisui setting, and tension to keep one’s pulse up while in these intense battles. There are plenty of battle themes to enjoy, and I appreciate the team’s new direction with the Hisui region and aesthetic influencing the music. Seriously folks, let’s give it up for the shakuhachi flutes. They’re fantastic every time!
The further I dug into this soundtrack, the more I enjoyed it. As a surface-level listen, and especially knowing the musical context from the game, it was already solid. With subsequent listens, I find myself more and more admiring Go Ichinose, Hitomi Sato, and Hiromitsu Maeba—the core trio of the modern Pokémon music team. I am hopeful that they can continue this trend with the upcoming Pokémon Legends Z-A!
