I was listening to the fully released main theme of WiWa and had a thought (as an FYI, you can find the full, official theme on YouTube, but I haven't seen it released on official channels and didn't want to run afoul of this sub's rules, so I thought I would just link the trailer. But if you want to find it, you can see it posted on Ruffled Rowlit's channel):
https://youtu.be/38XHXMdDegg?si=eMBkeMiBUNjFzu7_&t=84
I feel that WiWa will be the first mainline game to feature a fully or mainly orchestrated soundtrack, and I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion about this.
For those who don't know, Pokémon games' soundtracks have typically been digitally assembled using various technologies, such as computers & synthesisers. I believe Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee may have had some level of orchestration, but nothing has been formally confirmed.
However, it has been confirmed that WiWa's main theme, linked in this post, was performed by Japan's NHK Orchestra (using a Centro link as the main links are in Japanese):
Could we finally be getting the first orchestrated mainline game? If so, this, combined with the higher level of graphical fidelity and performance that we saw in the reveal trailer, and the potential for a late 2027 release, gives me optimism that TPC, Gamefreak, Creatures & Nintendo are fully giving this franchise the kind of time and respect that Zelda and Mario have commanded for nearly 20 years now.
Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, 19 years ago, had a fully orchestrated soundtrack! It's about time, and I couldn't be more excited. Don't get me wrong, Pokémon have always cooked on the musical front, but there's something so elegant and refined about an orchestrated soundtrack. Would love it if they did a full worldwide tour following the game, in the vein of Final Fantasy, Nier, Clair Obscur, etc.
Thoughts?
by ServeGondor
2 Comments
I really would like it to have an orchestral ost. i think pokemon songs have great composition but you can definitely tell the impact of live recording on a game. Zelda for example uses live recording and that greatly changes how strings are arranged to match the tension of the cutscenes and stuff, particularly in tears of the kingdom
We’ve seen new generations use different styles recently, with sword and shield using very unique soundfonts exclusively, and scarlet violet using a couple live instruments ( i think ) guitars and bass and all, but most of the OST is usually done on DAWs so if they’re going to change that now is the perfect time
I’m guessing it’s probably going to be just the main theme we heard in the trailer that’ll be fully orchestrated, cause the same thing happened with SV, those games’ main theme (which we first heard in the reveal trailer for those games, and has performance videos on the official Japanese channel) is fully orchestrated, but the rest of SV’s OST isn’t