Akuma Battle from
Labyrinth of Refrain
Something I doesn't translate well with a lot of game music is that the context for the music can often play a huge part in what makes it sound good, even more so than movies. This song may not sound that unique but it hits harder within context; which is that this song is only used for the hardest optional bosses in the game, so it's special,
Note: This is a game that has shit like this as its bosses by the way.
And the way the game changes perspective for a lot of these bosses also plays into it with it angling down when you're going through menus but then angling up when you hover over the enemy you're attacking. For the bosses that are huge compared to your characters, this goes a long way to making them FEEL big.
And once again, this song is used for the hardest bosses in the game, it starts off with an upbeat sounding part then goes into a piece that evokes loon ng dread and then the real part of the song starts with almost frantic sounding music. So it gets you worked up then tells you stuff is about to get real and then the main part of the song starts and for me when I went against these bosses it was a nail biting situation of looking at my commands, making sure I wasn't screwing something up, looking back up at the boss who's towering over my party and then confirming my choices and praying I didn't mess something up that'll lead to half my party getting nuked, all while this music plays that's keeping my blood pumping.
All of that doesn't really come across just from having someone listen to the song and I think more people would appreciate game music more if people tried to give that context in some way.
