Normal Battle II

Track 4-1: Normal Battle II

OCTOPATH TRAVELER’s standard battle music evolves as the story progresses, with different pieces for the early, middle, and late stages of the game. “Normal Battle II” is the midgame battle music, which means that part of its role is to give the player a sense that things have changed since the game’s opening.

In my opinion, the most important aspect signaling this change is the introduction to the piece. I’m sure the intro to “Battle II” in OT1 made many players sit up and take notice, and I wanted the intro to this piece to work in a similar way, with a memorable intro that conveys from the opening moments that things are different now.

As in “Critical Clash I,” the melody is played on solo violin. Combine this with the fusion of rock band sound and orchestral sound, plus the acoustic guitar that adds a plaintive air, and you have what I consider the classic JRPG battle theme feel.

Starting at 0:24, a tin whistle plays the melody in unison with the violin, and you could probably call this development “classic OCTOPATH TRAVELER” at this point. (I’ve used it so much that it’s getting harder and harder to pull out of the drawer...)

On the other hand, living up to expectations and offering a solid dose of that classic feel is a key element in battle music, so you just have to be strong and tell yourself, “Even if I feel a little bashful, I’m going to do it!”

Working as a composer means writing hundreds of pieces of music, so you’ll obviously face situations where you need to reuse techniques you’ve used in the past, or be unashamed to repurpose phrases that your hands came up with. (By that I mean the phrases that come endlessly when you sit down at the piano and play without thinking. If you rely on these too much, however, you can end up writing music that all sounds the same, or phrases that are unpolished and boring.) I think the important thing is how much freshness you can preserve while giving the customer what they want (of course freshness is important, as well as providing new elements—both of these are crucial to the whole), so whether you’re using phrases your hands came up with or going back to the same drawer you’ve used in the past, the important thing is probably to make the right choice at each juncture. That’s what I tell myself, anyway.

In that sense, bringing the introductory phrase back at 1:02 and having it gradually change and become more epic until leads into the refrain was a structural choice that went well. When ideas like this present themselves, it always adds a little happiness to the creative process, but the harsh truth is that this doesn’t happen very often.

Today’s post ended up being quite long as well, so please excuse me for calling it after one piece again!

Translation: Matt Treyvaud