Lunar's music style and music in general through the years.

This board is for general discussion of Lunar. Especially things such as Lunar merchandise, general discussions about the story that span more than one game, etc.
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jay_are
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Lunar's music style and music in general through the years.

Post by jay_are »

Do the fans like Lunar's music style, mainly the openings, endings, and some in-game music that sounds like it?
Obvious question, I'm assuming yes since it's one of the game's strongest points.

To me, Lunar sounds like romantic pop music from the 80s and 90s, especially the Japanese music.
Does anyone listen to music like this outside of Lunar, or maybe outside of videogames and anime in general?

A lot of videogames from later times focused more on rock or metal, and while a lot of these are excellent, they don't fit Lunar at all. However, I almost can't find anything that sounds like the music from Lunar anymore. Most modern romantic music is too slow, not as lively as the romantic pop of the 80s and 90s (not sure what the term would be.), but lively music from today's japanese games or anime sounds too happy or too metal / rock. Here is a comparison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUXe8vqdvx4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKCocr7xZF4

I associate Lunar more with the first song. And I think that if we ever want a real Lunar 3, 4, 5 and 6, 6-2 and 6-3, whoever makes it needs to keep that vibe faithfully. It needs to be the same music style of Lunar 1 and 2, and built upon it without the constraints of the 80s and 90s but with the advantages of today's technology and music knowledge. Even if that type of music only ended up in Lunar because it was a trend back then and is not the trend today, Lunar should keep that no matter what.

Another thing is that Lunar focused on ballads, but ballads have more to do with lyrics more than style, but it should have a focus on ballads too.

It's difficult to put more examples, I know little about music technically, and terms for things or even much of its history, and that's what this thread is for = D

Let's think Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and MegaMan for a minute.
Compare the music of Dragon Quest, and how it evolved faithfully to the original up to DQ8 and DQ spin off games.
Compare how Final Fantasy from 1 to 6, or 7 (in some songs) remained faithful and built upon what the first game had.
MegaMan from 1 to 10, it changed in style completely at 8, but went back full force with 9 and 10, bringing back all the elements that made the music MegaMan-like.
Shovel Knight is, shamefully for me, the best example I can put about something that's a modern game, uses elements from old music, and builds upon it to make it sound as if videogame music had never went out of style.

Also let's not discuss the unlikelyness of future Lunar games, we've already discussed that enough with the troubles of Studio Alex, GameArts and Working Designs, we all know we're likely never getting new games, but I want t

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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by JonOU812 »

jay_are wrote:Do the fans like Lunar's music style, mainly the openings, endings, and some in-game music that sounds like it?

To me, Lunar sounds like romantic pop music from the 80s and 90s, especially the Japanese music.
Does anyone listen to music like this outside of Lunar, or maybe outside of videogames and anime in general?
First and foremost I am pretty big into music

I'd say that it's an interesting style and I do like some of the in-game music (Gypsy Heart and White Mask Funk are probably my favorites) and in terms of the lyrical songs, they are a bit cheesy but then again the whole series is basically about love-romance and adventure.

Fun Fact: As I'm typing this I was looking at some of the lyrics for some of the songs, in the opening song of SSSC I found these lyrics
In your dreams,
love is the plot
carried on wings of hope.

Thought it was funny that they blatantly told the plot in the opening lyrics of the song that I honestly did not know until now



Outside of video games, anime and Lunar there may be one band that I can kinda compare some of their style too Lunar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnIZ7RMuLpU
As far as I can tell, and from what I listen to, this is probably as close as I can compare.

Now if I were to compare Lunar with anime and other video games i'd have to go with this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZjCVufmctQ
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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by Leo »

The track Mother deserves a lot more love than it gets. I can't go into Althena's Shrine without standing there to let it play in its entirety.

As much as I love every track, lyrical or otherwise, from Lunar....I still have to laugh at "All things are real unless you dream they're not." :lol:

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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by jay_are »

Leo wrote:I can't go into Althena's Shrine without standing there to let it play in its entirety.
You understand me!!
Leo wrote:As much as I love every track, lyrical or otherwise, from Lunar
I love practically all of the songs too, it's much easier to make a list of songs I dont like.
But I can't think of anything besides for example the PS1 version of the Taben's Peak, Lunar 2.........
JonOU812 wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnIZ7RMuLpU
As far as I can tell, and from what I listen to, this is probably as close as I can compare.
I've always liked that song! Would have never imagined it being similar to Lunar in style, maybe the instruments and notes and stuff, but not the voice or tones. There are Lunar soundtracks with guys singing in them but they're not like that.

Not going to say that it's the best voice either, but I like it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN0SDG6oiUU

But this song is from the overworld of Lunar 2, so, it makes sense that it sounds like the vibe Lunar has that other 80s 90s songs had, so I'm going to share this other song that's not from Lunar, but feels like it could be:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NY2tInwKkU

I don't know what this is about because I don't know Japanese, but it's very easy to imagine Working Designs translating this into english lyrics similar to what they did in Lunar 1 and 2, with the girl that sung Luna's songs. It has all the right instruments, notes and voice tones.

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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by Leo »

Aside from one track having a spoiler in the title, Alex's Ocarina is one of the best and coolest items I've seen in a game.

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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by jay_are »

Leo wrote:Aside from one track having a spoiler in the title, Alex's Ocarina is one of the best and coolest items I've seen in a game.
Again, you understand me! :lol:
You know, back when I first played the game, I was unfortunately stuck in Disc 1 cause it was scratched and wouldn't even boot, but later got a Disc 2 which could play, but didnt let me advance cause it asked for Disc 1.............. at that point, I just grinded aimlessly and explored the red dragon cave (couldnt get out of it from the entrance either) and Alex's Ocarina was one of the things I spent a lot of time using!! There are a lot of songs you only hear once in the game, but thanks to the ocarina I could listen to it all and fell in love with the music. I didn't mind any spoilers. I didn't mind becoming familiar with the last boss theme. It actually helped, cause I had become fond of this music, then it was awesome finally seeing what it was all about, 1 or so year later. I practically imagined a whole storyline just listening to the music I hadn't heard and reading their names. Things were very different than what I imagined, weird as it sounds!

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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by Leo »

Yeah it's fine since spoiler is an odd word to use in association with Lunar. Best game ever, sure, but the twists aren't exactly shockers. While some complain about predictability, that wasn't an issue for me because I've trained myself to not try to figure out anything ahead of time. I just continue to play without pondering because a successful guess still feels like a spoiler to me. I don't wanna find much out before the game intends for me to.

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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by Uncle Ramus »

jay_are wrote:To me, Lunar sounds like romantic pop music from the 80s and 90s, especially the Japanese music.
Does anyone listen to music like this outside of Lunar, or maybe outside of videogames and anime in general?
I can enjoy listening to adult contemporary and easy listening stations, yes. But Coldplay's In My Place sounding similar to the Lunar songs? Out of the music I'm familiar with I'd say Air Supply plays music that's closer (though still not exactly there) to the songs from Lunar.

So a popular opinion is that Wind Nocturne sounds like something out of a 90's animated Disney movie. On that note I submit to you these two songs which I believe sound more like the songs from Lunar 2

Save The Best For Last
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EdmHSTwmWY

Reflection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8GUCQQZS64

Also recently I noticed that the instrumentals for the two Lunar 2 songs that we got here in the West are not identical to the Japanese versions. This is more noticeable in Rondo of Light and Shadow, the differences are more subtle in Lucia's theme: JP version has a louder drum sound, echoed piano in the break.
Last edited by Uncle Ramus on Thu Nov 05, 2015 5:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by Kizyr »

Uncle Ramus wrote:Oh, and I think I know why Leo is banned. Why'd you do it brah?! I guess he's not coming back?
He was banned for posting adult content that has since been removed from the boards. It was unrelated to any of his undeleted posts. KF
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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by Silver Phoenix »

Kizyr wrote:
Uncle Ramus wrote:Oh, and I think I know why Leo is banned. Why'd you do it brah?! I guess he's not coming back?
He was banned for posting adult content that has since been removed from the boards. It was unrelated to any of his undeleted posts. KF
Adult content? Random trolling?

As for Lunar's music, it is enchanting and engrained in me. Lunar The Silver Star is still my favorite soundtrack because it has a magic to it that can't be explained, and the remakes pale in comparison although The Harmony of Silver Star is good in it's own right. Lunar Eternal Blue is a favorite for a lot of people and I do enjoy a lot of tracks, but for me it wasn't as strong of an impact as TSS was. I do love the soundtrack though, except for the sh*tty cave music.

Zophar's final battle theme is pretty epic.

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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by Uncle Ramus »

jay_are wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NY2tInwKkU

I don't know what this is about because I don't know Japanese, but it's very easy to imagine Working Designs translating this into english lyrics similar to what they did in Lunar 1 and 2, with the girl that sung Luna's songs. It has all the right instruments, notes and voice tones.
Yeah, that sounds like it could be from Magic School Lunar. Good stuff!

There were some songs and themes in Casshern Sins that I thought had kind of a Lunar vibe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boUYjFdDsvg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjUjR1zY68E
Please forgive the Engrish, but I prefer the Japanese singer's voice

This next one's even called Luna! It reminds me of Mourning Bell from the SSSC soundtrack CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHjMpQ5r-38

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Re: Lunar's music style and music in general through the yea

Post by Greco12 »

The opening, in terms of both music and visuals, always made me think of Escaflowne's opening. Makes sense, since both of them are of that 90's style of fantasy that has come and gone. I'd love to see a revival of it.

Escaflowne OP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNRFOiqksNI

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